Haiti quake brings home lesson of brotherhood

(Haiti) Adversity brings out the best in us, teaching universal (spiritual) laws governing proper human conduct: in this case, the imperative to share ("eat with the same mouth" HW) -  

The children of men are all brothers, and the prerequisites of brotherhood are manifold. Among them is that one should wish for one's brother that which one wisheth for oneself.

- Bahá'u'lláh, Tabernacle of Unity 41

From NYTimes.

Fighting Starvation, Haitians Share Portions

Maggie Steber for The New York Times

Children waiting for rice and beans distributed by the Haitian government in Port-au-Prince.

By DAMIEN CAVE

Published: January 25, 2010


PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti — Maxi Extralien, a twig-thin 10-year-old in a SpongeBob pajama top, ate only a single bean from the heavy plate of food he received recently from a Haitian civic group. He had to make it last.

"My mother has 12 kids but a lot of them died," he said, covering his meal so he could carry it to his family. "There are six of us now and my mom."

For Maxi and countless others here in Haiti's pulverized capital, new rules of hunger etiquette are emerging. Stealing food, it is widely known, might get you killed. Children are most likely to return with something to eat, but no matter what is found, or how hungry the forager, everything must be shared.

Read the whole thing here.

Direction the world is taking

Human rights (and its implications) is becoming a burning issue on the international arena (e.g. Iran, China etc.). How long 'till we can expect to see the debate become central to national (and eventually local) news media (at present it being only touched upon circumstantially therein)?

And then there's the question of the underlying CAUSES of states failing, of endemic poverty, of religious extremism, of international crime (e.g. trafficking, drugs), terrorism and lawlessness.

Who's to take the lead in moving discourse toward the hopeful vision (that we've forgotten) of peace and prosperity which lies at the core of every culture/tradition?

I am reminded of the emphasis Bahá'u'lláh lays on religion as a constructive force in society, characterizing it as

...the greatest of all means for the establishment of order in the world and for the peaceful contentment of all that dwell therein.

In this regard, the Universal House of Justice writes:

Referring to the eclipse or corruption of religion, [Bahá'u'lláh] wrote: "Should the lamp of religion be obscured, chaos and confusion will ensue, and the lights of fairness, of justice, of tranquillity and peace cease to shine." In an enumeration of such consequences the Bahá'í writings point out that the "perversion of human nature, the degradation of human conduct, the corruption and dissolution of human institutions, reveal themselves, under such circumstances, in their worst and most revolting aspects. Human character is debased, confidence is shaken, the nerves of discipline are relaxed, the voice of human conscience is stilled, the sense of decency and shame is obscured, conceptions of duty, of solidarity, of reciprocity and loyalty are distorted, and the very feeling of peacefulness, of joy and of hope is gradually extinguished."

- The Promise of World Peace, p. 4

Is it time for us to rediscover the fundamental nature of religion?


Photo copyright Bahá'í International Community.
 

Seeing the end in the beginning

How easy it is to forget the requirement that all our thoughts or intentions, individual and collective, should lead to action and results. In the words of 'Abdu'l-Bahá:

Every effort must have its result, else it is not a true effort. ... Every progress depends on two things, knowledge and practice. First acquire knowledge, and, when conviction is reached, put it into practice.

The attainment of any object is conditioned upon knowledge, volition and action. Unless these three conditions are forthcoming, there is no execution or accomplishment. In the erection of a house it is first necessary to know the ground, and design the house suitable for it; second, to obtain the means or funds necessary for the construction; third, actually to build it. 

Thoughts may be divided into two classes:

1. Thought that belongs to the world of thought alone.
2. Thought that expresses itself in action.

Some men and women glory in their exalted thoughts, but if these thoughts never reach the plane of action they remain useless: the power of thought is dependent on its manifestation in deeds.

- 'Abdu'l-Bahá, London 108, Promulgation 157, Paris 18

The question we might ask ourselves at any given time might be, "Do we/I have everything ready and in place, this very moment, to take the first step in the direction of achieving our/my intended goal—action and results?" Bahá'u'lláh has said:

At the outset of every endeavour, it is incumbent to look to the end of it.

Know thou that the end is like unto the beginning. Even as thou dost consider the beginning, similarly shouldst thou consider the end, and be of them that truly perceive. Nay, rather consider the beginning as the end itself, and so conversely, that thou mayest acquire a clear perception.

- Bahá'u'lláh, Tablets 168, 183 .

Photo copyright Bahá'í International Community.

Skill measured by the challenge

We're recommended to choose the "hard and stony" ground to sow in; what are the implications? What would happen if we only chose to sow in soft ground?

I ask of God that thou, His husbandman, shalt plough the hard and stony ground, and water it, and scatter seeds therein—for this will show how skilful is the farmer, while any man can sow and till where the ground is soft, and clear of brambles and thorns.

- 'Abdu'l-Bahá, Selections 239

Photo Copyright 2010, Bahá'í International Community

Living mindfully, following one's interests

Excerpts from an intriguing article that shares refreshing insights from a most inquisitive mind - how we see ourselves certainly influences (or, should we say, even governs?) what we are and become!

The rewards of her open and independent mindset is a reminder of the truth of 'Abdu'l-Bahá's statement,

If a man would succeed in his search after truth, he must, in the first place, shut his eyes to all the traditional superstitions of the past.
(PT 135)

The Art of Living Mindfully

Nothing is ever certain, says the psychologist Ellen Langer. We should make the most of that.

Richard Howard for The Chronicle Review

Ellen Langer believes that in creative endeavors, and in life, "We're often better off not knowing the rules."

By Jennifer Ruark

Cambridge, Mass.

...
Most of our actions, Langer has shown, are mindless. Mindfulness requires reconsidering everything we think we know. If we did that, she says, all of us could be more effective, more creative, and healthier.
 
Her research on the effects of mindfulness on physical health, in particular, has had such surprising results that, she acknowledges herself, it "teeters on the edge of believability for some." ...

Langer's most recent book [is] Counterclockwise: Mindful Health and the Power of Possibility (Ballantine Books).

"I am not arguing against medical tests," [Langer] writes. "I am arguing against mindless reliance on them and the mindless state they lead to."

She is now emboldened to offer an explanation for the results of the...study: that the subjects' mental states had direct, physical effects...

Take eye tests. In a group of studies soon to be published in the journal Psychological Science, Langer and her colleagues showed that people's vision improved when they expected to see better. In one strikingly simple experiment, the researchers reversed the standard eye chart so that the letters became progressively larger rather than smaller. "Now, rather than expecting as they went down the chart that pretty soon they were not going to be able to read the letters," Langer says, "people expected that pretty soon they were going to be able to read the letters." The result: They could read letters that had been too small for them on the standard chart.

Take another scientific given: that to lose weight you must exercise more or eat less. In a recent study, Langer and Alia J. Crum, now a doctoral student at Yale University, got hotel housekeepers who reported doing little or no exercise to recognize the physical nature of their jobs: telling half of a group of 84 that their days spent bending, stretching, and lifting were similar to workouts at a gym. Four weeks later, those 42 chambermaids had lost an average of two pounds each, reduced their percentage of body fat, and lowered their blood pressure—all while reporting no changes in eating habits, even less physical activity during their off hours, and (according to their bosses) the same level of work.

As in the men's retreat and the eyesight study, it seemed that people's states of mind were changing their bodies. "The main idea for all these studies is very simple," Langer says. "We take the mind and the body and we put them back together, so that wherever we're putting the mind, we're necessarily putting the body." ...

Wouldn't following Langer's instructions to notice everything, and question everything, lead to paralysis? Research by Sian L. Beilock at the University of Chicago, for example, has shown that talented athletes perform worse when they start analyzing every part of their particular skills.

"That's not mindfulness, that's evaluating," Langer says. She is very much against overthinking and has written widely about the ways an "evaluative mind-set" can impede creativity and happiness, particularly in her book On Becoming an Artist: Reinventing Yourself Through Mindful Creativity (Ballantine, 2005). Langer took up painting when she was already in her 50s—she describes hearing herself tell an acquaintance that she was going to paint, before she had really given it any thought—and her artworks now command thousands of dollars.

When she began, she had no interest in taking art classes or trying to learn the proper techniques. Instead she focused on doing what interested her, and found that she got great pleasure from the act of painting itself. She says she paints where the strokes lead her, mindfully attentive to the experience rather than worried about how her work will turn out, and is often surprised by the pictures that result. (Many of her paintings depict friends or her beloved dogs in humorous poses.) ...

"If I can make one monkey talk," says Langer, "then it can be said, 'Monkeys are capable of speech.'" She calls her approach "the psychology of possibility."

These days Langer's lack of interest in the mechanisms underlying behavior is what pushes against the tide of the discipline, which in recent years has been keen to identify the biological activity behind thought processes.

"I see the human being as a seven-layer cake," she says. "The sixth layer doesn't cause the fourth layer; they just coexist. That's not to say neuroscientific approaches are not worthwhile, but even if we know all of Johnny's neurochemistry and brain circuitry, we don't know if he's going to read, rape, or run for office."

Students say it's not uncommon for Langer to create experiments out of her everyday life. "She tends to come in with a set of ideas and just throw them out there and see what people think," says Laura M. Hsu, a lab member and a graduate student in Harvard's School of Education. "A lot of her work is out of curiosity. She's so generous—she gives grad students a lot of opportunities to research and publish." ...

She draws an analogy to Pascal's wager, substituting "control" for "God": If you believe you have no control and you truly don't, "no big deal." If you believe you have control and it turns out you do, "that's the big win." And if you don't have control but you believe you do, you are actively engaged in something, feeling alive and effective—and you may just be successful someday. "You can't prove that something is uncontrollable," Langer says, "All you can show is that things are indeterminate." The best gamble, then, is to act as if you have control. ...


Source: http://chronicle.com/article/The-Art-of-Living-Mindfully/63292/?sid=cr&utm_source=cr&utm_medium=en
 

Science as investigation, foundation of all individual development

'Abdu'l-Bahá has stated regarding this central discipline:

Science may be likened to a mirror wherein the images of the mysteries of outer phenomena are reflected. It brings forth and exhibits to us in the arena of knowledge all the product of the past. It links together past and present..Science is the discoverer of the past. From its premises of past and present we deduce conclusions as to the future. ... All created things are captives of nature and subject to its laws. They cannot transgress the control of these laws in one detail or particular. ... But man through the exercise of his scientific, intellectual power can rise out of this condition, can modify, change and control nature according to his own wishes and uses. Science, so to speak, is the breaker of the laws of nature.

* * *

[S]cience...is the very foundation of all individual and national development. Without this basis of investigation, development is impossible. Therefore, seek with diligent endeavour the knowledge and attainment of all that lies within the power of this wonderful bestowal.

(PUP 29 and 50)