Thursday, October 16, 2008

Learning and the evolution of the Baha'i Community

These are some of my thoughts while I'm reading Paul Lample's article.

He quotes Baha'u'llah:

“It is incumbent upon every man of insight and understanding, to
strive to translate that which hath been written into reality and action.”

I've always thought of working to improve myself as a central part of recognizing Baha'u'llah. A lot of what I've done trying to follow Baha'u'llah has revolved around learning how to go about it. I've done a lot of studying and thinking and experimenting, trying to learn what I can do to help improve my character and conduct. Recently I've been working on kindness. I keep forgetting about that, and I get sidetracked a lot.

"And yet, is not the object of every Revelation to effect a transformation in the whole character of mankind, a transformation that shall manifest itself both outwardly and inwardly, that shall affect both its inner life and external conditions? For if the character of mankind be not changed, the futility of God's universal Manifestations would be apparent."

Last year, considering the conduct of people on the Internet who claim allegiance to Baha'u'llah, individually and collectively, I had one of my occasional moments of doubt about Baha'u'llah's claims. I got over that somehow, but I don't remember how.

Mr. Lample writes:

"Achieving Bahá’u’lláh’s intended purpose for the human race requires new morals, new ways of generating knowledge, new ways of communicating, new ways of acting, and new institutions."

Some time ago I was thinking that it's popular among Baha'is to imagine that what the world needs is for people to change the way they think. In my view what it needs is for people to change the way they act, and what people need is not someone to tell them that, but someone to show them that.

2 comments:

RVCBard said...

I know exactly what you mean. Well-meaning people can sometimes treat humanity, community, justice, and peace as ideas rather than concrete realities. And we wonder why the world isn't getting better. I think you're going in the right direction with this. It takes courage to be willing to "wrestle with God," as it were. As a Jew, the freedom to praise God, argue with God, fight with God, bargain with God, even ignore God, is a critical part of our relationship with God. Without it, nothing that is good (that is, beneficent, true, beautiful, wholesome, holy, sacred, etc.) could truly be good. So the questioning you're doing here is a critical first step toward tikkun olam.

Jim Habegger said...

Thank you, Bard. That's encouraging.