Essential Being

“…man should know his own self and recognize that which leadeth unto loftiness or lowliness, glory or abasement, wealth or poverty.

(Bahá’u’lláh, Tablets of Bahá’u’lláh, p. 34)

Every individual is a combination of racial background and cultural heritage, of family tradition and genetic DNA, of personal experience and playful imagination.  All these have a part in forming each person, of course, but none of these is the essence of a human being.  They are inherited or acquired characteristics and qualities; outer forms and patterns through which an inner essence finds expression.  Thus the question, Who are you?, is really after something more fundamental.  What is really being asked is: Who are you as a spiritual being? 

‘Abdu’l-Baha explains that every individual possesses three characters:  “He has the innate character, the inherited character, and the acquired character which is gained by education.

“With regard to the innate character, although the divine creation is purely good, yet the varieties of natural qualities in man come from the difference of degree; all are excellent, but they are more or less so, according to the degree. So all mankind possess intelligence and capacities, but the intelligence, the capacity and the worthiness of men differ. This is evident.”

The second character He calls the inherited character.  “The variety of inherited qualities comes from strength and weakness of constitution -- that is to say, when the two parents are weak, the children will be weak; if they are strong, the children will be robust. In the same way, purity of blood has a great effect; for the pure germ is like the superior stock which exists in plants and animals. For example, you see that children born from a weak and feeble father and mother will naturally have a feeble constitution and weak nerves; they will be afflicted and will have neither patience, nor endurance, nor resolution, nor perseverance, and will be hasty; for the children inherit the weakness and debility of their parents….Hence it is evident that inherited character also exists…”

“But the difference of the qualities with regard to culture is very great, for education has great influence. Through education the ignorant become learned; the cowardly become valiant. Through cultivation the crooked branch becomes straight; the acid, bitter fruit of the mountains and woods becomes sweet and delicious; and the five-petaled flower becomes hundred petaled. Through education savage nations become civilized, and even the animals become domesticated. Education must be considered as most important, for as diseases in the world of bodies are extremely contagious, so, in the same way, qualities of spirit and heart are extremely contagious. Education has a universal influence, and the differences caused by it are very great.” (Some Answered Questions:212)

That there are three kinds of education (“education is of various kinds. There is a training and development of the physical body which ensures strength and growth. There is intellectual education or mental training for which schools and colleges are founded. The third kind of education is that of the spirit.” (The Promulgation of Universal Peace: 329) should come as no surprise given that there are three kinds of character.  A proper and complete education should train all three characters.

The word “character” comes from metallurgy and the casting of coins, the character being the imprint laid upon the molten blob of metal.  Keeping the metaphor of character, we can say that the innate character, the Divine imprint which is our unique soul, is all those God-given abilities, qualities, and capacities we carry into the world.  The acquired character, the genetically inherited physical and mental qualities that is the biological imprint from blood parents and ancestors, further defines our individuality and act as the first set of forms through which the innate character can be expressed. Biological forms are then supplemented—enhanced, changed, modified, or restricted—by the acquired character, the social imprint, which are the learned abilities and skills acquired from social life, school and experience.  To extend the metaphor into economic language, we can say that we possess or have access to spiritual capital, natural capital, and social capital.  Where and how we invest these forms of capital shows what we value in life and our return on living.  Helping us to decide the best way to invest our different capital is one purpose of education.

In this context, the question, who are you as a spiritual being? is really a form of the question: What is essential, rather than inherited or acquired, human nature?  One answer is that the essence of every individual human being is a unique configuration of all the qualities and attributes that characterize the entire human race. Every individual carries the entire human race as his character, each person represents the entire spiritual wealth of the whole species.  There are a number of images in Bahá’í Scripture that describe this human reality, and these often contrast with what we think about ourselves. 

Many observers of human nature, seeing a newborn, would argue that human beings are inherently poor, weak and helpless and some forms of education, often religious-based, subtlety prey on that debilitating idea, keeping people in a state of near total psychological dependence on outer things, other people, and circumstances of crisis.  Bahá’u’lláh counters this crushing bit of psychological nonsense about humanity’s supposed weakness with: “Dost thou reckon thyself only a puny form when within thee the universe is folded?” (The Seven Valleys:34)  Knowing the universe is enfolded within every individual soul, the divinely-inspired Educator is bewildered when people think of themselves as poor and needy.  Speaking as the Voice of God He asks: “I created thee rich, why dost thou bring thyself down to poverty?  Noble I made thee, wherewith dost thou abase thyself?” (The Hidden Words #13Arabic)  Clearly, Bahá’u’lláh Himself never became enmeshed in the abusive, choking tangles of learned impotence many people experience.  He never lost sight of the truth that He was created rich. 

Other theorists might argue that we do not really bring ourselves down to poverty, rather outer circumstances, such as destitution, sickness, ignorance etc, bring us down.  However outwardly poor one may be, they say, each of us is full of unlimited creative intellectual potential and imaginative capacity.  What is necessary to fix this felt inner poverty and to release these potentials is to improve the outer circumstances.  The Bahá’í Writings agree in part with this opinion.  Certainly to increase peoples sense of physical and mental well-being is a good and noble goal, and it is some of those same creative mental potentials that Bahá’u’lláh means by our riches.  But I also think that Bahá’u’lláh means something far beyond what is meant by these potentials of body and mind, so that even the best of current education can only provide, from this view, a poverty of self-understanding if it leaves out spiritual instruction.  Any education is an improper education if it deprives people of knowing about the spiritual dimension of the world and themselves, though it may adequately inform them about the physical and intellectual dimensions.  Much of our vaunted secular education does precisely this.  To really fix this poverty of self-knowledge is done through exposure to living spiritual principle.  This can overcome a tremendous amount of outer poverty because it empowers people to arise and improve their own circumstances.  Such spiritual “aid” radically reduces the velvet threat of paternalistic do-goodism that breeds dependency and that so often characterizes well-meaning but subtly enslaving programs of material aid.  But both forms of aid may be required for a while.  More in the next post. 

A direct link to purchase my book, Renewing the Sacred: A New Vision of Education, is: http://tinyurl.com/cndew5a

A Proper Education

In the Bahá'í view, the education required to enrich the human mind and spirit must seek to develop those essentially moral attributes--including truthfulness, courtesy, generosity, compassion, justice, love, and trustworthiness--whose reflection in the everyday lives of human beings can create harmonious, productive families and communities and make the enjoyment of fundamental rights a reality for all their members. Such education, moreover, must help to instill in every individual a keen, emotionally grounded awareness of the fundamental unity of humankind.

(Baha'i International Community, 1996 Mar 15, United Nations Decade for Human Rights Education.)

The last post ended with a discussion of the virtue of sharing as a means of gaining eternal life, and with the Buddha’s statement that if we knew as much about sharing as He did we would not let even a meal pass without sharing some of it.  But sharing is not for rewards.  It is not that we can either be happy here or happy there, because, spiritually, here, (i.e. this world) is the anteroom of there, (i.e. the spiritual world).  The real goal is for everyone to be happy all the time.  Giving does not mean throwing wealth away mindlessly and indiscriminately in some moral spasm of guilt, but to use personal and collective wealth wisely to create more wealth and riches for all: that is, to use inner wealth to create more riches because more riches creates more opportunity to express wealth for everyone.  This is the sociological version of the principle: Give a man a fish and feed him for a day.  Teach a man to fish and you feed him for the rest of his life.  But it has this further twist:  if you teach him both to fish and to share his good fortune of knowledge, then he feeds himself and others for the rest of his life, as you did for him. 

Thus “to be reliant on the unfailing bounty of the Source of all wealth”, as Shoghi Effendi wrote, does not mean to ask and then sit idly for the manna to fall from heaven.  It means effort and striving so that the moving ship can be steered towards its proper port, and to steer others to theirs.

In the two sentences of Shoghi Effendi’s statement are found all the main connections linking the interactions between the spiritual and material dimensions of prosperity.   But the spiritual must be first.  As Shoghi Effendi said:  “Laws and institutions, as viewed by Bahá'u'lláh, can become really effective only when our inner spiritual life has been perfected and transformed.” (The Compilation of Compilations vol II. 238)

Within the perspective set by this statement on the secret of right living we can explore in some depth the questions posed by the House of Justice on what people need, for they are the key to knowing how to achieve prosperity. 

A proper education means more than learning a body of academic knowledge, or a set of skills related to gaining employment, or a certain cultural canon of beliefs and assumptions about Reality.  ‘Abdu’l-Baha explains that: “education is of various kinds. There is a training and development of the physical body which ensures strength and growth. There is intellectual education or mental training for which schools and colleges are founded. The third kind of education is that of the spirit. Through the breaths of the Holy Spirit man is uplifted into the world of moralities and illumined by the lights of divine bestowals. The moral world is only attained through the effulgence of the Sun of Reality and the quickening life of the divine spirit. For this reason the holy Manifestations of God appear in the human world.” (The Promulgation of Universal Peace: 329)

A proper education conforms with and provides forms for the expression of essential human nature.  The basic content of such a proper education is called “spiritual principles”, which I talked about in Renewing the Sacred. Spiritual principles are statements such as, “Love thy neighbor”, and the purpose of such statements is to train people to appropriate moral and spiritual action.  They work because spiritual principles educe or bring forth moral potentials, called human values, (such as, love, justice, trustworthiness,) that are innate attributes of the essential human reality, and give them manifest form, called virtues. 

Spiritual principles not only educe the innate spiritual attributes of the human essence, but also over time expand their range and power.  They recur with every revelation from God, for continuing to send Revelation is God’s moral relation with humankind and revelation is progressive.  Hence these attributes are given new application and expression when they are restated in new form within a new revelation.  A proper education also includes the bringing forth of these virtues in a form appropriate to the needs of the age in order to transform the human world. 

For example, all religions have the virtue of loving one’s neighbor.  In past ages, one’s neighbor was usually thought of as the members of one’s clan, or tribe, or city, or nation.  But, in a globalizing world, the idea of neighbor must expand to include every human being on the planet.  Hence Baha’u’llah says: “Of old it hath been revealed: 'Love of one's country is an element of the Faith of God.' The Tongue of Grandeur hath, however, in the day of His manifestation proclaimed: 'It is not his to boast who loveth his country, but it is his who loveth the world.” (Tablets of Baha’u’llah:87)

Inculcating spiritual principles in human consciousness so they guide human action is the foundation and goal of a proper education.  But a proper education also includes the physical and mental training outlined above.  And such training must include the ways to acquire knowledge, cultivate the powers of intellect and reasoning, teach practical skills for earning one’s livelihood, nurture the desire for excellence, and inculcate a dedication to service.

This last is of the utmost importance for personal prosperity because: “Genuine wealth is created when work is undertaken not simply as a means of earning a livelihood but also as a way to contribute to society. We hold that meaningful work is a basic need of the human soul, as important to the proper development of the individual as nutritious food, clean water and fresh air are to the physical body.” (Baha'i International Community, 1995 Oct, Turning Point For All Nations)

This comprehensive approach to education should not go on only within our formal institutions of learning, but be part of everyone’s daily social and personal interaction.  It must be embodied in the workings of social institutions, pervade the media, be part of civic discussion, and preached from pulpits.  Every human interaction can be a laboratory where the efficacy of the hypothesis that the solution to our economic problem, indeed almost any problem, comes from identifying and applying spiritual principle can be tested, refined and tried again. 

A proper education must educe human spiritual nature.  The first part of knowing how to live life is to know who you are.  So, let us go to the first question posed by the House of Justice and ask: Who Are You?

A direct link to purchase my book, Renewing the Sacred: A New Vision of Education, is: http://tinyurl.com/cndew5a

For the Good of our Fellow Man

Let none suppose that the civilization towards which the divine teachings impel humankind will follow merely from adjustments to the present order.  Far from it.

(The Universal House of Justice, Ridvan 2012)

Last post I introduced the topic of a context for prosperity that grows from spiritual education, ending that post with a promise to show the questions that best define that context.  The Universal House of Justice stated, I believe, the four pillars of this perspective for spiritual education: “It is not merely material well-being that people need. What they desperately need is to know how to live their lives — they need to know who they are, to what purpose they exist, and how they should act towards one another; and, once they know the answers to these questions they need to be helped to gradually apply these answers to everyday behaviour.  It is to the solution of this basic problem of mankind that the greater part of all our energy and resources should be directed.”  (Messages from the Universal House of Justice 1963-1986 p.283.

The first thing that strikes us about this concise statement from the Universal House of Justice is that the situation, even in 1974 when the paragraph was composed, was “desperate.”  Though unprecedented numbers of people were “well off” materially, they were desperate to know how to live with this.  Self-knowledge not money was in desperately short supply.  This was “the basic problem of mankind.”

Indeed, as the Bahá’í Revelation has been around for more than one hundred fifty years, and given that this principle was part of Bahá’í teachings from its beginning, the “problem” is at least that old.  In the mid-nineteenth century Bahá’u’lláh perceived the signs of a terrible disaster gathering on the near horizon of the future.  He wrote: “The winds of despair are, alas, blowing from every direction, and the strife that divideth and afflicteth the human race is daily increasing. The signs of impending convulsions and chaos can now be discerned, inasmuch as the prevailing order appeareth to be lamentably defective.” (Gleanings:216) One hundred years later, in 1974, to call the situation “desperate” is not shrill overstatement, but almost subdued understatement.

The only meaningful first implication one can draw from the phrase “need to know how to live their lives” is that many people don’t know how to live their lives—though they probably think that they do, or don’t know any better than what they are currently doing.  The letter then goes on to pose some very ideal criteria for knowing how to live one’s life—criteria seemingly far removed from the ordinary activities we normally associate with that phrase.   But they seem to have some hidden relation with prosperity.  Is there a secret that unlocks this hidden knowledge?  Well, yes and no.  In truth, the essence of it is found in all religious scripture and is known as the Golden Rule, so it is no secret.   But we do seem to need to have it repeated again and again.

One Bahá’í version of it is this statement from Shoghi Effendi: “We must be like the fountain or spring that is continually emptying itself of all that it has, and is continually being refilled from an invisible source. To be continually giving out for the good of our fellows undeterred by the fear of poverty and reliant on the unfailing bounty of the Source of all wealth and all good – that is the secret of right living.” (Principles of Bahá’í Administration:95)

There is a great deal to ponder in this short paragraph.  First, the secret of right living does not exclude generating wealth.  In fact it actively enjoins the creation of wealth—if it enriches all, is acquired properly, and is spent for the common good.  Wealth is not frowned upon in the Bahá'í Teachings.  As in all religions, though, material wealth is regarded as potentially a real barrier to personal and collective spiritual growth and development—a barrier which if overcome brings great rewards and powers. “Know ye in truth”, Bahá'u'lláh writes, “that wealth is a mighty barrier between ... the lover and his beloved... Well is it then with him who, being rich, is not hindered by his riches from the eternal Kingdom... The splendor of such a wealthy man shall illuminate the dwellers of heaven even as the sun enlightens the earth!” (The Hidden Words #53 Persian)

In this same connection, ‘Abdu’l-Bahá wrote: “Wealth is praiseworthy in the highest degree, if it is acquired by an individual’s own effort and the grace of God, in commerce, agriculture, art and industry, and if it be expended for philanthropic purposes… Wealth is most commendable, provided the entire population is wealthy.” (The Secret of Divine Civilization: 24)  So, just working hard and ethically to get personal wealth does not earn much applause.  The real wealth in wealth, so to speak, is what one expends for the good of others to make more than just oneself wealthy.  The real wealth is the inner riches we bring forth to make and use it: i.e. either for ourselves alone or for some greater good.  The Bahá’í Writings never define prosperity as just having general material plenty, as can be "measured" by some wholly numerical and abstract criteria such as national economic indicators.  Nor is true prosperity, even for an individual or family, a condition where some have more than they can consume while others have less than they need.  Prosperity is when every single person has enough and not a person before.

Neither does the secret of right living discount trusting the “invisible” to refill our personal and collective accounts.  In fact, it relies on this recompense, knowing that with God “is the storehouse of all that is in heaven and earth.” (Baha’i Prayers:162)  If, as ‘Abdu’l-Baha said, “the fundamentals of the whole economic condition are divine in nature and are associated with the world of the heart and spirit,” then economic challenges are never adequately met through purely material or only human efforts.  God wishes to contribute to human prosperity.  Indeed, our Creator is indispensable to this.  But His wish can best be realized only if each person is willing to be like that fountain that empties itself of all that it has for the good of humanity.  If we are reluctant to let Him be involved, He does not turn away, but finds the means to bring us back into proper relation with Him, with each other, and with our own self.  We call these recessions, depressions and cataclysms that result from not acting in conformity with universal moral principles, such as love thy neighbor, which are found in every spiritual tradition.

            Lastly, we should give “undeterred by the fear of poverty” and be reliant on the “unfailing bounty of the Source of all wealth.”  But we should not paint too rosy a picture.  Giving will generate the fear of material poverty.  It is human nature, at least our lower nature, to fear that in giving to others one is impoverishing oneself.  Fear will be there!  But we must not be deterred by it.  It helps to overcome this natural fear by believing that the “bounty of the Source of all wealth” is “unfailing.”  That is, giving actually enlarges not diminishes the giver.  In words echoed in all spiritual traditions, ‘Abdu’l-Baha said: “Eternal happiness is contingent upon giving.” (The Promulgation of Universal Peace:128)   In the same light, the Buddha is reported to have remarked: “If you knew what I know about the power of giving, you would not let a single meal pass without sharing it in some way.”

A direct link to purchase my book, Renewing the Sacred: A New Vision of Education, is:http://tinyurl.com/cndew5a

Education and Prosperity: A New Context

Why - and the question needs to be asked plainly -- has this society been impotent, despite its great wealth, to remove the injustices that are tearing its fiber apart?  The answer to this question, as amply evidenced by decades of contentious history, cannot be found in political passion, conflicting expressions of class interest, or technical recipes. What is called for is a spiritual revival, as a prerequisite to the successful application of political, economic and technological instruments. But there is a need for a catalyst.

 (The Universal House of Justice, 2000 Jan 08)

  The thesis of the book I am working on at present is that general prosperity endures only when our outer material and inner spiritual aspects are operating in balance.  Although the terms can obviously be used interchangeably, in the book I use the term riches to refer to the spiritual form of wealth, and the word wealth to mean the material form of riches.  Riches, (i.e. our virtues) and wealth, broadly speaking our material goods, are, from this perspective, complementary aspects of true prosperity; one without the other is insufficient and leads to poverty.  The world is over-balanced on the material side, and that is why we are experiencing economic meltdown.  Hence we must re-establish a balance between riches and wealth.   How do we do this?  That deceptively simple question requires too complex an answer for my knowledge.  Rather, I will ask:  What can education do to help get the situation into balance? 

My own answer to the question starts from this statement of the Universal House of Justice: "The inordinate disparity between rich and poor, a source of acute suffering, keeps the world in a state of instability, virtually on the brink of war. Few societies have dealt effectively with this situation. The solution calls for the combined application of spiritual, moral and practical approaches. A fresh look at the problem is required, entailing consultation with experts from a wide spectrum of disciplines, devoid of economic and ideological polemics, and involving the people directly affected in the decisions that must urgently be made. It is an issue that is bound up not only with the necessity for eliminating extremes of wealth and poverty but also with those spiritual verities the understanding of which can produce a new universal attitude. Fostering such an attitude is itself a major part of the solution."  (The Promise of World Peace:11)

Perhaps one aspect of a “spiritual approach” and a “fresh look” can be taken through education, because education is that institution par excellence that, when it is spiritual education, has to do with fostering an understanding of spiritual verities and producing an universal attitude.  I am an educator by profession and commitment so much of what I write in the book is about education and vision, or better, a vision of ideal people creating prosperity by educing their ideal self and using spiritual virtues as currency.  For me, true prosperity will never be established by setting our sights only on achieving material wealth, for reasons that will become clear in the book.     

First, let’s make a simple, perhaps overly-simple, distinction about economic problems, namely, that there are two main types of them: too little and too much. These are never far apart.  In our economically integrated world, the problem of too little for many occurs because a few have too much.  That is, a material underdevelopment among many occurs in large part because of spiritual underdevelopment of some few.  That is the essence of the problem, and it is as true among individuals as it is among nations.

            To solve the problem of too little requires, first, setting in place a practical and academic education that enables disadvantaged people to acquire the skills needed to obtain what they materially need.  But this addresses only one half of the problem, and by itself it spawns a wriggling mass of more challenges, for it only better enables some few previously disadvantaged individuals to insert themselves somewhere into a dysfunctioning system.  In short, this “fix” creates even more competition for a shrinking economic pie, generating more frustration, resentment, rage and anxiety.  This toxic mix will explode.  There is no doubt about that.  A solution that “fixes” only half a problem is no real solution at all, but adds to the severity and urgency of the problem.

            To address the second problem, that of too much, requires a moral and spiritual education which persuades the well-to-do that sharing with and empowering those less fortunate is in everybody’s best interest.  In either case, proper education is a key element of a spiritual solution to economic problems.  But since the problem of too little is really a result of some having too much and not sharing, then the real problem for education must be a rethinking of the main purpose of education itself away from academic and technical training for career advancement or mere personal advantage to moral and spiritual enlightenment for the advantage of all.  Fixing material poverty is, from this view, a product of fixing spiritual poverty, for, in truth, there is plenty of wealth to go around.  A new impetus for change is required.

            In one beautiful statement ‘Abdu’l-Bahá said it this way: “The fundamentals of the whole economic condition are divine in nature and are associated with the world of the heart and spirit. This is fully explained in the Baha'i teaching, and without knowledge of its principles no improvement in the economic state can be realized…. When the love of God is established, everything else will be realized. This is the true foundation of all economics.” (The Promulgation of Universal Peace: 239.)

            How can this goal be accomplished?  That’s a challenge for proper education to meet.  As the book is not really about the practical aspects of training of people for employment, equipping them with the skills of providing material necessities for families and community, and the like, the primary discussion of the book is about the spiritual side:  the training of moral perception and sentiment which creates the context for the first, that literally creates the community.  That spiritual education is, I believe, based on four questions.  These will be set forth in my next post. 

A direct link to purchase my book, Renewing the Sacred: A New Vision of Education, is: http://tinyurl.com/cndew5a