A Living Organism

It is the structure of His New World Order, now stirring in the womb of the administrative institutions He Himself has created, that will serve both as a pattern and a nucleus of that world commonwealth which is the sure, the inevitable destiny of the peoples and nations of the earth.

(Shoghi Effendi, The Promised Day is Come:118)

I have been exploring a fundamental principle of human life called by Shoghi Effendi the oneness and wholeness of human relationships.  These are not only for relations between individuals, but are also the structure of community and of governance and guide their relations.  The Bahá’í Administrative Order is an example of these relations that encompass the material, human, and spiritual aspects of human beings.  Let me state again, the characteristics of oneness and wholeness are complementary and necessary.  One without the other is insufficient to build or transform society because they are together needed to nurture the whole human being. 

Oneness and Wholeness is unity in diversity, and unity in diversity is totality.  I mean that society is never a homogenous domain and transformation is never a single process or set of changes.  Rather, society is manifest in a diverse set of relations and coordinated interactions, where both continuities and discontinuities, ruptures and cementings, identities and interdependencies, are formed and occur simultaneously.  These connect and diverge to form new relations, all changes implicit within society’s internal possibilities of growth and expressed in its interrelations with its environment.  These possibilities gradually become manifest and more complex.  Transformation is the totality of these coordinated transformations, their sum and summation together.  It is oneness (essence) unfolding into wholeness (attributes) and then enfolding into a manifest oneness again, potential finding its actuality and actuality bringing forth more potential.

Thus the House of Justice says that one important characteristic of Bahá’í administration is that: “Even as a living organism, it has coded within it the capacity to accommodate higher and higher degrees of complexity, in terms of structures and processes, relationships and activities, as it evolves under the guidance of the Universal House of Justice.” (Ridvan 2010)

Last post discussed the community institution of the feast, a social institution established at the very base of society, the culmination of a long development of community forms and the means through which society can be restored.  This post will say a few words about the primary institution of governance in the Bahá’í community, the Local Spiritual Assembly.   

I will start with the following statement from ‘Abdu’l-Baha about the historical significance of this structure of governance.  “The Spiritual Assemblies to be established in this Age of God, this holy century, have, it is indisputable, had neither peer nor likeness in the cycles gone before. For those assemblages that wielded power were based on the support of mighty leaders of men, while these Assemblies are based on the support of the Beauty of Abha. The defenders and patrons of those other assemblages were either a prince, or a king, or a chief priest, or the mass of the people. But these Spiritual Assemblies have for their defender, their supporter, their helper, their inspirer, the omnipotent Lord.” (Selections from the Writings of Abdu'l-Baha:81)

These institutions of governance have manifold responsibilities and actions to perform.  As the Feast has a spiritual, an administrative and a social aspect, so Local Spiritual Assemblies must care for the spiritual, human and material welfare of those in their community.  Local Spiritual Assembly members are titled “Trustees of the Merciful”, and ‘Abdu’l-Baha said that their discussions “must all be confined to spiritual matters that pertain to the training of souls, the instruction of children, the relief of the poor, the help of the feeble throughout all classes in the world, kindness to all peoples, the diffusion of the fragrances of God and the exaltation of His Holy Word.” (Quoted in Shoghi Effendi, Baha'i Administration:22)

But the relations between the institution of the Local Spiritual Assembly and the community of believers are uniquely structured in Baha’u’llah’s Order.  For the past few hundred years the image of human beings was that of a selfish, greedy, grasping individual intent only on self-interest and maximizing his material comfort and security. Social institutions have been built, especially in the western democracies, with this creature in mind which try to manage the anarchy inherent within him, often by coercion, interdict and force. The institutions of most societies are organized upon authoritarian principles requiring passive obedience to a leader or leadership. Hence the individual and his social institutions are caught up in a terrible conflict of purpose and are forced to work against each other, only coming together to negotiate some temporary blend of desires.  Over time this has terrible consequences for social harmony.  Psychologist, Hossain Danesh, states: "It is obvious that the authoritarian mode of government is more oriented towards disunity, mistrust, and suspicion that towards unity, trust, confidence in others." (Violence-free Family: 66)

The Baha'i Order provides a different and new way to manage the possibility of conflict which is present in every society.  One striking aspect of the Baha'i system is its separation of authority and power.  In a national Baha'i community: “Authority is concentrated in the hands of the elected members of the National Assembly. Power and initiative are primarily vested in the entire body of the believers acting through their local representatives.” (Principles of Baha'i Administration:68)  The separation of power to act and authority to guide actions into coherent paths of community development is crucial, for it leaves intact the right of every individual to take initiative, but that initiative is best realized if it is undertaken within a coordinated plan of community growth.  The potential for a clash is there, of course, but these potentially divergent paths are brought into coherence by "the law of consultation" and the unifying power of universal participation.  Again, the oneness of the law of consultation and the wholeness of universal participation is present.  If society is to advance: “A unity in diversity of actions is called for, a condition in which different individuals will concentrate on different activities, appreciating the salutary effect of the aggregate on the growth and development of the Faith, because each person cannot do everything and all persons cannot do the same thing.” (Promoting Entry by Troops:17)

Besides these more formal institutions of the Bahá’í Administrative Order, a number of experiments in social organization, such as Social and Economic Development projects, are occurring on the local, national and international levels, within the global Baha’i community. Yet all these different initiatives and projects occur within what the Universal House of Justice called "a single social organism, representative of the diversity of the human family, conducting its affairs through a system of commonly accepted consultative principles." (The Promise World Peace:36.)  I will discuss this in the next post.

A direct link to my book, Renewing the Sacred is http://tinyurl.com/cndew5a   It is now also in Kindle.