One of the wonderful properties of light is how it reflects off surfaces, illuminating different facets of an object. We can view spiritual principles in a similar way: they shine upon everyone equally, reflecting the highest ideals of humanity. In 2017 we’re starting a series called “Lights of Unity” to reflect upon spiritual principles.
Why are we exploring these themes? Because this year is the 200th anniversary of the birth of Baha’u’llah, the founder of the Baha’i Faith. To commemorate this special occasion we’d like to look at principles which are central to the Baha’i Faith. Please join us in exploring these topics through sincerity, humor, and everything in between.
Each month we will focus on one principle and through artistic expression try to reflect on it. The first week’s challenge will be to find a favorite quote (from your favorite author, poet, philosopher, etc.) that reflects the principle; the second week’s challenge will be to find a picture, photo or drawing; the third week, a story or poem; the fourth week, a video or musical selection.
The simple rules are: No politics; be respectful; do not offend, don't get offended; love and have fun; participate as much or as little as you’d like; cat videos are allowed as long as they reflect the principle.
This year we would like to take the idea a little further. We would like to talk and PRACTICE the most important virtue: LOVE. This quality is the foundation of almost everything we do in life.
We were inspired by a talk titled The 12 Signs of Love by speaker Tom Price. Each month we will focus on a different sign of love.
We will still have the original format from last year but we’ll add a practice component. So Lights of Unity = Sharing + Action.
We hope during this journey you will be inspired to share your experiences and practice some new behaviors... with love!
We use the word love so many times in so many contexts we don't really know what it means. The Chinese have many different words for rice, each used depending on what stage of development it is in. Similarly the Eskimos have many words for snow and the Arabs have for sand. This is not surprising, when we deal with something a lot; we need many names and words to describe it more precisely. But we only have the one word in English, love, so we need to broaden our vocabulary when dealing with love.
`Abdu’l-Bahá says that love is a power, a force. Just like in the physical world, we have the power of electromagnetism, or the force of gravity; in the spiritual world we have love. `Abdu’l-Bahá says that everything in the world is held together by a mysterious force of attraction. He also says that wherever there is life, there is attraction and death is disintegration.
Here are the Signs of Love that we reflected on in 2018.
Receive love
Unconditional (selfless) love
Happiness
Never be the cause of unhappiness