Baháí: A Universal Foundation for World Peace

I have had contact with The Bahai faith during my years on radio when I was interviewing people engaged in building peace. Their focus was on universal values which was similar to my own work. Our paths have crossed many times over the years. Recently in Brisbane I spent some time with Bahai attending sessions to speak about values. I found them genuinely committed to world peace. The real work of course comes down to peace education, where we must question our values and ethics and respect differences (as teachers in disguise) to assist us in deepening our values of humanity. When values are genuine they always lead to unity, as they are the spiritual essence of humankind.

Essentially the Bahai believe in the unity of humanity, they endorse all faith traditions. Their founder Bahá’u’lláh’s conveyes this vision: “The earth is but one country, and mankind its citizens.” We are indeed ‘one’.

Peace education focussed on positive peace is one of the unifying principles across the planet. If 10% of funds for military spending were diverted to peace education and peace initiatives, much of the social ills that plague the planet would end. A new focus on real and lasting peace for Departments of Defence around the world would redress their current negative perceptions across the world, reverse the financial drain for weaponisation and would be in alignment with their true mandates to maintain peace and security. The military are excellent peace keepers, waging wars does not ensure peace. The world is at a tipping point, funds must be directed to living sustainably and peacefully as one world. The old paradigm of using force to extend objectives and suppress people to conform does not work, it creates further conflict and instability as has been witnessed in the recent wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. It is not possible to create peace by force, peace can only arise from an internal change (psychologically) through peace and values education which enables people to express their emotions and reconnect to naturally occurring universal values. These values are not cultural, they are inherent within all human beings and form the unifying foundation for world peace.

A universal framework for World Peace was highlighted in the Bahai paper. Interestingly, lately this has been on my mind. My feeling is that it will not be a structure but a foundation to world peace from which new ways of organising will arise. Organic comes to mind in alignment with Edward de Bono’s lateral thinking processes. Organic also means naturally self organising. I see this emerging from universal values and visions. Universal values enable us to see clearly the other and ourselves as ‘same same but different’ to coin the Thai’s. In effect we see the other as ourselves. When values are universal they change what we see, fears diminish and real hope emerges, as peace is not only possible it is inherent and naturally occurring within us. Constructive behaviours naturally follow aligned to universal values. This foundation will spring from peace within the hearts of those who formulate it, it can’t come from a consciousness of conflict, power over or self interest in my viewpoint. The barriers to peace exist given limited awareness and a belief in separation from the whole. Moreover intentions of self interest ensure disunity and fragmentation. Until intention shifts from self interest (national interest, egoic) to world interests (shared global interests, oneness, selfless), then the changes are cosmetic and ineffective. So the intent, to be effective, will emerge from a unity consciousness, that is, awareness of our essential oneness with each other.

In my view, it is not to create a one world government (a ruling elite), it is to lead from the principle of unity in diversity or diversity in unity as mentioned by the Bahai. The paper does speak of a World Parliament, but I would say I am unsure about this given the distance of government from the people and replica’s of governments we have seen to date. I perceive a world vision perhaps in a World Council of Elders or Wisdom Circle which embodies the values and vision, but ultimately, empowered action must arise from people themselves to ‘be peace’ or indeed ‘unity’. As Gandhi stated ‘to be the change they wish to see in the world’. Hence, to take responsibility for all of it. To see their intentions and actions interconnected in a web of life which feeds back to self. The idea that I am my brothers and sisters keeper, is central.

The Bahai paper is called ‘the Promise of World Peace A Statement of the Universal Justice House’ refer http://info.bahai.org/article-1-7-2-1.html for the full paper.

The excerpts below represent what I have perceived as core issues.

“Banning nuclear weapons, prohibiting the use of poison gases, or outlawing germ warfare will not remove the root causes of war. However important such practical measures obviously are as elements of the peace process, they are in themselves too superficial to exert enduring influence. Peoples are ingenious enough to invent yet other forms of warfare, and to use food, raw materials, finance, industrial power, ideology, and terrorism to subvert one another in an endless quest for supremacy and dominion. Nor can the present massive dislocation in the affairs of humanity be resolved through the settlement of specific conflicts or disagreements among nations.

Certainly, there is no lack of recognition by national leaders of the world-wide character of the problem, which is self-evident in the mounting issues that confront them daily. And there are the accumulating studies and solutions proposed by many concerned and enlightened groups as well as by agencies of the United Nations, to remove any possibility of ignorance as to the challenging requirements to be met. There is, however, a paralysis of will; and it is this that must be carefully examined and resolutely dealt with. This paralysis is rooted, as we have stated, in a deep-seated conviction of the inevitable quarrelsomeness of mankind, which has led to the reluctance to entertain the possibility of subordinating national self-interest to the requirements of world order, and in an unwillingness to face courageously the far-reaching implications of establishing a united world authority. It is also traceable to the incapacity of largely ignorant and subjugated masses to articulate their desire for a new order in which they can live in peace, harmony and prosperity with all humanity.

…There are spiritual principles, or what some call human values, by which solutions can be found for every social problem. Any well-intentioned group can in a general sense devise practical solutions to its problems, but good intentions and practical knowledge are usually not enough. The essential merit of spiritual principle is that it not only presents a perspective which harmonizes with that which is immanent in human nature, it also induces an attitude, a dynamic, a will, an aspiration, which facilitate the discovery and implementation of practical measures. Leaders of governments and all in authority would be well served in their efforts to solve problems if they would first seek to identify the principles involved and then be guided by them.

…World order can be founded only on an unshakeable consciousness of the oneness of mankind, a spiritual truth which all the human sciences confirm. Anthropology, physiology, psychology, recognize only one human species, albeit infinitely varied in the secondary aspects of life. Recognition of this truth requires abandonment of prejudice–prejudice of every kind–race, class, colour, creed, nation, sex, degree of material civilization, everything which enables people to consider themselves superior to others.

… Acceptance of the oneness of mankind is the first fundamental prerequisite for reorganization and administration of the world as one country, the home of humankind. Universal acceptance of this spiritual principle is essential to any successful attempt to establish world peace. It should therefore be universally proclaimed, taught in schools, and constantly asserted in every nation as preparation for the organic change in the structure of society which it implies.

…The courage, the resolution, the pure motive, the selfless love of one people for another–all the spiritual and moral qualities required for effecting this momentous step towards peace are focused on the will to act. And it is towards arousing the necessary volition that earnest consideration must be given to the reality of man, namely, his thought. To understand the relevance of this potent reality is also to appreciate the social necessity of actualizing its unique value through candid, dispassionate and cordial consultation, and of acting upon the results of this process. Bahá’u’lláh insistently drew attention to the virtues and indispensability of consultation for ordering human affairs. He said: “Consultation bestows greater awareness and transmutes conjecture into certitude. It is a shining light which, in a dark world, leads the way and guides. For everything there is and will continue to be a station of perfection and maturity. The maturity of the gift of understanding is made manifest through consultation.” The very attempt to achieve peace through the consultative action he proposed can release such a salutary spirit among the peoples of the earth that no power could resist the final, triumphal outcome.

Concerning the proceedings for this world gathering, `Abdu’l-Bahá, the son of Bahá’u’lláh and authorized interpreter of his teachings, offered these insights: “They must make the Cause of Peace the object of general consultation, and seek by every means in their power to establish a Union of the nations of the world. They must conclude a binding treaty and establish a covenant, the provisions of which shall be sound, inviolable and definite. They must proclaim it to all the world and obtain for it the sanction of all the human race. This supreme and noble undertaking–the real source of the peace and well-being of all the world–should be regarded as sacred by all that dwell on earth. All the forces of humanity must be mobilized to ensure the stability and permanence of this Most Great Covenant. In this all-embracing Pact the limits and frontiers of each and every nation should be clearly fixed, the principles underlying the relations of governments towards one another definitely laid down, and all international agreements and obligations ascertained. In like manner, the size of the armaments of every government should be strictly limited, for if the preparations for war and the military forces of any nation should be allowed to increase, they will arouse the suspicion of others. The fundamental principle underlying this solemn Pact should be so fixed that if any government later violate any one of its provisions, all the governments on earth should arise to reduce it to utter submission, nay the human race as a whole should resolve, with every power at its disposal, to destroy that government. Should this greatest of all remedies be applied to the sick body of the world, it will assuredly recover from its ills and will remain eternally safe and secure.

…The source of the optimism we feel is a vision transcending the cessation of war and the creation of agencies of international co-operation. Permanent peace among nations is an essential stage, but not, Bahá’u’lláh asserts, the ultimate goal of the social development of humanity. Beyond the initial armistice forced upon the world by the fear of nuclear holocaust, beyond the political peace reluctantly entered into by suspicious rival nations, beyond pragmatic arrangements for security and coexistence, beyond even the many experiments in co-operation which these steps will make possible lies the crowning goal: the unification of all the peoples of the world in one universal family.

Disunity is a danger that the nations and peoples of the earth can no longer endure; the consequences are too terrible to contemplate, too obvious to require any demonstration. “The well-being of mankind,” Bahá’u’lláh wrote more than a century ago, “its peace and security, are unattainable unless and until its unity is firmly established.” In observing that “mankind is groaning, is dying to be led to unity, and to terminate its age-long martyrdom”, Shoghi Effendi further commented that: “Unification of the whole of mankind is the hall-mark of the stage which human society is now approaching. Unity of family, of tribe, of city-state, and nation have been successively attempted and fully established. World unity is the goal towards which a harassed humanity is striving. Nation-building has come to an end. The anarchy inherent in state sovereignty is moving towards a climax. A world, growing to maturity, must abandon this fetish, recognize the oneness and wholeness of human relationships, and establish once for all the machinery that can best incarnate this fundamental principle of its life.

…All contemporary forces of change validate this view. The proofs can be discerned in the many examples already cited of the favourable signs towards world peace in current international movements and developments. The army of men and women, drawn from virtually every culture, race and nation on earth, who serve the multifarious agencies of the United Nations, represent a planetary “civil service” whose impressive accomplishments are indicative of the degree of co-operation that can be attained even under discouraging conditions. An urge towards unity, like a spiritual springtime, struggles to express itself through countless international congresses that bring together people from a vast array of disciplines. It motivates appeals for international projects involving children and youth. Indeed, it is the real source of the remarkable movement towards ecumenism by which members of historically antagonistic religions and sects seem irresistibly drawn towards one another. Together with the opposing tendency to warfare and self-aggrandizement against which it ceaselessly struggles, the drive towards world unity is one of the dominant, pervasive features of life on the planet during the closing years of the twentieth century.

…In the earnestness of our desire to impart to you the fervour of our hope and the depth of our confidence, we cite the emphatic promise of Bahá’u’lláh: “These fruitless strifes, these ruinous wars shall pass away, and the ‘Most Great Peace’ shall come.”