Recognition: The Unitary Form of Perception

Glorified art Thou, O Lord my God! I yield Thee thanks for having enabled me to recognize the Manifestation of Thyself…

(Bahá’u’lláh, Prayers and Meditations by Bahá’u’lláh: 110)

Bahá’u’lláh says of the rational faculty: “Consider the rational faculty with which God hath endowed the essence of man. Examine thine own self, and behold how thy motion and stillness, thy will and purpose, thy sight and hearing, thy sense of smell and power of speech, and whatever else is related to, or transcendeth, thy physical senses or spiritual perceptions, all proceed from, and owe their existence to, this same faculty.” (Gleanings from the Writings of Bahá’u’lláh: 163)

The rational faculty is a manifestation of the power of the soul, perhaps the greatest manifestation of it.  It is a multi-dimensional field of perceptual possibility.  Both the inner faculties and outer senses manifest it.  It is  power of understanding where what is perceived and what perceives it are, in some manner, the same yet different, in a kind of resonant harmony.  Because the universe is enfolded within the soul, perhaps the rational faculty can share the same vibrational existence in space/time reality with everything in the universe.  It is a matter of “tuning in.”

The rational faculty transcends both the “physical senses” and the “spiritual perceptions”.  It is the ground of the human intelligence.  To connect with and understand the world of things and thoughts we are given the senses and reason.  For perception of spiritual realities, which vibrate at much higher frequencies than physical or even intellectual phenomena do, another power of the rational faculty is required, one that itself can operate vibrationally faster than intellect or sense, that is able to perceive whole patterns and gestalts, that uses analogy and figuration to convey what it perceives via direct perception, which I am calling recognition. 

This other and larger framework of intelligence necessary to perceive spiritual realities must incorporate the knowledge received from the senses and intellect.  This framework has at its center a chief organ or faculty of intelligence, which has its own locus.   That faculty would enable its possessor to, for example, “see with the eye of God.”  In The Seven Valleys, Bahá’u’lláh says about a soul in the Valley of Unity: “With the ear of God he heareth, with the eye of God he beholdeth the mysteries of divine creation.”  (The Seven Valleys: 17)  And, in the Kitab-i-Iqan, (The Book of Certitude) He asserts at the end of what is known as the Tablet of the True Seeker: “Gazing with the eye of God, he will perceive within every atom a door that leadeth him to the stations of absolute certitude. He will discover in all things the mysteries of divine Revelation and the evidences of an everlasting manifestation.” (The Kitab-i-Iqan: 196)  That the heart is that faculty which enables spiritual perception (i.e. see with the eye of God)  is, I believe, shown by ‘Abdu’l-Bahá when He wrote: “Verily, minds are limited, and the splendor of lights is so great as not to be comprehended by (man’s) reflective faculties. Ye ought to have the sight of the heart so that ye may apprehend the reality of the mysteries of God which are deposited behind coverings.” (Tablets of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá v1, p. 165)

In another place He wrote to one who was blind: “Although, materially speaking, thou are destitute of physical sight, yet, praise be to God, spiritual insight is thy possession. Thy heart seeth and thy spirit heareth. Bodily sight is subject to a thousand maladies and ultimately and assuredly will be obscured. Thus no importance may be attached to it. But the sight of the heart is illumined, it discerns and discovers the Divine Kingdom and is everlasting and eternal. Praise be to God, therefore, that the sight of thy heart is illumined, and the hearing of thy thought responsive.” (Japan Will Turn Ablaze, p. 31)

The perceptual faculty of the heart lies at the very center of our being, which is, spiritually, the highest part of us.  The heart is the perfection of imperfect intellect, which is perfect in its own station. The intellect, in turn, was the perfection of the imperfect senses, which, too, are perfect in their own station.

Perceiving with the heart is via recognition (i.e. direct perception) not mental cognition.  Recognition is a kind of unmediated cognition. As direct perception, it is grounded in the understanding of a deep bond connecting all things; that all things are in all things.  It is a state and faculty of perception intrinsic to that highest state, one that transcends within a higher unity of intellect and heart the subject/object opposition.  But transcend does not mean dissolve, for every state of being and knowing is an eternal part of creation and knowledge. It means, rather, to keep that dialectical relation intact yet subordinate it to the unity perception.

Recognition is a form of perception that sees the deepest truth of things, not just form an idea of them, or perceive their manifest appearance.  Ideas and sensory appearances are, compared to direct perception or recognition, semblances of truth, only impressions and discoveries.  The world presents itself to us in sensory form, and we re-present (represent) it to ourselves in thought and imagination, for the mind perceives only the impression of the senses, not the object itself.  The world in itself is mere presentation, intellectual consciousness makes re-presentation in thought to a subject.  It is in this sense that, as quantum mechanics has discovered, one cannot separate the perceiver from the perception.

The unitary form of perception that I name recognition is the mind and heart functioning as one, as equals, as units of a unity. The heart and mind, both powers of the rational faculty, here form a great matrix of intelligence, but the heart leads in spiritual matters.  The perception of unity, not separation, sees more of the universe of spirit, mind and matter than either the mind or heart do alone.  In the natural human state mind and heart, thought and emotion, are thought to be separate, and often one is elevated above the other.  But they can manifestly recombine into one perceiving intelligence, formed and informed by knowledge and love in equal parts.

Lastly, because the universe is a unity of many levels, all things can be read as expressions of Truth they come forth from. But, recognition also understands that all things without are also and first within.

Recall that the universe is enfolded within every soul.  The universe is enfolded within us in the way described by the Bab: “Verily God hath created within thyself the similitude of all that He hath fashioned in creation, that thou mayest not be veiled from any effulgence.  Verily God hath generated within thy being the entirety of His manifestations.  He hath ordained that His home be the heart of His servant; by it the reality of existence shall be recognized, and the Fashioner of men be praised, and the bounty of existence pour forth through His ever-flowing Pen.” (Quoted in Saiedi Gate of the Heart: 43)