# Wildfire: Reflections on Music, Drama, and Dance

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> Source: Bahá'í Library Online (bahai-library.com), curated by Jonah Winters. Used by permission of the curator. Original citation: Istvan Dely, Wildfire: Reflections on Music, Drama, and Dance, Hong Kong: Juxta Publishing, 2006, bahai-library.com.
> ──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
> 
> WILDFIRE
> 
> Reflections on
> 
> Music, Drama & Dance
> 
> By Istvan Dely
> This edition © 2006, Istvan Dely
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>          
> 
> 
>               
> 
>             
> 
> Bahá’u’lláh, Gleanings LXXIV
> 
> Introduction
> 
> Profession of love
> 
> Hungary, the boxing ring for the last round of the fight of the century, between
> Germans and Russians, nazis and communists: my native land. I was born in the midst of a
> freezing European winter with no heating, to the pounding of the falling bombs. This fact, I
> believe, determined two major decisions in my life: I would become a drummer and I
> would find my home in the tropics.
> 
> Twenty two years later in Havana, Cuba, where I was sent to finish my Masters
> degree in Hispanic literature, the babalaos (Yoruba divines) told me I had the spirit of a
> Black Congo standing behind me, which, to them at least, explained why every time I heard
> the drums my legs would tremble, and why I would beat those drums like crazy till my
> hands bled, with no technique, but with all my heart and soul. I believe this is why Jesus
> Perez and Carlos Aldama, unforgettable masters of Yorubá liturgical drums, deigned to
> teach me, this little white guy from far away. I have since had many mentors, among them
> El Niño Ramirez, rumbero de solar, Rafael Cueto, the last of the Trio Matamoros, and
> above all, my padrino José Oriol Bustamante, tatan’ganga Vititi Congo. Upon my
> initiation into their temple they gave me a name that became my mission for life: Millero
> Congo (Congo seedbed), cultivator of love for all that is Africa.
> 
> And I have been carrying it out ever since. When I returned to Europe after three
> memorable years in Cuba, I introduced Afro Cuban drums to my country. By chance, this
> coincided with the explosion set off by Carlos Santana in international rock music. I played
> and recorded with all the top musicians and groups then in business in my country. I later
> assisted with the birth of Jazz in Hungary, which helped break the ice of orthodox
> 
> communism. I did several European tours with different rock and jazz groups and became a
> legend of sorts by the name of Konga Dely. At the same time I continued my literary
> vocation, too, translating North and South American authors, among them Gabriel García
> Márquez, into my native tongue. In Márquez I heard the siren call of a magic world. The
> Colombian Caribbean beckoned.
> 
> So that’s where I am today. Over the last twenty-eight years God has given me two
> great gifts. One is my Colombian family, all musicians, whom I managed to infect with my
> tambour fever. Together we made up the Millero Congo acoustic fusion band and taught
> others for many years, in our drumming school in Cartagena and Barranquilla. We became
> a major cultural factor as standard-bearers of a movement to recover the rich traditions of
> African drumming and Native American gaita flutes among the city youth of the North
> Coast of Colombia.
> 
> The other great gift from God that I received in Colombia is having come across the
> Bahá’í Faith, which “hath lent a fresh impulse, and set a new direction, to the birds of men's
> hearts”, to mine, too, and finally reconciled my thirst for mysticism and community, on the
> one hand, and the quest for social transformation, on the other, as motivating forces and
> final purpose of the arts, of music, of drumming.
> 
> This is how, slowly by slowly, out of the growing convergence in my heart and
> mind, of the African traditions that I had learned in Cuba, on the one hand, and of the
> Bahá´í teachings on the vital importance of cultural diversity for an organically united
> humankind in our shrinking global village, on the other, I started promoting what I coined
> Cultural Ecology as part of my work as an active Bahá’í, a musician, a drumming teacher, a
> researcher of the African heritage in the Circum-Caribbean.
> 
> In this spirit I gathered my almost three-decade experiences as drummer and
> drumming teacher into a comprehensive hand-drumming teaching book called “Tabalá –
> Drums for everyone” which covers the drumming traditions and over sixty rhythms of nine
> countries of the Caribbean basin (Colombia, Cuba, Haiti, Honduras, Dominican Republic,
> Puerto Rico, the Bush Negroes of Suriname and French Guiana, and Brazil), presented in a
> new notation system that I developed over the years to make hand-drum music reading and
> writing more precise and above all more widely accessible to untutored learners.
> 
> Then came the fulfillment of my childhood dream: after so many years, in 1997 I
> finally got to Africa! More precisely West Africa, cradle of all those drumming traditions
> that captivated my heart and still enrapture me more than any other music of the world. The
> International Teaching Centre of the Bahá’í World Centre in Haifa, Israel, sent me as travel
> teacher and resource person to the Light of Unity project in Ivory Coast, Ghana, The
> Gambia and Guinea Bissau to promote the use of traditional music for proclamation,
> teaching and consolidation of the Faith. Just imagine that: how come an East-European
> white guy from Colombia going to teach the Africans how to drum?! That’s exactly what
> my beloved first spiritual and drumming teacher, tatan’ganga Congo Oriol foretold me in
> Cuba thirty years ago. He said: I see you before many many Black youth teaching them
> what you learned here from us and what you’ll learn on your life’s journey. And indeed, the
> Cuban sound is very admired in West Africa and my deep, instinctive tuning in to the West
> 
> African musical modes not only amazed my African friends but brought home to them,
> more clearly than any discourse, that it is well worth their while to value and cherish their
> own traditions because they are very much sought after even by whites!
> 
> I used to begin my talks to my African audiences with this startling statement: I’m a
> Hungarian of African descent. And it is true on two accounts. First: all human beings on
> Earth today descend “from the same original parents” in East Africa. And second: from my
> very first awakening as a musician, I have been permanently wedded to African and Afro
> Latin music.
> 
> Before saying a word, though, I would just sit down at my drum and, closing my
> eyes, would play my heart, play a prayer on the drum, pray drum. And that would instantly
> bridge the gap created by centuries of estrangement and separation and atrocities between
> our Black and White races.
> 
> I remember one night a team of young Yakuba Bahá’í teachers and myself were in
> the clearing between the huts of a far out village in Ivory Coast near the Liberian border.
> We started a great joyful gathering after dusk, drumming, singing, dancing, talking, the
> whole village was there. I played with three Yakuba boys, my disciples at the Training
> Institute in Danane. At one o’clock at night I got real tired and stepped out of the circle,
> leaving the drumming to the boys. But then a delegation of the women hurried to me,
> protesting: No, no, mesyé, vou batt tambou! (No, no, Mr, you play the drum!) They needed
> my drumming to go on dancing and singing! For me, this is the diploma of the highest
> value, worth more than a Grammy Award! And I had a lot of experiences like that. It’s like
> an instant initiation into their community, an acceptation on equal terms. Brotherhood that
> needs no words. In Ghana, after three weeks of intensive training at the Dyankama
> Institute, my twenty-odd pupils and I were all moved to tears because we had to part. The
> Akan are a proud people, they don’t often cry… In The Gambia we had an experience
> which eloquently spoke for the intrinsic harmonizing, uniting power of collective
> drumming. The group of youth that gathered together for a two-week intensive training
> with me at the Latrikunda Institute came from at least six different tribes and were a nasty
> quarrelling lot in the beginning, so much so that we were about to close down the project.
> Yet after a couple of days of bringing them together to practice in groups for hours, there
> was a remarkable change: the suspicions and rivalries disappeared and they all became
> good friends, a good team indeed. Together then we toured the biggest schools in and
> around the capital, Banjul, all Muslim of course, and spoke of the spiritual dimension of
> drumming and unity in diversity, and attracted a lot of interest for the Bahá’í teachings.
> They asked the Bahá’ís to return to their schools and form drumming cultural groups (you
> have to know that for most of fundamentalist Islam today, music in general and drumming
> in particular is a lowly, ungodly, frivolous, almost sinful activity)!
> 
> In Bissau, capital of Guinea Bissau, my pupils had to walk for more than an hour to
> come to my classes (and then an hour back) because they were so poor they didn’t have for
> the bus ride. And this was during the Bahá’í month of the Fast, when we don’t eat and drink
> anything from sunrise to sunset! And Bissau is really hot at that time of year! These were
> powerful lessons those kids taught me about love, commitment, sacrifice.
> 
> Back in Colombia, I went on another assignment. I spent three months in the
> predominantly Black Northern Cauca region incorporating the teaching and practice of
> traditional communal music (singing, drumming, and dancing) into the Institute Study
> Circles. We did revolutionize the hamlets and villages around the Ruhi Institute in Puerto
> Tejada. In one village at one time the number of participants swelled to over 90 and they
> didn’t fit into the local school! And we started a process of creation of new folklore, so to
> speak, by bringing the traditional music forms into the context of the contemporary
> spirituality and global world vision of the Bahá’í Faith. It’s important for people
> everywhere to understand that Bahá’u’lláh came to every race and people and kindred of
> the world and that the contribution which the traditions, the skills, the knowledge, the
> wisdom, the culture, of each and every people can make is lovingly welcomed into the
> future global civilization. The loss of any traditional art form, culture, language, etc.
> impoverishes not only the particular nation or ethnic group concerned but the whole of
> humanity! This perspective gives a real motivation and a great responsibility for the
> preservation of the cultural ethnic diversity of the myriads of peoples that make up the
> human family. And also, it makes us aware of the urgency of this task in the face of the
> growing cultural erosion of globalization as practiced by multinational commercial and
> ideological interests.
> 
> In Haiti, my next assignment, cultural erosion is not as rampant as elsewhere, due to
> the extreme poverty: no lights, no television, and no discos in most of the countryside.
> Sometimes a curse is a blessing in disguise! Here the challenge for the Bahá’í community
> was to overcome the centuries-old misconceptions, prejudice, myths, fear and shame that
> surround Vodoun, which is at the very core of Haitian cultural identity. As I said earlier,
> my spiritual and musical beginnings took place in an African derived religious setting very
> much like Vodoun – indeed, Santería, Congo, Abakuá, Vodoun, Winti and Candomble can
> all be regarded as branches of the same Traditional African Religion. The fact of once
> having been a Congo priest myself just like the hougans of Vodoun, and my drumming
> skills, made me a catalyst or channel to help the Haitian friends overcome their confusion
> and mixed feelings towards their own roots and identity. I wrote a course on Vodoun for
> Bahá’í teachers that was taught at Institute trainings, and gave a lot of talks and firesides on
> the subject in the light of the Writings which clearly say that we should “consort with the
> followers of all religions in a spirit of friendliness and fellowship” and that certainly
> includes Vodoun, and that Bahá’u’lláh’s revelation is “the highest essence and most perfect
> expression of whatsoever the peoples of old have either said or written” and that “in this
> most mighty Revelation, all the Dispensations of the past have attained their highest, their
> final consummation.” As a result of 20 months spent in Haiti on four terms of travel
> teaching, the community has made great strides toward the goal set by the International
> Teaching Centre: “At the most profound depth of every culture lies veneration of the
> sacred. Efforts to advance the Faith in rural areas, then, are most successful when the
> sacred in the culture of the villagers is identified and they are assisted in transferring their
> loyalty and allegiance to the Faith, placing Bahá'u'lláh and His Covenant at that sanctified
> core of their universe. It is here, at the very heart of a culture that the process of the
> transformation of a people begins.”
> 
> Haitians are an extremely artistic and deeply religious people, very much steeped in
> the West African tradition. As soon as the friends regained their self esteem and the pride in
> 
> their cultural-spiritual heritage, a veritable creative explosion occurred among the grass
> roots youth, in musical compositions, drumming, dancing, drama, story-telling, proverbs,
> all related to their new spiritual experiences in the Institute learning process. A whole CD
> of new repertoire in traditional Vodoun style music set to Bahá’u’lláh’s words was
> recorded and distributed in the whole national community. One of the leading Sanbas (roots
> music composers), drumming teachers and bandleaders of the country became so enamored
> by the bias-free, welcoming and sincerely loving spirit of the Bahá’í Faith that he
> composed almost half, and certainly the best, of that material and was like a long lost
> brother to this lowly servant. In the south-east of the country we had a wonderful, open-
> minded and open-hearted meeting and jam session with the association of hougans
> (Vodoun priests) of the region. And everywhere in the countryside our troop of drumming-
> singing-dancing-drama playing Bahá’ís (all native except me) had wonderful close rapport,
> heart-to-heart fraternity with a population which is, according to a widely quoted statement,
> 80% Catholic and 100% Vodouizant.
> 
> Something very similar happened, although in a briefer time span, on my teaching
> trips among the Saamaka and Ndyuka Bush Negroes of Western French Guiana and
> Suriname. They still very much preserve the Akan tradition of the talking drum: that is, the
> master drummer “speaks” with his drum, says prayers, salutations, whole discourses. The
> elderly still understand this traditional drum language. And everybody expects the drums to
> be meaningful. This gave us the idea to “speak” to my village audiences with my drum,
> while my team mate, who spoke the local language, “translated” the phrases I played out
> (obviously we agreed beforehand on what he would say). You should have seen with what
> reverential concentration they listened to every phrase on the drum and every sentence
> pronounced and how they understood and later remembered all the complexities and the
> inner essence of the Bahá’í message!
> 
> Drums have a very special place and great power in their culture. Wherever our
> small team appeared, I just took out my West African djembé drum from its case and sat
> down to play and lo! in minutes everybody left whatever they were doing and came literally
> running down to us shrieking with joyous excitement and in no time everybody was
> fiercely dancing. They simply couldn’t believe their eyes: a serious-looking middle-age
> white man playing their sacred rhythms! The spiritual and social leaders of the villages
> greeted me with the deference due to one of their own rank and of course I, too, showed the
> deep, sincere respect I always had for these patriarchal figures that are the keepers of the
> culture and history of their peoples. From my acting and playing and from the Bahá’í
> teachings in our conversations they fully understood that preserving and handing down
> their sacred drumming traditions, dances, ways of dressing, of building their houses, their
> handicrafts, their language, was one of the central messages of the Bahá’í teachings,
> together with their right to real progress, to take from the white world whatever seemed
> beneficial to their society as a whole without having to give up their own ways or diluting
> their ethnic cultural identity. The principle of unity in diversity solves the seeming
> dichotomy of either tradition or progress, either inherited identity or globalization. Not
> either / or. Both! The best of both worlds.
> 
> In Honduras my wife Leonor (singer, composer, guitar player) and myself were
> invited to help rally grass roots participation through the use of traditional music for the
> 
> Garífuna Bahá’í congress, by holding an Institute training with drumming, singing and
> drama for more than 20 youth. At the closing event of the course, the long-time white
> pioneers couldn’t hold back their tears at seeing so much creative artistic talent surging in a
> mighty explosion. Most of the time you need but scratch the surface of ingrained
> inhibitions and lovingly encourage the youth to bring out their latent talents from within
> their own very precious traditions, and veritable miracles happen! Many times people told
> me: thank you for making me aware of talents I didn’t know I had at all! Many a new
> drummer was born this way everywhere I went with my contagious enthusiasm and
> obsessive pushing…
> 
> In Salvador de Bahia, Brazil, towards the end of our two-week intensive institute
> training in the use of the performing arts for proclamation, teaching and consolidation of
> the Cause, I took my pupils on a public bus to see the pre-carnival cultural parade
> downtown. On the way, the twenty odd youth burst into singing, at the top of their voices,
> the compositions they themselves have made collectively during the training to chosen
> quotes by Bahá’u’lláh in fiery, contagious Bahian style music, beating out the rhythms and
> cross rhythms on any available object and surface on the bus. It was an amazing revolution!
> There you had a veritable time bomb in the hands of the institutions to use: pure hearted
> youth oozing faith, love, energy and joy, culturally relevant music, and Bahá’u’lláh’s words
> for everyone to hear make up a very explosive blend!
> 
> While working for the preservation of the sacred musical traditions of African and
> Native American cultures at the grass roots level is, I feel, crucial at this moment when
> modern mass media have reached the farthest corners of Earth carrying the germs of
> cultural leveling and uniformization, it is just as important to attend to the unfolding and
> growth of this same tree at canopy level, and to break into the professional music industry
> with this kind of alternative proposition. “Bahá'í artists who achieve eminence and renown
> in their chosen field, and who remain dedicated to the promotion of the Faith, can be of
> unique assistance to the Cause at the present time when public curiosity about the Bahá'í
> teachings is gradually being aroused.” (Letter written on behalf of the Universal House of
> Justice, 30 June 1988). As a result of years of working and maturing together within
> Millero Congo, Leonor composed and we recorded 20 songs for a CD that with the title
> “Leonor Dely: Ámame – Palabras Ocultas de Bahá’u’lláh” was produced and released by
> multiple Grammy Award winner music producer KC Porter under his inspirational label
> Insignia Records in Los Angeles in 2001. New York Times critic Tom Conelli hailed it as
> "A musical masterpiece throughout! A must for any world music enthusiast!” Los Angeles
> Times critic Enrique Lopetegui calls it “one of KC Porter’s finest recordings”. In 2004
> there followed our second album, Talisman, this time having no less than four Grammy
> winners on board: Ececutive producer KC Porter, Producer JB Eckl, Coproducer Shangó
> Dely, and Sound engineer Jeff Poe!
> 
> The four concert tours that we had in as many years promoting these albums in the
> US and Canada, as well as the ongoing album sales worldwide, have taken Bahá’u’lláh’s
> name and Words to many thousand thirsting souls. It is our hope that they also inspired and
> continue to inspire the unnumbered talented artists of divers cultural and spiritual traditions
> in the Bahá’í world community to “come out of the closet”, so to speak. We are convinced
> that to save these traditions it’s not enough to preserve them as museum pieces from an
> 
> overhauled past or to fuse them into secular musical context like Haitian “rasin mizik”
> (roots music) or modern Cuban jazz like Irakere (both of which deserve our admiration
> though). To save is to let live, to foster growth. From the sacred context of their past they
> must be allowed to grow into a contemporary spirituality, into the new, all-inclusive, all-
> embracing universal Cause and common Faith: Bahá’u’lláh’s Revelation. Otherwise they
> are doomed to extinction, oblivion. This is the lesson I’ve learned since those days more
> than thirty years ago when I earned the liturgical name Millero Congo for my love and
> commitment to African music, drumming and spirituality.
> 
> The challenge
> 
> Counselor Kobina Fynn in Guinea Bissau remarked to me once with a trace of
> bewilderment and frustration: Why is it that the friends walk for days to attend a traditional
> celebration in a distant town or village but they don’t show up for the Nineteen Day Feast
> in their own locality?
> 
> I understood his predicament only too well and share his concerns. My first and
> only real spiritual experience before becoming a Bahá’í had been within an African
> Traditional Religion in Cuba. My initiation into the Vititi Congo community was not an act
> of rational, intellectual choice, since I was a committed atheist communist at the time, a
> follower of the Che Guevara. It was a rapture of the heart generated by the tremendous
> power of the arts: the drumming, the singing, the dancing, the drama of the rituals, the
> emotional charge and group synergy, the loving and caring and joyful community.
> 
> Abdu’l-Bahá repeatedly said that love and joy are the foremost signs of spirituality.
> Bahá’u’lláh often sets rapture and ecstasy, passionate devotion and fervid love as
> touchstones of the depth of our search, knowledge, and worship. That arts, especially the
> performing arts: music, drama, and dance, can better awaken these noble sentiments than
> cold rationalizing, is also clearly stated in our Writings and authoritative guidance. So if our
> community life, our celebrations and worship, are lacking in the abovementioned qualities,
> so much so that many of the friends prefer somewhere else to go, it means that we are
> clearly not acting upon the Guidance. “Until the public sees in the Bahá'í Community a
> true pattern, in action, of something better than it already has, it will not respond to
> the Faith in large numbers.” (Shoghi Effendi)
> 
> The whole of the Bahá’í world is now embarked upon a collective learning process
> to work out and implement precisely this “true pattern in action” through the twin
> movements of the institute process and the cluster core activities envisaged as a
> dynamically interacting mechanism to create portals of growth: the growth of a new race of
> men, the growth of a new civilization.
> 
> Arts and artists clearly have a major role to play in this process. There is an urgent
> need, I feel, for all the protagonists – the individuals (artists, their friends and foes), the
> community and the institutions – to sincerely and honestly review our assumptions about
> arts and culture, to reflect upon the current conditions of society, on the one hand, and the
> function and nature of the arts, the qualities and attributes required from the artists, the
> attitudes of the community towards arts and artists, on the other, that the New World Order
> of Bahá’u’lláh maps out for us. And then act accordingly.
> 
> A call to the artists
> 
> The immigration official at the Los Angeles International Airport looked at our
> passports, the P1 visas issued to us as members of the Leonor Dely & Millero Congo band
> invited for the Embrace the World bahá’í tour in the US and Canada. “So, you are
> entertainers”, he commented with a scornful smile. “No, not entertainers. Musicians”, I
> corrected, to no avail, I’m afraid. Definitely, for the consumer society today there’s no
> culture and arts any more, just entertainment. Everything else is crushed under the
> “steamroller of the West’s cultural weapons of mass distraction.” As one American writer
> bitterly complained: "I can't live without a culture anymore and I realize I don't have one.
> What passes for a culture in my head is really a bunch of commercials and this is
> intolerable. It may be impossible to live without a culture." ( Kurt Vonnegut, Jr)
> 
> The assessment of the Universal House of Justice is stern and to the point:
> 
> “One of the signs of a decadent society, a sign which is very evident in the
> world today, is an almost frenetic devotion to pleasure and diversion, an insatiable
> thirst for amusement, a fanatical devotion to games and sport, a reluctance to treat
> any matter seriously, and a scornful, derisory attitude towards virtue and solid
> worth.” (On behalf of the Universal House of Justice, Compilations, The Compilation of
> Compilations vol. I, p. 53)
> 
> Bad news for artists who have to make a living off their trade in such an
> environment. So what can artists do to reverse the tide? Like Ulysses in ancient times, they
> must have themselves tied to the mast of their ship so as not to be lured into extinction by
> the ubiquitous siren calls of the entertainment industry promising instant success, fame and
> riches. The firm mast is the Bahá’í teachings, principles and specific guidance:
> 
> “… the House of Justice feels that one of the great challenges facing Bahá'ís
> everywhere is that of restoring to the peoples of the world an awareness of spiritual
> reality. Our view of the world is markedly different from that of the mass of mankind,
> in that we perceive creation to encompass spiritual as well as physical entities, and we
> regard the purpose of the world in which we now find ourselves to be a vehicle for our
> spiritual progress.
> 
> This view has important implications for the behaviour of Bahá'ís and gives
> rise to practices which are quite contrary to prevailing conduct of the wider society.
> One of the distinctive virtues given emphasis in the Bahá'í Writings is respect for that
> which is sacred. Such behaviour has no meaning for those whose perspective on the
> world is entirely materialistic, while many followers of the established religions have
> debased it into a set of rituals devoid of true spiritual feeling.
> 
> In some instances, the Bahá'í Writings contain precise guidance on how the
> reverence for sacred objects or places should be expressed, e.g., restrictions on the use
> of the Greatest Name on objects or indiscriminate use of the record of the voice of the
> Master. In other instances, the believers are called upon to strive to obtain a deeper
> understanding of the concept of sacredness in the Bahá'í teachings, from which they
> can determine their own forms of conduct by which reverence and respect are to be
> expressed.
> 
> The importance of such behaviour derives from the principles expressed in the
> Bahá'í Writings, that the outward has an influence on the inward. Referring to "the
> people of God" Bahá'u'lláh states: "Their outward conduct is but a reflection of their
> inward life, and their inward life a mirror of their outward conduct."
> 
> It is within this framework that the Universal House of Justice wishes you to
> view the concerns which have been expressed over the past several years. Bahá'ís
> endowed with artistic talent are in a unique position to use their abilities, when
> treating Bahá'í themes, in such a way as to disclose to mankind evidence of the
> spiritual renewal the Bahá'í Faith has brought to humanity through its revitalization
> of the concept of reverence.
> 
> Questions of artistic freedom are not germane to the issues raised here. Bahá'í
> artists are free to apply their talents to whatever subject is of interest to them.
> However, it is hoped that they will exercise a leadership role in restoring to a
> materialistic society an appreciation of reverence as a vital element in the achievement
> of true liberty and abiding happiness.” (On behalf of the Universal House of Justice, 24
> September 1987)
> 
> Now this is good news for artists! We are singled out to “exercise a leadership role”
> in the process of reversing the tide…
> 
> A call to the community
> 
> If as an artist you strive to exercise this kind of spiritual leadership you obviously
> cannot expect much recognition, support and reward from the “Priestly Media Empires” (a
> term coined by a fellow Bahá’í artist in Australia) and the masses held under their hypnotic
> spell. But if you are met with indifference, suspicion, discouragement, belittling from your
> own beloved Bahá’í community as well, then you are really in a tight spot! And many times
> this is just the case. Quoting from a letter from a fellow Bahá’í artist: “My husband and I
> and many of our fellow Bahá'í musicians have struggled with the dilemma of being drawn
> to a calling that is met on the one hand with encouragement from the writings and on the
> other with discouragement from a number of well-respected believers who seemed to
> regard art as frivolous play suitable only for children.”
> 
> The Writings put arts and crafts at the same level, with the same rank and station, as
> sciences.
> 
> “The third Tajalli is concerning arts, crafts and sciences. Knowledge is as
> wings to man's life, and a ladder for his ascent. Its acquisition is incumbent upon
> everyone… Great indeed is the claim of scientists and craftsmen on the peoples of the
> world. Unto this beareth witness the Mother Book on the day of His return.”
> (Bahá’u’lláh, Tablets of Bahá’u’lláh, p. 51)
> 
> This claim is none other than to be used, to be useful. The letter quoted above goes
> on to say: “And while it's wonderful to have people praise our music or my writing, the
> 
> most sincere praise the Bahá'í community and its institutions can give is to make use of
> those things. Don't just pat the musician on the head and say, ‘Thanks for playing at feast’;
> invite them to play at a teaching event to ‘warm up the crowd’ or even to give a musical
> fireside. Don't just tell the writer you're proud of her accomplishments, ask her to write
> articles for the newspaper or suggest stories she's written that might be given to seekers.
> Don't just admire the painter's art in his home. Ask if prints can be made to use for a Bahá'í
> display at the fair or used to teach the Faith in some other way. The arts and artists need the
> support of their communities. And by support, I mostly mean that we need to be used in
> order to feel that we are contributing to the Cause of Bahá'u'lláh from our most sacred
> centre – the place our creations arise from.” (Maya Bohnhoff)
> 
> Let me stress at this point that the World Centre – the Universal House of Justice
> and the International Teaching Centre – are very much aware of the importance of the use
> of the arts (and hence, of artists) in every proclamation, teaching and consolidation plan and
> activity and have repeatedly urged us all – individuals, communities, institutions – to make
> more and better use of them. Later on I will quote at length from the International Teaching
> Centre’s 2001 Letter on the Arts in the Five Year Plan which will make this point clearer.
> 
> Let me end these reflections on the still uneasy and unsettled relationship between
> the community and its artists with some excerpts from a talk by no lesser a figure than poet
> laureate Roger White. While his opinions cannot be said to be authoritative guidance, he
> gave his talk to youth in Haifa and was not excommunicated for it…
> 
> “Art has a message for us. It says: ´Care, grow, develop, adapt, overcome, nurture,
> protect, foster, cherish.´ It says: ´Your reality is spiritual.´ It says: ´Achieve your full
> humanness.´ It invites us to laugh, cry, reflect, strive, persevere. It says: ´Rejoice!´ Above
> all, it says to us to be! We cannot turn our backs on art.
> 
> I am of the conviction that, in the future, increasingly, one important measure of the
> spiritual maturity and health of the Bahá’í world community will be its capacity to attract
> and win the allegiance of artists of all kinds, and its sensitivity and imaginativeness in
> making creative use of them.
> 
> Artists -- not tricksters and conjurers, but committed artists -- will be a vital force in
> preventing inflexibility in our community. They will be a source of rejuvenation. They will
> serve as a bulwark against fundamentalism, stagnation and administrative sterility. Artists
> call us away from formulas, caution us against the fake, and accustom us to unpredictability
> -- that trait which so characterizes life. They validate our senses. They link us to our own
> history. They clothe and give expression to our dreams and aspirations. They teach us
> impatience with stasis. They aid us to befriend our private experiences and heed our inner
> voices. They reveal how we may subvert our unexamined mechanistic responses to the
> world. They sabotage our smugness. They alert us to divine intimations. Art conveys
> information about ourselves and our universe which can be found nowhere else. Our artists
> are our benefactors.
> 
> To the degree the Bahá’í community views its artists as a gift rather than a problem
> will it witness the spread of the Faith "like wildfire" as promised by Shoghi Effendi,
> through their talents being harnessed to the dissemination of the spirit of the Cause.
> 
> In general society, artists are often at war with their world and live on its fringes.
> Their lack of discretion in expressing their criticism -- which may be hostile, vituperative,
> negative, and offer no solutions -- may lead to their rejection and dismissal by the very
> society they long to influence. Artists are frequently seen as troublemakers, menaces,
> destroyers of order, or as frivolous clowns. Sometimes the kindest thing said of them is that
> they are neurotic or mad. In the Bahá’í community it must be different. Bahá’u’lláh said so.
> Consider that the Bahá’í Writings state that ´All art is a gift of the Holy Spirit´ and exhorts
> us to respect those engaged in sciences, arts and crafts.
> 
> The artist has among other responsibilities that of questioning our values, of leading
> us to new insights that release our potential for growth, of illuminating our humanity, or
> renewing our authenticity by putting us in touch with our inner selves and of creating works
> of art that challenge us - as Rilke says - to change our lives. They are a stimulus to
> transformation.
> 
> In the Bahá’í Order the artists will find their home at the centre of their community,
> free to interact constructively with the people who are served by their art; free to give and
> to receive strength and inspiration. It is my hope that you will be in the vanguard of this
> reconciliation between artists and their world. As Bahá’u’lláh foretells, the artists are
> coming home to claim their place. I urge you: Be there! Welcome them! Bring chocolate!”
> (Roger White: address to Bahá’í youth in Haifa, 1990)
> 
> In the meantime and while that happens, here are some comforting words to you,
> fellow Bahá’í artists, to cling fast to that mast on our ship, no matter what:
> 
> “With the evolution of Bahá'í society which is composed of people of many
> cultural origins and diverse tastes, each with his conception of what is aesthetically
> acceptable and pleasing, those Bahá'ís who are gifted in music, drama and the visual
> arts are free to exercise their talents in ways which will serve the Faith of God. They
> should not feel disturbed at the lack of appreciation by sundry believers. Rather, in
> knowledge of the cogent writings of the Faith on music and dramatic expression...they
> should continue their artistic endeavours in prayerful recognition that the arts are
> powerful instruments to serve the Cause, arts which in time will have their Bahá'í
> fruition.” (On behalf of the Universal House of Justice, 9 August 1983 [56]
> 
> A call to the institutions
> 
> The following letter from the International Teaching Centre dated November 2001
> and addressed primarily to the Continental Boards of Counsellors makes it clear that the
> systematic, integral and pervasive use of the arts is not the artists’ concern and
> responsibility alone. It calls on the institutions, the administrators, the planners, the decision
> makers, the tutors alike not to consider the arts “simply an embellishment to our programs
> or an afterthought in our planning. Rather they must become an integral part of our teaching
> plans and community life.”
> 
> Furthermore, the special emphasis on a grass-roots focus of the systematic use of
> the arts rests on the conviction that creative self expression through the different arts media
> is not the exclusive and privileged turf of artists. In most traditional tribal societies music,
> for example, “is a social game in which every member of the community has a place of his
> own; and this is the purpose of the game: to find our place in society.” (Ray Lema, African
> musician). So with the other art forms, too.
> 
> Every member of the community has a place in music-making, yes, but not the same
> place. Some are more gifted than others, some have been training for a while, others have
> become specialists (in the West we would say professionals) through long and demanding
> training. We can safely assert that there are three levels of artistic proficiency: the
> communal, the amateur and the professional. It’s like a pyramid. The wider the base, the
> higher the structure can be raised.
> 
> The sequence of Institute Courses delivered worldwide in thousands and thousands
> of study circles was designed to empower the grass roots – individually and collectively,
> and bring about transformation. This empowerment must also include artistic expressions
> which in turn help deepen and emotionally fuel transformation.
> 
> Having said this by no means belittles the merits of accomplished professional
> artists among us or robs them of the distinction earned by long years of hard training and
> practice. “Bahá'í artists who achieve eminence and renown in their chosen field, and
> who remain dedicated to the promotion of the Faith, can be of unique assistance to the
> 
> Cause at the present time when public curiosity about the Bahá'í teachings is
> gradually being aroused.” (On behalf of the Universal House of Justice, 30 June 1988)
> 
> The clear message the International Teaching Centre conveys in its letter is that the
> institutions, and ultimately all the protagonists of this collective learning process that the
> Bahá’í community is so vigorously and single-mindedly going through worldwide, all have
> to pay greater attention to the arts and redouble our efforts to promote and cultivate its use
> at all levels – communal, amateur and professional – focused systematically on the
> overriding goal at hand: to reach the critical mass and effect entry by troops.
> 
> Below are the most relevant parts of the ITC Letter on the Arts in the Five Year
> Plan, a document that as a Bahá’í artist, administrator and travel teacher I feel is of
> paramount and historical importance:
> 
> “In the Writings of our Faith the arts are described as a powerful instrument
> to move the spirit and serve the Cause. ’Abdu’l-Bahá praised the arts and testified to
> their capacity to awaken and uplift the hearts. ”Music,” 'Abdu'l-Bahá said, "has a
> great effect upon the human spirit," and drama "is of the utmost importance. It has
> been a great educational power in the past; it will be so again.”
> 
> 'Abdu’l-Bahá and Shoghi Effendi encouraged many forms of art and at the same time
> extolled a special path of service for Bahá’í artists. 'Abdu’l-Bahá proclaimed that "All
> Art is a gift of the Holy Spirit.... These gifts are fulfilling their highest purpose, when
> showing forth the praise of God."
> 
> In a letter written on his behalf, the Guardian reinforces this sentiment with the
> following advice to an individual: " the friends who feel they are gifted in such
> matters should endeavour to develop and cultivate their gifts and through their works
> to reflect, however inadequately, the Divine Spirit which Bahá’u’lláh has breathed
> into the world.”
> 
> Against this backdrop of inspiring guidance, the Universal House of Justice
> called on the believers at the outset of the Four Year Plan “to give greater attention to
> the use of the arts, not only for proclamation, but also for the work in expansion and
> consolidation. The graphic and performing arts and literature have played, and can
> play, a major role in extending the influence of the Cause. At the level of folk art, this
> possibility can be pursued in every part of the world, whether it be in villages, towns
> or cities”.
> 
> Two years later the House of Justice released a compilation prepared by the Research
> Department at the Bahá’í World Centre, "The Importance of the Arts in Promoting
> the Faith," which provides a rich source of excerpts from the Writings and enlarges
> our vision of the use of the arts for the work of the Cause.
> 
> The record of the past five years in promotion of the arts was outstanding on
> all continents. There has been a proliferation of artistic endeavours in the teaching
> field, most notably through youth dance workshops and musical groups, but also
> through choirs, drama, and folk art. These experiences have assisted the individuals
> involved to consolidate their own faith along with that of many friends in the
> communities they visited. The Counsellors, in collaboration with National Spiritual
> Assemblies and assisted by Continental Pioneer Committees, contributed significantly
> to the stimulus and support of many artistic endeavours.
> 
> Arts in the Five Year Plan
> 
> The Five Year Plan ushers in a new stage in our efforts to promote the arts in
> the life of the Cause. As with all other aspects of the expansion and consolidation
> work, the requirements of the time call on us to be more systematic in the use of the
> arts. They should not be considered simply an embellishment to our programs or an
> afterthought in our planning. Rather they must become an integral part of our
> teaching plans and community life. The arts have a vital role to play in the process of
> entry by troops.
> 
> A natural channel through which the friends can express their artistic talents
> and sentiments is the study circle. At this critical juncture, when promotion of the arts
> needs to be more systematic in approach and more grassroots in its focus, we are
> fortunate to have the material presented on this subject in Book 7 of the Ruhi Institute
> curriculum. In this book, the unit "Promoting the Arts at the Grassroots" explains
> how an appreciation of beauty is one of the spiritual forces that lifts us to higher
> realms of existence. To strengthen this power of attraction it is beneficial for the
> friends to be exposed to various forms of art. Tutors are encouraged to integrate the
> arts into study circles so as to enhance the spiritual development of the friends and
> open avenues for meaningful service. By being a promoter of the arts at the grass
> roots, a tutor opens up "creative channels through which can flow inspiration and the
> force of attraction to beauty.”
> 
> Devotional gatherings can also be greatly enhanced if the arts are integrated
> into such programs. At the beginning of the Four Year Plan, the House of Justice
> stated that devotional gatherings are "essential to the spiritual life of the community";
> they are also a measure "indispensable to large-scale expansion and consolidation."
> Virtually synonymous with devotions in many cultures is the chanting or singing of
> prayers and songs. 'Abdu’l-Bahá said that music is "divine and effective," "the food
> of the soul and spirit." To an individual who was gifted in chanting, He wrote: " I
> pray to God that thou mayest employ this talent in prayer and supplication, in order
> that the souls may become quickened, the hearts may become attracted and all may
> become inflamed with the fire of the love of God!”
> 
> Children's classes represent yet another aspect of community life in which the
> arts should be an essential element. Various forms of music, such as singing and
> 
> playing traditional or contemporary instruments, as well as activities like storytelling,
> drama, dance, drawing, puppetry, and a wide range of crafts, can be introduced into
> classes at all levels. 'Abdu’l-Bahá said that music "has wonderful sway and effect in
> the hearts of children....The latent talents with which the hearts of these children are
> endowed will find expression through the medium of music."
> 
> As activities begin to be organized at the level of clusters, yet another arena will
> present itself for utilizing the arts. Artistic expression, such as music and drama, in
> reflection meetings, cultural events, and other gatherings will quicken the hearts,
> enabling them, as 'Abdu’l-Bahá wrote, to "become inflamed with the fire of the love of
> God." When non-Bahá’í artists are invited to share their talents at such events, they
> too come into contact with the compelling spirit of the Faith.” (The International
> Teaching Centre, 5 November 2001, to the Continental Boards of Counsellors)
> 
> The guidance is unmistakably clear, detailed, and binding on all, whether we have
> professional or even amateur artists in our cluster or not. As to the how, there are no clear-
> cut recipes. The circumstances, the conditions, the culture, the human resources of each
> community or cluster are unique and call for creative responses. The institutions will need
> to identify the divers talents and put them to good use. The tutors will have to stop using
> excuses like “I’m not an artist – I don’t even like arts -, so I just skip that part in my
> group…” The artists in the community will have to think of ways of making themselves
> available and finding their usefulness within the channels outlined in the foregoing
> guidance. And the community will have to come to view all manifestations of art produced
> in its midst – whether communal, amateur or professional – as an essential and integral part
> of their very community life.
> 
> Creating new folklore
> 
> This is something new that is required from us on an unprecedented scale and surely
> if we could all share the growing body of our experiences in different parts of the world it
> would be very beneficial to the learning process. I, for one, submit to you, for what they are
> worth, some of my amazing experiences in different communities of the African Diaspora
> that I summarized in an article in the hope that they may be of some use to you even to the
> degree of a mustard seed.
> 
> New LORE – New FOLK = New Folklore
> MUSIC IN THE INSTITUTE PROCESS
> 
> Moonlit night in a wide clearing in front of the Bahá’í Center in Kambalua, in the
> jungles of Upper Suriname. Heini, the local Saamaka tutor and myself sit in the heart of a
> tightly packed circle of kids, junior youth, young mothers with suckling babes, elderly
> women, young men and elderly men (in this order). The two of us are tirelessly playing the
> traditional apinti and apuku drums, and the multitude around us is singing at the top of their
> voices: Haika, baa! Mbei du ma no mbe wöutu bisi yu. (Say, O brethren! Let deeds, not
> words, be your adorning). The kids started it half an hour ago. The drums and the singing
> drew as a lodestone virtually the whole village into the growing circle around us. More and
> more people learn the song and join in. They keep on singing, ever more vigorously, and
> wouldn’t let us, poor drummers, stop.
> 
> This “hit song” was composed by a group of junior youth of a Study Circle three
> villages downriver barely five days ago, a previous stopover of our teaching trip among the
> Saamaka Bush Negroes of the Upper Suriname. Two other villages since then already
> learned it and added a composition each. The group in Kambalua learned all three and
> added their own contribution, another song in traditional music style, to Bahá’u’lláh’s
> selected quotes in Ruhi Book 1 in their mother tongue. I and my African drum served
> 
> merely as catalysts in starting and encouraging this process, recording on a cheap cassette
> recorder the new repertory being created, so that other communities could learn it. This
> process, simple as it looks, is nothing short of CREATING NEW FOLKLORE.
> 
> Folklore, Shoghi Effendi says, is the expression of a people. A people, however, is
> not a static entity. By law it must change: decay or grow.
> 
> The Creative Word of God for today is the single most potent agency to empower
> people to grow.
> 
> The Institute Process is at present the best channel for effecting individual and
> collective transformation organized around a carefully sequenced group study of the Sacred
> Word.
> 
> The Sacred Word can only release its transforming power if it is planted in the very
> heart of the culture of a people. “It is here, at the very heart of a culture that the process of
> the transformation of a people begins.” (Letter dated 21 August 1994 from the International
> Teaching Centre to all Continental Counsellors).” Hence the importance and urgency,
> stressed time and again by the Universal House of Justice and the International Teaching
> Centre, of an integral, systematic and grass roots focused use of the arts as an essential part
> of the Institute process.
> 
> Let me stress again: it was not this lowly servant who performed such an outburst of
> musical creativity among the Saamaka: it was their own grass roots youth, participants of
> the Study Circles. I only took the lid off the pressure cooker. The fire heating the cooker
> was Bahá’u’lláh’s Words, teachings, and love.
> 
> In some communities you’ll find specially gifted individuals who would
> spontaneously compose music to express their newly found faith, knowledge and love of
> Bahá’u’lláh. But my experience is that every group of youth, without expression, can be
> successfully induced to make collective compositions to the quotes you give them. Toward
> the end of a two-week intensive training course on drumming and related arts for tutors and
> participants of Study Circles at the Regional Institute in Salvador, Brazil, I split up the
> twenty odd participants into four groups, wrote Bahá’u’lláh’s Hidden Word “O friend! In
> the garden of thy heart plant naught but the rose of love…” on the board (in Portuguese, of
> course), broken down as if it were a poem or lyrics for a song, and gave them all the task to
> scatter in the spacious green area surrounding the institute and collectively compose music
> to these words, in any of the traditional, typical Bahian music styles. Each group took along
> one or two drums, a pandero, an agogo or a birimbao to help shape the rhythm. After about
> an hour and a half we all gathered together and each group presented its composition to the
> rest: four very different and equally beautiful compositions were born that day, within their
> distinctive musical identity! I had just walked around from group to group, encouraging
> them with eager sympathy. That’s all a tutor has to do: to be a promoter: “By being a
> promoter of the arts at the grass roots, a tutor opens up ‘creative channels through which
> can flow inspiration and the force of attraction to beauty.’ (Letter dated 5 November 2001
> from the International Teaching Centre to all Continental Counsellors).”
> 
> By so doing, we are not only enriching and deepening the collective learning and
> transformation process which is at the core of Study Circles, but also performing an urgent
> task of “cultural ecology”. Shoghi Effendi says that “Music, as one of the arts, is a natural
> cultural development... (Shoghi Effendi, Directives from the Guardian, p. 49).” However,
> this natural cultural development has been interrupted and all but effaced by the
> omnipresent multinational media onslaught of our consumer society: the music thus carried
> to the farthest corners of the globe is not the expression of a people any people but
> manipulation from a giant industry which tends to level to uniformity the rich cultural
> diversity we Bahá’ís have a Divine mandate to preserve. To offset the cultural erosion
> brought by globalization as practiced today, a conscious, sustained effort, resting on
> principle, must be brought to bear, and Bahá’ís, though not alone in this enterprise, should
> be at the forefront of the battle for the preservation of the diversity of cultural identities as
> essential building blocks of a future global civilization as envisaged by Bahá’u’lláh. That’s
> why “The House of Justice supports the view that in every country the cultural traditions of
> the people should be observed within the Bahá'í community as long as they are not contrary
> to the Teachings. (Letter of the Universal House of Justice dated 16 December 1998,
> regarding traditional practices in Africa).”
> 
> On the other hand, the prevailing, world-engulfing “MTV culture” of our times not
> only threatens cultural diversity, but spreads what Shoghi Effendi called “the prostitution of
> the arts.” “Even music, art, and literature, which are to represent and inspire the noblest
> sentiments and highest aspirations and should be a source of comfort and tranquility for
> troubled souls, have strayed from the straight path and are now the mirrors of the soiled
> hearts of this confused, unprincipled, and disordered age (Letter of the Universal House of
> Justice dated 10 February 1980 to the Iranian believers residing in various countries
> throughout the world).” In the face of this trend “…the House of Justice feels that one of
> the great challenges facing Bahá'ís everywhere is that of restoring to the peoples of the
> world an awareness of spiritual reality…One of the distinctive virtues given emphasis in
> the Bahá'í Writings is respect for that which is sacred…Bahá'ís endowed with artistic talent
> are in a unique position to use their abilities, when treating Bahá'í themes, in such a way as
> to disclose to mankind evidence of the spiritual renewal the Bahá'í Faith has brought to
> humanity through its revitalization of the concept of reverence (Letter dated 24 September
> 1987 on behalf of the Universal House of Justice to an individual. Compilations, The
> Importance of the Arts in Promoting the Faith).”
> 
> So in our work promoting the arts at the grass roots we should reach back to those
> layers of the culture that are still untouched by modern contamination. “At the most
> profound depth of every culture lies veneration of the sacred. Efforts to advance the Faith
> in rural areas, then, are most successful when the sacred in the culture of the villagers is
> identified and they are assisted in transferring their loyalty and allegiance to the Faith,
> placing Bahá’u’lláh and His Covenant at that sanctified core of their universe .” (Letter
> dated 21 August 1994 from the International Teaching Centre to all Continental
> Counsellors).”
> 
> This “sanctified center of their universe”, of course, is easier to identify and plug
> into where traditional religions are still preserved and practiced. Such is the case of the
> native American religions and the African religions of the Americas (santería, vodoun,
> 
> winti, candomble). In these religions the medium of “theology”, so to speak, are the arts,
> especially music, dance and drama. Here, arts are not reduced to mere hedonistic and trivial
> entertainment, but preserve their primary sacred, spiritual and community building nature
> and function. This fact makes the music and dance modes preserved in these deeply
> religious cultures especially appropriate to be used as preferential “raw material” in the
> institute process which revolves around Bahá’u’lláh’s Words, instead of the prevalent
> fashionable pop music styles. When brought into the Faith, however, they undergo a
> process of selection, adaptation and synthesis: that is, while preserving their original
> association with the sacred, they grow and develop into something much greater and more
> universal.
> 
> As a one time tatan’ganga (high priest) in the Afro Cuban Congo religion, I feel
> especially privileged and graced by Bahá’u’lláh’s bounty that allowed me to help the
> friends in West Africa, Haiti, Honduras, Suriname, French Guyana and Brazil free their
> rightful African spiritual and cultural heritage from centuries-old prejudice and
> discrimination on the part of the dominant Western cultures and incorporate it into the
> Bahá’í Faith through the Institute process. I was moved to tears when I saw a representative
> of the National Spiritual Assembly of Haiti state with pride in a television interview: “We
> are Bahá’ís, but we are also Haitians and Bahá’u’lláh teaches us to preserve our cultural
> identity, and vodoun is definitely part of Haitian cultural identity.” To say this publicly in
> Haiti takes a lot of courage. This very friend, at the time of my first teaching trip to Haiti,
> would vehemently deny any association with, nay, even any knowledge of vodoun and its
> rich treasure house of music, dance, drama and visual arts. Let there be no
> misunderstanding: this change of heart is not my merit. It’s all there in the Writings and the
> spirit of our Faith. We only have to look, hearken and heed.
> 
> There is, in my experience, an additional benefit to this “cultural ecological”
> approach in the promotion of the arts at the grass roots in the institute process: it can offset
> and counterbalance the apparent uniformity of the institute courses that have been adopted
> in the entire Bahá’í world and ensure that the Faith becomes culturally embedded into every
> community and is not perceived as something foreign. The International Teaching Center is
> aware of those concerns and even reticence I myself have encountered in some quarters
> regarding the Ruhi courses: “Gradually most national communities around the world
> adopted for their basic sequence of courses the Ruhi Institute curriculum, which had been
> developed over many years specifically in response to large-scale expansion. In light of the
> focus and energy being devoted to furthering the institute process in every national
> community, concerns were expressed by some believers about the emphasis on training and
> the use of a uniform curriculum. In such a wide-scale enterprise of taking great numbers of
> friends through a set curriculum, it is to be expected that some individuals might not find
> the materials suited to their learning style.” (from the document arranged by the
> International Teaching Centre, Building Momentum: A Coherent Approach to Growth)
> 
> I found that by bringing those cultural ingredients that a systematic use of the
> community arts imply, into the ways we deliver these courses, these fears and perceived
> obstacles can easily be surmounted. Those Saamaka villagers from the Upper Suriname
> who memorized the Ruhi book quotes by singing them in their own music, certainly didn’t
> feel threatened by any undue imposition from outside. They were creating their own new
> 
> folklore from the powerful new “lore” (knowledge, wisdom) enshrined in the Teachings of
> Bahá’u’lláh, on their way, from their own roots, to become a new “folk” (people), part of
> the promised “new race of men.”
> 
> (Note: you may have noticed that some of the quotes cited in the above article have
> already been mentioned before. Some will surely come up later, too. Those are the issues
> that I, personally, cannot overemphasize. Forgive me if I’m being too persistent.)
> 
> Wildfire
> A call for
> from the
> sponsors
> stage
> 
> My Afro Colombian drums are set up at the front of the stage, ready to speak forth.
> Behind them, arranged in a semicircle, are some more African and Native American drums,
> Native American flutes, a Chinese violin called erhu, an Iranian violin, a classical violin, a
> Scottish bagpipe, two state-of-the-art keyboards, an electric bass, electric and acoustic
> guitars and a drum set… In front of them, neatly arranged rows of seats in the Auditorium
> of Nevada University. Behind those, a huge mixing console of a professional sound system.
> Backstage in the greenroom ten professional musicians from China, Iran, Colombia,
> Hungary, Scotland, Guatemala and the United States, plus a sound engineer and the road
> manager, are anxiously awaiting the magic moment: it’s showtime!
> 
> This is a far cry from that other scenario in the village center where you just start
> drumming (unplugged, of course!) and the whole village quickly gathers for a spontaneous,
> collective musical proclamation and teaching event… For one thing, this one is immensely
> more complex and demanding on resources: human as well as material.
> 
> The Embrace the World Spring 2004 Tour was a Bahá’í road show that brought
> together top-notch musicians from East and West, North and South: singer-songwriters
> Leonor Dely and KC Porter, Chinese erhu virtuoso Lin Chen and Iranian master violinist
> 
> Farzad Khozein with Millero Congo as backing band, put them all, plus the crew, into a
> tour bus specially designed for the purpose and took them on a 28 day marathon to perform
> in 20 cities of 11 States in the United States and Canada. This memorable feat required
> long months of careful preparation from our multi-Grammy Award winner music producer
> KC Porter, the sponsoring Malibu JD Local Spiritual Assembly, the host communities and
> their institutions. And a lot of money! The bus rental alone cost USD 600 a day. Then the
> plane tickets for the musicians, from Beijing, Budapest, Cartagena. Then food and hotel
> rooms, posters and flyers, venues and sound equipments to hire. Although the artists
> involved obviously did not seek material gains with this proclamation/teaching tour, they
> also needed compensation for lost earnings to pay their bills at home. It is a lot of money
> we are speaking about, even seeking to economize on everything in the customary Bahá’í
> fashion. However, it was money well spent, worth the while, according to the evaluation by
> all communities and institutions involved. For one thing, the preparation and coordination
> of the events mobilized entire communities, some of them otherwise dormant. For another,
> the concerts and the subsequent firesides reached more than ten thousand souls directly and
> at least double that many indirectly, through publicity in the press, radio and television. All
> the interested seekers in the wake of the concerts were then immediately invited to the core
> activities going on in each community. The public success of the concerts was so
> overwhelming that many an organizer in the host communities exclaimed: If we had known
> it was going to be this good, we would have made much greater publicity!
> 
> I’m telling you about this here because it illustrates two facts and brings up a
> sensitive issue that we cannot possibly put off facing much longer.
> 
> Both facts are expressed by Shoghi Effendi in the following oft quoted passages:
> 
> “That day will the Cause spread like wildfire when its spirit and teachings are
> presented on the stage or in art and literature as a whole. Art can better awaken such
> noble sentiments than cold rationalizing, especially among the mass of the people.”
> 
> And: “the progress and execution of spiritual activities is dependent and
> conditioned upon material means”, in other words, you cannot start that wildfire without
> someone putting up the money required.
> 
> The related sensitive issue is the sponsorship or patronage of the arts in the Bahá’í
> Cause.
> 
> Patronage of the arts is one thing; patronage of the artist is another. About the latter,
> the Universal House of Justice clearly states:
> 
> "The patronage of artists and their life in art, while important in itself, is not a
> stated goal of the Cause in its current unfoldment, any more than the support for
> believers practicing medicine or working in agriculture, worthy as these fields are in
> themselves." (June 2001 written on behalf of the Universal House of Justice, quoted in the International
> Teaching Centre’s Letter on the Arts)
> 
> This is a very wise stance, even admitting that it has always been much more
> difficult and risky for an artist to make a living in his profession than for a doctor or a
> farmer, and it is even more so today when entertainment entirely replaced arts and culture
> in the media and hence in public opinion. However, as someone who grew up in a
> communist regime which heavily subsidized arts and patronized its own choice artists I can
> testify that the kind of material security that comes from institutional patronage has
> unsavoury strings attached to it. I’d much rather be a skinny free man than a fell fed
> slave… The creative artist, by definition, treads the roads least travelled, ventures into
> uncharted territory, and from the outset he can have no absolute guarantee that he’ll get
> anywhere. But of one thing a Bahá’í artist can be sure: his sincere, pure hearted, selfless
> efforts to serve the Faith with his art, however inadequate, will always meet the good-
> pleasure of his Beloved, and, ideally, of his community as well.
> 
> On the other hand, the above quoted letter of the International Teaching Centre goes
> on to say that the growing emphasis on the arts and on the use of the work of Bahá’í artists
> does require efforts from the institutions and the Cause as such to facilitate the efforts of
> Bahá’í artists to use their talent in service to the Faith. Now that through the twin
> movements of the Institute process and the cluster core activities we are out to reach the
> critical mass of the people around us, it is increasingly urgent, I feel, to bring our artists and
> their work “out of the closet”, on to the stage, radio, television, music stores, bookstores,
> exhibition halls, etc. To go public, so to speak.
> 
> And that, as we all know, takes some professional organizing, promotion, publicity
> and money. Which, in my opinion, does not have to come from the institutions or from the
> always overstretched Bahá’í funds. I can envisage instead a growing and ever more
> effective collaboration between individual Bahá’í artists, producers, promoters, managers,
> PR people, entrepreneurs and investors setting up business ventures to take outspokenly
> Bahá’í arts to millions of people. Openly engaged arts and artists rocking the world have
> recent historical precedents in the late sixties, early seventies of the 20th century: American
> rock and country music against the Vietnam War, for Civil Rights, the Nueva Trova
> Cubana, the tropicalismo movement in Brazil, the protest songs of Mercedes Sosa in
> Argentina or Violeta Parra in Chile, early salsa in New York, progressive jazz and fusion,
> etc. The last of these great “artists with a cause” was Bob Marley. We, Bahá’í artists have a
> far greater and more revolutionary Cause then any before. Let us not be shy about it. Let us
> come forward. Let us be “the ones who, before the gaze of the dwellers on earth and the
> denizens of heaven, shall arise and, shouting aloud, acclaim the name of the Almighty,
> and summon the children of men to the path of God, the All-Glorious, the All-
> Praised.” (Bahá’u’lláh, Gleanings from the Writings of Bahá’u’lláh, p. 280)
> 
> For our shout to be heard, though, we need daring and dedicated sponsors, who
> cannot shout themselves, so they generously deputize the shouters. Especially those in the
> poor and underdeveloped four-fifth of the world in the South, where neither the artists nor
> their communities have the means to develop and show their work.
> 
> Lessons
> 
> In the course of my successive teaching trips as drummer resource person to help
> and encourage Bahá’í youth and communities in the use of their traditional arts for the
> work of the Cause, I have learned many an important lesson. Those were indeed more like
> learning trips than teaching trips for me.
> 
> The first important lesson I learned early on in Africa and one that radically changed
> my outlook and approach was the universal community involvement in the use of the arts –
> especially drumming, singing and dancing – in every Bahá’í event and activity: the grass
> roots focus that later the International Teaching would hold up for the whole world
> community to follow. The question to be posed from now on was not how artists can make
> arts to be used in and for the Cause (although this question will never use its validity) but
> how grass roots communities can create and cultivate the arts and gradually generate a
> native Bahá’í culture.
> 
> Although the “main dish” of my assignments was to teach the kids at institute
> trainings the basics of drumming, encourage them to learn and preserve their folklore,
> ensure through contacts with local master drummers that they will be able to continue their
> apprenticeship after I leave, encourage and organize repertory building and collective
> compositions, I did, from the beginning, include “theory” in the curriculum: relevant Bahá’í
> teachings and Writings. Through confrontation with my pupils’ questions, concerns, blind
> spots, and also with the larger community’s varying and often conflicting views, tastes and
> prejudices, about what constitutes the “correct” arts, expressions of reverence, acceptable
> religious background, for Bahá’ís, as well as with the inevitable, pervasive and subtle
> influence of the decadent society that surrounds us all with its prostitution of the arts and
> cultural erosion, this body of “theory lessons” began to grow.
> 
> It was not always easy. At that time, many a respected member of the communities,
> oftentimes pioneers or native intellectuals raised by white-dominated Western education,
> 
> would find African drums, Native Indian flutes and rattles, traditional spiritual dances,
> African religious temperament, or manifestations of modern big-city youth culture, outright
> incompatible with the name of Bahá’u’lláh, let alone His Words. So I had to dig deeper and
> wider into the Writings, the Interpretation and the Authoritative Guidance. Thanks to our
> strong and impregnable Covenant, we don’t have to abide by any personality’s strongly
> held feelings and views, no matter how respectable and eminent they may be; “the Book
> itself is the unerring balance established amongst men. In this most perfect balance
> whatsoever the peoples and kindreds of the earth possess must be weighed…”
> (Bahá’u’lláh, Gleanings, p. 198) We only have to search and look hard. The Universal
> House of Justice has commissioned and published wonderfully comprehensive
> compilations on Music, on the Importance of the Arts, on Arts, on Cultural Diversity, on
> Traditional African Practices, on Indigenous Peoples, etc. Whatever we need to know is in
> there.
> 
> I organized my very personal selection of quotes from the Writings and authoritative
> guidance around those topics that I felt are most urgent and important to deal with as a
> result of successive and ongoing investigation-action-reflection with training institutes and
> cluster core activities in those flesh-and-blood communities I have had the privilege to
> serve in a modest way. Although my experiences were gained in African cultural context
> both in Africa and the New World, the universal nature of the quotes and principles
> expressed make for a general application in any culture.
> 
> The lessons presented here deal with the performing arts: music, drama and dance.
> On the one hand, these are the art forms that I worked with on my teaching assignments.
> On the other, they are art forms that are practiced collectively, in groups, not individually,
> so they are especially fitted for study circles, children’s classes and devotional meetings.
> Not for a moment do I think, however, that all the other avenues of artistic expression - the
> visual arts, literature, handicrafts etc. – are not of the same value and usefulness in our
> Bahá’í work as the performing arts. “All art is a gift of the Holy Spirit.” (‘Abdu’l-Bahá)
> 
> Although it has been successfully used in parts as study material at Institute
> trainings in a number of communities, this is not a course. It is simply an organized
> sequence of reflections on some issues related to music, drama and dance in the Bahá’í
> community at the present stage of its development, and it can be used in any way any
> individual or institution deems it fit. However it is best if studied and consulted in a group
> of the friends. While all the quotes cited are authoritative and thus binding, the rest is
> merely an individual Bahá’í artist’s understanding of them and their implications.
> 
> LESSON ONE: THE IMPORTANCE OF MUSIC
> 
> “In this Cause the art of music is of paramount importance.” Abdul’-Bahá (1)
> 
> 1.   For what Cause is music of paramount importance?
> 2.   What does the expression paramount importance mean?
> 3.   In your opinion, why is music so important for Bahá’ís?
> 4.   In your community, do the friends use music? In what ways?
> 
> Music – and musicians – can certainly make a difference. As Abdu’l-Bahá recalled:
> 
> “The Blessed Perfection, when He first came to the barracks (Acca) repeated
> this statement: ‘If among the immediate followers there had been those who could
> have played some musical instrument, or could have sung, it would have charmed
> every one.’” ("Table Talk" Acca, July 1909, quoted in "Herald of the South" (January 13,
> 1933), pp. 2-3)
> 
> Music has such a high rank in the Bahá’í Faith that Bahá’u’lláh Himself dedicates
> a whole paragraph to it in His Most Holy Book, The Kitab-i-Iqan, the Book of His Laws for
> no less than the next thousand years. Part of the paragraph defines for us the nature and
> purpose of music:
> 
> “We, verily, have made music as a ladder for your souls, a means whereby they
> may be lifted up unto the realm on high; make it not, therefore, as wings to self and
> passion.” (2)
> 
> 1. Who has made music as a ladder for our souls?
> 2. For what part of our being is music intended?
> 3. In your own words, what does it mean to be lifted up unto the realm on high?
> 4. What should be lifted up unto the realms on high by means of music?
> 5. On a ladder we can ascend or descend, go up or go down. If we choose bad music,
> where will our souls descend?
> 6. What does the expression wings to self and passion mean? Think of examples related to
> music.
> 7. What kind of music can give wings to self and passion?
> 
> LESSON TWO: GOOD, NEUTRAL, AND BAD MUSIC
> 
> We have learned that music is a means that can be used for good as well as evil. It is
> like a ladder on which our souls may go upwards into light or descend into darkness.
> 
> Bahá’u’lláh expects each of us to know the difference: “man should know his
> own self and recognize that which leadeth unto loftiness or lowliness, glory or
> abasement…” (3) Today, in an age of advanced technology in telecommunications and
> mass media, more than ever before, music of every variety is increasingly being showered
> upon us. It is our responsibility to be selective, to choose.
> 
> To see it graphically, draw a horizontal line which represents the floor. Then draw
> two ladders or two flights of stairs from that line: one going up, another going down.
> 
> Let’s say that the dividing line, the ground floor, is neutral: 0
> 
> The steps going upward are increasingly positive: +
> 
> The steps leading downwards are increasingly negative: --
> 
> Any piece of music that we hear or perform falls within one of these areas of value:
> it is either good (+), that is, it uplifts our spirit, or neutral (0), it is neither harmful nor
> beneficial; or it is bad, harmful (-) and can seriously endanger our spiritual health.
> 
> How can we tell the difference? Can we say that some specific musical forms in
> themselves are good or bad? Rock music? Salsa? Reggae? Romantic music? Pop music?
> Blues? Jazz? Our own music or imported music?
> 
> It is not the genre that defines the spiritual value of a given art form. It is rather the
> artistic quality of the form and above all, the nature of its contents. In other words: what
> does it say? And how is it said? Abdu’l-Bahá gives us the clue, the standard:
> 
> “The song we have just listened to was very beautiful in melody and words.”
> (4)
> 
> So we have to pay close attention when we listen to music, and watch out for the
> beauty or lack of beauty of the form, and the message that the lyrics convey.
> 
> Group discussion: randomly tune to any radio station in your locality that plays
> music, choose a song, listen carefully, then reflect and analyze together: was the melody
> beautiful? What did the lyrics say? What was it about? Does it belong to the positive, the
> negative or the neutral range of our “musical ladder”?
> 
> Unfortunately, much of the music being poured out of the music industry and
> diffused by the mass media in many parts of the world today is of poor quality, both in
> 
> form and message. Bahá’u’lláh made reference to this loss of people’s sense of taste more
> than a hundred years ago:
> 
> “Methinks people’s sense of taste hath, alas, been sorely affected by the fever of
> negligence and folly, for they are found to be wholly unconscious and deprived of the
> sweetness of His utterance”. (5)
> 
> 1.   What is our sense of taste?
> 2.   What has happened to most people’s sense of taste nowadays?
> 3.   In Bahá’u’lláh’s words, what is the cause of people’s bad taste?
> 4.   What does Bahá’u’lláh mean by the phrase His utterance?
> 
> In view of the prevailing bad taste and even prostitution in the arts, Shoghi Effendi
> warns Bahá’ís, and especially the youth, to be on guard: “Such a chaste and holy life,
> with its implications of modesty, purity, temperance, decency, and clean-mindedness,
> involves no less than the exercise of moderation in all that pertains to dress, language,
> amusements, and all artistic and literary avocations. …It condemns the prostitution of
> art and of literature…” (6) The Universal House of Justice clarified that the phrase
> prostitution of arts and literature means using the arts and literature for debased ends.
> 
> Can you give a few examples of the prostitution of arts in our society today?
> Consult together.
> 
> In some religious communities, joy, exultation and music are considered ungodly
> and wayward. Bahá’u’lláh in His Book of Laws frees us from such fetters of fanaticism,
> but also exhorts us to moderation:
> 
> “We have made it lawful for you to listen to music and singing. Take heed,
> however, lest listening thereto should cause you to overstep the bounds of propriety
> and dignity. Let your joy be the joy born of My Most Great Name, a Name that
> bringeth rapture to the heart, and filleth with ecstasy the minds of all who have drawn
> nigh unto God.” (7)
> 
> We should bear in mind that propriety and dignity are universal human qualities but
> the manner in which they are outwardly expressed varies from culture to culture.
> 
> Complete the sentences:
> 
> 1. God allows us to _____________ _____ ____________ ___ ___________
> 2. We must be careful to preserve our ________________ and ________________ while
> listening to music.
> 3. We should be joyous and happy out of love for __________________________
> 4. When we offer up our hearts and minds wholly to God, we are filled with
> ___________________ and _________________.
> 
> LESSON THREE: BAHÁ’Í MUSIC?
> 
> Before we go into this lesson, answer this question: Is there such a thing as Bahá’í
> Music?     Yes ______ No________
> 
> Let us hear what Shoghi Effendi has to say about this:
> 
> “Music, as one of the arts, is a natural cultural development, and the Guardian
> does not feel that there should be any cultivation of ‘Bahá’í Music’ any more than we
> are trying to develop a Bahá’í school of painting or writing. The believers are free to
> paint, write and compose as their talents guide them. If music is written,
> incorporating the sacred writings, the friends are free to make use of it, but it should
> never be considered a requirement at Bahá’í meetings to have such music. The further
> away the friends keep from any set of forms, the better, for they must realize that the
> Cause is absolutely universal, and what might seem a beautiful addition to their mode
> of celebrating a Feast, etc., would perhaps fall on the ears of people of another country
> as unpleasant sounds, and vice versa. As long as they have music for its own sake it is
> all right, but they should not consider it Bahá’í music.” (8)
> 
> “We believe that, in the future, when the Bahá’í spirit has permeated the world
> and profoundly changed society, music will be affected by it; but there is no such
> thing as Bahá’í music.” (9)
> 
> Complete the sentences:
> 
> 1. Over the centuries, the divers peoples and cultures of the world have developed a great
> diversity of musical forms and styles; this is the meaning of the phrase ‘music is a
> _______________ _________________ ____________________.
> 2. Bahá’u’lláh has come to unite all the peoples, races, nations of the earth; this is the
> meaning of the phrase the Cause is _____________ _____________.
> 3. We should have music for _____ ________ ________ in our meetings.
> 4. There is no such thing as _____________ _______________.
> 
> Consult together: what kind of music do the friends enjoy at Bahá’í meetings in your
> region, community, locality? What kind of music would they consider unpleasant?
> 
> LESSON FOUR: UNITY IN DIVERSITY
> 
> Although, in Shoghi Effendi´s words, the friends are free to compose music as their
> talents guide them, there are also strong indications in the Writings that the starting point,
> the first step on the positive side of the ladder, should be each region’s own traditional
> music, its folklore or popular music:
> 
> “Music… has grown up as an expression of the people.” Shoghi Effendi (10)
> 
> “At the level of folk art, this possibility can be pursued in every part of the
> world, whether it be in villages, towns or cities.” The Universal House of Justice (11)
> 
> “It is here, at the very heart of a culture, that the process of the transformation
> of a people begins.” International Teaching Centre (12)
> 
> 1. Make a list of the traditional and popular music forms of your region.
> 2. Sing together some of the folklore music of your region that you like best.
> 3. If you come from different regions of the country or from different countries, show and
> if possible, teach your traditional music one to another.
> 
> As Bahá’ís, we are called upon to appreciate and preserve our own cultural identity:
> 
> “Bahá’ís should obviously be encouraged to preserve their inherited cultural
> identities, as long as the activities involved do not contravene the principles of the
> Faith. The perpetuation of such cultural characteristics is an expression of unity in
> diversity.” The Universal House of Justice (13)
> 
> 1. What is meant by our inherited cultural identity?
> 2. When we become Bahá’ís, should we break with all the customs and traditions of our
> ancestors? Why or why not?
> 3. Are there some cultural practices of our ancestors that we should definitely NOT
> continue as Bahá’ís? ______ Give some examples.
> 4. To perpetuate means to __________________________
> 
> When we accept Bahá’u’lláh and become Bahá’ís, we enter into an all-embracing
> brotherhood with all peoples, races, kindred and nations. We must learn to respect and love
> the culture of others as we do our own, yet we still identify with our own kindred, race or
> nation and even acquire a greater respect and love for our cultural identity.
> 
> “The goal of every Bahá’í community is the preservation of ethnic cultural
> diversity in the context of a harmonious, equal interaction.” Craig Loehle (14)
> 
> 1. To preserve means to ____________________________.
> 2. The great variety of music of the different peoples and races is part of ________
> __________________ diversity, and must be ______________.
> 
> 3. Interaction is to give and receive. If we have nothing to give, how can we interact with
> others as equals?
> 4. The music of my people is better than that of another’s. True ___ False _____
> 5. The music from abroad is superior to ours. True___ False___
> 
> LESSON FIVE: COMMUNAL MUSIC
> 
> In regard to performing or creating music, there are two levels:
> 
> Communal music in which all of us can participate without exception; and
> 
> The music of specialists performed by professional or amateur artists with special
> musical gifts and studies.
> 
> Both levels are equally important and necessary to the Bahá’í community. However,
> since (1) communal music is the soil out of which the artists grow, (2) universal
> participation is one of the principles of our Faith, and (3) we do not always have artists
> among us in our local communities, we will focus more on the communal level of music
> here.
> 
> In order to make use of music in all our Bahá’í events and gatherings, we should not
> be dependent upon the presence or absence of artists among us. We are all artists; we are all
> musicians by birthright. Music is a gift from God to every human being and God has
> provided each of us with a natural musical instrument: our body - our voice, our hands and
> feet. Not only that: our environment, wherever we live, is full of all kinds of objects that
> can easily be used as improvised musical instruments, from a simple laurel leaf to plastic
> water tanks.
> 
> In his book The Revelation of Bahá’u’lláh, Adib Taherzadeh tells the story of Mirzá
> Abbás, known as Qábil, one of the outstanding believers and teachers in the times of
> Bahá’u’lláh. “He was a zealous and enthusiastic man, a poet of remarkable talent, a teacher
> of wide repute and, above all, devoted to Bahá’u’lláh. His enthusiastic spirit, coupled with
> his deep love for Bahá’u’lláh, cheered and uplifted the believers whom he met on his way.
> They would gather to meet him and he would often request them, whenever circumstances
> permitted, to chant in unison certain Tablets or poems of Bahá’u’lláh which lent themselves
> to collective chanting, and he would teach them to sing together. … Qábil had a certain
> genius for clapping his hands to accompany their songs of love and praise. Where greater
> freedom prevailed, a homemade drum was a welcome accompaniment to his chant of love
> for Bahá’u’lláh.” (15)
> 
> 1. In the above description of collective music, which component is the most important?
> 2. How did those friends accompany their collective singing?
> 
> For group discussion:
> 
> Make the following experiment.
> 
> Together choose any song that everybody knows.
> 
> First, play it on a recording (cassette, CD). Everybody listens, sitting in silence.
> Then, one person sings it, while the rest listen in silence.
> 
> Afterwards, everybody sings it in unison, but still sitting, with no accompaniment.
> Then, everybody stands up, sings together in unison, clapping hands to keep time and
> moving along with the natural rhythm of the song. Finally, the same is repeated, but adding
> one or two volunteers from the group to accompany the collective song with a drum
> (improvised if necessary) and with some shaker (maracas or a small tambourine or a bottle
> or can filled with pebbles), or any other improvised percussion instrument.
> 
> Now sit down, recall and talk about the feelings you experienced in each of these
> modes of relating to music. Which did you enjoy the most? Why?
> 
> LESSON SIX: SACRED MUSIC
> 
> The highest step on the ladder of music is sacred music, the music of worship where
> we “try to bring the earthly music into harmony with the celestial melody.”(Abdu´l-
> Bahá) The focal point of this “mystical link that unites man to God” is the Sacred Word,
> the Word of God, often compared to music, to melody, by Bahá’u’lláh and Abdu’l-Bahá.
> 
> “They who recite the verses of the All-Merciful in the most melodious of tones
> will perceive in them that with which the sovereignty of earth and heaven can never
> be compared. From them they will inhale the divine fragrance of My worlds – worlds
> which today none can discern save those who have been endowed with vision through
> this sublime, this beauteous Revelation. Say: These verses draw hearts that are pure
> unto those spiritual worlds that can neither be expressed in words nor intimated by
> allusion.” Bahá’u’lláh (16)
> 
> 1.   What are the verses of the All-Merciful?
> 2.   Is it permissible to sing the prayers revealed by Bahá’u’lláh or Abdu’l-Bahá?
> 3.   When we do this, what will we perceive in them?
> 4.   What will we inhale from these prayers sung in the most melodious of tones?
> 5.   None can ___________ these worlds today except those who have been ______
> 6.   ____________ with vision.
> 7.   Who are those that have been endowed with vision?
> 8.   Do the verses of God attract every heart?
> 9.   Singing these verses with the most melodious of tones allows us to feel the spiritual
> worlds better than through ___________ or _____________ alone.
> 
> The Word of God for today is Bahá’u’lláh. Abdu’l-Bahá encouraged the friends to
> set His Father’s Persian poems to music:
> 
> “The day is not far distant when these poems will be set to Western music and
> the sweet accents of these songs will reach the Abhá Kingdom with exceeding joy and
> gladness.” (17)
> 
> What emotions, then, should characterize our sacred music, our music for worship?
> Exceeding joy and gladness, joy and ecstasy! Our soul should leap for joy!
> 
> “Strike up such a melody and tune as to cause the nightingales of divine
> mysteries to be filled with joy and ecstasy.” Abdu’l-Bahá (18)
> 
> “Wherefore… play and sing out the holy words of God with wondrous tones in
> the gatherings of the friends, that the listener may be freed from chains of care and
> sorrow, and his soul may leap for joy and humble itself in prayer to the realm of
> Glory.” Abdu’l-Bahá (19)
> 
> Consult together about how we can make our worship (devotional meetings,
> devotional part of the 19 Feast, etc.) conform more and more to these standards of
> exceeding joy, gladness and ecstasy set for us by Abdu’l-Bahá.
> 
> LESSON SEVEN: CULTURE AND RELIGION
> 
> The spiritual need to worship God is a universal characteristic of man, but the ways
> to give expression to this need vary greatly from culture to culture, from one spiritual
> tradition to another. Sometimes, unconsciously, we take it for granted that everybody
> should worship God in the same manner as we do.
> 
> “There is a tendency to feel that other peoples' cultures are less refined than
> one's own. This feeling is confirmed when contact with another people is superficial.
> But whenever those from outside penetrate another culture and discover its depth and
> subtleties, they develop an attitude of genuine respect for the people. At the most
> profound depth of every culture lies veneration of the sacred. Efforts to advance the
> Faith in rural areas, then, are most successful when the sacred in the culture of the
> villagers is identified and they are assisted in transferring their loyalty and allegiance
> to the Faith, placing Bahá'u'lláh and His Covenant at that sanctified core of their
> universe.” (Letter dated 21 August 1994 from the International Teaching Centre to all
> Continental Counsellors).
> 
> 1. What attitude should Bahá’ís take towards the culture of other peoples?
> 2. What do we find in the innermost heart of every culture?
> 3. What happens if we do not pay attention to the sacred within the culture of the people
> we are teaching?
> 4. When will the rural cultures feel deeply identified with and loyal to the Faith?
> 
> 5. As Bahá’í teachers, why are we advised to take interest in the culture of the people we
> are called upon to serve?
> 
> Let us always bear in mind that Bahá’u’lláh has come to every nation, people, race
> and culture of the earth, to the followers of every religion, including the so called
> traditional or indigenous religions whose Founders appeared either in prehistoric times or
> among peoples that knew no writing. Each and all must be helped to feel and understand
> that the Revelation of Bahá’u’lláh is “the highest essence and most perfect expression” of
> their own spiritual traditions:
> 
> “The highest essence and most perfect expression of whatsoever the peoples of
> old have either said or written hath, through this most potent Revelation, been sent
> down from the heaven of the Will of the All-Possessing, the Ever-Abiding God.”
> Bahá’u’lláh (21)
> 
> Complete the sentence:
> 
> The Bahá’í Faith is the highest ________________ and most perfect
> _______________ of whatsoever the peoples _____ _______ have either _______ or
> _______________ .
> 
> Among the followers of Traditional Religions who have no scriptures, the arts take
> on an added significance, being the only means of religious expression: music, dance,
> drama, tales and legends, proverbs, painting, sculpture embody their teachings and
> theology. Bahá’ís coming from this religious background should be encouraged to use their
> traditional religious art forms to give beautiful and heart-felt expression to their new faith
> in, and love for, the Manifestation of God for this day. At the same time, however, they
> should come to understand and accept without compromise the implications of the fact that
> in our Faith there is no place for rituals, animal sacrifices, offerings, religious statues or
> images, ceremonial narcotic substances, that intervene between God and man.
> 
> 1. Are you familiar with, or do you know of, any Traditional Religion, different from the
> Major Religions (Judaism, Christianity, Islam, Hinduism, Zoroastrianism, Buddhism,
> Taoism, Sikhism)? ____ Which?
> 2. Do you think it is appropriate to accompany Bahá’í prayers with African drums or
> Amerindian flutes? _____ Give your reasons.
> 3. Do you think dance can be part of a devotional meeting or the devotional part of a 19
> Day Feast? ____ Give your reasons.
> 
> This is the guidance given to us by the Universal House of Justice: “There is no
> objection to the interpretation of a prayer in the form of movement or dance if the
> spirit is properly reverential, but preferably this should not be accompanied by
> reading the words.” (22)
> 
> In many cultures dance is inseparable from worship and is sometimes carried out in
> a highly emotionally charged atmosphere, in pursuit of rapture. The pursuit of rapture or
> ecstasy, a state of oblivion of oneself and of soaring on the wings of the spirit towards
> nearness to God, has an important place in the Revelation of Bahá’u’lláh. His as well as
> Abdu’l-Bahá’s repeated and explicit references to it should be taken more to heart as our
> new “Bahá’í culture” gradually evolves and finds new and higher levels of expression:
> 
> “Whosoever experienceth the holy ecstasy of worship will refuse to barter such
> an act or any praise of God for all that existeth in the world.” Bahá’u’lláh (23)
> 
> Consult together about the meaning of the holy ecstasy of worship and its
> implications for the way we conduct our Bahá’í worship (devotional meetings, devotional
> part of the 19 Day Feast).
> 
> LESSON EIGHT: IN ALL BAHÁ’Í GATHERINGS
> 
> On what occasions should we make use of music in the course of our Bahá’í life and
> work? Shoghi Effendi states:
> 
> “The element of music is, no doubt, an important feature of all Bahá’í
> gatherings.” (24)
> 
> 1. What is music for all Bahá’í gatherings?
> 2. In what kind of Bahá’í gatherings have you participated?
> 3. In which of those gatherings have the friends made use of music, either recorded or
> live?
> 
> The Universal House of Justice also stresses:
> 
> “Inasmuch as the spirit of our gatherings is so much affected by the tone and
> quality of our worship, of our feeling and appreciation of the Word of God for this
> day, we would hope that you would encourage the most beautiful possible expression
> of the human spirits in your communities, through music among other modes of
> feeling.” (25)
> 
> 1. What factors affect the spirit of our gatherings?
> 2. What do you understand by “the tone and quality of worship”?
> 3. By what means can we contribute to the most beautiful expression possible of the
> human spirit in our communities?
> 
> “In accordance with our Teachings, music and the arts are to be encouraged,
> and they add immeasurably to the vitality and spirit of the community.” The
> Universal House of Justice (26)
> 
> 1. In accordance with the Bahá’í Teachings, what should we do with music and the arts?
> 2. How do music and the arts affect the vitality and spirit of our community?
> 3. If the vitality and spirit of our Bahá’í community is low, can we expect others to be
> attracted to Bahá’u’lláh?
> 4. Besides music, what other arts could be used to increase the vitality and spirit of our
> community, and in what ways?
> 
> The guidance given to us by the Universal House of Justice clearly shows that the
> music and arts we encourage within our community should grow out of our own cultural
> identity:
> 
> “The Faith seeks to maintain cultural diversity while promoting the unity of all
> peoples. … The House of Justice supports the view that in every country the cultural
> traditions of the people should be observed within the Bahá’í community as long as
> they are not contrary to the Teachings.” (27)
> 
> LESSON NINE: MUSIC AS A TEACHING TOOL
> 
> “… the arts are powerful instruments to serve the Cause…” The Universal
> House of Justice (28)
> 
> “… the friends are also asked to give greater attention to the use of the arts, not
> only for proclamation, but also for the work in expansion and consolidation. The
> graphic and performing arts and literature have played, and can play, a major role in
> extending the influence of the Cause.” Ibid. (29)
> 
> 1. What do the arts represent for those who are serving the Cause (year of service youth,
> tutors of Study Circles and junior youth groups, children’s class teachers, etc.)?
> 2. In what fields of teaching should we employ the arts?
> 3. What are the performing arts?
> 4. How can the use of arts affect the spread of our Cause?
> 
> As to proclamation, Shoghi Effendi promised us:
> 
> “The day will come when the Cause will spread like wildfire when its spirit and
> teachings will be presented on the stage or in art and literature as a whole. Art can
> better awaken such noble sentiments than cold rationalizing, especially among the
> mass of the people.” (30)
> 
> 1. How does wildfire spread?
> 2. When will the Faith of Bahá’u’lláh spread like wildfire?
> 3. How can the arts accelerate the process of entry by troops?
> 
> To give the Message:
> 
> “It is the music which assists us to affect the human spirit; it is an important
> means which helps us to communicate with the soul. The Guardian hopes that
> through this assistance you will give the Message to the people, and will attract their
> hearts.” On behalf of Shoghi Effendi (31)
> 
> 1. Music helps us to affect the human _________, to communicate with the ___________
> and to attract the ________________.
> 2. Can only artists, musicians give the Message through music?
> 3. Consult together and rehearse a small presentation to teach the concept of the unity of
> the human race with the aid of music, dance, drama and recital of quotations.
> 
> Children’s classes:
> 
> “The art of music is divine and effective. It is the food of the soul and spirit. …
> It has wonderful sway and effect in the hearts of children, for their hearts are pure,
> and melodies have great influence in them. The latent talents with which the hearts of
> these children are endowed will find expression through the medium of music.
> Therefore, you must exert yourselves to make them proficient; teach them to sing with
> excellence and effect.” Abdu’l-Bahá (32)
> 
> 1. The art of music is a gift from God: this is the meaning of the word __________
> 2. The art of music gives good results: this is the meaning of the word __________
> 3. It is the food of the _________ and ________________.
> 4. Music helps develop the ___________ talents with which the ___________ of the
> children are ________________.
> 5. Abdu’l-Bahá instructs the teachers of children’s classes and tutorial schools to
> ______________________________________________________________.
> 6.
> 
> Junior Youth Groups and Study Circles:
> 
> It is also very important for us to use music, along with other arts, in our work with
> junior youth and Study Circles. The following are some of the benefits we can derive from
> using music:
> 
> •    It enhances the sense of belonging and group cohesion;
> •    it strengthens identity, both Bahá’í and cultural;
> •    it brings down barriers and creates affection, unity, harmony;
> •    “the souls and the hearts of the pupils become vivified and exhilarated and their
> lives brightened with enjoyment” (Abdu’l-Bahá);
> •    this makes our junior youth and youth groups, including Study Circles, much
> more attractive to their peers and their numbers will not dwindle, but will grow;
> 
> •   the medium of the arts, especially music and drama, is very effective in
> reinforcing the same topics, concepts, skills and capacities dealt with in the
> Institute course we are teaching;
> •   through the medium of the arts, the participants of the Study Circles not only learn
> more readily, but can also teach the Faith as one of their acts of service, giving
> public presentations of what they have learned, to their relatives, friends and
> neighbors;
> •   As with the children, music, traditional dance, drama and stories can work
> wonders in bringing out the talents and creativity latent within the hearts of the
> junior youth and youth. The tutor has only to encourage his or her students at
> every opportunity, with sincere love, interest and insistence, so that they
> participate in the collective composition of music, choreography and drama on the
> subjects and quotes they are learning. The results may surpass their wildest
> dreams!
> 
> Finally, may these words of Abdu’l-Bahá spur us on to give the arts, especially
> music, in our Bahá’í work and life the high rank and importance so explicitly accorded to
> them in our Teachings:
> 
> “The art of music must be brought to the highest stage of development, for this
> is one of the most wonderful arts and in this glorious age of the Lord of Unity it is
> highly essential to gain its mastery.” (33)
> 
> Does Abdul-Bahá mean by this that now we all have to become highly
> accomplished professional musicians? No: He demands excellence from us in all things.
> We must strive to gain mastery of our music-making, no matter at what level we are doing
> it, whether communal, amateur or professional. Practice makes the master: at the communal
> level, if we live in societies that have long lost the habit of collective singing, for example,
> then it takes some pushing and perseverance to overcome the initial frightening cacophony
> that emerges when we try to sing together. It is my experience that even without any formal
> vocal training, just by insisting on doing it again and again until it becomes a habit, we will
> end up with very pleasant, harmonious results. Excellence at our level, within our
> limitations, that’s what Abdu’l-Bahá means by mastery.
> 
> Notes
> 
> 1.  Bahá’í Writings on Music, The Bahá’í Publishing Trust, England, 1973, p.8
> 2.  Bahá’u’lláh, Kitab-I-Aqdas, K51
> 3.  Bahá’u’lláh, Tablets, p.35
> 4.  In “The Importance of the Arts in Promoting the Faith”, a compilation of the
> Research Department of the Universal House of Justice, Bahá’í World Centre,
> 1998,(UHJ), p.6, quote 21
> 5. Bahá’u’lláh, Tablets, pp.174-74
> 6. UHJ, p.7, quote 25
> 7. Bahá’u’lláh, Kitab-i-Aqdas, K51
> 8. UHJ, pp.10-11, quote 38
> 9. UHJ, p.11, quote 41
> 10. ibid.
> 11. UHJ, p.22, quote 69
> 12. International Teaching Centre, letter dated August 21 1994
> 13. Memorandum Concerning Cultural Practices, p.1
> 14. Craig Loehle, On the Shoulders of Giants
> 15. Adib Taherzadeh, The Revelation of Bahá’u’lláh
> 16. Bahá’u’lláh, Kitab-í-Aqdas, K116
> 17. UHJ, p.3, quote 8
> 18. ibid., quote 11
> 19. ibid., p.4, quote 14
> 20. International Teaching Centre, letter dated August 21 1994
> 21. Bahá’u’lláh, Tablets, p.87
> 22. UHJ, p.20, quote 63
> 23. In “The Importance of Obligatory Prayer and Fasting” compiled by the Research
> Department of the Universal House of Justice, Bahá’í World Centre, 2000, p.3,
> quote III.
> 24. UHJ, p.94, quote 34
> 25. Ibid., p.12, quote 44
> 26. Ibid., p.16, quote 58
> 27. The Universal House of Justice in “Concerning Cultural Practices”, p.2, quote 2
> 28. UHJ, p.15, quote 53
> 29. Ibid., p.21, quote 69
> 30. Ibid., p.8, quote 30
> 31. Ibid., p.9, quote 31
> 32. Ibid. p.6, quote 21
> 33. Ibid., p.3, quote 9
> 
> LESSON ONE: A GREAT EDUCATIONAL POWER
> 
> “An actor once commented to Abdu’l_Bahá about the influence of drama. Abdu’l-
> Bahá replied: ‘Drama is of the utmost importance. It has been a great educational
> power in the past; it will be so again.’ He described how as a young boy He had
> witnessed the Mystery Play of Alí’s Betrayal and Passion, and how it had affected him so
> deeply that he wept and could not sleep for many nights.” (1)
> 
> Complete the sentence:
> 
> _________ is of the utmost ________________. It has been a great
> _________________ ________________ in the past; it will be so again.
> 
> After many years Abdu´l-Bahá remembered an experience He had had as a young
> boy with a drama performance. What effects did it have on Him?
> 
> Consult together: why and how is drama a great educational power?
> 
> In the above passage Abdu’l-Bahá says that drama has been a great educational
> power in the past and it will be so again in the future. This means it is not so today. Drama,
> together with all other art forms, is now in a state of deep crisis and decadence:
> 
> “Even music, art, and literature, which are to represent and inspire the noblest
> sentiments and highest aspirations and should be a source of comfort and tranquility
> for troubled souls, have strayed from the straight path and are now the mirrors of the
> soiled hearts of this confused, unprincipled, and disordered age.” The Universal
> House of Justice (2)
> 
> 1. What purpose should the arts (music, drama, visual arts, literature, etc.) serve?
> 2. What have they become today?
> 3. Explain in your own words the meaning of “this confused, unprincipled, and disordered
> age”. Think of telling examples.
> 
> Consult together: what forms of drama do you get to see more often? Theatre? The
> movies? Television? TV dramatizations? Pictures? What do you think of these
> presentations: are they “a great educational power” or “mirrors of soiled hearts”? Give your
> reasons.
> 
> Just as we have to be critical and careful about the music we choose to listen to, we
> must also screen and select from the dramatic presentations offered by the media, to protect
> our hearts from becoming inadvertently soiled as well.
> 
> “The standard of dignity and reverence set by the beloved Guardian should
> always be upheld, particularly in musical and dramatic items…” The Universal House
> of Justice (3)
> 
> LESSON TWO: THE TEACHINGS ON THE STAGE
> 
> Besides being more critical and careful as Bahá’ís with what we “consume” from
> the menu of dramatic items our environment has to offer, how do the performing arts
> concern us as tutors of the Institute process? Since drama has a great educational power, we
> should make an active use of it as one of our working tools.
> 
> In its Ridvan Messages the Universal House of Justice has time and again exhorted
> us to make use of the tremendous potentialities of the arts, in particular the performing arts
> (music, drama, dance):
> 
> “Expand the use of music and drama in your proclamation and teaching
> work…” (4)
> 
> “… the friends are also asked to give greater attention to the use of the arts, not
> only for proclamation, but also for the work in expansion and consolidation. The
> graphic and performing arts … have played, and can play, a major role in extending
> the influence of the Cause.” (5)
> 
> How can the performing arts help extend the influence of the Cause? Just imagine:
> if the most famous singers, musicians and songwriters, the movie and TV stars and
> scriptwriters were Bahá’ís, how many people could they reach with the Message?
> 
> It is not our job to take by assault the bastions of show business, the music industry,
> MTV and Hollywood. These are but superstructures of the old world order and will fall and
> disintegrate together with it. Our task is to build “the new house for all mankind” from the
> ground, laying its very foundations. This is what the hundreds and thousands of Study
> Circles are doing around the world. And it is precisely here that we must “expand the use of
> music and drama”.
> 
> Shoghi Effendi promised us many decades ago:
> 
> “The day will come when the Cause will spread like wildfire when its spirit and
> teachings will be presented from the stage… Art can better awaken such noble
> sentiments than cold rationalizing, especially among the mass of the people.” (6)
> 
> Complete the passage:
> 
> The day will come when the ________ will _______ like _________ when its
> 
> __________ and __________ will be presented from the _________ … Art can better
> awaken such _________ ___________ than _______ rationalizing, especially among the
> _______ of the _________ .
> 
> Consult together: why do you think the arts can influence people’s hearts better than
> cold rationalizing? Give examples.
> 
> LESSON THREE:
> 
> THE PROHIBITION OF REPRESENTING THE MANIFESTATIONS OF GOD
> 
> “As to your question concerning the advisability of dramatizing Bahá’í historic
> episodes: the Guardian would certainly approve, and even encourage the friends to
> engage in such literary pursuits which, no doubt, can be of immense teaching value.
> What he wishes the believers to avoid is dramatizing the personages of the Báb,
> Bahá’u’lláh and Abdu’l-Bahá, that is to say treating them as dramatic figures, as
> characters appearing on the stage. This, he feels, would be quite disrespectful. The
> mere fact that they appear on the scene constitutes an act of discourtesy which can in
> no way be reconciled with their highly exalted station. Their message, or actual words,
> should be preferably reported and conveyed by their disciples appearing on the
> stage.” On behalf of Shoghi Effendi (7)
> 
> 1.   Is it permissible to represent the History of the Faith on the stage?
> 2.   What personages of the Faith cannot be represented on the stage? Why?
> 3.   Can personages like Quddús, Mullá Husayn or Táhirih appear on the scene?
> 4.   What do you think: would it be advisable to represent Shoghi Effendi?
> 5.   Many Christians represent each year the Passion of Jesus Christ at Easter, with actors in
> the role of Jesus. Are Bahá’ís allowed to do that?
> 
> “Your understanding that the portrayal of the Báb and Bahá’u’lláh in works
> of art is forbidden is correct. The Guardian made it clear that this prohibition refers
> to all the Manifestations of God… However, there can be no objection to symbolic
> representation of such Holy Figures, provided it does not become a ritual and that the
> symbol used is not irreverent.” The Universal House of Justice (8)
> 
> 1. In addition to the Báb, Bahá’u’lláh and Abdu’l-Bahá, who else should we avoid
> representing either by images or by actors on the stage? Give at least five names.
> 2. If we want to dramatize the concept of Progressive Revelation, how could we represent
> the Holy Figures of Past Dispensations?
> 3. What is meant by “symbolic representation”?
> 
> “Regarding the use of symbolism in art, the following extract from letters
> written to individuals by the House of Justice may provide the answer you seek: ‘We
> see no objection to the use of natural phenomena as symbols to illustrate the
> significance of the three Central Figures, Bahá’í Laws, and Bahá’í Administration;
> and we also appreciate the suitability of using visual symbols to express abstract
> concepts.’” The Universal House of Justice (10)
> 
> Here is a beautiful example of the rich symbolism that Bahá’u’lláh so often uses to
> hint at the mysteries of Progressive Revelation:
> 
> “This is the Ocean out of which all seas have proceeded, and with which every
> one of them will ultimately be united. From Him all the Suns have been generated,
> and unto Him they will all return. Through His potency the Trees of Divine
> Revelation have yielded their fruits, every one of which hath been sent down in the
> form of a Prophet, bearing a Message to God's creatures in each of the worlds whose
> number God, alone, in His all-encompassing Knowledge, can reckon.”
> ( Gleanings from the Writings of Bahá’u’lláh, p. 104)
> 
> Bahá’u’lláh uses a language very rich in metaphors and symbols taken from the
> world of Nature to describe spiritual realities. The Manifestations of God are frequently
> referred to as the Sun of Reality, Luminary, Tree of Life, Divine Lote Tree, Nightingale of
> Paradise, Royal Falcon, etc.
> 
> The question in point is no less than that of respect for the sacred which, while still
> very much alive in many traditional societies wrongly called “primitive”, has all but
> disappeared from our modern “civilized” world. Reflect and consult together on the
> following passage from the Universal House of Justice:
> 
> “… the House of Justice feels that one of the great challenges facing Bahá’ís
> everywhere is that of restoring to the peoples of the world an awareness of spiritual
> reality. Our view of the world is markedly different from that of the mass of mankind,
> in that we perceive creation to encompass spiritual as well as physical entities, and we
> regard the purpose of the world in which we now find ourselves to be a vehicle for our
> spiritual progress.
> 
> … One of the distinctive virtues given emphasis in the Bahá’í Writings is
> respect for that which is sacred. Such behaviour has no meaning for those whose
> perspective on the world is entirely materialistic, while many followers of the
> established religions have debased it into a set of rituals devoid of true spiritual
> feeling.
> 
> … Bahá’ís endowed with artistic talent are in a unique position to use their
> abilities, when treating Bahá’í themes, in such a way as to disclose to mankind
> evidence of the spiritual renewal the Bahá’í Faith has brought to humanity through its
> revitalization of the concept of reverence.
> 
> Questions of artistic freedom are not germane to the issues raised here. Bahá’í
> artists are free to apply their talents to whatever subject is of interest to them.
> However, it is hoped that they will exercise a leadership role in restoring to a
> materialistic society an appreciation of reverence as a vital element in the achievement
> of true liberty and abiding happiness.” The Universal House of Justice (10)
> 
> In our treatment and use of the arts within Study Circles, how can we balance and
> harmonize respect for the sacred, the concept of reverence, and artistic freedom? Consult
> together.
> 
> LESSON FOUR: TWO WAYS OF MAKING THEATRE
> 
> “To make theatre, all that is required is someone to do it and someone to watch it.”
> (11) The stage is any space that these two parties tacitly assign for the dramatic event to
> take place.
> 
> Taking this minimal definition as a starting point, there are two ways for us to make
> theatre as part of our teaching and consolidation work in the Faith:
> 
> Stable theatre group (Drama workshop)
> 
> This mode, similar in structure to the popular Dance Workshops, has for its manifest
> aim the setting up and running of a stable company of actors (amateurs in most cases),
> working out a repertory of stage plays and making public presentations to proclaim the
> teachings and principles of the Faith. Its other goal, not necessarily expressed but no less
> important, is the collective study of the Sacred Word as an integral part of the training of
> the group. This mode of making theatre requires persons with a calling for the dramatic
> arts, to become directors and actors. The director and his actors must aspire to achieve a
> fairly high standard of technical and artistic perfection, and need to work hard and for a
> sustained length of time toward this goal.
> 
> Drama workshops, if you have the somewhat specialized human resources to
> establish them, can prove to be an extremely useful and attractive strategy for teaching the
> Faith especially among city youth, in schools and universities.
> 
> Community theatre
> 
> This mode simply means the use of drama in and by the community as a whole,
> with universal participation of all its members, as another means among several others, to
> enhance the tutor’s work with his Study Circle (children, junior youth and youth, women’s
> group, etc.). Here we are more concerned with the learning process than with artistic
> quality, and neither the tutor nor the participants need any special stage experience, calling
> or interest. This strategy aims more at teaching and consolidation than proclamation.
> 
> The benefits of working with drama, at any level and in any mode, are many, and
> flow as much from the group to the outside as within the interior of the group itself. Its
> effects on the outside world are those that Shoghi Effendi has pointed out: by the means of
> the arts we can reach the hearts of our audiences better than with cold rationalizing. A
> dramatic performance, an artistic event draws more people than a talk.
> 
> On the other hand, participation in activities of performing arts, which are collective
> by nature, exerts a powerful effect on character building and individual and collective
> transformation. “The skills that will be developed by an individual working as a member of
> such a group will include creativity, cooperation, communication and concentration, as well
> as the ability to listen, compromise, contribute and take initiative. Making theatre at
> whatever level is a terrific learning tool for anyone who works or lives as part of a team,
> which includes most of us.” Hahlo-Reynolds (12)
> 
> LESSON FIVE: DRAMA IN STUDY CIRCLES
> 
> Of the two ways of making theatre described in the previous lesson, it is the
> communal theatre with universal participation that is of interest to us here.
> 
> Again, there are two levels on which we can use this form of drama in our work:
> 
> • Dramatization as a learning strategy of the Institute Courses being studied
> by the group;
> • Drama pieces to be presented by the group to outside audiences.
> 
> Dramatization as a learning tool:
> 
> An ancient Chinese proverb says: I hear and I forget. I see and I remember. I do and
> I understand.
> 
> Suppose your Study Circle is studying Ruhí Book One. Take the very first quote by
> Bahá’u’lláh:
> 
> “The betterment of the world can be accomplished through pure and goodly
> deeds, through commendable and seemly conduct....”
> 
> You study this quote with your group in the established manner: explaining the
> meaning of the words, consulting and reflecting together, completing the exercises in the
> book, after which you ask the participants to memorize the quote. When this step is
> reached, you tap the latent reservoir of artistic creativity in the group by leading and
> organizing them to set music to this same quote (collective composition). One way to
> proceed is this:
> 
> You write the quote on the board broken down into phrases like poetry. For
> example:
> 
> The betterment of the world
> 
> Can be accomplished
> 
> Through pure and goodly deeds,
> 
> Through commendable
> 
> And seemly conduct.
> 
> Now have your group all stand up, establish a steady tempo by marching in place
> and clapping hands on the beat. When that is clear and firm and precise, have them repeat
> in chorus the above quote phrasing it like poetry, making pauses when the rhythm requires.
> If you wish you can repeat a phrase twice to make it more musical. While repeating over
> and over again, start raising the pitch (not the volume!) of your voices above the level of
> ordinary speech, to the stage of chanting. At this point – without ever stopping the process
> – encourage anyone in the group to come up with a melody to the rhythmically chanted
> poem. The best melody that emerges from this collective creation is adopted and learned by
> the group, adding it to their repertory of songs of Bahá’í identity. Besides enriching the
> growing body of community music available to the group, this method also serves to
> reinforce memorization of the words at a deeper, easier and more lasting level.
> 
> Now, after seeing and hearing, let us raise the learning process to the stage of doing:
> play acting.
> 
> Divide your Study Circles in smaller groups, of three to four participants each.
> 
> Before breaking up into teams you explain to them that they have to work out a
> drama skit about the verities enshrined in the above quote: that is, how can the betterment
> of the world be accomplished? Why does the world need betterment at all? What kind of
> deeds and conduct do we, here and now, have to show so that the world around us (our
> family, our school, our neighborhood, our community) becomes better? Make clear that
> they have to start out from their concrete, familiar, everyday experiences. Also recommend
> that they avoid simplistic, “Deus ex machina” solutions, where at the critical moment one
> of the actors would say: Bahá’u’lláh says that… and by an act of instant miracle everybody
> and everything becomes perfect. Tell them to think in terms of real life. Now you give a
> definite time limit (fifteen minutes, half an hour) for the teams to prepare their
> improvisations (avoid writing down their lines). Then you reassemble your Circle and have
> each team present their performance. Each skit should be analyzed by the whole group in
> loving consultation, but never criticized, belittled or ridiculed. Our aim here is collective
> learning.
> 
> This kind of exercise in drama improvisation allows the participants to relate the
> universal, abstract concepts of the quote they have been studying, to the concrete and
> particular circumstances of their everyday lives, and see the practical relevance of the
> Teachings. On the other hand, this kind of activity is thrilling, challenging, amusing and
> greatly contributes to strengthening the bonds of fellowship and harmony within the group.
> As dramatization becomes a regular feature of the Study Circle sessions, the self esteem
> and self confidence of the participants will increase by discovering the creative talents
> latent within them.
> 
> Plays for public presentation
> 
> At a later, more consolidated stage of our Study Circle we can prompt the
> participants to accomplish more complex challenges of drama improvisation: the group as
> whole may be guided to create, in joint consultation with the tutor, a more demanding piece
> of drama about aspects of the Teachings: a quality like truthfulness, a principle like the
> equality of men and women or unity in diversity. After rehearsing it, they may want to
> present it at some public event or offer it to parents and friends, to a school, at a gathering
> of Study Circles, at a 19 Day Feast, or as part of a teaching activity the group may
> undertake as an act of service to the community. Such a collective enterprise and the
> unfailingly positive response to it by outsiders will do much to enhance the sense of group
> identity. Moreover, it is a powerful tool for proclamation, teaching and consolidation.
> 
> Notes:
> 
> 1. Published in Abdu´l-Bahá in London (Oakham Bahá’í Publishing Trust, 1987, p. 93)
> 2. The Universal House of Justice, compilation “The Importance of the Arts In Promoting
> The Faith (referred to as UHJ henceforth), 1998, N° 50, p. 14
> 3. UHJ, N° 43, p 12
> 4. Ridvan Message to Africa, 1996, paragraph 13
> 5. UHJ, N° 69, pp. 21-22
> 6. ibid.
> 7. UHJ, N° 35, p. 10
> 8. UHJ, N° 45, p. 12
> 9. UHJ, N° 59, p. 17
> 10. UHJ, N° 60, p. 18
> 11. R. Hahlo – P. Reynolds: Dramatic Events, p. 21
> 12. ibid., p. 20
> 
> LESSON ONE: DANCE WITH OVERFLOWING EMOTIONS
> 
> “Lo, the Nightingale of Paradise singeth upon the twigs of the Trees of
> Eternity, with holy and sweet melodies, proclaiming to the sincere ones the glad
> tidings of the nearness of God…” Bahá’u’lláh (1)
> 
> If the Revelation of Bahá’u’lláh is music, the response of the contingent world to it
> is dance:
> 
> “In the Holy Books a promise is given that the springtime of God shall make
> itself manifest; Jerusalem, the Holy City, shall descend from heaven; Zion shall leap
> forth and dance; and the Holy Land shall be submerged in the ocean of divine
> effulgence.” Abdu’l-Bahá (2)
> 
> Answer these questions:
> 
> 1.   In the above quote by Bahá’u’lláh, who is the “Nightingale of Paradise”?
> 2.   What are those “holy and sweet melodies”?
> 3.   In Abdu’l-Bahá’s words, how will Zion receive the glad tidings of the nearness of God?
> 4.   What emotion is expressed by the metaphor “Zion shall leap and dance”?
> 
> The most direct, contagious and evident physical expression of the emotions of
> extreme happiness, joy, exultation, ecstasy, and celebration is dancing:
> 
> “Take the cup of the Testament in thy hand; leap and dance with ecstasy in the
> triumphal procession of the Covenant!” Abdu’l-Bahá (3)
> 
> “Today, to this melody of the Company on high, the world will leap and dance:
> 'Glory be to my Lord, the All-Glorious!'” Abdu’l-Bahá (4)
> 
> 1. What emotion should fill the hearts of those who have the privilege of having
> recognized Bahá’u’lláh?
> 2. According to Abdu’l-Bahá’s words above, what is the source of our ecstasy and
> overflowing joy?
> 
> Bahá’u’lláh and Abdu’l-Bahá exhort us to convey this same overflowing joy to our
> hearers when we teach the Cause, share its Teachings and give the Message:
> 
> “Indeed expositions and discourses in explanation of such things cause the
> spirits to be chilled. It behoveth thee to speak forth in such wise as to set the hearts of
> true believers ablaze and cause their bodies to soar.” Bahá’u’lláh (5)
> 
> “I ask and supplicate God to make you two convinced souls, to bring you forth
> with such a steadfastness that each of you may withstand the people of a country, and
> 
> to intoxicate you with the wine of the love of God so that you may cause your hearers
> to dance, to be joyful and to exult.” Abdu’l-Bahá (6)
> 
> 1. Bahá’u’lláh warns us that if we speak only to the rational mind of our hearers when we
> teach, their ___________ will be chilled.
> 2. The words of a Bahá’í teacher should affect the heart as well as the body of his hearer.
> How?
> 3. One condition of effective teaching is for us to be intoxicated with the love of God.
> What does that mean?
> 4. When we are intoxicated with the love of God, how will our words affect our hearers?
> 
> In summary: in the Writings of Bahá’u’lláh and Abdu’l-Bahá, dance is associated
> with the expression of emotions of overflowing happiness and joy, of ecstasy and
> intoxication with the love of God, with His Word. Dance is a universal human
> manifestation of celebration:
> 
> “…celebrate ye in joy, dance with overflowing emotions…” Abdu’l-Bahá (7)
> 
> LESSON TWO: TO DANCE OR NOT TO DANCE?
> 
> In stark contrast to the spiritual and sacred nature assigned to dance in the Writings
> of the Faith, dancing in our modern materialistic and decadent culture has gradually
> degenerated into a socially accepted form of sexual promiscuity, vulgarity and
> pornography, closely linked to the consumption of alcohol and other drugs. The practice of
> this kind of dancing has no place in our lives as Bahá’ís:
> 
> “In the teachings there is nothing against dancing, but the friends should
> remember that the standard of Bahá’u’lláh is modesty and chastity. The atmosphere
> of modern dance halls, where so much smoking and drinking and promiscuity goes
> on, is very bad, but decent dances are not harmful in themselves. There is certainly no
> harm in classical dancing or learning dancing in school… The harmful thing,
> nowadays, is not the art itself but the unfortunate corruption which often surrounds
> these arts. As Bahá’ís we need avoid none of the arts, but acts and the atmosphere that
> sometimes go with these professions we should avoid.” Shoghi Effendi (8)
> 
> 1. Is dancing permissible for Bahá’í youth?
> 2. Is it appropriate for Bahá’í youth to go to discotheques? Give your reasons.
> 3. What does “promiscuity” mean?
> 4. Is it permissible for Bahá’í youth to have a dance party let us say for someone’s
> birthday?
> 5. What do “modesty and chastity” mean when applied to our manner of dancing?
> 
> 6. Consult together: what would you consider indecent dancing? What is decent dancing?
> What is the difference between the two?
> 7. Analyze together: what kind of dancing is propagated in the media – television, video
> clips, musical shows - ? Decent or indecent? Edifying? Harmless? Harmful?
> 
> Dance has been a very popular form of entertainment in our Western culture for
> many centuries, an integral part of every festive meeting or social gathering. There is no
> reason for Bahá’í youth to be deprived of wholesome entertainment and diversion as long
> as they heed the Guardian’s words of caution:
> 
> “Such a chaste and holy life, with its implications of modesty, purity,
> temperance, decency, and clean-mindedness, involves no less than the exercise of
> moderation in all that pertains to dress, language, amusements, and all artistic and
> literary avocations. It demands daily vigilance in the control of one's carnal desires
> and corrupt inclinations. It calls for the abandonment of a frivolous conduct, with its
> excessive attachment to trivial and often misdirected pleasures.” Shoghi Effendi (9)
> 
> LESSON THREE: DANCE AS AN ART FORM
> 
> Dance is far more than a mere pastime or entertainment. It is a form of art. It is
> deeply imbedded in people’s culture and their expression of the sacred.
> 
> Traditional dances (folklore)
> 
> “...traditional dances associated with the expression of a culture are
> permissible in Bahá’í Centres. However, it should be borne in mind that such
> traditional dances generally have an underlying theme or a story being represented.
> Care must be exercised to ensure that the themes of such dances are in harmony with
> the high ethical standards of the Cause and are not portrayals that would arouse base
> instincts and unworthy passions....” The Universal House of Justice (10)
> 
> True or false?:
> 
> 1. It is not permissible to dance in Bahá’í Centres. T__ F__
> 2. It is permissible to perform traditional dances in Bahá’í Centres. T__ F__
> 3. Traditional dances are an expression of a culture. T__ F__
> 4. All traditional dances are appropriate in a Bahá’í Centre. T__ F__
> 5. Some folklore dances, in their present form, arouse base instincts and unworthy
> passions. T__ F__
> 6. We have to select carefully what aspects of our own cultural traditions deserve
> protection and preservation. T__ F__
> 
> Consult together: What traditional dances are there in your region? What is the
> underlying theme or story in each of them?
> 
> The protection and promotion of the cultural identity of every people is one of the
> principles of our Faith, so as Bahá’í teachers or tutors we must take this into account.
> 
> “Much like the role played by the gene pool in the biological life of humankind
> and its environment, the immense wealth of cultural diversity achieved over
> thousands of years is vital to the development of the human race which is
> experiencing its collective coming of age. It represents a heritage that enriches us all
> and that must be permitted to bear its fruit in a global civilization.” Bahá’í
> International Community (11)
> 
> Consult together: why is it important to preserve cultural diversity? Is not the
> “modern culture” of globalization, offered through the media, enough for the future?
> 
> Folklore – says Shoghi Effendi – is the expression of a people. Peoples do not stand
> still: they evolve, change, and progress. So does their expression. The “people of Bahá”
> must become a new people; our cultural expression must also be something new. Bahá’ís
> should go beyond the mere preservation of the cultural traditions of our inherited identities,
> and undertake a process of selection, adaptation, and synthesis. The process of
> transformation of a people, released and fueled by the Creative Word of God for our age -
> the Revelation of Bahá’u’lláh -, begins in the very heart of its culture. The Teachings and
> Words of Bahá’u’lláh, in turn, transform this same culture, by purifying it, strengthening it,
> and making it grow. Each and every people will take upon themselves, as they become
> more and more deepened in the Faith, the task of selection, adaptation and synthesis of the
> best and most progressive features of their culture. This process will yield in time a new
> folklore: a new expression of a transformed people.
> 
> Bahá’í tutors and teachers can do much to start and accelerate this process. On the
> one hand they can and should encourage their Study Circles, Pre-Youth Groups, Children’s
> Classes to cultivate their own cultural traditions, to learn and perform the traditional dances
> of their region. On the other hand, through collective reflection, analysis and consultation
> among their groups, they can identify and modify those negative contents and forms of
> dance that are at variance with the high moral standards of our Cause. We have to bear in
> mind that the general prostitution of the arts so characteristic of our modern society has not
> left the traditional dances unaffected, especially where these have been adapted to the
> tourist entertainment industry.
> 
> Choreographed dances
> 
> Choreography is the art of creating and arranging ballet and dances with a specific
> theme or story.
> 
> “As for choreographed dances whose purpose is to reinforce and proclaim
> Bahá’í principles, if they can be performed in a manner which portrays the nobility of
> such principles and invokes appropriate attitudes of respect or reverence, there is no
> objection to dances which are meant to interpret passages from the Writings;
> 
> however, it is preferable that the motions of a dance not be accompanied by the
> reading of the words.
> 
> The principle which must guide the friends in their consideration of these
> questions is the observance of "moderation in all that pertains to dress, language,
> amusements, and all artistic and literary avocations". The Universal House of Justice
> (12)
> 
> Consult together: how can we observe moderation in the way we dress? In our
> language? In the way we have fun? In the way we make theatre, music, and dance? Give
> concrete examples.
> 
> In recent years a new modality of proclamation and teaching has emerged and
> spread like wildfire among the youth of many parts of the world:
> 
> Dance Workshops. Originating in the United States and Canada, these dance
> Workshops proclaim Bahá’í principles through choreographed dances. The Universal
> House of Justice acknowledged with satisfaction this new development: “involvement of
> youth in music and the arts as a means of proclaiming and teaching the Cause
> distinguished their exertions in many places; the spread of dance and drama
> workshops was particularly effective…” (13)
> 
> Forming drama and dance groups or workshops to “represent the spirit and the
> teachings of the Cause from the stage” requires a group of young people with special
> interest in and calling for these art forms. In other words, we need “specialists” to some
> degree. Nevertheless they are very attractive modes of action for the Bahá’í youth,
> especially in the cities, to draw their peers into the youth movement. However, care should
> be taken that these newly formed dance workshops are not mere carbon copies of their
> North American models. While emulating the original method, discipline, concepts of
> organization, they should create their own choreographies based on the music and dances of
> their region, and addressing social and moral problems that are relevant to their own
> people. Otherwise, we would be adding to the already massive cultural erosion taking place
> in the modern world, which would be contrary to our principle of Unity in Diversity.
> 
> It is not necessary to have major artistic objectives or specialized skills for a Study
> Circle tutor to initiate the first steps towards simple choreographies. Based on the “motion
> vocabulary” of the traditional dances of the region, Bahá’í principles, like equality of men
> and women, unity in diversity, elimination of extremes of poverty and wealth, racism, etc.
> can be expressed. As with the creation of community music and drama, here, too, we can
> safely rely on the latent creativity of our Study Circle participants and the liberating
> bounties conferred by consultation.
> 
> Along with music and drama, dance can be a very useful tool for proclamation,
> teaching and consolidation, as the following report by the Bahá’í International
> Community points out:
> 
> “One noteworthy example is the collaboration between UNIFEM and Bahá’í
> communities in Bolivia, Cameroon and Malaysia, aimed at improving the status of
> rural women by using traditional media, such as music and dance, to stimulate
> village-wide discussion of women’s roles. Messages communicated in this way are
> taken very seriously in non-literate communities, and they provide a non-threatening
> opening for dialogue with the whole community.” (14)
> 
> Practice: team up in couples. Each couple will, independently from the others,
> create a simple choreography about the equality of men and women, using instrumental
> music (live or recorded). A good idea is to first show how women are traditionally treated
> in your society, and then how both sexes should relate according to Bahá’í teachings. No
> spoken words should be used. Then reassemble and each couple present their dance.
> Reflect on and analyze together the performances. Then, as a second step, if time and
> circumstances allow, make a more complex dance-drama together, using the ideas and
> insights gained in the first exercise on the same topic and present it at your closing
> celebration.
> 
> LESSON FOUR: DANCE AND WORSHIP
> 
> In many cultures dance is synonymous with worship, the expression of reverence
> for the sacred. In the history of the Heroic Age of our Faith one finds many examples of
> this devotional use of dance:
> 
> “When one of the victims fell to the ground and they prodded him up with
> bayonets, if the loss of blood which dripped from his wounds had left him any
> strength, he would begin to dance and to cry out with even greater enthusiasm: 'In
> truth, we come from God and unto Him do we return!' "Some of the children expired
> on the way.” Shoghi Effendi (15)
> 
> Even Siyyid Muhammad-i-Isfahani, this “Antichrist of the Bahá’í Revelation”, took
> recourse to dancing as the ultimate sign of his devotion, while trying to disguise his real
> sentiments:
> 
> “Although embarrassed, he arose, and to the amusement of some and the
> amazement of others, performed a dance of rapture in an attempt to dispel their
> suspicion.” Adib Taherzadeh (16)
> 
> In the above descriptions, dance is performed as a public demonstration of what?
> 
> For a great segment of mankind, dance is the primary expression of religious
> feeling, of reverence before the sacred, of devotion and worship. In this context, “dance is
> the meditation of the body”. In the authoritative Writings of the Bahá’í Faith this dimension
> of dance is also recognized as legitimate, along with other means and forms of giving
> expression to our worship, like reading prayers, chanting prayers, singing prayers or
> playing an instrument in prayer:
> 
> “There is no objection to the interpretation of a prayer in the form of
> movement or dance if the spirit is properly reverential, but preferably this should not
> be accompanied by reading the words.” The Universal House of Justice (17)
> 
> What do you think:
> 
> 1. what makes a dance acceptable as “the interpretation of a prayer”?
> 2. would it be appropriate for someone to read a prayer while another is interpreting it
> through dancing?
> 
> “It is perfectly acceptable for a prayer to be interpreted in the form of
> movement or dance. As you know, in many parts of the world there are certain tribal
> and traditional dances which are performed in glorification of God. Just as a
> composer can create a piece of music as a result of inspiration by some passage in the
> Writings, so can a person perform a reverential dance, which is another form of art,
> to interpret a passage from a prayer or from the Writings. However, to avoid that
> such expressions of prayer become gradually ritualized, it is preferable that they not
> be accompanied by reading the words of the prayers.”
> (Letters of The Universal House of Justice, 1994 Mar, Dancing at Feast)
> 
> In secular materialistic Western culture which is now being globalized, this
> dimension of the sacred dance has been lost. It will take time for us to recover it. No doubt,
> the so-called “primitive” societies, where the reverence of the sacred permeates all
> moments of life, have a lot to teach us in this respect.
> 
> Notes
> 
> 1.  Tablet of Ahmad, Bahá’í prayers
> 2.  Abdu’l-Bahá, Promulgation of Universal Peace, p. 38
> 3.  Abdu´l-Bahá in Bahá’í World Faith, p. 351
> 4.  Selection from the Writings of Abdu’l-Bahá, p. 93
> 5.  Tablets of Bahá’u’lláh, p. 142
> 6.  Tablets of Abdu’l-Bahá, vol. 2, p. 320
> 7.  ibid., p. 361
> 8.  Compilation by the Universal House of Justice “The Importance of the Arts in
> Promoting the Faith”, 1998 (henceforth UHJ), N° 42
> 9. UHJ, N° 25
> 10. UHJ, N° 66
> 11. Bahá’í International Community (BIC): Valuing Spirituality in Development, p.
> 12. UHJ, N° 66
> 13. The Universal House of Justice, Ridvan Message 1996
> 14. BIC: Protection of Women’s Rights
> 15. Shoghi Effendi, in Dawn Breakers
> 16. Adib Taherzadeh: Revelation of Bahá’u’lláh, vol. 1, p. 220
> 17. UHJ, N° 63
> 18. Tablets of Bahá’u’lláh, p. 143
> 
> Miscellaneous Reflections
> After all, I’m a drummer. A conga drummer or ethnic hand drummer, to be precise.
> I cannot leave you without sharing some of my reflections and convictions about this
> specific topic of drums, especially the sacred drums, within the Bahá’í Cause. If you
> happen to be a classical violinist who hates drums, just skip the remaining pages.
> 
> WHY DRUMS?
> NINE REASONS TO PLAY DRUMS IN THE BAHÁ’Í FAITH
> 
> “On my last visit you gave me a drum.
> Whenever I am harassed or troubled I go into my room and beat on my drum.
> I hear in it the loving voice of the Bahá’ís of Africa and I am comforted.”
> Amatu’l-Bahá Ruhiyyih Khanum
> 
> This servant has spent more than 35 years in passionate love with hand drumming;
> researching, studying, playing and teaching West African polyrhythmic hand drumming as
> found in the divers musical traditions of The Americas. Ever since he became a Bahá’í 25
> years ago, he has tirelessly been promoting, with his musical family Millero Congo, the use
> of drums in and for the Cause, at all levels of application:
> 
> • at the level of professional musicianship (see CDs Leonor Dely: Amame –
> Palabras Ocultas de Bahá’u’lláh, and Talisman; both published by Insignia Records in
> Los Angeles);
> • at the semiprofessional level (see CDs Construyendo Identidad Bahá’í
> published by the Ruhi Institute in Colombia, Limbo Teeja, published jointly by the
> Friedland Institute of Suriname and the Apinti Institute of French Guyana, Bahá’íti,
> published by the Blackwell Institute of Haiti, and Ilú Bahá, published by the ALBASE
> Regional Institute in Brazil);
> • and most importantly, at the grass roots level within the growing Institute
> Process in many countries of African cultural background (see the Bahá’í World Centre
> document “The Four Year Plan and the Twelve Month Plan, 1996-2001, Summary of
> Achievements”).
> 
> So, understandably, he can be said to have personal, vested interests and passionate
> commitment in this matter.
> 
> Nevertheless, there are also powerful objective reasons and practical considerations
> that speak for the extensive use of drums within the Bahá’í Faith at this moment when “the
> Five Year Plan ushers in a new stage in our efforts to promote the arts in the life of the
> Cause.” (International Teaching Centre). None of these reasons should, however, be
> construed as an attempt to ascribe any inherent superiority to these instruments over any
> other, whether traditional or modern, folk or classical. Putting in some words in favor of the
> drums is only necessary insofar as they have been despised, belittled, condemned and even
> anathemised for centuries in some Western and Islamic cultures, and even deemed
> 
> unworthy of Bahá’í spirituality and solemnity by some of the friends until recently. So, to
> dispel any misgivings, I’ll start with the words of no less an authority for Bahá’ís than the
> Master:
> 
> “…with flying flags, and TO THE BEAT OF DRUMS, let us pass into the realm of the
> All-Glorious, and join the company on high.” (Selections from the Writings of Abdu’l-
> Bahá N° 210, p 267)
> 
> So: why drums?
> 
> Drums are the most
> ancient and also the most
> modern instruments of
> man.
> 
> Even chimpanzees have
> been observed to beat on
> hollow trunks in the jungle.
> After his own body, these
> same hollow trunks were
> the first obvious choice for
> man to amplify rhythm and
> sound. Drums are “tools for
> exploring rhythm, one of
> the deepest mysteries in the
> universe.     Science    has
> taught us that we live in a
> rhythmscape in which
> everything is pulsing in
> time with everything else.
> Every atom, every planet,
> every star is vibrating in a
> complex dance. We live on
> planet drum. And human
> beings, as multidimensional
> rhythm machines, are also
> embedded in this universe
> of rhythm.
> 
> As a species we love to play with rhythm because it seems to connect us to something
> fundamental in the nature of reality. We deal with it every second of our lives, right to
> the very end, because when the rhythm stops, we die.” (Mickey Hart). In modern
> Western music, hand drums are the latest, most recent additions to the standard
> instruments of orchestras and bands of all genres, and their numbers, kinds and relative
> importance is steadily growing.
> 
> They are universal.
> Throughout history and
> across    the    planet,
> there’s   hardly    any
> people, nation, ethnic
> group or culture that
> hasn’t developed and
> used some kind of
> drum. Of all the
> families of musical
> instruments, the family
> of drums is the most
> numerous, varied and
> extended.
> 
> In their original nature and
> even      the    present-day
> practice of many traditional
> societies drums are closely
> associated with the sacred,
> with worship. There is no
> reason why the sacred
> drumming traditions of the
> earth shouldn’t find a place
> for preservation and growth
> within the Bahá’í Faith
> alongside with other modes
> of worship from other
> spiritual          traditions.
> Bahá’u’lláh’s Revelation is
> “the highest essence and
> most perfect expression” of
> all cultures and spiritual
> traditions and welcomes
> diversity in unity in this
> field, too.
> 
> Before the age of modern communications,
> drums have been widely used to convey
> and relay messages over long distances.
> They have been called the “telegraphs of
> the jungle”. And not only the jungle! Until
> recently in my native Hungary, in small
> towns and villages new decrees and laws
> were     “shouted     abroad”    to    the
> accompaniment of a snare drum! The drum
> announcing the new Law, like Siddharta
> Gautama the Budha had said: “Wherever I
> go I play the Drum of the Law”. Bahá’ís
> have a Great Message to give, a Great
> Announcement to make, a Great New Law
> to make public . Drums can help.
> 
> I’d like to share a moving anecdote about this. Among the Bush Negroes (Maroons) of
> Suriname and French Guiana the West African tradition of the “talking drums” is still alive.
> Whenever I played my drum, the elders would ask: and what does it say? This gave us the
> idea of a novel “teaching mode”: I would play phrases on my drum, and my team-mate and
> translator would “translate” these phrases to the villagers in their language (of course we
> agreed beforehand about what I would “say”). It worked wonderfully well and really
> touched the hearers’ hearts. And they remembered everything they heard because they were
> paying keen attention to both the drum and the “translator”!
> 
> Drums are excellent vehicles
> for focal practices, both for
> the individual and for a group.
> 
> a. For the individual: “The most timid of us find making a loud noise on a drum intensely
> pleasurable. Wow! That was me – roaring like a lion! Drums are great instruments for
> building self-esteem. You can be loud and aggressive, using your whole body, and it’s
> okay because you’re not fighting or harming anything, you’re just drumming. And if
> you keep it up for twenty or thirty minutes you’ll probably feel very calm, very centered
> –a kind of drummer’s high.” (Mickey Hart)
> b. For the community: “The drum held as much knowledge as the text of the Bible, the
> distance education kit, or computer access at the North Island College. The songs to
> emerge from its drumming taught of pains and joys, and the intelligence of a
> community. Its rhythm taught of the human place in the cosmos and its complex set of
> relationships, only vaguely hinted at in that word “ecology”. Its precise and skilled
> playing could cause a hall of a thousand to dance, to weep, to understand the meaning
> of speech, birth, death, and to viscerally grasp their place in the cosmos.” (Daniel
> Bogert-O’Brien)
> 
> They are easily available, more
> so than other kinds of instruments.
> We have already referred to a
> hollow tree trunk as a drum. A
> desk, a wooden chair, a plastic
> bucket or water gallon and
> countless other objects in our
> environment – whether in city,
> town, village or jungle – will do as
> drums.
> 
> In his book The Revelation of Bahá’u’lláh, Adib Taherzadeh tells the story of Mirzá
> Abbás, known as Qábil, one of the outstanding believers and teachers in the times of
> Bahá’u’lláh. “He was a zealous and enthusiastic man, a poet of remarkable talent, a
> teacher of wide repute and, above all, devoted to Bahá’u’lláh. His enthusiastic spirit,
> coupled with his deep love for Bahá’u’lláh, cheered and uplifted the believers
> whom he met on his way. They would gather to meet him and he would often
> request them, whenever circumstances permitted, to chant in unison certain Tablets
> or poems of Bahá’u’lláh which lent themselves to collective chanting, and he would
> teach them to sing together. … Qábil had a certain genius for clapping his hands
> to accompany their songs of love and praise. Where greater freedom prevailed, a
> homemade drum was a welcome accompaniment to his chant of love for
> Bahá’u’lláh.”
> 
> They’re very
> democratic to play.
> Somebody who has
> never played a drum
> before can meaningfully
> participate in a
> drumming orchestra or
> help accompany
> collective singing and
> handclapping,
> something impossible
> with any other
> instrument.
> 
> The sense of rhythm is innate in human beings and, just like collective singing, improves
> with frequent practice. Of course it takes many years of study to become a master drummer,
> but in collective drumming only one of the many drummers has to be a master drummer (or
> just a reasonably good drummer). This democratic feature of drumming which allows for
> universal participation in the same way as collective singing and handclapping, can go a
> long way toward breaking the ice, leveling barriers, healing wounds, overcome
> estrangement within the community. In other words, to cement the hearts together.
> 
> Drums are loud!
> Many drums together are
> even      louder…    That
> comes handy in our
> societies where the level
> of noise is usually high
> and in order to call
> people’s attention you
> have to climb well over
> that level! Wherever and
> whenever you play a
> couple of drums, a crowd
> is sure to gather.
> 
> For many of the above
> reasons, drums are “in”
> worldwide. Just think back to
> the opening ceremonies of the
> last two soccer world cups!
> Hundreds of drums! Not to
> speak    of    the    thriving
> “drumming circles” business
> in the United States and
> Europe…
> 
> Traditionally, through the ages, “the drum provided opportunities for entertainment,
> carrying messages through time and space, teaching spiritual connection, a contact with
> deep emotional tones, and gave a profound music.” (D. Bogert-O’Brien) "Its round form
> represents the universe and its steady strong beat is the pulse, the heart throbbing at the
> centre of the universe.” (Black Elk, Lakota)
> 
> “Bahá’í children's classes and youth audiences recognize intuitively and respond
> spontaneously to presentations of drum music. At Bahá’í Feasts and Holy Days, the Drum
> finds a place in both the social and the sacred part of the events.” (The Native North
> American Drum and the Bahá’í Faith)
> 
> “May such memories resound afresh in your hearts, quickening your will to fulfill
> the major aim of the Plan before you, and setting a pace for your actions like the urgent
> rhythm of drums pulsating throughout your immensely potent, far-stretching land.” (The
> Universal House of Justice)
> 
> Conclusion
> 
> This modest work is by far not the last word on arts in the Bahá’í Faith, not even in my
> tiny, limited corner of the field. “We cannot possibly foresee, standing as we do on the
> threshold of Bahá'í culture, what forms and characteristics the arts of the future,
> inspired by this Mighty New Revelation, will have. All we can be sure of is that they
> will be wonderful; as every Faith has given rise to a culture which flowered in
> different forms so too our beloved Faith may be expected to do the same thing. It is
> premature to try and grasp what they will be at present.” (From a letter written on
> behalf of Shoghi Effendi, 23 December 1942) The sole aim and purpose of the author in
> publishing his very personal reflections born of many years of inner struggle, spiritual
> battles, trial and error, has been to stimulate a healthy exchange of ideas and experiences
> among fellow Bahá’í artists so that as a result of such a consultative process and the
> synergy it can generate perchance we might become better equipped and prepared for the
> tremendous opportunities and responsibilities that our “standing on the threshold of Bahá’í
> culture” entails.
>
> — *Wildfire: Reflections on Music, Drama, and Dance (Used by permission of the curator)*