Susan: In fact
> I was just thinking
> about just how visceral my reaction to Ruhi was;
> that I open the book and
> almost feel it shouting at me, "We don't want you to
> think!" But my
> experience of this material is probably shaped, at
> least in part, by the
> anti-intellectualism I've seen in the community at
> large.
I did not have that after it was explained to me why
you had to go back again to the quotes.
Book 6 seems to abandon that method of not wanting to
think quite a bit.
Susan:
> If I recall correctly the passage you are alluding
> to, I think it is one
> which has been misused a lot. Wasn't Abdu'l-Baha
> talking more about Assembly
> members all getting behind a decision that the
> majority agreed upon rather
> than so much the community at large? In other words
> we are talking about a
> situation where each Assembly member got their say
> before the decision in
> question was made. I think the frustration a lot of
> us feel is over the fact
> that we were never part of the consultative process
> which decided on Ruhi
> material to begin with. In fact, even our NSA seems
> to have largely been
> shut out of the process. It mostly came down from
> the ITC, which as you
> know, is not an elected institution.
I did not read it as such, I have read it quite a few
times over the last year. But I will get it again from
Ocean when I am home (this computer does not have
Ocean) and read it again.
I have the impression Abdu'l-Baha was talking about
the attitude any Bahai should have, not only LSA
members.
Susan about firesides:
> He didn't just encourage it, he said it was the
> *best* teaching method. And
> I can't bring myself to introduce most of my friends
> to the Baha'i Faith
> through study circles. You mentioned how close its
> methods are to the
> Jehovah Witnesses. That is going to be the most
> striking thing to a visitor.
> I remember attending a Kingdom Hall meeting as a
> child and watching them use
> that method, thinking to myself that JWs weren't
> allowed to think. I never
> went back.
Well... yes he said that. This was before the plan of
the study circles. What is a fireside? Getting a
couple of friends together and talk about the Bahai
faith. What did it turn into? official talks about
peoples *opinion* what the Bahai faith is. I have
heard very few quotes studied in a fireside.
When Shoghi Effendi was alive the Bahai community was
much smaller. The UHJ has given us the institute
process whihc is offering study circles, childrens
classes and devotionals to the community at large.
Firesides can still happen. I will not go through all
the ruhi books again after I have finished the cycle.
I hope to be able to be a facillitator, and maybe even
involved in setting up study circles which either
adapt the ruhi method to a particular group of people
or offer a different approach, again geared towards a
certain group of people.
I want to look for example into the Core material.
>
> Yeah, but we keep talking about 'multiplying' these
> activies which suggest
> to me that even when we are finished we just start
> the whole thing over
> again, which again, takes up all our resources.
The study circles are first and foremost something to
offer to the community. We are talking about
multiplying the study circles, and at this moment in
Ireland the ruhi books are offered, so it looks like
we are multiplying the method of ruhi, but I wonder if
that is what each and everybody means when talking
about multiplying activities.
If I offer the ruhi book 1 to a friend, I will ask for
feedback of that friend, and if the friend is not
happy with the method, I will ask what she feels about
the quotes. If she is happy with the quotes, I will
ask her if she wants to learn more about the Bahai
writings, and then work out a system wherewith she can
study the writings.
I assumed everybody would do that, but it occurred
just now to me that maybe some people do not do
this...
Susan:
> I have to say as a whole I find the facilitators in
> the US more flexible
> than the material itself seems to be.
It is interesting that you and I have such a different
experience with the books themselves. Interesting to
me because I know myself as having a deep aversion of
anything that is fundamentalistic, anythign that is
routine like and does not induce using the mind.
I worry a bit that maybe I am overlooking something.
I have done book 1,2,4(which was okay like, not too
exciting, most of it I knew already but some details I
had forgotten, plus I am quite good in story telling,
have a lot of experience with)book 3 and book 6. In
that sequence.
Book 3 has a certain view on how to treat children,
which is very much in alignment with my view, so i had
not muchproblems there, but that is the only book I
can remember that strongly focussed on the
interpretation of the editors of the writings (in this
case, on how to treat children). Book 2, the theory is
quite good but the examples could be changed, shoudl
be changed, to a more urban or western setting. But
book 2 introduced the idea to me to incorporate the
writings in my talking to people about the Bahai faith
in a natural way. I have been far more confident in
talking about the Bahai faith especially after doing
book 2.
Maybe your friends are not the ones who are
comfortable with the ruhi method. That is okay, and I
cannot see any objection you asking your community for
support in setting up something for your friends.
The whole institute process is set up to facilitate
entry by troops, but I think far more importantly, to
offer spirituality to our local non-Bahai communities,
to help in the spiritualisation of the human race.
Ruhi provides an easy access. It is there, it has been
tested for 20 years. It will not reach all people, no
method will. It will need some adaptation, depending
on the group even, who is doing ruhi.
the institute process is not set up to facillitate
people who are long standing bahais of 20 or more
years.
People who long for intense deepening, and I do mean
Irfan from the way you describe it, because I have
found that intelllectual understanding is no problem
for me, but to put the bahai teachings in practice can
be something I have no clue on how to do, have always
had to do this on their own, were in a minority. I am
so happy to have the internet, because that means I
can go even international now and work on different
levels: mystical, intellectual and the mainstream
Bahai.
for instance, the kind of deepening I would like woudl
include facts from how the culture was Baha'u'llah
grew up in, a closer look at the hadiths He uses, but
it also would include things like: how do you keep
independence of thought and at the same time have
unity with the other Bahais around you?
How does the process of unity in diversity work? How
does a person view the world, think, etc. who is able
to form bonds with many diverse people and show
kindness and love to them all?
What is love? How can you stay loving to one who has
really hurt you?
those are issues I would like to see addressed in
study circles as well.
The more peopel become Bahai, the more we will find
people who share the same interests and with whom we
can go very indepth on certain issues.
Many people, far more than I first realised, feel
alone in their community, feel the odd one out in
their community. Part of that is because we find it
difficult to show what we think about certain things,
because of a lack of openness on our side, because we
are afraid of what another thinks.
Another part of that is that we Bahais in general have
not fully understood the writings and are therefore
not developed enough in realising that each and every
human being is a letter from God, or in other words,
to look at the one good characteristic and yet not be
unrealistic or pollyanna with a person.
Thank you very much for explaining Irfan a bit more,
and for helping me by sharing your thoughts and
insights.
My intention is not to get into a pro-contra
discussion of Ruhi. My intention is to get a better
understanding of what is the best course of action and
how to act in a situation where one feels one is to do
something one is not at all comfortable with.
much love,
janine van rooij
dublin, ireland.
> "I still would love an intense deepening though with
> a group of people who
> not only have deep intellectual knowledge, but who
> understand spiritucal
> values and processes very well. People with
> knowledge on all levels. Is that
> called irfan in Arabic?"
>
> It can be, though irfan tends to be more narrowly
> focused on mystical
> matters. I think the kind of deepening you are
> talking about is what a lot
> of us yearn for and maybe one of the reasons we find
> Ruhi so frustrating.
> Those of us who have been Baha'is for thirty-some
> years keep looking for
> something more, and we can't find it in our local
> communities. And the
> materials which come from above seem get more and
> more simplistic over time.
> But to be fair to Ruhi, its aim is to develop
> resources, not deepen. They
> didn't come up with a bunch of quotes they decided
> all Baha'is should know.
> They came up with what they wanted us to *do* and
> then found the quotes to
> match it.
>
> warmest, Susan
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