Consultation is a Source of Well-Being

In all things it is necessary to consult. This matter should be forcibly stressed by thee, so that consultation may be observed by all. The intent of what hath been revealed from the Pen of the Most High is that consultation may be fully carried out among the friends, inasmuch as it is and will always be a cause of awareness and of awakening and a source of good and well-being.

(Consultation: A Compilation: 3)

Last post examined how consultation brings forth new powers of awakening and awareness from the power of understanding. But there are, too, positive social results that flow from consultation that make it a source of well-being.

The Master further elaborates on the nature and importance of consultation: “Man must consult on all matters, whether major or minor, so that he may become cognizant of what is good. Consultation giveth him insight into things and enableth him to delve into questions which are unknown. The light of truth shineth from the faces of those who engage in consultation. Such consultation causeth the living waters to flow in the meadows of man's reality, the rays of ancient glory to shine upon him, and the tree of his being to be adorned with wondrous fruit. The members who are consulting, however, should behave in the utmost love, harmony and sincerity towards each other. The principle of consultation is one of the most fundamental elements of the divine edifice. Even in their ordinary affairs the individual members of society should consult.” (From a Tablet - translated from the Persian--The Compilation of Compilations vol. I: 91)

            True consultation as spiritual conference that is founded upon spiritual principles and carried out in an attitude and atmosphere of love transforms the power of understanding into a super power of spiritual insight and understanding.  For when true love is mixed with spiritual principle, scientific knowledge, and the facts of any matter under consideration, and with the other spiritual qualities enumerated earlier, the human intelligence, with the aid of God, is able to transmute conjecture, which is to form an opinion or conclusion on the basis of incomplete information, into a certitude of knowing. 

It is in this context where divine love and knowledge are combined that we can more deeply comprehend these statements: “The heaven of divine wisdom is illumined with the two luminaries of consultation and compassion and the canopy of world order is upraised upon the two pillars of reward and punishment.” (Tablets of Baha'u'llah: 126) “The Great Being saith: The heaven of divine wisdom is illumined with the two luminaries of consultation and compassion. Take ye counsel together in all matters, inasmuch as consultation is the lamp of guidance which leadeth the way, and is the bestower of understanding.” (Tablets of Baha'u'llah:168)

Divine knowledge and love, the great powers of the mind and the heart, both gifts from God to the human reality, are inherent, though latent, attributes of the rational faculty, the power of understanding.  They are powers infused into our very beings, endowments of the human essence that connect it directly to the spiritual dimension, the heaven of divine wisdom.   We are, as reminded daily in the Short Obligatory Prayer: “Created to know Thee and to worship Thee."  In another of His prayers, one in which He, again, links wisdom and compassion, Baha’u’llah expresses: “Glorified art Thou, O Lord my God! I give Thee thanks inasmuch as Thou hast called me into being in Thy days, and infused into me Thy love and Thy knowledge. I beseech Thee, by Thy name whereby the goodly pearls of Thy wisdom and Thine utterance were brought forth out of the treasuries of the hearts of such of Thy servants as are nigh unto Thee, and through which the Day-Star of Thy name, the Compassionate, hath shed its radiance upon all that are in Thy heaven and on Thy earth, to supply me, by Thy grace and bounty, with Thy wondrous and hidden bounties.” (Prayers and Meditations by Baha'u'llah: 177) 

One might wonder why consultation is linked inextricably with compassion. Perhaps it has something to do with transmuting the conjecture of opinion into a certitude of knowledge.  But it also helps make consultation a source of well-being.  Consultation is speaking and thinking together in the common effort to unify thought around the truth, and to make a decision which leads to effective action.  Compassion is, literally, to suffer or feel together. This creates a unity of feeling.  These come together in the prayer often said to open a meeting of the Spiritual Assembly: “that our thoughts, our views, our feelings may become as one reality, manifesting the spirit of union throughout the world.” (Selections from the Writings of ‘Abdu'l-Baha: 86)  That is, not only are thoughts to be one reality in themselves, and views one reality as a collective view, and feelings unified into one reality, but these separate unities also come together into one complex reality, thereby truly “manifesting the spirit of union.”

Compassion is a unity of feeling for each other brought about in the hearts of many people in a phrase ‘Abdu’l-Baha stated was one of the requisites for true consultation, namely, “patience and long-suffering in difficulties”.  Consultation supported by compassion would, I feel, engender an empathic understanding of another and to a tolerance of differences. Such a condition of spirit would inherently oppose belittling the thought of another, or seeking to exalt oneself above others.  It would serve to direct thought toward equity, the fundamental value in justice, and to the means of uplifting the downtrodden, providing more opportunities to the underprivileged, to redress injustice, in short, to social and personal transformation.  In other words, consultation is not just a source of awakening and awareness, but also, as the lead quote states, a source of good and well-being.

Baha’u’llah and ‘Abdu’l-Baha counselled people to engage in consultation in all matters.  In that light, and in the context of good and well-being, let us recall here that Baha’u’llah says that “No welfare and no well-being can be attained except through consultation.’" (The Compilation of Compilations vol. I: 93) And: “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)  Whenever consultation is directed toward serving others, to helping them with life’s difficulties, with virtuous action, when it results in compassionate understanding, it becomes a source of good and well-being.

These are some of the latent powers that true consultation (i.e. consultation as spiritual conference carried out in an attitude and atmosphere of love and founded upon spiritual principles) releases from the human reality, and some of the positive, transforming social results that true consultation brings about.  It is the maturity of the gift of understanding, it transmutes conjecture into certitude, it is a light which guideth, a lamp illuminating the path to truth, bestowing awareness and awakening.  It is a source of good and well-being.  It is no wonder that Baha’u’llah in such strong terms admonishes us to consult in all matters.  

But there are other moral and social responsibilities implied in all this.  These are summed up under the word “obedience.”  Let look next at these responsibilities in turn and perhaps see why this is so.