Tag: institutions

Categories
- Empowerment Expansion & Consolidation Junior Youth Empowerment Program Social Action

Houston LSA Chair Enjoys Med Center Junior Youth Group, on Sunday April 13th, 2014

The most significant initial contribution of Local Assemblies to the processes of growth was providing encouragement to the believers. This was particularly effective when an expansion of vision had resulted from the participation of Assembly members in the institute process as well as the study of Five Year Plan documents.

This approach has… done much to assist Local Assemblies to realign their administrative processes and priorities. Beyond these considerations, the leadership role of the Spiritual Assemblies — be they national or local — is of profound importance. It has been observed in many clusters that the processes of growth are greatly enhanced where this leadership role is exercised through the Assemblies’ constant effort to maintain the vision of growth before the believers, allowing for the two essential movements to impact priorities, avoiding unnecessary distractions, providing the necessary resources, and reinforcing the plans and initiatives at the cluster level. Further, the dynamic force of individual example as the members of Assemblies themselves become personally involved in the cluster activities, actively supporting the efforts…

-International Teaching Centre, Impact of Growth on Administration, July 2005

Categories
- Three Protagonists Power

Spiritual Magnetisim

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 of a magnet.

A magnet is an object, composed of a common substance like iron, and when under proper conditions, creates an invisible magnetic field – harnessing the power inherent in invisible electric charges to produce an invisible electromagnetic force.  The only difference between a magnetized piece of iron and a non-magnetized piece of iron is the internal alignment of its elements.  Basically, if the electron configuration among the atoms are such that the poles and charges are all aligned in the same direction, the material will produce a net total magnetic field.  If the electron configurations are in different and random directions, the material will not be magnetized.

Quite an insightful analogy, one must say!  The human soul (magnet) has the latent capacity to manifest spiritual powers (magnetism), such as the power to unify and the power to attract other hearts through goodly deeds and a praiseworthy character.  The human being acquires these powers through the proper alignment (electronic configuration) of its thoughts, words, actions, attitudes, etc., with the spiritual forces and laws that govern reality.

Social institutions, such as the family, the state, the university, the clinic, and so on, can also manifest collective powers of justice and unity, for instance, through their proper internal alignment – both of individuals constituting those agencies and of the structure, values, purpose, and nature of the organization itself.

Likewise, communities, when composed of individuals and institutions described above, will manifest characteristics of love, oneness, and reciprocity.  It will become a wholly magnetized environment that elicits the capacities of all towards contributing to a process of collective betterment.

Categories
Oneness

Collective Transformation and the Individual

Oneness reconceptualized across spatial and intergenerational dimensions informs social policy and institutions. Re-structuring according to principles of reciprocity, cooperation and interconnectedness engenders profound ramifications for the relationship binding the individual and society. All humans are molded by their environment, some less than others, and yet all of us are gifted with the capacity to free ourselves from delimiting social norms. The term ‘social action’ has been coined to describe the process by which an individual acts on her or his society to upgrade it. Who are such individuals we can ask? Describe the role such individuals play in the generation and structuring of a New World Order. How would you describe the interaction between such social actors and the collective society to which they belong, and which they seek to transform? Can we trace the dramatic divergences of the concept and practice of what it means to be an “individual” as it has evolved in antiquity through medieval and feudal societies  to modern western nations and  eventually how it will look in the united and prosperous future of our race? What kind of woman, man, or child actually carries out the stepping and ploughing of an ever-advancing civilization? What are the foremost virtues of this new race of citizen-statesmen?