Frank wrote:
“I suggest you read The Tablets of Baha’ullah Revealed after the Aqdas and then rethink what he meant by the fear of God.”

Frank, here is one of my favorite quotes on the fear of God:

Be thou of the people of hell-fire,
but be not a hypocrite.
Be thou an unbeliever,
but be not a plotter.
Make thy home in taverns,
but tread not the path
of the mischief-maker.
Fear thou God,
but not the priest.
Give to the executioner thy head,
but not thy heart.
Let thine abode be under the stone,
but seek not the shelter of the cleric.
(Baha’u'llah: Trustworthiness, Page: 337)

Thanks Baquia, Amanda, Andrew, and Craig, for supportive messages.

And thanks to Farhan and Carmen for holding up the traditional Baha’i view.

Baquia, this blog is excellent — a wonderful place to rant and discuss and fume. Your posts are always so well reasoned and supported by real information.

But I am surprised that you are surprised or even a little shocked by my withdrawal from Baha’i. Perhaps you don’t read everything I post (I would not blame you!) But if you have been reading what I write here and elsewhere you would know that I reject the divinity (infallibility) of Baha’ullah or any person or body in Baha’i (or outside it for that matter). I reject the idea that we need an intermediary between us and the creative force and that this only happens once in a thousand years.

I also find it troubling that the Bahai Faith and its followers prefer (generally) to stand aside and wait for mankind to fail as a species before doing anything (except for prayer) to help out. I think behavior is more important than belief.

I guess I have failed to make these points clear.

I will continue to be interested in Baha’i. But I’m also interested in Zoroaster. I just read that he predicted(?) his return every thousand years or something along those lines. I think the study of ancient religion might give us insight into the origin of things we are told to believe now.

Drawing on what Emerson called my genius — connection to the holy spirit or my muse or whatever you want to call it — I’ll continue to try to understand my life; without the constraints of a rigid, somewhat fear based and reactionary belief system.

Peace and compassion,
Frank

Frank,
Thank you. To explain, I was overcome with emotion because I can only imagine how intense it would be to go through what you have.

Frank wrote:
“I think behavior is more important than belief.”

Frank, thanks for your messages; this is one first point in your sincere posts with which I totally agree; in one of His tablets Abdu’l-baha says : chant the prayers, meditate on their meaning and put them into action. The age of passive adoration the Bab said is over; only actions are accepted at the Divine threshold.

Belief should lead to motivation and action; inspiration not followed by action is abortive. But at the same time, action not preceded by inspiration and belief is inefficient. It is again the left/right brain issue.

As to the technocratic behaviours we sometimes see around us, there is a materialistic tendancy of making the short cut, passing into action without first building up the love and inspiration which should precede action.

The over-rationnalist societies in which we live have decided that emotions are wrong and should be discarded: this makes us “left brained”, isolating our emotionnal disorders with intellectual garbage that helps us forget the emotionnal wounds.

Baquia wrote:

“Frank,
Thank you. To explain, I was overcome with emotion because I can only imagine how intense it would be to go through what you have.”

No need to explain. From my view point I did not go through an extremely emotional time. This has been coming for a long time. I was ignoring Baha’i for about 25 years I guess then decided I wanted more spirituality in my life so i re-investigated it.

My conclusion was that I could not call myself a Baha’i because I don’t accept enough of what it calls for unless you use Abdul Baha’s very loose definitions of what makes a Baha’i — but even then I do not want to be held to such things as the obligatory prayers, for example — I don’t care for the short one at all — I will not testify to my powerlessness. I am responsible for much of what happens to me.

Bottom line — I am closer to Baha’i now than I was 15 years ago even after leaving the faith!

Best Wishes,
Frank

Farhan,

Great quote from Baha’ullah!

I love it — was not aware of the book Trustworthiness. I will get a copy. (Is it available in English?)

It sounds like “To thine own self be true!

Best Wishes,
Frank

P.S. I’ll give you some references in The Tables soon.

Frank wrote:

“Great quote from Baha’ullah! I love it — was not aware of the book Trustworthiness. I will get a copy. (Is it available in English?)”

Frank, it is a compilation you can download at:

http://www.bahai-library.org/compilations/trustworthiness.html

Frank wrote:
“I will not testify to my powerlessness. I am responsible for much of what happens to me.”

Frank,
the point is not what will happen to you and I, but what is happening to humanity and to this planet. We are all totally helpless and powerless in our efforts to avoid what Lewis Mumford described 30 years ago as the “programmed autodestruction” of this planet.

The only way out is firstly a radical change in minds and hearts of all humanity, so that we organise our personal lives in harmony with humanity as a whole, and secondly a structure that will support and foster that new way of life unprecedented in human history. We need a “miracle” to do all that: God’s might and wealth.

This miracle you and I cannot perform, but God can do so through our efforts as detached instruments.

The whole business of laws, assembies, study circles, enrollments, prayer sessions etc are mere _tools_ and not ends in themselves, as some short sighted individuals imagine and for whom the tools supercede the goal. As you rightly say, the goal is none other than love, compassion and harmony, and the structure a necessary, but acessory tool.

These tools are designed to foster those values and to help reflect them in our collective lives. Those tools bring us in contact and require us to collaborate with individuals as imperfect as ourselves whom we might have never met, let alone pray and collaborate together.

This is why the BA is the painfull prototype of the future world commonwealth, a crucible where we get our corners rubbed off in preparation for a new race of humans involved in a new world social structure. When the pain becomes unbearable, we need to step back and look elsewhere.

The whole Institute process is an opening towards the world. As we read in Building Momentum:

“Having an “outward-looking orientation” also suggests that it is important for Baha’is to understand more deeply the forces operating on the world stage and the solutions offered by the Revelation of Baha’u'llah. Our task is to convey to seekers that we are all living in the same world, facing common trials, and striving to fulfill similar, long-held aspirations for the human race. Our expressions of solidarity with our fellow human beings must be sincerely voiced and genuinely felt.”

Dear Farhan,

I don’t know how to reply to you — except to say I don’t see this working now or ever. The BA as a prototype for world commonwealth seems absurd.

If the goal is compassion isn’t that within our power? Do we need to admit that we will autodistruct unless the all powerful god steps in?

You say “This is why the BA is the painfull prototype of the future world commonwealth, a crucible where we get our corners rubbed off in preparation for a new race of humans involved in a new world social structure. When the pain becomes unbearable, we need to step back and look elsewhere.”

If a new race is coming what happens to us? I guess you’ll say — oh that is us transformed?! Is that it? If so then I guess we do have some power. If not then what sense does it make?

I think we need compassion and understanding along with education and enlightened self-interest. Whatever the solution is I don’t think its trusting in god to the extent that we declare, over and over again, that we are powerless. I think a solution lies — in part — in knowing what we can do, doing it while all the time relying on “the sustaining infinite.”

Peace,
Frank

Would you please send that ppt file to my address newfaith2007@gmail.com?