One hour versus seventy years: The challenge of selfreflection

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One hour versus seventy yearsThe challenge of
self-reflection

• Summary of a presentation
• by Dr. Hamid Peseschkian (Germany),
• December 2004
• hamid_at_peseschkian.com
• www.peseschkian.com

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Self-reflexion

• ...It is my hope that you may consider this
  matter, that you may search out your own
  imperfections and not think of the imperfections
  of anybody else. Strive with all your power to
  be free from imperfections. Heedless souls are
  always seeking faults in others. What can the
  hypocrite know of others' faults when he is blind
  to his own? This is the meaning of the words in
  the Seven Valleys. It is a guide for human
  conduct. As long as a man does not find his own
  faults, he can never become perfect. Nothing is
  more fruitful for man than the knowledge of his
  own shortcomings. The Blessed Perfection says,
  "I wonder at the man who does not find his own
  imperfections."
• (Abdu'l-Baha Promulgation of Universal
  Peace, Page 244)

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Character vs. Faith

• There is a difference between character and
  faith it is often very hard to accept this fact
  and put up with it, but the fact remains that a
  person may believe in and love the Cause even
  to being ready to die for it and yet not have a
  good personal character or possess traits at
  variance with the teachings. We should try to
  change, to let the Power of God help recreate us
  and make us true Baháís in deed as well as in
  belief. But sometimes the process is slow,
  sometimes it never happens because the individual
  does not try hard enough. But these things cause
  us suffering and are a test to us....
• (On behalf of Shoghi Effendi, 17.10.1944, in
  Baháí-Marriage and Family Life, quote no. 61,
  Canada)

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It is your conscious choice

• Self-determination
• (Selbstbestimmung)

• Foreign-determination
• (Fremdbestimmung)

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Importance of time

• A man who dares to waste one hour of his life,
  has not discovered the value of life.
• Charles Darwin
• (quoted in Balanced Living for Busy Baháís by
  C. Brooker)

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The real enemy

• ...This the Covenant is the stronghold of the
  Faith of every Baháí, and that which enables him
  to withstand every test and the attacks of the
  enemies outside the Faith, and the far more
  dangerous, insidious, lukewarm people inside the
  Faith who have no real attachment to the
  Covenant, and consequently uphold the
  intellectual aspect of the teachings while at the
  same time undermining the spiritual foundation
  upon which the whole Cause of God rests...
• (From a letter on behalf of the Guardian dated 15
  April 1949 to an individual believer, in The
  Light of Divine Guidance 2, page 84)

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Die drei Hauptprobleme der Menschen

• Sex
• Macht
• Geld

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Sich nicht durch den Glauben eines Menschen
täuschen lassen

• There is a difference between character and
  faith it is often very hard to accept this fact
  and put up with it, but the fact remains that a
  person may believe in and love the Cause even
  to being ready to die for it and yet not have a
  good personal character or possess traits at
  variance with the teachings. We should try to
  change, to let the Power of God help recreate us
  and make us true Baháís in deed as well as in
  belief. But sometimes the process is slow,
  sometimes it never happens because the individual
  does not try hard enough. But these things cause
  us suffering and are a test to us....
• (On behalf of Shoghi Effendi, 17.10.1944,
• in Baháí-Marriage and Family Life, quote no.
  61, Canada)

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Ways to success

• Process-oriented
• It depends on your own endeavour
• The final success depends on many factors.
• The path is the goal
• Relationship saving oriented
• Eastern cultures
• Collectivist
• I adjust myself to the situation

• Result-oriented
• Only concrete results count
• No praise before the final result
• efficiency
• I am alone responsilbe for the failure
• western cultures
• Individualists
• The situation has to change.

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• If wealth is lost, something is lost.
• If health is lost, a great deal is lost.
• But if character is lost, everything is lost.