The Natures of Conflict

Man possesses two kinds of susceptibilities: the natural emotions, which are like dust upon the mirror, and spiritual susceptibilities, which are merciful and heavenly characteristics.

(‘Abdu’l-Baha: The Promulgation of Universal Peace: 244) 

The process of growth is one of conflict, of some urge to advance meeting some force of resistance.  This becomes clear when we move from discussing the polar structure of the natures of man, to a discussion that emphasizes the interaction between them, an interaction that can be either progressive or regressive, but is most often a mix of both.

At the light/dark level of the opposition of the natures, the human being often engages in a zero-sum game.  For the individual youth, the urge to be an adult clashes with the desire to remain an adolescent.  On the larger stage of society, every release of human power arouses a new threat of oppression from entrenched powers such as church and state, so that a new liberation also brings the possibility of a new servitude.  It is on this level that we get warnings like: “material progress alone does not tend to uplift man. On the contrary, the more he becomes immersed in material progress, the more does his spirituality become obscured.” (Paris Talks:107)   This statement doesn’t just mean that material progress obscures our understanding of moral principles, though it does that.  It means it cuts us off from the internal dynamo of progress itself, since “spirit in itself is progressive”.  That is, material progress alone deprives us of that which we inherently possess.  Obscured spirituality is the dark clouds of wrong assumptions about our nature that hide the sun of our true humanity from our perception.  It does not mean the spiritual nature is annihilated, anymore than the clouds kill the sun.  They just hide it from direct perception, so a competitive, immature, me-first morality prevails.

However, though every individual seems composed of two natures, at a higher level of understanding and coordination of faculties and energies, every individual is, or should be, one person.  The spiritual nature is the divine image.  It is one identity of many attributes and qualities.  But the material nature is “multiple identities that were born of passion and desire.” (Selections from the Writings of ‘Abdu’l-Baha:76)   The real answer to the question, Who are you?, is this spiritual nature, for it is single and enduring, while the material nature is a shifting inner kaleidoscope of partisan interests.  Physical and social identities, like family, race, nationality, culture or DNA, are as various partial images of the one divine image that appear in the pieces of a fractured mirror.  While the spiritual nature is itself a complex unity, embracing, purposeful, integrated and cooperative, the material nature is a complex jumble of parts not in harmony even with each other, for its fractious passions are at war jockeying to be top dog.  The material nature, called the ego, is inherently divisive, separating, competitive, and atomistic.  If the material nature is passionate, the spiritual nature is com-passionate.  It is at the material level then that we are inherently conflict-driven creatures, continually striving to overcome ourselves and the limitations imposed by outer and inner constraints.  But the material nature is not our real nature, but is like a bad passport photo of our true self.

The second meaning of conflict is related to prosperity and the creation of wealth through the principle that we must labor to bring something into the world.  This is especially true of our inherent spiritual riches.  In His treatise on the stages of spiritual growth and transformation titled The Seven Valleys Baha’u’llah says that “we must labor to destroy the animal condition, till the meaning of humanity shall come to light.” (The Seven Valleys: 34)   Here he is making the clear point that the ego, the animal or material nature, is not the reality of human nature, no matter how much education may tell us that it is.  Bringing the meaning of humanity out requires labor and conflict to overcome this conditioning, to harmonize conflicting interests both within and without.  In a companion treatise on the same mystical subject of human spiritual development, titled The Four Valleys, He states: “If the travelers seek after the goal of the Intended One (maqsud), this station appertaineth to the self -- but that self which is "The Self of God standing within Him with laws. On this plane, the self is not rejected but beloved; it is well-pleasing and not to be shunned. Although at the beginning, this plane is the realm of conflict, yet it endeth in attainment to the throne of splendor.” (The Four Valleys:50)

It is necessary to engage in spiritual conflict if we are to subdue and train the impulses of the ego, or animal self.  But spiritual conflict is not violence, wrangling and partisan contention, but rather as 'Abdu'l-Baha’ explained: “When a thought of war comes, oppose it by a stronger thought of peace. A thought of hatred must be destroyed by a more powerful thought of love.” (Paris Talks:29)

  The lower self must be destroyed, yes.  But destroying the lower nature does not mean annihilating it, but, rather, rebuilding it in a productive form.  It is like destroying nature by making it into a garden, training a weed into a flower or vegetable.  It means that any ego dominance over human thought and behavior is destroyed in favor of higher inner laws which emerge into clarity to the extent that the ego is subjugated, much as adolescence is gradually destroyed because absorbed by the larger powers of maturity.  Because of a natural resistance, conflict is unavoidable in this change, but that conflict is much like the artist’s struggle to realize a vision on canvas, in stone, or words.  The conflict in human moral perception is that of clearing away the dark clouds of the ego-nature so that the light of the higher one can shine forth on the earth of human possibility.

Hence the wisdom of being a self-contradictory creation is that the contradiction gives us the nut to crack of making warring energies into developmental powers.  The Bahá’í Writings refer to this process as spiritual transformation, by which is meant transformations in human consciousness, movements in thought and awareness toward greater integration of our faculties.  Spiritual transformations are all those realizations that change divine potential into intellectual, social and material actuality.  And the greatest power in this process is spiritual education. 

To illustrate this transformation in perception from a lower to a higher state we can look at competition.  Competition has two forms.  The one most familiar to us is selfish competition, where each one strives to maximize self-interest.  But the spiritual form of competition reverses the direction and purpose of moral effort.  ‘Abdu’l-Baha writes: “Happy the soul that shall forget his own good and, like the chosen ones of God, vie with his fellows in service to the good of all.” (The Secret of Divine Civilization:116)  The two forms of competition have their counterpart in the faculties of the two selves.  We’ll take that up next.

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