Purgation Principle
By John Taylor; 2009 May 20, Azamat 04, 166 BE
The Parable of the Soaring Bird
Yesterday's essay was about purity and its role in freedom and democracy. It was inspired by a parable in the Hidden Words where Baha'u'llah links purity to true freedom, as opposed to material freedom. In this parable of the soaring bird, a creature of the air stays free, happy and safe as long as it is in its element, soaring high above the world. Unfortunately, passion and desire lure it earthward where snares and unnumbered dangers lie in wait. Like the bird, we are safe as long as we keep our soul pure. With a clean heart, we are in our element, the heaven of spirituality. We observed that purity conditions every area of life, including the sordid arena of politics.
Today we move on in our series on the Panorthosia to how it contributes to our understanding of the next major Baha'i principle, the elimination of prejudice. I have often observed that this is the only principle that we think about in negative terms. It is primarily concerned with purgation, the destruction of imitations, premature judgements, stereotypes, superstition and all manner of harmful thoughts and unhelpful ideas.
However, having just written about purity yesterday it occurs to me that this virtue offers a positive way to understand the elimination of prejudice. Do not call the divine principle elimination or destruction. Getting rid of prejudices is all about good hygiene of body, mind and soul, so why not call it the purification principle?
Comenius and the Purity Principle
In this time of muddled response to a looming climate crisis, I turn my studies back to the Panorthosia, a largely posthumous work lost for centuries that only recently was fully translated into English. Here that Seventeenth Century genius of educational reform, John Amos Comenius, discusses what is needed for universal reform, which is what "Panorthosia" means in Latin. Most of the strategies he advocates for world governance by re-educating the entire human race are exactly what we should be discussing right now as our future existence faces such dire threats.
Like most philosophers and teachers, especially his immediate predecessors during the Reformation, Comenius recognized the need to purify the mind in the same way that a painter starts with a clean canvas or a gardener weeds a garden. Francis Bacon, for example, wrote in his Essays that,
"If we begin with certainties, we shall end in doubts; but if we begin with doubts, and are patient in them, we shall end in certainties."
Comenius had read Bacon carefully and recognized that faith is never blind but is actually more concerned with creative doubt. The human mind is very fertile, but this also makes it prone to bad habits and cascading errors. If a gardener is not vigilant, weeds rapidly grow in and choke out desirable plants. As gardeners of the mind we spend the bulk of our time clearing away invasive growth. This demands infinite diligence before, during and after planting. However when heart and mind are pure, our tended garden is a delight, peaceful, harmonious and beautiful. Purification, then, is the first step to peace.
"Therefore since we also have allowed our prejudices to lead us into conflict with one another, it must be agreed that as a preliminary to reform we should come to a halt, and silence should reign on earth more or less universally, to make it easier for us to introduce among all people the agreement and harmony which we are seeking. Would that the sun of universal Truth, which is at present enshrouded in the mists of altercation, may have its brightness more easily restored, dispelling the mists and darkness, and the winds of contradictions and arrogance which produce them!" (Panorthosia II, Ch. 8, para 23, p. 118)
Thus the principle of elimination of prejudice begins with silent contemplation and clear thought in individuals. However, since it also roots out all causes of war, conflict and disagreement, the purification principle is also the first, unavoidable step to world peace.
Comenius held that agreement on essentials does not require the persuasion and hard labour that purification does. Good plants grow on their own. It is a question of clearing the way for them by seeing things with our own eyes. As long as everybody else gets a comprehensive view of the same reality there is no room for disagreement.
"Let me give an example to illustrate my point and show how easy it is for opposing parties to be reconciled. Suppose that there are six hundred people who have heard or read a description of the city of Rome; the ideas of the individuals, if we were able to examine them, will certainly vary widely. But take them all to visit Rome, to have a careful look at everything on the spot, and soon the ideas of all will have much in common and will tend to become identical. In our present situation we should do likewise; those who disagree about the nature of things or about God, or the ideas of the mind, must be brought to see nature or God or the mind, and soon they will be reconciled." (Panorthosia II, Ch. 8, para 30, p. 121)
It can be seen that this Parable of Rome is the converse of Rumi's Parable of the Blind Men. Rumi's story of blind men who are led to different parts of an elephant and conclude from their examination that elephants are like a rope, a tree trunk, and so forth demonstrates the ill effects of a non-comprehensive, overspecialized education. The curriculum of Comenius aimed at a carefully designed guided tour of Rome that would counterbalance the tendency of varied temperaments to come to differing conclusions from the same data. It strove for a unified common knowledge of the world as it is by carefully balancing specialized, practical training with liberal studies.
It may be inevitable that some tourists will be drawn into different sections of Rome and come away with varied understanding of the city. However, there will be little longstanding contradiction as long as there is a map that allows us to visit the city again. The map allows us to systematically dispel misconceptions by visiting places that seem poorly understood.
"What plan must we therefore adopt? Three desperate diseases need three remedies. Blindness needs guidance and eye-salve. Delusion needs removal of darkness and clearer light. Abuses need the true use of things." (Panorthosia II, Ch. 9, para 10, p. 146)
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