The vision of a peaceful world

Bahá'u'lláh wrote in the 19th century: "Let your vision be world embracing, rather than confined to your own selves."
How might we participate in this vision, and what might it enable us to do?
Here from the head of Worldwide Federation of UN Associations (WFUNA):

"Global citizenship has been an ongoing theme for the WFUNA in the past year. Every individual who is a part of our network is a Global Citizen. We are all committed to the ideals of the United Nations, express an acute interest in today's global issues, and are working towards a world of peaceful cooperation, sustainable development, and human rights for all people."

- Bonian Golmohammadi, Secretary-General http://is.gd/5ALZz

    God's greatest gift to man is that of intellect, or understanding...
    Possessing this gift, he...can frequently...reach out with prophetic vision.
    God gave this power to man that it might be used for the advancement of civilization, for the good of humanity, to increase love and concord and peace. ... Christ has commanded that [we] should love [our fellow-creatures as ourselves]!
    I hope that you will use your understanding to promote the unity and tranquillity of mankind, to give enlightenment and civilization to the people, to produce love in all around you, and to bring about the universal peace. ...
   [A]cquire more and more knowledge. Assuredly one may learn to the end of one's life! Use your knowledge always for the benefit of others; so may war cease on the face of this beautiful earth, and a glorious edifice of peace and concord be raised.

    If you desire with all your heart, friendship with every race on earth, your thought, spiritual and positive, will spread; it will become the desire of others, growing stronger and stronger, until it reaches the minds of all men.
    Do not despair! Work steadily. Sincerity and love will conquer hate. How many seemingly impossible events are coming to pass in these days! Set your faces steadily towards the Light of the World. ...

    By the fire of the Love of God the veil is burnt which separates us from the Heavenly Realities, and with clear vision we are enabled to struggle onward and upward, ever progressing in the paths of virtue and holiness, and becoming the means of light to the world. 

- 'Abdu'l-Bahá http://is.gd/5ANxU, http://is.gd/5ANvv, http://is.gd/5AP4p

Photo copyright Bahá'í International Community. View here.

The mysterious power in God's mention, in glorifying His praise

Consider this passage:

Blessed is the spot, and the house, and the place, and the city, and the heart, and the mountain, and the refuge, and the cave, and the valley, and the land, and the sea, and the island, and the meadow where mention of God hath been made, and His praise glorified.

- Bahá'u'lláh http://is.gd/5ztAo

What is there, actually, in such a heavenly "blessing"?




Photo copyright Bahá'í International Community. View here.

The gift of remembrance - an opportunity to understand history

Excerpts from a thought-provoking article in the New York Times, and from the House of Justice's analysis of the significance of the events of the 20th century, Century of Light.

"...the gift of remembrance for peoples, as for individuals, is the beginning of any psychological cure. Hence the importance of the theme of decline.
"...one simple truth: Those who have the best tools to make history are also those who have the sharpest awareness of its tragic character. The great disasters of the 20th century are all part of our heritage. We are creatures of the decline and the abyss, thirsty for rebirth and salvation."

- The Decline of the West by THÉRÈSE DELPECH, published on NYTimes.com, December 21, 2009

    The twentieth century, the most turbulent in the history of the human race, has reached its end. ...

    Only as humanity comes to understand the implications of what occurred during this [great turning point through which our world has passed in these crucial hundred years] will it be able to meet the challenges that lie ahead. The value of the contribution we as Bahá'ís can make to the process demands that we ourselves grasp the significance of the historic transformation wrought by the twentieth century. ... It is this opportunity that the following pages address.

- Century of Light, The Universal House of Justice, p. 1

Book cover from here.

Time to wait?

Time to contemplate?

"There is no time to lose. There is no room left for vacillation. Multitudes hunger for the Bread of Life. The stage is set. The firm and irrevocable Promise is given. God's own Plan has been set in motion. It is gathering momentum with every passing day. The powers of heaven and earth mysteriously assist in its execution. Such an opportunity is irreplaceable. Let the doubter arise and himself verify the truth of such assertions. To try, to persevere, is to insure ultimate and complete victory."


"The Kingdom of God," writes 'Abdu'l-Bahá, "is possessed of limitless potency. Audacious must be the army of life if the confirming aid of that Kingdom is to be repeatedly vouchsafed unto it…. Vast is the arena, and the time ripe to spur on the charger within it. Now is the time to reveal the force of one's strength, the stoutness of one's heart and the might of one's soul." ...

- Shoghi Effendi, both excerpts from letter of January 28, 1939
http://is.gd/5wSkV, http://is.gd/5wRkM

Image source: sxu.hu

Here and now

So much to do, so little time.
Yet above all, contentment, thankfulness;
Life doesn't end at death -
the here and NOW spells our eternal quest. 

Be not troubled because of hardships and ordeals; turn unto God, bowing in humbleness and praying to Him, while bearing every ordeal, contented under all conditions and thankful in every difficulty.


- 'Abdu'l-Bahá, Tablets 51


The virtues and attributes pertaining unto God are all evident and manifest, and have been mentioned and described in all the heavenly Books. Among them are...contentment with the things His Will hath provided, patience, nay, thankfulness in the midst of tribulation, and complete reliance, in all circumstances, upon Him.


- Bahá'u'lláh, Gleanings 290


From amongst all mankind hath He chosen you, and your eyes have been opened to the light of guidance and your ears attuned to the music of the Company above; and blessed by abounding grace, your hearts and souls have been born into new life. Thank ye and praise ye God that the hand of infinite bestowals hath set upon your heads this gem-studded crown, this crown whose lustrous jewels will forever flash and sparkle down all the reaches of time.
To thank Him for this, make ye a mighty effort, and choose for yourselves a noble goal. Through the power of faith, obey ye the teachings of God, and let all your actions conform to His laws. Read ye The Hidden Words, ponder the inner meanings thereof, act in accord therewith. Read, with close attention, the Tablets of Tarazát (Ornaments), Kalímát (Words of Paradise), Tajallíyyát (Effulgences), Ishráqát (Splendours), and Bishárát (Glad Tidings), and rise up as ye are bidden in the heavenly teachings. Thus may each one of you be even as a candle casting its light, the centre of attraction wherever people come together; and from you, as from a bed of flowers, may sweet scents be shed.


- 'Abdu'l-Bahá, Selections 35-6


"Success or failure, gain or loss, must...depend upon man's own exertions. The more he striveth, the greater will be his progress."


- Bahá'u'lláh, Gleanings 81-2

Photo source: stock.xchng

Second threat of carbon emissions: Ocean acidification

Some relevant reports on this topical issue.

Excerpts from a Times Online article:

The changes being observed [in ocean acidity] are beginning to disrupt the ability of any organism to make shells out of calcium carbonate. Organisms that do this include corals, crabs, lobsters, small creatures vital to the diet of fish and plankton...

Video (3 min.) of U.S. Rep. Jay Inslee making a statement on global climate change science
Statement made in a December 2, 2009, governmental hearing. Two other videos (7 min.) referred to in the article included below can be viewed here and here.

In its statement, "Seizing the Opportunity: Redefining the challenge of climate change", the Bahá'í International Community wrote (2008):

[T]he search for solutions to climate change has revealed the limits of traditional technological and policy approaches. ... [They] have brought us...the [tremendous] opportunity to take the next step in the transition from a state-centered mode of interacting on the world stage to one rooted in the unity which connects us as the inhabitants of one biosphere, the citizens of one world and the members of one human civilization. ...
Source: BIC Statements

A graph from the BBC-article "'Acidifying oceans' threaten food supply, UK warns" showing the chemistry of acidification:

Regarding the hacked emails that stirred controversy recently over the science of climate change (more on that here):

[Mr. Yvo de Boer, the UN's top climate official] said the emails hacked from the British university fuelled scepticism... [Yet he] defended the rigorous review process by some 2,500 scientists of climate change research as solid and thorough.

Source: telegraph.co.uk

From The Sunday Times

December 13, 2009

If climate change doesn't grab you, meet its evil twin

by Charles Clover

Whoever leaked that clutch of Climategate emails last month... has unleashed upon the rest of us the phenomenon of the born-again climate sceptic, the kind of man...that...has been having second thoughts about climate change.
My first instinct is always to humour him... My follow-up question is this: "Do you know that climate change is not the only reason to be uneasy about carbon emissions?" ...
Ocean acidification has been quite scandalously left out of the reckoning in the past few weeks. I am not for a moment belittling the science behind man-made global warming. ... That levels of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere are rising is not disputed. ...
We know the ocean absorbs about 25% of the carbon dioxide we emit each year. This CO2 dissolves through wind and wave action to form carbonic acid. This is altering the chemistry of the seas in ways that are not disputed and are far simpler to understand than the effect the same pollutants are having on the atmosphere. I recommend the startling practical demonstration on YouTube of what acidity will do to the oceans given by Jane Lubchenco, administrator of the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration...this month.
Since the beginning of the industrial revolution in about 1750, sea water acidity has increased by 30%. The speed and degree of this change are faster than anything that had happened for 55m (million) years. The changes being observed are beginning to disrupt the ability of any organism to make shells out of calcium carbonate. Organisms that do this include corals, crabs, lobsters, small creatures vital to the diet of fish and plankton...
Projections show that by 2060, given the current rate of fossil-fuel emissions, sea water acidity could have increased by 120%. Lubchenco showed Congress a scary picture of what a shell would look like if it had spent a month in water as acidic as this. The shell had begun to dissolve.
Such an effect could trigger a chain of reactions through entire ecosystems, from whales to fish and shellfish, with huge implications for economies and wildlife. It could even stop the sea absorbing as much carbon dioxide as it does now, accelerating global warming. ...
Predictably, the science of ocean acidification, which is accepted by governments on both sides of the Atlantic, does not go uncontested by the global warming sceptics. They say you can't acidify the ocean because it washes over alkaline rocks. This process of weathering rocks is indeed how the alkalinity of the ocean will recover, but leading scientists say it will take hundreds of thousands of years. At the unprecedented speed that acidification is happening, the marine organisms will be knocked out before the rocks can dilute the acid [no reference here - A.].
There is plenty we still need to know about the acidification of the ocean. However, it looks as if unpleasant things start to happen if we go beyond 450 parts per million of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere (bear in mind we reached 390ppm earlier this year). That is, coincidentally, the threshold for holding the Earth's average temperature rise down to a relatively "safe" 2C.
So ocean acidification, which people are beginning to call climate change's "evil twin", may be an even more pressing reason to move to a low-carbon economy than climate change itself. ...
Source: timesonline.co.uk

Photo source: stock.xchng

Human Rights issue at crux of nations' development, prosperity

"[T]oday on Human Rights Day, the United Nations is urging everyone everywhere in the world to embrace diversity and end discrimination."

Following are excerpts from a compelling statement by a top U.N. official on the universal imperative of safeguarding the rights of the poor and underprivileged in all countries.

Bahá'u'lláh has likewise highlighted the virtue of unity in diversity -

"[R]egard ye not one another as strangers. Ye are the fruits of one tree, and the leaves of one branch."(1)

From UN Dispatch.

Special Guest Post for Human Rights Day: Navi Pillay

Mark Leon Goldberg - December 9, 2009

By Navi Pillay, United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights

Old and new forms of discrimination and intolerance continue to divide communities all over the world. Sentiments of xenophobia are on the rise. They are often manipulated for demagogic purposes or even for sinister political agendas. Day after day, their corrosive effects undermine the rights of countless victims. This is why today on Human Rights Day, the United Nations is urging everyone everywhere in the world to embrace diversity and end discrimination. ...


Persons with disabilities make up the world's largest and most disadvantaged minority. For example, 98% of children with disabilities in developing countries do not attend school. Indigenous peoples represent 5% of the world's population, but 15% of its poorest people. Women account for two-thirds of the world's working hours and produce half of the world's food. Yet, due to discrimination and stereotypical gender roles, they earn only 10% of the world's income and own less than 1% of the world's property.
History has proved time and again that, when discrimination, inequality and intolerance are allowed to take root, they may shatter the very foundations of societies and damage them for generations. Left unchecked, they may spill across borders and poison relations among nations. ...
It is undeniable that progress has been remarkable, but we should not pause. Discrimination does not go away by itself. It must be challenged at every turn. We must move forward and move quickly.


We must never lose sight of the fact that the enjoyment of human rights enriches us all. Conversely, when human dignity is undercut or denied by human rights violations, then such abuses affect all of us. This is particularly true in our increasingly multi-ethnic and multicultural societies. ...
On this very day in 1948, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights stated unequivocally that all human beings are born equal in dignity and rights. More than sixty years later, these words resonate with unaltered poignancy. Let us make the Universal Declaration of Human Rights' principles of equality, freedom and dignity for all a reality everywhere. Universal tolerance and respect for diversity is our goal.

Source: http://www.undispatch.com/node/9243
Logo obtained here.


Notes:
(1) Bahá'u'lláh, Tablets 164