Thou didst wish to make
Thyself known unto men; therefore, Thou didst, through a word of Thy mouth,
bring creation into being and fashion the universe.
(Baha'u'llah, Prayers
and Meditations by Baha'u'llah: 6)
The fundamental purpose of the entire universe is,
according to the above statement, for human beings to know God. The universe is the physical part of
creation, fashioned to be a kind of laboratory of spiritual discovery. To know God requires a special power of
knowing, since it is clear that the animals, plants and minerals know nothing of
God, and, if we could ask them, would likely say they don’t care about knowing.
So who are these creatures that God wants to reveal
Himself to so they will know Him and how did God fashion them to know Him? Let’s take the second question first.
In one of His Hidden Words Baha’u’llah reveals the inner
thoughts of the Mind of God: “Veiled in My immemorial being and in the ancient
eternity of My essence, I knew My love for thee; therefore I created thee, have
engraved on thee Mine image and revealed to thee My beauty.” (Arabic
Hidden Words #3)
Intellect, or Mind, is the way that God creates the universe
out of His love for Man. Of Mind ‘Abdu’l-Baha says: “This supreme
emblem of God stands first in the order of creation and first in rank, taking
precedence over all created things. Witness to it is the Holy Tradition,
"Before all else, God created the mind." From the dawn of creation,
it was made to be revealed in the temple of man.” (The Secret of Divine
Civilization: 1)
Now this Mind which is first created is not
your mind or my mind, but the universal Mind of the Manifestations.
‘Abdu’l-Baha explains: “The first thing
which emanated from God is that universal reality, which the ancient
philosophers termed the "First Mind," and which the people of Baha
call the "First Will." This emanation, in that which concerns its
action in the world of God, is not limited by time or place; it is without
beginning or end—beginning and end in relation to God are one. The preexistence
of God is the preexistence of essence, and also preexistence of time, and the
phenomenality of contingency is essential and not temporal, as we have already
explained one day at table.”
As great as this First Mind
is, the Master goes on: “Though the ‘First Mind’ is without beginning, it does
not become a sharer in the preexistence of God, for the existence of the
universal reality in relation to the existence of God is nothingness, and it
has not the power to become an associate of God and like unto Him in
preexistence.” (Some Answered Questions: 203)
About the human creation the Master states: “He
has chosen the reality of man and has honored it with intellect and
wisdom.” (The Secret of Divine
Civilization: 1) Our
intellectual endowment is part of what is meant by the human reality being made
in the image and after the likeness of God and His Manifestations. But
the human intellect, however powerful, is a pale reflection of the infinite
divine Mind or Will, which is first created.
Yet,
we must always recognize that, as the lead quote says, Love is prior, even
before Mind. Love was already there for Mind to know. Love is the uncreated substance
from which Mind creates all aspects of the universe, because Mind or Intellect
knows God’s Love for His creation within His own essence. Thus, for me, when ‘Abdu’l-Baha says “The
reality of man is his thought” (Paris
Talks: 17) it implies both that we think best about what we truly love most
and we love best what we think about most.
We may be thinking beings, but first we are loving beings. Our best thinking grows out of love, in
imitation of our Creator. Too, when He
states: “Knowledge is love” ("Star of the West" Vol. 20, No. 10, p.
314) it is because Mind comes forth from love.
‘Abdu’l-Baha
wrote this powerful paean to the power of Love in its many contexts (I have
bold-faced those statements that bear directly on my theme): “Know thou of a
certainty that Love is the secret of God's holy Dispensation, the manifestation
of the All-Merciful, the fountain of spiritual outpourings. Love is heaven's
kindly light, the Holy Spirit's eternal breath that vivifieth the human soul.
Love is the cause of God's revelation unto man, the vital bond inherent, in accordance with the divine creation, in the
realities of things. Love is the one
means that ensureth true felicity both in this world and the next. Love is the
light that guideth in darkness, the living link that uniteth God with man, that
assureth the progress of every illumined soul. Love is the most great law that ruleth this mighty and heavenly cycle,
the unique power that bindeth together the divers elements of this material world,
the supreme magnetic force that directeth the movements of the spheres in the
celestial realms. Love revealeth with
unfailing and limitless power the mysteries latent in the universe. Love is the spirit of life unto the adorned body of
mankind, the establisher of true civilization in this mortal world, and the
shedder of imperishable glory upon every high-aiming race and nation.” (Selections from the Writings of Abdu'l-Baha:
27)
Creation
is the bringing forth by Mind of all the qualities latent in God’s Love. Said another way, while the substance of all
things is the same in essence, (i.e. all physical things come forth from the
primal matter which is the physical and mental counterpart to divine Love)
creation is the imprint of formal cause upon material cause, knowledge upon
love. Love and intellect form a pair of
opposites on every level, and the union of these opposites is so that their
underlying oneness may become manifest.
The
fundamental qualities and essential connections of the universe, (i.e. the
spiritual foundation of the creation) are, in their full primal unity, the
names and attributes of God and the inherent relations existing between them. Every Revelation reconfigures these on the
plane of manifestation, creating the knowledge of God, which is the essence of
all knowledge. 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)
Every
name and attribute of God is within all created things, because each and every
one of His qualities is universal and permeates the entire creation; each
created thing bearing and expressive of both a single Name of God in its
essence and, in its relations, a unique configuration of all God’s Names and
attributes. Baha’u’llah says, for
example: “Every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God is endowed with
such potency as can instill new life into every human frame, if ye be of them
that comprehend this truth. All the wondrous works ye behold in this world have
been manifested through the operation of His supreme and most exalted Will, His
wondrous and inflexible Purpose. Through the mere revelation of the word
“Fashioner,” issuing forth from His lips and proclaiming His attribute to
mankind, such power is released as can generate, through successive ages, all
the manifold arts which the hands of man can produce. This, verily, is a
certain truth. No sooner is this resplendent word uttered, than its animating
energies, stirring within all created things, give birth to the means and
instruments whereby such arts can be produced and perfected. All the wondrous
achievements ye now witness are the direct consequences of the Revelation of
this Name. In the days to come, ye will, verily, behold things of which ye have
never heard before. Thus hath it been decreed in the Tablets of God, and none
can comprehend it except them whose sight is sharp.” (Gleanings
from the Writings of Bahá’u’lláh: 141 – 142)
No comments:
Post a Comment