What Is the Difference Between Knowing Names and Acquiring Names?

We have been faced with different names since we gained the ability to understand language. But maybe it took us a long time to realize that not every name is easy to acquire. Acquiring names has its own process, and it is not possible without our efforts. When we were children, we freely chose any of the names we knew and pretended that by doing so we had also acquired the capabilities and characteristics of that name. For example, sometimes we would call ourselves mom, dad, policeman, pilot, doctor, etc., and we would show behaviors associated with each of these names. Probably the biggest surprise we ever experienced was the time when we realized that we could not become a pilot, policeman, or mother by putting on a pilot’s hat, wearing a police uniform, or taking care of our doll.

Having a name or becoming any of these names requires acquiring skills and enduring a lot of hardships, and of course, we were innocently practicing this mechanism in our childhood. In fact, until something becomes our asset, we cannot claim we have acquired it. In this article, we want to know:

• What is a name?
• What is the importance of acquiring names, and what does it mean?
• Does acquiring any knowledge and awareness necessarily lead to acquiring names?
• In conclusion, what is the function of these names and is acquiring names limited only to our worldly affairs?

Knowledge Does Not Always Mean Ability

Acquiring names actually means obtaining and possessing a characteristic, and usually it is not done easily. Let us use an example to clarify this. We know that a beginner athlete has a long way ahead to become a champion. He has seen many times the implementation of different techniques by the champions of his field, and he theoretically knows the procedure. But since he has not practiced enough to acquire those skills, this knowledge and information has not yet been manifested in him as an ability, and obviously no one knows him as a champion.

An athlete practices a technique thousands of times in order to achieve the ability until it finally becomes a skill. Of course, this formula or method is not limited to the above example, and the same thing goes for all sports as well as academic and career fields. It means that what a student memorizes in the classroom increases the quantity of his knowledge every day, and it is the collection of this knowledge that gives him different titles such as expert, engineer, doctor, etc. But if this student’s knowledge is limited to the things learnt by heart, even if he holds each of these titles, they are not useful for him.

In fact, as long as he does not apply what he knows and turn it into abilities, he is not much different from those who have not acquired it, except that others have used their lives in different pursuits, while he has only been busy with memorizing!

What Is a Name, and How Is It Acquired?

No athlete can score more points than his opponent without having the necessary skills to implement a technique. If he applies a technique that he is not skilled at, he may even give his opponent the chance to win more points. The knowledge of a scientist also follows the same rule and is useful only when it is turned into a skill.

In fact, what links knowledge to skill is nothing but doing regular practice. Practice is what makes a student strong and skilled in solving problems, an athlete in doing a technique, a doctor in treating a patient, and a painter in drawing. In other words, in each of these cases, we are acquiring names and developing an attribute in ourselves through continuous practice. A painting student, with years of copying his teacher’s works, gradually develops the attribute of painting in himself, until he finally acquires the name of a painter.

In fact, a “name” is what we acquire through the acquisition of knowledge and doing practice. Someone who is skilled in painting, writes poems, and is a skilled cook has in fact been able to manifest different “names” of “painter,” “poet,” and “cook.”

In this way, a name can be defined as essence plus an attribute. That is, when we develop and elevate an attribute in ourselves, we acquire a name that can be related to any of the five dimensions of our existence, i.e., inanimate, vegetative, animal, intellective, or supra-rational.

The Scope and Importance of Acquiring Names

It is interesting that we carry different names with us even when we are babies! By developing different organs in the mother’s womb, we gain many abilities such as seeing, hearing, moving, breathing, etc. In fact, we are equipped with different names such as “the seer,” “hearer,” “capable,” “dynamic” and many other names before birth, so that we can use them in the world; not having any of these names is the beginning of our troubles.

In the previous lessons, we learned that each of us has two births on our path of creation: birth into the world and birth into the hereafter. The prerequisite for a healthy life in each of these environments is to have healthy and complete tools that are suitable for living in that environment. Just as the mother’s womb is the place where our worldly body is made, the world is like a womb for the hereafter, where we can actualize our inherent capabilities and work towards acquiring names.

By stepping into the womb of the world which has the capability to make tools for the hereafter, just like a fetus in the womb, we must be equipped with a set of abilities or names. These names are the abilities and tools that guarantee the health and security of our eternal and infinite life in the hereafter.

In the previous lessons, we learned that we only need a sound heart for our hereafter. This heart, which is the core essence and the truth of our existence, is sound when it is healthy and secure in its birth into the hereafter. This security is achieved only if we make the necessary organs, or in other words, acquire different names, for life in the hereafter in this world, before being born into the hereafter.

The importance of being aware of these names and turning them into assets is clear from the fact that acquiring each of these names is a means to benefit from the resources of the hereafter. Deficiency or weakness in any of the names means we will not be able to establish a healthy relationship with the living conditions and resources of the hereafter.

In this article, we learned that acquiring knowledge does not lead to acquiring names. Acquiring names is a process that can only take place through hard work and continuous practice. Names are the qualities and abilities that have been fully manifested in each of us, and we have no choice but acquiring names and a sound heart to benefit from the living conditions of the hereafter.

Have you thought about the names you have acquired so far? Are these names compatible with the living conditions of the hereafter or are against them? Share your thoughts on this with us.