Two Ways to Open Capacity for Learning: Knowledge Gained by Effort

It is from the bounty of God that man is selected for the highest degree; and the differences which exist between men in regard to spiritual progress and heavenly perfections are also due to the choice of the Compassionate One. For faith, which is life eternal, is the sign of bounty, and not the result of justice. The flame of the fire of love, in this world of earth and water, comes through the power of attraction and not by effort and striving. Nevertheless, by effort and perseverance, knowledge, science and other perfections can be acquired; but only the light of the Divine Beauty can transport and move the spirits through the force of attraction.

(Abdu'l-Baha, Some Answered Questions: 130)

There are two ways to enlarge one’s capacity for learning, effort and attraction.  This post will concentrate on what ‘Abdu’l-Baha calls effort and perseverance.

The rational faculty (i.e. the power of understanding) is a power of discovery.  I have said that for human beings Reality presents itself in three levels: matter, mind, and spirit.  These correspond to the three central modalities of knowing: senses, intellect, and heart, each of which has a direct connection with Reality on its own level.

For the rational soul shared by all individuals, to say that knowledge is a state attained to by the intelligence means to me that these different states of knowledge are enfolded within the human reality as different kinds of knowing.  Basically, acquiring knowledge means some faculty of the broad range of human faculties moves from potential to actual, from unconscious to conscious.  It is a movement from potentiality (capacity) to actuality (capability).   

Humanity started and every human child starts with knowledge gained from the senses.  Later the intellectual powers awaken.  The intellect discovers things and principles that the senses cannot discover on their own.  One cannot acquire knowledge of mental realities absent the intellectual faculties.  Intellect is what separates us from animals.  By intellect I mean all the mental faculties inclusive of the powers to imagine and to reason to a conclusion.  The mind sees that, for example, the sun is stationary while the earth moves, a conclusion that the senses alone would not perceive.  But the heart, when inspired by the spirit if faith, discovers realms of divine knowledge that the uninformed intellect cannot know about.

The difference between sensory and intellectual knowledge also roughly corresponds to the difference between organic versus abstract planes of knowledge, which are built up by the mental faculties of art and science.  Art grasps and presents phenomena sensuously, reason grasps them conceptually and presents them in abstract symbols such as words and numbers.  By abstract I mean something along the lines of perceiving the inner architecture of things, their hidden structures, the funda-mental archetypes. Art can do this, too, but its presentation remains organic and sensual.  To see and present artistically the inner structure of things and not just represent them is the kind of thing that Cezanne was attempting to paint in his quest for the fundamental geometrical shapes of things. Later abstract painters went further to simply paint a formal arrangement of harmonious lines and colors, less and less the representation of natural things.

To return to the individual; a baby’s state of knowledge is almost entirely instinctual and sensory-motor.  As the child matures into adulthood it passes through various states of knowledge, from concrete operational to symbolic to abstract conceptual—other states have been determined by psychology.  (See for example the works of Piaget and Gardner)  But, except for the extraordinary individual, a small child cannot comprehend abstract mathematical or philosophical concepts, because those logical powers that can manipulate symbol-systems such as numbers have not yet blossomed.  He cannot acquire this sort of knowledge until these powers awaken—until, that is, he attains that state. The awakening of these powers is a delicate interplay between nature and nurture.

I mean that these states of knowledge are knowable by the human reality, because the means of knowing them are within the innate potentialities of the common human intelligence.  They are formed into consciousness when the means of apprehending and comprehending awaken. 

But this natural intelligence only apprehends sensible impressions and logical ideas built up figuratively from physical experience into abstract concepts.  These are obtained, the Master says in our opening quote, through effort and perseverance.  There are great limitations, such as time, energy and opportunity, on what can be learned in this manner.

There is another kind of knowledge which the human reality innately possesses.  ‘Abdu’l-Baha calls it intuitive.  He said, discussing the two kinds of knowledge named so far:  “Knowledge is of two kinds. One is subjective and the other objective knowledge—that is to say, an intuitive knowledge and a knowledge derived from perception.

The knowledge of things which men universally have is gained by reflection or by evidence—that is to say, either by the power of the mind the conception of an object is formed, or from beholding an object the form is produced in the mirror of the heart. The circle of this knowledge is very limited because it depends upon effort and attainment.

But the second sort of knowledge, which is the knowledge of being, is intuitive; it is like the cognizance and consciousness that man has of himself.

For example, the mind and the spirit of man are cognizant of the conditions and states of the members and component parts of the body, and are aware of all the physical sensations; in the same way, they are aware of their power, of their feelings, and of their spiritual conditions. This is the knowledge of being which man realizes and perceives, for the spirit surrounds the body and is aware of its sensations and powers. This knowledge is not the outcome of effort and study. It is an existing thing; it is an absolute gift.” (Some Answered Questions: 157-158)

The knowledge that can be attained through effort and study, He says, is very limited.  Intuitive knowledge, however, is “an absolute gift”.  It is the basis of human self-knowledge. It is simply given, is an endowment, and not the result of effort.  Therefore there is no attainment to it, though we can always know more of ourselves through greater effort.  This is learning the knowledge of self and, in its higher aspects, transformation.

The third kind of knowledge briefly presented by ‘Abdu’l-Baha He named divine knowledge.  This knowledge is bestowed upon the divine Manifestations.  He said: “Since the Sanctified Realities, the supreme Manifestations of God, surround the essence and qualities of the creatures, transcend and contain existing realities and understand all things, therefore, Their knowledge is divine knowledge, and not acquired—that is to say, it is a holy bounty; it is a divine revelation.” (Some Answered Questions: 157-158)

 What of this knowledge?  Is it, too, a state to which the intelligence may attain?  Is there a faculty of knowing this knowledge?  For if the intelligence does not possess the proper faculty it cannot attain that state of knowledge.

I will argue that those in the spirit of faith have the capacity, via the power of attraction, to receive this knowledge in the heart.  That is the topic of the next post.  This knowledge is the real knowledge, but the other knowledges when connected with it make a condition of light upon light that comprehends dimensions of Reality hidden from the senses and intellect.  Consider this statement from ‘Abdu’l-Baha: “It is incumbent upon thee to acquire the various branches of knowledge, and to turn thy face toward the beauty of the Manifest Beauty, that thou mayest be a sign of saving guidance amongst the peoples of the world, and a focal centre of understanding in this sphere from which the wise and their wisdom are shut out, except for those who set foot in the Kingdom of lights and become informed of the veiled and hidden mystery, the well-guarded secret.” (Selections from the Writings of Abdu'l-Baha: 110)