Inside the Direct Connection

Moreover, entrance and exit, descent and ascent, are characteristics of bodies and not of spirits—that is to say, sensible realities enter and come forth, but intellectual subtleties and mental realities, such as intelligence, love, knowledge, imagination and thought, do not enter, nor come forth, nor descend, but rather they have direct connection.

(Abdu'l-Baha, Some Answered Questions: 108)

As part of my on-going exploration of what the Bahá’i Writings call the science of the love of God, a few posts ago I presented the notion, following the statement of ‘Abdul-Baha above, of direct connection between and upon levels of reality.  I have been thinking more about it, and here is where I am at the moment.

Direct connections, as I am using the term, are special connections of completion.  In its largest example direct connection is the joining and knitting together by the Manifestation of God of the archetypal opposites B and the E, eternity and temporality, distinction and unity, to configure creation.  In modern language, for Baha’u’llah’s phrase “joined and knit together” might be substituted the “making of coherence” between spiritual and material levels of reality. 

Direct connection is the point and moment of the uniting, that fusing, of opposites, making manifest the condition of these two are the same, yet they are different. Historically, it also marks the time when the end of one order occurs so that a new one may appear, which is the linking of disparate historical ages into a temporal succession that progressively manifests the “religion of God, eternal in the past, eternal in the future”.  The connection itself is always characterized by chaos and turbulence, because it is where complexity is built.  It is the process of something changing into its opposite, both in order that each become complete and in order for both to continue and progress, to gradually crystallize chaos into a new order.  Joining and knitting together B and E into one means that at every level and kind, direct connection of opposites crosses in meaning and structure, inverts, incorporates, and reverses flow.  Even the simple mirror-image appears as the reverse lateral polarity of the object being reflected.   Changing into the opposite is accomplished through the movement called chiasmus, a word which means crossing—to be discussed in a later post.

This is also the process of transformation, for all transformation is done by strengthening the weak points of any structure or process.  This upsets the equilibrium of the structure which destroys the first structure as a new one is built.  Hence, as the Bible says, the last become first and the first last under the guidance of a new organizing quality.

I see three fundamental kinds of direct connection of opposites, each kind of connection corresponding to one of the main levels of reality: physical, mental, spiritual. 

Direct connections in the physical body are readily seen and understood—I previously gave the examples of the connections between the arteries and veins and the respiratory and circulatory systems. It is the coupling of actual material entities and things.  I also said in passing that connections between higher and lower orders of reality are more complex and harder to perceive, for the levels are operating at different frequency domains.  When speaking of direct connection between higher and lower levels of Reality, the challenge is to find a way to capture in words the counter-interactive flow between these orders of being, different states of the universe, one material, one immaterial; one temporal, one eternal.

At the level of mind and intellect it is the joining together of thought and thing into knowledge through resonant energy, via harmony and vibration, the commingling of waves and frequencies, and an isomorphism of structure between the object of knowledge and its reflection in the mirror of the mind—after passing through the chiasmus of the retina. The mind is what it beholds, knows the thing by becoming the thing, being immaterially what it perceives materially.  It can do this because: “…all these planes and states are folded up and hidden away within him.  Dost thou reckon thyself only a puny form, when within thee the universe is folded?” (Baha'u'llah, The Seven Valleys: 33)

This sort of direct connection is metaphorically captured in the example ‘Abdu’l-Baha uses of the sun, its light, and the mirror on which the imprint of the image of the sun becomes manifest: indeed all things on earth are a kind of mirror of the sun’s light.  The physical actuality is an analogy of the intellectual Reality.

He applies this analogy to the mind’s acquisition of knowledge:  “For example, knowledge, which is a state attained to by the intelligence, is an intellectual condition; and entering and coming out of the mind are imaginary conditions; but the mind is connected with the acquisition of knowledge, like images reflected in a mirror.” (Some Answered Questions: 108)

But still higher is the joining and knitting together of Divine Spirit and human soul.  Here the metaphor is named appearance, again similar in some of its aspects to the light-image appearing in a mirror.  But this is pure metaphor, and the process inverts.  It is not like a physical object appearing in a physical mirror by passing through the medium of light, which is a commonplace phenomenon in physics.  Neither is it just like a spiritual light appearing in a nonphysical mirror, like the acquisition of knowledge, though the analogy remains fruitful. 

‘Abdu’l-Baha explains: “The Holy Spirit is the Bounty of God and the luminous rays which emanate from the Manifestations; for the focus of the rays of the Sun of Reality was Christ, and from this glorious focus, which is the Reality of Christ, the Bounty of God reflected upon the other mirrors which were the reality of the Apostles. The descent of the Holy Spirit upon the Apostles signifies that the glorious divine bounties reflected and appeared in their reality….Therefore, as it is evident and clear that the intellectual realities do not enter and descend, and it is absolutely impossible that the Holy Spirit should ascend and descend, enter, come out or penetrate, it can only be that the Holy Spirit appears in splendor, as the sun appears in the mirror.” (Some Answered Questions: 108)

The sun appearing in the physical mirror, and knowledge appearing in the mirror of the mind, indicate some initial condition of “separation” and “movement”—the first physical, the second intellectual—between the “object” and the mirror, and the movement ends in a union of two become metaphorically one. Sensible realities “enter and come forth”—i.e. they move through physical space. The discussion on acquiring knowledge indicates that it is the mind that moves toward union with “another”, whether person or thing.  That is, levels of knowledge, because they are there for the mind to discover, point to mental movement since “knowledge is a state attained to by the intelligence”.  Once union is attained, detailed knowledge of that state is then acquired and learned: deficit is transformed into asset; absence becomes presence.

In the spiritual situation, (i.e. the image of the higher appearing in the reality of the lower to animate it and establish its influence) direct connection is formed from the higher communicating with itself as its own image and likeness.  I have called this state of knowing “recognition by direct perception", especially of the soul’s recognition of the Manifestation of God.  About it the Bab wrote: “No one hath ever been able befittingly to recognize Him nor will any man succeed at any time in comprehending Him as is truly meet and seemly, for any reality to which the term 'being' is applicable hath been created by the sovereign Will of the Almighty, Who hath shed upon it the radiance of His Own Self, shining forth from His most august station. He hath moreover deposited within the realities of all created things the emblem of His recognition, that everyone may know of a certainty that He is the Beginning and the End, the Manifest and the Hidden, the Maker and the Sustainer, the Omnipotent and the All-Knowing, the One Who heareth and perceiveth all things…”(Selections from the Writings of the Bab:111-112)

Here it is the heart that moves by the power of attraction and longing for connection to Higher Reality within it.  Here it is not union with another but reunion with oneself that is the purpose.  The higher reality is unveiled, becomes manifest.  An example of this sort of direct connection, of the higher communing with its own image that is the center of the lower, is this statement from Baha’u’llah: “Whensoever the light of Manifestation of the King of Oneness settleth upon the throne of the heart and soul, His shining becometh visible in every limb and member. At that time the mystery of the famed tradition gleameth out of the darkness: "A servant is drawn unto Me in prayer until I answer him; and when I have answered him, I become the ear wherewith he heareth...." For thus the Master of the house hath appeared within His home, and all the pillars of the dwelling are ashine with His light. And the action and effect of the light are from the Light-Giver; so it is that all move through Him and arise by His will. And this is that spring whereof the near ones drink, as it is said: "A fount whereof the near unto God shall drink...." (The Seven Valleys: 21)

For the soul, the higher consciousness within it can only appear when the lover of has made an effort to connect with God.  That effort is the giving up of self.  Prior to that, though the higher was present it was not apparent.  Baha’u’llah tells us that achieving the condition of spiritual direct connection requires one thing: “Love Me, that I may love thee. If thou lovest Me not, My love can in no wise reach thee. Know this, O servant.” (Arabic Hidden Words #5)

In the spirit, direct connection is pre-established potential, though latent, unconscious and inactive.  The process is not acquisition, but, rather, bringing forth.  The soul is drawn to God in prayer in longing and attraction.  When He answers He Himself becomes the organ of hearing His own answer.  Thus direct connection in the heart is established consciously and reunion is attained.  

A DIRECT PERCEPTION OF REALITY

Praise be to God! the least change produced in the form of the smallest thing proves the existence of a creator: then can this great universe, which is endless, be self-created and come into existence from the action of matter and the elements? How self-evidently wrong is such a supposition!

These obvious arguments are adduced for weak souls; but if the inner perception be open, a hundred thousand clear proofs become visible. Thus, when man feels the indwelling spirit, he is in no need of arguments for its existence; but for those who are deprived of the bounty of the spirit, it is necessary to establish external arguments.

(Abdu'l-Baha, Some Answered Questions: 6)

I said that one cannot reason one’s way to direct perception.  This takes one farther away, because, after the eclipse of intellectual distance, reason can only go on within a fading mental space.  That is, one does not reason to direct perception, rather, one reasons from it.  To rely solely upon reason reenacts the story of the Tower of Babel, when humans attempted to build a tower that would “reach unto heaven”. Instead, because they built outward instead of inward, they splintered and the one language of spirit fractured into a cacophony of voices talking past each other.  ‘Abdu’l-Baha reminds us that: “any movement animated by love moveth from the periphery to the centre, from space to the Day-Star of the universe.” (Selections from the Writings of Abdu'l-Baha: 197)

Direct perception, i.e. the state of knowing by recognition, not cognition, through the spiritual faculties of faith and vision, i.e. to perceive with our God-like faculties, is a gift of the heart.  This gift, like reason, is not bestowed upon a soul as an addition to other natural and spiritual endowments.  The ability to perceive directly, like verbal or mathematical ability, is innate, an essential aspect and characteristic of the human reality.  The gift, as a potential, is bestowed at conception.  The archetypal direct perception of recognition is: “If it be your wish, O people, to know God and to discover the greatness of His might, look, then, upon Me with Mine own eyes, and not with the eyes of any one besides Me. Ye will, otherwise, be never capable of recognizing Me, though ye ponder My Cause as long as My Kingdom endureth, and meditate upon all created things throughout the eternity of God, the Sovereign Lord of all, the Omnipotent, the Ever-Abiding, the All-Wise.” (Gleanings from the Writings of Baha'u'llah: 272)

We can ask: What inhibits this state of direct perception from coming forth?  In one passage, Baha’u’llah points indirectly to the reason: “We cherish the hope that through the loving-kindness of the All-Wise, the All-Knowing, obscuring dust may be dispelled and the power of perception enhanced, that the people may discover the purpose for which they have been called into being. In this Day whatsoever serveth to reduce blindness and to increase vision is worthy of consideration. This vision acteth as the agent and guide for true knowledge. Indeed in the estimation of men of wisdom keenness of understanding is due to keenness of vision.” (Tablets of Baha'u'llah: 34)

The phrase “obscuring dust” does not refer, it seems to me, to accurate sensory apprehensions, or to true logical and scientific conclusions and established facts, but rather to false theories, prejudicial beliefs, emotional attachments to unchallenged dogmas and rigid ideologies, whether religious or scientific, that are taken to be true and final. A belief in the finality of some notion or fact inhibits or interdicts actual or further investigations.  For example, dogmatic materialism circumscribes knowledge by limiting itself to a purely material causality.  On the other side, pure imaginations that pass as spiritual understanding, such as misguided religious beliefs, or what seems to be the sole content of some ‘new age’ writing, do the same thing. 

Baha’u’llah says of those who uphold standards of impartial investigation: “These souls are the protectors of the Cause of God on earth, who shall preserve its beauty from the obscuring dust of idle fancies and vain imaginings.” (The Summons of the Lord of Hosts: 10)

But, as with all gifts, to activate, bring forth, and train direct perception—to see Him with His own eyes—requires that certain internal conditions be in place.  The divine knowledge that one may obtain by direct perception is only reached by the heart’s attraction for the Holy Reality.  The attitude that indicates attraction for the Divine is humility. The House of Justice says Baha’is must adopt “a humble posture of learning.”  Baha’u’llah’s counsel is: “O my brother, when a true seeker determineth to take the step of search in the path leading to the knowledge of the Ancient of Days, he must, before all else, cleanse and purify his heart, which is the seat of the revelation of the inner mysteries of God, from the obscuring dust of all acquired knowledge, and the allusions of the embodiments of satanic fancy….He must so cleanse his heart that no remnant of either love or hate may linger therein, lest that love blindly incline him to error, or that hate repel him away from the truth. Even as thou dost witness in this Day how most of the people, because of such love and hate, are bereft of the immortal Face, have strayed far from the Embodiments of the Divine mysteries, and, shepherdless, are roaming through the wilderness of oblivion and error.” (Baha'u'llah, The Kitab-i-Iqan: 192)

What can direct perception accomplish?  'Abdu'l-Bahá said: "There is but one power which heals—that is God. The state or condition through which the healing takes place is the confidence of the heart. By some this state is reached through pills, powders, and physicians. By others through hygiene, fasting, and prayer. By others through direct perception." (Abdu'l-Baha in London: 95)  Again, if healing comes about through “confidence of the heart” and direct perception is one avenue to reach that confidence, which may be more like certainty, then it is the heart that sees.   

Direct perception of higher states occurs in the heart, where lies the celestial faculty “that is infinite both in regards man’s physical and intellectual faculties”. This celestial faculty, the Master explains: “...discovers past events and looks along the vistas of the future. It is the ray of the Sun of Reality. The spiritual world is enlightened through it, the whole of the Kingdom is being illumined by it. It enjoys the world of beatitude, a world which had not beginning and which shall have no end.” (Foundations of World Unity: 51) 

But there are broader implications and greater results than personal healing.  I have often referred to Baha’u’llah’s restatement of the ancient Hermetic truth of the conjunction of the two states of the B and E, Spirit and Matter.  As He says: “these two are the same, yet they are different.”  Each state (i.e. the state of difference and the state of sameness) is perceived by a type of perception, but sameness is inclusive of the state of difference; difference having come from sameness. 

Perceptually, when the two become one to the mind and heart it marks the change in understanding from “yet they are different” to “these two are the same”.  It is then that the opposites seen in polar contradiction in difference are reframed as complements of a union, like the writer and his pen, creator and instrument.  They are separate and different until writing begins, but when working together, they become one yet different. 

The archetype of the condition of “these two are the same, yet they are different” is the relation between God and His Manifestations.  Baha’u’llah writes, for example: “Men have failed to perceive Our purpose in the references We have made to Divinity and Godhood. Were they to apprehend it, they would arise from their places, and cry out: ‘We, verily, ask pardon of God!’ The Seal of the Prophets—may the souls of all else but Him be offered up for His sake—saith: "Manifold are Our relationships with God. At one time, We are He Himself, and He is We Ourself. At another He is that He is, and We are that We are." (Baha'u'llah, Epistle to the Son of the Wolf: 41)

It is the purpose of the Manifestations to awaken the faculty of “inner perception”, to train the divine endowment of the celestial faculty, so we may have a direct perception of the creation as a divine construct, one infinitely greater than the infinite physical universe.  Difficult to see and believe?  The Master said above: if the inner perception be open, a hundred thousand clear proofs become visible.  Otherwise, we are left with only the weakness of human reason.

The Spiritual Creation and the Universe

Thou didst wish to make Thyself known unto men; therefore, Thou didst, through a word of Thy mouth, bring creation into being and fashion the universe.

(Baha'u'llah, Prayers and Meditations by Baha'u'llah: 6)

The fundamental purpose of the entire universe is, according to the above statement, for human beings to know God.  The universe is the physical part of creation, fashioned to be a kind of laboratory of spiritual discovery.  To know God requires a special power of knowing, since it is clear that the animals, plants and minerals know nothing of God, and, if we could ask them, would likely say they don’t care about knowing.

So who are these creatures that God wants to reveal Himself to so they will know Him and how did God fashion them to know Him?  Let’s take the second question first.

In one of His Hidden Words Baha’u’llah reveals the inner thoughts of the Mind of God: “Veiled in My immemorial being and in the ancient eternity of My essence, I knew My love for thee; therefore I created thee, have engraved on thee Mine image and revealed to thee My beauty.” (Arabic Hidden Words #3)

Intellect, or Mind, is the way that God creates the universe out of His love for Man.  Of Mind ‘Abdu’l-Baha says: “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) 

  Now this Mind which is first created is not your mind or my mind, but the universal Mind of the Manifestations. ‘Abdu’l-Baha explains:  “The first thing which emanated from God is that universal reality, which the ancient philosophers termed the "First Mind," and which the people of Baha call the "First Will." This emanation, in that which concerns its action in the world of God, is not limited by time or place; it is without beginning or end—beginning and end in relation to God are one. The preexistence of God is the preexistence of essence, and also preexistence of time, and the phenomenality of contingency is essential and not temporal, as we have already explained one day at table.”

As great as this First Mind is, the Master goes on: “Though the ‘First Mind’ is without beginning, it does not become a sharer in the preexistence of God, for the existence of the universal reality in relation to the existence of God is nothingness, and it has not the power to become an associate of God and like unto Him in preexistence.” (Some Answered Questions: 203)

About the human creation the Master states: “He has chosen the reality of man and has honored it with intellect and wisdom.” (The Secret of Divine Civilization: 1)  Our intellectual endowment is part of what is meant by the human reality being made in the image and after the likeness of God and His Manifestations.  But the human intellect, however powerful, is a pale reflection of the infinite divine Mind or Will, which is first created.

Yet, we must always recognize that, as the lead quote says, Love is prior, even before Mind.  Love was already there for Mind to know.  Love is the uncreated substance from which Mind creates all aspects of the universe, because Mind or Intellect knows God’s Love for His creation within His own essence.  Thus, for me, when ‘Abdu’l-Baha says “The reality of man is his thought” (Paris Talks: 17) it implies both that we think best about what we truly love most and we love best what we think about most.   We may be thinking beings, but first we are loving beings.  Our best thinking grows out of love, in imitation of our Creator.  Too, when He states: “Knowledge is love” ("Star of the West" Vol. 20, No. 10, p. 314) it is because Mind comes forth from love.

‘Abdu’l-Baha wrote this powerful paean to the power of Love in its many contexts (I have bold-faced those statements that bear directly on my theme): “Know thou of a certainty that Love is the secret of God's holy Dispensation, the manifestation of the All-Merciful, the fountain of spiritual outpourings. Love is heaven's kindly light, the Holy Spirit's eternal breath that vivifieth the human soul. Love is the cause of God's revelation unto man, the vital bond inherent, in accordance with the divine creation, in the realities of things.  Love is the one means that ensureth true felicity both in this world and the next. Love is the light that guideth in darkness, the living link that uniteth God with man, that assureth the progress of every illumined soul. Love is the most great law that ruleth this mighty and heavenly cycle, the unique power that bindeth together the divers elements of this material world, the supreme magnetic force that directeth the movements of the spheres in the celestial realms.  Love revealeth with unfailing and limitless power the mysteries latent in the universe.  Love is the spirit of life unto the adorned body of mankind, the establisher of true civilization in this mortal world, and the shedder of imperishable glory upon every high-aiming race and nation.” (Selections from the Writings of Abdu'l-Baha: 27)

Creation is the bringing forth by Mind of all the qualities latent in God’s Love.  Said another way, while the substance of all things is the same in essence, (i.e. all physical things come forth from the primal matter which is the physical and mental counterpart to divine Love) creation is the imprint of formal cause upon material cause, knowledge upon love.  Love and intellect form a pair of opposites on every level, and the union of these opposites is so that their underlying oneness may become manifest. 

The fundamental qualities and essential connections of the universe, (i.e. the spiritual foundation of the creation) are, in their full primal unity, the names and attributes of God and the inherent relations existing between them.  Every Revelation reconfigures these on the plane of manifestation, creating the knowledge of God, which is the essence of all knowledge.  Baha’u’llah wrote: “Whatever is in the heavens and whatever is on the earth is a direct evidence of the revelation within it of the attributes and names of God, inasmuch as within every atom are enshrined the signs that bear eloquent testimony to the revelation of that Most Great Light. Methinks, but for the potency of that revelation, no being could ever exist. How resplendent the luminaries of knowledge that shine in an atom, and how vast the oceans of wisdom that surge within a drop!....From that which hath been said it becometh evident that all things, in their inmost reality, testify to the revelation of the names and attributes of God within them. Each according to its capacity, indicateth, and is expressive of, the knowledge of God. So potent and universal is this revelation, that it hath encompassed all things visible and invisible. (Gleanings from the Writings of Baha'u'llah: 177-178) 

Every name and attribute of God is within all created things, because each and every one of His qualities is universal and permeates the entire creation; each created thing bearing and expressive of both a single Name of God in its essence and, in its relations, a unique configuration of all God’s Names and attributes.  Baha’u’llah says, for example: “Every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God is endowed with such potency as can instill new life into every human frame, if ye be of them that comprehend this truth. All the wondrous works ye behold in this world have been manifested through the operation of His supreme and most exalted Will, His wondrous and inflexible Purpose. Through the mere revelation of the word “Fashioner,” issuing forth from His lips and proclaiming His attribute to mankind, such power is released as can generate, through successive ages, all the manifold arts which the hands of man can produce. This, verily, is a certain truth. No sooner is this resplendent word uttered, than its animating energies, stirring within all created things, give birth to the means and instruments whereby such arts can be produced and perfected. All the wondrous achievements ye now witness are the direct consequences of the Revelation of this Name. In the days to come, ye will, verily, behold things of which ye have never heard before. Thus hath it been decreed in the Tablets of God, and none can comprehend it except them whose sight is sharp.” (Gleanings from the Writings of Bahá’u’lláh: 141 – 142)

The Eclipse of Distance and the End of Time

Lo, the Nightingale of Paradise singeth upon the twigs of the Tree of Eternity, with holy and sweet melodies, proclaiming to the sincere ones the glad tidings of the nearness of God,

(Compilations, Baha'i Prayers: 208)

The extraordinary point is that in all the arts—painting, poetry, fiction, music—the modernist impulse has a common syntax of expression underlying the diverse nature of the genres.  It is, as I have said, the eclipse of distance between the spectator and the artist, between the aesthetic experience and the work of art.  One sees this as the eclipse of psychic distance, and aesthetic distance.   The loss of psychic distance means the suspension of time.

(Daniel Bell, The Cultural Contradictions of Capitalism: 116)

Last post discussed the end of time as the irruption of divine Revelation, which Baha’u’llah describes in the quote above as bringing Paradise or God near, into the already established rhythm of human life that is known within a particular mental space of consciousness.  A new Revelation both brings this rhythm to an end and initiates a new one, and abolishes the mental space that knew it.  It does this by joining and knitting together the opposites Spirit and Matter into a system of new universal relationships, creating a new Reality to be known by the consciousness that can know it and which it gives birth to within those who recognize it.  Direct connection of the opposites B and E in a new configuration, embodied in a new Revelation, which is the nearness of God, reconfigures all levels of understanding and gives people the sense of an eclipse of distance in many spheres of life and thought.  When the spiritual Paradise is brought nigh, a powerful current of spiritually electric energy pulsates through all creation.

Spiritually, within the human world, the eclipse of distance means that for those who have recognized the new Reality the higher nature of humanity has eclipsed the ego.  Intellectually, it renders obsolete all non-essential knowledge in human life, those concepts and modes of understanding that cannot deliver accurate knowledge of the new Reality, but which, in fact, act as veils to the comprehension of the new configuration.  This is not to go back to a more primitive state in history, but to return to essential humanity in order to integrate and advance.

Baha’u’llah dismissed the claims to knowledge of a “learned” but arrogant man of His time by writing: “In this day, they that are submerged beneath the ocean of ancient Knowledge, and dwell within the ark of divine wisdom, forbid the people such idle pursuits. Their shining breasts are, praise be to God, sanctified from every trace of such learning, and are exalted above such grievous veils. We have consumed this densest of all veils, with the fire of the love of the Beloved—the veil referred to in the saying: 'The most grievous of all veils is the veil of knowledge.' Upon its ashes, We have reared the tabernacle of divine knowledge. We have, praise be to God, burned the 'veils of glory' with the fire of the beauty of the Best-Beloved. We have driven from the human heart all else but Him Who is the Desire of the world, and glory therein. We cleave to no knowledge but His Knowledge, and set our hearts on naught save the effulgent glories of His light.” (The Kitab-i-Iqan: 187)

For most people, however, the spiritual event of Paradise brought nigh is experienced historically, psychologically and aesthetically as an eclipse of distance, but without knowing the source. That is, many who do not believe or recognize the new Reality or the Source of it nonetheless know that something significant is happening and respond to it as they know how.   In all examples where the human heart is inspired or becomes restless and seeks new experience, but does not know or recognize the source of its search and unrest, it sees itself as the originator of the spirit animating human life.  Here eclipse of distance is attempted by the imperial self, who wishes to be God.  It is the eclipse of distance as the eclipse of God Himself, at least the need for Him to advance one’s consciousness, by the enshrouding ego fantasy. 

For them the eclipse of distance is a new conception of space. But it is, too, a new dynamic of speed.  This has emotional reverberations, for the speed of change in human life and society does not encourage people to think and contemplate but, rather, to seek the immediacy of intense experience, ecstasy, and peak experiences.  The emphasis on sensation, immediacy, simultaneity, disjunction, impact and action provide the formal cultural syntax for the arts.  The goal is to reach an identity between emotion and object.  The transitive elements come to be emphasized.  Such art and the theory of it is discussed in such books as The True Voice of Feeling by Herbert Read.

This modern cultural and artistic syntax reflects the new social reality brought about by technology such as the internet, social media, and jet transport which manifest the eclipse of distance geographically and culturally.  As Daniel Bell describes it: “In the new conception of space, there is an inherent eclipse of distance.  Not only is physical distance compressed by the newer modes of modern transportation, creating a new emphasis on travel and the visual pleasure of seeing so many different places, but the very techniques of the new arts, principally cinema and modern painting, act to eclipse the psychic and aesthetic distance between the viewer and the visual experience.”  The modern arts, he goes on, “are efforts to intensify the immediacy of the emotion, to pull the spectator into the action rather than allow him to contemplate the experience.” (The Cultural Contradictions of Capitalism: 104) 

That is, the eclipse of distance in the arts is the dissolving of aesthetic form in order to involve the observer in the work itself, to invite him through his response to be a co-creator of the work, to obliterate any supposed gap between art and life.    

The eclipse of psychological distance occurs with the collapse of the intellectual space between subject and object that is characteristic of cognition and language.  It is the dissolving of a dominant form of objective rational thought and mind and, in part, a return to feeling and the heart to erase the traditional distinction between subject and object—to create a new interactive, shared unity. This compressing, almost fusion, of the subject and the object breaks down old identities and opens up new spaces of involvement. 

The physics of quantum mechanics has determined that the observer changes what he observes and is thus, really, a participator.  Observation of things becomes the on-going observation/participation in reality through observation of oneself observing things.

A like movement in theoretical thought occurs in the humanities and social sciences with the notion of reflexivity.  Reflexivity is the name given to a mode of thought in which the person engages in self-consciousness monitoring of his behavior.  Reflexivity per se is not peculiar to a post-traditional society.  It has always formed an integral part of the self and social relations of some individuals.  However, some sociologists, like Anthony Giddens, argue that a different sense of reflexivity can be attributed to post-traditional societies.  In today’s world, reflexivity consists also in the fact that social practices are also constantly examined and reformed in the light of incoming information about those very practices, thus constitutively altering their character.  Only in the modern era is reflexivity applied, at least in principle, to all aspects of human life.  The self is also further changed in this reflexive activity. The hold of tradition loses its salience irretrievably and the self is continually interrogated.  It becomes separated from the meaningful, if relatively unquestioned, context it had in previous times been immersed in.  New identities are forged, new social relations are tried.  But, without any new context to transform into, the experiments are groping in the dark for a new anchor.

For me, without the overarching context of life, order and thought provided by the Revelation, all these social, technological, artistic and intellectual innovations are the soul’s attempt to experience and understand the new reality directly, but without any guide or mediation. It is the human attempt to fuse what only the Manifestation can bring together.  For the human reality can never achieve the station of divinity and join and knit together the opposites B and the E.  It can only discover their connections.  

The End of Time and the Eclipse of Distance

The ocean of divine mercy is surging, the vernal showers are descending, the Sun of Reality is shining gloriously. Heavenly teachings applicable to the advancement in human conditions have been revealed in this merciful age. This reformation and renewal of the fundamental reality of religion constitute the true and outworking spirit of modernism, the unmistakable light of the world, the manifest effulgence of the Word of God, the divine remedy for all human ailment and the bounty of eternal life to all mankind.”

(Abdu'l-Baha, The Promulgation of Universal Peace, p. 439)

The title reflects the content of the next two posts.  The end of time and the eclipse of distance are twin but distinct aspects of one phenomenal event, as I hope to show.  This post is about the end of time as an experienced and expected rhythm of events. The next post explores more deeply the idea of the eclipse of distance, which disrupts this rhythm. This one focuses upon the revolutionizing power of Revelation, the other one is humanity’s response without knowledge of the impact and configuring power of Revelation

The reformation and renewal of the fundamental reality of religion, which is the central reality of human existence since the essence of religion is the linking of the realities of Spirit and Matter into a new configuration of universal relationships, has had two effects: disintegration and integration. Integration is from what Baha’u’llah calls Paradise being brought nigh.  This, in turn, results in hell blazing up in a fury of disintegration stemming from those holding positions of power and authority trying to hold on to a rapidly fading reality.  Both are primary aspects of the establishment of a new order.  Paradise is the social, moral and spiritual pattern that humanity is to grow into, while the blazes of hell burn away the social obstacles, spiritual veils, and barriers of consciousness blocking the realization of that goal. 

Baha’u’llah points to both of these effects: “I testify that no sooner had the First Word proceeded, through the potency of Thy will and purpose, out of His mouth, and the First Call gone forth from His lips than the whole creation was revolutionized, and all that are in the heavens and all that are on earth were stirred to the depths. Through that Word the realities of all created things were shaken, were divided, separated, scattered, combined and reunited, disclosing, in both the contingent world and the heavenly kingdom, entities of a new creation, and revealing, in the unseen realms, the signs and tokens of Thy unity and oneness. Through that Call Thou didst announce unto all Thy servants the advent of Thy most great Revelation and the appearance of Thy most perfect Cause.

No sooner had that Revelation been unveiled to men's eyes than the signs of universal discord appeared among the peoples of the world, and commotion seized the dwellers of earth and heaven, and the foundations of all things were shaken. The forces of dissension were released, the meaning of the Word was unfolded, and every several atom in all created things acquired its own distinct and separate character. Hell was made to blaze, and the delights of Paradise were uncovered to men's eyes.” (Prayers and Meditations by Baha'u'llah: 295-296)

All consciousness takes place in mental “space”, an internal, intellectual world analogous to that outer physical space in which actual bodies move.  In this mental space are the objects of knowledge whose counterparts are both in the outer world and in a deeper inner spiritual world, making mind intermediate to matter and spirit.  Perhaps the brain receives images sent from the eyes, but also projected from the mind, since all around us is the work of mind, and sends them back.

But when paradise is brought nigh, i.e. the proclamation of a new Revelation, a new psychological situation, what sociologist Daniel Bell called the eclipse of distance, is created. The eclipse of distance is the fusion of opposites in a new configuration that breaks up the established mental space because it creates a new one.  A certain loss of consciousness—at least as it has been known and defined—occurs.  But this is the prelude to the construction of a new mental space because a new consciousness is emerging.  There is no way to perceive this new creation except via experience and direct perception.  One cannot intellectually reason to it.  Rather the opposite occurs; one gets farther away, because reasoning can, at this early stage, only go on within the disappearing space of mind.  The frustration and paralysis is hell blazing.

Paradise is brought nigh so that the soul may make the leap of faith not out of consciousness but into greater consciousness, into the spirit of faith.  It is knowledge by faith and vision, not intellect.  Knowledge by faith is defined in Hebrews 11:1-3 as the “substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things unseen”.  The substance of things hoped for is the object of faith: the action that comes from and is driven by hope itself.  That is, faith, not mere wish or desire, is the actual substance of things hoped for.  The emphasis is not on unfounded hope, but on actuality.  The evidence of things unseen is the visible sign of an invisible spiritual reality, so that one may act with certainty.  Thus, the action of faith is not of the fingers-crossed “I hope that this works” variety but, rather, “I know this to be true for certain (certitude) for its early signs are already manifest."  Faith as conscious knowledge is founded upon this condition of certitude.  Behind faith, then, and even giving it life and form and direction, is a true vision of Reality.  The essence of faith is fewness of words and abundance of deeds, so the essence of faith is an action in conformity with one’s own or a higher vision than one’s own. 

Direct connection, the fusing of opposites in new configuration, is the work of the Manifestation.  The eclipse of distance as I am using the term refers, first, to His abolition of the accumulation of human concepts about God that create an artificial distance between Him and human beings in their minds and systems of belief.  Paradise brought nigh refers to the fact that a new Revelation has been given to humanity, has received verbal and written form and is present in the world, along with Its Revealer. 

When He “brings Paradise nigh” and the human heart responds in truth, then He manifestly shines within the human reality.   That is, when the heart opens the Reality already within it shines forth.  Direct connection is experienced as this eclipse of distance that is the immediate and certain recognition of the Reality that has always been within.  In literature this moment is called the “recognition scene.” 

Baha’u’llah wrote: “O My servants! The one true God is My witness! This most great, this fathomless and surging Ocean is near, astonishingly near, unto you. Behold it is closer to you than your life-vein! Swift as the twinkling of an eye ye can, if ye but wish it, reach and partake of this imperishable favor, this God-given grace, this incorruptible gift, this most potent and unspeakably glorious bounty.” (Gleanings from the Writings of Baha'u'llah: 326)

Also: “Meditate on what the poet hath written: "Wonder not, if my Best-Beloved be closer to me than mine own self; wonder at this, that I, despite such nearness, should still be so far from Him."... Considering what God hath revealed, that "We are closer to man than his life-vein," the poet hath, in allusion to this verse, stated that, though the revelation of my Best-Beloved hath so permeated my being that He is closer to me than my life-vein, yet, notwithstanding my certitude of its reality and my recognition of my station, I am still so far removed from Him. By this he meaneth that his heart, which is the seat of the All-Merciful and the throne wherein abideth the splendor of His revelation, is forgetful of its Creator, hath strayed from His path, hath shut out itself from His glory, and is stained with the defilement of earthly desires.” (Gleanings from the Writings of Baha'u'llah: 185)

Consummation: A New (and opposite) Order

According to an intrinsic law all phenomena of being attain to a summit and degree of consummation, after which a new order and condition is established. As the instruments and science of war have reached the degree of thoroughness and proficiency, it is hoped that the transformation of the human world is at hand and that in the coming centuries all the energies and inventions of man will be utilized in promoting the interests of peace and brotherhood.

(Abdu'l-Baha, The Promulgation of Universal Peace: 124)

In the mid-nineteenth century, Baha’u’llah wrote: “The winds of despair are, alas, blowing from every direction, and the strife that divideth and afflicteth the human race is daily increasing. The signs of impending convulsions and chaos can now be discerned, inasmuch as the prevailing order appeareth to be lamentably defective.” (Tablets of Baha'u'llah: 171)

One reason He wrote this was that He perceived that humanity had broken from its essential power of unity, making its order defective.  He wrote: “The greater the decline of religion, the more grievous the waywardness of the ungodly. This cannot but lead in the end to chaos and confusion.” (Tablets of Baha'u'llah: 63)  And: “Should the lamp of religion be obscured, chaos and confusion will ensue, and the lights of fairness and justice, of tranquillity and peace cease to shine.” (Tablets of Baha'u'llah: 125)

Whenever the unifying power of religion is broken, humanity separates and disunifies as far as possible.  This is both the end of time and the time of the end.  But this lack of spirituality calls forth a new Revelation, and the great distance is eclipsed, for the opposites unite.  Or, better, as ‘Abdu’l-Baha says above, one process is joined and knit to its opposite and, the two become one, the process itself completes and transforms into a new order.  It is, at once, the end, or consummation, of transformations and the beginning of a new order.  The end of transformation signifies the two meanings of consummation, the final state of something, and burning up as by a devouring flame.  When opposites join a great force is released which is both integrative and disintegrative.  It is similar, in my mind, to a nuclear fusion reaction in which nuclei combine, through force and heat, to form more massive nuclei with the simultaneous release of energy.   

Direct connection has two states or conditions.  These states are identity and transformation, essential and existential.  The existential spring from and are built upon the essential: the various configurations of these laws as cosmological creations.  But the essential reappear in a new configuration when transformations that characterize a cycle of growth are completed, and transformations are completed when the uniting of opposites, the union of polarities, the reconciling of contradictions, occurs.

The state of identity is pre-existent and unchanging, the eternal “B” and “E” joined and knit together as the primal creation.  This is the unchanging structure of the universe, the archetypal, pre-harmony of relations joining the spiritual and the material.  Other names for this condition are, I believe, terms that ‘Abdu’l-Baha uses, such as, “inherent relations” “essential connection”, “necessary connection”, “essential properties” and “necessary relations”.

These inherent relations and essential connections are, in their primal unity, the revealed names and qualities of God.  Baha’u’llah wrote: “Whatever is in the heavens and whatever is on the earth is a direct evidence of the revelation within it of the attributes and names of God, inasmuch as within every atom are enshrined the signs that bear eloquent testimony to the revelation of that Most Great Light. Methinks, but for the potency of that revelation, no being could ever exist. How resplendent the luminaries of knowledge that shine in an atom, and how vast the oceans of wisdom that surge within a drop!....From that which hath been said it becometh evident that all things, in their inmost reality, testify to the revelation of the names and attributes of God within them. Each according to its capacity, indicateth, and is expressive of, the knowledge of God. So potent and universal is this revelation, that it hath encompassed all things visible and invisible. (Gleanings from the Writings of Baha'u'llah: 177-178)  “Know thou,” He says in another place, “that every created thing is a sign of the revelation of God. Each, according to its capacity, is, and will ever remain, a token of the Almighty. Inasmuch as He, the sovereign Lord of all, hath willed to reveal His sovereignty in the kingdom of names and attributes, each and every created thing hath, through the act of the Divine Will, been made a sign of His glory. So pervasive and general is this revelation that nothing whatsoever in the whole universe can be discovered that doth not reflect His splendor. Under such conditions every consideration of proximity and remoteness is obliterated.” (Gleanings from the Writings of Baha'u'llah: 184)

But the second state, the relations of transformation, which are the relations perceptible by human beings, are the progressive unfoldment in the material universe of the potentialities inherent in these pre-existing relations by the configuring power of progressive Revelation, the revealed thought of God. ‘Abdu’l-Baha referred to this when He wrote: “Praise and thanksgiving be unto Providence that out of all the realities in existence He has chosen the reality of man and has honored it with intellect and wisdom, the two most luminous lights in either world. Through the agency of this great endowment, He has in every epoch cast on the mirror of creation new and wonderful configurations. If we look objectively upon the world of being, it will become apparent that from age to age, the temple of existence has continually been embellished with a fresh grace, and distinguished with an ever-varying splendor, deriving from wisdom and the power of thought.” (The Secret of Divine Civilization: 1)

Again, these divine intellectual forms are, in the Platonic sense, eternal and unchanging, but their variations of connections are progressive and possibly infinite.

Transformations in the forms of Reality are the consequences on every level of being of a new joining and knitting together of the eternal “B” and the “E” to create BE, the commingling of, in some sense, the eternal and the temporal, the beginning and the ending.   In this light let us recall that the Bab is the One “Whom Thou hast appointed as the Announcer of the One through Whose name the letter B and the letter E have been joined and united,…”(Prayers and Meditations by Baha'u'llah: 84)

While the substance of all things is the same in essence, (i.e. all physical things come forth from the primal matter, creation is the imprint of formal cause (the new Revelation) upon material cause (primal matter), knowledge upon love) the first creation itself is of pairs of opposites on every level, and the progressive union of these opposites is so that the underlying oneness may become manifest.  ‘Abdu’l-Baha, wrote: “From separation doth every kind of hurt and harm proceed, but the union of created things doth ever yield most laudable results. From the pairing of even the smallest particles in the world of being are the grace and bounty of God made manifest; and the higher the degree, the more momentous is the union. 'Glory be to Him Who hath created all the pairs, of such things as earth produceth, and out of men themselves, and of things beyond their ken.'  And above all other unions is that between human beings, especially when it cometh to pass in the love of God. Thus is the primal oneness made to appear; thus is laid the foundation of love in the spirit.” (Selections from the Writings of Abdu'l-Baha: 119)

This pairing of things, He says, is even shown forth in the Qur'án 36:35: "Glory be to Him Who has created all the pairs: of such things as the earth produceth, and of themselves; and of things which they know not"—that is to say, men, animals and plants are all in pairs—"and of everything have We created two kinds"—that is to say, We have created all the beings through pairing.” (Some Answered Questions: 87) 

Direct Connection

The meaning is that the life of the Kingdom is the life of the spirit, the eternal life, and that it is purified from place, like the spirit of man which has no place. For if you examine the human body, you will not find a special spot or locality for the spirit, for it has never had a place; it is immaterial. It has a connection with the body like that of the sun with this mirror. The sun is not within the mirror, but it has a connection with the mirror.

In the same way the world of the Kingdom is sanctified from everything that can be perceived by the eye or by the other senses—hearing, smell, taste or touch. The mind which is in man, the existence of which is recognized—where is it in him? If you examine the body with the eye, the ear or the other senses, you will not find it; nevertheless, it exists. Therefore, the mind has no place, but it is connected with the brain. The Kingdom is also like this. In the same way love has no place, but it is connected with the heart; so the Kingdom has no place, but is connected with man.

(Abdu'l-Baha, Some Answered Questions: 242)

Direct connection refers to the relations connecting opposites either between levels of reality, between kingdoms within one level of reality, or upon one level of reality.  Thus, direct connection has many levels and stations.  Direct connection of opposites upon the same level of reality is not hard to grasp.  This kind of direct connection appears in the body’s systems of reciprocity that create a unity of opposites, so that one thing changes into its opposite in the system, like the exchange of air within the lungs, or the union of arteries and veins at the capillary level of circulation, when the blood reaches the furthermost limit, both in space and in oxygen, to begin the return trip to the heart and lungs and replenish its oxygen.  The two systems together work synchronically as one.  It is the union of opposites in reciprocal flow and action, where one requires the other, which is its opposite, as do all paired opposites, such as day/night, hot/cold.  But it occurs through the operations and sustaining power of a intermediating structure.  “An intermediary is needed to bring two extremes into relation with each other. Riches and poverty, plenty and need: without an intermediary power there could be no relation between these pairs of opposites.” (Abdu'l-Baha, Paris Talks: 58)

These are examples on a single plane, within one system and context, but they indicate by analogy the nature of another union of opposites: those between levels of being within a level of reality, the uniting of systems and contexts, as the sun’s relation to the mirror.  These are more difficult to grasp.

In all cases, direct connection is not an one-way event or movement of energy, but a relation between two things in the identity of two things as one, because each is an aspect of something larger than both.  It is the Glorious structure where “these two are the same, yet they are different.” (Tablets of Baha’u’llah: 140)  Both the sun and the mirror are physical things, but their relation, unlike that of capillaries, for example, is through an invisible medium.  Their relation is one of resonance, not actual physical union.  Here, direct connection emphasizes the relation of two distinct entities connecting through and because of a more subtle field of energy and structure holding the two together in resonant harmony, like entangled photons acting and reacting simultaneously in an universal medium across great distances of stellar space.  Resonance always implies cause and effect between formal and final cause, a harmonic relation one with another, even with oneself in object and subject.

Though two entities or things can be primarily identified as two different things, even, in some cases, as different orders of being, they have also an indirect and more essential relation with each other through the medium of the environment, which is the greater power perceived from the vantage point of the separate realities themselves.  That is, from one view, every created thing is only itself in relation with other things and, from another, is a manifestation of the environment or essential organizing principles.  However, this mental distinction collapses into an actual embracing unity if we hold both views simultaneously and think of each created thing as an unique configuration of the essential principles that create everything.  Since all direct connection is so by virtue of the two-way flow, the union in this case is one of procession and return; input/output, or other such metaphors.  But procession and return follow the path of direct connection. 

The relation holds between God and His creation: “All things proceed from God and unto Him they return. He is the source of all things and in Him all things are ended.” Kitáb-i-Aqdas: 72.)

It holds between the soul and the Manifestation of God, and the sun and all created things:  “Every man endued with insight among Thy servants is persuaded that my self liveth eternally and can never perish, inasmuch as remembrance of Thee is eternal and will endure so long as Thine own Self endureth, and Thy praise is everlasting and will last as long as Thine own sovereignty will last. By its means Thou art glorified by such of Thy chosen ones as call upon Thee and by the sincere among Thy servants. Nay, the praise wherewith any one, in the entire creation, praiseth Thee proceedeth from this exalted self and returneth unto it, even as the sun which, while it shineth, sheddeth its splendor upon whatsoever may be exposed to its rays. From this sun is generated, and unto it must return, the light which is shed over all things.” (Baha'u'llah, Prayers and Meditations by Baha'u'llah: 127)

It also holds between a created thing and its return to existence in some manner.  Baha’u’llah answered one inquirer on this point: “As to the Return, as God hath purposed in His sacred and exalted Tablets wherein He hath made this theme known unto His servants; by this is meant the return of all created things in the Day of Resurrection, and this is indeed the essence of the Return as thou hast witnessed in God's own days and thou art of them that testify to this truth.... And this Return is realized at His behest in whatever form He willeth. Indeed He is the One Who doeth and ordaineth all things. .” (Tablets of Baha'u'llah: 183-184)

But it is not the actual thing that returns, but a something that returns in new form: “That which hath been in existence had existed before, but not in the form thou seest today.” (Tablets of Baha'u'llah: 140)  It is not reincarnation, but a new creation, a new configuration of essential qualities.  Because everything returns in new form, past and future are also in a relation of direct connection, Baha’u’llah admonishing: Say: O ye that have eyes to see! The past is the mirror of the future. Gaze ye therein and be apprised thereof;” (Baha'u'llah, Tabernacle of Unity: 5)

We’ll continue to explore this foundational idea of direct connection in the next few posts.