collective shape of a mosaic, forming not a visual representation, but instead an emotional one. Mike and his sons, Rosalie, Dina, John, Reggie, Pat, Rocky, Glen, Fred, Caroline, San1, Bob, and many others. All of them, it seems to me, people engaged in the hard, honorable task of working at their faith. Many people turn to God not for enlightenment or growth but as a way to escape a world of competing and contradictory truths. They simply want someone to say, "Yes, this is so and this is not so," and be free of making these decisions themselves. But I do not believe this is the case in the Baba community. Here is a faith that asks to be made sense of in individual and personal terms. It is surprisingly free of the middlemen normally required to interpret and pass along God's word, middlemen who usually reduce the message to a formalized pronouncement or unbending piece of dogma. In terms of personal commitment, thought and understanding, a great deal is asked of those who follow Meher Saba. This expectation and active involvement, however, is profoundly right and rewarding. For myself, faith and belief have not played a large part in my life. Instead, it has been defined and shaped by words. But the intellect can only take one so far. To crossover into the realm of the spirit, to truly deal with matters of the soul, something else is required, something beyond words. My search through the stacks in the Religion Room never did tum up a picture of a Zoroastrian fire urn symbol. There were any number of books on religious symbols in general and at least 60 or more on the Zoroastrian faith. One book was even promisingly titled, "Symbols and Values in Zoroastrianism." It contained 300 pages of text and not a single photo or representation, Zoroastrian or otherwise. In spite of this, I did not come away empty handed. I decided to check out one of the books I had come across completely by chance: the "Discourses," by Meher Baba, three volumes collected in one book. Since it is not always possible to know what we truly need, it's not important that we always find what we are looking for. The important thing is simply to be looking, to be ready when whatever it is we need, finds us.
High School Students Ask About Avatar Meher Baba by Fred Stankus Erin, a student at Peninsula High School in Palos Verdes called me and asked if I would come and address the 9 am - 10 am, 10 am - 11 am, and 11 am - 12 pm Comparative Religion classes on Thursday, October 21 was quite pleased to know that teacher extraordinaire, Jim Maechling at Peninsula High School was at it again, inviting me for the third year in a row to come and introduce Avatar Meher Baba to his classes with a film, talk and most important, a question and answer period l Students flock to Mr. Maechling's classes because, he says, "he is still learning." Each quarter he sets aside a few weeks for guest speakers from Vedanta, Buddhist, Ba'hai, Hindu, Islamic and other traditions, and certain "new age" groups. Three years ago, through the LA Times' Saturday religious directory, The Avatar Meher Baba Center (listed under "New Thought") was asked for representation at a Comparative Religion class by a student from Jim's class who was "searching" for something "new and differenfl" And, thus, on six different occasions over the past three years I, along with Jeff Maguire, have presented a brief sketch and answered questions about Avatar Meher Baba. Jeff wasn't available for the October 21 st date, so I asked Adele Wolkin and Glenn Russ to join me. Mr. Maechling was very touched by the presence of Adele In his classes. He had Adele repeat "how she felt when she first met Avatar Meher Baba" to each of the classes. To paraphrase Adele, "He was so familiar. Baba was like my mother and father rolled into One!" The youthful Glenn Russ, told of his growing up in a "Baba family," and I tried my best to explain that the "evil/suffering in the world today" is relative to all-good in the world, and the "soul" is latently pure, but with "free-will" gets caught up on this illusory stage, and the Law of Karma balances both good and evil. After the bell rang at noon, ending the class, two students stayed for a while asking Glenn questions about Baba. Over in the other part of the classroom, a friendship was blossoming, Adele and Jim discovered they lived only 3 blocks from each other in Redondo Beach and that he and his wife would love to have Adele over for dinner sometime! What a sweet Thursday it was, over 90 students viewed the film of Baba, were touched by Adele's account of meeting Him, and asked questions about Avatar Meher Baba! Jim said he looks forward to haVing us come back In March '94.