The endowments which distinguish the human race from all other forms of
life are summed up in what is known as the human spirit; the mind is its
essential quality. These endowments have enabled humanity to build
civilizations and to prosper materially. But such accomplishments alone have
never satisfied the human spirit, whose mysterious nature inclines it towards
transcendence, a reaching towards an invisible realm, towards the ultimate
reality, that unknowable essence of essences called God. The religions brought
to mankind by a succession of spiritual luminaries have been the primary link
between humanity and that ultimate reality, and have galvanized and refined
mankind's capacity to achieve spiritual success together with social progress.
(The
Universal House of Justice, 1985 Oct, The Promise of World Peace, p. 1)
The four volumes of Restoring the Transcendent that I am
planning and writing will explore some unfolding relations between Revelation, the
all-embracing Word of God descending from out the transcendent world of Spirit,
and the ascending, enfolding, containing forms of humanity It creates from interaction with the "rational faculty, which is the essence of the human reality: cosmos, history, civilization, and knowledge. In a nutshell, for the potentials latent
within these four forms to unfold they must open to the transcendent realm from
which emerge powerful energies and principles of life and thought which enable
humanity to break free of whatever cocoon it is a chrysalis within.
Connection
with the transcendent realm is accomplished through the opening of the human
heart and mind to higher Reality.
Bahá’u’lláh wrote: “It is clear and evident, therefore, that the
first bestowal of God is the Word, and its discoverer and recipient is the
power of understanding. This Word is the foremost instructor in the school of
existence and the revealer of Him Who is the Almighty. All that is seen is
visible only through the light of its wisdom. All that is manifest is but a
token of its knowledge. All names are but its name, and the beginning and end
of all matters must needs depend upon it.”
(The Tabernacle of Unity: 3)
Sacred doctrine and the transcendent
thought, i.e. Revelation, makes use of human reason, not to prove faith and
vision, which are the exercise of our two greatest spiritual faculties, but to
make clear (i.e. manifest) within human understanding whatever is set forth in
Revelation and grasped by faith and vision.
Human reason can never hope to prove faith directly, but it can
elucidate and clarify the pulsations of divine energy and thought. The Master tells us that “faith compriseth
both knowledge and the performance of good works.” (The Universal House of
Justice, 1996 Oct 22, Authentication and
Authority.)
Faith is central to human
understanding, especially of spiritual reality, and is one of the powers
composing the power of understanding that discovers the Word. Faith is the mediator between Revelation and
reason, the foundational principle of human knowledge. George Townshend wrote: “'Abdu'l-Bahá once
said that Reason was the throne of faith; in another place he likened Reason to
a great mirror looking into the heavens but reflecting no image because it was
in darkness. Faith, he said, was like sunlight which enabled the mirror to see
and to reflect all the heavenly truths that lie before it. These symbols
express exactly the Christian and the Bahá'í view of Reason and Faith, but not
the view of traditional orthodoxy which is a purely human concept.” (Christ
and Baha'u'llah: 53)
Thus, reason, or knowledge, is not
adequate to faith. According to
‘Abdu’l-Bahá, faith is the whole, knowledge or reason is one of its parts,
along with deeds, which alone prove faith.
One does not, in these matters, reason toward faith and certitude, but
from them. To be fully manifest—i.e. be
complete and self-sufficient within its own limits-- faith must comprise both
thought and deed, yet stand apart from the realm of Revelation in order to
manifest Revelation. In its own realm,
faith imperfectly mirrors the completeness, self-sufficiency and unlimitedness
of the thought of God. ‘Abdu’l-Bahá
explained that “light cannot become manifest unless those things which perceive
and appreciate it exist.” (Promulgation
of Universal Peace: 462) Revelation
cannot become fully manifest unless human reason, the one power that perceives
and appreciates it, exists.
The other great spiritual faculty is
vision, which seems to have some close associations with light and
meditation. ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, in one of His
talks in the United States, explained: “In the world of existence there is
nothing so important as spirit, nothing so essential as the spirit of man. The
spirit of man is the most noble of phenomena. The spirit of man is the meeting
between man and God. The spirit of man is the animus of human life and the
collective center of all human virtues. The spirit of man is the cause of the illumination
of this world.” He goes on to talk about a power of that spirit: ‘When you wish
to reflect upon or consider a matter, you consult something within you. You
say, shall I do it, or shall I not do it? Is it better to make this journey or
abandon it? Whom do you consult? Who is within you deciding this question?
Surely there is a distinct power, an intelligent ego. Were it not distinct from
your ego, you would not be consulting it. It is greater than the faculty of
thought. It is your spirit which teaches you, which advises and decides upon
matters.” (The Promulgation of Universal
Peace: 239, 241—I more fully explain faith and vision on my book, Renewing the Sacred: A New Vision of
Education.)
It is notable that he calls the human
spirit “greater than the power of thought.”
So important is meditation that the Master tells us in another
place: “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.
You
cannot apply the name "man" to any being void of this faculty of
meditation; without it he would be a mere animal, lower than the beasts.
Through
the faculty of meditation man attains to eternal life; through it he receives
the breath of the Holy Spirit—the bestowal of the Spirit is given in reflection
and meditation.
The
spirit of man is itself informed and strengthened during meditation; through it
affairs of which man knew nothing are unfolded before his view. Through it he
receives Divine inspiration, through it he receives heavenly food.
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. To illustrate this, think of man as
endowed with two kinds of sight; when the power of insight is being used the
outward power of vision does not see.
This
faculty of meditation frees man from the animal nature, discerns the reality of
things, puts man in touch with God.
This
faculty 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. Through this faculty man
enters into the very Kingdom of God.” (Paris
Talks: 54)
