test, succeed. test, succeed. test test test, succeed.

you have taught me many lessons,
yet my learning will never cease,
I used to question your motives,
now I welcome you with embrace.

you have spun many truths,
my beliefs continue to be tested,
I know to question your intent,
I will never just accept.

you have tried many tricks,
I'm yet to tire of your wicked ways,
your tests meld with intrigue,
providing me with strength
to overcome the trials borne
in every waking hour,

although I long for a reprieve,
I know you're here to stay,
so tempt me with your next test,
my resilience will keep you at bay.

"Blessed are the steadfastly enduring, they that are patient under ills and hardships, who lament not over anything that befalleth them, and who tread the path of resignation....

(Gleanings from the Writings of Bahá'u'lláh, LXVI, p. 129)

Something I have been thinking about a lot recently is the way that our lives and our day-to-day life has become a slave to forces that creep up on us so guilefully that the 'frenetic devotion to pleasure and diversion' has become part and parcel to existence as a whole. I'm a slave, you're a slave, we've all become slaves...

 One of the signs of a decadent society, a sign which is very evident in the world today, is an almost frenetic devotion to pleasure and diversion, an insatiable thirst for amusement, a fanatical devotion to games and sport, a reluctance to treat any matter seriously, and a scornful, derisory attitude towards virtue and solid worth. Abandonment of "a frivolous conduct" does not imply that a Bahá'í must be sour-faced or perpetually solemn. Humour, happiness, joy are characteristics of a true Bahá'í life. Frivolity palls and eventually leads to boredom and emptiness, but true happiness and joy and humour that are parts of a balanced life that includes serious thought, compassion and humble servitude to God are characteristics that enrich life and add to its radiance."

 -  Universal House of Justice, From a letter dated 8 May 1979 written on behalf of the Universal House of Justice to an individual believer

FIVE YEARS TOO MANY - http://www.bic.org/fiveyears/

For five years, seven Baha'i leaders have been wrongly imprisoned in Iran.

Mrs Fariba Kamalabadi, Mr Jamaloddin Khanjani, Mr Afif Naeimi, Mr Saeid Rezaie, Mrs Mahvash Sabet, Mr Behrouz Tavakkoli, and Mr Vahid Tizfahm’s 20-year sentences are the longest given to any current prisoners of conscience in Iran. Their harshness reflects the Government’s resolve to oppress completely the Iranian Baha'i community, which faces a systematic, “cradle-to-grave” persecution that is among the most serious examples of state-sponsored religious persecution in the world today.

Baha'i communities around the world have launched a campaign calling for their immediate release – and the release of all innocent prisoners of conscience in Iranian prisons. 

I was honoured to attend a National Human Rights Forum calling for the immediate release of the seven leaders, which was hosted on Tuesday 7 May at NSW Parliament House, Sydney Australia. The Forum had representatives of the major religions in Australia who offered their prayers and blessings for the 7 Baha'i Leaders and each solemnly placed a seven red rose on a seven empty chairs representing each of the imprisoned Baha'i Leaders. Four Australian family members of the seven imprison Baha'is were also present at this forum, each of which spoke of their loved ones and shared with the audience their stories of the imprisoned, both before and after their incarceration. 

The below photos were taken at today’s forum. Please show your support and increase the international pressure on the Iranian Government to immediately release these seven wrongfully imprisoned members of the 300,000 strong Baha’i Community in Iran. My thoughts and prayers are deeply focused on these 7 imprisoned Baha'i Leaders and all victims of Religious persecution within Iran and across the world.

Alláh'u'Abhá

 

 

For more information:

http://www.bic.org/fiveyears/

http://www.bahai.org.au/NewsMedia/NewsStories/ArticleView/tabid/72/ArticleId/207/Seven-red-roses-for-seven-empty-chairs.aspx

The Old World Order needs wrapping up...

"...From different parts are to be heard sighs of anguish, lamentations of poverty, cries of agony and misery -- and the calls for succor have reached to the gate of heaven. One hears the weeping of the hopeless, the appeals of the oppressed, the trembling murmurs of the helpless, the harrowing wails of the shipwrecked in the sea of persecution. The heat of the conflagration of opposition spreads on all sides, the fire of longing is raging with great intensity and the tongues of the flames of calamity leap forth in every direction. Here one sees the oppression of kings and the thoughtlessness of cabinet ministers; there one sees conflict on the battlefield of thoughts and ideals between ambitious generals, statesmen and administrators of the nations and countries. They consult, scheme, plot and exchange views; they organize fallacious and superfluous companies and falsify the established values; and thus they do lay and destroy the foundation of their political careers.

In short: when thou observest these things with the eye of reality, thou wilt see that the outcome, result and fruit of all these theatrical performances are mirages, and their sweetness is bitter poison. A few days the earth shall roll on its axis, and these fleeting visions will be completely forgotten.

When thou shuttest thine eyes to this dark world and lookest upward and heavenward, thou wilt see light upon light stretching from eternity to eternity. The reality of the mysteries will be revealed. Happy is the pure soul who does not attach himself to transient conditions and comforts, but rather seeks to attach himself to the purity, nobility and splendor of the world which endures." 
(‘Abdu’l-Baha, Baha'i Scriptures, p. 345; Star of the West, vol. IV, No. 16, December 31, 1913)

more difficulties, more perfection.

“The more difficulties one sees in the world the more perfect one becomes. The more you plough and dig the ground the more fertile it becomes. The more you cut the branches of a tree the higher and stronger it grows. The more you put the gold in the fire the purer it becomes. The more you sharpen the steel by grinding the better it cuts. Therefore, the more sorrows one sees the more perfect one becomes. That is why, in all times, the Prophets of God have had tribulations and difficulties to withstand. The more often the captain of a ship is in the tempest and difficult sailing the greater his knowledge becomes. Therefore I am happy that you have had great tribulations and difficulties. For this I am very happy — that you have had many sorrows. Strange it is that I love you and still I am happy that you have sorrows.”

—	Abdu'l-Baha - Star of the West, vol. 14, no. 2, p. 41.

Be not dismayed...

"Be not dismayed if your endeavours are dismissed as utopian by the voices that would oppose any suggestion of fundamental change. Trust in the capacity of this generation to disentangle itself from the embroilments of a divided society. To discharge your responsibilities, you will have to show forth courage, the courage of those who cling to standards of rectitude, whose lives are characterised by purity of thought and action, and whose purpose is directed by love and indomitable faith. As you dedicate yourselves to healing the wounds with which your peoples have been afflicted, you will become invincible champions of justice... "

- Excerpt from a Letter to the youth of Paraguay from the Universal House of Justice , 6 January 1998

A place once called home

This video evokes so many emotions that I forgot even existed in my memory bank of an enigmatic place that I amazingly once called home.. 



This Isreal from Matthew Brown on Vimeo.

The photo below is taken from the Baha'i Terrace Gardens facing the Shrine of the Báb, set atop Mount Carmel in Haifa, Israel. The Holy Land for the followers of Bahá'u'lláh (adherents to the Baha'i Faith) and also the Administrative Centre for this faith. I had the honour of living and serving in this Most Holy Spot for 12 months in 2007/08, but no matter how much time passes, it continues to, and always will be home home.

Photo courtesy of S.Rouhani

Have patience, wait but do not sit idle

"The darkness of this gloomy night shall pass away. Again the Sun of Reality will dawn from the horizon of the hearts. Have patience, wait but do not sit idle; work while you are waiting; smile when you are wearied with monotony; be firm while everything around you is being shaken; be joyous while the ugly face of despair grins at you; speak aloud while the malevolent forces of the nether world try to crush your mind; be valiant and courageous while men all around you are cringing with fear and cowardice. Do not yield to the overwhelming power of tyranny and despotism. Serve the cause of democracy and freedom. Continue your journey to the end. The bright day is coming. The nucleus of the new race is forming. The harbinger of the new ideals of international justice is appearing. The trees of hope will become verdant; the copper of scorn and derision will be transmuted into the gold of honor and praise; the arid desert of ignorance will be transformed into the luxuriant garden of knowledge; the threatening clouds shall be dispelled and the stars of faith and charity will again twinkle in the clear heaven of consciousness."

- 'Abdu’l-Bahá' (Bahá'í Scriptures -- Selection from the Utterances of Bahá'u'lláh and 'Abdu'l-Bahá edited by Horace Holley, Page 551)

(For full text, click on either of the links just below:Baha'i Scriptures: chapter 9  and a Complilation for Tests and Difficulties)

The Faith of God has lost a distinguished servant.

The sudden passing of our beloved Dr Peter Khan on 15 July 2011 has brought to an end a "remarkable life, one of earnest striving, of unbending resolve, of unflinching dedication to principle, and of constancy of effort". The following video was prepared by a friend for a memorial service held in Dr Khan's honour.

"By any measure, his was a remarkable life, one of earnest striving, of unbending resolve, of unflinching dedication to principle, and of constancy of effort."

I can earnestly say that Peter was one of the most amazing individuals that I have ever had the bounty of meeting. I especially remember that during my year of service at the Baha'i World Centre during 2007 and 2008, he was serving as a member of the Supreme Body of the Baha'i Faith, The Universal House of Justice. He was a member during the years 1987 to 2010. For more information, see the following article: Dr. Peter J. Khan: A "remarkable life"

I will end this post with a Baha'i Prayer for the Departed:

Omy God!  O my God!  Verily, thy servant, humble before the majesty of Thy divine supremacy, lowly at the door of Thy oneness, hath believed in Thee and in Thy verses, hath testified to Thy word, hath been enkindled with the fire of Thy love, hath been immersed in the depths of the ocean of Thy knowledge, hath been attracted by Thy breezes, hath relied upon Thee, hath turned his face to Thee, hath offered his supplications to Thee, and hath been assured of Thy pardon and forgiveness.  He hath abandoned this mortal life and hath flown to the kingdom of immortality, yearning for the favor of meeting Thee.
O Lord, glorify his station, shelter him under the pavilion of Thy supreme mercy, cause him to enter Thy glorious paradise, and perpetuate his existence in Thine exalted rose garden, that he may plunge into the sea of light in the world of mysteries.
Verily, Thou art the Generous, the Powerful, the Forgiver and the Bestower.

‘Abdu’l-Bahá

The persecution continues.

The arrested associates of the BIHE

After a long history of systematically denying the Bahá'ís living in Iran the right to an education, amongst many other things, the Iranian Government has taken it even further. The Bahá'í Institute for Higher Education (BIHE) is a initiative offering higher education to the young Iranian Baha'is that have been barred from attending university. They have been the victim of the latest attacks. 16 people with association to the BIHE were arrested just short of a month ago, not to mention at least 39 homes have been targeted. 


The reaction to this inhumane and unjustifiable act has aroused international condemnation, including the Austrian government, top academics in the United Kingdom, the US Commission on International Religious Freedom just to name a few. For further information, please read the following: Worldwide outrage at Iran's attack on Bahá'í educators

Some thoughts on Ecology...

"We cannot segregate the human heart from the environment outside us and say that once one is reformed everything will be improved. Man is organic and with the world. His inner life moulds the environment and is itself deeply affected by it. The one acts upon the other and every abiding change in the life of man is the result of these mutual reactions." 

- Shoghi Effendi, letter to an individual Baha'i dated 17 February 1933

I found it in this document: Conservation and Sustainable Development in the Baha'i Faith

Happy New Year! (including a message from Obama)

March 21st is Naw Ruz (New Day). For Baha'is this brings and end to the Month of Ala, also know as the Fasting period. I have talked about the Baha'i Fast in a previous post (click here for more information). Since ancient times it has been the great national holiday of Iran, the only holiday celebrated by more than one religious group.

Abdu'l-Baha explained the significance of Naw Ruz in terms of the symbolism of the new life of spring. The day coincides with the vernal equinox in the northern hemisphere, signifying the bond of renewal taking place in the physical world with the spiritual reality of renewal pervading all of humanity in this unusual period of history and reflected in the teachings of Bahá'u'lláh. It is "a day of joy, a time of happiness, a period of spiritual growth"

"Praise be Thou, O my God, that Thou has ordained Naw-Ruz as a festival unto those who have observed the Fast for love of Thee and abstained from all that is abhrrent unto Thee..."

Bahá'u'lláh, Prayer for Naw Ruz

On another note, Obama in his address to the Iranian people to wish them a Happy New Year, made mention of the suffering of the Baha'is, along with many others that have suffered under the hands of the Iranian government who has taken it in their hands to make life a living hell for those living within the borders of this once great nation. Here is a link to Obama's message:

And with that, I wish all those who celebrate this time of year, a Happy New Year!

"The whole world is born anew, resurrected. Gentle zephyrs are set in motion, wafting and fragrant; flowers bloom; the trees are in blossom, the air temperate and delightful; how pleasant and beautiful become the mountains, fields and meadows."

Heart cleanser.

"He must so cleanse his heart that no remnant of either love or hate may linger therein, lest that love blindly incline him to error, or that hate repel him away from the truth.."

Gleanings from the Writings of Baha'u'llah, CXXV

"Soon will your swiftly-passing days be over, and the fame and riches, the comforts, the joys provided by this rubbish-heap, the world, will be gone without a trace."

- Selections from the Writings of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá pg 3

Spiritual Recuperation

Today marked the first day of the Bahá'í Fast. The last 19 days (one Baha'i month) of the Bahá'í year all the Baha'is around the world undertake a period of fasting, from sunrise to sunset. The Bahá'í Faith sees great value in the practice of fasting as a discipline for the soul. "It is essentially a period of meditation and prayer, of spiritual recuperation, during which the believer must strive to make the necessary readjustments in his inner life, and to refresh and reinvigorate the spiritual forces latent in his soul. Its significance and purpose are, therefore, fundamentally spiritual in character. Fasting is symbolic, and a reminder of abstinence from selfish and carnal desires." (Shoghi Effendi, Directives of the Guardian (New Delhi: Bahá'í Publishing Trust, 1973), pp. 27-28.)

"Fasting is the cause of awakening man. The heart becomes tender and the spirituality of man increases. This is produced by the fact that man's thoughts will be confined to the commemoration of God, and through this awakening and stimulation surely ideal advancements follow... Fasting is of two kinds, material and spiritual. The material fasting is abstaining from food or drink, that is, from the appetites of the body. But spiritual, ideal fasting is this, that man abstain from selfish passions, from negligence and from satanic animal traits. Therefore, material fasting is a token of the spiritual fasting. That is: `O God! As I am fasting from the appetites of the body and not occupied with eating and drinking, even so purify and make holy my heart and my life from aught else save Thy Love, and protect and preserve my soul from self-passions... Thus may the spirit associate with the Fragrances of Holiness and fast from everything else save Thy mention."

- Abdu'l-Bahá, Star of the West, vol. 3, p. 305.

Enough said :)

Everything I have blogged so far is of no importance.

As I sit here, these are 7 Iranian Baha'is are sitting in the Evin Prison (Tehran, Iran), as they have been doing so since their arrests in March and May 2008, awaiting their fate.

Their crime: Being Baha'i and Belief in Baha'u'llah.
Only today, after almost TWO years, their trial began. I ask for your prayers that they recieve the justice deserved by every single human being.

For more information on the situation surrounding the arrests and the trial that is now underway follow this link: http://edition.cnn.com/2010/WORLD/meast/01/12/Iran.bahai.trial/

Warning: startup disk full

Prompted by a warning of a full startup disk this afternoon I began an attempt to clear some space. I started sifting through all the files on my mac. I stopped when I came across a document dated March 24 2008, the day I left the Baha’i World Centre after spending a year as a janitor in the Cleaning and Maintenance Department. Reading over it brought tears to my eyes, as I’m sure were present at the time of documentation. I just wanted to share a part of it:

March 24^th 2008

I have been on the plane now for 3 hours. I have left my year of service behind. I’ve been constantly on the verge of tears for the past few days in the constant state of anxiousness I've been in. What has become of me? Why does it have to hurt so much? I left my heart in Haifa and my soul is floating freely somewhere in Bahji, entangled in the strings that were tied one by one and day by day to that most Holy place in the progress of the year that evaporated faster than the once oceanic-sized Dead Sea. Why couldn’t those strings keep me there? Why did they have to be only spiritual? Why couldn’t I tie myself to the Threshold? Or Collins Gate? Or even the BVC jani closest forever?

But no, I will never have that again. Bahji is not mine, the BVC is not my palace, and I am not her Queen. Handed down from year to year, the Throne is passed on with no thought of the one who kept her in shape, the marble shinning, the mirrors reflecting, the glass transparent, the carpet manicured, the trash emptied, the sinks dried, the toilet paper refilled, the paper dispenser first placed, the windowsill dustless, the walls mark free! 

No loyalty.

But I will be loyal, I will keep up the esteem of those walls. The glistening cleanliness, the calm and serenity, only interrupted by John’s wise-crack comments and the hundreds of pilgrims storming through the visitors' centre as if it were their own. I will turn up every morning as the sun rises from the East, turn on the lights, in the ending darkness, pull on the straps of on my backpack vacuum and start my daily tasks, only to leave when I finish for the day, as the sun shys away into the West, and I walk down to the Sherut stand on Derech HaArba'a, knowing I will be back the next morning.

If home is where the heart is, Bahji be home.

The Haram-i-Aqdas

The most amazing sunrises and sunsets

I've never seen a bluer sky

Twenty months later, those strings are still tied as firmly as ever. And Bahji is still home.