p23 Teaching to Capacity

The Master and Mrs. Boyle

By John Taylor; 2008 May 25, 09 `Azamat, 165 BE

 

Janet Khan has a fascinating history piece on Louise Boyle in the latest Journal of Baha'i Studies. Boyle was a Washington Baha'i who was immortalized in the following anecdote about the Master,

 

"During this time many people had been coming in and sitting down quietly. One of the ladies brought some flowers. Mrs. Boyle was arranging them in a vase, when Abdu'l-Baha said: "You are serving too much, Mrs. Boyle, you will get tired." Mrs. Boyle replied that it was a pleasure to be permitted to serve and that she wished Abdu'l-Baha's guests to see everything beautiful about him. Abdu'l-Baha said: `The guests are flowers themselves; they are the flowers of the rose garden of God; they will never wither; they will not disappear; they have perennial beauty and fragrance for evermore.'"  (SW, Vol. 5, p. 84)

 

Khan's article is about Boyle's later involvement with Maria Montessori, but I was intrigued by a brief mention of an article based on a question that Boyle asked Abdu'l-Baha about teaching to the seeker's particular capacity. Today we are very familiar with this word "capacity" from encounters with it in our Ruhi study circles, especially the tutors who take Book Seven. Here is what Khan's article has to say about how the article came into existence.

 

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"Initially unsure of her approach, on occasion, Boyle submitted her ideas in writing to Abdu'l-Baha. In one instance, Abdu'l-Baha read her notes, made a number of additions to the text, then returned the notes to Boyle, at the same time addressing to her a Tablet dated 1 April 1913, which conveyed His response. The Tablet reads,

 

"`The article which thou has written is very eloquent. It is an indication that through the Bestowal of His Holiness Baha'u'llah the power of composition is being developed in thee; thy pen is moving and thy tongue speaking. I have commanded to print and publish the article in the Star of the West that all the believers in the East and the West may read it." (Janet A. Khan, Research Note: Louise Dixon Boyle and Maria Montessori, Journal of Baha'i Studies 16, 1/4. 2006, p. 64)

 

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Let me see, "all the believers," does that mean ... like, you and me? Tantalizingly though, Khan only offers some brief quotations from Boyle's article. I could not stand for that. It is not even a grave departure from our topic of fundamentalism, because Boyle says at one point,

 

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"The perfect meeting of the demand with the supply, the need with its fulfilment is one of the fundamental laws of God."

 

So today let us devote our space on the Badi Blog to that article in its entirety, plus some supplementary material plowed up lately on capacity. For example there is this newly translated point by Baha'u'llah, indicating that our abilities are gifts of God, but that the bounty is given on a "use it or lose it" basis,

 

"O thou who art standing before My Throne and yet remain unaware thereof! Know thou that whoso seeketh to scale the summits of the divine mysteries must needs strive to the utmost of his power and capacity for his Faith, that the pathway of guidance may be made clear unto him." (Baha'u'llah, Gems of Divine Mysteries, p. 23)

 

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Then there is this advice from the Guardian:

 

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"Shoghi Effendi feels that he can lay down no rule as to when one should introduce the names of the Bab, Baha'u'llah, and 'Abdu'l-Baha in one's teaching. Much depends on the temperament and aptitude both of the teacher and the one taught ...

 "We must look to the example of the Master and follow our 'Inner Light,' adapting our message as best we can to the capacity and 'ripeness' of the one we are seeking to teach ...

 "Man's spiritual digestive powers have similar laws to those that govern physical digestion. When people are spiritually hungry and thirsty they must be given wholesome and suitable spiritual food, but if we give too much at a time or too rich food for the digestive powers, it only causes nausea and rejection or malassimilation." (From a letter dated 20 October 1925 written on behalf of Shoghi Effendi to an individual believer, from The Individual and Teaching - Raising the Divine Call, #39, pp. 19-20)

 

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Meeting the Capacity of the Seeker

 

Star of the West, Vol. 4, pp. 70-71

by Louise Dixon Boyle

 

Abdu'l-Baha has repeatedly referred to the various human types as differing "like flowers in the rose garden of God." And in this day of unity and universal realization, we see clearly the necessity of recognizing the "fragrance" of all types and of according to each his opportunity of "diffusion or expression."

 

In giving the world this knowledge of the Day of God, no duty impresses itself so persistently upon the Baha'i as the necessity to meet the capacity of the seeker, and to realize among human beings a marked dissimilarity in approaching the teachings.

 

It will be only in the perspective of history that the full extent of religious decadence during the past few centuries will be realized. Around the significance of divinity there has accumulated a false atmosphere, due to our human association of it with the tangible. And it is inevitable, in the dawn of a new spiritual age, that many souls -- possibly destined for a particular activity in it -- should experience a reaction in turning from their old conceptions. It is this reaction, perhaps, rather than an essential incapacity or antagonism, which withholds many from a full acceptance of the Baha'i teachings. Such souls represent so large a proportion of the thinking people in the world today that it is impossible to confuse their spirit with that of the antichrist; although, undoubtedly, many of them in searching hither and thither for truth will permit the brief span of their lives to pass unsatisfied.

 

To assist all earnest inquirers to assimilate the teachings is the important privilege of Baha'is today. Surely it must be such as remain in the restricted environment of dogma and self who represent the element of opposition rather than they who have felt the vibrations afar off and cast away tradition in an effort to approach them.

 

It was with particular reference to questions asked by this type of inquirer, after the receipt of recent cablegrams from Abdu'l-Baha, that the following notes were submitted to Abdu'l Baha. In returning them with interpolations he has "commanded" that they be printed in the Star of the West.

 

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After the departure of the Bab the friends of God were in a state of utter confusion and bewilderment. A few who claimed to be the leaders of this scattered community fearing the loss of their lives, were hiding in remote and inaccessible villages, not daring to associate publicly with the people. The believers of God were like sheep without a shepherd; not one knew his duty." It was at such a time as this, in the extreme necessity for guidance and authority, that Baha'u'llah came forth and declared Himself to be the Promised Due. The perfect meeting of the demand with the supply, the need with its fulfillment is one of the fundamental laws of God.

 

Now in our day Abdu'l-Baha has said:

 

"The Cause has become very great. Many souls are entering it -- souls with different mentalities and range of understanding. Complex difficulties constantly rise before us. The administration of the Cause has become very difficult. Conflicting thoughts and theories attack the Cause from every side. Now consider to what extent the believers of God must become firm and soul-sacrificing Every one must become the essence of essences; each one must become a brilliant lamp. People all around the world are entering the Cause; people of various tribes and nations and religions and sects. It is most difficult to administer to such heterogeneous elements. Wisdom and divine insight are necessary.  Firmness and steadfastness are needed at such a crucial period of the Cause."

 

He has said repeatedly:

 

"Today the most important affair is firmness in the Covenant because firmness in the Covenant wards off differences.'

 

The finger of Abdu'l-Baha, like that of a great physician, is upon the pulse of all the spiritual conditions forming the Kingdom of God on earth. He knows far in advance of any outward demonstration just what error will manifest itself as a menace to the Cause and a test to the believers. He knows our hearts better than we know them ourselves because His insight is unerring in the spiritual realm. We live in the world and accept the guidance of God to but a feeble and limited degree. The heart of Abdu'l-Baha has always been turned to God and thus he has been the recipient of the holy confirmations since childhood, We know how these Holy ones possess in its fullness in this day that "universal divine mind" whose power is "conscious, not acquired."

 

Man's knowledge of God and His manifestation in human form is the most profound of subjects. We are capable of considering it only through the assistance of these Holy Educators, who have given the world all its ideals, all its spiritual vocabulary. So during his visit to America, in the full knowledge of conditions and with the utmost wisdom and insight, Abdu'l-Baha referred us to the proofs of his identity as the appointed Centre of the Covenant and the Greatest Branch, as a protection to us and to the Cause, -- not in revocation of his standard of servitude so gloriously upraised in the world -- in confirmation, rather than revocation of that most precious ensign of the Kingdom!

 

Since the presence of Abdu'l-Baha in our midst people are everywhere attracted to the teachings. It is most important that we should not make of this matter a dogma to offend. The self or ego is still so prominent in the human consciousness that the first inquiry of the groping soul for light is, "What does your leader claim for himself?" Abdu'l-Baha assumed the mantle of servitude to answer this very question. He stands in the midst of life today as an example, an embodiment of an ideal -- the relinquishment of self. For us, his chosen friends, not to contribute to that ideal is to retard human progress.

 

We must first teach the people about the Lord of the Covenant, who is His Holiness Baha'u'llah. When they become believers in the Lorn of the Covenant, then we must explain to them the Centre of the Covenant. We must say: He claims to be the Servant of God; he is the Centre of God's Covenant with man in this day. And as the spiritual perception of the inquirer expands in contact with the teachings the great station of Abdu'l-Baha will unfold to him.

 

In giving the teachings we must not mention the violators of the Covenant and thus render their acceptance difficult. In sharing this foreknowledge with the friends, Abdu'l-Baha has made us partners, as it were, with himself, has assumed that we are superior to evil suggestion, and that we will know how to use this knowledge most judiciously to protect the Cause.

 

Let us pray that we may so fully accept the Divine Guidance in every act of life that in the moment of test and difficulty we may stand as pillars of wisdom and strength in the Cause of God, firm in the Centre of the Covenant, and, like Abdu'l Baha himself, manifest toward all mankind the utmost tenderness, for only in this way may we lead them into the Kingdom.