This is it, the culmination of my series of diary entries that examines the phenomenon of modern anger. It's what (I think) we've all been waiting for, the truth that we need in order to overcome the chronic underlying feeling of anger that holds us back -- and begin to re-engage in the process of advancing toward the vision of what we as individuals and society can become ... active agents in the progress of our own lives and protagonists in the progress of civilization as it moves forward in the direction of material prosperity and universal, spiritual peace, for the whole of humankind.
Love, Baha'i Writings...
"Unity is necessary to existence. Love is the very cause of life. In the material world, the elements of all things are held together by the law of attraction. The law of attraction brings together certain elements in the form of a beautiful flower. But when that attraction is taken away, the flower will decompose and cease to exist. So it is with humanity. Attraction, harmony, and unity are the forces that hold humanity together."
Sona Farid-Arbab...
"[T]here is an underlying tendency of many political theorists to associate [power] with domination. Whether it is the 'production of intended effects' (citation omitted) and the capacity to produce them, or the 'probability that one actor within a social relationship will be in a position to carry out his own will despite resistance' (citation omitted), power aspires to be a quantitative concept, empirically measured in terms of resistance -- actual or potential -- that it can overcome. For the concept [of power] to be viable, conflict, whether observable or not, needs to be ever present. In other words, conflict seems to emerge in one way or another as an indispensable condition that makes the exercise of power possible; it is intrinsic to power in its actual state."
The Universal House of Justice...
"[T]he principle that is to infuse all facets of organized life on the planet is the oneness of humankind, the hallmark of the age of [collective human] maturity. Tha
humanity constitutes a single people is a truth that, once viewed with scepticism, claims widespread acceptance today. The rejection of deeply ingrained prejudices and a growing sense of world citizenship are among the signs of this heightened awareness. Yet, however promising the rise in collective consciousness may be, it should be seen as only the first step of a process that will take decades -- nay, centuries -- to unfold. For the principle of oneness of humankind ... asks not merely for cooperation among people and nations. It calls for a complete reconceptualization of the relationships that sustain society. The deepening environmental crisis, driven by a system that condones the pillage of natural resources to satisfy an insatiable thirst for more, suggests how entirely inadequate is the present concept of humanity's relationship with nature; the deterioration of the home environment, with the accompanying rise in the systematic exploitation of women and children worldwide, makes clear how pervasive are the misbegotten notions that define relations within the family unit; the persistence of despotism, on the one hand, and the increasing disregard for authority, on the other, reveal how unsatisfactory to a maturing humanity is the current relationship between the individual and the institutions of society; the concentration of material wealth in the hands of a minority of the world's population gives an indication of how fundamentally ill-conceived are the relationships between the many sectors of what is now an emerging global community. The principle of the oneness of humankind implies, then, an organic change in the very structure of society."
Lisa Miller...
"We are born with an innate capacity for transcendence, a natural spirituality. Spirituality is foundational to our biological nature.... It is an inherent part of us from birth and is integrated with our biological capacities for perception and detection -- our senses, our intellect, our emotions, our consciousness."
Pierre Teilhard de Chardin...
"We are not human beings having a spiritual experience. We are spiritual beings having a human experience."
Abdu'l Baha...
"The more difficulties one sees in the world the more perfect one becomes. The more you plough and dig the ground the more fertile it becomes. The more you put the gold in the fire the purer it becomes. The more you sharpen the steel by grinding the better it cuts. Therefore, the more sorrows one sees the more perfect one becomes. That is why, in all times, the Prophets of God have had tribulations and difficulties to withstand. The more often the captain of a ship is in the tempest and difficult sailing the greater his knowledge becomes. Therefore I am happy that you have had great tribulations and difficulties. For this I am very happy -- that you have had many sorrows. Strange it is that I love you and still I am happy that you have sorrows."
The Universal House of Justice...
"Clearly the concept of power as a means of domination, with the accompanying notions of contest, contention, division and superiority, must be left behind. This is not to deny the operation of power; after all, even in cases where institutions of society have received their mandates through the consent of the people, power is involved in the exercise of authority. But political processes, like other processes of life, should not remain unaffected by the powers of the human spirit that the Baha'i Faith -- for that matter, every great religious tradition that has appeared throughout the ages -- hopes to tap: the power of unity, of love, of humble service, of pure deeds. Associated with power in this sense are words such as 'release', 'encourage', 'channel',' 'guide', and 'enable'. Power is not a finite entity which is to be 'seized' and 'jealously guarded'; it constitutes a limitless capacity to transform that resides in the human race as a body."
National Spiritual Assembly of the Baha'is of the United States...
"[J]ustice requires universal participation. Social change can't be an effort by one segment of humanity to impose its vision on another, however altruistic the motivation may be. The divisiveness that characterizes current party politics must give way to cooperation. In a society that reflects the principle of the ones of humankind, we must leave behind a concept of power as a means of domination or superiority, based on contest, contention, division or cultural difference. The Baha'i framework is intended to release, encourage and channel a different kind of power: the power of the human spirit, the power of unity, of love, of humble service, of pure deeds. From this perspective, power is not a finite entity to be seized and jealously guarded; it constitutes a limitless capacity that resides in the human race as a whole."
Hannah Arendt...
"What first undermines and then kills political communities is loss of power and final impotence; and power cannot be stored up and kept in reserve for emergencies, like the instruments of violence, but exists only in its actualization. Where power is not actualized, it passes away, and history is full of examples that the greatest material riches cannot compensate for this loss. Power is actualized only when word and deed have not parted company, where words are not empty and deeds not brutal, where words are not used to veil intentions but to disclose realities, and deeds are not used to violate and destroy but to establish relations and create new realities."
Baha'u'llah...
"O SON OF SPIRIT! My first counsel is this: Possess a pure, kindly and radiant heart, that thine may be a sovereignty ancient, imperishable and everlasting."
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