Heritage vInheritance and Environment
written by ABG (Alice Borchard Greene)
Introduction
A knowledge of the three basic factors shaping all human life is essential for purposeful growth. These factors are the environment, one’s inheritance, or racial stock; and one’s heritage, history of the soul. All three contribute to an understanding, and thus better management, of oneself. What constitutes each of these great forces and influences has been defined, clearly and in depth, by MBM. Thereby she has brought, in ways congenial to modern minds, another important segment of Wisdom Teachings.
It is the interplay of these three influences, and our response to them, which determines the make-up of the self in the now. The evolution of the soul, too, is dependent, largely, on our attitude toward, and use of, the three.
The three are all, as it were, streams of life converging upon the self, the ego, the I (see Glossary). They shape the personality, not only in the sense of how we may appear to the world but also how we may appear to ourselves, which may well be different.
Two of these influences are, generally speaking, beyond our control: the environment and inheritance. They are molded, determined, by forces outside of us, however closely they may impinge upon us every hour of the day. No need at this point to define environment. Inheritance is that which envelops us through the influence of our racial stock.
The third factor, heritage, is genuinely our own and here we can exert far greater power. Heritage is the strength, the riches, the momentum stored in the soul in the course of its long history, its long experience and learning, before our coming into the flesh. Much of it lies fallow, to be evolved. The more we can tap its resources, the more we can overcome any handicaps of inheritance, and the more we can change environment, or change our attitude toward it, thus achieving a happier and more useful life in the world and a further advance in the evolution of the soul. That is why MBM has termed heritage the determining factor as against the other two, which are determined.
In the usual picture of the present, the now, the two “determined” influences bear most heavily upon the self. They are the main sculptors of the personality. Heritage plays a role but one not so obvious as the other two. Not so obvious because largely buried in the subconscious. It may come out in trends and interests that are a surprise to friends and even to oneself. Or it may come out in talents – for music, painting, mathematics – together with a marked desire to pursue and develop them. Again, heritage may emerge in the form of a deep religious drive; or, in an opposite direction, toward material or intellectual acquisition.
In any case, there is a challenge from the heritage. That which is on the constructive side, and has already been cultivated to a degree, is to be further advanced, perhaps come to fruition through the opportunities of the present life. That which is weak and retarded is not to be neglected but is to be led forth, educated, transformed in a wholesome direction. In both cases the special values of the environment in stimulating the growth of mind are among the greatest gains to the soul in its evolution. We should say potential gains, for much depends on the responses of the self to these values. And that in turn is dependent, to a considerable degree, on the momentum of the heritage.
Of course, heritage is constantly, but subtly, in evidence in daily life from childhood — even infancy — on. It shows in the earliest reactions in such behavior patterns as placidity vs excitability; the need for attention as against the absence of that need; in easy acceptance of, as opposed to resistance to, the pressures of the environment; the strong desire for approval over against indifference to it. Not only does the heritage quality make itself evident in submission as against rebellion but also in the nature of that rebellion. It may be the kind that breaks through convention and other environmental demands, with a definite purpose; or it may be pointless, even destructive. Voltage alone is not the measure of heritage. That voltage may have a linkage with a level of mental development capable of directing momentum constructively, or it may be blind lust for power. The latter indicates less tapping of heritage than the former. Power, plus good steering, bespeaks the break-through of a maturer quality of heritage than does naked power. Educators have, of course, encountered influences of heritage, but unaware of its nature and source, have been unable to lead it forth and, in helplessness, have termed it the X-factor.
What is important is the portion of heritage that comes to the surface. The rest is buried in the unconscious, a region of life in which it remains a potential, an asset but not a usable one. The situation is analogous to having an oil well in one’s backyard but one that is useless as long as one is unconscious of that hidden potential wealth.
A strong heritage carves out its own path of action and attitude, with or without the cooperation of the environment. A weak heritage, with its as yet neglected and underdeveloped resource, submits.
The following material enfleshes these statements. In the course of MBM’s analyses and illustrations of the workings and interplay of the three forces, we will see how they are always affecting daily life – though for the most part unconsciously. Whether we know it or not, like it or not, all three are shaping us. And not only shaping us but are present in all our actions and reactions, in decisions, in attitudes, predilections, prejudices, loves and hates. Growing insight into the why and how of these effects leads to an understanding of the need for increasing conscious effort on behalf of heritage. Attention to that deepest, yet most subtle, influence yields benefits in a better relationship both to environment and inheritance — benefits that otherwise elude us.
The findings of many studies — at Yale and Cornell for instance — are that psychiatric symptoms are considerably higher where there is social disorganization. This is a strong influence handed down from generation to generation, a kind of grim social inheritance, making escape from the prison of the hopelessness of life in a poverty-stricken environment, full of high risks of disease in both body and mind.
With two such powerful strikes against emerging life, relatively few can lift very far their sights and capabilities. But those who do, point the way. Through their daily reactions they are living, though mostly unconsciously, principles of growth, which is saying that the deeper qualities are stronger than inheritance and environment.
The encouraging point to note here is that the most determining factor, heritage, is the one over which we have the greatest directing power, and for which we have the greatest responsibility. This responsibility is gradually met as we voluntarily take a hand in the cultivation of heritage. The interaction of, and interrelationship among the three forces which resulted in what we are today, will be perhaps more easily seen when we have looked into the question of environment.
Environment
The third influence which exercises its sway over evolving life, the environment, would seem so obvious as not to need examination. Most simply stated, it is the objective world. The environment consists of the place in which we live — large city, small town, village, country – schooling, religion, climate, occupation, marital status, family circumstances, parents, siblings, political ideologies of the day, and other significant social and economic variables. What is not so clear is its place in the scheme of things, its relationship to inheritance, how it affects the evolving life, and how it can be made to contribute more than it averagely does.
Environment is less limiting than opinion would have it. In fact, some have won their spurs later in life, have seen their unloved childhood or surroundings as a vital factor in their success. Take, for example, the early life of George Bernard Shaw. It is hard to match the handicaps of his childhood. He had a quarrelsome set of parents and a dull, loveless home. Embarrassment, shame, chagrin and sadness were of the very atmosphere he breathed. Far from being held back by these circumstances he even recommended personal unhappiness and familial chaos as the sure road to achievement.
One whose childhood was wholly other though also greatly deprived, and who came through that and an equally handicapped adult life to become outstanding figure was George Washington Carver. Not only is the greatness he achieved to be noted but also the sweetness of spirit which accompanied that greatness. This latter quality came to a high-water mark in the way he withstood an astounding humiliation at a time when he had reached the pinnacle of his scientific achievement and was to be honored at a dinner in a hotel in Atlanta, Georgia. Although he was the guest of honor Southern mores demanded that he as a Negro enter the hotel via the back-door. The grace with which he accepted the insult is of the same order as the strength which enabled him to find ways through to high achievement despite the most limiting of environments.
There are many kinds of poverty, from the literal up to the spiritual — spiritual, in its philosophic sense, not its churchgoing use. This is the most devastating of all because, in the final analysis, it underlies the other kinds.
It is in the shaping of the personality that the workings of the environment leave their most conspicuous trail. The compromise which survives the conflict between the impacts of environment, inheritance and heritage is the personality. The residue of that battle constitutes the mask, which is just what the Greek root, persona, means. Molded by these compulsions, it comprises those aspects which our family and society have been willing to tolerate in us, together with those we have accepted as a cover over the residue of all that may have seen enwrapped because of ignorance or because weakness in fighting for that potential.
The personality is an arbitrary product, unconsciously built up. Selection is made, from earliest years, on the basis of wishes and fears, on efforts to win approval here, to have a feeling of security there, to wrest acceptance and love from the power-figures in the environment. The unconscious motives for choosing to take on this or that trait to appease surrounding forces, to repress this or that bent in order to gain protection from environmental threats, all go into the making of that artificial, “accidental”, product labeled personality. How can so unconscious, haphazard a collection of behavior patterns be worthy of preservation?
Both the environment and one’s inheritance, then, often warp and block the deeper drives. In refracting heritage they dictate the neglect of that which is essentially one’s own. Much is repressed or left unexpressed because the environment resisted or offered no opportunity. Thus much is arbitrarily outlawed from participation in the objective experience. The discard of many tendencies and interests that fail to fit into the environment has caused many a needless tragedy. What one is in the deeper layers of being needs to be led forth (the basic meaning of the word education) disciplined and developed, exercised in objective expression and the testings of the environment.
Too much submission to the environment causes repressions to accumulate in the unconscious. In myriads of ways this harsh fact of life shows itself. In some the blocked life is evidenced in regrets, in dreams of what might have been. In others the dynamics of the repressed life break through to the surface in neurotic trends, in psychosomatic ailments. Insomnia and other forms of restlessness are signs of too much compromise with the environment. The cargo in the ship of daily life is meant to be distributed evenly, more consciously, more justly, among all the valid stuffs of being. If the cargo is carelessly distributed or, through fears, inertia or ignorance, is allowed to slip, trouble ahead is indicated.
Environment usually crystallizes the personality, causing it to stay in the mold of either the extrovert or introvert, the good sport, the impulsive, the inspirational, the intellectual, etc. Having noted how partial and arbitrary a product personality it, and on what flimsy bases selection has been made between what shall be incorporated and what shall be swept under the table, we come to realize that everyone is bigger than his personality. It is wrong to identify the self with the mask so unwittingly fashioned and worn, but that is what is usually done. We are not what we think we are — we are far different, and much more. The essential need is for not accepting oneself as one is. The Now is merely a cross section of the growing tree of our life.
Conclusion
Drawing together the threads of the three forces constantly shaping life, we have seen a little of the competition that goes on among them to possess that life. In the years of childhood and the less mature stages of soul development the victors are the demands of environment and the influences that arise out of one’s inheritance. The victor, who comes, as a rule, last into his own, is concern for one’s own and unique heritage.
In unconsciousness we have to use the self without knowing what we are using or how to use it. The engineer would not use an engine thus. When one does not know the forces at work in and on the self mistakes are inevitable. The need is to become the intelligent engineer regarding oneself.
The self being a complexity within itself, and functioning as it does in the midst of many and different forces, there is much to know. It is better to respect the complexity and learn about it. Not to do so does not make it vanish. One needs to know the principles and structure of the self before one is able to travel consciously and thus well. Then it becomes clear that environment and inheritance must gradually be brought into the service of heritage. As one matures in outlook the first two are to recede in importance, and the momentum of heritage is to have more space and opportunity for expression.
There is both tragedy and a basis for hope in the tendency to identify the self with the present end-product. The tragedy lies in underdevelopment. When life is based upon only what the environment has been willing to accept, much is sacrificed. It is sad to note what a limitation is imposed on one’s life when it is governed by the unconscious selection of bits.
The heritage is behind the personality. But until the tenacious hold of the personality is loosened the heritage does not have much chance to work through. Consciousness of soul nature is necessary to best serve heritage. Happily there is another side of the coin. Once we come to know that we are more than our personality, hope replaces tragedy.
When appreciation of the three shaping forces enters consciousness it changes everything. That awareness is like the leaven in the “three measures of meal”. In its wake these forces are lifted out of disorder and confusion and the individual gains the opportunity of relating one to the other in useful, lawful ways. When we come to appreciate, in philosophic perspective, the workings of the shaping forces, a new outlook prevails.
It matters little what stage of development you have reached or what you have made to date out of.the interplay of the three factors we have been analyzing. The important thing is to press on from where you are – incidentally in the world, primarily in behalf of the soul nature. What matters is penetration of the limitations of the environment, physical handicaps, family dictates and racial holds, creating channels for deeper drives, learning lessons from experience that add power and stature to the permanent you. In making environment and inheritance serve heritage, you would be steering your course toward the underlying purpose of life, namely, the drawing out and fulfillment of your own great potentials, those of the essential self.
Inherent in this effort lies the answer to the riddle about man’s nature: Two are to serve one. Which two? Which one?
Inheritance
Inheritance is much closer to the immediate. It embraces those varied influences concurrent with the possession of a physical body. Its many threads include the physical equipment we inherit from parental and other ancestral stock, such as strong or weak lungs, tall or small stature, blue or brown eyes, etc. It also includes the psychological trends and backgrounds the absorption of familial ways and ancestral mores. This conditioning establishes certain patterns of attitude and behavior, and lasts varying lengths of time according to the nature of the soul. With Latins, for instance, following the dictates of the feelings is greatly favored over using one’s mind in response to environmental situations. Thinking is both unwelcome and undervalued, and remains so with most of these people.
The inheritance stream of energy is not of our making. It is determined by forces objective to us but it has contributed importantly, to the Today. The line of physical ancestors we have come through sets the mold of the surround in its subtler aspects. The backgrounds, the traditions, the deeply ingrained customs of a given family living in a certain era, in a particular country and its climate — all these play a considerable role in shaping the life we live. The outlook of an agricultural stock, for instance, will differ markedly from that of an urban, industrial or military stock.
The influences, characteristics and predispositions surrounding child life from earliest years set many a future pattern, both constructively and destructively. Both stimuli and deterrents are carried along in family and race streams. Powers, in terms of strengths and limitations, in terms of restraints on the real life of the individual are the normal accompaniments of inheritance.
There are peculiarities which characterize each stock. It is evident that the Irish, for instance, have a whimsy, pugnacity and humor distinctly their own. The Latins are known for their high-strung temperament; the Germans for their perseverance, exactness and stolidity; the French for their flair; the Americans for their lack of discipline. However individual to a given stock are such peculiarities, no one group, on the whole, outweighs another in either its virtues or its handicaps.
In one way or another, the physical and psychological surroundings of both race and family unconsciously condition the growing life. Inevitably their points of view, memories, biases, loves and hates influence the child and, all too often, continue into adult life. This influence does not have to extend into adulthood. If it does it may counteract, even dominate life. In the course of psychological re-education, salutary for those who would grow, all conditioning should be reviewed — the good to be retained, now consciously, and the detrimental outgrown bit by bit.
Not infrequently conditioning is so effective that the growth, for the Now, is stunted. A direction may have so successfully been imposed by well-meaning authority-figures, that the real self remains neglected in the subconscious. From that region the buried life sends up reminders of varying intensities. Weak reminders may make themselves heard in the form of neurotic trends; strong ones as the possible explosions of psychoses. The repressed dynamic is still alive and will make inroads upon the conscious life in one way or another.
The inheritance factor, whatever role it plays in our conditioning, reflects the workings of one, and only one, of the forces governing evolving life. The other two also have a voice. It is heritage in particular which can decide how much space shall be given to inherited trends. It is, for example, the heritage which determines how the child reacts to conditioning; how long, and to what degree it shall be accepted or resisted. The more mature the heritage the less will be the vulnerability to such racial stock inheritance as skin color or the type of physique. The less there has been care for soul growth, the easier it will be to succumb to family pressures, for instance. The more readily the back is bent to conform with the cliché, “This is the way our family (clan, race, nation) does things,” the more is indicated our unwillingness to do battle on behalf of the essential self. As the nature of unfolding life comes to be understood, effort is willingly expended toward reaching a deeper layer of life than the superficial area affected by family or racial conditioning.
To say, “I can’t change my habits of thinking, feeling and doing” is frequently an evasion. When a person resorts to rationalization to cover inertia, a relatively weak heritage is indicated. If it becomes clear that conditioning has blocked the life force, the soul with a strong heritage sets about the task of releasing itself from the prison imposed upon him by circumstances.
Nothing we have said about inheritance is intended to deprecate the culture of a given family, race, nation or era. That culture has its place but it is not the whole. It is in many respects a nutrient to the soul, handed down from generation to generation with the best of intentions. Loyalty to its standards are felt to be for the good of the young. But new, modern insights have been gained through research into the place and function of inheritance. Happily knowledge is replacing feelings about this important question. However well-meaning the conditioning, it is being granted that the results are often disappointing. Modern research is bringing the inquiring mind closer to the laws of the evolutionary process. It is recognizing that the role of inheritance is a relative, not an absolute one; that conditioning not only can but must be revalued, and freedom from its binding power must be won.
The question as to what type of soul comes into what type of body is a complex matter. If the choice of a mere suit of clothes is based on a number of factors, let us lift the analogy a few octaves and think how complex must be the selection of a vehicle for functioning in this dimension. Even the choice of a suit entails many variables — one’s taste, purse, climate, availability of material and tailor, war or peace-time, etc. There are many more facets to the more complex matter of what type of body a soul shall dwell in. In any case, the soul must come into some sort of a family. Perhaps the closest we can get to the basis of selection is that “Birds of a feather flock together.” Folk of similar soul stages are drawn toward similar experiences. Souls with like interests at a given stage of their evolution tend to be drawn to the same level of life, to the same type of race body. This accounts for the homogeneity of a given grouping. However, if the soul is not in rapport with the conditionings in a family, added to those of race, these influences can cause great disturbance.
By and large, in the life of the individual in the world today, the determining factor is still usually the race and the family. People are still going in crowds, still clannish. They are not acting as independent souls using bodies. Body and inheritance are using, dominating them. Too bad.
Heritage
In the words of Alexander Pope, the unexamined life is not worth living. Let us set about that order of exploration which makes us more understanding of the nature of life and the forces which govern it, and which make life worth living.
Have you ever asked yourself, “How did I come to be as I am at this moment?” A simple and legitimate question but one necessitating a complex answer. For such an answer, in terms that are satisfying to heart and mind, one must look to the deepest source of knowledge, namely Wisdom Teachings. They teach that three forces have shaped us up to this point, and will continue to shape us, regardless of our knowing it. These three are:
Heritage — belonging to the nature of the soul
Inheritance — associated with parents, with racial stock
Environment — the objective world; the area in which the
enfleshed soul lives now.
Some claim totality of influence for one of the three. For instance, some say everything depends upon environment (the behaviorists); some claim inheritance, one’s physical ancestors, accounts for everything (the eugenicists). To claim totality for any one of the three is to alienate oneself from the totality of life.
However persuasive a case is made for causation residing in any of these three forces, this order of conclusion is based on opinion. And what confusion opinions, the taking of the part for the whole, bring about! Always there is the need to close the gap between opinion about, let us say, a department of life and knowledge about it. This kind of gap is closed by opinion moving up to knowledge. Opinion must move up because knowledge never descends, never compromises with opinion, nor with the ignorance, the wishes, hopes or fears that give rise to opinions.
Philosophic knowledge of life clears confusion — philosophic knowledge being another term for Wisdom Teachings. Through it we learn that no one of the three forces can rightfully claim that it governs totality. All three are constantly, however unconsciously, in operation in our lives. The how of this, the relative power and importance of each, the position they averagely occupy, and the position it would be wise to have them occupy — all these considerations find their relative place with increasing knowledge.
Each of the three supplements the other two. It is one’s riddle and labor to amalgamate the three in such relationship and proportion as to make for the individual’s progressive development. Two are to serve one — which two and which one? Before we can answer that we shall need to consider each of the three separately. Let us set about to do just that, beginning with heritage.
Heritage is the deepest, potentially most dynamic factor in us. In that area of being, the deepest segment of the unconscious, are conserved the accumulated powers of a single soul — powers acquired in the course of its experience prior to this life.
This, of course, implies the continuity of soul life. The soul is not something which springs into being at the birth of the body. It IS. It has its own past, which it inherits from itself, an ancestry which has nothing to do with physical ancestors. It has a long lineage, which becomes unconscious at birth. It becomes covered over with the debris, repressions and frustrations of this life, but it remains a potent factor.
This force, which the soul brings along into the current life, is what we call heritage. In it is stored the essence of work already accomplished, in terms of qualities. The values, the powers derived from experience, the lessons learned, the momentum acquired, go into the quality-building side of life and are accumulated in the soul. The past is compacted in condition. That which we are today is the result of what we have been before.
Qualities are the coin of the realm of the soul. They come forth in such expressions in daily living as courage, voltage, capacity, stamina, endurance, drive, independence, power, strength, resistance to the encroachment of environment and inheritance. These qualities belong to the individual soul, not to the family or race. They have been won by effort, and are not “gifts of God.” Learning to take things in stride, for instance, is an achievement individually attained. A “backbone”, an overcoming of difficulties, takes fibre, and “soul” in the being comes with extensive practice. What eventuates is caliber.
This attribute is thus an individual achievement. Because of it there are great differences between members of the same family, such as one who is unusually bright, a black sheep, etc. They may have had quite similar environments and inheritance, yet they soon show their marked differences. These arise out of the uniqueness of each in the qualitative sense, a uniqueness which cones out in responses to environmental impacts, in reactions to the tribal or racial customs, in simple acceptance of, or bitterness in, the wake of a family physical handicap such as a tendency to weak lungs. The quality of response, the kind of reaction, all these large questions will always be in terms of the individual heritage.
This is the philosophical explanation of differences, even between twins. Research into the subject of traits in twins leads to the conclusion that each is basically different from the other. The differences within the same family in attitude, capacity and achievement are marked and cannot be explained merely by inheritance or environment. Climate, topography, migration cannot account for them.
Parents are responsible only for the body. The passing on to the next generation of strong or weak physical equipment is their contribution But what we are as persons is our individual responsibility and cannot be credited to the surroundings, to parents, to antecedent wealth or poverty; nor can these circumstances be charged with blame for what we are or fail to be. That which we are today is largely the result of what we have been before. It is a sort of summing up, a distillation of our own past choices. True, those choices were for the most part unconscious but they governed that to which we said “Yea” or “Nay.” They determined whether we obeyed or disobeyed, and on what level. On them depended whether we resisted or submitted to pressures coming our way from parents, friends, church, school, etc. Our choices, in turn, arose out of our individual qualities.
The stature of soul is to be cognized through the quality of reactions. Broadly speaking, there are more mature and less mature souls. In each is registered the amount of work on the self that has been accomplished – over the long, long past. In everything we do and are, the degree of maturity or immaturity of soul shines through. Mature souls are the result of much experience and many lessons assimilated from it. Both in the historical past and in current times the scene is illumined with examples of beings of great stature. It is evident that outstanding figures like Jesus, Gautama Buddha, the Zoroasters, Socrates, Da Vinci were mature souls. Among such in modern times we should probably count Schweitzer, Helen Keller, Carver, Steinmetz, Gandhi, Nehru. Some of the earmarks of maturity are noticeable even in children. There are, for instance, Joel, the Quiz Kid, who at seven showed his agile mind in mathematics; Robert Strohm, who at ten was the winner in a quiz program about the stock market — not an important item in itself but indicating that behind his answers lay his retentive memory, unusual keenness, a power of quick recall. Or, relative maturity may come out in qualities of rare sweetness, generosity, sympathy, consideration, perseverance, reasoning power, quite beyond the youngster’s years. In many other ways degrees of maturity are evidenced. The trends and the momentum at least have been acquired previously and are brought into the now. Certain qualities are there and emerge into action when called upon.
By and large, leaders in all fields have far greater degrees of maturity than do followers. Whether they are dictators or great military or political leaders like Napoleon or Churchill, great inventors or industrialists, their undertakings demand stuffs of being that point to maturity in some direction. Not that maturity is of one grade. There are many degrees of it. But in general one might say the maturer soul never shapes himself according to environment. He penetrates environment and makes way for something else; is more occupied with cutting through a path toward a goal than dwelling on the difficulties of doing so or making excuses for non-accomplishment. He never makes peace with environment and is often labeled a non-conformist, a trouble-maker or even a rabble-rouser. The greater his maturity of soul the more he gears in with his environment. Indeed, he must, or else he knows he cannot be operative upon it. He is the trail-blazer but knows that he must not be too far in advance of those he would lead.
It is his choice to change a flat, stale, unprofitable status quo. But what he does in that direction and how he does it, is the measure of his stature. There is the constructive penetration of environment, of doing something that has not been done before. As against this, there is the pointless rebellion against things as they are, the iconoclast, the one who tears down for the satisfaction of destroying. The intrepid way Lindbergh took to create a precedent for ocean-flights had all the earmarks of maturity: daring, courage, more interest in the undertaking than in his own safety, a high degree of endurance and stamina, undaunted by limited resources. Measure that against the youths who steal a plane for thrills.
The way to build and demonstrate maturity lies just as much in the small, everyday doings as in the spectacular events. The extraordinary patience of Miss Sullivan in teaching Helen Keller to break through her handicaps often meets its less dramatic equal in the forbearance and fortitude of the mother of a young brood. Perhaps her hard work in finally getting out on to the washline a sizable amount of laundry is undone by the line breaking or the sudden arrival of a dust storm. The more mature soul takes this mishap in stride, the immature one becomes angry and self-pitying, certain that the gods are against her and are picking on her.
The degree of resilience, humor, grace with which one meets pain, physical or emotional, is not unrelated to the maturity of soul attained. It takes a mature soul to recognize reality and face up to it, no matter how harsh. Just as the healthy body has a high resistance to germs, so the more mature of stature have a high threshold against frustration, conflict, hardship. If trouble comes their way their resourcefulness and self-reliance are there to serve them. Once we understand something of the nature of heritage we can perceive why.
Heritage governs the degree to which circumstances are constructively used and obstacles constructively handled. In both cases it is the accrual of qualities that determines the result. An unfavorable environment or physical handicaps will cripple some but the more mature are less vulnerable. They go on to what is theirs to do. We find such people in every walk of life. There is the example of Charlie Chaplin. Son of struggling vaude-villians, his father died young and his mother lost, first her voice and then her reason. His childhood was pure Dickens, in and out of workhouse and then a hand-to-mouth existence as a juvenile actor. We should not underestimate the persistence, hard work, resourcefulness, skill in projecting his innate sense of humor—all against enormous odds—-to forge his way to the top of the entertainment field.
Another one such is Richard Burton. Although conditions from earliest childhood were of the worst, there has been no apparent ill-affect. He was the twelfth of thirteen children. His mother died when he was two. Son of a Welsh miner, he was brought up in dire poverty. His father was a drunkard. As a child, Richard was brought up by a married sister in another village. This meant his separation from his own village, though he had wanted to be a part of it. He was one of thirty who were admitted to grammar school from among six hundred applicants. A gifted boy soprano, having taken prizes in the Eisteddfod, he was also a natural athlete. He outgrew his family. A drama coach and English master at grammar school taught, trained and adopted him, and prepared him for his try at Oxford. He succeeded in making Exeter, then the R.A.F. Later, in dramatic work, Gielgud spotted him as an “absolute natural.” He had all the qualities for becoming a great actor, and in preparation for this he sweated, labored, trained with perseverance, endurance and patience. Thus he cultivated to a certain fruition much that was latent in his heritage.
Many others, not in the public eye as are Chaplin and Burton, meet hardship, limitations, difficulties with fortitude and courage. The weaker soul readily submits, does not do battle with the environment. He succumbs to frustration and readily slackens effort.
The older, more practiced soul is, as we have noted, the breaker of precedent; that is incidental to his purpose. The weaker soul is all too readily daunted by precedent. His defense against treading new ground is just that it is new. He waits for others to walk there. He is up in arms when, for instance, his ideas about a religious tenet or a matter of dogma is questioned, or deeper meanings suggested. The relationship to life of the less mature soul is weak, indecisive. He is often held back by fears, hurt feelings, discouragement. His is often a bored, embittered, envious, complaining and critical attitude. He bends his back to every blow or demand, and then projects on the world his own anger at himself over his submission. He seems unable to defend himself against the Edenic pull, the longing for ease. Through fear, ignorance and inertia he represses much of the life in himself, making of himself a conformist. Ironically, he is often considered a “pillar of society.” His is actually a dead state, oppressed with inferiority feeling, negativisms and rationalizations.
Here we see one of the ways in which the lack of qualitative growth may express itself.
As regards odd quirks or psychological abnormalities, no one is born with them, no matter how bizarre or deeply rooted they may seem.
One more point to mention in connection with heritage: namely, the matter of talents. These do not come in toto from heritage. However, the quality behind them does. Perseverance, loyalty to purpose, drive, momentum, determination and willingness to work tirelessly and to bend environment to purpose — these are powers, and they arise out of soul stature.
Perhaps enough has been indicated to shed light on heritage as the eventual decision-maker at most of the crossroads of life. This role of heritage in some of its more critical aspects may be seen when the decisions concern themselves with unpopular issues which involve the risk of careers. “Beyond the need for courage,” said the late President Kennedy in his book, Profiles of Courage, regarding such decisions, “strength for them lies in a deeper virtue. It is a person’s calibre, fiber and stature which are called upon. In the privacy of his own being he makes those close calculations which are behind his courageous stand. They involve soul-searching probes. By them he judges what is worth fighting for, how much of a fight to make and finally, and hardest of all to decide — when to risk everything. The large (stature) and the small (the practical) are, contrary to popular opinion, inextricably bound together. The measure of the man lies in the choices he makes, especially the critical ones. Shall he choose to be the opportunist, do the expedient thing, decide in favor of the immediate gain, security, status or fame or shall he risk much, even all, for the fundamental, for the principle involved? As he answers, so is he in the core of his being.”
And now to move on – to another factor shaping us as we are in the today — a factor that is, in one sense, much closer to the immediate, namely inheritance.
Heritage
There is a great difference between intellectual knowing and experiential knowing. In order to know really you have to do. And then, if you have done in your heritage, your doing now links up quickly. It opens doors to powers, your previous knowledge in the heritage, which intellectual knowing does not. If you are in accord with the laws, it comes through – a forceful thing, when you realize how many things are stored up in you, and others, that the personas do not know.
- Teacher Training Class, MBM 1934.
Outline of discussion on
Heritage, Inheritance and Environment
November 1957
Introduction
From what has already been discussed in this series, I am sure you are aware that an understanding of the self is a rightful concern of everyone – not selfish in any sense of the word. Tonight’s discussion continues in the direction of aiding the understanding of oneself.
What are you at this point? How did you come to be as you are as of this moment? You are what you are as the result of the interplay of three powerful forces:
heritage – belonging to the nature of the soul
inheritance – associated with parents and racial stock
environment – the objective world; the area in which the
enfleshed soul lives now.
These three have shaped, are shaping you, regardless of your knowing it. It would be better to know the how and why of this, so as to better understand the present and more intelligently build the future.
These three affect the way, the tempo, the direction of everyone’s life. The “I”, the here and the now, is in constant relationship with all three, consciously or unconsciously – mostly the latter.
Some claim totality of influence for one of the three. For instance, some say everything depends upon environment (the behaviorists) some claim inheritance, one’s physical ancestry, accounts for everything (eugenists). To claim totality for any one of the three is to alienate oneself from the totality of life.
Philosophic knowledge of life clears confusion. Each of the three supplements the other two. Man’s riddle and labor: to amalgamate the three in progressive development. The two are to serve one – which? Before we can answer that we shall need to consider each of the three. Let us set about to do just that.
First heritage – the deepest, potentially most dynamic factor in us. The accumulated powers of a single soul, acquired in the course of its experiences prior to this life.
This, of course, implies the continuity of soul life.
The soul is not something which springs into being at the birth of the body. It IS. It has its own past, which it inherits from itself, an ancestry which has nothing to do with physical ancestors.. It has a long lineage of which you become unconscious at birth. It becomes covered over with the debris, repressions, frustrations of this life, but it remains a potent factor.
This force which the soul brings along into this life is what we call heritage. In it is stored the essence of work already accomplished, in terms of qualities.
Values, powers, momentum accumulated in the soul.
The past compacted in condition.
That which we are today is the result of what we have been before.
The soul carries this stream of energy – being modified constantly.
Qualities are the coin of the realm of the soul:
voltage, capacity, stamina, endurance, drive, resistance to the encroachment of environment and inheritance, independence, power, strength.
Taking things in stride; overcoming difficulties, etc.
These qualities belong to the individual soul, not to the family or race.
Because of this distinctly individual factor, there are great differences between members of the same family;
(draw examples from class) such as an unusually bright member, black sheep, etc.
This the philosophical explanation of differences, even between twins.
Marked differences within the same family in attitude, reactions, capacities.
Differences which cannot be explained by inheritance or environment — differences in essential quality.
Climate, topography, migration, etc. cannot account for these differences.
What we are is our individual responsibility.
That which we are today is result of what we have been before. Result of our own choices – unconscious – re aids and blocks.
Parents responsible only for body.
Stature of soul to be cognized through quality of reactions.
Mature and immature souls
Much or little work accomplished – over the long past.
How maturity or immaturity comes through in daily living.
Mature soul: much experience and many lessons assimilated from it. Socrates, Jesus, Buddha, Da Vinci.
Modern figures: Schweitzer, Helen Keller, Carver, Steinmetz.
Joel, Quiz Kid, mathematician at 7 – the agile mind
Robt. Strohm, at 10, winner of $64,000 question re stock market. Retentive memory, power of quick recall, keenness,
Acquired previously, brought through in the now.
Certain qualities now brought to fruition.
Leaders in all fields: dictators, Napoleon
Degrees of maturity; maturity not of one grade.
The mature soul never shapes himself according to environment. Penetrates it and makes way for something else.
Never makes peace with environment; gears in with it; he must, or he cannot be operative upon environment. Blazes trail.
The stronger the soul, the more resistance to environment, family. (examples from class)
Ways of penetrating: constructive vs. pointless rebellion.
Examples: Lindbergh vs. youths who steal plane for thrills.
How maturity of soul may come through in ordinary living.
Examples from current press.
The resilience, humor, grace, stamina with which one meets pain.
The facing up to reality, no matter how harsh.
High threshold against frustration, conflict, hardship, trouble.
Dependability, self-reliance, independence of circumstances.
Vulnerability – degrees, kinds – on all levels.
Unfavorable environment, physical handicaps may cripple some, but the more mature are less vulnerable to them.
The mature meet hardship, difficulties, with fortitude, courage.
Weaker soul readily submits, does not do battle with environment.
Succumbs to frustration, readily slackens effort.
Makes pseudo-peace with environment. (conformity)
(Anecdotes in a child’s life illustrative of heritage.)
A small boy was learning to roller-skate with a number of older playmates. The little fellow’s frequent mishaps awakened the pity of a tender hearted spectator. “Sonny”, she said “why don’t you stop for a while and just watch the others.” The tears of his last downfall were still rolling down his cheeks, but he looked from her to his skates and answered: “I didn’t get these skates to give up with. I got ’em to learn how with.”
Heritage:
Determines degree to which one presses through against unfavorable environment.
Tested by much resistance.
Mature soul is breaker of precedent; that incidental to his purpose.
Immature soul’s relationship to life weak, indecisive, submissive, held back by fears, easily hurt, readily discouraged.
Bored, embittered, envious, complaining, critical attitude.
Bending one’s back to every blow or demand.
Can’t defend itself against the Edenic pull (the longing for ease).
Repressed through fear, ignorance, inertia.
Conformist, dependent, “pillar of society” – really a dead state.
Full of inferiority feelings, escapism, negatives, chips on shoulder, rationalizations, excuses.
All these limitations the mark of lack of qualitative growth.
Heritage, the accrual or lack of accrual of qualities, powers.
Aptitudes do not come from the soul or from heritage.
They belong to the human being, earthy.
The quality behind aptitudes does come from heritage: Perseverance, loyalty to purpose, drive — these are powers and arise out of soul stature.
Inheritance
Much closer to the immediate
Those varied influences concurrent with the possession of a physical body.
Having to do with a family and racial body.
Trends, characteristics, predispositions surrounding that body.
Physical ancestry, backgrounds, traditions, customs.
Powers and limitations received from family and race streams.
Peculiarities from that stock.
The whimsy, pugnacity, humor of the Irish High strung Latins
Perseverance, stolidness of the Germanic stock
Lack of discipline of the American
The race culture has its place, but is not the whole.
Conditioning – race’s and family’s slants, biases, loves, hates.
Constricting influence upon the emergence of the real self.
Characteristics that give limitations (physical and psychic) which inhibit the soul inhabiting that body.
Body only a means.
Wrong to identify the self with it.
Selection of a vehicle a complex matter. Compare complexity connected with the selection of a mere suit of clothes — choice of one’s tastes, purse, availability of material, climate, tailor, war or peace, etc.
Birds of a feather flock together – frequent set-up
Folk of similar soul stages; like interests at a given stage.
Similarly drawn to same level, to same type of race body.
Inheritance, as compared with heritage, has to do with a long stream of characteristics of the body.
There are conditionings in the racial body.
Also conditionings in a family added to racial ones, shaping you. These can cause great disturbance if the soul is not in rapport with them.
But they still belong to the physical side.
Usual set-up: the determining factor is usually the race and the family – people still going in crowds, still clannish. They are not acting as independent souls using bodies; but the body and inheritance are using, dominating them. Too bad.
Not so with the young Negro students at Little Rock high school. Stature, courage, willingness to do battle here. In bodies of the Negro race, using them to carry larger purpose.
Personality (refer to earlier class – mask)
That which survives the conflict between the three forces; residue of the battle – compromise,
Based on compulsions of the environment.
Mask worn to adjust to its demands, to protect, to escape
Comprises aspects which your environment family, society has been willing to tolerate in you – those you have accepted to cover over the residue which you have scrapped, because of ignorance or because you have been too weak to do battle.
Personality is an arbitrary, unconscious selection – an “accidental” product. Wrong to identify the self with it – this is what is usually done.
Environment usually crystallizes personality – extravert, introvert, good sport, poor loser, the intellectual, etc.
Environment and inheritance warp, block, refract heritage, the deeper drives.
Each is bigger than the personality.
Need for not accepting oneself as one is.
We are not what we think we are.
Much repressed or left unexpressed, because environment resisted or offered no opportunity.
Discard of many other tendencies, interests, that fail to fit into the environment. Outlawed from participation in objective experience.
Repressions accumulate in the subconscious as result of too much giving in to the environment – they represent blockings by regrets, by dreams of what might have been – thus energies tied up with repressions and not available for conscious use – thus less power in the conscious.
Control vs repression. Repression, fear to face a situation.
With repression you lose energy. With control you use energy. The second is the engineer’s concept; the” other a “fool’s” behavior.
Conclusion
Drawing the threads of the three forces together.
We have thus seen a little of the competition that goes on between them to possess the newborn life; early victors; later one.
In unconsciousness we must use the self without knowing it; the engineer would not use an engine thus.
Not knowing the forces at work in us, mistakes are inevitable.
The need to become the intelligent engineer re one’s self.
Better to know the principles and structure of the self (reference to earlier classes) and the goal, before one is able to travel consciously, and thus well.
Then it becomes clear that environment and inheritance must gradually be brought into the service of heritage. The first two are to recede in importance; and heritage’s momentum is to have space, opportunity for expression.
The tragedy and great hope in the tendency to identify the self with the present end-product. The tragedy: no development — only what environment has been willing to accept; much sacrificed; Unconscious selection of bits.
The limitation of life this necessarily imposes.
The great hope: heritage is behind the personality
But until the tenacious hold of the personality is loosened, the heritage doesn’t have a chance to work through
Happily this new age wants to understand what is holding back the soul.
It does not matter where you are, what you have made to date out of the interplay of these three factors we have been discussng.
The important thing is to press on from where you are.^
Incidentally in the world, primarily on the long journey.
What does matter – penetrating the limitations of the environment, physical handicaps, family dictates, racial holds; creating channels for deeper drives; learning lessons from experience that add power and stature to your soul, the permanent you.
In making environment and inheritance serve heritage, you would be steering your course toward the underlying purpose of life, namely, the drawing out and fulfillment of your own great potentials — those of the essential self.
Heritage
The truth of the continuity of life underlies the concept of heritage. Heritage refers to the accumulated powers of the individual soul acquired through experiences prior to this life. It is indirectly indicated in the momentum, quality and power manifest in a given life – in the drive to push through the limitations of the immediate environment, and the inherited standards of family and race. It underlies the depth and breadth of emotional response, and special gifts of mind, abilities and skills.*
But the larger part of heritage, and the memory of past experiences, is deeply buried under many layers of records. This memory can be tapped by a deep high penetration of the subconscious, in conjunction with other training.
Through the practice of techniques which develop the faculties in both waking and sleep states, direct consciousness of past experiences can be awakened. Flashes of old memories of earth life unrelated to the present, may come through while awake. In the early stages of training they are more often stirred during sleep.
*MBM “As culture is to the self, so is the fruit of experience heritage.”
MBM
When you learn how to use these energies in the self, how to combine them, then you are able to make transformations in the self that are far more significant than any transformations in the physical world; because the dynamics in us are of greater range than the dynamics of the atom bomb.
If we knew even a little of the energies in us that start with fire, and worked with them, what we could do with them would be stupendous. Why don’t we do it? Because the little human self is reluctant to make way for the new. The true self cannot be contacted by fire, but needs the fire to lift the consciousness to where it is.
Think of the obstacles as attachments. A fixation comes about because of attachment. Your ordinary thoughts, ideologies, creeds, codes — they are the things that hold you down. You know you must get rid of these in order to be lifted up and have this river flow.