The virtues of the seed are revealed in the tree; it puts
forth branches, leaves, blossoms, and produces fruits. All these virtues were
hidden and potential in the seed. Through the blessing and bounty of
cultivation these virtues became apparent. Similarly, the merciful God, our
Creator, has deposited within human realities certain latent and potential
virtues. Through education and culture these virtues deposited by the loving
God will become apparent in the human reality, even as the unfoldment of the
tree from within the germinating seed..
(Abdu'l-Baha, The
Promulgation of Universal Peace, p. 91)
Recall that one of
the purposes of the rational faculty or power of understanding is to “discover
the secrets of creation.” Now, this
endeavor, as seers and poets through the ages have noted, is really a gigantic
exercise in self-discovery. “This spirit
has the power of discovery; it encompasses all things.” (Abdu'l-Baha, Some Answered Questions: 144)
The Master stated: “God's
greatest gift to man is that of intellect, or understanding. The understanding is the power by which man
acquires his knowledge of the several kingdoms of creation, and of various
stages of existence, as well as of much which is invisible. Possessing this gift, he is, in himself, the
sum of earlier creations—he is able to get into touch with those kingdoms; and
by this gift, he can frequently, through his scientific knowledge, reach out
with prophetic vision. Intellect is, in
truth, the most precious gift bestowed upon man by the Divine Bounty. Man
alone, among created beings, has this wonderful power.” (Paris Talks: 41)
Recall, too, that
‘Abdu’l-Baha stated that “(T)he religion of God
is the promoter of truth, the founder of science and knowledge, it is full of
goodwill for learned men; it is the civilizer of mankind, the discoverer of the
secrets of nature, and the enlightener of the horizons of the world.” (Some Answered Questions: 136)
Let me say again that,
for me, religion and the Religion of God are rarely the same thing. The Religion of God is what comes to humanity
as Revelation, and It both founds religion and science as complementary systems
of belief, knowledge and practice, stimulates the arts, and all the other
things that the Master attributes to It, including aiding the discovering the
secrets of creation, for it embraces all consciousness.
While in Paris, a
center of materialism and the eclipse of God, ‘Abdu’l-Baha made this bold
declaration about the origins of religion and science: “God made religion and
science to be the measure, as it were, of our understanding. Take heed that you
neglect not such a wonderful power. Weigh all things in this balance.” (Paris Talks: 146)
The
Word, (i.e. Revelation, or the Religion of God) is the first bestowal from God
and the power of understanding is its recipient and discover. My view is that the power of understanding
may discover the Word as Religion, as Justice, as Morality, or as Intellect, or,
let us say divine philosophy. It may also
discover It as divine Will, or divine Love. There
are other ways, too, such as prophecy or social teachings.
To see the relation between peace and
intellect, we start again at the
beginning, namely, that peace stems from an inner state, a spiritual condition
of unity. The garden metaphors presented
in the opening quote are not by accident, since we are talking about an
interrelated spiritual/organic process. The
relation of the spiritual to the organic is that the spiritual origin is both the
foundation for the organic origin, or seed, and is fully embodied in the organic
end, goal, or fruit. The seed holds all
the life that comes out from it, while the fruit holds all the life folded into
it, creating a new seed, making a double-end from a double origin; the double joining
and knitting together of the B and the E; the past is the mirror of the future. The glory of the essence, beginning and
foundation is, then, not fully revealed until maturity, the manifest end and fruit. This is true for all things. Consider these
statements from Baha’u’llah. First in
regards to human knowledge, whose fruit is the recognition of God: “The root of
all principles and the cornerstone of all foundations hath ever been, and shall
remain, the recognition of God.” (Baha'u'llah, Tabernacle of Unity: 24-25)
Secondly, in regard
to Revelation Itself, whose glory is the Revelation of Baha’u’llah: “For this
day is the Lord of all days, and whatsoever hath been revealed therein by the
Source of divine Revelation is the truth and the essence of all principles.
This day may be likened to a sea and all other days to gulfs and channels that
have branched therefrom. That which is uttered and revealed in this day is the
foundation, and is accounted as the Mother Book and the Source of all
utterance.” (Baha'u'llah, Tabernacle of
Unity: 25)
Thus while peace is
the goal of humanity, ‘Abdu’l-Baha also said: “Peace is the foundation of
God…”(The Promulgation of Universal Peace:
120) In His reply to a letter received
from Executive Committee of the Central Organization for a Durable Peace, He
wrote: “(P)eace is of the foundation of the religion of God.” (Selections from the Writings of Abdu'l-Baha:
296) In another place He clearly
asserts: “The fundamental truth of the
Manifestations is peace. This underlies all religion, all justice.” (The Promulgation of Universal Peace: 32)
This same relation
exists between the human spirit and mind.
The Master explained: “But the mind is the power of the human spirit.
Spirit is the lamp; mind is the light which shines from the lamp. Spirit is the
tree, and the mind is the fruit. Mind is the perfection of the spirit and is
its essential quality, as the sun's rays are the essential necessity of the
sun.” (Abdu'l-Baha, Some Answered
Questions: 208) Yet, as ‘Abdu’l-Baha
stated about the mind: “This supreme emblem of God stands first in the order of
creation and first in rank, taking precedence over all created things. Witness
to it is the Holy Tradition, "Before all else, God created the mind."
From the dawn of creation, it was made to be revealed in the temple of man.” (The Secret of Divine Civilization: 1)
The House of Justice extended
this imagery of mind by stating: “The endowments which distinguish the human
race from all other forms of life are summed up in what is known as the human
spirit; the mind is its essential quality.” (The Universal House of Justice, The Promise of World Peace, p. 1)
If peace stems from
an inner spiritual state it is no wonder that Spirit is really what this inner
state seeks, for that is what nourishes it and drives it toward manifestation. This drive is called in another context the
return to God. Again, this is, both
historically and today, an educative process initiated by the generating
influence of unfolding eternal, spiritual principles. As ‘Abdu’l-Baha stated: “The Sun has sent forth many rays to illumine human
intelligence, the light is always the same.” (Paris Talks: 142) What is that light? “The source of
all learning is the knowledge of God, exalted be His Glory, and this cannot be
attained save through the knowledge of His Divine Manifestation.” (
So, what does this
endowment of mind enable human beings to do, and what are its natural limitations? “These endowments have enabled humanity to
build civilizations and to prosper materially. But such accomplishments alone
have never satisfied the human spirit, whose mysterious nature inclines it
towards transcendence, a reaching towards an invisible realm, towards the
ultimate reality, that unknowable essence of essences called God. The religions
brought to mankind by a succession of spiritual luminaries have been the
primary link between humanity and that ultimate reality, and have galvanized
and refined mankind's capacity to achieve spiritual success together with
social progress.” (The Promise of World
Peace: 1)
While I have listed
intellect fourth, in an educational context intellect is first and primary. We have seen the interplay between knowledge
and being, how one draws forth the other to create the dynamic of growth.
Intellect enables us
through knowledge to discover the secrets of creation, but in this context it
is the faculty that enables human beings to grasp and articulate spiritual
principles that arouse and educe the faculties of religion, justice and morality
to maturity and to be trained in spiritual understanding. Intellect is the supreme faculty of human
consciousness, the fruit of the spirit and its essential quality, though as I
have been at pains to present, all the faculties come forth from the archetypal
rational faculty. Its first faculty, the religious, is from the heart, then
increasingly abstract qualities of justice, morality and intellect come forth
in their full flower, with human reasoning intelligence entering maturity at
about fifteen, and maturity, the fruit, defines that condition. That is true
collectively also.
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