Knowledge is a State

Moreover, entrance and exit, descent and ascent, are characteristics of bodies and not of spirits—that is to say, sensible realities enter and come forth, but intellectual subtleties and mental realities, such as intelligence, love, knowledge, imagination and thought, do not enter, nor come forth, nor descend, but rather they have direct connection.  For example, knowledge, which is a state attained to by the intelligence, is an intellectual condition; and entering and coming out of the mind are imaginary conditions; but the mind is connected with the acquisition of knowledge, like images reflected in a mirror.

(Some Answered Questions, p. 106)

It is often believed that knowledge is something that human beings generate and acquire, because that is how we frame it. When we speak of “acquiring” knowledge we are saying knowledge is like some sort of material commodity that the mind can accumulate, a position reflecting a now common commercial way of looking at things where human beings start out poor and empty and must be filled and enriched.  “Acquiring” is an acceptable way to view gains in knowledge, of course, but acquiring has to do with learning, with moving from a condition of ignorance to one of knowing, not with knowledge itself.  Both Baha’u’llah and ‘Abdu’l-Baha speak of “acquiring” the sciences, the arts and knowledge.  But Baha’u’llah countered the poor and empty view by asking: “I created thee rich, why dost thou bring thyself down to poverty?” (Arabic Hidden Words #13)

Maybe we need a new set of images and metaphors to understand what knowledge is and how it is attained, and not just figuratively describe how it is gotten or obtained—again physical words to describe something material and sensible.  For, according to ‘Abdu’l-Baha’s quote above, neither knowledge nor the intelligence is a sensible reality.  Knowledge has no material properties.  It cannot enter, nor come forth, nor descend.  It has a direct connection with the mind—an image which we will explore.  It is a state attained to by the intelligence, is an intellectual condition.

The phrase “acquiring knowledge”, then, really describes the holding and accessing of larger “volumes” of learning, which is a function of memory.  But attaining to any state of knowledge comes from improving the innate faculties of perception and reception and bettering the intellectual instruments of science and art, so that deeper penetration into the realms of knowledge results, so that greater insight occurs—perceiving behind the coverings of the world—and insight leads to knowledge. One purpose of knowledge is to generate more knowledge through its application to novel situations.  The foundation of new knowledge is insight. Leaps into new states are not logically connected with what came before, but are something higher or greater, i.e. of another order.  The difference is not quantitative, but qualitative.  Attaining a qualitatively new understanding of reality is to attain a new state of knowledge, and once in that new state the mind and heart may acquire, by effort and striving, greater knowledge of that state.

I frame the discussion this way because, if knowledge is a state attained to by the intelligence, then both knowledge and the inner potential state of intelligence that goes with that state of knowledge already exist.  Attaining the state of knowledge is to bring knowledge and intelligence together in a conscious union of some kind. It is another example of the “B” and the “E” being joined and knit together. The appearance of new knowledge in the mind is the proof that the intelligence has attained that state of knowledge.

 Knowledge does not move, neither does the inner state, but some change occurs in intelligence, as wave pulses of energy move across the ocean.  It is, to employ the final image in our opening quote, like the sun appearing in a mirror.  ‘Abdu’l-Baha says in another place: “…the rational soul, meaning the human spirit, does not descend into the body—that is to say, it does not enter it, for descent and entrance are characteristics of bodies, and the rational soul is exempt from this. The spirit never entered this body, so in quitting it, it will not be in need of an abiding-place: no, the spirit is connected with the body, as this light is with this mirror. When the mirror is clear and perfect, the light of the lamp will be apparent in it, and when the mirror becomes covered with dust or breaks, the light will disappear.” (Some Answered Questions: 239)

I said that one purpose of knowledge is to discover more knowledge. New knowledge is generated in this way. But if all knowledge already exists, what is being generated?  We will take this question up in the next post. 

The ultimate purpose of knowledge is to understand truth. Knowledge is not necessarily truth.  We can be in state of knowledge but not be in the truth of it.  One can say, for example, that 2+2=5.  While this is a mistake of calculation, it is not a mistake of logical reasoning with numbers.  There is knowledge of that state, but not truth of it.  On more profound questions this is where metaphors of becoming free from the dust of misconceptions and the clay of illusions so one can perceive clearly come in.

We are trying to grasp spiritual realities here and the spiritual dynamics of life and existence are different from material realities of movement, place, and time.  While the intelligence moves in understanding from the concrete to the abstract, the abstract in itself has, nevertheless, a different kind of reality.  The concrete is as a scaffolding.  At some point the scaffolding can be kicked away.  

The understanding of the spiritual dynamic is, to me, the uncovering with greater clarity and understanding of pre-existent relations and essential, universal connections between the material and spiritual.  The pre-existent relation is known by “direct connection” and the movement toward understanding is removing the veils that are interposed in that relation that make realities seem more loosely connected than they really are.  About the connection between spiritual and material realities, the Master explains: “The mind which is in man, the existence of which is recognized—where is it in him? If you examine the body with the eye, the ear or the other senses, you will not find it; nevertheless, it exists. Therefore, the mind has no place, but it is connected with the brain. The Kingdom is also like this. In the same way love has no place, but it is connected with the heart; so the Kingdom has no place, but is connected with man. (Some Answered Questions: 242)

We know that ‘Abdu’l-Baha speaks of the human intelligence "attaining" a state, not a quantity, of knowledge, and that this state or states are attained by understanding the direct connection between the condition of intelligence that connects with that state of knowledge.  What are the parameters of states of knowledge?  Baha’u’llah, quoting an Islamic tradition, wrote: "Knowledge is all that is knowable.” (Kitab-i-Iqan:185)  From the human side, all that is knowable depends upon how wide one draws the circle of real knowledge.  I mean that there are different states of knowledge—sensory, intellectual and spiritual—and different means one goes about attaining them—senses, intellectual faculties, spiritual faculties.  Within each state of knowing the knowledge manifested is of that state.  One “acquires” that knowledge because one is in that state, has attained unto it.  The knowledge is a manifestation of that state; is the state itself.  Higher states are unknowable to one in a lower state and thus its knowledge is not knowable to him.

Higher levels of spiritual knowledge are due to an increased fidelity of the mirror of the heart, much like, I suppose, the kind of increased power of vision that comes to astronomers when the mirror of their telescope is larger and better polished.  Here, however, we are not looking outwardly into stellar space but inwardly into what ‘Abdu’l-Baha called the “supernal sky.” (Selections from the Writings of Abdu'l-Baha: 259)

There are two ways to acquire capacity for knowledge.  These two ways are effort and attraction.  But we must also combine these ways and say we exert the best effort when we are most attracted. The question then becomes: toward what domain of knowledge are we most attracted?  That is the next post.

The Center of the Spirit of Faith

When man is not endowed with inner perception, he is not informed of these important mysteries. The retina of outer vision, though sensitive and delicate, may, nevertheless, be a hindrance to the inner eye which alone can perceive. The bestowals of God which are manifest in all phenomenal life are sometimes hidden by intervening veils of mental and mortal vision which render man spiritually blind and incapable, but when those scales are removed and the veils rent asunder, then the great signs of God will become visible, and he will witness the eternal light filling the world.

(Abdu'l-Baha, The Promulgation of Universal Peace: 88)

We read in the last post that the soul and mind common to all people is an outcome of Nature.  It is able to understand the hidden mental mysteries of nature, because “nature, also, in its essence is an intellectual reality and is not sensible; the human spirit is an intellectual, not sensible reality.” (Abdu'l-Baha, Some Answered Questions: 83)

But, I also intimated, there is a level of spirit greater than intellect lying latent within the human reality. This greater spirit within puts us in touch with objective realms of being obscured by the natural or intellectual.  It is called the spirit of faith.  Awakening this spirit enables us to perceive, recognize and understand spiritual realities. 

Recall that ‘Abdu’l-Baha said the spirit of faith “comes from the breath of the Holy Spirit, and by the divine power it becomes the cause of eternal life. It is the power which makes the earthly man heavenly, and the imperfect man perfect.  It makes the impure to be pure, the silent eloquent; it purifies and sanctifies those made captive by carnal desires; it makes the ignorant wise.” (Some Answered Questions: 143) 

The center and special receptive faculty of the spirit of faith is the heart.  The heart, too, is a power of the rational faculty.  Remember Baha’u’llah’s statement: “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 Baha'u'llah:163)

In the perception of spiritual realities, understanding flows from the Holy Spirit, which reveals the Will of God.  The Holy Spirit arouses the spirit of faith in receptive souls, and the spirit of faith enables the rational faculty to make divine knowledge into human knowledge.

‘Abdu’l-Baha explains how the human heart attains to the spirit of faith: “But the universal divine mind, which is beyond nature, is the bounty of the Preexistent Power. This universal mind is divine; it embraces existing realities, and it receives the light of the mysteries of God. It is a conscious power, not a power of investigation and of research. The intellectual power of the world of nature is a power of investigation, and by its researches it discovers the realities of beings and the properties of existences; but the heavenly intellectual power, which is beyond nature, embraces things and is cognizant of things, knows them, understands them, is aware of mysteries, realities and divine significations, and is the discoverer of the concealed verities of the Kingdom. This divine intellectual power is the special attribute of the Holy Manifestations and the Dawning-places of prophethood; a ray of this light falls upon the mirrors of the hearts of the righteous, and a portion and a share of this power comes to them through the Holy Manifestations.” (Some Answered Questions: 217-218).

To understand divine realities the heart must be awakened to the spirit of faith lying dormant within it. These realities cannot be perceived or proved incontrovertibly to exist by reason alone, though reason can point to them.  But there is a way to be certain of them.  ‘Abdu’l-Baha explains: “…if the inner perception be open, a hundred thousand clear proofs become visible. Thus, when man feels the indwelling spirit, he is in no need of arguments for its existence; but for those who are deprived of the bounty of the spirit, it is necessary to establish external arguments.” (Some Answered Questions: 6)

But every Holy Book also warns of the heart going astray: “How often hath the human heart, which is the recipient of the light of God and the seat of the revelation of the All-Merciful, erred from Him Who is the Source of that light and the Well Spring of that revelation. It is the waywardness of the heart that removeth it far from God, and condemneth it to remoteness from Him. Those hearts, however, that are aware of His Presence, are close to Him, and are to be regarded as having drawn nigh unto His throne.” (Gleanings from the Writings of Baha'u'llah: 185)

In The Seven Valleys, Baha’u’llah describes the mystical path back to God.  He says at the end of the final and seventh valley, the Valley of True Poverty and Absolute Nothingness: “They who soar in the heaven of singleness and reach to the sea of the Absolute, reckon this city—which is the station of life in God—as the furthermost state of mystic knowers, and the farthest homeland of the lovers. But to this evanescent One of the mystic ocean, this station is the first gate of the heart's citadel, that is, man's first entrance to the city of the heart; and the heart is endowed with four stages, which would be recounted should a kindred soul be found.” (The Seven Valleys: 41)

In His explication of these four stages of the heart, named The Four Valleys, in the second of the four valleys Baha’u’llah wrote: “This station conferreth the true standard of knowledge, and freeth man from tests. In this realm, to search after knowledge is irrelevant, for He hath said concerning the guidance of travelers on this plane, "Fear God, and God will instruct thee."  And again: "Knowledge is a light which God casteth into the heart of whomsoever He willeth."

Wherefore, a man should make ready his heart that it be worthy of the descent of heavenly grace…” (The Four Valleys: 53)

Attainment to this spirit of faith is to perceive behind the coverings of this world to the spiritual realities within.  It puts one in touch with eternal verities and grants the soul eternal life.  Baha’u’llah refers to all these attainments in one paragraph.

“It is clear and evident that when the veils that conceal the realities of the manifestations of the Names and Attributes of God, nay of all created things visible or invisible, have been rent asunder, nothing except the Sign of God will remain—a sign which He, Himself, hath placed within these realities. This sign will endure as long as is the wish of the Lord thy God, the Lord of the heavens and of the earth. If such be the blessings conferred on all created things, how superior must be the destiny of the true believer, whose existence and life are to be regarded as the originating purpose of all creation. Just as the conception of faith hath existed from the beginning that hath no beginning, and will endure till the end that hath no end, in like manner will the true believer eternally live and endure. His spirit will everlastingly circle round the Will of God. He will last as long as God, Himself, will last.” (Gleanings from the Writings of Baha'u'llah: 140-141)

What may come after the heart’s levels of understanding, is anybody’s guess.

Up From Human: The Rational Soul and the Spirit of Faith

Do thou ponder these momentous happenings in thy heart, so that thou mayest apprehend the greatness of this Revelation, and perceive its stupendous glory. Then shall the spirit of faith, through the grace of the Merciful, be breathed into thy being, and thou shalt be established and abide upon the seat of certitude.

(Baha'u'llah, The Kitab-i-Iqan: 236)

Spirit, the Master states, may be divided into five categories: vegetable, animal, the human spirit, the spirit of faith, and the Holy Spirit. (Some Answered Questions: 138)  In this post and the next, we will be looking at the relation between the human spirit and the spirit of faith.  But that relation cannot happen except that a higher Spirit, the Holy Spirit, works.  Let’s see what the Masters says about these three levels of spirit.

 “The human spirit may be likened to the bounty of the sun shining on a mirror. The body of man, which is composed from the elements, is combined and mingled in the most perfect form; it is the most solid construction, the noblest combination, the most perfect existence. It grows and develops through the animal spirit….This (human) spirit has the power of discovery; it encompasses all things. All these wonderful signs, these scientific discoveries, great enterprises and important historical events which you know are due to it. From the realm of the invisible and hidden, through spiritual power, it brought them to the plane of the visible. So man is upon the earth, yet he makes discoveries in the heavens. From known realities—that is to say, from the things which are known and visible—he discovers unknown things…Briefly, this power embraces all things.

The fourth degree of spirit is the heavenly spirit; it is the spirit of faith and the bounty of God; it comes from the breath of the Holy Spirit, and by the divine power it becomes the cause of eternal life. It is the power which makes the earthly man heavenly, and the imperfect man perfect.  It makes the impure to be pure, the silent eloquent; it purifies and sanctifies those made captive by carnal desires; it makes the ignorant wise.

The fifth spirit is the Holy Spirit. This Holy Spirit is the mediator between God and His creatures. It is like a mirror facing the sun. As the pure mirror receives light from the sun and transmits this bounty to others, so the Holy Spirit is the mediator of the Holy Light from the Sun of Reality, which it gives to the sanctified realities. It is adorned with all the divine perfections. Every time it appears, the world is renewed, and a new cycle is founded. The body of the world of humanity puts on a new garment. It can be compared to the spring; whenever it comes, the world passes from one condition to another. Through the advent of the season of spring the black earth and the fields and wildernesses will become verdant and blooming, and all sorts of flowers and sweet-scented herbs will grow; the trees will have new life, and new fruits will appear, and a new cycle is founded. The appearance of the Holy Spirit is like this. Whenever it appears, it renews the world of humanity and gives a new spirit to the human realities: it arrays the world of existence in a praiseworthy garment, dispels the darkness of ignorance, and causes the radiation of the light of perfections.” (Some Answered Questions: 143)

Now this seems a simple enough progression.  But here is the twist.  ‘Abdu’l-Baha explains that: “the spirit of man has two aspects: one divine, one satanic—that is to say, it is capable of the utmost perfection, or it is capable of the utmost imperfection. If it acquires virtues, it is the most noble of the existing beings; and if it acquires vices, it becomes the most degraded existence." (Some Answered Questions: 144)

It is necessary for the human reality to be in two aspects if we are to have self-consciousness and moral choice—all consciousness being awareness of difference and the ability to reason.  Thus, the essence of the human soul is what is known as the rational faculty.  Baha’u’llah stated: “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 Baha'u'llah:163)

But while the rational soul is a creation of God common to all human beings, a level of spirit endowed with reasoning power, which is a “power of discovery” that “encompasses all things”, this soul is an outcome of the processes of the natural creation, and is limited in what it can comprehend by itself.  That is, its reason only comprehends the created things of this world in either their intellectual or sensible forms.  He says, in brief: “The human spirit consists of the rational, or logical, reasoning faculty, which apprehends general ideas and things intelligible and perceptible.” (Abdu'l-Baha, Baha'i World Faith: 370)

The Master elaborate further in another place, saying: “The first condition of perception in the world of nature is the perception of the rational soul. In this perception and in this power all men are sharers, whether they be neglectful or vigilant, believers or deniers. This human rational soul is God's creation; it encompasses and excels other creatures; as it is more noble and distinguished, it encompasses things. The power of the rational soul can discover the realities of things, comprehend the peculiarities of beings, and penetrate the mysteries of existence. All sciences, knowledge, arts, wonders, institutions, discoveries and enterprises come from the exercised intelligence of the rational soul. There was a time when they were unknown, preserved mysteries and hidden secrets; the rational soul gradually discovered them and brought them out from the plane of the invisible and the hidden into the realm of the visible. This is the greatest power of perception in the world of nature, which in its highest flight and soaring comprehends the realities, the properties and the effects of the contingent beings.” (Some Answered Questions: 215)

Possessing this “greatest power of perception in the world of nature” is not, however, the highest level of spirit that human beings may attain.  There is a higher level which when the soul attains opens new vistas to this power of discovery: “But the human spirit, unless assisted by the spirit of faith, does not become acquainted with the divine secrets and the heavenly realities. It is like a mirror which, although clear, polished and brilliant, is still in need of light. Until a ray of the sun reflects upon it, it cannot discover the heavenly secrets.” (Some Answered Questions: 208-209)  What separates the natural intellect, however brilliant, from a divinely-inspired one is attainment to the spirit of faith.

To summarize: The human soul is in two aspects, a natural or human one that is the outcome of the natural processes of creation, and a divine aspect that lies latent within the reality of the soul awaiting the breath of God to bring it to life.  The divine aspect is the spirit of faith.  The spirit of faith is felt in the heart.  That is the topic of the next post.

The Spiritual Foundations of the Self: The Search for God

Likewise, reflect upon the perfection of man's creation, and that all these planes and states are folded up and hidden away within him.  Dost thou reckon thyself only a puny form, when within thee the universe is folded?

(Baha'u'llah, The Seven Valleys: 33)

I want to employ the structuring metaphors of interiority/exteriority and higher/lower, to describe the changing but unchanging relation between the human soul and its search for God, which is the eternal Self.  Progression through levels of interiority is the process of self-discovery—i.e. discovering those “planes and states folded up within.”  This means that every stage of interiority that is passed becomes an exterior, i.e. an object of consciousness becomes a plane or state of self-consciousness. That which is interior in one relation is exterior in another.  Thus it is not a simple two-term polarity, but a shifting relation or process, a dynamic structure unfolding from an enfolding. 

To obtain a more complete grasp of the “dimension” of spiritual experience, however, the interiority/exteriority metaphor must be combined with the metaphor of higher/lower, so that, spiritually, the more interior one “descends” the “higher” one ascends, until the deepest interior finally opens out to the eternal “above” and beyond.  When we fuse interiority and exteriority with ascent and descent we begin to get a better handle on the language used to describe the terrain of spirit, where to go down into true self is to go up to God, and to search the outer world for God is to go down and away from the true object of search.  Thus the deepest within opens to the highest above, and the highest above is found at “the mid-most heart”.

English poet, William Blake, understood that if God is eternally within the self, God cannot be found outside the self.  As Augustine says in Book III of The Confessions: “But you were more inward than my own inwardness.”  If He is in the most inward place, in that deepest interiority which we, as Augustine says, can never reach, then we are always outside Him.  It is from God’s desire to be known that we search for Him.  It is God who initiates, motivates and guides the seeking soul to Him to be found, which is, again, finding oneself.  Not only is God within my interiority; it is from the God within that the power comes which draws me back inwardly to myself, and so to God.  God is, then, also within the searching and not just the object of it.
        What I am saying is that, in a profound sense, if to find God is to find one's true self, then to forget God is to forget one’s true self.  To forget oneself is to be lost because one is no longer centered, as if the earth thought it was the center of the solar system, as the ego thinks it is the center of the self.  I am “outside” or “beside myself”, i.e. alienated from myself, when in a state of spiritual self-ignorance and unrecognition. Baha’u’llah asks us to: “Consider, moreover, how frequently doth man become forgetful of his own self, whilst God remaineth, through His all-encompassing knowledge, aware of His creature, and continueth to shed upon him the manifest radiance of His glory.” (Gleanings from the Writings of Baha'u'llah: 185)  God, being with us even when we are not with Him, is eternally “more friend to me than I am to myself.” (Compilations, Baha'i Prayers: 151)

The knowledge which God has of Himself is not the unknown essence of the human reality, but the unknowable essence of this self, and when we forget or are ignorant of this we forget where we are in relation to Him. Rather, we are in a wilderness of ignorance, thinking it knowledge.   His call to the deepest interiority of the human self is His call to that similitude of Himself existing there.  Baha’u’llah declares: “Turn thy sight unto thyself, that thou mayest find Me standing within thee, mighty, powerful and self-subsisting.” (The Arabic Hidden Words #13)

From the other side, His call to us recalls His relation to us in the form of a warning.  Baha’u’llah admonishes: “And yet again He revealeth: "And be ye not like those who forget God, and whom He hath therefore caused to forget their own selves.' In this connection, He Who is the eternal King—may the souls of all that dwell within the mystic Tabernacle be a sacrifice unto Him—hath spoken: "He hath known God who hath known himself." (Gleanings from the Writings of Baha'u'llah: 178)

All desires are desires, however faint the echo, of our desire to recognize God, which is the basis of our reunion with God.  Reunion with God is the deepest longing of the human heart, and reunion is achieved when recognition occurs.  Bahá’u’lláh wrote to an inquirer: “The root of all principles and the cornerstone of all foundations hath ever been, and shall remain, the recognition of God.” (Tabernacle of Unity: 24-25)  To be unaware of that Interior Reality is to be unaware of the greatest part of oneself. 

The lack of real and lasting satisfaction with any answer but God to our quest for God-likeness drives spiritual growth to ever deeper levels of interiority.   Recognition often happens through what traditional theology called the via negativa, the way of negation.  That means that the frustration and dissatisfaction with any answer but God gradually sharpens the outline of the object of true desire.  Every failure to find God more clearly defines that desire and increases the desire for Him.  This negative knowledge is, of course, all we can have directly of God.  We cannot know God in His essence, and we know His attributes as positive knowledge through the Revelators. The negative knowledge is a counterpart to the positive and together they form a manifest union that reflects the primal unity of essence/attributes.

The recognition of God is of a knowledge that is already present within us.  In one of His prayers Bahá’u’lláh wrote: “I give Thee thanks inasmuch as Thou hast called me into being in Thy days, and infused into me Thy love and Thy knowledge.” (Prayers and Meditations by Baha'u'llah: 177) 

Here, at this recognition scene, which is the opening to eternity, we again come to what seems to be a paradox.  Namely, though knowledge of God is already present, when recognized it is not a memory, but the first and fundamental experience.  This is the “point” of juncture at which the deepest interiority intersects, as it were, the eternally objective.  The highest point spiritually is actually the center of radiant spirit.  Carmel, the mountain of God, was traditionally said to be the point on earth where the human and divine worlds intersect.  According to Bahá’i teachings, Carmel is, geographically, the center of the world, and, spiritually, the pivot of nine concentric circles encompassing the globe. (See Shoghi Effendi, Citadel of Faith: 95)

The cause of recognition of God is the Revelation of God.  Recognition takes place in two separate but inseparable aspects.  One could say, then, that there are two kinds or even stages of spirituality—soul-searching and soul-making.  Bahá’u’lláh explains in The Kitab-i-Aqdas: “The first duty prescribed by God for His servants is the recognition of Him Who is the Dayspring of His Revelation and the Fountain of His laws, Who representeth the Godhead in both the Kingdom of His Cause and the world of creation. Whoso achieveth this duty hath attained unto all good; and whoso is deprived thereof hath gone astray, though he be the author of every righteous deed. It behoveth every one who reacheth this most sublime station, this summit of transcendent glory, to observe every ordinance of Him Who is the Desire of the world. These twin duties are inseparable. Neither is acceptable without the other. Thus hath it been decreed by Him Who is the Source of Divine inspiration.” (The Kitab-i-Aqdas: 19)

When the soul has recognized God it has recognized its own God-likeness and it will show forth God-like attributes.  It has found itself, because it is re-centered on God.  There is no higher/deeper stage.