My time in Haifa, Israel as a full-time volunteer at the Bahá'í World Centre was one of the most special times in my life. I had the time and environment to put effort into my personal growth, and reflect on how I can contribute most effectively to my community.
Surrounded by friends from more than 60 different countries, we all spoke the same language -- that of service and the desire to grow and change to better contribute to mankind, as expressed in the Bahá'í Writings. Our time as volunteers together for various periods, mine 22 months, prepared us to return to our respective parts of the world with energy and vigor to face the needs of the communities, and dedicate ourselves to contributing along with pursuing excellence in our own professions and goals.
The lessons which stuck with me the most were in the areas of communication, and true and meaningful friendship. I began to feel love for others and for what I was doing more deeply than ever before.
I am quite grateful for the time I had and the opportunity to continue contributing to the ongoing process of building stronger communities all around the world, now with the knowledge of the support of other friends going through the same process in every imaginable locality.
“Let your vision be world embracing…”
— Bahá’u’lláh
Community Building, Around the World!
One of the main resources used in community building activities by the Bahá'ís around the world is the Ruhi Institute.
The materials focus on the spiritual education and upliftment of communities through groups of children, adolescents, and adults.
"Like any other institution involved in the process of education for development, the Ruhi Institute has formulated its
strategies within a special framework and a philosophy of social change, development and education. In this case, that
understanding has emerged from a consistent effort to apply Bahá’í principles to the analysis of social conditions.
* * *
The Bahá’í Faith sees the present state of human affairs as a natural stage in an organic process which will finally
lead to the unity of the human race within one social order. Humanity as a whole has gone through evolutionary stages
similar to those experienced by an individual; having passed through infancy and childhood, it is now experiencing the
difficult culminating moments of a turbulent adolescence.external link The present state of confusion, doubt, and
belligerence is simply to be understood as the condition of an adolescent who strongly desires growth and maturity, but
is still attached to childish attitudes and customs. Yet the moment is ripe for this adolescent to take a final step and
enter the constructive and dynamic but balanced state of maturity and adulthood.
* * *
In analyzing the rapid changes occurring in the world today, Bahá’ís identify two parallel processes operating at all
levels—village, town, nation, and global society. On the one hand, it is clear that human society is suffering from a
process of disintegration that manifests itself in wars, terrorism, chaos, physical and psychological insecurity, and a
widespread condition of material poverty. On the other hand, forces of integration are moving individuals and groups
toward the adoption of new values, new forms of organization, and appropriate structures that can lay the foundation for
the establishment of a new social order. The Ruhi Institute defines its basic aim as that of becoming a channel for the
spiritual forces of our time to be applied to the lives of the masses of humanity, empowering them to contribute to the
establishment of a new world civilization.
In its efforts to understand and contribute to a process of social change, the Ruhi Institute tries to avoid two sets of
theories that have dominated the discourse on development and change for too many decades. On the one hand, it disagrees
with concepts of social change that are entirely individualistic in their outlook, which analyze society only in terms
of the psychological make-up, the skills, and the behavior of the individual, and which assume that social structures
somehow will change by themselves once the individual is saved or correctly trained through religious conversion or
secular education. On the other hand, it also rejects theories that consider the human being entirely as a product of
society, and claim that no improvement is possible unless social structures, especially those related to political and
economic power, are changed first. There are too many examples of participation by the “righteous” and the “highly
trained” in the structures of oppression to allow any objective observer of social processes to accept proposals of
change based entirely on the redemption of the individual without direct attention to social forces and structures. At
the same time, history has already shown the evils of systems that deny individual freedom and derive their moral and
social codes from a perception of the necessity of change in the structures of power, a change their proponents believe
should be achieved at any cost.
The Ruhi Institute tries to understand the process of the transformation of human society in terms of a far more complex
set of interactions between two parallel developments: the transformation of the individual, and the deliberate creation
of the structures of a new society. Moreover, just as it does not view the human being as a mere product of interactions
with nature and society, it does not identify structural change only with political and economic processes. Rather, it
sees the necessity of change in all structures—mental, cultural, scientific and technological, educational, economic and
social—including a complete change in the very concepts of political leadership and power. It is understood that
individuals, all of whom possess a more or less developed spiritual nature, may be illumined by divine teachings, even
under the influence of the most oppressive social forces. These individuals, then, by no means perfected, try to walk
the path of social transformation, a path which, nevertheless, is not one of individual salvation but one which implies
a constant effort to create and strengthen the institutions of a new social order. These new institutions, even when
designed perfectly, may not function perfectly at first, but they do make it possible for an increasing number of human
beings to walk further along the path of spiritual growth and transformation. This continuous interaction, between the
parallel processes of the spiritualization of the individual and the establishment of new social structures, describes
the only dependable path of social change, one that avoids both complacency and violence and does not perpetuate the
cycles of oppression and illusory freedom that humanity has experienced in the past. According to this vision of social
change, the Ruhi Institute directs its present efforts to develop human resources within a set of activities that
conduce to spiritual and intellectual growth, but are carried out in the context of each individual’s contribution to
the establishment of new structures, whether in villages and rural regions or in large urban centers."
The lessons which stuck with me the most were in the areas of communication, and true and meaningful friendship. I began to feel love for others and for what I was doing more deeply than ever before.
