All too common diseases, the vast majority of which are preventable and becoming more prevalent, are not befitting the inherent nobility of a human being. The imperative of health care is to empower patients with the knowledge, the insights, the understanding, … Continue reading Thoughts on Health Care
The Baha’i world has been learning how to use an education program to raise capacity in individuals and populations to take charge of their own spiritual, social, and intellectual development and to build communities that understand the dynamic coherence of … Continue reading Pedagogy of the Empowered
Recently, a gathering took place in which friends from diverse backgrounds, ages, geographies, and experiences came together to explore participation in discourse. Coherence, it seemed, was the key. The weekend began with a study of a message of the … Continue reading Coherence in Conversations
For decades, the Universal House of Justice has been nurturing the development of the Baha’i community in Iran, guiding them through their persecution and assisting them to recognize the significance of their sacrifice and their opportunities to serve. A few … Continue reading Framework that Shapes the Baha’i Approach to Political Involvement
The development of a just society requires universal participation. Why? Why is this the case? If you’d like, respond with your thoughts below. Surely, there are many of reasons. Three come to my mind at the moment. They are related … Continue reading Justice and Universal Participation
Decades have come and gone and our busy lives, cluttered with diverse daily drives and enjoyments, have advanced in age, irreparable choices have been made, courses set, and moral decisions cast in the stone of opportunity cost. Billions have come … Continue reading Shadows of the Mind: Disorganized Activism, Conducive to Change?
How great is our capacity for change? The endpoint of our progress is as difficult to imagine as space travel is to cavemen. Social reform will outpace our technological ingenuity. Freedom fighting at present is dwarfed by the liberties of … Continue reading Spring Showers onto Hard Earth: Prevailing Theories of Human Nature, Alterable?
Paragraph#: 1. Abdu’l-Baha’s Temple-ground piercing Centenary. Diverse participants then and now. 2. Divine civilization beyond mere adjustments to present order. 3. Erroneous assumptions of human nature, justified by failings, disallow spiritual potential. 4. Imprisonment enables sympathetic hearts. 5-Year Plan (5YP) … Continue reading Summary: Ridvan 2012 Message
Paragraph#: 1. 10 new Regional Councils (RC’s). 5-Year Plan messages foundation of action and study. Familiarity with dynamics of growth increases with core activities. 2. Dichotomy of neighborhood and centralized children’s classes (CC) transcended. 2 Junior Youth learning sites. Expansion/consolidation primary task of RC’s. … Continue reading Summary of August 9th Message
The endowment which distinguishes the human race from all other life forms is summed up in the reality known as the human spirit, or the rational soul. Of this soul, the diverse faculties of the mind constitute its most brilliant … Continue reading Progressive Revelation: Historiography and Civilization Dynamics
All human beings are endowed with certain basic spiritual capacities – derived from the soul, which is the element of the individual that is responsible for spiritual nature. Chief among these capacities is that of intellect, consciousness, the power of … Continue reading The Concept of a Concept
When one examines social structures, processes, and relationships, one can identify numerous factors that influence them all. Yet one that is a never-changing and ubiquitous factor upon which ultimately depends the efficacy of civilization-building is the individual – the values, … Continue reading Building the Capacity to Build Capacity
How does the conception of power from the last few posts shape thoughts regarding governance? Currently, because our society’s structures and relationships are dominated by self-interested expressions of power, governance is viewed as a set of regulations and rules of … Continue reading Governance and Discipline
Operating under the assumptions that human beings, by nature, are cooperative and not competitive, and that there are spiritual sources of power that can unleash the latent capacities of individuals towards contributing to the advancement of civilization, the model of … Continue reading Neuromuscular Power
With the understanding that the human being is a potential instrument for the expression of spiritual powers and capacities within social realty, just as a lump of iron has the potential for the expression of magnetic forces within the physical … Continue reading Structures of Contest
Spiritual sources of power and capacity are relatively more intangible than material sources; they nonetheless exist and exert influence just the same. One way to discuss their dynamics and learn how to draw upon them is to use the analogy … Continue reading Spiritual Magnetisim
The development of a world civilization requires a transformation such as humanity has not yet experienced – both of society and of human consciousness. Questions naturally arise, then, regarding the power necessary for this change: who wields it, how it … Continue reading Power as Capacity
In reference to human potential it has been said, “Regard man as a mine rich in gems of inestimable value. Education can, alone, cause it to reveal its treasures, and enable mankind to benefit there from.” . Education is a … Continue reading Education: The Driver of Social Transformation
A culture of learning that operates through study, consultation, action, and reflection, depends on empowerment and capacity building on the level of both the individual and the institutions of society. Individually, all are responsible to participate in the generation and … Continue reading Global Learning
One fundamental feature of a development process that recognizes the material and spiritual requirements of social reality is capacity building. In fact, development can almost be seen as synonymous with building capacity. The people themselves are the protagonists of their … Continue reading Capacity Building
Humanity will mature as each member is allowed to contribute to its advancement. Every human being has talents and capacities, the development of which is the right and duty of the individual, and the creation of environments that foster this … Continue reading Trust and Nobility
Relating the issue of equality of women and men to justice protects women from becoming oppressors themselves. The challenge is not simply to provide women equal opportunity to participate in the present racially, economically, and politically oppressive social order. In … Continue reading Intersection of Justice and Equality
Viewing justice as a latent potential of the human soul liberates us from the guilt which can so easily disempower the protagonists of social transformation. In the same way that our physical capacities emerge over time, such as the ability … Continue reading Justice and Human Potential
Current human rights philosophy maintains that personal prerogative defines social structure, and individuals can refuse any moral ties that they haven’t chosen. Institutions are seen as necessary insofar as they interface common interests of atomistic individuals; they simply provide procedures … Continue reading Rights and Duties
In the collective life of humankind, justice manifests as a compass in decision making, protecting resources from being diverted towards extraneous values, and protecting groups of people from the oppression of a vocal and seemingly-powerful minority. Justice cannot, then, be … Continue reading Approaches to Justice
The roots of justice are in the human soul. Justice is a faculty of the human soul, a spiritual capacity that, like others such as love, reason, and mercy, can be nurtured through education and training, or ignored and left … Continue reading Justice: a Spiritual Capacity
The concept of the oneness of humankind provides an ideological foundation upon which humanity can understand its own reality in a way that conduces to its prosperity and harmony. It is an ontological truth of reality, a teleological end and … Continue reading Freedom
The previous post’s mention of various views about human nature, incoherent and fragmented in and of themselves, are also incoherent and fragmented in their application towards different domains of life. One individual, as an example, who claims self-interested notions of … Continue reading Questioning Fragmentation
The analogy of the human body to the body of humanity provides important insights to the nature of human society and the relationship between the individual and the collective, as well as into the principle of oneness itself. Yet, the … Continue reading Oneness as an Ontological Truth
In the context of twofold transformation, then, human beings have a twofold purpose. We were created to develop our potentialities, and we are created to contribute to an ever-advancing civilization. In reality, these purposes are one. It is service to … Continue reading Purpose as Service
Human beings have a two-fold moral purpose: to develop our own personal spiritual attributes (such as love, kindness, wisdom, generosity, and intelligence) as well as to contribute to the social and institutional progress of an ever-advancing civilization. Some strands of … Continue reading Twofold Transformation
Social Organization initiated distinctly with the consolidation of the institution of family life, moved in stages successively through simple structures of clan-based and tribal existence to the eventual emergence of a diversity of forms of urban society, coming to rest … Continue reading Social Organization Progressively Expands and Integrates
The human body is the one analogy that points toward a convincing model for the organization of a planetary society. There is no other model that mirrors its complexity or prosperity upon which we can rely. Human society is not … Continue reading The body of humanity
achieving coherence 