The seventh session of 60th round of the Academy Branch Workshops was held on 11 October , 2017 at 9:55 a.m., this meeting was held by Master Dezhakam as the master of ceremony and Mr. Amir as the secretary. The weekly agenda was "From Obeying to Commanding".
Master Dezhakam: Hello friends, I am Hossein, a traveler. I hope you are fine and I am fine too. Today's agenda is from obeying to commanding. If you carefully see the agendas in Congress60, you will realize that they are all applicable to our daily life. Our routine relations have not yet been defined and we used to do them from childhood. We interrupt each other's speaking, we throw trash on the ground, we do not respect our teachers, and we do not respect those who have done something for us.
It is said that a person is hired by the government to work; i.e. we are employed to do something for our people, we are the public servants, and not their governor! If we think that we are people's governor, it is because we have not been trained yet! A teacher works hard for their students, but the students do not respect them. We are not also thankful to our physicians. All of these points are related to our worldview. When we get education, we gradually get better and our conflicts decrease. For instance, one of Congress60's members, once said that one day I took a bike to get me somewhere, suddenly a car turned in front of him, but he did not get angry. After that he calmly continued his way. I got surprised and asked him: "Are you a Congress60's member?" He answered: "yes".
Ali Ashkezari once said: "In my addiction era, my family and I wanted to take a trip. We got in the car and in the middle of the way, and I made a mistake and a car overtook me and said: "yuck" and I got angry and followed him for 400 kilometers to return him that yuck". After our sudden anger, we will do something wrong and make problems, therefore, we will be imprisoned.
We have more than 52000 members, how is it possible to manage them? Is it that simple to manage these people, who are the worst members of society in the eyes of society. Sometimes, an addict's family is not able to take care of them. I hope no ice-consumer lives in an apartment, because an ice-consumer will bother everyone in the building block. Now, we are managing this great NGO (with many addicts) and we are respectfully behaving with each other. It is because we are trained in Congress60.
If a person wants to be a commander, they must be submissive. If a person does not obey the commander, they will not be a commander themselves in the future. All those who were submissive in Congress60, are now good guides. Therefore, obeying is very important and is taught to Congress60's members. It is not important in Congress60 who you are, how old you are, what religion you have or to which race you belong. In Congress60, it is said that you (as an addict) have not known addiction, even if you have much money or high position. Your wealth or position have not helped you to treat your addiction, therefore, you must be obedient to whatever you are told in Congress60. The triangle of this week's agenda consists of three sides of: the governor, an obedient person and the topic. The relation between the commander and the obedient is defined in terms of the topic. A commander in Congress60 is not a commander in all the issues. Governing is limited to the Congress60's framework. A guide here only teaches worldview and addiction treatment. The guide's words are penetrating and the pupil must obey whatever their guide states. But the guide's words are not penetrating in the realm of the pupils' familial issues.
Nowadays, the psychologists are trying to lead the couples to divorce instead of leading them to reconciliation. We are here to reconcile people; we are not here to get them apart. A consultant cannot cause a dispersion of a family. Why should divorce happen? Only for opium-consumption? If our spouses got divorced, what would happen to us? Therefore, a consultant must reconcile (the couples). In other NGOS, they say if you want to get a cold-turkey, while your spouse wants to consume drugs, you should get a divorce.
Determining the topic of commanding is very important. In a factory, a manager's words are penetrating only in the realm of employees' work and issues; however, the manager's words are not penetrating in the employee's personal and familial issues. If we are not trained to be an obedient person, we will never be a commander in Congress60. The second point is that if the rules are not obeyed, the society will be destroyed. What happens if your pupils do not obey you?
Yesterday, an individual asked me: "If I come late due to my personal affair, is my guide allowed to get angry?". I told him: "Yes, he can, when come here, your highest priority must be your treatment. Treating (psychiatry) pills, opium and heroin is a difficult task; therefore, you must obey your guide." You have come here on your own, i.e. no one has invited you to come here; therefore, you must respect the sanctity of Congress60 and obey the rules.
All the individuals are simultaneously a commander and a follower in specific positions. The border guards, who are the keeper of the sanctity and rules, must obey the assistants and the agents. The assistants and agents should obey the Didebans (watchers). All we do aims to set people liberated from addiction. Our production is liberation (from addiction). You have a peaceful place to set the desperate drug-abusers liberated from addiction. If we have conflicts with each other and do not obey (a higher ranked one), our energy will be wasted for nonsense. With conflicts, our energy which must be spent for setting a person liberated from addiction, will be spent for marginal and absurd matters.
Who is closer to God? The most righteous ones. In this verse, nothing is mentioned about age, religion, race, or gender. In this verse, it is mentioned that the closest to God are those who are the most righteous ones. The solely matter is to be righteous and avoid the anti-values (wrong doings).
Who is most respected in Congress60? The one who serves most; the one who respects the rules most; the person who avoids wrong doings. This person might be a butler, a discipline-guard, a border guard or an agent. The most important factor is the amount of services they offer (do). Whatever you have (your car or house) is yours; however, how do you help others? Do you help people?
Therefore, we have to learn obedience in Congress60. This is the same as in families. In a family, one must be the commander and others must obey. Otherwise, they live in conflict. Every legion has a commander too.
One of the most important matters is that no guides interfere with others' affairs. Guides are not allowed to gossip about other guides. It is too bad to gossip about your colleagues.
We should respect each other in all the positions (we take). We have to respect people outside Congress60 as well. We are trained in Congress60, so that we use it outside Congress60. Our behavior indicates whether we are trained or not.
If you want people to respect you, you must respect them. We ourselves determine how people behave towards us. You yourself determine your own level of respect.
In 1999, I broke the taboo (when I participated in a live interview), and in front of cameras, I stated that I was once an addict. The presenter, Aliqolikhan asked me: "Mr. Dezhakam, aren't you sad, since people realized that you were a drug-user, and from now on, people look at you with contempt and I answered: "I will make them respect me". A pupil in the legion determines how much their guide respects them. If a guide gets angry, it means that the pupil has done something wrong. A man once said: "people laugh at my beard!". His interlocutor answered: "maybe your beard is ridiculous".
Three important points of today agenda are that: firstly: the commander and the follower are performing in the realm of one topic. Secondly, we will not be commander, unless we had been good followers. The third issue is that the topic determines who the commander is. It might be the case that a person is a commander in addiction; however, they have not any positions in teaching English.
Next week agenda is "marriage". We selected this agenda so that the members participate about this agenda. This agenda was chosen because the marriage age has risen in our country and all over the world and it will bring no benefits for us. We will participate in any matters seeming important to us, so that all the members speak about them.
Translated by Elahe
