thos Need and Desire

Courtesy and Reconciliation, Baha'u'llah's Greatest Desire, Our Greatest Need

By John Taylor; 2008 Apr 28, 19 Jalal, 165 BE

 

I did a lot of driving yesterday with nothing else to do but listen to the radio. The topic of discussion on the CBC Radio One talk show "Cross Country Checkup" for the longest time was the crying need for civility in Canadian public life in general, and in parliament in particular. Not only parliamentarians but the press and just about all Canadians of prominence have become noticeably less cordial and more truculent over the past decade. This is all the more surprising since we have had a minority government for the past few years.

 

For those whose civics is rusty, a minority government is when voters spread wide across the political spectrum and no single party gets enough seats to overrule the others all on its own. Against what one might expect, in Canada minority governments have often proven surprisingly productive. When every decision must arise from a consensus on all sides, everybody works harder on their position before they sit down at the table. Compromises are made before issues are put up for public discussion. What with the rise in contentiousness in this parliament, many commentators are amazed that this minority government has lasted as long as it has.

 

In an age when our very survival depends on rapid, decisive collective effort and the ability to adapt and solve crying problems that have escaped everybody before, this decline in courtesy on the part of our leaders does not bode well. In fact, it is extremely worrying. How can we expect to save the environment, reverse climate change, keep prosperous and solve a thousand other pressing dilemmas when the main preoccupation of our leadership is petty squabbling?

 

In His Tablet of the World, Baha'u'llah called courtesy a "sublime station," and prayed that He Himself and everybody else would attain to it. (Tablets, 88) He also called it the "prince of virtues," which means, I think, that you cannot aspire any other virtues if you do not have this one. What is more, you cannot aspire to be an effective prince or leader of any kind unless you are extremely skilled at all that courtesy entails: politeness, gentility and diplomacy.

 

In other words, the roots of both the problem and its solution are sunk into our educational system, as always. Our training is not virtue-centered enough to produce leaders with courtesy. Maybe I should go over what I think courtesy is. Courtesy cures diseases before they enter the body. We nurture it in our prayers and spiritual life. There we diffuse our mental bombs; the traps in thinking that degrade ideas into ideologies and perspectives into straitjackets. In other words, a courteous person avoids attachment. Courtesy does not just know when to step away from the emotional minefields that can instantly blow our feeling of brotherhood to pieces. It is a more active virtue than that. It teaches how to become a sort of bomb disposal expert who can safely diffuse those minefields and actively eradicate whatever leads to contention. A courteous person is aware that as soon as there is a hint contention, the battle is already lost; the unity that is our only hope falls apart and cooperation becomes a pipe dream.

 

A New York Times article this weekend struck a nerve. It describes the extreme diligence, the almost insane devotion that some Korean prep schools put their students through in order to get them into the world's most prestigious colleges. These picked but pitiable minions study formally from dawn until ten in the evening, then many decide to stay up all night long doing extra homework on their own. All that extreme cramming just for a slightly higher mark on artificial exams that elite post-secondary institutions think might help. There is no denying that this works, as far as the narrowest of aims go. But really, is a mere quiz worth staying up all night for? Should we not sacrifice ourselves for something eternal, for a virtue like courtesy, for instance? Surely it would be more productive to concentrate on virtues rather than grade-point averages that anonymous admission test corporations think make for a good student. Scientific knowledge changes rapidly, and human memory forgets. Ten years afterwards knowing how to make a point without offending our listeners would be far more useful than a memorized answer to some trivial question. Surely the SAT's and the entire examination system for sifting admissions are failing the grade and should be replaced.

 

It is true, as Abdu'l-Baha said that there are no results without steadfastness. He taught that hard study is the key to success. At the lowest point in His career, when it looked like He would soon be exiled, Abdu'l-Baha told one of his secretaries, Youness Afroukhteh, to go off to medical school. The young man did not feel ready and spent a night,

 

"filled with anxiety and apprehension and in a state of prayer. Next morning I was again summoned to the presence of `Abdu'l-Baha. As He walked the dark narrow alleys of `Akka on His usual visits to the poor and the downtrodden, He continued with the theme He had begun to expound the previous day. He repeated the necessity of the dispersion of the resident believers, and then explained the importance of education, and the secrets which would lead to success. He considered success and progress in any field conditional first on divine confirmation and then on wholehearted perseverance. He also gave some astonishing examples of the power that is generated from focussing one's mental faculties on a single goal. He gave the example of the heat that is created through the concentration of light at one point, and the pressure that is generated by the concentration of steam in an enclosed space, and other similar examples." (Memories of Nine Years in Acca, p. 331)

 

This disquisition quieted his heart. Afroukhteh followed this advice to focus and became an excellent doctor. It is interesting that one of the most promising techniques of gaining solar energy uses a field of parabolic mirrors to focus on a single point, where generators collect the heat and turn it into electricity. This is quite literally what the Master described here.  Anyway, right now the mirrors of our mental world are concentrated exclusively on narrow, material goals, the second step that the Master suggested. Education does not concentrate on the Master's first step, divine confirmation. In fact, schooling can stifle the first step. Abdu'l-Baha Himself did not have much formal schooling, nor did the Manifestations of God. Some of the greatest geniuses in history made their discoveries because they were not spoiled by formal schooling. Formal schooling teaches form, and now we need spirit.

 

The question behind it all is, what should the next generation focus its powers on? What would government consultation look like if the present catty, foul-mouthed parliamentarians had been sifted all their lives by an education based on courtesy, rather than mere filling in of multiple choice questions? If the next generation is not learning courtesy before math, language and science, all the rest is wasted, since courtesy is the most important team and inter-team virtue. Teams work years for what can be destroyed in a second by one abusive word. If graduates of our best schools were getting these skills, if we were solving the problems of the world, then I would applaud the dedication of those who want to do well in this system. They are certainly learning to work very hard and get done whatever it is that they set out to do. That is a good thing. But there is more to taking a journey than just getting there. Like the modern automobile, you can get there and destroy the air as you do it. Same way, you can be highly educated but with a narrow skill set, and be afflicted by a driven, obsessive personality incapable of changing direction or working creatively in a team.

 

The big question for educators of our era is: how do you measure and assess virtue? The only way I know is face-to-face. We need to devise a virtue based system where the best thinkers in a group rise to the top automatically. The great challenge in the broader world is not so much technical or technological as it is learning cooperation and how to forgive one another. What is even more difficult, leaders must reconcile larger groups, religions and contending peoples who have hated one another for decades, centuries and millennia. Not an easy job, to reconcile black with white, north with south, rich with poor, English speaker with other languages, specialists with lay, and on and on. A courteous, considerate leader who dares attempt that is as rare as the Philosopher's Stone. Like every precious commodity, such heroes should be valued highly, especially in the ballot booth.

 

We need to seek and recognize leaders of reconciliation, prominent people who know how to reach out to the heart and reinforce what is common in all. We need to praise them, and praise those who at least try. We need wise leaders of thought who can magnify what is in our common interest and set former rivals working together. Baha'u'llah's directive to reconciliation is a desideratum which, just as He does in praising of courtesy, He also applies to Himself:

 

"O contending peoples and kindreds of the earth! Set your faces towards unity, and let the radiance of its light shine upon you. Gather ye together, and for the sake of God resolve to root out whatever is the source of contention amongst you. Then will the effulgence of the world's great Luminary envelop the whole earth, and its inhabitants become the citizens of one city, and the occupants of one and the same throne. This wronged One hath, ever since the early days of His life, cherished none other desire but this, and will continue to entertain no wish except this wish." (Proclamation, 113)