These divine qualities,
these eternal commandments, will never be abolished; nay, they will last and
remain established for ever and ever. These virtues of humanity will be renewed
in each of the different cycles; for at the end of every cycle the spiritual
Law of God—that is to say, the human virtues—disappears, and only the form
subsists.
(Abdu'l-Baha, Some
Answered Questions: 47)
The posts over the past year or more have explored
some aspects of the science of the love of God: as philosophical statement; in
language; physical science; psychologically as intentionality; and the inner
building blocks of peace. This
foundational divine science is, I believe, a new union of knowledge and being;
that is, a knowledge that unlocks and brings forth in its full glory the
spiritual human reality in new relations with all existence and with its
Supreme Creator.
Without the love of God,
meaning, relationally, God’s love for His creatures and, reciprocally, human
love for God, all the other attributes and faculties of humanity combined are
not sufficient to bring about peace.
For, the essence of the manifested nature of divinity is not reason, power,
justice or morality, but the laws of love. Hence, there can be a science of
this love, a science which would explore and explicate the manifold relations
of beings as expressions of divine Love awakened by divine Knowledge generated
by divine Will. It would be, in its
rational essence, an epistemology of love and the heart. In a sense, the science of the love of God is
the exploration of the impact of divine Revelation upon the whole of creation,
a study that would, from any perspective, be infinite in scope and depth and
yield.
It
is in the context of a foundational and encompassing science of the love of God
that we can explore Baha’u’llah’s statement in a Hidden Word: “Out of the
wastes of nothingness, with the clay of My command I made thee to appear, and
have ordained for thy training every atom in existence and the essence of all
created things. Thus, ere thou didst issue from thy mother's womb, I destined
for thee two founts of gleaming milk, eyes to watch over thee, and hearts to
love thee. Out of My loving-kindness, 'neath the shade of My mercy I nurtured
thee, and guarded thee by the essence of My grace and favor. And My purpose in
all this was that thou mightest attain My everlasting dominion and become
worthy of My invisible bestowals.” (The
Persian Hidden Words #29)
The
varied and developmental expressions of that love through unnumbered millenia, released
and built up through Revelations that gradually manifest the infinite
complexity of the unfolding Will of God, shows, in a cosmological context, its
power to join and knit together the archetypal “B” and “E” into different
stages and forms of “Be and it is”: i.e. to create and progressively bind together
all things in exquisitely intricate patterns and complex harmonies. For, the B and the
E when joined and knit together are an embrace, a relation, the same yet
different divine Love. It is the
vibrating influence of the Spirit (breath) of God, the divine Will, blowing
through the archetypal categories (reed) of the universal Mind to produce the
music of the spheres.
Though these laws and principles are eternal
and unknowable in essence, they are knowable in manifestation. They form a knowledge structure that, as it
unfolds through history, molds and brings forth an ever-advancing human knowledge
which mirrors and reflects it. The knowledge structure that is spiritual
knowledge, whose foundation I have been calling the science of the love of God,
begins with recognition of the Manifestation of God. The Bab wrote in this regard: “True knowledge, therefore, is the knowledge of God, and this is none
other than the recognition of His Manifestation in each Dispensation.” (Selections from the Writings of
the Bab: 89) And: “How vast the number of people who are well versed in every science, yet
it is their adherence to the holy Word of God which will determine their faith,
inasmuch as the fruit of every science is none other than the knowledge of
divine precepts and submission unto His good-pleasure.” (Selections from the Writings of
the Bab: 88)
Spiritual principles, the
rational part of the eternal Knowledge of God,
resonate with that which is immanent in the human spirit. In this regard, it is noteworthy that in the
opening quote the Master equates the spiritual Law of God with human virtues. The
rational faculty can be identified as the essence of that which is immanent,
with what makes us human. This
overarching faculty itself has many faculties that it sustains and powers. But the House of Justice’ statement, explored
in the final posts, indicates not only that the human reality is created to
respond to spiritual principles, but also that these faculties need the Word of
God to awaken to their full potential and power today.
The unfolding articulation through history of
eternal spiritual principles by the Manifestation of God and their application by
people in various contexts—what Baha’u’llah called striving to “translate that
which hath been written into reality and action”(Gleanings from the Writings of Baha'u'llah: 249)—is, I believe, the
foundational principles and practices of this great, new science, different in
form and substance from all previous science and knowledge. When these principles combine with the love
of God they also serve a most important role in freeing the mind from its own
entrapment in outmoded concepts, explanations and beliefs that is the cause of
our current malaise, despair and confusion.
All attempts to apply the knowledge of God
that is Revelation attract confirmations from the divine realm which over time
infuse the mind and heart with the heightened understanding that comes from
efforts to apply the teachings in different contexts. This is harmonic resonance creating a field
of influence: where pure energy patterns crystallize into insight, knowledge,
and power which then radiate energies on the plane of visible manifestation. The
knowledge is there to have an insight about.
But the insight cannot be had absent an increase in energy, in
enthusiasm and dedication, to attain that state of knowledge.
The
human being possesses, Baha’u’llah says, two visions. These are organic and spiritual. They have different rhythms of growths and
progress, the organic is the outer pictures of the inner spiritual. It is the
spiritual that now takes the lead.
The Master wrote: “Although to acquire the
sciences and arts is the greatest glory of mankind, this is so only on
condition that man's river flow into the mighty sea, and draw from God's
ancient source His inspiration. When this cometh to pass, then every teacher is
as a shoreless ocean, every pupil a prodigal fountain of knowledge. If, then,
the pursuit of knowledge lead to the beauty of Him Who is the Object of all Knowledge,
how excellent that goal; but if not, a mere drop will perhaps shut a man off
from flooding grace, for with learning cometh arrogance and pride, and it
bringeth on error and indifference to God.” (Selections from the Writings of Abdu'l-Baha: 110)
We may finish this long series of posts with
the following statement from ‘Abdu’l-Baha, which seems to concisely sum up so
much of the content of them.
“(T)he bestowals of God are moving and
circulating throughout all created things. This illimitable divine bounty has
no beginning and will have no ending. It is moving, circulating and becomes
effective wherever capacity is developed to receive it. In every station there
is a specialized capacity. Therefore, we must be hopeful that through the
bounty and favor of God this spirit of life infusing all created beings shall
quicken humanity, and from its bestowals the human world shall become a divine
world, this earthly kingdom become the mirror of the realm of Divinity, the
virtues and perfections of the world of humanity become unveiled and the image
and likeness of God be reflected from this temple.” (The Promulgation of Universal Peace: 160)
