水自流

明天的七天前，我参与在MB家开始的Book 2中文课程，之前已经完成了一次，现在算是陪读复习中。愚昧如我者，已经将之前的忘了七七八八。David曾经是我的“战友”，现在换了一批，有DY，GF，J，ML，辅导员由TC和MH变成CL。对中国人来说，要让他相信一件事，必须的让他弄清来龙去脉，逻辑清晰，经得起推敲。单单两把斧头下来是不够的，要善打连环拳，与时俱进，旁征博引，典故信手粘来不着痕迹，只要有一丝迷惑在心中就不算入门，比如我。似乎与独自寻求真理有点冲突，绝对的理性往往会走向反面的疯狂，如此看来，稍微保留一点疑惑，一点异议对能否行走在康庄大道上的作用不容忽视。

RH2P1: The Joy of Teaching
Purpose: To understand that the joy of teaching is in the very act of sharing with others the Word of God, independent of immediate results.

Section 1

Now that you have completed a few basic courses offered by the Ruhi Institute and have gained insights into certain fundamental spiritual matters, it is time to pause and think systematically about your future services to the Cause. As you analyze the needs of the Faith and try to discover how you can respond to them, you may find it helpful to think of yourself as walking along a path of service with joy and wonderment. As you advance on this path, you receive your portion of God’s immeasurable bounties, and your efforts are continually blessed with divine confirmations. At the beginning, the acts of service you perform are simple and easily accomplished, but as your knowledge grows and your capacities develop, you are able to participate in more demanding areas of service. Walking the path of service, of course, brings many tests and trails. But if you remember to be thankful to God for the opportunities He offers you to serve Him, if you never cease to be humble before Him and before His creatures, the final result of every effort you make will be a victory for the Cause, whether big or small.

Many of the activities you carry out as you walk this path of service will be in the field of teaching. You will guide new souls to the Faith. You will conduct children’s classes. You will help deepen Baha’i friends and will participate in the consolidation of local communities. In all of these activities, you will partake of a special blessing — that of sharing with others the Word of God revealed by Bahá’u'lláh. This blessing will fill you with profound spiritual joy.

Exercises:
1. By teaching the Cause do we only mean enrolling new believers?
2. In the list of activities below, mark those that can be considered teaching activities.
– Sharing with a friend the glad-tidings of the coming of Bahá’u'lláh.
– Helping a new believer deepen in the Faith.
– Holding a fireside at your home.
– Participating in an expansion and consolidation campaign.
– Opening a new locality to the Faith.
– Conducting a Baha’i class for a small group of children.
– Helping to form a Baha’i youth group.
– Helping a community to celebrate the Nineteen Day Feast.
– Giving a talk about the Faith at a school or another public institution.
3. Of what special blessing do we partake when we teach?
4. What is one of the sources of profound spiritual joy for those who teach?
5. In your group, consult about what motivates Bahá’ís to teach the Cause of God.
6. Memorize the following quotation:

“O wayfarer in the path of God! Take thou thy portion of the ocean of His grace, and deprive not thyself of the things that lie hidden in its depths. Be thou of them that have partaken of its treasures. A dewdrop out of this ocean would, if shed upon all that are in the heavens and on the earth, suffice to enrich them with the bounty of God, the Almighty, the All-Knowing, the All-Wise. With the hands of renunciation draw forth from its life-giving waters, and sprinkle therewith all created things, that they may be cleansed from all man-made limitations and may approach the mighty seat of God, this hallowed and resplendent Spot.”
– Gleanings from the Writings of Bahá’u'lláh (Wilmette: Baha’i Publishing Trust, 1983), CXXIX, p. 279-80

Section 2

We know that sharing with others the Word of God revealed by Bahá’u'lláh is a source of immense joy in all our teaching activities. We should each, therefore, reflect often on the grandeur of Bahá’u'lláh’s Revelation and try to discover the priceless gems contained therein. Let us begin by studying the following quotation from the the Writings of Baha’u'llah:

“O My servants! My holy, My divinely ordained Revelation may be likened unto an ocean in whose depths are concealed innumerable pearls of great price, of surpassing luster. It is the duty of every seeker to bestir himself and strive to attain the shores of this ocean, so that he may, in proportion to the eagerness of his search and the efforts he hath exerted, partake of such benefits as have been pre-ordained in God’s irrevocable and hidden Tablets.”
– Gleanings from the Writings of Bahá’u'lláh (Wilmette: Baha’i Publishing Trust, 1983), CLIII, p. 326

Exercises:
1. To what may the Revelation of Bahá’u'lláh be compared?
2. Some of the pearls hidden in the depths of the ocean of Bahá’u'lláh’s Revelation are:
The pearl of _______________________________
The pearl of _______________________________
The pearl of _______________________________
The pearl of _______________________________
3. Complete the following sentences:
a. It is our duty to _______________ ourselves and _______________ to _______________ the _______________ of the ocean of Bahá’u'lláh’s Revelation.
b. We should strive to attain the shores of the ocean of Bahá’u'lláh’s Revelation so that we may, _______________ to the _______________ of our search and the _______________ we have exerted, _______________ of such _______________ as have been pre-ordained in God’s irrevocable and hidden Tablets.
4. What does it mean to “bestir” oneself?
5. What does it mean to “strive to attain” something?
6. What should every seeker strive to attain?
7. What does it mean for one thing to be “in proportion” to another?
8. Bahá’u'lláh tells us we will receive the benefits of the ocean of His Revelation in proportion to the efforts we exert.
a. Give some examples of the efforts we make in order to receive these benefits.
b. Give some examples of the benefits we receive.

注：采用英文版，是因为手上的中文版没有达到翻译的基本标准。

黄磊 — 边走边唱