“…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:
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