Wednesday, April 27, 2016
Via Sri Prem Baba - Flor do dia / Flor del dia / Flower of the Day – 27/04/2016
“Apesar de ser bastante influenciado pelo hinduísmo, o caminho que eu proponho é o da síntese. Comumente faço uso da cosmovisão das escrituras védicas para explicar determinados fenômenos e celebro as datas do calendário hindu, mas também celebro datas de outras tradições, como a cristã, judaica, budista, entre outras datas que, de alguma maneira, nos auxiliam a lembrar do propósito de estarmos encarnados aqui na Terra. Além disso, não deixo de agradecer e reverenciar os canais que deram passagem para o conhecimento científico, especialmente aqueles que se dedicaram a entender a psique humana como Freud, Jung, William James entre outros.”
“A pesar de
ser bastante influenciado por el hinduismo, el camino que propongo es el
de la síntesis. Comúnmente hago uso de la cosmovisión de las escrituras
védicas para explicar determinados fenómenos y celebro las fechas del
calendario hindú, pero también celebro fechas de otras tradiciones, como
la cristiana, judía, budista entre otras fechas que, de alguna manera,
nos ayudan a recordar el propósito de estar encarnados aquí en la
Tierra. Más allá de eso, no dejo de agradecer y reverenciar los canales
que dieron pasaje para el conocimiento científico, especialmente
aquellos que se dedicaron a entender la psique humana como Freud, Jung,
William James entre otros.”
“Despite being strongly influenced by Hinduism, the path that I propose is a synthesis of all paths. I often make use of the worldview of Vedic scriptures to explain certain phenomena. I celebrate Hindu holidays as well, but I also celebrate the holidays of other traditions such as Christianity, Judaism, Buddhism and other auspicious dates.In one way or another, all of these holidays serve as a reminder of the purpose behind our incarnation here on Earth. Additionally, I give thanks and reverence to the channels that opened up the pathways for scientific knowledge, especially those dedicated to understanding the human psyche, such as Freud, Jung, and William James, amongst others.”
“Despite being strongly influenced by Hinduism, the path that I propose is a synthesis of all paths. I often make use of the worldview of Vedic scriptures to explain certain phenomena. I celebrate Hindu holidays as well, but I also celebrate the holidays of other traditions such as Christianity, Judaism, Buddhism and other auspicious dates.In one way or another, all of these holidays serve as a reminder of the purpose behind our incarnation here on Earth. Additionally, I give thanks and reverence to the channels that opened up the pathways for scientific knowledge, especially those dedicated to understanding the human psyche, such as Freud, Jung, and William James, amongst others.”
Via Ram Dass:
April 27, 2016
Total truth is necessary. You must live by what you say.
- Neem Karoli Baba
Via Daily Dharma / April 27, 2016: Cultivating Sangha
As
Buddhist practitioners, we take refuge in the Three Jewels of Buddha,
Dharma, and Sangha. Sometimes, in our enthusiasm for meditating, bowing,
chanting, and lighting sticks of incense, we emphasize the first two
jewels and neglect sangha, or community. Working for social justice
provides ample opportunity for the cultivation of sangha.
—Susan Moon, "Ten Practices to Change the World"
—Susan Moon, "Ten Practices to Change the World"
Tuesday, April 26, 2016
Via Sri Prem Baba: Flor do dia / Flor del dia / Flower of the Day – 26/04/2016
“Quando você carrega o sentimento de incompletude, de não pertencimento
ou de não estar no lugar certo, isso quer dizer que existe algo a ser
integrado dentro de você. E você identifica isso que precisa ser
integrado observando as situações negativas que se repetem na sua vida,
especialmente nos seus relacionamentos. Enquanto existirem partes da sua
personalidade a serem integradas, não importa onde você esteja, a situação
irá se repetir. Você pode até se esconder dentro de uma caverna, mas se
algo em você precisa ser integrado, você arranja briga com a pedra.”
“When we carry around the feeling of incompletion, of not belonging, or of not being in the right place, it means that there is something which still needs to be integrated within ourselves. By observing the negative situations that repeat in our lives, especially in our relationships, we gain more clarity as to what needs to be integrated. As long as there are parts of our personalities that still need to be integrated, regardless of where we are, these situations will repeat themselves. Onecan even try to hide away in a cave, b
Via Daily Dharma / April 26, 2016: Open to the Unfamiliar
A
sense of defamiliarization is a recurring feature of spiritual life,
and it can come to us in many ways—in art, in travel, in practice.
However it comes, it offers an opportunity for openness and intimacy,
both, if one can allow oneself to fall into them.
—Henry Shukman, "Far from Home"
—Henry Shukman, "Far from Home"
Monday, April 25, 2016
Via JustaBahai: A Baha’i’s letter of resignation Letter to the UHJ and NSA of the USA
FRIDAY,
FEBRUARY 12, 2016
To the Universal House of Justice and the National Spiritual Assembly of the United States of America,
Last time I wrote you I was writing to ask permission to travel to Iran in order to pursue my study of Persian and Baha’i history. It was my hope to become a scholar of the Faith. That letter marked, in many ways, the pinnacle of my immersion in the Baha’i community. Growing up, Baha’i children’s classes were held at my house every weekend, and feasts, holy days, firesides, and potlucks joyfully paraded through my home with comforting regularity. I remember crawling out of bed and dangling my legs over the second floor banister to listen surreptitiously to the late night consultations and deliberations of the Local Spiritual Assembly, which included both of my parents. One day I hoped to join their ranks.
My father founded one of the first theater companies in the world to dedicate itself to themes and stories from Baha’i history, and when I was fifteen I began touring with him across the USA, UK, and Canada – enacting plays about the beloved heroes and heroines of the Faith. When I was eighteen I served at the Lotus Temple in New Delhi and later at my university plunged headlong into what could have been subtitled a degree in Baha’i Culture (Persian, Arabic, and Middle Eastern Studies). My marriage vows were Baha’i vows, my daily prayers Baha’i prayers, and my hopes for humanity and myself — those hopes outlined in the sacred writings of the Faith. I write all this, not to brag about my Baha’i pedigree, or to prove a legitimate degree of devotion, but to illustrate how fundamentally rooted I have been in the Faith and to contextualize my profound grief that this is a letter of resignation.
There was a time when the Faith was everything to me and the Baha’i community a family like no other, but for the last ten years I have had difficulty feeling that I belong to it or want to belong to it. There are perhaps several issues at play, but the most fundamental of them has been the official position espoused by the Universal House of Justice on homosexuality. I am a heterosexual woman and I am married to a man, but many of my dearest friends and colleagues belong to the LGBTQ community. You advise that I should consider their sexual orientation to be a kind of “handicap” which they should “pray to overcome”, but I find this position impossible to maintain.
As a child and young adult, I prided myself in belonging to a religion that was not weighed down by outdated social laws, not caught up in untangling and interpreting archaic customs to fit the modern age. In comparison to other religions, the principles of gender and racial equality which the Baha’i Faith upheld often felt revolutionary and refreshingly modern. Even in 1914, Abdu’l- Bahá encouraged the marriage of people of different races in America! It felt good to be ahead of the curve and on the right side of history. But when it comes to the civil rights issues pertaining to the LGBTQ community, Baha’is are so woefully behind the curve, that I have for many years been embarrassed to be associated with the community. Current attempts to legitimize the LGBTQ community, such as legalizing gay marriage, do not only represent “changing trends in popular thought” (which to my ear sounds like characterizing significant changes as a superficial fad) but the emancipation of a community that has existed in human society as long as men and women have existed.
Some years ago, when people asked me about my religious affiliation, I started answering that “I was raised as a Baha’i” instead of saying “I am a Baha’i.” After the birth of my first child a few months ago, I fell into a deep depression in regards to my ambiguous relationship to my own faith community. It grieves me deeply that I will not raise my daughter within the embrace of the Baha’i Faith, which has meant so much to me. But it disturbs me further that she would be raised to believe that to be loyal to Bahá’u’lláh means to categorize a substantial and precious portion of the human race as “self-indulgent”, “shameful”, “aberrant”, “abhorrent”, “immoral”, “disgraceful”, “handicapped”, or “afflicted”. When my daughter was born I plunged into a studious and thorough interrogation of the writings on the subject of homosexuality, hoping I would be able to justify a way to return. When I found your letter – dated 9 May 2014 – I realized instead that I would prefer to officially resign.
My father has pleaded with me in the past to stay — to remain in a state of questioning while maintaining my role in the community. He tells me that the Baha’i community needs ardent seekers to ask difficult questions, or it has no chance of evolving and meeting the needs and ailments of the current age. “Don’t throw the baby out with the bath water,” he has said – a metaphor that rings more profoundly in my ears now that I have a baby of my own! But when I read this sentence from your May 9th letter — “It would be a profound contradiction for someone to profess to be a Bahá’í, yet reject, disregard, or contend with aspects of belief or practice He ordained” — it feels as if the Universal House of Justice is calling me a hypocrite rather than encouraging those believers who struggle with aspects of the Faith to persevere. Regardless, I no longer want to live in a constant state of schizophrenia and contradiction. For a long time I maintained that the writings of Bahá’u’lláh are in fact not clear on the issue of homosexuality, and therefore the retrograde attitudes towards homosexuality in the Baha’i community might shift. In regards to the passage often quoted from the Kitab-i-Aqdas …
We shrink for very shame, from treating the subject of boys.
I was under the impression that “the subject of boys” implied the practice of pederasty, and did not extend to homosexuality in general. Why should it, when sex between an adult and a child (boy or girl) is so very different than sex between two consenting adults? The other passage which is often quoted…
Ye are forbidden to commit adultery, sodomy and lechery.
might seem more explicit, but in fact sodomy (if defined as “anal sex”) is anatomically impossible between two women and not strictly a necessity between two men who wish to bring each other to a sexual climax. It feels foolish to delve into the nitty-gritty particulars of the sex act, when it is our immaterial souls that religion should occupy itself with. As you write in your letter dated the 9th of May 2014, it is the role of religion “to cultivate spiritual qualities and virtues – the attributes of the soul which constitute one’s true and abiding identity.” And yet you have involved yourself in tracing clear prohibitions against the sexual acts of people of the same gender in the Baha’i community. So I feel it is important to be equally explicit that sodomy and pederasty are NOT synonymous with homosexuality. Even if this was not your opinion, you would be amiss to say that two women or two men cannot be part of the “the bedrock of the whole structure of human society” which supports and nurtures the next generation because they cannot issue forth children. I’ve witnessed many healthy households headed by same-sex parents. Surrogate motherhood, sperm and egg donation, not to mention adoption, has redefined the family structure in the contemporary world.
You write “if such statements are considered by some to be unclear, the unambiguous interpretations provided by Shoghi Effendi constitute a binding exposition of His intent.” I agree that the writings of Shoghi Effendi are less ambiguous than those enshrined within the Kitab-i- Aqdas, but are you not an infallible institution, capable of redefining his interpretations in a more enlightened manner without negating the divine covenant that has linked the series of institutions and individuals shepherding the Baha’i community towards its true potential? Do you not exist, not only to interpret and uphold what has already been written, but so that the Faith does not become calcified and intransigent — so that the Faith continues to be a living, thinking entity, able to adapt and respond to the needs and challenges of the age? As I write this letter, I realize I am writing it more for myself and my own sense of clarity than to enact any kind of response or change. I know a single letter cannot change the culture of a worldwide religion, and yet I would feel cowardly to leave the community without some clear act of protest or an attempt to communicate my grief. I wonder if you realize the emotional pain that you are inflicting upon the ardent believers of your community; radiant souls who want more than anything to be able to call themselves Baha’is.
Perhaps I am too rigid when I insist that this is a letter of resignation. The fact that I have decided that I can not be a part of the Baha’i community without being entirely a part of it, and so I must take myself entirely out of it, might, in itself, express a divisive breed of orthodoxy. Still, after much deliberation, I have concluded that this is the route I want to take.
I hereby relinquish my voting rights, and I ask that you strike me from the rosters.
I have no doubt that I will continue to love and respect the founders of the Faith, and to turn to their writings for guidance. I desperately hope that the official position of the Baha’i community in regards to LGBTQ individuals will change one day. If that day should come in my lifetime, I will be your valiant ensign once more.
Sincerely, Anisa George Philadelphia, PA
Sonja's comments:
This was posted on gaybahai.net and there has been a lot of discussion by Bahais on facebook of the merits or not of this letter. The gay/lesbian Bahai story project is a resource for those interested in social history.
My only dispute with her beautifully expressed letter is that Shoghi Effendi never wrote a word on homosexuality, but many Bahais often mix up the status of these letters penned by secretaries with that of Shoghi Effendi own status as official interpreter of Baha’i Scripture. So her views on the status of these letters are similar to what many Bahais say. In the end it boils down to the Universal House of Justice to make a change in their policy, if there is to be any change in the way gay or lesbians are treated by the Bahai community in general. I say in general because there is nothing to stop Bahai communities making it clear in their practice or publicity that they do not discriminate against lesbians or gays. And as individual Baha’is we are free (and encouraged) to stand up for the rights of all, inside and outside of the Bahai community. And below a response to Anisa’s letter which shows the current status of the understandings of the Universal House of Justice on the topic of homosexuality. I say current because from my viewpoint, there is no Bahai scripture that states that marriage can only be between a man and woman. Perhaps one day the Universal House of Justice will show us how they come to their current understanding or perhaps they will come to another understanding of Bahai scripture.
and then the reply:
THE UNIVERSAL HOUSE OF JUSTICE
DEPARTMENT OF THE SECRETARIAT
12 April 2016
Mrs. Anisa George U.S.A.
Dear Friend,
Your email letter dated 4 February 2016 has been received by the Universal House of Justice and your comments concerning the Bahá’í Teachings and homosexuality have been noted. Your desire to withdraw your membership in the Bahá’í community is, of course, respected, and it is understood that the National Spiritual Assembly of the United States, to which your letter was also addressed, has removed your name from its membership roll. We have been asked to comment as follows.
The House of Justice cannot change the Bahá’í Teachings, which are set forth in the Writings of Bahá’u’lláh and the authorized interpretations of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá and Shoghi Effendi.
Nevertheless, it wishes to assure you that there is a vast difference between those who accept Bahá’u’lláh’s teachings as the remedy prescribed by the Divine Physician for this age yet acknowledge that they may not grasp the wisdom of certain teachings or struggle in applying them in their personal lives and those who reject, disregard, or contend with them. Indeed, even in cases where believers had a homosexual orientation, Shoghi Effendi encouraged them not to withdraw from the community and to continue to engage in active service, for in one way or another, he explained, we are all tested, and he added that they should receive the encouragement and support of the community. Further, it is entirely against the spirit of the Faith to regard homosexuals with prejudice or disdain.
The House of Justice wishes you well in your efforts to be of service to humanity.
Yours sincerely,
Department of the Secretariat
cc: National Assembly of the United States
Orginal and more here: https://justabahai.wordpress.com/2016/04/25/a-bahai-leaves/
To the Universal House of Justice and the National Spiritual Assembly of the United States of America,
Last time I wrote you I was writing to ask permission to travel to Iran in order to pursue my study of Persian and Baha’i history. It was my hope to become a scholar of the Faith. That letter marked, in many ways, the pinnacle of my immersion in the Baha’i community. Growing up, Baha’i children’s classes were held at my house every weekend, and feasts, holy days, firesides, and potlucks joyfully paraded through my home with comforting regularity. I remember crawling out of bed and dangling my legs over the second floor banister to listen surreptitiously to the late night consultations and deliberations of the Local Spiritual Assembly, which included both of my parents. One day I hoped to join their ranks.
My father founded one of the first theater companies in the world to dedicate itself to themes and stories from Baha’i history, and when I was fifteen I began touring with him across the USA, UK, and Canada – enacting plays about the beloved heroes and heroines of the Faith. When I was eighteen I served at the Lotus Temple in New Delhi and later at my university plunged headlong into what could have been subtitled a degree in Baha’i Culture (Persian, Arabic, and Middle Eastern Studies). My marriage vows were Baha’i vows, my daily prayers Baha’i prayers, and my hopes for humanity and myself — those hopes outlined in the sacred writings of the Faith. I write all this, not to brag about my Baha’i pedigree, or to prove a legitimate degree of devotion, but to illustrate how fundamentally rooted I have been in the Faith and to contextualize my profound grief that this is a letter of resignation.
There was a time when the Faith was everything to me and the Baha’i community a family like no other, but for the last ten years I have had difficulty feeling that I belong to it or want to belong to it. There are perhaps several issues at play, but the most fundamental of them has been the official position espoused by the Universal House of Justice on homosexuality. I am a heterosexual woman and I am married to a man, but many of my dearest friends and colleagues belong to the LGBTQ community. You advise that I should consider their sexual orientation to be a kind of “handicap” which they should “pray to overcome”, but I find this position impossible to maintain.
As a child and young adult, I prided myself in belonging to a religion that was not weighed down by outdated social laws, not caught up in untangling and interpreting archaic customs to fit the modern age. In comparison to other religions, the principles of gender and racial equality which the Baha’i Faith upheld often felt revolutionary and refreshingly modern. Even in 1914, Abdu’l- Bahá encouraged the marriage of people of different races in America! It felt good to be ahead of the curve and on the right side of history. But when it comes to the civil rights issues pertaining to the LGBTQ community, Baha’is are so woefully behind the curve, that I have for many years been embarrassed to be associated with the community. Current attempts to legitimize the LGBTQ community, such as legalizing gay marriage, do not only represent “changing trends in popular thought” (which to my ear sounds like characterizing significant changes as a superficial fad) but the emancipation of a community that has existed in human society as long as men and women have existed.
Some years ago, when people asked me about my religious affiliation, I started answering that “I was raised as a Baha’i” instead of saying “I am a Baha’i.” After the birth of my first child a few months ago, I fell into a deep depression in regards to my ambiguous relationship to my own faith community. It grieves me deeply that I will not raise my daughter within the embrace of the Baha’i Faith, which has meant so much to me. But it disturbs me further that she would be raised to believe that to be loyal to Bahá’u’lláh means to categorize a substantial and precious portion of the human race as “self-indulgent”, “shameful”, “aberrant”, “abhorrent”, “immoral”, “disgraceful”, “handicapped”, or “afflicted”. When my daughter was born I plunged into a studious and thorough interrogation of the writings on the subject of homosexuality, hoping I would be able to justify a way to return. When I found your letter – dated 9 May 2014 – I realized instead that I would prefer to officially resign.
My father has pleaded with me in the past to stay — to remain in a state of questioning while maintaining my role in the community. He tells me that the Baha’i community needs ardent seekers to ask difficult questions, or it has no chance of evolving and meeting the needs and ailments of the current age. “Don’t throw the baby out with the bath water,” he has said – a metaphor that rings more profoundly in my ears now that I have a baby of my own! But when I read this sentence from your May 9th letter — “It would be a profound contradiction for someone to profess to be a Bahá’í, yet reject, disregard, or contend with aspects of belief or practice He ordained” — it feels as if the Universal House of Justice is calling me a hypocrite rather than encouraging those believers who struggle with aspects of the Faith to persevere. Regardless, I no longer want to live in a constant state of schizophrenia and contradiction. For a long time I maintained that the writings of Bahá’u’lláh are in fact not clear on the issue of homosexuality, and therefore the retrograde attitudes towards homosexuality in the Baha’i community might shift. In regards to the passage often quoted from the Kitab-i-Aqdas …
We shrink for very shame, from treating the subject of boys.
I was under the impression that “the subject of boys” implied the practice of pederasty, and did not extend to homosexuality in general. Why should it, when sex between an adult and a child (boy or girl) is so very different than sex between two consenting adults? The other passage which is often quoted…
Ye are forbidden to commit adultery, sodomy and lechery.
might seem more explicit, but in fact sodomy (if defined as “anal sex”) is anatomically impossible between two women and not strictly a necessity between two men who wish to bring each other to a sexual climax. It feels foolish to delve into the nitty-gritty particulars of the sex act, when it is our immaterial souls that religion should occupy itself with. As you write in your letter dated the 9th of May 2014, it is the role of religion “to cultivate spiritual qualities and virtues – the attributes of the soul which constitute one’s true and abiding identity.” And yet you have involved yourself in tracing clear prohibitions against the sexual acts of people of the same gender in the Baha’i community. So I feel it is important to be equally explicit that sodomy and pederasty are NOT synonymous with homosexuality. Even if this was not your opinion, you would be amiss to say that two women or two men cannot be part of the “the bedrock of the whole structure of human society” which supports and nurtures the next generation because they cannot issue forth children. I’ve witnessed many healthy households headed by same-sex parents. Surrogate motherhood, sperm and egg donation, not to mention adoption, has redefined the family structure in the contemporary world.
You write “if such statements are considered by some to be unclear, the unambiguous interpretations provided by Shoghi Effendi constitute a binding exposition of His intent.” I agree that the writings of Shoghi Effendi are less ambiguous than those enshrined within the Kitab-i- Aqdas, but are you not an infallible institution, capable of redefining his interpretations in a more enlightened manner without negating the divine covenant that has linked the series of institutions and individuals shepherding the Baha’i community towards its true potential? Do you not exist, not only to interpret and uphold what has already been written, but so that the Faith does not become calcified and intransigent — so that the Faith continues to be a living, thinking entity, able to adapt and respond to the needs and challenges of the age? As I write this letter, I realize I am writing it more for myself and my own sense of clarity than to enact any kind of response or change. I know a single letter cannot change the culture of a worldwide religion, and yet I would feel cowardly to leave the community without some clear act of protest or an attempt to communicate my grief. I wonder if you realize the emotional pain that you are inflicting upon the ardent believers of your community; radiant souls who want more than anything to be able to call themselves Baha’is.
Perhaps I am too rigid when I insist that this is a letter of resignation. The fact that I have decided that I can not be a part of the Baha’i community without being entirely a part of it, and so I must take myself entirely out of it, might, in itself, express a divisive breed of orthodoxy. Still, after much deliberation, I have concluded that this is the route I want to take.
I hereby relinquish my voting rights, and I ask that you strike me from the rosters.
I have no doubt that I will continue to love and respect the founders of the Faith, and to turn to their writings for guidance. I desperately hope that the official position of the Baha’i community in regards to LGBTQ individuals will change one day. If that day should come in my lifetime, I will be your valiant ensign once more.
Sincerely, Anisa George Philadelphia, PA
Sonja's comments:
This was posted on gaybahai.net and there has been a lot of discussion by Bahais on facebook of the merits or not of this letter. The gay/lesbian Bahai story project is a resource for those interested in social history.
My only dispute with her beautifully expressed letter is that Shoghi Effendi never wrote a word on homosexuality, but many Bahais often mix up the status of these letters penned by secretaries with that of Shoghi Effendi own status as official interpreter of Baha’i Scripture. So her views on the status of these letters are similar to what many Bahais say. In the end it boils down to the Universal House of Justice to make a change in their policy, if there is to be any change in the way gay or lesbians are treated by the Bahai community in general. I say in general because there is nothing to stop Bahai communities making it clear in their practice or publicity that they do not discriminate against lesbians or gays. And as individual Baha’is we are free (and encouraged) to stand up for the rights of all, inside and outside of the Bahai community. And below a response to Anisa’s letter which shows the current status of the understandings of the Universal House of Justice on the topic of homosexuality. I say current because from my viewpoint, there is no Bahai scripture that states that marriage can only be between a man and woman. Perhaps one day the Universal House of Justice will show us how they come to their current understanding or perhaps they will come to another understanding of Bahai scripture.
and then the reply:
THE UNIVERSAL HOUSE OF JUSTICE
DEPARTMENT OF THE SECRETARIAT
12 April 2016
Mrs. Anisa George U.S.A.
Dear Friend,
Your email letter dated 4 February 2016 has been received by the Universal House of Justice and your comments concerning the Bahá’í Teachings and homosexuality have been noted. Your desire to withdraw your membership in the Bahá’í community is, of course, respected, and it is understood that the National Spiritual Assembly of the United States, to which your letter was also addressed, has removed your name from its membership roll. We have been asked to comment as follows.
The House of Justice cannot change the Bahá’í Teachings, which are set forth in the Writings of Bahá’u’lláh and the authorized interpretations of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá and Shoghi Effendi.
Nevertheless, it wishes to assure you that there is a vast difference between those who accept Bahá’u’lláh’s teachings as the remedy prescribed by the Divine Physician for this age yet acknowledge that they may not grasp the wisdom of certain teachings or struggle in applying them in their personal lives and those who reject, disregard, or contend with them. Indeed, even in cases where believers had a homosexual orientation, Shoghi Effendi encouraged them not to withdraw from the community and to continue to engage in active service, for in one way or another, he explained, we are all tested, and he added that they should receive the encouragement and support of the community. Further, it is entirely against the spirit of the Faith to regard homosexuals with prejudice or disdain.
The House of Justice wishes you well in your efforts to be of service to humanity.
Yours sincerely,
Department of the Secretariat
cc: National Assembly of the United States
Orginal and more here: https://justabahai.wordpress.com/2016/04/25/a-bahai-leaves/
Via BBC: Bangladesh LGBT editor hacked to death
Police in Bangladesh say two people
including a leading gay rights activist and editor at Bangladesh's only
LGBT magazine have been hacked to death.
Another person was also injured when the attackers entered a Dhaka flat.
Since February last year suspected militants have killed several secular or atheist writers and members of religious minority groups.
The two men were murdered two days after a university teacher was hacked to death by suspected Islamist militants.
So-called Islamic State (IS) claimed responsibility - but the Bangladeshi government insists there is no IS presence in the country.
Make the jump here t read the full article and more
Via Daily Dharma / April 25, 2016: Mind and the Weather
Ordinarily,
our minds are like flags in the wind, fluttering this way and that,
depending on which way the wind blows. Even if we don’t want to feel
angry, jealous, lonely, or depressed, we’re carried away by such
feelings and by the thoughts and physical sensations that accompany
them. We’re not free; we can’t see other options, other possibilities.
—Yongey Mingyur Rinpoche, "The Aim of Attention"
—Yongey Mingyur Rinpoche, "The Aim of Attention"
Sunday, April 24, 2016
Via Sri Prem Baba: Flor do dia / Flor del dia / Flower of the Day – 24/04/2016
“A liberdade é possível somente através do desapego. Somente quando
desapega do que é velho você se coloca disponível e aberto para receber o
novo. O apego envelhece porque te mantém preso ao velho. Ele gera a
ilusão de que a vida não tem graça porque você já conhece tudo. O apego
gera a ilusão da certeza e o desapego permite a experiência da aventura
da incerteza.”
“La libertad es posible solamente a través del desapego. Solamente cuando te desapegas de lo que es viejo te colocas disponible y abierto para recibir lo nuevo. El apego envejece porque te mantiene preso a lo viejo. Éste genera la ilusión de que la vida no tiene gracia porque ya conoces todo. El apego genera la ilusión de la certeza y el desapego permite la experiencia de la aventura de la incertidumbre.”
“La libertad es posible solamente a través del desapego. Solamente cuando te desapegas de lo que es viejo te colocas disponible y abierto para recibir lo nuevo. El apego envejece porque te mantiene preso a lo viejo. Éste genera la ilusión de que la vida no tiene gracia porque ya conoces todo. El apego genera la ilusión de la certeza y el desapego permite la experiencia de la aventura de la incertidumbre.”
“Freedom is only possible through detachment. Only when we let go of
the old can we make room for the new. Attachments cause us to age faster
because they keep us imprisoned in the past. They create the illusion
that life is no longer enjoyable because we already know what life
holds. On the other hand, detachment allows us to experience the
adventure of uncertainty.”
Via Ram Dass
April 24, 2016
As we grow in our consciousness, there will be more compassion and more love, and then the barriers between people, between religions, between nations will begin to fall. Yes, we have to beat down the separateness.
Via Daily Dharma / April 24, 2016: Using Identity as a Vehicle
Awareness
has no race or gender or IQ. It is only when we fall out of awareness
that we grasp onto these characteristics. Still, these particularities
are part of the vehicle through which we experience our lives, and we
have to use the vehicle.
—Gina Sharpe, "Does Race Matter in the Meditation Hall?"
—Gina Sharpe, "Does Race Matter in the Meditation Hall?"
Saturday, April 23, 2016
Via The Physics arXiv Blog: Why Physicists Are Saying Consciousness Is A State Of Matter, Like a Solid, A Liquid Or A Gas
A new way of thinking about consciousness is sweeping through science like wildfire. Now physicists are using it to formulate the problem of consciousness in concrete mathematical terms for the first time
There’s
a quiet revolution underway in theoretical physics. For as long as the
discipline has existed, physicists have been reluctant to discuss
consciousness, considering it a topic for quacks and charlatans. Indeed,
the mere mention of the ‘c’ word could ruin careers.
That’s
finally beginning to change thanks to a fundamentally new way of
thinking about consciousness that is spreading like wildfire through the
theoretical physics community. And while the problem of consciousness
is far from being solved, it is finally being formulated mathematically
as a set of problems that researchers can understand, explore and
discuss.
Today,
Max Tegmark, a theoretical physicist at the Massachusetts Institute of
Technology in Cambridge, sets out the fundamental problems that this new
way of thinking raises. He shows how these problems can be formulated
in terms of quantum mechanics and information theory. And he explains
how thinking about consciousness in this way leads to precise questions
about the nature of reality that the scientific process of experiment
might help to tease apart.
Tegmark’s
approach is to think of consciousness as a state of matter, like a
solid, a liquid or a gas. “I conjecture that consciousness can be
understood as yet another state of matter. Just as there are many types
of liquids, there are many types of consciousness,” he says.
He
goes on to show how the particular properties of consciousness might
arise from the physical laws that govern our universe. And he explains
how these properties allow physicists to reason about the conditions
under which consciousness arises and how we might exploit it to better
understand why the world around us appears as it does.
Interestingly,
the new approach to consciousness has come from outside the physics
community, principally from neuroscientists such as Giulio Tononi at the
University of Wisconsin in Madison.
In
2008, Tononi proposed that a system demonstrating consciousness must
have two specific traits. First, the system must be able to store and
process large amounts of information. In other words consciousness is
essentially a phenomenon of information.
And
second, this information must be integrated in a unified whole so that
it is impossible to divide into independent parts. That reflects the
experience that each instance of consciousness is a unified whole that
cannot be decomposed into separate components.
Both
of these traits can be specified mathematically allowing physicists
like Tegmark to reason about them for the first time. He begins by
outlining the basic properties that a conscious system must have.
Given that it is a phenomenon of information, a conscious system must be able to store in a memory and retrieve it efficiently.
It
must also be able to to process this data, like a computer but one that
is much more flexible and powerful than the silicon-based devices we
are familiar with.
Tegmark borrows the term computronium
to describe matter that can do this and cites other work showing that
today’s computers underperform the theoretical limits of computing by
some 38 orders of magnitude.
Clearly, there is so much room for improvement that allows for the performance of conscious systems.
Next,
Tegmark discusses perceptronium, defined as the most general substance
that feels subjectively self-aware. This substance should not only be
able to store and process information but in a way that forms a unified,
indivisible whole. That also requires a certain amount of independence
in which the information dynamics is determined from within rather than
externally.
Finally,
Tegmark uses this new way of thinking about consciousness as a lens
through which to study one of the fundamental problems of quantum
mechanics known as the quantum factorisation problem.
This
arises because quantum mechanics describes the entire universe using
three mathematical entities: an object known as a Hamiltonian that
describes the total energy of the system; a density matrix that
describes the relationship between all the quantum states in the system;
and Schrodinger’s equation which describes how these things change with
time.
The
problem is that when the entire universe is described in these terms,
there are an infinite number of mathematical solutions that include all
possible quantum mechanical outcomes and many other even more exotic
possibilities.
So
the problem is why we perceive the universe as the semi-classical,
three dimensional world that is so familiar. When we look at a glass of
iced water, we perceive the liquid and the solid ice cubes as
independent things even though they are intimately linked as part of the
same system. How does this happen? Out of all possible outcomes, why do
we perceive this solution?
Tegmark
does not have an answer. But what’s fascinating about his approach is
that it is formulated using the language of quantum mechanics in a way
that allows detailed scientific reasoning. And as a result it throws up
all kinds of new problems that physicists will want to dissect in more
detail.
Take
for example, the idea that the information in a conscious system must be
unified. That means the system must contain error-correcting codes that
allow any subset of up to half the information to be reconstructed from
the rest.
Tegmark
points out that any information stored in a special network known as a
Hopfield neural net automatically has this error-correcting facility.
However, he calculates that a Hopfield net about the size of the human
brain with 10^11 neurons, can only store 37 bits of integrated
information.
“This
leaves us with an integration paradox: why does the information content
of our conscious experience appear to be vastly larger than 37 bits?”
asks Tegmark.
That’s
a question that many scientists might end up pondering in detail. For
Tegmark, this paradox suggests that his mathematical formulation of
consciousness is missing a vital ingredient. “This strongly implies that
the integration principle must be supplemented by at least one
additional principle,” he says. Suggestions please in the comments
section!
And
yet the power of this approach is in the assumption that consciousness
does not lie beyond our ken; that there is no “secret sauce” without
which it cannot be tamed.
At
the beginning of the 20th century, a group of young physicists embarked
on a quest to explain a few strange but seemingly small anomalies in
our understanding of the universe. In deriving the new theories of
relativity and quantum mechanics, they ended up changing the way we
comprehend the cosmos. These physcists, at least some of them, are now
household names.
Could it be that a similar revolution is currently underway at the beginning of the 21st century?
Ref:arxiv.org/abs/1401.1219: Consciousness as a State of Matter
Via Towleroad: President Obama Explains What Changed His Mind on Marriage Equality to Youth Town Hall in London
President Obama
held a town hall before 500 young leaders in London today and much of it focused on social issues. Obama took questions from the crowd.One young activist asked Obama which social activist campaigns have caused him to change his mind on issues. President Obama brought up marriage equality, and partly credited his daughters, as well as marriage equality activists and gay couples for explaining to him why marriage, rather than civil unions, were necessary.
aid Obama (Towleroad's transcript):
“In the United States what has been
remarkable is the rapidity with which the marriage equality movement
changed the political landscape and hearts and minds and resulted in
actual changes in law. It’s probably been the fastest set of changes
that, in terms of the social movement, that I’ve seen. On issues of LGBT
rights generally I didnt need a lot of pressure. I came in working on
ending a policy called Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell that was preventing LGBT
citizens from serving in our military openly. We did that very
systematically. Policies in terms of those who had HIV AIDS being able
to emigrate to our country, hospital visitations, there were a whole
host of things that we were already doing.
“But on marriage equality I was in favor
of what’s called civil unions. My notion was initially that labeling
those partnerships as marriage wasn’t necessary as long as people were
getting the same rights and it would disentangle them from some of the
religious connotations that marriage had in the minds of a lot of
Americans.
“And that’s where I think…I have to
confess that my children generally had an impact on me. People I loved
who were in monogamous same-sex relationships explained to me what I
should have understood earlier. Which is it was not simply about legal
rights but about a sense of stigma – that if you’re calling it something
different it means less in the eyes of society. I believe that the
manner in which the LGBT community described marriage equality as not
some radical thing but actually reached out to people who said they care
about family values and said ‘if you care about everything that
families provide – stability and commitment and partnership – then this
is actually a pretty conservative position to take, that you should be
in favor of this.’ I thought there was a lot of smarts in reaching out
and building and framing the issue in a way that could bring in people
who initially didn’t agree with them.”
Make the jump here to read the full original and more here
Via Sri Prem Baba: Flor do dia / Flor del dia / Flower of the Day – 23/04/2016
“Nós estamos dentro de uma grande batalha. Estamos trabalhando para
despertar o amor em meio a um oceano de ódio. Minha missão é acordar a
lembrança de que você é um guerreiro da luz e que, nessa batalha, a
espada que mais corta é feita de perdão; e o escudo mais protege é feito
de gratidão. Somente através dessas expressões do amor poderemos
vencer.”
“Estamos dentro de una gran batalla. Estamos trabajando para despertar el amor en medio de un océano de odio. Mi misión es despertar la memoria deque eres un guerrero de la luz y que, en esta batalla, la espada que más corta está hecha de perdón; y el escudo que másprotege está hecho de gratitud. Solamente a través de estas expresiones del amor podremos vencer".
“Estamos dentro de una gran batalla. Estamos trabajando para despertar el amor en medio de un océano de odio. Mi misión es despertar la memoria deque eres un guerrero de la luz y que, en esta batalla, la espada que más corta está hecha de perdón; y el escudo que másprotege está hecho de gratitud. Solamente a través de estas expresiones del amor podremos vencer".
“We are
in the middle of a great battle in which we are working to awaken love
within an ocean of hatred. My mission is to remind you that you are a
warrior of the light, in a battle where the most powerful and effective
weapon is forgiveness, and the best armor is gratitude. Only through
these expressions of love will we be able to win the battle.”
Via Daily Dharma / April 23, 2016: Tread Lightly
The path of enlightenment is what is underneath our feet.
—Douglas Penick, "What Are You Meditating For?"
—Douglas Penick, "What Are You Meditating For?"
Friday, April 22, 2016
Via NASA: Happy Earth Day!
Happy #EarthDay! Here's an image of our fragile home in space. Celebrate it with us today: http://go.nasa.gov/1MMI9s6
Via Sri Prem Baba: Flor do dia / Flor del dia / Flower of the Day – 22/04/2016
“Estamos aqui para nos alinharmos com o dharma, o propósito da alma.
Esse alinhamento nos leva a manifestar as fragrâncias do Divino que nos
habita. O nosso mais profundo Eu se manifesta nesse alinhamento.
Alinhar-se com o dharma significa mover-se em direção ao propósito
maior, compreendendo que isso envolve também a aceitação do karma –
dharma e karma andam juntos. Por isso, se você está sempre brigando com
as situações que a vida lhe traz, esse alinhamento não é possível.”
“Estamos aquí para alinearnos con el dharma, el propósito del alma.
Esta alineación nos lleva a manifestar las fragancias delo Divino que
nos habita. Nuestro más profundo Yo se manifiesta en esta alineación.
Alinearse con el dharmasignifica moverse hacia el propósito mayor,
comprendiendo que esto también implica la aceptación del karma;dharmay
karmavan juntos. Por eso, si siempre estás luchando con las situaciones
que la vida te trae, esta alineación no es posible.”
"We are here to align ourselves with our dharma, our soul’s purpose. This alignment allows us to spread the fragranceof the Divine that inhabits us. Our deepest self also manifests through this alignment with our purpose. Aligning ourselves with ourdharma means moving towards a greater purpose, understanding that this also involves accepting our karma. Karma and dharmawalk hand-in-hand. If we are always fighting with the situations that life brings to us, we will not be able to create this alignment in our lives."
"We are here to align ourselves with our dharma, our soul’s purpose. This alignment allows us to spread the fragranceof the Divine that inhabits us. Our deepest self also manifests through this alignment with our purpose. Aligning ourselves with ourdharma means moving towards a greater purpose, understanding that this also involves accepting our karma. Karma and dharmawalk hand-in-hand. If we are always fighting with the situations that life brings to us, we will not be able to create this alignment in our lives."
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