Friday, July 20, 2007

If You Can't See It, Is It There ?

The quote from Reality for today reminds me of the word-root meanings of the term "Education": to draw out or to draw along--lead.

We've got within us what we can become in the world. It just needs to be led out or drawn along to develop.

Just because something can't be readily seen in a person, doesn't mean it's definitely not there...

"All beings, whether large or small, were created perfect and complete from the first, but their perfections appear in them by degrees….Each seed has in it from the first all the vegetable perfections. For example, in the seed all the vegetable perfections exist from the beginning, but not visibly; afterward little by little they appear. So it is first the shoot which appears from the seed, then the branches, leaves, blossoms and fruits; but from the beginning of its existence all these things are in the seed, potentially, though not apparently. In the same way, the embryo possesses from the first all perfections, such as the spirit, the mind, the sight, the smell, the taste—in one word, all the powers—but they are not visible and become so only by degrees."

‘Abdu’l-Bahá: Some Answered Questions, Chapter 51: The Spirit and Mind of Man have Existed from the Beginning, p. 199