January 24, 2019

Implications of “a chaste and holy life”

Such a chaste and holy life, with its implications of
  • modesty,
  • purity,
  • temperance,
  • decency, and
  • clean-mindedness,
  • involves no less than
    • the exercise of moderation in
      • all that pertains to dress,
      • language,
      • amusements, and
      • all artistic and literary avocations.
  • It demands daily vigilance in the control of one's carnal desires and corrupt inclinations.
  • It calls for the abandonment of a frivolous conduct, with its excessive attachment to trivial and often misdirected pleasures.
  • It requires total abstinence from all alcoholic drinks, from opium, and from similar habit-forming drugs.
  • It condemns
    • the prostitution of art and of literature,
    • the practices of nudism and of
    • companionate marriage,
    • infidelity in marital relationships, and
    • all manner
      • of promiscuity,
      • of easy familiarity, and
      • of sexual vices....
- Shoghi Effendi  (‘The Advent of Divine Justice’; The Compilation of Compilations, vol. I, A Chase and Holy Life)