I’m reading Bad Medicine (an excellent book!) by Judge John Reilly, who worked with the Stoneys in Alberta, and who was also very moved by the logic of restorative justice. He speaks of his discovery of it as a transformative event. I remember the feeling. Like a very joyful wave breaking over your head.
On the way home from Thailand I read Mozart’s Brain, a Richard Restak book.”Remember that conscious processing is only a small part of the work done by the brain.” “... use your feelings as a stimulus for internal exploration.” Hmmm. There’s no need for remembering that, it seems to me, certainly not remembering to use feelings. That’s like trying to remember to breathe.
The right brain works in images and seems much more connected to emotion. “The left hemisphere operates in a “just the facts” mode that emphasizes logic and reason... The observing ego balances these two tendencies and interweaves them into the equivalent of a Bach fugue.”
What occurred to me this morning is that many of the Bahá’í sacred texts operate much more in right brain mode –certainly the prayers. If you read them in normal, analytical left brain mode you’ll miss most of their beauty, and at least half the point. If you conjure up the images, it’s another world.
Take the prayer for the departed...
O my God! O Thou forgiver of sins, bestower of gifts, dispeller of afflictions! Verily, I beseech Thee to forgive the sins of such as have abandoned the physical garment and have ascended to the spiritual world. O my Lord! Purify them from trespasses, dispel their sorrows, and change their darkness into light. Cause them to enter the garden of happiness, cleanse them with the most pure water, and grant them to behold Thy splendors on the loftiest mount. - 'Abdu'l-Bahá
In Bad Medicine, Reilly talks about ending prayers the Native way with, “All my relations.” That also seems very right-brained and unifying, remembering our oneness with family past and present, all humanity, all creation.
