doberman pizza. a baha'i (bahai, bahá'í) blog.

Tonight at the Ottawa Baha’i Centre, there’s a community potluck organized by the east-end Baha’is (from “Sector 1″ as it’s habitually called). The sun isn’t down yet and already the tantalizing smell of food wafts through the air—oven-baked pasta, casseroles, persian rice, curries and meat. Fasting heightens the senses, especially when it relates to eating—the smell and taste of food seem amplified, and so much fuller. People have been slowly trickling in with bowls and platters large and small. Now, a program is starting in the main hall as I sit and type these words in the bookstore; one of the youth is delivering a presentation about his first time fasting. “Today is the fourteenth day of fasting, and I’m still going strong,” he says. “Fasting is of two kinds, material and spiritual,” he says, quoting from the writings of the Guardian of the Faith, Shoghi Effendi. “The material fasting is abstaining from food or drink, that is, from the appetites of the body. But spiritual, ideal fasting is this, that man abstain from selfish passions, from negligence and from satanic animal traits. Therefore, material fasting is a token of the spiritual fasting.” Prayers and devotions follow, as the Baha’is observe this “ideal fasting” in their hearts and spirits, sharing time as a community in worship of their loving Creator. One of the Persian friends, with a strong, solid, and melodious voice which reverberates in the reverent silence, chants a prayer in his native tongue, calling on God to accept our fast. Whether or not they understand the words, the friends—from every race and nationality understand the spirit of this call. He explains to me the gist of the chant once the program ends: “A lover suffers a great deal before he reaches his beloved, but in the process he teaches everyone patience.”

The time is 7:08 PM; the time of “sunset” has officially come, and my mother brings me a glass of water. Another day of fasting is done.

hey - still fasting. extremely busy at work right now, and pretty fatigued; as such I haven’t had much energy to put into creative endeavours (videos, etc) like I usually do. been reading Baha’i Views a lot, and ooh’ing and ahh’ing at all the marvelous content popping up on it. also discovered a wonderful blog called nineteen days, written by two Baha’i bloggers across the world from each other blogging their experience of the Fast.
going to Catherine’s place tonight to break the Fast around 7ish. I wonder if she’ll have more satanseitan pie ;) finding the Fast hard this year, due to the fatigue and health problems that have started accumulating (had a short kidney stone attack last week, and began the Fast with the remnants of a nasty cold/flu/whatever). more later…

the Baha’i month of fasting began on Sunday; from March 2nd to March 20th inclusive, Baha’is refrain from eating or drinking from sunup to sundown. This physical Fast is symbolic of a spiritual Fast—just as fasting helps cleanse our bodies from physical impurities, the Baha’i Fast is a time to cleanse the spirit of selfishness, earthly desires and vain imaginations. I’ll give an example of what I’ve been doing—maybe not the perfect schedule; I’m open to suggestions! I’ve set my alarm for 5:00 AM to give me enough time to wake up and prepare myself for sunrise, which is happening at around 6:30 AM right now (you can follow the 2008 sunrise times in the calendar on the upper right hand corner of this blog’s home page). I’ll plod downstairs somewhat groggily and get some food into me: usually a combination of granola or oatmeal with soy milk, fruits and fruit juice, vitamins, and some form of protein such as eggs or a breakfast burrito. Oh, and lots of water - usually the equivalent of 4 to 6 cups of it before sunrise. The remaining time before sunrise is dedicated to reading from the Sacred Writings of the Baha’i Faith, particularly those of the Báb and Bahá’u'lláh. I’ve also been reading from the book The Path Toward Spirituality: Sacred Duties and Practices of the Bahá’í Life, published by Palabra Publications (publishers of the Ruhi Institute course materials). It’s a simple, straightforward book that offers a clear outline of all the facets of Bahá’í life; its contents roughly mirror the requisites to spiritual growth outlined by the Universal House of Justice.

I have to confess something (ok, well not really “confess”—just mentioning it for the sake of context): I tend to get distracted easily. Big time. In my everyday tasks, at work, during prayer, while reading, while writing, while enjoying myself—all the time. So, as long-time readers of this blog will attest to, consistency in my own daily spiritual practice is often a challenge for me. When I blogged about my Baha’i pilgrimage to Haifa and ‘Akká, I drew a lot of inspiration from the long obligatory prayer—partly because of the impact of visiting the qiblih, but also as a way of reminding myself of how vital, how refreshing and how fundamentally life-giving the long obligatory prayer is. The truth is, I struggle with the obligatory prayers sometimes, and with all the basic building blocks of spirituality, like daily readings and study, meditation, teaching the Cause, service to humanity, and so on. I think the root of the struggle, for me at least, is attachment to material comfort. Sometimes I feel it’s just easier, or more comfortable, for me to give in to the distraction and go to bed without thinking of anything—turn off my brain, as it were—instead of taking the time every evening to remember God and bring myself into a peaceful, centered state, renewing my connection with a Power greater than myself. Of course, without hitting that “centered” state, I just start the next day feeling unbalanced, off base. And so it continues until I finally snap out of it and say to myself, “Enough is enough, I’m going to say the long obligatory prayer even if it keeps me up past midnight!”

Instead of making the generalization “I’m not following Bahá’í teachings, I must be a bad Bahá’í”, and becoming discouraged or (God forbid!) estranged from the Bahá’í community, we can remember that we are commanded to strive to observe Bahá’í teachings. We’re always striving—that is, until we give up. Apart from ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, who was known as the Perfect Exemplar of Bahá’u'lláh’s teachings, and who reminded us to take our struggles “kam kam, ruz bih ruz” (little by little, day by day), nobody can claim to be perfect. As long as we keep trying day by day to bring our behaviour more in accordance with the teachings of Bahá’u'lláh—whether it means writing a note for ourselves so that we don’t forget that day’s obligatory prayer, or leaving a book of daily readings on our pillow so we’ll remember to read them before going to bed—we are not “bad Bahá’ís”, just normal human beings trying to transform ourselves from beings of earth and water into beings of spirit and light.

I have lots of memories of growing up Baha’i—there’s a lot of stuff I didn’t understand back then that seems a lot clearer now (naturally, I suppose). For example, my mother was on the Spiritual Assembly in the town where we lived, so I remember going with Mom to meetings now and then, hanging around in a separate room playing with toys while the adults discussed boring and serious things in the living room. Who knows? They were probably talking about the same kinds of things I did while pioneering and serving on Spiritual Assemblies in the province of Quebec, some 15 years later—correspondence, administrative procedure, the healthy growth and progress of the Baha’i community, planning for upcoming Holy Days and the 19-day Feast.

I always loved attending the 19-day Feast (well, most of the time, I suppose—everyone has their off days too). Back then, our local Baha’i community was fairly small, so Feast was always held in people’s houses, allowing different families to offer hospitality each time. And it was always so beautiful! Pleasant, restful music playing as the friends entered, prayer books in small piles on a coffee table, candles lit and softly flickering throughout. Everything was so big back then, so grand and amazing. High-topped dressers filled with books like God Passes By and Lights of Guidance, with curios and mementoes, and here and there you’d see an engraving with the ringstone symbol on it, or, up on the highest shelf, you’d see a beautifully framed reproduction of the Greatest Name of God. You’d see art from many cultures along the walls, and you’d smell perfume in the air—perhaps rose or jasmine. And then, when it was time to eat, you’d get up and walk (don’t run!) to the table at the back where the hosts would lay out platters of persian rice with tahdig (or “tahdeeg” or whatever), kookoo sabzi, adas polo, baghali polo, chicken drumsticks, and so on. I can smell it all now just writing about it. (On a side note, I’m somewhat glad the Fast is over.) Listening to prayers, either chanted in lilting tones or spoken softly, has left me with fond memories and a great love of Persian chanting. Sometimes I would recite prayers too, along with the other children. Sometimes, I fell asleep (hey, it got late, and the chanting sometimes sounds like a bedtime song).

We’ve learned a lot about the place of children in the community since I was young. “Our children need to be nurtured spiritually and to be integrated into the life of the Cause,” the Universal House of Justice wrote in its message to the Bahá’í world on Ridván, 157 B.E. (April 2000).

read more… »

a warm welcome to all of you who found this website thanks to the recent Canadian Baha’i News article on Baha’i blogging! I think I speak for all those mentioned in the article when I say that it’s an honour for my random musings to be highlighted in such a way. I can only hope that they live up to the expectations of the souls whose curiosity has brought them to investigate this far. if your curiosity has been satisfied, don’t hesitate to come back again—sign up for email updates or bookmark my rss feed to know when I post updates. I try to post at least once a week, and when possible several times a week, with engaging, inspiring, and thought-provoking content.

Be sure to check out some of the other blogs mentioned in the CBNS article—some of them are in my blogroll (look through my friends’ blogs links). for those of you who haven’t read the article yet, here’s a little excerpt:

[S]pend a little time exploring his blog and one […] finds that Jones’ interests are decidedly spiritual, and his opinions reflective of his devotion to the Bahá’í Faith.

Earlier in the month, he shared his thoughts about the fasting period that Bahá’ís go through every year for nineteen days. Prior to that, he posted several entries on his pilgrimage to the Bahá’í holy land in Haifa, Israel, including a poem about his experience.

Jones’ blog is one of a growing number of sites started by Bahá’ís who are keen to share their beliefs and opinions with fellow residents and web surfers around the world.

In Jones’ hometown of Ottawa, there are about half a dozen Bahá’ís who maintain blogs, a high proportion for a still relatively small community of about 1000.

[…] The writers are, in fact, all friends and have benefited from each other’s enthusiasm for the medium. Their camaraderie is, according to Dan Jones, one of the reasons why their blogs survived those critical first months when many bloggers lose their enthusiasm and let their sites fizzle out.

“Back in the day, we would all post announcements for various events on each of our websites,” recalls Jones, “and we were almost vying to outdo each other sometimes. We just worked well together, and I think it created an atmosphere where we were able to try anything and see how it worked.”

Happy Naw-Rúz everybody! As announced earlier, We had a real great celebration here in Ottawa: lots of people showed up to break the Fast at Boofs, more showed up at Persian Cuisine Express downtown (or so I heard) and the St. Elias Centre was filled to the gills with people. Check out my Naw-Ruz 164 photos and see what it was like! altogether, it was a really awesome evening and a fitting end to the Fast. I hope your celebrations, wherever you are, were just as joyful and fun.

Joyeux Naw-rúz tout le monde! Tel qu’annoncé auparavant, nous avons eu une excellente célébration ici, à Ottawa: beaucoup de gens se sont joint à nous chez Boofs (et davantage encore chez Persian Cuisine Express au centre-ville, entendis-je) et le Centre St. Élie était noir de monde. Regardez mes photos de Naw-ruz 164 pour voir comment c’était! En gros, c’était une soirée impressionante et une fin digne au jeûne. J’espère que vos célébrations, où que vous soyez, ont été tout aussi joyeux et amusants.

To close off, here’s an awesome Naw-Ruz video (part of a series) put together by Olinga Walker and Charlie Changizi, both friends of mine from Montréal. Enjoy! / Pour terminer, voici un vidéo super sympa sur Naw-ruz (un parmi une séquence) mis ensemble par Olinga Walker et Charlie Changizi, deux amis de Montréal. Amusez-vous!

“…Thou hast endowed every hour of these days with a special virtue, inscrutable to all except Thee, Whose knowledge embraceth all created things.” (Bahá’u'lláh)

This year’s Fast is almost over, and the new year almost begun. I know I’m echoing a widely-felt sentiment when I say that this year’s Fast has been particularly profound and powerful. (right?) As blogged in a previous post, ‘Abdu’l-Bahá notes that the physical fast (not eating or drinking from sunup to sundown) is a symbol—an outer token—of the spiritual fast. So the whole point of this not eating thing isn’t just some random exercise in austerity. Just as fasting helps us to reset our metabolism and clean the body of its toxins, fasting helps us cleanse our souls from selfish desires, makes us more aware of those toxic spiritual habits we’ve picked up over the course of our lives—gossip, backbiting, excessive attachment to comfort, ease, or luxury, or whatever—and, hopefully, helps strengthen our resolve to eliminate them from our lives.

Isn’t it cool that the Fast always happens just before Naw-rúz—the Baha’i New Year? Imagine if everybody fasted before the Gregorian New Year. All those people who made resolutions to lose weight, eat right, and start waking up earlier in the morning would have a tremendous head start. Perhaps I’ll make some resolutions this Naw-ruz—to be more kind and loving, to snap at people less often (or maybe that only happens when I’m hungry from fasting—lol), to take more interest in others and to be a better friend to everyone. Whatever your resolutions might be, may you all have a happy and joyous Naw-ruz, and may you celebrate this new day with a smile or your face!

video by papijoon.

uh oh. it’s time for the annual Naw-rúz blowout! professional marketing executive and fellow webmaster Martin reports that on Tuesday evening, March 20th, from 7:00 to 8:00 pm, Boofs (at 730 Industrial Ave.) is the place to be. there will be many, many, many of us (”us” hopefully meaning “your good friends and kindred”) there, enjoying a sumptuous Persian kebab buffet to break the Fast together after 19 long days of daylight fasting. consider coming out to enjoy the evening with us before continuing on to the Baha’i community’s Naw-rúz celebration at the St. Elias Centre (750 Ridgewood Ave.). Busing it to the celebration? Don’t forget, the St. Elias Centre is just across from Mooney’s Bay, and the 87 goes all the way there from downtown. So (to risk sounding like some sort of event promoter) dress to impress, and bring a friend! And as Martin so categorically states (in all caps, at that): this will be huge.

On Facebook? Join up with the official Baha’i Naw-rúz group!

for all the Canadian and American Baha’is out there who are fasting right now: here comes the fun part.

as mentioned in a previous post, we’ll be switching to daylight saving time (DST) during the Fast this year. Unless you live in Saskatchewan, Arizona or Hawaii, DST will come into effect in the wee hours of March 11, 2007, or the ninth day of the Baha’i Fast.

So how will it work? well, let’s say you’ve been waking up at 5:30 AM local time, having breakfast and saying prayers at sunrise (which varies by location, but let’s suppose that happens around 6:30 AM). on the morning of the 11th, you’ll be waking up at the same time reckoning by sunrise, but the clock time will be one hour later. so instead of setting your alarm for 5:30 AM that morning, you’ll set it for 6:30 AM—and reckoning by sunrise, you’ll be waking up at the same time as before. At sunrise, your clock will say 7:30 AM. Confused yet?

I’ve compiled a list of links to fasting calendars for major Canadian cities, along with the 2007 fasting times for Ottawa. You’ll note that all of these include the changeover to DST on March 11; sunrise and sunset will appear to jump ahead one hour.

As long as you set your clocks ahead the night of the 10th, you should be fine—and even if you don’t, your alarm should wake you up before sunrise. Note also that sunset will appear to come one hour later—which may screw up your dinner plans. Unfortunately, your computer will probably be affected too—if you’re running Windows, check the Microsoft DST site to find out how to patch your computer, so that your computer time updates correctly. If you’re running a Mac, chances are your system is patched already—but check Apple’s DST switchover article to be sure. And if you’re running Linux—well, you probably already know what to do. ;)

From March 2 to March 20, members of the Baha’i Faith begin their annual Fast, in which they abstain from eating and drinking from sunrise to sunset.

Fast talk: Baha’i’s begin 19 days of daylight fasting for ‘inner refreshment’, us.bahai.org

The past month or so has been very odd indeed. first off, a rather large one-centimetre-wide kidney stone floors me in the middle of the night and sends me packing to the emergency room; then, upon returning from the hospital, I spend a good week or so recuperating at home without even leaving the house (not cool), all the while working from home; then, upon seeing my doctor and being declared fit to return to work, I do so and promptly get a nasty case of the winter blues—just in time for Ayyam-i-Há (blah). I want my month back.

The brightest spot in all of this is that, along with sending me back to work, my doctor indicated that I would be OK to observe the Fast. ever since I reached the age of fifteen, the 19-day Baha’i Fast has been a special part of my life—full of serenity, challenge, and “ah-ha” moments (as one friend described them to me). for me, the physical Fast isn’t all that hard—I actually enjoy it, because it helps me reset my metabolism and my eating habits—it’s the mental, emotional and spiritual aspects of the Fast that are the biggest challenge for me. The following tidbit from South African Baha’i blog 1863 Unity Road offers a good glimpse into the challenge of the Fast:

It is not enough to just abstain from food and drink though, it is the spirit in which one approaches the Fast that is important. One should spend time in prayer and meditation and consider how to improve our lives. This spiritual preparation helps us begin the new year, which starts immediately after the Fast, strengthened and invigorated.

Well is it with you, as you have followed the Law of God and arisen to observe the Fast during these blessed days, for this physical fast is a symbol of the spiritual fast. This Fast leadeth to the cleansing of the soul from all selfish desires, the acquisition of spiritual attributes, attraction to the breezes of the All-Merciful, and enkindlement with the fire of divine love.

‘Abdu’l-Bahá, The Importance of Obligatory Prayer and Fasting (compilation)

I’ve blogged before about finding it difficult to keep myself in that spiritual mode—the “state of prayer” also described by ‘Abdu’l-Bahá. “remember” is what I always mumble to myself. remember your obligatory prayer. remember to show virtues and spiritual attributes during the day, and remember not to fly off the handle or get bitter when things don’t go your way. remember the sufferings of Bahá’u'lláh, the sacrifice He made to bring us His Revelation and to fulfill God’s Covenant with humanity. I guess I can easily use my imperfection as a reason to get all down on myself—especially if I’m already predisposed to getting the blahs—but it’s normal for people to have ups and downs, especially when wack things like gigantic kidney stones come to screw you up.

It helps a lot to remember that God has shown us the way to fulfill our part in His Covenant—he takes care of us by sending His Messengers to educate humanity, and we recognize those messengers and follow their laws, including of course the well-known requisites to spiritual growth. in fact, whenever I remember those simple actions—obligatory prayer, meditation on the Writings of Bahá’u'lláh, teaching His Cause, serving humanity, and so on—it seems to fill my soul with a new spirit, chasing away thoughts of inadequacy and negativity and replacing them with something positive and beautiful. vivid memories and impressions of pilgrimage help me shake myself out of the stupor of day-to-day life, too. whenever I say the Long Obligatory Prayer I’m reminded of being within the Shrine of Bahá’u'lláh, turned towards that most sacred spot, the inmost Shrine, my heart burning as I offered that daily devotion.

So day three is done, and it’s on to day four of the Fast. To cite Coué’s affirmation, every day, in every way, I am getting better and better. You may want to browse through some other Baha’i blogs to see what they’re writing about the fast: Delara has been sharing daily insights about her Fast, and Barney, Philippe and Leila have recently written about their thoughts and personal experiences while fasting. Ciao and happy fast!

welcome to the brand spanking new “world citizen” version of doberman pizza. the site’s new, long awaited design is partly an homage to my recent pilgrimage. if you were wondering why there were so few signs of life during the past week, this is why. I’ve been working on putting together the new design, now running on wordpress. it’s my little way of saying happy ayyam-i-há 2007! here’s hoping all of you have an excellent week and a great lead-up to the Fast—don’t forget that we change our clocks during the Fast this year.

by the way, you may find that certain links are no longer working or that they get displayed using the old design and interface. there are so many links in my blog that it’s going to take me a little while to do sanity checks on them all, so please bear with me—and feel free to report any such broken/crazy links as comments to this post. and above all, do keep checking back in the weeks to come; I’ll be adding new parts of the site as I get the hang of wordpress plugins and get them working right.

I know it’s a little bit early to be thinking about the Baha’i Fast, but I thought I’d take this opportunity to remind you all of important changes to Daylight Savings Time that will affect all fasting Baha’is in North America. As you probably heard, a congressional act was passed into law in the United States that changes the official beginning and ending dates for Daylight Savings Time. According to Canada’s National Research Council, the Canadian provinces and territories have agreed to follow this new standard as well. Beginning in 2007, Americans and Canadians (unless stated otherwise, e.g. Arizona or Saskatchewan) will begin observing DST on the second Sunday in March and end the first Sunday in November.

For American and Canadian Baha’is, this will introduce a new level of difficulty in observing the Baha’i Fast: setting clocks ahead one hour in the middle of the Fast. Daylight Savings Time will come into effect in the wee hours of March 11, 2007, or the ninth day of the Baha’i Fast.

I’ve compiled a list of links to fasting calendars for major Canadian cities, along with the 2007 fasting times for Ottawa. You’ll note that all of these include the changeover to DST on March 11; sunrise and sunset will appear to jump ahead one hour.

Learn more about the nature of the Baha’i Fast.