Poverty Thinking

God grant that all men may turn unto the treasures latent within their own beings.

(Tablets of Baha’u’llah:72)

            We are learning the hard way that real happiness resides neither in a mad, frenetic pursuit of material things, nor in that drowsy complacency resulting from gorging on a glut of material wealth, or rather it may for awhile, but it cannot endure without the developments of our virtues, both private and public. 

The evolution of what has become a materialist order of life, thought, and society was built upon an ethos of self-interest.  ‘Abdu’l-Baha summed up that ethos this way: “Today, all the peoples of the world are indulging in self-interest and exert the utmost effort and endeavour to promote their own material interests. They are worshipping themselves and not the divine reality, nor the world of mankind. They seek diligently their own benefit and not the common weal. This is because they are captives of the world of nature and unaware of the divine teachings, of the bounty of the Kingdom and of the Sun of Truth.” (Selections from the Writings of ‘Abdu’l-Baha:103)

            Opposed to this self-centered ethic of anarchy, competition and division, Baha’u’llah asserts the moral view that has animated every great religion: “Forget your own selves, and turn your eyes towards your neighbor. Bend your energies to whatever may foster the education of men.” (Gleanings: 9)  And: “Do not busy yourselves in your own concerns; let your thoughts be fixed upon that which will rehabilitate the fortunes of mankind and sanctify the hearts and souls of men.” (Tablets of Baha’u’llah: 86)  And in relation to the inner gems of virtue within His Revelation He promises: “Were ye to discover the hidden, the shoreless oceans of My incorruptible wealth, ye would, of a certainty, esteem as nothing the world, nay, the entire creation.” (Gleanings:323)

Bahá’u’lláh’s estimation of the value of this world is: “The world is but a show, vain and empty, a mere nothing, bearing the semblance of reality. Set not your affections upon it.” (Gleanings:323)  ‘Abdu’l-Bahá elaborates on His father’s statement: “This present life is even as a swelling wave, or a mirage, or drifting shadows. Could ever a distorted image on the desert serve as refreshing waters?  No, by the Lord of Lords! Never can reality and the mere semblance of reality be one, and wide is the difference between fancy and fact, between truth and the phantom thereof.” (Selections from the Writings of ‘Abdul-Baha:177)

            Now material things are real enough, as anyone running into a wall can tell you.  So when Bahá’u’lláh says the world is a mere nothing, He does not mean it is not real.  He means it is of little value compared to spiritual reality and that the materialistic mind overvalues it.  Bahá’u’lláh identifies our true psychological relation with material wealth: “In earthly riches fear is hidden and peril is concealed.” (Tablets of Baha’u’llah:219) 

One can never gain a feeling of security and peace from pursuing, possessing and accumulating material riches because fear and peril are hidden and concealed in their very essence.  These dangers are there because material riches are always threatening to dissolve.  They are a fleeting form of congealed dust.  Compared to spiritual wealth, the reality of material riches is illusion itself. The gold they give is only a fool’s gold, material wealth being but the semblance of inner spiritual riches.  Their promise of happiness, security and peace is a lie because they can only deliver fear, suspicion and competitive self-interest.  The more material riches are pursued and accumulated, whether by individuals or nations, the more fear and a sense of imperilment is brought into human life, for that pursuit is merely chasing shadows and reflections through the looking glass!  But fear and peril are difficult to see because they are hidden beneath the sparkling glitter of allurement—“If I get that big raise I can….” 

            Material needs and desires are a necessary part of human life and well-being: but only in a proper measure.  However, materialism as a philosophy is built entirely on fiction and illusion, for it is founded upon poverty thinking, and poverty generates anxiety which fuels a compensating avariciousness.  The  whole materialist paradigm is driven to overcome these paralyzing feelings of scarcity and fear of poverty by the donkey’s carrot of aggressive self-interest and material accumulation.  Not only is there no common prosperity there, there can never be any sense of prosperity for the lower nature is a poverty mentality seeking enrichment.  As we become engaged in cutthroat competition for limited resources we lose any sense of our spiritual nature and become blind to true human purpose.  The inner anxiety is compensated for by a lust for power and material security—but it never goes away.  Yet, from prolonged exposure to this illusion, to this improper education that brings forth our ego-qualities of negativity, we have bought into the delusion given us and the development of human consciousness suffers correspondingly. 

Shoghi Effendi put it this way: “Indeed the chief reason for the evils now rampant in society is the lack of spirituality. The materialistic civilization of our age has so much absorbed the energy and interest of mankind that people in general do no longer feel the necessity of raising themselves above the forces and conditions of their daily material existence. There is not sufficient demand for things that we call spiritual to differentiate them from the needs and requirements of our physical existence.

The universal crisis affecting mankind is, therefore, essentially spiritual in its causes. The spirit of the age, taken on the whole, is irreligious. Man’s outlook on life is too crude and materialistic to enable him to elevate himself into the higher realms of the spirit….the core of religious faith is that mystic feeling which unites Man with God.” (Directives from the Guardian 1973 edition: 86)

            Inner poverty can only be cured by spiritual riches, not by greater material wealth.  The real scarcity today is within our empty souls, not in our empty pocketbooks.  We don’t see this, or only see it through a heavy fog of confused thoughts, because our value system, as it is called, is horribly skewed.  We have an ego-based morality. 

            In viewing our relationship with material wealth Bahá’u’lláh again presents a view opposed to the common one: “Thou dost wish for gold and I desire thy freedom from it. Thou thinkest thyself rich in its possession, and I recognize thy wealth in thy sanctity therefrom.” (The Hidden Words #56Arabic)  So that we may be educated to see ourselves and the world properly the divine Educator warns: “Busy not thyself with this world, for with fire We test the gold, and with gold We test Our servants.” (The Hidden Words #55A)  We are finding out that the attraction for gold, or material wealth, is a spiritual fire we put our souls in—and it can roast the spirit.       

            True prosperity is where the spiritual and the material are in harmonious balance for everyone, not just for oneself.  So a spiritual solution to the economic problem means, at this juncture, to use our inner spiritual resources to create this balance, to mine and express those inner gems deposited within the soul of every human being, to bring about the death of scarcity.  Spiritual resources we have in abundance for we are created rich.  Spiritually, wealth is not something we need but something we are. 

            What are the virtues we need to manifest to solve our economic problem?  The first three are love, truthfulness and trustworthiness.