The Eclipse of Distance and the End of Time

Lo, the Nightingale of Paradise singeth upon the twigs of the Tree of Eternity, with holy and sweet melodies, proclaiming to the sincere ones the glad tidings of the nearness of God,

(Compilations, Baha'i Prayers: 208)

The extraordinary point is that in all the arts—painting, poetry, fiction, music—the modernist impulse has a common syntax of expression underlying the diverse nature of the genres.  It is, as I have said, the eclipse of distance between the spectator and the artist, between the aesthetic experience and the work of art.  One sees this as the eclipse of psychic distance, and aesthetic distance.   The loss of psychic distance means the suspension of time.

(Daniel Bell, The Cultural Contradictions of Capitalism: 116)

Last post discussed the end of time as the irruption of divine Revelation, which Baha’u’llah describes in the quote above as bringing Paradise or God near, into the already established rhythm of human life that is known within a particular mental space of consciousness.  A new Revelation both brings this rhythm to an end and initiates a new one, and abolishes the mental space that knew it.  It does this by joining and knitting together the opposites Spirit and Matter into a system of new universal relationships, creating a new Reality to be known by the consciousness that can know it and which it gives birth to within those who recognize it.  Direct connection of the opposites B and E in a new configuration, embodied in a new Revelation, which is the nearness of God, reconfigures all levels of understanding and gives people the sense of an eclipse of distance in many spheres of life and thought.  When the spiritual Paradise is brought nigh, a powerful current of spiritually electric energy pulsates through all creation.

Spiritually, within the human world, the eclipse of distance means that for those who have recognized the new Reality the higher nature of humanity has eclipsed the ego.  Intellectually, it renders obsolete all non-essential knowledge in human life, those concepts and modes of understanding that cannot deliver accurate knowledge of the new Reality, but which, in fact, act as veils to the comprehension of the new configuration.  This is not to go back to a more primitive state in history, but to return to essential humanity in order to integrate and advance.

Baha’u’llah dismissed the claims to knowledge of a “learned” but arrogant man of His time by writing: “In this day, they that are submerged beneath the ocean of ancient Knowledge, and dwell within the ark of divine wisdom, forbid the people such idle pursuits. Their shining breasts are, praise be to God, sanctified from every trace of such learning, and are exalted above such grievous veils. We have consumed this densest of all veils, with the fire of the love of the Beloved—the veil referred to in the saying: 'The most grievous of all veils is the veil of knowledge.' Upon its ashes, We have reared the tabernacle of divine knowledge. We have, praise be to God, burned the 'veils of glory' with the fire of the beauty of the Best-Beloved. We have driven from the human heart all else but Him Who is the Desire of the world, and glory therein. We cleave to no knowledge but His Knowledge, and set our hearts on naught save the effulgent glories of His light.” (The Kitab-i-Iqan: 187)

For most people, however, the spiritual event of Paradise brought nigh is experienced historically, psychologically and aesthetically as an eclipse of distance, but without knowing the source. That is, many who do not believe or recognize the new Reality or the Source of it nonetheless know that something significant is happening and respond to it as they know how.   In all examples where the human heart is inspired or becomes restless and seeks new experience, but does not know or recognize the source of its search and unrest, it sees itself as the originator of the spirit animating human life.  Here eclipse of distance is attempted by the imperial self, who wishes to be God.  It is the eclipse of distance as the eclipse of God Himself, at least the need for Him to advance one’s consciousness, by the enshrouding ego fantasy. 

For them the eclipse of distance is a new conception of space. But it is, too, a new dynamic of speed.  This has emotional reverberations, for the speed of change in human life and society does not encourage people to think and contemplate but, rather, to seek the immediacy of intense experience, ecstasy, and peak experiences.  The emphasis on sensation, immediacy, simultaneity, disjunction, impact and action provide the formal cultural syntax for the arts.  The goal is to reach an identity between emotion and object.  The transitive elements come to be emphasized.  Such art and the theory of it is discussed in such books as The True Voice of Feeling by Herbert Read.

This modern cultural and artistic syntax reflects the new social reality brought about by technology such as the internet, social media, and jet transport which manifest the eclipse of distance geographically and culturally.  As Daniel Bell describes it: “In the new conception of space, there is an inherent eclipse of distance.  Not only is physical distance compressed by the newer modes of modern transportation, creating a new emphasis on travel and the visual pleasure of seeing so many different places, but the very techniques of the new arts, principally cinema and modern painting, act to eclipse the psychic and aesthetic distance between the viewer and the visual experience.”  The modern arts, he goes on, “are efforts to intensify the immediacy of the emotion, to pull the spectator into the action rather than allow him to contemplate the experience.” (The Cultural Contradictions of Capitalism: 104) 

That is, the eclipse of distance in the arts is the dissolving of aesthetic form in order to involve the observer in the work itself, to invite him through his response to be a co-creator of the work, to obliterate any supposed gap between art and life.    

The eclipse of psychological distance occurs with the collapse of the intellectual space between subject and object that is characteristic of cognition and language.  It is the dissolving of a dominant form of objective rational thought and mind and, in part, a return to feeling and the heart to erase the traditional distinction between subject and object—to create a new interactive, shared unity. This compressing, almost fusion, of the subject and the object breaks down old identities and opens up new spaces of involvement. 

The physics of quantum mechanics has determined that the observer changes what he observes and is thus, really, a participator.  Observation of things becomes the on-going observation/participation in reality through observation of oneself observing things.

A like movement in theoretical thought occurs in the humanities and social sciences with the notion of reflexivity.  Reflexivity is the name given to a mode of thought in which the person engages in self-consciousness monitoring of his behavior.  Reflexivity per se is not peculiar to a post-traditional society.  It has always formed an integral part of the self and social relations of some individuals.  However, some sociologists, like Anthony Giddens, argue that a different sense of reflexivity can be attributed to post-traditional societies.  In today’s world, reflexivity consists also in the fact that social practices are also constantly examined and reformed in the light of incoming information about those very practices, thus constitutively altering their character.  Only in the modern era is reflexivity applied, at least in principle, to all aspects of human life.  The self is also further changed in this reflexive activity. The hold of tradition loses its salience irretrievably and the self is continually interrogated.  It becomes separated from the meaningful, if relatively unquestioned, context it had in previous times been immersed in.  New identities are forged, new social relations are tried.  But, without any new context to transform into, the experiments are groping in the dark for a new anchor.

For me, without the overarching context of life, order and thought provided by the Revelation, all these social, technological, artistic and intellectual innovations are the soul’s attempt to experience and understand the new reality directly, but without any guide or mediation. It is the human attempt to fuse what only the Manifestation can bring together.  For the human reality can never achieve the station of divinity and join and knit together the opposites B and the E.  It can only discover their connections.  

The End of Time and the Eclipse of Distance

The ocean of divine mercy is surging, the vernal showers are descending, the Sun of Reality is shining gloriously. Heavenly teachings applicable to the advancement in human conditions have been revealed in this merciful age. This reformation and renewal of the fundamental reality of religion constitute the true and outworking spirit of modernism, the unmistakable light of the world, the manifest effulgence of the Word of God, the divine remedy for all human ailment and the bounty of eternal life to all mankind.”

(Abdu'l-Baha, The Promulgation of Universal Peace, p. 439)

The title reflects the content of the next two posts.  The end of time and the eclipse of distance are twin but distinct aspects of one phenomenal event, as I hope to show.  This post is about the end of time as an experienced and expected rhythm of events. The next post explores more deeply the idea of the eclipse of distance, which disrupts this rhythm. This one focuses upon the revolutionizing power of Revelation, the other one is humanity’s response without knowledge of the impact and configuring power of Revelation

The reformation and renewal of the fundamental reality of religion, which is the central reality of human existence since the essence of religion is the linking of the realities of Spirit and Matter into a new configuration of universal relationships, has had two effects: disintegration and integration. Integration is from what Baha’u’llah calls Paradise being brought nigh.  This, in turn, results in hell blazing up in a fury of disintegration stemming from those holding positions of power and authority trying to hold on to a rapidly fading reality.  Both are primary aspects of the establishment of a new order.  Paradise is the social, moral and spiritual pattern that humanity is to grow into, while the blazes of hell burn away the social obstacles, spiritual veils, and barriers of consciousness blocking the realization of that goal. 

Baha’u’llah points to both of these effects: “I testify that no sooner had the First Word proceeded, through the potency of Thy will and purpose, out of His mouth, and the First Call gone forth from His lips than the whole creation was revolutionized, and all that are in the heavens and all that are on earth were stirred to the depths. Through that Word the realities of all created things were shaken, were divided, separated, scattered, combined and reunited, disclosing, in both the contingent world and the heavenly kingdom, entities of a new creation, and revealing, in the unseen realms, the signs and tokens of Thy unity and oneness. Through that Call Thou didst announce unto all Thy servants the advent of Thy most great Revelation and the appearance of Thy most perfect Cause.

No sooner had that Revelation been unveiled to men's eyes than the signs of universal discord appeared among the peoples of the world, and commotion seized the dwellers of earth and heaven, and the foundations of all things were shaken. The forces of dissension were released, the meaning of the Word was unfolded, and every several atom in all created things acquired its own distinct and separate character. Hell was made to blaze, and the delights of Paradise were uncovered to men's eyes.” (Prayers and Meditations by Baha'u'llah: 295-296)

All consciousness takes place in mental “space”, an internal, intellectual world analogous to that outer physical space in which actual bodies move.  In this mental space are the objects of knowledge whose counterparts are both in the outer world and in a deeper inner spiritual world, making mind intermediate to matter and spirit.  Perhaps the brain receives images sent from the eyes, but also projected from the mind, since all around us is the work of mind, and sends them back.

But when paradise is brought nigh, i.e. the proclamation of a new Revelation, a new psychological situation, what sociologist Daniel Bell called the eclipse of distance, is created. The eclipse of distance is the fusion of opposites in a new configuration that breaks up the established mental space because it creates a new one.  A certain loss of consciousness—at least as it has been known and defined—occurs.  But this is the prelude to the construction of a new mental space because a new consciousness is emerging.  There is no way to perceive this new creation except via experience and direct perception.  One cannot intellectually reason to it.  Rather the opposite occurs; one gets farther away, because reasoning can, at this early stage, only go on within the disappearing space of mind.  The frustration and paralysis is hell blazing.

Paradise is brought nigh so that the soul may make the leap of faith not out of consciousness but into greater consciousness, into the spirit of faith.  It is knowledge by faith and vision, not intellect.  Knowledge by faith is defined in Hebrews 11:1-3 as the “substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things unseen”.  The substance of things hoped for is the object of faith: the action that comes from and is driven by hope itself.  That is, faith, not mere wish or desire, is the actual substance of things hoped for.  The emphasis is not on unfounded hope, but on actuality.  The evidence of things unseen is the visible sign of an invisible spiritual reality, so that one may act with certainty.  Thus, the action of faith is not of the fingers-crossed “I hope that this works” variety but, rather, “I know this to be true for certain (certitude) for its early signs are already manifest."  Faith as conscious knowledge is founded upon this condition of certitude.  Behind faith, then, and even giving it life and form and direction, is a true vision of Reality.  The essence of faith is fewness of words and abundance of deeds, so the essence of faith is an action in conformity with one’s own or a higher vision than one’s own. 

Direct connection, the fusing of opposites in new configuration, is the work of the Manifestation.  The eclipse of distance as I am using the term refers, first, to His abolition of the accumulation of human concepts about God that create an artificial distance between Him and human beings in their minds and systems of belief.  Paradise brought nigh refers to the fact that a new Revelation has been given to humanity, has received verbal and written form and is present in the world, along with Its Revealer. 

When He “brings Paradise nigh” and the human heart responds in truth, then He manifestly shines within the human reality.   That is, when the heart opens the Reality already within it shines forth.  Direct connection is experienced as this eclipse of distance that is the immediate and certain recognition of the Reality that has always been within.  In literature this moment is called the “recognition scene.” 

Baha’u’llah wrote: “O My servants! The one true God is My witness! This most great, this fathomless and surging Ocean is near, astonishingly near, unto you. Behold it is closer to you than your life-vein! Swift as the twinkling of an eye ye can, if ye but wish it, reach and partake of this imperishable favor, this God-given grace, this incorruptible gift, this most potent and unspeakably glorious bounty.” (Gleanings from the Writings of Baha'u'llah: 326)

Also: “Meditate on what the poet hath written: "Wonder not, if my Best-Beloved be closer to me than mine own self; wonder at this, that I, despite such nearness, should still be so far from Him."... Considering what God hath revealed, that "We are closer to man than his life-vein," the poet hath, in allusion to this verse, stated that, though the revelation of my Best-Beloved hath so permeated my being that He is closer to me than my life-vein, yet, notwithstanding my certitude of its reality and my recognition of my station, I am still so far removed from Him. By this he meaneth that his heart, which is the seat of the All-Merciful and the throne wherein abideth the splendor of His revelation, is forgetful of its Creator, hath strayed from His path, hath shut out itself from His glory, and is stained with the defilement of earthly desires.” (Gleanings from the Writings of Baha'u'llah: 185)

Consummation: A New (and opposite) Order

According to an intrinsic law all phenomena of being attain to a summit and degree of consummation, after which a new order and condition is established. As the instruments and science of war have reached the degree of thoroughness and proficiency, it is hoped that the transformation of the human world is at hand and that in the coming centuries all the energies and inventions of man will be utilized in promoting the interests of peace and brotherhood.

(Abdu'l-Baha, The Promulgation of Universal Peace: 124)

In the mid-nineteenth century, Baha’u’llah wrote: “The winds of despair are, alas, blowing from every direction, and the strife that divideth and afflicteth the human race is daily increasing. The signs of impending convulsions and chaos can now be discerned, inasmuch as the prevailing order appeareth to be lamentably defective.” (Tablets of Baha'u'llah: 171)

One reason He wrote this was that He perceived that humanity had broken from its essential power of unity, making its order defective.  He wrote: “The greater the decline of religion, the more grievous the waywardness of the ungodly. This cannot but lead in the end to chaos and confusion.” (Tablets of Baha'u'llah: 63)  And: “Should the lamp of religion be obscured, chaos and confusion will ensue, and the lights of fairness and justice, of tranquillity and peace cease to shine.” (Tablets of Baha'u'llah: 125)

Whenever the unifying power of religion is broken, humanity separates and disunifies as far as possible.  This is both the end of time and the time of the end.  But this lack of spirituality calls forth a new Revelation, and the great distance is eclipsed, for the opposites unite.  Or, better, as ‘Abdu’l-Baha says above, one process is joined and knit to its opposite and, the two become one, the process itself completes and transforms into a new order.  It is, at once, the end, or consummation, of transformations and the beginning of a new order.  The end of transformation signifies the two meanings of consummation, the final state of something, and burning up as by a devouring flame.  When opposites join a great force is released which is both integrative and disintegrative.  It is similar, in my mind, to a nuclear fusion reaction in which nuclei combine, through force and heat, to form more massive nuclei with the simultaneous release of energy.   

Direct connection has two states or conditions.  These states are identity and transformation, essential and existential.  The existential spring from and are built upon the essential: the various configurations of these laws as cosmological creations.  But the essential reappear in a new configuration when transformations that characterize a cycle of growth are completed, and transformations are completed when the uniting of opposites, the union of polarities, the reconciling of contradictions, occurs.

The state of identity is pre-existent and unchanging, the eternal “B” and “E” joined and knit together as the primal creation.  This is the unchanging structure of the universe, the archetypal, pre-harmony of relations joining the spiritual and the material.  Other names for this condition are, I believe, terms that ‘Abdu’l-Baha uses, such as, “inherent relations” “essential connection”, “necessary connection”, “essential properties” and “necessary relations”.

These inherent relations and essential connections are, in their primal unity, the revealed names and qualities of God.  Baha’u’llah wrote: “Whatever is in the heavens and whatever is on the earth is a direct evidence of the revelation within it of the attributes and names of God, inasmuch as within every atom are enshrined the signs that bear eloquent testimony to the revelation of that Most Great Light. Methinks, but for the potency of that revelation, no being could ever exist. How resplendent the luminaries of knowledge that shine in an atom, and how vast the oceans of wisdom that surge within a drop!....From that which hath been said it becometh evident that all things, in their inmost reality, testify to the revelation of the names and attributes of God within them. Each according to its capacity, indicateth, and is expressive of, the knowledge of God. So potent and universal is this revelation, that it hath encompassed all things visible and invisible. (Gleanings from the Writings of Baha'u'llah: 177-178)  “Know thou,” He says in another place, “that every created thing is a sign of the revelation of God. Each, according to its capacity, is, and will ever remain, a token of the Almighty. Inasmuch as He, the sovereign Lord of all, hath willed to reveal His sovereignty in the kingdom of names and attributes, each and every created thing hath, through the act of the Divine Will, been made a sign of His glory. So pervasive and general is this revelation that nothing whatsoever in the whole universe can be discovered that doth not reflect His splendor. Under such conditions every consideration of proximity and remoteness is obliterated.” (Gleanings from the Writings of Baha'u'llah: 184)

But the second state, the relations of transformation, which are the relations perceptible by human beings, are the progressive unfoldment in the material universe of the potentialities inherent in these pre-existing relations by the configuring power of progressive Revelation, the revealed thought of God. ‘Abdu’l-Baha referred to this when He wrote: “Praise and thanksgiving be unto Providence that out of all the realities in existence He has chosen the reality of man and has honored it with intellect and wisdom, the two most luminous lights in either world. Through the agency of this great endowment, He has in every epoch cast on the mirror of creation new and wonderful configurations. If we look objectively upon the world of being, it will become apparent that from age to age, the temple of existence has continually been embellished with a fresh grace, and distinguished with an ever-varying splendor, deriving from wisdom and the power of thought.” (The Secret of Divine Civilization: 1)

Again, these divine intellectual forms are, in the Platonic sense, eternal and unchanging, but their variations of connections are progressive and possibly infinite.

Transformations in the forms of Reality are the consequences on every level of being of a new joining and knitting together of the eternal “B” and the “E” to create BE, the commingling of, in some sense, the eternal and the temporal, the beginning and the ending.   In this light let us recall that the Bab is the One “Whom Thou hast appointed as the Announcer of the One through Whose name the letter B and the letter E have been joined and united,…”(Prayers and Meditations by Baha'u'llah: 84)

While the substance of all things is the same in essence, (i.e. all physical things come forth from the primal matter, creation is the imprint of formal cause (the new Revelation) upon material cause (primal matter), knowledge upon love) the first creation itself is of pairs of opposites on every level, and the progressive union of these opposites is so that the underlying oneness may become manifest.  ‘Abdu’l-Baha, wrote: “From separation doth every kind of hurt and harm proceed, but the union of created things doth ever yield most laudable results. From the pairing of even the smallest particles in the world of being are the grace and bounty of God made manifest; and the higher the degree, the more momentous is the union. 'Glory be to Him Who hath created all the pairs, of such things as earth produceth, and out of men themselves, and of things beyond their ken.'  And above all other unions is that between human beings, especially when it cometh to pass in the love of God. Thus is the primal oneness made to appear; thus is laid the foundation of love in the spirit.” (Selections from the Writings of Abdu'l-Baha: 119)

This pairing of things, He says, is even shown forth in the Qur'án 36:35: "Glory be to Him Who has created all the pairs: of such things as the earth produceth, and of themselves; and of things which they know not"—that is to say, men, animals and plants are all in pairs—"and of everything have We created two kinds"—that is to say, We have created all the beings through pairing.” (Some Answered Questions: 87) 

Direct Connection

The meaning is that the life of the Kingdom is the life of the spirit, the eternal life, and that it is purified from place, like the spirit of man which has no place. For if you examine the human body, you will not find a special spot or locality for the spirit, for it has never had a place; it is immaterial. It has a connection with the body like that of the sun with this mirror. The sun is not within the mirror, but it has a connection with the mirror.

In the same way the world of the Kingdom is sanctified from everything that can be perceived by the eye or by the other senses—hearing, smell, taste or touch. 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.

(Abdu'l-Baha, Some Answered Questions: 242)

Direct connection refers to the relations connecting opposites either between levels of reality, between kingdoms within one level of reality, or upon one level of reality.  Thus, direct connection has many levels and stations.  Direct connection of opposites upon the same level of reality is not hard to grasp.  This kind of direct connection appears in the body’s systems of reciprocity that create a unity of opposites, so that one thing changes into its opposite in the system, like the exchange of air within the lungs, or the union of arteries and veins at the capillary level of circulation, when the blood reaches the furthermost limit, both in space and in oxygen, to begin the return trip to the heart and lungs and replenish its oxygen.  The two systems together work synchronically as one.  It is the union of opposites in reciprocal flow and action, where one requires the other, which is its opposite, as do all paired opposites, such as day/night, hot/cold.  But it occurs through the operations and sustaining power of a intermediating structure.  “An intermediary is needed to bring two extremes into relation with each other. Riches and poverty, plenty and need: without an intermediary power there could be no relation between these pairs of opposites.” (Abdu'l-Baha, Paris Talks: 58)

These are examples on a single plane, within one system and context, but they indicate by analogy the nature of another union of opposites: those between levels of being within a level of reality, the uniting of systems and contexts, as the sun’s relation to the mirror.  These are more difficult to grasp.

In all cases, direct connection is not an one-way event or movement of energy, but a relation between two things in the identity of two things as one, because each is an aspect of something larger than both.  It is the Glorious structure where “these two are the same, yet they are different.” (Tablets of Baha’u’llah: 140)  Both the sun and the mirror are physical things, but their relation, unlike that of capillaries, for example, is through an invisible medium.  Their relation is one of resonance, not actual physical union.  Here, direct connection emphasizes the relation of two distinct entities connecting through and because of a more subtle field of energy and structure holding the two together in resonant harmony, like entangled photons acting and reacting simultaneously in an universal medium across great distances of stellar space.  Resonance always implies cause and effect between formal and final cause, a harmonic relation one with another, even with oneself in object and subject.

Though two entities or things can be primarily identified as two different things, even, in some cases, as different orders of being, they have also an indirect and more essential relation with each other through the medium of the environment, which is the greater power perceived from the vantage point of the separate realities themselves.  That is, from one view, every created thing is only itself in relation with other things and, from another, is a manifestation of the environment or essential organizing principles.  However, this mental distinction collapses into an actual embracing unity if we hold both views simultaneously and think of each created thing as an unique configuration of the essential principles that create everything.  Since all direct connection is so by virtue of the two-way flow, the union in this case is one of procession and return; input/output, or other such metaphors.  But procession and return follow the path of direct connection. 

The relation holds between God and His creation: “All things proceed from God and unto Him they return. He is the source of all things and in Him all things are ended.” Kitáb-i-Aqdas: 72.)

It holds between the soul and the Manifestation of God, and the sun and all created things:  “Every man endued with insight among Thy servants is persuaded that my self liveth eternally and can never perish, inasmuch as remembrance of Thee is eternal and will endure so long as Thine own Self endureth, and Thy praise is everlasting and will last as long as Thine own sovereignty will last. By its means Thou art glorified by such of Thy chosen ones as call upon Thee and by the sincere among Thy servants. Nay, the praise wherewith any one, in the entire creation, praiseth Thee proceedeth from this exalted self and returneth unto it, even as the sun which, while it shineth, sheddeth its splendor upon whatsoever may be exposed to its rays. From this sun is generated, and unto it must return, the light which is shed over all things.” (Baha'u'llah, Prayers and Meditations by Baha'u'llah: 127)

It also holds between a created thing and its return to existence in some manner.  Baha’u’llah answered one inquirer on this point: “As to the Return, as God hath purposed in His sacred and exalted Tablets wherein He hath made this theme known unto His servants; by this is meant the return of all created things in the Day of Resurrection, and this is indeed the essence of the Return as thou hast witnessed in God's own days and thou art of them that testify to this truth.... And this Return is realized at His behest in whatever form He willeth. Indeed He is the One Who doeth and ordaineth all things. .” (Tablets of Baha'u'llah: 183-184)

But it is not the actual thing that returns, but a something that returns in new form: “That which hath been in existence had existed before, but not in the form thou seest today.” (Tablets of Baha'u'llah: 140)  It is not reincarnation, but a new creation, a new configuration of essential qualities.  Because everything returns in new form, past and future are also in a relation of direct connection, Baha’u’llah admonishing: Say: O ye that have eyes to see! The past is the mirror of the future. Gaze ye therein and be apprised thereof;” (Baha'u'llah, Tabernacle of Unity: 5)

We’ll continue to explore this foundational idea of direct connection in the next few posts.