From the heaven of God's Will, and for the purpose of
ennobling the world of being and of elevating the minds and souls of men, hath
been sent down that which is the most effective instrument for the education of
the whole human race. 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.
(Baha'u'llah, Tablets of Baha'u'llah: 87)
A universal message is not
one that is true for everyone at this time, but one that “hath been” true for
humanity at all times. It must have been
true in the past, is true now, and will be true in the future. This does not mean that it will not change,
but its change is only that of unfolding in more manifest form its truth. But, too, it must bring together old ideals
and notions with contemporary ideas of the same, yet more manifestly complex, reality
so that humanity’s current of intellectual energy runs true. Thus old concepts such as the ether and
metamorphosis, and sciences such as alchemy, are returning in new form to help
us grasp the new reality that is also the old reality renewed.
The best example of this progressive
unfoldment of the same Reality is the interconnected Revelations advancing the
same divine Message through time and history.
It comes in two parts, a material law that is abrogated and replaced with
every new Revelation, and a spiritual part that unfolds into greater complexity
and clarity. Of the spiritual aspect
‘Abdu’l-Baha says: “The spiritual part never changes. All the Manifestations of
God and His Prophets have taught the same truths and given the same spiritual
law. They all teach the one code of morality. There is no division in the
truth. The Sun has sent forth many rays to illumine human intelligence, the
light is always the same.” (Paris Talks:
142)
Now one of the most fascinating aspects of the
renewal of the spiritual law in new and greater form, and what makes it truly
universal, is that each Revelation not only lays the groundwork for the next
and future Revelations, a clear idea, but also it seems to affect the past,
perhaps in the sense of renewal in some manner.
Baha’u’llah remarks about Himself and His Revelation: “Thou art He, by
Whose name the Hidden Secret was divulged, and the Well-Guarded Name was
revealed, and the seals of the sealed-up Goblet were opened, shedding thereby
its fragrance over all creation, whether of the past or of the future.” (Prayers and Meditations by Baha'u'llah: 240-241)
This
brings us to a discussion of another ancient idea receiving new attention, this
one from the Hindu tradition, perhaps Indian would be better. I refer to the doctrine of the Akashic Field
and Akashic Record. According to this
belief, the Akashic Field is a universal field of
patterned energy underlying creation from which all the universe is formed. Being
the background to the subatomic worlds, it also flows through the other realms
of stars, galaxies and human life, and is an activating force in all those
realms.
But it also seems a
storehouse of information, for the Akashic Record is the record of everything
that ever occurred or will occur in time and space. It also holds the potential for all future
actual events and thoughts. Thus the
“Akasha” is in two parts, pre-creation formative structure and all-inclusive
record, what in the human intelligence we might call imagination and memory.
Modern philosophers, such as Ervin Laszlo in his
book, Science and the Akashic Field, accepts
the Hindu idea, calling it the “A-field”.
He believes that it may not only be a super
dense sea of frictionless energy but also a sea of information conveying the historical
experience of matter. For him, and those
who believe as he does, the discovery in physics of the zero point energy field
(ZPF), is also the discovery of this universal information field.
In the preface to his book he writes: “Akasha (a-ka 'ska) is a Sanskrit word meaning
"ether": all-pervasive space. Originally signifying
"radiation" or "brilliance," in Indian philosophy akasha
was considered the first and most fundamental of the five elements - the others
being vata (air), agni (fire), ap (water), and prithivi (earth). Akasha
embraces the properties of all five elements: it is the womb from which
everything we perceive with our senses has emerged and into which everything
will ultimately re-descend. The Akashic Record (also called The Akashic Chronicle,)
is the enduring record of all that happens, and has ever happened, in space and
time.”
Now my model of the three levels of divine creation can
incorporate all this. How?
First, is there any support
in the Bahá’i Writings for the concept of an Akashic Field and Record? I don’t know of any specific reference, but
the following are some suggestive statements from the Master and Baha’u’llah.
(I have bold-faced the relevant phrases)
Regarding an all-pervasive
field of energy (an ether) underlying the physical, ‘Abdu’l-Baha speaks of
etheric matter. For example: “Reflect that light is the expression of the vibrations of the etheric matter: the
nerves of the eye are affected by these vibrations, and sight is produced. The light of the lamp exists through the
vibration of the etheric matter; so also does that of the sun, but what a
difference between the light of the sun and that of the stars or the lamp!” (Some Answered Questions: 149)
What about an Akashic Record? Baha’u’llah asserts: "O
King! I was but a man like others, asleep upon My couch, when lo, the breezes of the All-Glorious were wafted
over Me, and taught Me the knowledge of all that hath been. This thing is
not from Me, but from One Who is Almighty and All-Knowing. And He bade Me lift
up My voice between earth and heaven, and for this there befell Me what hath
caused the tears of every man of understanding to flow.” (Baha'u'llah, Epistle to the Son of the Wolf: 11) And…
“Thou knowest full well that We perused not
the books which men possess and We acquired not the learning current amongst
them, and yet whenever We desire to
quote the sayings of the learned and of the wise, presently there will appear
before the face of thy Lord in the form of a tablet all that which hath
appeared in the world and is revealed in the Holy Books and Scriptures.
Thus do We set down in writing that which the eye perceiveth. Verily His
knowledge encompasseth the earth and the heavens.” (Tablets of Baha'u'llah: 149)
(It may
be worth noting that Madame Blavatsky, the founder of Theosophy, uses the word
akasha, characterizing it as a sort of life
force. She also referred to "indestructible tablets of the
astral light" recording both the past and future of human thought and
action. I am not claiming that the
Bahá’i Writings and ancient and contemporary science and philosophy are
speaking of exactly the same thing, only pointing to the similarity of
imagery.)
One part of the divine
creation that I have proposed is the level, pre-existent to all creation, of the
attributes of God. But this pre-existence is not a temporal priority, but a causal or
conceptual one. Creation changes when these Attributes
and Qualities undergo reconfiguration and development, a change
indicated by the change with every Revelation of the leading Name of God. Baha’u’llah, for example, speaks of the
change from the Bab’s Revelation to His own as “when He replaced His Name 'the
Most Exalted' by 'the Most Glorious'…”(Tablets
of Baha'u'llah: 185)
This divine change is effected by the Will of
God flowing through the archetypal and universal categories of the divine
Intellect whch forms the cosmological dimension. The full cosmological dimension is that of all consciousness
and intelligence, of the sun of the divine Intellect and its reflection in
human minds. The Divine Intellect also pre-exists and “informs” (Laszlo’s word)
the Akashic Field. That is, the divine Will is Spirit as originating,
universal metaphysical impulse, the Spirit of God moving across the face of the
waters in Biblical imagery. Primal Will is embodied and formed by the universal,
divine Intellect, the Spirit as archetypal form and pattern. In this context, these two, Will and
Intellect, are the same, yet they are different. The union of Will and Intellect is the
imprinting active force. Upon what does
this energy pattern imprint itself? Akashic
Field proponents would say the Akashic Field, which I agree with in one
sense. But the first imprint, I would
say, is upon the archetypal, metaphysical and receptive substance of divine
Love. Now this metaphysical love has its
mental/physical image and counterpart in the cosmos/universe union. Remember ‘Abdu’l-Baha stated that love is “the unique power that bindeth together the divers
elements of this material world, the supreme magnetic force that directeth the
movements of the spheres in the celestial realms. Love revealeth with unfailing
and limitless power the mysteries latent in the universe.” (Selections from the Writings of Abdu'l-Baha:
27) The physical universe itself,
the world of being, is the manifestation of the heat generated by the
interaction of Will and Intellect upon this prima
materia.
This divine love—what Laszlo calls a sea of “frictionless
energy”—is an inherent part of the universe.”
‘It is undisputed, however, that the influence of Thine attraction hath
everlastingly been inherent in the realities of Thy handiwork,…”(The Bab, Selections from the Writings of the Bab:175)
For today’s
cosmologists, like Laszlo, who leave God and His Manifestations out of
creation, the original substance would be the Akashic
Field-information-cosmos and the Zero Point
Field energy universe that together make up what physicists call the quantum
vacuum. Creation itself is, in modern
terminology, made up of countless wave interference combinations, both physical
and mental and physical with mental, that join and knit together in a kind of
conjugation to create the infinite manifest things. There are sub-fields, not only
electro-magnetic and gravitational in the physical realm, but mental fields, like
Sheldrake’s “morphic fields”, that also operate through time and space. Together these physical and mental
interactions bring about a species-life and learning, each species recognizing
its signature in the field of fields, and each tradition of thought in the
human realm manifesting what is known as a history of ideas. I don’t quarrel with the logic of any of
this, but I accept the creation as a divine handiwork, not just the interplay
of forces.
Now Revelation would also
change the Akashic Field and Record. I
mean that the Akashic Field would carry the imprint of previous Revelations, being
the Master Imprint, and these would be linked together in a kind of morphic
resonance, a species of divine Utterance unlike any other pattern of informed
energy, recognizable only as Itself, and progressing toward a state of “highest
essence and most perfect expression”. This is what the Bahá’i Writings call
progressive Revelation. Indeed, recall
Baha’u’llah claims to see “in
the form of a tablet all that which hath appeared in the world and is revealed
in the Holy Books and Scriptures.”
Now the Bahá’i Writings also
claim that with every Revelation, creation is made new. In one celebrated passage—Prayers and Meditations: 295-96—Baha’u’llah
speaks of “every several atom” acquiring a new and distinct character. Are atoms—not the billiard balls of classical
physics but the energy quanta of quantum mechanics—where the cosmological Mind
resonantly intersects with universal Matter, when and where the divine imprints
its mental image upon the prima materia? In short, in my model, natural law is a physical image of the divine law
flowing from self-generating Will through Intellect imprinting upon Love.
But, if Revelation recreates
all creation how is there continuity? Though
the forms of creation are recreated the essential elements and simple
substances would not change, just be reorganized and transformed into new
things. Through progressive Revelation, information—the
rules, laws and principles of Nature’s organization—is passed from one cycle of
Revelation to the next, again through a kind of morphic resonance, because it
would imprint the same image, though each time in fuller form, upon the Akashic
field, or divine love, reorganizing its patterns and thus reorganizing into new
forms “every several atom”. Because the
structure of the spiritual and natural law remains, but ever new things may
come from these laws and principles of structure and organization, even precise ratios of numbers
for gravity, electromagnetism etc. so exact that there has not been enough time
for these to have formed randomly, would be the same. Those numbers are
transferred from previous stages of the universe, they are unchangeable or
change so slowly that they are nearly so.
Said another way, the first intellectual form,
the abstract universal of Revelation, becomes the concrete universal, the
formal cause of the universe, when it
imprints upon mental/physical prima
materia, the Akashic Field, which is the intellectual essence of Nature
since “nature, also, in its essence is an intellectual reality”, (Abdu'l-Baha, Some Answered Questions: 83), “the
embodiment of My Name, the Maker, the Creator.” (Baha'u'llah, Tablets of Baha'u'llah:141)
Thus: “Nature
is God's Will and is its expression in and through the contingent world. It is
a dispensation of Providence ordained by the Ordainer, the All-Wise. Were
anyone to affirm that it is the Will of God as manifested in the world of
being, no one should question this assertion.” (Baha'u'llah, Tablets of Baha'u'llah: 142) Now all this imprinting of Revelation on the
Akashic Field would be recorded on the Akashic Record.
The foundation of spiritual
science is to know, without necessarily fully comprehending, those great
spiritual structures from which come forth all created things. These are the mansions of eternity, eternal
principles that are revealed with every Manifestation of God but in ever more
complex intellectual and social and material form. They open and are propagated by light, both
intellectual and physical, depending upon which is being emphasized, for both
are always part of every act.
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