Mindfulness Meditation on Metaphors of Leadership and Empowerment used by `Abdu'l-Bahá� and Shoghi Effendi in Relation to Realization of the Tablets of Divine Plan

By Keyvan Geula

Presented at the Irfan Colloquia Session #137
Bosch Baha'i School: Santa Cruz, CA
May 26–30, 2016
(see list of papers from #137)

"The Tablets of the Divine Plan, described by Shoghi Effendi as "the Charter of the New World Order", had been penned by 'Abdu'l-Bahá over the period of a year, from March 1916 to March 1917, during the course of the First World War. History tells us that only a few individuals responded, mostly on their own initiative, to the call to travel to other countries and teach the new Faith. It remained for Shoghi Effendi, years later, to set in place the instruments and to prime the processes that would guarantee a systematic and sustained response.

Recent research about mindfulness and mental health acknowledges the role of intellectual, social, psychological and spiritual components of leadership. Bahá'í Writings serve as powerful instrument that rescues the individual mind from wayward patterns of thought qualifying mankind to create and perform in one universal and divine symphony, therefore realizing the ideal of oneness of all humanity.

This presentation explores some samples of the Writings such as the one bellow identifying examples of language of rhetorical excellence in 'Abdu'l-Bahá's Tablets of Divine Plan and Shoghi Effendi's letters in teaching the friends the unique privilege and manner executing an organized and systematic campaign of teaching and expansion of the Faith. We will examine the use of the powerful and emotionally charged language of metaphors to engage and uplift the minds, enchant the hearts of the believers and move them into a global systematic action.

this paper is not yet online