What if we had One Auxiliary World Language??

As one of its social principles, the Bahá’í faith teaches that an auxiliary world language should be selected by the representatives of all the world's nations.

“Language follows its own path. It can bridge gulfs of class and geography in
the most remarkable ways.”[1]

Would an auxiliary world language be the solution to many of the afflictions in which lays the society of today?
Could such an instrument enhance and implement the progress that a new civilization would bear once the lack of direct communication and the resulting misunderstanding would be leveled?
The answer to those questions is certainly “Yes!”
How many languages and dialect will be abandoned and die in this process we do not know. It can be argued that selecting an auxiliary world language above the others, could help preserve the traditional languages of each culture and sub-culture, provoking in a short period of time the whole world to shift from a monolingual education into a bilingual; as already prophesized by Graddol, but not yet widely realized.
If this could be prompted in the education system of every nation, in two or three generations we would see the effects. The possible scenario could be that of an environment where the study and use of the English Language, channelled into specific domains of the daily interaction, would run parallel to that of the mother language even to a regional dialect, maybe a city's slang too. The vernacular language of a region or country, the native dialect and the English Language would then coexist everywhere.
That an auxiliary world language should be selected by the representatives of all the world's nations is an undeniable resolution, which the governments have to take for the betterment of the conditions of the present world. English Language has demonstrated to be the auxiliary world language more than just in a mere potentiality. It is already used, though unconsciously by its speakers, in such a way. What will enhance its position and release its powers in the future could only be the possible recognition by a council in majority of governments to adopt it as official instrument to free the world; freeing it from the hindrance that keeps humanity aback from communicate effectively between peoples of different nations. It can be argued that this recognition would lack of impartiality; that choosing English over other system of communication requires defining a standard; that Chinese speakers are still superior in number to English speakers; that the language of the future could be invented today or tomorrow; and many numerous other objections of this kind. If just for one moment we could step out of the confusion and objectively consider that what humanity really need is not a refined perfect system to express them selves, because this role is already impeccably occupied by the infinite number of tongues; which have been developed so beautifully since the dawn in which the first speech has been uttered. Everyday this diversity permits to every speaker to express the endless range of thoughts that are generated by every single mind, it makes mankind the only creature in the condition to dominate the world of existence by claiming the ownership with a simple action: to name everything they discover; amplifying every kind of dominion that could possibly be considered in the abstract or concrete form. What the future civilization, the next offspring that will inherit this planet would need is an auxiliary language, that would cover the lack that the world’s variety has produced and be a bridge connector to develop new patterns towards the rise of further latent conquests. For such a role English Language is already giving its silent contribution. As history has taught, once it will be taken seriously in consideration it will start to change and mutate at a higher speed rate, according to the necessity of an even smaller world of that in which we live in today. Since the one emerging now it is not a new born idiom, but a foetus still developing its features and organs. Eventually it will be delivered widely through a more organized and structured education’s system, and then every new generation, from that turning point on, will add its own to the refinement of the English Auxiliary World Language.

[1] Robert McCrum, British novelist, editor, and critic, in McCrum et al. (1986) The Story of English

Bahai Conference in London 3-4 January 2009

A wave of Love has been ripple out of the Center of the Covenant in the heart of the Middle East, the port city of Haifa, Israel. Summoning the believers from every corner of the globe, to meet in 41 Conferences that took place all around it, for the only purpose of celebrate the achievements the Baha'ì world community has produced in its services to humanity.

"At the top of Mount Carmel a little light goes on when 9 souls meet and then wonders happen...." -That's how my sister on the telephone tried to convey to me her feelings, while serving in the Most Holy Place on earth for the Baha'is of all the World. I thought of her and all the marvelous youth I know, which are serving there and have the bounty to see, meet and talk to these 9 souls, who dedicate their lives to the Administration of His Cause.

The 3 days I've spent with my brother Badi, and the 2friends who were hosting us, Nushin & Reema, were absolutely celestial. While going each morning to the conference, held at the Business Centre in Inslington, London, we witnessed the participation of 3100 people from the British Isles, Ireland, Island, Greenland, Sweden, Norway, Finland gathering from every side of the city. Childre,Youth, Adults and Old. A colorful garden, an impressive river when in the morning, at lunch break and evening, people would ripple in and out of the venue.

There is more I'd like to convey... but emotions are too many.
I just wish you all to be reached one day by these waves of Love!

For more info click on this: 41 CONFERENCES

Great Expectations from the United States of America

"I see black and white, Lord
I see black eyes in a white face
I see white teeth in a black face
help me to see people, Lord
not black people or white people
red people or yellow people
but human people"

This little prayer is hanging on the wall over my bed back in Italy, it was given to me as a gift from the great trombetist, Dizzie Gillespie, when I was still in my mother's womb... it was winter 1980 when he came in Calabria, south Italy, for a tournee... few months later I was born... I've always regarded at the deep meaning of this prayer with the hope that I will raise my children in a world where naturally people are regarded as human being... regarding to every individual's talent and potential, not to what each represents, but to what each person is.... a mine rich of inestimable value, a receptacle of attributes and names.

"Know thou that all men have
been created in the nature made by God, the
Guardian, the Self-Subsisting.

Unto each one hath been prescribed a pre-ordained measure,
as decreed in God's mighty and guarded Tablets.

All that which ye potentially
possess can, however, be manifested only as a result of your own volition.

Your
own acts testify to this truth."

(Baha'u'llah, Gleanings from the Writings of Baha'u'llah, p. 148)

The statement that Obama is spreading across all the continets (as all the eyes of the world are looking at the USA) "Yes, We Can"... is enshrining the concept that we are our own hope through the way we decide to conduct our own lives and furthermore we make this hope of a better world become true when we act in harmony, in unity!

I'm looking at Obama not for what he represents ( the merge of two worlds, cultures, a rich background that has made him the man is now) because this is something we materially all represents in a way or another... what I'm looking at is the potentials he enshrines to lead and act in accordance with God's Will!

However is not in me to judge him, it's up to me to be, as a citizen of this world, an instrument for the uplifting of this new world, working "shoulder to shlouder" with all the men and women of good will!

Where do we stand?

"The crisis consist precisely in the fact that the old is dying and the new
cannot be born; in this interregnum a great variety of morbid symptoms
appear." Antonio Gramsci - Prison Notebooks

I went to watch a movie that the spanish professor was screening at Uni, there ought to be English subtitles... well, I end up watching it all in Spanish and Catalan, understanding the general idea, though it was interesting from the linguistic view point as discovered the many similarities with Italian (I never studied Spanish, therefore have no clue about this language).

The movie: Salvador Puig Antich, is about one of the last execution that Francisco Franco ordered, in a Spain not yet in transition towards the democracy.

I must admitt that I'm totally ignorant about Spanish history of the 70' and have no idea of what meant living under Franco tiranny... what I well understand is that like every dictatorship, many things weren't allowed (like speaking Catalan); freedom was a word many were longing to actualize, but all were afraid to even utter it.

Of course there were people enjoying such a life as had an axe to grind. Salvador is depicted as this handsome, well-educated, brilliant student. Is loved by his parents and his 4 sisters, is a sweetheart in the eyes of those that come to know him, even to his prison warder.

But there is a reason if such a person is in prison... with his university's mates he has set up an anarchist movement called MIL (Movimiento Ibérico de Liberación), which they fund through an escalation of robberies... he is a bank-robber!

The boy is also charged for the death of a young policeman and convicted to death penalty through a painful system... soon becomes the symbol of the need of change.

Things turns very emotional and Salvador is regarded as a hero, a martyr. I wasn't crying (though horrified for the cruel death)... no matter what Machiavelli says... "Il fine giustifica i mezzi" ----> "The end justifies the means"... (sorry for the pour translation... is the only one I found), but I don't agree! How could we think that to eliminate injustice we should use the same tools? Tiranny, lies, war... can't be overcome by their equals... sure, what was happening moved the coscience of his countrymen, but I suspect that they started to wonder and react when the worst occured.

Salvador's life is put to an end in a horrible way, the death was given by a medieval tool, which doesn't kill immediately and the poor boy is left in agony as no one has the heart (or doesn't have??) to finish him.

The debate that followed the movie was pointing out the necessity we have to rationalize and regain the memory of events which have been obscured while happening... is it really like this? No one, in power to do something, knew what was happening in Franco's Spain?

For sure today's media are in power to let know and can reach every level of society, informing throughout the world what happens in the lowliest country... still reactions are slowly, in certain cases even non-existent.

I wonder how many death, how many people suffering injustice occour today before we start reacting.... I bet today Hitler would have been stop.... or not???

Or are we that numb that we let things happen and then grieve over them?? Decreeing Memory Days and let our children judge what we did on their history book!! Having them to watch touching movies to know the truth... what really happened and why no one did nothing to change things, to prevent things!!

Will we say that a mad man accidently came in power and that the horde of blind, order-followers couldn't help... will we excuse ourself somehow??

Is this what we will see in the future for the Bahai religious minority in Ahamdinejad's Iran??

How many signs of oppression and injustice should we count before realizing what is happening under our own very eyes?? Yesterday as Today...

The Bahais in Iran have decided to act differently from Salvador, their means aren't the oppressor's means... no! Their weapon is love! Love towards God, Love and Service for their fellow countrymen and women!!

Deaf & blind, the world goes on

This challenge, so severe and insistent, and yet so glorious, faces no doubt primarily the individual believer on whom, in the last resort, depends the fate of the entire community. He it is who constitutes the warp and woof on which the quality and pattern of the whole fabric must depend. He it is who acts as one of the countless links in the mighty chain that now girdles the globe. He it is who serves as one of the multitude of bricks which support the structure and insure the stability of the administrative edifice now being raised in every part of the world. Without his support, at once whole-hearted, continuous and 131 generous, every measure adopted, and every plan formulated, by the body which acts as the national representative of the community to which he belongs, is foredoomed to failure. The World Center of the Faith itself is paralyzed if such a support on the part of the rank and file of the community is denied it. The Author of the Divine Plan Himself is impeded in His purpose if the proper instruments for the execution of His design are lacking. The sustaining strength of Bahá'u'lláh Himself, the Founder of the Faith, will be withheld from every and each individual who fails in the long run to arise and play his part.
(Shoghi Effendi, Citadel of Faith, p. 130)


ARSONISTS IN IRAN TARGET BAHA'I HOMES, VEHICLESNEW YORK, 28 July 2008 (BWNS) --

Acts of arson targeting homes and vehicles are the latest violent tactics directed against the Baha'is of Iran."In the early hours of the morning of 18 July, the house of the Shaaker family in Kerman went up in flames, only weeks after their car had been torched and in the wake of a series of threatening phone calls," said Bani Dugal, principal representative of the Baha'i International Community to the United Nations."As would be expected in the light of the mistreatment Baha'is in Iran are routinely receiving, the officials who investigated the fire either ignored or dismissed obvious signs of suspicious activity, including a muffled explosion, simply saying that it was the result of an electrical problem," she said.At least a dozen cases of arson that target Baha'is have been reported in Iran in the last 15 months, Ms. Dugal said. She gave the following examples:-
- On 15 July at 1:15 a.m., Molotov cocktails were thrown into the front courtyard of the home of Khusraw Dehghani and his wife, Dr. Huma Agahi, in Vilashahr, only months after anonymous threats directly related to her being a Baha'i forced Dr. Agahi to close her clinic in nearby Najafabad where she had practiced medicine for 28 years.-
- On 25 July, the car of a prominent Baha'i in Rafsanjan, in Kerman province, was torched and destroyed by arsonists on motorbikes. Soheil Naeimi, the owner of the car, and 10 other Baha'i families in the town had received threatening letters from a group calling itself the Anti-Baha'ism Movement of the Youth of Rafsanjan that, among other things, threatened jihad (holy war) against the Baha'is.-
- On 10 June, an outbuilding on the property of the Mr. and Mrs. Mousavi, elderly Baha'is living in the village of Tangriz in Fars province, was destroyed by fire when it was doused with gasoline. The Mousavis, along with their two sons who were sleeping close to the building, narrowly escaped injury when the gasoline tank used to start the fire exploded. The Mousavis believe that the perpetrator thought they were all sleeping in the hut when he set the fire. Mr. Mousavi issued a formal complaint against the person they suspected, but the legal office has declined to pursue the case because the suspect swore on the Qur'an that he was not guilty. Out of respect for the Qur'an, the Mousavis have dropped the charges.-
- On 4 April, the home of a Baha'i was set on fire in Babolsar, in the north of Iran. -
- In February in Shiraz, a 53-year-old businessman was attacked on the street, chained to a tree, doused with gasoline, and assaulted by unknown persons who then attempted to throw lighted matches at him. -
- Also in Shiraz in February, several arson attempts were made against vehicles and a home belonging to Baha'is.-
- On 1 May 2007, arson destroyed the home of 'Abdu'l-Baqi Rouhani in the village of Ivil, in Mazandaran.-
- In Karaj, the burial section of a Baha'i cemetery was set on fire."These latest attacks follow the authorities' attempts to deprive the Iranian Baha'i community of its leadership," Ms. Dugal said, referring to the arrests in March and May this year of the seven members of Iran's national Baha'i coordinating group, all of whom are still locked up in Evin Prison in Tehran without any charges and without access to an attorney or to their families."

As Baha'is worldwide watch with alarm this escalation in violence," she added, "their fears that a sinister plan of persecution is unfolding become increasingly confirmed. Their only hope is that enough voices of protests are raised around the world to compel the government in Iran to put an end to this violence."

sooooo Glorious!!

Are we aware of the greatness of the Day in which we are living??
And this time I wont talk about what God has done to make it so special....
rather about where we are and what awaits us!

I love docus and my favourite tv programs, since I was a child, are: QUARK, GEO&GEO, ULISSE, etc (Italian programs on history, science, geography etc)... well, watching Ulisse's emission I realized that, though the future will be bright, amazing and unimaginable:
with opportunities to be in touch with form of lifes from other planet and even galaxies;
with the capacity to know and travel under the deepest ocean as if it were the ground we walk on every day;
with the chance to live healthy-long-happy lifes, in peace with every single man & woman and every form of life on this planet, being able to communicate with an auxiliary language common to all, a free economy, a fair trade... all because laws will be set and people will respect them, a world were JUSTICE is real;
with extraordinary technologies and ever-advancing fields to be discover...
THIS epoch, THIS era is the best moment to live in.... asking why?!
Hey... WE, US, are at the turning point to make ALL THIS happen!!
The bright future we will render our great-grand-grandchildren is up to us....

I'm not just positive saying it will be bright... history teaches us... we suffer and go through huge crises, undergo trhough periods of violence and almost reach the point to destroy everything... well we could even disappear... and at that point nothing else would matter... still I have HOPE and DESIRE and WISH that our generation will bring forward a better generation and that among the children we will educate will be those discoverers, scientists, great mind and souls that for the good of all will produce a golden civilization! Actually among us there are already people working in this sense with pure motives and purposes!! In the future we could be remembered as the fathjers and mothers that gave society a new shape, a new home striving to achieve high standards of morality and envisaging the world we are all called to build!

So the best moment to live in is NOW... as we can make the change, we can plant the seeds for such glorious times and fruits to be bear!!
EXCITING, UH?!

And it's all up to us........

All my life's meaning is in Baha'u'llah

HOLY DAY MARKS 116TH ANNIVERSARY OF THE PASSING OF BAHA'U'LLAH ACRE,

Israel, 28 May 2008 (BWNS) -- Four hundred Baha'i pilgrims will be among the thousand followers of Baha'u'llah from around the world who gather at His burial site on 29 May at 3 a.m. to commemorate the 116th anniversary of His passing. Around the globe, tens of thousands more will turn their faces in the direction of the same shrine - for Baha'is, the holiest spot on earth - in remembrance of the night in 1892 that Baha'u'llah passed away at His home near Acre in the Holy Land.His remains were entombed on the same property, now a site of pilgrimage for members of the Baha'i Faith the world over.Many of those who attend the program at the Shrine of Baha'u'llah will also be able to visit His home, the Mansion of Bahji, for a few minutes of private prayer in the very room where He spent His final hours.The room is maintained exactly as it was during the time of Baha'u'llah - even a pair of His shoes is there for the pilgrims to see.Baha'u'llah was born in Tehran, Iran, but He and a large group of His followers were banished from their native land in 1853 and forced to go first to Baghdad, then on to what was the Ottoman Empire and the remote prison city of Acre.Pilgrims also are able to visit His prison cell in the old walled city and three houses, including the one at Bahji, where He eventually was able to stay when authorities eased the stricter confinement of the prison barracks.Baha'is believe that Baha'u'llah is the Messenger of God for this age, the most recent in a line of divine educators that includes Buddha, Jesus, Krishna, Mohammed, Moses, and Zoroaster, among others.The anniversary of the Ascension of Baha'u'llah is one of nine holy days on which Baha'is suspend work.

To view the photos and additional features click here: http://news.bahai.org

THE WORLD IS BUT ONE COUNTRY AND MANKIND ITS CITIZENS

What is happening in the world is saddening everyone... for what we hear and see is a world crumbling away, the ground beneth us with the skies above us....

People become each hour more afraid of their neighbours, of their future and of life in general...

violence, famine, extreem poverty, economic and ecological disasters.... society is afflicted by a disease we don't want to recognize!

'Abdu'l-Bahá stresses that the development of the physical world and the happiness of mankind are dependent on both the "call of civilization, of the progress of the material world" and the "soul-stirring call of God, Whose spiritual teachings are safeguards of the everlasting glory, the eternal happiness and illumination of the world of humanity".

What is happening us is clearly described in those words:

"The violent derangement of the world's equilibrium; thetrembling that will seize the limbs of mankind; the radical transformation of human society; the rolling up of the present-day Order; the fundamental changes affecting the structure of government; ... the development of infernal engines of war; the burning of cities; the contamination of the atmosphere of the earth -- these stand out as the signs and portents that must either herald or accompany the retributive calamity which, as decreed by Him Who is the Judge and Redeemer of mankind, must, sooner or later, afflict a society which, for the most part, and for over a century, has turned a deaf ear to the Voice of God's Messenger in this day -- a calamity which must purge the human race of the dross of its age-long corruptions, and weld its component parts into a firmly knit world-embracing Fellowship -- a Fellowship destined, in the fullness of time, to be incorporated in the framework, and to be galvanized by the spiritualizing influences, of a mysteriously expanding, divinely appointed Order, and to flower, in the course of future Dispensations, into a Civilization, the like of which mankind has, at no stage in its evolution, witnessed." Shoghi Effendi
(Compilations, The Compilation of Compilations vol. I, p. 70)

"A tempest, unprecedented in its violence, unpredictable in its course, catastrophic in its immediate effects, unimaginably glorious in its ultimate consequences, is at present sweeping the face of the earth. Its driving power is remorselessly gaining in range and momentum. Its cleansing force, however much undetected, is increasing with every passing day. Humanity, gripped in the clutches of its devastating power, is smitten by the evidences of its resistless fury. It can neither perceive its origin, nor probe its significance, nor discern its outcome. Bewildered, agonized and helpless, it watches this great and mighty wind of God invading the remotest and fairest regions of the earth, rocking its foundations, deranging its equilibrium, sundering its nations, disrupting the homes of its peoples, wasting its cities, driving into exile its kings, pulling down its bulwarks, uprooting its institutions, dimming its light, and harrowing up the souls of its inhabitants." (Shoghi Effendi, The Promised Day is Come, p. 3)

If we think that natural disasters are the worst thing that could ever happen, we are wrong...

people dies, and as brutal as this sounds this is in human nature, we die to this human world, but our souls live for eternity, developing in every world of God and we know God is the All Mercifull, the Bestower of Gifts, the Most Loving... we will never perish in His Hands.

What IS worst is the way we keep leading society... looking for our own good, fearing the people living on this small planet just because they are not us... as if it doesn't touch me, then it's not worth the trouble to find a solution for the pain.... how childish we are, not seeing that every single human being is a member of the human family we all are part of!!

We have entered the state of human maturity and should now take on our shoulders the responsabilities of our living! We can make it... we can achieve solutions for the wellfare of all in a peacefull, reasonably, determined way...

starting from a single step: recognize the onennes of mankind!!

"So powerful is the light of UNITY that it can illuminate the whole earth."
(Baha'u'llah, Epistle to the Son of the Wolf, p. 14)

"Not until humanity has accepted its organic oneness can it meet even its
immediate challenges, let alone those that lie ahead: "The
well-being of mankind," Bahá'u'lláh insists, "its peace and security, are
unattainable unless and until its unity is firmly established."
(Baha'i International Community, 1992 May 29, Statement on Baha'u'llah, p. 15)

"The spiritual transformation of humanity, the relief of the diverse peoples of
the earth from rampant suffering, the attainment and preservation of true
peace in the world, the birth of a world civilization -- all such noble
objectives of the Cause of God will remain unrealized unless they are
associated with that radical change in the structure and functioning of
human society inherent in the growth and fruition of His divinely ordained
Order. " (Compilations, NSA USA - Developing Distinctive Baha'i Communities)

"Therefore, no matter how far the world of humanity advances, it fails to attain
the highest degree unless quickened by the education and divine bestowals of
the Holy Spirit." (Abdu'l-Baha, The Promulgation of Universal Peace, p. 205)

Baha'is belive this is not just possible, but inevitable! All over the world they are already working unfailingly... and what happens to them?? ---->

http://wendimomen.com/2008/05/16/earth-wind-and-fire-the-road-to-hell/

http://www.state.gov/p/nea/ci/c2404.htm

http://edition.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/meast/05/16/iran.bahais/index.html

http://news.bahai.org/story/632

I leave conclusions to you....

a waste.... II part

"The present condition of the world -- its economic instability, social dissensions, political dissatisfaction and international distrust -- should awaken the youth from their slumber and make them enquire what the future is going to bring. It is surely they who will suffer most if some calamity sweep over the world. They should therefore open their eyes to the existing conditions, study the evil forces that are at play and then with a concerted effort arise and bring about the necessary reforms -- reforms that shall contain within their scope the spiritual as well as social and political phases of human life." (Compilations, Lights of Guidance, p. 628)

Youth are the precious future and should therefore be educated, protect and guided to perform their qualities and serve mankind as this is the fullest of their potentiality!

"Blessed is he who in the prime of his youth and the heyday of his life will
arise to serve the Cause of the Lord of the beginning and of the end, and adorn
his heart with His love. The manifestation of such a grace is greater than the creation of the heavens and of the earth. Blessed are the steadfast and well is it with those who are firm'." (Bahá'u'lláh, Lights of Guidance, p. 632)

a waste....

Monday evening is usually my study-circle time.. this monday, we couldn't meet, so I decided to accept Alice's invitation to see a movie at her student's house... invited Katy & Irina to join us!

We had no idea what kind of movie was in program, but were open to everything... or thought we were!!

Pretty soon we found out that to be screening was a movie defined as violent and for adults only... It was Gus Van Sant "Elephant" we watched and as I'm keen on movies in general, I appreciated this one on the same theme of "Bowling for Columbine"... though really specific on the situation...

It made me reflect on youth, how they WASTE their potentials, their diamond's talents...
We talked after the movie about models society pushes them to follow (society = each one of us), on wrong attitudes (I suffered therefore you have to suffer too), on wrong values (be rich-be beauty- be cool), on being lonely = thinking with your own head, on feeling alienation because "different" (we all are!!) or shy or else!

ALIENATION is the individual subject's estrangement from its community, society, or world (as in wikipedia)

But what could possibly push a youth (that same very youth so eager to be part of the world, to be accepted by, to be usefull to, to be so special for the others) to hate the rest of the world??

We all have sense alienation once in our life... but this alone didn't bring us to react irreversible!

There is a MGMT's song which explains perfectly that what we are looking for is NOT what is good for us...

How do we know what is good for us? Is this really possible?

"Ordain Thou for me, O my God, the good of this world and the world to come, and
grant me what will profit me in every world of Thy worlds, for I know not what
will help or harm me. Thou, in truth, art the All-Knowing, the
All-Wise." (Baha'u'llah, Prayers and Meditations by Baha'u'llah, p. 256)

Are there hints we should look for? Shouldn't we try to get to know ourself better in order to take decisions?

"Regarding the questions you asked: Self has really two meanings, or is used in two senses, in the Bahá'í writings; one is self, the identity of the individual created by God. This is the self mentioned in such passages as 'he hath known God who hath known himself etc.'. The other self is the ego, the dark, animalistic heritage each one of us has, the lower nature that can develop into a monster of selfishness, brutality, lust and so on. It is this self we must struggle against, or this side of our natures, in order to strengthen and free the spirit within us and help it to attain perfection."
"Self-sacrifice means to subordinate this lower nature and its desires to the more godly and noble side of ourselves. Ultimately, in its highest sense, self-sacrifice means to give our will and our all to God to do with as He pleases. Then He purifies and glorifies our true self until it becomes a shining and wonderful reality." (Compilations, Lights of Guidance, p. 113)

Which Self is really influencing our ability to decide then?

There is no waste, if youth are guided to right values and models and is given them the opportunity to use their abilities for the common good... in little, practical action of SERVICE!!For Service is a powerful instrument to bring forth our talents and spend them on others...

"The time has come for the friends...to think not how they should serve the Cause, but how the Cause should be served." (Compilations, Quickeners of Mankind, p. 19)

"O Lord!

Make this youth radiant, and confer Thy bounty upon this poor creature. Bestow upon him knowledge, grant him added strength at the break of every morn and guard him within the shelter of Thy protection so that he may be freed from error, may devote himself to the service of Thy Cause, may guide the wayward, lead the hapless, free the captives and awaken the heedless, that all may be blessed with Thy remembrance and praise. Thou art the Mighty and the Powerful."

'Abdu'l-Bahá