Building Community

Taking part in the world requires relationships and community.  We create community when we rejoice together, mourn together, delight in each other and make others’ conditions our own.  We have a community when we feel safe to open our hearts, give voice to our deepest convictions and learn to humbly serve others.  When we shrink from the world and don’t extend ourselves we all miss out!  Sadly some people think they are in community but they are only in proximity.  

"How wonderful it is that nobody need wait a single moment before starting to improve the world” 

-Anne Frank

What does community mean to you?

What does community building mean to you?

Is the lack of community a norm in our society?

Can community happen without a spirit of service?

Can the process of being with other people in a safe & supportive manner change us as individuals?

What role does elevated conversation play in the process of community building?

As we take more responsibility for our neighbors and our planet do we grow closer to the essence of who we are?

As we grow closer to the essence of who we are, do we take more responsibility for our community?

Do our seemingly separate lives become more meaningful as we partake in community building?

What kind of activities help us build community?

"Be anxiously concerned with the needs of the age ye live in, 

and center your deliberations on its exigencies and requirements." 

- Bahá'u'lláh

  

“The best way to find yourself is to lose yourself in the service of others.”– M. Gandhi   



“I alone cannot change the world, but I can cast a stone across the waters to create many ripples.”―Mother Teresa    



‘Strive that your actions day by day may be beautiful prayers. Turn towards God, and seek always to do that which is right and noble. Enrich the poor, raise the fallen, comfort the sorrowful, bring healing to the sick, reassure the fearful, rescue the oppressed, bring hope to the hopeless, shelter the destitute!”-Abdu’l-Baha   



"He who wishes to secure the good of others, has already secured his own."- Confucius   



"Be anxiously concerned with the needs of the age ye live in, and center your deliberations on its exigencies and requirements."- Bahá'u'lláh    “



A human being is part of the whole, called by us "universe," a part limited in time and space.  He experiences himself, his thoughts and feelings, as something separate from the rest - a kind of optical delusion of consciousness.  This delusion is a kind of prison for us, restricting us to our personal desires and to affection for a few persons nearest to us.  Our task must be to free ourselves from this prison by widening our circle of compassion to embrace all living creatures and the whole of nature in its beauty.”-Albert Einstein    



“There are many doors to goodness…enjoining good, forbidding evil, removing harm from the road, listening to the deaf (until you understand them), leading the blind, guiding one to the object of his need, hurrying with the strength of one’s legs to one in sorrow who is asking for help, and supporting the weak with the strength of one’s arms – all of these are (forms of) charity prescribed for you.”- The Quran    



“Any decent society must generate a feeling of community. Community offsets loneliness. It gives people a vitally necessary sense of belonging. Yet today the institutions on which community depends are crumbling in all the techno-societies. The result is a spreading plague of loneliness.”- Alvin Toffler   



“Community is another such phenomenon. Like electricity, it is profoundly lawful. Yet there remains something about it that is inherently mysterious, miraculous, unfathomable. Thus there is no adequate one-sentence definition of genuine community. Community is something more than the sum of its parts, its individual members. What is this "something more?" Even to begin to answer that, we enter a realm that is not so much abstract as almost mystical. It is a realm where words are never fully suitable and language itself falls short.”- Scott Peck   



“Think as little as possible about yourself and as much as possible about other people.”-Eleanor Roosevelt.   "If you knew what I know about the power of giving, you would not let a single meal pass without sharing it in some way."- Buddha   



“It is obvious that all created things are connected one to another by a linkage complete and perfect, even, for example, as are the members of the human body. Note how all the members and component parts of the human body are connected one to another. In the same way, all the members of this endless universe are linked one to another. The foot and the step, for example, are connected to the ear and the eye; the eye must look ahead before the step is taken. The ear must hear before the eye will carefully observe.”- Abdu’l-Bahá   



“And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds, not giving up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but encouraging one another—and all the more as you see the Day approaching.”-Hebrews 10:24   



"We make a living by what we get, but we make a life by what we give."- Winston Churchill   



"I have found that among its other benefits, giving liberates the soul of the giver."- Maya Angelou   



“O God! Make this assemblage radiant. Make the hearts merciful. Confer the bounties of the Holy Spirit. Endow them with a power from heaven. Bless them with heavenly minds. Increase their sincerity, so that with all humility and contrition they may turn to Thy kingdom and be occupied with service to the world of humanity. May each one become a radiant candle. May each one become a brilliant star. May each one become beautiful in color and redolent of fragrance in the Kingdom of God.”-Abdu’l-Baha   



"The fundamental law of human beings is interdependence. A person is a person through other persons."- Archbishop Desmond Tutu    "When we quit thinking primarily about ourselves and our own self-preservation, we undergo a truly heroic transformation of consciousness."- Joseph Campbell   



"The secret of change is to focus all of your energy, not on fighting the old, but on building the new."- Socrates   “In the human body, every cell, every organ, every nerve has its part to play. When all do so the body is healthy, vigorous, radiant, ready for every call made upon it. No cell, however humble, lives apart from the body, whether in serving it or receiving from it.”-The Universal House of Justice    



"Caring has the gift of making the ordinary special."-George R. Bach   



"You must be the change you wish to see in the world."- Mahatma Ghandi    



"Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world; indeed, it's the only thing that ever has."- Margaret Mead   



"Love cannot remain by itself — it has no meaning. Love has to be put into action and that action is service."- Mother Teresa   



"We know that to help the poor and to be merciful is good and pleases God, but knowledge alone does not feed the starving man, nor can the poor be warmed by knowledge or words in the bitter winter; we must give the practical help of loving-kindness."- Abdu'l-Baha   



"Only a life lived for others is a life worthwhile."- Albert Einstein   



“Service to others is the rent you pay here for your room on earth.”
-Muhammad Ali   



“People are often unreasonable, illogical, and self-centered;… Forgive them anyway.If you are kind, people may accuse you of selfish, ulterior motives;… Be kind anyway.If you are successful, you will win some false friends and some true enemies;… Succeed anyway.If you are honest and frank, people may cheat you;… Be honest and frank anyway.What you spend years building, someone could destroy overnight;… Build anyway.If you find serenity and happiness, they may be jealous;… Be happy anyway.The good you do today, people will often forget tomorrow;… Do good anyway.Give the world the best you have, and it may never be enough;… Give the world the best you’ve got anyway.You see, in the final analysis, it is between you and God;It was never between you and them anyway.”- Mother Theresa  



“Everybody can be great because everybody can serve.”-Martin Luther King, Jr   



"I desire that your hearts may be directed to the Kingdom of God, that your intentions may be pure and sincere, your purposes turned toward altruistic accomplishment unmindful of your own welfare; nay, rather, may all your intentions center in the welfare of humanity, and may you seek to sacrifice yourselves in the pathway of devotion to mankind."- Abdu'l-Baha   “



A fundamental concern for others in our individual and community lives would go a long way in making the world the better place we so passionately dreamt of.”-Nelson Mandela   



“Be the change that you wish to see in the world.”―M. Gandhi   



“In every community, there is work to be done.In every nation, there are wounds to heal.In every heart, there is the power to do it.”―M. Williamson   “



Then said a rich man, ‘Speak to us of Giving.’And he answered:You give but little when you give of your possessions.It is when you give of yourself that you truly give.For what are your possessions but things you keep and guard for fear you may need them tomorrow?And tomorrow, what shall tomorrow bring to the overprudent dog burying bones in the trackless sand as he follows the pilgrims to the holy city?And what is fear of need but need itself?Is not dread of thirst when your well is full, thirst that is unquenchable?There are those who give little of the much which they have - and they give it for recognition and their hidden desire makes their gifts unwholesome.And there are those who have little and give it all.These are the believers in life and the bounty of life, and their coffer is never empty.There are those who give with joy, and that joy is their reward.And there are those who give with pain, and that pain is their baptism.And there are those who give and know not pain in giving, nor do they seek joy, nor give with mindfulness of virtue;They give as in yonder valley the myrtle breathes its fragrance into space.Though the hands of such as these God speaks, and from behind their eyes He smiles upon the earth.It is well to give when asked, but it is better to give unasked, through understanding;And to the open-handed the search for one who shall receive is joy greater than givingAnd is there aught you would withhold?All you have shall some day be given;Therefore give now, that the season of giving may be yours and not your inheritors'.You often say, "I would give, but only to the deserving."The trees in your orchard say not so, nor the flocks in your pasture.They give that they may live, for to withhold is to perish.Surely he who is worthy to receive his days and his nights is worthy of all else from you.And he who has deserved to drink from the ocean of life deserves to fill his cup from your little stream.And what desert greater shall there be than that which lies in the courage and the confidence, nay the charity, of receiving?And who are you that men should rend their bosom and unveil their pride, that you may see their worth naked and their pride unabashed?See first that you yourself deserve to be a giver, and an instrument of giving.For in truth it is life that gives unto life - while you, who deem yourself a giver, are but a witness.And you receivers - and you are all receivers - assume no weight of gratitude, lest you lay a yoke upon yourself and upon him who gives.Rather rise together with the giver on his gifts as on wings;For to be overmindful of your debt, is to doubt his generosity who has the free-hearted earth for mother, and God for father.”-Gibran  



“The question of real, lasting world peace concerns human beings, so basic human feelings are also at its roots. Through inner peace, genuine world peace can be achieved. In this the importance of individual responsibility is quite clear; an atmosphere of peace must first be created within ourselves, then gradually expanded to include our families, our communities, and ultimately the whole planet.”-- Dalai Lama "Forget thou entirely the ease, tranquility, composure and living of this transitory world and occupy thyself with the well-being and service of the human world and conduct thyself in accord with the advices and exhortations of God."- Abdu'l-Baha   



“My call for a spiritual revolution is not a call for a religious revolution. Nor is it a reference to a way of life that is somehow otherworldly, still less to something magical or mysterious. Rather it is a call for a radical reorientation away from our habitual preoccupation with self. It is a call to turn toward the wider community of beings with whom we are connected, and for conduct which recognizes others' interests alongside our own.”- Dalai Lama   “I am of the opinion that my life belongs to the whole community and as long as I live, it is my privilege to do for it whatever I can. I want to be thoroughly used up when I die, for the harder I work the more I live.”- George Bernard Shaw   “I am a living member of the great family of all souls; and I cannot improve or suffer myself, without diffusing good or evil around me through an ever-enlarging sphere. I belong to this family. I am bound to it by vital bonds.”
- William Ellery Channing



“If you have come to help me, you are wasting your time. But if you have come because your liberation is bound up with mine, then let us work together.”
- Aboriginal group   



“How wonderful it is that nobody need wait a single moment to improve the world.”—Anne Frank   



“The best way to find yourself is to lose yourself in the service of others.”—Mahatma Gandhi   



“A community is democratic only when the humblest and weakest person can enjoy the highest civil, economic, and social rights that the biggest and most powerful possess.”-P. Randolph   



“Community is and must be inclusive. The great enemy of community is exclusivity. Groups that exclude others because they are poor or doubters or divorced or sinners or of some different race or nationality are not communities; they are cliques--actually defensive bastions against community.”- Scott Peck