Intentionality IV

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)

Let us turn our attention to the question: How much can human intentionality create?  For me, that depends upon what one means by intentionality.  While much of the most recent Intentionality literature concerns itself with what can be almost magically manifested through personal thought in one’s daily life, we should not overlook the obvious.  Intentionality, the manifesting of thought, is not really new and unknown till now, if we remember the well-known collective expressions of human thought, namely, Science and Art.  

For me there are two modes of Intentionality.  The first mode is through Reason.  Intentionality occurs here through science, art and the application of our regular human faculties. These are perhaps the best known examples of human intentionality, and there is no denying that they change the physical realm and manifest human thought and desire.  But their breakthroughs and advances are made through unified thinking working together on some problem or challenge.

But there is also Intentionality through faith.  This kind of Intentionality is what most current discussions of Intentionality mean. Those of us reared in our secular, rational culture have lost the idea that faith is the other great means of obtaining knowledge, so we think it is new and almost magical. This post will discuss the first form of human intention.

Science and art are, according to the Bahá’í teachings, connected to and dependent upon divine Thought.  Baha’u’llah writes: “Unveiled and unconcealed, this Wronged One hath, at all times, proclaimed before the face of all the peoples of the world that which will serve as the key for unlocking the doors of sciences, of arts, of knowledge, of well-being, of prosperity and wealth” (Tablets of Baha'u'llah, p. 96)  And: “Such arts and material means as are now manifest have been achieved by virtue of His knowledge and wisdom which have been revealed in Epistles and Tablets through His Most Exalted Pen—a Pen out of whose treasury pearls of wisdom and utterance and the arts and crafts of the world are brought to light.” (Tablets of Baha'u'llah:39) 

This treasury of new knowledge brought forth from the spiritual realm into the human one by Revelation is then brought forth (educed) into manifest form by a certain use of the power of thought possessed by human beings.  Baha’u’llah writes: “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 Baha'u'llah: 72)  And ‘Abdu’l-Baha explains: “This faculty (of meditation) brings forth from the invisible plane the sciences and arts. Through the meditative faculty inventions are made possible, colossal undertakings are carried out; through it governments can run smoothly.” (Paris Talks: 174) 

The objects of this world are the outer pictures of the inner spiritual world.(Promulgation of Universal Peace: 10)  As I see it, the inmost spiritual realities get reflected in the inner mirror of human consciousness and from consciousness are brought into this world where they can be manifested in physical form.  One might say that, the mind in meditation gradually tunes in to the complementary vibration, resonates with this vibration until the commensurate spiritual "object" appears, and this image is reflected in consciousness so that inspiration occurs.  But all is in potentia already in consciousness.

‘Abdu’l-Baha writes: “Thou didst write as to the question of spiritual discoveries. The spirit of man is a circumambient power that encompasseth the realities of all things. Whatsoever thou dost see about thee—wondrous products of human workmanship, inventions, discoveries and like evidences—each one of these was once a secret hidden away in the realm of the unknown. The human spirit laid that secret bare, and drew it forth from the unseen into the visible world. There is, for example, the power of steam, and photography and the phonograph, and wireless telegraphy, and advances in mathematics: each and every one of these was once a mystery, a closely guarded secret, yet the human spirit unravelled these secrets and brought them out of the invisible into the light of day. Thus is it clear that the human spirit is an all-encompassing power that exerteth its dominion over the inner essences of all created things, uncovering the well kept mysteries of the phenomenal world.” (Selections from the Writings of Abdu'l-Baha: 169-170)

Now back to Intentionality, the manifesting of intellectual realities in physical reality.  Intellectual realities are “spiritual” in that they occupy no place or space and are non-local—they lack form, volume and position as material entities, though they possess intellectual form.  They explain natural and human phenomena because they can penetrate to interior relationships.  Immanuel Kant reasoned that ideas were concepts of reason which transcend all experience and which complete the concrete as a totality.  But physicists are careful to say that subatomic particles and waves really only “exist” as mathematical symbols (i.e. intellectual forms) of natural processes.  The mathematical symbols and the logic of these symbols are metaphors for something which cannot be perceived by the senses, but whose effects are known to happen in the physical world.  Everything advanced physics is learning about Nature is in accord with the idea that the fundamental processes of Nature lie outside space-time, but generate events that can be located within space-time.  Mathematics explains and comprehends these insofar as they are mathematical.  It does not comprehend them in themselves, for this would require their true spiritual reality to be understood and Baha’u’llah has said that “no mind nor heart, however keen or pure, can ever grasp the nature of the most insignificant of His creatures…” (Gleanings from the Writings of Baha'u'llah:62) 

            Depending upon one’s view, one can say either, that there are two categories of created things, physical and intellectual, or that there are two forms for every created thing, a physical form and a spiritual or intellectual form, dual aspects of one reality, with the physical form being the seat, or locus of spiritual power in the physical world.  “Each power is localized. Reason has its seat in the brain, sight in the eye, hearing in the ears, speech in the tongue. The force of gravity is localized in the center of the earth. Everything on the surface of the earth is attracted toward the center. Our light is localized in the sun.” (Abdu'l-Baha, Divine Philosophy: 96)

           In the language of modern sub-atomic physics, we can think of a “thing’s” physical form, localized in space/time, as, metaphorically speaking, its “particle” form.  Its spiritual form is an intellectual reality: that is, nonlocal and occupying no physical space, being everywhere at once, existing in a field of active information.  This form is, metaphorically, its wave form.  In this perspective, the human body is the physical seat of power for the human soul, while the mental power is the rays of influence emanating from that locality—i.e. the body—but originating from the soul’s rational faculty.  One could also call the wave form of a thing the vibration of its name or attribute of God, because: “Upon the inmost reality of each and every created thing He hath shed the light of one of His names, and made it a recipient of the glory of one of His attributes.” (Gleanings from the Writings of Baha'u'llah: 65)  And this inner reality is a vibrational template of information for its manifestation in the world, for all the attributes and names of God are within the world and in human soul—the universe is enfolded within each of us.

           More on human reason's intentionality in next post.