The Need of Neediness

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)

To understand what is meant by the need of neediness we need to navigate through the Scylla and Charybdis of two seemingly contradictory statements: “I created thee rich, why hast thou brought thyself down to poverty” (Arabic Hidden Words #11, 13), and “All are but poor and needy.” (Bahá’í Prayers: 99)  How can immensely rich souls be, nonetheless, poor and needy? 

All Intentionality works through choice—i.e. we intend something.  It assumes taking one direction over another at that moment.  It presupposes a goal.  In terms of life-choices and moral direction, the choice is between materiality and spirituality.  This choice is often made on the basis of where we believe we can find wealth and security, without or within. 

Spiritually, we are created rich in potentials; a talisman with a whole universe of riches enfolded within.  When Baha’u’llah says that human souls are poor and needy, He does not refer to any inherent lack of spiritual riches, but that we are poor and in need of spiritual knowledge and understanding to bring these forth. A diamond buried in the earth is only potential wealth.  It must be mined, cut and polished for that potential to be made actual.  To provide humanity with that knowledge and the drive to acquire it is why the Manifestations come.  The soul is a mine rich in gems: rich, that is, in all save God.  This is the need of neediness. 

We are a supreme talisman that can attract all things in creation.  We can do this because, as the Bab wrote: “Verily hath God created within thyself the similitude of all that He hath fashioned in creation, that thou mayest not be veiled from any effulgence.”  (Gate of the Heart: 43) This is the basis, I believe, behind the proponents of Intentionality saying that whatever we wish to have manifest can be so.  They also warn, do not wish FOR anything, because that is a condition of emptiness and separation, and this will actually negate the Intention.  If you already possess it, why do you believe that you don’t?  We must be the thing we desire.  If we want it to rain, we do not pray for rain, but pray rain.  To pray for something is to acknowledge that one does not already have it.  But if the universe is folded within thee, then everything in creation is already part of you.  It is a matter of manifesting it.  The Universe, or the Universal Mind, or the unconscious is supposed to carry out the commands of the Intention. (We’ll look at these terms in the next post)  The intender believes that this will happen.  Saint Augustine wrote: “Faith is to believe what you do not see; the reward of this faith is to see what you believe.”

We are a talisman that attracts God only when we are empty, even temporarily, of attachment to that first condition.  When we are detached from all save God we may say: “I testify at this moment to my powerlessness and to Thy might, to my poverty and to Thy wealth.” 

Though “the universe is folded within thee”, we are in need of the divine Spirit.  Remember Jesus statement in the Beatitudes: “Blessed are the poor in spirit: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.” (King James Bible, Matthew 5:3)  Spiritual transformation starts when we become aware that we are created poor only in God.  Perhaps this is the valley of True Poverty and Absolute Nothingness.  But through this realization we are transformed into the rich, for we inherit all things!  In this light, ‘Abdu’l-Baha remarks: “Do all ye can to become wholly weary of self, and bind yourselves to that Countenance of Splendours; and once ye have reached such heights of servitude, ye will find, gathered within your shadow, all created things.” (Selections from the Writings of Abdu'l-Baha: 76)

Baha’u’llah stated this paradoxical relation in The Hidden Words; “Yet to be poor in all save God is a wondrous gift, belittle not the value thereof, for in the end it will make thee rich in God, and thus thou shalt know the meaning of the utterance, "In truth ye are the poor," and the holy words, "God is the all-possessing," shall even as the true morn break forth gloriously resplendent upon the horizon of the lover's heart, and abide secure on the throne of wealth.” (The Persian Hidden Words #51) 

Too, though we are a supreme talisman we are that only as the likeness of the true Supreme Talisman.  To be spiritually magnetized so that the inner virtues lying in potentia may be activated, the soul must enter the charged field of the Word of God “inasmuch as these holy verses are the most potent elixir, the greatest and mightiest talisman,” (Tablets of Baha'u'llah: 200) and enter into relation with one of God’s Messengers, for the Prophet of God “is in truth the Supreme Talisman and is endowed with supernatural powers.” (Selections from the Writings of the Bab:45)  

Thus 'Abdu'l-Baha issues this quiet instruction: “These virtues do not appear from the reality of man except through the power of God and the divine teachings, for they need supernatural power for their manifestation. It may be that in the world of nature a trace of these perfections may appear, but they are unstable and ephemeral; they are like the rays of the sun upon the wall.” (Some Answered Questions, p. 79-80)

I said that we should not wish for anything, because that is a condition of emptiness and separation from the world, and this will actually negate the Intention.  We must, rather, be the thing we desire.  Now what could that mean?  Well, actually, we have all experienced that condition. It is the condition of children.  Thus, to work, Intentionality must also have a strong element of play.  We often miss this part, because we live in a culture obsessed with wringing an external result from everything we do.  But Intentionality is not simply about pulling the rabbit of realization out of the hat of desire.  A fixation on making everything productive and rational cuts us off from the world of the spontaneous that is home to other knowledge.  In fact, regardless of such seemingly positively reinforcing statements that speak to holding and focusing intention, such as “being intent upon something”, “fixing one’s purpose”, and “one must be persistent”, we should also manifest what psychologists call “flow.”  When Intentionality becomes over-conscious and over-serious it becomes WORK.  Intentionality is the creative process, and play is its foundation.

Play is not external or extrinsic. It's not about the end but the experience. It is highly imaginative and thus obeys the imagination’s creative principle, namely, “Let this be.”  Healing prayers, it has been suggested, work best when the one praying asks the “universe” to allow a sick person to heal.  The prayer that anxiously demands healing, that tries to force the “universe” to obey one’s prayer is childish, not child-like, and is likely to get some pushback from that beneficent universe.  We want to cooperate, not command.  What we don't realize, though, is that it's precisely its intrinsic aspect that allows play to tap a more meaningful place that satisfies core needs and reveals the authentic person.  Play is often who we really are.