Joy from watching companionship

Yesterday, while Patty was shopping on and around the walking street, I spent some time sitting on a bench, practicing keeping my heart open to God. I looked around and up at the sky for a while, then I remembered being filled with joy once before, sitting on the walking street, watching people go by. At first I couldn't remember how that happened, then I remembered that I had watched people laughing and having fun together. I didn't see as much of that this time, but I did see a lot of companionship in groups of various sizes. After I watched that for a while, I felt so much joy that it bubbled out in laughter and put tears in my eyes.

I took some pictures of groups of people, to share. I wrote about it, along with a few photos, to one of my friends that I'm studying and practicing with, learning ways to lift our spirits when we're feeling blue. I'm planning to write a post about it on my Nets of Wonder blog, along with a few photos, and to share that on Facebook.

Experiences like that sometimes remind me of the idea in The Celestine Prophecy, that one way to get energy, without draining it from others, is from beauty. This experience also reminded me of what Baha'u'llah said about fellowship. He wrote "This goal excelleth every other goal, and this aspiration is the monarch of all aspirations."

Raising our banners

This is about my Baha'i banner, but some of these thoughts might interest people rallying around other banners, religious or not.

Recently I've been trying to learn to proclaim the cause of Baha'u'llah more openly and continually on facebook. Pondering why I haven't done so before, I remember noticing years ago that all the things I was trying to tell people in Internet discussions were things they really already knew, and were just choosing to ignore. I gave up trying to tell people things, and since then I've mostly just devoted myself to teaching with my actions. That applies especially to Baha'is, and my teaching efforts have been focused mostly on Baha'is.

Another reason for my aversion to promoting what I believe in verbally has been what Baha'u'llah and Abdu'l-Baha have said about words and deeds. For example:

"O SON OF DUST!
Verily I say unto thee: Of all men the most negligent is he that disputeth idly and seeketh to advance himself over his brother. Say, O brethren! Let deeds, not words, be your adorning."
(Baha'u'llah, The Persian Hidden Words no. 5)

"O friends! Help ye the one true God, exalted be His glory, by your goodly deeds, by such conduct and character as shall be acceptable in His sight."
(Gleanings from the Writings of Baha'u'llah, p. 271)

"O people of God! Do not busy yourselves in your own concerns; let your thoughts be fixed upon that which will rehabilitate the fortunes of mankind and sanctify the hearts and souls of men. This can best be achieved through pure and holy deeds, through a virtuous life and a goodly behaviour. Valiant acts will ensure the triumph of this Cause, and a saintly character will reinforce its power. Cleave unto righteousness, O people of Baha!"
(Tablets of Baha'u'llah, p. 86)

"The wrong in the world continues to exist just because people talk only of their ideals, and do not strive to put them into practice. If actions took the place of words, the world's misery would very soon be changed into comfort."
(Abdu'l-Baha, Paris Talks, p. 16)

In my efforts to be sure that my words are always preceded by actions, I've often ended up not saying anything at all. I think now that I want to try saying more about the sources of my inspiration and strength for what I do, but I still want to tread very carefully. My thought now is to continue putting actions first, then discussing where I've found inspiration and strength for those actions.

What's happening in my life

photo credit:
endolith, via flickr

For my imaginary collaborators

Here's another bullet list of topics related to what's happening in my life. I'm planning to elaborate on some of them in later posts. I might also elaborate on some previous bullet lists. Or not.

* On line and off line
- Nurturing the spirit of faith and the love of God
- Meekness and kindness
- Pure channel

* Off line
- Origami and diabolo
- English corner: activities with children
- English corner: elevated conversations with students, including more loving neighborhoods and a more loving economy
- New friends: email, invitations for tea, walks
- Tutoring accompaniment
- "Who We Are"
- How to explain what I want to do
- Growth cycles

I want to learn to be a good friend to Chinese people who are helping to spread the best kinds of wisdom and love.

* On line
- Learning to be a better friend to some people in my life, one by one
- Encouraging and supporting individual and group initiatives
- Framework on line
- Research opening and attracting hearts
- Exchanging ideas and experiences in improving quality of training
- Fellowship across divides
- Online training starting with BIA documents
- Atheists, atheism and God-centered living

What good can I do on the Internet?

The image on the screen is by
 Lorelyn Medina, via 123RF

For 15 years I've been trying to learn what good I might be able to do on the Internet. I've seen some fruits of my efforts to free myself from my prejudices, and to help cheer and refresh the down-cast. I've had a lot fun practicing fellowship across religious and other ideological divides, but I haven't seen or heard of that doing anyone else any good.

All these years I've dreamed, in vain, of finding collaborators in those initiatives. Now I see some possibilities that look more promising.

To imaginary friends

Bullet list update, for possible amplification later (some names fictitious):

* English corner at the library
- Chapter 1 of The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, with little Dorothy.
- Gave Dorothy's mother children's stories to look at, from the life of Abdu'l-Baha, to see if she approves of me reading them to Dorothy.
- Invited to speak at the next English corner.

* Friendships
- Invited to birthday party for Lin's child.
- Invited to dinner with Min and friends.
- Visited by Jin and Yin, made tea, fascinated by Baha'i books, walked by the lake, felt like old friends.

* Web
- Discovered Susan Gammage's teleconferencing study circles initiative.
- Came out on facebook with my "anti-semitic" and "homophobic" views.
- Resisted temptation to get drawn deeper and deeper into Internet discussions.
- Responses to Emily's blog

* Daily living
- More OCR: announcements, community center displays, learning to use photo editing functions.

A Tale of Two Donkeys?

To imaginary friends

As I'm pondering the question of how to promote what we're practicing and learning, I'm seeing RVCBard struggling with the same issue. Pondering the questions she raises, one problem that I see is that we all want to be our own producers and directors, more than we want to support what anyone else is doing. It's hard for me to face letting go of that, but that might be where I need to go. No matter how good the possibilities might be in the performances I'm dreaming of, year after year goes by without finding any collaborators. I might do more good by spending more time and effort working with other people on their performances.

Community building, and online activities, as performance

For my imaginary friends

To improve my understanding of RVCBard's posts, I've been trying to frame parts of what I'm doing as performance initiatives. One example is to think of the community building that the House of Justice is promoting as a continually evolving performance. Another is to think of what I've been trying to do in online communities as continually evolving performances. Thinking that way helps me make her issues my own.