I've been out of the community now for just over seven years. I've lost touch with what the community does on a regular basis. I know Ruhi is big and I hear words like "clusters" and "study circles" but I don't make an effort to find out what those things are because it has no impact on my life. Despite this, what happened during Ridvan between the US NSA and the House of Justice did penetrate my world. I was woken up to it by Sen McGlinn's excellent summary of the relevant documents and Baquia's discussion on Baha'i Rants. I discovered that the US NSA said in its annual report: "The aim of achieving both accelerated and sustained growth has yet to be realized, even in "A" clusters."
I admit I have only a passing understanding of this jargon, but my meagre understanding is that communities are supposed to go from being a "Z" (or whatever the bottom rung of the ladder is) cluster to being an "A" cluster. An "A" cluster is one that has put a large percentage of its members through all the Ruhi books and is therefore ripe for growth to a supreme degree. It is therefore a slight on the House's reputation for infallibility if the US NSA says that its "A" clusters are not growing as predicted.
The House's answer to this: stick to the plan. But obviously there is something wrong with the plan. What could that be? I was discussing this issue with an enrolled Baha'i the other day and this gave me some insight into the thinking behind the plan. Apparently, it has to do with the passage from Baha'u'llah that tells the believers they should teach themselves before teaching others: "Whoso ariseth among you to teach the Cause of his Lord, let him, before all else, teach his own self, that his speech may attract the hearts of them that hear him. Unless he teacheth his own self, the words of his mouth will not influence the heart of the seeker." (Gleanings, CXXVIII)
This interpretation of the House's thinking makes sense in the light of this from the House of Justice in its 19 April response to the NSA's concerns: "Enrollments have been in an overall decline in the United States for more than three decades, as the American Baha'i community, like so many others, gradually abandoned efforts to register large numbers because it could not sustain the rapid expansion of the Faith. Indeed, it was precisely to meet the challenge of sustainability that the Four Year Plan set the Baha'i world in 1996 on a path of intense learning about the growth of the Faith." The idea seems to be that the community should focus on developing its understanding of the Faith and the dynamics of growth so that it'll be ready to receive large numbers of enrollments.
I agree, obviously, with the principle that we should teach ourselves first, and am sympathetic to the House's concerns. When I was a member of the community, the issue of consolidation was in the back of my mind. Throwing wisdom to one side, I, along with a few others, ventured forth in random moments of inspiration and foisted ourselves on an unsuspecting public. It certainly generated energy and perhaps even attracted spiritual bounties, given that little else was happening. But these efforts made me realise that, had we been successful in bringing in new believers, the community wouldn't have looked after them.
So, OK, given that we need a community sufficiently mature to deal with a steady flow of new believers, how do we go about attaining such a goal? The House's vision seems to be that putting people through Ruhi en masse is a key way to teach the believers before they teach others. Apparently, there are other "portals" - is that the word? - such as devotional meetings. (I'm not clear on this.) In a message to Talisman 9 on May 7, Sen shed light on what's wrong with this plan to Ruhify the community:
"I was appalled to see that unenrolments in the US community are up 30% year on year (and wonder how long this has been going on): that looks to me like a sign that "community" is being conceptualised as a project organisation, or a voluntary association devoted to a particular goal, rather than as people being together. The Bahai community should not be a "lean team" for just the people who can line up with a particular vision 100%, and commit themselves to participate in the current programme."
The thinking behind this all-encompassing Ruhi project appears to me like a cargo-cult mentality. Boiled down, it says: "If we build it, they will come". In the late 19th century, peoples in the Pacific Islands believed that if they built structures associated with cargo, this would lead to cargo magically turning up. Wiki says: "The most famous examples of Cargo Cult behavior have been the airstrips, airports, and radios made out of coconuts and straw. The cult members built them in the belief that the structures would attract transport aircraft full of cargo. Believers stage 'drills' and 'marches' with twigs for rifles and military-style insignia and 'USA' painted on their bodies to make them look like soldiers." You see, the cult members had no idea how cargo was actually made and transported to their islands. Instead, they associated its appearance with the appearance of spiritual beings with magical equipment.
The current focus on putting everyone through Ruhi and building "A" clusters works the same way: if we build "A" clusters, the masses will come. The Ruhi sequence is a ritual that the community carries out in the belief that this activity will attract the Divine Being and the 'cargo' of new believers. The community is told that the masses are waiting and members should get with the programme if they want to save humanity.
But, the idea is based on complete ignorance of the real spiritual process Baha'u'llah is referring to when he speaks of teaching ourselves and of the spiritual transformation we must undergo before our words influence our hearers. Close attention to Baha'u'llah's writings reveals that he has already given us a spiritual programme that we all must put ourselves through. He has already written the programme and Ruhi is not an improvement on it. Ruhi isn't working because it's not the programme the Baha'is should be putting themselves through.
One could spend one's whole life discussing the details of Baha'u'llah's 'Ruhi' programme. But for an overview and an outline of the course, you could do no better than to read the Seven Valleys. In this helpful little guide, Baha'u'llah has explained the stages or 'books' that lead to spiritual transformation. Also recommended is the Hidden Words. With this book, Baha'u'llah has approached his subject in a new way: rather than set his course out in a linear fashion, he has broken it down into thought-size chunks that anyone, no matter how much of a beginner they are, can get their head around.
Despite this and other explanatory material by Baha'u'llah, I assume that the Ruhi programme is supposed to simplify Baha'u'llah's writings because they are too complex for the average person to understand. Here's what Baha'u'llah has to say about those who suggest that the divine verses are too complex for people:
"Heed not the idle contention of those who maintain that the Book and verses thereof can never be a testimony unto the common people, inasmuch as they neither grasp their meaning nor appreciate their value. ... Were it[the Qur'an] beyond the comprehension of men, how could it have been declared as a universal testimony unto all people? ... Such contention is utterly fallacious and inadmissible. It is actuated solely by arrogance and pride. Its motive is to lead the people astray from the Ridvan of divine good-pleasure and to tighten the reins of their [religious leaders'] authority over the people." (Kitab-i-Iqan, pp 210-211)
Here, Baha'u'llah gets to the heart of the matter. If believers were to follow Baha'u'llah's 'Ruhi' programme, the administration would lose its stranglehold on the minds and souls of community members. This is because the divine 'Ruhi' programme takes place entirely within the self of the person. "Turn thy sight unto thyself, that thou mayest find Me standing within thee, mighty, powerful and self-subsisting." (AHW 13) 'Success' on this path leads to inner spiritual transformation, power and independence. Believers in this state are not going to blindly follow religious leaders; they are wedded to following The Leader within them. But, ironically, believers in this state will be influential teachers.
