We cherish the hope that through the loving-kindness of the
All-Wise, the All-Knowing, the obscuring dust may be dispelled and the power of
perception enhanced, that the people may discover the purpose for which they
have been called into being.
(Bahá’u’lláh, Tablets of Bahá’u’lláh, p. 35)
Regarding economic prosperity,
recall that the House of Justice said: “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.” (Messages
from the Universal House of Justice 1963-1986: 283.) My last few posts have been devoted to
a discussion of the topic of human nature—who we are. We turn now to a discussion of
purpose, the second thing that people desperately need to know. The next few posts will explore this
topic.
The Bahá’í Writings state several
purposes for why we exist. One
purpose is to individually acquire virtues, such as love, justice, compassion,
and forgiveness. But
“acquire” means, I believe, to gain the ability to constructively express these
divine gems already latent within our essential reality. In a proper education
we acquire or learn the skills, knowledge, techniques and practices that enable
us to “bring forth” or manifest these inner gems from the mine of the human
spirit “so that mankind may benefit therefrom.” The outcome of this learning process
is called spiritual transformation. But
real spiritual transformation can not occur, according to Bahá’í teachings,
absent the soul’s labor to “translate that which hath been written into reality
and action.” (Tablets of Baha’u’llah:166) Service is a key word here, and
inculcating a positive attitude toward it is a central purpose of all spiritual
education.
To acquire virtues connects directly
with God's purpose in creating human beings and relating them to Himself
(i.e. His Manifestation). Bahá’u’lláh
wrote: “The Purpose of the one true God, exalted be His glory, in revealing
Himself unto men is to lay bare those gems that lie hidden within the mine of
their true and inmost selves.” (Gleanings: 287) We must neither squander nor bury
these gifts, as the Biblical parable of the talents warns. Bahá’u’lláh also admonishes: “Be not
careless of the virtues with which ye have been endowed, neither be neglectful
of your high destiny.” (Gleanings:196) But we must no longer allow an
“improper education” to deprive us of them, either.
Every soul is endowed with various
moral potentials of which that individual may be unaware, but which can be made
manifest by personal volition in response to wishes, tests, and circumstances,
or under the tutelage of spiritual principles. One way to manifest a virtue is by
following a model. For
followers of every religion their Founder, whether Abraham, Moses, Buddha,
Jesus or Muhammad, is their supreme model of virtue, and the Teachings each
leaves behind is the source of human moral and social development, the educing
forms that draw forth human potential by giving them resonant principles to
respond to. Following spiritual principle translates a spiritual potential
into an actuality, a behavior.
For example, faith is one inherent
power that can be brought out by a model. ‘Abdu’l-Bahá says: “Man is endowed
with ideal virtues, for example intellection, volition–among them faith,
confession and acknowledgment of God...” (The Promulgation of Universal
Peace:51) The
faith that human beings express is a reflection or likeness of the faithfulness
that God through His Messengers shows us. That is, we know and express
our innate potential for faith because God and His Messengers are first
faithful towards us. But we also know faith by perceiving how another is
faithful to principle, to belief, or to conviction.
The Founder’s life and teachings
provide exemplars for human thought and action. But more than this: Their Words and
deeds are creative. They educe our higher nature. The Bahá’í Teachings assert: “The
Messengers of God are not merely teachers, although this is one of their
primary functions. Rather, the spirit of their words, together with the example
of their lives, has the capacity to tap the roots of human motivation and to
induce fundamental and lasting change. Their influence opens new realms of
understanding and achievement.” (Baha'i International Community, 1992 May
29, Statement on Baha'u'llah:10)
All human qualities are pale
reflections of the luminous qualities of God that are manifested for us by
humanity’s great Spiritual Luminaries. The image of God which is our
higher self is the God within us recognizing its true Reality in the more
perfect likeness of itself demonstrated by the life and teachings of the
Prophet, and responding to it. But
such recognition only occurs on condition that the inner “faculty” for
recognizing Him has been developed. Obscuring
this faculty so that we can not recognize either the Image or the Voice of God
is exactly what an “improper education” does. It does this by defining “God” as
merely a psychological projection of our own best image, and thus thick clouds
of spiritual uncertainty form that obscure the radiant Light of the Sun. The person becomes enclosed within
himself, locked up within his own subjectivity.
This obscuring of our innate
spirituality has occurred, I believe, because in the last few hundred years’
humankind has lived from primarily a material point of view. One positive result of this style of
life and thought has been an unprecedented material productivity. But we have lost the ability to
perceive spiritually, settling instead for perceiving rationally. Too, the very success of our economic
productivity has generated a thinking that gives undue importance to material
life and the values that justify selfishness and greed. We think money or more material goods
can solve our economic problems. We
are wrong.
Baha’u’llah asks: “What advantage is
there in a life that can be overtaken by death, or in an existence that is
doomed to extinction, or in a prosperity that is subject to change?” (The
Summons of the Lord of Hosts:87)
Many of us have ridden this
merry-go-round of anxiety and frustration in pursuit of material wealth many
times, yet will still pretty consistently try it again. Why such a slow learning curve?
The answer for me is, simply stated,
an improper education which provides no proper guidance or real connection
between who we are, what is our purpose, and what we want. The person who really needs something
to accomplish his work is never unhappy when he receives it. The carpenter who needs a hammer to
pound a nail will not be unhappy if somebody hands him the one he needs. He knows what he wants and needs
because it flows out from his purpose.
But if
we never stop to think who we are, we never start “being”, we just know
that we want things. At
best, we may vaguely hope that the thing we want will help us to find who we
are and fulfill some purpose. But
this thinking boils down to: I am only what I am pursuing and purpose
lies in getting it: then on to the next pursuit. The
Christian Bible warns: “Labour not to be rich: cease from thine own wisdom….For as
he thinketh in
his heart,
so is he.” (Book of Proverbs 23:
4, 7) Pursuing happiness by
pursuing material wealth is to reverse the sequence of thoughts that brings
happiness. Being the reverse of what is right and true such thoughts can
only lead to what is wrong and false. About
such people Bahá’u’lláh asked: “I created thee rich, why dost thou bring
thyself down to poverty? Noble
I made thee, wherewith dost thou abase thyself?” (The Hidden Words,
Arabic #13)
A direct link to purchase my book,
Renewing the Sacred: A New Vision of Education, is:
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