15/07/2023
United Nations Research Institute for Social Development (UNRISD)
Imagine a world where we all use our knowledge and power wisely to advocate and put into practice the value of unity in diversity, to build vibrant communities and create small, gradual, simple, and sustainable changes – changes that are grounded in the need to actively learn and listen to different perspectives to ensure that we address the specific needs of ordinary people in our local communities whilst also gaining insights and learning from communities that are outside of our everyday settings in order to create inclusive, welcoming supportive and interdependent communities that seek to safeguard, bring joy, inspire, uplift one another and build true friendships.
The desire, longing and need for interdependent communities are especially important as careless, unethical, and unjust words, deeds and actions eventually breed feelings of fear, resentment, scarcity, and intense atmosphere characterised by tensions, divisions, internal and external conflicts, crisis of identities, restlessness and disintegration, calamities, and immense tragedies. Thus, the existential threats we bear and endure due to these immense fears and concerns make the ardent, steadfast, and ceaseless efforts we have all put in and will put in to build vibrant communities as commendable, immensely valuable and truly meaningful because of its ability to transform the individual and the wider communities.
The powerful impact of nurturing and showing loving-kindness and generosity can be felt and seen, as genuine kindness can be felt and goes hand in hand with behaving kindly. We are reminded that small acts of kindness go a long way because of the ripple effects that our words and deeds have: "Do not be content with showing friendship in words alone. Let your heart burn with loving kindness for all who may cross your path" (Baháʼu'lláh). Here, Baháʼu'lláh notes the importance of loving-kindness and generosity needed to embolden and enkindle our spirit, in which safeguarding, building, and nurturing interdependent communities allow us to fulfil innate desires and the need to ignite our latent capacity to serve, as Baháʼu'lláh poignantly noted that “All men have been created to carry forward an ever-advancing civilization”. In this regard, we are all instruments, and can reflect, enkindle and create meaningful changes since we are encouraged to continuously learn and serve to ignite, enkindle, and unlock our innate desires and natural inclination to become bold, discerning, and active protagonists in our endeavour and path of service. Thus, to bring about the inward and outward transformation we desire and long to see in our world, it is important to address and break down the perceived, attitudinal, functional and economic barriers to ensure that everyone can engage and actively participate in meaningful acts of community building processes, and thus, to ensure that equality, diversity and inclusion are prioritise in order to make meaningful lasting changes.
Therefore, nurturing and harnessing our latent capacity and show forth qualities such as courage, wisdom, humility, resourcefulness, generosity, loving-kindness and patience are integral for collective efforts to participate in the desire and the need to guide youth. Thus, facilitating spaces and places that allow vibrant communities to flourish are important. The ceaseless efforts and dedicated process of rebuilding and building more safer, connected, intergenerational, interdependent, nurturing, joyful and harmonious communities are vital to ensure that we can flourish and use our power and knowledge wisely.
Each one of us have been summoned to service. Thus, the desire to guide youth, build true friendships, inspire, uplift one another, advocate, and collaboratively strive to steadfastly work towards creating meaningful changes and ensure that we are doing what we could, however small it is, allow us to endure and bear the immense challenges of our time and bring about hope and joy to one another.
To imagine a just and equal world, we hope to create supportive environments in which we can nurture and harness the capacities of youth to become catalysts for change by encouraging and building their capacity for selfless service. Abdu'l-Bahá reminds us of the power of loving-kindness and the immense, powerful impact of selfless service: "He whom the grace of Thy mercy aideth, though he be but a drop, shall become the boundless ocean, and the merest atom which the outpouring of Thy loving-kindness assisteth, shall shine even as the radiant star". As a result of the bountiful, small and simple acts of loving-kindness and generosity that we continually give and receive from having supportive and nurturing communities, we became inspired and energised by how ordinary people in our communities approach service - their joyful condition when giving selfless service, the importance of collaboration instead of competition of service, and the meaningful process of reflection, deepening, expansion, consultation, consolidation. Thus, we become inspired to courageously seek to step out of our comfort zone to become bold and discerning protagonists ourselves because of having being inspired, uplifted, enkindled, and therefore, are intrinsically motivated to do the tasks that are needed to bring about the changes we long to feel, see and experience through the process of maintaining and building more vibrant communities.
As a result, facilitating welcoming spaces and creating an atmosphere that nurtures, supports and is conducive to learning and active listening is significant and ought not to be overlooked. Those spaces and places allow us to deepen our reflection and learning by consulting and consolidating with one another, and thus, help us to find creative, simple solutions in regard to how we can contemplate, explore, examine, and critically analyse ideas and themes that are both universal and contingent, timeless and timely, intangible and tangible, abstract and granular. Thus, we can strive to collaboratively work together and wholistically approach the what, how and why we need to courageously, patiently and steadfastly seek to strive and imagine, contemplate and write the future. This allow us to deliberately move forward and bring about specific, realistic and gradual changes that are desired and needed to safeguard and bring about simple, sustainable changes that are needed to achieve genuine and meaningful progress, so that the universal and contingent concerns on the need to strive for equality, justice, gender justice, climate justice, social justice, and economic justice can become realised and not merely stay as a utopian dream that feels impossible to achieve.
We want to imagine a world where we can feel and see genuine changes because of the ways in which those emotional shifts take pace to allow and give room for inward and outward transformations to happen gradually and organically. Thus, working collaboratively together in the spirit of hope, sincerity, truthfulness, kindness, generosity, humility, trust, harmony, and unity is meaningful because it enkindles and ignites the desire to ceaselessly nurture and build upon our capacity to strive for excellence. It is with these in mind that our efforts to become bold, discerning and active protagonists who patiently, joyfully and steadfastly, collaboratively work together and strive to fulfil changes that allow us to create legacies that inspire and enkindle the human heart, so that genuine needs for equality and justice can come to fruition.
We all have our strengths and shortcomings as fallible beings, yet we prefer not to make false promises and the façade of change. Thus, we seek to make genuine changes, not merely the appearance of equality or justice, not only seeking its abstract ideals but putting it into concrete, simple actions. Despite our shortcomings, we seek to strive for integrity and sincerity as “truthfulness is the foundation of all human virtues” (Abdu'l-Bahá).
As a result, we hope to nurture the need to build vibrant and interdependent communities to support, nurture and strengthen the foundation needed to maintain and build upon the quality of the selfless service we have and can render. Holding ourselves and each other accountable allow us to enkindle our innate spiritual qualities and actively practise our virtuous qualities with one another in order to dedicate our time and efforts to continually strive for equality and justice.
Safeguarding and facilitating safe places and places are important as it creates the necessary conditions needed to harness our capacity and become catalysts for change. Contexts matter, so how we define service means differently based on our lived experiences, the contexts of the needs of our communities, and the scalabilities of those needs, whether it’s on personal, local, national, international, or geopolitical levels. In this sense, how we approach, interpret, and make decisions as individuals and within local communities, personal and political lives matters because our words, deeds and actions are potent and have ripple effects on those around us and ourselves. In this regard, we strive to strengthen our ability to hold ourselves and each other accountable by achieving progress through the gradual and necessary process of collaboration, expansion, consultation, and consolidation, in which we seek assistance and guidance to inspire, guide, work towards, and achieve equality, equity, and justice.
"In the garden of thy heart plant naught but the rose of love, and from the nightingale of affection and desire loosen not thy hold." - The Hidden Words, Baháʼu'lláh
As humans, we are all capable of making mistakes, but we can also learn from those mistakes to ensure that we can and are willing to learn from the past and hope for a better future - not a utopian future, but a future that is kinder, hopeful, resilient, and courageous. It's just as important to hold those in high positions of power as well as ourselves accountable because our behaviours can have ripple effects on others around us and to remind ourselves that change is not a linear process as good things take time. Small acts of kindness go a long way, so let’s do what we can to uplift one another and create hope and unity by collaboratively working together to safeguard, build and nurture vibrant communities because service is about giving and receiving.
References
Abdu’l Bahá., Paris Talks: Addresses Given by ‘Abdu’l Bahá in 1911, ‘The Duty of Kindness and Sympathy towards Strangers and Foreigners, October 16th and 17th, 1911
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The Baha’i Faith: The Official Website of the Worldwide Baha’i Community, ‘An Ever-Advancing Civilization’, Gleanings from the Writings of Baháʼu'lláh, CIX
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Character and Conduct: Truthfulness from Baha’i Reference Library
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Part Two: From the Persian (The Hidden Words)
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