Might and Power is All Creation

Knowledge is all that is knowable; and might and power, all creation.

(Baha'u'llah, The Kitab-i-Iqan: 185)

Last post examined quantum mechanics as an example of “Knowledge is all that is knowable”. That is, for any epistemological context, such as language, number, religion or science, knowledge is only that which is knowable within it.  Knowledge that may exist outside of a context is not available to those within it.  It is not knowledge because it is not knowable.

We saw that the knowledge of quantum mechanics brilliantly describes the workings of the subatomic world, but it cannot satisfactorily answer questions about what actually happens when the indeterminacy of the wavefunction collapses into an actuality.  Quantum mechanics says that the observer creates the reality that he or she finds.    Exactly what is the nature of that change is up for debate, and leads to numerous questions.  For example: What does it mean to give something reality by observation?  There is no agreed upon answer for this question.  Perhaps this is because the answer is not knowable within the limits of quantum theory. 

But changing the condition of anything has never been the result of knowledge or thought alone.  It is necessary, but not sufficient. The Master emphasized: “Realizing that wealth is desirable is not becoming wealthy. The admission that scientific attainment is praiseworthy does not confer scientific knowledge. Acknowledgment of the excellence of honor does not make a man honorable. Knowledge of human conditions and the needed remedy for them is not the cause of their betterment. To admit that health is good does not constitute health.” (The Promulgation of Universal Peace: 157)  Other qualities were necessary for change or creation.  What other qualities?

‘Abdu’l-Baha said: “The attainment of any object is conditioned upon knowledge, volition and action. Unless these three conditions are forthcoming, there is no execution or accomplishment.” (Abdu'l-Baha, The Promulgation of Universal Peace: 157)  This, to me, is a restatement of Baha’u’llah’s leading quote above, “Knowledge is all that is knowable, and might and power all creation.” Why?

Let’s examine Baha'u'llah's and the Master’s statements.

We can start by asking what, if any, is the difference between might and power?  While these terms are often used interchangeably, and, generally, with no real loss of meaning, a distinction between them can be made, which helps explain why Baha’u’llah uses both words.

The word “might’ is a cognate of “may”, as in: “May I…?   Thus, while “might” is often associated with vigor and energy—e.g. a mighty force—when it is used as a synonym for power, it is also, when considered alone, limited to possibility and constrained by contingency—“he might be able to do it”.  Might is the inner capacity or ability to accomplish something, but it is not the actual doing.  Seen in this way it is connected with the inner quality of will and volition. 

Power is actual strength, the direct application of energy and force to some object or toward some goal.  So power is more directly associated with action.  One difference between might and power, then, is that one can have a strong will (i.e. might) but inadequate strength (i.e. power) to realize one’s will. 

But will has a special place.  Will is not just a capacity for volition and intentions, but, in relation to creating reality, is the first capacity, the one that gets everything else going, the link between knowledge and action.  Provisionally, we can call will intentional or directed thought. What is the relation of knowledge to will?  I will look at the divine knowledge and divine will to get a framework for discussion, and as a model for the relation of human knowledge to the human will to be discussed in later posts.

The Bab put the relation of divine knowledge and will perfectly.  “All that is known owes its renown to the splendour of Thy Name, the Most Manifest, and every object is deeply stirred by the vibrating influence emanating from Thine invincible Will.” (Selections from the Writings of the Bab: 195)

If we examine the imagery of this quote we see that the first image about knowledge (splendor, Most Manifest) is a visual metaphor, the second, on will, (vibrating influence, deeply stirred) is a kind of auditory one, for sound issues from interiors and penetrates to interiors and stirs people to action, as Walter Ong showed in his book, The Presence of the Word.  But the analogy with sound, while suggestive, does not capture the nature of the will’s influence, for to say the will is like sound implies that it moves at times through the physical world.  The vibrating influence of the will is more subtle than sound. Its inner vibrations are not physical but metaphysical.  Its pulses, originating from the deepest interior, the mid-most heart, move soundlessly within objects to stir them.  The vibrating influence of the divine Will is the Word calling creation into being.

 Baha’u’llah says about the Word of God: “Know thou, moreover, that the Word of God—exalted be His glory—is higher and far superior to that which the senses can perceive, for it is sanctified from any property or substance. It transcendeth the limitations of known elements and is exalted above all the essential and recognized substances. It became manifest without any syllable or sound and is none but the Command of God which pervadeth all created things. It hath never been withheld from the world of being.” (Tablets of Baha'u'llah: 140)

I said that will links knowledge and action.   Given this discussion, it is clear that that link is not like a link of a chain or mediating object.  It is an “influence” upon those inner and inherent relations connecting all things.  When those relations are vibrated, they instantly stir (i.e. sound or give voice) together, creating the song of God.  The divine will pervades all creation, acting everywhere simultaneously.  The manifestations of the Most Manifest are not products of the will acting on anything but themselves, changing, reorganizing and reconfiguring them.  They are manifestations of His Will.  Similarly, the influence of the will does not act externally to drive action, but is within the action itself, as a singer does not sing about her emotion, but sings her emotion.

The divine will is not within any one object but within them all.  Its influence does not move laterally between objects to stir them, but metaphorically “upward and outward” from a single spiritual center, the heart of the Manifestation of God, to a circumference which is material creation.  The invincible divine Will generates within Itself a vibrating influence that stirs all objects to life and action within its field of influence, which is all creation, much as the source of an electrical impulse creates an electric field and it is this field, not the source directly, that exerts an influence on surrounding objects and on other forces. Yet the field cannot be separated from its source.   That vibrating connection is built into the universe itself.  It can never be broken, or the universe would cease to exist, the power binding all things together withdrawn.  But it can be ignored or denied, even revolted against, by human beings who possess free will. 

At the level of the divine creation, i.e. the Kingdom of the attributes of God in interaction, all else comes from Primal Will.  The Master said: “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." (Some Answered Questions: 203)  Baha’u’llah wrote in the same vein:  “Far greater art Thou than the Great One men are wont to call Thee, for such a title is but one of Thy names all of which were created by a mere indication of Thy will.” (Prayers and Meditations by Baha'u'llah: 157)

It is the Primal Will not divine Knowledge that expresses the divine intentionality of “Be and it is”.   It is the Divine Will that enables “He doeth whatsoever He willeth” in His creation. It is the Active force in interaction with primal matter, “that which is its recipient”, that generates the heat that brings into being the world of existence, the universe.

While the influence of human will on the quantum world cannot be measured experimentally, or proved conceptually, I feel that explanations proposed by proponents of quantum mechanics of indeterminacy collapsing into actuality by observation are on the right track.

I said that since the wavefunction holds within it mutually contradictory states of actuality it resembles a spiritual symbol, which is a unity of outer and inner signs.  In the wavefunction it is a mathematical union of mutually contradictory states of actuality.  To apply this metaphor to explain the observer’s influence upon what is observed, we might say that the vibrating excitation of the inner sign of God within the human reality (the thought form) makes its corresponding outer sign in the world (a physical reality) vibrate to a new frequency which changes its condition, or, conversely, the outer stimulates the inner into awareness.  But if there is as yet no outer sign corresponding to the inner reality (i.e. no material reality corresponding to the psychological one—no determinate reality precipitating by “observation” out of the indeterminate knowledge of possibility) and that inner is activated by will and decision, i.e. intentionality, that is the creation of new “reality”, the collapsing of the wavefunction into actuality.

It is a question not just of knowledge but also of will.  But it is not the observation that decides, but the volition of the observer.