Transcription
[Applause] I'm so happy to be back here in the United States, as Joel said. Two months in Europe, some of the most delightful summer schools: Scotland, and Denmark, and Holland, and Greece, and Romania, and Slovakia, and a few other places. And the beehives are on fire throughout the world. Everywhere I have gone, it's not just that they're deepening in the faith, but they're so loving to one another. And it's so exciting every week to greet a new bunch of people. And of course, I have to learn 100 or 200 new names every week. And so to come to this school, and I know most of you, and to see your faces, this is just like God has decided to give me a special treat after the long trip.
And so I'm very excited about this course that I've been talking about, which is called "Recreating Ourselves in the Image of the Master." And I want to begin by reading an interesting letter from the Universal House of Justice, 29 August of 2010. You know that right now we're in a period in which we're commemorating the hundredth anniversary of 'Abdu'l-Bahá's travels. He traveled for more than three years, and right now we're still in the period of the hundredth anniversary of that, and we'll continue in this commemoration all the way into the middle of 2013.
But on the very first day when the hundredth anniversary began, in other words, 100 years to the day when 'Abdu'l-Bahá first began traveling, the Universal House of Justice wrote a letter to the Baha'i world. And they pointed out that this period, this hundredth anniversary celebration or commemoration of 'Abdu'l-Bahá's travels, is much more than a commemoration. A lot of us have been commemorating it. We've had activities in which we've enjoyed telling stories of 'Abdu'l-Bahá and remembering his visit. But the House said it's much more than a commemoration.
In this quote, "this anniversary is more than a time for commemoration." And they went on to say that if we were to study 'Abdu'l-Bahá's travels, they would give us an abundance of inspiration and manifold insights from which the body of the believers can today draw. And then they listed six areas in which we can gain insights and inspirations into what we're doing today.
So basically, the House of Justice is saying, 1912, when 'Abdu'l-Bahá traveled, is not just about 1912. Rather, it's about 2012. And it's not just about 'Abdu'l-Bahá, it's about us. And then, just to make it clear, they listed six areas which they say if we study 'Abdu'l-Bahá's travels, we can learn something about what we can do today in those six areas. I want to mention those six areas because maybe some of you in this room are concerned with some of these six areas.
The first one they said was in our efforts to embrace receptive souls. Is there anyone here in the room that would like to embrace receptive souls? One, two, three. Okay. So here's the point. Here's the point. The House of Justice says you can learn how to do this by studying 'Abdu'l-Bahá's travels in 1912, 1912, 1913.
The second one they said was in our efforts to raise capacity for service. Is there anyone here that would like to raise capacity for service, either in themselves or in others? Two, three, four. That's good. So once again, the House of Justice says you can do this by studying 'Abdu'l-Bahá. There's something in the record of 'Abdu'l-Bahá's travels that can teach us how to do this thing that we want to do.
The third, they said, was to build local communities. Would anyone like to build a local community? Okay, I see a few there too. Okay. Once again, we can learn how to do this from studying 'Abdu'l-Bahá.
The fourth, they said, was to strengthen institutions. Is there anyone who feels that their institutions could be perhaps a little stronger? Two, three. Okay. Okay. So, so once again, we want to strengthen institutions. We can learn to do so by studying 'Abdu'l-Bahá.
The fifth, they said, to exploit opportunities emerging to engage in social action. To exploit opportunities emerging to engage in social action. Who would like to take advantage of some of the opportunities that there are in the world to engage in social action? Okay.
The clue to how to do this is in 'Abdu'l-Bahá's record of his journeys. And the sixth, they said, was to contribute to public discourse. To contribute to. In the world today, people are striving, they're struggling to find answers to all kinds of things. And there's a lot of discussion, and we have a lot to contribute. But how can we do that? Through what means can we do that? By what methods can we do that? The House of Justice says you can figure that out by studying 'Abdu'l-Bahá.
So this is far more than a commemoration. I do not want to stand up here today, or, you know, this whole week, and just tell you happy stories about 'Abdu'l-Bahá. This program is not really about 'Abdu'l-Bahá, it's about us. And it's not really about 1912, it's about today. It's about 2012 and our future.
You know, we're so lucky to be Baha'is. Every other religion, they got a Manifestation of God, and that was it. You know, they've just got a Manifestation of God, and that was it. You know, it's not bad, I've been, I'll take it. But but we got 'Abdu'l-Bahá. I mean, I don't even understand. You know, 19 years, a whole Manifestation. That's the mystery to me. Then we get 'Abdu'l-Bahá, and Yogi Finley says that his position and his role is unprecedented in the history of humankind. So we get 'Abdu'l-Bahá. Then we get Shoghi Effendi. Don't even get me started. Well, then, then we get a House of Justice. We have five. We get five. We got a basketball team, and they only get they get a tennis player. And of these five, 'Abdu'l-Bahá is the one that is so remarkable because even Bahá'u'lláh bestowed upon him the name, "the Mystery of God." We don't even realize what he means to us.
And it just seems to me that Bahá'u'lláh wanted to create us anew. He came to make a new race of men. And whenever you want to make anything new, the first thing you do is build a prototype. Because you, you can't, you can't understand something in words alone. If I tried to describe something entirely new, it's based on language, and language is based on the past. It's based on what we know and understand. If you want something new, you have to create a prototype. 'Abdu'l-Bahá is God's prototype. He's what we look at, and we understand. We hear all these different phrases like forgiveness, or, you know, courtesy, or virtues, but they're just words. And 'Abdu'l-Bahá brings them to life. Shoghi Effendi said that 'Abdu'l-Bahá was the incarnation of every Baha'i virtue and the embodiment of every Baha'i ideal.
And so I want to ask you something. When you think of 'Abdu'l-Bahá, what do you think of? What do you think of when you think about him? The only thing you should be thinking of when you think about 'Abdu'l-Bahá is yourself. Every time you see 'Abdu'l-Bahá, or you hear a story of him, it should be a challenge to you to do the things that he did. He said something very interesting. He said, "Look at me, follow me, be as I am." A simple three-phrase, nine-word sentence. And yet, it encapsulates three processes. One, to look at him. That's the first stage. To look at him. Two, to study him. To read the stories. And some of us, we think we just want to stay in that first stage because it's so enjoyable to read the stories and to laugh and to enjoy him. But there's a second stage: to follow him. In other words, to copy him, to try and duplicate. But there's even a third stage: being. Being is a much higher stage than even copying. You can blindly copy something without really understanding. So the act of being. So even 'Abdu'l-Bahá, in this simple sentence, lets us know that there is a journey that we must all take on the spiritual path, which starts with looking at him, but then must immediately proceed to copying him, which then proceeds to actually being like him.
I want to ask you a question. What do you think is the most important thing that 'Abdu'l-Bahá did in his life? It's the most important thing he did in his life. You know, he did a lot of things. Shoghi Effendi said he had three functions. One of them was that he was the Center of the Covenant. And the other function that he was the infallible interpreter of the writings of Bahá'u'lláh. And the third, that he was an exemplar. And during his remarkable life, he achieved so many things. He protected the Cause from the covenant breakers. He spread the Faith. He started the Shrine of the Báb. Shoghi Effendi said he was even dispatching 90 letters a day. That's how, how much when he was in 'Akká, he did a lot of things. So of all the things he did, what is the most outstanding achievement of 'Abdu'l-Bahá's life? Who can tell me?
[Audience member]: Kept unity.
[Speaker]: Unity. What else?
[Audience member]: Service.
[Speaker]: Service. Bring the Faith to the West? Or anybody else have any? The most outstanding thing of all the things?
[Audience member]: Will and Testament.
[Speaker]: Will and Testament. What else?
[Audience member]: Being the primary example.
[Speaker]: Yes. Exception. Well, that's not a bad start. Okay. Let me tell you what Shoghi Effendi says. He said the most outstanding achievement that will forever be associated with 'Abdu'l-Bahá's ministry were his travels to the West. His travels to the West. And when I think about that, I think, okay, he did all these things, he suffered all his life, and yet his travels to the West were somehow the most outstanding. I wouldn't have thought they were the most, I thought they were pretty good. Okay, but the most outstanding.
And Shoghi Effendi said that 'Abdu'l-Bahá, he was extremely busy. He was so busy, he says he was sending, as I said, 90 letters a day. And he was an old man in his 60s, in his late 60s, and in poor health. And he, so everything he says, he inflexibly was resolved to undertake this arduous voyage at whatever cost to his strengths, at whatever risk to his life. And so Shoghi Effendi continues, "He quietly and without any previous warning began these epoch-making journeys in 1910." And I think 'Abdu'l-Bahá realized the sense of urgency to make these journeys. You know, think about this. He was only just released from prison. He had to go to Egypt for a year to regain his health. Then he traveled for three years. And then when he came back, just a few short months later, the world was engulfed in a war. A war that for four years would have prevented any kind of travel of 'Abdu'l-Bahá. Following the war, there was a flu pandemic that killed 40 million people, even more than the war. And soon thereafter, 'Abdu'l-Bahá passed away. This was the only window of opportunity in his life of imprisonment and war and passing that he could do this. So he just got up and he did it. He got up and he did it.
And we do not want to lose whatever it was that he felt was important. He clearly felt that there was something that could be done that could not be done by letters and tablets and correspondence, or by receiving pilgrims in the Holy Land. Something had to be done in which he interacted with the Baha'is in the West, and most particularly the Baha'is here in this country. He spent 239 days here. So we need to figure out what that was and gain the benefits from it, so that his most outstanding achievement is not lost.
So when I was asked to prepare a talk on 'Abdu'l-Bahá, I realized that this is not a talk on 'Abdu'l-Bahá. This is a talk about us. And I said, then, what are the qualities of 'Abdu'l-Bahá that he wanted us to learn? And so I quickly started reading stories. I contacted the Archives Department and asked them to send me all the documents and stories and so on. And I collected them, and I read the stories. And as I read the stories, I would categorize any story into a quality of 'Abdu'l-Bahá, this quality, that quality, this attribute, that attribute. After a while, I had 41 of them. I had 41 attributes of 'Abdu'l-Bahá. And I knew that in some of the programs I had to speak six times, and I worked out that, well, I'm gonna have to speak at least eight per talk to get through the 41, and that only five to eight minutes per attribute.
But then I kept writing stories, and it went up to 60, and then it went up to 100. And I had like a hundred attributes. Now, was, you know, it's gonna be over two minutes per attribute. And I was thinking, well, hold on, how can I do this? And finally, I said, well, no, I've got to treat this, you know, like, like the hit parade. You might have a hundred songs, but you've got to pick the top ten or something. You've got to do something at his regard. And so I said, well, I'm gonna have to pick which ones I want to do. Instead of drilling a hundred shallow holes, I just wanted to drill six deep ones. And so then I had to choose, of all the attributes of 'Abdu'l-Bahá, to pick.
Now, the problem is is that Shoghi Effendi said he's the incarnation of every Baha'i virtue and the embodiment of every Baha'i ideal. So some of the ones that I thought maybe I would pick, and I wrote them all down, were: courage, faith, wisdom, patience, love, kindness, service, knowledge, prayerfulness, hospitality, faithfulness, scientific, energetic, courteous, selfless, humble, practical, humorous, forgiving, confident, serene, spontaneous. Have you had enough? Okay, because I could keep going. I would, I'd not even a third of the way through the list. And I realized, oh my gosh, what am I going to do?
So gradually, I thought about it, and I came to what I call the six essential qualities of 'Abdu'l-Bahá. I'll tell you why in the end why I picked these six and not the others. If any of you have heard me speak on this in one of the previous summer schools, you're not allowed to answer this question. Okay? But those who have not heard me speak on this before, I want you to tell me what you think I picked as the very first one that we're going to talk about this morning. Of all the virtues of 'Abdu'l-Bahá, the incarnation of every Baha'i virtue, of all of those, what do you think I picked first?
[Audience member]: Service.
[Speaker]: Service. Someone picks service. And that would seem to be a good guess because 'Abdu'l-Bahá's name is Servant of Bahá. That's a good possibility. Maybe that's the one I picked.
[Audience member]: Perseverance.
[Speaker]: Perseverance. Keep saying that over and over again. That's good. Which one did you say you think?
[Audience member]: Love.
[Speaker]: Love. That's pretty good one. Yes.
[Audience member]: Humility. He prayed for humility every day.
[Speaker]: Humility. That's a positive one. These may be it.
[Audience member]: Courage.
[Speaker]: Courage. You know, I'm glad you said that because Shoghi Effendi mentioned that quality of 'Abdu'l-Bahá many times. Shoghi Effendi seemed particularly attracted to this quality of 'Abdu'l-Bahá. No, I didn't pick that one.
[Audience member]: Forgiveness. Such a beautiful virtue.
[Speaker]: Forgiveness. Perhaps I picked it. Yes. Anyone else?
[Audience member]: Loving-kindness. Not just love, loving-kindness.
[Speaker]: Yes. Obedience. Yes. Patience. I'm gonna think about that for a long time. Okay, that's a good one. What else?
[Audience member]: Truthfulness.
[Speaker]: Truthfulness. You have to guess that because it's the foundation of all virtues, according to, you know, what when you build a house, what you do first, you put down the foundation. So I had to pick that. Would you agree? No, I didn't pick it.
[Audience member]: Trustworthiness.
[Speaker]: Trustworthiness. Bahá'u'lláh wrote a beautiful tablet on trustworthiness. No, I didn't.
[Audience member]: Laughter.
[Speaker]: Laughter. I like laughter very much. I like that. That's very funny that you mentioned that. So we'll talk about that in a minute.
[Audience member]: Fortitude.
[Speaker]: Fortitude. I mean, how many times has he mentioned selflessness in the Tablet of Visitation? That he says, "Let him drink from the chalice of selflessness, clothed him in the robe of selflessness, immerse him in the ocean of self." Surely I would have picked that, but I didn't.
[Audience member]: Detachment.
[Speaker]: Detachment. How can you go wrong with detachment? Yes. Anyone else? Of course, I should have picked it. Do you understand how hard this was? Because Shoghi Effendi said he's the incarnation of every Baha'i virtue. And all the virtues, these are good things, aren't they? I had to pick one.
And you know which one I picked? I picked the one that 'Abdu'l-Bahá seemed most concerned with himself, that he mentioned more often than any other quality. And the one word which came up over and over again in every account I read of him, I picked the quality of happiness. Happiness, joy, and happiness. And I had to make this my first quality because every time 'Abdu'l-Bahá met someone, the first thing he wanted to know was, were they happy? And if someone was unhappy, he went to them like a bee straight at them and tried to make them happy. This was his prime concern. An unhappy person was like a baby dying on the operating table. Everything else was not as important as that person's happiness. And so I had to pick this.
In fact, almost every account I read about 'Abdu'l-Bahá said that he was radiantly happy and greeted them with a smile. And I was thinking, let's not be fooled by these photographs that we see of 'Abdu'l-Bahá, because they didn't have iPhones in 1912. And as a result, to take a photo, they had to put this big thing in here, and then put these lights, and then put a sheet over their head. And everyone stood, you know, quite formal, and took the photos. And that's all we have. But the verbal photos, the written photos we have of the correspondence in the letters, said that in every moment he was smiling. At every time he met them, he was joyous to meet them. In fact, he said, "If we are not happy and joyous in this season, for what other season shall we wait, and for what other time shall we look?"
And it seems to me that the main purpose of the Baha'i Revelation, the main purpose of every appearance of a Manifestation of God, is to bring us happiness. Bahá'u'lláh even says that He Himself "drained the dregs of the cup of sorrow that all the peoples of the earth may attain unto abiding joy and be filled with gladness." That's why He came, so that we would be happy. And so it seems to me that when I was reading about 'Abdu'l-Bahá, I realized that to 'Abdu'l-Bahá, happiness was not something that you are. Happiness was something that you do. He had a different attitude towards it. Happiness is not something that that came to you or didn't come to you based on other circumstances. He told people to be happy, and he helped them to do that.
I don't know how many of you are familiar with the history of Christianity, but you know how they had this original concept of seven deadly sins, that there were seven things that were a sin. And a sin is something that you do yourself that you shouldn't do. And of the original seven deadly sins, one of them was unhappiness. Originally, in early Christianity, unhappiness, it was in Latin, it's *acedia*, and that means unhappiness. And to early Christians, to be unhappy was to be a sin. Because if you were ever unhappy, even for a moment, that signified a lack of confidence, trust, in faith in God. That if you're unhappy, it clearly shows you don't have faith in God. And around about the seventh century, you can look this up in your history books, the Catholic Church wasn't happy with this particular sinner. They didn't like it. And one of the Popes, Pope Gregory, it served one of the Pope Gregorys, he changed this seven deadly sin to sloth. Sloth, which means to be lazy or unproductive or not work. And so, and it's not quite the same thing. But I think perhaps the early Christians had it right, that we need to take responsibility for our own happiness.
Today, we live in a world where people think that if they're unhappy, they're a victim of unhappiness. They need to take a pill, perhaps, to overcome it, or they need to be entertained, or some external force has to come. You know, it's very interesting. When I first came to Los Angeles from Tennessee, people in Tennessee are pretty happy, you know, with a few exceptions. I won't mention any names. But, but people in Tennessee are pretty happy. And when I got to Los Angeles, I noticed that every time I met someone in the evening, they would say, "You can't believe what a terrible day I had." "Oh, the traffic, it was terrible." "Oh, my boss, you can't believe what he said." This, they would say that. And the other person would say, "Ha, you think you had a bad day?" And they would immediately then try and one-up them with their unhappiness.
And as I observed this, I realized that the whole, the primary mode of human interaction was to share our unhappiness. We felt it, totally obliged to tell everybody how bad our day was, how bad our life was, and to share it. And when you talk about things and keep reporting them, they become larger. They become magnified in your mind. In fact, you experience them again. You know, something happens to you once, but then you retell it, it happened to you again and again and again. I remember when my children were young, Emily and Joel and Sam, I would come home, and one of them would tell me what the other did to them, you know, eight hours earlier. And as they were telling me, they would start to cry. And I'm saying, "Why are you crying now? It happened eight hours ago." But just the mere retelling of it causes them to re-experience it. And this is what we do in life. We carry around our unhappiness.
The first thing we need to do if we want to be like 'Abdu'l-Bahá is never unburden other people with our unhappiness. But furthermore, never try to one-up somebody when they're unhappy and say, "Oh, you said 'Abdu'l-Bahá when people said they weren't happy, he didn't say, 'Oh yeah, well try living in 'Akká,' you know?' He didn't say, 'Try to see Shaw,' you know, 'You think you got it bad?' He didn't say that." Okay. No. So that's the first thing we need to meet. We need to do if we want to, if we want to live this, we have to live this and not dwell on things.
Now, 'Abdu'l-Bahá, if somebody was not happy, this was very important to him. I'll tell you a story about two ladies that lived in Scotland. And I was just in Scotland at the summer school, and I told this story, but they all knew the story anyway. These two ladies were in Scotland, and they heard that 'Abdu'l-Bahá was in London. He was staying at the house of Lady Bloomfield. And so they contacted Lady Bloomfield and said, "Can we come and visit 'Abdu'l-Bahá?" And she arranged a visit at her house. And it so happened that they only had enough time to take the train from Scotland to 'Abdu'l-Bahá and had to get right back on the train and go back. And it so happens that the train took 10 hours. So they would have to take a 10-hour train, maybe an hour to without the Baha'is knew, 10 hours back. So 20 hours on the train. And this is all they had time for. Would any of you spend 20 hours on the train to go and see 'Abdu'l-Bahá and come back again? One, one, two, three. So that's what they did.
So every moment was precious. They got on the train, they traveled, they were, they went to the house, and Lady Bloomfield had arranged a private meeting just with the two ladies and 'Abdu'l-Bahá. This was so special. And so they get into the meeting. And as soon as they get into the meeting, she says that "a persistent person pushed past the servants and strode into our midst, seating himself and lighting a cigarette without invitation. He proceeded to say that he intended writing an article for some paper about 'Abdu'l-Bahá, so precisely asking for some telling points, don't you know. And he talked without pause. And far from him, in a polite manner, she says, we were speechless and aghast at the intrusion of this insufferable and altogether unpleasant boor, spoiling our golden hour."
She said, "Suddenly, 'Abdu'l-Bahá rose, and he made a sign to the man to follow him, and they went into his private room." She said, "We looked around. The boor had gone. Yes, but alas, so had the Master. Can nothing be done?" Being the hostess, I was perturbed and perplexed. So I went to the door of the audience room and said to the secretary, "Will you kindly say to 'Abdu'l-Bahá that the ladies with whom the appointment had been made are awaiting his pleasure?" She returned, and they waited, and they waited, and they waited. Finally, they heard steps in the hallway and the corridor. 'Abdu'l-Bahá was hugging the man. Said goodbye. She says, "Then he came to the room." And closing the door, they said, "Oh, Master." He paused at the door, and he looked at each of us in turn with a deep and grave meaning. "You were making that poor man uncomfortable, so strongly desiring his absence. I took him away to make him feel happy."
And you know, I'm thinking, there's nothing he could have done more in everything he could have said in that meeting that could have taught them more than that he desired the happiness of all people. And it's interesting, Lady Bloomfield said that while she was in the house, in the kitchen, there was a Persian cook and a Western cook, and they were doing something. 'Abdu'l-Bahá was upstairs in his room, and she says that they started laughing in the kitchen. That the two cooks started laughing. And she said that 'Abdu'l-Bahá came running down the stairs because he heard the laughter in the kitchen. And he said, "I'm so very much pleased that you're happy. Tell me, why were you laughing?" And it says here, "It appeared that the Persian servant had remarked, 'In the East, women wear veils and do all the work.' To which the English housekeeper had replied, 'Well, in the West, women don't wear veils and take good care that the men do at least some of the work.'" Now, you better get on with cleaning that silver. It didn't sound that funny to me. Maybe it lost something in, maybe it lost something in the translation. But anyway, they told that, and 'Abdu'l-Bahá laughed. 'Abdu'l-Bahá laughed really happy. And then he gave them each some gold coins. He said, "Quote, for being happy." And then he went back upstairs. Don't you think, you know, he's upstairs, he hears some people laughing, he comes down, he says, "Oh, what was it? Why are you laughing?" And they tell the joke. He laughs. He pays them for laughing. And then goes back upstairs. Isn't that just the most remarkable story? That's how much he liked it.
Now, you know, Bahá'u'lláh said, according to Mirza Haydar-'Ali, that there were four things, four qualities that He loved to see in people. Four qualities. And I'm thinking, four, that's good. Just four. It's not gonna be hard. And so I looked at this list of four things, and three of them were really hard, and one of them wasn't so hard. And I want to tell you what those are. Some of you probably know what they are. The first one He said was enthusiasm and courage. That was the first quality that Bahá'u'lláh wanted to see in people. And that's a hard way, you know, to always have enthusiasm and courage. The second one, I'm gonna not mention just yet. The third one, He said, "that we see with our own eyes and not through the eyes of others." This is associated with justice and all kind. And that's the hard one, too. We'd have to agree. The fourth one, He said, was the ability to finish a task once you begin it. I don't even get me started on how hard that one is. Okay, I could never finish even telling him. So those are three of the four qualities Bahá'u'lláh wants us to fulfill, you know, enthusiasm, courage, seeing with our own eyes and not the eyes of others, and the ability to finish a task once you've begun.
But the second quality, the second quality was "a face wreathed in smiles and a radiant countenance." A face wreathed. That's everybody. Let's try that right now. A face wreathed, like a wreathe is just putting it like this, completely. Go on, give me your face wreathed in smiles. Go on, do it to me now. Okay. Now, as you're giving it to me now, just think, you are doing 1/4 of what Bahá'u'lláh wants you to do. 25% of everything the Blessed Beauty wants you to do, you're doing right now, just with that. That's the easy one. Okay, I'll do that one at least.
[Audience member]: I'm sorry, all the payment is out of this world.
[Speaker]: Okay. So I want to ask you, I want to ask you a question. Many of you read the Writings, I'm sure. How should we read the Writings? How should we read the Writings?
[Audience member]: With thoughtfulness.
[Speaker]: With thoughtfulness. How else should we read the Writings?
[Audience member]: In such a way that won't burden ourselves.
[Speaker]: In such a way that won't burden ourselves. How else?
[Audience member]: In a meditative way.
[Speaker]: In a meditative way. Yes. How else?
[Audience member]: Enthusiastically.
[Speaker]: Enthusiastically. With glasses? These are, there's no wrong answer here. And that one is okay. Let me tell you what Bahá'u'lláh says in the Kitáb-i-Aqdas. How we should read the Writings. He says, "To read one verse or even one word in a spirit of joy and radiance is preferable to the perusal of many books." To read one word, even. Now I'm thinking, but how old are you sure about this? Over here, we got ten books, and I'm gonna read them all. Maybe I'm a little serious about it. And over here, I got one word, and I'm reading it with joy and radiance. And you're saying that's preferable? And that's what He's saying. In the Aqdas, with joy and radiance. That's how Bahá'u'lláh says we need to read the Writings.
Now, there's a reason for it, which we're gonna find out in a minute. Ask you a question. How should we have Baha'i meetings? In what way should we have Baha'i meetings? Who wants to make a guess? Are you just taking a guess here? I could be tricking you. Okay. Let me read. He says, "Gather ye together with the utmost joy and fellowship." Yes. So when we read the Writings, we do it with joy and radiance. When we have meetings, we do it with joy.
Can I ask you a question? How should we pray? In what way should we pray?
[Audience member]: With detachment.
[Speaker]: With detachment. What else? What are you just guessing again? You don't know what I'm gonna say. Let's, let's see what Bahá'u'lláh says. "Busy thyself in the remembrance of God and unloose thy tongue in celebrating His praise with the utmost joy and radiance." So now we have to read the Writings with joy and radiance. We have to have meetings with joy and radiance. We have to pray with joy and radiance.
How should we die? In what way should we die? And don't say detachment, because that's gonna happen anyway. Didn't want to take a guess? You think so? Okay. Let me read what Bahá'u'lláh says. "They that are the followers of the One True God shall, the moment they depart out of this life, experience such joy and gladness as would be impossible to describe." So now we've got to die with joy and radiance.
How should we contribute to the Baha'i funds? In what manner should we contribute to the Baha'i funds? Are you guessing again? Let's read what Bahá'u'lláh says. "If one spontaneously offereth the Huqúqu'lláh with the utmost joy and radiance, it will be acceptable and not otherwise." So if you give to the Huqúqu'lláh, if you're joyful and radiant, that's great, and He'll accept it. If you're not, don't even bother giving it, because first, it's not going to be accepted, and not, and you're not happy. So what's the point?
How should we go on pilgrimage? Are you guessing? Okay. Let's read what He says. "Thine intention to pay a visit to the Blessed House is acceptable and well-pleasing in the sight of this Wronged One, provided it is accomplished in a spirit of joy and radiance." It's only acceptable if it's done.
Notice there's two words that are constantly mentioned here in every single passage I read. What are they? Joy and Radiance. It's like they're Mary's, like they're the Batman and Robin of spirituality. They're completely married together. The same two words over and over again: joy and radiance.
And as I had to think about this, as I came across these passages, because joy is the quality of having happiness within, but radiance is the quality of shedding it to others. It's not enough, apparently, to just be internally happy. What good would the sun be if it had heat and light, but it kept it to itself, if it did not radiate its heat and light? So these two are completely inseparable to Bahá'u'lláh.
Do any of you fast? How do you feel during the fast? Let's say an hour before sunset. How do you feel during the fast? In what, in what spirit? I'm just asking you. Okay. Let me, let me read you what Bahá'u'lláh says in the Prayer for the Fast. "These are the days of the fast. Blessed is the one who with joy and radiance arises to perform worthy deeds." So now we've got to fast with joy and radiance.
Okay, I might as well just die with joy and radiance. How should we have holy days? In what manner should we have holy days? With joy and radiance. In fact, He says, "Rejoice with exceeding gladness as you call to remembrance a day of supreme felicity." When He's talking about Ridván.
How should we teach the Cause? With joy and radiance. In fact, I can't find anything that I can do without joy and radiance. Every single thing that we are to do, Bahá'u'lláh says to do with joy and radiance. And so I had to pick it as the first virtue of 'Abdu'l-Bahá. I had no choice in the matter. He was concerned about it. It was the first thing he asked. It's one of the things, one of the things Bahá'u'lláh wants to see.
So at this school, I want you to make this the school of joy and radiance. I want you to put that smile on your face, and I want you to keep it on your face at least for these three days. Just try it out. Be happy. And if somebody is not happy, to radiate that. I do not want you at any time during this school to share your unhappiness with anyone. But if someone is unhappy, do not try and one-up them and say, "Ha ha, you think you're unhappy." Try to cheer them up. This is the first goal.
How many of you go to Feast? One, two, three. Okay. When you're driving to Feast, what are you thinking about? What you're gonna do at Feast? What is this? Are you thinking about maybe the food you're going to eat? Are you thinking about what items for consultation you want to raise? Are you thinking about, you know, how you're dressed and how people will think about, you know, what you look like, or something like that? Well, I can tell for most of you, that's not a concern. But, but I know I shouldn't have said that. I will, Don will erase that from the recording. No problem.
So what, what are you thinking about? What are you thinking about as you're driving to Feast? 'Abdu'l-Bahá tells you what to think about. He says, "As you're going to Feast, he says, 'Each one of you must think how to make happy and please the other members.'" That's our goal. Our goal is to go there and think how. And you, you have to think how. Yes. You don't just, you know, try, you know, just to tickle them or to, you know, do a dance. You have to think how to make people happy. He wants you to concentrate on that as you go to Feast.
Now, I want to ask you, what is happiness? What exactly is happiness? It's, it's difficult, actually, when I think about to even describe. And yet, this is the first quality that 'Abdu'l-Bahá wants us to have, that he wants to see in us. The first thing. I believe happiness is the willingness and the ability to be happy, no matter what happens to you in life. Happiness is not something that comes to you because good things happen to you in life. That's not what it's all about. In other words, people are not happy because of what happens to them in life. It's something else. You're not happy because of those things.
Now, I learned this very strongly from the accounts of 'Abdu'l-Bahá's sister. But here come the greatest, totally leaf talking about their imprisonment in 'Akká. I don't know if you've read some of the heart-wrenching stories of their arrival in 'Akká. But she said that the boat arrived, and it couldn't even dock. They had to, they were gonna dump all the women right into the water. 'Abdu'l-Bahá quickly arranged for some chairs, just so the women could just be carried ashore. But she said they got onto the shore, and the guard surrounded them all the way, and all the peoples of the town came to look at them and ridiculed them. They were thrown into this tiny little cell. She said the women were thrown in the cell. There was no furniture, there was no food. The babies were crying, they were starving. Many of the Baha'is, within the first few days, the 72, they were dying within the first few days. And she tells this story, and then she finishes by saying, she says, "We were marvelously happy in those days." I couldn't believe this. You said, "We were mar-" And then she says, "The second night we were there, just a second night as these, they were divers, the second night of their, we got to laughing so hard that the guard came to the door and told us to stop. He was afraid the guard would think we had gone crazy to be to be so happy in such a place."
And I was thinking, how beautiful this story is. You would think that the Manifestation of God would come to you to cheer you up in such a time, to say, "Don't worry, God will occur." Instead, He comes in and says, "Can you guys keep it down?" He says, "Can you keep it down?" Can you believe this quality of accepting whatever happens to you in life? Nothing has happened to me like what happened to her. And they were laughing uncontrollably. And the Manifestation of God had to understand. This is the type of happiness.
To 'Abdu'l-Bahá, laughter was a very serious business. So serious that he taught a lesson to Agnes Parsons. Agnes Parsons, as you know, is a wonderful believer, lived in Washington D.C., and very wealthy, and very highly connected within society. And she was so excited in 1912 and August that she brought 'Abdu'l-Bahá to her estate and invited the highest people of all society to come and hear 'Abdu'l-Bahá. It says that she had people outstanding in every walk of life to meet 'Abdu'l-Bahá: culture, science, art, wealth, politics, achievement. They were all represented. And she was so excited for 'Abdu'l-Bahá to give them a profound speech on the teachings of Bahá'u'lláh, unimpressed this wonderfully impressive gathering.
And so 'Abdu'l-Bahá got to the gathering. He looked at the people, and he told them a funny story, and then he laughed. He laughed at the story himself, and they all kind of laughed. And so he told another funny story, and they laughed a little harder. And then he told another story, and he laughed himself at the story. And he went on and on like this. Finally, they started telling him funny stories, and he laughed. And then all the time was finished, and the meeting was over. And it says here that he said, "It was good to laugh. Laughter is a spiritual relaxation." And then he referred to his years in prison. "Life was hard," he said. "Tribulations were never far away. And yet, at the end of the day, they would sit together and recall events that had been fantastic and laugh over them." "Joy is not," he told them, "a byproduct of material comfort and affluence. Were it so, dejection would have ruled every hour of their lives in those days, whereas their souls were joyful." And that's all he did. The meeting was over, and they all left. And he turned to Agnes with a very mischievous smile and said, "Are you pleased with me?"
And it seems to me that this is a very important quality, to make people happy and to be happy, and to let people know that it's possible to be happy under all conditions. That we are responsible for our own happiness. Now, some of this comes from the teachings of the Báb. I didn't realize that until I read this book, "Gate of the Heart." Have any of you read this book? "Gate of the Heart"? You need to read it. It's a fantastic book. And it talks about the teachings of the Báb. And one of the primary teachings of the Báb was to make people happy. And even more so, to never cause grief to anyone. To never cause grief to anyone. This was a primary teaching, one of the main teachings of the Báb. In fact, to such an extent that there was a law in the Bayán that said that if you caused anybody grief, you had to pay a fine of 19 miskals of gold. And as I read this, I thought, if, you know, if people were Bábís today, they'd go broke. You know, that this is.
But then there was a passage I read in the Kitáb-i-Asmá, the Báb's Book of Names, which talks about exactly how we can make people happy and not cause grief. And I'm going to read this. This is the words of the Báb. He said, "Be lovingly watchful of one another, and thus improve your affairs." Even that's so remarkable. I thought, if I want to improve my affairs, I should be concerned with me and my affairs. And He says, "No, be watchful of everyone else, and that will how you improve your affairs." "Should you find amongst you one who is afflicted with grief, remove his sorrow by any means in your power. And should he find one stricken with poverty, enrich him to the extent of your ability. And if you find in your midst one who is abased, exalt him to the extent you can. And if he find one who is veiled by ignorance, educate him to the degree of your capacity. Should you find amongst yourselves one who is single, help him to marry in accordance with the divine law to the limits of your ability." Thank God. He said that. I mean, He's getting really specific here, isn't He? If you find someone, a single, help them to marry, but just to the limits of your ability, and also in accordance with divine law. Should you find one who is in distress, bring him tranquility by any means in your power. Gaze upon others with the same eyes with which He gazes upon your own selves. If you find in your midst one who is hungry, send him in truth, to the extent of your power, food in such a way that his heart will not be saddened. And if you find one who has no clothes, provide him with clothes in the most dignified manner to the extent possible for you."
And he goes on and on. He just lists every single way in which you comfort those that are sad, that are sorrowful, that are grieving. And every single way not to cause grief to anyone. So this is clearly the most important virtue that we need to accomplish. And I hope that by the end of this school, every one of us will be full of joy and radiance. If you want to just have a theme for this school, let's make it joy and radiance. Those two things.
I want to ask you, though, how can you be happy? I mean, okay, I just said be happy. Said, "Oh, well, why didn't you say so?" You know, it's easy. Still have to know how to do it. How can we be happy? Can anyone tell me how to be happy?
[Audience member]: It's good medicine.
[Speaker]: Good. But how do you be happy?
[Audience member]: Serving.
[Speaker]: Serving. How else?
[Audience member]: Practicing acceptance.
[Speaker]: Practicing acceptance. Okay. Yes. Good.
[Audience member]: Choosing happiness.
[Speaker]: Choosing happiness. Yes.
[Audience member]: Having a great beam. Grateful.
[Speaker]: Grateful. Okay. Yes. Spirituality. Oh, I like these. These are really good answers.
[Audience member]: Hardship.
[Speaker]: Hardship. It's funny, and yet I can tell just by the way you say that, yeah, that you understand. Let me tell you what I think is the first step to being happy. The first step to being happy is to understand that there are two kinds of happiness. There are two kinds of happiness. There's the, there's the good and the bad. It's kind of like cholesterol, you know, two.
Kinds of - good and bad clothes, so my doctor tells me. Okay, there's true and false happiness. I first figured this out when I read one of the hidden words, and I was quite sure that, but how will I use the wrong word? I thought he made a mistake, and, you know, being pedantic like I am, I felt obliged to correct the manifestation of God because he said in one of these hidden words, he said, "Should prosperity befall thee." And I'm saying, "No, no, Baháʼu'lláh, befall is a verb that you apply to a bad thing. Befall is something, you know, if something bad happens to you, that befalls you. But you're talking about prosperity here, and you're using the verb befall." And I'm thinking, probably he didn't make a mistake. He was probably making a point by using that particular word. But he says, "Should prosperity befall thee, rejoice not; and should abasement come upon thee, grieve not, for both shall pass away and be no more."
So he's telling us to do two things, and one is a lot harder than the other. The second one, when bad things, abasement, and other bad things happen to you, don't be unhappy. Okay, maybe I can accept it. But when prosperity comes to you, to not rejoice, to not be happy, that's actually harder, in a way, isn't it? It's a harder thing to do. And yet, when I thought about it, I realized that if you rejoice in wealth, you're always going to be unhappy when it's taken away from you. If you enjoy attention, you're always going to be sad at the lack of it. If you enjoy praise, you're always going to be unhappy when you don't get it. If you enjoy comfort, or you enjoy luxury, you're always going to be unhappy with it. So, but how Baháʼu'lláh makes these two commands? Because he says, "Don't have the bad happiness, because it will always lead to unhappiness, because you're placing your confidence in things that are going to be taken from you sooner or later."
Another passage that I found in the writings that I was quite sure about how I was using the wrong word. He says this. He says, "The true lover yearn-eth for tribulation, even as the death-rebel for forgiveness, and the sinful for mercy." And I said, "Yearneth? Yearneth, Baháʼu'lláh? Are you sure? I mean, what do you yearn for? Okay? I mean, when you get up in the morning, you yearn for a good cup of coffee, or you yearn for some food, you know? Or what are all the things you yearn for? But you come home from a hard day's work and and you're tired, you say, 'I really yearn for some tribulation.' You yearn for that?" I'm thinking, Baháʼu'lláh, maybe the true lover begrudgingly accepts tribulation. Okay, thank God I wasn't writing the hidden words, because that's what I would say. And so clearly, Baháʼu'lláh has a different concept of how we should approach life. It's quite obvious to Baháʼu'lláh that we cannot control what happens to us in this life, but we can control how we respond to it. And so Baháʼu'lláh is telling us that this is the way to live. This is the way to live.
Now, out of Baháʼu'lláh, he was able to find happiness because he saw in everything, whatever happened to him in life, no matter how terrible it might have seemed, he saw it as being a message from God. It was a message from God. And this was a very interesting thing that he told the Baháʼís in Paris when he was there. You know, he spent a long time in Paris, nine weeks in Paris, and he was only going to spend four weeks at the most. And he explained to the Baháʼís why he spent so much extra time in Paris. And I'm going to read you what he said. He said, "I have been traveling for two and a half years, and nowhere was I ill except here." Even that was interesting. In his late 60s, traveled for two and a half years, meeting hundreds of people every day, and he never got sick, even once. He says, "No worries, he'll accept here." But he says, "He got ill in Paris. He says, 'Because of that, I had to stay a long time. Were it not for this illness, I would not have stayed in Paris more than a month.'" There is a reason for this. "It has been so from the early years of my life."
And as I read this, I think other Baháʼís are saying, "Okay, so he got sick in Paris, and so he had to spend more than twice the amount of time in Paris, and there was a divine reason. It was a message from God," he's saying. And I'm thinking, "Well, hold on. If God wants you to spend nine weeks in Paris, why can't he just, you know, say, call you up and say, 'Abdu'l-Bahá, stay nine weeks in Paris'? You know, why not? Why can't God just do that?" But apparently, God didn't do that. But he did it in this form. To Abdu'l-Bahá, that was as good as receiving a message. That this was a message from God. And so he got ill, he accepted this, and as a result, he stayed in Paris, and all of the things that he achieved in Paris. Talks. I even read that while he was in Paris, for the first time in his life, he spoke on a telephone. And I liked the image of that. You know, Abdu'l-Bahá was in hospital. I was thinking, that would have been a great time for God to say, "Stay nine weeks in Paris." Apparently not. But so he did lots of things. And so he continued to explain to the Baháʼís in Paris why it is that he has this attitude towards whatever befalls him in life. He says, "It has been so from the early years of my life. The wisdom of whatever has happened to me has become apparent later."
"While I was a child in Tehran, seven years of age, I contracted tuberculosis. There was no hope of recovery afterwards. The wisdom of this and the reason became evident, for were it not for that illness, I would have been in Mazandaran, Iran. But because of it, I remained in Tehran and was there when the Blessed Perfection was imprisoned. Thus, I traveled to Iraq in his company." Now, what he's basically saying is, is that had he not had that illness, he would have been back in Mazandaran, Iran. You know, his brother did not travel with Baháʼu'lláh, and it was ten years, ten years he was separated from the family, all due to Baháʼu'lláh. It was only the illness that kept him in Tehran that enabled him then to travel with his father. He says, "Then I was able to travel my father to Iraq." And then he says, "When the time came, although physicians had despaired of my recovery, I was suddenly cured. It happened in spite of the fact that all had said the cure was impossible."
So you see, this is what Abdu'l-Bahá. He saw that you accept everything in life. You accept it, and the wisdom of it will become evident later. And through this means, you don't have this bad happiness, this happiness that's based on physical things. You have true happiness. It's based on the fact that God is all-bounteous, and whatever you get in life, that is the best thing that you could possibly get. Now, how much time do I have? Twenty more minutes. I'm very happy. Okay. I couldn't really figure this. Normally, when Abdu'l-Bahá was being interviewed, one of the newspaper reporters said, "I'm gonna read the question." It says, "Will you tell us how you felt while in prison and how you regard your freedom?" How it felt to be in prison, and how you regard your freedom. And I'm thinking, how is Abdu'l-Bahá gonna answer that question? What did it feel like to be in prison? And now, what does it feel like to be imprisoned? And they said, "We are glad that you are free." And Abdu'l-Bahá said, "Thank you. But freedom is not a matter of place. It is a condition. I was thankful in prison, and the lack of liberty was very pleasing to me, for those days were passed in the path of service under the utmost difficulties and trials, bearing fruits and results. Unless one accepts dire vicissitudes, he will not attain to me. Prison is freedom. Troubles rest me. Death is life. And to be despised, dishonor. Therefore, I was happy all the time in prison. When one is released from the prison of self, that is indeed release, for that is the greater prison. When this release takes place, then one cannot be outwardly imprisoned. When they put my feet in stocks, I would say to the guard, 'You cannot imprison me, for here I have light and air and bread and water. There will come a time when my body will be in the ground, and I shall have neither light nor air, nor food, nor water. But even then, I shall not be imprisoned.'"
"The afflictions which come to humanity sometimes tend to center the consciousness on limitations, and this is prison. Release comes by making of the will a door through which confirmations of the spirit come." And so then the reporter said, "What do you mean, confirmations of the spirit?" He said, "The confirmations of the spirit are all those powers and gifts which some are born, and which some men call genius, but for which others have to strive with infinite pains. They come to man or woman who accepts his life with radiant acquiescence." Radiant acquiescence. That's why we need to be radiant. That's why we need to do this. And so I'm going to read to you what Abdu'l-Bahá said to those Baháʼís in Paris, because I find it fascinating. He was only ill at one time, and he stayed so long, and he was clearly meditating about how this has always been true that God bestows upon him whatever happens. He accepts it. Even at the age of seven, he's thinking about his tuberculosis. And on November 22nd, near the end of his stay in Paris, he said this to the Baháʼís. He said, "In this world, we are influenced by two sentiments: joy and pain. Joy gives us wings. In times of joy, our strength is more vital, our intellect keener, and our understanding less clouded. We seem better able to cope with the world and to find our sphere of usefulness. But when sadness visits us, we become weak, our strength leaves us, our comprehension is dimmed, and our intelligence veiled." Isn't this interesting? That joy is far more than what we realized. It increases our abilities. It increases our intelligence. This is obviously why we read the Writings with joy. We're going to understand them better. This is obviously why we pray with joy. He says, though, that when you're sad, that your strength leaves you. He says, your intelligence becomes veiled. He says, "The actualities of life elude our grasp. The eyes of our spirit fail to discover the sacred mysteries, and we become even as dead beings."
And then he goes on to say, "Where sadness comes from." He says, "All the sorrow and the grief that exists come from the world of matter. The spiritual world bestows only joy. When our thoughts are filled with the bitterness of this world, let us turn our eyes to the sweetness of God's compassion, and He will send to us heavenly calm. If we are imprisoned in this material world, our spirit can soar into the heaven, and we shall be free indeed." "I myself was in prison for two years. One year alone would have been impossible to bear. Nobody survived that imprisonment more than a year. But thank God, during all those 40 years, I was supremely happy every day. On waking, it was like hearing good tidings, and every night, infinite joy was mine. Spirituality was my comfort, and turning to God was my greatest joy. If this had not been so, do you think it would have been possible to have lived through those 40 years in prison? Thus, spirituality is the greatest of God's gifts, and life everlasting means turning to God. May you one and all increase daily in spirituality. May you be strengthened in all goodness. May you be helped more and more by the divine consolation. Be made free by the Holy Spirit of God, and may the power of the heavenly kingdom live and work among you."
There's not a beautiful talk, entirely on joy and radiance. I would have loved to have been there and just to have heard Abdu'l-Bahá say that, recalling his own imprisonment and sharing his utmost feelings about this prime quality of Abdu'l-Bahá. The first quality that I want to talk about, there are five more to come, but this one is the one we have to practice now. So let's try it one more time. Let's put that smile on our face, okay? And let's radiate to turn to our left and right hand, radiate that smile. And now I want to ask you a question. I want to ask you a question. How hard was that to do? Was it really hard? How hard was that to do? And I want to ask you a second question. How many of you have neighbors? Okay, so you have neighbors. Do you know what Baháʼu'lláh said to do with your neighbors? He said, "Be worthy of the trust of thy neighbor, and look upon him with a bright and friendly face." That's what he wanted you to do. There's the first thing. He didn't say, you know, "And teach him the Cause," or necessarily, "Or do this." Just look upon him with a bright and friendly face. This is the first thing you want to do. Let's practice looking upon people with a bright and friendly face, and we will find that suddenly we are already like Abdu'l-Bahá. This is the first step.
So, so now we are going to look at five more essential qualities of Abdu'l-Bahá. The next one, we'll talk about, I believe, is here at 4:15. The third quality will be at 9:30 tonight here. And if those of you cannot make these sessions, don't worry, you can record them, and you can get them tomorrow morning. We'll do the fourth quality at the same time, and then tomorrow at 4:15, we'll do the fifth quality, and we'll do the sixth quality Monday morning. And by the end of that, we will have what I consider to be the six essential qualities of Abdu'l-Bahá. And believe me, it is not impossible for us to become like Abdu'l-Bahá. I do not believe that he would have said he's the perfect exemplar and say, "Look at me, follow me, be as I am," and then he would sneak her in the back and say, "Good luck to that, you got it, you know?" Yeah, I just don't think that Abdu'l-Bahá would do that. It would be so cruel. About Baháʼu'lláh to do them. The problem is, is that if someone tells you, "Be like something," or "Be like someone," if someone said, "I want you to play basketball like Michael Jordan," or "Play basketball like Kobe Bryant," you'd say, "Well, how do I do that?" If you go to a ten-year-old boy and say, "You know, just play like him," you say, "Well, how do I do that?" No, you have to know more than that. You have to know, well, exactly what does he do? How did he do it? By what methods should we do it? So I want you to remember that Abdu'l-Bahá, he's not just a happy story that you read and listen and laugh. Abdu'l-Bahá is a challenge to you to become a new race, a new race of human beings. Every time you read a story of Abdu'l-Bahá, say, "When is the last time I did that?" or "Could I do that?" or "How can I do that?" Abdu'l-Bahá is a challenge to each and every one of us. And so this is what we're going to do. I have given this program now eight times. This is the ninth time I've given the program. And at the end of some of the schools, some of the people came up to me and said, "Thank you so much for this program. You've given me a lot to think about." And it's when I heard that, I was terribly upset and disappointed, because I felt I had failed. If they had come up to me and said, "Thank you, you've given me something to do," I would have been happy. Because what does it matter what we think or believe or accept? Big deal. Big deal. The only thing that matters is what we do. This is true religion. And so this talk, don't come up to me after this talk and say, "You gave me something to think about." But if you want to come up and say, "Oh, now, now that I hear that this is what Abdu'l-Bahá did, I'm going to try and do that a little more," that will make me happy. And so I want you all to see if you can guess what is this next quality of Abdu'l-Bahá. How much time do we have? We have 12 minutes. What am I going to talk about it for? 15. This afternoon, the second quality of Abdu'l-Bahá, encouragement to give people courage. Wonderful quality. No, I didn't pick that one. Lucy, what's another one? Service. You're gonna keep saying that, aren't you? It's not the one this afternoon. Maybe it might be one of the six. I can't tell you. Patience. Yes. No, it's not the one. Any humility? Action? Love? Perseverance? Kindness? Gratitude? Contentment? Okay, well, this is interesting. I find this interesting because it so happens that the six qualities I picked, this was just what you're doing is what I did. I did this for months. Yeah. Well, this quality, this call, that's the foundation of virtues. That's the love. That's the, that's the prince of virtues. That's the lord of virtues. It may never be, there are so many of them. And then I found several passages of Abdu'l-Bahá where he said farewell to the Baháʼís. I'm not gonna tell you when, because you're gonna go to the book and find them. I'm not gonna tell you the date. But on several occasions, he said farewell, and he only said a few words. And in several of these farewell speeches, he mentioned a few certain things, and he mentioned all six of the things that I'm going to talk about. He mentioned all six. And I thought, well, if Abdu'l-Bahá, these were his parting remarks, out of all the things he could choose, I decided to pick. So don't think that it was me that picked these. This is not my six. Okay? That's a little secret. But none of you have gotten the second quality. And so I can't tell you. You're gonna have to come at 4:15. You're gonna have to come at 4:15. But the point is, is that we're going to talk a lot about becoming like Abdu'l-Bahá. And I don't want any of you to despair, because Abdu'l-Bahá has said there is a way to your spiritual development. And the way is to not compare yourself to anybody. Not to compare yourself to anybody because you think they're better than you, or to compare yourself to anybody because you think you're better than them. He says, the only person you should compare yourself to is to yourself yesterday. That's it. Just compare yourself to yourself. Yes, or not a week ago, or a month ago. And not, you know, where you're going to go. All he said to do is, every time you wake up in the morning, to think, "How were you yesterday?" and think, "How are you today?" He says, "If you feel you're a little better in any of these qualities," he says, "then thank God for that and ask for an increase of it. And if you're not, not so good," he says, "that ask God for forgiveness." Either way, let's do all I got to do. He said, "Just beat yesterday." And this is the whole method by which Abdu'l-Bahá told us. He said, "Kam kam, ruzeh ruzeh." Kam means small, and ruzeh means dead, as in our ruse. So, kam kam, ruzeh ruzeh. Little by little, day by day. And all you have to do is be better than yesterday. So it doesn't matter how bad you are, as long as you're better than yesterday. If you murdered ten people yesterday, try to kill nine people today. Try to kill nine people today. What? So does it matter? Hey, you know, you're laughing. You're laughing. But let's get this straight. There are people that are killing and doing all kinds of terrible things. They need to have a path as well. There needs to be some method. Though if the world were perfect, Baháʼu'lláh wouldn't have come. So do not worry that you're imperfect. Only decide to be a little better today than you were yesterday. This is Abdu'l-Bahá's divine method. And this is what we're going to do. So do not despair and say, "Well, I have to suddenly become like Abdu'l-Bahá." Just, "Can I be a little more joyful and radiant today than I was yesterday?" And thank God for that today, and then ask him for an increase. That's all we have to do. This is the path to spiritual growth. Abdu'l-Bahá said in the same passage, he said, "The bird that keeps flying soars ever higher, but as soon as he stops flapping his wings, he falls." That's what he said. We got to keep flapping those wings. Let's flap our wings. Okay, well, you just gotta keep flapping the wings. And as long as we get us enough. I don't like that. So that's all we need to do. And so we're going to talk about this, how we can daily try to improve myself. So this is a wonderful journey we're going to begin on, a journey towards six beautiful destinations, the six essential qualities of Abdu'l-Bahá that none of you can even guess. But at 4:15 and at 9:30 tonight, we'll have the other two. So thank you very much. Aloha.