by Susan Gammage, Baha'i Life Coach
In preparing for the official launch of my life coaching practice, I’ve been thinking a lot about what makes a Baha’i-inspired business different and how can I implement it into my own business? Recently I came across this blog posting, which answered a lot of questions, and I use it here, with permission. You can see it at: http://verdanta.wordpress.com/2008/08/31/the-new-business-model-bahai-style/
In my last blog, I explored the idea of service to the Faith within the structure of a for-profit business. I tentatively concluded that yes, this was an acceptable thing. But that’s not the end of it, is it? Obviously, many traditional ”old world” business practices would be inappropriate in an enterprise that endeavours to spread the word about Baha’u’llah.
What would be appropriate? Now that is an interesting puzzle indeed!
I have actually been working on a business plan for Verdanta, and in it I was asked to describe the corporate culture. What would it be like to work there? So this isn’t just a pie out of the clear blue sky question. I really want to know, what makes a Baha’i business different?
Two things spring immediately to mind: the first is operating the business based on the writings of Baha’u’llah and Abdu’l-Baha. The second is the spiritual consequences of doing it wrong. I guess the place to start is exploring what they have to say that’s relevant to the situation.
Well, Baha’u’llah told us that ”Truthfulness is the foundation of all human virtues,” so that’s probably a good place to start. A Baha’i business must be impeccably honest. Dealing honestly with suppliers, customers and employees, paying bills on time, and following through on commitments all fall within that maxim. But so do not fudging numbers, not lying by omission, and not taking questionable “gray area” tax deductions.
Abdu’l-Baha has said that “With education [the inner reality of man] can achieve all excellence; devoid of education it will stay on, at the lowest point of imperfection,” so constant and continuous education must be built into the structure of a Baha’i business. Everyone in the organization should be allowed - and encouraged - to learn about new things, to gain new skills, and develop latent talents. Personally, I can say that starting a business is a completely new thing for me, and I learn so much every day that my head hurts from all the neural pathway construction!
Baha’u’llah has also stated that “Work done in the spirit of service is the highest form of worship.” I don’t know about anyone else, but if the work I do is equivalent to worship, then I’m going to make darn sure I’m working to the absolute utmost of my ability. Which means excellence and perfection must be the norm, not only for the members of the organization, but also for all products produced by them.
And since unity is the central principle of the Baha’i Faith, unity must also be a primary goal within the organization. Most companies today have no clue what that might look like, let alone harbor any realistic expectations of achieving it. But if you can’t think it, you can’t achieve it. Fortunately, “So powerful is the light of unity that it can illumine the whole earth.” And where unity is the expectation, it can be accomplished.
Of course, backbiting would have no place within a healthy Baha’i business, because “backbiting quencheth the light of the heart, and extinguisheth the life of the soul.” The company culture should be shaped such that everyone knows backbiting is unacceptable.
I could go on and on, but what I notice in writing this is that a Baha’i business must strive for the same spiritual perfections that individual Baha’is strive for.
Hmmm. One last quote comes to mind, and that is ”Bring thyself to account each day, ere thou art summoned to a reckoning.” It seems that I must not only bring myself to account each day, I must also bring to account the dealings of my business, for they ultimately reflect back on me and my spiritual progress.
Wow. How different would the world be today if all our leaders felt that way? Post your comments here:
by Susan Gammage, Baha'i Life Coach
I’m happy to announce the release of my new book called: Abuse and Violence: Reasons and Remedies. It’s a compilation from the Bahá’Ă Writings and offers many quotes not found in other sources. For more information, please go to: http://bahailifecoach.com/publications#post-1
According to the United Nations one in three women will experience violence during her lifetime and one in six men will be abused. The Bahá’Ă Writings teach: “Among the signs of moral downfall in the declining social order are the high incidence of violence within the family, the increase in degrading and cruel treatment of spouses and children, and the spread of sexual abuse. It is essential that the members of the community of the Greatest Name take the utmost care not to be drawn into acceptance of such practices because of their prevalence. They must be ever mindful of their obligation to exemplify a new way of life distinguished by its respect for the dignity and rights of all people, by its exalted moral tone, and by its freedom from oppression and from all forms of abuse.”
The struggle to end violence on this planet is a battle on four levels – emotional, intellectual, spiritual, physical. It requires every bit of our strength, our courage, our fierceness. It means speaking out when everyone says to be quiet. It means going the distance to hold perpetrators accountable for their actions, even when we know that punishment does not make abusive people behave better. It means honoring the truth even if it means losing family, country and friends. It means developing the spiritual muscle to enter and survive the grief that violence brings and, in that dangerous space of stunned unknowing, inviting the deeper wisdom.
The process of healing from violence is long and happens in stages.
Those of us who have been abused have a responsibility to turn something horrible into something positive, by sharing our stories.  We have to experience our rage, depression and desire for revenge and transform them through grieving and teaching and service.
In every community there are humble activist working every day, to undo suffering. They sit by hospital beds, pass new laws, write boring proposals, beg for money, open safe houses, demonstrate and hold vigils in the streets. We have not given up hope, but we are exhausted. Yet with everything, we still laugh, work and continue to go on. Despite it all, we still have the biggest, most sincere smile on our faces and demonstrate to others the enormous strength of the human spirit. We know that compassion is the deepest form of memory.
If we were to hate the perpetrators, the perpetrators would have won.
Inequality is the primary form of violence. Whether we were molested as children, raped or beaten in North America, stoned and publicly shamed in Pakistan, abducted and disappeared in Chile, suffered female genital mutilation in Kenya, subjected to systematic and widespread gang rape in Bosnia, beaten to death for not wearing a veil in Afghanistan, sold into sexual slavery in Northern Africa, burned with acid in Pakistan, sex-selective abortions and infanticide in China, dowry-related deaths and honor killings in India, beaten for refusing to have sex with a husband in Egypt, honor killings in Bangladesh and women slowly being made extinct through gender genocide and war in Afghanistan and Iraq . . . the list goes on and on.
Every woman’s story is my story too. I am a Canadian, I am a Bahá’Ă. I am a citizen of the World. I embrace the experience of women all over the world and I help them realize that we are one, that united we can face anything. For more information, please go to: http://bahailifecoach.com/publications#post-1
by Susan Gammage, Baha'i Life Coach
If You Are Suffering From Abusive Experiences,
You Can Find Healing through applying the Divine Remedy
My name is Susan Gammage and I am the compiler of Abuse and Violence: Reasons and Remedies. I am honored that the quotes in this book have helped so many of my friends and acquaintances heal from the devastating effects of abuse and violence, and thrilled that the healing remedy of the Divine Physician will finally be available world-wide.
The quotes in this book have all helped me, too. I am a survivor of childhood abuse of every kind imaginable, and I know how hard the process of recovery can be. That’s why I’ve spent the last fifteen years supporting survivors and their families.
If your life has been affected by physical, sexual, emotional, spiritual or ritual abuse; if you’ve experienced neglect and abandonment; if you’ve come from a war-torn country or felt powerless by all of the violence in the world and you’re wondering if there’s a way to heal, this book can help you. I can’t guarantee that you will end up with your life back, but I can guarantee that the quotes in this book will help you find a deeper sense of peace and resolution than you have today.
When my son was born twenty-four years ago, I started to remember the sexual and ritual abuse I experienced when I was a child. Every year of his childhood triggered another memory of something that happened to me when I was that age. I was 27 years old and suddenly my entire life revolved around the abuse I’d experienced as a child. My days were filled with flashbacks, panic attacks, horror and terror. I lived from therapy session to therapy session, barely hanging on in-between. Facing the humiliation, brutality, and cruelty, I couldn’t imagine getting through the pain.
It was the time when the proponents of “false memory syndrome” were most active, and I had a hard time finding therapists willing to believe the extreme forms of abuse I’d experienced or to sit with me and listen to my grief, anger, and anguish. I had no choice but to shoulder the burden I carried and find my own path toward healing and wholeness-without supportive family or therapists by my side.
I knew that the Bahá’Ă Writings must contain the remedy, but all I could find were quotes that felt punishing rather than healing. I was angry that there wasn’t a compilation out there that could point me in the right direction for my healing, and angrier still at one Bahá’Ă therapist who suggest I write it! Gradually, as I read the Writings morning and evening, I began to find inspiring, uplifting quotes which helped lift the burden of my pain and depression.
When I couldn’t find explanations I could understand, I wrote sevÂeral letters to the Universal House of Justice, and received the start of an understanding which led me to put these experiences into a new context, and which allowed me to regain a sense of myself as a noble being. For this I am eternally grateful.
I know from personal experience how it feels to be cut off from your family because of childhood abuse. I have felt the anguish, grief, frustration, and loneliness caused by damaged relationships with siblings, parents, and children.
When I started talking about the abuse and asking questions about my childhood, my relationship with my parents went from bad to worse. They were threatened by my questions and unwilling to discuss any of my childhood experiences with me. They tried to have me declared crazy and to have my son taken away from me.
With the help of the Universal House of Justice, I decided to sever my relationship with my parents in order to keep my son safe. Later, when he was older, I tried to heal the rift, but my mother felt humiliated and angry. She accused me of heaping “the worst form of elder abuse” on her. My mother and brothers desperately wanted me to recant, to say it had never happened. Just as desperately, I wanted them to “break through their denial” and acknowledge what had happened.
For several years, I collected and traded quotes that helped explain issues that had me stuck. When asked to facilitate workshops on “Violence and Abuse”, I discovered that the quotes that had helped me so much assisted others as well.
Through this process I have learned several things:
- I can feel worthless AND know that I was created noble. God’s love for me remains unchanged, despite what I have done or what was done to me.
- The abuse was abasing AND it is me who continues to keep it in that light. It is my job to rise above it, and accomplish that for which I was creates.
- The abuse was awful AND there’s a context to put it in (See the sections on the Purpose of Life and the Role of Suffering and Tests).
- I can be in extreme pain as a result of my experiences AND I don’t have to stay trapped there. I can focus my attention away from the pain and towards acquiring virtues.
- I can use a therapist AND when I don’t have the money or my appointment is another week away, I can use the Divine Physician who is always available to me.
- I can be confused by feelings of anger, shame and low self esteem AND I can read about the role models of our faith: the heroes and martyrs of the Cause and of course, ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, the Perfect Exemplar.
- The abusers are criminals and accountable for their actions AND my job is to focus on my own spiritual growth and leave the accountability to God.
- There is no us/them. Bahá’u'lláh tells us we are all sinners. The nature of our sins may vary from person to person (as do our tests), but no one is exempt, therefore there is no one to blame. I recommend the chapter on “Breaking the Cycle” because it has so many practical, do-able suggestions for the transformation of our characters.In my life coaching practice, survivors of sexual abuse, parents estranged from their children over accusations of abuse, and other family members have repeatedly asked me to publish a resource that would help them resolve lives damaged by abuse. I’ve turned the principles I’ve studied, taught and lived for more than 20 years into this practical and inspiring guide that will help you get from where you are to where you want to be. Get ready to transform!
In Abuse and Violence: Reasons and Remedies, you will learn:
Chapter 1 - The Na
ture of the Problem
- The Purpose of Life
- Fate and Predestination
- Role of Tests and Difficulties
- The Causes
Chapter 2 – Types of Abuse
Chapter 3 – The Effects on the Victim and Consequences for the Abuser
Chapter 4 – The Remedies
Chapter 5 – Breaking the Cycle of Violence and Abuse
Chapter 6 – Living a Bahá’Ă Life
Chapter 7- The Role of Individuals, Families and Institutions
The Principles Always Work… If You Work the Principles
Taken together and practiced every day, these principles WILL transform your life beyond your wildest dreams!
For more information, please go to:Â http://bahailifecoach.com/main-menu/books-publications#post-1
“A great resource for those involved in counseling as well as a great reference for quotations that have a specific slant towards suffering and the healing process”
