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.