The Spiritual Dimensions of Peace

Ye who are servants of the human race, strive ye with all your heart to deliver mankind out of this darkness and these prejudices that belong to the human condition and the world of nature, so that humanity may find its way into the light of the world of God. Praise be to Him, ye are acquainted with the various laws, institutions and principles of the world; today nothing short of these divine teachings can assure peace and tranquillity to mankind. But for these teachings, this darkness shall never vanish, these chronic diseases shall never be healed; nay, they shall grow fiercer from day to day. Strive ye, therefore, with the help of God, with illumined minds and hearts and a strength born of heaven, to become a bestowal from God to man, and to call into being for all humankind, comfort and peace.

(Selections from the Writings of Abdu'l-Baha: 249)

This post is the first in a series of posts that will examine the spiritual pre-requisites and dimensions of peace.

In a world increasingly dominated by fear, distrust and despair, rocked daily by acts of terror, social upheavals, and civil disorder, and the looming threat of catastrophic war, peace surges as the one dream of all.  But how to get there?

I will examine this question by taking an in-depth look at a penetrating thematic statement from the House of Justice about how peace is actually brought about through a close interplay between emerging inner powers of the soul and outer supporting social forces.  To glance ahead, I will argue that all efforts of peace will fail until the bringing forth, the educing, of spiritual powers is accomplished.  Failure to tap our spiritual endowments prevents peace from coming about, despite humanity’s best intentions and most disinterested efforts.  In short, peace can’t come about except through manifesting a certain condition of the soul.  This, in turn, is accomplished by arousing and training certain faculties of the soul which drive and guide collective social action, laying the foundation of just laws and the diffusing of ethical mores in harmony with human higher nature, and, finally, to the erection of supporting social institutions and educational practices.

The first part of the House of Justice statement is: “(T)he abolition of war is not simply a matter of signing treaties and protocols; it is a complex task requiring a new level of commitment to resolving issues not customarily associated with the pursuit of peace. Based on political agreements alone, the idea of collective security is a chimera. 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.” (The Universal House of Justice, The Promise of World Peace: para. 36)

What is that “inner state” from which stems peace?  I believe that it is the state of unity. This inner state is founded upon the proper use of a religious faculty or instinct, for the religion of God in the Bahá’i Writings, is the most great and powerful example of unity. The spiritual or moral attitude referenced by the House of Justice may be justice.  It, too, is funded upon an inner faculty of justice.  But let’s back up a moment.

Baha’u’llah Himself states the prerequisite of world peace.  He says: “The well-being of mankind, its peace and security, are unattainable unless and until its unity is firmly established. This unity can never be achieved so long as the counsels which the Pen of the Most High hath revealed are suffered to pass unheeded.” (Gleanings from the Writings of Baha'u'llah: 286)  So a condition of global social unity precedes world peace, and such unity cannot be achieved so long as humanity disregards or turns a deaf ear to the means to achieve that ultimate state that are within the Bahá’i Writings.

Now a condition of unity in the outer human world can be achieved because unity is already existent in the inner world of the spirit: “Unity is a condition of the human spirit.  Education can support and enhance it, as can legislation, but they can do so only once it emerges and has established itself as a compelling force in social life.” (One Common Faith: 42) However this soul condition of unity cannot emerge as a compelling force in social life until a reign of social justice is established.  Baha’u’llah states that: “The purpose of justice is the appearance of unity among men. The ocean of divine wisdom surgeth within this exalted word, while the books of the world cannot contain its inner significance.” (Tablets of Baha'u'llah: 66-67)

Unity emerges as a compelling force in the form of and a as result of the power of justice, because the purpose of justice is the appearance of unity.  The power of justice is built upon reward and punishment.  Religion is the greatest manifestation of this condition of unity, indeed unity is built upon a conception of true religion.  That conception was explicitly by Baha’u’llah when He asserted: “This is the changeless Faith of God, eternal in the past, eternal in the future. Let him that seeketh, attain it…” (Gleanings from the Writings of Baha'u'llah: 136)

Now, the House indicates 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.”  The first and cardinal principle is the principle of the oneness of humankind.  Shoghi Effendi writes: “The principle of the Oneness of Mankind—the pivot round which all the teachings of Bahá'u'lláh revolve—is no mere outburst of ignorant emotionalism or an expression of vague and pious hope. Its appeal is not to be merely identified with a reawakening of the spirit of brotherhood and good-will among men, nor does it aim solely at the fostering of harmonious cooperation among individual peoples and nations. Its implications are deeper, its claims greater than any which the Prophets of old were allowed to advance. Its message is applicable not only to the individual, but concerns itself primarily with the nature of those essential relationships that must bind all the states and nations as members of one human family. It does not constitute merely the enunciation of an ideal, but stands inseparably associated with an institution adequate to embody its truth, demonstrate its validity, and perpetuate its influence. It implies an organic change in the structure of present-day society, a change such as the world has not yet experienced. It constitutes a challenge, at once bold and universal, to outworn shibboleths of national creeds—creeds that have had their day and which must, in the ordinary course of events as shaped and controlled by Providence, give way to a new gospel, fundamentally different from, and infinitely superior to, what the world has already conceived. It calls for no less than the reconstruction and the demilitarization of the whole civilized world—a world organically unified in all the essential aspects of its life, its political machinery, its spiritual aspiration, its trade and finance, its script and language, and yet infinite in the diversity of the national characteristics of its federated units.

It represents the consummation of human evolution—an evolution that has had its earliest beginnings in the birth of family life, its subsequent development in the achievement of tribal solidarity, leading in turn to the constitution of the city-state, and expanding later into the institution of independent and sovereign nations.

The principle of the Oneness of Mankind, as proclaimed by Bahá'u'lláh, carries with it no more and no less than a solemn assertion that attainment to this final stage in this stupendous evolution is not only necessary but inevitable, that its realization is fast approaching, and that nothing short of a power that is born of God can succeed in establishing it.” (The World Order of Baha'u'llah:42-43)