The True Philosopher’s Stone

In one of His Tablets Bahá'u'lláh wrote: 'The first person who devoted himself to philosophy was Idris. Thus was he named. Some called him also Hermes. In every tongue he hath a special name. He it is who hath set forth in every branch of philosophy thorough and convincing statements. After him Balinus derived his knowledge and sciences from the Hermetic Tablets and most of the philosophers who followed him made their philosophical and scientific discoveries from his words and statements...

(Baha'u'llah, Tablets of Baha'u'llah: 148)

For my money the Hermetic cosmology, tracing its origins to Hermes Trismegistus, or Thrice-great Hermes, who is Idris of the Qur’an, remains relevant, except for the strictly materialist cosmology of today which sees and wants to see nothing beyond physis.  The Hermetic texts have influenced centuries of thinkers, including the great sages of ancient Greece.  It is true that the Hermetic terminology of ether, the relation of Mind and Matter, the stages of the magnum opus to create the Philosopher’s Stone or distill an elixir, and the transmutation of metals are mostly forgotten.  But allowing for changes in terminology and emphasis current cosmology and the Hermetic/Greek ideas are remarkably similar.  Physicist Scott Tyson in his book, The Unobservable Universe, (p.104) observes: “Though incomplete, the philosophy of the Greek philosophers and the scientific understandings of the nature of matter of the twentieth century are quite similar in many regards.”

Whitehead’s celebrated quip in Process and Reality: “The safest general characterization of the European philosophical tradition is that it consists of a series of footnotes to Plato”, is echoed by Baha’u’llah.  In His Tablet of Wisdom He wrote: “Although it is recognized that the contemporary men of learning are highly qualified in philosophy, arts and crafts, yet were anyone to observe with a discriminating eye he would readily comprehend that most of this knowledge hath been acquired from the sages of the past, for it is they who have laid the foundation of philosophy, reared its structure and reinforced its pillars. Thus doth thy Lord, the Ancient of Days, inform thee.” (Tablets of Baha'u'llah: 144)  In that work He speaks of Socrates, Plato and Aristotle, among others, in glowing terms.

But Whitehead’s remark leaves out the idea that Plato and the other “sages” may themselves be something of footnotes to the Prophets.  Baha’u’llah goes on to say: “The sages aforetime acquired their knowledge from the Prophets, inasmuch as the latter were the Exponents of divine philosophy and the Revealers of heavenly mysteries.” (Tablets of Baha'u'llah: 144-145)

Any similarity between ancient and modern ideas of the structure of the universe and the nature of matter is, then, not just a happy coincidence of a meeting of minds over the centuries.  It seems to be the maturing of a long tradition not just of thought, but of thought based upon the Revelations of the Prophets.  That is, it may be a history of ideas, but it is that because they are all coming from the same source, namely the Prophetic revelations laying out the fundamental structures of mind and thought. 

For example, it was Plato’s idea in his Timeaus that the physical world is the world which changes and perishes: therefore it is the object of opinion and unreasoned sensation. The eternal one never changes: therefore it is apprehended by reason.  Now by reason is not meant simply cognition.  Rather, what is meant, I believe, is the traditional Logos, the harmony that exists between the structures of Reality as a whole and of the human mind in particular that create knowledge, understanding and meaningful relations.  As Baha’u’llah wrote: “It is clear and evident, therefore, that the first bestowal of God is the Word, and its discoverer and recipient is the power of understanding.” (Tabernacle of Unity: 3)  One cannot receive what one is not equipped to receive.  That power of understanding is centered on the rational faculty, the essence of the human reality.  But it includes all the mental faculties.

Plato also spoke of a realm of Ideas, or ideal intellectual realities, that were the archetypes of their physical counterparts; a metaphysical, metaphorical realm of thought as counterpart to the physical metaphors of matter.  This echoes Hermes first principle in His Emerald Tablet, “As below, so above.”  Now there are many ways these realms of mind and matter may be connected.  But for human understanding the best way is through powerful metaphors, each a verbal representation or symbol of a cosmological vibrational harmony.

I mean that if we perceive the relations between Mind and Matter as various ratios of waves, frequencies, domains of morphic fields with morphic resonance that is upset and reset into a new creative possibility by the creative Word, the evolving Master vibration, we create relational structures of meaning through these analogies.  Growth in understanding must include both new form and the renewal of energy, new sequence flowing out from old structure, new relations manifesting perennial principles.  The dynamic coherence between the ideal and material domains brings forth new phenomena from unchanging cosmic structures, for all things are brought forth and returned, the same realities coming and going in and out of the world of existence.  Looking back we perceive them, though they are “not in the form thou seest today”.  Now, if forms of phenomena link in evolutionary patterns, human understanding must do the same.  New forms of ancient phenomena brought forth from new cosmological relations created by the Word are captured/mirrored epistemologically in the mind through old metaphors made new.  Let’s take a look at three such images and metaphors.

To change the soul and thus what the intelligence may see meaningfully, Baha’u’llah admonishes His believers to use His creative Word: “From the texts of the wondrous, heavenly Scriptures they should memorize phrases and passages bearing on various instances, so that in the course of their speech they may recite divine verses whenever the occasion demandeth it, inasmuch as these holy verses are the most potent elixir, the greatest and mightiest talisman. So potent is their influence that the hearer will have no cause for vacillation. I swear by My life! This Revelation is endowed with such a power that it will act as the lodestone for all nations and kindreds of the earth.” (Tablets of Baha'u'llah: 200)

We see the reference to elixir, whose two-fold manifestation into an earthly and divine elixir I talked about in a previous post.  But there are two other words we can briefly look at: talisman and lodestone.  Both have associations with magical practices, in the best sense of that word “magic”, as a wonderful transformative experience.  Talisman comes from the Greek Talesma, which means “miraculous work.” It is an emblem or symbol into which cosmic power is drawn to perform cosmic miracles.  It is a kind of cosmic magnet crafted to attract the Elixir of life, and can transform the material and spiritual worlds.  On the human plane, it refers to the human reality, especially the human heart, since: “Man is the supreme Talisman. Lack of a proper education hath, however, deprived him of that which he doth inherently possess.” (Tablets of Bahá’u’lláh: 161)  That proper education is spiritual education which I believe is grounded in and upon the science of the love of God.

But the real supreme Talisman is the Manifestation of God. The Bab, speaking as the Voice of God and referring to Himself, remarks: “He is in truth the Supreme Talisman and is endowed with supernatural powers, as set forth in the Mother Book...” (Selections from the Writings of the Bab: 45)

Like talisman, a lodestone (also spelled loadstone) is a literal and a metaphorical magnet.  It has a polarity and is something that strongly attracts.   But, also like talisman, lodestone is not just simply a magnet, but a naturally magnetized mineral, a magnetite ore.  The powder of it is reddish black, and the ore, dark brown to black.  Both these colors are stages in the original alchemical process of creating the Elixir of Life, the nigredo, or first stage, and the rubedo, the last stage.  Lodestone also has the meaning of a thing that is the focus of meaning, attention and attraction, as lodestone of the heart.

Elixir, talisman and lodestone all are symbols for the Word of God and Its attracting and transforming Reality in both the mental and physical domains, emblems and signs of its transmuting power and universal cohesiveness, embodying the ratios of its affinities and the stages of crystallization into material form of its qualities and attributes.

Similarly the alchemical Philosopher’s Stone or stone of the philosophers has also two signs and manifestations, material and mystical meanings, an exoteric substance and chemical process and an esoteric symbol, like unto a mandala, for transforming the soul, all linked to divine Revelation. 

The chemical creation of the Philosopher’s Stone (lapis philosophorum), was to be accomplished through the stages (originally four, later seven) of the “great work”, the magnum opus, that refined and transformed the prima materia, the first or original matter, into the elixir, the essence of all things.  One who distills or refines this fundamental substance into its essence had knowledge of the three levels of creation (Remember Hermes is called “thrice-great” because He had perfect knowledge of the three grades—physical, mental, and spiritual—of existence) necessary for the regeneration of all things. The essence of His teachings is thought to have been inscribed in what is known as the Emerald Tablet.

There may well be an actual stone buried somewhere holding the teachings of Hermes, but if so the actual stone is, according to Baha’u’llah, not emerald, but chrysolite, also green in color.  He refers to this in His Tablet of Wisdom: “I will also mention for thee the invocation voiced by Balinus who was familiar with the theories put forward by the Father of Philosophy (Hermes) regarding the mysteries of creation as given in his chrysolite tablets, that everyone may be fully assured of the things We have elucidated for thee in this manifest Tablet, which, if pressed with the hand of fairness and knowledge, will yield the spirit of life for the quickening of all created things.” (Tablets of Baha'u'llah: 147)

Thus the Emerald or Chrysolite stone means divinely revealed.  The true Philosopher’s Stone, the transmuting lapis of the philosophers, is what is written on Hermes tablet of Chrysolite, which is the symbol of divine knowledge—Baha’u’llah, for example, says to humanity: "All your doings hath My pen graven with open characters upon tablets of chrysolite.” (The Persian Hidden Words #63)  While chrysolite has a long tradition of reference in Scripture, stone itself is a symbol of the adamantine strength and longevity of divine Revelation, it being the most permanent, unchanging aspect of physical creation.  Hence the stone tablets upon which God inscribed the Mosaic Ten Commandments.

The revealed body of teachings associated with Hermes, or Idris, the Father of Philosophy, hath been renewed and made new with every Revelator and reached Their highest essence, the spiritual Elixir and Philosopher’s Stone, with the Revelation of Baha’u’llah.  He says: “The highest essence and most perfect expression of whatsoever the peoples of old have either said or written hath, through this most potent Revelation, been sent down from the heaven of the Will of the All-Possessing, the Ever-Abiding God.” (Gleanings from the Writings of Baha'u'llah: 95)

The Resonant Interval: Reconfiguration and Calling into Being

Where there is no vision, the people perish.

(King James Bible, Proverbs 29:18)

                       

                       

I have said that two kinds of metaphor, visual and auditory, are often used in the Bahá’i Writings to express the divine creative process.  Visual metaphors discuss the reconfiguration of all things into new patterns and forms, while auditory metaphors speak of their being called into being.

The calling into being is sounded in and the pattern of reconfiguration comes forth from the gaps of time where occurs the resonant connecting of orders, the vibratory joining and knitting together of creation and Revelation.  The resonant interval is the pause between the end of one creation and the beginning of another creation, as testified by Baha’u’llah: “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 reconfiguration of creation is captured in this visual statement from the Master: “Praise and thanksgiving be unto Providence that out of all the realities in existence He has chosen the reality of man and has honored it with intellect and wisdom, the two most luminous lights in either world. Through the agency of this great endowment, He has in every epoch cast on the mirror of creation new and wonderful configurations. If we look objectively upon the world of being, it will become apparent that from age to age, the temple of existence has continually been embellished with a fresh grace, and distinguished with an ever-varying splendor, deriving from wisdom and the power of thought.” (The Secret of Divine Civilization:1)  Reconfiguration goes as deep as the atoms and molecules of the universe.  How do we know this?

Let’s turn to the resonating call of the Word of God?   Baha’u’llah says about the effect of the Bab’s Revelation: “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….No sooner had that Revelation been unveiled to men's eyes than…every several atom in all created things acquired its own distinct and separate character.” (Prayers and Meditations by Baha'u'llah: 295-296)

Though on the plane of manifestation all is made new, the essence of all things remains unchanged.  Hence a new creation is the essence bursting forth in new forms. The resonant interval is, then, also where the return of all things happens, for everything in the world of being is the return of its prior state and the origin of its next state.  Baha’u’llah says about the Return and the beginning and end states of all things: “Thou hast asked regarding the subject of the return. Know thou that the end is like unto the beginning. Even as thou dost consider the beginning, similarly shouldst thou consider the end, and be of them that truly perceive. Nay, rather consider the beginning as the end itself, and so conversely, that thou mayest acquire a clear perception. Know thou moreover that every created thing is continually brought forth and returned at the bidding of thy Lord, the God of power and might.”

As to the Return…by this is meant the return of all created things in the Day of Resurrection, and this is indeed the essence of the Return as thou hast witnessed in God's own days and thou art of them that testify to this truth…. And this Return is realized at His behest in whatever form He willeth.” (Tablets of Baha'u'llah: 183)

Nonetheless, even with the return of all things in a renewed creation the mental distance between creations is an abyss too wide for the mind to leap across unaided.  Hence, God comes near, Paradise is brought nigh, the distance is eclipsed.  And that distance is covered only by the heart through the power of love and attraction, the yearning for God.

Knowledge changes and reveals all things, but love is their unchanging essence, (i.e. what is revealed) for God’s love is “the vital bond inherent, in accordance with the divine creation, in the realities of things.” (Selections from the Writings of Abdu'l-Baha:27)  Cosmologically, love is the fundamental substance of the universe, the “material” cause of all.  By material cause I don’t mean a material substance, of course, but the metaphysical receiver of primal intellect and divine will, attracting them to itself and holding within itself the potentials and virtues of all created and createable things.  While Primal Will generates all things, and divine, universal intellect creates and orders all reality, Divine love is the pre-existent, unified Reality, because it is what all realities come forth from.  Baha’u’llah reveals this relation when He says, as the Voice of God: “I knew My love for thee, hence I created thee.” (Arabic Hidden Words #3)

Love of any kind is no dreamy, passive feeling.  It has many aspects.  It can be a burning flame that causes intense pain, the steed of the Valley of Love.  But the heat of divine love is the creative power that transports souls to eternal life, and transmutes their essential being.  One must be moved by it, magnetically attracted to the fire and be cleansed by it, freed from all attachments to water and clay before eternity dawns.  The Master says: “The greatest gift of man is universal love—that magnet which renders existence eternal. It attracts realities and diffuses life with infinite joy. If this love penetrate the heart of man, all the forces of the universe will be realized in him, for it is a divine power which transports him to a divine station and he will make no progress until he is illumined thereby. Strive to increase the love-power of reality, to make your hearts greater centers of attraction and to create new ideals and relationships.” (Abdu'l-Baha, Divine Philosophy: 110)  Baha’u’llah describing the searing effects of this transmutation of soul, this rebirth, asserts: “Such is the potency of the Divine Elixir, which, swift as the twinkling of an eye, transmuteth the souls of men!” (The Kitab-i-Iqan: 155)

“The flame of the fire of love, in this world of earth and water,” states ‘Abdu’l-Baha, ‘comes through the power of attraction and not by effort and striving. Nevertheless, by effort and perseverance, knowledge, science and other perfections can be acquired; but only the light of the Divine Beauty can transport and move the spirits through the force of attraction.” (Some Answered Questions: 130)  Love, the power of attraction, is the supreme power of movement for the soul.  To feel this power is the direct connection.

The love of God both holds all things together and is the repository holding within its infinite potentialities every possible creation.  It is resonant with potential to be reconfigured and have new forms be called into being.  Yet things come together in specific combinations to create phenomena by a voluntary movement, by affinity.  If their joining into phenomena was involuntary there would be no decomposition of form, so it must be, in some sense, voluntary.  That points to a Master Will, a divine voluntus, energizing the divine intellect to create.

Another aspect of the relation of love is that of the human Reality for its creator.  Baha’u’llah makes this statement in which we perceive, again, both visual and auditory metaphors: “Whensoever the light of Manifestation of the King of Oneness settleth upon the throne of the heart and soul, His shining becometh visible in every limb and member. At that time the mystery of the famed tradition gleameth out of the darkness: ‘A servant is drawn unto Me in prayer until I answer him; and when I have answered him, I become the ear wherewith he heareth...." (The Seven Valleys: 22)

This personal, inner direct connection, based on the recognition that: “So pervasive and general is this revelation that nothing whatsoever in the whole universe can be discovered that doth not reflect His splendor. Under such conditions every consideration of proximity and remoteness is obliterated” eclipses the distance between God and soul.  The distance eclipsed is also inward and spiritual: "Wonder not, if my Best-Beloved be closer to me than mine own self; wonder at this, that I, despite such nearness, should still be so far from Him."... Considering what God hath revealed, that "We are closer to man than his life-vein," the poet hath, in allusion to this verse, stated that, though the revelation of my Best-Beloved hath so permeated my being that He is closer to me than my life-vein, yet, notwithstanding my certitude of its reality and my recognition of my station, I am still so far removed from Him.” (Baha'u'llah, Gleanings from the Writings of Baha'u'llah: 184) It is awakening the two great spiritual faculties of discernment, faith and vision, within the resonant interval that both separates and unites discrete states of being and knowing of the soul, the place that marks the end of one life and the preparation for rebirth

Now, spiritually, faith is hearing and vision is seeing, or, better, insight. Both are discerning and spiritual discernment is recognizing God in everything.  That is, recognition is either seeing God with thine own eyes or hearing His Voice with thine own ears.

The connection between faith and hearing was stated by St. Paul: “Faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God.” (King James Bible. The Book of Romans 10:17)  ‘Abdu’l-Bahá echoes St. Paul when He says “the voice of God hath made thine ears to hear.” (Tablets of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá. V.1:132)  If faith comes by hearing, then faith is the result of hearing and recognizing a particular Voice, a Voice which by itself alone commands hearing, the same Voice that called one into being.  This Voice is the first Sound of all creation.  It is, in a sense, the only voice.  "Know thou that every hearing ear, if kept pure and undefiled, must, at all times and from every direction, hearken to the voice that uttereth these holy words: “Verily, we are God’s, and to Him shall we return.” (Gleanings from the Writings of Bahá’u’lláh: 345)

Regarding vision, or spiritual insight, Baha’u’llah wrote that He hoped “that through the loving-kindness of the All-Wise, the All-Knowing, obscuring dust may be dispelled and the power of perception enhanced, that the people may discover the purpose for which they have been called into being. In this Day whatsoever serveth to reduce blindness and to increase vision is worthy of consideration. This vision acteth as the agent and guide for true knowledge. Indeed in the estimation of men of wisdom keenness of understanding is due to keenness of vision.” (Tablets of Baha'u'llah: 35)

He stated, in words that bring together so much of what we have been examining regarding vision, rebirth, and recognition: “Beseech the peerless and incomparable Lord to bestow a penetrating insight upon His servants, for insight leadeth to true knowledge and is conducive to salvation. Indeed, the attainments of man's understanding are dependent upon his keenness of sight. Were the children of men to gaze with the eye of understanding, they would see the world illumined with a new light in this day. Say: The Daystar of knowledge is manifest and the Luminary of insight hath appeared. Fortunate indeed is the one who hath attained, who hath witnessed, and who hath recognized.” (Baha'u'llah, Tabernacle of Unity)

He also indicated from where vision and spiritual insight would come: “They who recite the verses of the All-Merciful in the most melodious of tones will perceive in them that with which the sovereignty of earth and heaven can never be compared. From them they will inhale the divine fragrance of My worlds—worlds which today none can discern save those who have been endowed with vision through this sublime, this beauteous Revelation.” (The Kitab-i-Aqdas: 61)

Creation must periodically be recreated so that it is resonant with the new spiritual message and coherence achieved between the spiritual and the material.  But we must bring our faculties into wakefulness and expression to perceive it in its new form and Song.   

A Model of Spiritual Perception Part Two: Bridges to Reality

The sciences of today are bridges to reality; if then they lead not to reality, naught remains but fruitless illusion. By the one true God! If learning be not a means of access to Him, the Most Manifest, it is nothing but evident loss.
(Abdu'l-Baha, Selections from the Writings of Abdu'l-Baha: 110)

I have stated that to perceive spiritually is to “recognize” God in everything.  In that perception and understanding, God is, as ‘Abdu’l-Baha states above, “the Most Manifest”.  Recognition moves inwardly in stages from the universe to the creation, from seeing God in His handiwork, to perceiving God in His image and likeness within the human reality, to pure recognition of God in His Manifestation. This movement of knowledge is the reverse of the stages of creation.

That is, there is a double movement.  Creation “descends” from the spiritual to the material as emanations through stages of crystallization. But knowledge moves from material to spiritual and is called the ascent of the soul. The soul having reached the stage of pure recognition all is seen as a single creation.  This is the dynamic interplay of ontology and epistemology, the forms of being and the forms of knowing.  But ontology and epistemology are actually the same thing at another level.  That is, if we think of ontology as a branch of metaphysics dealing with the nature of being, we are chasing fruitless speculation since, as Baha’u’llah says, we cannot understand even the least of God’s signs.  We don’t and can never know the nature of being. But if we use the other definition of ontology, namely, a set of concepts and categories in a subject area that shows their properties and the relations between them, we are on firmer ground.  For we can put forth what is believed are some foundational principles and laws and test them.  It is this second definition that I use.

Thus I conceive of Reality as presenting Itself to the human intelligence in three levels.  The lowest and last level ontologically is the universe around us, the infinite physical world, with all its galaxies, numberless stars and planets, cosmic dust and layers upon layers of subatomic energies.  It is about things.  But this level, though first in order, is last in importance, for the epistemological progression of the mind.

Next and higher, both ontologically and epistemologically, occupying the middle position, is Cosmos, composed of the archetypal thought forms and intellectual structures of Reality that science infers or discovers and whose foundation is the progressive Revelations of God that configure the universe.  It is also the human understanding of this level of creation, (i.e. what is called cosmology) written in the various poetic, philosophical and scientific languages of their times and across time.  Its supreme metaphor is the Word.

Finally, at the highest level, both ontologically and epistemologically, for It is the origin of all creation and the end of all knowledge, is the divine Creation, the foundational, spiritual powers (attributes of God,) each a universal, that are revealed and configured by the knowledge of God—i.e. the knowledge that God has of the creation which manifests His Will: a knowledge that is infused into every atom of the universe.  From this level of Reality cosmos and universe unfold.

One relation between these contexts of creation is that of counterparts.  ‘Abdu’l-Baha said: “The spiritual world is like unto the phenomenal world. They are the exact counterpart of each other. Whatever objects appear in this world of existence are the outer pictures of the world of heaven.” (Promulgation of Universal Peace: 10)  Again, the spiritual is the origin, the cause and source, of the material. The material is the effect and outer picture of the inner spiritual reality shining forth.  But the two together are the poles of the structure of cosmic consciousness with mental energy in the form of thought moving between them, for emanation is complemented by return.

Because the spiritual and the material are exact counterparts they are in harmony and they resonate. Resonance joins and knits together the spiritual and material.  This resonant unity is called coherence, but resonance, the harmony of frequencies, is the mechanism of joining and knitting.  Coherence is at every level of the universe, from atomic fractal spin to galactic scale symmetry. But coherence also exists between levels of Reality—i.e. the thought-forms of the cosmos and the physical manifestations of them in the universe, as ‘Abdu’l-Baha’s statement, which recalls the ancient Hermetic principle, indicates.  When coherence is achieved across all levels everything becomes a resonant structure with infinite depth and a vibrating influence.  Baha’u’llah speaks, for example, of the “world's equilibrium” (i.e. the human social order) having been upset “through the vibrating influence of this most great, this new World Order.” (Gleanings from the Writings of Baha'u'llah: 136)  The coherence between the cosmos and universe is from the divine Will acting through one of the Names of God.  Today, that name is the Most Glorious.

Conceptually, coherence of the spiritual/material unity in the human world is achieved in language and knowledge through the symbol. In thought, analogical ratios, created by the rational faculty, means that analogy is, too, a resonant, vibrating intellectual structure.  The metaphoric interval structuring analogy does not identify one thing as another, but two things as one thing.  This is the prelude to a change of consciousness, a leap into a new mental reality.  Here, as in all cases, there is a moment of arrest which mysteriously results in a metamorphosis, called understanding, the “aha” moment. This is the end of one form of perceptual life, before it figuratively reverses into its opposite form.  But opposite form has two meanings.  The first exists at the level of separation, and is the opposition, to use Hegelian terminology, between the thesis and its antithesis.  To reverse or transform into the opposite form, thesis into antithesis, occurs in development and marks the switch into negativity, from growth to decline into death of every organic structure. Death, whether actually or symbolically, preludes the leap into something new: the consummation, or burning up of one level, before consummation, the last and all-inclusive stage that initiates rebirth.

The second meaning of transformation into the opposite form occurs on a higher plane of unity.  It is transcendence.  It means the incorporation in understanding of the thesis and antithesis into one thing, which is epistemologically the symbol or the concept.  This is the advance of consciousness into a higher state, and all higher ontological forms are the radical opposites of their lower forms. Hence, the Master stated that: “the Preexistent is different from the phenomenal, and the phenomenal is opposed to the Preexistent.” (Abdu'l-Baha, Some Answered Questions: 293)

This higher form is what Hegel called synthesis. It is to see the relations between things, and not just the things themselves.  Thus higher is not a simple spacial metaphor of altitude, a diagram that purports to show life and knowledge moving up the evolutionary ladder or chain of being from the thick mud of concreteness to the rarefied air of abstraction, but is also a weaving metaphor. The creating of an ever-richer tapestry of complexity.  It is the manifestation of new and greater powers, which includes, via similitudes, all the lower kingdoms.  We say the manifestation of greater complexity is higher “form” of life, even though it is not necessarily more biologically complex.

This brings us to today’s material sciences as bridges to reality.  What is the nature of the bridge? I think that there are two metaphors we can use to get an idea of the bridge.  As is so often is the case in the Bahá’i Writings, principles and concepts can be figuratively conveyed through both auditory and visual metaphors.  These are complemented and completed by the idealizing of hearing and insight as twin metaphors for knowing and understanding.  As Baha’u’llah says in the Tablet of Ahmad: “For the people are wandering in the paths of delusion, bereft of discernment to see God with their own eyes, or hear His Melody with their own ears.” (Compilations, Baha'i Prayers: 210)

Perceiving the levels of Reality as discrete planes is another visual metaphor, and is about surfaces and things, for that is what the eye sees.  But perceiving them as contexts, as one surrounding and penetrating another, as intertwining processes of creating complexity, are all acoustic or auditory metaphors, for the characteristics of sound are to both surround and penetrate things.  Auditory metaphors better capture hidden relations. But they are hidden only from the eye.  They are perceptible to the ear.  The process is one of translating acoustic knowledge into visual knowledge, replacing the ear with the eye, like translating speech into writing. The reverse, eye into ear, also goes on.

The image of the sciences of today as bridges to reality can obviously be visualized as a bridge spanning a gap, as a road, a gorge, or river. These are serviceable enough visual metaphors, especially if that bridge is the Sirat of the Qur’an, the fiery bridge, said to be as thin as a hair and as sharp as the sharpest knife or sword, over which every soul must pass to enter Paradise. Below this bridge burn the fires of hell, which sear sinners to make them fall. Yet, the musical bridge is also, I believe, a good metaphor for the sciences of today being bridges to reality.

A musical bridge is a contrasting section in a musical piece that prepares for the return of the original theme, the verse or the chorus.  It is sometimes called the release.  Lyrically, the bridge in a melody is typically used to pause and reflect on earlier portions of the song or to prepare the listener for the climax.  In all cases, it is a transition bar or theme to smooth what would be an abrupt shift or modulation, but it also works to delineate the separate sections of an extended piece of music.  This discussion brings us back to the phenomenon of resonance and the shift to a new universal configuration and a higher harmonics. Both auditory relations and visual images are the basis of resonance, as I showed.

Visually, progressive Revelation is seen as the progressive revealing of the complexity of the plan of God. Acoustically, progressive Revelation is the releasing of the various harmonies of the Song of God.  Creatively, progressive means for the eye the reconfiguring of the universe, and for the ear calling into being a new creation.  Unifically, it means for both eye and ear the advance of the archetypal forms and melody into greater complexity of manifestation.  “That which hath been in existence had existed before, but not in the form thou seest today.” (Baha'u'llah, Tablets of Baha'u'llah: 140)

Where does this recreation, this retuning to a new harmonics, this reconfiguration of all things in their return take place?  I have called that metaphorical space the resonant interval, again a mix of visual (interval) and auditory (resonant), but either can switch, since we know of musical intervals and visual resonances, because all is waves of influence.

The term resonant interval denotes the vibrating spaces between all living and created things.  There are not empty spaces.  There is no absolute silence, for the universe is a plenum not a vacuum, and all things have a voice. The gaps or spaces are laboratories of creation, the place to glimpse the spiritual reality at work casting outer pictures and voicing new melodies.  It is the realm of becoming or coming into being by a calling forth, for the Call is first, then the reconfiguration.  But, and here is the key point, the bridge of the knowledge and Word of God does not span these resonant intervals, but collapses them into a unity, a singularity, as the physics of black holes calls them.  It joins and knits together levels of Reality.  It eclipses these distances.  The symbol is such a union/bridge, resonance is a similar bridge. 

The resonant interval is turbulence and disequilibrium, death and birth, where chaos rules, complexity is built, and new harmonies are established because a new master vibration, a new Name or Title of God, has generated new possibilities of manifestation and upset the world’s equilibrium. 

The bridge between levels of reality is, then, a vortex of hurricane energies, lethal and living at the same time.  Think of the energy, the tension, the dangers and glory of birth.  It is the ferment of Chaos.  The Greek word "chaos" means "yawning" or "gap". Being a creative space, “crossing” the bridge to Reality is no smooth and orderly stroll, but a spiritual quest of tremendous risk from the intense universe-creating heat “generated from the interaction of the active force and that which is its recipient.” (Tablets of Baha’u’llah: 140)  Anyone reading Baha’u’llah’s description in His Seven Valleys of finding one’s way through Valley of Love on the steed of pain will get an idea of the intensity and power felt in the soul of barely contained titanic energies that swirl and collide, that melt cool reason and destroy solid thought, that burn up the previous person in order to prepare the soul for the Valley of Knowledge.

In a watery metaphor, ‘Abdu’l-Baha calls the world of thought a “boundless sea.”  He goes on to state the relation between this “sea” of thought and the world of existence, saying “the effects and varying conditions of existence are as the separate forms and individual limits of the waves; not until the sea boils up will the waves rise and scatter their pearls of knowledge on the shore of life.” (The Secret of Divine Civilization: 109)

The boundless sea is one traditional image of chaos as the tempestuous prima materia.  The boiling sea is the vortex of creative action of Revelation from the realm of divine Spirit on the world of existence and our human response.  Metaphysically, creation is the interaction of will, intellect and love. 

All things are joined and knit together into a new creation in time and through time through the power of attraction and affinity, which is the manifestation of divine love, the “vital bond inherent, in accordance with the divine creation, in the realities of things.” (Abdu'l-Baha, Selections from the Writings of Abdu'l-Baha: 27)   That is, the “essential properties and the necessary relations inherent in the realities of things” (Abdu'l-Baha, Tablet to August Forel: 20-21) that characterize Nature, the world of being, are reconfigured (religia) by Divine religion “the essential connection which proceeds from the realities of things”.  (Some Answered Questions: 158)  All is guided and connected through this cataclysmic transition by divine Will “that active force which controlleth these relationships and these incidents.” (Selections from the Writings of Abdu'l-Baha: 198)

‘Abdu’l-Baha said: The sciences of today are bridges to reality; if then they lead not to reality, naught remains but fruitless illusion.  Bridging the “gap” to Reality is not to span an airy space, but to transform into a new spiritual state by entering into a swirling vortex of energies and escaping their destructive power by perceiving their dynamic, flowing structure, as did Poe’s mariner in Descent into the Maelstrom.  We do that by dancing across the bridge in tune to the melodies of the Kingdom.

A Model of Spiritual Perception

God grant that all men may turn unto the treasuries latent within their own beings.

            (Baha'u'llah, Tablets of Baha'u'llah:72)

The epistemological model of knowing spiritual reality that I have been building is composed of several terms: recognition, direct perception, eclipse of distance, reflexivity, similitudes or thought forms, spiritual rebirth, to name the most important.  These are the intellectual basis for the science of the love of God, the foundational science of all spiritual sciences.  The model has evolved in my mind to the point where the outlines of it are visible, and not just separate pieces of it scattered through blog posts.  This post will present a more rounded presentation of the mental model, linking the various terms together into what I hope is a more coherent discussion.  Yet it is still only a very rough outline.  Much more work needs to be done. 

I have said that spiritual knowing is recognizing God.  This can be accomplished because, in Baha’u’llah’s words, God has “infused into me Thy love and Thy knowledge.” (Prayers and Meditations by Baha'u'llah: 177) However, since the universe is also enfolded into the soul as similitudes (thought forms) of all things created by God, recognition of a sort can also occur here, as one can recognize a painter in her painting. There is, then, stages or degrees of recognition. In its stages of awareness recognition also reaffirms the principle that all thought has an element of reflexivity to it—that is, all thought reflects itself, however faintly, in the act of thinking.  Reflexivity increases with the stages of recognition.  There is an inward movement to this process of reflexivity from simple consciousness to self-consciousness to consciousness of God, i.e. from thought as mere reflection of objects, to thought thinking about itself in conscious self-reflexivity, to thought of the Divine infused by It, the Source of all thought.  This last stage I have termed radical reflexivity of the A is A type.

Perception of any level of reality is through a direct connection with a set of faculties within the human reality that perceives it.  Recognition of God at the material and mental levels is, metaphorically, farther away—i.e. one or more steps away—from direct recognition of the Divine.  That is, in simple consciousness there is actual space between subject and objects.  There is, too, a figurative mental space between opinions and perspectives.  So, because these are things and their similitudes, (signs within and without) and not the actual spiritual Reality, we say they are removed from God, revealing God but not God, for the universe is the sensible revelation, and cosmos, or mental forms, is the intellectual revelation.  However, even in the direct perception of Spirit through Its connection with spiritual faculties of perception (e.g. faith and vision) , even in the radical reflexivity, there can be an intervening “space” in the sense of being close to or far away from God in belief, faith, and understanding.  Each stage or degree of recognition has its form of direct perception.  But the material and mental stages of recognition can be barriers to the actual recognition of God, which means God in His Manifestation.  OK, let’s recap.

At any level, recognition as a perception of spiritual reality means to perceive God, the Spirit, in something. Direct perception is simply the connection of a level or context of reality with the human perceptual powers or faculties that directly perceive it through their direct connection with it.  Sensory knowledge is perceiving physical and material realities directly with the outer senses.   But Nature in its appearance is twice removed from God, because a physical object is an outer, or secondary, sign of a corresponding inner sign within the human reality.  The inner sign is the primary indicator of the deeper and more fundamental Spiritual Reality.  Thus, the eye has direct perception of physical and material objects, but “recognition” of the true reality of any physical thing is not to see the object, but, rather, to obtain a vision of God, the Spirit, through the natural object or event perceived or observed.  Seeing behind these infinitely diverse outer physical coverings, these manifold material appearances in the world of being, which are the manifestation of all his names in created things, to the Spiritual Reality which generated them is to experience the eclipse of perceptual distance that brings feelings of ecstasy from the union of all things.    But there is a level of mental reality between the universe and the divine creation which I have called cosmos.  The same principles hold there.

The human reality, in which the universe is enfolded, is composed of similitudes, or inner signs, of all created things, but also possesses all the attributes of God.  The human soul is, then, for our purposes, once removed from God, meaning His Manifestation, for we are made in the image and after the likeness of God, which is His Manifestation.  Direct perception in the human kingdom is of the cosmos, contemplating with the mind’s eye (Gr. Theoria) the archetypal mental forms of the universe.  Cosmos is the realm of all intellectual realities, all conceptions of the mind, the domain of both the Revelation of the Word by the “universal Mind” and of human thought that builds civilization, and generates science, art, and religion in some of its principles and laws.  Recognition of God in humanity is not to see the human spirit, which leads to an inflation of humanity to the status of God, but to see past the rational faculty, by means of the spiritually informed rational faculty, i.e. the celestial faculty within the sacred heart, to the deeper spiritual reality within, the divine attributes animating souls. As ‘Abdu’l-Baha put it: “…man has a soul in which dwells the divine spirit.”  (Paris Talks: 24)

 Both physical and mental recognition are, then, mediated forms of recognition.  One must look past something that is the emanation or manifestation of the Spirit.

Unmediated recognition, so to speak, is to recognize God by recognizing His Manifestation.  It is seeing with the eye of God, and it is the means of seeing the spiritual reality of all things as the revelations of God.  Again, Nature is the sensible revelation, the Word is the intellectual Revelation, and the attributes of God are the Spirit revealed.  This gives the infinite depth to all things, and why we cannot comprehend even the “least of Thy signs.”

Unmediated recognition is obtained in that spiritual rebirth, which is also called in the Bahá’i Writings attaining the spirit of faith, that is the foundation for the establishment of spiritual sciences.  It is the bestowing of a new mind, a new eye and ear, to achieve knowledge via direct perception of spiritual realities, the logos that is their essences.  The argument, so far, is a sort of intellectual analysis of recognition.

 But recognition of God is not a case of remembering, but, rather, of becoming aware of our innate spiritual endowments.  It is a move toward consciousness of a new kind, not a recalling of past experience.  To see this more clearly, we can approach recognition through discussion of another spiritual faculty, that of faith.  Specifically, I mean the movement from subjective faith to objective faith.  The Master tells us: “Know that faith is of two kinds. The first is objective faith that is expressed by the outer man, obedience of the limbs and senses. The other faith is subjective, and unconscious obedience to the will of God. There is no doubt that, in the day of a Manifestation such as Christ, all contingent beings possessed subjective faith and had unconscious obedience to His Holiness Christ.

For all parts of the creational world are of one whole. Christ the Manifestor reflecting the divine Sun represented the whole. All the parts are subordinate and obedient to the whole. The contingent beings are the branches of the tree of life while the Messenger of God is the root of that tree. The branches, leaves and fruit are dependent for their existence upon the root of the tree of life. This condition of unconscious obedience constitutes subjective faith. But the discerning faith that consists of true knowledge of God and the comprehension of divine words, of such faith there is very little in any age. That is why His Holiness Christ said to His followers, "Many are called but few are chosen." (Baha'i World Faith: 364)

Then, there is the role of the spiritual faculty of will in rebirth.  ‘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….Will and understanding must be one in the cause of God. Intention brings attainment.” (Ten Days in the Light of Acca: 30)

 Attaining the condition of objective discerning faith—i.e. the recognition of God either in His creation, or within the human reality or, best and most clearly of all, within His Manifestation—is a result of achieving spiritual rebirth. Rebirth usually follows only upon a supreme effort of will as described by Baha’u’llah in His Book of Certitude: “Only when the lamp of search, of earnest striving, of longing desire, of passionate devotion, of fervid love, of rapture, and ecstasy, is kindled within the seeker's heart, and the breeze of His loving-kindness is wafted upon his soul, will the darkness of error be dispelled, the mists of doubts and misgivings be dissipated, and the lights of knowledge and certitude envelop his being. At that hour will the mystic Herald, bearing the joyful tidings of the Spirit, shine forth from the City of God resplendent as the morn, and, through the trumpet-blast of knowledge, will awaken the heart, the soul, and the spirit from the slumber of negligence. Then will the manifold favours and outpouring grace of the holy and everlasting Spirit confer such new life upon the seeker that he will find himself endowed with a new eye, a new ear, a new heart, and a new mind. He will contemplate the manifest signs of the universe, and will penetrate the hidden mysteries of the soul. Gazing with the eye of God, he will perceive within every atom a door that leadeth him to the stations of absolute certitude. He will discover in all things the mysteries of divine Revelation and the evidences of an everlasting manifestation.” (The Kitab-i-Iqan: 196)

With direct perception there is no need of rational proofs, neither experiment nor hypotheses are required.  Logic and intellect can point to spiritual reality, but are not itself the divine spiritual reality.  For these in relation to direct perception are themselves veils of true knowledge, and not knowledge itself.  In direct perception the individual sees behind an expiring body of things called the material world to perceive their revealed forms standing within them.  Comprehension becomes apprehension, because knowledge is no longer conceptual but existential, that is, a permanent part of one’s existence.  Epistemologically, creation is no longer purely objective, i.e. an alien body of objects confronting an interrogating intelligence.  But neither are these objects purely subjective; i.e. held in thought and imagination.  Rather, creation and intelligence form an identity—two parts of one unmediated unity, which is the basis of true understanding.