Transcription
So thank you all very much here for the second session on this six-part course, "Recreating Ourselves in the Image of the Master." And how many of you, after hearing the first session, are joyful and radiant? Okay. I can see by the look in your faces. It's fantastic, just to see all the smiles at the lunch table. I could not believe how happy everyone was. It's not so hard to smile, is it? It's not that difficult. No, I can tell.
And so now we want to go to the second quality of our `Abdu'l-Bahá that I selected for this course. And I asked you at the end of the session if you could identify what you thought I picked as the second essential quality of `Abdu'l-Bahá. And for some reason, nobody got it. Now, this is not really a surprise, since `Abdu'l-Bahá was the incarnation of every Baháʼí virtue, and there's a lot of them. So I'll give you one last chance. Who can tell me what they think my selected? Remember, I had to pick just six out of a hundred, okay? So it's not easy. But energetic perseverance? Service? Everybody keeps saying service over and over again. I hear service. Okay, okay. Radiance? But we had joy and radiance already. Okay. You know what? That was my seventh quality. Now you're laughing. You're laughing, but I am genuinely sincere. Prayerfulness was actually in my top six, and then one of them moved in front and pushed prayerfulness down to seven. So I appreciate that. And if I had seven talks, I would definitely include prayerfulness. But it still is not the second one. It's not the one we're going to talk about here today. Yes. Oh, repetition? Just keep saying that. Yes. Detachment? Oh my gosh, these are all good qualities, and none of them are the one I picked. Okay. Any? I'm sorry. Enthusiasm? Hey, you keep saying that over and over again. Patience? Yes, yes. [Music] Mindfulness? I'm gonna think about that too. Yes. Back here. Reliance on God, which is really part of happiness that we already talked about. Faith? Very good. Yes. I'm sorry. Well, I said I'm sorry. No, I apologize. Okay. Yeah. One more in the back there. Yes. Kindness? Truthfulness? I'm just waiting. It's okay. You know what? All right. Well, thank you for guessing. The title, and we'll go to closing questions. Yes.
So, you want me to tell you what it is? Yesterday, or should I say the last session, it was on happiness. Today, it's on the fact that `Abdu'l-Bahá saw only the good in all people. The quality of only seeing the good in people may be the most important message we can take from `Abdu'l-Bahá. Over and over again, He emphasized this point, that He only saw good in every person He met, and He ignored all the bad. And people, in both cases, this is something that He did. And this is such an essential quality, and one that He emphasized so much Himself, that I found I had to list it as the second quality, immediately after happiness.
Now, let's look at what `Abdu'l-Bahá says about this quality, the quality of only seeing the good in people. First of all, how many of you know people that don't believe in God? We all know people that don't believe. And how many people do you know believe in God, but they have some notion of God that's quite limited from certain religions and so on? And this is a real problem in the world. Even Baháʼu'lláh says, "People's superstitions have become veils between them of their own hearts and kept them from God, and they now have no discernment. They're bereft of discernment to see God with their own eyes or hear His melody with their own ears." We don't see God. Well, we're told in the Baháʼí teachings that God cannot be known completely. We can't know God's essence, any more than the painting can know the painter. But what we can know of God are His qualities or His attributes. This is what we can know. We can know His qualities and attributes.
So, we think, what are the qualities and attributes of God? It's kind of like saying, what are the qualities and attributes of the Sun? The Sun has the quality of heat. It has the quality of light, or electromagnetic waves, and so on. This is not the complete Sun. This is just some of the qualities that we know of the Sun. And in the same way, we know of God by knowing of various attributes. Attributes like love, compassion, generosity, forgiveness, kindness, joy, wisdom, courtesy, all the things that you've been guessing today. These are all attributes of God. And we have to learn to think of God as a bundle of attributes. We can't know who God is. He's not some man with a beard on a mountain or something like this. Think of God as a bundle of attributes. And the only way we are told we can know these attributes is by seeing them in other people. If we didn't know a generous person, how would we know that God is generous? If we didn't know a kind person, how would we be able to understand that God is kind?
So, I want you to think of these things as God themselves. Think of kindness as God. Think of compassion as God. Think of joy, wisdom, courtesy. These things are just a little part of God. Now, here's the trick. Every time you see a person, I want you to look for a good quality. And I want you to look for love. Look for compassion. Look for generosity. Look for kindness. Look very hard and see if you can find a good quality. And when you see that good quality in that person, you just saw God. That's where you find God. You find God in other people. This is how you find God. But you have to say to yourself, "Oh, I just saw compassion. There is God. I found God." And this was `Abdu'l-Bahá's trick. `Abdu'l-Bahá realized that every single person is an unopened letter from God. Every single person He came across, He looked hard, and when He found God, He loved them. And He ignored every other part of the person, because to Him, that didn't exist. It actually doesn't exist. The bad qualities in a person have no existence. If I took a glass of water and it had a tiny bit of water here at the bottom, was full of emptiness, I would not hand it to someone and say, "Here's a glass of 90% emptiness. Here's a glass of 90% empty." I would say, "Here's a glass of a little bit of water." `Abdu'l-Bahá looked at every person as a glass of water, partially full, partially empty, and He concentrated on the water. And this is such a simple thing, because once you learn to do this, almost every other aspect of spirituality will come to you. When you look at the stars at night and you see them in a constellation, you just look at the stars. Do you look at the black around the stars? No. You say, "There are stars in the sky." This is what `Abdu'l-Bahá did with every single person.
Now, `Abdu'l-Bahá said that if somebody has 10 good qualities and one bad quality, to look at the 10 good qualities and ignore the bad one. He said, if someone has 10 bad qualities and one good, and I think I know who He's talking about, but I'm not gonna, I'm not gonna mention any names, just just the initials. But but anyway, He said, if they have 10 bad qualities and one good, ignore the 10 bad ones and just look at the one good. Now, the interesting thing is, is that once you start looking for the God in people, which is the good qualities, once you start looking, you start to see them a lot more. And this is a fascinating aspect of human nature, that when you focus on something, you look for it, you start to notice it more. I don't know if any of you have had the experience of shopping for a new car, a model of car that perhaps you've never had before, but you can go into the car dealership and maybe five or ten minutes, just look at the car in a brochure, or look at it. When you're driving home, you see that car passing you all the time. And you say, "This is strange. I never noticed that car before." But now I just focused on it a little bit, and now I see it. And this is what it's like. God is passing by us every day on the road of life, but we don't even take 10 or 15 minutes to concentrate on it, and He just passes us by. But when we learn to focus on it in people, then we say, "Oh, nice compassion there. Oh, good generosity. Oh, but then, oh, that's God." Now, the interesting thing is, then suddenly you start seeing God everywhere. Every time you have lunch with somebody and they're sitting across the table, you are seeing God, because you're looking for the God in them. Every single person reflects God to a certain extent. But Baháʼu'lláh says this: He says that everything in physical creation has the power of reflection to a little extent, to a small extent. He says everything can reflect God to a certain extent. But man, humans, reflect God completely, or have the capacity to reflect God completely. And this is exactly the way it works in physical creation, because if you look at anything physical, it is reflecting a tiny part of light. That's why it has color. Anything that has color, anything that you can see, that means it's reflecting just that part of the light spectrum. It's reflecting the blue back to you, or the green, or whatever. So everything just has a little bit of light reflection. But there's one thing in creation, the mirror, that has no color. The mirror, when it's perfectly polished, has no color. It reflects all the spectrum of light. And that's what human beings are like, according to Baháʼu'lláh, if we perfect ourselves. Now, all of us have the power to reflect God a little bit. Some reflect God a little more than others. But when I was in India with some of the friends sitting here in the front row, I noticed that many of the Indians wear clothing that have little mirrors in a few spots on their clothes. I don't know if you've seen this. It's just a mirror here and mirrored there, so it reflects, but the rest of it doesn't reflect. And that's what a lot of people are like. They have a few little mirrors that reflect God, and the rest of them don't reflect God. And `Abdu'l-Bahá just looked at those mirrors in the person. He looked hard until He could find the God in them. And then He said a very interesting thing. He said, "This is the only way you can love people." And finally, the penny dropped. I didn't get that memo for most of my life. That you can't love people when you look at their faults. Believe me, I've tried. You cannot do it. You can't love people if you see their bad qualities. And and this always confused me as a Baháʼí, because we're told to love everybody. We're told to love our enemies. I said, "How can you love these people?" The point is, you don't love their bad qualities. They don't exist. Darkness doesn't exist. Rather, you look for the good in them, and then you can love them. And `Abdu'l-Bahá said, "As long as you see a good quality in a person, you're seeing God. How can you not love it? It's God." And `Abdu'l-Bahá said that there are four kinds of love: of God for man, and man for God, and God for God. And He said, "This is one kind of love, the love of man for man." This particular kind of love is very difficult. And He says that this love can only be attained by looking for the good, and only the good, in other people. He says, "This love, the fourth kind of love, is attained through the knowledge of God, so that men see the divine love reflected in the heart, each seeing the other, the beauty of God reflected in the soul." This is the key to love. Is to look for the good quality in the person.
Now, when my son Joel was first born, we were in the hospital, and the doctor took the baby, held it up, looked at the baby, looked at me, and said, "He looks just like his father." And then the nurse pointed the baby and said, "Yes, but you're looking at the wrong end." And and the point is this, is that this is what we are often doing with people. This is what we're often doing with people. We're not looking at the right part. We're looking at their bottom, so to speak, if you understand. And we do this all the time. It's much easier to look at the wrong end of the person. And this is the whole key to life. Now, once you learn to look at the right end of the person, to not look at their bottom, to look at their top, to look at their spiritual nature, then you suddenly have the power to help them. You have the power to help them overcome things. `Abdu'l-Bahá was able to make everybody see their own reality and enable them to do wondrous things because He focused on their good qualities.
I have a letter here from the Universal House of Justice, which illustrates this principle. The House of Justice wrote a letter to a believer who was struggling to overcome a terrible problem. Another, at least, the believer thought it was a terrible problem. And the House wrote back to them about this. They said, "Your problem is one against which you should continue to struggle. I'm not even going to tell you what the problem is, because it doesn't really matter. He says, your problem is one against which you should continue to struggle with determination and with the aid of prayer. You should remember, however, that it is only one of many temptations and faults that a human being must strive to overcome during his lifetime. And you should not increase the difficulty you have by overemphasizing its importance." So, it is interesting. The believer writes and they're concerned about this terrible problem. The House is, "Yes, it's not right, and you need to struggle against it, but don't overemphasize its importance." They said, "We suggest you try to see it within the whole spectrum of qualities that a person must develop in his character. Says you should concentrate rather on the virtues you should develop, the services you should strive to render, and above all, on God and His attributes, and devote your energies to living a full Baháʼí life." You see, the House is saying this: You don't always focus on the bad. It doesn't help. For example, if I told you all right now, "Whatever you do, do not think of pink elephants. Don't, don't, do not think of them. Don't see a pink trunk. Do not see big pink ears. Whatever you do, do not think of pink elephants." No. Do not. Did anyone who saw a pink elephant? Just never see it. It doesn't work. It doesn't work. Rather, what the House of Justice is saying is that these bad qualities don't actually exist. They are like darkness. Darkness doesn't exist. It's the absence of light. Consequently, if you have a problem, how do you get rid of the darkness? If somebody walks into a darkened room, they might say, "Turn on the lights." But they will never say, "Turn off the darkness," because you can't turn darkness off. There's no off switch to darkness. There's only an on switch to light. And if you can turn that on switch on, then darkness automatically disappears. `Abdu'l-Bahá constantly found the on switch to people's light, and He never tried to turn off the off switch to their darkness. But this is what we do constantly. We want to remind people, "This is your darkness. Let's try to turn it off." And it doesn't work. It doesn't work. So, this is how `Abdu'l-Bahá did it. He constantly found a way to make people's darkness disappear by not focusing on their faults, but by focusing on the good qualities that He could build.
Let's look at a few examples. For example, it says here that sometime years ago, when `Abdu'l-Bahá was in Paris, a group of men came from Tehran, deeply troubled. They had walked all the way from their homes in Persia, traveling on foot, which was the only way to meet their Master, to make what they considered a most vital request. In a village, there was a Baháʼí who was causing a great deal of trouble because of the lies he told. He lied about everything, with the result that misunderstandings, distrust, and confusion reigned. "This dreadful situation," `Abdu'l-Bahá, they begged, "He had to do something about it." So `Abdu'l-Bahá agreed. Indeed, it was a most dreadful situation. So He decided to write a letter to the man. And so He wrote the letter, and it began with these words: "O thou great lover of truth." This is a man who was lying so much that they came all the way from Iran to Paris to tell `Abdu'l-Bahá to do something about it. And He says, "Okay." And He arrived later. He doesn't write, "O thou dirty liar." Okay. He doesn't write. "You know, I heard some reports." He writes, "O thou great lover of truth." Because He knew that somewhere in this man's heart was a love of truth, and that if He can turn that light switch on, the darkness of his lying will disappear. But if He were to do anything else, it would not have the desired effect. This is how we always have to think of people. Every time we see their bad qualities, we think, "We can't turn those off. No. Where are their good qualities that will make those automatically go away?"
Let's look at another example. Hudson Maxim. How many of you have read the story of Hudson Maxim? Famous inventor. In fact, he and his family were in the war business, and they were the greatest builders of weapons the world had ever seen. Thomas Edison, who was no slouch when it came to inventions, said that Hudson Maxim was, quote, "the most versatile man in America in terms of what he was able to invent." In fact, his brother had invented the machine gun in 1883, which revolutionized warfare, enabled the British to conquer large portions of Africa. In fact, at one time, they mowed down 1,500 Mahdist warriors with just four Englishmen with this invention that his brother had made. And the younger brother, Hudson Maxim, invented war explosives, which completely revolutionized modern warfare, and he was a very wealthy man. And the New York Times wrote of Hudson Maxim, and I quote, "He has made enough high explosives to blow all the navies in the world out of the water and start them well on the way towards the moon." And so this man, Hudson Maxim, heard that somebody from Persia was in America talking about peace, and so he decided he was gonna go and put this man in his place. And so he had a meeting with `Abdu'l-Bahá. And it's fascinating. Go on the internet, you can read the entire interview of this man, the great inventor of weapons of war, the discoverer of explosives and weapons and bombs. And he met `Abdu'l-Bahá. And I can't tell you the whole thing, but it's just so interesting. For example, he said, "I understand you are a messenger of peace to this country. What is your opinion of modern war?" And `Abdu'l-Bahá said, "Everything that prevents war is good." Good. He didn't say anything bad about war. He just said something good about anything that prevents war. So the man says, "Do you consider the next great national war necessary?" `Abdu'l-Bahá said, "Why not try peace for a while? If we find war is better, it will not be difficult to go back to fighting again." So the man said, he said, "But less men are killed in war in a year than are killed by our industries in preventable accidents." `Abdu'l-Bahá said, "War is the most preventable accident." It's quite clear that `Abdu'l-Bahá was just boom, boom, boom, hitting him with, and he wasn't getting the point. He was not getting the point. And he made all these ridiculous arguments. "War is part of human nature. Conflict is an ingredient of healthy social evolution. Economic interests." You know, he had all these arguments, you know, about how war. He even said that if you make deadlier weapons, it'll make more peace because then people would be less likely to want to fight war. He had every argument in the book. And `Abdu'l-Bahá wasn't gonna get anywhere with this guy, I could tell. He finally said, "War is no more dangerous than an automobile." And you said something like that. Anyway, in the end, `Abdu'l-Bahá had just said a few words, and I want to read you what He said. He said, "This discovery of high explosives, perfecting of death-dealing weapons of war, the science of military attack, all this is now..." What do you think? I was gonna say, "there." All this is what? Futile? Maybe. I don't know. He said, "Let me tell you what He said. All this is a wonderful manifestation of human intelligence." Isn't that interesting? And He's right, isn't it? It's a wonderful manifestation of human intelligence. He even sees the good in things, not just people. He says it's a wonderful manifestation. And He goes on to say, "But it is in the wrong direction. You are a celebrated inventor and scientific expert whose energies and faculties are employed in the production of for human destruction. Your name has become famous in the science of war. Now you have the opportunity of becoming doubly famous. You must practice the science of peace. You must expend your energies and intelligence in a contrary direction. You must discover the means of peace. Invent guns of love which shall shake the foundations of humanity. The guns you are building cause the death of man. You must build guns which will cause life to humanity. Henceforth, your life and energy should be given to this blessed purpose. You must work and experiment along this line. This work and accomplishment will be more wonderful than all you have done heretofore. Then it will be said by the people of the world, 'This Mr. Maxim, inventor of the guns of war, discoverer of high explosives, military scientist, who has also discovered and invented means for increasing the life and love of man, who has put an end to the strife of nations and uprooted the tree of war.' This will be the most wonderful accomplishment of any human being. Your name will glow with mention throughout the history of ages and ages. Then will your life become pregnant and productive with great results. Consider this: the inventor of high explosives has discovered the means of universal peace. No man in history will equal you in fame and greatness. You will be doubly renowned. God will be pleased with you, and from every standpoint of estimation, you will be a perfect man." This is that amazing, that even this man who was killing and blowing all the navies of the world, `Abdu'l-Bahá saw the good in him, saw in him that he was inventive, that he was creative, that he was intelligent, and then just tried to direct it in a kind of like karate, you know? In karate, you know, they hit you, you don't oppose it, now you just kind of just kind of use it a little bit. This is `Abdu'l-Bahá's spiritual karate. It seems to me, it seems to me that every time I think about the Baháʼí, I think about the way the natives in New Guinea build fire. You know, I spent a lot of time up in New Guinea, and I noticed an interesting thing. It's very hard to light a fire in when you're 13,000 feet in mountains and there's rain every day, and all the wood is wet. And at the same time, if you can't build a fire, you're gonna freeze to death and starve to death, because the only food they have has to be cooked, and it's cold up there. But to build a fire, it's very hard. And I keep reading this word in the Baháʼí writings called "kindle." It says, "Kindle in our hearts," you know, this love. And kindle, kindle, kindle. And if you look in the dictionary, "kindle" means to brighten, but it also means to start a fire, with particular emphasis on the very beginnings of creating a fire. And it so happens in New Guinea that certain of the natives, they're able to start a fire with largely wet wood. And they get the wet wood and they place it, not even put any kind of fire to it, that wood won't start. And they just find one piece of small, thin, dry wood in one corner, and they place it so carefully, and they put it, and they just like that kindling, and then that lights something in something, something, and then suddenly everything is on fire. And it's a work of art, the way they do it. And if you didn't have that ability to find the kindling, to place it in the right place, and light only that, you'll never have a fire. And `Abdu'l-Bahá always found everybody's kindling. This is what He did. He looked hard at the person. He said, "Here's where the fire can be lit." Even in Hudson Maxim, he had kindling, and He found that kindling. And this is a very interesting thing, because sometimes we think we're helping a person by pointing out their faults. This is what we think. We think we're gonna help them by pointing out their faults. And in almost all cases, it doesn't go well. Take my word for it. Let me, let me mention a story that Howard Colby Ives told. He heard of `Abdu'l-Bahá as a minister, Christian minister, and then became a follower of `Abdu'l-Bahá, and then became quite attracted to His teachings. And he found out that `Abdu'l-Bahá had condemned smoking in the Tablet of Purity. And so he read this Tablet of Purity and decided to give up smoking. And he found he could not do it. He was totally unable to give up smoking. And he said he felt so guilty. He felt so guilty that he couldn't break the habit. And every time he read the Tablet of Purity, it made it worse. He said it made it worse. He felt even more guilty. And so he said, "Surely, if I tell `Abdu'l-Bahá about this, He'll tell me how to overcome this habit," because he wanted to genuinely overcome the habit. And so he said he went to `Abdu'l-Bahá. And he said, "I told Him." He said, "It was like I was a child confessing to my mother, and my voice trailed away in embarrassed silence after only the fewest of words." He said, "After a moment, `Abdu'l-Bahá asked quietly, 'How much did I smoke?'" He said, "He told Him. He said, 'He didn't think that would hurt me. That men in the Orient smoked all the time, and their hair and beards and clothing became saturated, and they were very offensive. But I didn't do this. And at my age, having been accustomed to it for so many years, He didn't think it would trouble me at all.'" And He said, "His gentle eyes smiled and pulled a kind of a twinkle as He said this." And he said he was completely confused and overwhelmed, because he didn't get a dissertation from `Abdu'l-Bahá on the evils of smoking. He said he didn't get an explanation of the bad effects and the health, and he didn't get a summoning of his willpower, "Come on, you know, you can do it." He got none of the things that he was expecting from `Abdu'l-Bahá. He said, "Quote, 'Rather, I got a charter of freedom. I did not understand it, but it was a great relief.'" So immediately, that inner conflict was stilled, and I enjoyed my smoke, no stings of conscience. But two days later, after this conversation, I found the desire for tobacco had entirely left me. Isn't that interesting? He goes on to say, he says, "Love is a portal to freedom." This great truth began to dawn upon me. You see, sometimes you don't focus on the problem. There's no off switch. There's only an on switch to light. No off switch to darkness.
So, this is the prime quality that `Abdu'l-Bahá had. Every single person has some good qualities. There's not a single person that doesn't. I mean, there may be one or two, but I'm not gonna, no, I'm kidding. There's not anybody that does not have good qualities. But also, every person has bad qualities, with the exception of `Abdu'l-Bahá. Therefore, this is a challenge for you, because their bad qualities can be right in your face. And this is not something that you just easily do. You say, "Okay, just don't look at their bad qualities and only look at their good ones." You say, "Oh, why don't you say so?" And then you do it. No, it's not like that. It takes some work. It takes some practice. It takes some experience. And it takes failing. So I want to ask you, what should you do if you accidentally see the bad part of a person? Let's just say you, you know, you don't want to do it, but you walk in the room and they all dine it. "I saw their bad. I saw their bad quality." Oops. "I saw their bad quality." You noticed it. Okay. What should you do? Because we want to be like `Abdu'l-Bahá. We just saw the bad quality. We didn't mean to see it. Oops. But we thought so. What do you do? Baháʼu'lláh says there's something you can do. He says, "Whenever you see the bad quality in a person, think of your own bad qualities." He says, "Because you know yourself better than you know anyone else." In other words, whenever you see a fault in a person, you are inherently hypocritical because you have faults. Okay? Just newsflash, newsflash here and now, breaking news. You have faults. Okay? You do. You do. We are. That's possible. I just, you, I just, you happen to be in the front row. Okay? Okay. But they all do. We all have faults. So big deal. If you can see a fault in another person, that doesn't make you so great. It's not so great that you could find a fault in a person. So always think of your own faults. You know, Baháʼu'lláh says, "Magnify not the faults of others, that thine own faults may not appear great." You notice He said that? I thought that was very interesting. He's, in other words, He's saying that anytime you magnify the fault of another person, it makes your faults appear great. It's kind of some kind of spiritual law. It's like the old saying they say, anytime you point a finger at somebody, there's three fingers pointing back at you. And I always found this interesting that Baháʼu'lláh was right about this. I remember one time in my younger day, you know, I was a slightly fanatic Baháʼí youth, okay? I'm not gonna confess here or anything, but you know, sometimes I felt I was helping somebody by, you know, trying to give them advice. And I remember one time I was trying to give someone some advice, which I thought was something good for them, trying to help them. And instead of taking it in the spirit with which it was offered, they just criticized me personally, which I thought was an interesting response, because it wasn't about me, it was about them. In fact, what they did was, as I recall, they addressed me using one of the few phrases beginning with "son of," that's that's not found in the Hidden Words. They didn't call me a son of being or a son of spirit. And I found this is very interesting. Baháʼu'lláh is right. When you magnify the faults of others, then it just magnifies your own faults.
Now, the interesting thing is, is that this is such an easy way in which we can develop our Baháʼí communities. Because at the moment, I find that fault-finding and backbiting, I still find it in all the Baháʼí communities. I find it everywhere I go in the Baháʼí communities, that people like to find faults in other people's. You know, the quickest way to quiet a noisy room, if everyone's talking, is just to go to the center of the room and start gossiping about somebody, and then they're all turned to you. And I can quiet the room anytime. You say, "You know what's wrong with so-and-so?" And suddenly the room goes quiet. And I find this interesting, because `Abdu'l-Bahá, He said, He said that if the believers complain with one another, "He will fly away." That's the exact words He said. He would fly away. And He made this motion with His, with His... Julia Thompson, He said, "I will fly away." And I remember thinking about the Hand of the Cause, Mr. Faizi. I don't know if how many of you have heard stories of him, but every Baháʼí I've met, I think I've heard the story at least 15 times. Elderly Persian Baháʼí said that Mr. Faizi, he was such a gentle soul, but he could not stand to hear backbiting. But at the same time, he could not bear to tell somebody who was backbiting that they were, because that would also be drawing attention to their fault. So this was a real dilemma for him, being such a gentle soul. If he heard backbiting, because he could not tell the person, because that would then be seeing their fault, he couldn't listen to the fault of the other person, 'cause any of you hear the fault of something else. So he adopted the habit that anytime he heard backbiting, he would go to the bathroom. He would say, "I have to go to the bathroom." And this became his habit. And many of the believers said they were surprised how often Mr. Faizi had to go to the bathroom. And sometimes he would come back from the bathroom and say, "I have to go back again." And so on. And gradually, I think they got the idea. I think they got the idea. And I think that whenever we find a Baháʼí community where you go to the center of the room, it's all noisy, and you start to gossip or backbite about someone, and everyone goes to the bathroom, then that's the maturity of a Baháʼí community. But we're gonna need a lot of bathrooms if we're going to do that.
But this is a very interesting thing, because when I gave a talk here last year on the Five Year Plan, it was recorded by Dawn in the back, and went on the internet, and I got lots of emails from all over the Baháʼí world. And many of the emails said pretty much the same thing. They said, "I like very much what you said about the Five Year Plan and everything, but it's never gonna happen in our community because our local assembly is terrible, or immature, or this, or that, or this, or that. It can't. It's never gonna happen until our assembly shapes up." And I got so many of these that I started a special email box called the "Oh My Gosh, My Local Assembly is Not Infallible Box," because that's all they're saying. "Oh my gosh, my local assembly is not infallible." And they pointed out all of the things that their local assembly does, and they, "We're never gonna get anywhere." They just had a roadblock, because all they saw was the shortcomings of the local assembly. And they would write to me, and to them, until that's overcome. I think, "Could happen." I thought, "This is so interesting." But `Abdu'l-Bahá never promised that local assemblies were infallible. He never promised that National Assemblies were infallible. He never promised that board members, counselors. Come on, if the world were perfect, Baháʼu'lláh wouldn't have come. He came to a world to regenerate us. So by definition, we're all struggling. But for some reason, the believers couldn't see this. And if you read the way the Universal House of Justice talks about these communities that are getting Master's House scars, they talk about the mutual bonds of love and affection between the components of the, you know, the individual of the community and the institutions. And so I was thinking, "Okay, well, that House is talking mutual." Indeed, I find the same thing with local assemblies. I'll go and meet with the local assembly, and they say, "Oh, the believers, they are terrible. Oh, they don't listen. They don't come on time. We already said that once before. How come they all don't do it?" I mean, I hear all kinds of things of this nature. And I realize that we're all looking at the wrong end. We're all looking at the wrong end. The individual needs to love the institutions for what they are, and that will be the on switch. The institutions need to love the individuals. You know, Shoghi Effendi said that the role of local assemblies is not to dictate, but to consult, and not to consult just with themselves, but with all of the believers that they serve with. And I found this interesting, because one believer, he was talking to me, and he said, "We have a terrible problem in our community, and there's nothing we can do about it because the local assembly made the wrong decision about the color of carpets in the House of `Abdu'l-Bahá." And when I heard this, I thought he was joking at first, and then I realized, "Now, this was serious." And we couldn't get on with the meeting because he was so attached to this idea that the local number, and you know, maybe it was the wrong color of carpet, because, you know, I don't like bad-colored carpets either. But the point is, I couldn't understand why it was that he couldn't get past this issue. And then I realized that Shoghi Effendi was right too, that their job is not just not to dictate, but to consult, and consult with everyone. They didn't feel consulted. They didn't feel loved. Every time we look at our institutions, we need to look at their good. And every time the institutions look at us, we need to look at their good. And I believe that this may be the key to the whole Five Year Plan. I believe that the reason these seven communities have Master's House scars, if you read between the lines in the House's message, is because they have reached a stage of mutual love and affection where the three components of the plan are all seeing the good in each other and turning everyone's light switches on. And I believe that a Master's House scar, which after all is part of God's plan to be in every locality, I believe that a Master's House scar is nothing more than like a fruiting on a plant that comes inevitably when the plant reaches a certain stage of growth and maturity. And as soon as it reaches that, the flower comes, or the fruit comes. And it so happens that a few communities have reached that. And I believe that it is this teaching, this teaching of only seeing the good in our institutions, in our communities, in our individuals, that we will very quickly learn the true meaning of love. The true meaning is love is to love people in spite of their bad qualities. It's very easy to love a person, you know, if they're all lovable. Okay? But there's nobody, there's anybody like that. It shows the power of love that you see past them. You know, `Abdu'l-Bahá told the story of Jesus and His disciples walking, and He said that they were walking, and they came across a dead dog. And one of the disciples said, "What an ugly sight." And the other said, "What a stench. What a stink." Another said, "How revolting." And Jesus said, "Look, it has lovely white teeth." And `Abdu'l-Bahá said, "Consider this, that Jesus ignored all of the other things, and He looked carefully. He said, He looked hard until He found something that He could praise." And there's some people that you need to do that. Some people you need to look hard. You need to look past a whole lot of things in order to fulfill this requirement. But `Abdu'l-Bahá did it to every single person He met. Every single person He met, He said, "I'm going to only see the good in that person." And when He did, He was seeing God. Consequently, `Abdu'l-Bahá spent His day with God. Not just in His morning prayers or His evening prayers was He with God. He was with God every moment of His life, because He was only focusing on good qualities, which are God. And you yourself are missing God most of your life if you're looking at the bad qualities in persons. And you will suddenly find God everywhere. They will see in you, they will see in you that you love them. And they will see in you that you see the good in them. And they will see in you that you're happy. How many of you are happier now than you were when you heard that `Abdu'l-Bahá was happiness? How many are happy now? And how many you feel that you can go out and be happy with people now? Combine it with this teaching. Combine it with being happy and looking for the good in them. These two things, they're just like a potent chemical reaction. You beam happiness to the person, and you only see the good in them. How many of you like happy people? Are they not the most enjoyable people to be around? Anytime you think about happy people, it can make you happy. In fact, that's what I do. Whenever I want to become happy again, I have a few people that I keep in my mental vocabulary. Well, one of them is Rest Garcia, who just passed away. And he just passed away, but he's one of my people that I have. And if I need a little bit of happiness, I just see his face, and how can you not be happy? And there's many other people, certain Hands of the Cause. I think of, called as Featherstone or John Robarts. I just have to see their face, and I'm happy. And the point is that happiness is something you can learn to train yourself to be. You can also learn to train yourself to only see the good in people. People are horrible. People are rotten. People have bad qualities. But the point is that we need to learn that those things are not really of them. They're just the lack of their good qualities. And in this way, suddenly we can become like `Abdu'l-Bahá, very, very quickly. It's not going to be right. Well, how much time do I have? 40 minutes? No, no, no. Tell me the truth, Parker. Tell me the truth. Oh, I'm sorry. Oh, okay. No, you know what? I'm good. Forty minutes. Would you like me to go on to the third quality? You know why I have more time? Because I've been giving these talks in countries where they translate, you understand? And they translate, and so my timing is a little off. But so, do you want me to finish this? [Music] Oh, Lord, these are tested. And when you do say, raise them. [Music] They come back as you like. Well, I think that ultimately, people know when you're sincere, and they know when you're not. You certainly cannot call attention to someone's good quality in a phony way. "Oh, you're, you're really very crying like that." In fact, Shoghi Effendi, in one place, he said that hypocrisy has an odor. It can be smelled. So the point is, is that you must genuinely look for the good in the person, and you must find the good, almost as if you're mining. There's gold in the ground, or there's diamonds in the ground, but they're not easily found. But we know they're there. And we also know that there's certain places that are better to look for it than others, certain land formations, and so on. It's the same with people. You have to mine them. You have to look for it. So if you're just, you know, wanna blithely, just to quickly say, "Oh, I see, you know, you have lovely white teeth," you know, or something like that, it's not going to necessarily work. But if they are sarcastic, or if they don't accept it, that's okay. That's okay. I don't think that there's any problem with that. But Baháʼu'lláh says, "He who desires, let him turn aside from this counsel." We don't do something expecting a certain result. We do it because it's the right thing to do. And I don't think it's so hard to do. In fact, ever since I started doing this research, and I found that `Abdu'l-Bahá said to be happy at all times, to smile at people, and to look for the good in people, I actually found it wasn't as hard as I thought. I actually found it wasn't that hard. It just takes a reorientation of your thinking, that's all it does. It just, you just, "Oh, I get it now. I don't care about their bad qualities. I only care about their good qualities. Where are they?" And mention their good qualities to them, if you feel it's appropriate. We haven't helped them in such a way. Hmm-hmm. Yes. No, I have another reference, but I like that very much. Thank you very much. Yes. I have another reference about the Baháʼí. I'm gonna read it in one of the upcoming talks. `Abdu'l-Bahá clearly did not want to hear any backbiting. But much more than that, I want to make this very clear. Backbiting. We don't, I think when we talk about backbiting, we do ourselves a disservice because we don't realize the...
full extent of what ought to be. But how will I? I wanted us, for example, some people think that backbiting is saying something about the person that's wrong. But if it's true, then we're allowed to say it. Okay, we think, well, if it's true, fault of the person. But in fact, that's a completely different thing.
When you say something that's false, that's called calumny, and that's also prohibited by Baháʼu'lláh in the Octus. In fact, in the Octus, Baháʼu'lláh prohibits four things in one sentence. The first four things: they are murder, and adultery, and backbiting, and calumny. And just those four. All the other things are prohibited later on. But in one sentence, He groups together murder with calumny and backbiting.
And so, first of all, it makes no difference if it's true. It makes absolutely no difference if it's true. But in addition to that, Baháʼu'lláh says, "Breathe not the sins of others so long as thou art thyself a sinner." Now, backbiting is something that we speak. It comes in this direction out. But breathing is an inner taking. Okay? Breathing is something you're taking. He says, "Don't even breathe the sins of others." Don't even take them in, let alone to let them out.
This is a higher form of not vacuuming, because you're not even seeing the bad quality. So how could you possibly back away? This is why Mr. Phase II had to leave the room. Because remember, when you backbite, there's three parties. There's the person that's doing the backbiting, there's the person that they're backbiting about, but there's this listener that you're now making him see the bad quality in a person. You're causing him to disobey a law of God as well. There's three parties, and the injured party in the case of Mr. Phase II just had to go to the bathroom, or the restroom, or whatever you would call it.
So, so this is a very interesting question that you're talking about, because how do we stop it? We're going to talk about it later. I'm going to, I'm going to go on to the next quality of ʻAbdu'l-Bahá. Although the one I was going to talk about next, I'm going to move to tonight, and I'm going to move to another quality of ʻAbdu'l-Bahá. There's six of them, and so far, how many have we got? Okay.
So, first of all, because this is a recording, let's pretend that this session is over. So thank you all very much. Well, thank you, friends, for another session today. I hope you enjoyed the last two sessions. I'm happy to see you back here. You all look pretty much the same as you did when I saw you in the last session, joyful and radiant. And now we come to the third quality of ʻAbdu'l-Bahá that we want to talk about. So far, we've talked about what two qualities? Who can tell me? Joy and radiance. And what was the second quality? Seeing only the good in people. And so now I want to ask you, what do you think is the third quality of ʻAbdu'l-Bahá? And I'll give you a clue. Somebody has already guessed it in the first two sessions. Somebody has. So who would like to, who would like to guess the third quality of ʻAbdu'l-Bahá that I selected? Kindness? Patience? Service? You keep saying that. You keep saying service. Humility? Yes. Gratitude? Detachment? Remember, it's got to be the third quality. Now, perseverance.
I'll tell you what. I'll tell you what. Since nobody has said it yet, I'm going to tell you a little story, and then we'll figure out what this third quality is. Okay? It's hard to imagine anyone who did more harm to Baháʼu'lláh and the Bábís than the Shah of Iran, Nāṣir al-Dīn Shāh. He was the one who ordered the execution of the Báb. He was the one who was responsible for the execution of some 20,000 Bábís. He was the one who had Baháʼu'lláh imprisoned in the Siyáh-Chál. The setting forth the entire life of imprisonment and banishment. And they say he was perhaps only equaled by his son, the prince, who is Zil al-Sultán. So Zil al-Sultán means what? Shadow of the king, isn't that right? It means it's the prince. And this prince worked hand in hand with his father in the persecution of the Bábís, in the Baháʼís. In fact, the two greatest martyrs in the Baháʼí Faith, the Beloved of Martyrs and the King of Martyrs, were personally ordered executed by Zil al-Sultán. And he put hundreds of Bábís and Baháʼís to horrifying deaths. And you know that ultimately his father, the Shah of Iran, lost power, and the family went into exile.
I want to ask you about a remarkable coincidence. And what are the odds of this coincidence taking place? ʻAbdu'l-Bahá ends up a prisoner and an exile for almost his entire life, until His late 60s, because of the Shah and this son, the prince. And finally, in His late 60s, He gets out of prison. It takes Him a year just to gain His health in Egypt. And then finally, for the first time, gets on a boat, sails to the south of France, to Marseilles, immediately travels up to Geneva without stopping, and then stays in a hotel called La Paix, which means peace. And He says, "For the first time in my life, I experienced peace." Which has got to be true that for the first time in His life, He experienced peace. And this is the first place He stops in the West, in Geneva. And then goes to the West and stays in Tonalá Bay, just on the border of France and Geneva. So what are the odds that this first place ʻAbdu'l-Bahá stops in the West, that the prince Zil al-Sultán happens to be an exile in Geneva, of all spots on the planet? And ʻAbdu'l-Bahá gets out, He's right there. What are the odds of that? I'm thinking it's amazing. But what are the odds that on the day that ʻAbdu'l-Bahá is walking the streets of Tonalá Bay in France, that He's not even in Geneva, He's actually in Tonalá Bay himself, that these two would meet the very first place ʻAbdu'l-Bahá visits? Don't you think that's kind of unusual?
And so Zil al-Sultán is walking, and he sees a man in Persian clothing. Now, that's got to be pretty unusual in 1912 in France. So naturally, he says to somebody, he says, "Who is that Persian man?" What are the odds that the person he asks is a Baháʼí, Hippolyte Dreyfus? And Hippolyte Dreyfus says, "It is ʻAbdu'l-Bahá." And he knows who ʻAbdu'l-Bahá is, and he knows what he did to ʻAbdu'l-Bahá. And so he says, "Will you take me to him?" And so Hippolyte writes in a letter to Juliet Thompson about this, he says, "If you could have seen the brute, Juliet, mumbling out his miserable excuses." And I'm thinking about this scene. This man, who ʻAbdu'l-Bahá saw at the age of nine, his father with hundred-pound chains, suffering. This man who saw the death and the execution of thousands of his fellows, who had to witness the death of his own brother before his eyes and beg his father to save his life and couldn't do it, who remained a prisoner his entire life. And now this man comes to him on his first day, and he's trying to experience peace, and he's making miserable excuses. And I'm thinking, what's going to happen?
And Hippolyte continues, he said, "The Master took him in His arms and said, 'All those things are in the past. Never think of them again.'" Then He invited Zil al-Sultán and two sons to spend a day with Him. And as I read that, I thought, ʻAbdu'l-Bahá's forgiveness had no bounds. No one, who possibly has ever done anything to me as much as this man did to ʻAbdu'l-Bahá and His father in the Bábís, nobody. And ʻAbdu'l-Bahá took him in His arms and said, "All those things are in the past. Never think about them." And then wanted to spend the day with him. And I realized this quality of forgiveness of ʻAbdu'l-Bahá, it is an amazing quality. His forgiveness had no bounds. And it made me think over and over again about the quality of forgiveness that ʻAbdu'l-Bahá. So somebody has mentioned it before, but it only struck a chord in me later on when I found out that ʻAbdu'l-Bahá Himself told the Baháʼís, "They must learn to forgive. That we must learn to forgive everyone."
And I think it is no accident in history that this meeting took place. This meeting, this unbelievably remarkable coincidence, before we saw ʻAbdu'l-Bahá in any other sphere of activity in the West. This is the first incident that God gave us to see. For a thousand years, this will go down as the greatest historical lesson or legend in Baháʼí history, that the son of the Shah came to ʻAbdu'l-Bahá, and He hugged him and said, "Those things are in the past." And so, as I thought about it, I realized that the quality of forgiveness is an essential spiritual quality, not just one of the many hundred or so that I could pick. But also that it's a very hard virtue. It's an extremely difficult virtue. And so I felt it's important to mention this. All of the other six that we're going to talk about, the two that we know already, happiness, it's not so hard to smile. Seeing the good in people, it is, try a little bit, it's not so hard. On the others, the other three, they're not so hard. But forgiveness, that's a hard one. That's the hardest one.
Sometimes we go so long not forgiving someone that we don't even remember why we don't forgive them. You know, we say, "You know, I don't know, remember what you did, but I know I hate you." You know, we know it's true. We, we cling to this for so long. We expect God to be forgiving, but don't ask me to be forgiving. And it seems to me that forgiving, the act of forgiveness, has nothing to do with letting the other person go or letting the other person off the hook. Forgiveness has to do with freeing yourself. That's what forgiveness is all about. And if you think about it, granting forgiveness is a way for you to overcome some form of attachment. Because anytime you withhold forgiveness to anyone, it is because you are attached to something. You are attached to some part of yourself. Perhaps they hurt your pride, so you're attached to that. Perhaps they hurt your status or your power, or how you look. Or maybe your attachment to money or material things. Maybe they stole something from you. Maybe they withheld something from you. Maybe they took an opportunity from you. Whatever they did, the fact that you don't forgive them is showing you an attachment that you have. So forgiveness, and the ability to not give it, is a sure way to diagnose your spiritual maturity. Because anytime you don't forgive somebody, it's just pointing to you a certain thing that you need to get rid of, that you're attached to.
Michelangelo is considered to be the greatest sculptor in history. Many people said it during his lifetime, and even today, it's still considered. And he made this one particular sculpture, David, which they said was perfection, that it was the greatest sculpture ever made. And even to this day, it's still considered so fine. And they asked Michelangelo, and they said, "How did you do this?" And he said, "It was very easy." He said, "I just took a big stone piece, a big piece of marble, and I cut away everything that wasn't David." And so he just said, "I cut." And this is what God is doing to us. He's cutting away, chisel, chisel, chip by chip, every part of us that is not the perfect image of God. He's creating us in His image in this way. And it just so happens that the most powerful chisels are other people. Other people. I mean, you may think that material tests or physical tests or something, but they're not. No, other people are God's tools. God is chipping away at us every day, and they are the tools to get these barnacles off. And every time you withhold forgiveness, then it's only just a little chisel that's going to make you a little closer to God's image. That's all it really is. I like to say that many of the Baháʼís are the biggest chiselers that I've known. But, but, but I understand what I'm talking about.
But let's think about this very carefully. Let's think about this very carefully. You can easily assess your own spiritual maturity. Anytime you are unhappy, or you don't forgive, because anytime you're unhappy, all you have to think about is, "What am I attached to that's making me unhappy?" Is it material things, or comfort, or something? In other words, unhappiness is a sure way to look at yourself and say, "Well, what am I attached to that's making me unhappy?" Baháʼu'lláh says, "There's only one time you're allowed to be unhappy, that's when you're far from God. And there's only one time when you're allowed to be happy, and that's when you're close to God." So anytime you have any form of unhappiness, it's a form of spiritual diagnosis. It's the same with forgiveness. Anytime you don't forgive someone, just say, "Let me think about that. The reason why I don't forgive them, what is it that I'm attached to?" It's not about them, it's about me and my attachment. And suddenly you realize that this quality that ʻAbdu'l-Bahá is talking about, this quality is the pathway to love.
Let's, let's just analyze the story. Let's just think about this. First of all, the prince Zil al-Sultán, he did a wrong thing, would you agree? What you think killing 20,000 Bábís and so on is not, it's it's wrong. Okay. So we don't just forgive people that are good. You have to forgive the bad people. So he did the wrong thing. Secondly, he did not acknowledge that he did the wrong thing or apologize. Do you notice that in the story? He did not apologize. Some of us like to, if the person apologizes, admits they did it, say, "Okay, now I forgive you." You know, we'll forgive them as long as they will do that. Okay? Yet, you think it helps. Okay. But this didn't happen in this case. Furthermore, ʻAbdu'l-Bahá did not seem to feel the need to tell him all the things that he did, and why he felt, and why he suffered. A lot of us, we want to go to a person, and we want to share with them, "I want you to feel what I felt. I want you to understand how much you hurt me. I want you to do all that." And then we do that, and then we forgive them. We feel that it's necessary for us first. ʻAbdu'l-Bahá didn't do that. In fact, quite the contrary. He said, "Don't even think about those things." He didn't even want him to think about those things. Furthermore, and this is the hardest, ʻAbdu'l-Bahá then said He would spend the day with him and his sons. And this is the hardest of the four. I mean, I, you know, I can think of maybe going, "Okay, I forgive you. Now get out of my face." You know, there was, you know, forgive them, but you want me to spend quality time with them now as well? That's actually the hardest.
And so this story is amazing because every single aspect of forgiveness and its qualities are there. There's no loopholes in this story that we can get. And I think God has just decided to tell us that the real proof of love is when somebody hurts you, when somebody does something wrong to you, when somebody's false, that you shouldn't even be looking at, get right in your way, and then you love them. That's proof that you have love. And really, you cannot learn to love until you can learn to forgive. Forgiveness is the door to love. Forgiveness is the gateway to love. Martin Luther King Jr. said, "He who is devoid of the power to forgive is devoid of the power to love." And this is a remarkable statement from someone who comes from a background of oppression for hundreds of years, and yet he realized that forgiveness was the pathway to love. He understood this.
And so you see, everybody has faults. We already talked about this. And we don't help them by focusing on their faults. Rather, we have to say, "This person needs forgiveness." Now, how do you forgive people? Everybody has somebody they need to forgive, right now. You can think of somebody in your life that you either don't forgive or didn't forgive. And I think the first thing you need to do is to just make a list of those people, and then practice forgiving them, even in imagination. I'll tell you why I think you should do this. Go home and make a list of all the people that you should forgive. They hurt you, and they did wrong things to you. They could have done terrible things to you. But make a list of all the people that you should forgive. They could be dead. If you can't think of anybody to put on the list, put me on the list. Okay? And then just go home and just speak to them imaginarily and forgive them.
Now, I tried this a couple of weeks ago in Los Angeles. We had a meeting, and we were going over this material, and I suggested this to people. And a week later, we all gathered, and everyone shared their experiences. And they all said that this was a remarkably liberating, and it took a weight off them. And one of them stood up, and he said, "You know, I did it. I practiced it. And I said it out loud." And then the next day, when I was at work, I went ahead and said it to the person. I said, "But that wasn't the exercise. It was just a practice that we were just kind of getting practiced." He said, "I know, but after saying it that night and practicing, and I saw the person, I just went ahead and did it." I realized I could do it. And I said, "Well, tell us about it." He said, "Well, it's been 17 years that we've had this tension at work, and we've never talked, and we always avoid each other at all times. And it's just absolutely 17 years I've had this." And I went up to him at work, and since I had practiced it last night, I have said all the things. And when he was saying it, the other man was like this, with his head straight down, and could not make eye contact. And he said the whole thing. And then when he finished, there was this awkward silence. And then he said, "Then the man looked up, okay, just like that, with a smile." And he said, "He felt like a thousand pounds came off that he had been carrying around for 17 years." And he couldn't believe how easy it was that he had this capacity in him. Just the story of ʻAbdu'l-Bahá and the practice.
And once he realized he had this, many of us do not realize we have this power to love. When I was in some of the summer schools, certain people came up to me, and they said, "I really enjoyed that talk on forgiveness, but I cannot forgive so-and-so, or this person. They did this or that to me. I understand ʻAbdu'l-Bahá could do it, but I cannot do it. It's not possible." And as I heard this, I was thinking, "Of course, it's possible. You are so underestimating yourself that you have the power to do this. We all have the power to do this." And why would ʻAbdu'l-Bahá give us this example if it were not something that we had within our ability? And so, every one of us needs to go home and practice forgiveness, particularly in our Baháʼí communities, because there are plenty of ohons that we need to forgive. Okay? Because we've hurt their feelings, and they've hurt our feelings, and so on. You can't not live with anyone in any kind of close relations that sooner or later you're not going to have to practice forgiveness. It's just the way it is. So you're not a husband, not a wife, not a child, not a relative, not a workmate, not a classmate. Sooner or later, you have to practice it.
So this is an essential quality, and it's not one that I would have immediately included in my big six. But gradually, as I read things, and then when I read ʻAbdu'l-Bahá's farewell speech to one of the cities, which I'm not going to tell you which until I read it, He mentioned the quality of happiness, He mentioned the quality of only seeing the good in people, of not seeing the faults, and then He mentioned forgiveness. This is one of His, I mean, He only, it was only a paragraph long. It was His closing words as He left the Bábís. And He mentioned forgiveness. So I thought, "There must be more to this than I realize." And as I thought about it more, I realized that one cannot learn to be like ʻAbdu'l-Bahá. One cannot practice this quality if they cannot go home from this school and try to at least forgive in their minds, if not in real life, everyone that they've hurt. And they will find that suddenly they have become freed, that they have become liberated, and a huge chip has been carved away, and they are closer to God's image. So that's the third quality of ʻAbdu'l-Bahá.
How much time do I have now? I have ten minutes. Yes. So let's just, let's just briefly summarize what we've done tonight. We'll do a fourth quality tomorrow. We'll do the fifth, and it's good because the fifth quality is so big, it's so huge that it will take two sessions. It's the longest one. You're not going to want to miss the one tomorrow. So I'll do it in the morning, in the afternoon. So tonight, we'll do another one of the qualities of ʻAbdu'l-Bahá. But so far, what are the three essential qualities of ʻAbdu'l-Bahá? Joy and radiance, and forgiveness. How many of you feel that after hearing that, these are essential qualities of ʻAbdu'l-Bahá, that maybe you can go home and try them? That you could try them? You see, this is the whole point. The point is not, I don't care that you believe in them. I don't care that you believe them or you come away in. But Baháʼu'lláh says, "What is belief? It's nothing. It's nothing." Belief is meaningless. You know, there's a lot of people I know who are professional believers. They go to meetings and they nod their heads, and they believe something is true, and they feel so good about themselves because they believe in something. ʻAbdu'l-Bahá said that a true Baháʼí is a Baháʼí in practice. We read that quote just here in this school. ʻAbdu'l-Bahá said, "If anyone enters a city that's a Baháʼí, people should cry out, 'This man is unquestionably a Baháʼí, because his manners and his behavior and his character are the attributes of a Baháʼí.'" And He said, "Not until you reach that stage where people will do that, can you be said to be faithful to the Covenant and Testament of God." And when He said that, I was really upset because I have entered lots of cities in my life. I've been to many cities. Every city. And so far, nobody, not the whole city, not even one person, has cried out, "This man is unquestionably a Baháʼí." Okay. And, okay, I'll try it in Atlanta. But the point is, so far, and He says, "Not until you get to that stage can you be faithful to the Covenant and Testament of God." So the point is that these are not happy little stories about the Baháʼí here. These are things that we want to go home and try to do. Can you try to be a little happier tomorrow? Smile at your neighbor tomorrow? Forgive somebody tomorrow? See the good in someone tomorrow? Can you do these? In that way, Baháʼu'lláh's toils and suffering and endurance on this three and a half years will not have been in vain. That's why He came, so that we could learn these attributes and we could try them on ourselves. And maybe we will find that if we just try them, that we actually can do them, just like this person learned that he had forgiveness in him. So I look forward to seeing you in the next session, in which we'll go on to the fourth quality of ʻAbdu'l-Bahá. [Applause]