Peace Fest

I am looking for volunteers to help organize Peace Fest to be held June 29th, 2013. If you are interested in helping you can go to my ad on Kijiji or send an email to peacefest@sowingpeace.ca.

This could become an annual event for London, Ontario. It could also be an international event with Peace Fest being held in locations all over the world. If you want to organize a Peace Fest in your area. Let me know. I will advertize it on the Sowing Peace Web Site and mention it on my blog. Also send me reports after the event so I can let the world know what happened.

Wake up World

I am a sinner attempting to lead other sinners to salvation. I am not and do not wish to be righteous. Christ came for sinners and as a sinner I am led by Him. He is the Way I will point out to other sinners.

I do not wish to be righteous because righteousness brings evil. It is righteousness that causes war and hatred. The righteous want to convert or destroy. They feel that, since they are right, everyone should agree with them. If they meet someone who doesn’t agree with their fundamental beliefs, they must convert them or destroy them.

It was the righteous who abused aboriginal children at the residential school in Brantford. These people where so sure of their moral values that they felt they must take the children of the original inhabitants of this continent and change their value system by force. They beat the Indian ways out of them and attempted to enforce White Christian morals on them. I have known some of these unfortunate souls who went to their death without recovering from this abuse.

On September 11, 2001, it was the righteous who destroyed the twin towers. These ones were so sure of their righteous ways that they sacrificed their very lives to try and injure their enemy and enforce their righteous views on a foreign nation.

The righteousness of Hitler tried to rid the world of a race he saw as unrighteous and defective.

We can go on and on. Many righteous nations have risen against other righteous nations causing much destruction and loss of life. That is why I never want to be considered as righteous. Everyone has a different point of view on what it means to be righteous and the righteous refuse to open their minds to other points of view. Therefore, with righteous indignation, they attempt to convert or destroy anyone who disagrees with them.

It was the righteous who crucified Jesus. The righteous made war with Islam. The Báb was martyred by the righteous. It was the righteous who imprisoned Bahá’u’lláh. I do not want to be righteous.

Moses led sinners out of slavery. Christ led sinners to salvation, Mohammad gathered sinners into a great nation. The Báb prepared sinners for the coming of the Promised One. Bahá’u’lláh, the Promised One, is now gathering sinners into unity and love between all of mankind.

Bahá’u’lláh is Moses returned to free us from all kinds of slavery. He is freeing us from the slavery of greed, materialism, technology and selfish desires.

Bahá’u’lláh is Christ returned. He is the Good Shepherd gathering all His sheep into one fold.

Bahá’u’lláh is Mohammad returned to gather the whole world into one common nation were all will turn to God for guidance.

This is the Christ, the Messiah, and the Glory of God that I follow. This is the Way, The Truth and the Life I will point out to others. This is the unity of mankind as one family under One God. This is the ultimate denial of polytheism and the final proclamation of the Oneness of God, the All Powerful, the All Knowing, the All Wise, the Omnipotent, the Almighty God.

This is the God who is Good and shines upon us with the light of goodness. Evil is darkness, but the Light of God dispels the darkness of evil. If we are in a room filled with light, we cannot turn on a dark and overpower the light, but a dark room can be illumined by turning on a light. It is obvious that darkness is the absence of light. Therefore we don’t destroy darkness but we turn on light.

So it is with evil. When there is no goodness, we have evil. When goodness appears, evil vanishes. Since evil is only the absence of good, we cannot destroy evil. Any attempt to destroy evil only leads to more evil. However, when we bring in goodness, evil is dispelled.

When we are confronted with the darkness of evil we cannot clearly see our way. We must turn to God Who is our Source of Light. Indeed He is the Light that illumines the world. When our spiritual eyes cannot see the Way, He is the Way and He is the Light.

Perhaps we can see the righteous as flashlights. In the dark of the night they can help us, but the light is weak and the way is difficult to see. But now a New Day has dawned. The Glory of God shines brightly in the Celestial Heavens. We need but wake from our slumber and pull back our curtains to let the light shine into our rooms. Then we can rush outside and bask in the full splendor of this wondrous day.

I am not the righteous. I am not the light. I am but a sinner who has wakened to a New Dawn. Wake up world and see. A glorious new day is here.

I will conclude with a poem I wrote a few years ago.

DAWN

When I observe the failing light at the end of the day, I have complete confidence that the sun will regain her ground the following morn.

And so it is when the Spiritual Truths become difficult to see,

Or even in the darkest hour, when they are just a memory,

Still we turn to Our Heavenly Father and pray,

For we know He will be Manifest in the brand knew day.

Now it seems that our trust was not in vain

For night has past and twilight appears again.

Though the world sleeps and does not see the glimmering knew light

A few have risen early and take in this wondrous sight.

Wake up world!  Can’t you see?  The Glory of God is here.

Open your eyes.  The darkness is gone.  There’s no need to live in fear.

Then so slowly, so slowly it seems, comes the awakening of humanity,

And the realisation that all are from one family.

And now we see the world in love with each other.

Each woman’s our sister, each man our brother.

Love is all around us.  This love we laud.

For the love we share with each other is God!

When I wake up early and see a beautiful sunrise, I know it is going to be a wonderful day.

And other sheep I have, which are not of this fold: them also I must bring, and they shall hear my voice; and there shall be one fold, and one shepherd.

John 10: 16

Ruhi Book Seven. Wouldn’t you know it will get tough.

In the following post I talk about my struggles with the series of study courses developed by the Ruhi Institute. If you want to know more about the program you can go to their site at http://www.ruhi.org/. If you would like to join a study circle in your area, sent me an email george@sowingpeace.ca or leave a comment on this post. I will do my best to locate active groups for you in your area anywhere in the world. I don’t have this information at my fingertips, but I will find it for you and either send you the contact information or have the group contact you.

The Ruhi Study circles are designed to guide the students through a series of Baha’i principles. Often those who have not declared their faith in Bahá’u’lláh have joined study circles to gain the spiritual insights contained in the Baha’i principles. I urge anyone desiring World peace to consider joining such study circles because these principles are universal and help everyone to learn to live in peace with others.

Following is my reflection on my current studies.

Ruhi Book Seven. Wouldn’t you know it will get tough.

Entering the Section on becoming a tutor is a challenge for me. Suddenly I am forced to examine my own motivation and evaluate what I have learned from the Ruhi Books I’ve Studied.

First my motivation. Purely selfish. I find as I am studying these books into which someone has put a great deal of effort, I am not getting it. I know there is more. I know that these study courses are designed to create change and make me a better Baha’i, but I go on much as before. By going over the writings quoted in these books, I am rehashing the importance of action, yet I still fail to be motivated into action. Perhaps by becoming a tutor and repeatedly going through this series of study materials I will eventually get it. So that appears to be my main motivation. Yes, it is my hope that someone else gets it too, but I am striving to learn and be motivated myself and my main hope is that someone will sign up that will help me to do this.

Now here’s the big one. In section 4 of the Unit on Becoming a Tutor we are instructed, “turn now to the books of the Ruhi Institute you have already studied and identify five sections, each of which increased measurably your understanding of a spiritual subject.” For 2 days I’ve drawn a blank. Yes, through studying these books I come up with new insights and we get into very interesting discussions. By seeing how other students answer the questions I learn new ways of seeing things, so there is a steady growth, but nothing that I would say has created a measurable change in me. I have been a Baha’i for some time and my understanding of the spiritual principles has been fairly good, but I’m still not getting it. ‘Abdu’l-Bahá says we should lead one individual to the Faith each year, and I still don’t see that happening in my own life. When I see that happening I will know that I got it.

Since I am taking a Book one at the same time as book seven, I thought that would give me an advantage. I had taken book one many years ago, so this is my second time. I thought that if I took a glance through the book looking at the purpose and practice of each section something would come to me. This only confirmed that I am not getting it.

The section on Prayer in Book One has as a purpose “to understand the importance of daily prayer and to memorize and study 5 prayers.” Although I have memorized at least 5 prayers in my life time, I didn’t increase the number here. I also have not studied in depth any prayers although I have read and reflected upon many.

The Practice of this section says to visit at least 2 Baha’is and study a prayer with them. This may be something very easy to do in Columbia where the course originates, but this is North America. I have not lived anywhere outside of Ontario and am not familiar with life styles in other parts of the world, but in Canada one does not just drop in on someone and say he would like to study a prayer with them. This is a great handicap to spiritual development. In this society we are too busy pursuing the American Dream to realize that it is just an illusion. We barely have time to spend quality time with our families let alone get involved in community life. As we become spiritualized I feel this must change.

To illustrate let me recount an incident of last evening. I was walking home from work when a young lady came running out of her apartment and asked me to open a jar for her. I am 60 years old and I have never had that happen before. The strangeness of the event forced me to reply with a negative answer. I suspected some kind of trap or ulterior motive, but a quick survey of the area revealed no immediate danger. The lady did not take “No” for an answer and I eventually complied. Now I need to thank her for the lesson she taught me. No this was not in a Ruhi Book or the Baha’i writings, but it was a sign sent from God showing me how sick our society is. If we need help, why should we not ask a neighbor or someone who just happens to be passing by? I thought this action of a young lady to be strange, but what was really strange was my reaction to it. She, out of need, asked a simple favour from someone passing by. I was going to refuse her request on the grounds that this didn’t fit any protocol I was familiar with.

What is a community? Is it not a group of people who live in proximity with each other, assist and support each other? In North America we have much to learn about community life. We should be able to drag ourselves away from our computers, TV’s and other gadgets long enough to lend someone a hand.

Now to alleviate a community problem I will make an offer. Although I am real estate challenged and do not have a suitable place to invite people, I will be open to anyone studying book one who wants to visit me for the purpose of studying a prayer. They can either come to the store where I am working or we can arrange to meet some other place. I will also make myself available for discussions on peace, spirituality or psycho-social issues. If anyone in the proximity needs a jar lid loosened, I will also attempt to comply. Basically my offer is to become a good member of my community and make myself available to other community members for any purpose where I can be of assistance. By community I refer to anyone within traveling distance of my present location, however I will extend this offer to the cyber world and offer to meet in cyber space with anyone who is connected to the internet. You can meet me at one of my blogs or websites or invite me to your cyber location. Email george@sowingpeace.ca.