 these several subjects, all of which of course are interrelated, education, scholarship and global civilization. By way of preamble, I would like to draw your attention to one of the distinctive features of our religion, which is the fact that we have as an integral element of the structure of our teachings, the concept of the supremacy of the rule of law. By that I mean that the laws and teachings of our faith are applicable to all members of the Baha'i community in irrespective of any other consideration. This is relatively unusual. So often in religious communities there are certain individuals who rightly or wrongly feel themselves excused from some aspects of their teachings by virtue of either their rank, their social standing or some other consideration. Whereas in our religion there are a number of universal principles applicable without distinction to all. I want to spend a few minutes before getting into the meat of my subject, I want to spend a few minutes exploring a few of those universally applicable principles. And I think they can be gathered together under the heading of the enlightened mind. We are all familiar with the fact that religions have as a matter of course down through the span of human history religions have concerned themselves with enlightenment. It's even being carried to the point of caricature. Janet and I have spent a few days being very lazy which included watching television in Northern California and those of you who have been equally indolent may be familiar with a TV ad for yellow pages. And in that TV ad some poor soul climbs a mountain finds an individual who is some kind of guru and a source of enlightenment and seeks guidance from him on how all information can be obtained and this enlightened soul refers him to the yellow pages. So be that as it may and the attainment of enlightenment has been the goal of religions. Our religion is distinctive in two ways with regard to enlightenment. One is the fact that to us the ideal state is dynamic not static. We differ radically from the ideal state expressed in various religions the paradise of a static condition the sense of attaining and enlightenment where one is basically static and unchanging. The other distinctive characteristic of our approach to enlightenment is the fact that we see fulfillment and enlightenment not exclusively in solitary pursuits but through interaction with others in service or consultation or some form of cooperation. To us the enlightened state includes that service oriented or cooperatively oriented interaction with other human beings. I want to spend a few minutes dwelling on some of the characteristics that I see in the Baha'i faith which pertain to enlightenment. There is a rather obvious hidden motive here. I'm deliberately selecting those characteristics which will be of value to me later in my talk. I'm deliberately selecting things which are universally applicable later when I talk about the educated Baha'i or the Baha'i engaged in scholarly pursuits. I will refer back to them and I will say as politely as possible see those things about enlightenment are still applicable even if you are involved in education or scholarship. Hopefully it won't be too terribly obvious but it'll be along those lines. One of the characteristics of the enlightened individual as I see it in the teachings is that he or she has an open-minded attitude to lifelong learning and I see this as a requirement imposed upon all Baha'is irrespective of whether they are literate or illiterate. The attitude of learning. I have had a close experience in contact with illiterate Baha'is and I notice how in many instances their attitude to learning is highly developed. Learning from experience, learning from observation of nature, learning from interaction with others and to reinforce my view that our teachings say to all of us irrespective of any consideration we should commit ourselves to lifelong learning. Obviously this includes formal but it doesn't only restrict itself to formal learning. The House of Justice in a recent letter said devotion to learning has been an integral feature of Baha'i life and belief from the beginning and as you well realize in the recently concluded five-year plan and the one on which we are now embarked learning is integral. Learning by experience, by reflection, by revision of plans for the next cycle or whatever it is stitched in to the very concept of Baha'i community activity. This learning of course requires an open-minded attitude as intrinsic to it but that open-minded attitude doesn't carry two extremes. It's one thing to be open-minded it's another thing to be gullible and naive and to believe all kinds of strange things which turn out to be superstitious or totally irrational or the like. So there are extremes in the approach to open-mindedness and we are advised in our writings to avoid the extreme of gullibility and naivety. Obviously it's a very complicated subject because a lot of great scientific discoveries have appeared quite bizarre in their original form. I remember the person who first discovered the concept of continental drift and how difficult it was for him to find a reputable journal which would publish it eventually I think it was the South Dakota Journal of Mines or something which was quite obscure at that time. We're told also that the enlightened individual's attitudes include those of a constant striving for progress and the achievement of excellence. Again applicable to all Baha'is, literate or illiterate, this sense of aspiration, the sense of wanting to improve oneself, wanting to improve one's performance in whatever activity one is engaged in and concomitant with that a sense of humility in relation to others. These are in the larger society often mutually exclusive. Those who aspire to excellence seem to feel it necessary to discard humility along the way as a means of buttressing their self-concept of excellence and that certainly is not part of our religion. We're told also that the aspiration to enlightenment should include respect for the accomplishment of others, constant encouragement of others toward aspiration. And in my brief and highly subjective survey of the Baha'i concept of enlightenment it seems to me that one should mention also that the enlightened Baha'i in our religion is one whose exalted aims and aspirations do not exclude him or her from engaging in the life and activities of the community including its mundane aspects. We are quite removed from the person who is so involved in the pursuits of abstract algebra or the mysteries of the general theory of relativity that he or she cannot bring themselves to help to set the table or do the dishes or to help to weed the garden or something like that. Abdu'l-Baha'i remains as always our shining example, not only of the profundity of his wisdom, the nature of his personal characteristics but his lack of inhibition about involving himself in the mundane aspects of the life. We have many rich examples of Abdu'l-Baha'i in Akka and in Haifa and how readily and in such good spirit he participated in the mundane aspects of the life of the community and service to others. And of course as you can well imagine the enlightened individual is one who retains and in fact fosters an appropriate degree of respect for the authority of Baha'i institutions. To us in this room it seems obvious why we wasting time talking about it. It's not so obvious out there because so often in the larger society there are individuals who feel that for certain reasons they don't have to follow what everybody else follows. They are too important, too significant, they have two and their characteristics are such that they can either dispute with the institutions or disregard them. We are as you well realize a work in progress as a Baha'i community. As such we fall down from time to time, we don't pretend not to make mistakes and errors but we do say that we learn from them, we try not to make the same mistakes over and over again and that there is overall progress. Along those lines one finds that occasionally some of our shortcomings include the sense of a segment of the Baha'i community feeling it is immune from the requirements of some aspects of enlightenment such as humility such as engaging in mundane aspects of life, immune for various furious reasons. For example because of wealth. Those Baha'is who are wealthy sometimes feels well we can get someone else to do that but not me. In fact I'll pay you to do it if you really want to. Or the highs of social status of high social status who feel that in fact it would be demeaning of their status of their prestige in the larger society. Sometimes it is a matter of family lineage. Having a distinguished ancestor or relative somehow seems to confer some kind of aura in the minds of the individual that he or she doesn't have to do what the rest of us are doing and sometimes it's a matter of education. The educated individuals should not have to concern themselves with all the trivia that the rest of us are dealing with. These are the characteristics of the enlightened individual and as I say there has been a deliberate purpose in my mentioning them because they I think pertain to what I want to say as I continue about education and scholarship. Let me now proceed to education before I do that. Let me see if somebody can give me a glass of water at some point because having drunk so much Starbucks coffee this morning probably needs some water for get too far along here. I don't need it right now. People using it as an excuse to flee from the room. We'll see how many of them come back. Let me talk about education. Education is under great stress in many parts of the world for a variety of reasons. It is not a popular subject to legislators and those who allocate the national resources of a country. The lack of funding means that as you travel around the world you see schools and universities the fabric of which is deteriorating. They're not in very good shape as far as buildings go. Salaries of teachers at high school primary high school and tertiary levels are low and not keeping up with inflation. Fees are rising astronomically in many countries and excluding capable students from education. There is an ongoing pressure for grade inflation, pressure to give good grades to people and a greater percentage of the students to get very high grades. There's a pressure to produce courses of lower standard so that grades can correspondingly be better. The system shows signs of corruption, an increase in cheating, the bribery of teachers, or together with the low salaries that teachers get, the downloading of essays from the internet, bullying and violence in schools, violence towards fellow students and toward teachers. One of the very significant stresses in the educational system is that the purpose of education is presented largely in terms of its income potential in making a decision about whether to proceed to advanced education, what course to follow and whether to continue in it. The argument is largely in our society presented in terms of if you do this you will get more income and it will average out ahead of the rest of the population over the course of several decades. This argument is of course weak. It doesn't work anymore. People who go into noneducative disciplines generally end up making more money than our poor souls who struggle for so many years to get a master's degree or a PhD. So it raises the question in the minds of a lot of people in our society what is the purpose of education, why should I expose myself to a system which is increasingly corrupt which doesn't have a financial payoff. For people of a religious background such as we are additional questions arise about education. They don't apply to the entire Baha'i community but one does meet from time to time Baha'is who raise one or more of these questions. There are those who are deeply concerned that if their young people embark upon education in a secular setting it will weaken their faith. That they should not study psychology because if they study psychology it rests upon the material concept of human nature and it'll take them away from religion. They should not study philosophy or economics or sociology or history or whatever because it'll weaken their religious faith. There are those perhaps not many of them hopefully who feel that religion contains all the knowledge one needs that as is quoted in the Hadith in the Katab-e-Ikan knowledge is a point that the ignorant have multiplied and that by pursuing education in a secular setting one is exposing oneself to this multiplication of ignorance. There are some of us who this recurs from time to time in various parts of the world who have an apocalyptic view of the imminence of catastrophe and that apocalyptic view of the imminence of catastrophe feeds into the fact why bother with education when the whole rotten mess is going to blow up anyhow and that then becomes a pressure on young people not to engage in long-term commitment of an educational nature. And there are also most recently with the last few years with the legitimate pressure for the core activities to be expanded and developed in the five-year plan there are those extremists who say that things are so urgent at this time that you should abandon your long-term pursuits educational or otherwise because we have to get this 1500 intensive programs of growth of growth nothing is more important than that give up whatever else you're doing let's just do this and after that maybe if there's time you can go and do your education. So there are these various pressures which apply within the Bahá'í setting beyond those that I had to which I have drawn attention of the deterioration of the structure of education and the facilities in the larger society. We have to look at all of this from the perspective of authentic Bahá'í teachings not from what people tell us this is what you should do and this is what's unpublished or this is what I know the House of Justice said but it hasn't said it out loud all this kind of stuff we have to we have to avoid all these things we have to root our faith in authentic Bahá'í teachings which can readily be examined and the accuracy of which discerned and we know that there is some accuracy in these various concerns that certain Bahá'ís have expressed there is some accuracy in the fact that one's faith can be weakened by secular education but it is intrinsically an inaccurate statement as we'll see presently the contrary applies the guardians writings refer to the reinforcement the mutual reinforcement between insight in the teachings and secular education. There is some truth the things are a mess and getting a lot worse but our sense of the transition in society is of two processes of decline and growth punctuated by events of a calamitous nature rather than in the apocalypse as it's conventionally expressed. As regards the pressure of the moment the needs of the five-year plan and the like these are legitimate concerns the House of Justice messages including its Ritz von message and that of 27 December 2005 do quite properly call attention to the pressing needs for concerted action on the part of Bahá'ís all over the world in pursuit of the core activities in the developing clusters which can sustain and maintain intensive programs of growth but these messages also distinguish between priority and exclusivity and the failure to make the distinction between priority and exclusivity is leading to distortions we know where the priorities lie the five-year plan the message of the House of Justice we can't think of any other way to say it more clearly than we are saying and the House of Justice does not call for exclusivity friends here at this conference have spoken to me privately and asked me with great sincerity is it all right to continue to have firesides who am I to say no who is the House of Justice to abrogate something laid down by Shoghi Effendi so forcefully as the need for individual teaching for firesides for proclamation for student activities on campus for all the other things that make for high life rich and meaningful beyond that anybody who has experience in enterprises whether they are business enterprises organizations of various kinds industrial activities or anything like that anyone with experience in that knows that exclusive focus on the short term needs is the way to do any enterprise be it a Baha'i administrative enterprise or otherwise that focuses only on the short term is doomed to be storing up trouble for itself in the future we have to with intelligent minds devote priority to the short term but not to neglect the long term otherwise we will find ourselves in a few years time lacking the resources to meet the emergent needs of the faith in years to come over the several decades to which Eric is so delicately referred as my Baha'i activities over these several decades which extends down about five decades I have noticed believers who have become so obsessed if you will with the short term in terms of their service to the needs of the faith that they have neglected the long term in their personal development as a result they found that after ten years they were unemployable they could not serve the faith they didn't have the skills they didn't have the the long term development they didn't have the orientation all they could do is continue to play the theme they had played which was applicable ten years ago and was obsolete now so the focus on the long term as well as the short term is very crucial the Baha'i teachings as I read them indicate to me a very surprising emphasis on education and the acquisition of knowledge I read again and again statements to that subject Baha'u'llah says knowledge is one of the wondrous gifts of God it is incumbent upon everyone to acquire it one is afraid to open a dictionary and look up the meaning of the word incumbent because Baha'u'llah says it is incumbent upon everyone to acquire it he says or Abdul Baha says to promote knowledge is thus an inescapable duty imposed on every one of the friends of God these and many other statements I think should be considered very carefully by any Baha'i planning the course of his or her life those plans should accommodate the strength of the statements of Baha'u'llah Abdul Baha and the Guardian on the duty the incumbency placed upon the individual to pursue the acquisition of knowledge the writings contain other statements pertinent to this subject of education pertinent to the fact of why we're getting education when you can make much more money as a yeah well I don't know there's probably some people in the room doing that so whenever you can make a lot of money as a mafia hitman I'm presumed there's none of those in the room a very insightful statement from Baha'u'llah in tablets after the Katabiaktas where he says knowledge is a veritable treasure for man and a source of glory of bounty of joy of exaltation of cheer and gladness unto him most significant statement where Baha'u'llah is telling us that the acquisition of knowledge is a source of joy cheer and gladness fundamentally one of our basic reasons for the pursuit of education is that it is a source of happiness not particularly around exam time maybe not when the results come out but overall in the course of one's life the life devoted to the acquisition of knowledge to the pursuit of education in its broadest as well as its narrow formal sense therein lies fulfillment contentment as Baha'u'llah says gladness and joy and Shogi Effendi is quite unequivocal in relating effectiveness of teaching the cause to this matter he says in one place or his secretary on his behalf if the Baha'is want to be really effective in teaching the cause they need to be much better informed able to discuss intelligently and intellectually the present condition of the world and its problems and these are just a selection of many many passages most everything I'm reading is either from the compilation on scholarship or a supplementary compilation on issues pertaining to the study of the cause both of which are published in recent years in that sense our answer to the concern about should I get education or not is refer to the writings refer to what it says about the importance of education its value in the teaching of the faith its personal reward in terms of happiness joy contentment gladness and cheer as Baha'u'llah says the universal house of justice from time to time receives letters from very sincere and devoted believers who say please tell me what are the disciplines in which the cause has a particular need and I'll study one of them these letters touch us they are they are moving they represent the devotion of a believer who's willing to put himself or herself in the hands of the head of the faith and saying I will do anything you like if you tell me to go and study astrophysics I'll study astrophysics if you tell me to go and study archaeology I'll study archaeology I want to do whatever will meet the needs of the faith at the present time the most common response of the house of justice and there is no universal response because things do change but the most common response of the house of justice follows the response given by Shogi Effendi to similar questions there is a passage where the Guardian through his secretary said concerning the course of study you may follow the cause is such that we can serve it no matter what our profession may be the only necessity is that we be spiritually minded and not be guided by purely material considerations and of course if one's orientation is toward the service of the faith as a dominant consideration then that transcends material considerations it seems to me that one should therefore not feel narrowly constrained in the subject one chooses to pursue in education obviously one has to consider employment because it is very frustrating to go through a course of study of several years and then find that there are no employment possibilities for it and that one then has to change one's line of work and one feels rightly or wrongly that much of the effort has been wasted that generally is not the case but nevertheless it is a source of disappointment so one should legitimately give some due weight to the possibility of education one should consider of course one's own talents and opportunities there are so many dear Bahá'í friends in other parts of the world particularly the third world who yearn for education struggle to get opportunities and often are disappointed so it's no use going to them and preaching to them about they'll must go and get an advanced education when these poor souls are struggling to find the resources and the opportunities to acquire any kind of education so those of us who have opportunities are in that sense privileged and need to take advantage of it there are special needs in the cause which arise from time to time I want to mention a few of them but I should also caution you that these needs do change with the passage of time at the moment for example the world center is desperately in need of certain kinds of people which we can't find we need people for example to help our international Bahá'í library make a much needed quantum leap forward in its functioning we need people with master of library science with a specialization in informatics so that we can use the cutting edge informatics to develop the international Bahá'í library we need archivists who have a skill in modern technology for archival for information retrieval and the like we have a desperate need for people in conservation in conservation science yeah one meets so many people who have a bachelor's degree in chemistry and say what can I do with my bachelor's degree in chemistry one of the things you can do is do post bachelor's degree work in conservation science and help us at the international level or at the national level and the like to conserve the precious documents of the faith the paper documents the tablets the authentic writings the historical documents of the faith and beyond that conservation in its broader sense of object conservation the conservation of textiles the conservation of sacred artifacts and of course of holy place buildings there are needs at the bible center in the engineering disciplines of facility maintenance of the cutting edge facilities at the on the arc and of the various professional trades and so on these are needs at the moment they may not be needs in five years time we'd ordered to put all your eggs in one basket and say I'll train for this because you may find that the needs have changed with the passage of time but they are certainly very legitimate and very pressing needs and I suspect their needs that are going to be intrinsic to the high world for decades in the future because what we do at the world center in terms of library and archival development of the like will later be translated to similar activity in the larger national communities and then the smaller national communities all over the world we're told in our faith that one of the important parameters in the acquisition of education is the need to always give preeminence to the authority of the manifestation of god the house of justice says in the simultaneous endeavor to pursue their studies and to delve deeply into the Baha'i teachings believers are enjoined to maintain a keen awareness that the revelation of Baha'u'llah is a standard of truth against which all other views and conclusions should be measured this is certainly very very important because as you as the words say the revelation is the standard of truth there are lots of things out there which are an accepted part of secular education some of them conform to the Baha'i teachings some of them don't when we find things that don't conform to the Baha'i teachings we should not allow ourselves to be shaken in our faith we should not become obnoxious towards our teachers and adopt a position of superiority and try and educate them in what Baha'u'llah says because that's pretty counterproductive apart from obnoxious but at the same time we should not allow our faith to be in any way disturbed having said that I think one needs to be very careful of this subject there are many aspects of the Baha'i teachings where one has to be very careful to avoid rushing too quickly to judgment for example astrophysics there's been some probably still is some controversy in the astrophysical community about whether the origin of the universe is a steady state creation or a big bang and our writings speak of creation as being without beginning and without end that being so I think we have to be very wary of rushing to conclusions and saying Baha'i's support the steady state model rather than the big bang model both models are still work in progress both will probably be refined other models may emerge I think we have to be cautious on this regard with the innumerable letters have come to the House of Justice in recent years about cloning and what do we say about cloning and the response of the House of Justice as I understand it has been very very cautious basically saying let's see how things develop let's see how what science uncovers there are a number of issues that are yet obscure it has refrained from making any kind of dogmatic or ex-cathedra statements on cloning because it is a very very complex subject the same applies to the question of evolution and of course we've had this very excellent discussion here at this conference and in relating the the various theories of evolution and intelligent design vis-a-vis Darwinian evolution and the like and I think that's very good because there is an element of care and caution a refusing to rush to judgment or to adopt a narrow perspective or too quickly rushing to say well that's wrong because it's contradicted by Bahá'u'lláh and same of course applies in the evaluation of theories of psychology or of sociology or indeed of economics obviously we have a different perspective on the nature of man which affects those disciplines yet at the same time those disciplines have so much to offer of validity I have made a brief reference and I won't dwell on it too much but you find in these two compilations to which I have referred that the guardian has developed at some length in some of the pastures of his his writings the reciprocal mutually reinforcing relationship between secular knowledge and insight into the Bahá'u'lláh teachings there are instances where he refers to the fact that study of subjects such as sociology history economics and the like and I think they know more than examples provides insight into the Bahá'u'lláh teachings and then there are other pastures where he says the exact opposite he says that study of the Bahá'u'lláh teachings provides insight into the secular disciplines of history economics and sociology and the like and I think far beyond the concern about education weakening one's faith is the fact that if it is pursued in an appropriate manner by believers who are strongly rooted in their religion far from weakening their faith it reinforces it it gives insights of mutual benefit seeing deeper more deeply aspects and of the teachings and also being able to contribute new insights to those secular disciplines I wanted to before I leave education to draw your attention to the strength of the guardians admonitions to us to the acquisition of education and I can do this no more effectively by reading to you a statement of the guardian which I find quite astonishing he says it is just as important for Bahá'u'lláh young boys and girls to become properly educated in colleges of high standing as it is to be spiritually developed the mental as well as the spiritual side of the youth has to be developed before he can serve the faith the cause efficiently there's a wealth of information in that passage which is not gained by my reading it so quickly its first sentence almost borders on heresy here is the guardian of the cause no less saying it is just as important just as important for Bahá'u'lláh young boys and girls to become properly educated in colleges of high standing as it is to be spiritually developed it's an incredible statement and you can't say well that was what he said on that day to that particular person there's a generality to the statement and it's reinforced by many other statements we have in the letters of the guardian and then of course the second sentence is equally significant the mental as well as the spiritual side of youth has to be developed before he can serve the cause efficiently we can all serve the cause we all try one way or another to do it efficiently is something else and the guardian is here pointing to the balance between the intellectual or mental development and the spiritual development in order that this efficiency may come into being let me move on because time is rushing by two other things I want to speak about the next subject I want to address briefly is the subject of scholarship and this can be brief because a lot of things have been said and a lot of things have been clarified in recent years however there are some issues that have come up in recent months and years that I've become aware of in my functioning my present functioning as a member of the house justice quest these are some of the questions that I notice believers are asking firstly should faithful believers persist in intellectual inquiry and scholarship when it has attracted such controversy and questioning of provisions of the covenant I think we all know that there's been this controversy and who are in the on the internet and various other places and occasionally intruding into some of the letters of the house of justice of individuals who have purported to be part of the scholarly behind community and questioning the covenant and raising all sorts of issues and I'll be saying very nasty things about some of us and the like and so one raises the question is it not better to stay away from the whole thing for a few years until it all calms down because I don't want to be a source of controversy and contention maybe this is not a good time to go into behind scholarly activity another question is is it not self-indulgent or irrelevant to engage in behind scholarship when there is so much emphasis on the advancing the process of entry by troops and the core activities of the plan and thirdly how can unquestioned faith and the validity of the teachings be reconciled with the inquiry and investigation that's part of scholarly activity these are questions I notice that have been raised by very very sincere believers their questions people are asking their questions that are unequivocally answered by authoritative Baha'i writings of recent years and particularly with the authority of the universal house of justice the faith has without any equivocation emphasized the continuing need for Baha'i scholarly activity again and again we have pastors from the guardian and from the house of justice which say without any hesitation we want more Baha'is to be engaged in scholarly activity don't hold back don't run away don't feel afraid that it will disturb your adherence to the covenant or that you'll be a source of headache and dividend and nuisance to the Baha'i community go for it be part of the Baha'i scholarly community the house of justice has said in a recent letter or a letter written on its behalf by its secretariat the universal house of justice regards Baha'i scholarship as of great potential importance for the development and consolidation of the Baha'i community as it emerges from obscurity and that statement of the house of justice I think is without qualification and it does no more than reiterate statements made equally as strongly by the guardian so those who have some concern should not do so at the same time obviously they should be smart and intelligent they should make themselves strong in the covenant they should become steadfast believers in the cause they should immerse themselves deeply in the provisions of the covenant understand it at a deep fundamental level so nothing can shake them and the nasty statements that somehow that sometimes appear on the internet will not be a source of spiritual disturbance to them the second question of self-indulgence in relation to the core activities I think I have referred to and I will refer to it again presently certainly it is not self-indulgent we do need Baha'i scholarly activity just as we do need the priority to the core activities of the plan it is not either or it is both together the third question of unquestioned faith in the validity of the teachings reconciled with inquiry and investigation is again addressed in the writings of the faith the preeminence of the authority of Baha'u'llah together with the use of the rational process to explore to acquire deeper insight the writings and particularly now the statements of the house of justice have emphasized and this has been taken from a very long letter addressed to this North American Association for Baha'i studies so I don't need to dwell on it too much the house of justice addressing this association has said among other things that no attempt should be made to define too narrowly the form that Baha'i scholarship should take there are all kinds of people and they should be encouraged to do all kinds of things the house has called for the mutual respect and tolerance and that Baha'i scholarship should embrace those whose principal interest is in theological issues as well as those whose interest lies in relating the faith to the contemporary thought in the arts and sciences again all together rather than either or certainly the guardian has referred to the need to correlate the teachings with current thought in various disciplines that's certainly true it does not allow us then to denigrate the work of those who are carrying out very important activities of a more theological nature or even of a more abstract nature all together mutually supportive rather than why you're doing that instead of this or that's unimportant and this is important I remember many many years ago I was exposed to an iniquitous subject called projective geometry and Councilor Aghdasi made some reference in his talk yesterday whatever to non-euclidean geometries this was one of those non-euclidean geometries resting upon a series of axioms none of which made sense for example one of the elements of projective geometry one of the axioms is that parallel lines meet at a point called sissogy which is an interesting word without any vowels in it meet at the point of sissogy well two what's that two me two minutes okay I'm gonna I hate to break the news to you but I'm gonna take a little more than two minutes the point of sissogy and I exposed myself to projective geometry I struggled with it and I decided that I obviously needed to acquire the insight into it low and behold after many hundreds of years of development of projective geometry down through the Middle Ages it turns out to be of vital importance in certain areas of of astrophysics and radio astronomy things and the like so we have to be very very careful of condemnation of anything of a scholarly nature finally let me move on to the saying a few words about global civilization I don't have much to say so we can keep Erica and like reasonably happy not very but reasonable you might well say why is global civilization being mentioned essentially in the same breath as education and scholarship our writings indicate that there is a sequence to the development of the world in the dispensation of Bahá'u'lláh the establishment of the lesser peace that we're working towards we have the unity of nations we're engaged in in the process of evolution to the lesser peace this will lead to the emergence of a new world order and the establishment of the most great peace and the guardian says then will a world civilization be born and flourish well that's a long way down the road even the youngest of us will be an old fossil by that time so why are we concerned with global civilization at this time we do so because of an intriguing statement of Shoghi Effendi where he says that where he refers in promised days come to the administrative order of the faith and he says within this administrative structure and embryonic civilization incomparable and world embracing is imperceptibly maturing the world civilization is off into the future but its embryo is within the present administrative order and therefore it is both legitimate and important that we give some thought to it in this context in order to do that and this really is the final point I keep saying this to Erica it isn't quite the final point but let's keep her happy in order to to foster this global civilization there are three things that I want to recommend we do the first is a very obvious one development of our spiritual attitudes because that's a foundation of civilization as I think Beirut Sabet in his excellent presentation on secret divine civilization is the afternoon referred to the nature of civilization described by Abdul Baha certainly our spiritual attitude is foundation to that our personal conduct our development of manners I'm showing such terrible manners to my my organizers but everyone else should show good manners okay development of manners courtesy cleanliness neatness of dress that's one aspect of global civilization we're required to work on right now the second one is the scholarship aspect we need more Baha'i scholarship in anything you can possibly think of because that will enrich us as part of the development of the embryo of world civilization for the future and finally and most controversially I want to encourage all of us who are centered in scholarly activities not to neglect the core activities of the plan it doesn't mean you have to become super mad or super woman and work 25 or 26 hours a day what I'm saying is that those of us whose passion is scholarly activity should also be aware that that scholarly activity relates very directly to the core activities how does it relate to the core activities it does so because intrinsic to the core activities is the Baha'i attempt to solve a problem which has defied the power of every religion for the past 6000 years for 6000 years the followers of religion have tried and failed to break down the dichotomy between a few hyper active overworked leaders and a mass of followers who are required to be passive to follow orders to sit there and be quiet and do what you're told this is not what the Baha'i faith is about the Baha'i faith is about a active community of people who are actively involved at every level in decision making in creative thinking in exploring the teachings no such community has ever existed in the religious history of humanity and we need to establish it if we don't things will not work the administrative order will not function the Baha'i electoral process will become ossified unless we solve this problem if we do solve it it will take us decades the core activities of the five-year plan with the participatory element with the lack of an authoritative guru to guide the the consultation represents a major commitment on the part of the faith to break down the false dichotomy between the hyper active leader and the hyper passive congregation and I think it is important that Baha'is of a scholarly orientation contribute to this if for no other reason then it will result in a vast increase in the manpower of the faith as a matrix from which will come the future scholars and the future scholarly endeavors it is therefore a matter not only of the needs of the cause it is a matter of basic self-interest those of us who are interested in the scholarly pursuits of the faith out of a matter of self-interest our adherence our support of the core activities to the faith will produce the new generation of scholars the new generation of intellectual activity of fertility of creative thought of innovation which will make the Baha'i community alive dynamic full of energy and fresh thinking and contribute to the richness of the cause and I'm leaving before they throw me out