Letter to the LSA of Chapel Hill, NC

July 1, 2011

To the Local Spiritual Assembly of the Baha’is of Chapel Hill:

I write this in the spirit of inspiration, hope, frustration, yearning, honesty, insight, and constructive criticism.

"...you had asked whether the believers have the right to openly express their criticism of any Assembly action or policy: it is not only the right, but the vital responsibility of every loyal and intelligent member of the Community to offer fully and frankly, but with due respect and consideration to the authority of the Assembly, any suggestion, recommendation or criticism he conscientiously feels he should in order to improve and remedy certain existing conditions or trends in his local Community, and it is the duty of the Assembly also to give careful consideration to any such views submitted to them by any one of the believers. The best occasion chosen for this purpose is the Nineteen Day Feast, which, besides its social and spiritual aspects, fulfils various administrative needs and requirements of the Community, chief among them being the need for open and constructive criticism and deliberation regarding the state of affairs within the local Bahá'í Community.” 

-–from a letter written on behalf of Shoghi Effendi to an individual believer, Dec. 13, 1939

There is a mistaken notion in the Baha’i community that goes something like this:

"My spirituality and the progress of the Faith is solely dependent on following the teaching plans and goals of the Universal House of Justice and the other institutions of the Faith."

The UHJ and the current institutions are the administrative governing bodies of the Faith; they are not a new kind of clergy, nor have they been given the function of divine interpretation for us. Baha’u’llah is still the spiritual head, the divine mediator, and the primary source for inspiration. If we are following the UHJ’s guidance, but not following Baha’u’llah, or if we are substituting the UHJ’s letters and guidance for Baha’u’llah in our hearts and minds, then we are only practicing materialism, albeit a ‘religious’ materialism. This is but the shell of religion, when it becomes a dead thing, a mere organization. We have a community of people following laws, dictates, mandates, and performing activities, but there is no spirituality, because the followers have for the most part substituted the guidance and letters of the UHJ and other institutions for Baha’u’llah’s and ‘Abdu’l-Baha’s writings, exhortations, and spirit.

This is understandable. Baha’u’llah and ‘Abdu’l-Baha write about spirituality, being detached from this transient world of dust, and setting our hearts and minds to the heavenly Kingdom, where there is eternal life, eternal rest for the soul. But this is a supremely difficult thing to do. It is not even something that the intellect comprehends, let alone something the body can get up and do, like a task. (And we are unreservedly influenced by the materialism and worldliness of society, in which we live and thrive.) So it is natural that the community and individuals would gravitate to following injunctions, plans, methodologies, and systems of organization which are at least feasible in their minds, doable, so to speak, so they can feel a sense of accomplishment in their spiritual and religious walk in life. But this is only the administrative side of the Faith. This concerns the spreading of the teachings, and the structures and systems needed to implement this spread. As well, the UHJ and the Faith’s institutions have other administrative duties. The guidance delineated in the letters of the UHJ and other institutions are not meant to be a substitute for spiritual transformation, nor does it supply the individual and the community with the Holy Spirit, without which no life can be made new. Without this vital spiritual transformation, it is more materialism, I am afraid. If we don’t remedy the situation soon, we will have dug ourselves into a hole out of which we may not be able to climb.

from Shoghi Effendi, Directives of the Guardian, pp. 86-87:

"The problem with which you are faced is one which concerns and seriously puzzles many of our present-day youth. How to attain spirituality is indeed a question to which every young man and woman must sooner or later try to find a satisfactory answer. It is precisely because no such satisfactory answer has been given or found, that the modern youth finds itself bewildered, and is being consequently carried away by the materialistic forces that are so powerfully undermining the foundations of man's moral and spiritual life.

Indeed the chief reason for the evils now rampant in society is the lack of spirituality. The materialistic civilization of our age has so much absorbed the energy and interest of mankind that people in general do no longer feel the necessity of raising themselves above the forces and conditions of their daily material existence. There is not sufficient demand for things that we call spiritual to differentiate them from the needs and requirements of our physical existence.

The universal crisis affecting mankind is, therefore, essentially spiritual in its causes. The spirit of the age, taken on the whole, is irreligious. Man's outlook on life is too crude and materialistic to enable him to elevate himself into the higher realms of the spirit.

It is this condition, so sadly morbid, into which society has fallen, that religion seeks to improve and transform. For the core of religious faith is that mystic feeling which unites Man with God. This state of spiritual communion can be brought about and maintained by means of meditation and prayer. And this is the reason why Bahá'u'lláh has so much stressed the importance of worship. It is not sufficient for a believer merely to accept and observe the teachings. He should, in addition, cultivate the sense of spirituality which he can acquire chiefly by means of prayer. The Bahá'í Faith, like all other Divine Religions, is thus fundamentally mystic in character. Its chief goal is the development of the individual and society, through the acquisition of spiritual virtues and powers. It is the soul of man which has first to be fed. And this spiritual nourishment prayer can best provide.

Laws and institutions, as viewed by Bahá'u'lláh, can become really effective only when our inner spiritual life has been perfected and transformed. Otherwise religion will degenerate into a mere organization, and becomes a dead thing. The believers, particularly the young ones, should therefore fully realize the necessity of praying. For prayer is absolutely indispensable to their inner spiritual development, and this, as already stated, is the very foundation and purpose of the religion of God."

Another consideration is this: if we only engaged in core activities as an obligation, as an attempt to ‘follow the law’ and ‘do good’, the community would be operating as a shell, and it would eventually sink into despair, since we would be paying attention only to administrative injunctions, and doing it for the sake of fortifying our competitive, individualistic egos and warding off our internal fear and guilt (although much of this happens on an unconscious level). No spirituality would accrue in our lives, no new life in the Spirit. (Being excited about and united through a shared sense of accomplishing goals is not the same as being on fire with the Holy Spirit.) Non-Baha’is would not see anything more than another dead, organized religion, albeit friendly, moral, and progressive in their thinking and attitudes. But many atheists are friendly, moral, and progressive in their thinking. We need to have our hearts filled with the Holy Spirit, we need to be motivated by the Holy Spirit, we need to be trusting God in the deepest part of our inner lives. And it will take some work to accomplish this. This work, coupled with the administrative work and the spreading of the teachings, will bring victory to our lives, the community, and the world.

There are many Christians, many of them writers, teachers, and preachers, who see similar problems in their churches. Christians have had hundreds of years to evolve and develop their communities, through trial and error, through insight and awareness, and through speaking out. The Baha’is are just trying to get this organization thing together--it is a new religion--so now there is emphasis on administrative systems and methodologies, logistics, and implementing all this to grow the Faith. The Christians, on the other hand, have great success in the spread of their teachings and gaining adherents; they have grand churches all over the world and much in the way of financial resources, so they have more time and energy to devote to the spiritual development of their members, and they can focus on spiritual transformation, devotion, healing broken hearts, bringing love and peace to the suffering, and especially helping the poor and disadvantaged with many social outreach and development programs. Although the Baha’is are making progress in the area of social outreach and development, I think we can benefit from the Christians, and learn much from them. I’m sure the Baha’is would want to at least match the other religious communities, in terms of unity, spirituality, and understanding. I’m sure we want to have all the cutting-edge insights on spirituality and transformation so the Baha’i community can progress and be a beacon of light for the waiting world.

There is a fear that if we embark on any kind of endeavor in the Baha’i community, or in our religious life, then it must be joined with the core activities, even if it is only peripherally. This is not practical, of course, for there are many things we do which are not even peripherally related to the core activities, such as private prayer, teaching the Faith to friends and family, our occupation, music, art, and any expression we make which we give to God, and the many other tasks we perform in our daily lives which we hope are seen as acceptable to Baha’u’llah. So why are we afraid to start any new kind of study group, ongoing discussions, or workshops on spiritual transformation that are not related to the Ruhi courses? I do not think it will go against God or Baha’u’llah if we gather some people together to take another shot at learning how to be spiritual and trying to apply these understandings to our lives. Yes, we could do a gathering with junior youth (but adults need to learn spiritual transformation as much as the youth do!), or we could be part of a Ruhi course, but I think some of us need to try a different approach, in order that we may inject the Holy Spirit into it.  We need to learn how to identify and overcome our attachments to the world, dismantle the barriers we have erected around our hearts, in order that we may know God, feel connected to Him, and be united with others on new levels.

Imagine what would happen if we could learn to implement some of the newer and progressive understandings of spirituality, spiritual transformation, healing broken hearts, being authentic before God, and building true community that have come from the experience of the followers of Christianity and other older religions, as well as from psychology, and other social sciences--and integrate what we discover with the soul-renewing teachings of Baha’u’llah (harmony of religion and science), and then use all this to further the plans of the UHJ. Maybe we could think of this spiritual transformation work as an adjunct, a complement, a supplement, or even a foundation to the core activities.

Until we have the Holy Spirit in our hearts, how can we expect to share it with others? Let’s not be afraid that spiritual transformation work will detract from the teaching work. Just the opposite is the case.

“The teacher, when teaching, must be himself fully enkindled, so that his utterance, like unto a flame of fire, may exert influence and consume the veil of self and passion. He must also be utterly humble and lowly so that others may be edified, and be totally self-effaced and evanescent so that he may teach with the melody of the Concourse on high -- otherwise his teaching will have no effect.”

--‘Abdu’l-Baha, Selections from the Writings of ‘Abdu’l-Baha, p. 270

“It is not enough to proclaim the Bahá'í message, essential as that is. It is not enough to expand the rolls of Bahá'í membership, vital as that is. Souls must be transformed, communities thereby consolidated, new models of life thus attained. Transformation is the essential purpose of the Cause of Bahá'u'lláh, but it lies in the will and effort of the individual to achieve it in obedience to the Covenant. Necessary to the progress of this life-fulfilling transformation is knowledge of the will and purpose of God through regular reading and study of the Holy Word.”

--Universal House of Justice, from Ridvan message 146, 1989

“Not by the force of numbers, not by the mere exposition of a set of new and noble principles, not by an organized campaign of teaching -- no matter how worldwide and elaborate in its character -- not even by the staunchness of our faith or the exaltation of our enthusiasm, can we ultimately hope to vindicate in the eyes of a critical and sceptical age the supreme claim of the Abha Revelation. One thing and only one thing will unfailingly and alone secure the undoubted triumph of this sacred Cause, namely, the extent to which our own inner life and private character mirror forth in their manifold aspects the splendor of those eternal principles proclaimed by Bahá'u'lláh.”

--Shoghi Effendi, from a letter written to the believers of America, Sept. 24, 1924

“How great, therefore, how staggering the responsibility that must weigh upon the present generation of the American believers, at this early stage in their spiritual and administrative evolution, to weed out, by every means in their power, those faults, habits, and tendencies which they have inherited from their own nation, and to cultivate, patiently and prayerfully, those distinctive qualities and characteristics that are so indispensable to their effective participation in the great redemptive work of their Faith. Incapable as yet, in view of the restricted size of their community and the limited influence it now wields, of producing any marked effect on the great mass of their countrymen, let them focus their attention, for the present, on their own selves, their own individual needs, their own personal deficiencies and weaknesses, ever mindful that every intensification of effort on their part will better equip them for the time when they will be called upon to eradicate in their turn such evil tendencies from the lives and the hearts of the entire body of their fellow-citizens. Nor must they overlook the fact that the World Order, whose basis they, as the advance-guard of the future Bahá'í generations of their countrymen, are now laboring to establish, can never be reared unless and until the generality of the people to which they belong has been already purged from the divers ills, whether social or political, that now so severely afflict it.”

--Shoghi Effendi, The Advent of Divine Justice, pp. 20-21

We all know deep in our hearts, as it is clear in the Writings, that the spiritual world, the Kingdom of God, is the real world. And it is our duty to transform ourselves to be spiritual, and share the fragrance of this Spirit with others in order that they may become spiritual, heavenly, and join us in building this Kingdom here on Earth.

“The end of every (material) work is without result, because it is perishable and inconstant, but the first (real) work is attraction to the fragrance of God, enkindlement with the fire of the love of God, reading the verses of Unity and beholding the lights from the Dawning-place of Mystery. After that cometh the training of the soul, purification of character and service to humanity. If thou art able to accomplish any one of these, the result is eternal and the fruit everlasting.”

--‘Abdu’l-Baha, Tablets of ‘Abdu’l-Baha Abbas, Vol. 1, p. 219

“Know thou, verily, all the doors are closed except the door of the kingdom of God! All the trees are without fruit except the Tree of Life planted in the paradise of God! All the winds are disqueting to the souls except the cup of the love of God! Every benefit vanisheth except the food of heaven. It is incumbent upon thee to partake thereof.”

--‘Abdu’l-Baha, Tablets of ‘Abdu’l-Baha Abbas, Vol. 1, p. 229

“O maid-servant of God! Forget all else save God, be in communion with Him, supplicate and pray to Him to make thee conqueror over the material things, impressed by the bounties of the Kingdom, commemorating the name of thy Lord, pure from all else save Him, and imbued with the spiritual attributes of those who are holy (and high); then shall thy breaths have effect upon the hearts, and attract the hearts of thy son and husband unto the Kingdom of God.”

--‘Abdu’l-Baha, Tablets of ‘Abdu’l-Baha Abbas, Vol. 2, p. 247

I have high hopes for the Chapel Hill Baha’i community. I think we can be a spiritual light to the world. I believe we have that capacity. It will take work and dedication on our part, but I believe we have the tools and resources to be leaders and guides in the promulgation of the Cause of God in this day. I pray that we can accomplish this. I pray that we can open our eyes, minds, and hearts to see in new ways, move beyond the old, stale forms, and embrace new life in the spirit. In this way, we can build new bonds with each other, find new realms of love, peace, and direction in our lives, and show the world what this glorious Cause of God is really about!

In sincere service to the Cause of Baha’u’llah,

Bob Charnes