Archive for the 'Sundry' Category

Power of Love or Love of Power?

Published
by
Baquia
on May 31, 2008
in Sundry
. 2 Comments

Hope you like this little noetic eye candy I cooked up for you:

power-of-love

When the power of love overcomes the love of power, the world will know peace.
Jimmi Hendrix

The way I see it, power is all about control. Love is all about losing control.

God’s love for us is the primary force behind Creation and the fountain of mankind’s nobility is free will. Which in a funny sort of way means that God gave up “control” and in a sense, put it in our own hands. We are not brute animals, controlled, lashed or beaten by God throughout our lives but instead are guided lovingly by His manifestations through intermittent divine revelations. And yet, whether we realize it or not, we always have the freedom to choose our reactions, behavior, speech… our very lives.

You and I may not be covetous of power in the meaning that we want to rule a country or take over the world. But in our own way we each choose, moment to moment, to either let go and love; or grab on to gain and maintain control and therefore, power. Lord knows I could sure use less of the latter and a heaping spoonful of the former.

Here’s the curious thing, when your power to love overcomes your love of power, something magical happens. People are drawn to you. You become a beacon, attracting others as if magnetized. They may not even know why but they sense something in you that others lack. Look at the example in the life and person of Abdu’l-Baha. Even as desiring no rank nor station beyond that of servitude, Abdu’l-Baha was so loved, revered and respected by all people.

Sounds good. Now how do we do that?

The Baha’i Faith certainly has answers - which take a lifetime to glean. These two ladies also have some ideas: Karen Armstrong + Jill Bolte Taylor

Just a little something to ponder over the weekend. Hope you all have a wonderful and restful time. It wouldn’t hurt to crank up some of Jimmi’s music and dance like no one’s watching.

Where is the Garden of Ridvan?

Published
by
Baquia
on April 21, 2008
in Sundry
. 16 Comments

After His imprisonment in the Black Pit, Baha’u'llah was exiled to Baghdad. The group arrived in the capital of modern Iraq in the spring of 1853. Baha’u'llah soon left to live in solitude for two years in the mountains of Kurdistan. In 1856 He rejoined the Holy family in Baghdad and wrote among His most important works: the Kitab-i-Iqan (Book of Certitude), the Hidden Words, and the mystical Seven Valleys and the Four Valleys as responses to questions from Sufi mystics.

Baha’u'llah lived in Baghdad off and on for ten years, which is probably why He designated it as one of two sites for Baha’i pilgrimage. But the authorities became wary of Baha’u'llah’s growing influence so they once again banished Him. This time to modern day Istanbul, Turkey (Constantinople).

As the belongings of the household were being prepared for the move, Baha’u'llah retreated to a small island within the bank the Tigris River [see below for correction]. There, He and a small group of Babis who were devoted to Baha’u'llah camped out in tents for 12 days.

On the 9th day the rest of the Holy family came to join them. The hours passed with Baha’u'llah chanting and revealing verses among the trees and greenery of that garden which was renamed “Ridvan” or Paradise. Some time during those days, we don’t know exactly when, Baha’u'llah explicitly told them that He was the One foretold by the Bab.

Baha’is all over the world celebrate these days with special attention to the first, ninth and last as Baha’i Holy Days.

Could this be the location of the original Ridvan?
garden-of-ridvan-tigris-riverCuriosity got the better of me, so with the help of Google Maps, I searched along the section of the Tigris River that runs through Baghdad. There were quite a few ’small islands’ which could qualify. I chose one of them to show you in the picture on the left.

Want to search for the Garden of Ridvan yourself?

Use the + - to zoom in and zoom out, you can also grab the map and push it around.

Here you go:

UPDATE:
Thanks to Don & Steve (see comments below) the site of the Garden of Ridvan is found!

I was wrong to assume it was an island. It was actually situated on the banks of the Tigris River.

It is on the banks of the Tigris River just in front of the present site of the Medical City hospital complex (labels A and B) in the map above. Right now many Iraqis are rushed there for emergency treatment as a result of the violence. Please keep the people of Iraq and the soldiers stationed there in your thoughts and prayers during this Festival of Ridvan.

Right now Baha’is are advised to not travel to Iraq for Baha’i pilgrimage because it is simply too dangerous. But I don’t have any doubts that within our lifetime this will change. Wouldn’t it be wonderful to be able to go and say a few prayers on that spot?

Second Fastest Growing Religion

Published
by
Baquia
on April 1, 2008
in Sundry
. 2 Comments

Currently there is an interesting discussion on Talisman about the nature and evolution of the Baha’i community and identity. Among the things being talked about is the size of the Baha’i community in the US.

Apparently, according to the numbers from the NSA of the United States, we are seeing a stagnant community. And if taken relative to the growing population of the host country, one that is slowly becoming smaller.

But to my surprise, according to the World Christian Database, at the Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary, the Baha’i Faith is the second fastest growing religion in the world:

second-fastest-religion-bahai-foreign-policy-article

The methodology isn’t clear but it seems that they are citing the Baha’i communities in the developing world, especially India for that achievement.

This is a contentious issue because Indians have very malleable religious identities. Many are Baha’is as well as their original faith tradition (whatever it may be among the thousands available in India).

As well, according to the 1991 government census, the Indian Baha’i community numbers approximately 5,500 believers - that is people who identified themselves as such - instead of 1.8 million as cited in the article.

Of course, it is possible that in the interim years the community grew, but from 5,000 to 1.8 million? Either the census is inaccurate or the current numbers are (or both).

One thing which I don’t quite understand is this, if we assume the 1.8 million number to be correct then the Indian Baha’i community comprises a huge portion of the total. According to the World Christian Database, almost 25%!

So where are they? where is their influence? where and how are they represented in the worldwide community?

As I look across the membership of the International Teaching Center, the Universal House of Justice, the Counsellors, etc… I don’t see a proportional representation of Indian Baha’is.

And if you think this post is another April Fool’s prank, well, there’s no hope for you ;-)

(Another) Quick Blog Update

Published
by
Baquia
on March 5, 2008
in Sundry
. 1 Comment


Bokay, time for a quick update on the blog (again). As you may have noticed things look familiar but at the same time, slightly different. That’s because I’ve changed the look of the blog and updated the code that runs it.

Let there be Lightbox!
Images now appear differently. To see what I mean, click the image below:

transparent

To close it, just click anywhere.

For it to work in all its glory, you need a thimbleful of patience and javascript. Wondering how to enable javascript in your browser?

Bored?
On the off chance that you visit the blog and are wracked with boredom, you can now alleviate it with a simple click!

random post bored

This is completely random and you can take the trip whenever and however many times you feel like it - the button is at the top right hand side of every page. Just remember that you’ll end up somewhere on the blog but where exactly you’ll never know until you arrive.

I suggest you pack a healthy lunch, just in case.

Archives
The archives have moved from the sidebar to the top menu. There’s quite a bit of material in there and now you can navigate it all chronologically by year and month.

New Sidebar
Unlike before, the new sidebar will remain active on all pages. So you’ll have the search, recent comments, etc. handy at all times.

Ye Quoteth
I enjoy reading your comments and I want to facilitate dialogue between others. In that regard you’ll find the most recent comments at the top right hand side of each and every page. Also, if you want to reply to a specific person, you can now quote them.

Beside every commenter’s name is a button that looks like this: quote click it and it will put that person’s comment inside the new comment field.

This saves you the hassle of copying and pasting or trying to reformat the text so it looks different from your response. You can also quote their whole comment or an excerpt by erasing the parts you don’t want.

That way, everyone will know who and what exactly you are responding to. Here’s an example of what it looks like to quote another comment.

That about covers it. There are also lots of other changes behind the scene that are meant to make things betterer but they are, well… behind the scene.

If you have a suggestion or a feature you’d like to see, drop me a note here.

Welcome and enjoy your stay :-)


























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