Contexts of Knowledge and Knowing

Glorified art Thou, O Lord my God! I yield Thee thanks for having enabled me to recognize the Manifestation of Thyself…

(Bahá’u’lláh, Prayers and Meditations by Bahá’u’lláh: 110)

         I have said that for human beings Reality presents itself to us ontologically (i.e. forms of being) as three contexts: Spirit, mind, and matter.  These correspond to and each context is known primarily by one of the three modalities of knowing: heart, intellect, and senses.  Each of these modalities has its own direct connection with Reality which creates its own epistemological context of Reality, which can include or exclude the other contexts.  Complexity of context is according to its connectedness to the other contexts.  Heart, intellect and senses, in turn, correspond to the three aspects of a complete education, (divine, human and material) as described by ‘Abdu’l-Baha: (Some Answered Questions: 8)

Now the general progression in human understanding goes something like this: there is an innate “direct connection” between physical phenomena and the physical senses which apprehend them. This is the sun/mirror analogy, where the direct connection, through the medium of light, of sun and mirror is the means of appearance of the image of the sun in the mirror.  To perceive this is a direct perception, and to know what is perceived is to recognize it. 

Likewise, in the realm of thought, there is a direct connection between the mind’s power of comprehension and the thought forms of things—what the Bab calls “the similitude of all that He hath fashioned in creation,” (Quoted in Saiedi Gate of the Heart: 43)—within the human reality. Again, this direct connection is also done through a medium.  In this case, it is the medium of divine thought which is Revelation that creates and recreates all things. To see mental realities and to comprehend them is a direct perception of “reality” on that level.  Once we know these thought-realities and encounter them again we recognize them.

To a point it is the same with spiritual knowing and knowledge.  The direct connection at this level is between the spiritual realm and the human heart, specifically, the burnished mirror of the heart that reflects the image of spiritual reality with fidelity.  There are, too, spiritual faculties, such as will, faith, and vision that enable spiritual perception. There is a direct connection between the heart and these faculties and spirit, as there is between the senses and material reality and the intellect and thought reality.  But here the recognition, the knowing, is not learned, for the love of God and the knowledge of God are deposited within the human reality.  “Knowing” here is an act of recognition without previous encounter or learning.  Recognition is knowing this state of pre-established union, which is unveiled in fuller manifestation with every better cleansing of the heart.  Knowledge and knowing are radically reflexive. (See below for discussion of this)

With sensory knowledge there is an interval of physical space between the perceiver and the object of perception. Between the intellect and mental realities there are, analogously, mental spaces, different levels of understanding and comprehension—some of which naturally disappear with maturity—or as when we say that opinions are “far apart”.  But in either case knowledge remains “objective” in some manner.  It is “out there” and must be learned and acquired.  But in spiritual knowing, which is pure recognition, the knowledge is reflexive because it is within the soul ready to be known (i.e. recognized) once the heart is purified. The “space”, if one wants to continue the term, is “in here”, in the levels of interiority of the soul.  The term corresponding to learning is unveiling.  But it is this reflexive state of knowing in recognition that is the experience of what I have termed the eclipse of distance.  The eclipse of distance reflects the statement of Baha’u’llah on the nearness of the “Ocean” of His Revelation: “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.” (Baha'u'llah, Gleanings from the Writings of Baha'u'llah: 326)

As all evolution is of "spiritual man", no matter how embedded in Nature humanity may have been early in its history, and as all education, according to ‘Abdu’l-Baha, is toward divine education, “which is the goal of education”, so, too, the evolution of knowledge is toward the divine residing in the heart.  This is not the intuitive but the unitive level of knowledge, the one that includes all previous levels, that is both the ground and the goal of all developments in knowledge.  Knowledge of the divine means perceiving the creation as composed of “signs of God” (i.e. their essential forms) both in the world and in themselves.  Every created thing has a unique sign of God within it which animates its life and generates and guides its development and whose corresponding sign is within the human reality.

To attain to this knowledge and means of knowing, the soul must extricate itself from the drowsy dream of space/time reason, and from all attachments to ephemeral, phenomenal things.  In a previous post we called this the experience of the second birth.  It is the means of generating spiritual sciences.  The Bab states: “For verily the soul, while bound by the ephemeral and transitory things of this world, is confined, in its understanding, to limited phenomena only.  However, once the soul hath soared beyond the realm of nature and becometh submerged in the ocean of absolute unity, then can it acquire the capacity to discern the reality of all sciences and knowledge in their full plentitude.” (The Bab quoted in Gate of the Heart: 44)

        Becoming submerged in the ocean of absolute unity requires a total reversal of ways of knowing till that moment.  Here we return to the notion of radical reflexivity

Now, all thought is reflexive, i.e. refers to itself as an inherent part of thinking.  In self-consciousness the subject is self-reflective; he has some self-knowledge and can consult with himself.  But in radical reflexivity the subject is self-reflective of the object also.  It is a part of not apart from the subject. 

 What I mean by radical reflexivity is indicated in the following quote: “It is clear and evident, therefore, that the first bestowal of God is the Word, and its discoverer and recipient is the power of understanding. This Word is the foremost instructor in the school of existence and the revealer of Him Who is the Almighty. All that is seen is visible only through the light of its wisdom. All that is manifest is but a token of its knowledge. All names are but its name, and the beginning and end of all matters must needs depend upon it.” (Baha'u'llah, Tabernacle of Unity:3)

The human intelligence can recognize God in His Manifestation and in himself because the knowledge and love of God is present within the soul from conception.  In one of His prayers Bahá’u’lláh wrote: “I give Thee thanks inasmuch as Thou hast called me into being in Thy days, and infused into me Thy love and Thy knowledge.” (Prayers and Meditations by Baha'u'llah: 177)

This infusion into our souls of the knowledge and love of God, this deposit of priceless endowments, is as a trust.  If we didn’t have them and encountered the Word of God and did not love and recognize it as such, we would not be held accountable—and there is no way that we would recognize it without these gifts, as an animal, lacking the rational faculty, cannot truly recognize abstract thought for what it actually is.  But with this trust we should do so, for they are there precisely for that purpose.  They are held there in trust until that fateful moment, as funds are held in trust until maturity for an individual.  God entrusts us with these gems, but as trusted ones we are responsible to use them wisely and properly.  But, again, what is recognized in the recognition of God and His Manifestation is really, for human beings, the recognition of their own divine aspect, their reality as spiritual beings with great powers and matching responsibilities to use them for the twin purposes to individually grow spiritually and collectively advance socially.

When a soul encounters the Word and recognizes It these innate powers, these endowments, are revealed.  The trust joyfully yields its deposit.  He says: “It hath already been abundantly demonstrated that in that divinely-appointed Day the majority of them that have sought and attained His holy court have revealed such knowledge and wisdom, a drop of which none else besides these holy and sanctified souls, however long he may have taught or studied, hath grasped or will ever comprehend. It is by virtue of this power that the beloved of God have, in the days of the Manifestation of the Day Star of Truth, been exalted above, and made independent of, all human learning. Nay, from their hearts and the springs of their innate powers hath gushed out unceasingly the inmost essence of human learning and wisdom.” (Baha'u'llah, Gleanings from the Writings of Baha'u'llah: 261)

From Valley to Valley

After passing through the Valley of knowledge, which is the last plane of limitation, the wayfarer cometh to

The Valley of Unity

and drinketh from the cup of the Absolute, and gazeth on the Manifestations of Oneness.

(Baha'u'llah, The Seven Valleys: 17)

Another way to look at the time we now live in, at the range of knowledge available to the human intelligence, and to the unparalleled transition that the human race is passing through and the unimaginable glories that await it upon the successful navigation of that journey, is to look at Baha’u’llah’s treatise, The Seven Valleys.  Though about the stages of the individual soul’s journey back to God, or at least, as Baha’u’llah says, to “the first gate of the heart's citadel, that is, man's first entrance to the city of the heart” (The Seven Valleys: 40) it can also, in some of its aspects, be read as a statement of humanity’s current stage of transition.

I mean, in particular, to look at the transition from the Valley of Knowledge to the Valley of Unity, the third and fourth valleys respectively.  We can look at this in light of the Bab’s statement about the kinds of knowing available to the soul: “For verily the soul, while bound by the ephemeral and transitory things of this world, is confined, in its understanding, to limited phenomena only.  However, once the soul hath soared beyond the realm of nature and becometh submerged in the ocean of absolute unity, then can it acquire the capacity to discern the reality of all sciences and knowledge in their full plentitude.” (The Bab quoted in Gate of the Heart: 44)

First, after passing through the second valley, the tumultuous Valley of Love, into the Valley of Knowledge, the seeker will “come out of doubt into certitude, and turn from the darkness of illusion to the guiding light of the fear of God. His inner eyes will open and he will privily converse with his Beloved; he will set ajar the gate of truth and piety, and shut the doors of vain imaginings. He in this station is content with the decree of God, and seeth war as peace, and findeth in death the secrets of everlasting life. With inward and outward eyes he witnesseth the mysteries of resurrection in the realms of creation and the souls of men, and with a pure heart apprehendeth the divine wisdom in the endless Manifestations of God.” (The Seven Valleys And the Four Valleys: 11 – 12)

This sounds like a great deal to be able to do, but the most intriguing thing for me is the following statement, which I have in part bold-faced: “After passing through the Valley of knowledge, which is the last plane of limitation, the wayfarer cometh to

The Valley of Unity

and drinketh from the cup of the Absolute, and gazeth on the Manifestations of Oneness. In this station he pierceth the veils of plurality, fleeth from the worlds of the flesh, and ascendeth into the heaven of singleness. With the ear of God he heareth, with the eye of God he beholdeth the mysteries of divine creation. He steppeth into the sanctuary of the Friend, and shareth as an intimate the pavilion of the Loved One. He stretcheth out the hand of truth from the sleeve of the Absolute; he revealeth the secrets of power. He seeth in himself neither name nor fame nor rank, but findeth his own praise in praising God. He beholdeth in his own name the name of God…He looketh on all things with the eye of oneness, and seeth the brilliant rays of the divine sun shining from the dawning-point of Essence alike on all created things, and the lights of singleness reflected over all creation.” (The Seven Valleys And the Four Valleys: 17 – 18)

Perhaps it is in the Valley of Unity that the soul, as the Bab says, “becometh submerged in the ocean of absolute unity, then can it acquire the capacity to discern the reality of all sciences and knowledge in their full plentitude.”  Recall that “unity” is the pivotal principle of the Bahá’i Revelation.   His Revelation guides humanity through the Valley of Unity, so to speak: which would make the Valley of Knowledge the Bab’s valley.  I believe that there is support for this statement.

First, in Islamic prophecy the Bab is the Qa’im (He Who Arises).  He has a special mission in regards to knowledge.  Baha’u’llah writes: “Thus it is related in the "Biharu'l-Anvar," the "Avalim," and the "Yanbu'" of Sadiq, son of Muhammad, that he spoke these words: "Knowledge is twenty and seven letters. All that the Prophets have revealed are two letters thereof. No man thus far hath known more than these two letters. But when the Qá'im shall arise, He will cause the remaining twenty and five letters to be made manifest." Consider; He hath declared Knowledge to consist of twenty and seven letters, and regarded all the Prophets, from Adam even unto the "Seal," as Expounders of only two letters thereof and of having been sent down with these two letters. He also saith that the Qá'im will reveal all the remaining twenty and five letters.” (Baha'u'llah, The Kitab-i-Iqan: 243-244)

The remaining 25 letters were hidden and unmanifest, but existent.  Thus all knowledge is already present and has been from the beginning.  But the remaining letters are not necessarily to be manifested at the same time.  The Bab will both “reveal all the remaining letters” and “will cause” the remaining letters “to be made manifest.”

If all knowledge is 27 letters, and the Bab revealed the last 25 letters, then the Valley of Knowledge, the “last plane of limitation”, which is the plane of manifestation of spirit, is complete.  Anything completed is limited, is finite.  Humanity can now pass into Unity and the Absolute.  This does not mean, of course, that there will not be other Revelations, or that there is no more to be known or to learn, but, I believe, that all the essential tools (the 27 letters of knowledge) are available to combine together in all possible combinations to generate and encode the knowledge needed to recreate the world, and, through divine guidance, to successfully meet any challenge or situation.  It is the difference between a binary code of two numbers or letters and a code of 27 letters, a complete alphabet—infinite difference in the coding of knowledge.

It is also of note, for me, that the Valley of Unity is the fourth valley.  This recalls the special place that four has had in many spiritual traditions, especially when linked with ten.

Four is everywhere the number of material manifestation and of cycles completed, continually evident in the four directions, the four material elements, the four seasons, etc., while ten represents the completion of the numerical cycle both in time and in space.  The Bab also speaks of the three as spiritual degrees and four as material degrees of manifestation (See Saidi, Gate of the Heart), thereby stating the seven stages of divine creative action, the stages of the great alchemical work, and combining the third and fourth valleys to make seven—recalling Baha’u’llah statement that the Bab’s Revelation is the first part of His Revelation.

The Tao Te Ching states: "one produced two, two produced three, three produced all numbers".  The implication of this is that four, the number produced immediately after three, is equivalent to all numbers. This is because once one has the first four numbers, one also has a decad (a set of ten), which represents the complete numerical cycle.  1+2+3+4=10 is also known as the tetraktys.

The word "Tao," is chosen to refer to this ultimate principle needed for all ten thousand entities of reality to be manifest.  The Chinese expression ten thousand things is used to mean the indefinite multitude of all forms and beings in manifest existence.   As the Master says: “The appearance in manifestation means that a single thing appears in infinite forms.” (Some Answered Questions: 293)

Now, ten thousand is the fourth power of ten.  The number ten thousand as indicating indefinite multiplicity is by no means restricted to Chinese usage. For example, in ancient Greek, the term myrioi means "ten thousand" and, with a small change of accentuation, means "an indefinite multiplicity". This dual usage has carried over into English, where the word "myriad", which means literally "ten thousand", is used to mean an indefinite large number.

This close metaphysical (i.e. symbolic) association of four with ten is also evident in the sign of a cross (clearly a fourfold figure) to represent the number ten both in Chinese characters (where it is an upright + cross) and in Roman numeration (where it is a diagonal X cross) It is also that of chiasmus in Greek.  The word chiasmus is a Latin term from the Greek chiasma, meaning "crossing".  This in turn is from the Greek chiázō, "to shape like the letter Χ".    This same Greek letter is, of course, shorthand for Christ.

The cross enclosed within a circle (one of the most universal of symbols, found in every culture), is often a mandala, and thus a "map of the universe" or a perfect representation of ten raised to the fourth power.  The Master stated: “As for the symbol of the cross, appointed in former times: Know verily, that the cross form is a wonderful figure and consists of two right lines placed crosswise-one perpendicular to the other—and this figure exists in all things. (Tablets of Abdu'l-Baha v3: 598)

This association of the fourth power of ten with the indefinite applies to space as well as to time, making the Einsteinian space/time continuum of four dimensions absorbing the static Newtonian three and marking out the last necessary term of all manifest spatiality.

Binding Chaos: Ancient and Modern

For the inner reality of man is a demarcation line between the shadow and the light, a place where the two seas meet; it is the lowest point on the arc of descent, and therefore is it capable of gaining all the grades above.

(Abdu'l-Baha, Selections from the Writings of Abdu'l-Baha: 130)

He hath let loose the two seas, that they meet each other: Between them is a barrier which they overpass not. Which then of the bounties of your Lord will ye deny? From each He bringeth up greater and lesser pearls.

(Qur'án 55:19-20)

           

If, as ‘Abdu’l-Baha asserts: “Man is the microcosm; and the infinite universe, the macrocosm. The mysteries of the greater world, or macrocosm, are expressed or revealed in the lesser world, the microcosm….Likewise, the greater world, the macrocosm, is latent and miniatured in the lesser world, or microcosm, of man,” (The Promulgation of Universal Peace: 69-70), then the inner and outer relations of the human reality described by ‘Abdu’l-Baha in the first quote are mirrored in the cosmological relations between cosmos and universe stated in the Qur’an.  This post will explore the cosmos/universe part.

The theme of two seas separated by a barrier is not limited to the Qur’an and the citations from the Bahá’i Writings from the Qur’an.  The opening verses of the first book of the Bible read:

          “In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.

And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters.

And God said, Let there be a firmament in the midst of the waters, and let it divide the waters from the waters.

And God made the firmament, and divided the waters which were under the firmament from the waters which were above the firmament: and it was so.

And God called the firmament Heaven. And the evening and the morning were the second day.

And God said, Let the waters under the heaven be gathered together unto one place, and let the dry land appear: and it was so.

And God called the dry land Earth; and the gathering together of the waters called he Seas: and God saw that it was good. (Genesis 1: 1-2, 6-10)

There are also hints and allusions in the Hermetic literature to these matters, which preceded all of the above.  These give us a sense of what the metaphor “sea” means in spiritual literature.  It means, in the language of modern physics, an unbounded potential bound into an actuality.

In hermetic literature the common and universal matter is the prima materia.  It contained within itself the four elements of all that is, viz., fire, air, water, and earth, by the mixture and motion of which the forms of all earthly things are impressed upon their subjects.  

‘Abdu’l-Baha names this same original substance One Matter.  “It is necessary, therefore, that we should know what each of the important existences was in the beginning—for there is no doubt that in the beginning the origin was one: the origin of all numbers is one and not two. Then it is evident that in the beginning matter was one, and that one matter appeared in different aspects in each element. Thus various forms were produced, and these various aspects as they were produced became permanent, and each element was specialized. But this permanence was not definite, and did not attain realization and perfect existence until after a very long time. Then these elements became composed, and organized and combined in infinite forms; or rather from the composition and combination of these elements innumerable beings appeared.” (Some Answered Questions: 181)

This original matter was also called chaos.  The Greek word "chaos" (χάος), a neuter noun, means "yawning" or "gap", meaning there is no form to it.  (What I have been calling the resonant interval) Yet, as the Master and others describe it, all forms come out of it.  Its most common poetic image is that of water.  Remember the Biblical verses say in the beginning the earth “was without form, and void”.  It lacked, that is, a formal cause or imprint of essential form that would limit and define it.  “Darkness was upon the face of the deep” until “the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters.”  Thus, the waters precede all else. 

Today we might call this formless, universal physical energy Zero-point energy, or the zero-point field or quantum vacuum, which is actually a plenum.  The zero-point energy field underlies all material creation which arises out from it. This field holds infinite energy, is capable of assuming any vibrational frequency by a process we can call filtering, and is the one agency enabling the changing of vibrational tone and hence the structure of any piece of matter.

Thus, the void or formless energy is not empty, (i.e. a vacuum) a notion that is a product of conceptual abstract thinking, but is, rather, a roiling, seething plenum of possibility—whatevers—i.e. potentials awaiting actuality or existence.  It surrounds, penetrates and diffuses the world of existence, being, in a sense, the essential substance of the world of existence.  It is chaos to a later cosmos, which is chaos bound or fixed by form.

Now scripture speaks of two seas.  I believe that these are the seas of primal matter (chaos)—Blake, about a century before quantum mechanics, called this the “sea of time and space”—and the boundless sea of thought which imprints form on chaos.  The sea of thought is the world of forms.  ‘Abdu’l-Baha says that: “Thoughts are a boundless sea, and 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: 109-110)

The two seas are not connected, because they are a conjunction of opposites, “shadow and light”, though, together, they form one reality, like the soul and body of the human individual.  The Qur’an speaks of a barrier over which they cannot cross.  In the Biblical terminology God creates a “firmament in the midst of the waters” to divide “the waters which were under the firmament from the waters which were above the firmament.”  The firmament is called heaven.  Still later the waters below the firmament are gathered together into a sea so that “the dry land” of Earth could appear.  With this step there is established a clear ontological barrier separating heaven, the boundless infinity, from earth, the bounded infinity, though they are related in the manner of painter, picture to paint, and painting.  But what is the barrier called firmament?  In brief, it is the formal cause; the one thought from the boundless sea of thought, or, in the language of quantum mechanics, the one observation from the infinite possibilities of observation, that gives definition, or reality, that is the thing.  This oldest of stories has just recently had a fresh cosmological retelling.

From the origin of the universe described in early Genesis let’s skip ahead several billion years to the latter part of the twentieth-century A.D. when cosmological physicists are speculating on the structure of the universe with new theories called Loop Quantum Gravity and Loop Quantum Cosmology.  Loop Quantum Gravity is an attempt to merge quantum mechanics and general relativity.  Its chief rival, String Theory, developed earlier, attempts to do the same. 

Einstein’s General Theory of Relativity lead to conclusions that the known universe was bookended by what are known as singularities (Black Holes and Big Bangs)—i.e. the Big Bang universe would expand to some unknowable limit and then contract into the Big Crunch.  Spacetime, that is, could symmetrically expand to infinity and then contract infinitely.  Hence the mathematics of this approach lead to infinities—very hard things to capture in numbers.  So, these unwanted pests were “renormalized” out by defining parameters.

Now, being an infinity in science is the same as being “without form and void” in scripture.  Then this new loop theory came out which put a firmament between the two original seas—notions about which physicists knew little and cared less—for it made the physical universe finite.  It all had to do with how one conceives of gravity—a very grave situation, indeed.

According to Einstein, gravity is not a generalized force.  It is, rather, a property of space-time itself.  That is, in Einstein’s General Relativity Theory physical entities are located with respect to one another only and not with respect to some spacetime manifold.  Space-time as a "container" within which physics takes place has no objective physical meaning and instead the gravitational interaction is represented as just one of the fields forming a world.  Gravity is a manifestation of the geometry of spacetime.—no one field, rather, fields within fields, each unique.

Loop quantum gravity is an attempt to develop a quantum theory of gravity based directly on Einstein's geometrical formulation. It attempts to describe the quantum properties of the universe and gravity. Hence it is also a theory of quantum spacetime.  Loop quantum cosmology is a finite, symmetry-reduced model of loop quantum gravity that predicts a "quantum bridge" (a firmament) between the contracting and expanding cosmological branches. 

If it all seems pretty loopy, that’s because loop quantum gravity imagines spacetime as a set of interlocked loops. In this theory spacetime cannot be divided infinitely into smaller and smaller pieces. There is an unimaginably small but still finite dimension called the Planck length, which is approximately 10⁻³⁵ meters, beyond which one cannot divide spacetime.  It is the smallest piece of space. The finiteness of this quantum of space enables the theory of loop quantum gravity to escape some of the ugly infinite solutions that results when one tries to combine the mathematics of standard quantum mechanics with that of general relativity—i.e. space is no longer bound by infinity of lengths, because, according to the theory, there is no meaning to distance at scales smaller than the Planck scale. Therefore, Loop Quantum Gravity predicts that not just matter, but space itself, has an atomic structure.  It is not a smooth continuum, but granular, like commercial sugar.  The granularity is a direct consequence of the quantization. In other words, there is a smallest possible length to space. 

Loop quantum gravity theory stops the universe from being bounded by singularities.  Space cannot expand or contract to infinity, but must stop at some point in both directions.  Once singularities are resolved, the big bang is replaced by a quantum bounce.

If there is a smallest possible piece of space, is time also quantized?  If so, then time, like space, has a physical reality and is finite. The quantum of time beyond which there is no way to divide time is the time it takes for a photon traveling at the speed of light (c) to travel a plank unit, roughly 10⁻⁴³ seconds.  A time interval smaller than that may never be possible to measure, but it is still finite.

Thus the two things that have long been considered infinite, space and time, have been removed as infinities from the equations of physics and made finite. Thus no matter what the conditions are in the universe, everything is finite.

If this smallest distance possible cannot be further divided, and time itself has a smallest finite limit, a firmament—a thought that defines the universe finitely—dividing the upper from the lower arises in the midst of the waters, a barrier, the Planck unit, beyond which the seas cannot cross is created.  Science, scripture, and the Hermetic literature all agree that chaos, the physical universe, is finite and bounded.  The sea of thought remains a boundless infinity. 

In the microcosm of the “inner reality” of the human being, this relation between its two opposing aspects, soul and body, holds.  There, at the conjunction of “the shadow and the light” “the two seas meet” at “the end of the arc of descent” which both ends in materialities, (body) and is from where the soul starts its spiritual journey. 

In the macrocosm, every wave from the “boundless sea” of infinite divine thought, each revelation, when applied to the finite universe opposing it is a firmament that creates “the effects and varying conditions of existence” that “are the separate forms and individual limits of the waves”.  Thus He says in another place that links the human reality and the cosmos: 'Praise be to the all-perceiving, the ever-abiding Lord Who, from a dewdrop out of the ocean of His grace, hath reared a firmament of existence, adorned it with the stars of knowledge, and admitted man into the lofty court of insight and understanding."  (Baha'u'llah, Tabernacle of Unity: 3) 

    

An Approaching Resonant Structure

The world's equilibrium hath been upset through the vibrating influence of this most great, this new World Order. Mankind's ordered life hath been revolutionized through the agency of this unique, this wondrous System -- the like of which mortal eyes have never witnessed.

(Gleanings from the Writings of Baha'u'llah: 136)

To complete the discussion of resonance, which is a central metaphor enabling the mind to grasp something of the coherence of the spiritual and material worlds, I am going to present some thoughts on the impact of Revelation, the supreme resonant structure, on the universe.

The greatest events in the history of the universe are the Revelators Themselves coming into the universe.  Revelation changes the entire creation, Baha’u’llah asserting: “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)  The Revelations They bring retune creation, calling into being a new creation, establishing new harmonies between Spirit and matter that renovate the conditions of existence, creating new forms of realities that are both essential and forever and that appeared before “but not in the form thou seest today.”  The tuning of the spiritual and material worlds is also the reconfiguring of the creation, putting the spiritual and material worlds in the “exact correspondence” of the Reality to its “outer picture.”

If Revelation energizes the entire creation and is progressive, then the universe is itself an emergent reality.  Emergence can be seen as the coming of a new and greater universal resonant structure into the world (i.e. Revelation) and basically retuning the relations of things to a higher frequency, manifesting thereby greater complexity of life and forms.  A resonant structure has vibrating influence, so as formal cause it reveals itself by its heralding effects, which are known and experienced long before the actual Cause is understood. Revelation is the transcendent resonant structure, because it surrounds the whole contingent world, and the world resonates in response to it.  It is as the sun radiating its light, illuminating all it touches and setting all things vibrating at higher frequencies from absorbing its heat, turning radiant energy into chemical energy.  This is the herald and dynamics of growth, and in winter is the promise of spring and summer.

In all cases, to have resonance there must be a structure in vibration, a field of its influence and a medium through which its effects are felt.  The earth orbits the sun, each one spinning on its own axis, each generating surrounding electromagnetic and gravitational fields, and each pulsing its quanta of energies in harmony with all other worlds in the plenum which is the active medium of physical energy called the zero-point field, but in thought I call the cosmos of divine Thought.  A spiritually resonant form is both an invisible template of growth and the radiating power animating material forms growing in its image. 

We saw in our discussion of resonance in chemistry that the resonance energy of a compound is a measure of the extra stability of the conjugated system compared to the corresponding number of isolated double bonds.  Resonance energy or hybrid energy is released by new combinations of qualities.  The energy is released into the field of relations as added manifest complexity.  Resonance energy is called delocalization energy.  This correlates with the wave form of a particle in physics, the morphic resonance of the biological form, the social and cultural form of a collective of human beings, such as an ethnic people, and with the implications of progressive Revelation building all life into greater complexity.

Resonance is both a measure of individual stability—self-resonance of a structure, called identity in a human being—and of the vibrating influence of that structure creating a field of effects within a general medium of all structures so that mutual growth can occur.  This medium, such as the zero-point field in physics, is a kind of total energy or infinite latent potential that developing organisms and even inorganic compounds like crystals can tap into, mold and express.  There are, then, resonant structures, resonant energies, and resonant processes. 

Since the Word is the cause that hath preceded the contingent world, every revelation creates an environment of new possibility—the release of energy by new combinations of qualities—within Nature and the human world.  The environment is not an empty medium, but a continuum of non-material substance that both crystallizes into things and which interacts with the events that occur within it and which it helps produce. 

Revelation, the supreme resonant structure and energy, what Baha’u’llah calls “the sovereign essence”, is the world’s spiritual environment.  It is the ground of all being and changing it changes everything else.  The changes provoked by the vibrating influence of the Word are all its effects and all these work by and through various efficient causes to upset and then reset the world’s equilibrium.  These changes work cumulatively and interactively to transform, gathering speed and power to produce a new manifest condition.

Again, the images, principles and metaphors of Revelation, the creative Word, form what I call spiritual templates.  On the information side of them, so to speak, these are codes of information to reconfigure the world in its image.  But on the energy side these spiritual templates are not just mental structures, not passive architectural blueprints, to be imprinted by the universal Mind of the Manifestation of God upon the prima materia (one matter: love) of the universe. They are dynamic structures, archetypal resonating structures with a “vibrating influence” powerful enough to reconfigure the universe.  Now it seems to me that that vibrating influence of these structures or templates is from the infinite energies of the divine Will pulsing through them.  These are manifested as different but harmoniously connected waves of sound and light, the intersecting waves carrying information about the processes that created them to in-form all other things. 

Revelation as formal cause recreates the whole image of creation by “Be and it is”.  The resonant waves of Revelation connecting spirit and matter move between different planes of being, creating coherence.  In the creation itself and in the world of human understanding, Revelation is a harmonic resonance of intellectual waves, a vibrating influence creating reverberations, retuning creation and mind in a new harmonic so that the new state of mind appears or emerges from the womb of the old form to match the new creation unfolding from the old creation, form issuing from form.  Formal cause within the contingent world, that is the received Primal Form, is what gives initial shape to Revelation’s energy, but the new templates to be manifested gradually restructure creation according to new vibrations.  They act like attractors to draw the elements of creation into conformity with a new spiritual template.  But form is not imposed full and intact, but, rather, by iterative cycles crossing and re-crossing its own movements it gradually creates a path of development, and via a series of pressures and releases form emerges within this creative movement.

The heralding effects of Revelation in creation occur in the resonant intervals of unformed prima materia.  These are first manifest as a vortex and turbulence of rapid change, of breakdown and breakthrough, of integration and disintegration.  As Revelation diffuses, the retuning/reconfiguring process increases in speed and power.  The vibrations of change increase in intensity and the fluctuations of events become faster and more powerful as the system changes due to the vast infusion of energy and buckles under a new pattern and structure arising from within.  These herald the approach of the actual Structure whose vibrating influence has upset the whole world’s equilibrium in order to manifest a new order and bring into being a new creation.  

The Resonating Human Reality: The Supreme Resonant Interval

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 human reality is the supreme resonant structure because the three levels of creation (physical, mental, spiritual) are all together within it.  It is the microcosm that reflects the entire macrocosm.  The human soul is the locus of creation and the nexus of all its relations.  The Master says that: “When we ponder over the reality of the microcosm, we discover that in the microcosm there are deposited three realities.  Man is endowed with an outer or physical reality.”  There is, too, “a second reality, the rational or intellectual reality; and the intellectual reality of man predominates over nature.  All these sciences which we enjoy were the hidden and recondite secrets of nature, unknowable to nature, but man was enabled to discover these mysteries, and out of the plane of the unseen he brought them into the plane of the seen.

“Yet there is a third reality in man, the spiritual reality. Through its medium one discovers spiritual revelations, a celestial faculty which is infinite as regards the intellectual as well as physical realms. That power is conferred upon man through the breath of the Holy Spirit. It is an eternal reality, an indestructible reality, a reality belonging to the divine, supernatural kingdom; a reality whereby the world is illumined, a reality which grants unto man eternal life. This third, spiritual reality it is which 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.

“That celestial reality, the third reality of the microcosm, delivers man from the material world. Its power causes man to escape from nature's world. Escaping, he will find an illuminating reality, transcending the limited reality of man and causing him to attain to the infinitude of God, abstracting him from the world of superstitions and imaginations, and submerging him in the sea of the rays of the Sun of Reality.” (Foundations of World Unity: 50)

This greatest of all resonant structures is also replete with all resonant intervals.  It is the nexus vibrationally linking the spiritual and the material worlds.  The locus of the human reality, its essential resonant structure and intervals, is the double-chambered human heart, where divine spiritual impulse gets transmuted into human life.  For though end states and extreme states are resonant intervals, as intervals in themselves they are hearts and centers.

Recall, a resonating interval is the interfacial gap between vibrational orders or frequency domains where new creation is “called into being”, where myriad recombinations in creative interplay reconfigure creation in new forms.  But in this recreation there is also both continuity and progress.

I mean that all things that appear in the world of being are the return of its prior state and the origin of its next state.  That is, new things emerge, but these are not creations ex nihilo, “out of nothing”, but new forms from older ones.   “That which hath been in existence had existed before, but not in the form thou seest today.”(Tablets of Bahá’u’lláh Revealed After the Kitáb-i-Aqdas, 140) Not in the form thou seest today, but resonant with what came before.

The Master gives a clear example: “The world of the Kingdom is one world. The only difference is that spring returneth over and over again, and setteth up a great new commotion throughout all created things. Then plain and hillside come alive, and trees turn delicately green, and leaves, blossoms and fruits come forth in beauty, infinite and tender. Wherefore the dispensations of past ages are intimately connected with those that follow them: indeed, they are one and the same, but as the world groweth, so doth the light, so doth the downpour of heavenly grace, and then the Day-Star shineth out in noonday splendour.” (Selections from the Writings of Abdu'l-Baha: 58)

Within the interactions of the three realities composing the human reality are also the characteristics of end states and extreme states, the end of time and development and the eclipse of distance.  Indeed, the human reality is the supreme example of these in the world of creation.

The eclipse of distance and the extreme state that characterizes it occur when a terminus a quo—the first point in time, a point of origin—coincides with the terminus ad quem—the final limiting point, the terminal point; the B and E joined and knit together.  Thus are the gaps of time bridged.  For time is not a limpid, linear flow, but rather terrific pulsations of radiating rhythms that mix and collide within the resonating interval to harmonize levels of being.

In regards to the end/extreme state of the macrocosm of the entire creation Baha’u’llah states: “Praise be unto Thee, O my God! Thou art He Who by a word of His mouth hath revolutionized the entire creation, and by a stroke of His pen hath divided Thy servants one from another. I bear witness, O my God, that through a word spoken by Thee in this Revelation all created things were made to expire, and through yet another word all such as Thou didst wish were, by Thy grace and bounty, endued with new life.” (Prayers and Meditations by Baha'u'llah: 42)

‘Abdu’l-Baha probes deeply into the microcosm of the human reality to explain why this is especially true for it: “Man,” says ‘Abdu’l-Baha, “is in the highest degree of materiality, and at the beginning of spirituality—that is to say, he is the end of imperfection and the beginning of perfection. He is at the last degree of darkness, and at the beginning of light; that is why it has been said that the condition of man is the end of the night and the beginning of day, meaning that he is the sum of all the degrees of imperfection, and that he possesses the degrees of perfection. He has the animal side as well as the angelic side, and the aim of an educator is to so train human souls that their angelic aspect may overcome their animal side. Then if the divine power in man, which is his essential perfection, overcomes the satanic power, which is absolute imperfection, he becomes the most excellent among the creatures; but if the satanic power overcomes the divine power, he becomes the lowest of the creatures. That is why he is the end of imperfection and the beginning of perfection. Not in any other of the species in the world of existence is there such a difference, contrast, contradiction and opposition as in the species of man.” (Some Answered Questions: 235-236)

A traditional metaphor often used by ’Abdu’l-Baha to capture this relation between spirit and mater is the circle of existence, composed of an arc of descent and an arc of ascent.  He stated: “Now, this is an established and deep theological proposition, that the material worlds are terminated at the end of the arc of descent, and that the condition of man is at the end of the arc of descent, and at the beginning of the arc of ascent, which is opposite to the Supreme Center. Also, from the beginning to the end of the arc of ascent, there are numerous spiritual degrees.” (Some Answered Questions: 285)

In another place He explains: “For the inner reality of man is a demarcation line between the shadow and the light, a place where the two seas meet; it is the lowest point on the arc of descent, and therefore is it capable of gaining all the grades above. With education it can achieve all excellence; devoid of education it will stay on, at the lowest point of imperfection.” (Selections from the Writings of Abdu'l-Baha: 130)

Now it should be remembered that "He hath let loose the two seas, that they meet each other: Between them is a barrier which they overpass not. Which then of the bounties of your Lord will ye deny? From each He bringeth up greater and lesser pearls." (Compilations, Baha'i Prayers: 105)

The experience of the second birth is the greatest experience of all.  It upsets and resets all relations and all equilibrium, throwing into commotion all the worlds of God.  Baha’u’llah wrote: “Know ye from what heights your Lord, the All-Glorious is calling? Think ye that ye have recognized the Pen wherewith your Lord, the Lord of all names, commandeth you? Nay, by My life! Did ye but know it, ye would renounce the world, and would hasten with your whole hearts to the presence of the Well-Beloved. Your spirits would be so transported by His Word as to throw into commotion the Greater World—how much more this small and petty one!” (Gleanings from the Writings of Baha'u'llah:139-140)

Emerging Models of Spiritual Sciences

Unveiled and   unconcealed, this Wronged One hath, at all times, proclaimed before the face of all the peoples of the world that which will serve as the key for unlocking the doors of sciences, of arts, of knowledge, of well-being, of prosperity and wealth.

(Tablets of Baha'u'llah: 96)

Last post presented some general conditions for grasping what a spiritual science is, as I see them.  Such sciences will, in some cases, be entirely new sciences, but in others they will be established sciences put upon a new foundation of spiritual principle, or cast within an entirely new light.  It makes sense that in these still early days of Baha’u’llah’s Revelation, emerging spiritual sciences would, by and large, be established sciences put upon new spiritual foundations or recast within the light of spiritual principle.  New sciences will develop later.

It is fair to ask: Are there any emerging spiritual sciences?  I believe there are.  Part of the growth and development of the global Bahá’i community is the bringing forth of such sciences, however embryonic they might be.  Three spiritual sciences which I see emerging are a spiritual science of education, especially for children and youth that is the Ruhi Institute.  Another is the emerging spiritual science of sociology developing in the efforts of community building going on world-wide by the global Bahá’i community. Thirdly, is a spiritual science of economics and prosperity evolving in such organizations as The Institute for the Study of Global Prosperity.

In each case, building upon the adamantine spiritual foundation of Baha’u’llah’s Revelation, and explicated, elaborated in broad outline by ‘Abdu’l-Baha and Shoghi Effendi in such works as The Secret of Divine Civilization, The Promised Day is Come, The Advent of Divine Justice, and The World Order of Baha’u’llah—works which  discerned the initial stages of the impact and interplay of divine powers and forces upsetting the inert equilibrium of a moribund human order—the global Baha’i community, under the ongoing guidance of the Universal House of Justice, is rapidly discovering, learning and refining the practical and scientifically tested principles of spiritual  knowledge and social growth through moral action.

In both the case of the Ruhi Institute materials and in the social action of grassroots community-building, using guidance obtained from such documents as Social Action, A paper prepared by the Office of Social and Economic Development at the Bahá’í World Centre 26 November 2012, curricula and social lines of activity and initiative are conceived and field-tested.  Changes and refinements in materials and actions are made through earnest and deep reflection upon initial results, both positive and negative.  The launching of new initiatives based upon the results of these consultations are then made, and the process is repeated.  Through this process a systematic body of knowledge of spiritual education based explicitly upon the Word of God, and the dynamics of spiritually and morally driven social action, is built up that can be shared and applied in communities around the globe, taking into full consideration the unique features characterizing every situation. It is not rigid formulae and cookie-cutter community action, but a truly creative process where a solid unity of spiritual principles encountered in deep study of the Word of God transforms souls who then transform the infinite diversity of cultural, social, ethnic and religious qualities and attributes that is human communities into unique spiritual communities.  In this way, the pivotal principle of the entire Bahá’i Revelation, namely, the oneness of humanity, is brought out and develops intellectual and social complexity.

The House of Justice described the process and proper sequence of spiritual and social transformation as: “Souls must be transformed, communities thereby consolidated, new models of life thus attained. Transformation is the essential purpose of the Cause of Bahá'u'lláh, but it lies in the will and effort of the individual to achieve it in obedience to the Covenant.” (Letter from the Universal House of Justice, dated Ridvan, 1989, to the Bahá'ís of the World)  This is the proper sequence because: “It is the soul of man that has first to be fed….Laws and institutions, as viewed by Bahá'u'lláh, can become really effective only when our inner spiritual life has been perfected and transformed.” (Letter on behalf of Shoghi Effendi, 8 December 1935 to an individual believer, The Compilation of Compilations vol. II: 238)  This quote lends further support to the statement made in the last post that spiritual sciences will only come from spiritually transformed souls. 

Sociologically, the House of Justice asserts: “A Bahá'í community which is consistent in its fundamental life-giving, life sustaining activities will at its heart be serene and confident; it will resonate with spiritual dynamism, will exert irresistible influence, will set a new course in social evolution, enabling it to win the respect and eventually the allegiance of admirers and critics alike.” (Letter from the Universal House of Justice, dated Ridvan, 1984, to a National Spiritual Assembly) 

Now, besides the intrinsic interest of such studies and disciplines, and in addition to their obvious relevance to the social conditions of today, there may be another reason that these three spiritual sciences are among the first to emerge.

The visionary mind of Shoghi Effendi, Guardian of the Baha’i Faith, pointed out decades ago a reciprocal relation between the knowledge in three disciplines and the Bahá’í Teachings.  He, for example, “advised young people to study deeply such subjects as History, Economics and Sociology as they are all related to the teachings and aid in understanding the Faith.” (Lights of Guidance: 629)  Another letter on his behalf advised a youth to study: “History, Economics or Sociology, as these are not only fields in which Bahá'ís take a great interest but also cover subjects which our teachings cast an entirely new light upon.” (13 March 1944 to an individual believer) (Compilations, Scholarship: 12)  Finally: “Shoghi Effendi has for years urged the Bahá'ís (who asked his advice, and in general also) to study history, economics, sociology, etc., in order to be au courant with all the progressive movements and thoughts being put forth today, and so that they could correlate these to the Bahá'í teachings.” (Compilations, Scholarship: 18)

Scholarship of all kinds has a high place in the Bahá’i Revelation, and Bahá’i scholars have done amazing work in articulating new spiritual principle as applied to their home disciplines, in making spiritually-driven inquiries, both theoretical and practical, into the whole domain of human knowledge. As regards History, the third field that the Guardian urged youth to study, studies ranging all the way from the history of the development of specific Bahá’i communities up to the broad outlines of the spiritual history of the whole of humanity have been published.  Notable in this regard is Shoghi Effendi’s own magisterial survey of the first century of Bahá’i history, God Passes By, and Century of Light—a document prepared under the supervision of the Universal House of Justice and published in 2001.  It reviews, in the context of the Bahá’í Teachings, the profound changes that the world underwent during the 20^th century and their relationship with the emergence of the Bahá’í Cause during the same period.  These, again with other works of Shoghi Effendi mentioned above, lay the foundations of a whole new context of historical inquiry and understanding.

If I may, my first three books, Renewing the Sacred: A New Vision of Education; Gettin’ Through Hard Times Together: Creating Prosperity Through Sharing, Service and Sacrifice; and, Terra in Cognita: Voyages and Discoveries on the Ocean of Knowledge, deal, respectively, with education, economics, and sociology.  Especially, the long final essay in Terra in Cognita, titled “The Revolt Against Materialism”, a companion piece to another essay of the book, “The Disorder of Knowledge and the Reconfiguration of the Human Intelligence”, is a first extended examination of a topic that I call “sociology of the spirit”, the replacing of the human order by a divine one, the Christ-promised Kingdom of God on earth.

As I discussed in a previous post, What Am I Doing?, (December 24, 2016) my goal is to write five more volumes on cosmology, spiritual causality, spiritual history and sociology, and education,  Hopefully, these books can be a small contribution to these much larger conversations.