Archive for August, 2009

Yesterday during a Ruhi Book 2 refesher on giving the deepening themes during home-visits I was reminded again of the importance of the incorporation of the arts in community-building. We practiced using these images in presenting the theme of the Covenant. A very artful idea!

I thought of our weekly Baha’i devotional which, through the incorporation of the arts,  has developed a vibrant life of its own, propelling itself forward week after week. And then I note today that the significance of the arts to community-building was the theme of the keynote address at the Association of Baha’i Studies in D.C. earlier this month. -gw

Otto Donald Rogers’ Balyuzi lecture was a highlight of the conference. He challenged the community to consider the arts as both an intellectual and spiritual endeavour. Addressing four themes of intellect, space, process and form, he took the audience on a detailed journey of the creative process as a means of exploring realities that exist on the cusp of the material and spiritual. The talk itself was preceded by a beautiful sung rendition of the Tablet of Ahmad, to which Mr. Rogers, deeply moved, made several references as an example of his theme. Four sets of Mr. Rogers’ abstract works were displayed for 15 minutes each during the talk, allowing the audience to consider his thesis that universal realities are captured in abstract art.

His talk wove together mystical elements surrounding the life of an artist with those from the practical dimensions of community life together. Mr. Rogers also explored the aesthetic beauty of the writings of Bahá’u’lláh, provided various metaphors from nature to emphasize the inherent unity among creation, and the interdependent relationship between them.

In relation to current activities of the Baha’i community, one audience member, Pejman Mosleh, was moved to comment after the talk, “The cluster is a work of art where the teacher drops from the edge, like a waterfall at ease with what awaits it. [That] was Don Rogers’ pictorial description of the work of the plan before us, and of the confluence of the human heart and its environment. So elegantly simple, so simply elegant.”

Rogers explained the process of his work: “I walk into the studio and I see an empty canvas.” This empty canvas is physically bound in space, and intellectually open to the process and form of art. “I have to keep (this space) alive and together so it doesn’t fly off the edges. One must be absolutely precise,” he said. He compared keeping this space alive as similar to the fine tuning of a musical instrument. The use of this space is important, he added. “The mystic knower in Bahá’u’lláh’s Seven Valleys said ‘the death of self’ is needed here, and I think of this every time I go into the studio. I bring my mind to that edge and I allow the process to move me forward, I run to stay behind the process, to stay up with it. The process has a mind of its own.”

He then likened the artistic process to community-building; the process of artistic creation is iterative as is the process of creating community.

http://bahainews.ca/en/090831-abs

Star Trails

Star Trails at the Oregon Star Party near Prineville Oregon. the circular pattern comes from the earth’s rotation on its axis. This is a 2 hour long exposure from 11:00 PM to 1:00 AM.

Uploaded by Dan Hershman on 7 May 07, 8.46PM PDT.

Here are the last nine of David’s list of 49 “love agents (saints)” which, he writes, were “not chosen by me but by LOVE because of their goodness.” Please note no. 47, his mention of one “Baha’y minister.” Well, there are no ministers in the Baha’i Faith, but we can tell he admires the guy in any case. -gw

41. Rhiannon Thomas, leader of the band Coast Guard and a
bartender at The Ship Pub (listed in the phone book
still as The Ship Inn) here in St. John’s, Newfoundland
and Labrador, Canada
42. Famous USA singer and actor Jenifer Lopez (J Lo)
43. Vancouver yoga teacher Gioia Irwin’s friend Elizabeth
who sells yoga props
44. famous British violinist Nigel Kennedy
45. The guy who found the coke bottle in the movie The Gods
Must Be Crazy
46. Miriam Makeba’s husband
47. Global Geophysicist and Baha’y minister Michael G. Rochester, who is a Memorial University professor emeritus here in St. John’s, Newfoundland, Canada
48. Lisa Marie Presley, singer (and maybe songwriter? I
think so.) who may be Scientologist
49. The Dalai Lama’s younger sister (well, I don’t know if
he has one but I hope so)

http://www.cyclingforums.com/misc-health-alternative-archive/120890-loveagents-saints.html

Michael Rochester PhD’59 is University Research Professor Emeritus at Memorial University of Newfoundland. After 40 years of teaching and research in physics and earth sciences departments at three Canadian universities, he is still active in research (mathematical geophysics) and is spending three months this fall at the Shanghai Astronomical Observatory, at the invitation of the Chinese Academy of Sciences. He will offer a series of lectures on the theory of changes in the Earth’s rotation with special attention to the effects of the Earth’s liquid core. Married in 1958, Rochester and his wife have three children and two grandchildren, and are actively involved in the work of the Baha’i community in Canada.

http://www.continuum.utah.edu/2006fall/tty.html

                   The Baha’i Faith gets asterisk treatment. -gw

ninurta 35% Corrupt Joined: Tue 12 May 2009, 17:07 Posts: 719 Location: Upstate New York, United States

Posted: Sat 29 Aug 2009, 09:44 PatrickMahoney wrote: Catholic Learning Buddhist/Hindu/Neo-Pagan/Baha’i practices to become a better Christian How do any of those (with the exception of Baha’i) help you become a better Christian? A good place to start is this forum: www.paganforum.com It has more than just pagans on there, we have 2 muslims, 2-3 jews and a quite of few christians. It will help you alot to learn more about paganism, but as for Buddhism and Hinduism and Baha’i, I am sorry I can’t help you.

http://www.politicsforum.org/forum/viewtopic.php?f=23&p=13146380

The Clara Dunn Academy held twice a year at the Brighton Creek Conference Center has an incredible reputation here in the Pacific Northwest. It has been a seminal experience for so many Baha’i youth. (See pics here: http://www.claradunnacademy.org/photos.php). It’s interesting to note Brynne’s reference to a habit she developed there in a blog entry written apparently at what is the beginning of her college experience. -gw

I’m really excited about all of it – we have to read those six Bhagavad-Gita chapters by Tuesday, and I’ve been through them twice. I know that sounds really geeky, but I’m loving the fact that that’s WHAT WE’RE HERE TO DO. And socializing with my friends is fun too, but at the end of the day all of us (the people I’ve been hanging out with, anyway) are explicitly here to study. Which makes doing it somehow a lot more interesting.

The first time through the book I was going “what IS this?” and then I started penciling notes in the margins and (as usual for me) that made it a lot clearer. I do the same thing when I study the Baha’i writings (a Clara Dunn habit). It helps me think through and keep track of all the names. The Bhagavad-Gita (this translation of it, anyway) reads more or less like Tolkien (or The Dawnbreakers): a lot of names and descriptions initially that make you want to cry because they just seem unnecessary. But the philosophy is interesting. The first time I read it, it made no sense to me, but the second time through (with the penciled notes) it seemed more consistent.

So, yeah. Classes haven’t started yet…but I’m enjoying myself.

http://bananabranmuffin.blogspot.com/2009/08/books-and-homework-already.html

A third helping from Neah Bay 2009, videos featuring music and dance. -gw

“Mount your steeds, O heros of God.” At the 2009 Neah Bay Baha’i Council Fire Ferris Paisano invites the gathered friends to circle up to listen to an almost 40 year old song sung by one of his spiritual teachers. The song is “Mount Your Steeds” and the singer-songwriter is Phil Lucas

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ytQgZkJJ6gM

Irrepressible Persian dancing. The Persian friends are ready to dance anytime, any place. Case in point: the 2009 Neah Bay Baha’i Council Fire. During a break in the presentations, the DJ dropped a familiar tune, and look what happened.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TX4fncIlOKw

“When a thought of war comes, oppose it by a stronger thought of peace.” A familiar quote from Abdul-Baha is incorporated in a Grant Hindin Miller song sung by Mauricio Brizuela at the 2009 Neah Bay Baha’i Council Fire

 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RxpfHLlaF8U

 

Closing songs and sounds. The 2009 Neah Bay Council Fire ends with one of the members of the Makah Indian reservation chanting and drumming a closing song. The camera is put aside but inadvertantly left on. Sounds and images of the closing moments of the gathering can be heard. A song by Lunar Drive plays in the background, catching the attention of an attendee.

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=93Sk7AZiG0o

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Junior youth groups, facilitated by trained youth “animators”, help youth to develop their latent capabilities and contribute to meaningful service in our community. The groups engage in learning, socialising, arts, culture, sports and service activities. Attention is given to enhancing their powers of expression, recognising the moral issues underlying everyday decisions and the moral implications of their speech and actions, developing friendships, withstanding negative peer pressure, and building unity and enhancing global citizenship.

http://www.bromleybahai.org.uk/community-matters/youth-groups/

The exhuberance of Baha’i junior youth groups is universal. -gw

………………………………….

Junis in Brück from Neysan Zölzer on Vimeo.

Baha’i Junior Youth Camp near Berlin

Music: Melbourne Baha’i Youth – Calling Waiting Searching

Prayers for C.J. -gw

Title: Cousin Juicy Dead
Post by: Mysty on August 28, 2009, 02:30:33 PM

A blog I read and posted on this week described Haifa as a “gritty” city. It is indeed. It’s also a city made of old stone, as these pictures above from our Baha’i pilgrimage this past spring will testify. For all of the improvements, the changes on Ben Gurion Avenue below the Baha’i Gardens, there is evidence not just of grittiness, but clutter. Haifa is not Scandinavian. The graffiti (below) could make Haifa seem downright American. -gw 

Photos: Baha’i Views / Flitzy Phoebie’s photostream on flickr, licensed under Creative Commons

Any discussion of Dizzy Gillespie includes mention of his Baha’i affiliation, as this one does. -gw

Like his great predecessor Louis Armstrong was a showman. He enjoyed cracking jokes, mugging and other ploys designed to win over an audience. By the 1960s, his clowning around was distinctly out of fashion as the Black revolution in jazz dictated a more sober if not hostile posture.

Dizzy was committed to progressive social change, a large part due to his Baha’i religious beliefs that stressed the common humanity of everybody on the planet. His efforts on behalf of Cuban musicians did a lot to counteract the demonization promoted by Democratic and Republican presidents alike.

To an extent, the Cuban connection was a natural outgrowth of his affinity for Afro-Cuban music. When he led a big band, he relied on Cuban-American Mario Bauza for arrangements and Cuban-American Chano Pozo’s drumming.

http://louisproyect.wordpress.com/2009/08/28/big-bands-on-youtube-modern/

Image: Painting detail of Dizzy Gillespie by Baha’i painter Walter Palmore. All rights reserved.

Kaath imagines a conversation. -gw

Oddly, we have found a point of agreement. Both sides say that religious revelation ended thousands of years ago. The secular humanists because they believe the miracle of revelation cannot be accepted by modern sensibilities, the evangelicals because they believe God will not speak again until the very end of the world.

And thereby hangs the next segment of the conversation.

Now let’s add a Bahá’í to the mix. The Bahá’í, in this case, is someone who sees the strengths and weaknesses of both sides of the debate, but who also believes that when two people argue about religion, they’re both wrong. What does that mean in practice? It means that the Bahá’í will be looking for common ground between the poles.

The Bahá’í speaks: You’ve found a point of unity: you both say that revelation is at an end. … But is it?

http://machineslikeus.com/blogs/kaath/common-ground-conversation