The Conditions of Recognition

As to those that have tasted of the fruit of man’s earthly existence, which is the recognition of the one true God, exalted be His glory, their life hereafter is such as We are unable to describe. The knowledge thereof is with God, alone, the Lord of all worlds.

(Gleanings From the Writings of Bahá’u’lláh: 345-346)

Previous posts discussed the concept of direct connection and presented three kinds of direct connection, physical, mental and spiritual, ontological connections all formed by the unity of Spirit and Matter created by Revelation..  These three kinds of connection correspond to and are keys to the three kinds of knowledge human beings can attain, sensory from the senses, intellectual from the mental faculties, and divine within the heart, each having a kind of direct perception of the “things” in its domain. The senses perceive physical things, the intellect perceives through cognition intellectual realities, and the divine is perceived (i.e. reflected) by the higher faculties of faith and vision in the heart.  These three knowledges form together an epistemological unity, also formed by Revelation, when the intelligence awakens to knowledge of the divine.

The outer and inner conditions of direct perception of the divine by the heart, which is the state of recognition, is what I want to examine here more deeply.

Moving from physical to spiritual connection, each level or context is a more interior one, for the attracted human intelligence moves toward the mid-most heart or center, each context of knowing a more direct union both of creation with the human reality and of God with the human reality.  For the desiring intelligence, moving from the spiritual to the material, each connection is also a more manifest complex unity of attributes and powers.

Direct perception of the divine is the epistemological stage (knowledge state) of perceiving the unity of the inherent relations structuring creation and their union as the universe as the manifestation of Divine Knowledge.  At the center and pivot of this perception for the human reality is the image of God within it.  The Manifestation of God is the Divine center of these human centers, and the mid-most heart of all creation.  When the unity of direct connection is consciously attained, what Baha’u’llah calls “piercing the veils of plurality”, then recognition, which I have claimed is the heart’s mode of understanding, is the primary mode of apprehension, and not the senses or cognition. 

Further, though He and His Revelation is always “closer to you than your life vein” (Baha’u’llah quoted in Shoghi Effendi, The Promised Day is Come: 15) whenever the intelligence moves into a higher mode of awareness and understanding, especially of the divine, it is felt, psychologically and emotionally, as an eclipse of distance, as meeting the Presence of God.  The soul moves closer to Reality and God, because God comes closer to us. The mind no longer only thinks about God but, rather, the heart recognizes God in everything.  This is a new state of mind.  What is the difference between the human and divine Intellect, and how does the mind change its state?

‘Abdu’l-Baha explains the difference between the universal divine Mind and the general human mind as: “But the universal divine mind, which is beyond nature, is the bounty of the Preexistent Power. This universal mind is divine; it embraces existing realities, and it receives the light of the mysteries of God. It is a conscious power, not a power of investigation and of research. The intellectual power of the world of nature is a power of investigation, and by its researches it discovers the realities of beings and the properties of existences; but the heavenly intellectual power, which is beyond nature, embraces things and is cognizant of things, knows them, understands them, is aware of mysteries, realities and divine significations, and is the discoverer of the concealed verities of the Kingdom.” (Some Answered Questions: 217)

He goes on to explain how the human mind attains a divine state: “This divine intellectual power is the special attribute of the Holy Manifestations and the Dawning-places of prophethood; a ray of this light falls upon the mirrors of the hearts of the righteous, and a portion and a share of this power comes to them through the Holy Manifestations.” (Some Answered Questions: 217)  This reflective capacity is an inherent quality of the heart.  The Bab wrote in this regard: "He hath moreover deposited within the realities of all created things the emblem of His recognition..." (Selections from the Writings of the Bab: 111-112)

But when does this ray of divine Light shine upon the heart and awaken the "emblem of His recognition" deposited there?  ‘Abdu’l-Baha advises: “If thou wishest the divine knowledge and recognition, purify thy heart from all beside God, be wholly attracted to the ideal, beloved One; search for and choose Him and apply thyself to rational and authoritative arguments. For arguments are a guide to the path and by this the heart will be turned unto the Sun of Truth. And when the heart is turned unto the Sun, then the eye will be opened and will recognize the Sun through the Sun itself.” (Baha'i World Faith: 383-384)

While the human mind is a product of natural causes and developments, the essential power and perfection of the human spirit, the ground and apex of creation, an intelligence that “…embraces all beings, and as far as human ability permits discovers the realities of things and becomes cognizant of their peculiarities and effects, and of the qualities and properties of beings” (Some Answered Questions: 208), this “natural” mind is not the highest state the mind may attain.  But it cannot go higher unaided. It cannot advance further without assistance from higher Powers.   “But the human spirit, unless assisted by the spirit of faith, does not become acquainted with the divine secrets and the heavenly realities. It is like a mirror which, although clear, polished and brilliant, is still in need of light. Until a ray of the sun reflects upon it, it cannot discover the heavenly secrets.” (Some Answered Questions: 208)

Now we come to the crux.  What is the essential difference in perception and quality of knowledge between these two states of mind? The Master explains that: “The phenomenal knowledge has need of things known; the Preexistent Knowledge is independent of their existence.” (Some Answered Questions: 293)  Recall, He said that the universal divine Mind is “beyond nature.”  It “is a conscious power, not a power of investigation and of research.”  It “embraces existing realities, and it receives the light of the mysteries of God.”  It “is cognizant of things, knows them, understands them, is aware of mysteries, realities and divine significations, and is the discoverer of the concealed verities of the Kingdom.”

Therefore, when “a ray of this light falls upon the mirrors of the hearts of the righteous…a portion and a share of this power comes to them through the Holy Manifestations.”  In this awakened divine state of the human mind (which is not the same divine state as the Manifestation.  He does not attain this state.  It is an inherent quality of His being which He manifests when He is called to His Mission.  He is the sun, we are recipients of His light.) we, too, may to some small extent be truly cognizant of things, know them, understand them, be aware of mysteries, realities and divine significations, and discover the concealed verities of the Kingdom which He reveals.  In short, we see Him as He sees Himself, and we see the world like He does: attaining the condition of “Thy hearing is My hearing, hear thou therewith. Thy sight is My sight, do thou see therewith.” (Baha'u'llah, The Arabic Hidden Words #44)

This is the state of recognition.  It is not attainable to the natural mind through investigation and research.  It is a state of understanding Reality attainable only by the burnished heart, via either the inner hearing recognizing His Voice, which is faith, or through inner vision, which is the recognition, figuratively, of the light of His Being.  Baha’u’llah claims: “If it be your wish, O people, to know God and to discover the greatness of His might, look, then, upon Me with Mine own eyes, and not with the eyes of any one besides Me. Ye will, otherwise, be never capable of recognizing Me, though ye ponder My Cause as long as My Kingdom endureth, and meditate upon all created things throughout the eternity of God, the Sovereign Lord of all, the Omnipotent, the Ever-Abiding, the All-Wise.” (Gleanings from the Writings of Baha'u'llah: 272)