Every morning I read something from the Baha’i sacred writings. I do this in obedience to Baha’u'llah’s command. It’s my obligation. But, more than that, this reading is food for my soul.

The odes of Jalaluddin Rumi have been a kind spiritual dessert to the main course of Baha’u'llah’s writings during this Fast. Here’s ode 3050 (in the version by Coleman Barks from Rumi: Like This, published in 1990 by Maypop Books):

The Lord of Beauty enters the soul
as a man walks into an orchard
in Spring.
xxxxxxxxxCome into me
that way again!
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxLight the lamp
in the eye of Joseph. Cure Jacob’s
sadness. Though you never left,
come and sit down here and ask,
“Why are you so confused?”

Like a fresh idea in an artist’s mind,
you fashion things before they come into being.

You sweep the floor like the man
who keeps the doorway:
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxWhen you brush
a form clean, it becomes
what it truly is.

You guard Your Silence perfectly
like a waterbag that doesn’t leak.

You live where Shams lives,
because your heart-donkey was strong enough
to take you there.

Technorati Tags: Baha’i, spirituality, fasting, poetry, mysticism, Rumi

Back in February 2005 I gave a paper at a conference at the Institute of Commonwealth Studies in London on the theme: Does God Believe in Human Rights? I was very pleased a few days ago when the edited volume of the papers from the conference (published by Martinus Nijhoff Publishers, Leiden, Netherlands) dropped through my letterbox.

I had almost given up hope of seeing my paper in print. Now, my pleasure in seeing my paper in print is absurd and perhaps a tad fraudulent, because most of the other contributors are genuine academics, some quite eminent in the fields of religion and human rights, which I am not. I only crept in because one of the conference organizers is a friend of mine and thought there should be a Baha’i perspective.

Anyway, for what it’s worth, my paper is entitled: A More Constructive Encounter: A Baha’i View of Religion and Human Rights. I have written under my full name, John Barnabas Leith. This is the editors’ outline of the paper, from the volume’s foreword:

In this chapter, John Barnabas Leith elaborates the clear theological foundations and commitment of the Baha’i Faith to universal human-rights values. He draws on both the Baha’i sacred writiings and the practice of the Baha’i International Community, a UN non-governmental organisation, in support of his position. Baha’i sacred writings are centrally concerned with questions of good governance and judicial, social and economic justice. This is rooted, at least in part, in the concern that all individuals should be allowed to develop their qualities and capacities for their own good and the good of society as a whole. It is further developed, Leith argues, in the principle of the oneness of humankind which lies at the core of Baha’i teachings. This has wide-ranging implications for societal justice, from the abandonment of prejudice to the embracing of diversity. Each and every human being, in Baha’i perspective, is worthy of moral protection and the holder of inalienable human rights; each human being is a trust of the whole of humankind. These principles are explored further in relation to the freedom of all individuals to investigate reality for themselves, the freedom of religion and belief, human dignity, and in the development of a peaceful and united global civilisation. These principles are then examined in relation to a number of Baha’i human rights activities - particularly the defence of the human rights of the Baha’is in Iran.

Technorati Tags: Baha’i, religion, human rights, religious freedom, human dignity

Well, yesterday was a marathon. Erica and I both serve on the executive committee for Baha’i Books UK, formerly known as the Baha’i Publishing Trust. Two other members of the five-member committee live in our neighbouring Baha’i community and we all left together just after 8 a.m. for the two-hour drive to Birmingham, where Helena, one of the Auxiliary Board members, had invited us to use her home as a meeting place.

We started meeting just after 10 a.m. and ploughed on (with a short break) until just before 4 p.m., when we went for a walk in the sun. We did well in the morning, getting through the agenda very well. But as time went on faces began to get pale, people started yawning, some even started micro-sleeping. The quality of the consultation declined, the speed of the consultation declined, our capacity to reach any decisions at all (let alone sensible decisions) declined. Between 1 p.m. and 3 p.m. we might as well not have been meeting.

We were scheduled to meet at 4 p.m. with two families of highly successful and long-sustained Baha’i community book agents. Actually, they are really all one family: the Auxiliary Board member’s parents (Paddy and Ann) and her uncle (Steve), all of whom have been selling Baha’i books for around 30 years.

Refreshed from our walk, we engaged energetically in consultation with these dedicated and thoughtful souls, we learned a great deal, and then we had a wonderful dinner together - pasta, bolognese sauce, pizza, fruit, nut cake, eve’s pudding - lovingly prepared by the Auxiliary Board member. Much laughter, great conversation, fun and food. Oh, and did I mention food?

Erica and I have known Paddy and Ann for over 30 years, but haven’t had an opportunity for a good chinwag for quite some time now. It really took me (I don’t know about Erica) back in memory to the days of my Baha’i youth. We learned that the home we were meeting in had a family history. Ann had been born in that house, and Paddy and Ann had had their Baha’i wedding in the house. Helena and husband Mark have extended it and are refurbishing it. They’ve made a really nice kitchen/dining room with lovely fixtures and furniture.

Of course, this prompted us old-timers to recall the days when we had very little money and no furniture, other than what had been handed down to us by our parents. When Erica and I bought our first house, only our bed and the kitchen table were new. My parents gave us what other relatively few sticks of furniture we had. When we pioneered to the Shetland Islands, all we had could fit into half a removal lorry. We’d bought a fully furnished house in Shetland, and when we left we took that furniture with us!

So, dinner finished, we piled back into the car and arrived home around 10 p.m. Fourteen hours, all told, away from home, much of it trying to use our brains. The take-home message is: this kind of thing really doesn’t work during the Fast!

Technorati Tags: Baha’i, fasting, books, friendship