I Translation of the first chapter of the Quran into the international auxiliary language Glosa.
II A correlation of the Baha'i principles to the archetypes of African religion, and the astrologic correspondence of the latter to the Chinese Book of Changes, by means of the teachings of the Bhagavad-Gita.
III On the interpretation of the astrologic correspondences, and reading comprehension in general.
IV Links.
V Introduction to the computer language called Icon, and software written in Icon related to astrology and the translation to and from Glosa.
VI Explanation of the grammar of Glosa, based on the lambda calculus. Rogets' Thesaurus in English and Glosa.
VII Philosophic writings, on the interpretation of the I-Ching, Sufism, Tarot, etc.
VIII Post a question or comment at the forum (registration may be required) or e-mail me.
BAHA'I SABIAN AUTOBIOGRAPHY
Baha'u'llah says, "He who attaineth to My love hath title to a throne of gold, to sit thereon in honour over all the world...." ( Kitab-i-Aqdas, 36 )
( i ). In November of 1977, in Guatemala city, I became 15 years old. At that age I was already smoking pot regularly, at least on weekends and sometimes during the week. In a certain sense this was inevitable, on account of the education received. For at that age one has not the intellectual capacity to understand that the education received has an absolute value, that is, that it is to be applied in other institutions on account of its own reason for being. Therefore, if he sees an institutions only reason for being is learning certain words well, at least to the extent of the intellectual capacity, and that the words include as a fundamental principle and generalized description of the current social situation that this is the age of sex and drugs, then he will very easily conclude that these themes form a fundamental part of any responsible education. Even if they are not actively taught, officially they are accepted as evident facts towards which education strives, as if we spoke of Art or any other cultural necessity that assumes a certain education in order to be appreciated, such as International Relations, Politics, Tourism, etc. I was under the impression that to ignore sex and drugs was a lack of education.
( ii ). This impression never left me during the rest of my experiences in educational institutions. It may have been a determining factor in my career choice: architecture. It seemed inconceivable that a woman could really feel free to continue studying, when the final objective was to be used as a sexual object, and because of this I felt curious to know how women developed themselves in a field traditionally belonging to men; also it was inconceivable that one became an architect while it was obvious that one was a drug-addict. For these reasons I wanted, if not to be an architect, at least to satisfy my conscience about the true purpose of contemporary education.
( iii ). When I say 'contemporary education' I mean not only official education, but also the set of norms or precepts that are inculcated since childhood and make up what is called a well-educated person in todays' world. My stay in Africa only went to confirm my previous observations. In Tanzania I lived for a few months, in 1978, while preparing to attend the American School in the south of Madagascar, belonging to the Lutheran Missionaries there. The use of marihuana appeared to be part of the culture there. There is a guild, that of the fishermen, who are charged with bringing the product in and selling it on the beaches of Dar-es-Salaam, the capital of Tanzania. I often went to the beach, in the middle of the city, and moreover right next to a building of the Police, where the fishermen came in their canoes, and sold cigar-shaped bundles made from a certain thick leaf, filled with the drug.
( iv ). Had it not been that my purpose is otherwise, I would have detailed many of the experiences suffered during those years, in relation to the use of the said drug. To me they seem the most outstanding, but they are so because of their extraordinary lack of all logic or reason for being. My objective, however, is to call attention to that which contemporary education could be, not to that which, unfortunately, it now is. In relation to the drug problem, currently some are looking for an antidote, either by means of other drugs, like the anti-depresants, or by psychological therapy. But the truth is that an antidote does not exist. It is like a wound that leaves one paralyzed. The most that can be done for the patient is to make sure that he is comfortable and can realize his physical necessities without impediments. In fact there are varying degrees of paralysis, some are not so severe and with the appropiate exercises the person recuperates the use of his faculties. But the permanent, irrevocable paralysis leaves the person, from a physical point of view, incapable of leading a normal life.
( v ). The psychology that is currently studied, and much of the philosophy, sees the brain as an organ that only has a certain physiological function. And for this reason it is affirmed that, in theory, all paralysis that does not affect the tissues of the organs can be cured with the appropiate treatment. But the truth is that the organs function in unison, according to a principle that science is unable to apprehend. When an organ is affected, the rest of the body suffers, and in that case the doctors themselves affirm unanimously that in cases of paralysis recovery depends in large measure on the efforts of the patient. But the official pronouncements of the academic establishments induced me at last to abandon all expectations of an academic training.
( vi ). From a very early age, in terms of academic education, I felt great curiosity for philosophy. In Madagascar I began to read this subject with great determination. I became accustomed to question myself with daily regularity, to such a point that, with or without books, I've continued in my meditations until now, in October of 2002, when I write this. A book that had a notable influence in all my thinking about the sense of contemporary philosophy was "A Hundred Years of Philosophy", by the Australian John Passmore, and "The Myth of Sysiphus", by the Frenchman Albert Camus. From these books, as well as from the books of the German Fredriech Nietzsche, like "Thus Spoke Zarathustra", I became convinced, by the example of the lives that these philosophers lived or described, that if I decided to be a philosopher it would be something that would happen in a way contrary to any academic institution, for the self-same reason that philosophy presents, usually, a challenge to the said institutions, that affects their very reason for being. I don't know how these books came to me in Madagascar, but others that I found there would serve as solace during the coming years of my self-imposed studies. Such as the dialogues of Plato, and the book of Chinese spirituality called "Tao-Te-King". In these books I found a comforting similitud. And the very ambient of the place where I lived, Fort Dauphin, a coastal town with its perennial ocean breeze and rural atmosphere, lended itself to inspiration, and was to inspired me to find similar ambients in which to prosecute my studies. It was there, also, that I received my only official admonition about the use of marihuana. To me it seemed that no-one gave it more importance than the use of tobacco, which I also used ( by that time I was smoking some French black tobacco cigarrettes, which I remember as the tobacco that I've most enjoyed ). To make a long story short, on the basis of a rumor that the French community had suspicions about our illegal activities, me and my friends were summoned to a meeting with the missionaries. We were to be expelled from the building that served as a dormitory to all the students. What happened then was that my mother and the mother of a friend came to live in the town, and we only attended the classes. But happily this situation did not last much, since before becoming 17 years old I was already back in my home country, Costa Rica. Many of my philosophy writings were left with my friend. I had a general idea that I wanted to study philosophy, but I didn't know exactly which one or where. I had read a-lot, more than what I studied in school, and one of the philosophical novels that I read, apart from those of Camus, was "Fathers and Sons" by Ivan Turgenev. In it were described the qualities of the nihilist philosopher, and to me it seemed as if I was reading about my own life.
( vii ). Although I had been born in Costa Rica, I had not lived there until that time. My father was going there to retire after his career in the American embassy. We had lived in Colombia, where one of my brothers was born, and Peru, where I passed a graciously remembered infancy. My father likes to travel, for which I consider myself fortunate to have known many countries, like Chile, where we travelled to the southern port of Puerto Mont, and Argentina, where we visited the city of Bariloche, famous for its chocolates ( in Peru we visited Machu Pichu, and Puerto Maldonado in the Amazon jungle ). To Costa Rica we had come often, for here resided the mother of my mother, who had widowed before I can remember. Also living here was my aunt and my three cousins, sister and nephews of my mother, and this is all the family that I can tell you of, for my father had lost all contact with his family during the second world war. My maternal grandmother was Colombian and her husband was British, which makes me, along with my brother Glen, a second generation tico ( Costarican ). Since I had to a good extent decided on my profession, I felt uneasy about following studies at school that were unrelated to the subject, but perhaps what was most discomforting was that no philosophy at all was studied in school. Maybe it was the case in the local schools, but not in the schools where English was the language of instruction, and which I had to attend in order to graduate. Thus begun, with the loss, besides, of the relationship with my previous friends, with whom I intimated my philosophical preoccupations, what has characterized me ever since: everybody studies one thing, and I another. But what was comforting was the fact that Costa Rica, a country of the Third World, and with no mayor upheavals since it began to be populated, with a total absence of a military establishment, was to be the place where, if someone understood me, it was to be precisely the people in general, more accustomed to judge over issues completely evident, without the useless, hairsplitting excursions and riddles of the intellectuals.
( viii ). Therefore, I had decided what was to be my profession, as well as that I was to stay to live in Costa Rica. Both of them turned out to be decisions not common at that age: the first because most decide on a profession after studying several years in the University, and the second, because it is not common, or was not common, that someone who has the opportunity to study in the United States and knows the language, will not do so. But I had not yet finished school, and I hoped that, with the passing of the years, as they say, my real inclinations and capacities could be recognized. And in relation to the academic course I would follow, I thought it the same whether I studied here or in any other place, on condition that I could have access to material written in or translated to English.
( ix ). At that time, as now, the libraries have collections of books on oriental religions, and I began to frequent them often, obtaining many books on Buddhism and other religions. At the school library I found information on the Baha'i Faith, and books in English by William Sears. Though full of extravagant affirmations, they maintain an internal coherence and sensibility that contrasts greatly with the sensationalist dialectic that characterizes much religious literature in our age. Also I was able to adquire some books from libraries in the United States on Islamic mysticism. The result of all this was that later, in November of 1981, I declared my belief in the Baha'i Faith, and, several years later, went to live for about 5 months in the Baha'i community of the indigenous people of Talamanca, on the Atlantic side of Costa Rica.
( x ). And at that age I had the intellectual capacity to make the appropiate distinctions on account of sex and drugs. The sexual pleasure that exists in a permanent, married couple, is not due to a sexual fixation. That would make it less pleasurable than sporadic relationships, and something similar to the effect of a drug. Instead, the pleasure is due not only to the physical aspect itself, but also, to the conscience that it is due to a mutual accord. For this reason, good character not only indicates that the person makes sense, that he is mentally sound, but that it also, once duly recognized, has a direct effect on good relations. The use of drugs not only incapacitates the mind, it corrupts all human relations. It converts one into something less than a beast.
( xi ). But before finding the Baha'i Faith, though I could make these distinctions, I didn't know in what manner I was going to make them known, or how they should be explained to make myself understood. The only thing that I knew for certain was that I needed to leave the drug if I wanted to follow my plan of studying philosophy. The rest was open, and I had reasons to distrust the academics because of their ignorance of the true object of psychology, for which reason I decided, concerning my occupation, that it was the same to me whether I went to University or not. The fact that a University graduate could receive a greater salary seemed to me, and does still seem, to be only the product of the same psychological confusion in which education has fallen: an inability to distinguish between the physical and material value, on the one hand, and the mental development, the spiritual characteristics that characterize the human being, on the other. They have set themselves as a fundamental principle that man is an animal, and even less. Hence educated persons cannot detach themselves of one cent for the benefit of their fellows. All this was evident for me, even smoking marihuana. In the countries where I had smoked it previously, like Guatemala, Tanzania, and Madagascar, I remember how I obtained it, but then in Costa Rica, surely by the effect of the drug, I forgot. What interested me above all was to find out if I could train myself in some occupation that did not require academic studies. Meanwhile I continued reading what literature I could find on ancient religions.
( xii ). It is common to find in the current literature on drug-addiction that it is described as an escape. But the truth is that it is precisely the contrary: it is something from which it is necessary to escape. Something that provides one an escape is something in which there exists a certain security. But drugs do not provide any security. Religions, on the other hand, are escapes, but in the positive sense of being things in which there is security. Academic studies that deny religion are also an escape, but in the negative sense, because they do not provide any security at all. In that case one is escaping from the escape, which is the same as maintaining oneself in danger.
( xiii ). Psychologically, life can be described as a series of successful escapes. This also can be applied to human life collectively. Therefore, after having studied the Baha'i Faith in depth, I decided to study the book of the Mormons. Both originated in the last century, which makes them, compared to other religions, somewhat recent. To realize the said study I felt the need to escape, also, from the stuffy atmosphere of the city. Thus I went to live alone in the country, to a farm I had bought.
( xiv ). Currently, I live in a suburb of the capital, San Jose. Here I plan to continue writing.
( xv ). But it would be no exageration to say that I learned as much from Baha'i books as I did from personal contact with the Baha'is themselves. Before studying the Mormons, my visit to the Holy Land was specially significant. There I worked at the Baha'i World Center for a little over a year. I had already met the indigenous Baha'is of Costa Rica, and, in sum, I hoped to have greater relationship with Baha'is and their community work.
( xvi ). On my return I also went to live in an indigenous community, but this time it was on behalf of the Government. After that I bought my farm, in reality a piece of primary jungle ( primary in the sense of virgin ). The reason that I came to live here was that my father made me the offer to live in an apartment which he had been renting. I had not constructed anything on my farm, just a roof to shelter me from the rain, so I readily accepted. Besides that this was one of the areas of Costa Rica where there was an Internet connection, which would facilitate my studies. But currently there are Internet services by satellite that reach anywhere.
( xvii ). One of my best memories from living in the country was when I was living on the Caribbean coast, close to the city of Limon. I thought that having studied the books of Baha'i and Mormon religion, I was ready to start writing. But the change from living in the country for about four years, to living even close to the city was a very big one. It seems difficult to notice at first sight, but there exists a real difference of character between the people of the country and those of the city. It was however one of the most cherished experiences that I've had close to the beach, for I lived by the shore, and enjoyed bathing often, because of the heat. Probably because of the humidity, I felt more heat there than on the beaches of the Pacific.
( xviii ). Maybe in the future I will go to live close to the beach, but the apartment where I now live is sufficiently large to have a family, and I do not know if I could find something like it elsewhere. The connection to the Internet would no longer be a problem, as would nearness to other services, such as well- stocked supermarkets.
( xix ). The only academic title I possess is of graduation from high school. I do not think that my University studies count at all for a job, for I received no title.
( xx ). Everything in life depends on titles. If I had not had the title to my farm, I would not have had where to live when studying the Book of Mormon.
( xxi ). Now, my father has told me that I will inherit this apartment.
( xxii ). I think that I did not build anything on my farm because I felt that the only reason for doing so was to avoid paying rent. And it was far from me to think of accumulating wealth. I wished instead to help economically, and on one occasion, after living in Limon, I even offered to pay a rent a-lot higher than what was common in the town where my farm is located, which the owners accepted. It was not something that I had to explain or give certain very high reasons for. Specially in our age when the Government programs seem to have no effect on the daily lives of the most poor, it is easy to have them understand that one wishes to give for the simple fact of serving humanity.
( xxiii ). But for the most rich it is almost impossible to understand. For they have already understood everything with the agreements between them. This is evidenced very particularly on the Internet. For the discussions about religion are almost entirely for pointing out and critizicing what seems negative to them. But the truth makes itself known by its own merits, because materialists announce their books on the Web as publicity for their sale, while it is common to find the religious books free. And the evident reason is that these latter have nothing to hide.
( xxiv ). Perhaps the most significant experience of my life was, and will be, the work I performed in the Holy Land. Although I had done University studies, I prided myself on working in the gardens. To this is due the fact that later I would appreciate more the simplest people, and would almost totally despise people of higher classes.
( xxv ). The great differences between rich and poor have always seemed to me something extraordinary. In no other place of Costa Rica is this more evident than in Limon. For the tourists come in their boats to the port of Moin, close to the city of Limon, in the province of the same name, the poorest one in the country.
( xxvi ). The poor people have always been attracted to the cities. I hope, by means of my writings, and the comprehension of others with similar inclinations, to show that the true treasure is found in oneself. Surely the Baha'i Faith is an appropiate means to make this fact known, so that it may again, someday, be considered an essential part of human education.