The health of human mind

Let’s look at this question first: what is human and human mind?
It is understandable that there may be many diverse definitions of human beings. After all, one of the definitions of human is that human being is the only creatures whose potentials can not be defined. One notable viewpoint nowadays in part of the world is the materialistic philosophy. That is, there is only one kind of thing in the universe -- matter. And everything else is but a byproduct of the interaction of maters. Thus, human being is equivalent to his body which in turn produced human mind. So according this point of view, if our mind is sick, it must be something wrong with our body. Popping a pill, everything will be cured.

It was in addressing the above monist point of view, ‘Abdu’l-Baha in his letter to Auguste Forel in 1921 proposed a different model of human being. ‘Abdu’l-Baha first pointed out that there are certain phenomena in the world which can only be known relationally.

In order to understand this model, let’s first look at two examples (these examples are not from ‘Abdu’l-Baha’s Tablet). The first example of the relational phenomena is the relationship between pianist and piano. If pianist does not associate himself with a piano, nothing happens. But once the pianist put his hands on a piano (association) and play, a music is produced. Moreover, the quality of the music depends on both the skill of the pianist and the quality of the piano. Another example is the light. We know that light makes physical objects visible. Without light, the world is dark. But seldom do we realize consciously that without physical objects, the world is dark as well even if there is presence of light. It is said that a physicist Arthur Dijon did an experiment on the nature of light: he wants to know how does light look like when it is entirely left to itself? He constructed a box in which there is nothing to reflect light. Then he shone a ray of light into the box. He saw nothing but the blackness of an empty space. The darkness of space exists because there are not sufficient objects against which light can be projected.

Similarly, human being owes its existence to an interrelationship that produces a third phenomenon: when the soul of a human being is associated with a human body, it produces human mind (a relational phenomenon). The properties of human soul can only be known in this physical world through the instrument of human mind. Just as a mirror provides a vehicle to witness the present of light, human body provides the vehicle for the expression of the light of our soul. Whatever the mind imagines, desires, works for, or pursues is the expression of the interplay between the body and the soul. Our mind is a tightly woven fabric in which our soul and our body are inseparable from one another in this physical world.

So, according to this model of human being, the health of our mind is depending on both the health of our body and the health of our soul. Just as our body possesses certain capacities that can be and need to be developed, our soul possesses certain inherent capacities that can be and need to be developed.

It is believed that there are three fundamental capacities (powers) for a human soul, that is:

1. The power to know: the intellect or the capacity for conscious, rational thought;
2. The power to love: the capacity to experience feelings, emotions, desires and longings.
3. The power to will: the capacity to choose, to decide, to initiate and sustain an action.

These three capacities are inseparable from the human soul in the same way that heat and light are inseparable from the sun. At no time a human being is not knowing, not loving and not willing. The only difference is what we are knowing, what we are loving and what we are willing. This is a power that is the bounty of God never withdrawn from us. The refinement, cultivation and development of these three capacities are the goal of all moral striving. Just as there are bodily diseases, there are diseases of a soul as well. Each dimensions of our soul has requirements that must be satisfied. When this is done, all is well. But when it is not, the conditions of disease and disability of our soul begins to set in and will cross the body and the mind.

So when dealing with diseases, it is sometimes useful to look for the cause in the body, and sometimes useful to look for it in the pattern of emotions, thoughts and behaviors. These three powers are closely connected that change in one power will result in a change another.

Religious teachings have provided and will continue to provide means for the development of human souls. The chief goal of Baha’i Faith, as Shoghi Effendi said, “is the development of the individual and society, through the acquisition of spiritual virtues and powers. It is the soul of man that has first to be fed…”

The declining of the influence of the religious force on the individual and our society as is the case in current time, has caused imbalance in the development of our body and our soul, thus increase in the sickness of our mind and society. And when talking about the problems of our society, Shoghi Effendi stated: “Indeed, the chief reason for the evils now rampant in society is a lack of spirituality. The materialistic civilization of our age has so much absorbed the energy and interest of mankind, that people in general 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 should 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.”

And “How to attain spirituality is, indeed, a question to which every young man and woman must sooner or later try to find a satisfactory answer.”