Teaching

May 15-17
Baha’i Participation on the Internet
With Greg Fullmer, National Office of Communications, and staff from the Baha’i Internet Agency
A weekend for webmasters, bloggers, Public Information Officers, or just individuals interested in Communications and the Internet. Led by the staff of the Baha’i National Center’s Office of Communications, this session will review recent guidance from the Bahá’í World Center pertaining to Bahá’í activity on the Internet and examine case studies and best practices for local community websites; teaching online; and blogs, social networking and other forms of individual initiative online.

Catch Glen Fullmer at Bosch in a little over a month.  BTW, this image looks like a blogger mandala, don’t ya think?  Below is another mandala worthy of meditation, evocative of microbial life, surely as mysterious as the Internet. And please note that it is 9-sided. -gw 

This mandala was generated from my anthropomorphic colored-ink drawing “vase”. The decorative squiggles in the lower part of that drawing have here morphed into what looks like an overhead view of a petri dish where various opague and transparent microbes are replicating. (In the center circle one can see mitosis taking place — single cells splitting into two. It occurs here because splitting one element into two is a normal part of the process I use to generate these kaleidoscopes.) … Mandalas imply meditation and microbes may, on first thought, seem an inappropriate subject for meditation. On further thought, however, meditating on microbial life has much to be said for it.

Image: Uploaded on October 7, 2006 by omnos on flickr, licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-No Derivative Works 2.0 Generic

According to Alexa, 14% of current visitors to Baha’i.org come from Egypt. That’s a big percentage, it seems to me. Am I correct in assuming that the large number of visitors from Egypt to the official website of the International Baha’i Community is the result of publicity around the recent attacks on Baha’is there? The opponents of the Faith don’t seem to realize that by attacking it, they are only increasing the visibility of the Faith that much more. -gw

Bahai.org users come from these countries:

• 26.2% United States
• 14.0% Egypt
• 10.1% China
• 5.7% Iran
• 4.0% India
• 3.3% Australia
• 3.2% Canada
• 2.1% United Kingdom
• 2.0% Germany
• 1.9% Turkey
• 1.6% Panama
• 1.1% Italy
• 1.1% Poland
• 1.0% Morocco
• 0.9% Slovenia
• 0.8% United Arab Emirates
• 0.8% Malaysia
• 0.7% Kuwait
• 0.5% France
• 0.5% Portugal
• 18.4% OTHER

http://www.alexa.com/siteinfo/http%3A%2F%2Fnews.bahai.org%2F

Tonight our Thursday devotional meeting turned into a Baha’i fireside. A dearly loved chronically mentally ill member of our community brought a friend tonight whom she first met at an Alcoholics Anonymous meeting. A fascinating woman, this friend works as a caregiver in a dementia facility now, but worked as a deck hand on fishing vessels in Alaska for 18 years. During those long Alaskan winters she read a lot, especially history. She was fascinated to hear a  bit of the history of the Faith, and immediately recognized the historical context, Baha’u'llah living during the time of the Ottoman Empire. Although she had never heard any details about the Faith before, she has loved the Baha’i prayers that have been shared with her and especially loved the fact that Baha’is recognize the truth in all world religions.  

With the help of the handy Anna’s Presentation, we gave this friend the message AND said a round of prayers, interspersed with music selections from the iPod. After telling a little bit about the story of the Bab and Anis who was martyred along with Him in Tabriz, I played this song. -gw

Tara Ellis – Anis from The Long Pilgrimage on Vimeo.

59 People have participated in Direct Teaching!!!

We have had 59 people participate in direct teaching so far this cycle! This has resulted in 8 enrollments thus far, all of whom are receiving consistent follow-up home visits for the purpose of relating the deepening themes. Thanks to those of you in the field of action displaying your hard work! May blessings rain down upon you!

Ya-Baha’u’llabha!!

In news from the Triangle, teaching the Baha’i Faith directly can be surprising even to the teacher, as the following entry attests. -gw

She read along the quotes with me and was visibly moved by them and offered her understanding of what she read. During the presentation she seemed to be able to anticipate precisely the next point and offered her interpretation – it was as if she too had also learned these truths before I had a chance to say them. This alone was a very surreal experience and I have never had this happen before. I was at a loss for words and even had to take a moment to collect my thoughts as her interpretation of the quotes included the deeper meaning and were completely on target. By the time we finished the page about The Plight of Humanity, The Promise of This Day she said she said she wanted to become a member of the Baha’i Faith as she was moved to learn about the promise of this day. She signed her card and I continued to share Anna’s presentation until the end. Every time either she or I read a quote she was so physically impacted by the words that she could barely sit still and interrupted to share how confirming everything was! She was happy to learn about study classes and is eager to start this weekend.

http://triangleatc.blogspot.com/2009/03/teaching-story-from-dc.html

Mammacomic loves kids. -gw

I am thinking about combining my love of design, art and architecture, with my love of kids and education. I am taking Ruhi book 5 this month, which is a training course in working with “junior youth” or kids in that sticky age just before becoming teenagers. I am stoked about it and think that this age group would be perfect for my idea. I want to develop an after school program for this age group in design, sustainable living and art. (some urban agriculture would be good too…) Somewhat like the mad science program…only design and living…and probably much smaller scale (at least to start…)

Anyways, the idea is to run after-school programs, and workshops for kids, and to be able to promote the stuff I love. I’m pretty stoked about it right now…and I’m writing about it because its on my mind, and because I am open to ideas, suggestions, references, networking…and all that jazz…I mean maybe it already exists and I just dont know about it…

http://mammacomic.blogspot.com/2009/03/art-design-education-and-dreams.html

This is what Baha’is are about. -gw

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• Children’s Class Teacher Gathering with Addis Fryback
• Ruhi Book 2 at Midway Point
• Ruhi Book 4 Study Circle Underway
• New Monthly Devotional Meeting
• New Activities at Magic Years Complete their First Month

http://nonthaburi.wordpress.com/2009/03/25/childrens-class-teacher-gathering-with-addis-fryback/

The testimonial  of  Istvan Dely from his book is so moving. Listen to free music samples here. And see slideshows here. Website home: http://www.istvandely.com/index.htm. -gw

The other great gift from God that I received in Colombia is having come across the
Bahá’í Faith, which “hath lent a fresh impulse, and set a new direction, to the birds of men’s
hearts”, to mine, too, and finally reconciled my thirst for mysticism and community, on the
one hand, and the quest for social transformation, on the other, as motivating forces and
final purpose of the arts, of music, of drumming.

This is how, slowly by slowly, out of the growing convergence in my heart and
mind, of the African traditions that I had learned in Cuba, on the one hand, and of the
Bahá´í teachings on the vital importance of cultural diversity for an organically united
humankind in our shrinking global village, on the other, I started promoting what I coined
Cultural Ecology as part of my work as an active Bahá’í, a musician, a drumming teacher, a
researcher of the African heritage in the Circum-Caribbean.

http://www.divinenotes.com/books/wildfire/wildfire_1.0.pdf

Tags: Christian //

“Being born again”

EllenWP // Mar 20, 2009 at 10:05 am

I like your definition of being born again, Tracy. You said, “For me, when I became a Christian, I became born again.”

And for me, when I became a Baha’i, I became born again.

In the Baha’i writings it states: “Without the presence of the Holy Spirit he [humanity] is lifeless. Although physically and mentally alive he is spiritually dead. His Holiness Christ announced, “That which is born of flesh is flesh and that which is born of spirit is spirit,” meaning that man must be born again. As the babe is born into the light of this physical world so must the physical and intellectual man be born into the light of the world of divinity.”

Today, being the first day of Spring and the Baha’i new year (Naw Ruz), it’s a perfect time to think about being renewed and reborn!

Following is a link to the quote above in the Baha’i writings: http://reference.bahai.org/en/t/c/FWU/fwu-17.html.iso8859-1?query=born%20again&action=highlight#pg59

http://blogs.rep-am.com/matters_of_faith/?p=686

If you’re Baha’i, you know all about the 41 regional conferences held throughout the globe (http://news.bahai.org/community-news/regional-conferences/ , but what you might not know is that staff at the Baha’i World Center also had the opportunity to participate in the historic conferences. On February 27-28, 2009, staff gathered gathered at the Seat of the Universal House of Justice, heard reports from every continent, and celebrated your achievements with you. 

The Associated Press

NPR - ‎Mar 13, 2009‎

There’s been another newspaper casualty, the 146-year-old Seattle Post-Intelligencer. The last edition is expected to hit newsstands next. …

In The World Order of Baha’u'llah, Shoghi Effendi writes,

Why should these, in a world subject to the immutable law of change and decay, be exempt from the deterioration that must needs overtake every human institution?

In enunciating the Baha’i perspective, Shoghi Effendi was writing about “long-cherished ideals and time-honored institutions [and] certain social assumptions and religious formulae” with this quote, and not libraries or newspapers, but his words could be applied to these institutions of knowledge and communication, too, in the Internet age.

I went to the library 3 times just on Saturday alone, and then went again on Monday. Why? Because I am refilling my iPod with the Songs of My Life, and the library is where I found the songs in the first place. Tacoma has a collection of CDs that numbers in the many thousands.

But my library experience is not the same as it was for me back in the early 90′s. I remember lines then. Where the libraries are packed now is around the Internet computers for use by those with a Tacoma library card (and who, presumably, don’t have a computer at home). Also noted: the downtown library fills with the homeless in the hour or so before the shelters open up for the night, especially when the temperature is cold.

Community libraries continue  to adapt. They are still meeting important needs. I doubt they will die altogether. Newspapers, at least the newsprint kind, are having perhaps an even tougher time than libraries.

Our family gets a newspaper delivered, and I read the paper most mornings before I begin my day. The Tacoma paper is shrinking in size, however. Up in Seattle one of the two daily newspapers gave up the ghost altogether just this week, going to online only.

I’ve written a little bit already about how change is affecting blogs. I would argue that blogs aren’t dying at all, but evolving. They are, after all, Internet-based, and the Internet isn’t going away. 

What is one of the most vibrant examples of a blog today? Soul Pancake. A higher order kind of blog, ready-made for your higher nature. And it’s a uniquely collective effort. Despite Rainn’s name on the project and actual personal involvement, you can be sure he has a team of creative people with a common vision working with him on this. And it is in the 100′s of responses that just one posed question can get that the synergy between blog and blog-reader is clearly evident. -gw

Encyclopedias: Eat Your Dusty Old Hearts Out

[SEE. THINK. TALK.]

Confession time: I don’t remember the last time I went inside a library—mostly because Google is my new card catalog. And the last time I bought a CD? I think it was The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill, circa 1998. (In fact, I had to use Google to confirm that that was the right year.) Yes, I loves me the Internet. And information. And technology. And information technology.

Tuesday, March 17, 2009 – FEATURES

http://www.soulpancake.com/view_post/212915/encyclopedias-eat-your-dusty-old-hearts-out.html