They are the Future of Humanity

Sunday, August 27, 2017

A DIFFERENT DISCOURSE: PART THREE The Origin and End

The beginning of all utterance is the worship of God, and this followeth upon His recognition. Sanctified must be the eye if it is to truly recognize Him, and sanctified must be the tongue if it is to befittingly utter His praise.
(Baha'u'llah, The Pen of Glory: 154)


Kerygmatic language, the language which proclaims God, sees words as spiritually creative, because it sees words in their proper station as related to the Word.  Kerygmatic language is the first language, born from the Word and learned from the gods, to lift humanity out from nature, to achieve their human nature, and now to bring forth their divine nature.  That the first language is praise of God and His divine Word is brought out in the Scriptures, starting with the opening quote above.  But there are others:
“It is clear and evident, therefore, that the first bestowal of God is the Word, and its discoverer and recipient is the power of understanding. This Word is the foremost instructor in the school of existence and the revealer of Him Who is the Almighty. All that is seen is visible only through the light of its wisdom. All that is manifest is but a token of its knowledge. All names are but its name, and the beginning and end of all matters must needs depend upon it.”(Baha'u'llah, The Pen of Glory: 94)
"The God of mercy hath taught the Qur'án, hath created man, hath taught him articulate speech." (Qur'án 55:1-3)
“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.” (King James Bible, John 1:1)
Yet it also the last language, not just the Alpha but also the Omega of speech, both the origin and highest expression, seed and fruit.  And to say that it is the first language is, of course, not to assert anything as simpleminded as that the first word spoken is God, followed by Prophets, angels and saints.  No, it is, as in all things human, a process of discovering an essence as that essence is coming forth into more complex manifestation.  It is, then, the glue joining and knitting together the beginning when: “And the whole earth was of one language, and of one speech", (King James Bible, Genesis 11:1) and the end when God promised: “For then will I turn to the people a pure language, that they may all call upon the name of the LORD, to serve him with one consent.” (King James Bible, Zephaniah 3:9)
Thus the kerygmatic is, as stated before, and in regards to human utterance, also an example of: “in truth there is a return and resurrection for every created thing” (Tablets of Baha'u'llah: 186-187); “that which hath been in existence had existed before, but not in the form thou seest today” (Tablets of Baha'u'llah: 140); and: “The highest essence and most perfect expression of whatsoever the peoples of old have either said or written hath, through this most potent Revelation, been sent down from the heaven of the Will of the All-Possessing, the Ever-Abiding God.” (Tablets of Baha'u'llah: 87)
This is not to say that other modes of language are no longer useful or meaningful.  We don’t throw away arithmetic when we learn algebra, as if it was some sort of now useless scaffolding. Rather we learn more complex rules for the manipulation of number and quantity to bring forth what arithmetic cannot.  But we still use arithmetic to balance the bank statement.  But in mature kerygmatic speech an added religious dimension (religious in the etymological sense of reuniting all things) is reintroduced into language.  The language of the Word is heard in the heart, and when truly heard faith is enkindled, as stated by Paul: “So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.” (The Book of Romans 10:17)
Faith perfects the natural reason by virtue of the supernatural light of Revelation being received into the heart, allowing the intellect to assent to Revelation’s supernatural truths.  Faith is, as Saint Paul says in the Letter to the Hebrews, "the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen." (Hebrews 11:1). It is, in other words, a form of knowledge that extends beyond the natural limits of our intellect, to help us grasp the truths of divine revelation, truths that we cannot arrive at purely by the means of the human natural reason.
The Bab adds: “Man’s highest station, however, is attained through faith in God in every Dispensation and by acceptance of what hath been revealed by Him, and not through learning; inasmuch as in every nation there are learned men who are versed in divers sciences.” (Selections From the Writings of the Báb: 88)
Because of its spiritual power and religious origin, the kerygmatic, or what I am calling the proclamation mode of language, and not just the more or less isolated proclamation (kerygma) of and about the Word itself, carries a moral authority that separates it from the purely metaphorical that is poetry and myth, making its metaphors more existential than literary, an ethical dimension that distinguishes it from the merely aesthetic and beautiful, a polysemous meaning that expands and resonates out from the more literal prosaic, and a transformative power that elevates it above the descriptive and discursive.  Yet it is, too, permeated with joy and punctuated with laughter.
It is, as I said before, revelatory.  But by revelatory here I mean not a revelation from God, but a revelation of God, insofar as human speech can do that, a bringing forth of what God has deposited of His Being in His creation.  It describes God in His attributes, evokes His Presence, understands and explicates His purpose, and calls on His aid to accomplish these.  With this mode of language we may see that, in truth: “This is the Day whereon naught can be seen except the splendors of the Light that shineth from the face of Thy Lord, the Gracious, the Most Bountiful. Verily, We have caused every soul to expire by virtue of Our irresistible and all-subduing sovereignty. We have, then, called into being a new creation, as a token of Our grace unto men.” (Gleanings from the Writings of Baha'u'llah: 29)
Let’s examine in greater depth the relation of the kerygmatic to the Word itself and to the expression of the divine nature latent within the human reality in order to bring forth that nature.
“The Word of God is the king of words and its pervasive influence is incalculable. It hath ever dominated and will continue to dominate the realm of being. The Great Being saith: The Word is the master key for the whole world, inasmuch as through its potency the doors of the hearts of men, which in reality are the doors of heaven, are unlocked.” (Tablets of Baha'u'llah: 173)
What is human utterance?  “Human utterance is an essence which aspireth to exert its influence and needeth moderation.” (Tablets of Baha’u’llah: 143) So we have these two powers and influences in relation.  First is the pervasive influence of the Word, the dominant force in creation, the master key for the whole world BECAUSE its potency can unlock the doors of hearts of human beings.  These doors of the heart lead not outwardly to earth or sky or society, but inwardly to heaven, the eternal realm of spirit.  And, secondly, we have human utterance which is “an essence” that aspires to exert its influence outwardly and needs moderating, else it will exert a pernicious influence.
The idea of moderation as a balancing, harmonizing power, leads of course to the image of the balance as the leitmotif of justice, the builder of civilization, the discerner of truth, the expression of courtesy, and the “best-beloved of all things” in His sight. As Baha’u’llah says about moderation in a social context: “Whoso cleaveth to justice, can, under no circumstances, transgress the limits of moderation. He discerneth the truth in all things, through the guidance of Him Who is the All-Seeing. The civilization, so often vaunted by the learned exponents of arts and sciences, will, if allowed to overleap the bounds of moderation, bring great evil upon men. Thus warneth you He Who is the All-Knowing. If carried to excess, civilization will prove as prolific a source of evil as it had been of goodness when kept within the restraints of moderation.” (Gleanings from the Writings of Baha'u'llah: 342)
Balanced or moderated speech, then, is just speech; what we call in the public arena, “civil discourse.”  To be clear, just speech is, I believe, more than polite, mannered, cultivated speech. Rather, it is the result of a harmonizing into a creative tension of two of the most powerful forces in the universe, the all-pervasive Word of God, the king of Words, and that essence which is human speech that at all times seeks to exert its influence. The question is: How does one both tap the universal power of the Word of God to unlock the hearts of people to turn them toward the vastness of the spiritual realm, and also harness the powerful urge of human utterance so as to exert its influence in a non-egoistic and beneficent way, so that one does not cross over moderation into bombast, derogatory speech, or self-righteousness, or worse?  How, in short, to achieve that state He mentions: sanctified must be the tongue if it is to befittingly utter His praise?  
Baha’u’llah outlines some conditions and issues a warning in a celebrated passage often called the Tablet of the True Seeker.  We’ll get to that in a minute.  But let’s first pause and reflect that this essence called human utterance is a powerful drug, one that can miraculously heal or calamitously damage the heart and soul. To assist those reflections let us see what is the purpose of the organs of speech communication?  For example, Baha’u’llah speaks about the purpose of our sense of hearing, saying: “This lowly one entreateth the people of the world to observe fairness, that their tender, their delicate and precious hearing which hath been created to hearken unto the words of wisdom may be freed from impediments and from such allusions, idle fancies or vain imaginings as 'cannot fatten nor appease the hunger', so that the true Counsellor may be graciously inclined to set forth that which is the source of blessing for mankind and of the highest good for all nations.” (Tablets of Baha'u'llah: 170)  That is, not until we have prepared the soil of the heart to receive the divine speech will He speak forth, else the Message will be drowned in the noise and clamor of ordinary egoistic chatter.  On the other side, He stated the spiritual purpose of the tongue: “Verily I say, the tongue is for mentioning what is good, defile it not with unseemly talk. God hath forgiven what is past. Henceforward everyone should utter that which is meet and seemly, and should refrain from slander, abuse and whatever causeth sadness in men.” (Baha'u'llah, Tablets of Baha'u'llah: 219-220)
 To both prepare the heart and to reinforce His warnings about the creative/destructive power of words, He states that the seeker: “must never seek to exalt himself above any one, must wash away from the tablet of his heart every trace of pride and vainglory, must cling unto patience and resignation, observe silence, and refrain from idle talk. For the tongue is a smouldering fire, and excess of speech (like the excess of civilization quoted above) a deadly poison. Material fire consumeth the body, whereas the fire of the tongue devoureth both heart and soul. The force of the former lasteth but for a time, whilst the effects of the latter endure a century.
“That seeker should also regard backbiting as grievous error, and keep himself aloof from its dominion, inasmuch as backbiting quencheth the light of the heart, and extinguisheth the life of the soul.” (Baha'u'llah, The Kitab-i-Iqan: 193)

More conditions in next post.

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