OF DUCKS AND UGLY DUCKLINGS

Q.  Why do you differentiate between the training and the education of human will?

This is part one of a two-part discussion of the training and education of the will.

In the tale of the Ugly Duckling, the mother is concerned about the largest egg in her nest. All the other ducklings have already hatched and are developing according to schedule. Anxiously, she broods, until finally, an ungainly brown-feathered creature hatches – one that, compared the rest of the brood, can only be thought of as ugly.

To her relief when she takes her ducklings for their first swim, her youngest hatchling, while clumsy on land, distinguishes himself as a competent and graceful swimmer, far surpassing the abilities of his older nest mates.

However, the ugly duckling’s subsequent enculturation into “duckness” demotes his status to that of ugly and clumsy once again. By his very nature, he is ill-equipped for bowing to superiors, waddling on land and conforming to barnyard etiquette.

Sadly, the ugly duckling absorbs the attitudes and labels of the surrounding duck society, believing in his inferiority among his peers.

The cygnet endures a series of humiliations until as a young adult he sees his stunning reflection in the water, and recognizes himself to be a swan. When, at last, he meets others of his kind, he sees that they too glide elegantly through the water. And when he takes flight with fellow swans he experiences the ecstasy of flight to greater heights than ducks are capable. Beyond the ken of the duck society, he soars over and beyond the far away mountains.

How does this story relate to humans? One way is to view every human as ultimately “an ugly duckling”. However, whatever the historical precedent and reason, the society at large has come to be governed by duckness.

A powerful tenet of the society of duckness is the training of the individual will, to be forcefully carried out if necessary. According to the tenets of duckness, the primary role of parents and institutional authority figures is the training and even subduing of the individual will to promote compliance with the societal will. Thus all wild tendencies atrophy, and the child learns obedience to authorities that impose habits for success in academic minutia first, and the societal status quo, secondly.

The priorities of duckness are so entrenched, so touted as the only route to success, that most parents fear the slightest deviation. And the system has detentions, fines and drugs to firmly entrain ugly ducklings that indulge in unscheduled swims and flights.

Yet, there are some who have glimpsed their elegant reflection and dream of systems for the development of the heart, will and mind that have little in common with the duck society’s institutional confinement.

In this future system, cygnets will know themselves to be swans. These awakened guides of the next generation of young swans know it is neither desirable nor necessary to control and subdue the wills of beings destined to soar beyond the limitations of duckness.

When we learn to guide swans as swans, self-discipline furthers the path to self-mastery. Rather than forcing the entrained submission of millions, we seek to encourage the activated individual will. Rather than requiring obedience, we facilitate an engaged sense of purpose. As the strictures of enculturation fade away, a society flourishes in a culture of activated and unlimited potential.