They are the Future of Humanity

Monday, March 19, 2018

The Faculty of Intellect


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.” (Tablets of Baha’u’llah: 156)
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.

No comments:

Post a Comment