An Early History of the Baha’i Faith, by William Sears

Kudos to Lev, my beloved husband and co-blogger, for such a dedicated streak of Fast-blogging! These last few days have been tumultuous, but so wonderful nevertheless. I thought I’d share a couple of things that fed my spirit this year.

This Fast, I’ve been trying to start each day by reading one chapter from William Sears’ book, Release the Sun, which is an account of the early days of the Baha’i Faith and those heroes we call the dawnbreakers. The valour and devotion of those souls is inspiring. One quote from Tahirih (Chapter 15) particularly captured my attention. She had been listening to another one of the early believers eloquently expounding upon the signs and proofs of the Faith, and she spoke up, saying, “Let deeds, not words, testify to thy faith, if thou art a man of true learning. Cease idly repeating the traditions of the past, for the day of service, of steadfast action, is come. Now is the time to promote the Word of God, and to sacrifice ourselves in His path. Let deeds, not words, be our adorning.”

She did, of course, live her own life in accordance with this call to action. She boldly broke with the dominant religious tradition and invoked the wrath of many by proclaiming the equality of women and men, a core Baha’i principle, and as the first women’s suffrage martyr, she paid with her life for it. Her last words before she was strangled were “You can kill me as soon as you like, but you cannot stop the emancipation of women.”

Nineteen chapters in the book, nineteen days of the Fast. It works out quite nicely.

Speaking of nineteen days, another nice aspect of the Fast this year is that I’ve been closely following the nineteen days website. It’s a nice reminder that people all over the world are engaging in this same spiritually cleansing and reflecting process. Plus it’s a visual banquet. After you explore it, check out every morn and eve, a sister site for the rest of the year.

It’s a great time of the year to revel in beauty. One final note: the book cover image associated with this post was designed by my Uncle Bob, aka Robert Reddy, who is continually producing astonishing beauty over at Progress Gallery. Happy spring!

The Principle of Utility states, “Pleasure, and freedom from pain, are the only things desirable as ends” (Chapter 2, para. 2). John Stuart Mills defines utilitarianism throughout the second chapter, and addresses a number of dissenting opinions, all of which boil down–in his view–to a failure to understand the meaning of utility. “The end [or purpose] of human action,” he says, is “an existence exempt as far as possible from pain, and a rich as possible in enjoyments” for all.

Human nature – higher and lower pleasures

A central theme to Mills’ description of utility is that the higher capacities of the intellect give greater pleasure. Virtuous action and engagement of our rational faculties are more pleasurable than possessing an abundance of food or other material satisfactions. In one form or another, Mills employs this belief throughout the chapter to address utilitarianism’s detractors.

In his belief that humans derive greater pleasure from virtuous actions, and in his belief that all human beings possess a desire to be virtuous and enlightened, Mills echoes Mencius, a Chinese philosopher writing 2,100 years earlier. In the following passage, Mills discusses why those who are capable of higher pleasures forego them for the lower:

Capacity for the nobler feelings is in most natures a very tender plant, easily killed, not only by hostile influences, but by mere want of sustenance; and in the majority of young persons it speedily dies away if the occupations to which their position in life has devoted them, and the society into which it has thrown them, are not favourable to keeping that higher capacity in exercise. (Mills, Chapter 2 para.7)

This reminded me strongly of Mencius’ discussion of human nature, which Negin cited earlier on this blog:

The trees of the Niu Mountain were once beautiful. Being situated, however, in the borders of a large state, they were hewn down with axes and bills; and could they retain their beauty? Still through the activity of the vegetative life day and night, and the nourishing influence of the rain and dew, they were not without buds and sprouts springing forth, but then came the cattle and goats and browsed upon them. To these things is owed the bare and stripped appearance of the mountain, and when people now see it, they think it was never finely wooded. But is this the nature of the mountain?

And so also of what properly belongs to man; shall it be said that the heart of any man was without benevolence and righteousness? The way in which a man loses his proper goodness of heart is like the way in which the trees are denuded by axes and bills. Hewn down day after day, can it – the heart – retain its beauty? …Therefore, if it receives its proper nourishment, there is nothing which will not grow. If it loses its proper nourishment, there is nothing which will not decay away. (Mencius, Book 6, Part 1, Kâo Tsze)

Self-interest and the public good

There is a dominant conceptual framework that says we are all self-interested, and that our society can attain the most good by allowing each of us to pursue our self-interest. In fact, this is often confused with utilitarianism. But Mills refutes this idea when he defines the goal of utilitarianism as “the greatest amount of happiness altogether,” not just for the individual [emphasis mine]. And he makes it clear in this chapter that the greatest good may sometimes require individuals to renounce their own immediate self-interest.

Mills actually cites selfishness as one of the principal causes of a lack of utility or pleasure. In contrast to the view of homo economicus–the self-interested individual–Mills states that there is no inherent necessity that any human being should be a selfish egotist. Human beings are capable of much more. Mills says that we are capable of two related aims:

1. Genuine private affections
2. Sincere interest in the public good

This two-fold purpose of individual development and community well-being seems to align with a new conceptual framework offered by the Baha’i Faith. Mills goes on to suggest the type of society that would grow out of the Utilitarian principle. It would be possessed of laws “to establish in the mind of every individual an indissoluble association between his own happiness and the good of the whole.” This is a profoundly powerful, unified statement. John Stuart Mills seems to reject the false dichotomy between private and public good. Today we read a statement like this in one direction: “My happiness is good for the whole,” instead of taking a more holistic view: “I must rationally decide what is best for the whole, even if it entails personal sacrifice.”

Utilitarianism and the Baha’i Faith – Initial considerations

This view of human potential seems similar to the spiritual realities revealed by Baha’u'llah writing in the Middle East a few years earlier. However, Baha’u'llah’s Writings exhort the friends to be of service to others. Mills perhaps suggests a zero sum game: if serving your self-interest garners more total happiness than serving someone else’s interest, it is better to serve yourself. If greater total happiness can be won by sacrificing for the good of the whole, then do so.” In contrast, Baha’u'llah asks the believer to “preferreth his brother before himself” (Tablets Revealed After the Kitab-i-Aqdas, tenth leaf, page 71). Abdu’l-Baha, His son, describes this ethic further–with no mention of self-interest:

First, you must become united and agreed among yourselves. You must be exceedingly kind and loving toward each other, willing to forfeit life in the pathway of another’s happiness. You must be ready to sacrifice your possessions in another’s behalf. The rich among you must show compassion toward the poor, and the well-to-do must look after those in distress. (Abdu’l-Baha, Promulgation of Universal Peace, page 215)

This is Part 2 of a Series. Read the other parts:

1. Notes on John Stuart Mills’ Utilitarianism
2. Utilitarianism (and the Baha’i Faith) Part 2

• Note 1: A similar thing once happened to me and Lev, only I had to shimmy in through a high window. It made Lev love me even more. Also, we were house-sitting so it wasn’t our neighborhood, but we still didn’t get arrested.
• Note 2: It says something very profound both about race and about the state of our communities when a neighbor doesn’t even recognize another neighbor. Can we get a little Mr. Rogers in here? If you are reading this, do you know your neighbors? Have you knocked on their doors and introduced yourself? It’s never too late.
• Note 3: I think Thomas Kochman’s Black and White Styles in Conflict would be a great resource to shed some light on why this might have happened. It’s hard to quote from the book because without reading through all the disclaimers it seems like he’s making some pretty big generalizations, but if you will allow that cultural differences are not deterministic, then I’ll give it a go. One of the things he talks about is how emotion and energy are used in very different ways in Black and White cultural styles of communication. So White people often think Black people are getting way too excited and emotional about something, whereas for White people the proper way to approach a debate is calmly and dispassionately, because the White cultural belief is that emotion and reason are dichotomous and opposed to each other. Black people often read that approach from White people to indicate that they are not passionate at all about the topic they are discussing, that they don’t actually believe what they are saying or are apathetic about it. Black culture doesn’t contain the same dichotomy; rather, emotion and reason are both valid ways of knowing something, and should be used in combination to express a deeply-held belief. This not only would explain many inter-group stereotypes, but also might explain why the White police officer interpreted Dr. Gates’ response as “disorderly.” And what happens when cultural misunderstandings get compounded by all the issues that come along with unequal distribution of power (i.e. who’s got the handcuffs and the force of the law) is something like this.

Phillipe’s discussion on what happened to Henry Louis Gates Jr. is very insightful, and I’m gladly sending you his way (read his other posts too, they never fail to illuminate):

http://www.bahaithought.com/2009/07/i-am-henry-louis-gates-jr.html

But really the point of bringing all this up is to tie it back to where my head has been recently. I’ve been taking the FUNDAEC course, “Constructing a Conceptual Framework for Social Action,” mentioned previously in this blog, and we’ve been reflecting on concepts of the individual (in relation to the community and institutions) inherent in a number of social theories (e.g. socialism, anarchism, individualism), and then moved on to discussing the progress of humanity towards peace, and the requirements thereof. All in the second chapter. One of the points made in the text embodies an idea we tried to convey in our Race Unity and Racial Justice page: that the establishment of peace will require both unity and justice. While the course materials themselves are copyrighted, I want to share with you some of the notes I wrote in my submission to the forum:

“I remember a class I took in college called Peace Studies, and the professor pointed out that almost everyone wants peace: they want to live in safety and to ensure their children’s well-being. However, for some people, their vision of peace involves everyone on the “other side” being dead. [I'll add in this context, that for some people their vision of peace may involve neighborhoods and social circles where everyone looks just like them.] Peace is more than just disarmament or dominance, it is about wanting to live with others who are very different than you. To be able to do that, and to continue to want to do that despite the challenges that arise, would require a commitment to a greater principle. In my mind, this is why unity is essential – we have to remember that we were all created from the same dust, all came from the same Source, and that all are endowed with capacities and skills that we can only appreciate fully when we work together, in order to keep things from falling apart as soon as times get hard or challenges arise. It’s true on a smaller scale too: if you don’t have an essential sense of unity with your spouse, then the struggles that come along will turn you against each other; if you don’t have unity with your family, then challenges will lead to disengagement and estrangement; if you don’t have unity with your community, then scapegoating and blaming and antagonism will occur at the first sign of tests…”

“O CHILDREN OF MEN! Know ye not why We created you all from the same dust? That no one should exalt himself over the other. Ponder at all times in your hearts how ye were created. Since We have created you all from one same substance it is incumbent on you to be even as one soul, to walk with the same feet, eat with the same mouth and dwell in the same land, that from your inmost being, by your deeds and actions, the signs of oneness and the essence of detachment may be made manifest. Such is My counsel to you, O concourse of light! Heed ye this counsel that ye may obtain the fruit of holiness from the tree of wondrous glory.” -Baha’u'llah

I guess the important thing to remember for me is that, as upset as I am about the behavior of the people involved in the story of Dr. Gates, they are still part of the community. The neighbor, the friend, the cop, Dr. Gates, they are all members of my community and I cannot turn my back on any of them. It is the recognition of our spiritual unity that will lead us to justice, and when justice is established, we will see the appearance of that spiritual unity in this physical realm.

• Postscript: Thanks to my sister’s journalistic skills, she’s informed me that the “neighbor” didn’t actually live in the neighborhood, but worked nearby. The details of her phone call to 911 have also been released.

I’m writing to call your attention to the two new pages on our blog. To the right, you’ll see links to them. The first, “Life, Death, and the End of the World” is a collection of Baha’i quotes I quickly compiled for an interfaith panel where each of seven religious representatives were given ten minutes to explain the purpose of life, what happens when we die, and if and how the world will end. It was crazy fast and awesome.

The second, “Racial Unity and Racial Justice” links to the materials that Lev and I put together for the Green Acre Baha’i School Race Unity Day workshop in June. Feel free to download it and read through it, share it with others, send suggestions back to us, whatever. This is some rich material and it’s definitely worth exploring by yourself or in your community.

Love,
Negin

Lev and I have been asked to help facilitate the annual Green Acre Race Unity day (I almost wrote Racy Unity – yikes! that’s something else entirely!) this year on June 6 at the bucolic campus in Eliot, Maine.

I’m pulling together some ideas now, and this blog entry serves two purposes:
1. As an invitation to all our beloved readers to come join us and share your brilliant insights! You can register for Green Acre here!
2. As a sounding board for some of the ideas we’ve been playing with. Here is the original blurb:
“Though the reality of the soul transcends race, our spiritual journey on this plane is shaped by racialized experiences. During this weekend we will examine findings from social science, the Baha’i Writings, and stories from our own communities, including children’s classes and junior youth activities, to better understand how we can build and maintain unity in our neighborhoods.”

Since we’ve written that, we’ve really wanted to highlight the idea of developing ourselves as human resources and the need to be in learning mode as we engage in the process of striving for race unity. Furthermore, I’m thinking about the difference between the questions raised by “racial equality” and “race unity” – racial equality as removing and avoiding disparities (a lack of negative) but racial unity as taking it to the next level – friendly interactions (a presence of positive).

Session 1:
A. The importance of this topic: “The well-being of mankind, its peace and security, are unattainable unless and until its unity is firmly established.” Baha’u'llah
B. Racial Equality
a. Reflection on Baha’i writings on justice, truth: “Truthfulness is the foundation of all human virtues.” -Abdu’l-Baha; “The light of men is justice; quench it not with the contrary winds of oppression and tyranny. The purpose of justice is the appearance of unity among people.” -Baha’u'llah
b. Challenges re: power: e.g. majority-minority, Seguy and Dovidio’s work, money and media influence, privilege, health issues, disparities in the legal and criminal justice system, where are we now, etc (the social science)

Session 2:
C. Racial Unity
a. Reflection on Baha’i writings on fellowship, unity, love: “Consort with all the peoples, kindreds and religions of the world with the utmost truthfulness, uprightness, faithfulness, kindliness, good-will and friendliness.” Abdu’l-Baha
b. Challenges re: cultural differences: e.g. Joy Degruy-Leary’s work, Black and White styles in conflict book, pluralistic ignorance research, different cultural norms and practices such as use of first names and politeness, where are we now, etc (the social science)
D. The spiritual qualities needed for engaging in this process: A careful exploration.

Session 3:
Panel Discussion: something like “Taking a posture of learning about race unity” – but catchier …whom to invite?

Session 4:
Breakout groups/ Training to take concrete actions upon returning to our home communities: this is the central and most important part of the day! Putting what we’ve learned into practice. We’ve got some great ideas here…

More later, I’m in a meeting now…
Love
N

In 2008, Keith Payne and B. Stewart put it this way, in their article “Bringing automatic stereotyping under control: Implementation intentions as efficient means of thought control.”:
“The authors tested the utility of implementation intentions – specific plans linking a behavioral opportunity to a specific response – in reducing automatic bias. In three experiments, automatic stereotyping was reduced when participants made an intention to think specific counter-stereotypical thoughts whenever they encountered a Black individual. The authors used two implicit tasks and process dissociation analysis, which allowed them to separate contributions of automatic and controlled thinking to task performance. Of importance, the reduction in stereotyping was driven by a change in automatic stereotyping and not controlled thinking. This benefit was acquired with little practice and generalized to novel faces. Thus, implementation intentions may be an effective and efficient means for controlling automatic aspects of thought.”
From October’s issue of Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, volume 34, pp 1332-1345.

I just thought that was cool.

At the Association for Baha’i Studies (ABS) conference, Mr. Lample spoke about frameworks for learning. He encouraged the friends to imagine frameworks for learning about other aspects of our lives: Social action, discourse, social and economic development, and even scholarship. Learning about growth is an enterprise the Baha’is are engaged in right now, but this does not mean that we should stop learning about other parts of human existence. What is important is to approach each of these aspects in an attitude of learning.

In his talk, Mr. Lample reminded the friends of steps that Baha’is have previously taken to translate belief into action:

1. Read the guidance
2. Reflect on experience to date
3. Ask what works? What has worked in the past?
4. Define initial lines of action. (They can always change later.)

Which brings us to the title of this blog post: A Framework for Learning about Baha’i Scholarship. Learning about scholarship will probably require elements of both reification and participation. For example, we can read about teaching children’s classes, but we also have to physically experience organizing a class and interacting with children. Otherwise the knowledge in our heads is two-dimensional. What do you think this looks like for scholarship?

Links:

• Workbook on “Scholarship, Service & Social Action in the Context of the Divine Plan” (pdf)
• Resources for Baha’i Scholarship at the Assocation for Baha’i Studies website
• Podcast of Paul Lample in Nashville, Tennessee at The American Baha’i, 24 August 2008 (requires login)

Over the next few days, I’ll post some write-ups of sessions, and thoughts on how Baha’i beliefs will translate into action in my own fields of endeavor. Keep an eye out for Mr. Lample’s thoughts on frameworks for learning about scholarship, and some initiatives that individuals both near and far will be undertaking.

I was not yet born in 1980, when the National Spiritual Assembly of the Baha’is of Iran was arrested under similar circumstances, and disappeared. Assuredly those dear friends were executed. If history is any indication, the Baha’is who were arrested on Wednesday, May 14th 2008 will be imprisoned, threatened, told that if they would only recant their faith in Baha’u'llah as the Promised One of all ages all of the abuse would stop, and then either imprisoned indefinitely or executed. Either way, these women and men are heroes who have placed their lives in danger for upholding a remarkable belief in the absolute unity of humankind.

In their radiance, their detachment and courage, they call to mind those early heroes of the Baha’i Faith recounted in Nabil’s Narrative: The Dawnbreakers.