All Knowledge is Already There

It is in Our power, should We wish it, to enable a speck of floating dust to generate, in less than the twinkling of an eye, suns of infinite, of unimaginable splendour, to cause a dewdrop to develop into vast and numberless oceans, to infuse into every letter such a force as to empower it to unfold all the knowledge of past and future ages. This, in truth, is a matter simple of accomplishment.

(Baha'u'llah, The Summons of the Lord of Hosts: 39-40)

I wrote last post: “If knowledge is attracted then it is an existing reality awaiting discovery and revelation.   It is an inherent part of the creation, even, in the form of love, the power binding all the aspects and parts of creation together.” For me, knowledge, like love and light, is a manifestation of Spiritual Reality and, therefore, a characteristic in all reality.  In this view, all knowledge is already there, both in the world and within the intelligence.  That means to me that humans don’t generate knowledge, except for each other after attracting or discovering what is revealed.  To attain a state of knowledge, then, is to become conscious of something that was there but hidden, either in Word, in the world, or in the pre-conscious.

I need now to put forth some evidence for this point of view.  But such support can never be demonstrated in human experience, for, unlike God or His Manifestations, no human being has always been eternal.  Nor can it be a philosophical assumption upholding a logically-driven argument, for it cannot be logically proven. Neither is it a scientific hypothesis to be verified or not by experiment, for science so far, has nothing to do with eternal things.  Rather it is an intuitive assertion which can only confirmed or denied by an infallible Source of knowledge.

In the opening quote above Baha’u’llah provides for me such confirmation.  He asserts that He possesses the power to infuse into every letter such a force as to empower it to unfold all the knowledge of past and future ages. What could the knowledge of future ages be except something that already exists, enfolded in the very fabric of creation?  He goes on to state, rather unapologetically: “This, in truth, is a matter simple of accomplishment. Such have been the evidences of My power from the beginning that hath no beginning until the end that hath no end. My creatures, however, have been oblivious of My power, have repudiated My sovereignty, and contended with Mine own Self, the All-Knowing, the All-Wise.” (The Summons of the Lord of Hosts: 39-40)

Knowledge is already there because all knowledge is with God.  He knows past, present, and future, not as tenses, but as a singularity of knowledge unfolding organically, in this world at least, in temporal sequence.  It unfolds organically because there are different levels and planes of meaning enfolded within creation that are unfolded by the Word, with the simpler and less profound unfolding first.  Thus, while all knowledge is already an existing reality, what can be known at any one time is a result of necessary limitations of all kinds.  The greatest of these is progressive Revelation, that series of expanding spiritual contexts created by the succession of divine Revelators bringing specific messages to humankind. On this point, Baha’u’llah remarks:  “Knowledge is all that is knowable; and might and power, all creation.” (The Kitab-i-Iqan: 185)

Yet, since all knowledge always exists, the limits of any Revelation—i.e. the knowable--is not necessarily an absolute limitation placed upon what can be known during Its time. For example, Baha’u’llah wrote about Socrates: “What a penetrating vision into philosophy this eminent man had! He is the most distinguished of all philosophers and was highly versed in wisdom. We testify that he is one of the heroes in this field and an outstanding champion dedicated unto it. He had a profound knowledge of such sciences as were current amongst men as well as of those which were veiled from their minds. Methinks he drank one draught when the Most Great Ocean overflowed with gleaming and life-giving waters.” (Tablets of Baha'u'llah: 146)  So, how did Socrates, and others down through the ages, do this?

In one of His talks in Paris, ‘Abdu’l-Baha spoke of three kinds of light.  The first kind is physical light, which enables the eyes to see the physical world.   The second kind of light He called the light of the intellect.  Of this inborn light He says: “It is the light of the intellect which gives us knowledge and understanding, and without this light the physical eyes would be useless.”

But the third light He named the Divine Light.  Its relation to the light of the human intellect is as follows: “This light of the intellect is the highest light that exists, for it is born of the Light Divine.  The light of the intellect enables us to understand and realize all that exists, but it is only the Divine Light that can give us sight for the invisible things, and which enables us to see truths that will only be visible to the world thousands of years hence.  It was the Divine Light which enabled the prophets to see two thousand years in advance what was going to take place and today we see the realization of their vision. Thus it is this Light which we must strive to seek, for it is greater than any other.

Seek with all your hearts this Heavenly Light, so that you may be enabled to understand the realities, that you may know the secret things of God, that the hidden ways may be made plain before your eyes.” (Paris Talks: 69-70)

As the Master makes clear, the divine Light becomes manifest in the human reality when the heart opens to it.  Recall, too, Baha’u’llah’s statement that the heart is the “recipient of the light of God.”  (Gleanings: 186)  It is in this same context that we can consider His quoting an Islamic Hadith: "Knowledge is a light which God casteth into the heart of whomsoever He willeth." (Baha'u'llah, The Four Valleys: 53)

Similarly, three realities compose the human reality.  Two of these, the physical body and the intellect, are universally active.  But ‘Abdu’l-Baha elucidates a third reality: “Yet there is a third reality in man, the spiritual reality. Through its medium one discovers spiritual revelations, a celestial faculty which is infinite as regards the intellectual as well as physical realms. That power is conferred upon man through the breath of the Holy Spirit. It is an eternal reality, an indestructible reality, a reality belonging to the divine, supernatural kingdom; a reality whereby the world is illumined, a reality which grants unto man eternal life. This third, spiritual reality it is which discovers past events and looks along the vistas of the future. It is the ray of the Sun of Reality. The spiritual world is enlightened through it, the whole of the Kingdom is being illumined by it. It enjoys the world of beatitude, a world which had not beginning and which shall have no end.”

“That celestial reality, the third reality of the microcosm, delivers man from the material world. Its power causes man to escape from nature's world. Escaping, he will find an illuminating reality, transcending the limited reality of man and causing him to attain to the infinitude of God, abstracting him from the world of superstitions and imaginations, and submerging him in the sea of the rays of the Sun of Reality.” (Foundations of World Unity: 51)  I believe this celestial faculty is another name for the spirit of faith.

It is worth noting that He says the “celestial faculty” is “infinite as regards the intellectual as well as physical realms”.  It is so because this celestial faculty—the spirit of faith latent in the heart—is what receives the Divine Light.  The Divine Light awakens the celestial faculty, the spirit of faith.  Knowledge is there, intelligence attains to it at every state through different modalities: senses, intellect, celestial faculty.  Each great leap—from senses to natural intellect to celestial faculty—is infinite as regards the stages below and prior to it.