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A STORY ABOUT LETTING GO OF RESENTMENTS
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Author Unknown
A story tells of a merchant in a small town who had identical twin sons. The boys worked for their father in the department store he owned and, when he died, they took over the store.
Everything went well until the day a dollar bill disappeared. One of the brothers had left the bill on the cash register and walked outside with a customer. When he returned, the money was gone.
He asked his brother, "Did you see that dollar bill on the cash register?" His brother replied that he had not. But the young man kept probing and questioning. He would not let it alone. "Dollar bills just don't get up and walk away! Surely you must have seen it!" There was a subtle accusation in his voice. Tempers began to rise. Resentment set in. Before long, a deep and bitter chasm divided the young men. They refused to speak. They finally decided they could no longer work together and a dividing wall was built down the center of the store. For twenty years hostility and bitterness grew, spreading to their families and to the community.
Then one day a man in an automobile licensed in another state stopped in front of the store. He walked in and asked the clerk, "How long have you been here?"
The clerk replied that he'd been there all his life. The customer said, "I must share something with you. Twenty years ago I was "riding the rails" and came into this town in a boxcar. I hadn't eaten for three days. I came into this store from the back door and saw a dollar bill on the cash register. I put it in my pocket and walked out. All these years I haven't been able to forget that. I know it wasn't much money, but I had to come back and ask your forgiveness."
The stranger was amazed to see tears well up in the eyes of this middle-aged man. "Would you please go next door and tell that same story to the man in the store?" he said. Then the man was even more amazed to see two middle-aged men, who looked very much alike, embracing each other and weeping together in front of the store.
After twenty years, the brokenness was mended. The wall of resentment that divided them came down.
It is so often the little things that finally divide people -- words spoken in haste; criticisms; accusations; resentments. And once divided, they may never come together again.
The solution, of course, is to let go. There is really nothing particularly profound about learning to let go of little resentments. But for fulfilling and lasting relationships, letting them go is a must. Refuse to carry around bitterness and you may be surprised at how much energy you have left for building bonds with those you love.
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Editor's note:
This story reminds me of the following two quotes: "He feels that the present inharmony prevailing among you...is very detrimental to the advancement of the Cause, and can only lead to disruption and the chilling of the interest of new believers. You...should forget about your personal grievances and unite for the protection of the Faith which he well knows you are all loyally devoted to and ready to sacrifice for. Perhaps the greatest test Baha'is are ever subjected to is from each other; but for the sake of the Master they should be ever ready to overlook each other's mistakes, apologize for harsh words they have uttered, forgive and forget. He strongly recommends to you this course of action." (From letter dated December 18, 1945, written on behalf of Shoghi Effendi to an individual believer, from 'Living The Life', Baha'i Publishing Trust (UK) p. 24)''
"We must never dwell too much on the attitudes and feelings of our fellow-believers towards us. What is most important is to foster love and harmony and ignore any rebuffs we may receive; in this way the weaknesses of human nature and the peculiarity or attitude of any particular person is not magnified, but pales into insignificance in comparison with our joint service to the Faith we all love." (From letter dated 19 September 1948 written on behalf of Shoghi Effendi to an individual believer, from 'The Baha'i Life', p. 16)
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TAKING OFFENSE
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Prepared by Elizabeth Rochester for Canadian Baha'i News August 1969, used by permission. This article is taken from the book "Falling Into Grace" by Justice St. Rain, pp. 44 - 46.
"It is deeply disturbing to see the ease with which large numbers of Baha'is appear to get 'hurt' and at the tendency of other believers to 'sympathize' with the one hurt and show their 'love' by hardening their hearts against the one who presumably caused the hurt.
'Abdu'l-Baha asks us not to offend anyone. True!
He also asks us not to take offense! He requires us to regard our enemies (not just our estranged friends in the Faith) as friends. He doesn't simply ask us to treat them as friends even though we know they are enemies. He asks us to see them as friends. Why? Because these hurts are the tests which require us to grow if we are to be steadfast in the Cause. They are the tests which correct the direction of our growth (like pruning shrubs) and test the sincerity of our desire to love all mankind.
He requires us to love the people with all their shortcomings. He said, "Do not look at the people for they are full of shortcomings, but love them for the sake of God."
People who are warm and loving are very fortunate. People who are cold and forbidding often hate themselves, are already filled with guilt and fear and only a powerful and genuine love which can thaw their frozen hearts can cure them. What is 'love' if it takes sides against them?
A log may appear to be burning but only when the kindling is consumed can you tell if it has 'caught.' If we only 'love' when we are being 'loved', we haven't 'caught.' To know that is to know a bitter truth about ourselves, but it is one worth knowing. It is a very dangerous condition to be in - a completely dependent one. What is the cure? To completely immerse ourselves in the ocean of the Writings; to pray and beseech God to kindle the fire of love and attraction in our hearts; to take action; to seek reconciliation; to serve the friends no matter what the pain; to teach the Faith and direct the seeker to the source of love and illumination - which is the Revelation. (The friends cannot be this source, for they may or may not have 'caught.')
Many people took offense at 'Abdu'l-Baha Himself. Was the Perfect Exemplar responsible for their being offended? In such a case it is clear that offense can be taken when none was intended nor any cause given. 'Abdu'l-Baha was the object of the most despicable behavior which men are capable of, yet did He ever assume the role of a man offended? It is possible to exercise the spiritual muscles of forbearance, forgiveness, mercy and to refuse to take offense or be hurt. How do we know? We know because 'Abdu'l-Baha did it, and if we are tempted to retort, 'But I am not an 'Abdu'l-Baha, the obvious answer is 'That is evident, but He is still our example.' And the one who 'hurt' us is also not an 'Abdu'l-Baha, but only trying, it is to be hoped, to follow the same example as ourselves.
Baha'u'llah says that He desires to see us as one soul in many bodies. The one who hurts us is simply stuck on a different hurdle in the spiritual race. And we, in being hurt, are stuck on another. If we truly believe in the oneness of mankind we must love wisely enough and well enough to pray that we will both learn to take our separate hurdles in our strides, and in the meantime, love, love, and love again."
Friday, 16 February 2007
NUTRITION: GUIDANCE FROM THE BAHA'I WRITINGS
FROM THE WRITINGS OF BAHA'U'LLAH
"In all circumstances they should conduct themselves with moderation; if the meal be only one course this is more pleasing in the sight of God; however according to their means, they should seek to have this single dish be of good quality." (Baha'u'llah, Kitab-i-Badi, p. 2)
FROM THE WRITINGS OF ABDU'L-BAHA
"What will be the food of the future?" "Fruit and grains. The time will come when meat will no longer be eaten. Medical science is only in its infancy, yet it has shown that our natural diet is that which grows out of the ground. The people will gradually develop up to the condition of this natural food." (Abdu'l-Baha, The Days in the Light of Akka, 1979 ed, pp. 8-9)
"But man hath perversely continued to serve his lustful appetites, and he would not content himself with simple foods. Rather, he prepared for himself food that was compounded of many ingredients, of substances differing one from the other. With this, and with perpetrating of vile and ignoble acts, his attention was engrossed, and he abandoned the temperance and moderation of a natural way of life. The result was the engendering of diseases both violent and diverse.
For the animal, as to its body, is made up of the same constituent elements as man. Since, however, the animal contenteth itself with simple foods and striveth not to indulge its importunate urges to any great degree, and committeth no sins, its ailments relative to man's are few..." Abdu'l-Baha, Selections from the Writings of Abdu'l-Baha, p 152-3)
"As humanity progresses, meat will be used less and less, for the teeth of man are not carnivorous...The human teeth, the molars, are formed to cut grass, which is their fodder. The front teeth, the incisors, are for fruit, etc. It is, therefore, quite apparent according to the implements for eating that man's food is intended to be grain and not meat. When mankind is more fully developed, the eating of meat will gradually cease." (Abdu'l-Baha, The Promulagation of Universal Peace, pp. 170-71)
"But eating meat is not forbidden or unlawful, nay, the point is this, that it is possible for man to live without eating meat and still be strong. Meat is nourishing and containeth the elements of herbs, seeds and fruits; therefore sometimes it is essential for the sick and for the rehabilitation of health. There is no objection in the Law of God to the eating of meat if it is required. So if thy constitution is rather weak and thou findest meat useful, thou mayest eat it." (Abdu'l-Baha, Health and Healing: Compiled by the Universal House of Justice, p. 8-9)
FROM A LETTER WRITTEN ON BEHALF OF SHOGHI EFFENDI
"In regard to the question as to whether people ought to kill animals for food or not, there is no explicit statement in the Baha'i Sacred Scriptures (as far as I know) in favour or against it. It is certain, however, that if man can live on a purely vegetarian diet and thus avoid killing animals, it would be much preferable. This is, however, a very controversial question and the Baha'is are free to express their views on it. (From a letter written on behalf of Shoghi Effendi to an individual believer, July 9, 1931, Lights of Guidance, p. 296)
FROM LETTERS WRITTEN ON BEHALF OF THE UNIVERSAL HOUSE OF JUSTICE
"No specific school of nutrition or medicine has been associated with the Baha'i teachings. What we have are certain guidelines, indications and principles which will be carefully studied by experts and will, in the years ahead, undoubtedly prove to be invaluable sources of guidance and inspiration in the development of these medical sciences. Moreover, in this connection the Guardian's secretary has stated on his behalf that "It is premature to try and elaborate on the few general references to health and medicine made in our Holy Scriptures." The believers must guard against seizing upon any particular text which may appeal to them and which they may only partially or even incorrectly understand....In matters of diet, as in medicine, the Universal House of Justice feels that the believers should be aware that a huge body of scientific knowledge has been accumulated as a guide to our habits and practices. Here too, as in all other things, the believers should be conscious of the two principles of moderation and courtesy in the way they express their opinions and in deciding whether they should refuse food offered to them or request special foods. There are, of course, instances where a believer would be fully justified in abstaining from or eating only certain foods for some medical reason, but this is a different matter and would be understood by any reasonable person." (From a letter written on behalf of the Universal House of Justice to an individual believer, January 24, 1977, Lights of Guidance, p. 298)
In matters of health, particularly regarding diet and nutrition, the House of Justice advises the friends to seek the help and advice of experts and doctors. This is what Baha'u'llah has recommended and He does not indicate which school of thought or practice they should belong to. However, as you particularly ask about references in the Old Testament as they relate to meat and fish, the House of Justice has asked us to quote for you the following excerpt taken from a letter written on behalf of the beloved Guardian by his secretary to an individual believer: "...there is nothing in the teachings about whether people should eat their food cooked or raw; exercise or not exercise; resort to specific therapies or not; nor is it forbidden to eat meat." (From a letter written on behalf of the Universal House of Justice to an individual believer, July 11, 1978, Lights of Guidance, 2
FROM THE WRITINGS OF BAHA'U'LLAH
"In all circumstances they should conduct themselves with moderation; if the meal be only one course this is more pleasing in the sight of God; however according to their means, they should seek to have this single dish be of good quality." (Baha'u'llah, Kitab-i-Badi, p. 2)
FROM THE WRITINGS OF ABDU'L-BAHA
"What will be the food of the future?" "Fruit and grains. The time will come when meat will no longer be eaten. Medical science is only in its infancy, yet it has shown that our natural diet is that which grows out of the ground. The people will gradually develop up to the condition of this natural food." (Abdu'l-Baha, The Days in the Light of Akka, 1979 ed, pp. 8-9)
"But man hath perversely continued to serve his lustful appetites, and he would not content himself with simple foods. Rather, he prepared for himself food that was compounded of many ingredients, of substances differing one from the other. With this, and with perpetrating of vile and ignoble acts, his attention was engrossed, and he abandoned the temperance and moderation of a natural way of life. The result was the engendering of diseases both violent and diverse.
For the animal, as to its body, is made up of the same constituent elements as man. Since, however, the animal contenteth itself with simple foods and striveth not to indulge its importunate urges to any great degree, and committeth no sins, its ailments relative to man's are few..." Abdu'l-Baha, Selections from the Writings of Abdu'l-Baha, p 152-3)
"As humanity progresses, meat will be used less and less, for the teeth of man are not carnivorous...The human teeth, the molars, are formed to cut grass, which is their fodder. The front teeth, the incisors, are for fruit, etc. It is, therefore, quite apparent according to the implements for eating that man's food is intended to be grain and not meat. When mankind is more fully developed, the eating of meat will gradually cease." (Abdu'l-Baha, The Promulagation of Universal Peace, pp. 170-71)
"But eating meat is not forbidden or unlawful, nay, the point is this, that it is possible for man to live without eating meat and still be strong. Meat is nourishing and containeth the elements of herbs, seeds and fruits; therefore sometimes it is essential for the sick and for the rehabilitation of health. There is no objection in the Law of God to the eating of meat if it is required. So if thy constitution is rather weak and thou findest meat useful, thou mayest eat it." (Abdu'l-Baha, Health and Healing: Compiled by the Universal House of Justice, p. 8-9)
FROM A LETTER WRITTEN ON BEHALF OF SHOGHI EFFENDI
"In regard to the question as to whether people ought to kill animals for food or not, there is no explicit statement in the Baha'i Sacred Scriptures (as far as I know) in favour or against it. It is certain, however, that if man can live on a purely vegetarian diet and thus avoid killing animals, it would be much preferable. This is, however, a very controversial question and the Baha'is are free to express their views on it. (From a letter written on behalf of Shoghi Effendi to an individual believer, July 9, 1931, Lights of Guidance, p. 296)
FROM LETTERS WRITTEN ON BEHALF OF THE UNIVERSAL HOUSE OF JUSTICE
"No specific school of nutrition or medicine has been associated with the Baha'i teachings. What we have are certain guidelines, indications and principles which will be carefully studied by experts and will, in the years ahead, undoubtedly prove to be invaluable sources of guidance and inspiration in the development of these medical sciences. Moreover, in this connection the Guardian's secretary has stated on his behalf that "It is premature to try and elaborate on the few general references to health and medicine made in our Holy Scriptures." The believers must guard against seizing upon any particular text which may appeal to them and which they may only partially or even incorrectly understand....In matters of diet, as in medicine, the Universal House of Justice feels that the believers should be aware that a huge body of scientific knowledge has been accumulated as a guide to our habits and practices. Here too, as in all other things, the believers should be conscious of the two principles of moderation and courtesy in the way they express their opinions and in deciding whether they should refuse food offered to them or request special foods. There are, of course, instances where a believer would be fully justified in abstaining from or eating only certain foods for some medical reason, but this is a different matter and would be understood by any reasonable person." (From a letter written on behalf of the Universal House of Justice to an individual believer, January 24, 1977, Lights of Guidance, p. 298)
In matters of health, particularly regarding diet and nutrition, the House of Justice advises the friends to seek the help and advice of experts and doctors. This is what Baha'u'llah has recommended and He does not indicate which school of thought or practice they should belong to. However, as you particularly ask about references in the Old Testament as they relate to meat and fish, the House of Justice has asked us to quote for you the following excerpt taken from a letter written on behalf of the beloved Guardian by his secretary to an individual believer: "...there is nothing in the teachings about whether people should eat their food cooked or raw; exercise or not exercise; resort to specific therapies or not; nor is it forbidden to eat meat." (From a letter written on behalf of the Universal House of Justice to an individual believer, July 11, 1978, Lights of Guidance, 2
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ABDU'L-BAHA'S USE OF NATURAL REMEDIES
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Taken from "The Revelation of Baha'u'llah", Volume Three, by Adib Taherzadeh, pp. 361-2
Dr. Yunis Khan,
a distinguished and trusted secretary of Abdu'l-Baha and one of the Heralds of the Covenant of Baha'u'llah (the title 'Herald of the Covenant' was sometimes given by Abdu'l-Baha and Shoghi Effendi to outstanding promoters of the Covenant), writes an interesting account in his memoirs. The following is a summary of his reminiscences:
"I heard Abdu'l-Baha many times speaking about the subject of medicine: He used to say that Jinab-i-Kalim (Baha'u'llah's faithful brother) was very knowledgeable in herbal medicine and used to practise it. In the early days Abdu'l-Baha also used to practise it. In the early days Abdu'l-Baha also used to prescribe medicine to those who came to him for healing. But later Baha'u'llah directed Him not to prescribe for patients, so that the believers might turn to the medical profession and not form the habit of seeking medical advice from unqualified people. This advice was given by Baha'u'llah so that His injunction in the 'Kitab-i-Aqdas (Baha'i Most Holy Book) to consult a skilled physician might be realized.
Although we all knew that because of this particular commandment in the 'Kitab-i-Aqdas, Abdu'l-Baha, the healer of spiritual ills, would not consent to prescribe for the physical sickness, yet whenever the doctor's treatment failed to cure, the patient used to turn to the Master and beg for healing from the One who was the Healer of all ills. And since the compassionate nature of Abdu'l-Baha was such that He could not withhold help from an individual who turned to Him, in such cases He would, as a matter of principle, employ some means to cure the patient. This He did by offering some remedy and thus conferring healing on the individual. More surprising is the fact that whereas the believers acted with some restraint, the non-Baha'i public who were not aware of the real situation used to come to Him for healing more often, and none of them left feeling disappointed.
One of the remedial means which was at Abdu'l-Baha's disposal and which He offered to many a sick person, was a delicious sauce made from pomegranates. The fruit has been grown in the Garden of Ridvan in Akka. To whomsoever Abdu'l-Baha gave this sauce, whether a believer or a non-Baha'i, He would say that the pomegranates had grown on trees in the Garden of Ridvan, trees which had been blessed by Baha'u'llah's eyes. But what were the circumstances which produced healing? Was it an inherent nature of the patient to be cured, was the cure the result of taking the sauce, or was it purely through the will of Abdu'l-Baha? I do not know the answer, but one thing I know that it was proved time and time again that this delicious fruit sauce was the remedy for many an illness! This was one of the topics often discussed among the believers in the Pilgrim House.
Another prescription which Abdu'l-Baha gave to some was that of fasting or cutting down on certain foods...."
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ABDU'L-BAHA'S USE OF NATURAL REMEDIES
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Taken from "The Revelation of Baha'u'llah", Volume Three, by Adib Taherzadeh, pp. 361-2
Dr. Yunis Khan,
a distinguished and trusted secretary of Abdu'l-Baha and one of the Heralds of the Covenant of Baha'u'llah (the title 'Herald of the Covenant' was sometimes given by Abdu'l-Baha and Shoghi Effendi to outstanding promoters of the Covenant), writes an interesting account in his memoirs. The following is a summary of his reminiscences:
"I heard Abdu'l-Baha many times speaking about the subject of medicine: He used to say that Jinab-i-Kalim (Baha'u'llah's faithful brother) was very knowledgeable in herbal medicine and used to practise it. In the early days Abdu'l-Baha also used to practise it. In the early days Abdu'l-Baha also used to prescribe medicine to those who came to him for healing. But later Baha'u'llah directed Him not to prescribe for patients, so that the believers might turn to the medical profession and not form the habit of seeking medical advice from unqualified people. This advice was given by Baha'u'llah so that His injunction in the 'Kitab-i-Aqdas (Baha'i Most Holy Book) to consult a skilled physician might be realized.
Although we all knew that because of this particular commandment in the 'Kitab-i-Aqdas, Abdu'l-Baha, the healer of spiritual ills, would not consent to prescribe for the physical sickness, yet whenever the doctor's treatment failed to cure, the patient used to turn to the Master and beg for healing from the One who was the Healer of all ills. And since the compassionate nature of Abdu'l-Baha was such that He could not withhold help from an individual who turned to Him, in such cases He would, as a matter of principle, employ some means to cure the patient. This He did by offering some remedy and thus conferring healing on the individual. More surprising is the fact that whereas the believers acted with some restraint, the non-Baha'i public who were not aware of the real situation used to come to Him for healing more often, and none of them left feeling disappointed.
One of the remedial means which was at Abdu'l-Baha's disposal and which He offered to many a sick person, was a delicious sauce made from pomegranates. The fruit has been grown in the Garden of Ridvan in Akka. To whomsoever Abdu'l-Baha gave this sauce, whether a believer or a non-Baha'i, He would say that the pomegranates had grown on trees in the Garden of Ridvan, trees which had been blessed by Baha'u'llah's eyes. But what were the circumstances which produced healing? Was it an inherent nature of the patient to be cured, was the cure the result of taking the sauce, or was it purely through the will of Abdu'l-Baha? I do not know the answer, but one thing I know that it was proved time and time again that this delicious fruit sauce was the remedy for many an illness! This was one of the topics often discussed among the believers in the Pilgrim House.
Another prescription which Abdu'l-Baha gave to some was that of fasting or cutting down on certain foods...."
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SACRED WRITINGS TO OVERCOME OUR LIMITATIONS
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The Sacred Writings of the Baha'i Faith can offer us inspiration and guidance to cope with our inner and outer limitations, and with our loved ones who are disabled or suffering from an illness. Our disabilities and struggles are given to us as gifts from God for our moral and spiritual development. This process will lead us to recognize that our physical self is only one small part of our being. Shoghi Effendi, in a letter dated 25 May 1936, written on his behalf, identifies man's "true self" with "his soul'. By rising above our limitations and imperfections, the real essence of the senses will become liberated and purified, our eyes to 'see', our ears to 'hear', our hearts to 'know' and our tongues to 'speak'. As Baha'u'llah states in Gleanings CXXV, "Then will the manifold favors and outpouring grace of the holy and everlasting Spirit confer such new life upon the seeker that he will find himself endowed with a new eye, a new ear, a new heart, and a new mind." The following quotes are a few examples to assist us to overcome our limitations:
"Human attitudes must not be limited; for God is unlimited, and whosoever is the servant of the threshold of God must, likewise, be free from limitations." (Abdu'l-Baha, Selections from the Writings of Abdu'l-Baha, p. 131)
Remember not your own limitations; the help of God will come to you. Forget yourself. God's help will surely come! When you call on the Mercy of God waiting to reinforce you, your strength will be tenfold. Look at me: I am so feeble, yet I have had the strength given me to come amongst you: a poor servant of God, who has been enabled to give you this message!" (Abdu'l-Baha, Paris Talks, pp. 38-9)
"The greater your handicaps the firmer your determination should wax, and the more abundant will assuredly be the blessings and confirmations of Baha'u'llah." (Shoghi Effendi, Dawn of a New Day, p. 87)
"Baha'u'llah and the Master have both urged us repeatedly to disregard our own handicaps and lay our whole reliance upon God. He will come to our help if we only arise and become an active channel for God's grace." (From letter dated 31 March 1932 written on behalf of Shoghi Effendi to an individual believer, 'The Power of Divine Assistance, pp. 47-8)
"All of us suffer from imperfections which we must struggle to overcome and we all need one another's understanding and patience." Also, "Whether deficiencies are inborn or are acquired, our purpose in this life is to overcome them and to train ourselves in accordance with the pattern that is revealed to us in the divine Teachings." (The Universal House of Justice, in a letter dated 11 September 1995 to the National Spiritual Assembly of the Baha'is of United States)
SACRED WRITINGS TO OVERCOME OUR LIMITATIONS
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The Sacred Writings of the Baha'i Faith can offer us inspiration and guidance to cope with our inner and outer limitations, and with our loved ones who are disabled or suffering from an illness. Our disabilities and struggles are given to us as gifts from God for our moral and spiritual development. This process will lead us to recognize that our physical self is only one small part of our being. Shoghi Effendi, in a letter dated 25 May 1936, written on his behalf, identifies man's "true self" with "his soul'. By rising above our limitations and imperfections, the real essence of the senses will become liberated and purified, our eyes to 'see', our ears to 'hear', our hearts to 'know' and our tongues to 'speak'. As Baha'u'llah states in Gleanings CXXV, "Then will the manifold favors and outpouring grace of the holy and everlasting Spirit confer such new life upon the seeker that he will find himself endowed with a new eye, a new ear, a new heart, and a new mind." The following quotes are a few examples to assist us to overcome our limitations:
"Human attitudes must not be limited; for God is unlimited, and whosoever is the servant of the threshold of God must, likewise, be free from limitations." (Abdu'l-Baha, Selections from the Writings of Abdu'l-Baha, p. 131)
Remember not your own limitations; the help of God will come to you. Forget yourself. God's help will surely come! When you call on the Mercy of God waiting to reinforce you, your strength will be tenfold. Look at me: I am so feeble, yet I have had the strength given me to come amongst you: a poor servant of God, who has been enabled to give you this message!" (Abdu'l-Baha, Paris Talks, pp. 38-9)
"The greater your handicaps the firmer your determination should wax, and the more abundant will assuredly be the blessings and confirmations of Baha'u'llah." (Shoghi Effendi, Dawn of a New Day, p. 87)
"Baha'u'llah and the Master have both urged us repeatedly to disregard our own handicaps and lay our whole reliance upon God. He will come to our help if we only arise and become an active channel for God's grace." (From letter dated 31 March 1932 written on behalf of Shoghi Effendi to an individual believer, 'The Power of Divine Assistance, pp. 47-8)
"All of us suffer from imperfections which we must struggle to overcome and we all need one another's understanding and patience." Also, "Whether deficiencies are inborn or are acquired, our purpose in this life is to overcome them and to train ourselves in accordance with the pattern that is revealed to us in the divine Teachings." (The Universal House of Justice, in a letter dated 11 September 1995 to the National Spiritual Assembly of the Baha'is of United States)
A WOMAN'S COURAGE
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By Anna May Kinney, Canada (You can visit her website which is filled with pictures of her garden, pets and her section changes weekly:
http://aradece.tripod.com/Default.htm
It was over 25 years ago that my illness first showed it’s ugly face. At that time they were only just beginning to know about what multiple sclerosis (MS) was and they thought I had some rare flu at first, or some rare virus and ran all kinds of tests, nothing of that kind showed up.
During the winter months, I was pretty well, but as soon as it got warm the following summer, I began to ache all over, my balance deteriorated and my legs would suddenly turn to rubber, making me wind up on my behind in the middle of the sidewalk.
It took many years of hearing doctors tell me there was nothing wrong with me or it was all in my head, before a observant MD gave me some test, asked a lot of questions and said, “I think you have MS”.
Well at this point, instead of being depressed, I was relieved to find out what was wrong. I always felt that once you know the enemy then you know how to rage war against him. I also feel that God does not allow something to hit you like this unless He has a reason to do so. Everything we suffer is to help us learn to understand the needs of others and to make ourselves stronger in this physical world as well as the spiritual world.
As I went to doctors, I was told to limit my lifestyle, told I should rest most of the day, not do this or that. I wanted to adopt another dog after my beloved Athena passed away, but was told it was too much responsibility, that it was a time in my life to focus on myself. That I was NOT going to get better and that slowly every year I would get worse and that everyday stress, lack of sleep and rest would only make matters worse.
For about three years, I was forced to use crutches around my farm, and a wheelchair for shopping. While still on crutches, I adopted Faith, my dog, and wrote my cookbook on a very old 286 computer that was donated by a Baha’ i family. It crashed just as I was finishing it.
A year later, I found that the doctors were making me depressed with their negative attitudes and lack of treating my entire body. I decided to use only natural healing and said good-bye to all the regular doctors. Since then my health has been on the constant road to improvement. Even before this point, I had started taking Ginseng every morning for energy, but soon I found I was changing everything I ate and especially eliminating bad fats, transfats, such as hydrogenated vegetable shortening, even margarine. I do eat natural butter, olive oil and some corn oil. There are a lot of things I have eliminated from my diet and anyone who is interested in knowing what they are and why may contact me.
Then I decided to adopt a few more dogs and they have given me so much love that my body has been healing. Every year since my dogs have arrived we all walk together around the huge perennial flower garden I designed to thank God for letting me walk again and every year with their love and encouragement I walk better. Then this year, for the first time in 23 years I was strong enough to jog around the garden. No it wasn’t a great jog, but I did it....
In January 1997, against doctor's advice, I started a writing course and a month later sold my first article to a local newspaper. A month after that, I had my own weekly column called Nature's Way.
I strongly feel that the medical profession feels it is doing the right thing, but telling people to ‘give up’, go on welfare, forget about their dreams, become dependant on the system, is not helping them. Yes, if you are too ill to do anything that is what a person should do, but if you can do anything, the more you do and keep doing, the more a person will be able to do.
I do have a lot of pain in my legs at times, and it takes me a lot longer to do things than it used to. In order to achieve anything in a day, besides doing meals, dishes and other housework, I have to put in a lot of hours. I get up at 4:30 a.m. and go to bed often at 11 p.m. Doctors will be the first to tell you this is not good, I agree, but if I want to change my life style I must do this. I have done nothing on my own, if God would not have been there holding me up through all of this, nothing could have been achieved. With every step I praise His Holy name. I know without a doubt that God will open the way for me.
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By Anna May Kinney, Canada (You can visit her website which is filled with pictures of her garden, pets and her section changes weekly:
http://aradece.tripod.com/Default.htm
It was over 25 years ago that my illness first showed it’s ugly face. At that time they were only just beginning to know about what multiple sclerosis (MS) was and they thought I had some rare flu at first, or some rare virus and ran all kinds of tests, nothing of that kind showed up.
During the winter months, I was pretty well, but as soon as it got warm the following summer, I began to ache all over, my balance deteriorated and my legs would suddenly turn to rubber, making me wind up on my behind in the middle of the sidewalk.
It took many years of hearing doctors tell me there was nothing wrong with me or it was all in my head, before a observant MD gave me some test, asked a lot of questions and said, “I think you have MS”.
Well at this point, instead of being depressed, I was relieved to find out what was wrong. I always felt that once you know the enemy then you know how to rage war against him. I also feel that God does not allow something to hit you like this unless He has a reason to do so. Everything we suffer is to help us learn to understand the needs of others and to make ourselves stronger in this physical world as well as the spiritual world.
As I went to doctors, I was told to limit my lifestyle, told I should rest most of the day, not do this or that. I wanted to adopt another dog after my beloved Athena passed away, but was told it was too much responsibility, that it was a time in my life to focus on myself. That I was NOT going to get better and that slowly every year I would get worse and that everyday stress, lack of sleep and rest would only make matters worse.
For about three years, I was forced to use crutches around my farm, and a wheelchair for shopping. While still on crutches, I adopted Faith, my dog, and wrote my cookbook on a very old 286 computer that was donated by a Baha’ i family. It crashed just as I was finishing it.
A year later, I found that the doctors were making me depressed with their negative attitudes and lack of treating my entire body. I decided to use only natural healing and said good-bye to all the regular doctors. Since then my health has been on the constant road to improvement. Even before this point, I had started taking Ginseng every morning for energy, but soon I found I was changing everything I ate and especially eliminating bad fats, transfats, such as hydrogenated vegetable shortening, even margarine. I do eat natural butter, olive oil and some corn oil. There are a lot of things I have eliminated from my diet and anyone who is interested in knowing what they are and why may contact me.
Then I decided to adopt a few more dogs and they have given me so much love that my body has been healing. Every year since my dogs have arrived we all walk together around the huge perennial flower garden I designed to thank God for letting me walk again and every year with their love and encouragement I walk better. Then this year, for the first time in 23 years I was strong enough to jog around the garden. No it wasn’t a great jog, but I did it....
In January 1997, against doctor's advice, I started a writing course and a month later sold my first article to a local newspaper. A month after that, I had my own weekly column called Nature's Way.
I strongly feel that the medical profession feels it is doing the right thing, but telling people to ‘give up’, go on welfare, forget about their dreams, become dependant on the system, is not helping them. Yes, if you are too ill to do anything that is what a person should do, but if you can do anything, the more you do and keep doing, the more a person will be able to do.
I do have a lot of pain in my legs at times, and it takes me a lot longer to do things than it used to. In order to achieve anything in a day, besides doing meals, dishes and other housework, I have to put in a lot of hours. I get up at 4:30 a.m. and go to bed often at 11 p.m. Doctors will be the first to tell you this is not good, I agree, but if I want to change my life style I must do this. I have done nothing on my own, if God would not have been there holding me up through all of this, nothing could have been achieved. With every step I praise His Holy name. I know without a doubt that God will open the way for me.
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Thursday, 15 February 2007
DETACHMENT FROM THIS WORLD
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Taken from 'Trustees of the Merciful, by Adib Taherzadeh, pp. 46-48
"It is often attachment to this world which clouds the vision and makes the individual proud, arrogant and self-centered. Obedience to Baha'u'llah, humility and submissiveness towards the Institutions will, in the end, confer inestimable blessings upon the soul. Attachment to this world is often mistakenly understood to be the possession of earthly goods. "Should a man," Baha'u'llah explains to His followers, "wish to adorn himself with the ornaments of the earth, to wear its apparels, or partake of the benefits it can bestow, no harm can befall him, if he alloweth nothing whatever to intervene between him and God, for God hath ordained every good thing, whether created in the heavens or in the earth, for such of His servants as truly believe in Him."
There is a story in Persian which throws some light on the nature and meaning of detachment from this world. It is the story of a King and a dervish. The King had many spiritual qualities but in his heart he envied the dervish who seemed to have no attachment to this world. For all that a dervish possessed was a basket in which he carried his food. He spent his time roaming around town chanting the praises of his Lord and having mystical communion with HIm. He had no home and no belongings yet he considered himself to be so rich that he owned the whole world. To this way of life the King was attracted, so he invited a dervish to his palace in order to learn some lessons in detachment. The dervish came and stayed for some time. At last the King decided to give up his throne and live the life of a dervish. Putting on some old clothes, he disguished himself as a poor man and left his palace with his guest.
They had walked together some distance when the dervish realized that he had left his basket behind in the palace. He explained to the King that he could not go without the basket and that they had better go back and fetch it. It was by this incident that the dervish was finally tested and found to be attached to this world. The King had left behind his palaces and his treasures and was treading the path of detachment, whereas the dervish preaching this very virtue for a life-time proved in the end to be attached to his small basket.
Attachment is an attitude of mind and is not necessarily related to riches. The pride which the individual may have in his learning and knowledge, his accomplishments in this life, his position in the community, his fame and popularity, the love of his own self and of his possessions could all become barriers between his soul and God."
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Taken from 'Trustees of the Merciful, by Adib Taherzadeh, pp. 46-48
"It is often attachment to this world which clouds the vision and makes the individual proud, arrogant and self-centered. Obedience to Baha'u'llah, humility and submissiveness towards the Institutions will, in the end, confer inestimable blessings upon the soul. Attachment to this world is often mistakenly understood to be the possession of earthly goods. "Should a man," Baha'u'llah explains to His followers, "wish to adorn himself with the ornaments of the earth, to wear its apparels, or partake of the benefits it can bestow, no harm can befall him, if he alloweth nothing whatever to intervene between him and God, for God hath ordained every good thing, whether created in the heavens or in the earth, for such of His servants as truly believe in Him."
There is a story in Persian which throws some light on the nature and meaning of detachment from this world. It is the story of a King and a dervish. The King had many spiritual qualities but in his heart he envied the dervish who seemed to have no attachment to this world. For all that a dervish possessed was a basket in which he carried his food. He spent his time roaming around town chanting the praises of his Lord and having mystical communion with HIm. He had no home and no belongings yet he considered himself to be so rich that he owned the whole world. To this way of life the King was attracted, so he invited a dervish to his palace in order to learn some lessons in detachment. The dervish came and stayed for some time. At last the King decided to give up his throne and live the life of a dervish. Putting on some old clothes, he disguished himself as a poor man and left his palace with his guest.
They had walked together some distance when the dervish realized that he had left his basket behind in the palace. He explained to the King that he could not go without the basket and that they had better go back and fetch it. It was by this incident that the dervish was finally tested and found to be attached to this world. The King had left behind his palaces and his treasures and was treading the path of detachment, whereas the dervish preaching this very virtue for a life-time proved in the end to be attached to his small basket.
Attachment is an attitude of mind and is not necessarily related to riches. The pride which the individual may have in his learning and knowledge, his accomplishments in this life, his position in the community, his fame and popularity, the love of his own self and of his possessions could all become barriers between his soul and God."
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THE SPIRITUAL LIFE OF MAN
*(Editor's Note: Dorothy Baker, Hand of the Cause of God, prepared this talk for a radio program in Lima, Ohio, United States. It is taken from "From Copper to Gold: The Life of Dorothy Baker, pp. 149 - 150 by Dorothy Freeman. Hands of the Cause of God of the Baha'i Faith are people who have been appointed by Baha'u'llah, Abdu'l-Baha, and Shoghi Effendi, to be the Chief Stewards of the Baha'i Faith)"
One day a businessman said to me, 'Secretly I wonder about myself. I arise in the morning, eat, keep shop, sleep and then do it all over again. I begin to feel like that person who said, "Man matters only to himself; he is fighting a lone fight against a vast indifference."'What a strange creature man is! He stands at the very apex of creation and forgets his own preciousness in the sight of God. Sometimes we go into dark closets of our own building and stuff up the keyhole and the cracks. Then we say, 'The sun is not shining for me.' We build the closets of our own odd variety of materials - envy, fear, selfishness, sadness and sometimes just a sense of frustration and futility. And there we stay, mainly because we have not thought out our position there and so we are not doing anything about it. Often we hear the sighs of others in nearby closets and we wish we could liberate them, but not having freed ourselves, we find it pretty hard to tell them what to do.Now the first thing that is probably needed is a larger perspective. I had the good fortune to have a remarkable grandmother. How well I remember hearing her say, 'If anything troubles you very much now, look at it in terms of five years from this time, or twenty-five, or fifty, and if it still looms pretty large, measure it in terms of eternity. Now that is my theme of eternity. Then look back, if you will, and wonder what became of your darkest closet.The great thing is to find for ourselves the purpose of being, and to hold to that through everything. Baha'u'llah said, 'O God, I testify that thou hast created me to know Thee and to adore Thee.' There is God at the far end and here are we are at the near end, on this lonely little island, the earth, needing to discover in that brief flash, an enormous purpose like that! And it is brief! He also said, 'Count all the days of thy life as less than a fleeting instant.'To know and adore God! Think of the things we deplore every day that all the while may be really speeding us on our way! Take the matter of trouble, for example. Baha'u'llah, in His Tablet to the Shah of Persia, wrote, 'I am not impatient of calamity in His way nor of affliction for His love. God hath made afflictions as a morning shower to His green pasture, and as a wick for His lamp, whereby earth and Heaven are illumined.'A morning shower! Often trouble opens the heart to God. And after that it becomes purified, little by little, so that the self or Satan of the heart dies out and makes room for the Divine Beloved. I came just this morning upon these words, 'Purify thy heart for My descent. The Friend and stanger cannot dwell there together.' Trouble is often just the testing ground of the soul. There is a real freedom in it. As a Kreisler after difficult years of drudgery is free in the world of music, as an athlete after long discipline of the body has supremacy in the world of sports, so does your soul win a sovereignty through a life that challenges it to be at grips with the world. Tests often come again and again to teach a single lesson, until at last there is a victory and a former weakness is replaced by strength. Every time this happens, it marks a milestone on the path to God."
*******************
*(Editor's Note: Dorothy Baker, Hand of the Cause of God, prepared this talk for a radio program in Lima, Ohio, United States. It is taken from "From Copper to Gold: The Life of Dorothy Baker, pp. 149 - 150 by Dorothy Freeman. Hands of the Cause of God of the Baha'i Faith are people who have been appointed by Baha'u'llah, Abdu'l-Baha, and Shoghi Effendi, to be the Chief Stewards of the Baha'i Faith)"
One day a businessman said to me, 'Secretly I wonder about myself. I arise in the morning, eat, keep shop, sleep and then do it all over again. I begin to feel like that person who said, "Man matters only to himself; he is fighting a lone fight against a vast indifference."'What a strange creature man is! He stands at the very apex of creation and forgets his own preciousness in the sight of God. Sometimes we go into dark closets of our own building and stuff up the keyhole and the cracks. Then we say, 'The sun is not shining for me.' We build the closets of our own odd variety of materials - envy, fear, selfishness, sadness and sometimes just a sense of frustration and futility. And there we stay, mainly because we have not thought out our position there and so we are not doing anything about it. Often we hear the sighs of others in nearby closets and we wish we could liberate them, but not having freed ourselves, we find it pretty hard to tell them what to do.Now the first thing that is probably needed is a larger perspective. I had the good fortune to have a remarkable grandmother. How well I remember hearing her say, 'If anything troubles you very much now, look at it in terms of five years from this time, or twenty-five, or fifty, and if it still looms pretty large, measure it in terms of eternity. Now that is my theme of eternity. Then look back, if you will, and wonder what became of your darkest closet.The great thing is to find for ourselves the purpose of being, and to hold to that through everything. Baha'u'llah said, 'O God, I testify that thou hast created me to know Thee and to adore Thee.' There is God at the far end and here are we are at the near end, on this lonely little island, the earth, needing to discover in that brief flash, an enormous purpose like that! And it is brief! He also said, 'Count all the days of thy life as less than a fleeting instant.'To know and adore God! Think of the things we deplore every day that all the while may be really speeding us on our way! Take the matter of trouble, for example. Baha'u'llah, in His Tablet to the Shah of Persia, wrote, 'I am not impatient of calamity in His way nor of affliction for His love. God hath made afflictions as a morning shower to His green pasture, and as a wick for His lamp, whereby earth and Heaven are illumined.'A morning shower! Often trouble opens the heart to God. And after that it becomes purified, little by little, so that the self or Satan of the heart dies out and makes room for the Divine Beloved. I came just this morning upon these words, 'Purify thy heart for My descent. The Friend and stanger cannot dwell there together.' Trouble is often just the testing ground of the soul. There is a real freedom in it. As a Kreisler after difficult years of drudgery is free in the world of music, as an athlete after long discipline of the body has supremacy in the world of sports, so does your soul win a sovereignty through a life that challenges it to be at grips with the world. Tests often come again and again to teach a single lesson, until at last there is a victory and a former weakness is replaced by strength. Every time this happens, it marks a milestone on the path to God."
*******************
THE SPIRITUAL LIFE OF MAN
*(Editor's Note: Dorothy Baker, Hand of the Cause of God, prepared this talk for a radio program in Lima, Ohio, United States. It is taken from "From Copper to Gold: The Life of Dorothy Baker, pp. 149 - 150 by Dorothy Freeman. Hands of the Cause of God of the Baha'i Faith are people who have been appointed by Baha'u'llah, Abdu'l-Baha, and Shoghi Effendi, to be the Chief Stewards of the Baha'i Faith)"
One day a businessman said to me, 'Secretly I wonder about myself. I arise in the morning, eat, keep shop, sleep and then do it all over again. I begin to feel like that person who said, "Man matters only to himself; he is fighting a lone fight against a vast indifference."'What a strange creature man is! He stands at the very apex of creation and forgets his own preciousness in the sight of God. Sometimes we go into dark closets of our own building and stuff up the keyhole and the cracks. Then we say, 'The sun is not shining for me.' We build the closets of our own odd variety of materials - envy, fear, selfishness, sadness and sometimes just a sense of frustration and futility. And there we stay, mainly because we have not thought out our position there and so we are not doing anything about it. Often we hear the sighs of others in nearby closets and we wish we could liberate them, but not having freed ourselves, we find it pretty hard to tell them what to do.Now the first thing that is probably needed is a larger perspective. I had the good fortune to have a remarkable grandmother. How well I remember hearing her say, 'If anything troubles you very much now, look at it in terms of five years from this time, or twenty-five, or fifty, and if it still looms pretty large, measure it in terms of eternity. Now that is my theme of eternity. Then look back, if you will, and wonder what became of your darkest closet.The great thing is to find for ourselves the purpose of being, and to hold to that through everything. Baha'u'llah said, 'O God, I testify that thou hast created me to know Thee and to adore Thee.' There is God at the far end and here are we are at the near end, on this lonely little island, the earth, needing to discover in that brief flash, an enormous purpose like that! And it is brief! He also said, 'Count all the days of thy life as less than a fleeting instant.'To know and adore God! Think of the things we deplore every day that all the while may be really speeding us on our way! Take the matter of trouble, for example. Baha'u'llah, in His Tablet to the Shah of Persia, wrote, 'I am not impatient of calamity in His way nor of affliction for His love. God hath made afflictions as a morning shower to His green pasture, and as a wick for His lamp, whereby earth and Heaven are illumined.'A morning shower! Often trouble opens the heart to God. And after that it becomes purified, little by little, so that the self or Satan of the heart dies out and makes room for the Divine Beloved. I came just this morning upon these words, 'Purify thy heart for My descent. The Friend and stanger cannot dwell there together.' Trouble is often just the testing ground of the soul. There is a real freedom in it. As a Kreisler after difficult years of drudgery is free in the world of music, as an athlete after long discipline of the body has supremacy in the world of sports, so does your soul win a sovereignty through a life that challenges it to be at grips with the world. Tests often come again and again to teach a single lesson, until at last there is a victory and a former weakness is replaced by strength. Every time this happens, it marks a milestone on the path to God."
*******************
*(Editor's Note: Dorothy Baker, Hand of the Cause of God, prepared this talk for a radio program in Lima, Ohio, United States. It is taken from "From Copper to Gold: The Life of Dorothy Baker, pp. 149 - 150 by Dorothy Freeman. Hands of the Cause of God of the Baha'i Faith are people who have been appointed by Baha'u'llah, Abdu'l-Baha, and Shoghi Effendi, to be the Chief Stewards of the Baha'i Faith)"
One day a businessman said to me, 'Secretly I wonder about myself. I arise in the morning, eat, keep shop, sleep and then do it all over again. I begin to feel like that person who said, "Man matters only to himself; he is fighting a lone fight against a vast indifference."'What a strange creature man is! He stands at the very apex of creation and forgets his own preciousness in the sight of God. Sometimes we go into dark closets of our own building and stuff up the keyhole and the cracks. Then we say, 'The sun is not shining for me.' We build the closets of our own odd variety of materials - envy, fear, selfishness, sadness and sometimes just a sense of frustration and futility. And there we stay, mainly because we have not thought out our position there and so we are not doing anything about it. Often we hear the sighs of others in nearby closets and we wish we could liberate them, but not having freed ourselves, we find it pretty hard to tell them what to do.Now the first thing that is probably needed is a larger perspective. I had the good fortune to have a remarkable grandmother. How well I remember hearing her say, 'If anything troubles you very much now, look at it in terms of five years from this time, or twenty-five, or fifty, and if it still looms pretty large, measure it in terms of eternity. Now that is my theme of eternity. Then look back, if you will, and wonder what became of your darkest closet.The great thing is to find for ourselves the purpose of being, and to hold to that through everything. Baha'u'llah said, 'O God, I testify that thou hast created me to know Thee and to adore Thee.' There is God at the far end and here are we are at the near end, on this lonely little island, the earth, needing to discover in that brief flash, an enormous purpose like that! And it is brief! He also said, 'Count all the days of thy life as less than a fleeting instant.'To know and adore God! Think of the things we deplore every day that all the while may be really speeding us on our way! Take the matter of trouble, for example. Baha'u'llah, in His Tablet to the Shah of Persia, wrote, 'I am not impatient of calamity in His way nor of affliction for His love. God hath made afflictions as a morning shower to His green pasture, and as a wick for His lamp, whereby earth and Heaven are illumined.'A morning shower! Often trouble opens the heart to God. And after that it becomes purified, little by little, so that the self or Satan of the heart dies out and makes room for the Divine Beloved. I came just this morning upon these words, 'Purify thy heart for My descent. The Friend and stanger cannot dwell there together.' Trouble is often just the testing ground of the soul. There is a real freedom in it. As a Kreisler after difficult years of drudgery is free in the world of music, as an athlete after long discipline of the body has supremacy in the world of sports, so does your soul win a sovereignty through a life that challenges it to be at grips with the world. Tests often come again and again to teach a single lesson, until at last there is a victory and a former weakness is replaced by strength. Every time this happens, it marks a milestone on the path to God."
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THOUGHTFULNESS -
A LESSON BY ABDU'L-BAHA
From An Early Pilgrimage, pp. 14-16 - quoted in Vignettes from the Life ofAbdu'l-Baha, AnnaMarie Honnold, p. 87
On pilgrimage May Maxwell came to realize that every word and every act ofthe Master's (Abdu'l-Baha) had meaning and purpose. The pilgrim party wasinvited to meet Abdu'l-Baha 'under the cedar trees on Mount Carmel where Hehad been in the habit of sitting with Baha'u'llah.' She recalled that 'onSunday morning we awakened with the joy and hope of the meeting on MountCarmel. The Master arrived quite early and after looking at me, touching myhead and counting my pulse, still holding my hand He said to the believerspresent: "There will be no meeting on Mount Carmel today...we could not goand leave one of the beloved of God alone and sick. We could none of us behappy unless all the beloved were happy." We were astonished. That anythingso important as this meeting in that blessed spot should be cancelledbecause one person was ill and could not go seemed incredible. It was socontrary to all ordinary habits of thoughts and action, so different fromthe life of the world where daily events and material circumstances aresupreme in importance that it gave us a genuine shock of surprise, and inthat shock the foundations of the old order began to totter and fall. TheMaster's words had opened wide the door of God's Kingdom and given us avision of that infinite world whose only law is love. This was but one ofthe many times that we saw Abdu'l-Baha place above every otherconsideration the love and kindness, the sympathy and compassion due toevery soul.'
Introduction au jeûne Bahais
1) Introduction Cette compilation a été faite à la suggestion et avec l'aide de deux nouveaux jeunes bahà'is de France. S'étant déclarés en Décembre 1987, au cours de la présence à Paris D'Amatu'l-Bahà Rùhìyyih Khànum, ils éprouvèrent, dès leur première expérience de , trois mois seulement après leur déclaration, le désir de voir regroupés en un seul document l'ensemble des écrits bahà'is sur cette institution. afin que tout nouveau croyant à venir puisse accéder à ces textes avant son premier jeûne.
Les références de ces citations se trouvent, en anglais, dans le répertoire "Index of quotation". page 233, au mot « fasting » (jeûne), et dans le livre « Light of Guidance », pages 181 à 183. Pour les même citations, mais en français, on les retrouve alors facilement dans les livres bahà'is traduits et publiés. 2)
Les jeûnes antiques
Ils remontent très, très loin dans l'histoire. On parle d'Adam et d'Abraham. Mais c'est à partir de Moïse que commence les prescriptions religieuses du judaïsme. La fête du Grand Pardon, le Youm Kippour, se prépare par le jeûne et il y en a encore plusieurs autres de différentes durées dans le calendrier judaïque actuel.Après les juifs ce sont les chrétiens qui pratiquent le jeûne. Leur Carême annuel dure quarante jours et précède la grande fête de Pâques. Il consiste à ne manger aucune viande, sans autre abstinence. Il prend sa source dans l'Ancien Testament et fut consacré par le Christ lui-même puisqu'on peut entendre, dans l'Evangile de Mathieu (6/16-24) la voix de Jésus conseiller à ses compatriotes : « lorsque vous jeûnez. ne prenez pas un air sombre comme le font les hypocrites. Ils prennent cette triste mine pour que l'on remarque bien qu'ils jeûnent ! En vérité, je vous le dis, ceux-là ont déjà trouvé leur récompense. Toi, lorsque tu jeûnes parfume, ta tête et lave ton visage pour que ton jeûne ne soit pas connu des hommes mais seulement de ton Père qui est présent, qui voit dans le secret et qui te le revaudra ». Au premier jour du Carême, l'Eglise ouvre le jeûne par l'annonce :
«Voici le temps favorable, voici les jours du salut », selon une formule rituelle datant des premiers siècles chrétiens. Ce jeûne est une pratique de pénitence, de purification et d'association aux souffrances du Christ pour la rédemption des chrétiens.L'islam consacre tout le mois de Ramadan (neuvième mois du calendrier de l’Hégire) à l'application du jeûne ordonné par le Coran et qui ne ressemble ni en durée ni en rites aux jeûnes Juifs et chrétiens. La deuxième sourate, verset 183 dit notamment : « Il vous est prescrit de jeûner, à l'instar de ceux qui vous ont précédé, afin que vous manifestiez votre piété ». Les versets 184 à 187 développent l'esprit et la lettre de cette institution fréquemment citée dans les Ecrits Bahà'is.
Quant au jeûne bahà'i, il est d'une toute autre nature et sa spiritualité transcendante est révélée par Bahà'u'llàh, explicitée par ‘Abdu’l-Bahà, et pratiquement affirmée par Shoghi Effendi dans les "Principes de l'Administration Bahà'ie ", selon les citations des Ecrits sacrés Bahà'is que vous présente cette plaquette. (Lucrèce Reynaud)3) Comment jeûner BAHÀ’U’LLÀH EDICTE LE JEÛNE( Extraits du Kitàb-i-Aqdàs de Bahà'u'llàh, p.13 ) Synopsys du Kitab-i-Aqdas sur le jeûne
Nous vous avons commandé de prier et de jeûner à partir de la maturité. C'est l'ordre de Dieu, votre Seigneur et le Seigneur de vos ancêtres. Il en a exempté ceux qui sont affaiblis par l'âge ou la maladie, comme une faveur marquant sa présence, et Il est l'Indulgent, le Généreux.Nous vous avons prescrit de jeûner pendant une brève période, à l'issue de laquelle Nous vous avons désigné le Naw-Rûz comme une fête... Les voyageurs, les femmes enceintes ou qui allaitent ne sont pas tenus de jeûner... Abstenez-vous de nourriture et de boisson, du lever au coucher du soleil, et prenez garde que le désir ne vous prive de cette grâce qui est spécifiée dans le livre.SYNOPSIS ET CODIFICATION DU KITAB-I-AQDAS :
LE JEÛNE- Rang sublime occupé par le jeûne dans la révélation bahà'i. - La période du jeûne commence juste après les Jours Intercalaires et prend fin avec la fête du Naw-Rûz. - L'abstention de nourriture et de boisson, du lever au coucher du soleil, est obligatoire.
- Le jeûne est obligatoire pour les hommes et les femmes à partir de la maturité, qui est fixée à quinze ans.
Sont dispensés du jeûne :
(a) Les voyageurs
i --A condition que la durée du voyage dépasse neuf heures.
ii-- Ceux qui voyagent à pied, à condition que le voyage dépasse deux heures.
iii-- Ceux qui interrompent leur voyage pendant moins de dix-neuf jours.
iv-- Ceux qui, pendant le jeûne, interrompent leur voyage en un lieu où ils doivent rester dix-
neuf jours, ne sont dispensés du jeûne que pendant les trois premiers jours après leur arrivée.
v --Ceux qui rentrent chez eux en période de Jeûne doivent commencer à jeûner dès le jour de leur arrivée
(b) Ceux qui sont malades.
(c) Ceux qui ont plus de soixante-dix ans.
(d) Les femmes enceintes.
(e) Les femmes qui allaitent.
(f) Les femmes pendant leur fatigue mensuelle,
à condition de procéder à leurs ablutions et de réciter, 95 fois chaque jour un verset révélé spécialement.
(g) Ceux qui se livrent à de gros travaux, et auxquels il est recommandé de montrer du respect pour la loi en usant de modération et de discrétion lorsqu'ils profitent de cette dispense.
Notes :Faire voeu de jeûner ( pendant un mois autre que celui qui est prescrit pour le jeûne) est permis. Toutefois, les voeux dont l'humanité tire profit sont préférables aux yeux de Dieu. ( pp 40 à 42 )
Dans l'une de ses tablettes, Abdu'l-Bahà, après avoir indiqué que le jeûne consiste à s'abstenir de nourriture et de boisson, déclare catégoriquement que fumer est une façon de boire.
( En arabe, le verbe « boire » s'emploie également pour fumer.) ( Aqdas p.63 )Le verset spécialement révélé est : « Glorifié soit Dieu, le Seigneur de splendeur et de beauté ». ( Aqdas p.61 )
PETITE PRESENTATION PAR JOHN E. ESSLEMONT
(Bahà'u'llàh et l'Ere Nouvelle, p.103-108)
Le dix-neuvième mois, succédant aux Jours intercalaires ( réservés à l'hospitalité ) est le mois du Jeûne. Ce jeûne consiste à s'abstenir de manger et de boire, du lever au coucher du soleil ; il est observé durant dix-neuf jours. Comme ce mois finit à l'équinoxe de mars, le jeûne a lieu toujours dans la même saison, c'est-à-dire à l'arrivée du printemps dans l'hémisphère nord, de l'automne dans l'hémisphère sud : il ne coïncide jamais avec la chaleur ou le froid extrême pendant lesquels il risquerait d'être pénible. De plus, en cette saison, la longueur des journées est à peu près la même (de six heures du matin à six heures du soir) dans toutes les régions habitées du globe. Le jeûne ne doit pas être observé par les enfants, les malades, ceux qui voyagent, les personnes trop âgées ou trop faibles, ni par les futures mères ou celles qui nourris- sent un enfant. Il est prouvé qu'un jeûne périodique tel que celui qui est prescrit dans les enseignements bahà'is est très profitable au point de vue de l'hygiène physique mais, tout comme la valeur des fêtes bahà'ies ne consiste pas à absorber de la nourriture physique mais à célébrer Dieu, notre nourriture spirituelle, ainsi la valeur du jeûne bahà'i ne consiste pas dans l'abstention de nourriture physique, bien que cela puisse aider à la purification du corps, mais dans l'abstention de toute convoitise et désir charnels et dans le détachement de tout, sauf de Dieu. 4) Sens du jeûne
EXHORTATION DE BAHÀ’U’LLÀH AUX JEÛNEURS( Extraits des Ecrits de Bahà'u'llàh, CLX, p.282 ) Extraits des Ecrits de Baha'u'llah
O Shaykh, ô toi qui as fait à Dieu l'abandon de ta volonté ! Par abandon absolu et union perpétuelle à Dieu, il faut entendre que les hommes doivent perdre complètement leur volonté dans la volonté de Dieu, et qu'ils doivent considérer leurs propres désirs comme de purs néants devant le plan divin. Quoi que commande le Créateur à ses créatures, elles le doivent accomplir diligemment, avec la plus vive ardeur et la plus parfaite allégresse. Elles ne doivent en aucune façon permettre à leur imagination d'obscurcir leur jugement. ni prendre leur propre chimère pour la voix de l'Eternel. Dans la prière du jeûne, Nous avons révélé : « Si, par ta volonté, ces paroles sortant de tes lèvres leur étaient adressées : « Observez le jeûne par amour pour ma beauté, ô peuple, et ne fixez aucune limite à sa durée », je jure par la majesté de ta gloire que chacun d'eux l'observerait fidèlement, qu'ils s'abstiendraient de tout ce qui viole ta loi, et qu'ils continueraient de jeûner jusqu'à ce qu'ils te rendent leur âme ». Voilà en quoi consiste le total abandon de sa volonté à la volonté de Dieu. Médite ceci, afin de boire si possible les eaux de vie éternelle qui glissent au travers des paroles du Seigneur de toute l'humanité, et de pouvoir attester que seul vrai Dieu a toujours été immensément exalté au-dessus de ses créatures. Il est en vérité, l'Incomparable. l'Eternel, l'Omniscient, le Très Sage. L'état d'absolue soumission dépasse tout autre rang et restera supérieur à jamais. Il te convient de te consacrer à la volonté de Dieu. Tout ce qui a été révélé dans sa tablette n'est qu'un reflet de sa volonté. Ta consécration doit être si complète que toute trace de désir terrestre soit bannie de ton coeur. Voilà ce que la véritable unité signifie. Implore Dieu de t'aider à rester inébranlable en ce chemin et à guider les peuples du monde vers celui qui est le maître souverain et manifeste, qui s'est révélé lui-même, revêtu d'un habit distinctif, et qui proclame un divin et spécifique message. C'est là l'essence de la foi et de la certitude. Ceux-là qui adorent l'idole qu'ont sculptée leurs imaginations et l'ap-pellent Réalité essentielle méritent d'être comptés parmi les païens. De cela le Très- Miséricordieux porte témoignage en ses tablettes. Il est en vérité l'Omniscient. le Très-Sage.LE JEÛNE ET LA PRIÈRE( Livre de la certitude, pp.23-24 ) Livre de la certitude
On emploie les mots soleil, lune, étoiles pour désigner les connaissances et les commandements qui sont proclamés dans chaque religion. Dans l'Islam, après la mort de Muhammad, la prière et le jeûne furent les commandements principaux. ainsi que les Traditions et les livres nous l'enseignent ; et c'est un fait assez connu pour qu'il soit inutile d'en parler longuement. Dans tous les âges d'ailleurs la prière fut spécialement ordonnée, comme l'a ordonnée lui-même Muhammad : tous les prophètes ont donné à ce sujet des commandements analogues. Mais elle a varié à chaque époque suivant les différentes conditions des hommes. A chaque nouvelle Manifestation, les coutumes, les usages et les connaissances, qui étaient considérés comme élevés et tenus pour nobles jusque-là, sont modifiés ; et les mots symboliques de soleil, lune, étoiles, que les Manifestations emploient à ce sujet, sont destinés à éprouver les hommes « pour voir qui de vous agira bien ». Les Traditions contiennent également les noms de soleil et de lune dans le sens de jeûne et de prière : le jeûne est clarté et la prière est lumière. Je me reposais un jour à l'ombre d'un jardin quand un des plus renommés parmi les savants vint me trouver. Au bout de quelques temps de conversation, il cita cette parole et l'expliqua, disant : « Le jeûne réchauffe le tempérament, c'est pourquoi on le compare à la clarté du soleil ; et la prière du soir qui rafraîchit est comparée à la lumière de la lune ». Je vis que ce pauvre homme n’avait pas obtenu une seule goutte de spiritualité ni vu une seule étincelle de la flamme des Arbres de la sagesse divine. Après un moment, je lui fis doucement observer : « O Jinàb, votre explication est celle qui a cours dans le public, mais je crois qu'il y en a une autre : Muhammad, le Sceau des Prophètes, et le Seigneur des Elus, a comparé au ciel la religion du Qu'ran, à cause de son élévation, de sa majesté, de son incomparable influence et de sa grandeur, et parce qu'elle contient toutes les autres religions. Et comme dans le ciel visible, il y a deux astres principaux. les deux lumières, le soleil et la lune, ainsi, dans le Ciel de la Religion sont établies deux Lumières. le jeûne et la prière ».LE JEÛNE EST UN SYMBOLE Abdu'l-Bahà dit :Le jeûne est un symbole. Jeûner signifie s'abstenir de tout désir. Le jeûne physique est le symbole de cette abstinence, c'est un appel ; tandis que l'on réfrène l'appétit physique, il faut s'abstenir des convoitises personnelles et des désirs égoïstes. Mais se passer uniquement de nourriture n'a aucun effet sur l'esprit. C'est uniquement un symbole, un appel. Autrement, cela n'a aucune importance. Jeûner pour atteindre le détachement ne signifie pas s'abstenir uniquement de nourriture. La règle d'or est : ni trop ni peu. La modération est nécessaire. Il existe une secte aux Indes dont les membres pratiquent l'abstinence à l'extrême, réduisant graduellement leur nourriture jusqu'à pouvoir s'en passer presque complètement. Mais leur intelligence en souffre. Un homme n'est pas capable de servir Dieu efficacement, tant matériellement que spirituellement, s'il est affaibli par le manque de nourriture. Il ne possède pas toute sa lucidité. ( Baha'u'llàh et l'ère nouvelle, p.197 )
Posted by french bahai writings service at 05:58 0 comments
JEÛNEZ, CAR ILS ONT JEÛNE
Abdu'l-Bahà a dit : La sagesse divine dans le jeûne est multiple. Parmi ses différents aspects il y a le suivant : étant donné que ces jours ( c'est-à-dire la période de jeûne observée ensuite par les croyants ), la Manifestation du Soleil de Réalité, à travers l'inspiration divine, est occupé à révéler ses versets, à instituer la loi divine et à élaborer les enseignements, son extrême occupation et son attraction intense ne lui laissent ni possibilité ni temps pour se nourrir et s'abreuver.Par exemple, lorsque Sa Sainteté Moïse se rendit sur le Mont de Tur ( le Sinaï ) et là procéda à l'institution de la Loi de Dieu, il jeûna durant quarante jours. Dans le but d'éveiller et d'exhorter le peuple d’Israël, il enjoignit de pratiquer le jeûne.De même, Sa Sainteté le Christ. alors qu'il commençait à instituer la Loi spirituelle, à systématiser les enseignements et à former les conseils ( apostoliques ), s'abstint de toute nourriture et boisson durant quarante jours. Au début, les disciples et les chrétiens jeûnèrent. Plus tard. les assemblées de dignitaires chrétiens transformèrent le jeûne en série d'observances de carême.De même le Coran étant descendu au mois de Ramadan, jeûner durant ce mois devint un devoir.De la même manière, Sa Sainteté Le Suprême ( le Bàb ), au début de la Manifestation, totalement absorbé dans la révélation des versets, passa des Jours pendant lesquels sa nourriture se réduisit à l'absorption de thé.De même, la Beauté Bénie ( Bahà'u'llàh ), alors qu'il était occupé à instituer les divins enseignements, et durant les Jours où les versets ( la Parole de Dieu ) descendaient en permanence, sous l'effet de ces versets et des sanglots de son coeur, ne prit que le minimum de nourriture.Le but recherché est le suivant : afin d'obéir aux divines Manifestations, dans le but d'exhortation et pour commémorer leur état, il incombe désormais au peuple de jeûner durant ces jours car toute âme sincère qui possède un bien-aimé brûle d'expérimenter l'état dans lequel se trouve son bien-aimé. Si ce dernier est dans l'affliction, elle désire l'affliction ; s'il est dans la joie, elle désire la joie ; s'il est dans le repos, elle désire le repos ; s'il est dans le trouble, elle désire le trouble. A présent, en ce jour de millénaire, puisque Sa Sainteté le Suprême ( le Bàb ) jeûna durant de nombreux jours et que la Beauté Bénie ( Bahà'u'llàh ) n'absorba que peu de nourriture et de boisson, il devient nécessaire que les amis suivent cet exemple... ( à madame Corinne True, Star of the west, vol IV, n°18, page 305, traduction P. Coulon )
Posted by french bahai writings service at 05:55 0 comments
LE JEUN
BIENHEUREUX QUE VOUS ÊTES( Sélections des Ecrits d'Abdu'l-Bahà, n°35, p68 ) Sélection des écrits d'Abdu'l-Baha...Vous m'avez écrit au sujet du mois de jeûne. Bienheureux que vous êtes d'avoir obéi au commande- ment de Dieu et observé ce jeûne pendant la période sacrée, car ce jeûne matériel est un signe extérieur du jeûne spirituel, un symbole de retenue, d'abstention de tous les désirs du moi qui acquiert ainsi les caractéristiques de l'esprit, est emporté par les brises célestes, et brûle de l'amour divin.
Wednesday, 14 February 2007
Stress Management
A lecturer, when explaining stress management to an audience, raised a glass of water and asked, "how heavy is this glass of water? "
Answers called out ranged from 20g to 500g.
The lecturer replied, "The absolute weight doesn't matter.
It depends on how long you try to hold it.
"If I hold it for a minute, that's not a problem. If I hold it for an hour,
I'll have an ache in my right arm.
If I hold it for a day, you'll have to call an ambulance.
"In each case, it's the same weight, but the longer I hold it, the heavier it becomes. "
He continued, "And that's the way it is with stress management.
If we carry our burdens all the time, sooner or later, as the burden becomes increasingly heavy, we won't be able to carry on. "
"As with the glass of water, you have to put it down for a while and rest before holding it again.
When we're refreshed,
we can carry on with the burden. "
"So, before you return home tonight,
put the burden of work down. Don't carry it home.
You can pick it up tomorrow. Whatever burdens you're carrying now, let them down for a moment if you can. "
"Relax; pick them up later after you've rested.
Life is short. Enjoy it!And then he shared some ways of dealing with the burdens of life:
Accept that some days you're the pigeon, and some days you're the statue.
* Always keep your words soft and sweet, just in case you have to eat them.
* Always read stuff that will make you look good if you die in the middle of it.
* Drive carefully. It's not only cars that can be recalled by their maker.
* If you can't be kind, at least have the decency to be vague.
* If you lend someone $20 and never see that person again, it was probably worth it.
* It may be that your sole purpose in life is simply to serve as a warning to others.
* Never buy a car you can't push.
* Never put both feet in your mouth at the same time, because then you
won't have a leg to stand on.
* Nobody cares if you can't dance well. Just get up and dance.
* Since it's the early worm that gets eaten by the bird, sleep late. The second mouse gets the cheese.
* When everything's coming your way, you're in the wrong lane.
* Birthdays are good for you. The more you have, the longer you\nlive.
* You may be only one person in the world, but you may also be the world to one person.
* Some mistakes are too much fun to only make once *
We could learn a lot from crayons. Some are sharp, some are pretty and some are dull Some have weird names, and all are different colors, but they all have to live in the samebox.
A truly happy person is one who can enjoy the scenery on a detour. \nHave an awesome day and know that someone has thought about you today. .
* Accept that some days you're the pigeon, and some days you're the statue. * Always keep your words soft and sweet, just in case you have to eat them. * Always read stuff that will make you look good if you die in the middle of it. * Drive carefully. It's not only cars that can be recalled by their maker.
* If you can't be kind, at least have the decency to be vague.
* If you lend someone $20 and never see that person again, it was probably worth it.
* It may be that your sole purpose in life is simply to serve as a warning to others.
* Never buy a car you can't push.
* Never put both feet in your mouth at the same time, because then you won't have a leg to stand on.
* Nobody cares if you can't dance well. Just get up and dance.
* Since it's the early worm that gets eaten by the bird, sleep late. * The second mouse gets the cheese. * When everything's coming your way, you're in the wrong lane. * Birthdays are good for you. The more you have, the longer you live.
* You may be only one person in the world, but you may also be the world to one person.
* Some mistakes are too much fun to only make once
* We could learn a lot from crayons. Some are sharp, some are pretty andsome are dull Some have weird names, and all are different colors, but they all have to live in the same box. " A truly happy person is one who can enjoy the scenery on a detour. Have an awesome day and know that someone has thought about you today. .
A lecturer, when explaining stress management to an audience, raised a glass of water and asked, "how heavy is this glass of water? "
Answers called out ranged from 20g to 500g.
The lecturer replied, "The absolute weight doesn't matter.
It depends on how long you try to hold it.
"If I hold it for a minute, that's not a problem. If I hold it for an hour,
I'll have an ache in my right arm.
If I hold it for a day, you'll have to call an ambulance.
"In each case, it's the same weight, but the longer I hold it, the heavier it becomes. "
He continued, "And that's the way it is with stress management.
If we carry our burdens all the time, sooner or later, as the burden becomes increasingly heavy, we won't be able to carry on. "
"As with the glass of water, you have to put it down for a while and rest before holding it again.
When we're refreshed,
we can carry on with the burden. "
"So, before you return home tonight,
put the burden of work down. Don't carry it home.
You can pick it up tomorrow. Whatever burdens you're carrying now, let them down for a moment if you can. "
"Relax; pick them up later after you've rested.
Life is short. Enjoy it!And then he shared some ways of dealing with the burdens of life:
Accept that some days you're the pigeon, and some days you're the statue.
* Always keep your words soft and sweet, just in case you have to eat them.
* Always read stuff that will make you look good if you die in the middle of it.
* Drive carefully. It's not only cars that can be recalled by their maker.
* If you can't be kind, at least have the decency to be vague.
* If you lend someone $20 and never see that person again, it was probably worth it.
* It may be that your sole purpose in life is simply to serve as a warning to others.
* Never buy a car you can't push.
* Never put both feet in your mouth at the same time, because then you
won't have a leg to stand on.
* Nobody cares if you can't dance well. Just get up and dance.
* Since it's the early worm that gets eaten by the bird, sleep late. The second mouse gets the cheese.
* When everything's coming your way, you're in the wrong lane.
* Birthdays are good for you. The more you have, the longer you\nlive.
* You may be only one person in the world, but you may also be the world to one person.
* Some mistakes are too much fun to only make once *
We could learn a lot from crayons. Some are sharp, some are pretty and some are dull Some have weird names, and all are different colors, but they all have to live in the samebox.
A truly happy person is one who can enjoy the scenery on a detour. \nHave an awesome day and know that someone has thought about you today. .
* Accept that some days you're the pigeon, and some days you're the statue. * Always keep your words soft and sweet, just in case you have to eat them. * Always read stuff that will make you look good if you die in the middle of it. * Drive carefully. It's not only cars that can be recalled by their maker.
* If you can't be kind, at least have the decency to be vague.
* If you lend someone $20 and never see that person again, it was probably worth it.
* It may be that your sole purpose in life is simply to serve as a warning to others.
* Never buy a car you can't push.
* Never put both feet in your mouth at the same time, because then you won't have a leg to stand on.
* Nobody cares if you can't dance well. Just get up and dance.
* Since it's the early worm that gets eaten by the bird, sleep late. * The second mouse gets the cheese. * When everything's coming your way, you're in the wrong lane. * Birthdays are good for you. The more you have, the longer you live.
* You may be only one person in the world, but you may also be the world to one person.
* Some mistakes are too much fun to only make once
* We could learn a lot from crayons. Some are sharp, some are pretty andsome are dull Some have weird names, and all are different colors, but they all have to live in the same box. " A truly happy person is one who can enjoy the scenery on a detour. Have an awesome day and know that someone has thought about you today. .
***************************"
INNATE MIRACLES"
***************************By Martin O. Minney
The Power of Innate Intelligence
I want to share with you two stories of patients in my office thatexperienced what I like to call "Innate Miracles". A brief explanation maybe in order. I am currently a practicing Chiropractor and I graduatedfrom Palmer College of Chiropractic in October, 1975. While I was inschool, I took two seminars that changed my life. One was on thephilosophy of Chiropractic called "Forgotten Fundamentals" taught by Dr.H. Marshall Himes and the other on DNFT (Directional Non-Force Technique)taught by Dr. Richard Van Rumpt.
Combining all that I learned at Palmer with these two seminars gave me astrong base from which to operate my practice. Being from a Baha'i familyI knew of the Writings on the soul, health, and healing. Once in practice,I began to study the Writings in depth and incorporate what I was learninginto the practice. Now, twenty-five years later, my practice is based onthe spiritual teachings of Baha'u'llah. Without question, this body ofinformation is the foundation of all that I do in my practice. A goodexample of this is the passage in Gleanings (pgs 164 - 166) on the RationalFaculty. This is the absolute best description of the concept of InnateIntelligence I have ever found. It is clear to me that D. D. Palmer was onto something when he discovered Chiropractic in 1895 and connected to theenergy of Baha'u'llah's Revelation.
Here are the stories:
The Story of Darlene
On my first day in practice, October 1975 in Summersville, WV, the thirdpatient I saw was a 14 year old named Darlene. She had been diagnosed with"ulcerative colitis", was bleeding to death and the doctors told her familythat she had 6 months to live. Darlene and her mom gave me the history andthen they both looked at me and mom asked "Can you help her?" I looked atDarlene and asked "Are you still alive?" She grinned. "Since you arestill alive, we have a good shot at it", I said.
I did my evaluation looking for the interference patterns in the nervoussystem. The biggest area of interference was in the upper cervical areawith a secondary pattern in the sacral area. I further evaluated anddetermined to begin the adjusting with an upper cervical correction. Idon't remember if I used the Palmer Toggle-Recoil or the DNFT uppercervical work, but it cleared the whole pattern!
We did the adjustments as Darlene's body needed and saw her frequentlyduring the first thirty days. During that time, lots of changes occurred.She would hemorrhage and masses would be found in the stool. The tumorswere being sloughed off by the innate wisdom of the body. Each time onewould be released, she would bleed. We did no therapies nor medicalmonitoring like blood pressure or blood tests, etc.
After the first month, she began to gain some weight and her body began tostabilize and grow stronger. There was light in her eyes now and she wasdoing better in school. At the end of 6 months, she went to Charleston fora checkup with the medical people. They ran all of their tests and found"no evidence that she had ever had a problem". They were stunned! "Howdid you do this?" Mom told them "A lot of prayers, intense Faith, and agood Chiropractor."
The Story of Michelle
I heard about Michelle when my wife came home from work at the Universityof Wyoming Library and told me that her boss's daughter had been in a caraccident in Buffalo. Of the five or six people in the car, only one wasseriously hurt. Michelle was the best friend of this girl. Michelleshattered her C-5 segment and was not expected to ever walk again.
I was called by Michelle's dad some six months later as they were moving toLaramie and he was looking for a Chiropractor to work with Michelle. Hehad called the other Chiropractors in town and they all said that I was theonly one crazy enough to try it. We set up a visit after they got settledin their new home.
Michelle had no sensation from the armpits down, could move her head,shoulders, and elbows, though without looking, she was not aware where herarms were. No awareness of any internal functions either. We talked aboutInnate Intelligence and how it would always strive for the best in thebody. We talked about how interference garbles the messages and puts thenervous system into a state of confusion. I explained that it doesn't takeforce to clear the interference pattern as we are not trying to moveanything, just open the channels of communication. I did my evaluation andfound a major interference pattern in the upper cervical area. The area ofthe injury was pretty stable. The first adjustment was a DNFT uppercervical group series. The interference cleared!
I saw Michelle for the first time on a Saturday, rechecked her on Sunday,Tuesday , Thursday and on the following Monday when I went to see her,Gary, her dad, had a black eye. He was an officer with the Wyoming HighwayPatrol so I teased him a little. He told me that Michelle did it. Now,Michelle couldn't weigh more than 125 pounds and she's in the chair. Hehad her explain. "Saturday night we were all going out for dinner and dadwas putting on my shoes. He had my right one on and was putting on my leftshoe when I decked him. He asked 'What was that for?' and I said 'You hurtmy foot! He said 'What?! I said You hurt my foot!' Then we all gotexcited!!!!" I got excited, too!!!
From there it was all upwards. In the course of a year, she got all of herbladder and bowel control back, had sensation over 90% of her body, wasgetting voluntary contractions in her calves, thighs, abdomen and back, wasable to move her wrists and beginning to move her fingers on both hands.
She then moved to Las Vegas to work with the Help Them Walk AgainFoundation. I went down and saw her a couple of times and checked her out.I did evaluations for all of their patients and learned a lot about spinalcord injury. Approximately 6 months after my last visit with her, Ireceived a photo in the mail. It was Michelle, standing under her ownpower, and the look on her face is beyond priceless. On the back it said"Thanks! Love, Michelle"
It was the most AWESOME and humbling thing to watch. If I didn't have areally fortified, really strong belief in the power of Innate Intelligenceby then, after 11 - 12 years of practice, I had it NOW!!! It was a lessonin TRUST, SUBMISSION, and OBEDIENCE. Innate mind has access to infinitepower. Conscious mind does NOT know it all. Conscious mind needs tobecome the obedient servant of Innate.
If you are interested, I will be glad to share with you more of what I havelearned about health, healing, and the spiritual nature of mankind. For a"brief" look at the foundations of what I do, see Gleanings pages 136 -200. It is about the soul and our spirituality. Read it aloud.
INNATE MIRACLES"
***************************By Martin O. Minney
The Power of Innate Intelligence
I want to share with you two stories of patients in my office thatexperienced what I like to call "Innate Miracles". A brief explanation maybe in order. I am currently a practicing Chiropractor and I graduatedfrom Palmer College of Chiropractic in October, 1975. While I was inschool, I took two seminars that changed my life. One was on thephilosophy of Chiropractic called "Forgotten Fundamentals" taught by Dr.H. Marshall Himes and the other on DNFT (Directional Non-Force Technique)taught by Dr. Richard Van Rumpt.
Combining all that I learned at Palmer with these two seminars gave me astrong base from which to operate my practice. Being from a Baha'i familyI knew of the Writings on the soul, health, and healing. Once in practice,I began to study the Writings in depth and incorporate what I was learninginto the practice. Now, twenty-five years later, my practice is based onthe spiritual teachings of Baha'u'llah. Without question, this body ofinformation is the foundation of all that I do in my practice. A goodexample of this is the passage in Gleanings (pgs 164 - 166) on the RationalFaculty. This is the absolute best description of the concept of InnateIntelligence I have ever found. It is clear to me that D. D. Palmer was onto something when he discovered Chiropractic in 1895 and connected to theenergy of Baha'u'llah's Revelation.
Here are the stories:
The Story of Darlene
On my first day in practice, October 1975 in Summersville, WV, the thirdpatient I saw was a 14 year old named Darlene. She had been diagnosed with"ulcerative colitis", was bleeding to death and the doctors told her familythat she had 6 months to live. Darlene and her mom gave me the history andthen they both looked at me and mom asked "Can you help her?" I looked atDarlene and asked "Are you still alive?" She grinned. "Since you arestill alive, we have a good shot at it", I said.
I did my evaluation looking for the interference patterns in the nervoussystem. The biggest area of interference was in the upper cervical areawith a secondary pattern in the sacral area. I further evaluated anddetermined to begin the adjusting with an upper cervical correction. Idon't remember if I used the Palmer Toggle-Recoil or the DNFT uppercervical work, but it cleared the whole pattern!
We did the adjustments as Darlene's body needed and saw her frequentlyduring the first thirty days. During that time, lots of changes occurred.She would hemorrhage and masses would be found in the stool. The tumorswere being sloughed off by the innate wisdom of the body. Each time onewould be released, she would bleed. We did no therapies nor medicalmonitoring like blood pressure or blood tests, etc.
After the first month, she began to gain some weight and her body began tostabilize and grow stronger. There was light in her eyes now and she wasdoing better in school. At the end of 6 months, she went to Charleston fora checkup with the medical people. They ran all of their tests and found"no evidence that she had ever had a problem". They were stunned! "Howdid you do this?" Mom told them "A lot of prayers, intense Faith, and agood Chiropractor."
The Story of Michelle
I heard about Michelle when my wife came home from work at the Universityof Wyoming Library and told me that her boss's daughter had been in a caraccident in Buffalo. Of the five or six people in the car, only one wasseriously hurt. Michelle was the best friend of this girl. Michelleshattered her C-5 segment and was not expected to ever walk again.
I was called by Michelle's dad some six months later as they were moving toLaramie and he was looking for a Chiropractor to work with Michelle. Hehad called the other Chiropractors in town and they all said that I was theonly one crazy enough to try it. We set up a visit after they got settledin their new home.
Michelle had no sensation from the armpits down, could move her head,shoulders, and elbows, though without looking, she was not aware where herarms were. No awareness of any internal functions either. We talked aboutInnate Intelligence and how it would always strive for the best in thebody. We talked about how interference garbles the messages and puts thenervous system into a state of confusion. I explained that it doesn't takeforce to clear the interference pattern as we are not trying to moveanything, just open the channels of communication. I did my evaluation andfound a major interference pattern in the upper cervical area. The area ofthe injury was pretty stable. The first adjustment was a DNFT uppercervical group series. The interference cleared!
I saw Michelle for the first time on a Saturday, rechecked her on Sunday,Tuesday , Thursday and on the following Monday when I went to see her,Gary, her dad, had a black eye. He was an officer with the Wyoming HighwayPatrol so I teased him a little. He told me that Michelle did it. Now,Michelle couldn't weigh more than 125 pounds and she's in the chair. Hehad her explain. "Saturday night we were all going out for dinner and dadwas putting on my shoes. He had my right one on and was putting on my leftshoe when I decked him. He asked 'What was that for?' and I said 'You hurtmy foot! He said 'What?! I said You hurt my foot!' Then we all gotexcited!!!!" I got excited, too!!!
From there it was all upwards. In the course of a year, she got all of herbladder and bowel control back, had sensation over 90% of her body, wasgetting voluntary contractions in her calves, thighs, abdomen and back, wasable to move her wrists and beginning to move her fingers on both hands.
She then moved to Las Vegas to work with the Help Them Walk AgainFoundation. I went down and saw her a couple of times and checked her out.I did evaluations for all of their patients and learned a lot about spinalcord injury. Approximately 6 months after my last visit with her, Ireceived a photo in the mail. It was Michelle, standing under her ownpower, and the look on her face is beyond priceless. On the back it said"Thanks! Love, Michelle"
It was the most AWESOME and humbling thing to watch. If I didn't have areally fortified, really strong belief in the power of Innate Intelligenceby then, after 11 - 12 years of practice, I had it NOW!!! It was a lessonin TRUST, SUBMISSION, and OBEDIENCE. Innate mind has access to infinitepower. Conscious mind does NOT know it all. Conscious mind needs tobecome the obedient servant of Innate.
If you are interested, I will be glad to share with you more of what I havelearned about health, healing, and the spiritual nature of mankind. For a"brief" look at the foundations of what I do, see Gleanings pages 136 -200. It is about the soul and our spirituality. Read it aloud.
It is commonly known that laughter is excellent medicine.
What are some of the spiritual, mental and physiological benefits of laughter?
Answers:
You mentioned 'humorous stories'. Well I have some delightful moments that have been stored in my heart for many years.
These situations occurred about 25 years ago when I was practicing as a rural physician. When we first arrived in the area the clinic was in the same building as our home. The distance between home and the office was a closed door, and possibly a key-hole.
One Labor Day week-end I said to my two small children, "Now what day is it today?" (I was trying to fulfill my duty as educator of my kids). They both thought for a while, and then one cheerfully said, "I know, I know, it's Maternity Day."
Now this was in the days when the fetal stethoscopes were short trumpet-like pieces of metal. I came out of the clinic to find both kids on the stairs. My son was lying on his back on the stairs and my daughter was carefully listening to his fetal heart through a long wooden block.
A few years went by and changes took place. The children were now in school and the clinic was now located in a separate building quite close to the school. I often had visits from them on their way home.
My blood pressure machine had been acting up and leaking some of its mercury. I had collected this carefully in a little box and kept it in a drawer in my desk. My son was fascinated by this and would often ask to see it. One day he arrived and said "Mummy, can I have a look at your Jupiter?"
I have been wanting to share these dear stories for 25 years. I think the time has come to share them with you.
- Anne Parsons, Newfoundland, Canada
****************************
Here is a humorous story which also reflects how deep racism runs in our society.
An Embarrassing Lesson
On a recent weekend in Atlantic City, the woman related, she won a bucketful of quarters at a slot machine. She took a break from the slots for dinner with her husband in the hotel dining room. But first she would stash the quarters in her room. I'll be right back and we'll go to eat," she told her husband and she carried the coin-laden bucket to the elevator. As she was about to walk into the elevator she noticed two men already aboard. Both were black. One of them was big... Very big... An intimidating figure.
The woman froze. Her first thought was: These two are going to rob me. Her next thought was: Don't be a bigot, they look like perfectly nice gentlemen, even if one of them is awfully black. But racial stereotypes are powerful, and fear immobilized her.
She stood and stared at the two men. She felt anxious, flustered, ashamed. She hoped they didn't read her mind but knew they surely did; her hesitation about joining them on the elevator was all too obvious. Her face burned. She couldn't just stand there, so with a mighty effort of will she picked up one foot and stepped forward and followed with the other foot and was on the elevator. Avoiding eye contact, she turned around stiffly and faced the elevator doors as they closed. A second passed, and then another second, and then another. The elevator didn't move. Panic consumed her. My God, she thought, I'm trapped and about to be robbed!
Her heart plummeted. Perspiration poured from every pore. Then one of the men said, "Hit the floor." Instinct told her: Do what they tell you. The bucket of quarters flew upwards as she threw out her arms and collapsed on the elevator carpet. A shower of coins rained down on her. Take my money and spare me, she prayed. More seconds passed. She heard one of the men say politely, "Ma'am, if you'll just tell us what floor you're going to, we'll push the button." The one who said it had a little trouble getting the words out. He was trying mightily to hold in a belly laugh. She lifted her head and looked up at the two men.
They reached down to help her up. Confused, she struggled to her feet. "When I told my man here to hit the floor," one of the men, the average sized one, told her, "I meant that he should hit the elevator button for our floor. I didn't mean for you to hit the floor, ma'am. "He spoke genially. He bit his lip. It was obvious he was having a hard time not laughing.
She thought: My God, what a spectacle I've made of myself. She was too humiliated to speak. She wanted to blurt out an apology, but words failed her. How do you apologize to two perfectly respectable gentlemen for behaving as though they were robbing you? She didn't know. The three of them gathered up the strewn quarters and refilled her bucket. When the elevator arrived at her floor they insisted on walking her to her room.
She seemed a little unsteady on her feet, and they were afraid she might not make it down the corridor. At her door they bid her good evening. As she slipped into her room she could hear them laughing while they walked back to the elevator. The woman brushed herself off. She pulled herself together and went downstairs for dinner with her husband. The next morning flowers were delivered to her room ~ a dozen roses. Attached to each rose was a crisp one hundred dollar bill. A card said: "Thanks for the best laugh we've had in years."
It was signed, Eddie Murphy and Bodyguard.
- submitted by Nona Simons, Nevada, U.S.A.
******************************
Laugh!
Many years ago, Norman Cousins was diagnosed as "terminally ill." He was given six months to live. His chance for recovery was one in 500. He could see the worry, depression and anger in his life contributed to, and perhaps helped cause his disease. He wondered, "If illness can be caused by negativity, can wellness be created by positivity?"
He decided to make an experiment of himself. Laughter was one of the most positive activities he knew. He rented all the funny movies he could find - Keaton, Chaplin, Fields, the Marx Brothers. (This was before VCRs, so he had to rent the actual films.) He read funny stories. He asked his friends to call him whenever they said, heard or did something funny. His pain was so great he could not sleep. Laughing for 10 solid minutes, he found, relieved the pain for several hours so he could sleep.
He fully recovered from his illness and lived another 20 happy, healthy and productive years. (His journey is detailed in his book, 'Anatomy of an Illness'.) He credits visualization, the love of his family and friends, and laughter for his recovery.
Some people think laughter is a waste of time. It is a luxury, they say, a frivolity, something to indulge in only every so often. Nothing could be further from the truth. Laughter is essential to our equilibrium, to our well-being, to our aliveness. If we're not well, laughter helps us get well; if we are well, laughter helps us stay that way.
Since Cousins' ground-breaking subjective work, scientific studies have shown that laughter has a curative effect on the body, the mind and the emotions. So, if you like laughter, consider it sound medical advice to indulge in it as often as you can. If you don't like laughter, then take your medicine - laugh anyway. Use whatever makes you laugh - movies, sitcoms, Monty Python, records, books, New Yorker cartoons, jokes, friends.
Give yourself permission to laugh - long and loud and out loud - whenever anything strikes you as funny. The people around you may think you're strange, but sooner or later they'll join in even if they don't know what you're laughing about. Some diseases may be contagious, but none is as contagious as the cure. . . laughter.
- by Peter McWilliams from Chicken Soup for the Surviving Soul
Copyright 1996 by Jack Canfield, Mark Victor Hansen, Patty
Aubery & Nancy Mitchell, R.N.
********************************
A giggle a day keeps the doctor away!
It's no joke that laughter is the best medicine ... for having a good giggle can apparently do wonders for your health. Not only does it make you feel better, it relieves stress, provides an internal massage and can even put romance into your life, says stress consultant and pyschologist Robert Holden, founder of the first ever National Health Service Laughter Clinic in Birmingham, U.K.
Research has shown that laughter can result in improved immunity to illness and that people who regularly use laughter, humour and play as coping strategies for everyday events have a significantly higher count of a particular immunity antibody.
The act of laughing ventilates the lungs and leaves muscles, nerves and heart warm and relaxed, according to Dr. Willliam Fry Jr, an American who has spent more than 30 years researching its therapeutic properties. He reckons that 100-200 laughs a day is equivalent to about 10 minutes of rowing or jogging.
Victor Borge once said laughter is the shortest distance between two people. It helps develop friendships and is brilliant for romance. Research shows that a sense of humour attracts us to partners and may give away our whole philosophy on life. You can tell a lot about a person by what they find funny. Laughter also has spiritual benefits, he notes.
[the above is extracted from a newspaper article by Hannah Stephenson (UK)]
__________________________
The following quote tells us how to act:
"Even as the clouds let us shed down tears, and as the lightning flashes let us laugh at our coursings through east and west. By day, by night, let us think but of spreading the sweet savours of God. Let us not keep on forever with our fancies and illusions, with our analysing and interpreting and circulating of complex dubieties. Let us put aside all thoughts of self; let us close our eyes to all on earth, let us neither make known our sufferings nor complain of our wrongs. Rather let us become oblivious of our own selves, and drinking down the wine of heavenly grace, let us cry out our joy, and lose ourselves in the beauty of the All-Glorious."
[Abdu'l-Baha, Selections from the Writings of 'Abdu'l-Baha, p.236]
The following is Abdu'l-Baha's reflections on a fellow believer:
The Prison was a garden of roses to him ( Mirza Ja'far i Yazdi), and his narrow cell a wide and fragrant place. At the time when we were in the barracks he fell dangerously ill and was confined to his bed. He suffered many complications, until finally the doctor gave him up and would visit him no more. Then the sick man breathed his last. Mirza Aqa Jan ran to Baha'u'llah, with word of the death. Not only had the patient ceased to breathe, but his body was already going limp. His family were gathered about him, mourning him, shedding bitter tears. The Blessed Beauty said, "Go; chant the prayer of Ya Shafi - O Thou, the Healer and Mirza Ja'far will come alive. Very rapidly, he will be as well as ever." I reached his bedside. His body was cold and all the signs of death were present. Slowly, he began to stir; soon he could move his limbs, and before an hour had passed he lifted his head, sat up, and proceeded to laugh and tell jokes.
He lived for a long time after that, occupied as ever with serving the friends. This giving service was a point of pride with him: to all he was a servant. He was always modest and humble, calling God to mind, and to the highest degree full of hope and faith. Finally, while in the Most Great Prison, he abandoned this earthly life and winged his way to the life beyond. (Abdu'l-Baha, Memorials of the Faithful, pp. 157-58)
- submitted by Thelma Batchelor, Leatherhead, U.K
What are some of the spiritual, mental and physiological benefits of laughter?
Answers:
You mentioned 'humorous stories'. Well I have some delightful moments that have been stored in my heart for many years.
These situations occurred about 25 years ago when I was practicing as a rural physician. When we first arrived in the area the clinic was in the same building as our home. The distance between home and the office was a closed door, and possibly a key-hole.
One Labor Day week-end I said to my two small children, "Now what day is it today?" (I was trying to fulfill my duty as educator of my kids). They both thought for a while, and then one cheerfully said, "I know, I know, it's Maternity Day."
Now this was in the days when the fetal stethoscopes were short trumpet-like pieces of metal. I came out of the clinic to find both kids on the stairs. My son was lying on his back on the stairs and my daughter was carefully listening to his fetal heart through a long wooden block.
A few years went by and changes took place. The children were now in school and the clinic was now located in a separate building quite close to the school. I often had visits from them on their way home.
My blood pressure machine had been acting up and leaking some of its mercury. I had collected this carefully in a little box and kept it in a drawer in my desk. My son was fascinated by this and would often ask to see it. One day he arrived and said "Mummy, can I have a look at your Jupiter?"
I have been wanting to share these dear stories for 25 years. I think the time has come to share them with you.
- Anne Parsons, Newfoundland, Canada
****************************
Here is a humorous story which also reflects how deep racism runs in our society.
An Embarrassing Lesson
On a recent weekend in Atlantic City, the woman related, she won a bucketful of quarters at a slot machine. She took a break from the slots for dinner with her husband in the hotel dining room. But first she would stash the quarters in her room. I'll be right back and we'll go to eat," she told her husband and she carried the coin-laden bucket to the elevator. As she was about to walk into the elevator she noticed two men already aboard. Both were black. One of them was big... Very big... An intimidating figure.
The woman froze. Her first thought was: These two are going to rob me. Her next thought was: Don't be a bigot, they look like perfectly nice gentlemen, even if one of them is awfully black. But racial stereotypes are powerful, and fear immobilized her.
She stood and stared at the two men. She felt anxious, flustered, ashamed. She hoped they didn't read her mind but knew they surely did; her hesitation about joining them on the elevator was all too obvious. Her face burned. She couldn't just stand there, so with a mighty effort of will she picked up one foot and stepped forward and followed with the other foot and was on the elevator. Avoiding eye contact, she turned around stiffly and faced the elevator doors as they closed. A second passed, and then another second, and then another. The elevator didn't move. Panic consumed her. My God, she thought, I'm trapped and about to be robbed!
Her heart plummeted. Perspiration poured from every pore. Then one of the men said, "Hit the floor." Instinct told her: Do what they tell you. The bucket of quarters flew upwards as she threw out her arms and collapsed on the elevator carpet. A shower of coins rained down on her. Take my money and spare me, she prayed. More seconds passed. She heard one of the men say politely, "Ma'am, if you'll just tell us what floor you're going to, we'll push the button." The one who said it had a little trouble getting the words out. He was trying mightily to hold in a belly laugh. She lifted her head and looked up at the two men.
They reached down to help her up. Confused, she struggled to her feet. "When I told my man here to hit the floor," one of the men, the average sized one, told her, "I meant that he should hit the elevator button for our floor. I didn't mean for you to hit the floor, ma'am. "He spoke genially. He bit his lip. It was obvious he was having a hard time not laughing.
She thought: My God, what a spectacle I've made of myself. She was too humiliated to speak. She wanted to blurt out an apology, but words failed her. How do you apologize to two perfectly respectable gentlemen for behaving as though they were robbing you? She didn't know. The three of them gathered up the strewn quarters and refilled her bucket. When the elevator arrived at her floor they insisted on walking her to her room.
She seemed a little unsteady on her feet, and they were afraid she might not make it down the corridor. At her door they bid her good evening. As she slipped into her room she could hear them laughing while they walked back to the elevator. The woman brushed herself off. She pulled herself together and went downstairs for dinner with her husband. The next morning flowers were delivered to her room ~ a dozen roses. Attached to each rose was a crisp one hundred dollar bill. A card said: "Thanks for the best laugh we've had in years."
It was signed, Eddie Murphy and Bodyguard.
- submitted by Nona Simons, Nevada, U.S.A.
******************************
Laugh!
Many years ago, Norman Cousins was diagnosed as "terminally ill." He was given six months to live. His chance for recovery was one in 500. He could see the worry, depression and anger in his life contributed to, and perhaps helped cause his disease. He wondered, "If illness can be caused by negativity, can wellness be created by positivity?"
He decided to make an experiment of himself. Laughter was one of the most positive activities he knew. He rented all the funny movies he could find - Keaton, Chaplin, Fields, the Marx Brothers. (This was before VCRs, so he had to rent the actual films.) He read funny stories. He asked his friends to call him whenever they said, heard or did something funny. His pain was so great he could not sleep. Laughing for 10 solid minutes, he found, relieved the pain for several hours so he could sleep.
He fully recovered from his illness and lived another 20 happy, healthy and productive years. (His journey is detailed in his book, 'Anatomy of an Illness'.) He credits visualization, the love of his family and friends, and laughter for his recovery.
Some people think laughter is a waste of time. It is a luxury, they say, a frivolity, something to indulge in only every so often. Nothing could be further from the truth. Laughter is essential to our equilibrium, to our well-being, to our aliveness. If we're not well, laughter helps us get well; if we are well, laughter helps us stay that way.
Since Cousins' ground-breaking subjective work, scientific studies have shown that laughter has a curative effect on the body, the mind and the emotions. So, if you like laughter, consider it sound medical advice to indulge in it as often as you can. If you don't like laughter, then take your medicine - laugh anyway. Use whatever makes you laugh - movies, sitcoms, Monty Python, records, books, New Yorker cartoons, jokes, friends.
Give yourself permission to laugh - long and loud and out loud - whenever anything strikes you as funny. The people around you may think you're strange, but sooner or later they'll join in even if they don't know what you're laughing about. Some diseases may be contagious, but none is as contagious as the cure. . . laughter.
- by Peter McWilliams from Chicken Soup for the Surviving Soul
Copyright 1996 by Jack Canfield, Mark Victor Hansen, Patty
Aubery & Nancy Mitchell, R.N.
********************************
A giggle a day keeps the doctor away!
It's no joke that laughter is the best medicine ... for having a good giggle can apparently do wonders for your health. Not only does it make you feel better, it relieves stress, provides an internal massage and can even put romance into your life, says stress consultant and pyschologist Robert Holden, founder of the first ever National Health Service Laughter Clinic in Birmingham, U.K.
Research has shown that laughter can result in improved immunity to illness and that people who regularly use laughter, humour and play as coping strategies for everyday events have a significantly higher count of a particular immunity antibody.
The act of laughing ventilates the lungs and leaves muscles, nerves and heart warm and relaxed, according to Dr. Willliam Fry Jr, an American who has spent more than 30 years researching its therapeutic properties. He reckons that 100-200 laughs a day is equivalent to about 10 minutes of rowing or jogging.
Victor Borge once said laughter is the shortest distance between two people. It helps develop friendships and is brilliant for romance. Research shows that a sense of humour attracts us to partners and may give away our whole philosophy on life. You can tell a lot about a person by what they find funny. Laughter also has spiritual benefits, he notes.
[the above is extracted from a newspaper article by Hannah Stephenson (UK)]
__________________________
The following quote tells us how to act:
"Even as the clouds let us shed down tears, and as the lightning flashes let us laugh at our coursings through east and west. By day, by night, let us think but of spreading the sweet savours of God. Let us not keep on forever with our fancies and illusions, with our analysing and interpreting and circulating of complex dubieties. Let us put aside all thoughts of self; let us close our eyes to all on earth, let us neither make known our sufferings nor complain of our wrongs. Rather let us become oblivious of our own selves, and drinking down the wine of heavenly grace, let us cry out our joy, and lose ourselves in the beauty of the All-Glorious."
[Abdu'l-Baha, Selections from the Writings of 'Abdu'l-Baha, p.236]
The following is Abdu'l-Baha's reflections on a fellow believer:
The Prison was a garden of roses to him ( Mirza Ja'far i Yazdi), and his narrow cell a wide and fragrant place. At the time when we were in the barracks he fell dangerously ill and was confined to his bed. He suffered many complications, until finally the doctor gave him up and would visit him no more. Then the sick man breathed his last. Mirza Aqa Jan ran to Baha'u'llah, with word of the death. Not only had the patient ceased to breathe, but his body was already going limp. His family were gathered about him, mourning him, shedding bitter tears. The Blessed Beauty said, "Go; chant the prayer of Ya Shafi - O Thou, the Healer and Mirza Ja'far will come alive. Very rapidly, he will be as well as ever." I reached his bedside. His body was cold and all the signs of death were present. Slowly, he began to stir; soon he could move his limbs, and before an hour had passed he lifted his head, sat up, and proceeded to laugh and tell jokes.
He lived for a long time after that, occupied as ever with serving the friends. This giving service was a point of pride with him: to all he was a servant. He was always modest and humble, calling God to mind, and to the highest degree full of hope and faith. Finally, while in the Most Great Prison, he abandoned this earthly life and winged his way to the life beyond. (Abdu'l-Baha, Memorials of the Faithful, pp. 157-58)
- submitted by Thelma Batchelor, Leatherhead, U.K
MY HOME IS THE HOME OF
PEACE*
***********************************************
While 'Abdu'l-Baha was dictating tablets this morning, an Arab was announced and after a few minutes another one came in. 'Abdu'l-Baha instantly saw that these grown-up children of nature were not friendly with each other and as a subtle master of human nature, he started immediately to establish conciliation between them. Each of them sat there inwardly growling at his enemy. At first 'Abdu'l-Baha spoke to them in such a manner as to make them laugh. They did not want to laugh, neither did they want to look at each other, but they could not help doing both. Then with his deep insight into their hearts he said
"Are not men really children? The life of men is but a few days; then death overtakes them. Is it not foolish to attach one's heart to the worldly love and hate? Why should we let envy and hatred separate us? The strange part of it is that they have no outward existence. Happiness is the king of our hearts. Let us not part from it. If the candle of happiness is ignited in the chamber of our heart, all the forboding gloom of evil suggestions will be dispelled.
'My home is the home of peace. My home is the home of joy and delight. My home is the home of laughter and exultation. Whosoever enters through the portals of this home, must go out with gladsome heart. This is the home of light; whosoever enters here must become illumined. This is the home of knowledge: the one who enters it must receive knowledge. This is the home of love: those who come in must learn the lessons of love; thus may they know to love one another.'
Whenever I see people exercise love and good-fellowship among themselves, my heart is exceedingly rejoiced. ... God willing, you will always love one another. Praise be to God, that you are brothers in faith. You are the citizens of one country, the inhabitants of one town. The members of your families have known one another for years. Why then this feud? Why this ill-feeling? Why this mutual hatred?"
Then he related to them story after story, making them now laugh and now become serious. Finally when he observed the time had come, he got up from his seat and asked them to kiss one another and be true friends ever afterwards. "Is it not better to be friends than enemies?" 'Abdu'l-Baha asked them. Then He went into another room and brought candy and two silk hankerchiefs for each one. "By this token you are plighted together forever."
"We are the slaves of Abbas Effendi. We will do thy holy bidding. It seems God directed our steps to your home this morning," they said. They left the house laughing and holding one another's hands."
Story written by Mirza Ahmad Sohrab, with quotes of Abdu'l-Bahá Star of the West, Bounded Vol 5, Volume IX, No. 3, pages 39-40. Parts re-quoted in
later compilations from the Universal House of Justice
PEACE*
***********************************************
While 'Abdu'l-Baha was dictating tablets this morning, an Arab was announced and after a few minutes another one came in. 'Abdu'l-Baha instantly saw that these grown-up children of nature were not friendly with each other and as a subtle master of human nature, he started immediately to establish conciliation between them. Each of them sat there inwardly growling at his enemy. At first 'Abdu'l-Baha spoke to them in such a manner as to make them laugh. They did not want to laugh, neither did they want to look at each other, but they could not help doing both. Then with his deep insight into their hearts he said
"Are not men really children? The life of men is but a few days; then death overtakes them. Is it not foolish to attach one's heart to the worldly love and hate? Why should we let envy and hatred separate us? The strange part of it is that they have no outward existence. Happiness is the king of our hearts. Let us not part from it. If the candle of happiness is ignited in the chamber of our heart, all the forboding gloom of evil suggestions will be dispelled.
'My home is the home of peace. My home is the home of joy and delight. My home is the home of laughter and exultation. Whosoever enters through the portals of this home, must go out with gladsome heart. This is the home of light; whosoever enters here must become illumined. This is the home of knowledge: the one who enters it must receive knowledge. This is the home of love: those who come in must learn the lessons of love; thus may they know to love one another.'
Whenever I see people exercise love and good-fellowship among themselves, my heart is exceedingly rejoiced. ... God willing, you will always love one another. Praise be to God, that you are brothers in faith. You are the citizens of one country, the inhabitants of one town. The members of your families have known one another for years. Why then this feud? Why this ill-feeling? Why this mutual hatred?"
Then he related to them story after story, making them now laugh and now become serious. Finally when he observed the time had come, he got up from his seat and asked them to kiss one another and be true friends ever afterwards. "Is it not better to be friends than enemies?" 'Abdu'l-Baha asked them. Then He went into another room and brought candy and two silk hankerchiefs for each one. "By this token you are plighted together forever."
"We are the slaves of Abbas Effendi. We will do thy holy bidding. It seems God directed our steps to your home this morning," they said. They left the house laughing and holding one another's hands."
Story written by Mirza Ahmad Sohrab, with quotes of Abdu'l-Bahá Star of the West, Bounded Vol 5, Volume IX, No. 3, pages 39-40. Parts re-quoted in
later compilations from the Universal House of Justice
*********************************
STEPS FOR HEALING
*********************************
The following excerpts from "Women's Bodies, Women's Wisdom" written by Dr. Christiane Northup (obstetrician and gynecologist) outlines 12 practical steps for healing. They are taken from chapter 15, pages 579 - 641. Although it's written for women, men could benefit just as well from it. "These steps have proved helpful to women who want to become more deeply in tune with the inner guidance of their bodies, minds and spirits. By going through the steps mindfully, you will be practicing preventive medicine at its best, whether or not you are currently being treated for anything. I'd recommend that you use a journal to write down your responses to these steps and record whatever material comes up for you." (ibid, 579)
Imagine Your Future: Change Your Consciousness, Change Your Cells
"For years, I had my patients begin their health journeys by exploring their pasts to find clues to how they were creating their present conditions...It is really our vision and hope for the future that heals us and draws us forward. Our cells keep replacing themselves daily, and we create a whole new body every seven years. So it is not really accurate to say that our pasts are locked in our bodies. What is realy going on is that the consciousness that is creating our cells is often locked in the past - and that consciousness keeps re-creating the same old patterns. If, however, we can change the consciousness that creates our cells, then our cells and lives improve automatically. The easiest and fastest way to do this is to imagine your future self in as much detail as you possibly can. You can ask yourself this question: 'If you were in optimal health, what would your life look like?'" (ibid, pp. 579-80)
Step One: Get Your History Straight
"It is helpful for each woman to get her medical, social, and family history straight.." Dr. Northrup has "each patient fill out an extensive questionnaire that covers not only their medical history but their family history and a "daily living profile' in which they check off the effects of their living situation, job, relationships, and other factors on their health. Many of our patients find that taking the time to pull all this information together enables them to see patterns that they had not seen before." (ibid, p. 582)
Step Two: Sort Through Your Beliefs
Dr. Northrup asks us these questions suggesting that we consult them with a friend, and then write down the reponses. "Do you understand how inherited cultural attitudes toward our female physiological processes such as menstruation and menopause have contributed to the illnesses suffered by our female bodies?"
"Do you believe you can be healthy?"
"What challenges were part of your childhood?"
"What purpose does your illness serve? What does it mean to you?"
"Are you willing to be open to any messages that your symptoms or illness may have for you?"
"When faced with an illness, what is your usual reaction?"
"What is preventing you from healing yourself?"
"Do you still take on everyone else's problems and put yourself last? This is the classic dilemma for women. Feeling the need to be the healer and peacemaker for our entire family or place of work is a pattern that many of us learn in childhood. To create health, a woman must face this tendency squarely and commit to changing it."
"Do you fully understand the workings of your female body and how intimately your thoughts and feelings are connected to your physical health?"
"Are you following your life's purpose? Our bodies are designed to function best when we're involved in activities and work that feel exactly right to us." (ibid, pp. 590-601)
Step Three: Respect and Release Your Emotions
"Emotions are a vital part of our inner guidance. Like our illnesses, our dreams, and our lives, our emotions are ours, and we must own them and pay attention to them. We must learn to feel our emotions, release our judgements about them, and be grateful for their guidance. They let us know how we are directing our life-energy. Chronic anger or sadness, by the law of attraction, tends to attract situations to us that are filled with anger or sadness. Daily doses of joy and appreciation of ourselves and others tend to attract joy and appreciation into our lives.
Children automatically know how to feel their emotions and then let go. When they're hurt, they stop and cry. After just a short time, they're back out playing again. Elisabeth Kubler-Ross points out that a child's natural anger and emotional outburst around it lasts about fifteen seconds. Shaming or blaming the child for that anger, however, blocks its natural release. The child's natural emotion may get stuck and become a form of self-pity that remains with the person for years! Kubler-Ross points out that people who weren't allowed a natural expression of anger are often 'marinated in self-pity' as adults and are difficult to be around...It takes a great deal of energy to hold in our natural emotions. In fact, it's exhausting. If we haven't felt our feelings regularly during a period of personal crisis or change, we often have a backlog of sealed-off emotion stored up in our bodies.
Emotional suppression is a pattern that gets passed down from generation to generation. Many women have a natural rage that's been held in check for decades. They hold in oceans of tears that are yet to be shed." (ibid, pp. 601-602)
Step Four: Learn to Listen to Your Body
"Learning to listen to and respect your body is a process that requires patience and compassion.
* Make a note of those things in your life that are difficult, painful,joyful, etc. As these things come up, notice your breathing, your heart rate, and your bodily sensation.
* Pay attention to what your body feels like. Do you feel like crying?
* What is your image of yourself?
* Notice how you routinely talk to your body. What happens when you look in the mirror each morning? Do you criticize your face, your legs, your hair?
* Pay attention to your thoughts and observe how they affect your body.
* Notice what your body needs on a daily basis.
* Notice whether there are parts of your body that you have disowned.
* When you experience a bodily sensation such as back pain, "a gut reaction", a headache, or abdominal pain, pay attention to it and see if you can pinpoint the emotional situation that may have triggered it.
* Stand in front of a mirror regularly, and thank your body for all it has done for you. (ibid, pp. 604-606)
Step Five: Learn to Respect Your Body
"Almost all women in the United States have a body image distortion because of the millions of images of 'perfect' airbrushed women that the media flash at us continually. We begin comparing ourselves with these icons of perfection even before puberty. Thus, we often relate to our bodies via negative comparisons: "My hips are too fat, my knees are ugly, my hair is too thin." (ibid, p. 607)
"Our approach to dressing, makeup, hair, and personal care can be well served by the wisdom of Dolly Parton, who said, 'Find out who you are, then do it on purpose.' If we can find out who we are on the inside, we can then express it on the outside." (ibid, p. 609)
Step Six: Acknowledge a Higher Power or Inner Wisdom
"Our bodies are permeated and nourished by spiritual energy and guidance. Having faith and trust in this reality is an important part of creating health. When a woman has faith in something greater than her intellect or her present circumstances, she is in touch with her inner source of power." (ibid, p. 610)
"When we invite the sacred into our lives by sincerely asking our inner wisdom, or higher power, or God for guidance in our lives, we're invoking great power. This can't be taken lightly. The reason people are cynical about this and make fun of it is that they are afraid. When you sincerely invite in the sacred to assist you with your life, you are granting permission for your life to change." (ibid, p. 611-612)
Editor's comment: Here are quotes from the Baha'i Writings that states, "All true healing comes from God" (Abdu'l-Baha, Paris Talks, p.19) and "Turn thy sight unto thyself, that thou mayest find Me standing within thee, mighty, powerful and self-subsisting." (Baha'u'llah, Hidden Words, Arabic #13)
Step Seven: Reclaim the Fullness of Your Mind
"If we are to reclaim the wisdom of our bodies, we must also reclaim our intellects, our minds, and our ability to think. Once we have experienced how intimately our thoughts and bodily symptoms are related and how intelligent we are, our thinking is less distracted by cultural hypnosis and we trust our inner voice.
Journal writing, writing practice, and meditation are methods that many have used to successfullly get in touch with their inner voices and get to know their minds...I learned through my writing that my thoughts have order, direction, and intelligence, and that these are all related to my well being.
To become free of thoughts and beliefs that don't serve you, you must be able to hear them as they arise. Writing practice is a profound tool for learning how to hear ourselves and to appreciate the multi modal nature of our thoughts. Everyone has this ability, but it is devalued and therefore underdeveloped in our culture....For years, the word 'worthy' came up in my writing because on some deep level I didn't feel 'worthy'. I spent hours asking myself what I meant by this word. Images of school, authorities, and tests always arose around this word. Eventually, my meditation on the word 'worthy' led me to a breakthrough understanding of the orginal sin of being female. How could I have felt worthy, given my cultural programming?
If a word or phrase continually comes into your mind, it is important - it has meaning for you. Explore it. Write about it. Meditate on it. It will have meaning for you, no matter what it is.
I often ask patients to carry out a dialogue with their bodily symptoms or with the organ that is giving them problems, through writing, meditation, or drawing. Sitting with your journal open while being receptive to your thoughts, ask your body what it needs or what it is trying to tell you." (ibid, p. 615-618)
Editor's note: Abdu'l-Baha explains the effects of emptying our minds: "I now assure thee...that if thy mind become empty and pure from every mention and thought and thy heart attracted wholly to the Kingdom of God, forget all else besides God and come in communion with the Spirit of God, then the Holy Spirit will assist thee with a power which will enable thee to penetrate all things, and a Dazzling Spark which enlightens all sides, a Brilliant Flame in the zenith of the heaven, will teach thee that which thou dost not know of the facts of the universe and of the divine doctrine." (Abdu'l-Baha, Baha'i World Faith, p. 369)
Step Eight: Get Help
"Asking for help does not mean that we are weak or incompetent. It usually indicates an advanced level of honesty and intelligence." -Anne Wilson Schaef (ibid, p. 622)
"Setting aside time and money to go and talk with a skilled listener can be invaluable....Many therapists have helped people begin to look at their lives differently and effect change. A good therapist should be like a midwife, standing by while someone gives birth to what's best in themselves." (ibid, p. 622)
"There are many different kinds of therapists. The entire field has been changing in response to evolving knowledge about addiction, recovery and the influence of childhood trauma. Therapy is not something that should go on for years, in my view. When it does, it can become an addictive process in and of itself. All relationships, therapeutic or otherwise, work best when the participants see each other as essentially whole beings with inner resources and strengths, though sometimes in temporary need of assistance.
Though individual therapy is often a first step for many women, group work of some kind can be powerful in that this setting helps us see that our problems are shared by so many others." (ibid, p 624)
"It has been my experience that women with histories of trauma recover most effectively in a type of group therapy known as DBT (Dialective Behavioral Therapy). This form of therapy focuses not exclusively on the past trauma, but on helping people develop the skills necessary to live productive, healthy lives in the present. I have found that it is not generally helpful to these women to spend a great deal of time revisiting the past, where it is too easy to get stuck in pain and immobility. Instead, women with trauma histories need to learn to develop the skills that they never developed in childhood. In DBT training, women learn to answer the following questions and then take effective, balanced action.
* What am I feeling?
* What is the purpose of this feeling?
* What do I need to do for myself to deal effectively with this feeling?
I have seen more improvement in women's lives with this model than with any of the others. These skills are practical and helpful for everyone, not just those with histories of trauma." (ibid, 625)
Step Nine: Work with Your Body
"For some women, talking things out is simply not enough. 'I know all of the things that happened to me as a child and with my husband,' said one woman, 'but talking about it just doesn't change a thing. I seem to be going in circles.' When this happens, we often obsess and seem to spin our wheels. It's easy to get locked into 'thought addiction' - a kind of gerbil wheel in the brain that keeps us going around in circles.
Much of the information we need to heal is locked in our muscles and other body parts. Getting a good massage will often release old energy blockages and help us cry or get rid of chronic pain for 'holding the world on our shoulders'. There are many types of bodywork such as Reiki, acupuncture, therapeutic touch, Rolfing, etc.
Work on and with the body can be an opportunity for understanding and experiencing the unity of our bodymind. These therapies are often deeply relaxing and give our bodies a chance to rest and sleep, a time when much of the body's repair work goes on." (ibid, p. 628)
Step Ten: Gather Information
"Currently, more books of interest to women are available than at any other time in history....I recommend going to your bookstore or library and using your inner guidance to help you make a choice. Acknowledge that you have the wisdom to choose the right book at the right time. Just sit with the books for a while and look over a few titles. See which ones speak to you. Choose the ones that feel right and have appeal. You cannot make a mistake....It is a powerful experience for women to begin to reclaim our forgotten history by reading about our bodies, menstruation and childbirth, all written from a women's point of view." (ibid, p. 629)
Step Eleven: Forgive
"Forgiveness frees us. It heals our bodies and our lives. But it is also the most difficult step we must take in our healing process. It takes a great deal of energy to keep someone out of our hearts...Forgiveness and making amends are completely linked. Holding a grudge and maintaining hatred or resentment hurts us as least as much as the other person.
Forgiveness moves our energy to the heart area. When the body's energy moves there, we don't take our wounds so personally - and we can heal. Forgiveness is the inititiation of the heart, and it is very powerful. Scientific studies have shown, for example, that when we think with our hearts by taking a moment to focus on someone or something that we love unconditionally - like a puppy or a young child - the rhythm of our hearts even out and becomes healthier. When people are taught to think with their hearts regularly, they can even reverse heart disease and other related conditions. The electromagnetic field of the heart is forty times stronger than the electromagnetic field produced by the brain; to me, this means that every cell in our bodies - and in the bodies of those around us - can be positively influenced by the quality of our hearts when they are beating in synchrony with the energy of appreciation." (ibid, p. 630-1)
"To get to forgiveness, we first have to work through the painful experiences that require it. Forgiveness doesn't mean that what happened to us was okay. It simply means that we are no longer willing to allow that experience to adversely affect our lives. Forgiveness is something we do, ultimately, for ourselves." (ibid, p. 631)
Step Twelve: Actively Participate in Your Life
"Watch children for a while and you will begin to see what qualities you need to embody to wake up your soul and your immune system regularly. Most young children know exactly what they want. We are all born with an innate ability to know what we want. We are then socialized to believe that we can't have what we want, and so gradually dismiss our innermost desires, our life's passion, to avoid disappointment.
Get out a piece of paper and write on the top of it, 'I intend to receive...', or 'I choose...' Then write in what you want. For example, "I intend to receive a strong, healthy body'. Notice that the word receive and choose indicates that you don't have to work for this. You just have to allow it to come. Now write down exactly why you want what you want, so that you can literally feel the excitement generated by your enthusiasm. In one example: ' I intend to receive this because I want to feel powerful. I want my body to be an instrument that is highly attuned to my needs. I want a body that is a reflection of the beauty that is inside me. I want a body that is capable of getting me where I want to go.' The positive emotional energy generated by this experience literally begins to draw the experience of health to you." (ibid, p. 638)
"Write down your lifetime goals. Over the past ten years, I've written down my goals for each year. I have written down a five-year plan and a ten-year plan at the same time. When I look back, the amazing thing is that I've accomplished almost every one of my goals - even the ones I later forgot about. The very process of writing them down and thinking about them sets something magical into motion." (ibid, p. 640)
STEPS FOR HEALING
*********************************
The following excerpts from "Women's Bodies, Women's Wisdom" written by Dr. Christiane Northup (obstetrician and gynecologist) outlines 12 practical steps for healing. They are taken from chapter 15, pages 579 - 641. Although it's written for women, men could benefit just as well from it. "These steps have proved helpful to women who want to become more deeply in tune with the inner guidance of their bodies, minds and spirits. By going through the steps mindfully, you will be practicing preventive medicine at its best, whether or not you are currently being treated for anything. I'd recommend that you use a journal to write down your responses to these steps and record whatever material comes up for you." (ibid, 579)
Imagine Your Future: Change Your Consciousness, Change Your Cells
"For years, I had my patients begin their health journeys by exploring their pasts to find clues to how they were creating their present conditions...It is really our vision and hope for the future that heals us and draws us forward. Our cells keep replacing themselves daily, and we create a whole new body every seven years. So it is not really accurate to say that our pasts are locked in our bodies. What is realy going on is that the consciousness that is creating our cells is often locked in the past - and that consciousness keeps re-creating the same old patterns. If, however, we can change the consciousness that creates our cells, then our cells and lives improve automatically. The easiest and fastest way to do this is to imagine your future self in as much detail as you possibly can. You can ask yourself this question: 'If you were in optimal health, what would your life look like?'" (ibid, pp. 579-80)
Step One: Get Your History Straight
"It is helpful for each woman to get her medical, social, and family history straight.." Dr. Northrup has "each patient fill out an extensive questionnaire that covers not only their medical history but their family history and a "daily living profile' in which they check off the effects of their living situation, job, relationships, and other factors on their health. Many of our patients find that taking the time to pull all this information together enables them to see patterns that they had not seen before." (ibid, p. 582)
Step Two: Sort Through Your Beliefs
Dr. Northrup asks us these questions suggesting that we consult them with a friend, and then write down the reponses. "Do you understand how inherited cultural attitudes toward our female physiological processes such as menstruation and menopause have contributed to the illnesses suffered by our female bodies?"
"Do you believe you can be healthy?"
"What challenges were part of your childhood?"
"What purpose does your illness serve? What does it mean to you?"
"Are you willing to be open to any messages that your symptoms or illness may have for you?"
"When faced with an illness, what is your usual reaction?"
"What is preventing you from healing yourself?"
"Do you still take on everyone else's problems and put yourself last? This is the classic dilemma for women. Feeling the need to be the healer and peacemaker for our entire family or place of work is a pattern that many of us learn in childhood. To create health, a woman must face this tendency squarely and commit to changing it."
"Do you fully understand the workings of your female body and how intimately your thoughts and feelings are connected to your physical health?"
"Are you following your life's purpose? Our bodies are designed to function best when we're involved in activities and work that feel exactly right to us." (ibid, pp. 590-601)
Step Three: Respect and Release Your Emotions
"Emotions are a vital part of our inner guidance. Like our illnesses, our dreams, and our lives, our emotions are ours, and we must own them and pay attention to them. We must learn to feel our emotions, release our judgements about them, and be grateful for their guidance. They let us know how we are directing our life-energy. Chronic anger or sadness, by the law of attraction, tends to attract situations to us that are filled with anger or sadness. Daily doses of joy and appreciation of ourselves and others tend to attract joy and appreciation into our lives.
Children automatically know how to feel their emotions and then let go. When they're hurt, they stop and cry. After just a short time, they're back out playing again. Elisabeth Kubler-Ross points out that a child's natural anger and emotional outburst around it lasts about fifteen seconds. Shaming or blaming the child for that anger, however, blocks its natural release. The child's natural emotion may get stuck and become a form of self-pity that remains with the person for years! Kubler-Ross points out that people who weren't allowed a natural expression of anger are often 'marinated in self-pity' as adults and are difficult to be around...It takes a great deal of energy to hold in our natural emotions. In fact, it's exhausting. If we haven't felt our feelings regularly during a period of personal crisis or change, we often have a backlog of sealed-off emotion stored up in our bodies.
Emotional suppression is a pattern that gets passed down from generation to generation. Many women have a natural rage that's been held in check for decades. They hold in oceans of tears that are yet to be shed." (ibid, pp. 601-602)
Step Four: Learn to Listen to Your Body
"Learning to listen to and respect your body is a process that requires patience and compassion.
* Make a note of those things in your life that are difficult, painful,joyful, etc. As these things come up, notice your breathing, your heart rate, and your bodily sensation.
* Pay attention to what your body feels like. Do you feel like crying?
* What is your image of yourself?
* Notice how you routinely talk to your body. What happens when you look in the mirror each morning? Do you criticize your face, your legs, your hair?
* Pay attention to your thoughts and observe how they affect your body.
* Notice what your body needs on a daily basis.
* Notice whether there are parts of your body that you have disowned.
* When you experience a bodily sensation such as back pain, "a gut reaction", a headache, or abdominal pain, pay attention to it and see if you can pinpoint the emotional situation that may have triggered it.
* Stand in front of a mirror regularly, and thank your body for all it has done for you. (ibid, pp. 604-606)
Step Five: Learn to Respect Your Body
"Almost all women in the United States have a body image distortion because of the millions of images of 'perfect' airbrushed women that the media flash at us continually. We begin comparing ourselves with these icons of perfection even before puberty. Thus, we often relate to our bodies via negative comparisons: "My hips are too fat, my knees are ugly, my hair is too thin." (ibid, p. 607)
"Our approach to dressing, makeup, hair, and personal care can be well served by the wisdom of Dolly Parton, who said, 'Find out who you are, then do it on purpose.' If we can find out who we are on the inside, we can then express it on the outside." (ibid, p. 609)
Step Six: Acknowledge a Higher Power or Inner Wisdom
"Our bodies are permeated and nourished by spiritual energy and guidance. Having faith and trust in this reality is an important part of creating health. When a woman has faith in something greater than her intellect or her present circumstances, she is in touch with her inner source of power." (ibid, p. 610)
"When we invite the sacred into our lives by sincerely asking our inner wisdom, or higher power, or God for guidance in our lives, we're invoking great power. This can't be taken lightly. The reason people are cynical about this and make fun of it is that they are afraid. When you sincerely invite in the sacred to assist you with your life, you are granting permission for your life to change." (ibid, p. 611-612)
Editor's comment: Here are quotes from the Baha'i Writings that states, "All true healing comes from God" (Abdu'l-Baha, Paris Talks, p.19) and "Turn thy sight unto thyself, that thou mayest find Me standing within thee, mighty, powerful and self-subsisting." (Baha'u'llah, Hidden Words, Arabic #13)
Step Seven: Reclaim the Fullness of Your Mind
"If we are to reclaim the wisdom of our bodies, we must also reclaim our intellects, our minds, and our ability to think. Once we have experienced how intimately our thoughts and bodily symptoms are related and how intelligent we are, our thinking is less distracted by cultural hypnosis and we trust our inner voice.
Journal writing, writing practice, and meditation are methods that many have used to successfullly get in touch with their inner voices and get to know their minds...I learned through my writing that my thoughts have order, direction, and intelligence, and that these are all related to my well being.
To become free of thoughts and beliefs that don't serve you, you must be able to hear them as they arise. Writing practice is a profound tool for learning how to hear ourselves and to appreciate the multi modal nature of our thoughts. Everyone has this ability, but it is devalued and therefore underdeveloped in our culture....For years, the word 'worthy' came up in my writing because on some deep level I didn't feel 'worthy'. I spent hours asking myself what I meant by this word. Images of school, authorities, and tests always arose around this word. Eventually, my meditation on the word 'worthy' led me to a breakthrough understanding of the orginal sin of being female. How could I have felt worthy, given my cultural programming?
If a word or phrase continually comes into your mind, it is important - it has meaning for you. Explore it. Write about it. Meditate on it. It will have meaning for you, no matter what it is.
I often ask patients to carry out a dialogue with their bodily symptoms or with the organ that is giving them problems, through writing, meditation, or drawing. Sitting with your journal open while being receptive to your thoughts, ask your body what it needs or what it is trying to tell you." (ibid, p. 615-618)
Editor's note: Abdu'l-Baha explains the effects of emptying our minds: "I now assure thee...that if thy mind become empty and pure from every mention and thought and thy heart attracted wholly to the Kingdom of God, forget all else besides God and come in communion with the Spirit of God, then the Holy Spirit will assist thee with a power which will enable thee to penetrate all things, and a Dazzling Spark which enlightens all sides, a Brilliant Flame in the zenith of the heaven, will teach thee that which thou dost not know of the facts of the universe and of the divine doctrine." (Abdu'l-Baha, Baha'i World Faith, p. 369)
Step Eight: Get Help
"Asking for help does not mean that we are weak or incompetent. It usually indicates an advanced level of honesty and intelligence." -Anne Wilson Schaef (ibid, p. 622)
"Setting aside time and money to go and talk with a skilled listener can be invaluable....Many therapists have helped people begin to look at their lives differently and effect change. A good therapist should be like a midwife, standing by while someone gives birth to what's best in themselves." (ibid, p. 622)
"There are many different kinds of therapists. The entire field has been changing in response to evolving knowledge about addiction, recovery and the influence of childhood trauma. Therapy is not something that should go on for years, in my view. When it does, it can become an addictive process in and of itself. All relationships, therapeutic or otherwise, work best when the participants see each other as essentially whole beings with inner resources and strengths, though sometimes in temporary need of assistance.
Though individual therapy is often a first step for many women, group work of some kind can be powerful in that this setting helps us see that our problems are shared by so many others." (ibid, p 624)
"It has been my experience that women with histories of trauma recover most effectively in a type of group therapy known as DBT (Dialective Behavioral Therapy). This form of therapy focuses not exclusively on the past trauma, but on helping people develop the skills necessary to live productive, healthy lives in the present. I have found that it is not generally helpful to these women to spend a great deal of time revisiting the past, where it is too easy to get stuck in pain and immobility. Instead, women with trauma histories need to learn to develop the skills that they never developed in childhood. In DBT training, women learn to answer the following questions and then take effective, balanced action.
* What am I feeling?
* What is the purpose of this feeling?
* What do I need to do for myself to deal effectively with this feeling?
I have seen more improvement in women's lives with this model than with any of the others. These skills are practical and helpful for everyone, not just those with histories of trauma." (ibid, 625)
Step Nine: Work with Your Body
"For some women, talking things out is simply not enough. 'I know all of the things that happened to me as a child and with my husband,' said one woman, 'but talking about it just doesn't change a thing. I seem to be going in circles.' When this happens, we often obsess and seem to spin our wheels. It's easy to get locked into 'thought addiction' - a kind of gerbil wheel in the brain that keeps us going around in circles.
Much of the information we need to heal is locked in our muscles and other body parts. Getting a good massage will often release old energy blockages and help us cry or get rid of chronic pain for 'holding the world on our shoulders'. There are many types of bodywork such as Reiki, acupuncture, therapeutic touch, Rolfing, etc.
Work on and with the body can be an opportunity for understanding and experiencing the unity of our bodymind. These therapies are often deeply relaxing and give our bodies a chance to rest and sleep, a time when much of the body's repair work goes on." (ibid, p. 628)
Step Ten: Gather Information
"Currently, more books of interest to women are available than at any other time in history....I recommend going to your bookstore or library and using your inner guidance to help you make a choice. Acknowledge that you have the wisdom to choose the right book at the right time. Just sit with the books for a while and look over a few titles. See which ones speak to you. Choose the ones that feel right and have appeal. You cannot make a mistake....It is a powerful experience for women to begin to reclaim our forgotten history by reading about our bodies, menstruation and childbirth, all written from a women's point of view." (ibid, p. 629)
Step Eleven: Forgive
"Forgiveness frees us. It heals our bodies and our lives. But it is also the most difficult step we must take in our healing process. It takes a great deal of energy to keep someone out of our hearts...Forgiveness and making amends are completely linked. Holding a grudge and maintaining hatred or resentment hurts us as least as much as the other person.
Forgiveness moves our energy to the heart area. When the body's energy moves there, we don't take our wounds so personally - and we can heal. Forgiveness is the inititiation of the heart, and it is very powerful. Scientific studies have shown, for example, that when we think with our hearts by taking a moment to focus on someone or something that we love unconditionally - like a puppy or a young child - the rhythm of our hearts even out and becomes healthier. When people are taught to think with their hearts regularly, they can even reverse heart disease and other related conditions. The electromagnetic field of the heart is forty times stronger than the electromagnetic field produced by the brain; to me, this means that every cell in our bodies - and in the bodies of those around us - can be positively influenced by the quality of our hearts when they are beating in synchrony with the energy of appreciation." (ibid, p. 630-1)
"To get to forgiveness, we first have to work through the painful experiences that require it. Forgiveness doesn't mean that what happened to us was okay. It simply means that we are no longer willing to allow that experience to adversely affect our lives. Forgiveness is something we do, ultimately, for ourselves." (ibid, p. 631)
Step Twelve: Actively Participate in Your Life
"Watch children for a while and you will begin to see what qualities you need to embody to wake up your soul and your immune system regularly. Most young children know exactly what they want. We are all born with an innate ability to know what we want. We are then socialized to believe that we can't have what we want, and so gradually dismiss our innermost desires, our life's passion, to avoid disappointment.
Get out a piece of paper and write on the top of it, 'I intend to receive...', or 'I choose...' Then write in what you want. For example, "I intend to receive a strong, healthy body'. Notice that the word receive and choose indicates that you don't have to work for this. You just have to allow it to come. Now write down exactly why you want what you want, so that you can literally feel the excitement generated by your enthusiasm. In one example: ' I intend to receive this because I want to feel powerful. I want my body to be an instrument that is highly attuned to my needs. I want a body that is a reflection of the beauty that is inside me. I want a body that is capable of getting me where I want to go.' The positive emotional energy generated by this experience literally begins to draw the experience of health to you." (ibid, p. 638)
"Write down your lifetime goals. Over the past ten years, I've written down my goals for each year. I have written down a five-year plan and a ten-year plan at the same time. When I look back, the amazing thing is that I've accomplished almost every one of my goals - even the ones I later forgot about. The very process of writing them down and thinking about them sets something magical into motion." (ibid, p. 640)
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