The Resonant Interval: Reconfiguration and Calling into Being

Where there is no vision, the people perish.

(King James Bible, Proverbs 29:18)

                       

                       

I have said that two kinds of metaphor, visual and auditory, are often used in the Bahá’i Writings to express the divine creative process.  Visual metaphors discuss the reconfiguration of all things into new patterns and forms, while auditory metaphors speak of their being called into being.

The calling into being is sounded in and the pattern of reconfiguration comes forth from the gaps of time where occurs the resonant connecting of orders, the vibratory joining and knitting together of creation and Revelation.  The resonant interval is the pause between the end of one creation and the beginning of another creation, as testified by Baha’u’llah: “Verily, We have caused every soul to expire by virtue of Our irresistible and all-subduing sovereignty. We have, then, called into being a new creation, as a token of Our grace unto men.” (Gleanings from the Writings of Baha'u'llah: 29-30)

The reconfiguration of creation is captured in this visual statement from the Master: “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)  Reconfiguration goes as deep as the atoms and molecules of the universe.  How do we know this?

Let’s turn to the resonating call of the Word of God?   Baha’u’llah says about the effect of the Bab’s Revelation: “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….No sooner had that Revelation been unveiled to men's eyes than…every several atom in all created things acquired its own distinct and separate character.” (Prayers and Meditations by Baha'u'llah: 295-296)

Though on the plane of manifestation all is made new, the essence of all things remains unchanged.  Hence a new creation is the essence bursting forth in new forms. The resonant interval is, then, also where the return of all things happens, for everything in the world of being is the return of its prior state and the origin of its next state.  Baha’u’llah says about the Return and the beginning and end states of all things: “Thou hast asked regarding the subject of the return. Know thou that the end is like unto the beginning. Even as thou dost consider the beginning, similarly shouldst thou consider the end, and be of them that truly perceive. Nay, rather consider the beginning as the end itself, and so conversely, that thou mayest acquire a clear perception. Know thou moreover that every created thing is continually brought forth and returned at the bidding of thy Lord, the God of power and might.”

As to the Return…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.” (Tablets of Baha'u'llah: 183)

Nonetheless, even with the return of all things in a renewed creation the mental distance between creations is an abyss too wide for the mind to leap across unaided.  Hence, God comes near, Paradise is brought nigh, the distance is eclipsed.  And that distance is covered only by the heart through the power of love and attraction, the yearning for God.

Knowledge changes and reveals all things, but love is their unchanging essence, (i.e. what is revealed) for God’s love is “the vital bond inherent, in accordance with the divine creation, in the realities of things.” (Selections from the Writings of Abdu'l-Baha:27)  Cosmologically, love is the fundamental substance of the universe, the “material” cause of all.  By material cause I don’t mean a material substance, of course, but the metaphysical receiver of primal intellect and divine will, attracting them to itself and holding within itself the potentials and virtues of all created and createable things.  While Primal Will generates all things, and divine, universal intellect creates and orders all reality, Divine love is the pre-existent, unified Reality, because it is what all realities come forth from.  Baha’u’llah reveals this relation when He says, as the Voice of God: “I knew My love for thee, hence I created thee.” (Arabic Hidden Words #3)

Love of any kind is no dreamy, passive feeling.  It has many aspects.  It can be a burning flame that causes intense pain, the steed of the Valley of Love.  But the heat of divine love is the creative power that transports souls to eternal life, and transmutes their essential being.  One must be moved by it, magnetically attracted to the fire and be cleansed by it, freed from all attachments to water and clay before eternity dawns.  The Master says: “The greatest gift of man is universal love—that magnet which renders existence eternal. It attracts realities and diffuses life with infinite joy. If this love penetrate the heart of man, all the forces of the universe will be realized in him, for it is a divine power which transports him to a divine station and he will make no progress until he is illumined thereby. Strive to increase the love-power of reality, to make your hearts greater centers of attraction and to create new ideals and relationships.” (Abdu'l-Baha, Divine Philosophy: 110)  Baha’u’llah describing the searing effects of this transmutation of soul, this rebirth, asserts: “Such is the potency of the Divine Elixir, which, swift as the twinkling of an eye, transmuteth the souls of men!” (The Kitab-i-Iqan: 155)

“The flame of the fire of love, in this world of earth and water,” states ‘Abdu’l-Baha, ‘comes through the power of attraction and not by effort and striving. Nevertheless, by effort and perseverance, knowledge, science and other perfections can be acquired; but only the light of the Divine Beauty can transport and move the spirits through the force of attraction.” (Some Answered Questions: 130)  Love, the power of attraction, is the supreme power of movement for the soul.  To feel this power is the direct connection.

The love of God both holds all things together and is the repository holding within its infinite potentialities every possible creation.  It is resonant with potential to be reconfigured and have new forms be called into being.  Yet things come together in specific combinations to create phenomena by a voluntary movement, by affinity.  If their joining into phenomena was involuntary there would be no decomposition of form, so it must be, in some sense, voluntary.  That points to a Master Will, a divine voluntus, energizing the divine intellect to create.

Another aspect of the relation of love is that of the human Reality for its creator.  Baha’u’llah makes this statement in which we perceive, again, both visual and auditory metaphors: “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...." (The Seven Valleys: 22)

This personal, inner direct connection, based on the recognition that: “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” eclipses the distance between God and soul.  The distance eclipsed is also inward and spiritual: "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.” (Baha'u'llah, Gleanings from the Writings of Baha'u'llah: 184) It is awakening the two great spiritual faculties of discernment, faith and vision, within the resonant interval that both separates and unites discrete states of being and knowing of the soul, the place that marks the end of one life and the preparation for rebirth

Now, spiritually, faith is hearing and vision is seeing, or, better, insight. Both are discerning and spiritual discernment is recognizing God in everything.  That is, recognition is either seeing God with thine own eyes or hearing His Voice with thine own ears.

The connection between faith and hearing was stated by St. Paul: “Faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God.” (King James Bible. The Book of Romans 10:17)  ‘Abdu’l-Bahá echoes St. Paul when He says “the voice of God hath made thine ears to hear.” (Tablets of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá. V.1:132)  If faith comes by hearing, then faith is the result of hearing and recognizing a particular Voice, a Voice which by itself alone commands hearing, the same Voice that called one into being.  This Voice is the first Sound of all creation.  It is, in a sense, the only voice.  "Know thou that every hearing ear, if kept pure and undefiled, must, at all times and from every direction, hearken to the voice that uttereth these holy words: “Verily, we are God’s, and to Him shall we return.” (Gleanings from the Writings of Bahá’u’lláh: 345)

Regarding vision, or spiritual insight, Baha’u’llah wrote that He hoped “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: 35)

He stated, in words that bring together so much of what we have been examining regarding vision, rebirth, and recognition: “Beseech the peerless and incomparable Lord to bestow a penetrating insight upon His servants, for insight leadeth to true knowledge and is conducive to salvation. Indeed, the attainments of man's understanding are dependent upon his keenness of sight. Were the children of men to gaze with the eye of understanding, they would see the world illumined with a new light in this day. Say: The Daystar of knowledge is manifest and the Luminary of insight hath appeared. Fortunate indeed is the one who hath attained, who hath witnessed, and who hath recognized.” (Baha'u'llah, Tabernacle of Unity)

He also indicated from where vision and spiritual insight would come: “They who recite the verses of the All-Merciful in the most melodious of tones will perceive in them that with which the sovereignty of earth and heaven can never be compared. From them they will inhale the divine fragrance of My worlds—worlds which today none can discern save those who have been endowed with vision through this sublime, this beauteous Revelation.” (The Kitab-i-Aqdas: 61)

Creation must periodically be recreated so that it is resonant with the new spiritual message and coherence achieved between the spiritual and the material.  But we must bring our faculties into wakefulness and expression to perceive it in its new form and Song.   

A Model of Spiritual Perception Part Two: Bridges to Reality

The sciences of today are bridges to reality; if then they lead not to reality, naught remains but fruitless illusion. By the one true God! If learning be not a means of access to Him, the Most Manifest, it is nothing but evident loss.
(Abdu'l-Baha, Selections from the Writings of Abdu'l-Baha: 110)

I have stated that to perceive spiritually is to “recognize” God in everything.  In that perception and understanding, God is, as ‘Abdu’l-Baha states above, “the Most Manifest”.  Recognition moves inwardly in stages from the universe to the creation, from seeing God in His handiwork, to perceiving God in His image and likeness within the human reality, to pure recognition of God in His Manifestation. This movement of knowledge is the reverse of the stages of creation.

That is, there is a double movement.  Creation “descends” from the spiritual to the material as emanations through stages of crystallization. But knowledge moves from material to spiritual and is called the ascent of the soul. The soul having reached the stage of pure recognition all is seen as a single creation.  This is the dynamic interplay of ontology and epistemology, the forms of being and the forms of knowing.  But ontology and epistemology are actually the same thing at another level.  That is, if we think of ontology as a branch of metaphysics dealing with the nature of being, we are chasing fruitless speculation since, as Baha’u’llah says, we cannot understand even the least of God’s signs.  We don’t and can never know the nature of being. But if we use the other definition of ontology, namely, a set of concepts and categories in a subject area that shows their properties and the relations between them, we are on firmer ground.  For we can put forth what is believed are some foundational principles and laws and test them.  It is this second definition that I use.

Thus I conceive of Reality as presenting Itself to the human intelligence in three levels.  The lowest and last level ontologically is the universe around us, the infinite physical world, with all its galaxies, numberless stars and planets, cosmic dust and layers upon layers of subatomic energies.  It is about things.  But this level, though first in order, is last in importance, for the epistemological progression of the mind.

Next and higher, both ontologically and epistemologically, occupying the middle position, is Cosmos, composed of the archetypal thought forms and intellectual structures of Reality that science infers or discovers and whose foundation is the progressive Revelations of God that configure the universe.  It is also the human understanding of this level of creation, (i.e. what is called cosmology) written in the various poetic, philosophical and scientific languages of their times and across time.  Its supreme metaphor is the Word.

Finally, at the highest level, both ontologically and epistemologically, for It is the origin of all creation and the end of all knowledge, is the divine Creation, the foundational, spiritual powers (attributes of God,) each a universal, that are revealed and configured by the knowledge of God—i.e. the knowledge that God has of the creation which manifests His Will: a knowledge that is infused into every atom of the universe.  From this level of Reality cosmos and universe unfold.

One relation between these contexts of creation is that of counterparts.  ‘Abdu’l-Baha said: “The spiritual world is like unto the phenomenal world. They are the exact counterpart of each other. Whatever objects appear in this world of existence are the outer pictures of the world of heaven.” (Promulgation of Universal Peace: 10)  Again, the spiritual is the origin, the cause and source, of the material. The material is the effect and outer picture of the inner spiritual reality shining forth.  But the two together are the poles of the structure of cosmic consciousness with mental energy in the form of thought moving between them, for emanation is complemented by return.

Because the spiritual and the material are exact counterparts they are in harmony and they resonate. Resonance joins and knits together the spiritual and material.  This resonant unity is called coherence, but resonance, the harmony of frequencies, is the mechanism of joining and knitting.  Coherence is at every level of the universe, from atomic fractal spin to galactic scale symmetry. But coherence also exists between levels of Reality—i.e. the thought-forms of the cosmos and the physical manifestations of them in the universe, as ‘Abdu’l-Baha’s statement, which recalls the ancient Hermetic principle, indicates.  When coherence is achieved across all levels everything becomes a resonant structure with infinite depth and a vibrating influence.  Baha’u’llah speaks, for example, of the “world's equilibrium” (i.e. the human social order) having been upset “through the vibrating influence of this most great, this new World Order.” (Gleanings from the Writings of Baha'u'llah: 136)  The coherence between the cosmos and universe is from the divine Will acting through one of the Names of God.  Today, that name is the Most Glorious.

Conceptually, coherence of the spiritual/material unity in the human world is achieved in language and knowledge through the symbol. In thought, analogical ratios, created by the rational faculty, means that analogy is, too, a resonant, vibrating intellectual structure.  The metaphoric interval structuring analogy does not identify one thing as another, but two things as one thing.  This is the prelude to a change of consciousness, a leap into a new mental reality.  Here, as in all cases, there is a moment of arrest which mysteriously results in a metamorphosis, called understanding, the “aha” moment. This is the end of one form of perceptual life, before it figuratively reverses into its opposite form.  But opposite form has two meanings.  The first exists at the level of separation, and is the opposition, to use Hegelian terminology, between the thesis and its antithesis.  To reverse or transform into the opposite form, thesis into antithesis, occurs in development and marks the switch into negativity, from growth to decline into death of every organic structure. Death, whether actually or symbolically, preludes the leap into something new: the consummation, or burning up of one level, before consummation, the last and all-inclusive stage that initiates rebirth.

The second meaning of transformation into the opposite form occurs on a higher plane of unity.  It is transcendence.  It means the incorporation in understanding of the thesis and antithesis into one thing, which is epistemologically the symbol or the concept.  This is the advance of consciousness into a higher state, and all higher ontological forms are the radical opposites of their lower forms. Hence, the Master stated that: “the Preexistent is different from the phenomenal, and the phenomenal is opposed to the Preexistent.” (Abdu'l-Baha, Some Answered Questions: 293)

This higher form is what Hegel called synthesis. It is to see the relations between things, and not just the things themselves.  Thus higher is not a simple spacial metaphor of altitude, a diagram that purports to show life and knowledge moving up the evolutionary ladder or chain of being from the thick mud of concreteness to the rarefied air of abstraction, but is also a weaving metaphor. The creating of an ever-richer tapestry of complexity.  It is the manifestation of new and greater powers, which includes, via similitudes, all the lower kingdoms.  We say the manifestation of greater complexity is higher “form” of life, even though it is not necessarily more biologically complex.

This brings us to today’s material sciences as bridges to reality.  What is the nature of the bridge? I think that there are two metaphors we can use to get an idea of the bridge.  As is so often is the case in the Bahá’i Writings, principles and concepts can be figuratively conveyed through both auditory and visual metaphors.  These are complemented and completed by the idealizing of hearing and insight as twin metaphors for knowing and understanding.  As Baha’u’llah says in the Tablet of Ahmad: “For the people are wandering in the paths of delusion, bereft of discernment to see God with their own eyes, or hear His Melody with their own ears.” (Compilations, Baha'i Prayers: 210)

Perceiving the levels of Reality as discrete planes is another visual metaphor, and is about surfaces and things, for that is what the eye sees.  But perceiving them as contexts, as one surrounding and penetrating another, as intertwining processes of creating complexity, are all acoustic or auditory metaphors, for the characteristics of sound are to both surround and penetrate things.  Auditory metaphors better capture hidden relations. But they are hidden only from the eye.  They are perceptible to the ear.  The process is one of translating acoustic knowledge into visual knowledge, replacing the ear with the eye, like translating speech into writing. The reverse, eye into ear, also goes on.

The image of the sciences of today as bridges to reality can obviously be visualized as a bridge spanning a gap, as a road, a gorge, or river. These are serviceable enough visual metaphors, especially if that bridge is the Sirat of the Qur’an, the fiery bridge, said to be as thin as a hair and as sharp as the sharpest knife or sword, over which every soul must pass to enter Paradise. Below this bridge burn the fires of hell, which sear sinners to make them fall. Yet, the musical bridge is also, I believe, a good metaphor for the sciences of today being bridges to reality.

A musical bridge is a contrasting section in a musical piece that prepares for the return of the original theme, the verse or the chorus.  It is sometimes called the release.  Lyrically, the bridge in a melody is typically used to pause and reflect on earlier portions of the song or to prepare the listener for the climax.  In all cases, it is a transition bar or theme to smooth what would be an abrupt shift or modulation, but it also works to delineate the separate sections of an extended piece of music.  This discussion brings us back to the phenomenon of resonance and the shift to a new universal configuration and a higher harmonics. Both auditory relations and visual images are the basis of resonance, as I showed.

Visually, progressive Revelation is seen as the progressive revealing of the complexity of the plan of God. Acoustically, progressive Revelation is the releasing of the various harmonies of the Song of God.  Creatively, progressive means for the eye the reconfiguring of the universe, and for the ear calling into being a new creation.  Unifically, it means for both eye and ear the advance of the archetypal forms and melody into greater complexity of manifestation.  “That which hath been in existence had existed before, but not in the form thou seest today.” (Baha'u'llah, Tablets of Baha'u'llah: 140)

Where does this recreation, this retuning to a new harmonics, this reconfiguration of all things in their return take place?  I have called that metaphorical space the resonant interval, again a mix of visual (interval) and auditory (resonant), but either can switch, since we know of musical intervals and visual resonances, because all is waves of influence.

The term resonant interval denotes the vibrating spaces between all living and created things.  There are not empty spaces.  There is no absolute silence, for the universe is a plenum not a vacuum, and all things have a voice. The gaps or spaces are laboratories of creation, the place to glimpse the spiritual reality at work casting outer pictures and voicing new melodies.  It is the realm of becoming or coming into being by a calling forth, for the Call is first, then the reconfiguration.  But, and here is the key point, the bridge of the knowledge and Word of God does not span these resonant intervals, but collapses them into a unity, a singularity, as the physics of black holes calls them.  It joins and knits together levels of Reality.  It eclipses these distances.  The symbol is such a union/bridge, resonance is a similar bridge. 

The resonant interval is turbulence and disequilibrium, death and birth, where chaos rules, complexity is built, and new harmonies are established because a new master vibration, a new Name or Title of God, has generated new possibilities of manifestation and upset the world’s equilibrium. 

The bridge between levels of reality is, then, a vortex of hurricane energies, lethal and living at the same time.  Think of the energy, the tension, the dangers and glory of birth.  It is the ferment of Chaos.  The Greek word "chaos" means "yawning" or "gap". Being a creative space, “crossing” the bridge to Reality is no smooth and orderly stroll, but a spiritual quest of tremendous risk from the intense universe-creating heat “generated from the interaction of the active force and that which is its recipient.” (Tablets of Baha’u’llah: 140)  Anyone reading Baha’u’llah’s description in His Seven Valleys of finding one’s way through Valley of Love on the steed of pain will get an idea of the intensity and power felt in the soul of barely contained titanic energies that swirl and collide, that melt cool reason and destroy solid thought, that burn up the previous person in order to prepare the soul for the Valley of Knowledge.

In a watery metaphor, ‘Abdu’l-Baha calls the world of thought a “boundless sea.”  He goes on to state the relation between this “sea” of thought and the world of existence, saying “the effects and varying conditions of existence are as the separate forms and individual limits of the waves; not until the sea boils up will the waves rise and scatter their pearls of knowledge on the shore of life.” (The Secret of Divine Civilization: 109)

The boundless sea is one traditional image of chaos as the tempestuous prima materia.  The boiling sea is the vortex of creative action of Revelation from the realm of divine Spirit on the world of existence and our human response.  Metaphysically, creation is the interaction of will, intellect and love. 

All things are joined and knit together into a new creation in time and through time through the power of attraction and affinity, which is the manifestation of divine love, the “vital bond inherent, in accordance with the divine creation, in the realities of things.” (Abdu'l-Baha, Selections from the Writings of Abdu'l-Baha: 27)   That is, the “essential properties and the necessary relations inherent in the realities of things” (Abdu'l-Baha, Tablet to August Forel: 20-21) that characterize Nature, the world of being, are reconfigured (religia) by Divine religion “the essential connection which proceeds from the realities of things”.  (Some Answered Questions: 158)  All is guided and connected through this cataclysmic transition by divine Will “that active force which controlleth these relationships and these incidents.” (Selections from the Writings of Abdu'l-Baha: 198)

‘Abdu’l-Baha said: The sciences of today are bridges to reality; if then they lead not to reality, naught remains but fruitless illusion.  Bridging the “gap” to Reality is not to span an airy space, but to transform into a new spiritual state by entering into a swirling vortex of energies and escaping their destructive power by perceiving their dynamic, flowing structure, as did Poe’s mariner in Descent into the Maelstrom.  We do that by dancing across the bridge in tune to the melodies of the Kingdom.

A Model of Spiritual Perception

God grant that all men may turn unto the treasuries latent within their own beings.

            (Baha'u'llah, Tablets of Baha'u'llah:72)

The epistemological model of knowing spiritual reality that I have been building is composed of several terms: recognition, direct perception, eclipse of distance, reflexivity, similitudes or thought forms, spiritual rebirth, to name the most important.  These are the intellectual basis for the science of the love of God, the foundational science of all spiritual sciences.  The model has evolved in my mind to the point where the outlines of it are visible, and not just separate pieces of it scattered through blog posts.  This post will present a more rounded presentation of the mental model, linking the various terms together into what I hope is a more coherent discussion.  Yet it is still only a very rough outline.  Much more work needs to be done. 

I have said that spiritual knowing is recognizing God.  This can be accomplished because, in Baha’u’llah’s words, God has “infused into me Thy love and Thy knowledge.” (Prayers and Meditations by Baha'u'llah: 177) However, since the universe is also enfolded into the soul as similitudes (thought forms) of all things created by God, recognition of a sort can also occur here, as one can recognize a painter in her painting. There is, then, stages or degrees of recognition. In its stages of awareness recognition also reaffirms the principle that all thought has an element of reflexivity to it—that is, all thought reflects itself, however faintly, in the act of thinking.  Reflexivity increases with the stages of recognition.  There is an inward movement to this process of reflexivity from simple consciousness to self-consciousness to consciousness of God, i.e. from thought as mere reflection of objects, to thought thinking about itself in conscious self-reflexivity, to thought of the Divine infused by It, the Source of all thought.  This last stage I have termed radical reflexivity of the A is A type.

Perception of any level of reality is through a direct connection with a set of faculties within the human reality that perceives it.  Recognition of God at the material and mental levels is, metaphorically, farther away—i.e. one or more steps away—from direct recognition of the Divine.  That is, in simple consciousness there is actual space between subject and objects.  There is, too, a figurative mental space between opinions and perspectives.  So, because these are things and their similitudes, (signs within and without) and not the actual spiritual Reality, we say they are removed from God, revealing God but not God, for the universe is the sensible revelation, and cosmos, or mental forms, is the intellectual revelation.  However, even in the direct perception of Spirit through Its connection with spiritual faculties of perception (e.g. faith and vision) , even in the radical reflexivity, there can be an intervening “space” in the sense of being close to or far away from God in belief, faith, and understanding.  Each stage or degree of recognition has its form of direct perception.  But the material and mental stages of recognition can be barriers to the actual recognition of God, which means God in His Manifestation.  OK, let’s recap.

At any level, recognition as a perception of spiritual reality means to perceive God, the Spirit, in something. Direct perception is simply the connection of a level or context of reality with the human perceptual powers or faculties that directly perceive it through their direct connection with it.  Sensory knowledge is perceiving physical and material realities directly with the outer senses.   But Nature in its appearance is twice removed from God, because a physical object is an outer, or secondary, sign of a corresponding inner sign within the human reality.  The inner sign is the primary indicator of the deeper and more fundamental Spiritual Reality.  Thus, the eye has direct perception of physical and material objects, but “recognition” of the true reality of any physical thing is not to see the object, but, rather, to obtain a vision of God, the Spirit, through the natural object or event perceived or observed.  Seeing behind these infinitely diverse outer physical coverings, these manifold material appearances in the world of being, which are the manifestation of all his names in created things, to the Spiritual Reality which generated them is to experience the eclipse of perceptual distance that brings feelings of ecstasy from the union of all things.    But there is a level of mental reality between the universe and the divine creation which I have called cosmos.  The same principles hold there.

The human reality, in which the universe is enfolded, is composed of similitudes, or inner signs, of all created things, but also possesses all the attributes of God.  The human soul is, then, for our purposes, once removed from God, meaning His Manifestation, for we are made in the image and after the likeness of God, which is His Manifestation.  Direct perception in the human kingdom is of the cosmos, contemplating with the mind’s eye (Gr. Theoria) the archetypal mental forms of the universe.  Cosmos is the realm of all intellectual realities, all conceptions of the mind, the domain of both the Revelation of the Word by the “universal Mind” and of human thought that builds civilization, and generates science, art, and religion in some of its principles and laws.  Recognition of God in humanity is not to see the human spirit, which leads to an inflation of humanity to the status of God, but to see past the rational faculty, by means of the spiritually informed rational faculty, i.e. the celestial faculty within the sacred heart, to the deeper spiritual reality within, the divine attributes animating souls. As ‘Abdu’l-Baha put it: “…man has a soul in which dwells the divine spirit.”  (Paris Talks: 24)

 Both physical and mental recognition are, then, mediated forms of recognition.  One must look past something that is the emanation or manifestation of the Spirit.

Unmediated recognition, so to speak, is to recognize God by recognizing His Manifestation.  It is seeing with the eye of God, and it is the means of seeing the spiritual reality of all things as the revelations of God.  Again, Nature is the sensible revelation, the Word is the intellectual Revelation, and the attributes of God are the Spirit revealed.  This gives the infinite depth to all things, and why we cannot comprehend even the “least of Thy signs.”

Unmediated recognition is obtained in that spiritual rebirth, which is also called in the Bahá’i Writings attaining the spirit of faith, that is the foundation for the establishment of spiritual sciences.  It is the bestowing of a new mind, a new eye and ear, to achieve knowledge via direct perception of spiritual realities, the logos that is their essences.  The argument, so far, is a sort of intellectual analysis of recognition.

 But recognition of God is not a case of remembering, but, rather, of becoming aware of our innate spiritual endowments.  It is a move toward consciousness of a new kind, not a recalling of past experience.  To see this more clearly, we can approach recognition through discussion of another spiritual faculty, that of faith.  Specifically, I mean the movement from subjective faith to objective faith.  The Master tells us: “Know that faith is of two kinds. The first is objective faith that is expressed by the outer man, obedience of the limbs and senses. The other faith is subjective, and unconscious obedience to the will of God. There is no doubt that, in the day of a Manifestation such as Christ, all contingent beings possessed subjective faith and had unconscious obedience to His Holiness Christ.

For all parts of the creational world are of one whole. Christ the Manifestor reflecting the divine Sun represented the whole. All the parts are subordinate and obedient to the whole. The contingent beings are the branches of the tree of life while the Messenger of God is the root of that tree. The branches, leaves and fruit are dependent for their existence upon the root of the tree of life. This condition of unconscious obedience constitutes subjective faith. But the discerning faith that consists of true knowledge of God and the comprehension of divine words, of such faith there is very little in any age. That is why His Holiness Christ said to His followers, "Many are called but few are chosen." (Baha'i World Faith: 364)

Then, there is the role of the spiritual faculty of will in rebirth.  ‘Abdu’l-Baha is reported to have said: “Will is the centre or focus of human understanding. We must will to know God, just as we must will in order to possess the life He has given us….Will and understanding must be one in the cause of God. Intention brings attainment.” (Ten Days in the Light of Acca: 30)

 Attaining the condition of objective discerning faith—i.e. the recognition of God either in His creation, or within the human reality or, best and most clearly of all, within His Manifestation—is a result of achieving spiritual rebirth. Rebirth usually follows only upon a supreme effort of will as described by Baha’u’llah in His Book of Certitude: “Only when the lamp of search, of earnest striving, of longing desire, of passionate devotion, of fervid love, of rapture, and ecstasy, is kindled within the seeker's heart, and the breeze of His loving-kindness is wafted upon his soul, will the darkness of error be dispelled, the mists of doubts and misgivings be dissipated, and the lights of knowledge and certitude envelop his being. At that hour will the mystic Herald, bearing the joyful tidings of the Spirit, shine forth from the City of God resplendent as the morn, and, through the trumpet-blast of knowledge, will awaken the heart, the soul, and the spirit from the slumber of negligence. Then will the manifold favours and outpouring grace of the holy and everlasting Spirit confer such new life upon the seeker that he will find himself endowed with a new eye, a new ear, a new heart, and a new mind. He will contemplate the manifest signs of the universe, and will penetrate the hidden mysteries of the soul. Gazing with the eye of God, he will perceive within every atom a door that leadeth him to the stations of absolute certitude. He will discover in all things the mysteries of divine Revelation and the evidences of an everlasting manifestation.” (The Kitab-i-Iqan: 196)

With direct perception there is no need of rational proofs, neither experiment nor hypotheses are required.  Logic and intellect can point to spiritual reality, but are not itself the divine spiritual reality.  For these in relation to direct perception are themselves veils of true knowledge, and not knowledge itself.  In direct perception the individual sees behind an expiring body of things called the material world to perceive their revealed forms standing within them.  Comprehension becomes apprehension, because knowledge is no longer conceptual but existential, that is, a permanent part of one’s existence.  Epistemologically, creation is no longer purely objective, i.e. an alien body of objects confronting an interrogating intelligence.  But neither are these objects purely subjective; i.e. held in thought and imagination.  Rather, creation and intelligence form an identity—two parts of one unmediated unity, which is the basis of true understanding. 

Revolving and Circling Around: Metaphors of Spiritual Relations

Do Thou bless, O Lord my God, the Primal Point, through Whom the point of creation hath been made to revolve in both the visible and invisible worlds, Whom Thou hast designated as the One whereunto should return whatsoever must return unto Thee, and as the Revealer of whatsoever may be manifested by Thee.

(Bahá’u’lláh, Prayers and Meditations by Bahá’u’lláh: 299)

The visible and invisible worlds are counterparts, and much of what we know of the invisible is through its visible outer pictures.  The Bab is that manifest Primal Point around Whom revolves the point of creation in both the visible and invisible worlds, what Baha’u’llah names “the contingent and placeless worlds.” (The Kitab-i-Aqdas: 175)  Further, His station in this world as the point, or mid-most heart, of creation revolves around His station of divine Manifestation as the Primal Point from which is generated all created things, since the material comes forth from and revolves around the spiritual.

All things, the Master tells us, are created in pairs.  This has more than one meaning.  One meaning, of course, is like the pair, woman and man, which form a polarity called humanity.  This polarity of equals, these twin centers, has complementary characteristics which form an unity that progress into greater manifest complexity.  That is, pulsations of energy moving in waves of increasing frequency and power between the poles act reciprocally to unfold latent qualities, to transform potentiality into actuality. 

But there is also the metaphorical polarity of unequals, of superior and inferior.  This polarity also forms a double center, but one center is dominant.  In this context, we perceive that the two poles of the Eternal and the contingent, the spiritual and the material, require and mutually illuminate and define each other in consciousness.  These two meanings together (i.e. equals and superior/inferior) are the glorious structure of “active force” and “recipient”, and “these two are the same yet they are different”—twin poles of a single structure, but in that of unequals one pole comes forth from the other.

The Bahá’i Writings often employ the phrases “circle round” or “revolving” to indicate the relation of authority, especially spiritual authority. For example, the Bab, extolling the greatness and primacy of Baha’u’llah’s Revelation to all others, states: “Beg ye of Him the wondrous tokens of His favour that He may graciously reveal for you whatever He willeth and desireth, inasmuch as on that Day all the revelations of divine bounty shall circle around the Seat of His glory and emanate from His presence, could ye but understand it.”(Selections from the Writings of the Bab:164) Baha’u’llah speaking of the Bab states: “Know then that all thou hast heard and witnessed that Daystar of Truth, the Primal Point, ascribe to Himself from the designations of former times is only on account of the weakness of men and the scheme of the world of creation. Otherwise, all names and attributes revolve round His Essence and circle about the threshold of His sanctuary. For He it is Who traineth all names, revealeth all attributes, conferreth life upon all beings, proclaimeth the divine verses, and arrayeth the heavenly signs.”(Gems of Divine Mysteries: 65-66)  Shoghi Effendi puts the same relation in another context, calling: “The principle of the Oneness of Mankind the pivot round which all the teachings of Bahá’u’lláh revolve.” (The World Order of Bahá’u’lláh: 42)

Spiritually, the invisible center is always the highest point, as when Baha’u’llah describes the Bab as: “This Point is the focal centre of the circle of Names and marketh the culmination of the manifestations of Letters in the world of creation.” (Tablets of Baha'u'llah: 101)  The center stands as the essence. All things come forth from it into manifestation and all things return to it in the sense of building higher levels of being on the plane of manifestation, the world of existence, whose center is the visible Manifestation of God.  Essence and existence are, again, twin poles with energies flowing between them, and existence emanating from and circling around essence. When considering the images of circling around and revolving, we should be careful not to focus only on the image of the circle, but also on the circling movement.  And since there are dual centers in every polarity, even that between unequals, and the Manifestation and His followers form such a polarity, revolving means not in a perfect circle, but in an ellipse, as the planets revolve in ellipses around the sun. 

Unlike a circle, which has only one center, ellipses have two centering points, which are referred to as foci.  They are resonant, but one focus is stronger.  In celestial mechanics, orbital resonance occurs when two orbiting bodies exert a regular, periodic gravitational influence on each other, usually due to their orbital periods being related by a ratio of two small integers. Orbital resonances greatly enhance the mutual gravitational influence of the bodies.  The relations of physical things revolving around a center provide metaphors of spiritual relations of believing souls to the Manifestation of God.  In the following paragraphs, if you substitute soul for planet and Manifestation for sun you’ll see what I mean.    

For our solar system the supreme center, the sun, is the superior, while the planets, each being their own center, orbit around it as the other foci.  We say that the planet circles around the sun, but actually, as we all know, the orbit is something of a squashed circle.  It is an ellipse, with the smaller focus both pivoting around itself and revolving around the pivot of the dominant center. An elliptical orbit of any size causes the distance of the planet from the sun to vary continuously. Thus, for every planet there will be one time when it is closest to the sun and another time when it is farthest from the sun. The planet orbits the sun iteratively but chaotically, i.e. no orbit traverses exactly the same path as any other orbit.

Kepler showed that the velocity of a planet, in the course of its orbit, would both speed up and slow down.  This is another metaphor of our relation with the Manifestation, the Sun of Reality, around which circle the souls of the believers.  ‘Abdu’l-Bahá states the relation perfectly: “Know thou that the distinguished Individual of every age is endowed according to the perfections of His age. That Individual who in past ages was set above His fellows was gifted according to the virtues of His time. But in this age of splendours, this era of God, the pre-eminent Personage, the luminous Orb, the chosen Individual will shine out with such perfections and such power as ultimately to dazzle the minds of every community and group. And since such a Personage is superior to all others in spiritual perfections and heavenly attainments, and is indeed the focal centre of divine blessings and the pivot of the circle of light, He will encompass all others, and there is no doubt whatsoever that He will shine out with such power as to gather every soul into His sheltering shade.

When ye consider this matter with care, it will become apparent that this is according to a universal law, which one can find at work in all things: the whole attracteth the part, and in the circle, the centre is the pivot of the compasses. Ponder thou upon the Spirit: because He was the focal centre of spiritual power, the wellspring of divine bounties….” (Selections from the Writings of Abdu’l-Baha: 62

The Manifestation of God is the central spiritual Orb of the universe around which all things, especially human souls, orbit.  This spiritual focus is countered in Itself by a smaller point of creation, the human soul of the Manifestation, like a planet orbiting its sun.  As the leading quote states, the Báb is the Primal Point, through Whom the point of creation hath been made to revolve.

Similarly, the Guardian explains: “For, just as in the realm of the spirit, the reality of the Báb has been hailed by the Author of the Bahá'í Revelation as "The Point round Whom the realities of the Prophets and Messengers revolve," so, on this visible plane, His sacred remains constitute the heart and center of what may be regarded as nine concentric circles, paralleling thereby, and adding further emphasis to the central position accorded by the Founder of our Faith to One "from Whom God hath caused to proceed the knowledge of all that was and shall be," "the Primal Point from which have been generated all created things." (Shoghi Effendi, Citadel of Faith: 95)

The double-pivot of spirit and matter, of Revelation and creation, each with its own center, enables movement and consciousness.  Of course each center is also circling around itself, spinning on its own axis, as this is the source of its radiant influence. As T.S. Eliot wrote in Burnt Norton:

At the still point of the turning world. Neither flesh nor fleshless;

Neither from nor towards; at the still point, there the dance is.

The center point of creation is, first, the body of the Manifestation, and then the center of His Covenant.  For human souls and life the center of creation is the Sun of Reality, the power holding all together in harmonious interaction.

The Master explicates, comparing the relation of the Covenant with creation to the human spirit and the human body: “All these interactions therefore are connected with that all-embracing power which is their pivot, their centre, their source and their motive power.

For instance, as we have observed, co-operation among the constituent parts of the human body is clearly established, and these parts and members render services unto all the component parts of the body. For instance, the hand, the foot, the eye, the ear, the mind, the imagination all help the various parts and members of the human body, but all these interactions are linked by an unseen, all-embracing power, that causeth these interactions to be produced with perfect regularity. This is the inner faculty of man, that is his spirit and his mind, both of which are invisible.” (Abdu'l-Baha, Tablet to August Forel: 22-23) 

Religion, Divine Love, and the Infinite Depth of Nature

Nature in its essence is the embodiment of My Name, the Maker, the Creator. Its manifestations are diversified by varying causes, and in this diversity there are signs for men of discernment. Nature is God's Will and is its expression in and through the contingent world. It is a dispensation of Providence ordained by the Ordainer, the All-Wise. Were anyone to affirm that it is the Will of God as manifested in the world of being, no one should question this assertion.  It is endowed with a power whose reality men of learning fail to grasp. Indeed a man of insight can perceive naught therein save the effulgent splendour of Our Name, the Creator. Say: This is an existence which knoweth no decay, and Nature itself is lost in bewilderment before its revelations, its compelling evidences and its effulgent glory which have encompassed the universe.

(Tablets of Baha'u'llah:142)

I have proposed that creation appears as three main contexts of reality.  The primary and wholly spiritual level is the interacting, all-pervasive attributes of God; secondly, is the divinely revealed thought-forms of creation called cosmos; finally, there is the manifest appearance of these attributes and thought forms in material form, (i.e. the physical universe) which on our planet, at least, is called Nature.  Nature is the sensible revelation.  Baha’u’llah refers to all three contexts in the above quote, and this leads, with the help of some explanatory quotes from ‘Abdu’l-Baha, to some insights about the infinitely deep reality of Nature.   

Of this intricately interconnected universe, ‘Abdu’l-Baha says: “For every part of the universe is connected with every other part by ties that are very powerful and admit of no imbalance, nor any slackening whatever.” (Selections from the Writings of Abdu'l-Baha: 157) But the physical universe is also intimately connected with the mental cosmos and the divine qualities, so that “the parts of this infinite universe have their members and elements connected with one another, and influence one another spiritually and materially.” (Abdu'l-Baha, Some Answered Questions: 245)

Expatiating further on the powerful and balanced ties binding all things in the universe together, the Master says “Now concerning nature, it is but the essential properties and the necessary relations inherent in the realities of things. And though these infinite realities are diverse in their character yet they are in the utmost harmony and closely connected together. As one's vision is broadened and the matter observed carefully, it will be made certain that every reality is but an essential requisite of other realities. Thus to connect and harmonize these diverse and infinite realities an all-unifying Power is necessary, that every part of existent being may in perfect order discharge its own function.” (Abdu'l-Baha, Tablet to August Forel: 20-21)

What is the connecting and all-unifying power? “Will is that active force which controlleth these relationships and these incidents.” (Selections from the Writings of Abdu'l-Baha: 198)

It is His innate knowledge of these essential properties and necessary relations that enables the Manifestation of God, the embodiment of the vibrating Primal Will, to reveal religion, which, in this context, is both the natural law and laws for humanity to complete Nature by bringing humanity into proper relation with it.  “The supreme Manifestations of God,” says ‘Abdu’l-Baha, “are aware of the reality of the mysteries of beings. Therefore, They establish laws which are suitable and adapted to the state of the world of man, for religion is the essential connection which proceeds from the realities of things. The Manifestation—that is, the Holy Lawgiver—unless He is aware of the realities of beings, will not comprehend the essential connection which proceeds from the realities of things, and He will certainly not be able to establish a religion conformable to the facts and suited to the conditions.” (Some Answered Questions: 158)  Here is stated the evolving, progressive connection between nature and revealed religion.  It is an evolving connection, because, as the Master stated: “Briefly, the world of existence is progressive. It is subject to development and growth.” (Abdu'l-Baha, Some Answered Questions: 3)  Baha’u’llah states that: “The breeze of the bounty of the King of creation hath caused even the physical earth to be changed, were ye to ponder in your hearts the mysteries of divine Revelation.” (The Kitab-i-Iqan: 47)

That essential relationship between the divine religion and nature is: while nature is the foundational “essential properties and the necessary relations inherent in the realities of things”, religion is the architectural “essential connection which proceeds from the realities of things.”  Religion as the unfolding law of God is the means of the evolution of the physical world, and it is both the necessary and inherent relations, and the essential properties and connections which proceed from the realities of things, (i.e. the knowledge of God or religia), which science, i.e. Scientia, discovers through the power of understanding, “for science is the discoverer of realities.” (Abdu'l-Baha, The Promulgation of Universal Peace: 138) Through reason and scientific advances humanity is able to “educate” nature into bringing forth what it cannot bring forth by itself.  “In brief, man through the possession of this ideal endowment of scientific investigation is the most noble product of creation, the governor of nature.” (Abdu'l-Baha, The Promulgation of Universal Peace: 30)

The essential connections that proceed from the realities of things are, then, developed into physical forms of greater complexity and beauty by divine Will, by progressive revelation.  But all comes forth from divine Love.  That is, the evolving manifestations and configurations of the universe brought forth by Revelation are embodiments of qualities latent in the divine love of God.  Divine love is the archetypal substance, the metaphysical prima materia: “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.” (Abdu'l-Baha, Selections from the Writings of Abdu'l-Baha: 27)

Regarding the mental level of creation that I have called cosmos, ‘Abdu’l-Baha concisely states that “nature, also, in its essence is an intellectual reality and is not sensible.” (Some Answered Questions: 83)  What does He mean by the terms “sensible reality” and “intellectual reality”?  “Things which are sensible are those which are perceived by the five exterior senses; thus those outward existences which the eyes see are called sensible. Intellectual things are those which have no outward existence but are conceptions of the mind.” (Some Answered Questions: 263)  Nature, then, in its material appearances is a sensible reality, but in its intellectual essence it is a conception of the mind.  And it is first a conception in the universal Mind of the Manifestation of God.  It is a divine thought-form periodically reconfigured by divine Revelation.  Its mental reality lies in the cosmos of thought.  Its spiritual reality is the embodiment of the name or quality of God, the Creator.  Nature in its essence is the embodiment of My Name, the Maker, the Creator. (Remember that for the world of being “essence” is not some nebulous thing or vaporous quality, but the formal cause of something, the divine imprint which gives a thing its form i.e. its thought-form, and that form is reflected on the mirror of Nature where: Its manifestations are diversified by varying causes.  It is a metaphysical mirror, an intellectual reality.)

What more can we say about intellectual realities?

The Master, in an explanation of a statement from Baha’u’llah, says: “We come to the explanation of the words of Bahá'u'lláh when He says: "O king! I was but a man like others, asleep upon My couch, when lo, the breezes of the All-Glorious were wafted over Me, and taught Me the knowledge of all that hath been. This thing is not from Me, but from One Who is Almighty and All-Knowing." This is the state of manifestation: it is not sensible; it is an intellectual reality, exempt and freed from time, from past, present and future; it is an explanation, a simile, a metaphor and is not to be accepted literally; it is not a state that can be comprehended by man.”  (Some Answered Questions: 85)  The intellectual not material reality of Nature is an existence which knoweth no decay, and is lost in bewilderment before its revelations—i.e. the revelations of God’s name the Creator flowing from the divine Will.

Intellectual realities are exempt from time and, of course, space.  Language figurations—metaphors, similes, analogies—built up from sensible realities within time and space are necessary to communicate intellectual realities. Intellectual states can only be expressed through analogous sensible figures, their outer signs.

But being able to express a thing, capture it in a metaphor, does not mean that we comprehend the full reality of anything.  In one of His prayers written for us Baha’u’llah avers: “I am bewildered when I contemplate the tokens of Thy handiwork, and the evidences of Thy might, and find myself completely unable to unravel the mystery of the least of Thy signs, how much more to apprehend Thine own Self.” (Prayers and Meditations by Baha'u'llah: 303)

Nature in its infinitely deep fullness is all three realities.  It, simultaneously, appears as an infinite number of manifest physical realities that compose and disintegrate; it is, too, an intellectual essence or form, exempt from time and space, of cosmos; and, finally, it is the embodiment of God’s Name and attribute, the Creator, creating new configurations from the love of God that is the “vital bond inherent, in accordance with the divine creation, in the realities of things.”.  All three conditions and their relations are controlled and developed by divine Will.