A Dialogue of Lights: Some Reflections on Reflection

The source of crafts, sciences and arts is the power of reflection. Make ye every effort that out of this ideal mine there may gleam forth such pearls of wisdom and utterance as will promote the well-being and harmony of all the kindreds of the earth.

Tablets of Bahá’u’lláh Revealed After the Kitáb-i-Aqdas: 269

            The word reflection suggests the movement, the dance, of light.  First, there is the movement of light from a physical object whose image appears in a mirror.  Reflection is also used to denote deep thought, as when we reflect on our actions or on a problem.  This, too, I believe is the movement of a kind of light, mental light.  In both these examples, reflection is both a receptive action, something occurring at the end of a process, a receiving of light, and a generative process, the radiating of light outward from the image appearing in it.  Thus besides reflection in the mirror, there is also reflecting outward from the mirror.  The two stages of reflection are almost a form of breathing, a taking in and a giving out.    

            In the opening quote Baha'u'llah gives a third meaning to reflection.  He calls reflection both a power and an ideal mine.  It is a relation and a "place."  For, the quote does not say that science, art and crafts are the result of reflection, except in the sense of light reflected from an image appearing in the mirror of the mind, but rather the power of reflection, the ideal mine, is their source.  How is this? 

            For reflection to occur there must be a general source of light illuminating everything.  For Nature this general source of light is the sun which, illuminating the world, enables all things to reflect their received light to each other.  For knowledge this Sun is Revelation of the Word, those pulses of spiritual energy moving as waves through the ether of thought that get transformed into intellectual light.  The receptive human talisman receives this light and then reflects it outward into the world.  This is the relation of light through the stages of reflection, but put into a spiritual context.

            The Bahá’í Writings consider man a mine rich in gems of light.  Some of the gems residing in this ideal mine are crafts, arts, and sciences, implying that the mind has some innate ways of understanding waiting to be activated.  We are to make every effort to bring these forth, to educe them.  

            To my mind, the sciences, arts and crafts latent within the human spirit are images and reflections of divine knowledge.  That is, actualities in the human world are reflections of the divine one.  Now, the power to reflect a reality attracts the reality.  They are in direct relationship as described by  Abdu’l-Baha: “a mirror which is clear will certainly attract the rays of the sun.” (Some Answered Questions:200)  By attracting the divine to it, the power of reflection becomes the ideal source of sciences, art and crafts within the mind when the higher vibrations of Revelation shine through it.   

            As Revelation is the spiritual source of knowledge for humanity, so Nature, "the mirror of creation," is the material source.  We can contemplate either or both to discover knowledge, for “the reality of man is his thought.”  In reflection a new knowledge can intuitively be brought forth from this ideal mine.  This joining together into relation of objective reality, whether divine or natural, with subjective, meditative thought gives that charge of energy we associate with discovery and inspiration, and it is no wonder that the poets often lead in this.  The poet, Wordsworth, wrote:

For the discerning intellect of Man,
When wedded to this goodly universe
In love and holy passion, shall find these
A simple produce of the common day.     

           

            Meditation is dialogue with oneself.  ‘Abdu’l-Baha asserts that: " It is an axiomatic fact that while you meditate you are speaking with your own spirit. In that state of mind you put certain questions to your spirit and the spirit answers: the light breaks forth and the reality is revealed….The spirit of man is itself informed and strengthened during mediation; through it affairs of which man knew nothing are unfolded before his view….Meditation is the key for opening the doors of mysteries.  In that state man abstracts himself; in that state man withdraws himself from all outside objects; in that subjective mood he is immersed in the ocean of spiritual life and can unfold the secrets of things-in-themselves."

            More than two thousand years ago, Confucius laid out the steps of this process of reflection: “The way of the Great Learning consists in the clarification of originally clear perceptions, in the love of mankind, and in resting in the highest excellence.  If one understands this resting, then only does one have fixity of purpose.  If one has fixity of purpose, then only can one succeed in being tranquil.  If one is tranquil, then only can one succeed in finding peace.  If one has peace, then only is one able to reflect.  Only after reflection can one succeed in obtaining what one wishes.”

            To become a science intuitive knowledge must be reflected outward--"gleam forth"--into other minds and investigated commonly.  Science is the systematic investigation of reality.  It has agreed upon procedures, shared rules of evidence, repeatable, experimental verification, and a logical framework.  Science is a community effort.  To translate the idea into a science it must be brought forth out of the mind into the world, so others may know it and together build it into a mansion of thought.

            In its outward moving, the power of reflection is the constructing of an outer image that reflects the inner one, the building of a virtual reality, like a hologram, called human knowledge. When this outer image is constructed, then reflection becomes light reflecting light, a dialogue of lights that increases illumination.  It is the Glorious Structure described by Baha’u’llah as composed of “the active force and that which is its recipient.”  Yet, He goes on, “these two are the same, yet they are different”, as the Sun and its image in the clear mirror are the same yet they are different.  But, when power of reflection is the source of knowledge, the recipient acts to attract the active to it.