In this article The Expression of our Emotions, the author tries to explain how our senses especially our emotions play an important role in communicating, as much or as little as we choose, the state of our inner feelings hoping for connection and understanding.
In another article posted on Huffington Post on July 2015 called How Mindfulness Meditation Is Transforming Our Society by Charles Francis, the author enumerates why the mindfulness movement moved from the fringes of our society to the center. He also gives us a list of the health benefits of Mindfulness meditation supported by scientific research. I was glad. It is, however, our collective awareness, such as outrage for injustice or love of oneness, that when mobilized properly and systematically, will serve as a powerful tool for change and an ever-advancing civilization with harmony and peace for the emerging global culture. Creating and fostering a culture that teaches humanity the principle of oneness and how to employ emotions in the service of peace, unity, and harmony is long overdue. This, much-needed culture of oneness and mutual trust can serve not just the well-being of individuals, families, communities, schools, and workplaces but eventually the whole world.
An orchestra without a conductor is a chaotic and powerless force such as ours. A Titanic without an all-seeing and all-wise captain will never detect the presence of danger in its path and will sail the crew and everyone on board to destruction. Whatever remedies humanity has had in the past have proven inadequate to bring us all under one banner.
As the cry of humanity for social justice and equality rises higher and higher and institutions of social order such as religion and government prove helpless to handle the chaos and violence erupting in every corner of the globe, the question of addressing the lamentable condition of the global system as an organic and interconnected living entity, become more and more urgent and present to all especially to the leaders of thought and government. Our human senses are wonderful at detecting the emotions and expressions of others around us for our individual protection. But as science tells us, our physical senses are incapable of detecting the conditions of the global system of life we all rely upon. Baha’u’llah, in His world-shaking, world-embracing Revelation, addresses the nature and needs of human civilization and what it takes to have an ever-advancing civilization instead of the doom that seems we are heading towards.
The going viral nature of the mindfulness movement is meant to prevent individual suffering but it might prolong the collective suffering and blind us since the tsunami of global destruction heading our way. Mindfulness movement as a promise of social salvation is an illusion of liberation from the present order which Baha’u’llah considers “lamentably defective”.
The question of mindfulness and the betterment of the world was put to Daniel Goleman a very mindful Buddhist author of Emotional Intelligence, Social Intelligence, and recently the book called Focus. His answer is surprising as well as illuminating. He says; It’s (human brain) designed for some near threat, like the tiger approaching… but is blind to the macroscopic and microscopic changes to the global systems that support life on the planet, and that’s where the damage is being done. The fact is, we’re all blind from a systems point of view. We need to learn that.
Soon, will the present day Order be rolled up, and a new one spread out in its stead. Verily, thy Lord speaketh the truth and is the Knower of things unseen.” “By Myself, the day is approaching when We will have rolled up the world and all that is therein, and spread out a new Order in its stead. He, verily, is powerful over all things.” “The world’s equilibrium, hath been upset through the vibrating influence of this Most Great, this new World Order. Mankind’s ordered life hath been revolutionized through the agency of this unique, this wondrous System, the like of which mortal eyes have never witnessed.” “The signs of impending convulsions and chaos,” He warns the peoples of the world, “can now be discerned, inasmuch as the prevailing Order appeareth to be lamentably defective.
Being mindful and strengthening our attention to mind our personal business and pay attention to our personal needs for tranquility and peace, does not protect us from a rapidly downward spiral course of where we are heading such as the collapse of the earth’s environment, the collapse of our global social order, collapse of our global economic system and finally the collapse of present world order?
Daniel Goleman is asked: Are focus and mindfulness enough to change the culture, or do we need more of what root traditions call virtue or ethics?
He explains:
When mindfulness came to the West, one of the things that was left behind was the ethical dimension, which underlies that technique. The technique in isolation can be used to justify anything, even violence. I think the Dalai Lama’s take on this is quite interesting. What he says is that the secular use of mindfulness is not going to make people saints, or change their values, but is going to lessen their suffering. That’s his goal. That alone is good in itself. I don’t look to mindfulness as a way to change the way people think about the planet.
Individual salvation has been taught by the religions of the past. Baha’u’llah urges that in this age God also teaches the way for social and global salvation. Mindfulness is blind to the plight of the global system and collective humanity.
The revelation of Baha’u’llah offers an ocean for the remedy of humanity’s condition where a jug of mindfulness can never match its loving force. Baha’u’llah teaches the incorporation of the art of loving consultation and harmony of science and religion to access and guide the collective business of humanity with the will of its Creator.
Let us be mindful of the limitations of our minds. Let us include the principle of the oneness of all humanity in the curriculum of the schools. Let us teach not just the powers but limitations of our individual brains to tend to the collective well-being. Let us teach not just the virtues but universal values of global unity and harmony, oneness of all religions, oneness of God, and harmony of science and religion. Let us teach not just mindfulness and meditation but the art of loving consultation, consensus building, conflict resolution, and service to humanity.
The following passage from the Writings of Baha’u’llah provides a few profound questions to reflect upon during mindful meditation to reflect upon the well-being of all humanity not just our own individual self.
The Purpose of the one true God, exalted be His glory, in revealing Himself unto men is to lay bare those gems that lie hidden within the mine of their true and inmost selves. That the divers communions of the earth, and the manifold systems of religious belief, should never be allowed to foster the feelings of animosity among men, is, in this Day, of the essence of the Faith of God and His Religion. These principles and laws, these firmly-established and mighty systems, have proceeded from one Source, and are the rays of one Light. That they differ one from another is to be attributed to the varying requirements of the ages in which they were promulgated.
Keyvan Geula is a licensed Marriage, Family, and Child Therapist; LMFT. She received her Master of Science in Marriage, family, and Child Therapy from the University of La Verne, in La Verne, California. She employs the latest research in behavioral sciences, neuroscience, and the Baha’i principle of the oneness of all humanity to serve the well-being of her clients.
She offers her services as a clinician, lecturer, trainer, and supervisor to a global set of clients in person and online. In her clinical work, she incorporates the wisdom of the Baha’i Writings, Cognitive Behavioral Therapy research, Mindfulness meditation, and consultation skills, as well as knowledge of the spiritual self.
She is an adjunct professor of Behavioral Sciences at Citrus Community College, faculty of continued education at Claremont Graduate University. She teaches psychology online to students at Baha’i Institute of Higher Education.
She is the Founder and Executive Director of Center for Global Integrated Education (CGIE), a non-profit Baha’i-inspired educational organization, which explores oneness of all humanity, and teaches the integrated mind-body-spirit approach in education.
She has served for two years as the producer and host of a two-hour weekly live radio show for the Persian community in Sothern, California focusing on the role of the psychology of spirituality in personal and social transformation, creativity, emotional and social intelligence, and a greater sense of harmony in a global society. She also has been the host and producer of TV series called Transforming Human Consciousness for eight years. She regularly writes and blogs on www.cgie.org/blog on topics related to integrated education, the oneness of humanity, the powers of the human spirit in the betterment of global society, elimination of all prejudice, equality of women and men, and education reform. Some of her shows are posted on her; Keyvan Geula YouTube Channel.
Mrs. Geula has served in several Baha’i institutions since her youth in Iran and USA.
