MINDFULNESS & MORALITY 6: BAHÁ'Í PERSPECTIVE

At Christchurch, Clarendon Park, for the sixth session in the course on Mindfulness & Morality, offered by Christians Aware as part of their Faith Awareness programme. This 12-week course has been devised by Ian Grayling and Kevin Commons from the Leicester Serene Reflection Meditation Group.

It’s a Bahá'í perspective this evening, led by erm ... me!

Since it's Half Term this week, the attendance drops to just over a dozen, as some of the regulars are on additional parental (or grandparental) duties. Neither Ian nor Kevin are able to attend this evening, so I'm flying solo. That's fine though - it's not as if it's my first time out!

Rather than have me chunter on all evening, I pass round the handout reproduced below, which says some interesting things about the Bahá'í understanding of morality and helps set the scene for the dilemma exercise later in this session. What you can read below is a slightly expanded version of the handout, which I'd cut down to fit on two pages.

Morality & Spiritual Growth

The ultimate aim in life of every human soul, the Bahá'í writings state, should be to attain moral and spiritual excellence – to align one's inner being and outward behaviour with the will of an all-loving Creator. That each individual has been bestowed with a unique destiny by God – a destiny which unfolds in accordance with the free exercise of the choices and opportunities presented in life – lies at the centre of Bahá'í belief. In particular, it is through the moral exercise of our divinely conferred free will that opportunities are provided for spiritual advancement. "All that which ye potentially possess," Bahá'u'lláh confirms, "can ... be manifested only as a result of your own volition."

In a poetic passage, Bahá'u'lláh described the actions of the moral individual and urged His followers to live accordingly:

Be generous in prosperity, and thankful in adversity. Be worthy of the trust of thy neighbour, and look upon him with a bright and friendly face. Be a treasure to the poor, an admonisher to the rich, an answerer of the cry of the needy, a preserver of the sanctity of thy pledge. Be fair in thy judgment, and guarded in thy speech. Be unjust to no man, and show all meekness to all men. Be as a lamp unto them that walk in darkness, a joy to the sorrowful, a sea for the thirsty, a haven for the distressed, an upholder and defender of the victim of oppression. Let integrity and uprightness distinguish all thine acts. Be a home for the stranger, a balm to the suffering, a tower of strength for the fugitive. Be eyes to the blind, and a guiding light unto the feet of the erring. Be an ornament to the countenance of truth, a crown to the brow of fidelity, a pillar of the temple of righteousness, a breath of life to the body of mankind, an ensign of the hosts of justice, a luminary above the horizon of virtue, a dew to the soil of the human heart, an ark on the ocean of knowledge, a sun in the heaven of bounty, a gem on the diadem of wisdom, a shining light in the firmament of thy generation, a fruit upon the tree of humility.

Bahá'u'lláh, like Abraham, Buddha, Christ, Muhammad and the other Divine Messengers who preceded Him, sought to awaken the moral and creative capacities latent in human nature. "Noble have I created thee," is the Divine assurance, "Rise then unto that for which thou wast created." He states that "the purpose for which mortal men have ... stepped into the realm of being, is that they may work for the betterment of the world and live together in concord and harmony." "Let each morn," He urges, "be better than its eve and each morrow richer than its yesterday. Man's merit lieth in service and virtue and not in the pageantry of wealth and riches. Take heed that your words be purged from idle fancies and worldly desires and your deeds be cleansed from craftiness and suspicion. Dissipate not the wealth of your precious lives in the pursuit of evil and corrupt affection, nor let your endeavours be spent in promoting your personal interest... Guard against idleness and sloth, and cling unto that which profiteth mankind, whether young or old, whether high or low."

From the Bahá'í perspective, religion has been the chief civilizing force in human history. Moral maturity thus comes from spiritual awareness. As stressed throughout the Bahá'í writings, the primary purpose of God in revealing His will through His Messengers is to effect a transformation in the moral and material conditions of human existence. The transformation called for by Bahá'u'lláh is directed to the inner character of every human being and to the organization of society – a transformation that engenders cooperation, compassion, rectitude of conduct, and justice. In what is arguably Bahá'u'lláh’s best known work, The Hidden Words (dating from 1853 CE) we find this verse:

The best beloved of all things in My sight is Justice; turn not away therefrom if thou desirest Me, and neglect it not that I may confide in thee. By its aid thou shalt see with thine own eyes and not through the eyes of others, and shalt know of thine own knowledge and not through the knowledge of thy neighbour. Ponder this in thy heart; how it behooveth thee to be. Verily justice is My gift to thee and the sign of My loving-kindness. Set it then before thine eyes.

In linking spiritual development to personal behaviour, Bahá'u'lláh wrote "that the citadels of men's hearts should be subdued through the hosts of a noble character and praiseworthy deeds." He exhorts the world's peoples to "illumine their beings with the light of trustworthiness," "the ornament of honesty," and the "emblems" of "generosity." Service to humankind is the purpose of both individual life and all social arrangements: "Do not busy yourselves in your own concerns; let your thoughts be fixed upon that which will rehabilitate the fortunes of mankind and sanctify the hearts and souls of men."

Bahá'u'lláh sets before us the highest standard of morality and urges us to strive to attain it. To do so is the only path to true happiness and fulfilment. Our moral and spiritual advancement is therefore crucial to our well-being in both this life and the next. As Bahá'u'lláh counsels: "Possess a pure, kindly and radiant heart, that thine may be a sovereignty ancient, imperishable and everlasting."

Rather than invent a situation, I found online a genuine, real-life moral dilemma that was vexing an individual Bahá'í in the USA. This woman sought the guidance of the Universal House of Justice, the centre of authority for the worldwide Bahá'í community (its Seat, on the slopes of Mount Carmel in the Holy Land, is shown in the photo above). Her enquiry is reproduced below, followed by the response from the Universal House of Justice, Department of the Secretariat. I should point out that material of this kind, in which guidance is given an individual, is generally made available to the worldwide Bahá'í community (and by extension, to whoever might want to look at it) online.  This shows the degree of transparency in this process - although anonymity and confidentiality is still assured, of course.

The crux of this person's dilemma is her awareness that “the Bahá'í Writings affirm that the human soul comes into being at the time of conception. However, they do not clearly define the exact biological moment and nature of the event described as conception and this may, indeed, be a question that is insoluble by human thought or investigation, since it relates to mysteries of the spiritual world and the nature of the soul itself.” (From a letter written on behalf of the Universal House of Justice, 6 Feb 1997, to a National Spiritual Assembly).

To the Universal House of Justice
11 August 2001 CE

Here in the United States, President Bush has just allowed funding for limited research on stem cell therapies. I now know what the secular laws in the US say about this, but I am concerned about what Baha'i Law says about using this type of therapy. As a Baha'i who could potentially benefit greatly from this type of therapy, I am reluctant to even inquire from my physician about its possibilities for curing my brain damage, either as a possible research subject or using this therapy once it is fully developed by the scientific community, until I know whether or not Baha'i Law allows for this.

[…] I would much appreciate your consultation and guidance on this issue. Thank you. Please also understand that, regardless of how this may impact on me personally, I am ready to abide fully by whatever guidance and decisions Baha'u'llah chooses to give through the Supreme Body, out of my great love for the Blessed Beauty and for the Institutions He has set up for our guidance. I am confident that, even if a cure for my condition is not within the scope of His Will, that He will continue to provide me with what I need and with opportunities to be of service to His Cause.

*** 

23 August 2001

Dear Baha'i Friend,

[…] You ask whether stem cell therapy is acceptable in Baha'i law. As you are no doubt aware, this new area of scientific inquiry involves a distinction between embryonic and other aspects of stem cell research. Reports appearing in the press and in scientific literature indicate that such exploration is at an early stage. Many fundamental questions about the biological and genetic features of the processes involved, and the physiological implications, remain unresolved, and will become clear only with the passage of time.

Nothing specific has been found in the Baha'i Writings regarding stem cell research and the types of therapy to which it may apply. The House of Justice regards it as premature for it to give consideration to these matters and their spiritual consequences. For the present, believers faced with questions about them are free to come to their own conclusions based on their knowledge of the Baha' i teachings on the nature and purpose of life. However, they should be careful not to make dogmatic statements or to offer their own understanding as a teaching of the Faith.

We have been asked to assure you of the prayers of the House of Justice in the Holy Shrines that the therapy you seek for your own well-being may be found.

We break into three groups to discuss the enquirer's dilemma and the Universal House of Justice's response. Here are some of the comments from the group discussions:

• The enquirer is being asked to be adult, in conformity with possessing God-given free will (though we could question how "free" that can actually be, if it is, in the end, "God-given").
• The Universal House of Justice distinguishes between "embryonic and other aspects of stem cell research", a distinction not in the original enquiry. Is this a way of gently encouraging the enquirer to ensure that they are as well-informed as they can be about the facts of the situation before trying to come to a conclusion? If the treatment that the enquirer needs doesn't involved embryonic stem cells, then she'll surely breathe a sigh of relief.
• The enquirer is being advised not to just sit there and wait for God to provide.
• This kind of guidance shows that Bahá'ís are allowed to make mistakes and are not expected to get everything right all the time.
• The penultimate paragraph of the Universal House of Justice's response may leave the enquirer perplexed that she may be doing the wrong thing. Can't decide whether this sort of response is humane or permissive.
• The Universal House of Justice is ducking out of its responsibility and hasn't really addressed the enquirer's dilemma. Perhaps it would be better to say, even at this stage, whether embryonic stem cell research is likely to contravene Bahá'í standards.
• The Universal House of Justice uses reason as well as scripture in its theological resources (this is in keeping with the Bahá'í principle of the harmony of science and religion).

In researching this presentation, I found an interesting paper comparing the position of various religions on embryonic stem cell research.