The
primary question to be resolved is how the present world, with its entrenched
pattern of conflict, can change to a world in which harmony and co-operation
will prevail.
(The Universal House of Justice, 1985 Oct,
The Promise of World Peace)
Part
of any answer to the above question posed by the Universal House of Justice lies
in the establishment and promulgation of “the different discourse” proclaimed
by Baha’u’llah. We have been exploring
the kerygmatic mode of language as a model of what that discourse may be, and
have seen that it is more than a new vocabulary, or different syntactical
relations. Neither is it just a new
language, as, for example, Esperanto. It
is language that proclaims God in all that it expresses, because it is
conditioned by spiritual values and qualities, i.e. the kerygmatic is built
upon a pure heart, kindliness of expression, and a humble posture of learning
all of which generates a culture of encouragement. The intent of this mode of language is not
just to convey one’s own message to the mind or heart of another, but to
connect with that person spiritually by proclaiming God and, in doing so, also
to bring forth from the mind and especially the heart new qualities. To proclaim God in all our speech does not
mean to limit oneself to strictly religious or “spiritual” topics, nor to work
the word God, however tortuously, into every sentence of one’s conversation,
but that as much as possible speech proceeds from the divine aspect of the
human reality.
The House of Justice's own answer to the “primary
question” stated above is, perhaps, summed up in the following: “The other
point is that the primary challenge in dealing with issues of peace is to raise
the context to the level of principle, as distinct from pure pragmatism. For,
in essence, peace stems from an inner state supported by a spiritual or moral
attitude, and it is chiefly in evoking this attitude that the possibility of
enduring solutions can be found.
“There
are spiritual principles, or what some call human values, by which solutions
can be found for every social problem. Any well-intentioned group can in a
general sense devise practical solutions to its problems, but good intentions
and practical knowledge are usually not enough. The essential merit of
spiritual principle is that it not only presents a perspective which harmonizes
with that which is immanent in human nature, it also induces an attitude, a
dynamic, a will, an aspiration, which facilitate the discovery and
implementation of practical measures. Leaders of governments and all in
authority would be well served in their efforts to solve problems if they would
first seek to identify the principles involved and then be guided by them.”
(The Universal House of Justice, 1985 Oct, The
Promise of World Peace)
Let’s
us look more closely at what the text is saying, in this case regarding peace, but more broadly in regard to most of the outer collective social states
we wish to see established, such as justice.
That is, these are inner states “supported by a “spiritual or moral
attitude.” It is chiefly in “evoking this attitude that the possibility of
enduring solutions can be found.” These attitudes are evoked via spiritual
principles, because these principles present “a perspective which harmonizes
with that which is immanent in human nature.”
They also induce “an attitude, a dynamic, a will, an aspiration, which
facilitate the discovery and implementation of practical measures.” In short, “primary
questions” are resolved only by meeting “primary challenges”, and humanity’s
primary challenges have always been spiritual.
Clarity is the beginning of encouragement and encouragement generates empowerment.
This is difficult to see because everything
is undergoing a fundamental reorganization and change and it is easier to see
the outer changes and ascribe all other changes to them. But nothing works,
because solutions are not built upon and guided by spiritual principles but,
rather, by self-interest, the dark side of the human reality in the human stage
of life. Now the epistemological break mentioned
in the first post mirrors and is associated with the ontological one. But it mirrors and is associated with the ontological
break just because it is brought about by that more fundamental and initially catastrophic ontological break, i.e. from humanity to divinity.
The epistemological break is not just in how
knowledge is formulated, but, again, the reformulation of knowledge is built
upon the more fundamental shift in the epistemological realm from the natural intellect
to the sacred heart as the primary mode of knowing.
The epistemological break, which is the “different cause”
and “different discourse” stems from the power of the Word to split creation,
the world of existence or being, into before and after, the B and the E, and to
reunite them into a new form. Baha’u’llah
asserts: “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)
The
Word is the great creative/destructive power, as we know. Creatively: “Thou
didst wish to make Thyself known unto men; therefore, Thou didst, through a
word of Thy mouth, bring creation into being and fashion the universe.” (Baha'u'llah,
Prayers and Meditations by Baha'u'llah:
6)
For human development: “Man is the supreme
Talisman. Lack of a proper education hath, however, deprived him of that which
he doth inherently possess. Through a word proceeding out of the mouth of
God he was called into being; by one word more he was guided to recognize the
Source of his education; by yet another word his station and destiny were
safeguarded.” (Baha'u'llah, Gleanings from
the Writings of Baha'u'llah: 259-260)
And
for human speech when infused with divine qualities: “Whoso hath drunk of the cup
which the hand of Thy mercy hath borne round will strip himself of all things
except Thee, and will be able, through a word of his mouth, to enrapture the
souls of such of Thy servants as have slumbered on the bed of forgetfulness and
negligence, and to cause them to turn their faces toward Thy most Great Sign,
and seek from Thee naught else except Thyself, and ask of Thee only what Thou
hast determined for them by the pen of Thy judgment and hast prescribed in the
Tablet of Thy decree.”
(Baha'u'llah,
Prayers and Meditations by Baha'u'llah:
191)
The destructive aspect is the first phase of a
universal mental advance, for the end and the beginning become one in the
incorporation of all past eternal truths. The new Word reveals, then, more of the given, and
linking past to present and on to the future, gives a universal understanding
of progression. All is new, yet, all that is essential is renewed.
This split and reunion in new form is also reflected
in the change of primary modes of knowing and their respective faculties. As we have been saying, the change from intellect
to heart as the primary organ of intelligence reflects the intellectual to
spiritual advance that humanity is making.
Now while the mind and intellect acquire much of their knowledge from
learning, study and meditation, with meditation a kind of direct link between
mind and heart, the heart as organ of spiritual intelligence and not just a chorus of emotions, seems to innately know a great deal. It seems a matter of releasing knowledge, not
acquiring it. Thus Baha’u’llah writes: “Purge thou thy heart that We may cause
fountains of wisdom and utterance to gush out therefrom, thus enabling thee to
raise thy voice among all mankind.” (Baha'u'llah, Tablets of Baha'u'llah: 189-190)
In
this light we perhaps can interpret Baha’u’llah’s statement that “Man's
treasure is his utterance…” (Tablets of
Baha'u'llah: 62) as something of inestimable value that he already has,
ready to gush forth with the proper stimulation. It gives greater meaning to the somewhat sentimental
and hackneyed phrase “to speak from the heart”, for in this context it is to
speak with more than just a kind of overflow of feeling. There is a sincerity to it, a certain integrity
brought forth from finding what poets call one’s real voice. It is not “self-expression”, but the self’s
expression, for it is actually how one sees the world. And if justice is to see with thine own eyes
and hear with thine own ears, then this is just, powerful and penetrating speech. Its purpose is not to get another to “see it
my way” but to help him to see it his way. In one of His tablets Baha’u’llah
refers to Himself as the “royal falcon” whose aim is to “unfold the drooping
wings of every broken bird and start it on its flight.” (Tablets of Baha'u'llah: 169)
I
remarked above that
encouragement generates empowerment. Power,
in the Bahá’í Writings, while retaining in many situations its traditional
meaning as the effective expression of will and purpose, might also be redefined
as the empowerment of encouragement, both evocative and educative, bringing
forth from oneself because one has been empowered to do so, but also evoking
the power of another, thus reversing and thereby completing the context of will
and purpose. This is especially true
with speech, the most powerful force in creation. Hence Baha’u’llah says, for
example, “Say: If it be Our pleasure We shall render the Cause victorious
through the power of a single word from Our presence. He is in truth the
Omnipotent, the All-Compelling. Should it be God's intention, there would
appear out of the forests of celestial might the lion of indomitable strength
whose roaring is like unto the peals of thunder reverberating in the mountains.
However, since Our loving providence surpasseth all things, We have ordained that
complete victory should be achieved through speech and utterance, that Our
servants throughout the earth may thereby become the recipients of divine good.”
(Tablets of Baha'u'llah: 197-198)
Thus
justice can be defined as that which ensures the empowerment of all. In the heat and ferment of today’s global unrest,
The Prosperity of Humankind reminds us that an “age that sees the people
of the world increasingly gaining access to information of every kind and to a
diversity of ideas will find justice asserting itself as the ruling principle
of successful social organization." (The Prosperity of Humankind:
Section II para: 1) And true justice is articulated by just
speech, as we have been describing it.
We have quoted Baha’u’llah statement that: “No man of wisdom can demonstrate his knowledge save by
means of words.” (Tablets of Baha'u'llah:
172) There is no way that we know of
these spiritual things except through the words of Baha’u’llah which, perhaps,
literally creates that awareness with us.
There is also no way we can demonstrate any knowledge of them except,
again, through the words of God that bring forth the divine aspect of the human
reality. Thus is God proclaimed. Thus will conflict be turned into cooperation, war into peace, iniquity into justice.
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