Friday Meeting
01 – 07 – 2011
This Friday 6 people participated in a meeting which was held by Voice of Peace members. A guest from Japan, member of Women Federation for World Peace, also participated in the discussion. The topic which was discussed was “Give and Receive Action”. Noorullah Navayee introduced the topic and the meeting started with a recitation in Holy Koran.
Navayee pointed to the fact that giving and receiving action is a principle through which all development in all over the world takes place. If we examine the natural world it is quite obvious, there is a subject role that starts an action, there is an object role which responds to the action of the subject. There is always a center or purpose preexisting as an underlying intention of the development. This intention will somehow determine the direction towards which the actual development will happen. There is movement and growth each moment. The process of this development is continuing seemingly endlessly if the intention and center of it is conforming to the existing rules governing the universe, and it will continue to the degree to which this rules can house any exceptions and freedom of deviation, in case the purpose of interaction deviates from universal principles.
The implication of this principle for our moral life and culture is that the interaction in this world also has to follow the same rule otherwise human world may face difficulties. If we want the harmony to prevail in our society we should mind the interactions which happen in different aspects of our relationships. We have to make sure that the roles of subject and object is played rightly, furthermore, if we want to expand a culture of peace and love we have to take steps and initiate. That is to say, we have to take the role of a subject and start giving with a higher purpose. We have to give and forget, it is the base of all noble cultures and peaceful collective mindsets. In Holy Koran God says: translation: “by no means you shall get righteousness unless you give freely of that which you love and whatever you give Allah kneweth it well”; Almodather, 6-7. This is very heavy and powerful. Whatever you love you should give. You should give your most precious thing, that is, you should give your love.
This is a little bit hard to understand. This even seems paradoxical, how one can gain by giving. The dominant view in our contemporary world is that you should have more, try to own more and try to win more. You have to gather as much wealth as you can, you have to learn as much as possible and you have to be big as much as possible. You always say mine, for me and to me. It is the dominant view of our cultures. We can reverse it, start giving and giving. More importantly, we have to try how to be a good giver and a better subject, and this way we learn more and gather more not for the purpose learning and gathering per se, but for the sake of giving and becoming a perfect giver.
Ebrahim Shayan: In Shayan’s opinion we can develop our heart by giving. Giving doesn’t mean that we give only money; one can give love, kindness and smile. One can teach. In different spheres of life, we can practice this, in our life, in our family, in our schools and in our communities.
“Once I clearly experienced this with my younger brother. My brother used to come late at home last winter. The usual reaction of me had to be scolding him. But did not go this way, and started to react in brotherly way. I started giving my love and compassion to him, and then I found out the real story of him and understood that he was doing a real job of learning and teaching. The way was so long, and he was too tired. As a result of giving my love and sharing my heart with him, now I am closer to him and happier.”
Ali Fayez: According to Fayez, life is a gift from God. It is the most precious gift that God has given us for free. In this sense, in all our life we have to return this gift. In fact we do not receive if we do not give. In many families, the cause of the problems is that subject and object roles are not respected or the people to the roles are assigned do not play them well. Sons play the role of fathers, daughters play the role of mothers or other ways the harmonious interaction that is expected to happen in family does not take place, and the whole families face difficulties and conflicts.
Fayez used to look at his elder brother as being exploiting him. Fayez was always suspicious of him. He changed his attitude towards his brother and found out that he himself was wrong. The situation has not been that static and too bad either. Fayez changed his behavior and the whole atmosphere in his family changed. He started giving respect to his elder brother, and the brotherly relationship began to develop.
Mustaf Seerat: “We do not have the culture that we really desire. We can change this. It is possible. We can do it. If you don’t believe in this go to Egypt and see the pyramids. Those big buildings were made by human beings. They made those because they had a vision and strongly wanted to embody what they had in their minds. We can bring change and establish a culture of giving and generosity if we really want to do so.”
Amin Ebrahimi: “Giving should be unconditional. If giving is conditional, it doesn’t have the value that it has to have. Giving broadens our heart, in other word, it makes us big. So, as much as we give more our capacity develops and we can place a bigger portion of the world in ourselves. Giving most of the time doesn’t need especial situations or conditions, we can practice every where, at home in our classes and so on. My experience, what I can remember now, is one thing that I really started in my class. We clean our class by ourselves. In the morning small children are in our classroom, so every day the room becomes full of garbage. I started cleaning and giving my care to this. My purpose was not to gain something material out of this, but just wanted to clean out of my generosity and for the sake of my whole classmates and teachers who enter that class. The outcome, however, is bigger than I expected. Now we almost have a group of people- my classmates- careful and responsible. All of them are sensitive about this issue, and I am sure that they are not only sensitive about their own class but about the environment everywhere.”
Mrs. Cowai: “Things that you discuss are very precious points. When I encountered these things in my life for the first time, they seemed too strange. I could not understand the importance of giving and loving unconditionally. I only understood it when I became a mother. Now it has become a normal truth in my life and I really believe in the value of giving. You may saw the repercussions of tsunami in Japan. You know, Japan helped many poor countries around the world. Many Japanese were asking about the rationality of these helps, they might were expecting some returns for Japan’s financial and other kinds of assistance to the people and governments of many countries. Some others had their justifications that because Japan was a wealthy nation so they had to help poor nations and care for the common cause of humanity. After the tsunami, many countries, even the poorest ones sent their assistance to Japan. It was amazing; we understood how different countries looked at Japan and how they were really sympathetic with Japanese people. That was definitely due to the behavior and generosity of the people of Japan. What I would like to say is that when we give unconditionally, we gain more, besides, we play a role in decreasing the tension and conflict of human societies.”
Shayan: “When we give we receive, that is true. When you gently shake the cradle of a small baby even that baby smiles at you, and wants to reward you for you act towards it. The baby is in a pure natural status and purely reacts to your love.”
Conclusion: Giving any thing in any place is like dropping a small stone in a big pool. The waves and tidal are created in every corner of the pool and every molecule of the water shakes. If an action of unconditional giving is taking place centered on higher purposes, the whole universe shakes to respond. If you have an specific expectation out of you giving your expectation may be fulfilled, but you have limited the return. In human society you can start something good in a point; it multiplies like the different loops of a chain. This process can be called love creation, compassion creation, peace creation and so on, something like money creation in banking operations. You give love and it multiplies, you give kindness and it multi plies and so on. This way we can foster the culture of peace in a society.
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