Seeing POSITIVE - Earth Hour 2.0 a success [OPTIMISM], [HOPE], [CARE], [COOPERATION], [COORDINATION], [REVERENCE]

Source from here.

Earth Hour 2.0 a success

TARA WALTON /TORONTO STAR

St. Cuthbert's Anglican Church in Toronto during their candlelight meditation to mark Earth Hour on March 28, 2009.

City smashes last year's record low power usage as lights dim across the GTA and as far away as Beijing

Mar 28, 2009 10:58 PM

Daniel Dale
Staff reporter

And the environmentalists said let there be darkness. And – for an hour, at least – there was darkness: in downtown office towers and suburban homes, in stores big-box and mom-and-pop, at gatherings long-planned and impromptu.

Not a solution, no, but a statement. At 9:30 p.m., the conclusion of the second global Earth Hour, the meter at Toronto Hydro's control centre that measures city-wide electricity demand hit 2,545 megawatts – 15 per cent below typical demand at that time and 7 per cent below the lowest demand during Earth Hour in 2008.

Toronto's reduction of 455 megawatts was larger than the cumulative savings of the entire GTA during last year's event.

"Torontonians want to do what's right for the environment because they get it," Mayor David Miller told a cheering crowd at Nathan Phillips Square. "It's a privilege to be mayor of a city that gets it."

The increasing local popularity of Earth Hour, for which people worldwide were asked to turn off their lights between 8:30 p.m. and 9:30 p.m., reflected its rapid growth internationally. Launched in Sydney by the World Wildlife Fund in 2007 to raise awareness of the perils of climate change, it spread to more than 35 countries, including Canada, in 2008.

More than 80 countries and 3,000 cities participated today. Organizers claimed about 1 billion people spent the hour in the dark, an exponential increase from perhaps 50 million last year.

In Paris, the Eiffel Tower went noir. In Toronto, the CN Tower became as inconspicuous as a 553-metre building can ever be. In Athens, officials switched off the floodlights illuminating the Acropolis, an icon of western civilization. In Toronto, Honest Ed's iconically garish 23,000-bulb marquee temporarily ceased beckoning.

GTA hotels and stores welcomed guests by candlelight. Community groups hosted flashlight-lit walks. Amateur astronomers, savouring a rare approximation of light conditions in less dense locales, set up their telescopes in parks.

And tens of thousands congregated in private homes and public squares to both demonstrate their concern for the planet's fate and to share in the low-wattage spectacle.

At Nathan Phillips Square, thousands gathered for the city's official Earth Hour event, which featured a free concert. Many waved colourful glow sticks, loudly counting down the seconds until the beginning of the hour and cheering as City Hall went dark at the stroke of 8:30.

Many lights, of course, remained on. During the hour, Katie Szeto, 17, sat on a bench facing Queen St. W., looking dejectedly at the sky. "I'm a little disappointed, because I can't see the stars," said Szeto.

"And I'm sad that some buildings aren't dimmed," she said, pointing to several well-lit apartment buildings overlooking City Hall.

Organizers attempted to depict Earth Hour as a "global election," pitting people who "vote Earth" by turning their lights off versus people who "vote global warming" by leaving their lights on.

Some 250 Canadian cities participated. Yet some Canadians remained skeptical, arguing the event was little more than an exercise in feel-good tokenism.

At Dundas Square, hundreds lined up for free water filters Brita distributed to mark Earth Hour.

Olesya Kolisnyk, an environmentally conscious 29-year-old near the front of the line, said she had "very low expectations" about the event's long-term impact, though she supported the concept. "Something is better than nothing. Maybe we can do it quarterly."

WWF organizers said they acknowledged the limitations of a one-hour annual event. But they argued the event's worldwide popularity could influence governments to sign a new international accord on carbon emissions at the UN Climate Conference in Copenhagen in December. The Kyoto Protocol expires in 2012.

"This is a critical year for climate," WWF Canada president and chief executive officer Gerald Butts has said. "We need to come out of Copenhagen with a workable deal, based on science, that is going to lower carbon emissions globally. We think this is a turning point."

China, whose support environmental groups consider essential to the success of any worldwide climate plan, participated in Earth Hour for the first time, turning off the lights at prominent Olympic venues and office towers.

During last year's Earth Hour, Milton, Newmarket, Aurora and Halton Hills cut their electricity use by a greater percentage than Toronto. Milton led by the GTA with a 15 per cent reduction.

Before last night, Hydro officials cautiously predicted a Toronto decrease of 10 per cent. At the control centre, supervisors smiled as the reduction far surpassed expectations. "Torontonians have come through big time," said grid operations supervisor John Fletcher.

And then the city powered up. By 9:40 p.m., consumption had increased by 30 megawatts.

-With files from Paola Loriggio and Jason Miller

Passing of Country Singer Dan Seals [UNITY], [CARE], [CREATIVITY], [LOVE]

A most touching video, "We Are One", sung by Dan Seals, who passed away March 25, 2009:

Honor his blessed memory!

O my God, Thy Trust hath been returned unto Thee. It behooveth Thy grace and Thy bounty that have compassed Thy dominions on earth and in heaven, to vouchsafe unto Thy newly welcomed one Thy gifts and Thy bestowals, and the fruits of the tree of Thy grace! Powerful art Thou to do as Thou willest, there is none other God but Thee, the Gracious, the Most Bountiful, the Compassionate, the Bestower, the Pardoner, the Precious, the All-Knowing. I testify, O my Lord, that Thou hast enjoined upon men to honor their guest, and he that hath ascended unto Thee hath verily reached Thee and attained Thy Presence. Deal with him then according to Thy grace and bounty! By Thy glory, I know of a certainty that Thou wilt not withhold Thyself from that which Thou hast commanded Thy servants, nor wilt Thou deprive him that hath clung to the cord of Thy bounty and hath ascended to the Dayspring of Thy wealth. There is none other God but Thee, the One, the Single, the Powerful, the Omniscient, the Bountiful.

—Bahá’u’lláh

http://reference.bahai.org/en/t/c/BP/bp-37.html

Song text

We Are One

(Dan Seals)

In a bombed out room in Belfast
A young boy is crying
He’s alone and he don’t understand
How the teachings of one book
Built on love and understanding
Could cause the hurt and killing in his land

In an old part of Jerusalem
Two children are playing
They run and laugh
The way it’s meant to be
But one will wear the star and one will wear the crescent
And they’ll grow up and change from friends to enemies

Chorus

But we are one
Flowers of one garden
We’re one the leaves of one tree
Let the walls come down
And stand here together
We are one family

In a Pakistani village
A young boy on crutches
Takes a fall
And lies helplessly there
And he holds out his hand
But no one will take it
They won’t touch him
Or the clothes that he wears

On a side street in Selma
A black child is sitting
In a squad car
Protected from the whites
‘Cause they’re burning a cross
To send her a message
And you can see
The fear in her eyes

Chorus

But we are one
Flowers of one garden
We’re one the leaves of one tree
Let the walls come down
And stand here together
We are one family

Ponder in our hearts
How we were all created
From the same dust
And searching we will find
That spirit of the age
Has come to find us
To find us

Chorus

But we are one
Flowers of one garden
We’re one the leaves of one tree
Let the walls come down
And stand here together
We are one family

EARTH HOUR unites the world! [UNITY], [COOPERATION], [MODERATION], [CONSULTATION]

Will Earth Hour have been the biggest collective act in the history of mankind to date? Presaging that glorious day when the human race will have become as "one soul and one body"?

Focus quotation:

No power can exist except through unity. No welfare and no well-being can be attained except through consultation.

- Bahá'u'lláh, http://info.bahai.org/article-1-3-6-6.html

Excerpt from AP article:

"Earth Hour has always been a positive campaign; it's always around street parties, not street protests, it's the idea of hope, not despair. And I think that's something that's been incredibly important this year because there is so much despair around," said Earth Hour executive director Andy Ridley.

 

Photo: Russian students stand with candles in the city centre of VLADIVOSTOK as they mark WWF's Earth Hour

Source: news.yahoo.com

Antarctica to Pyramids — lights dim for Earth Hour

By VANESSA GERA, Associated Press Writer Vanessa Gera, Associated Press Writer 28 March

BONN, Germany – From an Antarctic research base to the Great Pyramids of Egypt and beyond, the world switched off the lights on Saturday for the second Earth Hour, dimming skyscrapers, city streets and some of the world's most recognizable monuments for 60 minutes to highlight the threat of climate change.

Time zone by time zone, nearly 4,000 cities and towns in 88 countries joined the event sponsored by the World Wildlife Fund to dim nonessential lights from 8:30 p.m. to 9:30 p.m.

An agreement to replace Kyoto Protocol, which expires in 2012, is supposed to be reached in Copenhagen, Denmark, this December, and environmentalists' sense of urgency has spurred interest in this year's Earth Hour. Last year, only 400 cities participated; Sydney held a solo event in 2007.

Organizers initially worried enthusiasm this year would wane with the world focused on the global economic crisis, Earth Hour executive director Andy Ridley told The Associated Press. But he said it apparently had the opposite effect.

"Earth Hour has always been a positive campaign; it's always around street parties, not street protests, it's the idea of hope, not despair. And I think that's something that's been incredibly important this year because there is so much despair around," he said. "On the other side of it, there's savings in cutting your power usage and being more sustainable and more efficient."

The Chatham Islands, a small chain about 500 miles (800 kilometers) east of New Zealand, switched off its diesel generators to officially begin Earth Hour. Soon after, the lights of Auckland's Sky Tower, the tallest man-made structure in New Zealand, blinked off.

At Scott Base in Antarctica, New Zealand's 26-member winter team resorted to minimum safety lighting and switched off appliances and computers.

In Australia, people attended candlelit speed-dating events and gathered at outdoor concerts as the hour of darkness rolled through. Sydney's glittering harbor was bathed in shadows as lights dimmed on the steel arch of the city's iconic Harbour Bridge and the nearby Opera House.

And in Egypt, the Great Pyramids darkened, as did the Sphinx.

In Bonn, WWF activists planned a candlelit cocktail party on the eve of a U.N. climate change meeting, the first in a series of talks this year seeking a new deal to curb emissions of heat-trapping gases that scientists say are dangerously warming the planet.

As nightfall approached in Europe, Paris planned to darken more than 200 monuments and buildings, including the Louvre and Notre Dame Cathedral.

The Eiffel Tower will extinguish its lights for only five minutes for security reasons because visitors will be on the tower, said WWF France spokesman Pierre Chasseray. But a nightly 9 p.m. sparkling lights feature will not run.

"Above all in the current economic crisis, we should send a signal for climate protection," said Klaus Wowereit, the mayor of Berlin, one in a handful of German cities switching off lights for Earth Day for the first time.

In Switzerland, the city of Geneva plans to switch off the lights on its theaters, churches and monuments. Among these are the Reformation Wall, where floodlights normally illuminate 10-foot (three-meter) statues of John Calvin and other leaders of Protestantism. The city's motto engraved on either side of the statues is: "After darkness, light."

Romania planned to turn off lights at the massive palace built in Bucharest by the late dictator Nicolae Ceausescu.

Still, a key 2010 football World Cup qualifier against Serbia posed a dilemma for Romanians. "Shall we watch the match or turn off the lights?," the 7plus daily asked in its main front-page headline.

The U.N. headquarters in New York and other facilities were dimming their lights to signal the need for global support for a new climate treaty.

U.N. Secretary Ban Ki-moon called Earth Hour "a way for the citizens of the world to send a clear message: They want action on climate change."

China participated for the first time, cutting the lights at Beijing's Bird's Nest Stadium and Water Cube, the most prominent 2008 Olympic venues. Shanghai cut lights at all government buildings and other structures on its waterfront, while Hong Kong, Baoding, Changchun, Dalian, Nanjing and Guangzhou also took part.

In Bangkok, the prime minister switched off the lights on Khao San Road, a haven for budget travelers packed with bars and outdoor cafes. On Bangkok's bustling Silom Road, street vendors hawking pirated DVDs and T-shirts chipped in by turning off the bulbs that light their stalls.

Earth Hour organizers say there's no uniform way to measure how much energy is saved worldwide.

Earth Hour 2009 has garnered support from global corporations, nonprofit groups, schools, scientists and celebrities — including Oscar-winning actress Cate Blanchett and retired Cape Town Archbishop Desmond Tutu.

McDonald's Corp. planned to dim its arches at 500 locations around the U.S. Midwest. The Marriott, Ritz-Carlton and Fairmont hotel chains and Coca-Cola Co. also planned to participate.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090328/ap_on_re_as/earth_hour

Artistic performance: Thousand-Hand Guan Yin [BEAUTY], [COOPERATION], [ORDERLINESS], [GRACE]

 

A YouTube video of a remarkable artistic performance troupe.

 

Thousand-Hand Guan Yin

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xgHmSdpjEIk

 

As long as you are kind and there is love in your heart
A thousand hands will naturally come to your aid
As long as you are kind and there is love in your heart
You will reach out with a thousand hands to help others

Guan Yin is the bodhisattva of compassion, revered by Buddhists as the Goddess of Mercy. Her name is short for Guan Shi Yin. Guan means to observe, watch, or monitor; Shi means the world; Yin means sounds, specifically sounds of those who suffer. Thus, Guan Yin is a compassionate being who watches for, and responds to, the people in the world who cry out for help.

The multi-coloured parade of humanity in all its diversity, moving together as one soul in many bodies [UNITY], [REVERENCE], [SACRIFICE]

Excerpts from an enlightening and inspiring blogpost by Robert Weinberg on his eloquent blog Where the World's Going, on the historical event that transpired at Naw-Ruz this year. Highlighting added.

Circles of adoration

On the day of the first Naw-Rúz He celebrated after His release from captivity - 21 March 1909 - 'Abdu'l-Bahá had a marble sarcophagus transported to the vault He had prepared for it. In the evening, "by the light of a single lamp, He laid within it, with His own hands—in the presence of believers from the East and from the West and in circumstances at once solemn and moving—the wooden casket containing the sacred remains of the Báb and His companion," wrote Shoghi Effendi.

"When all was finished, and the earthly remains of the Martyr-Prophet of Shíráz were, at long last, safely deposited for their everlasting rest in the bosom of God's holy mountain, 'Abdu'l-Bahá, Who had cast aside His turban, removed His shoes and thrown off His cloak, bent low over the still open sarcophagus, His silver hair waving about His head and His face transfigured and luminous, rested His forehead on the border of the wooden casket, and, sobbing aloud, wept with such a weeping that all those who were present wept with Him. That night He could not sleep, so overwhelmed was He with emotion."

Last Saturday, I was privileged to join some 1000 Bahá'ís – pilgrims, visitors, guests and staff of the Bahá'í World Centre - gathered on that same mountainside and, in an act of solemn reflection, circumambulate the Shrine of the Báb, 100 years to the day since 'Abdu'l-Bahá had completed that singular act which, wrote Shoghi Effendi, "indeed deserves to rank as one of the outstanding events in the first Bahá'í century." 

How transformed is this rocky mountainside since the night when 'Abdu'l-Bahá brought the Báb's remains to their final resting place, close to that circle of cypresses, in a mausoleum befitting a Messenger from God Who had declared His mission on the very night of the very same year that 'Abdu'l-Bahá Himself was born.

Last year alone, the Terraces of the Shrine of the Báb attracted some 640,000 visitors and their beauty is being universally acclaimed. Last Monday, in Jerusalem, a special reception was held to celebrate the addition of the Bahá'í shrines and gardens to the UNESCO World Heritage list. Commenting on the achievement, Israel's Interior Minister Meir Sheetrit, said that the shrines reflect peace, beauty and tolerance. He said it was not only an honour for Israel to have the Bahá'í Holy Places within its borders, but it was an honour for UNESCO to have them on its list of the world's most culturally significant places.

"The sacrifices of the Báb and the dawn-breakers of the Cause are yielding abundant fruit," wrote the Universal House of Justice at Naw-Ruz, the exact centenary of the interment of the Báb's remains on Mount Carmel, "The magnificent progress achieved over the past century demonstrates the invincible power with which the Cause is endowed."   

As we processed from the Seat of the Universal House of Justice, along the semi-circular arc path to the Shrine of the Báb, I turned back and glimpsed the multi-coloured parade of humanity in all its diversity, moving together as one soul in many bodies. I remembered the dramatic circumstances surrounding the Báb's own execution and the vain hope of the clergy and rulers of His land that, with His swift demise and the brutal massacre of some 20,000 followers, the fire He had ignited would be quenched. The vision of humanity I glimpsed on Saturday demonstrated to me the futility of such attempts to snuff out this inextinguishable light - efforts which persist in Iran to this day. "He doeth as He doeth and what recourse have we? He carrieth out His will, He ordaineth what He pleaseth."

'Abdu'l-Bahá's depositing of the remains of the Báb in the bosom of Mount Carmel marked the beginning of the World Centre of the Bahá'í Faith. It was an act of love and obedience carried out by a son on the instructions of His Father. A seed, still bursting with life and potential, had been salvaged from a savagely felled tree and planted in new soil where it could take root. The circle of cypress trees, silent witnesses to momentous events, are now overshadowed by the efflorescence of Carmel, both in the magnificence of the gardens that now adorn its slopes and the vibrant variety of human hues that gather there in their thousands to pay homage to the martyred herald of their Faith. Today, these are the fruits of that seed, of that act of obedience. 

As the Universal House of Justice noted, "It is but a portent of the ultimate realization of the oneness of humankind."

Read the whole post here.

Hope found in opportunities to progress [HOPE]

From Betsy Lydle Smith's inspirational newsletter www.virtuestraining.com.

On Hope -

Questions for Reflection:

1. What gives me hope when things look hopeless?

2. Who can I count on in times of adversity?

3. What am I thankful for right now?

Betsy Lydle Smith • (425) 747-9079 • betsy@virtuestraining.com

A VIRTUES MOMENT: HOPE

"Hope is looking to the future with trust and faith. It is optimism in the face of adversity. Without hope, we lose our will to live fully. Hope gives us the courage to keep moving forward. It can be elusive when we have suffered often, yet it is the light that can redeem our dreams. With hope, we know we are not alone. There is always help when we are willing to ask. There are gifts to be gleaned from all that happens. With hope, we find the confidence to try and try again. I am thankful for the gift of Hope. It is the light of my life."

-excerpted with permission from Virtues Reflection Cards by Linda Kavelin Popov. http://virtuestraining.com/24_products

My first thought in writing this month about Hope, was the economy and its effects on us. It is hard to be hopeful when so many around us are losing their homes, their jobs, their savings. The antidote to hopelessness and fear is gratitude. When I remember all the things I am grateful for, I can be in a place of hope and gratitude, instead of fear and hopelessness.

Then I received a newsletter from the Mona Foundation, a nonprofit organization supporting educational initiatives and raising the status of women and girls around the world. A visit to the Barli Institute in India demonstrates the power of Hope, in an area that most would see as hopeless. In Indore province, a visitor describes breaktaking poverty, dust, and suffocating pollution, where mothers must leave their listless, tiny, helpless infants on top of broken, wooden carts, to sell a few bananas to survive another day. When even the very old with thin skin on their fragile bones pull a cart to make a few coins each day.

In the midst of this poverty, the Barli Institute educates the poorest women from the surrounding villages, most of whom are illiterate, voiceless and hopeless. After 6 months, all go back to their villages as health workers, having learned to read and write, how to sew and batik, how to sow the land with sustainable practices and how to preserve their environment. They leave as empowered women, proud, and determined to make a difference in their own lives and the lives of others.

Two people, the McGilligans, initially brought hope to this poor region by founding Barli Institute, where women are transformed, one person at a time, to become powerful agents of change in service to the social and economic development of their own communities. Hope is indeed, optimism in the face of adversity. It is the light in our lives.

To read more of this inspiring story about the Mona Foundation go to http://monafoundation.org/newsletters/spring09.pdf

Questions for Reflection:

1. What gives me hope when things look hopeless?

2. Who can I count on in times of adversity?

3. What am I thankful for right now?

VIRTUES IN THE NEWS

To listen to Betsy's radio interview about virtues in schools, go to the podcast for Soul of Seattle for 3/8/09- http://www.am1090seattle.com/pages/3610803.php

We were also featured in the Bellevue Reporter last month: "Bellevue Students Learn to Use Virtues" http://www.pnwlocalnews.com/east_king/bel/community/39916073.html

Interaction and Respect in Marriage - a thoughtful perspective [ATTENTIVENESS], [JUSTICE], [MODERATION], [HELPFULNESS]

This is an excellent and insightful article on applying moral principles in marriage from the cooperative blog Baha'i Perspectives.

Excerpt:

"It’s interesting how often our family members are the people we are most rude and unkind to-because we’re tired at the end of the day when we see them..."

Just because you're married doesn't mean…

nava March 24th, 2009

…you should be overly familiar.

I should probably preface this entry by explaining that I am wholly unqualified to write it as I am not nor have I ever been married. Notwithstanding, family is an area in life that interests me greatly and I have had the good fortune of being raised among the 49% of parents in the West whose marriages do work, and probably the even slimmer percentage of parents whose marriages are happy.

My interest in writing this piece was born of a conversation I had with a good friend of mine the other night revolving around the idea of "easy familiarity". In the Bahá'í Faith, we are discouraged from being overly familiar with others. This can range from something as simple as, don't open someone else's refrigerator and start rummaging through their food without permission, to something like, don't give yourself permission to be overly intimate with another person outside the confines of marriage. But I'd never really thought about this concept of not being easily or overly familiar within a marriage. Clearly, the refrigerator and intimacy examples don't apply among marriage partners. But what about the tone in which you address your spouse?

It's interesting how often our family members are the people we are most rude and unkind to-because we're tired at the end of the day when we see them; because we know them so well and feel so comfortable around them that we don't censor ourselves; because we assume they'll always be there. But if you think about it, these are the people we should show the most kindness to, precisely because we're in it for life. Why not make that the most loving, joyous experience it can be?

It is not easy to live life always being vigilant over what you think and say. But, life isn't meant to be easy. And realistically, things don't work in isolation. If we are truly intent on developing our virtues-kindess, patience, forbearance, forgiveness-what better laboratory than home?

Marriage partners have to be so careful not to give themselves permission to snap at each other, to cross lines they justify crossing with ideas like, "But he's my husband. I should be able to say anything I want around him!" Why? Why should you be allowed to gossip with your husband? Why should you be allowed to say something so critical and harsh, something so hurtful, that you would never dare say to another? Of course, marriage isn't about ignoring each other's flaws. You help each other grow and develop into better people. But that process doesn't happen with snide remarks or dwelling on each other's imperfections, either. You support one another, you uplift one another.

We shouldn't confuse being thoughtful and biting our tongues with being formal. Perhaps formality works among some couples, but that's certainly not what I'm suggesting. It is absolutely possible to be comfortable, to be intimate, to be honest and open with a partner without crushing their spirits in the way you speak to them. And sometimes it is better to simply overlook; to forgive.

As 'Abdu'l-Bahá explains, "their [husband and wife's] purpose must be this: to become loving companions and comrades and at one with each other for time and eternity…" If they are vigilant over themselves, faithful and true in their actions and kind and respectful in their words, they may experience true marriage, which is "that husband and wife should be united both physically and spiritually, that they may ever improve the spiritual life of each other, and may enjoy everlasting unity throughout all the worlds of God."

If we regard marriage as an institution whose purpose is, among other things, to add to world unity by starting at the most basic level, and not just as a coming together of two individual beings; if we regard ourselves as partners whose purpose is to strive to ever improve the spiritual life of the other, maybe biting our tongues once in a while, lowering our voices, sweetening our words (genuinely, not condescendingly) will become second nature to us, and marriage won't feel like hard work. Instead, we will experience the following, which we are assured is possible, perhaps inevitable, when we align our behavior with the laws of the All-knowing Lord:

"In this glorious Cause the life of a married couple should resemble the life of the angels in heaven-a life full of joy and spiritual delight, a life of unity and concord, a friendship both mental and physical. The home should be orderly and well-organized. Their ideas and thoughts should be like the rays of the sun of truth and the radiance of the brilliant stars in the heavens. Even as two birds they should warble melodies upon the branches of the tree of fellowship and harmony. They should always be elated with joy and gladness and be a source of happiness to the hearts of others. They should set an example to their fellow-men, manifest a true and sincere love towards each other and educate their children in such a manner as to blazon the fame and glory of their family."

~ 'Abdu'l-Bahá

Whenever we hear superb music, we will forget all inferior music -- [BEAUTY], [LOVE], [ATTENTIVENESS]

A story of and by Abdu'l-Bahá:

Abdul Bahá seated himself in his usual chair by the window. A band of street singers just below struck up noisily. A girl in the flat above was practicing on the piano. Abdul Bahá sat quietly till the noise ceased and still looking out of the window gave the following talk on the celestial music of the spheres:

Last night a Hindu professor of music came to see me. He brought with him a musical instrument called a vina and sang for us certain Oriental verses, accompanying himself on the vina. Overhead, our neighbor was playing the piano, but as soon as the professor began, the piano became silent till the Hindu finished. This teaches us a lesson — whenever we hear superb music we must listen; then we will forget all inferior music. For instance, when a lover of music hearkens once to the entrancing notes of a great master, his love for music will no longer be satisfied by the playing of a pupil. If he listen with equal pleasure to the pupil, it shows a lack of artistic appreciation.

Let us suppose that the most accomplished artist of Paris is playing for us in this room, inspiring the hearts by immortal songs and charming us with celestial harmonies — is it possible that any one of us could leave this room and going through the streets stop to enjoy the crude notes of a hurdy-gurdy?

Today there are many melodies; from every studio divers strains are floated to our ears, but these tunes have become antiquated and covered with the rust of time. For thousands of years the same notes have been heard. They lack their original charm and purity, for the singers have grown old and decrepit and lost their voices. The song of life has lost its virility. From every direction melodies are sounded and we must needs have discriminating ears.

Let us seek the song with the sweetest strains, so that it may be taken up by the angels and carried to the supreme concourse. Let us hearken to the melody which will stir the world of humanity, so that the people may be transformed with joy.

Let us listen to a symphony which will confer life on man; then we can obtain universal results; then we shall receive a new spirit; then shall we become illumined. Let us investigate a song which is above all songs; one which will develop the spirit and produce harmony and exhilaration, unfolding the inner potentialities of life.

Whenever the sun of reality dawns, the lower sphere expresses the virtues of the higher world.

Why does not man harken to the soul-stirring music of the supreme concourse and not run wild with joy over the jarring notes of a street organ!

Strive day and night; perchance these sleeping ones may be awakened by the celestial strains of the city of melody and hear the soft, delicate music which is streaming down from the kingdom of El-Abha.

("Abdu'l-Baha on Divine Philosophy", p. 75-77)

Characteristics of Geniuses

From Forbes.com

Excerpt from 'How To Be A Genius':

Be obsessed with work

Show me a genius and I'll show you a workaholic...
The debate over talent vs. effort is moot: History makes it clear you always need extraordinary effort.

Have emotional or other serious problems

For all their brilliance, most geniuses did not live well-adjusted lives.

...the real lesson is that all emotions, positive or negative, provide fuel for work and geniuses are better at converting their emotions into work than more ordinary people.

Desiring fame in the present may spoil the talents you have. This explains why many young stars have one amazing work but never rise to the same brilliance later: They've lost their own opinions. Perhaps it's best to ignore opinions except from a trusted few and concentrate on the problems you wish to solve.

To focus on learning and creating seems wise. Leave it to the world after you're gone to decide if you were a genius or not.

How To Be A Genius

Scott Berkun, 03.02.09, 06:00 AM EST

Have you got what it takes to be seen as a genius? Do you really want to?

In Pictures: 10 Geniuses And What Made Them Great

Scott Berkun

Conference:

Web 2.0 Expo

Training:

Learn From the Experts

Blog:

The Future at Work

Geniuses don't exist in the present. Think of the people you've met: Would you call any of them a genius in the Mozart, Einstein, Shakespeare sense of the word? Even the MacArthur Foundation's "genius" grants don't call their winners geniuses.

We throw the g-word around where it's safe: in reference to dead people. Since there's no one alive who witnessed Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart pee in his kindergarten pants or saw young Pablo Picasso eating crayons, we can call them geniuses in safety, as their humanity has been stripped from our memory.

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Even if you believe geniuses exist, there's little consensus on what being a genius means. Some experts say genius is the capacity for greatness. Others believe it's that you've accomplished great things.

Forget this pointless debate. Chasing definitions never provides what we want: a better understanding of how to appreciate, and possibly become, interesting creative people. Instead let's run through the history of geniuses and pull out some telling patterns.

Have a great, or horrible, family

Picasso, Mozart, Beethoven, Einstein and Goethe are popular geniuses whose parents were interested in their creative lives. Mozart and Beethoven both had fathers who were professional musicians and they were taught by them during childhood to play instruments. Can you guess what Picasso's dad did? Yes, he was a painter, and he spent many hours with young Pablo.

One popular legend surrounding Einstein is that he was obsessed with a compass given to him by his dad. The more potent factor in his development was family friend Max, who taught Einstein science and philosophy. Then, of course, there's Van Gogh. The only healthy relationship he ever had was with his brother Theo.

But lousy families can make geniuses, too.

Beethoven's dad was cruel, torturing him during practice sessions. Unlike many child prodigies who burn out at adolescence, Beethoven kept his passion for music. Leonardo da Vinci barely knew his father.

Isaac Newton was also born to a single-parent home and hated his stepfather. From that broken relationship may have come the seed of unrest that fueled his independent life and ideas.

Be obsessed with work

Show me a genius and I'll show you a workaholic. Van Gogh produced 2,000 works of art between 1880 and 1890 (or 1,100 paintings and 900 sketches). That's four works of art a week for a decade. He didn't even get started until age 25.

Da Vinci's journals represent one clear fact: Work was the center of his life. He had neither a spouse nor children. Picasso was a machine, churning out 12,000 works of art. He said, "Give me a museum and I'll fill it" and made good on that boast. Shakespeare wrote more than 40 plays, plus dozens of sonnets, poems and, of course, grocery lists.

These are people who sacrificed many ordinary pleasures for their work.

The list of lazy geniuses is short. There are burnouts, suicides and unproductive years in retreat--but none could be called slackers. Malcolm Gladwell, in his book Outliers contends that the key to any success is 10,000 hours of practice.

The debate over talent vs. effort is moot: History makes it clear you always need extraordinary effort.

Have emotional or other serious problems

For all their brilliance, most geniuses did not live well-adjusted lives. Picasso, Van Gogh, Edison, Einstein and Nietzsche (and most major modern philosophers) were often miserable. Many never married or married often, abandoned children and fought depression.

Newton and Tesla spent years in isolation by choice and had enough personality disorders to warrant cabinets full of pharmaceuticals today. Michelangelo and da Vinci quit jobs and fled cities to escape debts.

Kafka and Proust were both hypochondriacs, spending years in bed or in hospitals for medical conditions, some of which were psychological. Voltaire, Thoreau and Socrates all lived in exile or poverty, and these conditions contributed to the works they're famous for.

Happily positive emotions can work as fuel, too. John Coltrane, C.S. Lewis and Einstein had deeply held, and mostly positive, spiritual beliefs that fueled their work.

But the real lesson is that all emotions, positive or negative, provide fuel for work and geniuses are better at converting their emotions into work than more ordinary people.

Don't strive for fame in your own lifetime

Most people we now consider geniuses received little publicity in their lifetimes compared with the accolades heaped on them after their deaths. Kafka and Van Gogh died young, poor and with little fame.

Desiring fame in the present may spoil the talents you have. This explains why many young stars have one amazing work but never rise to the same brilliance later: They've lost their own opinions. Perhaps it's best to ignore opinions except from a trusted few and concentrate on the problems you wish to solve.

To focus on learning and creating seems wise. Leave it to the world after you're gone to decide if you were a genius or not. As long as you're free to create in ways that satisfy your passions and a handful of fans, you're doing better than most, including many of the people we call geniuses.

In Pictures: 10 Geniuses And What Made Them Great

Scott Berkun is the best-selling author of the books Making Things Happen and The Myths of Innovation. He has also worked at Microsoft (nasdaq: MSFT - news - people ), taught creative thinking at the University of Washington and runs a popular blog at www.scottberkun.com.

See Also:

Why Kindle Should Be An Open Book

Where Real Innovation Happens

Big Hairy Audacious Work

Poem - Gibran: A world embracing vision and a singular mission [FAITH], [COMPASSION], [EVANESCENCE]

A visionary and heartfelt poem from this heavenly poet, inspiring renewed faith in our common humanity and in our ultimate redemption as a species! - A.

The power of charity sows deep in my heart, and I reap and gather the wheat in bundles and give them to the hungry. My soul gives life to the grapevine and I press its bunches and give the juice to the thirsty. Heaven fills my lamp with oil and I place it at my window to direct the stranger through the dark. I do all these things because I live in them; and if destiny should tie my hands and prevent me from so doing, then death would be my only desire. For I am a poet, and if I cannot give, I shall refuse to receive.

Humanity rages like a tempest, but I sigh in silence for I know the storm must pass away while a sigh goes to God. Human kinds cling to earthly things, but I seek ever to embrace the torch of love so it will purify me by its fire and sear inhumanity from my heart. Substantial things deaden a man without suffering; awakens him with enlivening pains. Humans are divided into different clans and tribes, and belong to countries and towns. But I find myself a stranger to all communities and belong to no settlement. The universe is my country and the human family is my tribe.

-Kahlil Gibran

The good attributes and virtues which are the adornments of man's reality

Then it is clear that the honor and exaltation of man must be something more than material riches. Material comforts are only a branch, but the root of the exaltation of man is the good attributes and virtues which are the adornments of his reality. These are the divine appearances, the heavenly bounties, the sublime emotions, the love and knowledge of God; universal wisdom, intellectual perception, scientific discoveries, justice, equity, truthfulness, benevolence, natural courage and innate fortitude; the respect for rights and the keeping of agreements and covenants; rectitude in all circumstances; serving the truth under all conditions; the sacrifice of one's life for the good of all people; kindness and esteem for all nations; obedience to the teachings of God; service in the Divine Kingdom; the guidance of the people, and the education of the nations and races. This is the prosperity of the human world! This is the exaltation of man in the world! This is eternal life and heavenly honor!

These virtues do not appear from the reality of man except through the power of God and the divine teachings, for they need supernatural power for their manifestation. It may be that in the world of nature a trace of these perfections may appear, but they are unstable and ephemeral; they are like the rays of the sun upon the wall.

As the compassionate God has placed such a wonderful crown upon the head of man, man should strive that its brilliant jewels may become visible in the world.

--'Abdu'l-Baha, Some Answered Questions, pp. 79-80

Available from http://reference.bahai.org/en/t/ab/SAQ/saq-15.html#pg79.

Internet socially integrating humanity

From Forbes.com.

Excerpts:

...communication is the foundation of society, business and government. When you scale up communications, you change the world.

...a key point about the social nervous system: It coordinates (and sometimes directs) physical activity in the world.

It is no coincidence that "transparency" is a catch phrase in government and business these days. It is a natural byproduct of this emerging social nervous system. The social nervous system engenders a healthier balance of power in society and helps to connect our individual actions into a larger context in a clear way.

The social nervous system makes us aware of a broader context of relationship with humanity. My immediate relationships--with my family, my city and state--begin to span the globe.

The Rise Of The Social Nervous System

Joshua-Michele Ross, 03.09.09, 01:40 PM EDT

The Internet now connects humanity into a hive mind. Is that a good thing?

Conference:

Web 2.0 Expo

Training:

Learn From the Experts

Blog:

The Future at Work

SEBASTOPOL, Calif.--No corner of modern American life is untouched by technology. And no technology is more transformative than the Internet. The simple reason for this is that the Internet is, at bottom, a communications network, and communication is the foundation of society, business and government. When you scale up communications, you change the world.

There are now at least 1.6 billions of us connected via computer and 3 billion mobile devices that touch the Internet. The rise of "social" technologies--such as wikis, blogs, Twitter, SMS and social networks--means that the barriers to participation across the planet (in terms of the cost, access and skills required) are rapidly approaching zero.

As ever more people get connected, we see an acceleration in the way the Internet is used to coordinate action and render services from human input. We are witnessing the rise of a social nervous system. Consider these three cases:

Emergency Response

The Mumbai attacks showcased the use of Twitter as a real-time, peer-to-peer information service. Throughout the event, people twittered the movement of the attackers. The police were on the service admonishing people not to disclose their own movements. Though there was criticism of whether or not the details were accurate (the BBC was criticized for integrating Twitter into its reporting), the larger point is that this real-time communication system influenced the physical behavior on the ground in Mumbai. This is a key point about the social nervous system: It coordinates (and sometimes directs) physical activity in the world.

Coordinating Political Action

The Obama campaign's Houdini project on election day used real-time data from polling stations to adjust its "get out the vote" program. As one participant noted, poll observers "took the real-time results of who actually showed up at the polls and fed it back to the campaign so that they could adjust their GOTV calls and canvassing as the day wore on. Every time someone came in to vote, their names were entered into a computer system, and their names disappeared or escaped, Houdini-like, from the call and walk lists."

Global Virus Forecasting

As millions of users search for health information, Google (nasdaq: GOOG - news - people ) uses the aggregate of these searches to estimate flu activity even in very localized regions. This information has been shown to estimate flu activity two weeks earlier (a life-age for influenza) than the CDC forecast methods.

Watch the news, and you will see daily evidence of how a system that connects billions of people is influencing the physical world--from recent protests in California against Proposition 8 organized by Facebook to the riots in my hometown of Oakland after several witnesses uploaded video taken from their mobile phones of a police shooting. New services such as Qik are now bringing live mobile camera feeds online (think Webcams for mobile phones). That will make what happened in Oakland a small foretaste of what is likely to come. I used Twitter during the Oakland riot to stay updated on local transit outages and plot a new route home from work.

It is easy to confuse this concept with the emerging field of machine learning such as the smart energy grid, traffic control using the sensor Web or the Planetary Skin Initiative recently announced by Nasa and Cisco (nasdaq: CSCO - news - people ). Machine optimization is useful but hardly social: Human beings do not contribute the data, share it or act upon it. And the implications of a social nervous system are far more profound than simply a "smart" grid.

The social nervous system makes us aware of a broader context of relationship with humanity. My immediate relationships--with my family, my city and state--begin to span the globe. We can leverage the ubiquity of communications to coordinate real world activity--and just about anyone can do it. Even a kid with a mobile phone can capture a revolution.

Using a social nervous system, we are finding solutions to some big problems such as controlling disease or responding to emergencies. Most important, we are creating a feedback mechanism that exposes the actions of a powerful few to the many--and the trivial day-to-day life of the many to the whole of humanity.

It is no coincidence that "transparency" is a catch phrase in government and business these days. It is a natural byproduct of this emerging social nervous system. The social nervous system engenders a healthier balance of power in society and helps to connect our individual actions into a larger context in a clear way.

Another outcome of the social nervous system is that we see the shift away from privacy as an inalienable right to an individual responsibility. In a social nervous system there will be increasing pressure to be connected 24/7 to the hive mind that is Facebook, Twitter and so on. Those who do not connect, share and collaborate will have a hard time in business and in social life.

Older generations expect that digital natives will one day wish to erase all their indiscreet photos online. But I don't believe this nonstop exposure will go away as the digital natives mature. Our lives are increasingly being logged on the Internet. It is part of the trade. Given the complexity and precarious position of the modern world, getting people to genuinely reach out and touch their neighbors is a good thing but it will come at the price of reshaping our identities as part of a larger, interconnected whole.

As vice president with O'Reilly Radar, Joshua-Michéle Ross runs O'Reilly Media's consulting practice, helping clients apply Web 2.0 principles. He is also working on a video series, "The Future at Work." E-mail him at joshua.ross@oreilly.com.

See Also:

How To Be A Genius

Where Real Innovation Happens

Big Hairy Audacious Work

Applied Wisdom in Project Managment [UNITY], [RESPECT], [COOPERATION], [DECISIVENESS], [WISDOM]

This is from Scott Berkun's excellent blog - scottberkun.com. His observations can be generalized to so many situations in life!

Focus quotation:

"No man can attain his true station except through his justice. No power can exist except through unity. No welfare and no well-being can be attained except through consultation."
- Bahá'u'lláh, quoted in The Prosperity of Mankind, p. 8

Excerpt:

As a program manager (glorified title for project manager), all of my power actually came from the programmers. I only had a job because of the programmers. No programmers means no code, no product, no revenue. End of story.  My power was an extension of theirs. I had to treat them with respect and go out of my way to earn their trust over time.

This meant first and foremost I had to earn their respect. Help them make decisions. Bulldoze organizational road blocks out of their way. Prove I was smart, that I could help them make tough decisions, and could make the product much better even though I couldn't write code as well as they could. And only after establishing that value could I be a team leader and be of true use to the project.

The Berkun Blog

Management and creative thinking

How project managers establish power

March 12th, 2009

I remember the day I started working as a program manager on the Internet explorer team. On my second day, Joe Belfiore, my boss, came to my office, closed the door, and told me two things:

1. Your relationship with programmers is everything
2. There are only two teams at Microsoft to care about, Windows and Office.

Forget for a moment these specific points. Joe did the most important thing in the world as a boss. He gave me clear priorities. Even if they were wrong, from day one (ok, it was day two) he imparted his private view of how to succeed and how to make sense of things. It was amazingly empowering. I could slice through all of the work being thrown at me from across the team and the company, and divide into two neat piles: a) things to care about, b) things not to care about. Joe was a great boss and provided this kind of clarity all the time.

It turns out both bits of advice were right.

Your relationship with programmers is everything

As a program manager (glorified title for project manager), all of my power actually came from the programmers. I only had a job because of the programmers. No programmers means no code, no product, no revenue. End of story.  My power was an extension of theirs. I had to treat them with respect and go out of my way to earn their trust over time.

This meant first and foremost I had to earn their respect. Help them make decisions. Bulldoze organizational road blocks out of their way. Prove I was smart, that I could help them make tough decisions, and could make the product much better even though I couldn't write code as well as they could. And only after establishing that value could I be a team leader and be of true use to the project. With programmers as allies, working with marketers, testers, executives, or leaders of other teams, became easier, and my role as a team leader became possible.

When I visit companies or talk to people, and they tell me they rarely talk to the programmers, a red flashing light goes off in my head. How on earth do you have any power? I wonder. You don't know the people who actually make the thing you are managing! You have no idea if they believe in what they are doing or not, or if they have better ideas than yours.  Something critical is broken if project managers don't have collaborative and trusting relationships with programmers.  If there is a problem between PMs and programmers, it's the PMs job to fix it. Odds are they're better at communication, conflict resolution and have more perspective, all of the key skills for resolving differences and building relationships.  Put another way: if you're a PM and your team hates you, what else do you have? Your relationship with your team is everything.

There are only two teams at Microsoft to care about, Windows and Office.

Back in 1995 when Joe gave me this advice, it was true. There were only two groups at Microsoft that were successful and brining in sizable revenue.  The problem was working on Internet Explorer during the browser wars, every one of the 100 teams in the company wanted something from me, and every other PM on the team. They wanted us to add features to help promote their work, code changes to fix bugs that bothered them, etc. There was a huge pile of people who wanted to influence the work I managed. My phone rang all the time and my inbox was always full. If I treated everyone equally I'd be doomed. Couldn't be done. I had to ignore, or say no to, most of the people who wanted something from me. With Joe's advice I had a rough guide for sorting it out. Tons of exceptions of course, but the baseline advice was right and useful.

Good managers give these little bits of power insight all the time. Dividing up the complex, stressful working world of projects into two piles.  A project manager derives his power from this kind of clarity, especially if he can articuate it to others like Joe did to me.

Visionary thinking - integrating it into life-, business decisions [INTELLIGENCE], [AUDACITY], [RESPONSIBILITY]

From Forbes.com.
Exerpt:

Work on Something that Matters More than Money

Nothing great or lasting was ever created by pursuing money for money's sake. Momentous innovations and companies emerge from visionary goals...

--Take the Long View

Tim calls it "taking the long view." I call it "systems thinking." In both cases, we mean understanding how your work fits into a larger context and set of outcomes. In business, as in life, we often make local, fragmented choices that promise us an immediate benefit while ignoring the long-term costs...Even though it's hard, taking the long view is a key not only to business success but to planetary survival.

Consultants are the honeybees of the business ecology. We spread the good pollen around in the form of insight, methodology and best practices. So the question for consultants is this: Am I helping a company with ethics and an impact on the world which I support?

Underlying the power of Web 2.0 is the idea that every contribution made on the Internet--from an action to a link to a blog or any other commentary--adds value and significance to the network.

Every choice and action counts. This dynamic is true, too, in the "real world." Where we spend our money, our labor and our attention define the world we live in. It is the aggregate of our choices that brought us to this place. It is only through individual choice that we will emerge on the other side. 

O'Reilly Insights

Big, Hairy Audacious Work

Joshua-Michele Ross, 02.17.09, 06:00 AM EST

How to rethink work in the 21st century.

Conference:

Web 2.0 Expo

Training:

Learn From the Experts

Blog:

The Future at Work

SEBASTOPOL, Calif. - In March 2008, two days after I joined O'Reilly Media, I found myself at ETech, O'Reilly's emerging technology conference, listening to my new boss, Tim O'Reilly, give a speech about the importance of working on "stuff that matters." His point boiled down this: "We have some really big problems facing us. Let's apply our talent to solving them."

Implicit in that call to action was its mirror opposite directive: Stop working on stuff that doesn't matter (like developing a new way to throw sheep in Facebook). The government's intervention to save Bear Stearns a few days later brought that speech into sharp relief.

Tim's "stuff that matters" theme gained clarity and focus over the year, and current events added urgency to the message. Gas climbed over $140 a barrel. Shearson Lehman collapsed the same week Tim gave a similar talk at the Web 2.0 Expo in New York.

A few weeks into 2009, the message has become simple: We cannot continue "business as usual" in the face of dwindling oil supplies, environmental degradation, climate change and a worldwide economic meltdown.

Yet Tim's call is answered by a different question: "What is the stuff that matters?"

Working on stuff that matters is a personal choice--not a project checklist. In that spirit, here are a few first principles we talk about at O'Reilly. (Tim has written about this on his blog, too.) It's just a beginning. I hope Forbes readers will add to the conversation in the comments below.

--Work on Something that Matters More than Money

Comment On This Story

Nothing great or lasting was ever created by pursuing money for money's sake. Momentous innovations and companies emerge from visionary goals, or a "Big, Hairy, Audacious Goal."Google's (nasdaq: GOOG - news - people ) BHAG was to "organize the world's information." As Paul Graham notes: "Google looked a lot like a charity in the beginning. They didn't have ads for over a year. At year one, Google was indistinguishable from a nonprofit."

Google didn't have much money, but it did have an audacious goal.

--Create More Value Than You Capture

In this era of corporate meltdowns, it is easy to see that the captains of Wall Street were guilty of pulling more out of the ecosystem than they put in. By contrast, the tech companies that have thrived are those that have built strategies where their partners are invested in building joint success. Microsoft (nasdaq: MSFT - news - people ) began its life this way. EBay (nasdaq: EBAY - news - people ) is a model of a flourishing ecosystem; it is a platform connecting millions of buyers and sellers while keeping a small percentage of profit.

--Take the Long View

Tim calls it "taking the long view." I call it "systems thinking." In both cases, we mean understanding how your work fits into a larger context and set of outcomes. In business, as in life, we often make local, fragmented choices that promise us an immediate benefit while ignoring the long-term costs. Logic tells us this is the very definition of unsustainable growth. Even though it's hard, taking the long view is a key not only to business success but to planetary survival.

This last point is particularly critical for me in my role leading the consulting arm of O'Reilly. Consultants are the honeybees of the business ecology. We spread the good pollen around in the form of insight, methodology and best practices. So the question for consultants is this: Am I helping a company with ethics and an impact on the world which I support?

Underlying the power of Web 2.0 is the idea that every contribution made on the Internet--from an action to a link to a blog or any other commentary--adds value and significance to the network.

Every choice and action counts. This dynamic is true, too, in the "real world." Where we spend our money, our labor and our attention define the world we live in. It is the aggregate of our choices that brought us to this place. It is only through individual choice that we will emerge on the other side.

The current recession obliges us to rethink business practices. As Stanford University economist Paul Romer has said: A crisis is a terrible thing to waste. So work on Stuff That Matters.

As vice president with O'Reilly Radar, Joshua-Michéle Ross runs O'Reilly Media's consulting practice, helping clients apply Web 2.0 principles. He is also working on a video series, "The Future at Work." E-mail him at joshua.ross@oreilly.com.

See Also:

Where Real Innovation Happens

Inventing The Future

Great Inventors Living Among Us