Chapter 09 Talents, Personal Liking, and Characters Are Not Hereditary

The Essence of Happiness and True Freedom

2.2-The.Essence.of.Happiness.and.True.Freedom Chapter9 Talents Personal Liking

Today, we will further discuss the human mind that is not inherited from parents; that is to say, the human mind is not copied into the body.

We realise that in addition to the potential of the four quotients, everyone is born with the opportunity to possess multiple skills and hobbies.

Potential or gifted capacity can also be called talent. In fact, talent and potential are two aspects of the same thing. From the perspective of innate capacity, it is called talent; from the perspective of development and cultivation, it is called potential.

For example, everyone's athletic talents are different; everyone's music talents are different; everyone's painting and calligraphy talents are different and etc. As the saying goes, “there are three hundred and sixty professions; every profession has its master.” In other words, everyone masters some talents, however, the advancement of talents varies greatly.

Talent! Talent! As the name suggests, is a gift from God, so is it really gifted by God to a person? Did God arrange it? Certainly not. If God really does exist, then God must also be fair, just, and merciful, and he would not perform such unjustified and unkind endowments.

In addition, everyone has huge differences in their personal preferences and desires, which come with birth.

The Chinese have a tradition, which has spread among the people since the Northern and Southern Dynasties called the One-Year-Old-Catch. When a child has reached one year old, parents put various tools such as abacus, pens, books, scales, etc. in front of the child. Depending on what the child grabs, it may fall in line with what the child might like to do when they grow up. This is ancient wisdom that dates back to China since thousands of years ago.

There is a passage in "Dream of the Red Chamber", in which Jia Baoyu grabs a blusher and hairpin during the ceremony of his One-Year-Old-Catch; it hints how his temperament will resemble when he reaches adulthood.

In Tibet, there is a traditional ritual to search for a certain reincarnated spiritual soul. Various beads are placed in front of a particular child to see if they grab the string of beads that they used in their previous life. This would determine if this child is the reincarnation of the spiritual child they were looking for.

As we age, various potential preferences and desires grow. For example, little boys adore all sorts of toy weapons, vehicles and balls; in comparison, little girls prefer playing with rag dolls, singing, dancing, playing house and etc. Of course there are exceptions, but that's mostly the case.

Some children like to eat meat or fish, while some like to eat vegetarian food and may find fish or meat nauseating. Some children like sweets, while some children like hot and sour foods.

With the passage of time, girls will yearn for beauty while boys will go after being unrestrained and charming. After reaching a certain age, their choices in clothing, and the appreciation of beauty greatly diversify. Playing lyre, playing chess, writing calligraphy, painting, participating in sports, and other hobbies will gradually emerge.

Reaching adulthood, tends to come with facing more hardships in life; the pressure of surviving would bring out the emotions of jealousy, competitive spirit, arrogance, and the manifestation of hatred. These are all innate. Despite that, some people remain friendly, kind, tolerant and humble. In regards to temperaments, each individual differs greatly from their parents.

Adults choose their careers according to their own preferences. A considerable number of people might be lacking a special skill or personal attribute, they have to learn to acquire a skill which they have already equipped with some talent, and utilize that skill in order to keep their job for a living. Someone may perhaps have little talent for a skill. They might then choose a skill which they may have some talent to learn. Naturally, they will choose this path, find a job, and make a living. During this stage of life, personal preference does not come first, survival is the first priority.

Everyone's innate talents and preferential potentials have a huge difference from their parents’ talents and preferential potentials ，and could not possibly come from the inherited genetic DNA.

For example:

We watched an interview with Zhao Xintong's parents. His father was a doctor and his mother was a nurse, neither could play billiards.However, Zhao Xintong loved to play billiards since young. When his parents asked him what he would do after college, he said ‘I want to play billiards’. If he were to do the One-Year-Old-Catch, he certainly would grab a ball. So his parents trained him to play billiards and gave up the idea of sending him to college. Now Zhao Xintong is a world champion in the game of billiard.

This is a common happening in daily life. For example, some parents are businessman and businesswoman who make good money. They train their children since their early childhood to go into business, encourage them to study business management, and enroll them into business schools; nevertheless, their children prefer art at early ages, contrary to what is expected from their parents.

Some Christian parents nurture their children’s faith in Christianity since youth and have them attend church regularly. Despite that they grow up only to follow Buddhism instead, contrary to what is expected from their parents.

Some parents are into officialdom and excel in politics, but their children grow up to be passionate in scientific research and enjoy truth seeking.

The difference in the talents of Chinese Chess players is apparent. Separated into categories, the amateur players have 13 grades and 8 levels, while the professional players have 9 levels. We won’t go into detail about the amateur players in this section. Players who enter the professional stage spend about the same amount of time playing chess, but their levels vary greatly, especially when they reach the advanced rank of professional players; the higher the level, the more challenging it becomes. This is where the difference in talent is notable.

Each person is born with a personality and temperament that is vastly different from his/her parents and siblings. This is apparent and no further example will be shown here.

In short, the innate talents, personal preferences, personalities and temperaments of human beings are not inherited; They are vastly different from the parents’, therefore, it’s seemingly not plausible to conclude that they are the genetic inheritance from DNA.

Human potential, talent, personal preferences, character, and disposition are all part of the human mind. Although the genes of the human body are copied from the parents, though, the human mind is not copied from the parents, so the human body and the human mind can be separated. The human body is not the carrier of the mind, the human body is only a tool of the mind.

We will continue to discuss this topic in the later chapters.