Ruhi

Belonging Before Believing

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Category: Ruhi
Created: Friday, 18 July 2014 19:43
Published: Friday, 18 July 2014 19:32
Written by Caleb Gilleland, Nine Branches
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Think big and be inclusive. Remove any cultural barriers between seekers and Baha’u’llah’s message. If always reading prayers out of a book makes seekers in an evangelical Christian area uncomfortable, offer to sometimes say spontaneous prayers they way that they’re accustomed to. If playing John Lennon’s “Imagine” during devotions (this has really happened) makes outsiders shift in their seat, choose music that speaks more to their experience.

In addition, let seekers contribute to the life of the Baha’i community as much as they are comfortable. Short of encouraging them to crash Feast or an LSA meeting, let them know that they’re welcome at every event going on in the Baha’i community. Invite them to serve.

But mostly, just invite people in your community, both Baha’is and seekers, to live life with you. Make friends with them. Invite them out for dinner. Drop by to watch the big game.

No, seriously.

“They that are endued with sincerity and faithfulness should associate with all the peoples and kindreds of the earth with joy and radiance, inasmuch as consorting with people hath promoted and will continue to promote unity and concord, which in turn are conducive to the maintenance of order in the world and to the regeneration of nations.” // Baha’u’llah

We can talk about principles all day, but if we don’t make a real effort to include others in our lives we will never be able to change society. Our local Baha’i communities will lose their effectiveness and stagnate. We can’t afford to let that happen.

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How Can Baha'i Elders Find a Place in the Current Plan?

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Category: Ruhi
Created: Monday, 26 May 2014 18:56
Published: Monday, 26 May 2014 18:42
Written by Susan Gammage, Baha'i-Inspired Life Coach
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{josquote}Many spoke of their broken hearts as a result of not knowing what they can contribute; and not knowing what they can do now, particularly since the seeds they’ve sown for so long don’t seem to be bearing fruit.{/josquote}

Everywhere I turn these days, I hear a lot of “Bahá’ís of excellent vintage” feel confused about their role in the current plan.

On the one hand, we know that the outpouring of energy released at the youth conferences held last year, has given large numbers of young people the capacity to mobilize large numbers in the field of service:

The two essential movements which continue to propel the process of growth—the steady flow of participants through the sequence of training institute courses and the movement of clusters along a continuum of development have both been immensely reinforced by the outpouring of energy released at the youth conferences held last year. The expanded capacity the Bahá’í world has acquired for mobilizing large numbers of young people in the field of service can now yield further fruit. (Universal House of Justice, Ridván Message 2014, paragraph 1)

On the other hand, we also know that we need everyone’s contribution:

Everyone has a share in this enterprise; the contribution of each serves to enrich the whole. (Universal House of Justice, Ridván Message 2014, paragraph 5)

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A covenant

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Category: Ruhi
Created: Tuesday, 13 May 2014 06:32
Published: Tuesday, 13 May 2014 06:29
Written by Steve Marshall, The Cormorant Baker
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Let me talk about a covenant.

No, I promise to make it interesting, and this isn't Covenant with a capital C. It's a covenant between the leaders and the rest of us. It's an often-unspoken understanding that leadership involves doing a lot of listening, consulting and making changes as well as just plain making smart decisions.

The Baha'i Faith requires a lot of its followers. For example, there's a requirement to wholeheartedly support a decision even when people don't agree with it. So that's one half of the covenant—an agreement by those who are led, not only to be obedient, but also to be supportive—even when they don't buy the idea.

The other half of the covenant is that leaders must act like servants—"trustees of the Merciful One", as Baha'u'llah puts it. He's turned top-down into bottom-up: Leaders are charged with the responsibility of being responsive to the needs of the community and putting them first.

Radical, huh? Baha'u'llah seems to be saying, and I may be reading too much in here, LSA members should be less concerned about what the NSA thinks of a decision than what the community thinks of it.

In theory, the Bahai Faith has a very devolved decision-making process. In theory, ideas expressed

  • at the feast, or
  • to a local assembly, or
  • to delegates to national convention,
filter up through the system—some reaching as far as the House.

In theory, an individual will have opportunities to appeal any decision, because it will come from their local assembly, or occasionally their national assembly—and thus can be appealed at least once, but usually twice.

Unfortunately, the Baha'i Faith has become very top-down and one-size-fits-all:

  • Feast has become a vehicle for the NSA to promote its latest programme,
  • Bahais are removed from membership by the House with no recourse to appeal, and
  • any ideas that don't fit the current narrow Ruhi framework don't get anywhere.

Result: Individuals feel manipulated and disempowered. I think it's because the covenant (the little one) has been somewhat forgotten.

Hotels, Ruhi, and an Inherently Implausible Goal

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Category: Ruhi
Created: Friday, 24 January 2014 15:27
Published: Friday, 24 January 2014 15:20
Written by Bryan Donaldson, Baha'i Coherence
Hits: 2012
I'm paid to care about you.

Baha'is and hotels are running into similar problems

The century leading up to 1960 was an era of grand hotels. Palace-like, they catered to the rich and provided a unique, personal experience because they were mostly independently owned or part of small groups.

Then came the chains. In the 1950s a young Mr Hilton started building his hotels around the world and abandoned the grand hotel model. Soon came Mr Marriott and others with standard operating procedures (SOPs) that made every hotel in the chain conform to protocols, down to how long an egg is cooked, how many times the phone is allowed to ring before picking up, and what is available on TV. A hotel might have 2,000 SOPs to follow.

{josquote}Like the corporate hotel management, Baha'i institutions can build a framework that individuals work inside.{/josquote}

The shift from character-filled grand hotels to ubiquitous uniformity meant that the personal connections were lost. Now, customers have no fealty, and would hardly know the difference between hotels were it not for the brand name on the building.

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Memorizacion Ruhi

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Category: Ruhi
Created: Saturday, 07 December 2013 03:42
Published: Saturday, 07 December 2013 03:36
Written by Daniel Blankets and David Garcia, Google Play
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This application is designed to help loggings sequence Ruhi books for the intellectual, spiritual and moral growth of the individual.

Using a repeater system very easy to use phrases you want to help memorize the Holy Texts that each of the books in the sequence contains.

For more information on the sequence of Ruhi Institute and its content can be found at: http://www.ruhi.org/index.php

This idea is original Daniel Blankets and programming was done by David Garcia.

Hopefully we can enjoy as much as making it.

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