Joyful Education

Consultation: Concluding Reflections

2018-10-14T09:04:00.000+09:00

“This is not a Cause which may be made a plaything for your idle fancies, nor is it a field for the foolish and faint of heart. By God, this is the arena of insight and detachment, of vision and upliftment, where none may spur on their chargers save the valiant horsemen of the Merciful, who have severed all attachment to the world of being. These, truly, are they that render God victorious on earth, and are the dawning-places of His sovereign might amidst mankind.”

(Baha'u'llah, The Kitab-i-Aqdas: 84)

Consultation is a very specific way to arrive at the truth, and one should enter into the process of it knowing the responsibilities and qualities required to make it work, “qualities of an enlightened citizenry, able to construct a unified world civilization”, as the House of Justice stated. There are responsibilities to have the prerequisite spiritual qualities of love, fellowship, purity of motive, humility, detachment, and the like, in place prior to consulting. Within consultation there are intellectual responsibilities to speak the truth of one’s opinion and to acknowledge another’s opinion, to be tolerant of other views even if they oppose one’s own, and not to ridicule or censure another’s thought, and to see consultation as the building of a consensus of opinion, a single reality of thoughts, views and feelings. There are social and moral responsibilities to act in concert and obedience to the decision rendered. Finally, there are responsibilities to the overarching principle of unity on the part of all to be humble and accepting of the truth revealed in action, whether the decision was correct or not, for in unity is social protection, moral guidance and attraction of divine confirmation.

But even saying all this about our role in consultation, we should remember that inspired consultation goes on not just in the divine Presence but with It. As with all things in this Day of God, there can be an intermingling of the human and the holy, as Painter, paint and canvas. Consultation works because Baha’u’llah is the hidden participant, the aid-giver to whoever carries out His counsels. And ‘Abdu’l-Baha, for example, promises that: “Every meeting which is organized for the purpose of unity and concord will be conducive to changing strangers into friends, enemies into associates, and 'Abdu'l-Bahá will be present in His heart and soul with that meeting.” (The Compilation of Compilations vol. I: 99)

But, too, in words and phrases such as “as it is in unity the truth will be revealed and the wrong made right.” Or: “surrender to His Providence, in whatever way it may be revealed”, and, “not until matters are fully discussed can the right way be revealed” and, finally, in the explicit promise of divine aid and assistance, so long as unity is the human condition, we see the undying Spirit of the Manifestation of God present and working.

Because consultation is so central to discovering truth, to the harmony of human thought and to the maintenance of unity in the process of building vibrant forms of community, and since human beings are spiritually interconnected so closely, consultation helps create, as one of its results, what the House of Justice calls “powers multiplied in unified action.” “Furthermore, those who enter the Faith must be integrated into vibrant local communities, characterized by tolerance and love and guided by a strong sense of purpose and collective will, environments in which the capacities of all components—men, women, youth and children—are developed and their powers multiplied in unified action.” (The Universal House of Justice, 1995 Dec 26, Message to Continental Board of Counsellors re Four Year Plan, p. 2) This gives the Bahá’i Community an unparalleled moral driving force in human society.

Yet another benefit of consultation is set out by Baha’u’llah in the following statement: “No power can exist except through unity. No welfare and no well-being can be attained except through consultation.” (Consultation: Compilation of Compilations v. 1: 93) These are intimately related and connected since “The well-being of mankind, its peace and security, are unattainable unless and until its unity is firmly established. This unity can never be achieved so long as the counsels which the Pen of the Most High hath revealed are suffered to pass unheeded.” (Gleanings from the Writings of Baha'u'llah: 286)

One of the greatest of His counsels is to engage in consultation on any and all matters, for, as we read, “an age that sees the people of the world increasingly gaining access to information of every kind and to a diversity of ideas will find justice asserting itself as the ruling principle of successful social organization." (The Prosperity of Humankind: Section II para: 1) But to fully embody this quality of justice “a fundamental redefinition of human relationships is called for... Central to the task of reconceptualizing the system of human relationships is the process that Bahá’u’lláh refers to as consultation.” (The Prosperity of Humankind: Section III para: 3) And: “The purpose of justice is the appearance of unity among men.” (Tablets of Baha'u'llah: 66)

We return a last time to spiritual principles, the divine knowledge in the human world. These are not a system of abstract philosophical concepts, nor a new legal code bound in thick, black volumes sitting on a shelf, nor a collection of pithy moral precepts assembled from the sayings of the wise. They are powers that empower. Recall, the House of Justice said that spiritual principles “induce an attitude, a dynamic, a will, an aspiration.” Spiritual principles infuse energy and will into human thought and the body politic. They are creative of life and truth. Of His Laws Baha’u’llah wrote: “Think not that We have revealed unto you a mere code of laws. Nay, rather, We have unsealed the choice Wine with the fingers of might and power.” (The Kitab-i-Aqdas: 21) A choice wine unsealed with fingers of might and power is a dynamic image of heavenly aroma and sparkling taste, of joy and zest and contentment, and strength. He states in another place, quoting an Islamic tradition: "Knowledge is all that is knowable; and might and power, all creation." (The Kitab-i-Iqan: 185)

Elsewhere, Baha’u’llah wrote: “Every man of insight will, in this day, readily admit that the counsels which the Pen of this Wronged One hath revealed constitute the supreme animating power for the advancement of the world and the exaltation of its peoples.” (Tablets of Baha'u'llah: 85)

The animating power in spiritual principles flows into the human world through the channel of “that which is immanent in human nature.”

Finally, we can see a more general pattern of the influence and effects of gathering together to execute spiritual purposes, even among a few souls coming together informally, in the following statement from ‘Abdu’l-Baha: “If a small number of people gather lovingly together, with absolute purity and sanctity, with their hearts free of the world, experiencing the emotions of the Kingdom and the powerful magnetic forces of the Divine, and being at one in their happy fellowship, that gathering will exert its influence over all the earth. The nature of that band of people, the words they speak, the deeds they do, will unleash the bestowals of Heaven, and provide a foretaste of eternal bliss. The hosts of the Company on high will defend them, and the angels of the Abha Paradise, in continuous succession, will come down to their aid.” (Selections from the Writings of 'Abdu'l-Bahá: 81)

Consultation is a gift from God to humanity in its age of maturity. Free, full, and frank consultation is the bedrock of the entire Order of Baha’u’llah. Consultation, while being an educational model and practice that brings forth the higher faculties of the human reality, is also a process that brings forth truth. These twin processes are, of course, interrelated, and their interrelation marks the maturity of the gift of understanding, the turning of conjecture into certitude. Consultation is a dynamic educational model and a practice for living continuously in truth. Consultation is a most powerful, even indispensable, means of individual and social transformation. It should play a central role in human education.

Social Responsibilities: The Rewards of Unity

2018-10-07T10:02:00.000+09:00

If they agree upon a subject, even though it be wrong, it is better than to disagree and be in the right, for this difference will produce the demolition of the divine foundation. Though one of the parties may be in the right and they disagree that will be the cause of a thousand wrongs, but if they agree and both parties are in the wrong, as it is in unity the truth will be revealed and the wrong made right.

(Bahá'í World Faith: Selected Writings of Bahá'u'lláh and 'Abdu'l-Bahá: 411)

Action is the execution of the decision, the realm of social morality. It seems clear that, after true consultation, the recipient of this gift has, in order to obey the pivotal principle of unity, a responsibility to act according to its directives to know the truth of it. Since human beings are not infallible in thought and perception, the truth of any decision will only be revealed when action is initiated-if that action is carried out in a spirt of unity. Unity is absolutely essential at every step and stage of the process. This submission to the results of true consultation is the root of a humble posture of learning and the foundation for a culture of encouragement.

Love, fellowship, and unity are all prerequisites for consultation and are present within consultation; and action carried out in a spirit of unity in response to any decision completes the connection so the spiritual current of divine assistance may flow and illumination result. As the Master explained in the above quote—which is worth reading again—if there is not unanimity in the decision, then fidelity to the principle of unity is a higher, nobler way than to be correct: “If they agree upon a subject, even though it be wrong, it is better than to disagree and be in the right, for this difference will produce the demolition of the divine foundation. Though one of the parties may be in the right and they disagree that will be the cause of a thousand wrongs, but if they agree and both parties are in the wrong, as it is in unity the truth will be revealed and the wrong made right.”

As we have repeatedly seen in these pages, in the human world, truth and unity are intimately interrelated: one brings forth the other and each is context for the other’s appearance, somewhat like the double helix of human DNA. That is, truth builds harmony and harmony enables truth to come forth. The stronger the form of unity in consultative decision making and execution the greater the likelihood the truth will be revealed. Reciprocally, the greater the power of truth, the stronger unity will be. “Truthfulness,” says ‘Abdu’l-Baha, “is the foundation of all the virtues of the world of humanity. Without truthfulness, progress and success in all of the worlds of God are impossible for a soul. When this holy attribute is established in man, all the divine qualities will also become realized.” (Baha'i World Faith: 384)

Thus truthfulness in expression of opinion and fact is the realization of those qualities of the heart that the members bring into consultation, is the foundation of all those intellectual virtues that organize into consultation, and the goal of consultation is, as we know, the finding of the truth. The goal of truth, in turn, is to build vibrant communities: unity, as we saw, being the environment of truth, and unanimity the strongest form of unity of thought, the one reality.

While consciousness should ever seek truth, action should have fraternal harmony as its purpose. Baha’u’llah explains: “If in the first group of people who have gathered, unanimity is not achieved, new people shall be added, after which a group equal in number to the Greatest Name or fewer or greater shall be chosen from their midst by lots; whereupon the consultation shall be renewed; whatever is the result shall be obeyed. If the second time opinions again differ, repeat the process a third time. This time obey the majority vote. Verily He directeth whom He willeth to the straight Path.” (The Compilation of Compilations vol. I: 94) It is clear, in this passage, that for Baha’u’llah unanimity is the preferred outcome, but if that is impossible or unattainable, then a majority opinion is the next best option. We read earlier that this preference for unanimity was shared by ‘Abdu’l-Baha. Recall, He stated: If after discussion, a decision be carried unanimously, well and good; but if the Lord forbid, differences of opinion should arise, a majority of voices must prevail.”

It is interesting to me that if unanimity is not attained among the first group “new people” should be added, not some removed, and that from among this new group the consultative members are chosen by lot. This return to choosing decision-makers by lot, to what is known as sortation, a custom of classical Athenian society, is not by chance. Choosing political leaders in that way was because it was thought that power corrupts. But it was also considered a principle characteristic of true democracy. The promise of divine aid is not reserved solely for the action taken after the decision, but throughout the process, from the foundational virtues, to the use of spiritual principles, to the establishment of a truly democratic means of forming groups.

Baha’u’llah also emphasizes the responsibility of obedience to decisions that are the result of consultation: whatever is the result shall be obeyed. In the above example given by Baha’u’llah, obedience begins with the second decision, even as, perhaps, a third group convenes to discuss the matter further. Obedience continues up until this third group renders its decision. Thus, in all cases, the one seeking a decision from the process of true consultation is under a spiritual obligation to the community to obey. So important may be this principle, that if the one seeking answers to any problem or challenge is not ready to accept wholeheartedly a decision, it may be better not to engage in consultation at all, but, rather, simply ask for advice and suggestions, leaving the final decision in his own hands. This is especially true if the consulting body is the divine institution of a Spiritual Assembly. “It is incumbent upon every one not to take any step without consulting the Spiritual Assembly, and they must assuredly obey with heart and soul its bidding and be submissive unto it, that things may be properly ordered and well arranged. Otherwise every person will act independently and after his own judgment, will follow his own desire, and do harm to the Cause. (Bahá'í Administration: Selected Messages 1922-1932: 21)

As repeatedly emphasized, consultation is no mere advice column of suggestions from friends, or some decision-making machine. It is a creative, organic means of discovering the truth of any matter, carried out in an attitude and atmosphere of love and guided by spiritual principle, and its decisions should be accepted on those terms to gain its full benefits. As a reflexive process, responsibility for truth to emerge is not limited to the final step of physical behavior and movement, however. Because it is an organic process, there are essential responsibilities for action placed upon the shoulders of the members of, for example, a Spiritual Assembly to achieve a certain attitude and create a certain atmosphere among themselves even before actual discussion occurs. Baha’u’llah lays these out: “It behooveth them to be the trusted ones of the Merciful among men and to regard themselves as the guardians appointed of God for all that dwell on earth. It is incumbent upon them to take counsel together and to have regard for the interests of the servants of God, for His sake, even as they regard their own interests, and to choose that which is meet and seemly. Thus hath the Lord your God commanded you. Beware lest ye put away that which is clearly revealed in His Tablet. Fear God, O ye that perceive.” (Bahá'í Administration: Selected Messages 1922-1932: 21)

When carried out in good order, respect for the process of consultation, especially the step of acting in the spirit of unity upon any decision arrived at, is a means and a way for truth to be revealed, for truth to enter the realm of human thought and life. Divine guidance exists in the form of spiritual principles to influence discussion. However, what practical form those truths take needs to be created, a solution devised. Consultation works because Baha’u’llah is the hidden participant, the aid-giver to whomsoever carries out His counsels.

Moral Responsibilities to Truth

2018-09-30T09:53:00.000+09:00

Settle all things, both great and small, by consultation. Without prior consultation, take no important step in your own personal affairs. Concern yourselves with one another. Help along one another's projects and plans. Grieve over one another. Let none in the whole country go in need. Befriend one another until ye become as a single body, one and all...

(Selections from the Writings of 'Abdu'l-Bahá: 128-29)

As the above quote indicates, the Master wishes people to be intimately involved with each other, look out for each other, be of service to all they meet, as that is the basis of real community. That perspective opens up numerous possibilities for consultation to be an ever-present reality in human life. It is not, then, the privileged responsibility of those serving in institutional authority, but the means to bring certitude, awareness and awakening to every aspect of human life. All can and should make consultation an integral part of daily life and promote its use and employ. This, in turn, implies to my mind a new set of moral responsibilities that community members have to truth and to each other, especially in regards to the results, the decisions made, in consultation.

Let us examine some examples of when consultation should be used in everyday life as presented by ‘Abdu’l-Baha, paying special attention to how solutions to problems come about. But first let us recall that, under any circumstance and in any setting: “consultation must have for its object the investigation of truth.” (The Promulgation of Universal Peace: 68.)

‘Abdu’l-Baha states: “For instance, when a man hath a project to accomplish, should he consult with some of his brethren, that which is agreeable will of course be investigated and unveiled to his eyes, and the truth will be disclosed. Likewise on a higher level, should the people of a village consult one another about their affairs, the right solution will certainly be revealed. In like manner, the members of each profession, such as in industry, should consult, and those in commerce should similarly consult on business affairs. In short, consultation is desirable and acceptable in all things and on all issues.” (Cited in letter dated 15 February 1922 written by Shoghi Effendi to the National Spiritual Assembly of Persia (The Compilation of Compilations vol. I: 97) This returns us to an earlier quoted statement from ‘Abdu’l-Baha where He stated that after a speaker sets forth his views in the proper way: “Should any one oppose, he must on no account feel hurt for not until matters are fully discussed can the right way be revealed.”

Let us look more closely at the phrases “the truth will be disclosed”, “the right solution will certainly be revealed” and “the right way be revealed.” Recall that when we touched on this topic before it was stated that if truth is to be revealed then it exists somewhere waiting to be revealed. We suggested, following the House of Justice statement, that the “somewhere” where truth resides is in the spiritual principles that are to guide consultation to the devising of practical solutions. It is not solely a product of human thought or imagination, neither is it some cobbled together situational consensus, and it is not the same thing as confirmed human knowledge, such as science may provide, though the truths that exists in the human values or spiritual principles are being confirmed by science. These together, spiritual principle, science, thought and imagination, compose the mental “space”, the opening in consciousness, where truth may appear. Truth is the authority in these matters, and it is what consultation is not only meant to find, but which consultation is founded upon, being foundation, the operative principle of justice, and the goal of consultation. The final step in consultation, which we will examine in the next section, is to find the practical form of truth, the devising of a solution or, in the House of Justice’s phrase, “a course of collective action defined”. Now all this implies, it seems to me, a new moral obligation to truth itself to carry out the decision.

‘Abdu’l-Baha gives another example when consultation can be used and what it indicates for the one wishing to consult: “The question of consultation is of the utmost importance, and is one of the most potent instruments conducive to the tranquillity and felicity of the people. For example, when a believer is uncertain about his affairs, or when he seeketh to pursue a project or trade, the friends should gather together and devise a solution for him. He, in his turn, should act accordingly. Likewise in larger issues, when a problem ariseth, or a difficulty occurreth, the wise should gather, consult, and devise a solution. They should then rely upon the one true God, and surrender to His Providence, in whatever way it may be revealed, for divine confirmations will undoubtedly assist. Consultation, therefore, is one of the explicit ordinances of the Lord of mankind.” (Compilation on Consultation, The Compilation of Compilations vol. I: 96)

Again, let us tease out the implications of a couple of relevant phrases. First, the “friends should gather together and devise a solution for him. He, in his turn, should act accordingly.” And: “rely upon the one true God, and surrender to His Providence, in whatever way it may be revealed, for divine confirmations will undoubtedly assist.” To “act accordingly” means to accept wholeheartedly the decision and act on its requirements. While it might be thought that this submission is contrary to the sacred principle of independent investigation of truth, this is not really the case. One, for example, would not consult a reputable and competent physician about an illness, receive a thorough examination leading to a diagnosis based upon fact, be given a remedy, only to decide on one’s own unprofessional authority to try something else. Why consult the physician in the first place?

Once a solution is “devised” the recipient should “act accordingly” and “surrender to His Providence” of his own desire and volition. He or she should not act out of slavish obeisance, and the individual cannot be cajoled, coerced, or compelled to obey, which themselves are anathema to the principle of unity. Obedience is for his or her own protection and guidance, and to attract divine assistance, “for divine confirmations will undoubtedly assist.” Thus the principle of unity extends through the entire sequence of steps and stages of the process. If the truth has been ascertained, conjecture transmuted into certitude, a practical solution devised, then action follows as a natural continuation of the process of creating unity, for it is the truth for that particular situation. The Master states: “Man must consult in all things for this will lead him to the depths of each problem and enable him to find the right solution.” (The Compilation of Compilations vol. I: 98)

Also let us note in passing the use by the House of Justice of ‘Abdu’l-Baha’s phrase “devise a solution” in its discussion of spiritual principle. Recall they wrote: “Any well-intentioned group can in a general sense devise practical solutions to its problems, but good intentions and practical knowledge are usually not enough”, clearly pointing to the need for spiritual influence to make the devising of a solution a real and comprehensive solution, a dis-solving of the knot of a problem.

To “devise a solution” means, to me, that consultation “solves” problems by answering questions specific to the resolution of that particular challenge and context: that the questions and answers themselves mysteriously, one might say, alchemically, combine to create the solution when guided by spiritual principle.

Hence “solution” in this light is not like marking the correct answer to a multiple choice question, neither is it to generate or share thought absent the guidance of spiritual principle. Should we look at the word “solution” metaphorically, as either a kind of chemical reaction or electrical interaction, we see a solution emerging from the creative mix of questions and answers, or their mutual attraction, that brings about a third reality, as hydrogen and oxygen, two gases, that when properly combined atomically bring about water, and current and filament create light. This is the alchemy of spiritual principle and human thought.

There is no equivalent in consultation to following legal precedent, no authority of history to obey. Too, personal inspiration is no reliable guide to truth. Rather, the same process of collectively discovering truth is undertaken and applied afresh. The process of consultation itself is the authority, because every problem has its own solution. As Baha’u’llah stated in a larger context: “Every age hath its own problem, and every soul its particular aspiration. The remedy the world needeth in its present-day afflictions can never be the same as that which a subsequent age may require. Be anxiously concerned with the needs of the age ye live in, and center your deliberations on its exigencies and requirements.” (Gleanings from the Writings of Baha'u'llah: 213)

Also, if the decision came from a consultation carried out in a spirit of service to a friend and with love and unity, then celestial aid is promised the obedient actor, leaving an unmistakable trail of the light of spirit. This does not make the decision an infallible one, for it is not pure divine knowledge, only guided by it. But it is true as a divinely-guided, truth-informed, unfolding process of investigation and reflection leading toward a desired goal.

The purpose of consultation is the collective investigation and finding of the truth, and, then, making a decision, devising a solution, to a problem or challenge. We said above that this process may be viewed as constructing a context for truth to appear. But that context extends into the realm of action. We have reached the point in our discussion of making the decision. But if the decision is not infallible, how will the truth or error of the decision be known? The truth is revealed in action that obediently carries out the decision. Here we enter the realm of the new social responsibilities that consultation lays upon those engaging in it, and the principle of unity emerges as a guiding principle not only of thought, but also of behavior.

Consultation is a Source of Well-Being

2018-09-23T09:41:00.002+09:00

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

(Consultation: A Compilation: 3)

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Baha’u’llah and ‘Abdu’l-Baha counselled people to engage in consultation in all matters. In that light, and in the context of good and well-being, let us recall here that Baha’u’llah says that “No welfare and no well-being can be attained except through consultation.’" (The Compilation of Compilations vol. I: 93) And: “The well-being of mankind, its peace and security, are unattainable unless and until its unity is firmly established. This unity can never be achieved so long as the counsels which the Pen of the Most High hath revealed are suffered to pass unheeded.”(Gleanings from the Writings of Baha'u'llah: 286) Whenever consultation is directed toward serving others, to helping them with life’s difficulties, with virtuous action, when it results in compassionate understanding, it becomes a source of good and well-being.

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

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

Unfolding New Powers of the Gift of Understanding

2018-09-16T09:48:00.001+09:00

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)

Let us begin by knowing something about the nature and purpose of what Baha’u’llah calls above “the power of understanding.” It is the special gift from God to humanity. Baha’u’llah wrote: “Know thou that, according to what thy Lord, the Lord of all men, hath decreed in His Book, the favors vouchsafed by Him unto mankind have been, and will ever remain, limitless in their range. First and foremost among these favors, which the Almighty hath conferred upon man, is the gift of understanding. His purpose in conferring such a gift is none other except to enable His creature to know and recognize the one true God—exalted be His glory. This gift giveth man the power to discern the truth in all things, leadeth him to that which is right, and helpeth him to discover the secrets of creation.” (Gleanings from the Writings of Baha'u'llah: 194)

The gift of understanding is another name for the rational faculty with which God has endowed the essence of the human reality. This power, this gift, He says, gives human beings “the power to discern the truth in all things.” Let us recall that the powers and qualities of God are nested within each other, for all are connected with the rational faculty.

The rational faculty’s power of discernment is through the faculty of justice, which, in turn, is directly connected with both unity, "a condition of the human spirit" (One Common Faith: 42), and consultation, the "operating expression of justice in human affairs". The House of Justice wrote that: “justice, as a faculty of the soul, enables the individual to distinguish truth from falsehood and guides the investigation of reality, so essential if superstitious beliefs and outworn traditions that impede unity are to be eliminated.” (Universal House of Justice: Letter to the Bahá'ís of Iran 2 March 2013)

Discernment is the ability to judge accurately and fairly. It is the balanced, middle way between an undiscerning and unguarded tolerance of every kind of thought and action, and a rigid, legalistic, mechanical system of laws and principles. Justice is the supreme operating quality for today, the harbinger of unity and the foundation of peace.

What does Baha’u’llah say about the soul’s faculty of justice? “The best beloved of all things in My sight is Justice; turn not away therefrom if thou desirest Me, and neglect it not that I may confide in thee. By its aid thou shalt see with thine own eyes and not through the eyes of others, and shalt know of thine own knowledge and not through the knowledge of thy neighbor. Ponder this in thy heart; how it behooveth thee to be. Verily justice is My gift to thee and the sign of My loving-kindness. Set it then before thine eyes.” (The Arabic Hidden Words #2)

At every level of human interaction, consultation will grow in importance as its power to discern truth, unify people into community, and generate the knowledge and insights that will solve seemingly intractable problems, defuse explosive issues and harmonize contentious disputes is understood.

The Prosperity of Humankind states: “[C]onsultation is the operating expression of justice in human affairs. So vital is it to the success of collective endeavor that it must constitute a basic feature of a viable strategy of social and economic development. Indeed, the participation of those on whose commitment the success of such a strategy depends becomes effective only as consultation is made the organizing principle of every project. ‘No man can attain his true station,’ is Bahá’u’lláh's counsel, ‘except through his justice. No power can exist except through unity. No welfare and no well-being can be attained except through consultation.’" (The Prosperity of Humankind: Section III para: 6)

Certainly, as one of the purposes of consultation is to investigate and ascertain the truth, this power of discernment plays a central role in consultation. But in the context of true consultation, when aided by love, fellowship and guided by spiritual principles, this power achieves a remarkable transformation in strength and discernment.

Baha’u’llah strongly stressed that: “In all things it is necessary to consult. This matter should be forcibly stressed by thee, so that consultation may be observed by all. The intent of what hath been revealed from the Pen of the Most High is that consultation may be fully carried out among the friends, inasmuch as it is and will always be a cause of awareness and of awakening and a source of good and well-being.” (Consultation: A Compilation: 3) Why should He be so insistent that consultation be observed, even to saying that it “should be forcibly stressed”?

One reason may be that consultation is “a cause of awareness and awakening”. In another place He stated what I believe may be the fundamental reason why it is so important to engage in true consultation: “Consultation bestoweth greater awareness and transmuteth conjecture into certitude. It is a shining light which, in a dark world, leadeth the way and guideth. For everything there is and will continue to be a station of perfection and maturity. The maturity of the gift of understanding is made manifest through consultation.” (Consultation: A Compilation: 3)

Transmutation is to change the nature of something, as Baha’u’llah explained in the Kitab-i-Iqan where He discusses changing copper into gold as a metaphor for the transmutation of soul. There, as a final statement about the process, He stated: “It is evident that nothing short of this mystic transformation could cause such spirit and behavior, so utterly unlike their previous habits and manners, to be made manifest in the world of being. For their agitation was turned into peace, their doubt into certitude, their timidity into courage. Such is the potency of the Divine Elixir, which, swift as the twinkling of an eye, transmuteth the souls of men!” (Kitab-i-Iqan: 156)

Again we hearken back to spiritual principles, which are, in this case, the “Divine Elixir”. They not only harmonize with the human reality, but also in consultation they are an alchemical elixir of thought, the divine element, which mysteriously transmutes conjecture into certitude—that is, changes thinking from disparate ideas and musings and opinions into a certitude of collective insight born of divine knowledge. Revelation instantly transmutes not only the souls of human beings and their behavior, but also their thought “in the twinkling of an eye”. It enables both of them to reach their spiritual maturity.

Such a profound change as is implied by the word transmutation is, in other places, also described, following Baha’u’llah, as mystical. Thus, Shoghi Effendi states that “the core of religious faith is that mystic feeling which unites Man with God. This state of spiritual communion can be brought about and maintained by means of meditation and prayer.” (Directives from the Guardian: 86)

And in relation to human individual and social development he wrote: “That mystic, all-pervasive, yet indefinable change, which we associate with the stage of maturity inevitable in the life of the individual and the development of the fruit must, if we would correctly apprehend the utterances of Bahá'u'lláh, have its counterpart in the evolution of the organization of human society.” (The World Order of Baha'u'llah: 163-164)

This excursion into mystic transformation may seem odd in a discussion on consultation, but it is just this connection with the spiritual dimension that separates consultation from mere decision-making or other forms of group dynamics. The House of Justice explains that the Bahá’i “world-view includes the spiritual dimension as an indispensable component for consistency and coherence.” (Compilations, Scholarship: 26)

And what they mean by the phrase “the spiritual dimension” was summed up in another document: “Although there are mystical aspects that are not easily explained, the spiritual dimension of human nature can be understood, in practical terms, as the source of qualities that transcend narrow self-interest. Such qualities include love, compassion, forbearance, trustworthiness, courage, humility, co-operation and willingness to sacrifice for the common good—qualities of an enlightened citizenry, able to construct a unified world civilization.” (Bahá’í International Community, 1993 Apr 01, Sustainable Development and the Human Spirit)

One, of course, hears in this recitation of qualities echoes of ‘Abdu’l-Baha’s enumeration of the requisites for true consultation: i.e. moral qualities of the heart that are inherent to and find their origin in the spiritual dimension, and which are expressed as spiritual principles, or human values, by the mind in speech.

In regards to the work of consultation, Baha’u’llah’s statement just above may be alluding to a mystic transmutation of individual and collective human thought itself, an unprecedented psychological advance, historically unparalleled in its depth and scope, that marks the change from adducing mere conjectural evidence and opinions about the truth to having something more like a direct perception of it that is certainty, as is, perhaps, stated by Baha’u’llah in this passage: “Pass beyond the baser stages of doubt and rise to the exalted heights of certainty. Open the eye of truth, that thou mayest behold the veilless Beauty and exclaim: Hallowed be the Lord, the most excellent of all creators!” (The Persian Hidden Words #9)

This advance marks the mystic transmutation into its maturity of the gift of understanding.

Intellectual Principles of Consultation: Part Two

2018-09-09T07:24:00.000+09:00

The members thereof must take counsel together in such wise that no occasion for ill-feeling or discord may arise. This can be attained when every member expresseth with absolute freedom his own opinion and setteth forth his argument. Should any one oppose, he must on no account feel hurt for not until matters are fully discussed can the right way be revealed. The shining spark of truth cometh forth only after the clash of differing opinions. If after discussion, a decision be carried unanimously, well and good; but if the Lord forbid, differences of opinion should arise, a majority of voices must prevail.

(Bahá'í Administration: Selected Messages 1922-1932: 21-22)

There are a couple of salient points to explore in the above quote regarding the attitude and atmosphere of love and unity that it implies exists, and the kind of unity to be constructed. First, it is to be noted that, as we saw last post, ‘Abdu’l-Baha wishes those in consultation to “arrive at unity and truth.” Unity can be attained, in part, when every member feels free to truthfully give his or her opinion and set forth an argument. But any opinion should be made, again from the last post, “as a contribution to the consensus of opinion, for the light of reality becomes apparent when two opinions coincide.”

When considered in a context of seeking and discovering truth, where each member only considers his or her ideas as helping to build “a consensus of opinion”, then these opinions and arguments are as different reflecting facets of a single diamond of thought, not individual and unconnected, even adversarial, personal views clashing, cancelling, or overriding one another, seeking personal triumph, promoting one’s opinion over others, or wrangling with another in contentious dispute. That is because the members start from one condition of unity, and seek to build another unity arising out of consultation. They do not work from a situation of disunity and strive for unity as a goal. Thus, unity is foundation, goal and operating principle of consultation. Honest opinions based upon spiritual principle assist this process, for ideas based on spiritual principle, entirely unlike material things, possess an interpenetrating, mutually-defining and enhancing spiritual nature. The light of reality becomes apparent, because, as ‘Abdu’l-Baha stated, “reality or truth is one”. The Master continues in this same passage that “there are many religious beliefs, denominations, creeds and differing opinions in the world today. Why should these differences exist? Because they do not investigate and examine the fundamental unity, which is one and unchangeable. If they seek reality itself, they will agree and be united; for reality is indivisible and not multiple. It is evident, therefore, that there is nothing of greater importance to mankind than the investigation of truth.” (The Promulgation of Universal Peace 26:5.)

Again, though one in nature, truth has many facets, forms, contexts, and dimensions of appearance. Within the functioning of the Bahá’i Administrative Order, Shoghi Effendi stated that: “Consultation, frank and unfettered, is the bedrock of this unique order.” And: “(T)he bedrock of the Bahá'í administrative order is the principle of unity in diversity.” (Dawn of a New Day: 47)

In the context of consultation, unity in diversity means, I believe, to “set forth” opinions “as a contribution to the consensus of opinion, for the light of reality becomes apparent when two opinions coincide”.

The second point has to do with where truth resides. Recall that ‘Abdu’l-Baha asserted that every member should express his opinion and set forth any argument “with absolute freedom”. He went on: “Should any one oppose, he must on no account feel hurt for not until matters are fully discussed can the right way be revealed.” If truth is to be revealed then it exists somewhere waiting to be revealed. It is not just a product of human thought or imagination, neither is it some cobbled together consensus, though these may be working models of the truth. That is, consultation educes truth from the realm of truth. I don’t mean truth as some sort of pre-packaged, readymade mix, needing only to be warmed up and served. Rather revealed truth is the creative result of applying spiritual principles to practical situations.

The reality of the realm of truth is just those spiritual principles that the House of Justice asserts should be used to guide all who engage in consultation. These principles are the divine, intellectual form of Truth. For this reason the House of Justice advises leaders, as we read last post to “first seek to identify the principles involved and then be guided by them.” These principles also possess another quality.

Spiritual principle, the House of Justice avers, “presents a perspective which harmonizes with that which is immanent in human nature”. Spiritual principles harmonize with higher human nature, that nature, that image and likeness of God, identified by Baha’u’llah in this passage: “Turn thy sight unto thyself, that thou mayest find Me standing within thee, mighty, powerful and self-subsisting”. (The Arabic Hidden Words 13) The intrinsic, resonant harmony of this higher nature with God’s Word appears when the soul is in a receptive state. In that condition: “Thy hearing is My hearing, hear thou therewith. Thy sight is My sight, do thou see therewith.” (The Arabic Hidden Words: 44)

The presence and influence of the Word of God is not a phenomenon reserved only for today, of course. The Lord Christ, the Word made flesh, reportedly told His disciples: “For where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them.” (King James Bible, Book of Matthew 18:20) ‘Abdu’l-Baha Himself described spiritual conference, and presented, as its finest example, the conference of Christ’s disciples after His ascension.

The Master gives the following example of what He meant by spiritual conference, or spiritual consultation. He stated: “The most memorable instance of spiritual consultation was the meeting of the disciples of Jesus Christ upon the mount after His ascension. They said, "Jesus Christ has been crucified, and we have no longer association and intercourse with Him in His physical body; therefore, we must be loyal and faithful to Him, we must be grateful and appreciate Him, for He has raised us from the dead, He made us wise, He has given us eternal life. What shall we do to be faithful to Him?" And so they held council. One of them said, "We must detach ourselves from the chains and fetters of the world; otherwise, we cannot be faithful." The others replied, "That is so." Another said, "Either we must be married and faithful to our wives and children or serve our Lord free from these ties. We cannot be occupied with the care and provision for families and at the same time herald the Kingdom in the wilderness. Therefore, let those who are unmarried remain so, and those who have married provide means of sustenance and comfort for their families and then go forth to spread the message of glad tidings." There were no dissenting voices; all agreed, saying, "That is right." A third disciple said, "To perform worthy deeds in the Kingdom we must be further self-sacrificing. From now on we should forego ease and bodily comfort, accept every difficulty, forget self and teach the Cause of God." This found acceptance and approval by all the others. Finally a fourth disciple said, "There is still another aspect to our faith and unity. For Jesus' sake we shall be beaten, imprisoned and exiled. They may kill us. Let us receive this lesson now. Let us realize and resolve that though we are beaten, banished, cursed, spat upon and led forth to be killed, we shall accept all this joyfully, loving those who hate and wound us." All the disciples replied, "Surely we will -- it is agreed; this is right." Then they descended from the summit of the mountain, and each went forth in a different direction upon his divine mission.

“This was true consultation. This was spiritual consultation and not the mere voicing of personal views in parliamentary opposition and debate.” (The Promulgation of Universal Peace: Section 31.4)

What form truth takes in the practical world is what is devised by those in spiritual conference, not just with each other but with the Word of God in the form of spiritual principle and law. For the use of spiritual principle as guide “induces an attitude, a dynamic, a will, an aspiration, which facilitate the discovery and implementation of practical measures”.

Consultation has as its first object the investigation and apprehension of the truth. But given the above discussion this can be no mere intellectual exercise or just mental apprehension. Consultation is, too, a process that reflects upon and adjusts an unfolding course of action, making an organic, logically connected series of advances toward full understanding. It is learning based on action and reflection. Much truth, as opposed to some idea of truth, cannot be revealed except in action. We will return to this later. But, keep in mind, that truth already exists waiting to be made manifest, though what form that will take remains a mystery until it happens, for there are many, perhaps infinite, levels and contexts of truth, and different qualities of the human intelligence have access to different contexts of truth: the senses to sensory truth and experience while the ordinary, rational intelligence, or human spirit “consists of the rational, or logical, reasoning faculty, which apprehends general ideas and things intelligible and perceptible”. Abdu'l-Baha, Baha'i World Faith: 370) But above these sensory and natural intellectual powers are higher faculties that emerge in today’s spiritually gifted age, and which can come forth in true consultation. To better understand this notion and its implications for thought and action we can explore the topic of how consultation brings forth, i.e. educes, latent powers from the power of understanding, the supreme gift of God to humanity.

Some Intellectual Principles and Processes of Consultation

2018-09-01T12:08:00.000+09:00

In this Cause consultation is of vital importance, but spiritual conference and not the mere voicing of personal views is intended.

(Abdu'l-Baha, The Promulgation of Universal Peace: 68)

Spiritual conference begins with the voicing of one’s opinion as explicitly formed by spiritual qualities and consciously guided by spiritual principles. That is, such qualities as love, harmony, humility, and purity of motive, are formative powers shaping how the opinion is to be expressed, while spiritual principles are, or should be, the touchstone and foundation of that opinion. The first are the foundation of consultation itself, while the second are the foundation of speech itself. By emphasizing this distinction I mean to recall attention to the previous statement from the Master that: “true consultation is spiritual conference in the attitude and atmosphere of love.” We can say that “attitude and atmosphere” are the inner and outer forms of love in unity.

What is meant by “spiritual principles”, and why are they important? The House of Justice wrote: “There are spiritual principles, or what some call human values, by which solutions can be found for every social problem. Any well-intentioned group can in a general sense devise practical solutions to its problems, but good intentions and practical knowledge are usually not enough. The essential merit of spiritual principle is that it not only presents a perspective which harmonizes with that which is immanent in human nature, it also induces an attitude, a dynamic, a will, an aspiration, which facilitate the discovery and implementation of practical measures. Leaders of governments and all in authority would be well served in their efforts to solve problems if they would first seek to identify the principles involved and then be guided by them.

“The primary question to be resolved is how the present world, with its entrenched pattern of conflict, can change to a world in which harmony and co-operation will prevail.” As one example of spiritual principle they state: “World order can be founded only on an unshakeable consciousness of the oneness of mankind, a spiritual truth which all the human sciences confirm.” (The Universal House of Justice, The Promise of World Peace: para 37-39.

As the House recommends: “Leaders of governments and all in authority would be well served in their efforts to solve problems if they would first seek to identify the principles involved and then be guided by them.” Hence the first step in speech is to be identify the spiritual principles and be guided by them. These spiritual principles, also known as human values, are just the requisites that ‘Abdu’l-Baha mentioned as being necessary for victory to be vouchsafed. The bringing forth of spiritual principle and establishing consultative discussion upon them is, therefore, one part of the Master’s definition of consultation as spiritual conference in an attitude and atmosphere of love and fellowship. But there is more to both this idea, and to a clarification of the notion of “victory”.

Recall that the aim and goal of consultation is to find the truth. The end result of consultation is to act on the decision arrived at. In order to accomplish the goal of discerning the truth the House of Justice stated that consultation, “requires all participants to express their opinions with absolute freedom and without apprehension that they will be censured or their views belittled.” Thus, to find the larger truth, participants must each express the truth of their opinion, not play devil’s advocate, nor speak to hide their real thought for fear of some reprisal or threat, nor misdirect others’ into thinking they believe something else.

The Master admonishes: “They must, when coming together, turn their faces to the Kingdom on high and ask aid from the Realm of Glory. They must then proceed with the utmost devotion, courtesy, dignity, care and moderation to express their views. They must in every matter search out the truth and not insist upon their own opinion, for stubbornness and persistence in one's views will lead ultimately to discord and wrangling and the truth will remain hidden. The honoured members must with all freedom express their own thoughts, and it is in no wise permissible for one to belittle the thought of another, nay, he must with moderation set forth the truth, and should differences of opinion arise a majority of voices must prevail, and all must obey and submit to the majority. It is again not permitted that any one of the honoured members object to or censure, whether in or out of the meeting, any decision arrived at previously, though that decision be not right, for such criticism would prevent any decision from being enforced. In short, whatsoever thing is arranged in harmony and with love and purity of motive, its result is light, and should the least trace of estrangement prevail the result shall be darkness upon darkness.... If this be so regarded, that assembly shall be of God, but otherwise it shall lead to coolness and alienation that proceed from the Evil One.... Should they endeavour to fulfil these conditions the Grace of the Holy Spirit shall be vouchsafed unto them, and that assembly shall become the centre of the Divine blessings, the hosts of Divine confirmation shall come to their aid, and they shall day by day receive a new effusion of Spirit.” (Selections from the Writings of Abdu'l-Baha: 87-89)

Within consultation every individual has the right to self-expression and is obligated to be truthful about his expression, yet to balance this right ‘Abdu’l-Baha warned: “He who expresses an opinion should not voice it as correct and right but set it forth as a contribution to the consensus of opinion, for the light of reality becomes apparent when two opinions coincide. A spark is produced when flint and steel come together. Man should weigh his opinions with the utmost serenity, calmness and composure. Before expressing his own views he should carefully consider the views already advanced by others. If he finds that a previously expressed opinion is more true and worthy, he should accept it immediately and not willfully hold to an opinion of his own. By this excellent method he endeavors to arrive at unity and truth. Opposition and division are deplorable. It is better then to have the opinion of a wise, sagacious man; otherwise, contradiction and altercation, in which varied and divergent views are presented, will make it necessary for a judicial body to render decision upon the question. Even a majority opinion or consensus may be incorrect. A thousand people may hold to one view and be mistaken, whereas one sagacious person may be right.” (The Promulgation of Universal Peace: 68)

Consultation: A New Model of Understanding

2018-08-26T09:52:00.000+09:00

Consultation has been ordained by Bahá'u'lláh as the means by which agreement is to be reached and a collective course of action defined. It is applicable to the marriage partners and within the family, and indeed, in all areas where believers participate in mutual decision-making. It requires all participants to express their opinions with absolute freedom and without apprehension that they will be censured or their views belittled...

(The Universal House of Justice, 1992, Violence and Sexual Abuse of Women and Children)

As some may know, I am passionately interested in discovering a form of education for this new day of human life. For me, education—which means to bring forth into actuality the powers and potentials of the human soul—takes place, or should take place, everywhere, and not just in school. All that goes on within society and our interactions with Nature is part and parcel of an unceasing educational effort. Indeed, as Baha’u’llah states, human education is an essential aspect of the work of the whole universe, since God has “ordained for thy training every atom in existence and the essence of all created things.” (The Persian Hidden Words #29)

As far as a curriculum for schools is concerned, we can do no better than to follow this advice from the pen of ‘Abdu’l-Baha: “Our meaning is that the friends must direct their attention toward the education and training of all the children of Persia, so that all of them, having, in the school of true learning, achieved the power of understanding and come to know the inner realities of the universe, will go on to uncover the signs and mysteries of God, and will find themselves illumined by the lights of the knowledge of the Lord, and by His love. This truly is the very best way to educate all peoples.” (From a Tablet translated from the Persian) (The Compilation of Compilations vol. I: 277)

It is in the context of not a school model but, as the above quote from the House of Justice indicates, a social model of education that we can examine in the next few posts the powerful role of consultation, as ordained by Baha’u’llah, in this great process, and perceive something of how and why it is such a potent tool for the accomplishment of so many goals.

While a quick reading of the House of Justice's statement may give the mistaken impression that consultation is simply a way of getting together to reach agreement and decide on a course of action—and, of course, consultation is that—a more thorough exploration of the whole process, purposes and results of consultation reveals that it is much, much more than this. True consultation is no formal exercise in mere decision-making. It is not carried out according to strict procedures, as Robert’s Rules of Order, of who is to speak when. It is not to be confused with other initiatives such as brain-storming or inspiration. Neither is it the same thing as simply asking friends for advice or suggestions as to what one should do.

Consultation takes place within a specific environment created to find and act upon the truth. It is a new way of organizing human affairs and, as such, there are requisites and foundations to be laid. There are, too, responsibilities to each other and to the truth that are new—indeed, its definition of what is the truth and how to attain it are revolutionary, for its purposes and principles, when followed, release new powers of understanding. The absence of any of these conditions and actions, or the entry of foreign practices, such as belittlement, undermines the whole endeavor and renders it naught.

The emergence of truth in consultation occurs through setting forth and establishing the spiritual, intellectual, and material conditions of its appearance. It starts to life as the forming power and impulse of spirit, of a spiritual force finding intellectual form and reality in discussion and decision. This, in turn, finds embodiment in physical action and behavior—then the process cycles back, as action is reflected upon, which gives greater understanding which attracts new impulses of spirit, which descends again into action, and so on in a dynamic, recursive, iterative spiraling process of spiritual, intellectual and social advance.

The whole context of consultation is the creating of a “space” for truth to appear. This space is composed of spiritual principles, of the facts gathered and then reflected upon, of solutions devised, and of decisions made. There are not only new energies of spirit tapped into, but new ideals and principles of thought to employ, and a new set of moral responsibilities to truth, and to each other, that all combine to create a singularly powerful means of education.

What are some of those prerequisites that are the foundation and essential conditions for true consultation to take place and which make it something more than human and, hence, new to human life and thought?

We can start with this statement from Abdu’l-Baha: “(T)rue consultation is spiritual conference in the attitude and atmosphere of love. Members must love each other in the spirit of fellowship in order that good results may be forthcoming. Love and fellowship are the foundation.” (The Promulgation of Universal Peace: 68)

In several places, He set forth the conditions under which consultation must take place. “The first condition is absolute love and harmony amongst the members of the assembly. They must be wholly free from estrangement and must manifest in themselves the Unity of God, for they are the waves of one sea, the drops of one river, the stars of one heaven, the rays of one sun, the trees of one orchard, the flowers of one garden. Should harmony of thought and absolute unity be nonexistent, that gathering shall be dispersed and that assembly be brought to naught…..” (Selections from the Writings of Abdu'l-Baha: 87-89)

In another place He spoke in these terms: “The prime requisites for them that take counsel together are purity of motive, radiance of spirit, detachment from all else save God, attraction to His Divine Fragrances, humility and lowliness amongst His loved ones, patience and long-suffering in difficulties and servitude to His exalted Threshold. Should they be graciously aided to acquire these attributes, victory from the unseen Kingdom of Bahá shall be vouchsafed to them.... (Cited in a letter dated 5 March 1922 written by Shoghi Effendi to the Bahá'ís of the United States and Canada, published in Bahá'í Administration: Selected Messages 1922-1932: 21-22)

These qualities alone should alert us to the truth that consultation as an educational model and method of ascertaining the truth is different from any model so far constructed by human minds. Let us assume that those who are to engage in consultation have among themselves fulfilled the requisites of love, fellowship, harmony, purity of motive, humility, detachment, and the other virtues mentioned. In doing so they are promised “victory from the unseen Kingdom of Bahá.” However, we need to see how these qualities get transmuted into virtues in action, how we can, as Baha’u’llah instructs, “translate that which hath been written into reality and action…”(Gleanings from the Writings of Baha'u'llah249)

Our next step is to investigate what should happen within the discussion that is the actual consultation itself. Our question is: What is spiritual conference? Exploring answers to this question will also make us aware of some of the new intellectual responsibilities and virtues involved in true consultation. That is for the next couple of posts.

An Educational Model of Spiritual Education; Knowledge, Faculty, Dimension

2018-07-04T08:13:00.001+09:00

Through spiritual education He (Baha’u’llah) led the people out of darkness and ignorance into the clear light of truth, illuminated their hearts with the splendor of knowledge, laid a true and universal basis for religious teachings, cultivated the virtues of humanity, conferred spiritual susceptibilities, awakened inner perceptions and changed the dishonor of prejudiced souls to the highest degree of honor and capacity.

(Abdu'l-Baha, The Promulgation of Universal Peace: 341)

To become aware of, build, and disseminate the science of the love of God, which I call the foundational science of a swiftly emerging category of knowledge named by ‘Abdu’l-Baha, spiritual or divine science, a theory of knowledge that is inclusive of the spiritual, and a new model of education, are needed.

I say emerging category of knowledge, because spiritual sciences must already exist in order for them to emerge into the human world and consciousness. Where do they exist? Baha’u’llah wrote: “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) clearly indicating that these new sciences, arts, knowledge, and all the rest, for which His Revelation provides the key are already in existence, treasured up in the storehouses of God’s knowledge, and that they can be unlocked. In a similar manner He spoke of Socrates: “He had a profound knowledge of such sciences as were current amongst men as well as of those which were veiled from their minds.” (Tablets of Baha'u'llah: 146) Here again He indicates that knowledge itself is part of any state of being, but “knowable” knowledge is a state of understanding and awareness. “Knowledge”, He stated, “is all that is knowable…” (The Kitab-i-Iqan: 185) What is knowable at any time is, I believe, circumscribed by human assumptions about its limits, assumptions which Socrates did not share with the people of his time. With spiritual knowledge those limits are pushed back to infinity. Thus humanity must have a new model of education.

By education I mean the bringing forth of potentiality into actuality, which is the actual meaning of the word. All education is the bringing forth of some innate human ability through learning a knowledge structure: verbal ability through a language structure; mathematical ability through understanding the structure of rules and principles governing the manipulation of quantity. In short, education happens when there is forged a unity of faculty and dimension through a knowledge structure. Spiritual education is no different. But spiritual education does not primarily bring forth our intellectual gifts of mind, but, rather, those spiritual ones connected with the heart and these turn the mind toward spiritual reality.

The Holy Books state that there are two natures to the human being, the eternal and the organic, spiritual and material, divine and human, and three contexts of reality, physical, intellectual, and spiritual. Education to date has mostly focused upon bringing forth the physical and intellectual potentials of the human reality. But the human reality has innate gifts and powers that puts it in touch with all three major dimensions of reality. Today, I believe, the eternal, spiritual, divine aspect is emerging as the leading aspect of the human reality. Thus, knowing the science of the love of God, and spiritual science in general, is needed. It is accomplished through awakening those faculties in the soul that connect with the pre-existing spiritual dimension through a model or knowledge structure of that spiritual dimension. That knowledge structure is composed principally of spiritual principles. These are enshrined in Revelation. The spiritual dimension is composed of the qualities of God whose reflections, so to speak, are both diffused throughout creation and within the human reality and connect it with the reality of His Manifestation. That is, these qualities are emanations or signs of God and as Baha’u’llah says: “We will surely show them Our signs in the world and within themselves.” (Gleanings from the Writings of Baha'u'llah: 177)

Down through human history, progressive Revelation is the unfolding Primal Will of God. It is an unfolding propelled by the Manifestations of God in a logically connected, expanding tradition of Messages transforming spiritual essence into material manifestation, eternity into historicity, spiritual principle into human action. Each of these revealed Messages has spiritually, intellectually, and socially transformed some fraction of humanity, through Its principles of life, thought, and behavior that awaken and train various faculties of the human being through models of, for example, justice, morality, loving compassion, knowledge and worship. Hence we understand something of the material, social and intellectual transformations of humanity, and individual spiritual transformation is well-documented under names like religious or mystical experience and the changes that flow from that. The next great domain to understand is humankind’s collective spiritual and social transformation. The phenomenon of spiritual transformation is never a single process or event, because the spiritual dimension is, as pointed out, not a monochromatic landscape, but, like the natural, intellectual, and social worlds, is an infinitely rich and varied interaction of distinct powers and processes called the qualities and attributes of God. It has dimensions within it, fields of force and changes of relations between these dimensions and forces that bring forth by their new configurations in Revelations new spiritual entities that are given intellectual form by the Revelators, and these intellectual forms over time find their material expression. Human knowledge of this chain of causation in philosophy, science, and art is an analogy of the divine creation and the supreme educational model of Revelation.

I mean that through progressively unfolding spiritual principles, Revelation unveils to human awareness and intelligence an ever-widening Divine vision and pattern of the dimensions of different virtues named above (i.e. love, justice, morality, intellect and volition, and others) creating an environment of new possibility for human experience. Our innate faculties of the heart and mind, also named love, justice, morality, intellect, faith and vision, are the inner instruments and powers of an overarching human rational faculty, whose first purpose is the discovery of the revealed Word and the resulting recognition of God, as the senses are its outer functions. These all connect with their corresponding dimensions through the universal and essential knowledge structure provided by the Revelators. That knowledge structure, which is, again, expanding spiritual principles, or human values, when authentically encountered, then awakens and gives life to what the House of Justice calls “that which is immanent in human nature”, (The Promise of World Peace: 3) educing the higher nature of the human reality—i.e. bringing it forth into action. This is individual spiritual transformation.

It becomes collective when these new beings unfold their knowledge and experience into the world, providing shared human intellectual models, named science and art, which reveal the new creation they have discovered, in imitation of the creative divine one. Too, modeling the principles in behavior does the same thing, as mirror neurons kick in and provide a behavioral and emotional blueprint of the act within the mind of the observer. That is, for spiritual education spiritual principles and moral behavior stimulate the bringing forth of spiritual being, i.e. bringing forth the higher nature from oneself is a bringing forth into the world to transform it.

Today, every member of the human family is called to this endeavor, in concert with new institutions of society within the Bahá’i Community that are designed to assist and guide this global advance into an ever-advancing civilization. This is called the establishment of a new World Order. Yet, in truth, it is really the ages-old drive to erect the eternal Kingdom of God on earth, that “kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world.” (King James Bible, The Book of Matthew 25:34)

Concluding Statement: The Science of the Love of God

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These divine qualities, these eternal commandments, will never be abolished; nay, they will last and remain established for ever and ever. These virtues of humanity will be renewed in each of the different cycles; for at the end of every cycle the spiritual Law of God—that is to say, the human virtues—disappears, and only the form subsists.

(Abdu'l-Baha, Some Answered Questions: 47)

The posts over the past year or more have explored some aspects of the science of the love of God: as philosophical statement; in language; physical science; psychologically as intentionality; and the inner building blocks of peace. This foundational divine science is, I believe, a new union of knowledge and being; that is, a knowledge that unlocks and brings forth in its full glory the spiritual human reality in new relations with all existence and with its Supreme Creator.

Without the love of God, meaning, relationally, God’s love for His creatures and, reciprocally, human love for God, all the other attributes and faculties of humanity combined are not sufficient to bring about peace. For, the essence of the manifested nature of divinity is not reason, power, justice or morality, but the laws of love. Hence, there can be a science of this love, a science which would explore and explicate the manifold relations of beings as expressions of divine Love awakened by divine Knowledge generated by divine Will. It would be, in its rational essence, an epistemology of love and the heart. In a sense, the science of the love of God is the exploration of the impact of divine Revelation upon the whole of creation, a study that would, from any perspective, be infinite in scope and depth and yield.

It is in the context of a foundational and encompassing science of the love of God that we can explore Baha’u’llah’s statement in a Hidden Word: “Out of the wastes of nothingness, with the clay of My command I made thee to appear, and have ordained for thy training every atom in existence and the essence of all created things. Thus, ere thou didst issue from thy mother's womb, I destined for thee two founts of gleaming milk, eyes to watch over thee, and hearts to love thee. Out of My loving-kindness, 'neath the shade of My mercy I nurtured thee, and guarded thee by the essence of My grace and favor. And My purpose in all this was that thou mightest attain My everlasting dominion and become worthy of My invisible bestowals.” (The Persian Hidden Words #29)

The varied and developmental expressions of that love through unnumbered millenia, released and built up through Revelations that gradually manifest the infinite complexity of the unfolding Will of God, shows, in a cosmological context, its power to join and knit together the archetypal “B” and “E” into different stages and forms of “Be and it is”: i.e. to create and progressively bind together all things in exquisitely intricate patterns and complex harmonies. For, the B and the E when joined and knit together are an embrace, a relation, the same yet different divine Love. It is the vibrating influence of the Spirit (breath) of God, the divine Will, blowing through the archetypal categories (reed) of the universal Mind to produce the music of the spheres.

Though these laws and principles are eternal and unknowable in essence, they are knowable in manifestation. They form a knowledge structure that, as it unfolds through history, molds and brings forth an ever-advancing human knowledge which mirrors and reflects it. The knowledge structure that is spiritual knowledge, whose foundation I have been calling the science of the love of God, begins with recognition of the Manifestation of God. The Bab wrote in this regard: “True knowledge, therefore, is the knowledge of God, and this is none other than the recognition of His Manifestation in each Dispensation.” (Selections from the Writings of the Bab: 89) And: “How vast the number of people who are well versed in every science, yet it is their adherence to the holy Word of God which will determine their faith, inasmuch as the fruit of every science is none other than the knowledge of divine precepts and submission unto His good-pleasure.” (Selections from the Writings of the Bab: 88)

Spiritual principles, the rational part of the eternal Knowledge of God, resonate with that which is immanent in the human spirit. In this regard, it is noteworthy that in the opening quote the Master equates the spiritual Law of God with human virtues. The rational faculty can be identified as the essence of that which is immanent, with what makes us human. This overarching faculty itself has many faculties that it sustains and powers. But the House of Justice’ statement, explored in the final posts, indicates not only that the human reality is created to respond to spiritual principles, but also that these faculties need the Word of God to awaken to their full potential and power today.

The unfolding articulation through history of eternal spiritual principles by the Manifestation of God and their application by people in various contexts—what Baha’u’llah called striving to “translate that which hath been written into reality and action”(Gleanings from the Writings of Baha'u'llah: 249)—is, I believe, the foundational principles and practices of this great, new science, different in form and substance from all previous science and knowledge. When these principles combine with the love of God they also serve a most important role in freeing the mind from its own entrapment in outmoded concepts, explanations and beliefs that is the cause of our current malaise, despair and confusion.

All attempts to apply the knowledge of God that is Revelation attract confirmations from the divine realm which over time infuse the mind and heart with the heightened understanding that comes from efforts to apply the teachings in different contexts. This is harmonic resonance creating a field of influence: where pure energy patterns crystallize into insight, knowledge, and power which then radiate energies on the plane of visible manifestation. The knowledge is there to have an insight about. But the insight cannot be had absent an increase in energy, in enthusiasm and dedication, to attain that state of knowledge.

The human being possesses, Baha’u’llah says, two visions. These are organic and spiritual. They have different rhythms of growths and progress, the organic is the outer pictures of the inner spiritual. It is the spiritual that now takes the lead.

The Master wrote: “Although to acquire the sciences and arts is the greatest glory of mankind, this is so only on condition that man's river flow into the mighty sea, and draw from God's ancient source His inspiration. When this cometh to pass, then every teacher is as a shoreless ocean, every pupil a prodigal fountain of knowledge. If, then, the pursuit of knowledge lead to the beauty of Him Who is the Object of all Knowledge, how excellent that goal; but if not, a mere drop will perhaps shut a man off from flooding grace, for with learning cometh arrogance and pride, and it bringeth on error and indifference to God.” (Selections from the Writings of Abdu'l-Baha: 110)

We may finish this long series of posts with the following statement from ‘Abdu’l-Baha, which seems to concisely sum up so much of the content of them.

“(T)he bestowals of God are moving and circulating throughout all created things. This illimitable divine bounty has no beginning and will have no ending. It is moving, circulating and becomes effective wherever capacity is developed to receive it. In every station there is a specialized capacity. Therefore, we must be hopeful that through the bounty and favor of God this spirit of life infusing all created beings shall quicken humanity, and from its bestowals the human world shall become a divine world, this earthly kingdom become the mirror of the realm of Divinity, the virtues and perfections of the world of humanity become unveiled and the image and likeness of God be reflected from this temple.” (The Promulgation of Universal Peace: 160)

The Transformative, Cohesive Power of Love

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It is, therefore, evident that in the world of humanity the greatest king and sovereign is love. If love were extinguished, the power of attraction dispelled, the affinity of human hearts destroyed, the phenomena of human life would disappear.

(The Promulgation of Universal Peace: 255)

How is the Most Great Peace to come about most quickly and effectivly? What is it founded upon? The Master states: “This transformation of morals, this improvement of conduct and of words, are they possible otherwise than through the love of God? No, in the name of God. If, by the help of science and knowledge, we wished to introduce these morals and customs, truly it would take a thousand years, and then they would not be spread throughout the masses.

"Today, thanks to the love of God, they are arrived at with the greatest facility.” (Some Answered Questions: 304)

In Paris He stated: “What a power is love! It is the most wonderful, the greatest of all living powers. Love gives life to the lifeless. Love lights a flame in the heart that is cold. Love brings hope to the hopeless and gladdens the hearts of the sorrowful. In the world of existence there is indeed no greater power than the power of love. When the heart of man is aglow with the flame of love, he is ready to sacrifice all—even his life. In the Gospel it is said God is love.” (Paris Talks: 179-180)

Love is the foundation and greatest power because individuals do not become just or moral by willing it, or knowing what is just and right, but by loving justice and righteousness. Similarly with peace. But the heart must also love spiritual principle and heavenly attributes latent in itself. This love is no mere affectionate feeling toward something or someone, or toward an ideal or a practical method. It is faith and conviction, determination and sacrifice.

The Master states: “May the light of love shine forth and illumine hearts, and may human lives be cemented and connected until all of us may find agreement and tranquillity beneath the same tabernacle and with the standard of the Most Great Peace above us move steadily onward.” (The Promulgation of Universal Peace: 115) “So powerful is the light of unity,” asserts Baha’u’llah, “that it can illuminate the whole earth. The one true God, He Who knoweth all things, Himself testifieth to the truth of these words.” (Gleanings from the Writings of Baha'u'llah: 288)

This is the dawn of a new era. What the Bahá’i Writings call “a new race of men” is to emerge onto the stage of history to renovate the conditions of existence and transform the world. The Master puts the task and the scope of change this way to the followers of Baha’u’llah: “It is your duty to be exceedingly kind to every human being, and to wish him well; to work for the upliftment of society; to blow the breath of life into the dead; to act in accordance with the instructions of Bahá'u'lláh and walk His path—until ye change the world of man into the world of God.” (Selections from the Writings of Abdu'l-Bahá: 90

Only the transformed soul can build and live in the Kingdom of God. The world of God resembles the world of man about as much as the world of man resembles the world of the ant. All must be changed or transformed, even that which was good in the world of man cannot be lifted intact into the celestial relations characterizing the world of God. “The old order changeth, yielding place to new, And God fulfils himself in many ways, Lest one good custom should corrupt the world." (From Alfred Lord Tennyson’s poem Idylls of the King)

With the Revelation of Baha’u’llah such a profound change can be made. He promises: “The heights which, through the most gracious favor of God, mortal man can attain, in this Day, are as yet unrevealed to his sight. The world of being hath never had, nor doth it yet possess the capacity for such a revelation. The day, however, is approaching when the potentialities of so great a favor will, by virtue of His behest, be manifested unto men.” (Gleanings from the Writings of Baha'u'llah: 214) And: “The potentialities inherent in the station of man, the full measure of his destiny on earth, the innate excellence of his reality, must all be manifested in this promised Day of God.” (Gleanings from the Writings of Baha'u'llah: 340) Yet He also warns, in words true both for every individual and for humankind’s quest for peace, and which return us to the condition of willing self-abnegation: “There is no peace for thee save by renouncing thyself and turning unto Me; for it behooveth thee to glory in My name, not in thine own; to put thy trust in Me and not in thyself.” (Arabic Hidden Words: 61)

On the knowledge side, what are the essential spiritual principles upon which this great transformation rests?

No better summation exists than this magisterial statement from Shoghi Effendi: “The Revelation proclaimed by Bahá'u'lláh, His followers believe, is divine in origin, all-embracing in scope, broad in its outlook, scientific in its method, humanitarian in its principles and dynamic in the influence it exerts on the hearts and minds of men. The mission of the Founder of their Faith, they conceive it to be to proclaim that religious truth is not absolute but relative, that Divine Revelation is continuous and progressive, that the Founders of all past religions, though different in the non-essential aspects of their teachings, "abide in the same Tabernacle, soar in the same heaven, are seated upon the same throne, utter the same speech and proclaim the same Faith." His Cause, they have already demonstrated, stands identified with, and revolves around, the principle of the organic unity of mankind as representing the consummation of the whole process of human evolution. This final stage in this stupendous evolution, they assert, is not only necessary but inevitable, that it is gradually approaching, and that nothing short of the celestial potency with which a divinely ordained Message can claim to be endowed can succeed in establishing it.

“The Bahá'í Faith recognizes the unity of God and of His Prophets, upholds the principle of an unfettered search after truth, condemns all forms of superstition and prejudice, teaches that the fundamental purpose of religion is to promote concord and harmony, that it must go hand-in-hand with science, and that it constitutes the sole and ultimate basis of a peaceful, an ordered and progressive society. It inculcates the principle of equal opportunity, rights and privileges for both sexes, advocates compulsory education, abolishes extremes of poverty and wealth, exalts work performed in the spirit of service to the rank of worship, recommends the adoption of an auxiliary international language, and provides the necessary agencies for the establishment and safeguarding of a permanent and universal peace.” (Shoghi Effendi, From the document: Appreciations of the Baha'i Faith)

These sentences represent not just a statement of belief for Baha’u’llah’s followers, noble and idealistic as they are. They are the very foundation of the science of the love of God.

The Perfection of the Human Reality and Human World

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Through the Teachings of this Day Star of Truth every man will advance and develop until he attaineth the station at which he can manifest all the potential forces with which his inmost true self hath been endowed.

(Gleanings from the Writings of Baha'u'llah: 67)

Spiritually, there is, I believe, a difference between perfect and perfection, between essence, which is created perfect, and existence, which achieves perfection. The first is the essential creation, the other is the manifest one. Humans can comprehend the manifest creation, but not the essential creation, for the manifest is known through revealed and discovered knowledge, while the essential is creation as perfectly and completely fashioned originally by God.

The Master explains: “All beings, whether large or small, were created perfect and complete from the first, but their perfections appear in them by degrees. The organization of God is one; the evolution of existence is one; the divine system is one. Whether they be small or great beings, all are subject to one law and system. Each seed has in it from the first all the vegetable perfections….In the same way, the embryo possesses from the first all perfections, such as the spirit, the mind, the sight, the smell, the taste—in one word, all the powers—but they are not visible and become so only by degrees.

“Similarly, the terrestrial globe from the beginning was created with all its elements, substances, minerals, atoms and organisms; but these only appeared by degrees: first the mineral, then the plant, afterward the animal, and finally man. But from the first these kinds and species existed, but were undeveloped in the terrestrial globe, and then appeared only gradually. For the supreme organization of God, and the universal natural system, surround all beings, and all are subject to this rule. When you consider this universal system, you see that there is not one of the beings which at its coming into existence has reached the limit of perfection. No, they gradually grow and develop, and then attain the degree of perfection.” (Some Answered Questions: 198)

The same interplay of perfection/perfection, essential and fully manifest, exists in human intellectual and moral development. The soul is perfect in itself as a creation, since all things are created perfect and complete—perfect because complete—yet there is growth in manifest perfection: “Every imperfect soul is self-centred and thinketh only of his own good. But as his thoughts expand a little he will begin to think of the welfare and comfort of his family. If his ideas still more widen, his concern will be the felicity of his fellow citizens; and if still they widen, he will be thinking of the glory of his land and of his race. But when ideas and views reach the utmost degree of expansion and attain the stage of perfection, then will he be interested in the exaltation of humankind. He will then be the well-wisher of all men and the seeker of the weal and prosperity of all lands. This is indicative of perfection.” (Selections from the Writings of Abdu'l-Baha: 69)

Now these stages of human and natural development and growth mirror and get their influence from the Holy Manifestations of God appearing in various stages. “In cycles gone by, each one of the Manifestations of God hath had His own rank in the world of existence, and each hath represented a stage in the development of humanity.” (Selections from the Writings of Abdu'l-Baha: 56.)

“For the position of Adam, with regard to the appearance and manifestation of the divine perfections, was in the embryonic condition; the position of Christ was the condition of maturity and the age of reason; and the rising of the Greatest Luminary was the condition of the perfection of the essence and of the qualities.” (Some Answered Questions: 124.)

“Each of the Divine Manifestations has likewise a cycle, and during the cycle His laws and commandments prevail and are performed. When His cycle is completed by the appearance of a new Manifestation, a new cycle begins. In this way cycles begin, end and are renewed, until a universal cycle is completed in the world, when important events and great occurrences will take place which entirely efface every trace and every record of the past; then a new universal cycle begins in the world, for this universe has no beginning.” (Some Answered Questions: 1)
Evolution is the bringing forth of more of the essential, complete and infinitely complex perfect creation into greater manifest perfection. This is accomplished through the synchrony of inner and outer transformations. Recall Baha’u’llah states: “And yet, is not the object of every Revelation to effect a transformation in the whole character of mankind, a transformation that shall manifest itself both outwardly and inwardly, that shall affect both its inner life and external conditions?” (The Kitab-i-Iqan: 240)
The stage of maturity and perfection is the highest stage of manifestation, when the essence itself appears along with its qualities, remembering that in spiritual philosophy the essence of something is its spiritual form, its heart and central quiddity or character, what is called into being by name. Perfection is when the center appears in its highest, most glorious appearance.

Earlier in these posts I discussed the two kinds of peace outlined in the Bahá’i Writings, called the Lesser Peace and the Most Great Peace. Advances toward both spheres is required. That is the unique perspective and plan that the Bahá’i Revelation and community take in this great endeavor, as stated in a letter written on behalf of Shoghi Effendi.

“We cannot segregate the human heart from the environment outside us and say that once one of these is reformed everything will be improved. Man is organic with the world. His inner life moulds the environment and is itself also deeply affected by it. The one acts upon the other and every abiding change in the life of man is the result of these mutual reactions.

No movement in the world directs its attention upon both these aspects of human life and has full measures for their improvement, save the teachings of Bahá'u'lláh. And this is its distinctive feature. If we desire therefore the good of the world we should strive to spread those teachings and also practise them in our own life. Through them will the human heart be changed, and also our social environment provides the atmosphere in which we can grow spiritually and reflect in full the light of God shining through the revelation of Bahá'u'lláh.

“And, with regard to the solution of the world's problems, he indicates that: ‘We need a change of heart, a reframing of all our conceptions and a new orientation of our activities. The inward life of man as well as his outward environment have to be reshaped if human salvation is to be secured.” (The Compilation of Compilations vol. I: 84 from document, Conservation of the Earth’s Resources)

Together with the transformation in humankind’s inner character into its divine aspect is the transformation of its outer conditions into a world civilization founded upon spiritual values and principles: the perfection of the human world. That is, humanity must make its leap into maturity and perfection simultaneously spiritual and social. This has been the great movement of social evolution from time immemorial. Shoghi Effendi quoted the Master’s explanations on the collective development of humanity: “At one time it was passing through its stage of childhood, at another its period of youth, but now it has entered its long-predicted phase of maturity, the evidences of which are everywhere apparent... That which was applicable to human needs during the early history of the race can neither meet nor satisfy the demands of this day, this period of newness and consummation. Humanity has emerged from its former state of limitation and preliminary training. Man must now become imbued with new virtues and powers, new moral standards, new capacities. New bounties, perfect bestowals, are awaiting and already descending upon him. The gifts and blessings of the period of youth, although timely and sufficient during the adolescence of mankind, are now incapable of meeting the requirements of its maturity." (The World Order of Baha'u'llah: 164)

Baha’is are not alone in seeing a new world coming, and the new relations to be built that will transform the links between inner and outer worlds. For example, one of the twentieth century’s leading psychologist’s and social theorist’s wrote: “I believe that the One World which is emerging can come into existence only if the New Man comes into being—a man who has emerged from the archaic ties of blood and soil, and who feels himself to be a son of man, a citizen of the world whose loyalty is to the human race and to life, rather than to any exclusive part of it; a man who loves his country because he loves mankind, and whose judgement is not warped by tribal loyalties.” (Erich Fromm, Beyond the Chains of Illusion: 169)

This coming civilization, with its promised peace and prosperity, is not something that human beings can invent, bring about, or create alone and unaided. Rather, it is and has always been the progressive realization of the purpose of God and His Manifestations through the all-powerful influence of Their Revelations. That spiritual content of that purpose is rooted in what Christ called “the Kingdom of Heaven within you”; its social realization is what that same Christ called the “kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world.” (The Book of Matthew 25:34) This Kingdom of Heaven within is to be made into the Kingdom of God around us, what the Book of Revelation calls “the descent of the new Jerusalem.” The Kingdom already spiritually exists, indeed has always existed, in its full splendor and grandeur in eternity, and has been unfolding on the plane of manifestation since the beginning of time. Its time has now arrived. We are at “the end of days”, which is the edge of eternity.

The Faculty of the Heart

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Just now the soil of human hearts seems like black earth, but in the innermost substance of this dark soil there are thousands of fragrant flowers latent. We must endeavor to cultivate and awaken these potentialities, discover the secret treasure in this very mine and depository of God, bring forth these resplendent powers long hidden in human hearts. Then will the glories of both worlds be blended and increased and the quintessence of human existence be made manifest.

(Abdu'l-Baha, The Promulgation of Universal Peace: 294)

In the next few posts I will be ending this long discussion on the role of spiritual faculties in bringing about peace with the heart and love. But, in fact, for the peace of humanity, as well as the whole of creation, they are first. That is because, with the heart, we have arrived not only at the end or conclusion of a line of argument, but also at the beginning of spiritual perception, which is the center, the pivot and Source, the motive power, the embracing, all-fruitful productive source out from which come all qualities when stimulated by divine Will and formed by divine Knowledge. It is the essential union and unity, the joining and knitting together of the B and the E.

While the object of the will is “the good”, and the object of the intellect is “the true”, the object of the heart is “the Beloved”. Spiritually, all things start in and with the heart, the receptor of higher energies and their radiant center out into the world, the pivot where transformational change takes place onto higher levels of being and knowing. It is the heart's attraction and love for the Word of God, as both His speech and His Person, that begins spiritual transformation. I have titled this discussion the faculty of the heart, the meaning of this phrase being not a faculty in the heart, but, rather, the faculty that is the heart. The heart has its own way of knowing, and it is love.

Love is the pre-existing, metaphysical “material” field and cause, the receiver of the active force of Intellect, and described by ‘Abdu’l-Baha as “the vital bond inherent, in accordance with the divine creation, in the realities of things.” (Selections from the Writings of Abdu'l-Baha: 27)

Divine love is why there is existence at all. In a prayer that declares some of the powers of God, Baha’u’llah has the one praying state of God “Whose love is the cause of my being,” (Prayers and Meditations by Baha'u'llah: 259) ‘Abdu’l-Baha generalizes this specific cause into a universal principle: “We declare that love is the cause of the existence of all phenomena and that the absence of love is the cause of disintegration or nonexistence.” (The Promulgation of Universal Peace: 255)

The station of the heart with its complementary focusing and radiating powers is, in relation to humanity, occupied by the Manifestations of God. ‘Abdu’l-Baha writes: “Yet the Holy Manifestations of God are even as a looking-glass, burnished and without stain, which gathereth streams of light out of that Sun, and then scattereth the glory over the rest of creation.” (Selections from the Writings of Abdu'l-Baha: 50)

It is He and His Words that in every dispensation awaken within the soul its divine image and transform it more into His likeness. It is He and His Words that bring forth the knowledge of the heart, and gives humanity the principles of the epistemology of love. Baha’u’llah entreats us: “…endeavour to comprehend the meaning of the "changing of the earth." Know thou, that upon whatever hearts the bountiful showers of mercy, raining from the "heaven" of divine Revelation, have fallen, the earth of those hearts hath verily been changed into the earth of divine knowledge and wisdom. What myrtles of unity hath the soil of their hearts produced! What blossoms of true knowledge and wisdom hath their illumined bosoms yielded! Were the earth of their hearts to remain unchanged, how could such souls who have not been taught one letter, have seen no teacher, and entered no school, utter such words and display such knowledge as none can apprehend? Methinks they have been moulded from the clay of infinite knowledge, and kneaded with the water of divine wisdom. Therefore, hath it been said: "Knowledge is a light which God casteth into the heart of whomsoever He willeth." It is this kind of knowledge which is and hath ever been praiseworthy, and not the limited knowledge that hath sprung forth from veiled and obscured minds. This limited knowledge they even stealthily borrow one from the other, and vainly pride themselves therein!

“Would that the hearts of men could be cleansed from these man-made limitations and obscure thoughts imposed upon them! haply they may be illumined by the light of the Sun of true knowledge, and comprehend the mysteries of divine wisdom. Consider now, were the parched and barren soil of these hearts to remain unchanged, how could they ever become the Recipients of the revelation of the mysteries of God, and the Revealers of the divine Essence? Thus hath He said: "On the day when the earth shall be changed into another earth." (Kitab-i-Iqan: 46-47)

The relation of the heart to the rational faculty, or power of understanding, is inherent, the heart and its spiritual powers being an essential aspect of the power of understanding. Yet humanity has not used this great endowment as it could have. We previously quoted these words of the Master that pertain to this theme: “They do not use that great gift of God, the power of the understanding, by which they might see with the eyes of the spirit, hear with spiritual ears and also comprehend with a Divinely enlightened heart.”

The rational faculty’s transformation into its highest state needs the heart to touch the divine, to absorb and reflect spiritual knowledge, the true gnosis: the knowledge of God. In the human reality it is the heart that receives the imprint of Reality, and from the transformed heart radiates out streams of light. In quotes I have used before, Baha’u’llah, quoting the Qur’an, states: "Knowledge is a light which God casteth into the heart of whomsoever He willeth." The Master prayed…”that God in His mercy may illumine your hearts and souls with His glorious Light, then shall each one of you shine as a radiant star in the dark places of the world.” In a prayer, Baha’u’llah asks God on behalf of every member of humanity: “Illumine mine eyes, O my Lord, with the splendors of the horizon of Thy Revelation, and brighten my heart with the effulgence of the Day-Star of Thy knowledge and wisdom...” (Prayers and Meditations of Baha'u'llah: 227-228) And in another: “…enlighten our hearts with the effulgence of Thy knowledge, and illumine our breasts with the brightness of Thy names.” (Prayers and Meditations of Baha'u'llah: 220-221)

Divine Love is both the law of attraction and the ground force finding, through the formative power of the Word of God, its highest natural expression in humanity’s gift of conscious understanding. Yet, through conscious love and attraction for God and after recognition of His Manifestation human beings can go higher and manifest greater powers by going deeper. ‘Abdu’l-Baha says: “All the virtues which have been deposited and potential in human hearts are being revealed from that Reality as flowers and blossoms from divine gardens.” (The Promulgation of Universal Peace: 39) He also stated: “In this century of the latter times Bahá'u'lláh has appeared and so resuscitated spirits that they have manifested powers more than human.” (Promulgation of Universal Peace: 277.)

The faculties of the rational faculty are active to some extent in their human state, and were prominent during the human era of life, but not to their greatest potential, for there are higher, nobler states than the human. In the emerging divine state of being and knowing, these faculties will awaken to spiritual purposes and powers, to their full potential and perfection. As we will see, the heights to which humankind will go are, as yet, unimaginable. So great and noble are these states that Shoghi Effendi wrote of current efforts to perceive them: “All we can reasonably venture to attempt is to strive to obtain a glimpse of the first streaks of the promised Dawn that must, in the fullness of time, chase away the gloom that has encircled humanity.” (Shoghi Effendi, The World Order of Baha'u'llah: 34)

Volitional Capacity and the Supreme Moral Act

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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.

(Universal House of Justice, A Wider Horizon, Selected Letters 1983-1992: 64-65)

When we look into the human kingdom, the importance of will and volition in human development, especially spiritual development, cannot be overemphasized. "The incomparable Creator hath created all men from one same substance, and hath exalted their reality above the rest of His creatures. Success or failure, gain or loss, must, therefore, depend upon man’s own exertions. The more he striveth, the greater will be his progress." (Gleanings from the Writings of Baha'u'llah: 82-83) But here we can confront and explicate the huge reversal that must occur when moving from the human into the spiritual. It is the reversal that occurs whenever a transcendent move must be made, for the whole unfolded development of a organism becomes enfolded into the centerpoint of a whole new kind of progress, as the whole of the seed unfolded into the tree and the whole of the tree is enfolded and embodied in the fruit.

When moving from the natural to the human the individual self-assertive will was born, a separation by reversal out of the collective, tribal mentality. The individual became an entity in himself i.e. a human, reflective self. This birth of the subjective self is both the fruit of a long phase of human development and the seed for the next millennia-long phase. It was both the enfolding into a new manifest human reality of spiritual qualities and mental abilities developed over centuries of advance, and the beginning of the unfolding of a whole new set of qualities lying within the fruit/seed. Similarly the movement today from human to spiritual can only occur when the self-assertive will is sacrificed so it can be reborn into the self-sacrificing soul.

Volitional capacity is defined not only by the faith to achieve goals, but also by the determination to take needed action, by what is actually chosen to do and carried out. Faith is a key element in this process, for as an aid to formulating goals and purpose it is central to generating motivation and action. Even in today’s materialistic age, faith retains “its central role in consciousness.” It’s just that it “appeared impotent to influence the course of events.” (One Common Faith: 12)

Sometimes the greatest act of faith is that of surrender, the giving up of self for a greater selfhood, of assertive ego individuality for a humble spiritual one. Faith is built upon hope. But while faith is, spiritually, the perfection of the intellect, hope is an act of the will, as is overcoming fear. Hope is a desire for all that is good—that is, for all that can bring us to God. Fear then is a healthy avoidance of all that takes the soul away from God. This is the foundational power of hope and fear in the volitional arena.

The significance of will and volition is implied in Abdu’l-Baha’s statement that in spite of the numerous things beyond human control, the most significant events (our moral and ethical choices), are not. “Some things are subject to the free will of man, such as justice, equity, tyranny and injustice, in other words, good and evil actions; it is evident and clear that these actions are, for the most part, left to the will of man.” (Some Answered Questions: 248)

We know that willing is not just a capacity for volition and intentions, but, in relation to creating reality, it is the first capacity, the one that gets everything else going, the link between mind or knowledge and action. The will is the greatest faculty for advancement and progress, for the will is incapable of willing backwards. We can, however, will to give up the will. When this is not a cancellation of action that leads to paralysis, it is not only our supreme moral act, but also the greatest act of empowerment. Recall the Master is reported to have said: “It is a great power to have a strong will, but a greater power to give that will to God.”

Hannah Arendt states: “Only by surmounting an inner resistance does the Will become aware of its genesis.” (The Life of the Mind: 162) But I wonder about that. Awareness of this sort is intellectual. No doubt, by overcoming resistance the will knows and can increase its power. But the greatest resistance to overcome is not willing to negate another volition, but not willing to negate the self. This often occurs from a belief that there is no life after this one, only extinction. But some things are only known to exist by their opposites. That is, if material life exists, that itself is an indirect proof of the life of the spirit. The Master explains: Among the proofs of the existence of a divine power is this: that things are often known by their opposites. Were it not for darkness, light could not be sensed. Were it not for death, life could not be known. If ignorance did not exist, knowledge would not be a reality. It is necessary that each should exist in order that the other should have reality…Things are known by their opposites.” (The Promulgation of Universal Peace: 82)

Also when one is in great trial or difficulty the will often falters. The way out may be surprising. ‘Abdu’l-Baha stated: “The afflictions which come to humanity sometimes tend to centre the consciousness upon the limitations, and this is a veritable prison. Release comes by making of the will a Door through which the confirmations of the Spirit come. “The confirmations of the Spirit are all those powers and gifts which some are born with (and which men sometimes call genius), but for which others have to strive with infinite pains. They come to that man or woman who accepts his life with radiant acquiescence.” ('Abdu'l-Baha in London: 120-121) Willing self-surrender is the greatest act of empowerment, for the soul connects with the almighty, divine Power.

Again this is not a one-time or spasmodic thing, but can be turned into a central pillar of one’s life, if one wishes to tap into spiritual power consistently. The Master stated that to fully manifest this power that penetrates to the realities of things, “we must be self-abnegating, we must have pure spirits, pure intentions, and strive with heart and soul while in the human world to attain everlasting glory.” (The Promulgation of Universal Peace: 187) This is not a new teaching for this age. The Lord Christ stated two thousand years ago: “For whosoever will save his life shall lose it: but whosoever will lose his life for my sake, the same shall save it.” (King James Bible, Luke 9:24) The difference is that in Christ’s time the principle was for the emerging single individual. Today, the principle applies to the emerging single collective, humankind.

Willing to know God is a willingness to be self-abnegating. To humbly submit to the counsels of Baha’u’llah in regards to organizing human affairs is the volitional means to bring about unity and peace.

Will is the first cause of creation because it alone comes out of itself. That is, it alone of all faculties has the power to move itself or not, and it is this ability to will yes or no that is the basis within humanity of obedience or disobedience to the dictates of divine Will.

Regarding the establishment of world peace, ‘Abdu’l-Baha stated: "All of us know that international peace is good, that it is conducive to human welfare and the glory of man, but volition and action are necessary before it can be established. Action is essential. Inasmuch as this century is a century of light, capacity for action is assured to mankind.” (The Promulgation of Universal Peace: 120)

Since moral choices and actions are within the scope of human will, then the capacity to choose and will peace is assured. But choice must be informed choice, not just of social possibilities but, the more important knowledge is knowledge of actual human nature, for this knowledge enables real choices to be made.

Will is the creative power and ground of the plane of manifestation, linking this plane to the essential plane of Spirit. Since the essential merit of spiritual principle is that it harmonizes with that which is immanent in the human reality, and this harmony generates “an aspiration, a will, a dynamic”, and since unity is unattainable so long as the counsels of Baha’u’llah are not recognized and followed, then absence of spiritual principle in human affairs will not generate the necessary volition and determination to tackle deep-seated problems and challenges, like establishing peace. In this context we can understand why Shoghi Effendi called our “Age of Transition” the “Age of Frustration.” (The World Order of Baha'u'llah: 171) It is an age characterized by, as the House of Justice puts it, “a paralysis of will” that “must be carefully examined and resolutely dealt with.” “This paralysis is rooted,” they go on, “in a deep-seated conviction of the inevitable quarrelsomeness of mankind, which has led to the reluctance to entertain the possibility of subordinating national self-interest to the requirements of world order, and in an unwillingness to face courageously the far-reaching implications of establishing a united world authority. It is also traceable to the incapacity of largely ignorant and subjugated masses to articulate their desire for a new order in which they can live in peace, harmony and prosperity with all humanity.” (The Promise of World Peace: para. 26)

Through its spiritual principles, which are the rational part of Revelation, the Religion of God educates the heart and soul, taps the roots of motivation, and generates individual and collective volition. Collective capacity for action is the result of the generation of a common will and widening of vision. The power of action lies first within the individual, but it surges within the group collectivity. The dynamic of will can be used to generate a collective human will to achieve peace.

A universal cycle of human development has ended, a new era of spiritual development of humanity has dawned; eternal truths are being discovered and applied. Hence one can read simultaneously both the foundational language of essences, soils, and ground alongside paeans to the glory of this Day. But all comes forth from the faculty of the heart encounter with the Word that brings forth its grounding in universal love.

Will and Word: A Vibrating Influence

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Will is the centre or focus of human understanding.

(‘Abdu’l-Baha, Star of the West # 4 p. 30)

What is the will’s relation to the rational faculty? As always in spiritual matters, there is a two-fold, reciprocal relationship, as the unity of receiver and expression. The quote above gives the receiver relation: that the faculty of will is the focus or center of the power of understanding, the rational faculty. Recall that, in any organic system its spiritual center is the pivot, or axis of growth, in league with its counterpart, the organic center, which is the totality of potentials, both source and final stage of life, as, figuratively, the seed and fruit.

Yet, Will is also related to the rational faculty as a subordinate, an instrument, as are the other faculties discussed: “Consider the rational faculty with which God hath endowed the essence of man. Examine thine own self, and behold how thy motion and stillness, thy will and purpose, thy sight and hearing, thy sense of smell and power of speech, and whatever else is related to, or transcendeth, thy physical senses or spiritual perceptions, all proceed from, and owe their existence to, this same faculty….It is indubitably clear and evident that each of these afore-mentioned instruments has depended, and will ever continue to depend, for its proper functioning on this rational faculty, which should be regarded as a sign of the revelation of Him Who is the sovereign Lord of all. Through its manifestation all these names and attributes have been revealed, and by the suspension of its action they are all destroyed and perish.” (Gleanings from the Writings of Baha'u'llah: 163)

Creatively, will is first, the active force, not thought, per se, which remains in its self-contained realm, though its knowledge obviously influences will. But, in truth, they are so closely and reciprocally intertwined as to make it impossible to separate them, except analytically. In this context, Will is the intermediate cause of creation, the executive power. Action is the immediate cause. Thought? “God saw that the light was good.”

To create, then, will is the most necessary quality, since changing the condition of anything has never been the result of knowledge or thought alone. Knowledge is necessary, but not sufficient. ‘Abdu’l-Baha said: “The attainment of any object is conditioned upon knowledge, volition and action. Unless these three conditions are forthcoming, there is no execution or accomplishment.” (Abdu'l-Baha, The Promulgation of Universal Peace: 157)

And in regards to the topic of justice and peace: “We all know and admit that justice is good, but there is need of volition and action to carry out and manifest it. For example, we might think it good to build a church, but simply thinking of it as a good thing will not help its erection. The ways and means must be provided; we must will to build it and then proceed with the construction. All of us know that international peace is good, that it is conducive to human welfare and the glory of man, but volition and action are necessary before it can be established. Action is essential. Inasmuch as this century is a century of light, capacity for action is assured to mankind.” (Abdu'l-Baha, The Promulgation of Universal Peace: 157)

Will is not just a capacity for volition and intentions, but, in relation to creating or changing reality, it is the first capacity, the one that gets everything else going, the link between knowledge and action. Provisionally, we can call will intentional or directed thought, i.e. the power that tells thought where to turn, or, conversely, which carries out thought’s knowledge. All consciousness is consciousness of difference. In this regard, we say that will is the heart of consciousness, because it is the power of choice, to move one way or another, and, even, not to move. It is the power that starts action and thus is first cause.

If spiritual principles are in harmony with that which is immanent in human nature then they are also expressions of the divine Will, and when these principles are accepted by the individual this actually puts the human will in harmony with the divine Will that pervades and sustains the universe.

The divine Will manifests in the human world, which is the outer aspect of the soul, as a new social order. Baha’u’llah announced: “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)

Shoghi Effendi outlined how that mysteriously comes about from within: “That God-born Force, irresistible in its sweeping power, incalculable in its potency, unpredictable in its course, mysterious in its workings, and awe-inspiring in its manifestations—a Force which, as the Báb has written, "vibrates within the innermost being of all created things," and which, according to Bahá'u'lláh, has through its "vibrating influence," "upset the equilibrium of the world and revolutionized its ordered life"—such a Force, acting even as a two-edged sword, is, under our very eyes, sundering, on the one hand, the age-old ties which for centuries have held together the fabric of civilized society, and is unloosing, on the other, the bonds that still fetter the infant and as yet unemancipated Faith of Bahá'u'lláh.” (The Advent of Divine Justice: 46)

This ever active divine Will continually shapes and reconfigures human society to better reflect the Kingdom of Heaven. Hence “the synchronization of such world-shaking crises with the progressive unfoldment and fruition of their divinely appointed task is itself the work of Providence, the design of an inscrutable Wisdom, and the purpose of an all-compelling Will, a Will that directs and controls, in its own mysterious way, both the fortunes of the Faith and the destinies of men.” (Shoghi Effendi, The Advent of Divine Justice: 72)

The human will also silently vibrates through the web of connections linking all things, but without the power to transform all the relations of creation, only a part of them. Plus there is a time lag, for while we need action, the divine Will IS His action. "O My Servant! Obey Me and I shall make thee like unto Myself. I say 'Be,' and it is, and thou shalt say 'Be,' and it shall be." (Baha'u'llah, The Four Valleys: 63)

Faculty of Will

2018-04-08T10:47:00.000+09:00

All that which ye potentially possess can, however, be manifested only as a result of your own volition. Your own acts testify to this truth.

(Gleanings from the Writings of Baha'u'llah: 149)

Since religion as Revelation, the Word of God, is a source of knowledge that embraces all human consciousness, it can be discovered by any of our higher spiritual faculties. Which faculty leads in that discovery depends, I suppose, on the individual. A painter may best discover nature through the faculty of sight, though of course she has other faculties which will come into play. A musician through hearing, and so on. I have chosen the six spiritual faculties of religion, justice, morality, intellect, will, and love as the leading faculties to discover the Word of God in relation to the establishment of peace. These faculties are part and parcel of the essence of the rational faculty, some of its attributes so to speak, and attributes of anything cannot be separated from its essence any more than the rays of the sun can be separated from the sun itself.

These faculties are also active in their natural state, i.e. the state prior to spiritual transformation. But their enduring activity for good or evil, justice or prejudice, for religion or not, depends upon their transformation, which is initiated by recognition of the “Word made flesh” or His Word. Now the divine Will and the divine Word are essentially the same thing. A letter written on behalf of the Guardian to an individual believer states: "There is, therefore, only one way to God and that is through the realization of his Manifestation or Prophet in that age. Christ called the world of the prophets the word in the verse of 'the word became flesh' while 'Abdu'l-Bahá calls it the Will. (Lights of Guidance: 510. That makes the first Mind also the first Will and both are the Word, the first emanation from God.

So, we begin again on a new point of the outer edge of context, launching our discussion from a different foundation, but always working toward the same center: “In essence, peace stems from an inner state supported by a spiritual or moral attitude” thus peace is already within us as an inner state—since “all were made for harmony and union.”—but it needs to be manifested. That is, peace is something that we “potentially possess” but it can be manifested only as a result of volition.

Will can be generated by spiritual principles. Recall, the House of Justice states: “The essential merit of spiritual principle is that it not only presents a perspective which harmonizes with that which is immanent in human nature, it also induces an attitude, a dynamic, a will, an aspiration, which facilitate the discovery and implementation of practical measures.”

But there is an interesting point with the transformation of will. Previously, I spoke of the intellect having to undergo a transformation by reversal or inversion through humility and self-abnegation in order to attain unto spiritual understanding in the spirit of faith. To truly understand spiritual truths, the ordinary human intellectual condition must be sacrificed and incorporated into the spiritual. The stage of reversal is associated with any transcendent leap. This is always accomplished and driven by an act of will. Thought cannot will to transcend itself. Thought cannot think transcendent thoughts through its own power. It must be willed. While other faculties expand with their transformation, the faculty of will expands only after completely surrendering itself, willing against itself, so to speak. That is, while the human experience is, in a sense, built upon the self-assertive exercise of will, the leap into the divine and spiritual is by giving up that will of self-assertion in another act of willing surrender to self-abnegation. Will is the only quality that is both self-generating and that can negate itself, willing not to will, without losing itself, for that, too, is a willing. Self-abnegation is far different from a passive surrender to things as they are or simply unfold, or a letting things happen, a lazy go-with-the-flow mentality. The act of surrender is, too, an act of willing, what the Bahá’i Writings call “radiant acquiescence.”

In this regard let us reacquaint ourselves with this previously quoted statement attributed to the Master: “We must will to know God, just as we must will in order to possess the life He has given us. The human will must be subdued and trained into the will of God. It is a great power to have a strong will, but a greater power to give that will to God. The will is what we do, the understanding is what we know. Will and understanding must be one in the cause of God. Intention brings attainment.” ('Abdu'l-Bahá: Ten Days in the Light of Acca: 30.

One of the best discussions of the Will is found in Hannah Arendt’s, The Life of the Mind. She makes this distinction between thinking and willing: “Thinking and willing are antagonists only insofar as they affect our psychic states; both, it is true, make present to our mind what is actually absent, but thinking draws into its enduring present what either is or at least has been, whereas willing, stretching out into the future, moves in a region where no such certainties exist. Our psychic apparatus—the soul as distinguished from the mind—is equipped to deal with what comes toward it from this region of the unknown by means of expectation, whose chief modes are hope and fear.” (The Life of the Mind: 35)

Will is the name of the power that has volitions. It is connected with the spirit of inner subjective life, the spirit of faith, individualism, the power of choice, moving toward destiny, and creating the future. But, as Hannah Arendt points out, will is also connected with hope and fear and, thus, connected with justice and morality.

Will is the power which stimulates all things into activity: the divine Will for all things lacking self-consciousness and for human beings will is their stimulus to act.

Will implies a conscious choice to do this or that, to act one way or another. All creatures except the human reality act in accordance with their nature. Human beings alone can consciously go against their nature. This makes will one of the chief pillars not of consciousness, but of self-consciousness. This implies a faculty to make this choice.

While will is the faculty that generates action, more importantly, it is, too, the spontaneous power of beginning something new. That is, in order for there to be novelty there must be new beginnings. Yet, in regards to itself, the Will produces its own act, it is self-generating. It is self-determined in its own nature and obeys its own laws, unlimited by any internal or external agency or object. It is continually renewed by its own source of itself. Because the will drives the soul toward the future and destiny, it cannot will backward. It realizes hope and overcomes fear.

In relation to the world, Will connects the mind’s inwardness with the outer world. It experiences itself as a causal agent, as the first cause, as causer of causes. It prepares the ground for action to occur.

Will says “yes” and “no” at the same time. Whichever is the conscious choice, the other is implied. They are always together. That is, the will’s activity does not exclude its opposite, but brings it along, and thus, at a later time, the implied can become the actuality. Its activity is, therefore, simultaneously its rest, making it a perpetual energy machine, for its energy is always and automatically replenished. It is not only self-generating but also self-subsisting.

As Hannah Arendt put it: “the I-will inevitably is countered by an I-nill.” This means it is split internally and every affirmation automatically produces its own counter. It can only check itself. The split in the will is a contest, not a dialogue, as with thought.

This split has further implications for moral choice. I mean that command is of the intrinsic nature of willing, but, then, so is obedience.

I said that Will is the only quality that is self-generating and that can negate itself, willing not to will, without losing itself, for that, too, is a willing. It comes out of itself. This characteristic of negating itself yet remaining itself makes it, alone of all qualities, free to conceive ends in themselves. This makes will a fundamental ontological quality and power.

A thought can oppose another thought, but this is not the same as stopping thought, but another thought. The will’s negating of one of its own volitions by another volition, driving, so to speak, in the opposite direction, is like this. In actualizing itself it overcomes that in life which, though also a part of life, negates its own life. But the will can go farther than this. The will can will its own death, is own paralysis, its own self-abnegation. Yet, if the will always generates and brings along its opposite, then the act of will to will self-abnegation generates and brings that self along. Willing its own death brings it a new life, turns it into new life, transforms it from death to life.

The will does not strive after something it does not have, but wills itself toward that thing. It is both self-preserving and self-asserting—even the negation as an act of will, is the self-asserting itself, but this is the assertion of a higher self.

Like every other fundamental quality, will is not just known of itself. Will is known because we understand through logic or imagination that one could have done or chosen other than what one did, a different sequence can be narrated. To choose is an act of intention, of will. Volition is the link between mind and matter and knowing and doing. Will, then, is the focal center of consciousness, for all consciousness is consciousness of difference, and the knowledge that you could have done other than what you did, or to know that you have choice beforehand, is the primal difference. Willing gives meaning to experience.

Intellect, Heart, and the Spirit of Faith

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But the universal divine mind, which is beyond nature, is the bounty of the Preexistent Power. This universal mind is divine; it embraces existing realities, and it receives the light of the mysteries of God. It is a conscious power, not a power of investigation and of research. The intellectual power of the world of nature is a power of investigation, and by its researches it discovers the realities of beings and the properties of existences; but the heavenly intellectual power, which is beyond nature, embraces things and is cognizant of things, knows them, understands them, is aware of mysteries, realities and divine significations, and is the discoverer of the concealed verities of the Kingdom. This divine intellectual power is the special attribute of the Holy Manifestations and the Dawning-places of prophethood; a ray of this light falls upon the mirrors of the hearts of the righteous, and a portion and a share of this power comes to them through the Holy Manifestations.

(‘Abdu’l-Baha, Some Answered Questions: 218)

In the quote above, it is worth noting where ‘Abdu’l-Baha indicates that the light from the universal Mind of the Manifestation falls: on the heart, wherein resides the faculty which recognizes Him. This light is what, I believe, Baha’u’llah means when He states, in contrasting spiritual with only intellectual knowledge: "Knowledge is a light which God casteth into the heart of whomsoever He willeth." It is this kind of knowledge which is and hath ever been praiseworthy, and not the limited knowledge that hath sprung forth from veiled and obscured minds. This limited knowledge they even stealthily borrow one from the other, and vainly pride themselves therein!” (The Kitab-i-Iqan: 46)

Recognition is, as I have stated before, the heart’s way of knowing spiritual reality, an entering into a higher stage of spiritual understanding named the spirit of faith. This means of knowing brings certitude. Baha’u’llah states: “Do thou ponder these momentous happenings in thy heart, so that thou mayest apprehend the greatness of this Revelation, and perceive its stupendous glory. Then shall the spirit of faith, through the grace of the Merciful, be breathed into thy being, and thou shalt be established and abide upon the seat of certitude.” (The Kitab-i-Iqan: 236)

Like the other faculties discussed so far, the faculty of intellect, too, expresses new powers and latent capacities when it comes, through the power of faith, under the sway of the divine Word. ‘Abdu’l-Baha states that: “Spirit in the human world is the discoverer of the realities of existence. All the inventions, all the sciences, all the hidden mysteries are brought to light through the activity of the spirit on the plane of life. While living in the Orient it organizes affairs in the Occident; while living on the earth it discovers the heavenly constellations. These examples ought to show you that the spirit of life is omnipotent, especially when it establishes a communication with God and becomes the recipient of the eternal light—then it transforms itself into a ray of the effulgence of the eternal sun.

“This station is the greatest of all stations, for this connection of the spirit of man with God is like unto a mirror and the sun of reality is reflected in it. Thus it becomes the collective center of all the virtues; its emanation is the bestowal of the king of bestowers; its radiations are the manifold splendors of the infinite luminary; its sanctity is from the highest summit of divine essence. This station is the station of heavenly inspiration and is called the station of the divine grace. It signifies that the rays of the sun of reality are resplendent in the mirror and the attributes of the sun of reality are reflected therein. This is the ultimate degree of human perfection, for the attainment of which the thinkers and philosophers of all time have longed and poets have dreamed; it is the mystery of mysteries and the light of lights wherein the spirit become eternal, self-subsistent, age-abiding.” (Abdu'l-Baha, Divine Philosophy: 166-167)

The intellect is limited in its understanding and denied its full range of power if there has been no awakening of the religious faculty, no entry into the spirit of faith. This limitation results in a blinding of the discerning faculty of justice, leading to a foggy conception of what is morally right and good.

Again, the spirit of faith is no mere form of belief, but, rather, a way of knowing, Baha’u’llah saying that a soul enlightened by true faith will be “established and abide upon the seat of certitude.” But the way to achieve this understanding is through a kind of reversal of direction of consciousness, an inversion of purpose, a sort of turning the self inside out that comes with the proper understanding of the importance of spiritual origin. The power of understanding discovers the Word and recognizes It as such. But it cannot recognize It as such until the natural intellect sacrifices itself to the higher self, until there is a willingness to do this. Baha’u’llah states: “The essence of understanding is to testify to one’s poverty, and submit to the Will of the Lord, the Sovereign, the Gracious, the All-Powerful.” (Tablets of Baha’u’llah: 155-156) And: “Having recognized thy powerlessness to attain to an adequate understanding of that Reality which abideth within thee, thou wilt readily admit the futility of such efforts as may be attempted by thee, or by any of the created things, to fathom the mystery of the Living God, the Day Star of unfading glory, the Ancient of everlasting days. This confession of helplessness which mature contemplation must eventually impel every mind to make is in itself the acme of human understanding, and marketh the culmination of man's development.” (Gleanings from the Writings of Baha'u'llah: 165)

The Bab wrote: “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.” (Gate of the Heart: 44)

‘Abdu’l-Baha stated: “What a heavenly potentiality God has deposited within us! What a power God has given our spirits! He has endowed us with a power to penetrate the realities of things; but we must be self-abnegating, we must have pure spirits, pure intentions, and strive with heart and soul while in the human world to attain everlasting glory.” (The Promulgation of Universal Peace: 187)

With the inspired and transformed intellect, vision is added to faith, the mind opens to reasoning by and from faith i.e. certitude, intention is perfected, spiritual transformation takes place, and the science of the love of God becomes possible. The rational faculty, the power of understanding, achieves its final stage and transcendent power in the condition of the vision of God; i.e. God seeing through it. Baha’u’llah exclaims: “If it be your wish, O people, to know God and to discover the greatness of His might, look, then, upon Me with Mine own eyes, and not with the eyes of any one besides Me.” (Gleanings from the Writings of Baha'u'llah: 272) And: “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) Finally: “Thy hearing is My hearing, hear thou therewith. Thy sight is My sight, do thou see therewith, that in thine inmost soul thou mayest testify unto My exalted sanctity, and I within Myself may bear witness unto an exalted station for thee.” (Baha'u'llah, The Arabic Hidden Words #44)

But in the end, or, rather, in the beginning, all this active force, this transformation and reversal, this awakening of faculties and powers, depends upon the exercise of the faculty of will. We will take that up next.

Human Knowledge: Reflection of the Divine

2018-03-26T10:02:00.000+09:00

Religion and science are the two wings upon which man's intelligence can soar into the heights, with which the human soul can progress. It is not possible to fly with one wing alone! Should a man try to fly with the wing of religion alone he would quickly fall into the quagmire of superstition, whilst on the other hand, with the wing of science alone he would also make no progress, but fall into the despairing slough of materialism.

(Abdu'l-Baha, Paris Talks: 143)

We have seen that the religious faculty as a faculty of the soul is universally present in humanity, as is the faculty of justice. ‘Abdu’l-Baha also says that all the Prophets have taught “the one code of morality”, so we may plausibly imply a moral faculty that responds to this code. Intellect or mind is also a universally-present faculty. But with intellect we have already, in the form of scientific inquiry and verification, a universally accepted knowledge system. Science is systematic inquiry that “discovers the secrets of creation”: an inquiry where beliefs are tested for their veracity, where facts not opinions matter, where a solid and enduring basis for human knowledge is laid. The unity here circles around the pivot of science, which is a universal means of acquiring knowledge. There is no western or eastern science. The science practiced by all races and peoples is the same.

But if it is a real and distinct state of spiritual being and mind there are or should be links and connections between the faculties, each one helping to define the other and regulate each other in a beneficial way, as there was for the state of human, and before that for natural man. Intellectual investigation and discovery should be guided by moral values and attitudes that serve the cause of justice whose purpose is the appearance of unity, which is the recognition of the unity of Revelation and God.

The secrets of creation are the knowledge of God deposited, so to speak, within the universe. One of those secrets that scientific understanding is discovering is, as the House of Justice states, that of the oneness of humankind. They write in The Promise of World Peace:

“World order can be founded only on an unshakeable consciousness of the oneness of mankind, a spiritual truth which all the human sciences confirm. Anthropology, physiology, psychology, recognize only one human species, albeit infinitely varied in the secondary aspects of life. Recognition of this truth requires abandonment of prejudice—prejudice of every kind—race, class, colour, creed, nation, sex, degree of material civilization, everything which enables people to consider themselves superior to others.

“Acceptance of the oneness of mankind is the first fundamental prerequisite for reorganization and administration of the world as one country, the home of humankind. Universal acceptance of this spiritual principle is essential to any successful attempt to establish world peace.” (The Promise of World Peace: para. 38-40.

It is in the domain of practical and instrumental reason that the mind applies spiritual principle. This is different from the power of understanding, the rational faculty, discovering the Word, which is the intellect functioning in its higher aspects, called inspiration, ecstatic reason, or other names. The Master tells us that: “Science is the first emanation from God toward man. All created beings embody the potentiality of material perfection, but the power of intellectual investigation and scientific acquisition is a higher virtue specialized to man alone. Other beings and organisms are deprived of this potentiality and attainment. God has created or deposited this love of reality in man.” (The Promulgation of Universal Peace: 49)

Now we should be careful reading this quote. Science is what? I believe that here He means something like “Scientia”, the divine knowledge, the knowledge of God. We might read the quote as divine philosophy is the first emanation. It is also the highest discovery of the human world, the crown of the natural, discursive intellect. That is, science is both the origin and goal, foundation and fruit, of intellectual investigation. But humanity is moving out of the human domain into the spiritual, so it is in need of spiritual science. Intellect is the highest power of the soul and in creation, but it is not born unaided into a spiritual state of awareness and knowing, but must make certain efforts to be lifted out of its natural condition.

We know that different kinds of knowledge draw forth their commensurate being. Only spiritual knowledge, the knowledge of God, draws forth spiritual being. Thus for spiritual understanding and education “intellect” means not the natural intellect which “consists of the rational, or logical, reasoning faculty, which apprehends general ideas and things intelligible and perceptible.” (‘Abdu'l-Baha, Baha'i World Faith: 370) Intellect here is that mind that has been enlightened by Revelation.

The Master is clear: “that which is the cause of everlasting life, eternal honor, universal enlightenment, real salvation and prosperity is, first of all, the knowledge of God. It is known that the knowledge of God is beyond all knowledge, and it is the greatest glory of the human world.” He goes on to state the relations between the knowledge of God and the faculties of the heart, of intellect, justice (discernment), and morality. "(T)he knowledge of God is the cause of spiritual progress and attraction, and through it the perception of truth, the exaltation of humanity, divine civilization, rightness of morals and illumination are obtained.” (Some Answered Questions: 300.

But for the mind to grasp the spiritual realities that are the knowledge of God it must undergo its own transformation named transcendence, because: “By mere intellectual development and power of reason, man cannot attain to his fullest degree—that is to say, by means of intellect alone he cannot accomplish the progress effected by religion.” (The Promulgation of Universal Peace: 170)

As ‘Abdu’l-Baha implies, though we have this great endowment of intellect, by itself it is inadequate to achieve the kind of intellectual progress that can be achieved by the aid of revealed religion. In regards to some transcendent understanding, intellect is mere potential until some power stimulates it into transformation, makes it whole, and trains it to a mature level of operation. That power is, from the explicit point of view of ‘Abdu’l-Baha, holy and spiritual: is the Religion of God. To a European audience He stated: “Likewise the Holy Spirit is the very cause of the life of man; without the Holy Spirit he would have no intellect, he would be unable to acquire his scientific knowledge by which his great influence over the rest of creation is gained. The illumination of the Holy Spirit gives to man the power of thought, and enables him to make discoveries by which he bends the laws of nature to his will.” (Paris Talks: 59)

He returned to this theme in America: “God has opened the doors of ideal virtues and attainments before the face of man. He has created in his being the mysteries of the divine Kingdom. He has bestowed upon him the power of intellect so that through the attribute of reason, when fortified by the Holy Spirit, he may penetrate and discover ideal realities and become informed of the mysteries of the world of significances.” (The Promulgation of Universal Peace: 303)

However, while it is clear that this spiritual Power of Mind is not a happy invention of the human imagination, neither is it some wholly abstract quality floating around waiting for some mind to be infused by it. According to the Bahá’i Writings, as we read, it is a specific Individual carrying to all humanity a universally fertilizing Message. He is the Manifestation of God and His special attribute is that His Mind is truly universal. We'll return to that theme in the next post.

The Faculty of Intellect

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The virtues of the seed are revealed in the tree; it puts forth branches, leaves, blossoms, and produces fruits. All these virtues were hidden and potential in the seed. Through the blessing and bounty of cultivation these virtues became apparent. Similarly, the merciful God, our Creator, has deposited within human realities certain latent and potential virtues. Through education and culture these virtues deposited by the loving God will become apparent in the human reality, even as the unfoldment of the tree from within the germinating seed..

(Abdu'l-Baha, The Promulgation of Universal Peace, p. 91)

Recall that one of the purposes of the rational faculty or power of understanding is to “discover the secrets of creation.” Now, this endeavor, as seers and poets through the ages have noted, is really a gigantic exercise in self-discovery. “This spirit has the power of discovery; it encompasses all things.” (Abdu'l-Baha, Some Answered Questions: 144)

The Master stated: “God's greatest gift to man is that of intellect, or understanding. The understanding is the power by which man acquires his knowledge of the several kingdoms of creation, and of various stages of existence, as well as of much which is invisible. Possessing this gift, he is, in himself, the sum of earlier creations—he is able to get into touch with those kingdoms; and by this gift, he can frequently, through his scientific knowledge, reach out with prophetic vision. Intellect is, in truth, the most precious gift bestowed upon man by the Divine Bounty. Man alone, among created beings, has this wonderful power.” (Paris Talks: 41)

Recall, too, that ‘Abdu’l-Baha stated that “(T)he religion of God is the promoter of truth, the founder of science and knowledge, it is full of goodwill for learned men; it is the civilizer of mankind, the discoverer of the secrets of nature, and the enlightener of the horizons of the world.” (Some Answered Questions: 136)

Let me say again that, for me, religion and the Religion of God are rarely the same thing. The Religion of God is what comes to humanity as Revelation, and It both founds religion and science as complementary systems of belief, knowledge and practice, stimulates the arts, and all the other things that the Master attributes to It, including aiding the discovering the secrets of creation, for it embraces all consciousness.

While in Paris, a center of materialism and the eclipse of God, ‘Abdu’l-Baha made this bold declaration about the origins of religion and science: “God made religion and science to be the measure, as it were, of our understanding. Take heed that you neglect not such a wonderful power. Weigh all things in this balance.” (Paris Talks: 146)

The Word, (i.e. Revelation, or the Religion of God) is the first bestowal from God and the power of understanding is its recipient and discover. My view is that the power of understanding may discover the Word as Religion, as Justice, as Morality, or as Intellect, or, let us say divine philosophy. It may also discover It as divine Will, or divine Love. There are other ways, too, such as prophecy or social teachings.

To see the relation between peace and intellect, we start again at the beginning, namely, that peace stems from an inner state, a spiritual condition of unity. The garden metaphors presented in the opening quote are not by accident, since we are talking about an interrelated spiritual/organic process. The relation of the spiritual to the organic is that the spiritual origin is both the foundation for the organic origin, or seed, and is fully embodied in the organic end, goal, or fruit. The seed holds all the life that comes out from it, while the fruit holds all the life folded into it, creating a new seed, making a double-end from a double origin; the double joining and knitting together of the B and the E; the past is the mirror of the future. The glory of the essence, beginning and foundation is, then, not fully revealed until maturity, the manifest end and fruit. This is true for all things. Consider these statements from Baha’u’llah. First in regards to human knowledge, whose fruit is the recognition of God: “The root of all principles and the cornerstone of all foundations hath ever been, and shall remain, the recognition of God.” (Baha'u'llah, Tabernacle of Unity: 24-25)

Secondly, in regard to Revelation Itself, whose glory is the Revelation of Baha’u’llah: “For this day is the Lord of all days, and whatsoever hath been revealed therein by the Source of divine Revelation is the truth and the essence of all principles. This day may be likened to a sea and all other days to gulfs and channels that have branched therefrom. That which is uttered and revealed in this day is the foundation, and is accounted as the Mother Book and the Source of all utterance.” (Baha'u'llah, Tabernacle of Unity: 25)

Thus while peace is the goal of humanity, ‘Abdu’l-Baha also said: “Peace is the foundation of God…”(The Promulgation of Universal Peace: 120) In His reply to a letter received from Executive Committee of the Central Organization for a Durable Peace, He wrote: “(P)eace is of the foundation of the religion of God.” (Selections from the Writings of Abdu'l-Baha: 296) In another place He clearly asserts: “The fundamental truth of the Manifestations is peace. This underlies all religion, all justice.” (The Promulgation of Universal Peace: 32)

This same relation exists between the human spirit and mind. The Master explained: “But the mind is the power of the human spirit. Spirit is the lamp; mind is the light which shines from the lamp. Spirit is the tree, and the mind is the fruit. Mind is the perfection of the spirit and is its essential quality, as the sun's rays are the essential necessity of the sun.” (Abdu'l-Baha, Some Answered Questions: 208) Yet, as ‘Abdu’l-Baha stated about the mind: “This supreme emblem of God stands first in the order of creation and first in rank, taking precedence over all created things. Witness to it is the Holy Tradition, "Before all else, God created the mind." From the dawn of creation, it was made to be revealed in the temple of man.” (The Secret of Divine Civilization: 1)

The House of Justice extended this imagery of mind by stating: “The endowments which distinguish the human race from all other forms of life are summed up in what is known as the human spirit; the mind is its essential quality.” (The Universal House of Justice, The Promise of World Peace, p. 1)

If peace stems from an inner spiritual state it is no wonder that Spirit is really what this inner state seeks, for that is what nourishes it and drives it toward manifestation. This drive is called in another context the return to God. Again, this is, both historically and today, an educative process initiated by the generating influence of unfolding eternal, spiritual principles. As ‘Abdu’l-Baha stated: “The Sun has sent forth many rays to illumine human intelligence, the light is always the same.” (Paris Talks: 142) What is that light? “The source of all learning is the knowledge of God, exalted be His Glory, and this cannot be attained save through the knowledge of His Divine Manifestation.” (Tablets of Baha’u’llah: 156)

So, what does this endowment of mind enable human beings to do, and what are its natural limitations? “These endowments have enabled humanity to build civilizations and to prosper materially. But such accomplishments alone have never satisfied the human spirit, whose mysterious nature inclines it towards transcendence, a reaching towards an invisible realm, towards the ultimate reality, that unknowable essence of essences called God. The religions brought to mankind by a succession of spiritual luminaries have been the primary link between humanity and that ultimate reality, and have galvanized and refined mankind's capacity to achieve spiritual success together with social progress.” (The Promise of World Peace: 1)

While I have listed intellect fourth, in an educational context intellect is first and primary. We have seen the interplay between knowledge and being, how one draws forth the other to create the dynamic of growth.

Intellect enables us through knowledge to discover the secrets of creation, but in this context it is the faculty that enables human beings to grasp and articulate spiritual principles that arouse and educe the faculties of religion, justice and morality to maturity and to be trained in spiritual understanding. Intellect is the supreme faculty of human consciousness, the fruit of the spirit and its essential quality, though as I have been at pains to present, all the faculties come forth from the archetypal rational faculty. Its first faculty, the religious, is from the heart, then increasingly abstract qualities of justice, morality and intellect come forth in their full flower, with human reasoning intelligence entering maturity at about fifteen, and maturity, the fruit, defines that condition. That is true collectively also.

Justice, Morality and Religion

2018-03-11T08:16:00.000+09:00

I hope that each one of you will become just, and direct your thoughts towards the unity of mankind; that you will never harm your neighbours nor speak ill of any one; that you will respect the rights of all men, and be more concerned for the interests of others than for your own. Thus will you become torches of Divine justice,

(Abdu'l-Baha, Paris Talks: 160)

I would like to return to certain images characteristic of justice, because justice and morality interpenetrate and thus share certain qualities.

Justice, discerning the truth in words and deeds and what is fair and equitable socially, and morality, living principles of right and wrong, interpenetrate because both use reward and punishment to train behavior, which come from foundational statements of divine promise and the threat, as can be seen in the Golden rule, the Mosaic Code of commandments, and in the spiritual principles of Baha'u'llah. Recall that the promise of reward and the threat of punishment, of gain and loss, generate the primary sentiments of hope and fear, expectation and regret.

Justice and morality are also interconnected if, as the Master asserts: “Truthfulness is the foundation of all human virtues.” Discerning truth is the special power of the faculty of justice, whose axial value is equity, which Baha’u’llah names “the most fundamental among human virtues”, a virtue so central to our collective happiness that “the evaluation of all things must needs depend upon it.” (Gleanings from the Writings of Baha'u'llah: 202) The personal morality of society’s leaders is the guiding model of that society, though higher principles ideally govern the actions of the members of society. But, too, equity is a form of truthfulness as seeking the truth that is unity in any situation. Again, truth is discerned by the faculty of justice.

Similarly, one of the images of justice is the balance, the inner equilibrium of human qualities. The Master says the means to accomplish this is to oppose the passions to create that inner balance that is moderation. “The third element of the utterance under discussion is, 'opposes his passions.' How wonderful are the implications of this deceptively easy, all-inclusive phrase. This is the very foundation of every laudable human quality; indeed, these few words embody the light of the world, the impregnable basis of all the spiritual attributes of human beings. This is the balance wheel of all behavior, the means of keeping all man's good qualities in equilibrium.” (Abdu'l-Baha, The Secret of Divine Civilization: 59)

The same principle is expressed in regards to the moral ecology of the human family: “Similarly, with regard to the peoples who clamour for freedom: the moderate freedom which guarantees the welfare of the world of mankind and maintains and preserves the universal relationships, is found in its fullest power and extension in the teachings of Bahá'u'lláh.” (Abdu'l-Baha, Selections from the Writings of Abdu'l-Baha,: 305)

Finally, the faculties of justice and morality further interrelate because they are connected by religion. “If administrators of the law," states ‘Abdu’l-Baha, “would take into consideration the spiritual consequences of their decisions, and follow the guidance of religion, 'They would be Divine agents in the world of action, the representatives of God for those who are on earth, and they would defend, for the love of God, the interests of His servants as they would defend their own.' If a governor realizes his responsibility, and fears to defy the Divine Law, his judgments will be just. Above all, if he believes that the consequences of his actions will follow him beyond his earthly life, and that 'as he sows so must he reap', such a man will surely avoid injustice and tyranny.” (Paris Talks: 158) “Behold how important it is that Ministers of State should be enlightened by religion!” (Paris Talks: 157)

And should anyone think that his private actions have little or no social influence, ponder this statement from Baha’u’llah: “A good character is, verily, the best mantle for men from God. With it He adorneth the temples of His loved ones. By My life! The light of a good character surpasseth the light of the sun and the radiance thereof. Whoso attaineth unto it is accounted as a jewel among men. The glory and the upliftment of the world must needs depend upon it.” (Tablets of Baha'u'llah: 36)

Human moral advance, both individually and collectively, is intimately tied to our connection with the spiritual dimension of creation. Good moral behavior is the one means that any soul, high or low, rich or poor, may use to advance civilization and fulfill one of his central purposes. This dimension is also within the human reality. Only the creative message of the Manifestations of God, which sets that dimension reverberating with new energy, brings them into connection. By Their influence the darkness of the human world is illumined, and the dark coal of the lower nature is turned into sparkling diamonds of the higher nature. But all must pass the tests of justice and reason. As the Master put it: “A good character is in the sight of God and His chosen ones and the possessors of insight, the most excellent and praiseworthy of all things, but always on condition that its center of emanation should be reason and knowledge and its base should be true moderation.” (The Secret of Divine Civilization: 59)

Training the Moral Faculty

2018-03-04T08:53:00.000+09:00

The root cause of wrongdoing is ignorance, and we must therefore hold fast to the tools of perception and knowledge. Good character must be taught. Light must be spread afar, so that, in the school of humanity, all may acquire the heavenly characteristics of the spirit, and see for themselves beyond any doubt that there is no fiercer hell, no more fiery abyss, than to possess a character that is evil and unsound; no more darksome pit nor loathsome torment than to show forth qualities which deserve to be condemned.

(Selections from the Writings of Abdu'l-Baha: 136)

A moral faculty exists, and a moral dimension, too, exists, but connecting with that dimension is left to the individual’s choice. Thus training is important. As ‘Abdu’l-Baha plainly states: “Good character must be taught.”

In the following passage, Baha’u’llah points to the axial principle of this faculty and hence how it is trained: "Verily I say: The fear of God hath ever been a sure defence and a safe stronghold for all the peoples of the world. It is the chief cause of the protection of mankind, and the supreme instrument for its preservation. Indeed, there existeth in man a faculty which deterreth him from, and guardeth him against, whatever is unworthy and unseemly, and which is known as his sense of shame. This, however, is confined to but a few; all have not possessed and do not possess it.” (Tablets of Baha'u'llah: 63)

Now to say that this moral faculty arising out of a sense of shame is confined to a few and that all have not possessed and do not possess it is not to say that only these few have any chance of being moral. I believe He meant something like few people have an innate and active sense of right and wrong, or working conscience. Most people must be trained in moral awareness. Shame is that painful feeling of humiliation or distress caused by the consciousness of wrong or foolish behavior, always accompanied by a loss of respect and dishonor. Within the self-conscious, reflective, individual shame is felt as guilt: that one observing one’s own wrongful behavior is ashamed of the way one acted, knowing he could have done better. One loses self-respect.

Every human being can be trained in moral behavior, whose emotional and spiritual origin is the fear of God, through proper education. Too, we have only to remember that hope and fear are also the main emotional springs of justice. Thus Baha’u’llah admonishes: “It is incumbent upon the kings and the spiritual leaders of the world to lay fast hold on religion, inasmuch as through it the fear of God is instilled in all else but Him." (Epistle to the Son of the Wolf: 27)

However, though moral training occurs through evoking and training the innate sense of shame that is built upon the fear of God it cannot be inculcated in children through tyranny and fear, or it will likely, as we read in the discussion on justice, “injure the children by resulting in ignorant fanaticism and bigotry.” (Tablets of Baha'u'llah: 68)

Thus, in another place He writes: "That which is of paramount importance for the children, that which must precede all else, is to teach them the oneness of God and the Laws of God. For lacking this the fear of God cannot be inculcated, and lacking the fear of God and infinity of odious and abominable actions will spring up, and sentiments will be uttered that transgress all bounds..." (Lights of Guidance: 236)

The fear of God then is actually the shame one feels when disappointing a loved one through unseemly acts. Our sense of shame is because the nobler element within us, the divinely bestowed reality, is fully aware of the surrender of the consciousness to inferior and wholly mortal snares. But the fear of God must be balanced by the hope of forgiveness and reward for good actions, though that reward will become intrinsic; namely, the good action itself will be the reward.

Ignorant fanaticism and bigotry has been the sad result of much of religious education in many cultures. The House of Justice remarked: “The resurgence of fanatical religious fervour occurring in many lands cannot be regarded as more than a dying convulsion. The very nature of the violent and disruptive phenomena associated with it testifies to the spiritual bankruptcy it represents. Indeed, one of the strangest and saddest features of the current outbreak of religious fanaticism is the extent to which, in each case, it is undermining not only the spiritual values which are conducive to the unity of mankind but also those unique moral victories won by the particular religion it purports to serve.” (The Promise of World Peace para. 18)

Now merely stirring up the sentiments of hope and fear is not a sufficient basis for any education, but, rather, leads to disaster. As indicated above, and in our discussion of properly educing the faculty of justice, training involves a triple pairing: hope and fear; Promise and Threat; Reward and Punishment. The dangers of a moral education based solely upon hope and fear can be overcome through true religion and rational, spiritual principles backed—and in some cases lead—by science.

‘Abdu’l-Baha says: “Now, all questions of morality contained in the spiritual, immutable law of every religion are logically right. If religion were contrary to logical reason then it would cease to be a religion and be merely a tradition. Religion and science are the two wings upon which man's intelligence can soar into the heights, with which the human soul can progress. It is not possible to fly with one wing alone! Should a man try to fly with the wing of religion alone he would quickly fall into the quagmire of superstition, whilst on the other hand, with the wing of science alone he would also make no progress, but fall into the despairing slough of materialism.” (Paris Talks: 143)

A letter written on behalf of Shoghi Effendi expressed the following: “What can control youth and save it from the pitfalls of the crass materialism of the age is the power of a genuine, constructive and living Faith such as the one revealed to the world by Bahá’u’lláh. Religion, as in the past, is still the world's sole hope, but not that form of religion which our ecclesiastical leaders strive vainly to preach. Divorced from true religion, morals lose their effectiveness and cease to guide and control man's individual and social life. But when true religion is combined with true ethics, then moral progress becomes a possibility and not a mere ideal.

"The need of our modern youth is for such a type of ethics founded on pure religious faith. Not until these two are rightly combined and brought into full action can there be any hope for the future of the race." (From a letter written on behalf of the Guardian to an individual believer, April 17, 1926. Lights of Guidance: 630.

If questions of morality are logically right, then they can be formulated into principles which can be taught. In practical terms, the training of the moral faculty and the emergence of good character is done through reward and punishment. But even these have a spiritual foundation, as we will see in the next post.

Origins and Foundations of Morality

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One thing and only one thing will unfailingly and alone secure the undoubted triumph of this sacred Cause, namely, the extent to which our own inner life and private character mirror forth in their manifold aspects the splendor of those eternal principles proclaimed by Bahá'u'lláh.

(Shoghi Effendi, Baha'i Administration: 66)

To better understand the phrase used by the House of Justice that spiritual principle “harmonizes with that which is immanent in human nature” we should go back to the difference between origins and foundations. The first is an event that starts a process in time, an evolutionary or historical origin, while the other is an eternal structure that progressively unfolds in time. The first, the manifest foundation and origin, is connected to and manifests the second, or essential foundation and purpose; that is, the origin and life of the temporal structure is an eternal, spiritual one.

Thus, by the foundations of morality I mean that eternal, metaphysical foundation laid at the creation of the universe and in the very creation of the spirit of humanity, and which is, too, the foundation and origin of community, what Jesus called “the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world.” (The Book of Matthew 25:34) Living these eternal principles is the goal of human action, the behavioral aspect of the soul’s “mysterious nature” that “inclines it towards transcendence”.

The essential foundation of the human reality is, as Baha’u’llah stated that “all were made for harmony and union.” The essential purpose of human social activity—i.e. how that essential foundation develops from origins in time and history—is that: “All men have been created to carry forward an ever-advancing civilization.” (Gleanings from the Writings of Baha'u'llah: 214)

For me the origins of morality are in the interaction between an innate moral faculty and the Word of God. Or, in the absence of the Word directly, in any moral code that the faculty encounters and stimulates into action.

But first: Is there a moral faculty?

Linguist and social theorist, Noam Chomsky, stated the argument for the existence of an innate moral faculty, writing that “it certainly seems reasonable to speculate that the moral and ethical system acquired by the child owes much to some innate human faculty and is rooted in our nature.” (Noam Chomsky, Language and Problems of Knowledge: The Managua Lectures, Cambridge MA: MIT Press p.153)

In the following passage, Baha’u’llah identifies the moral faculty in every human being: "Indeed, there existeth in man a faculty which deterreth him from, and guardeth him against, whatever is unworthy and unseemly, and which is known as his sense of shame. This, however, is confined to but a few; all have not possessed and do not possess it.” (Tablets of Baha'u'llah: 63) (An important passage for Him as He repeated it in Epistle to the Son of the Wolf: 27-28)

This moral faculty, like every other faculty, must connect with some dimension of life. Wayne Meeks states: “Morality names a dimension of life, a pervasive and, often, only partly conscious set of value-laden dispositions, inclinations, attitudes, and habits.” (Meeks: 4) Psychologist and self-styled atheist, Jonathan Haidt, writes in his book The Happiness Hypothesis: “My claim is that the human mind perceives a third dimension, a specifically moral dimension that I will call ‘divinity’…. In choosing the label ‘divinity’, I am not assuming that God exists and is there to be perceived. Rather my research on the moral emotions has led me to conclude that the human mind simply does perceive divinity and sacredness, whether or not God exists.” (The Happiness Hypothesis: 183-184) To perceive “a specifically moral dimension” via scientific research means there is an objective dimension there to perceive.

This beautiful description of the spiritual dimension of human nature comes from a Bahá’i document: “Although there are mystical aspects that are not easily explained, the spiritual dimension of human nature can be understood, in practical terms, as the source of qualities that transcend narrow self-interest. Such qualities include love, compassion, forbearance, trustworthiness, courage, humility, co-operation and willingness to sacrifice for the common good—qualities of an enlightened citizenry, able to construct a unified world civilization.” (Baha'i International Community, 1993 Apr 01, Sustainable Development and the Human Spirit)

However, like all those other dimensions and higher worlds that are the source of qualities that characterize our better natures, moral virtues are, because of the powerful undertow of egoistic self-interest, for the most part, and for most people, not within human power to consistently manifest without the assistance provided by the divine Manifestation of God and His Revelation.

‘Abdu’l-Baha issued this trenchant comment on how the higher virtues come forth: “These virtues do not appear from the reality of man except through the power of God and the divine teachings, for they need supernatural power for their manifestation. It may be that in the world of nature a trace of these perfections may appear, but they are unstable and ephemeral; they are like the rays of the sun upon the wall.” (Abdu'l-Baha, Some Answered Questions: 79-80)

He reinforced this idea to an American audience: “Through the breaths of the Holy Spirit man is uplifted into the world of moralities and illumined by the lights of divine bestowals. The moral world is only attained through the effulgence of the Sun of Reality and the quickening life of the divine spirit. For this reason the holy Manifestations of God appear in the human world. They come to educate and illuminate mankind, to bestow spiritual susceptibilities, to quicken inner perceptions and thereby adorn the reality of man—the human temple—with divine graces.” (The Promulgation of Universal Peace: 330)

Higher virtues will not come forth and appear naturally and unannounced. Rather, to receive heavenly assistance the individual must make a conscious decision to act in a certain way. Choice is of the essence of the free will. The most important decisions are moral. “Some things are subject to the free will of man, such as justice, equity, tyranny and injustice, in other words, good and evil actions; it is evident and clear that these actions are, for the most part, left to the will of man.” (Some Answered Questions: 248)

Nonetheless, divine assistance, like the light of the sun, is there regardless of human choice, for it is the propulsive power for motion and action in either moral direction. That is, though an individual may be propelled by the divine, the direction he takes is up to him.

The Master again: “… man’s stillness or motion itself is conditioned upon the aid of God. Should this assistance fail to reach him, he can do neither good nor evil. But when the assistance of the all-bounteous Lord confers existence upon man, he is capable of both good and evil. … This condition can be likened to that of a ship that moves by the power of wind or steam. Should this power be cut off, the ship would be entirely unable to move. Nevertheless, in whatever direction the rudder is turned, the power of the steam propels the ship in that direction. If the rudder is turned to the east, the ship moves eastward, and if it is directed to the west, the ship moves west. …

“In like manner, all the doings of man are sustained by the power of divine assistance, but the choice of good or evil belongs to him alone.” (Abdu’l-Baha, Some Answered Questions, newly revised edition, pp. 288-289.

The Moral Faculty: Leadeth Him to that which is Right

2018-02-18T09:18:00.000+09:00

As religion inculcates morality, it is therefore the truest philosophy, and on it is built the only lasting civilization.

(Abdu'l-Baha, Paris Talks: 32)

“Peace”, the House of Justice, explains “stems from an inner state “supported by a spiritual or moral attitude.” Now an attitude is a settled way of thinking or feeling that is demonstrated in behavior. Thus there are two moral dimensions to explore in the following discussion, the inner spiritual attitude that supports peace, and the outer practical action that builds peaceful community on the global scale. It is what statements originating with the Universal House of Justice call the twin duties of individual and social transformation. The change in scope of human community from national to global and universal parallels and occurs with an advance in being from human to spiritual being. From a long historical perspective this is, again, another example of the changing temporal/organic social form embodying more fully the unchanging eternal/spiritual pattern. Now it reaches its highest form, that of maturity.

With the practical side of morality we are in the realm of actions that everyman can do to bring about world peace. Here, morality means not the abstract rules and principles of right behavior, but what transpires between human beings under the guidance of those rules of engagement of individuals. That is, out of the interplay between moral rules and practices and the relations of individuals with those authorities that are the guardians of these rules there gradually emerges both a normative canon of concepts of economic, legal, cultural and social justice, and civil institutions that adjudicate, apply and mediate these. However, while principles and systems are real enough, in a social context the essence of all morality is to be sought for in the respect which the individual acquires for these rules and institutions. Morals comes from mores and ethics from ethos, which are, respectively, customs and habits.

In many respects morality is the glue building community and holding its members together, especially in times of stress. In fact, it is difficult to think of the formation and evolution of morality without also thinking of forming, building, and maintaining distinctive community. Wayne Meeks, in his book, The Origins of Christian Morality, wrote: ‘Making morals means making community.” (Meeks: 5) Yet, because images of reality differ, codes of behavior that set out what is and is not moral differ, and when systems and beliefs differ clashes occur.

Morality, then, is, socially, deeply conservative and communal, identifying an individual as a member of a community. From this view, in any society moral advances are individual acts of courage of moral reformers in the name of higher principles or powers that go against the settled way of thinking, but which nonetheless constitute a broadening or humanizing, of established morality, and which often cost these pioneers, such as Socrates, Martin Luther King, and Gandhi, their lives. Today, there is little traditional community left. But a new global community is emerging.

The situation today was summed up by Baha’u’llah: “No two men can be found who may be said to be outwardly and inwardly united. The evidences of discord and malice are apparent everywhere, though all were made for harmony and union.” (Tablets of Baha'u'llah: 163-164)

Now, if moral rules and principles harmonize with that which is immanent in human nature, as the House of Justice says that spiritual principles do, and if institutions embody the same spiritual principles and seek the same moral goals as individuals, then the moral faculty has a situation of coherence or unity, i.e. a harmony between inner and outer aspects. Thus there is no contradiction between the individual’s inner sense of what is right and his outer behavior that demonstrates and expresses that moral potential.

The only way to achieve this goal in a world that is simultaneously unifying and fracturing along myriad of moral fault lines is to adopt an universal code of morality. And if humanity is one then our collective moral development would occur with principles of right and wrong that resonate with something immanent to the native faculties of people everywhere.

Now let’s note again that there are two natures in the human being, traditionally called lower and higher, animal and angelic. It is here, also, within the soul of the individual, that the spiritual and social worlds meet, interact, and influence each other, where the two natures of the human being either contend or cooperate, where morality takes shape. The phrase “harmonizing with that which is immanent to human nature” assuredly means this higher, spiritual nature. It is this nature that responds with alacrity to spiritual principles, and not to principles that legitimate or support prejudice, oppression and discrimination, principles that so attract the lower nature.

Religion has been the foundation of nearly every code of morality. Unity in the moral realm, then, is inconceivable independently from the teachings of the world’s greatest Spiritual Figures. “All the Manifestations of God and His Prophets have taught the same truths and given the same spiritual law. They all teach the one code of morality. There is no division in the truth. The Sun has sent forth many rays to illumine human intelligence, the light is always the same.” (Abdu'l-Baha, Paris Talks: 142)

These universal moral principles, the one code of morality spoken of by ‘Abdu’l-Baha, are not any eclectic mix of the various cultural norms, nor man-made codes restricting and training behavior., which are often unconscious holdovers from simpler times or the mere articulation of abstract principles which have little power to actually change human behavior. This one code of morality is not any cultural norm, but a spiritual one. It is those principles and attitudes that connect with that which is immanent in the human spirit and bring it forth in good behaviors and practices.

In short, it is the eternal principles of right behavior that are part and parcel of every Revelation that harmonize with higher human nature. But, as we have learned, eternal structures don’t enter the world in their full form, but unfold as the human race develops and evolves in its understanding of spiritual reality. Hence Baha’u’llah makes statements such as: “From the heaven of God's Will, and for the purpose of ennobling the world of being and of elevating the minds and souls of men, hath been sent down that which is the most effective instrument for the education of the whole human race. The highest essence and most perfect expression of whatsoever the peoples of old have either said or written hath, through this most potent Revelation, been sent down from the heaven of the Will of the All-Possessing, the Ever-Abiding God. Of old it hath been revealed: ‘Love of one's country is an element of the Faith of God.’ The Tongue of Grandeur hath, however, in the day of His manifestation proclaimed: ‘It is not his to boast who loveth his country, but it is his who loveth the world.’ Through the power released by these exalted words He hath lent a fresh impulse, and set a new direction, to the birds of men's hearts, and hath obliterated every trace of restriction and limitation from God's holy Book.” (Gleanings from the Writings of Baha'u'llah: 95-96)

Spiritual principles and the latent potentials and inner powers they bring forth are in a reciprocal relationship. That is, they educe and support each other. For example, the House of Justice states that: “The essential merit of spiritual principle is that it not only presents a perspective which harmonizes with that which is immanent in human nature, it also induces an attitude.” Thus spiritual principle induces an attitude that supports peace when it is evoked. A little later they declare about the commonality of the revealed religions: “The teaching that we should treat others as we ourselves would wish to be treated, an ethic variously repeated in all the great religions…sums up the moral attitude, the peace-inducing aspect, extending through these religions irrespective of their place or time of origin; it also signifies an aspect of unity which is their essential virtue, a virtue mankind in its disjointed view of history has failed to appreciate.” Hence the moral attitude that supports peace also induces it through spiritual principles.

But, traditionally, this reciprocal relationship failed to endure and our moral faculties became stunted, for the same reason that the faculties of religion and justice failed to fully develop as they should have; namely, universal divine thought was twisted and deformed by human self-interest into narrow privilege and prejudice. “Had humanity seen the Educators of its collective childhood in their true character, as agents of one civilizing process, it would no doubt have reaped incalculably greater benefits from the cumulative effects of their successive missions. This, alas, it failed to do.” (The Promise of World Peace: 1)

The same situation appears today. The Master explains: “Now, in our own day, history repeats itself.

“Those who would have men believe that religion is their own private property once more bring their efforts to bear against the Sun of Truth: they resist the Command of God; they invent calumnies, not having arguments against it, neither proofs.” (Paris Talks: 102)

Baha’u’llah warned the moral and religious leaders of His time: "O ye the dawning-places of knowledge! Beware that ye suffer not yourselves to become changed, for as ye change, most men will, likewise, change. This, verily, is an injustice unto yourselves and unto others.... Ye are even as a spring. If it be changed, so will the streams that branch out from it be changed.” (Shoghi Effendi, The Promised Day is Come: 83)

A New Order of Justice

2018-01-28T08:39:00.000+09:00

Justice, which consisteth in rendering each his due, dependeth upon and is conditioned by two words: reward and punishment. From the standpoint of justice, every soul should receive the reward of his actions, inasmuch as the peace and prosperity of the world depend thereon, even as He saith, exalted be His glory: ‘The structure of world stability and order hath been reared upon, and will continue to be sustained by, the twin pillars of reward and punishment’ In brief, every circumstance requireth a different utterance and every occasion calleth for a different course of action.

(Baha'u'llah, Tabernacle of Unity: 40)

While justice “consisteth in rendering each his due”, the concept of equity—“every circumstance requireth a different utterance and every occasion calleth for a different course of action”—broadens and relaxes the strictures of the equality of law, making true justice. Equity may demand that more be given to some than what may be, by law, due to them, because they have been deprived of equal opportunity and resources. Equity restores the balance and moderates the selfish impulses of those already blessed with social advantage. The Master stated: “The Kingdom of God is founded upon equity and justice, and also upon mercy, compassion, and kindness to every living soul.” (Selections from the Writings of Abdu'l-Baha: 158)

Now equity itself, while the axial principle, or fundamental human value, in justice, is brought about through two other powers working in tandem. The first of these is consultation, but consultation does not function alone. In our discussion of the kerygmatic, we saw that consultation is paired with compassion. I wrote there: “…compassion works collectively to build the unity of a group. It is itself an unique form of knowing and generating knowledge. Baha’u’llah says compassion is of equal importance to consultation in the meaningful exchange of thought: “The heaven of divine wisdom is illumined with the two luminaries of consultation and compassion...”(Tablets of Baha'u'llah: 126)

Their relation with justice as the inner faculty which discerns truth, and with the consultative processes that operate within the outer institutions of justice to educe and train that faculty, is further strengthened when we look at the larger statement. Baha’u’llah wrote: “The heaven of divine wisdom is illumined with the two luminaries of consultation and compassion and the canopy of world order is upraised upon the two pillars of reward and punishment.” (Tablets of Baha'u'llah: 126) Consultation and compassion are connected with intellect and the power of understanding, i.e. the recognition of spiritual principle: “The Great Being saith: The heaven of divine wisdom is illumined with the two luminaries of consultation and compassion. Take ye counsel together in all matters, inasmuch as consultation is the lamp of guidance which leadeth the way, and is the bestower of understanding.” (Tablets of Baha'u'llah: 168)

As the faculty that discerns truth and orders society, justice “traineth the world.” Perhaps this is why it is the “best-beloved of all things” in His sight. When it is a consistent system of rewards and punishments, justice and equity are life-giving, as are all other spiritual faculties when functioning properly. Baha’u’llah tells us: “That which traineth the world is Justice, for it is upheld by two pillars, reward and punishment. These two pillars are the sources of life to the world. Inasmuch as for each day there is a new problem and for every problem an expedient solution, such affairs should be referred to the Ministers of the House of Justice that they may act according to the needs and requirements of the time.” (Tablets of Baha'u'llah: 27)

“The structure of world stability and order,” He further asserts, “hath been reared upon, and will continue to be sustained by, the twin pillars of reward and punishment. And in another connection He hath uttered the following in the eloquent tongue: Justice hath a mighty force at its command. It is none other than reward and punishment for the deeds of men. By the power of this force the tabernacle of order is established throughout the world, causing the wicked to restrain their natures for fear of punishment.” (Baha'u'llah, Tablets of Baha'u'llah: 163-164)

Yet, what society today embodies both of these ideals?; which community uses both wings of justice to fly? In a stinging indictment of many penal systems, ‘Abdu’l-Baha remarked: “They build prisons, make chains and fetters, arrange places of exile and banishment, and different kinds of hardships and tortures, and think by these means to discipline criminals, whereas, in reality, they are causing destruction of morals and perversion of characters.” (Some Answered Questions: 271)

The best means of achieving justice is through moral education. The Master again: “The communities must punish the oppressor, the murderer, the malefactor, so as to warn and restrain others from committing like crimes. But the most essential thing is that the people must be educated in such a way that no crimes will be committed; for it is possible to educate the masses so effectively that they will avoid and shrink from perpetrating crimes, so that the crime itself will appear to them as the greatest chastisement, the utmost condemnation and torment. Therefore, no crimes which require punishment will be committed.” (Some Answered Questions: 268-269) He is not so sanguine as to believe that crime can be completely eliminated. But His category of crimes that do not require punishment is suggestive of the kind of community that can be built.

One final point needs be made regarding the proper training of the faculty of justice. I will let ‘Abdu’l-Baha make it, and only say to the reader to pay attention to His last phrase: “As to the difference between that material civilization now prevailing, and the divine civilization which will be one of the benefits to derive from the House of Justice, it is this: material civilization, through the power of punitive and retaliatory laws, restraineth the people from criminal acts; and notwithstanding this, while laws to retaliate against and punish a man are continually proliferating, as ye can see, no laws exist to reward him.” (Selections from the Writings of Abdu'l-Baha: 132) What might be the result of laws that reward citizens for righteous actions? Again, crimes for which punishment is not required, and laws that reward for good actions are ideas that grow from the principle of the oneness of humanity and its correlate, in this context, of equity—taking account of extenuating circumstances.

Basically there are two types of justice, retributive and distributive. Loosely, the first is punishment, the second, reward. Both are necessary, but in individual psychology as in collective life, the retributive mentally emerges first, while some idea of distributive emerges later with socialization. (See, for example, Jean Piaget, The Moral Judgement of the Child) But this chronology indicates that distributive justice is, spiritually, the higher form. Real distributive justice has as its goal unity, the just distribution of goods, services, opportunities and wealth in society. Hence it centers round equity as its axial principle.

Socially, equity and justice depend first upon a personal sense of justice among the rulers. “The heaven of statesmanship is made luminous and resplendent by the brightness of the light of these blessed words which hath dawned from the dayspring of the Will of God: It behoveth every ruler to weigh his own being every day in the balance of equity and justice and then to judge between men and counsel them to do that which would direct their steps unto the path of wisdom and understanding. This is the cornerstone of statesmanship and the essence thereof. From these words every enlightened man of wisdom will readily perceive that which will foster such aims as the welfare, security and protection of mankind and the safety of human lives.” (Baha'u'llah, Tablets of Baha'u'llah: 166) But there is emerging today a third kind of justice.

If humanity had the inner faculty of justice better developed there would be no need for so many laws, because previous ones would not need abrogation; and all such laws would be in harmony with that which is immanent in human nature, not the desires of the ruling classes. True justice would also preserve the universal relations of human society, as all would be in harmony with Wisdom. That is, justice would no longer be either retributive or distributive, but restorative, putting relations in manifest unity and, thereby, renovating the conditions of existence. The balance of social forces, classes and aspirations would be dynamically set upon the primary ideal of the oneness of humankind, much as proper bodily health comes from the balance of foods and nutrients. It is necessary for the world's peace and prosperity that societies have laws that reward people for their good actions. This is but true manifest justice. Baha'u'llah, in our opening quote stated: From the standpoint of justice, every soul should receive the reward of his actions, inasmuch as the peace and prosperity of the world depend thereon. This innovation alone would cause a great change in people’s attitude toward the law and authority, and direct their behavior along productive lines, certain, as they would be, of proper reward.

World civilization cannot be built without institutions of justice at every level. The best means of bringing forth the faculty of justice is good moral education. They go hand-in-hand. We read where rulers must daily weigh their own actions in the balance of justice and equity, then rule over their subjects. But justice in a globalizing world cannot be established without a universal code of morality, agreed upon by all people, that sets out what is right and wrong for everyone. Morality, too, is intimately connected with both individual and social transformation.

Another way that the word of God can be discovered and recognized is through the moral faculty. We turn to that next.

Educing and Training the Faculty of Justice

2018-01-21T08:50:00.000+09:00

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.

(Baha'u'llah, The Kitab-i-Aqdas: 85)

The realization of justice, especially today, is central to the Divine purpose. Yet all around there is a lack of justice and equity. This lack of justice, that discerning faculty whose core value and principle is equity, stems from the degeneration of the faculty of recognizing God and the failure to acknowledge the principle of the oneness of humankind: i.e. that all are children of the one God. So befogged and dissipated has the discernment of the faculty of justice become that Baha’u’llah could write: “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. Thus have We found them, as thou also dost witness.”

To remedy this situation Baha’u’llah designed the institutions of His Order around the principle of justice. These administrative institutions of the Bahá’i Order are, according to Shoghi Effendi, to be both the nucleus and pattern for the social institutions of a new world order. Too, given the prominence of justice in the Bahá’i Writings, it probably should come as no surprise that the governing bodies of the Bahá’i community are called Houses of Justice, for their members are to discern the truth in all things that come before them. Their collective means of educing the faculty of justice, of finding the truth in any matter, to look into all things with a shared, searching eye, are the principles and practice of consultation.

The document, The Prosperity of Humankind, states: “[C]onsultation is the operating expression of justice in human affairs. So vital is it to the success of collective endeavor that it must constitute a basic feature of a viable strategy of social and economic development. Indeed, the participation of those on whose commitment the success of such a strategy depends becomes effective only as consultation is made the organizing principle of every project. ‘No man can attain his true station,’ is Bahá’u’lláh's counsel, ‘except through his justice. No power can exist except through unity. No welfare and no well-being can be attained except through consultation.’" (The Prosperity of Humankind: Section III para: 6)

But outside of the Bahá’i Order much can be changed. In our discussion of the religious faculty we noted that it can be smothered, crushed, or distorted by the wrong sort of education, or by no spiritual education at all, whenever human thought usurps divine thought, narrowing it, clogging its fresh streams of insight, turning it into prejudice and oppression. Similarly with justice.

Baha’u’llah observed that those who oppose the Manifestations mostly do so because, lacking discernment and: “…having weighed the testimony of God by the standard of their own knowledge, gleaned from the teachings of the leaders of their faith, and found it at variance with their limited understanding, they arose to perpetrate such unseemly acts.” (The Kitab-i-Iqan: 14)

Recall Baha’u’llah’s counsel that: “Schools must first train the children in the principles of religion, so that the Promise and the Threat recorded in the Books of God may prevent them from the things forbidden and adorn them with the mantle of the commandments; but this in such a measure that it may not injure the children by resulting in ignorant fanaticism and bigotry.” (Baha'u'llah,Tablets of Baha'u'llah: 68)

The first part of this statement is the key to educating, or bringing forth this faculty, as we will explain. But how to do this in such a way that it does not result in fanaticism and bigotry?

First, is recognition of the principle of the oneness of humanity and, second, is the goal of world unity. The first is the foundation, the second the mature expression of justice. Shoghi Effendi writes: “Of the principles enshrined in these Tablets the most vital of them all is the principle of the oneness and wholeness of the human race, which may well be regarded as the hall-mark of Bahá'u'lláh's Revelation and the pivot of His teachings. Of such cardinal importance is this principle of unity that it is expressly referred to in the Book of His Covenant, and He unreservedly proclaims it as the central purpose of His Faith. "We, verily," He declares, "have come to unite and weld together all that dwell on earth." "So potent is the light of unity," He further states, "that it can illuminate the whole earth." "At one time," He has written with reference to this central theme of His Revelation, "We spoke in the language of the lawgiver; at another in that of the truth seeker and the mystic, and yet Our supreme purpose and highest wish hath always been to disclose the glory and sublimity of this station." Unity, He states, is the goal that "excelleth every goal" and an aspiration which is "the monarch of all aspirations." (Shoghi Effendi, God Passes By: 216)

Now, regarding the proper training and expression of this faculty of justice, whose purpose is the appearance of unity, and also to prevent tyranny and oppression, the Master tells us that it is done, in part, through a combination of hope and fear. “There is no greater prevention of oppression,” He asserts, “than these two sentiments, hope and fear. They have both political and spiritual consequences.

“If administrators of the law would take into consideration the spiritual consequences of their decisions, and follow the guidance of religion, ‘They would be Divine agents in the world of action, the representatives of God for those who are on earth, and they would defend, for the love of God, the interests of His servants as they would defend their own.’ If a governor realizes his responsibility, and fears to defy the Divine Law, his judgments will be just. Above all, if he believes that the consequences of his actions will follow him beyond his earthly life, and that "as he sows so must he reap", such a man will surely avoid injustice and tyranny.

“Should an official, on the contrary, think that all responsibility for his actions must end with his earthly life, knowing and believing nothing of Divine favours and a spiritual kingdom of joy, he will lack the incentive to just dealing, and the inspiration to destroy oppression and unrighteousness.

When a ruler knows that his judgments will be weighed in a balance by the Divine Judge, and that if he be not found wanting he will come into the Celestial Kingdom and that the light of the Heavenly Bounty will shine upon him, then will he surely act with justice and equity. Behold how important it is that Ministers of State should be enlightened by religion!” (Abdu'l-Baha, Paris Talks: 157)

Baha’u’llah states that this method of moderating behavior has always been the method of training of God and His Manifestations. Indeed, it goes back to the very foundations of human society. His statement expands on the Master’s: “Above all else, the greatest gift and the most wondrous blessing hath ever been and will continue to be Wisdom. It is man's unfailing Protector. It aideth him and strengtheneth him. Wisdom is God's Emissary and the Revealer of His Name the Omniscient. Through it the loftiness of man's station is made manifest and evident. It is all-knowing and the foremost Teacher in the school of existence. It is the Guide and is invested with high distinction. Thanks to its educating influence earthly beings have become imbued with a gem-like spirit which outshineth the heavens. In the city of justice it is the unrivalled Speaker Who, in the year nine, illumined the world with the joyful tidings of this Revelation. And it was this peerless Source of wisdom that at the beginning of the foundation of the world ascended the stair of inner meaning and when enthroned upon the pulpit of utterance, through the operation of the divine Will, proclaimed two words. The first heralded the promise of reward, while the second voiced the ominous warning of punishment. The promise gave rise to hope and the warning begat fear. Thus the basis of world order hath been firmly established upon these twin principles. Exalted is the Lord of Wisdom, the Possessor of Great Bounty.” (Tablets of Baha'u'llah,: 66)

From this quote we glean that any statement of spiritual principle from “the peerless source of Wisdom” is a cognitive combination of promises of rewards and warnings of punishments. These “two words” when understood bring forth an emotional response built upon the pillars of hope and fear. Then authorities of society are charged with instituting the rewards and punishments. That is, rewards and punishments should be part and parcel of the laws and institutions themselves.

These dualities of promise/threat, hope/fear, reward/punishment provide the structure of equity, the arena for moderating extremes, the scales for balancing the powers of the human soul.