Know thou, moreover, that the Word of God…hath never been withheld
from the world of being.
(Tablets of Baha'u'llah:140-141)
Francis Bacon pointed out that true knowledge is knowledge of
causes. Creation is causality. Cause, as the correlative of effect, is understood as being that which in
any way gives existence to, or contributes towards
the existence of, any thing. This description of cause is
wrong, of course, for, strictly speaking, cause, being a transcendental, cannot be captured in a logical definition. Aristotle
was the first thinker to systematically investigate the nature and anatomy of
causality and he came up with four: formal cause, material cause, efficient
cause, and final cause. But
what Aristotle undertook was the analysis of essences in
such wise as to perceive and classify those principles which, in conspiring to
bring the essence of any effect, object or event, actually
into existence, flow into it, as it were. For the real idea of cause pertains to that
which in any way influences the production of an effect as an essence.
‘Abdu’l-Baha accepts Aristotle’s formulation and explains the
interaction of the four causes: “Essential preexistence is an existence which is not preceded by a
cause, but essential phenomena are preceded by causes. Preexistence of time is
without beginning, but the phenomena of time have beginnings and endings; for
the existence of everything depends upon four causes—the efficient cause, the
matter, the form and the final cause. For example, this chair has a maker who
is a carpenter, a substance which is wood, a form which is that of a chair, and
a purpose which is that it is to be used as a seat. Therefore, this chair is
essentially phenomenal, for it is preceded by a cause, and its existence
depends upon causes. This is called the essential and really phenomenal.” (Some Answered Questions: 280)
But I am adding a fifth cause, the spiritual
cause of creation. Creation is the
sequential unfolding of an inner spiritual structure of unity into an outer
structured organic union of being that mirrors it and reflects back to it. This
unity in diversity, this movement of a diverse spiritual whole that is
reconstructed into a differentiated organic whole in another and smaller plane is
summed up in Aristotle’s four causes: the formal cause finding its mirror-form
in the destined final cause through the interaction of the efficient cause upon
the material cause. Then, via symmetry,
there is a reply of the final cause back to the formal and drawing the
efficient to itself in development of the material at every stage and level, so
that interaction and interrelation occur, so that not just a one-way relation
dominates but a creative relationship is formed.
We must distinguish the causes. Spiritual or first cause is all four causes
operating simultaneously as the “Be and it is” creative power of the Manifestation
of God. As the defining form, formal
causality is often called something like the image of the thing to be created
conceived by the maker, inventor or artist.
Some say that it is like a blueprint showing how the final cause, the
purpose of the thing, can be realized through the efficient cause working upon
the material cause. But it is a mistake to identify the blueprint with the
formal cause, just because it seems to be what the builder works from. The blueprint itself causes nothing. It is rather the final result of many prior
causes and actions. Hence the blueprint
idea is actually much closer to the final cause, what draws the efficient causes
toward it. The final cause, like the efficient, is
extrinsic to the effect, the latter being the cause of the existence of
the former, and the former causing the latter, not in
its existence, but as to its activity.
However, it would be still be wrong to say
that final cause, the purpose, is just the outcome, the end result of the
effort of efficient cause acting upon the material cause under the guidance of
the formal cause. It is wrong to say
this because final cause is not a result but a cause. Therefore, it is present from the beginning
in spiritual and formal cause. The Master says that the universe has no
beginning and no ending, but final denotes an ending. But final cause means only as part of a
complete structure of being, not Creation as the eternal and complete Thing but
Creation the eternal, unending action.
This
mix-up stems from confusing the final form, which is a creation, with the
purpose of that form, which started the creative process. That is, the final cause of a chair is not
the form of the chair, which is the final form or end result of creative
work. Rather the final cause is when
someone sits in the chair. Sitting is the
cause (purpose) of making the chair.
Final
cause suggests the future influencing the present in the sense that it is what
a thing is to become that helps determine its present stage of development i.e.
keeping the goal in mind while working. Thus
final cause is, too, a spiritual cause. Spiritual first cause is all four
causes simultaneously and eternally present and creative. In relation to the whole creation, then,
the final and the
formal causes that together make up the world are not just created,
but more properly, eternally co-created and co-create.
Baha’u’llah wrote: “There can be no doubt whatever that if for one
moment the tide of His mercy and grace were to be withheld from the world, it
would completely perish. For this reason, from the beginning that hath no
beginning the portals of Divine mercy have been flung open to the face of all
created things, and the clouds of Truth will continue to the end that hath no
end to rain on the soil of human capacity, reality and personality their favors
and bounties. Such hath been God's method continued from everlasting to
everlasting.” (Gleanings from the
Writings of Baha'u'llah:68)
So what
does this have to do with me, you ask?
Quite a bit actually. After complete
and perfect Creation, there is creation as creating. Though the final cause of the cosmos is
open-ended in itself, yet every created thing within it has a final cause, a
purpose, and the final cause of creation is humanity. Thus: “Having created the world and all that
liveth and moveth therein, He, through the direct operation of His
unconstrained and sovereign Will, chose to confer upon man the unique
distinction and capacity to know Him and to love Him—a capacity that must needs
be regarded as the generating impulse and the primary purpose underlying the
whole of creation. (Gleanings: 65)
The capacity
to know and to love the Creator is both “the generating impulse” (formal cause)
and “primary purpose” (final cause) of all creation. Baha’is state this purpose
in their daily obligatory prayer: "I bear witness, O my God, that Thou has
created me to know Thee and to worship Thee..."
Does
this mean that this impulse and purpose were in effect from the beginning of
the world, even when no people peopled it?
Yes. The Master says: “Therefore,
it cannot be said there was a time when man was not. All that we can say is
that this terrestrial globe at one time did not exist, and at its beginning man
did not appear upon it. But from the beginning which has no beginning, to the
end which has no end, a Perfect Manifestation always exists.” (Some Answered Questions:196-197)
And if a Manifestation exists, then
there must exist beings for Him to manifest before. Thus even when
man did not appear on earth, the purpose of creation remains the same eternal
purpose: “Briefly, there were many universal cycles preceding this one in which
we are living. They were consummated, completed and their traces obliterated.
The divine and creative purpose in them was the evolution of spiritual man,
just as it is in this cycle. The circle of existence is the same circle; it
returns. The tree of life has ever borne the same heavenly fruit.” (The Promulgation of Universal Peace: 220)
No comments:
Post a Comment