The year of Badi

This is my thirtieth year of being a Baha'i. This is the year of Badi. In the Quran the Word Badi means: Wonderful Originator.Almost 100 years ago Abdu-l'Baha presented The Promulgation of Universal Peace from April 11,1912 until December 5,1912.THE MOTHERS OF THE WORLD WILL PUT AN END TO WAR. This idea was expounded in the Promulgation of Universal Peace. The word Badi also means Beginning. "In the Beginning God created the Heavens and the Earth" "In The Beginning the two Spirits have declared their Nature". In the Beginning was the Word". In the Beginning was the relation.Bismillah is found at the Beginning of many of the Surahs of the Quran.Abdu-l'Baha came over on the RMS Cedric. The Cedric was one of the Great Four that predated the Olympic Liners: the Celtic,Baltic,Cedric and the Adriatic.Abdu-l'Baha had the option of coming over on the RMS Titanic,however,he didn't.Abdu-l'Baha's ideas: about the Spiritual Advancement of Women and the Promulgation of Universal Peace are the motivating factor as to why I have been saying for a year: Charice singing Diane Warren's song: If I wrote a note to God is a Hallmark in history. Charice was born in 1992. In 1992 the Baha'i Faith celebrated the 100th anniversary of the Ascension of Baha'u'llah. That was 19 years ago. !8 is a significant number in the Baha'i Faith. 19 is the Vahid, which means UNITY.Charice is influenced by the Covenant of Baha'u'llah

The 29nth Anniversary of being Baha'i

Today is the first day of Kamal. It is also the first day of August. This Baha'i Year has gone real fast.I was in the hospital a few months ago. I experienced the same problem ten years ago at the same time. Twenty nine years ago I declared myself a Baha'i at John and Susan Mead's at 109 Drew Road. This is the only time of the year where the Gregorian Calendar and the Badi Calendar coincide.This is one of the major reasons the term Cortaca Baha'i evolved. Thirty years ago I discovered the Baha'i Faith in Cortland, twenty nine years ago I declared myself a Baha'i . At the time I joined the Baha'i Faith John wasn't a Baha'i even though I thought he was one.Sue said Baha'i Prayers and eventually he declared himself a Baha'i about two years latter. One of the other blogs here is titled:The Meads of Eternal Holiness.It is that time of the year where I'm preparing next years calendar. Cindy Escoba and I have been quoting Sir Ralph Waldo Emerson. I mentioned Cindy in my last blog. Cindy is a very good """"FRIEND""""".Ralph Waldo Emerson is a very important link in history,especially when viewing his concepts about fate:"THE BEST USE OF FATE IS TO BRING OUR CONDUCT TO THE LOFTINESS OF NATURE. Ala or Loftiness is the last month of the Badi Calendar.Sir Ralph Waldo Emerson,as Cindy calls him corresponds in idea with the Z Note of Traveller's Narrative and the Menok-I-Khrat. Sir Ralph Waldo Emerson's ideas about fate and liberty corresponds with the writings of Robert Charles Zaehner.

Surah 57:3 and the Johari Window.

A few months ago a friend of mine in the Philippines introduced me to a concept known aa Johari Window. Cindy Escoba is one of my friends from the Philippines. She introduced me to the Johari Window.The Johari Windows consists of four quadrants.One is the Arena,the other the Blind Spot,another the Facade and the last Unknown. The Arena is the one quadrant where ideas are known to self and known to others. In some ways this resembles what Stephen Covey calls the Four Paradagms of Interdependence: Win Win,Loose Win, Win Loose and Loose Loose. The Johari Window has been compared to the Myers Briggs Test to determine whether one is an introvert or an extrovert. Introvert and extrovert were terms coined by Carl Jung. He developed terms like the archetypes and the Collective Unconscious.The Subjective Psyche is the Ego Conscious while the Objective Psyche is the Collective Unconscious. The Sufis developed the idea of the inner and outer aspects of life,the inner being the spiritual and the outer the material.Carl Jung developed the idea of psychological functions. The four main ones were Intuition,Thinking,Feeling and Sensation. Buddha spoke about the Fiur Noble Truths and there are the four creatures in the book of Ezekiel.All this corresponds with Surah 57:3 of the Quran where we read : " HE IS THE FIRST AND THE LAST,THE SEEN AND THE HIDDEN AND HE KNOWETH ALL THINGS" Baha'u'llah speaks about Surah 57:3 in The Valley of Unity in His Book titled: The Seven Valleys and the Four Valleys. The Four Valleys is derived from Surah 57:3 addressing the Four Wayfarer States of: The Intended One,the Praiseworthy One,the Attracting One and the Beloved.

Baha'i Spiritual Assembly an Enneagram Par Excellence?

The month of Masa'il is known as the moth of Questions. It will soon be on us. One current question amongst many: Is the Baha'i Spiritual Assembly and the Future Houses of Justice an Enneagram Par Excellence. We are to offer the Baha'i Faith up when all else fails. Another question would be: "Was the Enneagram first developed by the Sufis or the Christians. In the Bundahishn Ohrmazd and Ahriman make a Pact to do battle for nine thousand years. In fact :"The Great Iranian Cycle" consists of twelve thousand years and nine thousand years respectively. Twelve thousand years,or "Time of the Long Dominion is the duration of finite time. Time comes from the Infinite goes through twelve thousand years which is finite and returns to the Infinite. This is like the Alpha and the Omega and there is a good possibility that the twelve thousand applied to each of the twelve tribes of Israel came from Zoroastrianism. Christianity is as much an heir to Zoroastrianism as it is to Jewish Tradition. Khwarrenah is like Time of the Long Dominion, since Khwarrenah comes from God Khwarrenah instinctively returns to God. This is synonymous with the idea:Onto Him shall we return. Another question would be: "Does archetypal evolution correspond with Progressive Revelation? It is time for a new posting of the Cortaca Baha'i. I have been investigating the correlation between the Enneagram and the Beatitudes. Baha'u'llah makes reference to the Sermon on the Mount in the second Tarazat.

I can't believe I haven't posted a new Cortaca Baha'i since Ridvan. I have been chatting with Amina Zahrani from Rabat Morocco: I am posting a talk she will be giving in Meknes Morocco.This is the talk. It parallels what Abdu-l'Baha said in the Industrial Justice Tablet:


World economic crisis:

Which approach for a possible solution?


Our talk will contain four shutters:

1-The world situation, consequences of the deregulation,

2-The bases of a world society in which every human being could completely make a commitment and live comfortably,

3 - Guiding plan of a new world order: spiritual bahaïe approach.

4-Twelve laws allowing adjust disparities between the individuals and who will regulate the excessive fortunes, moderate and eliminate the extremes of wealth and poverty in the planet and with the aim is a social justice.


1-The world situation, consequences of the deregulation

In the difference with the previous economic crises namely:

- The real-estate crises in Europe and in Japan in 1929 then 1973 then 1987 and 1990,

- The crises financier international in 1994, 1997 and 1998

The crisis current 2008-2009 is at the same time real-estate, financial and banking global crisis; it affects a wider scale which include as well countries develop, emergent and developing country.


Cause

Main cause It is the renunciation by the state of the supervision of the credits and the banking activity so that it works by no administrative frame (supervision).

This situation is the result of a movement driven by Ronald Reagan and Margaret Thatcher under the name of deregulation.


As a consequence; the financial sphere by swelling excessively decoupled of the real economy then quickly by deflating it echoed on the real economy. So this fall touched millions of people who lost their savings and even their employment.


Given that the hindrances to traffic of the financial capital were abolished all over the world, the deregulated finance destroyed societies because it is the law of most hardly that dominated.




Origin

The crisis has begun in the United States; a simple need of the millions of poor households tries to acquire an accommodation without having the means of it. The brokers propose then credits, which, at first sight, seem very tempting. The rates of loans are "reasonable" during the first years, but are then brought to increase. It is in fact the organism who loans which fixes the rate of repayment.

But this last point is not explained in detail to the households which subscribe to these credits en mass .These loans at variable rates, the famous “subprime ", are then resold in investment funds.

From the end of year 2006, the households which had subscribed to "subprime" are victims of the brutal increase of the rates of loans and cannot pay off any more their banks. Their houses are then seized to be resold. But the American real-estate market, quickly flooded by the quantity of the offer and in front of few demands, collapsed. First consequence: the capital which had massively invests in "subprime" meets itself trapped.

The second consequence: in July, 2007 it is the beginning of the chain reaction which is going to get banks all over the world. This crisis about "subprime" results in a poly-sector-based global crisis. It is affects all the sectors and all the regions of the globe. It concerned at first the global financial sphere before widening irresistibly in the real economy. What takes place; it is the translation in the reality of the collapses of a system built on the freedom, the anarchy of the financial transactions Introduced by the deregulation of the activity of credit.

The levying of the statutory constraints provoked, thus, very grave speculative drift. Some are extremely destructive by the volumes of losses caused by the collapse of the system .THIS crisis asks the question of relationship of markets with States and their capacity to face their national responsibilities, and that of the relationship of the market with the globalization.

It doesn't much matter in which country it begins. In the modern conditions, the crisis will pass inevitably from a country to the other one, from a continent to the other one. This time, it began in the United States. Countries will be touched one after the other, as dominoes. The contagion will extend from a country to the other one as the unverifiable one epidemic.

It will seem evident that every country too much exported (that is, too much produced) and too much imported (too much traded). It will be evident that all deceived the credit and switched on the flames of the inflation and the speculation, which must be put out at the moment, even in the full price. In other words, we do not speak about such or such country, of such or such forks out either of such or such individual speculator, but of the system itself.

Consequently, we face a world phenomenon which is heavy of revolutionary involvements. The globalization shows itself as a world crisis of the capitalism.


“The international trade conceals a real paradox. The increasing prosperity of the industrialized nations kept pace with a massive poverty and the increase of the disparities between rich countries and poor countries. The world trade can become a powerful engine of the decrease of the poverty and the economic growth, but this potential is not turned to good account. The problem is not engendered by a fundamental opposition at needs and at interests of the poor countries, but the rules which govern the exchanges is falsified in favor of the rich countries. “This quotation is pulled by a report that Oxfam presented in April, 2002 in Hong-Kong. This report of Oxfam also reveals that the global cost of tariff barriers for developing countries amounts to 100 billion USD a year, what is double exactly of the help which the rich countries boast regularly to give to the poor countries. Besides, the report of Oxfam indicates that a 5 % increase of Exports from developing countries would get for them incomes about 350 billion dollars, is seven times more than the whole help which they receive.




Thus:

How to improve the environment and the living conditions?
How to fight against the exclusion and to insure the respect for the human dignity?
How to protect middle classes and public utilities in an economy of walking?
How to join the economic, the social, the competitiveness and the ethics within the economy?
So, it is necessary to understand that there are two faces of the globalization, the one which is purely technical, economic, based on the profit. And the other which prepares a global citizenship, and elaborates a consciousness of membership in a homeland which is the Earth. The consciousness which is in gestation through these movements elaborates international one citizen who should drive us to civilize the earth in a “society world ".

2-The bases of a world society in which every human being could completely make a commitment and live comfortably,

What are thus bases of a world society in which every human being could completely make a commitment and live suitably?

Baha ullah declares:

< < Soon the present order of things will be past and a new will replace it > >

Baha ullah adds:

< < Oh you who remain on the earth the distinctive line which marks the pre-eminent character of this supreme revelation consist of what we have, first, erase from pages of the book of God all which was able to be cause of conflicts, wickedness and damages among the children of the Men and, on the other hand, impose ' the indispensable prerequisites has the harmony, has the understanding and has a perfect and long-lasting unity. Happy those who observe my prescriptions. Powerful is the light of the unity that she can illuminate all the earth > >


3 - Guiding plan of a new world order:

SPIRITUAL BAHAIE APPROACH:

Main plan of a new world order: The spiritual and material dimensions of the existence are interconnected and strengthened mutually and are reflected the

One in the other one. The spiritual and material worlds are interrelated consequently; our material impoverishment is also the reflection of our spiritual impoverishment collective. The economic system, is, also, the reflection extern and solidifies of our collective life (the egoism, the greediness, the competitiveness and the apathy are the cause of the social injustice.

Thus an important effort of improvement in the moral tissue of the society must be supplied. The moral decline cost very much. The spiritualization is a divine call. Baha' u' llah called up to a complete restructuring of the social order of the world, getting all the aspects of the life, the individual morality in the economy and in the government, of the community development the religious practice.

A new international order becomes an imperative necessity. Its emergence has to allow to study above all the current economic disparities to decide on the way the resources of the world should be organized and how the sources of raw materials would be coverage and used to allow a renewal and a redistribution of its products overseen. This world crisis testifies of a deep movement of the very humanity. And only the link which, inevitably, unites the spiritual affairs of the human race with its practical affairs, which is only capable of breathing the life to any voluntary organization. It is not the momentary imbalance that we have to face; it is the quite whole structure of the civilization that we have the necessity of changing. Institutions and social bodies to which an age of variety and competition gave birth do not meet the needs any more of an age of cooperation and of peace.

A real transformation of society is necessary , the economic progress depends on the balance between the needs of the various members of the community. This will come true only in an evolved and spiritual humanity.

Consequently three objectives are necessary to achieve, to insure the stability of nations, the social progress of the local communities in the unity and the justice:

Establishment of an international government,
Regeneration of the local community
Spiritual Education of the man.


1-Etablissement of an International government:

The crisis is, really, a whole set, political, economic and religious, but the humanity possesses no responsible body - and invested with authority - to coordinate all the factors which establish this crisis and to arrive at a world plan which takes into account all these factors. In this body of government of the world, which is very urgent to create and which will be invested towards the human race of a supreme authority, will be subjected all the national States as provinces exercising only a local jurisdiction This world government differs from the national government, not only, by the geographical sphere of its jurisdiction, but also by the area of its social responsibility. Only he is capable of making the disarmament, of creating a healthy currency of reconciling the classes, of establishing an educational system in compliance with the fundamental needs of the humanity, and of spreading the danger which results from the opposition of the communist and capitalist theories.


2-Régénération of the local community:

In this community, indeed, occur the essential relations of the men. In its atmosphere that elaborates the quality of the human life. There practices on the moldable soul and without prejudices of the child, the education which will determine motives and reactions of the adult. There begin this cycle of social influence which ends in the war or in the peace.

The local community is at present a sick cell in a body in a mess. In a healthy voluntary organization, the individual is not only entitled to the vote and to the protection of the laws, he is also entitled to the existence, and it by virtue of a fundamental right and point by the effect of a simple charity.


It is only having discovered the spiritual principles of the association of the people that it will be possible to establish a social order corresponding to the divine reality.


3-Education spiritual of the man:

The human nature contains essentially two dimensions. That of the being physical on one hand, consisted of instincts of survival and of a need to acquire what is necessary for the life. Of other one quote the one who, by her qualities, differentiate the human race of all other forms of life and that we can call the human mind which knows how to transcend and expresses itself by its concern for the well-being Collective and by the need to find a sense in the life which exceeds the physical existence. The role of the individual is to develop this noble dimension and to participate so collectively in “the progress of a civilization always in progress ".

The social Progress can come true only on the deep understanding of the spiritual reality of The humanity - reality - which is the essence of our nature Today, it is necessary to understand that the spiritual education has to contain not only the private life and in group but also the collective progress of the humanity in general . The education (which is not the instruction) is to learn to lead a noble and useful existence, to love God of all his heart, has to devote himself to humanity (what is the highest purpose of l existence), develop his capacities at most for the good of all...


And so the humanity will be transformed when truth education will be understood well, and will become widespread, then the humanity will be transformed, and the entire globe will be as a paradise.

These three objectives - world government, regenerated communities, and spiritual education - are connected moreover strictly. Nobody would know how to exist without two others, and all three are in the latent state in the current society.


When the individual undergoes a true spiritual education the local community will be transformed and the national community will be transformed, in his turn, as a consequence and finally it is the same for the community of the peoples. In this approach happiness= to be and become: it is the internal search for a capacity in the happiness; it is the opening of the heart; the development, the availability, the freedom of the human mind and the Creativity and not the fight to have more wealth.

- The current tragedy of the unemployment could become the opportunity of a precious leisure for the culture and the development of the individual.

- The moral persons have no right to get into debt beyond their capitalization, that it is stock-exchange or not.

- The physical persons cannot either undergo of excessive debt.

- The responsibility of every generation is whole.

If it is evident that the creation of more wealth is the foundation of all the improvement of the material well-being of the society, it is important nevertheless to distinguish between the creation of true wealth and a simple accumulation of this wealth.


The first one occurs when a company creates a new product or a service for the profit of the members of the society because it satisfies a need, because it creates some work or because it develops an economic activity.


The second is not inevitably the fruit of a true production but he can be only the result of a financial manipulation which distributes the wealth to those who are already rich.


The Baha’is writings not condemn the personal wealth. On the contrary, they underline the necessity of being rewarded according to its efforts and its merit: the human beings are brought “to earn the keep by a profession ". But the excesses of wealth and poverty are condemned as symptoms of social injustice.


Which are the principles and the basic laws which can adjust between them the disparities between the individuals and will regulate the excessive fortunes of the planet with the aim of one moderation and the elimination of the extremes of wealth and poverty; thus of the elimination of the social injustice?.


Bahá' u' lláh brought principles and laws which adjust between them the fatal disparities between individuals. The economic resources of the world will be organized, all the sources of raw materials will be exploited at full capacity, all the coordinated and developed markets, and the distribution of products fairly settled.


These laws works successfully only when people are going to be honest and the plans of mutual profits depend on The trust and on the mutual willingness, it will come true when the need of justice and social equality will universally be recognized.



A- First law

The work has to be a spiritual act which follows code of honor We call the fact to consider the work as an act of service and faith, and to concentrate on the general good and to promote more services and public affairs.

The quality of the information which we use in our decisions affects directly walking collective material needs of the society which we meet.

For example let us consider walking of second-hand cars. This work is dominated by a salesman caricature ' of "dishonest". The salesman is only interested to sell his product with the highest possible price. Whose purpose to arrive has its objective it is refreshed ' to lie, so he supplies has the buyer an inadequate information has comment of the quality of the car, for example, he does not introduce the history of the maintenance or the mechanical state of the car. The salesman uses the information to attract the buyer to steal him money ; that normally, the buyer should not announce if he had all the information about car.


One walking of efficient transaction would be to exchange mutually profits and to practice the transparency in all the information of both parts.

Thus the importance of the honesty has potentially important involvements for the structure of the material well-being of the society.

The corruption of public utilities and commercial sectors are serious barriers to support a social economic development in the world.


B-second law

Law of consultation is the process of collective decision-making based on the search of a consensus. This system is very important in the community life.


C-Third Law

Salaries and payment

It exists between the people a fundamental disparity;

All can have neither the same faculties nor the same skills.

It is the duty of the organization of the society to look has every individual the opportunity to acquire the necessary talents in the various occupations and also to use his talents for his personal comfort and of that of the community. The absolute equality is impossible because it would destroy the order of the affairs of communities.

Salaries should, then, be uneven and the People have to receive a corresponding salary has their capacity and varied resources. The accent is put on the principle of reward and remuneration and the link between clear payment and clear contribution.


D-fourth law

Shares profits

The employees and workers will receive not only a salary but they will have another just part in the profits quite as one associate

The purpose of this law is to give to the manufacturers a moderate income and to the workers of the necessary livelihood, the safety and the future. Grace in this law the company would look to the capitalists of the moderate profits. There is cut of the relation productivity-salary So the well-being is maximizes ' when salaries will be put has equality with the marginal productivity of the supplied work. So the winner in salary should be pay ' in equivalent quantity of the additional contributions. The salary is thus winning.


‘The court and the international government would check the distribution of profits in the company between salaries ' and the investors.


E-fifth law

Shares volunteer of the wealth it is a shape of voluntary contribution being a part of incomes of the local authority. The anxiety for his fellow men is essential.

The bahaie approach does not thus condemn the process of creation of wealth, because it is a means to eliminate the poverty, to insure the well-being of the most deprived of the society and to encourage the arts and the sciences.

The nature of the man develops through its generosity in the prosperity that is by the use of the wealth, by its voluntary sharing and by the way of spending it our noble nature can make a success of its human development.


Baha ullah recommends what follows:


< O Friends! Do not abandon the eternal beauty for a perishable beauty and do not place your affections in this mortal world of dust >


And the bab adds:

< All that you have sacrifices in the road of the only true God you will find it protect, intact has God's holy door >


Because the rich Man will not enjoy by his luxury in comparison with the poverty around him; it is strength by its own happiness to spend its wealth to get the better conditions in the community where he lives.

The economic involvements of the voluntary donation are deep because are the source of incomes for the promotion of public affairs.


F -the sixth law

Taxes volunteer on the capital wins ' *this law is indicated to assure that each exists in the comfortable limits .Although that the absolute equality is impossible; the extreme poverty and of wealth must be eliminated.

* Anybody is entitled in require of base of the life but nobody has the right to have more wealth than he can use.

*the tax goes at the bottom international it is 19 % for any increase in the wealth which could be accumulated over a given period: the amount is tax on the total of incomes less the necessary expenses has the life, let us note that this levy is left is conscious of every individual.




G-seventh Law

System of finances bases on the agricultural industry and the financial support.

The agriculture is essentially the most important industry. Is for that reason that those who live on the earth (land) and exploit it will be the object of a particular care.

How has to work this system of finance bases on the agriculture?

Abd' ul baha gives an example as follows: The principle is the same in city and village but operating on a direct financial base:


1- Because the climatic conditions vary from one year to the next, a percentage of harvest has to be a guard in a warehouse for every village and will be under the control of the local authority.


2- The local authority will receive an income tax increase


3- The local authority will also receive a proportion of income of the mining operations of the region.


4- A financial support will be established is will be administers by the local authority in the following way:


- A family incomes of which exceed needs, these incomes will be taxes;


- A family is supported by the local authority if it does not win enough to satisfy its needs;


- Every local community contributes to the national capital if she could make it but she could be supported by the national capital if it is necessary.


- The same principle of contribution and support applies on an international scale.


The way of functioning of this system will depend on the community and according to considered period.


H- Eighth law

Respect for the human health. The medicine will have to be more human and less medicinal and the consumption should be healthier and more natural.

To realize it, the honesty is essential to realize the health for all.

I- Ninth Law

The respect for the future generations

For it, it is necessary:

- create legislation and a world police for the environmental protection;

-To set up the adapted educational structures involved in companies;

- establish the universal working right;

- développe social institutions.

J-tenth Law

Disarmament, in the name of the safety, it is necessary:

- keep a minimal national armament for the maintenance of law and order;

- create a world police preventing the conflicts between nation’s doors in front of an international court.


K-Eleventh Law

Abolition of tariff barriers ,for it, it is necessary to:

- create a weighty system and measure;

-Set up a world currency (change);

- To fix an interest rate has a just level;

- adopt a language international as an auxiliary language

of communication.

The adoption of these measures will delete many difficulties which the less developed nations face today.


L-twelfth Law

System of inheritance adapts .The distribution of sharing of inheritance will prevent the accumulation of the wealth and will avoid making benefit a handle of persons.


Will end us our talk by a quotation of Abd' ul baha:

< The real happiness depends on the spiritual good and requires a heart always opened to the divine generosity. If the heart turns away from blessings which offer God, for which happiness he can hope?

If he does not place his hope and his trust in the divine mercy, where will he find the rest? Place your hopes in quite powerful God because he is infallible and his beauty will last never has>


This talk was given during three corners (places) of fire side at Judith Hatcher, John Macleod and Shan by amina Zahrani Doctor in sciences and education on May 2nd, 10th and 15th 2009.

First Day of Ridvan
Jalal 13,166 B.E. April 21,2009
Today is the first day of Ridvan.Ridvan is a twelve day celebration going from Jalal 13 to Jamal 5 or April 21 to May 2. This is when Baha'u'llah declared His Mission in 20 B.E. or 1863 A.D. This is where He Declared Himself to be God's Manifestation for the age we live in This is the same year Abraham Lincoln issue the Emancipation Proclamation. Abdu-l'Baha said the Collective Center of the Kingdom establishes relation between East and West. This happened in 20 B.E. and it is still happening in 166 B.E. here in Dryden ,New York. In the front window,on the sill there are two stacks of newspapers. On the west side of the sill is the Ithaca Journal. On the east side of the sill is the Cortland Standard. There is the Orenda of the Cortland Ithaca Spirit. The Orenda is a synonym for the Persian Word Khwarenah in the Avestan Language and Khwarr in the Pahlavi. This relation is worth studying in great detail.Ridvan has a teleological ramification to it because it implies : "The Final Cause of Creatures" which means Reunion with God. The Baha'i Faith is not just another Religion, the Baha'i Faith is the Final Consummation.
There are many terms Baha'u'llah uses to demonstrate this fact.

As part of the Seven Valleys Four Valleys Teaching Project I have incorporated Industrial Justice. I found this passage on a Baha'i Library and I post it now. The Seven Valleys Four Valleys Teaching Project was listed in a previous post.
You have questioned me about strikes. This question is and will be for a long time the subject of great difficulties. Strikes are due to two causes. One is the extreme sharpness and rapacity of the capitalists and manufacturers; the other, the excesses, the avidity and ill-will of the workmen and artisans. It is therefore necessary to remedy these two causes.
But the principal cause of these difficulties lies in the laws of the present civilization; for they lead to a small number of individuals accumulating incomparable fortunes, beyond their needs, whilst the greater number remains destitute, stripped and in the greatest misery. This is contrary to justice, to humanity, to equity; it is the 281 height of iniquity, the opposite to what causes divine satisfaction.
This contrast is peculiar to the world of man: with other creatures, that is to say with nearly all animals, there is a kind of justice and equality. Thus in a shepherd’s flock of sheep, in a troop of deer in the country, among the birds of the prairie, of the plain, of the hill or of the orchard, almost every animal receives a just share based on equality. With them such a difference in the means of existence is not to be found: so they live in the most complete peace and joy.
It is quite otherwise with the human species, which persists in the greatest error, and in absolute iniquity. Consider an individual who has amassed treasures by colonizing a country for his profit: he has obtained an incomparable fortune, and has secured profits and incomes which flow like a river, whilst a hundred thousand unfortunate people, weak and powerless, are in need of a mouthful of bread. There is neither equality nor brotherhood. So you see that general peace and joy are destroyed, the welfare of humanity is partially annihilated, and that collective life is fruitless. Indeed, fortune, honors, commerce, industry are in the hands of some industrials, whilst other people are submitted to quite a series of difficulties and to limitless troubles: they have neither advantages nor profits, nor comforts, nor peace.
Then rules and laws should be established to regulate the excessive fortunes of certain private individuals, and limit the misery of millions of the poor masses; thus a certain moderation would be obtained. However, absolute equality is just as impossible, for absolute equality in fortunes, honors, commerce, agriculture, industry, would end in a want of comfort, in discouragement, in disorganization of the means of existence, and in universal disappointment: the order of the community would be quite destroyed. Thus, there is a great wisdom in the fact that equality is not imposed by law: it is, therefore, preferable for moderation to do its work. The main point is, by means of laws and regulations to hinder the constitution of the excessive fortunes of certain individuals, and to protect the essential needs of the masses. For instance, the manufacturers and the industrials heap up a treasure each day, and the poor artisans do not gain their daily sustenance: 282 that is the height of iniquity, and no just man can accept it. Therefore, laws and regulations should be established which would permit the workmen to receive from the factory owner their wages and a share in the fourth or the fifth part of the profits, according to the wants of the factory; or in some other way the body of workmen and the manufacturers should share equitably the profits and advantages. Indeed, the direction and administration of affairs come from the owner of the factory, and the work and labor, from the body of the workmen. In other words, the workmen should receive wages which assure them an adequate support, and when they cease work, becoming feeble or helpless, they should receive from the owner of the factory a sufficient pension. The wages should be high enough to satisfy the workmen with the amount they receive, so that they may be able to put a little aside for days of want and helplessness.
When matters will be thus fixed, the owner of the factory will no longer put aside daily a treasure which he has absolutely no need of (without taking into consideration that if the fortune is disproportionate, the capitalist succumbs under a formidable burden, and gets into the greatest difficulties and troubles; the administration of an excessive fortune is very difficult, and exhausts man’s natural strength). And, the workmen and artisans will no longer be in the greatest misery and want, they will no longer be submitted to the worst privations at the end of their life.
It is, then, clear and evident that the repartition of excessive fortunes amongst a small number of individuals, while the masses are in misery, is an iniquity and an injustice. In the same way, absolute equality would be an obstacle to life, to welfare, to order and to the peace of humanity. In such a question a just medium is preferable. It lies in the capitalists being moderate in the acquisition of their profits, and in their having a consideration for the welfare of the poor and needy; that is to say, that the workmen and artisans receive a fixed and established daily wage, and have a share in the general profits of the factory.
It would be well, with regard to the social rights of manufacturers, workmen and artisans, that laws be established, giving moderate profits to manufacturers, and to workmen the necessary 283 means of existence and security for the future. Thus, when they become feeble and cease working, get old and helpless, and die leaving children under age, these children will not be annihilated by excess of poverty. And it is from the income of the factory itself, to which they have a right, that they will derive a little of the means of existence.
In the same way, the workmen should no longer rebel and revolt, nor demand beyond their rights; they should no longer go out on strike, they should be obedient and submissive, and not ask for impudent wages. But the mutual rights of both associated parties will be fixed and established according to custom by just and impartial laws. In case one of the two parties should transgress, the courts of justice would have to give judgment, and by an efficacious fine put an end to the transgression; thus order will be re-established, and the difficulties settled. The interference of courts of justice and of the Government in difficulties pending between manufacturers and workmen is legal, for the reason that current affairs between workmen and manufacturers cannot be compared with ordinary affairs between private persons, which do not concern the public, and with which the Government should not occupy itself. In reality, although they appear to be matters between private persons, these difficulties between patrons and workmen produce a general detriment; for commerce, industry, agriculture and the general affairs of the country are all intimately linked together. If one of these suffers an abuse, the detriment affects the mass. Thus the difficulties between workmen and manufacturers become a cause of general detriment.
The court of justice and the Government have therefore the right of interference. When a difficulty occurs between two individuals with reference to private rights, it is necessary for a third to settle the question: this is the part of the Government: then the question of strikes—which cause troubles in the country and are often connected with the excessive vexations of the workmen, as well as with the rapacity of manufacturers—how could it remain neglected?
Good God! is it possible that, seeing one of his fellow-creatures starving, destitute of everything, a man can rest and live comfortably 284 in his luxurious mansion? He who meets another in the greatest misery, can he enjoy his fortune? That is why, in the religion of God, it is prescribed and established that wealthy men each year give over a certain part of their fortune for the maintenance of the poor and unfortunate. That is the foundation of the religion of God, and the most essential of the commandments.
As now man is not forced nor obliged by the Government, if by the natural tendency of his good heart, with the greatest spirituality, he goes to this expense for the poor, this will be a thing very much praised, approved and pleasing.
Such is the meaning of the good works in the Divine Books and Tablets.