Paul Profaska
Paul Profaska is a Scottish Bahá’í who who developed the meditation course published as The CALM Handbook.
Biography[edit]
Profaska was born in Scotland and moved to London when he was twenty years old and then to Canada in 1968 where he studied Eastern religions. He later returned to the United Kingdom settling in Cornwall where he began farming organic vegetables. He was introduced to the Bahá’í Faith in the village St. Agnes and became a Bahá’í in 1974.[1]
After declaring Profaska became a working life nurse in an intensive care unit and was also appointed an assistant to the Auxiliary Board serving under David Lewis and Viv Bartlett and he assisted in the establishments of the Local Spiritual Assemblies of Carrick in 1977 and Penwith in 1978. He returned to Carrick in 1979 and served on its Local Spiritual Assembly for several years.[1]
Profaska went on pilgrimage with Diane, who he had met in his nursing career, in 1980 and they married in September that year. In the 1980's and 1990's the Profaska's established meditation groups in Cornwall which lead to some people becoming Bahá’ís, and in 1999 Profaska began working to develop a pilot project to promote meditation at the request of the National Spiritual Assembly of the United Kingdom. The Universal House of Justice advised that Bahá’í institutions should not officially endorse any specific approach to meditation however Profaska continued his work and published the CALM course through George Ronald as an individual initiative.[1]
Profaska remains an active member of his local Bahá’í community and organized a successful meditation course as a teaching project in 2008 after completing Ruhi Book 6.[1]
Publications:[edit]
- 2005 - The CALM Coordinator’s Pack
- 2005 - The CALM Handbook
External links[edit]
Paul's own story: http://bahaihistoryuk.wordpress.com/category/profaska-paul/
