The possibilities – ‘a flower by any other name would smell as sweet’

I am a big fan of the great Disney movies and, as a gift, my brother once gave me a CD of the greatest Disney songs. I was listening to this CD recently and just reflecting on how the Disney films have developed over time with their themes and story lines. The story lines have developed over time from being much less about the princess waiting for her prince and her dreams of living in a castle and more about the qualities and capacities latent within the princess which the story draws out. Mulan was Disney’s 1998 film. It is a film based on Hua Mulan; a heroine who joined an all-male army, as described in a famous Chinese poem known as the Ballad of Mulan. The Disney film opens when the Huns invade China and the Chinese Emperor commands a general mobilization in which each family is given a conscription notice. Within Mulan’s family there are no sons to fight and so Mulan’s father is forced to enlist despite his age and disability. To protect her father and the honour of her family, Mulan poses as a man and flees to join the army in his place. In the film when Mulan is found out to be a woman she is ridiculed and abased. However, as this is Disney and in Disney there are happy endings, all is not lost! By the end of the film, Mulan fights the Huns showing her courage, zeal, tenacity and strength. She ends up saving China and winning the respect of the Emperor who presents her with his crest, intending for her to be his successor, technically making Mulan “Princess of China”. Mulan travels home and presents the crest  to her father, but he throws the priceless treasures aside and embraces her, calling her his ‘greatest gift and honour’.

In watching this film I was thinking about what it is that makes us human. What are the virtues within us that  make us who we are, irrespective of our gender? I would be the last one to join the army and be courageous as Mulan. I would much rather sit that one out and I am sure most women would too. But it is my observation that a lot of women today may feel they have to compete to be heard. My feeling is that men and women have different roles to play in society. Different roles that complement each other.

Bahá’u’lláh teaches that the divine purpose of creation is the achievement of unity among all peoples:

“Know ye not why We created you all from the same dust? That no one should exalt himself over the other. Ponder at all times in your hearts how ye were created. Since We have created you all from one same substance it is incumbent on you to be even as one soul, to walk with the same feet, eat with the same mouth and dwell in the same land, that from your inmost being, by your deeds and actions, the signs of oneness and the essence of detachment may be made manifest.”

Recently I attended a seminar called ‘Advancing Towards the Equality of Women and Men’ to talk about a document that has been put together by the ‘Institute for Studies in Global Prosperity’. In this document it highlighted that the establishment of the equality of women and men in society is a matter of vital importance to human advancement. The Institute for Studies in Global Prosperity drew attention to a few of the challenges in establishing equality and examined them in the light of certain principals and aims that potentially shape our responses to them. The full and equal participation of women in all spheres of life is essential to social and economic development, the abolition of war, and the ultimate establishment of a united world. The Bahá’í Writings state that to proclaim equality is not to deny that differences in function between women and men exist but rather to affirm the complementary roles men and women fulfil from the home to society at large. Stating that the acquisition of knowledge serves as “a ladder for human ascent”

Bahá’u’lláh, the manifestation of the Baha’i faith prescribes identical education for women and men but stipulates that, when resources are limited, first priority should be given to the education of women and girls. The education of girls holds great importance.   Although both parents have responsibilities for the rearing of children, it is through educated mothers that the benefits of knowledge can be most effectively diffused throughout society.

The reverence for, and protection of, motherhood have often been used as justification for keeping women socially and economically disadvantaged. However it is these discriminatory and damaging results that have to change. There is great honour and nobility conferred on the station of motherhood and the importance of training children for, after all, we see that it is those spiritual qualities of love, justice, kindness, humility, strength, and the enumerable capacities latent within all of us that must be trained and nurtured from a young age, that make us who we are in our place of work, with our families and in being around others. This is, of course, irrespective of our gender.

“As long as women are prevented from attaining their highest possibilities,” the Bahá’í Writings state, “so long will men be unable to achieve the greatness which might be theirs”. It is important that men engage in a careful examination of attitudes, feelings, and behaviour deeply rooted in cultural habit, that block the equal participation of women and hinder the growth of men.

In life we are all the waves of one sea, the leaves of one tree, and the flowers of one garden. We strive to grow and develop in our understanding of the world and each other. In life there is no crest that is awarded to us from an Emperor for our actions and deeds, rather it is for us to see that we can all be princesses and princes by manifesting nobility in our actions. That, surely, is our greatest gift and honour.

Vicious circle of tinnitus or life?

As an Audiologist one of my interests is the area of tinnitus. As part of my job I counsel people who have tinnitus and try and help them in understanding this symptom and how to go about managing it. One of the things I look at is how tinnitus becomes part of a vicious circle. Looking at this negative vicious circle we see that tinnitus leads to stress, stress leads into not being able to sleep and poor sleep patterns feeds back into the stress! This cycle keeps going round and round. One can’t get rid of the stress because of the tinnitus constantly being present and one can’t stop thinking about the tinnitus as the stress heightens the fixation on tinnitus and so on.

One thing that can sometimes help break this vicious circle is relaxation therapy. Introducing some method of relaxation into life has been shown to break the cycle. As you become more relaxed and happy through incorporating the relaxation techniques, the symptoms of tinnitus can reduce and, in turn, stress can reduce and sleep patterns improve.

This got me thinking. Life can sometimes have vicious circles which we can’t get out of.  To break a vicious circle that goes round and round there needs to be strong catalyst that breaks this cycle! The strength of the catalyst would depend on how deeply routed the vicious circle is. It has to be radical to break the deep habits and flow of the cycle. In life we are products of our upbringing : what we learn from our parents, culture, the society we live in, how to deal with the challenges we face in life. But as society changes so do our needs of dealing with it. In raising children, how many times do we hear people say ‘well that’s how I was raised and it never did me any harm!’ We see how some of the youth of our neighbourhood have learnt that its ok to break a window as that is what the films show youth doing, the constant image of youth in the media showing them to be empowered is to contribute to the disintegration of the neighbourhood rather than to have the vision of carrying acts of service to the neighbourhood in which thy live and contribute to the integration of the community of which thy are part of. I raise the question that in life one needs a catalyst to break some vicious circles of habit and to set this catalyst into action, one would need consciousness! To become conscious is to ask the questions, seek the answers, to be courageous to investigate truth and open minds to greater learning. To do this it takes knowledge, volition and then action. In light of tinnitus, to break the vicious circle which tinnitus occupies, one seeks knowledge from the clinician and seek the technique to manage the tinnitus. One has to then have the will and determination to persist and put it into action on a regular basis. Only then can a new cycle be created: a cycle of new consciousness, a cycle that contributes to growth, fulfilment, well being and happiness.

Baha’u’llah the founder of the Baha’i Faith says in his Writings that ‘men have been created to carry forward an ever advancing civilization’. The point I raise is that to do this one needs to have that consciousness and seek to find out how to do that, to ask the questions, seek the answers, to get the knowledge, have the volition and to put it into action! Baha’u’llah in another part of his Writings says that ‘spiritual consciousness is the generating power of human society’.

One quote that I have been reflecting a lot on recently is-

“Life in this world is a succession of tests and achievements, of falling short and of making new spiritual advances”

(Universal House of Justice)

It has created consciousness within my mind that actually, being part of the family of humanity I am part of something bigger than myself. In the greater picture of the world, an individual can sacrifice that which is lower for that which is higher. It reminds me of a song I learnt as a child that ‘we are drops of one ocean and the waves of one sea’ and how true that is!

Baha’u’llah says that ‘The betterment of society is through pure and goodly deeds’. I think that if one is conscious of the bigger picture and strives to act in a way that is to the betterment of society then, one by one vicious cycles can be broken down and new positive and prosperous cycles can be created.