Ability

Everything we do today, everything we did in the past and everything we will be able to do in the future.

In fact, ability is a molecule of identity: It is a kind of secured, accurate anchorage in a sea of imaginary versions and assumptions – the expectations, crude diagnosis, opinions and judgments that a person operates upon himself and others. All of these things are abstract and difficult to measure and only the things we do in practice reflect truthfully the things we are able to do.

This is a reliable but not necessarily exhaustive forecast. Many people miss the opportunity to demonstrate their ability thoroughly.

Selecting the reservoir of abilities of a person is choosing accurate, reliable data on condition that the person does not repress his abilities. You cannot add another meter to yourself. This is indeed an inability. All other things are things you cannot do at the moment or things you are not in the mood to do at the moment. A person who does not make a distinction between a sense of inability and real inability is doomed to pay a high price. Repression of ability causes the greatest damage. Such a person is like a blind person who is unable to enjoy the colors of the world or a deaf person who cannot hear sounds. The damage in this case is to the brain. The person feels he is unable and acts as if he really is. However, when we manage to get rid of the curtain of repressing abilities, the abilities are exposed immediately one by one. A picture of a person who finally discovers his abilities is a very moving one.

On the other hand, people who are part of the scholastic culture do not repress their abilities. On the contrary, they continue to develop. They add more and more to the system of abilities – and shape their identity accordingly. They can promote certain ability on account of another and make changes in their identity. A person who learns how to drive changes his identity from a pedestrian to a driver. A single man who learnt to live with a woman becomes a spouse. A person who separated from a woman and lives by himself becomes a bachelor again.

The identity contains our abilities in different states of aggregations. Investing in learning processes changes and shapes our identity.

Our ability flows in the channels of expression. As water flows in the rivers and the streams, the capable person drains his abilities into a certain channel towards a person who needs them. This is a top to bottom movement. From the “more” to the “less”. There is someone who recognizes he has something to add to another person or to a certain subject. When we are incapable in a certain area, we constitute a possibility for a capable person who can contribute to us. (The most fascinating production is a friendly production in which two people identify what they can add to each other and how they can enjoy each other; and beyond it, a community of friends).

In a trampled culture the channel of ability is fixated in an unchanging pattern in which everything flows in the same courses all the time. On the other hand, in a scholastic culture, everything moves in fascinating growth processes which create a changing variety of combinations of relationships of people; abilities flow from one vessel to the other and everybody learns and teaches at the same time.

I refer to feelings and emotions as an expression of ability. Every person feels and senses the things he is used to feel and sense. An individual who does only the things he likes to do, remains the same – he only recycles himself and becomes totally predictable. A person who knows how to learn, knows how to add new abilities to himself. First he acquires the basis of ability and if he is persistent in the learning process, he will turn into a proficient expert.

The shaping of identity might take place even without a sense of desire and eagerness. A person might reach an arbitrary decision since he understands the advantages of change and succeed in making the change.

Changing our feeling is at the top of our learning ability. This is the fruit of investment of people who are persistent in their learning. Of course there is no need to change everything and it is also impossible. If, for instance, someone has been shaving the same way for ages, there is no need for him to change it. On the other hand, if he likes a certain kind of music, and despises more up-to-date music, he should, perhaps, make an effort and learn how to prick up his ears so that he will be able to enjoy music with his children in the present or in the future.

In scholastic culture ability is compelling!  This is the true basis for friendly homework. Doing what you can. No more, but no less. This is the reliable foundation for making changes in our identity, at the top of which a deep, thorough emotional change takes place. It should be mentioned that a deep emotional change is not achieved merely by doing. It is achieved mainly by paying undivided attention to the doing and concentrating on it. For example, it is not enough to listen to background music, you must really concentrate on it until you internalize it and it becomes part of you, becomes really yours.

See: “Identity”