Will and Word: A Vibrating Influence

Will is the centre or focus of human understanding.

(‘Abdu’l-Baha, Star of the West # 4 p. 30)

What is the will’s relation to the rational faculty?  As always in spiritual matters, there is a two-fold, reciprocal relationship, as the unity of receiver and expression. The quote above gives the receiver relation: that the faculty of will is the focus or center of the power of understanding, the rational faculty. Recall that, in any organic system its spiritual center is the pivot, or axis of growth, in league with its counterpart, the organic center, which is the totality of potentials, both source and final stage of life, as, figuratively, the seed and fruit.

Yet, Will is also related to the rational faculty as a subordinate, an instrument, as are the other faculties discussed: “Consider the rational faculty with which God hath endowed the essence of man. Examine thine own self, and behold how thy motion and stillness, thy will and purpose, thy sight and hearing, thy sense of smell and power of speech, and whatever else is related to, or transcendeth, thy physical senses or spiritual perceptions, all proceed from, and owe their existence to, this same faculty….It is indubitably clear and evident that each of these afore-mentioned instruments has depended, and will ever continue to depend, for its proper functioning on this rational faculty, which should be regarded as a sign of the revelation of Him Who is the sovereign Lord of all. Through its manifestation all these names and attributes have been revealed, and by the suspension of its action they are all destroyed and perish.” (Gleanings from the Writings of Baha'u'llah: 163)

Creatively, will is first, the active force, not thought, per se, which remains in its self-contained realm, though its knowledge obviously influences will.  But, in truth, they are so closely and reciprocally intertwined as to make it impossible to separate them, except analytically.  In this context, Will is the intermediate cause of creation, the executive power.  Action is the immediate cause.  Thought? “God saw that the light was good.”

To create, then, will is the most necessary quality, since changing the condition of anything has never been the result of knowledge or thought alone.  Knowledge is necessary, but not sufficient.  ‘Abdu’l-Baha said: “The attainment of any object is conditioned upon knowledge, volition and action. Unless these three conditions are forthcoming, there is no execution or accomplishment.” (Abdu'l-Baha, The Promulgation of Universal Peace: 157)

And in regards to the topic of justice and peace: “We all know and admit that justice is good, but there is need of volition and action to carry out and manifest it. For example, we might think it good to build a church, but simply thinking of it as a good thing will not help its erection. The ways and means must be provided; we must will to build it and then proceed with the construction. All of us know that international peace is good, that it is conducive to human welfare and the glory of man, but volition and action are necessary before it can be established. Action is essential. Inasmuch as this century is a century of light, capacity for action is assured to mankind.” (Abdu'l-Baha, The Promulgation of Universal Peace: 157)

Will is not just a capacity for volition and intentions, but, in relation to creating or changing reality, it is the first capacity, the one that gets everything else going, the link between knowledge and action.  Provisionally, we can call will intentional or directed thought, i.e. the power that tells thought where to turn, or, conversely, which carries out thought’s knowledge.  All consciousness is consciousness of difference.  In this regard, we say that will is the heart of consciousness, because it is the power of choice, to move one way or another, and, even, not to move. It is the power that starts action and thus is first cause.

If spiritual principles are in harmony with that which is immanent in human nature then they are also expressions of the divine Will, and when these principles are accepted by the individual this actually puts the human will in harmony with the divine Will that pervades and sustains the universe.

The divine Will manifests in the human world, which is the outer aspect of the soul, as a new social order.  Baha’u’llah announced: “The world's equilibrium hath been upset through the vibrating influence of this most great, this new World Order. Mankind's ordered life hath been revolutionized through the agency of this unique, this wondrous System—the like of which mortal eyes have never witnessed.” (Gleanings from the Writings of Baha'u'llah: 136)

Shoghi Effendi outlined how that mysteriously comes about from within: “That God-born Force, irresistible in its sweeping power, incalculable in its potency, unpredictable in its course, mysterious in its workings, and awe-inspiring in its manifestations—a Force which, as the Báb has written, "vibrates within the innermost being of all created things," and which, according to Bahá'u'lláh, has through its "vibrating influence," "upset the equilibrium of the world and revolutionized its ordered life"—such a Force, acting even as a two-edged sword, is, under our very eyes, sundering, on the one hand, the age-old ties which for centuries have held together the fabric of civilized society, and is unloosing, on the other, the bonds that still fetter the infant and as yet unemancipated Faith of Bahá'u'lláh.” (The Advent of Divine Justice: 46)

This ever active divine Will continually shapes and reconfigures human society to better reflect the Kingdom of Heaven.  Hence “the synchronization of such world-shaking crises with the progressive unfoldment and fruition of their divinely appointed task is itself the work of Providence, the design of an inscrutable Wisdom, and the purpose of an all-compelling Will, a Will that directs and controls, in its own mysterious way, both the fortunes of the Faith and the destinies of men.” (Shoghi Effendi, The Advent of Divine Justice: 72)

The human will also silently vibrates through the web of connections linking all things, but without the power to transform all the relations of creation, only a part of them.  Plus there is a time lag, for while we need action, the divine Will IS His action.  "O My Servant! Obey Me and I shall make thee like unto Myself. I say 'Be,' and it is, and thou shalt say 'Be,' and it shall be." (Baha'u'llah, The Four Valleys: 63)