The following is adapted from a talk I gave during a virtual service OF the First Unitarian Universalist Church of Second Life (FUUCSL).
Both Unitarian Universalists and
Bahá’ís are principle-centered communities, which hold basic principles that guide
both their individual behavior and their organizational decision-making. But is
that really so unique?
In polls about whether people’s lives are based
on principles, well over 90% invariably claim they are, and yet society is plagued
by profound, complex problems. Corporations spend millions on finding core values
to guide their businesses, and yet their actions are destroying the world economy
and environment. The constitutions of all countries are bursting with
grandiloquent doctrines, and even wars are fought in the name of high ideals such
as liberty, justice, unity, equality…
My point here is not that principles are unimportant,
but rather that leading a principle-centered life may not be as simple and straight-forward
as it might seem at first. So this evening I will be sharing a few insights
into why it may be so difficult and how we can make sense of all this.
1. Are
there Universal Principles?
In today’s post-modernistic world,
principles are often confused with “personal values” and identified with “values
clarification”, which has so watered-down and weakened many recent “values
education” initiatives. However, the word itself means both a starting point and
a maxim, suggesting an immovable axiom or solid foundation on which to build
something else.
Stephen Covey calls principles a guiding
compass, “natural laws in the human dimension that are just as real, just as unchanging,
as laws such as gravity are in the physical dimension.”[1] He
equates them with eternal, universal values such as love, justice, honesty,
forgiveness, humility, generosity, and wisdom, which Bahá’ís call spiritual
qualities or divine attributes. According to Covey, principles are “woven into
the fabric of every civilized society.”[2] What changes from one period and culture to the next are not the principles
themselves, but rather their application to differing societal needs, goals and
perceptions.
For example, modesty is a universal value, but
in one society it means covering oneself in black from head to toe, while in another
it means adorning one’s nudity with strings of beads. Like the
hurricane-resistant bamboo tree, principles are society’s firm roots while
their shifting applications are like its flexible stem and branches.
2. Principle-Centeredness
is a Collective Effort
When we are self-centered, we tend to live
according to short-term, personal convenience, but when we are principle-centered, we concentrate on long-term, collective benefits, sometimes at great personal sacrifice.
Self-centeredness can disintegrate the very fabric of society, while
principle-centeredness has been known to build up great civilizations.
“The lesson of history,” says
Covey, “is that to the degree that people and civilizations
have operated in harmony with correct principles, they have prospered. At the root
of societal declines are foolish practices that represent violations of correct
principles.”[3] This
echoes a statement by the Universal House of Justice, the global Bahá’í council:
“There are spiritual
principles, or what some call human values, by which solutions can be found for
every social problem. Any well-intentioned group can in a general sense devise practical
solutions to its problems, but good intentions and practical knowledge are usually
not enough. The essential merit of spiritual principle is that it not only presents
a perspective which harmonizes with that which is immanent in human nature, it also
induces an attitude, a dynamic, a will, an aspiration, which facilitate the discovery
and implementation of practical measures. Leaders of governments and all in authority
would be well served in their efforts to solve problems if they would first seek
to identify the principles involved and then be guided by them.”[iv]
3. Principles
and Human Nature
This quote says that spiritual principles are
inherent to human nature. Bahá’ís believe that the human soul is like the
precious seed of a magnificent tree, which holds all of these beautiful spiritual
qualities in potential. The Divine Gardener sows and cultivates that seed in
the fertile soil of this world to germinate and develop its innate capacities. Just
as we are bodily drawn to the material resources we need for our physical
well-being, our hearts are also inherently attracted to and delighted by spiritual
qualities or universal principles such as love, beauty, purity, and harmony,
which are good for our spiritual growth and development, and innately repulsed
at hatred, ugliness, filth, and discord.
However, in the Bahá’í view, even so-called
character flaws can be reframed as ill-directed spiritual qualities. For instance,
people who take every opportunity to accumulate more and more wealth and
possessions can be praised in one culture as being highly motivated, but criticized
in another culture as being overly ambitious. But is ambition in itself good or
evil? In the Bahá’í view, all qualities are good, as evil has no independent
existence, just as cold is the absence of heat and darkness is the lack of
light. For instance, ambition is an inherent human virtue that drives us to rise
above our current situation, but can be used in more or less positive ways.
The issue is where we focus it, whether
inward or outward. If our sole ambition is to inflate our own ego, then it tends
to be self-centered and spiritually degrading. If, however, our powers of ambition
drive us to learn, grow and develop in service to others, then it can revolve around
something larger than ourselves and be spiritually uplifting and ennobling.
4. Seeking Moderation
and Balance
At a recent event, someone suggested that moderation
is needed in practicing principles, to achieve balance. On the surface, this may
sound right, and “moderation in all things” is even a Bahá’í principle. But does
this mean we should be half-loving, moderately honest, partially just?
The Bahá’í teachings solve this dilemma by showing
how principles complement each other: love without wisdom can be as harmful as knowledge
without love; frankness without courtesy is hurtful, and politeness without sincerity
is hypocritical. Justice must be tempered with mercy, power with service, unity
with diversity, strength with tenderness, perfection with tolerance, creativity
with discipline, generosity with prudence, initiative with perseverance, growth
with consolidation, etc.
It is interesting in this context that
supposedly the Cold War opposed the complementary principles of freedom (in a
Capitalist version) versus social justice (in a Socialist version), neither of
which can bring wellbeing without the other. Balance is achieved, not by watering
down any of our principles, but by strengthening their complementarity, in what
could be described as an entire “ecosystem” of interrelated values, each of which
depends on all others to display its full potential.
5. Principle-Centered
versus God-Centered?
In the Bahá'í view, all phenomena have an
essence or spirit, which cannot be perceived directly, but only through its
qualities. Just as we know that an electromagnetic force exists because of its
action on and through physical phenomena, the spirit of life is only evident
when it appears in the form of living beings. Likewise, just as the human
spirit can only be known by its expression through our behavior, the Divine
Spirit can only be seen in the mirror of its ongoing, evolving creation. And
the most we can know of God’s hidden essence is the qualities that lie latent
within the precious seeds of our own souls, yearning and seeking to grow and
develop.
The “ecosystem of qualities” I mentioned
above, then, when raised to its maximum expression, is the closest thing I have
found to a Bahá'í “concept of God”. Now, although it is logically untenable for
the Source of all qualities to be no more than their sum total, as in the
pantheistic view, neither could their Creator be deprived of any of those powers
and virtues.[5]
Therefore, a principle-centered life could very
well be equated with a God-centered life, but with certain caveats.
Historically, an assortment of “gods” and their differing qualities led to a
multiplicity of centers, which tended to divide diverse peoples and keep them
apart. The god of war did not get along very well with the god of agriculture,
for instance. By definition, however, God could only be the maximum expression
and source of all of these spiritual qualities, without distinction. So as the
paradigm of Divine Oneness has evolved, has also enabled human diversity to
come together in increasing degrees of harmony.
Let us hope that, as the peoples of the
world seek to apply more fully a increasingly rich “ecosystem” of complementary
principles and virtues, qualities and values, we will be able to learn from
each other and come closer to the millennial vision of planetary harmony and
peace.
References:
[1]. Stephen Covey:
Principle-Centered Leadership, Simon & Schuster, New York p. 18.
[2]. Ibid., p. 18.
[3]. Ibid., p. 19.
[4]. Universal House of Justice, “The
Promise of World Peace,” October 1985. A statement addressed to “the peoples of
the world” on the occasion of the International Year of Peace (1986).
[5]. William S. Hatcher. A Scientific Proof of
the Existence of God. Journal of Bahá’í Studies Vol. 5, number 4 (1994). URL: https://www.bahai-studies.ca/journal/files/jbs/5.4%20Hatcher.pdf
.
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