Why is Humanity Hurtling Towards Disaster and What Will the Ultimate Outcome Be?
ฝัง
- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 4 มิ.ย. 2024
- Talk given by Ms. Sovaida Ma'ani on January 13th, 2024
Sovaida Ma’ani Ewing is an author, speaker, international lawyer, life mastery coach, and founding director of The Center for Peace and Global Governance (cpgg.org), a virtual think tank and online forum that pools and proposes principled solutions to pressing global challenges. Her latest book, available on Amazon, is “The Alchemy of Peace: 6 Essential Shifts in Mindsets and Habits to Achieve World Peace.” She also hosts a live video podcast "Re-Imagining Our World" on FB and the CPGG TH-cam channel -- / centerforpeaceandgloba... -- that is dedicated to creating a vision of the world we want and infusing hope that we can make the choices necessary to attain it.
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---Contents---
0:00:00 - Opening Reading
0:00:43 - Introduction
0:01:36 - Talk
1:09:48 - Q/A
1:23:00 - Closing
Disclaimer: These talks do not constitute the authoritative position of the Bahá'í Faith on any issue. Rather, they offer perspectives of individuals belonging to the Bahá'í Faith, informed by the Bahá'í Holy Writings.
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Excellent talk! It addresses our current state of world affairs, how we got here, where we have the potential to go and gives simple actionable steps. Thank you!
Thanks for your comments...
Thank you for your excellent presentation.
Amazing presentation.
Thanks for sharing philosophy of unity.
I like read more Baha u Allah writings.
Very enlightening
She gave a similar talk to another group in the UK very interesting
I want people to understand that the Bahai Faith does not favor or endorse one economic system over another economic system such as Communism vs capatalism per se .... We believe that we OBEY God and His laws... How people make money is up to them but the restrictions placed upon humanity is that human beings must cultivate unity and condust business honestly and forth rightly and not violate the 10 commandments (For Example) or other principles as outlined in the Bahai teachings.... (Do your research if you want details) Have a beautiful day
Bahai faith never advocates for the use of guns impose an economic system on others so bahai faith is against communism which does advocate for the use of guns to enforce the rules by a few on everyone.
Very interesting
❤
Reaping consequences of our actions and inactions has so far been embedded in the natural order. However, the future could hold a more direct form of divine punishment if we don't learn from these consequences.
Dear Ms. Sovaida Ma'ani,
I am just listening to your wonderful lecture and asking questions as they arise in my mind. Around 17:00 you talk about how the secular and religious leaders failed to investigate and heed Baha'ullah's call to achieve peace. As a scholar, could you explain to me how this heed was possible? Where was the motivation for it? How is it fair to expect the world leaders to investigate the claims of Baha'ullah when His own step-brother was not convinced or didn't have the motivation to do it?
It is easy to blame the world leaders for failing to recognize and obey Baha'ullah; what is more difficult is realizing that those leaders probably received hundreds of letters from different people daily, and probably didn't have the time or resources or motivation to investigate all of them closely. Many of them did what they thought was best given the circumstances, and they took advice from people who had established track-record and resume. Imagine if all leaders in the world wanted to dedicate time and resources to investigate the spiritual claims and political advice of every prisoner who sends them letters. You tell me; is this approach and expectation to do it reasonable?
I think it is fair to say that the average person in the late 1800s was not writing letters to the kings--they were not receiving hundreds of letters daily. The fact that Queen Victoria DID receive and read the letter addressed to her, and responded in a somewhat positive tone shows that this was possible. The arrogant manner with which Napoleon III responded is also evidence that he read the letter; and the violent way that the Shah of Persia responded again shows that such messages received attention.
It is also helpful to understand that in an earlier age, Muhammad had written to the leaders of empires in His day. In some respects, this is an echo of that. Zoroaster, too, had approached one of the kings of the area in which He lived, and in this case, successfully converted him. The rulers of the West were certainly cognizant of the tradition, from Old Testament times, that kings were held accountable by prophets, who had demonstrated by their lives that they had no interest in worldly power or wealth. The concept of the divine right of kings implied that they had to be accountable to God. This theme is echoed in the parable of the Lord of the Vineyard. And, indeed, within a few decades after all but Queen Victory had responded negatively, the monarchs, their dynasties, and indeed, the institution of monarchy itself (for the most part) collapsed after having existed for 3 or 4 or 5 millennia.
I will leave it for God to measure just how badly the kings had failed. I would think that, if they are made to witness all of the suffering that humanity has had to endure as a result of their inaction, that alone would be torturous enough.
But this is not to say that the kings were the only ones to fail. Baha'u'llah wrote to, met with and had contact with many others thru the course of His 40 year ministry. Some responded positively. But many did not.
We do not know how precisely Baha'u'llah was able to see the future. But some recognition of the man's increasing capacity for the development of machinery, and our tendency to put such machinery toward violent ends, may have inspired the following:
My eyes rain down tears until my bed is drenched; yet my sorrow is not for myself.... Yea, because I see mankind going astray in their intoxication and they know it not; they have exalted their lusts, and put aside their God, as though they took the command of God for a mockery, a sport, and a plaything; and they think that they do well, and that they are harbored in the citadel of security. The matter is not as they supposed; tomorrow they shall see what they now deny.
(Compilations, Baha'i Scriptures, p. 78)
The punishments are the direct consequences of our own behaviours by not following the order or direction of the divine doctor. If we ignore or disobey the doctors advice or not implementing his or her treatment and as a result of this we die we cannot blame the doctor. We are wholely responsible for the outcome of our behaviours. The punishment is therefore the consequences of our own behaviours and there is no need to blame God for the outcome. We must take responsibility for our own decision or action or lack of it.
"The All-Knowing Physician hath His finger on the pulse of mankind. He perceiveth the disease, and prescribeth, in His unerring wisdom, the remedy. Every age hath its own problem, and every soul its particular aspiration. The remedy the world needeth in its present-day afflictions can never be the same as that which a subsequent age may require. Be anxiously concerned with the needs of the age ye live in, and center your deliberations on its exigencies and requirements..." (Bahá'u'lláh)
Claiming that racism is the foremost problem in the U.S. is a misleading assertion. This perspective echoes cultural Marxism, which adversely impacts the Baha'i Faith. While advocating for non-partisanship within the faith, there seems to be a contradiction in critiquing those Americans who oppose international conflicts initiated by their government, labeling them as 'America first' proponents. This approach is problematic and involves numerous ad hominem attacks, hindering progress.
Exactly. The Baha'i's should be on their guard against those who would hi-jack the Divine Principles for their own materialistic, self-serving purposes.
Do you not understand that the United States didn't exist 400 years ago. . And what has been created was a nation of Europeans immigrants who stole land and natural resources from the native American Indians??
Thank you. There is no peace without unity and no unity without justice for ALL. We seem to enjoy denouncing some Americans for “nationalism” when our Writings specifically say nations will cede SOME of their sovereignty, not all; that we should maintain a SANE patriotism and that each nations’ borders will be firmly established and a military force will be needed to maintain order within the country. The Baha’i Administrative Order includes NSA’s as well. Baha’u’llah enjoins us to strictly preserve our cultures. I’ll take a wild guess and say that would also include European cultures and American cultures, of which there are many. Every country in Europe and every state in the US has its own culture. It seems to me the Teachings satisfy the wishes of that half of Americans we label indiscriminately as racists and nationalists. Asking your government to provide security, order and justice is not racism or nationalism. We have such prejudice against people who don’t have university degrees. It’s awful. We disdain the people who grow our food and produce, pack and ship it. Meanwhile, we never mention the severe pitfalls of the global governing bodies that are forming. Baha’u’llah specifically stated that they should be formed through the consent of the people yet what we have are unelected billionaire elites and intellectuals dictating what will happen to the peoples of the world. I believe there was a letter from the House stating that “when these bodies form, they will be like bodies without a soul” and that the Baha’is need to infuse them with soul.. The bodies without souls are currently contributing to great disunity, mistrust and worldwide agitation that is causing a considerable amount of the chaos and bloodshed in the world. Somehow, it seems to me that it is the intellectuals failing to embrace Baha’u’llah’s teachings that is most problematic because they teach our children and create policy that affects virtually the entire world. Farmers in Holland and truckers in Canada are not the main problem, they are reacting to a change in world governance that lacks justice for all because they are NOT firmly based in the Teachings of Baha’u’llah, the sovereign remedy. We have so far to go.
excellent response@@connieatkinson418 The problem with the current corporate focus of the Board of directors and CEO is how much profit they can squeeze out of the consumer and their workforce to line their pockets and avoid paying a fair share of their taxes... When anyone merely suggests that CEO's and their sycophants pay more taxes there are vehement protests that the government is too big and it must be limited .... Following the 1929 market crash and Global Depression that led to the second world war there was a compromise between socialism and capitalism thus Keynesian economics was born ... But unfortunately the money hungey elite managed to strip all the protections out of all the Government regulations that gave rise to a thriving middle class following WWII but with reagonomics of the 1980s which reversed all the gains for the ordinary citizen we have the current economic crisis of 2024
@@connieatkinson418 Many good points here. But I would point out that the "three false gods" that Shoghi Effendi identified in The Promised Day Is Come (March 1941) are "the triple gods of Nationalism, Racialism and Communism, at whose altars governments and peoples, whether democratic or totalitarian, at peace or at war, of the East or of the West, Christian or Islamic, are, in various forms and in different degrees, now worshiping." (pg 113)
So, while national identity and many aspects of national culture should be maintained, the sort of "me-first" nationalism, or the "I-do-what-I-want, I-don't-care-what-you-think" nationalism, or the "might-makes-right" nationalism of the past needs to be left behind.
32:29 Also not mention "Communism". How can you forget communism?