Verily, We have caused every soul to
expire by virtue of Our irresistible and all-subduing sovereignty. We have,
then, called into being a new creation, as a token of Our grace unto men.
(Gleanings from the Writings of Baha'u'llah:
29-30)
The
human reality is the supreme resonant structure because the three levels of
creation (physical, mental, spiritual) are all together within it. It is the microcosm that reflects the entire
macrocosm. The human soul is the locus of creation and the nexus of all its relations. The Master says that: “When we ponder over
the reality of the microcosm, we discover that in the microcosm there are
deposited three realities. Man is
endowed with an outer or physical reality.”
There is, too, “a second reality, the rational or intellectual reality;
and the intellectual reality of man predominates over nature. All these sciences which we enjoy were the
hidden and recondite secrets of nature, unknowable to nature, but man was
enabled to discover these mysteries, and out of the plane of the unseen he
brought them into the plane of the seen.
“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: 50)
This greatest of all resonant structures is also replete
with all resonant intervals. It is the
nexus vibrationally linking the spiritual and the material worlds. The locus of the human reality, its essential
resonant structure and intervals, is the double-chambered human heart, where
divine spiritual impulse gets transmuted into human life. For though end states and extreme states are
resonant intervals, as intervals in themselves they are hearts and centers.
Recall,
a resonating interval is the interfacial gap between vibrational orders or
frequency domains where new creation is “called into being”, where myriad
recombinations in creative interplay reconfigure creation in new forms. But in this recreation there is also both
continuity and progress.
I mean that all things that appear
in the world of being are the return of its prior state and the origin of its
next state. That is, new things emerge, but these
are not creations ex nihilo, “out of
nothing”, but new forms from older ones.
“That which hath been in existence
had existed before, but not in the form thou seest today.”(Tablets of
Bahá’u’lláh Revealed After the Kitáb-i-Aqdas, 140) Not in the form
thou seest today, but resonant with what came before.
The Master gives a clear example: “The world of the Kingdom is
one world. The only difference is that spring returneth over and over again,
and setteth up a great new commotion throughout all created things. Then plain
and hillside come alive, and trees turn delicately green, and leaves, blossoms
and fruits come forth in beauty, infinite and tender. Wherefore the
dispensations of past ages are intimately connected with those that follow
them: indeed, they are one and the same, but as the world groweth, so doth the
light, so doth the downpour of heavenly grace, and then the Day-Star shineth
out in noonday splendour.” (Selections
from the Writings of Abdu'l-Baha: 58)
Within the interactions of the three realities composing
the human reality are also the characteristics of end states and extreme
states, the end of time and development and the eclipse of distance. Indeed, the human reality is the supreme
example of these in the world of creation.
The eclipse of distance and the extreme state that
characterizes it occur when a terminus a quo—the first point in time, a point
of origin—coincides with the terminus
ad quem—the final limiting point, the terminal point; the B and E joined and
knit together. Thus are the gaps of time bridged. For time
is not a limpid, linear flow, but rather terrific pulsations of radiating
rhythms that mix and collide within the resonating interval to harmonize levels
of being.
In regards to the
end/extreme state of the macrocosm of the entire creation Baha’u’llah states: “Praise be unto Thee, O my
God! Thou art He Who by a word of His mouth hath revolutionized the entire creation,
and by a stroke of His pen hath divided Thy servants one from another. I bear
witness, O my God, that through a word spoken by Thee in this Revelation all
created things were made to expire, and through yet another word all such as
Thou didst wish were, by Thy grace and bounty, endued with new life.” (Prayers and Meditations by Baha'u'llah: 42)
‘Abdu’l-Baha probes deeply into the microcosm of the
human reality to explain why this is especially true for it: “Man,” says
‘Abdu’l-Baha, “is in the highest degree of materiality, and at the beginning of
spirituality—that is to say, he is the end of imperfection and the beginning of
perfection. He is at the last degree of darkness, and at the beginning of
light; that is why it has been said that the condition of man is the end of the
night and the beginning of day, meaning that he is the sum of all the degrees
of imperfection, and that he possesses the degrees of perfection. He has the
animal side as well as the angelic side, and the aim of an educator is to so
train human souls that their angelic aspect may overcome their animal side.
Then if the divine power in man, which is his essential perfection, overcomes
the satanic power, which is absolute imperfection, he becomes the most
excellent among the creatures; but if the satanic power overcomes the divine
power, he becomes the lowest of the creatures. That is why he is the end of
imperfection and the beginning of perfection. Not in any other of the species
in the world of existence is there such a difference, contrast, contradiction
and opposition as in the species of man.” (Some
Answered Questions: 235-236)
A traditional metaphor
often used by ’Abdu’l-Baha to
capture this relation between spirit and mater is the circle of existence,
composed of an arc of descent and an arc of ascent. He stated: “Now,
this is an established and deep theological proposition, that the material
worlds are terminated at the end of the arc of descent, and that the condition
of man is at the end of the arc of descent, and at the beginning of the arc of
ascent, which is opposite to the Supreme Center. Also, from the beginning to
the end of the arc of ascent, there are numerous spiritual degrees.” (Some Answered
Questions: 285)
In another place
He explains: “For the inner reality of man is a
demarcation line between the shadow and the light, a place where the two seas
meet; it is the lowest point on the arc of descent, and therefore is it capable
of gaining all the grades above. With education it can achieve all excellence;
devoid of education it will stay on, at the lowest point of imperfection.” (Selections from
the Writings of Abdu'l-Baha: 130)
Now it should be
remembered that "He hath let loose the two seas, that they meet each
other: Between them is a barrier which they overpass not. Which then of the
bounties of your Lord will ye deny? From each He bringeth up greater and lesser
pearls." (Compilations, Baha'i
Prayers: 105)
The experience of the second birth
is the greatest experience of all. It
upsets and resets all relations and all equilibrium, throwing into commotion
all the worlds of God. Baha’u’llah
wrote: “Know
ye from what heights your Lord, the All-Glorious is calling? Think ye that ye
have recognized the Pen wherewith your Lord, the Lord of all names, commandeth
you? Nay, by My life! Did ye but know it, ye would renounce the world, and
would hasten with your whole hearts to the presence of the Well-Beloved. Your
spirits would be so transported by His Word as to throw into commotion the
Greater World—how much more this small and petty one!” (Gleanings from the Writings of Baha'u'llah:139-140)
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