THE OMNISCIENT FASHIONER

O SON OF BOUNTY! Out of the wastes of nothingness, with the clay of My command I made thee to appear, and have ordained for thy training every atom in existence and the essence of all created things.

(Baha'u'llah, The Persian Hidden Words #29)

To start again by recapping:  One way to view creation is to see it as comprising three levels: a material universe; an intellectual cosmos; the divine qualities or attributes.  The first two are creation, properly speaking. The third level, what I am calling the level of divinity, composed of the archetypal qualities of God, is, strictly speaking, not really part of creation, but is, rather, the foundation of its creative power.  I call it a level to distinguish it from the Essence of God which is unknowable.

These three levels correspond to the three levels of the human reality: body, mind and spirit or soul.  The divine level is latent within the rational, thinking human soul.  The Master says “…man has a soul in which dwells the divine spirit…(Paris Talks: 24)  Our diivinity is activated and brought into moral expression through contact with the Word of God.  Again, ‘Abdu’l-Baha states: “By mere intellectual development and power of reason, man cannot attain to his fullest degree—that is to say, by means of intellect alone he cannot accomplish the progress effected by religion….Therefore, the world of humanity must be confirmed by the breath of the Holy Spirit in order to receive universal education. Through the infusion of divine power all nations and peoples become quickened, and universal happiness is possible.” (The Promulgation of Universal Peace: 170)

Let us take a closer look at this foundational level through examining what Baha’u’llah says about two qualities of God, “the Fashioner and “the Omniscient”.  However, we must also and always context any discussion of the origin of creation with this caution from Baha’u’llah: “None can grasp the reality of the origin of creation save God, exalted be His glory, Whose knowledge embraceth all things both before and after they come into being. Creation hath neither beginning nor end, and none hath ever unravelled its mystery. Its knowledge hath ever been, and shall remain, hidden and preserved with those Who are the Repositories of divine knowledge.” (Tabernacle of Unity: 47)  I am not about to unravel the mystery of the origin of creation.  I will simply put forth some insights, gleaned from the Revelation of Baha’u’llah, “the repository of divine knowledge” and attempt to make some sense of them

Since the dawn of language and scripture, the metaphor of the Word has been the primary vehicle to explain the creation, its Creator, and knowledge.  Baha’u’llah says: “The entire creation hath been called into being through the Will of God, magnified be His glory, and peerless Adam hath been fashioned through the agency of His all-compelling Word, a Word which is the source, the wellspring, the repository, and the dawning-place of the intellect. From it all creation hath proceeded, and it is the channel of God's primal grace.” (Tabernacle of Unity: 47)

The same relation between will, or volition, creativity, and knowledge holds for the human reality.  ‘Abdu’l-Baha is reported to have said: “Will is the centre or focus of human understanding. We must will to know God, just as we must will in order to possess the life He has given us. The human will must be subdued and trained into the will of God. It is a great power to have a strong will, but a greater power to give that will to God. The will is what we do, the understanding is what we know. Will and understanding must be one in the cause of God. Intention brings attainment.” ('Abdu'l-Bahá: Ten Days in the Light of Acca: 30)

The two attributes of God, “the Fashioner”, i.e. His Will expressed through His Word and “the Omniscient”, i.e. the All-knowing One, pervade the world and history, eternity and temporality, folded in and unfolding out.  It is knowing, Omniscient, and doing, Fashioner.

About God’s Name “the Fashioner” Baha’u’llah wrote: “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.”

He goes on to say his about the divine quality of Omniscience: “In like manner, the moment the word expressing My attribute "The Omniscient" issueth forth from My mouth, every created thing will, according to its capacity and limitations, be invested with the power to unfold the knowledge of the most marvelous sciences, and will be empowered to manifest them in the course of time at the bidding of Him Who is the Almighty, the All-Knowing. Know thou of a certainty that the Revelation of every other Name is accompanied by a similar manifestation of Divine power. Every single letter proceeding out of the mouth of God is indeed a mother letter, and every word uttered by Him Who is the Well Spring of Divine Revelation is a mother word, and His Tablet a Mother Tablet. Well is it with them that apprehend this truth.” (Gleanings from the Writings of Baha'u'llah: 141)

Again, He starts with the primacy of the union of the Will and the Word, power and knowledge.  These generate human arts (Fashioner) and sciences (Omniscient) which reflect Them. It is interesting to me that in this statement, in regards to knowledge itself, humans are not mentioned as necessary to its appearance.  God and His creation alone are mentioned, with humans of course being part of the creation.  Created things themselves are “invested with the power to unfold the knowledge of the most marvelous sciences”, and they, that is the created things, “will be empowered to manifest them in the course of time…”  The scientific knowledge to be unfolded is, in essence, the knowledge that God has of His creation. Divine knowledge, Baha’u’llah stated above, “embraceth all things both before and after they come into being” There is a double dose of power put into the universe.  First, once “The Omniscient” is mentioned, every created thing is invested with power to unfold marvelous sciences.  But being invested with power to do something is not the same as being able to do it.  Will is also necessary, along with an instrument to effect the purpose of the Will.  Hence, secondly, these same created things holding this knowledge “will be empowered to manifest” their knowledge in the course of time.  How?: through human arts and sciences.  And knowledge manifests “at the bidding of Him Who is the Almighty, the All-Knowing.” i.e. the Fashioner through uttering the Word.

We humans don’t “get” or “acquire” real knowledge through some sort of appropriation. It is not ours!  Rather, we discover knowledge (Scientia) when it manifests!!!  But to say that it can manifest is to say that it is already there awaiting the conditions of its manifestation.  We reflect this knowledge in our mind or heart.  How? We tune in to its vibration, attain to that state.  The Master states: “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: 108)  We learn knowledge when we become open to its manifestation.   Not appropriation, but cooperation.  Baha’u’llah says: “Look at the world and ponder a while upon it. It unveileth the book of its own self before thine eyes and revealeth that which the Pen of thy Lord, the Fashioner, the All-Informed, hath inscribed therein. It will acquaint thee with that which is within it and upon it and will give thee such clear explanations as to make thee independent of every eloquent expounder.” (Tablets of Baha'u'llah: 141-142)
This tells me that, since "every atom in the universe" provides training in how to understand the creation,  we should listen to the voice with which every created thing is invested, and it will tell us of the sciences locked within it.  More in next post.  

Divine Creation

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.

(Baha'u'llah, Prayers and Meditations by Baha'u'llah, p. 295-296)

I am continuing the discussion of the three levels or contexts of the creation.  To recap: the first level is the universe of matter in all its levels and forms.  The second level, presented last post, I name cosmos, and is the intellectual or mental foundation of the universe.  This level is the Word, the Revelation of God, the movement of the divine Intellect. It generates both all material existence and human intellectual life by the imprinting of a configuration of eternal, divine thought-forms upon the primal substance (i.e. matter) of the universe and the human mind.  This mind, said Max Planck, one of the founders of modern physics, “is the matrix of all matter.” This post will talk about the highest level of the divine creation itself, namely, the level of the foundational qualities of God, remembering that in spiritual relations the highest is always the foundation and origin.

The whole of creation originates in the outpouring of the Primal Will into the divine, universal Intellect, traditionally named Logos, which is the archetypal form of all.  Through Logos uttering the vibratory influence of the Word, Divine Will forms chaos, i.e. universal matter, into the primary and recurring forms of life which in their universal relations and myriad interactions bring into being infinite individual creatures.  It is Logos which “in every epoch casts on the mirror of creation new and wonderful configurations.” (The Secret of Divine Civilization:1)  Logos encodes the Primal Will, which is the Source of all, the Foundation of Creation and its Sustainer at all times.  "Glory be to Thee, O my God!,” writes Baha’u’llah apropos this theme, “The power of Thy might beareth me witness! I can have no doubt that should the holy breaths of Thy loving-kindness and the breeze of Thy bountiful favor cease, for less than the twinkling of an eye, to breathe over all created things, the entire creation would perish, and all that are in heaven and on earth would be reduced to utter nothingness.” (Prayers and Meditations by Bahá’u’lláh: 90)

By new configuration is meant new design by rearranging the intervals between things, such as a new configuration of furniture in a room.  Recall, Baha’u’llah says: “That which hath been in existence had existed before, but not in the form thou seest today.” (Tablets of Baha'u'llah: 140)  And “As to the Return…by this is meant the return of all created things in the Day of Resurrection….And this Return is realized at His behest in whatever form He willeth.” (Tablets of Baha'u'llah: 183-184)

As the opening quote states, the effulgence of the Word has both integrating and disintegrating effects: new spaces open in the fabric of things as old ones close, and new complexities of life are formed.  The intervals of creation are not empty spaces but resonant intervals. Each is a pulsating matrix of energies out from which crystallize new entities of creation.  Revelation, the Logos, the expression of the Primal Will, is the creational codes of the templates of creation.

By coded templates of creational development I mean spiritual energies and structures that provide the dynamism and instructions for building forms of life.  In short, I mean the interacting archetypal qualities of God that are the foundation of cosmos and universe. A spiritual template is like biological DNA, the genetic code. DNA is not only instructions how to make proteins, but also, through a sub-code buried within the same stretches of DNA that make proteins, instructions telling when and how to regulate and activate their expression through millions of gene switches.  But these switches are, in creation, intervals and gaps, similar in my mind to those between nerve synapses, over which electrical impulses pass. These foundational spiritual codes include the essential sequences of activity that transform spiritual impulse into material creation and the regulatory instructions deciding how energies are controlled, making it possible to transform that spiritual code into an organic code that can build the proper material structures.  Building spiritual energy and code into material structure is not a simple formula, however.  Learning and response, modification and change occur from the determining factors of physical limitation.  But all is guided toward a desired end, at every step a conscious creative choice occurs.  Time in this view is not a continuous flow, but an infinite series of “moments” both in context and creating context: what quantum physicists call collapsing the indeterminacy of possibility into one actuality.  All living organisms, from bacteria to human beings, more or less share this basic construct and growth pattern.

The basic DNA “alphabet” of four digits or four letters is enough to code for all the different proteins and macro molecules in each cell right down to the genetic variations of our inherited characteristics, much as the twenty six letters of the English alphabet are enough to write nearly every word ever uttered by humankind.  Such codes store multi-layered meanings and functions that science cannot yet decipher, but which may also code more than biochemical reactions.  Their potentials unfold in response to environmental stimulations from the outside, but also are timed by internal clocks.

Similarly, language is not just letters and words, but also syntactical and grammatical rules (codes) deciding how to combine these essential phonemic units into larger units of meaning called sentences, paragraphs, pages, essays and books—thought into sound, then, via writing, sound into sight.  Likewise, mathematics is not only an infinite series of numbers, but is also logical rules for combining numbers into highly complex operations of calculation.

   Revelation is a divine code of infinite complexity for building not only Nature but also, human consciousness and society, into increasingly complex structures.  It unfolds the biological potentialities of Nature into an infinity of living organisms, and the intellectual potentialities of human consciousness into the arts and sciences to grasp these entities of a new creation.  “Unveiled and unconcealed, this Wronged One hath, at all times, proclaimed before the face of all the peoples of the world that which will serve as the key for unlocking the doors of sciences, of arts, of knowledge, of well-being, of prosperity and wealth.” (Baha'u'llah, Tablets of Baha'u'llah: 96)

 Every quality or attribute of God is archetypal and universal, meaning that it is diffused throughout the entire creation.  So the whole, infinitely large, and eternal creation is one single entity to God.  ‘Abdu’l-Baha reminds us in one of His table talks that: “It is necessary, therefore, that we should know what each of the important existences was in the beginning—for there is no doubt that in the beginning the origin was one: the origin of all numbers is one and not two. Then it is evident that in the beginning matter was one, and that one matter appeared in different aspects in each element. Thus various forms were produced, and these various aspects as they were produced became permanent, and each element was specialized. But this permanence was not definite, and did not attain realization and perfect existence until after a very long time. Then these elements became composed, and organized and combined in infinite forms; or rather from the composition and combination of these elements innumerable beings appeared.

This composition and arrangement, through the wisdom of God and His preexistent might, were produced from one natural organization, which was composed and combined with the greatest strength, conformable to wisdom, and according to a universal law.” (Some Answered Questions: 181)

He reiterated this view at another time, stating: “The organization of God is one; the evolution of existence is one; the divine system is one. Whether they be small or great beings, all are subject to one law and system.” (Some Answered Questions: 199)

We’ll begin to see how this creational process might work, at least in outline, in the next post titled, Fashioner and Fashioned, knowing and doing.