In the Vortex: The Crossing at the B and E

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.

(Abdu'l-Baha, Some Answered Questions:235)

 As everyone knows, we live in a time of unprecedented upheaval and change.  The “winds of despair” are blowing with hurricane force, while the hopes of humanity are uplifted to bring into being an unimaginably glorious future.  The “world’s equilibrium hath been upset” because a new creation “hath been called into being”. The “lamentably defective” existing order is crumbling with terrifying acceleration, while simultaneously a new “most glorious” order is being laboriously erected.  Always, divine spiritual impulses generate opposing and contradictory reactions among all created things.  We have discussed this as “paradise brought nigh” and “hell made to blaze.”  But it is also a product of any dialectical world-view, a view which in modern times is especially characteristic of Marxian materialist philosophy derived from Hegel’s idealistic logic.  Yet, contradiction in life and thought may lead through the violence of the antagonists interplay to a condensation in which opposites are blended together.

Creationally, everything “created in pairs” means, I believe, not only as two expressions of one reality, as male and female in humanity, but also, as the positive and negative, the antithetical, possibilities of every created thing.   This is one meaning of the B and the E joining and knitting together, which we will explore in this post, for it is an intrinsic law of creation.

“Shoghi Effendi, in letters written on his behalf, has explained the significance of the "letters B and E". They constitute the word "Be", which, he states, "means the creative Power of God Who through His command causes all things to come into being" and "the power of the Manifestation of God, His great spiritual creative force".  The imperative "Be" in the original Arabic is the word "kun", consisting of the two letters "kaf" and "nun". They have been translated by Shoghi Effendi in the above manner. This word has been used in the Qur'án as God's bidding calling creation into being.” (Baha'u'llah, The Kitab-i-Aqdas: 247)

The “B” and the “E” are “joined and knit together” in the resonant interval, where opposites flow into each other.  The resonant interval is the metaphorical gap where vibrations, pulsations of energies, waves and currents from the two worlds, “B” and “E”, meet, like the synaptic gap between nerve endings over which jumps the electrical impulse, carried as a wave by the invisible medium of the soul.  This union is one where B and E come together creating a turbulent flow, as a vortex, that spans, fills and spills over the interval for it cannot be bridged by the realities themselves. Yet it is really the gap that dissolves. The opposites reciprocally influence one another through the joining and knitting of infinite frequencies and vibrations into wave interference patterns that cancel some actual existences, but amplify other potentials into existence.  They are connected directly, but cross oppositely, (i.e. chiastically) bringing together from opposite sides two parts of one process.  This movement is that each process, simultaneously and reciprocally, transforms at the midmost point of the heart into its opposite by bringing forth its opposite and the opposites are manifestly integrated to reveal the full process that is the conditions of renewal, progress and renovation.  It is opposite ends joined and knit together, like blood circulation and respiration.  These are the contradictory/complementary transformative engines of change. 

Knowledge is, too, a point of intersection and interplay.  It is the manifestation of Reality.  The Manifestation appears at the mid-most point of creation, which is where, in His own Being, symbolically, the organic and the spiritual connect, which is outwardly on the plane of manifestation, Carmel, the mountain of God.  Their connection, while direct, for they are a symbol (symballein or thrown together), is one of resonance.  That is, the connection is not like fitting together the two pieces of a broken amulet, but a harmonious blending of frequencies, of light upon a mirror and reflected back.  He raises His voice “betwixt earth and heaven”.  He is “He Who hath been manifested is the Hidden Mystery, the Treasured Symbol, through Whom the letters B and E (Be) have been joined and knit together.” (Prayers and Meditations by Baha'u'llah: 320)

Again, He is the Alpha and Omega inhabiting both poles of the circle of life, the arc of descent and the arc of ascent.  The vortex is where these arcs meet and energies cross and stimulate their opposites.  The unity of His two stations, “the station of distinction” that “pertaineth to the world of creation and to the limitations thereof” (Baha'u'llah, The Kitab-i-Iqan: 176)  and the station of “pure abstraction and essential unity” (Kitab-i-Iqan: 152) which is the unchanging eternity of essence, come together as and at the Primal Point of connection between heaven and earth.  That connection is the originating union of the two realms, though they never “touch” but is, rather, manifest through the collision of opposing energies that both sunders the existing “B” and “E” and rejoins them in new configuration of being and knowledge.  This weaving metaphor is important, joined and knit together being, perhaps, fibers or filaments intertwining in creation that parallels and embodies the sounds of divine Language, the Word of God as Revelation and Divine Being, knitting together a new reality of knowledge of the new creation.  The interpenetrating dimensions of existence make the relation vibratory and the resounding verbs and phrases are educative, bringing forth created things by calling them forth, evoking an inner communion between Spirit and Matter that is reflected in the interlocking dimensions of community life that are manifest both as an embracing unity the binds and knits together the reality of all the “difference, contrast, contradiction and opposition” that is the human reality and world of humanity.

That is, the reflexivity of knowledge, of A is A, mirrors the structure of reality, of B and E manifestly joined and knit together to reflect the “essential unity” of  “these two are the same yet they are different.”  As He asserts of the unity of opposites in His own Being, each bringing forth its opposite in creation: “I bear witness that in His person solidity and fluidity have been joined and combined. Through His immovable constancy in Thy Cause, and His unwavering adherence to whatsoever Thou, in the plentitude of the light of Thy glory, didst unveil to His eyes, throughout the domains of Thy Revelation and creation, the souls of Thy servants were stirred up in their longing for Thy Kingdom, and the dwellers of Thy realms rushed forth to enter into Thy heavenly dominion. Through the restlessness He evinced in Thy path, the feet of all them that are devoted to Thee were steeled and confirmed to manifest Thy Cause amidst Thy creatures, and to demonstrate Thy sovereignty throughout Thy realm.”(Baha'u'llah, Prayers and Meditations by Baha'u'llah: 49)

But His great purpose in coming He says is “to draw thee from the realms of contradiction unto the retreats of oneness, and to lead thee to the sacred streams of His Law.”(Baha'u'llah, Gems of Divine Mysteries: 8)

 Again, He says regarding the reflexive unity of the “BE” of creation over the circle of time: “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.” (Baha'u'llah, Tablets of Baha'u'llah: 183)

Shoghi Effendi points out where these principles of oneness and the duality of simultaneity and reciprocal action, which is the crossing of energies and processes, help define the overall workings of the two Plans of God: “Such simultaneous processes of rise and of fall, of integration and of disintegration, of order and chaos, with their continuous and reciprocal reactions on each other, are but aspects of a greater Plan, one and indivisible, whose Source is God, whose author is Bahá'u'lláh, the theater of whose operations is the entire planet, and whose ultimate objectives are the unity of the human race and the peace of all mankind.” (Shoghi Effendi, The Advent of Divine Justice: 72-73)  The House of Justice further illustrates how this turbulence of simultaneous processes working in opposition creates a new vortex of possibilities of social life for those who are alert and can follow the flow: “It is against such "simultaneous processes of rise and fall, of integration and of disintegration, of order and chaos, with their continuous and reciprocal reactions on each other," that a myriad new opportunities for the next stage in the unfoldment of the beloved Master's Divine Plan present themselves.” (The Universal House of Justice, A Wider Horizon, Selected Letters 1983-1992: 103)

The principles of reciprocal transformation even operate within every individual and structure his/her efforts to transform society: “At the very core of the aims of the Faith are the establishment of justice and unity in the world, the removal of prejudice and enmity from among all people, the awakening of compassion and understanding in the hearts of all men and women, and the raising of all souls to a new level of spirituality and behavior through the vitalizing influence of divine Revelation. The course set forth by Bahá'u'lláh for the attainment of these aims is the double task of simultaneously building an ideal society and perfecting the behavior of individuals. For this dual and reciprocal transformation He has not only revealed laws, principles and truths attuned to the needs of this age, but has established the very nucleus and pattern of those institutions which are to evolve into the structure of the divinely purposed world society.” (The Universal House of Justice, 1992 Dec 10, Issues Related to Study Compilation)
      Finally, the principles reveal the antagonistic/unifying relations between humanity’s two great knowledge systems: “To every fair-minded observer, you are the living proof that faith in God and confidence in social progress are in every sense reconcilable; that science and religion are the two inseparable, reciprocal systems of knowledge impelling the advancement of civilization.” (The Universal House of Justice, 2003 Nov 26, To the Followers of Bahá'u'lláh in the Cradle of the Faith:4)