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Ce a aa et EL ould as
The power of the Covenant is as the heat of the sun which quickeneth and promoteth the development of all created things on earth. The light of the Convenant, in like manner, is the educator of the minds, the spirits, the hearts and souls of men.
— Abdu’l-Baha
Bring us together again, O Lord, by the power of Thy Convenant. Gather our dispersion by Thy Promise, and unite our hearts in the dominion of Thy love. Make us to love each other, that we may sacrifice our spirits, expend our money and scatter ourselves for the love of one another. O Lord, cause to descend upon us quietness and tranquility. Shower upon us the clouds of Thy mercy in great abund- ance and make us to characterize ourselves with the characteristics of the spiritual. O Lord, make us firm in Thy noble command, and bestow upon us Thy gifts, through Thy bounty, grace and munificence. Verily, Thou art the Merciful, the Generous, and the Beneficent. :
—’Abdu’l-Baha
N.G.R. Coleg 'oriat HE
25. MAI 357
HILD
DUCATION
A GUIDE FOR BAHA‘l PARENTS AND TEACHERS memes COMMITTEE
Published bi-monthly ($1 a year) DECEMBER 1956 (Baha‘i Year 113) No. 48
THE GREAT PROMISE.
Through the fulfillment of His great promise to mankind, God has opened the books of the past to human understand- ing. The real meaning of the Covenant of God is evident to man for the first time. This is not a promise confined to one man, one family, one tribe, or one nation. In this day all who believe in and obey the Manifestation of God, Baha’u’llah, are the chosen people.
In the time of every Prophet parents have been faced with the problem of rearing their children in two worlds— that of the unbelievers, who constitute the majority and thus control the cur- rent standards of their society and that of the believers, who are few and must therefore abide all the more strongly by the new standard. Today parents have an even more difficult task because they must honor the free will of their chil- dren, as a fundamental principle of the Faith. It is therefore more than ever essential that true understanding of the religions of the past and the Faith of the present be fostered, in order to create a desire for acceptance of the Faith on the part of the child.
The opportunity to teach our children the meaning of the books of the past is derived directly from the Covenant it- self, for the promise of God is the underlying theme of every Divine Reve- lation. And in using this opportunity to relate all our teaching to the Revela- tions of the past through the Covenant we are offering the children an approach to religion that is positive, yet broad— not dogmatic.
The Ark of the Covenant which Noah entreated His people to enter is an ob- vious illustration of how we can corre- late the Baha’i Faith and past Revela- tions. And in such examples, we are explaining the symbolism of the Holy Books, thereby precluding any unrea- sonable interpretation which might create a later doubt in the child’s mind. The true meaning of the story of Cain and Abel (Abel was a Prophet of God; Cain represented the people who slew Him—Iqan pp. 148-149) is another ex- ample of God’s Covenant with man, proclaimed by His Messenger.
Jesus reiterated the Covenant in the Lord’s Prayer, which holds the promise of the Kingdom of God on earth. Chil- dren should be taught this beautiful prayer and its fulfillment in this era.
As belief in the Manifestation is the
condition of the Greater Covenant, obe-
diance to His Laws is the condition of
the Lesser Covenant. As all Baha’is real-
ize, this means first and foremost, turn-
ing to the established Center of the
Faith. The words of Baha’u’llah “We
have made Thee (‘Abdul-Baha) a shel-
ter for all mankind” explicitly refer to
[Page 2]
the interdependence of the Greater and
and Lesser Covenants.
Those who repudiate the Covenant of Baha’u’llah disobey the Manifestation, Who authored the Covenant; they are the spiritual counterparts of the follow- ers of Moses who disobeyed the Ten Commandments. Symbolically graven on stone as an evidence of their eter- nality, the Tablets were broken by the Hebrews and revealed again. Baha’u’llah states in the. Tablet of the Branch: “They who deprive themselves of the shadow of the Branch are lost in the wilderness of error; are-:consumed by the heat of wordly desires, and are of those who will assuredly perish.’—Dispensa- tion of Baha’u’llah, p. 43.
The intensified materialism of our age is an even greater threat than in the time of Lot’s wife, or the worshippers of Baal, the Golden Calf, which is as much a symbol of the desires of the world as it was in the days of Moses.
It is important that children recognize the stations of the Manifestation, the Center of the Covenant, and the Guard- ian: That ’Abdu’l-Baha’s authority was derived from His direct appointment as the Center of Baha’u’llah’s Covenant by the Manifestation Himself; that the Guardian’s authority is established by his direct appointment by ’Abdu’l- Baha. Thus the creative energies re- leased by Baha’u’llah are linked, through the Will and Testament of ’Abdu’l-Baha, with the Guardianship. Shoghi Effendi states that the purpose of the Covenant is to “direct and canalize these forces” and insure their “harmonious and con- tinuous operation.”—God Passes By, p. 25,
This distinguishing feature of the Faith—the Covenant—should be empha- sized in the training of our children, so they will not conceive of the Faith as a synthesis of all religions and so they will recognize the advancement from human interpretation to Divine mean- ing; so they will know the difference between order and disorder—that un- limited liberty leads to sedition and that multifarious interpretations lead to doubt, intellectual pride and ultimately, independence of God.
Only when all Baha’is are unified in a divine relationship through the power of the Covenant can a new creation come into being in the next generation, through children who have been reared in the atmosphere of this spiritual affin- ity.
SELF-DEVELOPMENT
The following article is a reprint of chapter V from Stanwood Cobb’s book, Character, A Sequence in Spiritual Psychology, published in 1938 by the Avalon Press, Washington, D.C.
—CONTINUATION
The physical qualities of man are not in themselves evil. It is the use we put them to that may make them harmful. In themselves they are part of the bio- logical foundation for existence. In animals they are necessary and quite innocent. In man they are also neces- sary—but not. innocent unless sublim- ated by the power of the spirit.
It is those fundamental urges in a
human being which he shares with the animal world that give him energy and power of achievement. This physical side of man is as important to his ex- istence on this earthly plane as is the spiritual side.
The first application of intelligence to our self-training in character should be the awareness of our duality and the effort to transubstantiate our animal- istic qualities into spiritualized corre- spondences on a higher plane.
Thus one’s tendency to anger can be modified into a power for controlling other human beings for noble ends. George Washington knew how to change his fierce and at one time un- governable temper into a powerful fac- tor for governing men.
The instinct for self-preservation which is expressed in the animal as greed and cruelty can be modified in man to an expression of energy and efficiency for career-success. In a spiritualized humanity, such expression of the will-to-exist need not be cruelly competitive nor egoistic. On such a spiritualized plane of humanity there will not remain any distressing struggle for existence.
Every individual starts life with a certain hereditary or destined endow- ment. This is his working capital. It is important for him to realize as early as possible in life those tendencies to- ward good and evil, toward failure and success with which he started existence on this earthly plane. To be wisely aware of one’s faults and ignoble tend- encies is to make constant effort to- ward overcoming them. To be aware of one’s proficiencies and gifts is essen- tial to a wise and successful choice of career,
One should make a daily practice of self-examination, not in any morbid way, but from a spiritual standpoint— daily reaffirming one’s resolution to overcome one’s faults and strengthen one’s virtues.
What would I be tomorrow that I am not today? Thus we should exam- ine our accounts each night, and each morning start forth to increase our treasures of perfection. The only wealth we intrinsically possess is the richness of personality we have gained through self-unfoldment. By means of this wealth, all things we would gain are directed unto us. This is the uni- versal law of growth.
In the analysis of self or of others, this truth is very helpful: that our faults are the shadows of our virtues. In other words, faults are but the ex- cess of some quality in us which is valuable when exercised under proper restraint.
We have already spoken of how ca- pacity for anger may be a danger or a value to man. So every quality in excess becomes a fault and danger to one’s success and happiness. For in- stance, thrift may become penury and stinginess; efficiency may become over- bearing; amiability tends toward irre- sponsibility.
In fact, there is not a single virtue but which tends toward a vice when in excess. On the other hand, there is no fault of temperament which may not be modified into a valuable trait.
The first claim which life makes up- on us is the claim of perfecting our bodies. The proper care and use of the
Dr. Stanwood Cobb and Mrs, Helen Eggleston at Louhelen Summer School, where Dr. Cobb first gave the talks later incorporated in his book Character, A Sequence In Spiritual Psychology.
body is in reality a spiritual obligation. Christianity emphasized our sacred duty to our bodies, that they are tem- ples of the living God. We may not abuse them. To do so is a sin, even though it brings no harm to other peo- ple.
This responsibility to our bodies as vehicles of our mind and of our soul is strongly emphasized by every religion. Control of the appetities and passions is the beginning of spiritual develop- ment. Lack of control of them injures body, mind and soul.
Even in the simplest things we should practice self-restrain and wisdom. Our diet should be wholesome and _ not over-indulgent as to amount. We should keep to regular and adequate hours of sleep. We should take what recreation is needed, avoiding however that which tends to deplete one’s vi- tality or which is merely a waste of time,
Youth owes a sacred duty, then, to his body during the important forma- tive period of post-adolescence leading into manhood and womanhood. Par- ents should instill in their children this sense of responsibility and should train them in wholesome methods of eating and of bodily care and send them out into life intelligent managers of their own physical system.
There is no demand that spirituality can make upon us which would betray the body and its needs, Spirit does and. can control and guide through matter, Marie Watson reports ’Abdu’l-Baha to have said; but matter has its own laws upon its’ own plane and will exact its own toll; he who fails to acknowledge and recognize this truth wjll lead to a wrong psychology and the result is difficult to remedy.
TO BE CONTINUED
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT:
The ITALO-swiss Children’s Hour News article, appearing in the Sept.-Oct. issue of CuiILp’s Way was submitted by Mrs. ANNA KUNZ.
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