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The purpose of this page is for my deepening on the Baha'i Philosophy and to compare how the points of the aphorisms are covered in the Writings of Swedenborg. It is being developed with the help of a number of friends - both Baha'i and Swedenborgian.
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| 1. The nature of man is spiritual. |
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Man is, in reality, a spiritual being, and only when he lives in the spirit is he truly happy.
(Abdu'l-Baha, Paris Talks, p. 72) 12. O SON OF BEING! With the hands of power I made thee and with the fingers of strength I created thee; and within thee have I placed the essence of My light. Be thou content with it and seek naught else, for My work is perfect and My command is binding. Question it not, nor have a doubt thereof. (Baha'u'llah,
The Arabic Hidden Words)
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340. II. THE SUM OF FAITH IS THAT HE WHO LIVES WELL AND BELIEVES RIGHTLY IS SAVED BY THE LORD That man was created for eternal life, and that every man may inherit it provided he lives according to the means of salvation prescribed in the Word, is admitted by every Christian, and by every heathen who possesses religion and sound reason. Nevertheless, the means of salvation are manifold, although they each and all have relation to living well and believing rightly, thus to charity and faith, for living well is charity, and believing rightly is faith. (True Christianity 340:) |
| 2.Man has no direct access to his nature which is revealed to him progressively during the process of his own inner development. |
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That which is preeminent above all other gifts, is incorruptible in nature, and pertaineth to God Himself, is the gift of Divine Revelation. Every bounty conferred by the Creator upon man, be it material or spiritual, is subservient unto this. It is, in its essence, and will ever so remain, the Bread which cometh down from Heaven. It is God's supreme testimony, the clearest evidence of His truth, the sign of His consummate bounty, the token of His all-encompassing mercy, the proof of His most loving providence, the symbol of His most perfect grace. He hath, indeed, partaken of this highest gift of God who hath recognized His Manifestation in this Day.
(Baha'u'llah, Gleanings from the Writings of Baha'u'llah, p. 195) No understanding can grasp the nature of His Revelation, nor can any knowledge comprehend the full measure of His Faith.
(Baha'u'llah,
The Kitab-i-Iqan, p. 243)
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IT IS GRANTED TO MAN TO SEE THE DIVINE PROVIDENCE IN THE BACK AND NOT IN THE FACE; AND THIS IN A SPIRITUAL STATE AND NOT IN A NATURAL STATE. To see the Divine Providence in the back and not in the face is to see it after it operates and not before; and to see it from a spiritual state and not from a natural state is to see it from heaven and not from the world. All who receive influx from heaven and acknowledge the Divine Providence, and especially those who by reformation have become spiritual, when they see events in some wonderful series, see the Divine Providence, as it were, from an interior acknowledgment and confess it. They do not desire to see it in the face, that is, before it comes into operation, fearing lest their will should enter into anything of its order and tenor.
(Divine Providence § 187)
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| 3. The understanding of spiritual values is what reveals to man his own nature. |
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1053. God Ordained, in this Day, that Guidance has been Vouchsafed to Man Through Institutions "... In view of the fact that guidance in this day, through the Bounty of God, and because of the very nature of Bahá'u'lláh's Revelation, has been vouchsafed to man through institutions in this world; namely, the Guardianship at present; and also in the future, the International House of Justice; individuals are not in a position to interpret the Teachings, and have no justification for claiming special stations."
(From a letter written on behalf of the Guardian to the National Spiritual Assembly of the United States, December, 13, 1955) (Lights of Guidance, p. 312)
721. When Studying at School or University
"For any person, whether Bahá'í or not, his youthful years are those in which he will make many decisions which will set the course of his life.
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Most important of all, it is during this period that the mind is most questing and that the spiritual values that will guide the person's future behaviour are adopted.
(From letter of the Universal House of Justice to Bahá'í Youth in every Land, June 10, 1966 Lights of Guidance, p. 214) But reason, which comprehends (or detects) the realities of things, is a spiritual reality, not physical (or material). Therefore the animal is deprived of reason, and it (reason) is specialized to mankind. The animal feeleth realities which are perceptible to the senses, but man perceiveth intellectual realities (or things perceptible to reason). Consequently, it hath become evident that reason is a spiritual faculty, not physical (or material).
(Abdu'l-Baha, Tablets of Abdu'l-Baha v1, p. 208)
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That the Word is Divine truth itself, which gives wisdom to angels and enlightens men, cannot be perceived, or seen, except by a man who is enlightened. For the Word in its literal sense seems to a worldly man, whose mind is not raised above the sensual sphere, to be so simple, that hardly anything could be simpler. But still Divine truth, such as is in the heavens, and from which angels derive their wisdom, lies concealed therein as in its sanctuary. For the Word in the letter is like the secret place covered with a veil in the midst of a temple within which lie mysteries of heavenly wisdom, such as the ear hath not heard. For in the Word and in every detail of it there is a spiritual sense, and in this a Divine celestial sense, which, considered in itself, is the Divine truth itself in the heavens, which gives wisdom to angels and enlightenment to men. The Divine truth in the heavens is light proceeding from the Lord as a Sun, which is Divine love. And because Divine truth proceeding from the Lord is the light of heaven, it is also Divine wisdom. It is this that enlightens both the minds and the eyes of the angels, and it also enlightens the minds but not the eyes of men, and enables them to understand truth, and also to perceive good, when they read the Word from the Lord and not from themselves. For a man is then in consort with the angels, and inwardly in a perception like the spiritual perception of the angels; and that spiritual perception which is enjoyed by a man- angel flows into the natural perception proper to him in the world, and enlightens it. Hence the man who reads the Word from the affection of truth has enlightenment through heaven from the Lord.
(Apocalypse Explained § 1067)
It is the rational that exists within the internal man. What goes on there is unknown to the natural since it is above its range of discernment. Consequently anyone who leads a merely natural life cannot know anything whatever about those things that are going on with him in his internal man, that is, in his rational. The Lord re-arranges those things without a person's being at all conscious of it. Consequently he knows nothing at all about how he is regenerated; indeed he is scarcely aware of his being regenerated. If he does wish to know however let him merely pay attention to his ultimate intentions, which are rarely disclosed to anyone. If those intentions are directed towards good, that is to say, if he considers the neighbor and the Lord more than he does himself he is in a state of regeneration. But if his intentions are directed towards evil, that is to say, if he considers himself more than he does the neighbor and the Lord, let him realize that he is not in any state of regeneration.
(Arcana Coelestia §3570:2)
A person can know whether his faith comes from the Lord or from the self, for the faith of anyone who is influenced by truths solely for the sake of a reputation for being learned, which will bring him position and wealth, and not for the sake of leading a good and useful life, is no more than persuasion that comes from the self and not from the Lord.
(Arcana Coelestia §9297:3)
The signs that sins are remitted, that is, removed, are these which follow. They whose sins are remitted, perceive a delight in worshiping God for the sake of God, and in serving their neighbor for the sake of their neighbor, thus in doing good for the sake of good, and in speaking truth for the sake of truth; they are unwilling to claim merit by anything of charity and faith; they shun and are averse to evils, as enmities, hatreds, revenges, adulteries, and the very thoughts of such things with intention. But the signs that sins are not remitted, that is, removed, are these which follow. They whose sins are not remitted, worship God not for the sake of God, and serve the neighbor not for the sake of the neighbor, thus they do not do good and speak truth for the sake of good and truth, but for the sake of themselves and the world; they wish to claim merit by their deeds; they perceive nothing undelightful in evils, as in enmity, in hatred, in revenge, in adulteries; and they think of them and concerning them in all license.
(The New Jerusalem and Its Heavenly Doctrine §167)
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| 4. The world of spiritual values is a transcendent world which exists of its own right independently of individuals. |
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Thus man cannot grasp the Essence of Divinity, but can, by his reasoning power, by observation, by his intuitive faculties and the revealing power of his faith, believe in God, discover the bounties of His Grace. He becometh certain that though the Divine Essence is unseen of the eye, and the existence of the Deity is intangible, yet conclusive (spiritual) proofs assert the existence of that unseen Reality. The Divine Essence as it is in itself is however beyond all description. For instance, the nature of ether is unknown, but that it existeth is certain by the effects it produceth, heat, light and electricity being the waves thereof. By these waves the existence of ether is thus proven. And as we consider the outpourings of Divine Grace we are assured of the existence of God.
(Abdu'l-Baha, Baha'i World Faith p. 341)
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There are two worlds, one spiritual and the other natural, and the spiritual world does not derive any of its character from the natural world, nor the natural world any of its character from the spiritual world. They are completely different worlds, communicating only through correspondent relationships, the nature of which we have shown many times elsewhere. To illustrate this, take the following example. Heat in the natural world corresponds to the good of charity in the spiritual world, and light in the natural world corresponds to the truth of faith in the spiritual world. Who does not see that heat and the good of charity, and that light and the truth of faith, are altogether different in character? [2] At first sight these appear to be so different as to be two completely disparate entities. That is how they appear if one ponders what the good of charity has in common with heat, or the truth of faith with light-when in fact spiritual heat is that good, and spiritual light is that truth. Even though these are so different in themselves, still they accord by correspondence. They so accord that when a person reads in the Word of heat and light, the spirits and angels who are with the person then perceive, instead of heat, charity, and instead of light, faith. We have cited this example to show that the two worlds, spiritual and natural, are so different that they have nothing in common with each other, and yet have been so created that they communicate-indeed, are conjoined-through correspondent relationships.
(Divine Love and Wisdom, paragraph # 83:)
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| 5. The progressive discovery of the spiritual values is the aim of civilization and human progress. |
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All men have been created to carry forward an ever-advancing civilization. The Almighty beareth Me witness: To act like the beasts of the field is unworthy of man. Those virtues that befit his dignity are forbearance, mercy, compassion and loving-kindness towards all the peoples and kindreds of the earth. Say: O friends! Drink your fill from this crystal stream that floweth through the heavenly grace of Him Who is the Lord of Names. Let others partake of its waters in My name, that the leaders of men in every land may fully recognize the purpose for which the Eternal Truth hath been revealed, and the reason for which they themselves have been created.
(Baha'u'llah, Gleanings from the Writings of Baha'u'llah, p. 214) It is incumbent upon them who are in authority to exercise moderation in all things. Whatsoever passeth beyond the limits of moderation will cease to exert a beneficial influence.
(Baha'u'llah, The Proclamation of Baha'u'llah, p. 113) ...although material advancement furthers good purposes in life, at the same time it serves evil ends. The divine civilization is good because it cultivates morals. ...If the moral precepts and foundations of divine civilization become united with the material advancement of man, there is no doubt that the happiness of the human world will be attained and that from every direction the glad tidings of peace upon earth will be announced. ...the material and the divine, or merciful, civilizations must progress together until the highest aspirations and desires of humanity shall become realized.
(Abdu'l-Baha, The Promulgation of Universal Peace, p. 109)
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Now since heaven is from the human race, and heaven is an abiding with the Lord to eternity, it follows that this was the Lord's end in creation; and since this was the end in creation, it is also the end of His Divine Providence. The Lord did not create the universe for His own sake, but for the sake of those with whom He will be in heaven; for spiritual love is such that it wishes to give what is its own to another; and so far as it can do this, it is in its being (esse), in its peace, and in its blessedness. Spiritual love derives this property from the Divine Love of the Lord, which is such in an infinite degree. From this it follows that the Divine Love, and consequently the Divine Providence, has for its end a heaven which should consist of men who have become, and who are becoming angels, upon whom the Lord can bestow all the blessings and felicities that belong to love and wisdom, and bestow these from Himself in them. Nor can He do otherwise, for there is in them from creation the image and likeness of Himself; the image in them is wisdom, and the likeness in them is love; and the Lord in them is love united to wisdom and wisdom united to love; or what is the same, is good united to truth and truth united to good.
(Divine Providence § 27) The end of the creation of the universe clearly shows what use is. The end of the creation of the universe is the existence of an angelic heaven; and as the angelic heaven is the end, man also or the human race is the end, since heaven is from that. From which it follows that all created things are mediate ends, and that these are uses in that order, degree, and respect in which they have relation to man, and through man to the Lord.
(Divine Love & Wisdom § 329) |
| 6. The nature of man is made of potentialities which are eternal and universal. |
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The human body is like animals subject to nature's laws. But man is endowed with a second reality, the rational or intellectual reality; and the intellectual reality of man predominates over nature. All these sciences which we enjoy were the hidden and recondite secrets of nature, unknowable to nature, but man was enabled to discover these mysteries, and out of the plane of the unseen he brought them into the plane of the seen. Yet there is a third reality in man, the spiritual reality. Through its medium one discovers spiritual revelations, a celestial faculty which is infinite as regards the intellectual as well as physical realms. That power is conferred upon man through the breath of the Holy Spirit. It is an eternal reality, an indestructible reality, a reality belonging to the divine, supernatural kingdom; a reality whereby the world is illumined, a reality which grants unto man eternal life. This third, spiritual reality it is which discovers past events and looks along the vistas of the future. It is the ray of the Sun of Reality. The spiritual world is enlightened through it, the whole of the Kingdom is being illumined by it. It enjoys the world of beatitude, a world which had not beginning and which shall have no end. That celestial reality, the third reality of the microcosm, delivers man from the material world. Its power causes man to escape from nature's world. Escaping, he will find an illuminating reality, transcending the limited reality of man and causing him to attain to the infinitude of God, abstracting him from the world of superstitions and imaginations, and submerging him in the sea of the rays of the Sun of Reality.
(Abdu'l-Baha, Foundations of World Unity, p. 51)
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The Lord not only is present in heaven, but He also is heaven itself. That is because love and wisdom are what make an angel, and these two properties are the Lord's in angels. It follows therefore that the Lord is heaven. The fact is that angels are not angels in consequence of their native character. Their native character is altogether like that of any person, which is evil. This is the native character of angels because all angels were once people, and this native character remains in them from birth. It is only set aside, and to the extent it is set aside, to that extent they receive into them love and wisdom, which is to say, the Lord. If anyone simply raises his understanding to some degree, he can see that the Lord can dwell only in what is His in angels, that is, in His own inherent character, which is love and wisdom, and cannot dwell at all in the native character of angels, which is evil. So it is that to the extent evil is set aside, to that extent the Lord is present in them, and to that extent they are angels. The very angelic quality of heaven is Divine love and wisdom. This Divine quality is called angelic when it exists in angels. Thus it is again apparent that angels are angels owing to the Lord and not to themselves. Consequently the same may be said of heaven.
(Divine Love and Wisdom § 114)
THE DIVINE PROVIDENCE APPROPRIATES NEITHER EVIL NOR GOOD TO ANYONE; BUT ONE'S OWN PRUDENCE APPROPRIATES BOTH NEARLY everyone believes that man thinks and wills from himself and consequently speaks and acts from himself. Who from himself can suppose otherwise, since the appearance of it is so strong that it does not differ at all from actually thinking, willing, speaking and acting from himself? And yet this is not possible. In ANGELIC WISDOM CONCERNING THE DIVINE LOVE AND WISDOM, it was shown that there is only one life, and that men are recipients of life; also that man's will is the receptacle of love, and his understanding the receptacle of wisdom, and that these two constitute this sole life. It was also shown that it is ordained from creation, and therefore unceasingly from the Divine Providence, that this life should appear in man exactly as if it belonged to him, and consequently as if it were his own, the purpose of this appearance being that man may serve as a receptacle for it. It was also shown above (n. 288-294) that no man thinks from himself but from others, and that these others do not think from themselves but all from the Lord, the wicked as well as the good. It was shown further that this is well known in the Christian world, especially among those who not only say but also believe that all good and truth originate from the Lord, also all wisdom and thus all faith and charity; and, moreover, that all evil and falsity originate from the devil, that is, from hell.
[2] From all this no other conclusion can follow than that everything a man thinks and wills flows into him; and since all speech flows from thought, as an effect from its cause, and since all action flows in like manner from the will, it follows that everything a man says and does also flows in, although derivatively, that is, mediately. It cannot be denied that everything a man sees, hears, smells, tastes and feels flows in; why not then what he thinks and wills? Can there be any other difference than that such things as are in the natural world flow into the organs of the external senses or those of the body, while such things as are in the spiritual world flow into the organic substances of the internal senses or those of the mind? Therefore, as the organs of the external senses or those of the body are receptacles of natural objects so the organic substances of the internal senses or those of the mind are receptacles of spiritual objects. Since this is the state of man, what then is his proprium? His proprium does not consist in being a receptacle of this or that kind, because such a proprium is merely what he is with regard to reception and is not a living proprium; for by proprium no one understands anything else than that he lives from himself, and consequently thinks and wills from himself; but that such a proprium does not exist in man, indeed cannot exist in anyone, follows from what has been said above. [NOTE: "Proprium" is used to mean "what is man's own"]
(Divine Providence § 308) ...a human being is a human being by virtue of his mind, it being the actual mind itself that constitutes a person, and the kind of mind he has that determines what kind of a person he is. By the mind is meant a person's understanding and will, consequently his essential life. People who are stupid imagine that a human being is a human being by virtue of his outward appearance, that is to say, because he possesses a human face. Others who are a little less stupid say that the human being is a human being because he has the ability to speak, while others again who are less stupid still say that the human being is a human being because he has the ability to think. But a human being is not a human being for any of these reasons but because he has the capacity to think what is true and to will what is good; and when he thinks what is true and wills what is good he has the capacity to behold what is Divine and, perceiving what it is, to accept it. [2] This is what distinguishes a human being from animals. Not merely his human appearance, or his ability to speak, or his ability to think make him a human being; for if he thinks what is false and wills what is evil, that makes him not only like but worse than an animal. For he then uses those abilities to destroy what is human within himself and to make a wild animal of himself.
(Heavenly Secrets §5302) It has been added that the learned more than the simple equate themselves with animals, ascribing all things to natural forces and scarcely anything to the Divine. Nor do they stop to reflect that man, unlike animals, is able to think about heaven and about God, and in so doing to be raised above himself, and consequently to be joined to the Lord by means of love; and that for these reasons they must inevitably live for ever after death. We have gone on to refer to their particular ignorance of the fact that every single thing with man traces back to the Lord through heaven, and that heaven is the Grand Man to which every single thing in man corresponds, as does everything in the natural system. And when perhaps they hear or read of these things they will be to them so paradoxical that unless experience proved the truth of them they would reject them as something delusive. It is similar when they hear that there are three degrees of life in man just as there are three degrees of life in heaven, that is, there are three heavens, and that man corresponds to the three heavens in such a way that in image he is a small-scale heaven when he leads the life of good and truth and through that life is an image of the Lord.
(Heavenly Secrets §3747:2 ) |
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Praise be to God, throughout succeeding centuries and ages the call of civilization hath been raised, the world of humanity hath been advancing and progressing day by day, various countries have been developing by leaps and bounds, and material improvements have increased, until the world of existence obtained universal capacity to receive the spiritual teachings and to hearken to the Divine Call.
(Abdu'l-Baha, Selections from the Writings of Abdu'l-Baha, p. 285) All men have been created to carry forward an ever-advancing civilization.
(Baha'u'llah, Gleanings from the Writings of Baha'u'llah, p. 214)
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| 8.Each divine Revelation defines a paradigm, i.e. a new "tradition", which gives man access to a new understanding of the transcendent world of spiritual values. |
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Exaggerated fasting destroys the divine forces. God has created man in a way that cannot be surpassed; we must not try to change his creation. Strive to attain nearness to reality through the acquisition of strength of character, through morality, through good works and helping the poor, through being consumed with the fire of the love of God and in discovering each day new spiritual mysteries. This is the path of intimate approach.
(Abdu'l-Baha, Divine Philosophy, p. 99) These are the ones who subject themselves to all manner of austerities before the gaze of others in the hope of perpetuating their names, whilst in reality no mention shall remain of them save in the curses and imprecations of the dwellers of earth and heaven.
(Baha'u'llah, The Summons of the Lord of Hosts, p. 45)
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I have been permitted to talk with some in the other life who had withdrawn from worldly affairs that they might live in a pious and holy manner, also with some who had afflicted themselves in various ways, believing that they were thereby renouncing the world and subduing the lusts of the flesh. But as most of these have thus acquired a sorrowful life and had withdrawn from the life of charity, which life can be lived only in the world, they are incapable of being associated with angels, because the life of angels is a life of joy resulting from a state of blessedness, and consists in performing good deeds, which are works of charity.
(Heaven and Hell 535)
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| 9. This new understanding allows man to inscribe himself in a new nature (process of renaturalisation) which gives him access to a new dimension of his interiority. |
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So it is clear that receptivity to spiritual truth is, as Bahá'u'lláh indicated, a matter of purity of heart, not of education or lack of it.
(Compilations, Promoting Entry by Troops, p. 21)
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| 10. The purpose of civilization is the progressive development of the spiritual, intellectual and social potentialities of all individuals. |
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WRONG! (Even as stated by aphorism 13) Bahá'ís believe that human beings are inherently noble, and that the purpose of life is to cultivate such attributes, skills, virtues and qualities as will enable them to contribute their share to the building of an ever-advancing civilization.
(Baha'i International Community, 1990 Mar 08, Teacher's Situation Determining Factor of Quality )
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| 11. The spiritual evolution of man is contained in a global process which can be called "the spiritualization process". |
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World order can be founded only on an unshakable 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.
(Compilations, The Compilation of Compilations vol II, p. 371)
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| 12. The finality of the individual life, as well as the finality of social life and civilization, is the spiritualization of the individual and of the whole human race. |
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LXXIII. It is clear and evident that when the veils that conceal the realities of the manifestations of the Names and Attributes of God, nay of all created things visible or invisible, have been rent asunder, nothing except the Sign of God will remain -- a sign which He, Himself, hath placed within these realities. This sign will endure as long as is the wish of the Lord thy God, the Lord of the heavens and of the earth. If such be the blessings conferred on all created things, how superior must be the destiny of the true believer, whose existence and life are to be regarded as the originating purpose of all creation.
(Baha'u'llah, Gleanings from the Writings of Baha'u'llah, p. 140)
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| 13. The spiritualization process of man implies his individuation, i.e. the conquest of his autonomy. |
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In the absence of conviction about the spiritual nature of reality and the fulfilment it alone offers, it is not surprising to find at the very heart of the current crisis of civilization a cult of individualism that increasingly admits of no restraint and that elevates acquisition and personal advancement to the status of major cultural values. The resulting atomization of society has marked a new stage in the process of disintegration about which the writings of Shoghi Effendi speak so urgently.
(Commissioned by The Universal House of Justice, Century of Light, p. 90) They say: 'Where is Paradise, and where is Hell?' Say: 'The one is reunion with Me; the other thine own self,
(Baha'u'llah, Epistle to the Son of the Wolf p. 132) We fain would hope that through thine exertions the wings of men may be sanctified from the mire of self and desire, and be made worthy to soar in the atmosphere of God's love.
(Baha'u'llah, Epistle to the Son of the Wolf p. 130) By self-surrender and perpetual union with God is meant that men should merge their will wholly in the Will of God, and regard their desires as utter nothingness beside His Purpose.
(Baha'u'llah, Gleanings from the Writings of Baha'u'llah p. 337) 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.
(Baha'u'llah, Gleanings from the Writings of Baha'u'llah p. 67)
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[a-j] 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. [k] But there are certain things to which man is forced and compelled, such as sleep, death, sickness, decline of power, injuries and misfortunes; these are not subject to the will of man, and he is not responsible for them, for he is compelled to endure them. But in the choice of good and bad actions he is free, and he commits them according to his own will.
(Abdu'l-Baha, Some Answered Questions p. 248) [l-m] Man's physical existence on this earth is a period during which the moral exercise of his free will is tried and tested in order to prepare his soul for the other worlds of God, and we must welcome affliction and tribulations as opportunities for improvement in our eternal selves.
(Compilations, NSA USA The Baha'i Faith and Homosexuality) [n-o] There is, unfortunately, no way that one can force his own good upon a man. The element of free will is there, and all we believers -- and even the Manifestation of God Himself -- can do is to offer the truth to mankind. If the people of the world persist, as they seem to be doing, in their blind materialism, they must bear the consequences in a prolongation of their present condition, and even a worsening of it.
(Compilations, Lights of Guidance p. 116)
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AC 1937. That 'humble yourself beneath her hands' means that it ought by self-compulsion to place itself under the controlling power of that interior truth is clear without explanation. In the original language 'humbling oneself' is expressed by means of a word which means to fling down. That 'flinging oneself down' in the internal sense is compelling oneself becomes clear from very many places in the Word, the meaning of which will be dealt with later on. The need for the individual to compel himself to do good, to obey what the Lord has commanded, and to utter truths, meant by 'humbling herself beneath her mistress's hands', that is, submitting oneself beneath the controlling power of Divine good and truth, comprehends more arcana within itself than can be explained briefly. [2] There are certain spirits who during their lifetime, having heard that all good originated in the Lord and that man was unable from himself to perform any good at all, had for these reasons held to a principle of not compelling themselves in anything and of remaining utterly passive; for they had supposed that, what they had heard being true, any effort at all made by them was totally ineffectual. They had therefore waited for immediate influx into the effort of their will and had not compelled themselves to do anything good. Indeed when anything evil had crept in, since they did not feel from within any resistance to it, they had gone so far as to abandon themselves to it, imagining that it was permissible to do so. But those spirits are such that they do not possess so to speak any selfhood, and so do not possess any mind of their own, and are therefore among the more useless; for they suffer themselves to be led just as much by the evil as by the good, and suffer much from the evil. [3] But those who have practiced self-compulsion and set themselves against evil and falsity - even though at first they had imagined that they did so of themselves, or by their own power, but had after that been enlightened to the effect that their effort originated in the Lord, even the smallest of all the impulses of that effort - in the next life cannot be led by evil spirits, but are among the blessed. This shows that a person ought to compel himself to do what is good and to speak what is true. The arcanum Lying within this is that in so doing a person has a heavenly proprium bestowed on him from the Lord. This heavenly proprium is formed within the effort of his thought; but if he does not maintain that effort through self-compulsion - as this appears to be the way it is maintained - he does not by any means do so by abstaining from self-compulsion. [4] To make this matter clearer let it be said that within all compulsion towards what is good a certain freedom exists, which is not recognized as freedom while a person is exercising self-compulsion, but is nevertheless inwardly present. Take for example one who is willing to risk death for the sake of some particular end, or one who is willing to endure physical pain for the sake of his health. There is a willingness and so a certain freedom in those actions, though while he is taking risks or suffering pain these remove any feeling of willingness or freedom. So also with those who compel themselves to do what is good. Present within them there is a willingness and thus freedom, which is the source of and the reason for their self-compulsion. That is to say, they compel themselves for the reason that they may obey the things which the Lord has commanded and that their souls may become saved after death; and within these a still greater reason is present, though the person himself is not aware of it, namely the Lord's kingdom, and indeed the Lord Himself. [5] This applies most of all in times of temptation. In these, when a person practices self-compulsion and sets himself against the evil and falsity that are implanted and prompted by' evil spirits, more freedom is present than there would ever be in any state outside those times of temptation, though the person cannot comprehend it then. It is an interior freedom, which produces in him the will to subdue evil and which is great enough to match the power and might of the evil assailing him; otherwise he would not be able to fight at all. This freedom comes from the Lord who implants it in his conscience and by means of it causes him to overcome evil as though he did so from his own proprium. By means of that freedom the person receives a proprium into which the Lord is able to exert good. Without a proprium acquired, that is, conferred, by means of freedom, no one can possibly be reformed, since he is unable to receive a new will, which is conscience. The freedom so conferred is the actual plane into which the influx of good and truth from the Lord passes. Consequently people who in times of temptation do not put up any resistance from that will or freedom conferred on them go under. [6] Present in all freedom is a person's life, because present there is his love. Whatever a person does from love appears to him as freedom. But within that freedom, when the person practices self- compulsion, setting himself against evil and falsity and doing what is good, heavenly love is present which the Lord instills at that time and by means of which He creates that person's proprium. It is the Lord's will therefore that this proprium should appear to the person to be his own, though in fact it is not. This proprium which a person receives in this manner during his lifetime by means, as it seems, of compulsion, the Lord replenishes in the next life with limitless forms of delight and happiness. Such people are also by degrees enlightened, or rather are confirmed, in the truth that their self-compulsion has not commenced at all in themselves but that even the smallest of all the impulses of their will has been received from the Lord. They are also led to see that the reason why their compulsion had appeared to commence in themselves was that the Lord might give them a new will as their own, and in this way the life belonging to heavenly love might be imparted to them as their own. Indeed the Lord's will is to share with everyone that which is His, thus that which is heavenly, so that it may appear to be that person's and to be within him, though in fact it is not his. A proprium such as this exists with angels, and insofar as they accept the truth that everything good and true comes from the Lord the delight and happiness belonging to such a proprium exist with them. [7] People however who despise and reject everything good and true and who are unwilling to believe anything that conflicts with their evil desires and their reasonings are unable to compel themselves and so are unable to receive this proprium imparted to conscience, that is, to receive a new will. From what has been stated above it is also evident that self-compulsion is not the same as being compelled, for no good ever results from being compelled, as when one person is being compelled by another to do good. What is being discussed here is self-compulsion which is the product of a certain freedom unknown to the individual, for the Lord is never the source of any compulsion. From this comes the universal law that everything good and true is implanted in freedom. Otherwise the ground never becomes receptive and able to foster what is good; indeed there is no ground for the seed to grow in.
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| 15. The unification of the inner being is conducive to the development of a unified vision which allows the individual to see the underlying unity of the reality of things. |
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Say: Spirit, mind, soul, and the powers of sight and hearing are but one single reality which hath manifold expressions owing to the diversity of its instruments.
(Baha'u'llah, The Summons of the Lord of Hosts p. 154) Upon the inmost reality of each and every created thing He hath shed the light of one of His names, and made it a recipient of the glory of one of His attributes. Upon the reality of man, however, He hath focused the radiance of all of His names and attributes, and made it a mirror of His own Self. Alone of all created things man hath been singled out for so great a favor, so enduring a bounty.
(Baha'u'llah, Gleanings from the Writings of Baha'u'llah p. 65) From among all created things He hath singled out for His special favor the pure, the gem-like reality of man, and invested it with a unique capacity of knowing Him and of reflecting the greatness of His glory.
(Baha'u'llah, Gleanings from the Writings of Baha'u'llah p. 77) LXXXII. Thou hast asked Me concerning the nature of the soul. Know, verily, that the soul is a sign of God, a heavenly gem whose reality the most learned of men hath failed to grasp, and whose mystery no mind, however acute, can ever hope to unravel.
(Baha'u'llah, Gleanings from the Writings of Baha'u'llah p. 158) Verily I say, the human soul is exalted above all egress and regress. It is still, and yet it soareth; it moveth, and yet it is still. It is, in itself, a testimony that beareth witness to the existence of a world that is contingent, as well as to the reality of a world that hath neither beginning nor end.
(Baha'u'llah, Gleanings from the Writings of Baha'u'llah p. 161)
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16. Then he can see the unity
of the exoteric and the esoteric, of the form and the content, of the means and the ends. |
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From that which hath been said it becometh evident that all things, in their inmost reality, testify to the revelation of the names and attributes of God within them.
(Baha'u'llah, The Kitab-i-Iqan p. 102) It is incumbent upon thee, by the permission of God, to cleanse the eye of thine heart from the things of the world, that thou mayest realize the infinitude of divine knowledge, and mayest behold Truth so clearly that thou wilt need no proof to demonstrate His reality, nor any evidence to bear witness unto His testimony.
(Baha'u'llah, The Kitab-i-Iqan p. 90) 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? For if the character of mankind be not changed, the futility of God's universal Manifestations would be apparent.
(Baha'u'llah, The Kitab-i-Iqan p. 240)
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| 17. It is through this inner unification that the universal teleology and the meaning of the universe become perceivable. |
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By holding fast unto names they deprive themselves of the inner reality and by clinging to vain imaginings they are kept back from the Dayspring of heavenly signs.
(Baha'u'llah, Tablets of Baha'u'llah p. 58) The world is but a show, vain and empty, a mere nothing, bearing the semblance of reality.
(Baha'u'llah, Gleanings from the Writings of Baha'u'llah p. 328) He beholdeth in illusion the secret of reality, and readeth from the attributes the riddle of the Essence.
(Baha'u'llah, The Seven Valleys p. 31)
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When the detached wayfarer and sincere seeker hath fulfilled these essential conditions, then and only then can he be called a true seeker. Whensoever he hath fulfilled the conditions implied in the verse: "Whoso maketh efforts for Us,"[1] he shall enjoy the blessing conferred by the words: "In Our ways shall We assuredly guide him."[2] Only when the lamp of search, of earnest striving, of longing desire, of passionate devotion, of fervid love, of rapture, and ecstasy, is kindled within the seeker's heart, and the breeze of His loving-kindness is wafted upon his soul, will the darkness of error be dispelled, the mists of doubts and misgivings be dissipated, and the lights of knowledge and certitude envelop his being.
(Baha'u'llah, The Kitab-i-Iqan p. 195)
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| 19. For this reason, the development of "the spiritual vision" reveals to man a hidden order of the universe. |
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The light of the intellect enables us to understand and realize all that exists, but it is only the Divine Light that can give us sight for the invisible things, and which enables us to see truths that will only be visible to the world thousands of years hence. It was the Divine Light which enabled the prophets to see two thousand years in advance what was going to take place and today we see the realization of their vision. Thus it is this Light which we must strive to seek, for it is greater than any other.
('Abdu'l-Baha, Paris Talks, p. 69)
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| 20.However, this hidden order is relative to the individual and his spiritual understanding and should not be regarded as existing per se. |
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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? For if the character of mankind be not changed, the futility of God's universal Manifestations would be apparent.
(Baha'u'llah, The Kitab-i-Iqan, p. 240) Neither the candle nor the lamp can be lighted through their own unaided efforts, nor can it ever be possible for the mirror to free itself from its dross.
(Baha'u'llah, Gleanings from the Writings of Baha'u'llah, p. 66)
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| 21.The Baha'i Faith, through the spiritualization process, represents the emergence of a new subjectivity. |
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| 22. The subject is the social being involved in the transformation of the world. |
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| 23.The process of spiritualization embraces the social being as well as the inner being and must crown the spiritualization of the subject to which the human being cannot be reduced. |
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| 24. The transformation of the subject and the advent of a new subjectivity are conditioned by the transformation of the inner being of man and its unification. |
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| 25. The process of subjectivisation is an absolutely necessary step toward the spiritualization of mankind. |
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| 26. Subjectivisation represents for man a new way to understand himself socially and to understand his relationship with society. |
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| 29.Spirituality includes the knowledge and understanding of the mechanisms and practices which rules the transformation of the inner being of man. |
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| 31. However, all states and ranks pertain to the individual and himself alone and not to any external reality. |
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The origin of evil comes from abuse of the faculties which are peculiar to mankind and are called rationality and freedom. By rationality we mean the faculty of understanding truths and thus falsities, and of understanding goods and thus evils; and by freedom we mean the faculty of thinking, willing and doing these freely. It can be seen from preceding discussions, and it will be further seen from subsequent ones, that a person possesses these two faculties from creation and so from birth; that they come from the Lord; that they are not taken away; that they produce the appearance that a person thinks, speaks, wills and acts as though of himself; that the Lord dwells in every person in these faculties; that owing to that conjunction a person lives to eternity; that a person can be reformed and regenerated in consequence of these faculties and not apart from them; and that it is these faculties which distinguish the human being from animals. (Divine Love and Wisdom 264) |
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| 34. Man cannot understand himself in his totality because he is a creature who has been endowed with an infinite potential of evolution. |
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O NOBLE Friends! O Seekers for the Kingdom of God! Man all over the world is seeking for God. All that exists is God; but the Reality of Divinity is holy above all understanding. The pictures of Divinity that come to our mind are the product of our fancy; they exist in the realm of our imagination. They are not adequate to the Truth; truth in its essence cannot be put into words. Divinity cannot by comprehended because it is comprehending. Man, who has also a real existence, is comprehended by God; therefore, the Divinity which man can understand is partial; it is not complete. Divinity is actual Truth and real existence, and not any representation of it. Divinity itself contains All, and is not contained. Although the mineral, vegetable, animal and man all have actual being, yet the mineral has no knowledge of the vegetable. It cannot apprehend it. It cannot imagine nor understand it. It is the same with the vegetable. Any progress it may make, however highly it may become developed, it will never apprehend the animal, nor understand it. It is, so to speak, without news of it. It has no ears, no sight, no understanding. It is the same with the animal. However much it may progress in its own kingdom, however refined its feelings may become, it will have no real notion of the world of man or of his special intellectual faculties. The animal cannot understand the roundness of the earth, nor its motion in space, nor the central position of the sun, nor can it imagine such a thing as the all-pervading ether. Although the mineral, vegetable, animal and man himself are actual beings, the difference between their kingdoms prevents members of the lower degree from comprehending the essence and nature of those of the superior degree. This being so, how can the temporal and phenomenal comprehend the Lord of Hosts?
(Abdu'l-Baha,
Abdu'l-Baha in London, p. 21)
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| 35. Total understanding of man by himself would be tantamount to the understanding God ("He has known God him who has known himself"). |
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| 36. God has put in man a "Divine Deposit" which is the medium by which man can communicate with the world of spiritual values. |
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| 37. But in the depth of man's inner being, which exists well beyond the "divine deposit", God has also put his "Sign" which is an unfathomable mystery. |
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| 38.The "Sign of God" in man is the part of the human essence which will remain for ever out of reach of man. |
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| 39.It is because of this "Sign of God" in him that man has an infinite potential of evolution and that he can infinitely come closer to God. |
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| 41.Because man cannot fully and totally understand himself there is no foundation to knowledge. |
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| 42. The quest for a foundation of knowledge is tantamount to the quest of a global understanding of the universe. |
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| 43.The ultimate foundation of all knowledge is God himself. |
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| 44. God is beyond the range of human rational understanding. |
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| 45. Man can have access to God only through an intuitive experience, the character of which is only partial and limited. |
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| 46.Man cannot know the creation in its entirety, but he can have an intuitive perception of it. |
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| 47. It is on this intuition of the world that lay the ultimate foundation of all knowledge. |
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| 48.The essence of this intuition is spiritual and has its origin in the spiritual nature of man. |
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| 49.A total knowledge of the universe in its entirety would have a meaning only if man could know himself in his totality. |
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| 50. This total knowledge represents an ideal for which man should strive to make constant progress but which is ultimately inaccessible and will remain so for ever. |
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| 51. Man can only acquire a limited intelligibility of the universe. |
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| 52. This intelligibility is linked and depends on rationality and on the ontological situs of man which limits his horizon of understanding |
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| 53. The First Philosophy (metaphysics) is not a philosophy of the Being but a philosophy of the values which are progressively revealed to man. |
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| 54.Its object springs from the study of the human nature and constitutes the only means by which man can apprehend these values. |
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| 55. What philosophers call "Being" is in reality only a modality of intelligibility. |
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| 56. To each modality of being corresponds a modality of understanding of the universe. |
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| 57. The being of man is what comes to define and to limit his understanding of himself and of the world in which he is living. |
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| 58. The "world of existence" which embraces everything besides God constitutes only one unique world. |
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| 59.In the Baha'i philosophy there is no antinomy between the spiritual world and the material world. |
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| 60. The material world is totally contained in the spiritual world. |
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| 61. Materiality and spirituality are just two special modalities of the same world. |
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| 62. The physical world is made of objects or entities having their own individuality (nominalism) and which all have an independent existence (realism). |
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| 63. However, the physical reality in its globality is the manifestation of a more fundamental reality, the nature of which is purely spiritual. |
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| 64.The realism and nominalism of the Baha'i philosophy is both transcendent and limited as it does not exclude certain aspects of creation which are idealist. |
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| 65.Whatever exists is contingent. |
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| 66. Man does not know any form of existence which is not contingent as contingency is the characteristic of existence itself. |
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| 67. God, not being contingent, is beyond existence. |
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| 68. He "is" without being the Being in a manner which is absolutely inaccessible to human understanding. |
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| 69. Innate ideas do not exist. |
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| 70.The only innate idea which can be said to exist is the intuitive knowledge that man has of his own existence. |
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| 72. It is by entering his own interiority that man can have access to the spiritual reality of the things and of the world. |
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| 73. What man sees and understands of the world depends on his interiority and not on the independent reality of the world. |
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| 74. This can be called the phenomenological principle of Baha'u'llah. |
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| 75. The differences that man perceives between the different ontological levels of the phenomenological experience come from man himself and not from the reality of such ontological levels. |
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| 76. The meaning of the world is found in man himself, not in the world. |
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| 77. The existence of man is more fundamental to himself than the existence of the universe. |
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| 78. The existence of man is more fundamental to the creation than the physical reality of the universe. |
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| 79. The human consciousness is both consciousness of one's self and consciousness of the world, because a consciousness without object cannot exist. |
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| 80. However, man's understanding of himself can be developed only through the understanding of the world both in its physical and spiritual aspects. |
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| 81. The world perceived by consciousness is not only an empirical reality, but also a world of values. |
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| 82. The experience by man of the world as a world of spiritual values contributes to the development of rationality. |
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| 83. This explains why the immanent aspects of the world cannot be separated from its transcendent aspects. |
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| 85. Man is defined only by his relationship to himself and to the "divine deposit" in him. |
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| 86. The relation to God and to the world must be understood from the vantage point of his relationship to himself and not from the point of a conscience problematic. |
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| 87. The finality of human existence is to know and to love God. |
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| 88. By this knowledge and this love, man learns to know himself and to know the world. |
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| 89. This knowledge and this love have the power to bring man to the realization of his spiritual potentialities. |
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| 90. Knowledge and love represent two aspects of an inseparable reality. |
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| 92. The balance between knowledge and love, thinking and feeling, reason and emotion is essential to the social, psychological and spiritual development of man. |
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| 93. The purpose of all human society is to carry on an ever progressing civilization. |
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| 94. The purpose of civilization is to help man in developing his psychological, social and spiritual potentialities, according to the time requirements. |
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| 95. Rational understanding is part of a much larger noetic process and is completely included in spiritual understanding. |
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| 96. Truth is defined in a period of history by the way man apprehends the world of spiritual values. |
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| 97. Hence truth is an historial concept. |
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| 98.True liberty is for man to achieve his own spiritual nature. |
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| 99. |
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| 100. |
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The Tractatus aphorisms were developed by Jean-Marc Lepain a recognized scholarly Baha'i Theologian and translator of Tablets of Baha'u'llah, as well as a noted authority in the fields of banking, economics, and international service. He states that at the time that he published the Tractatus that he had worked on it for twenty-years and that he had voluminous notes of quotes for each aphorism but nowhere have I been able to find them or him. In one report I found stated some years ago that Jean-Marc Lepain was over ninety years of age, but I also find scholarly contributions published by him two years ago. Some of his writing is in French, which I do not read. Aside from Jean-Marc Lepain's physical inaccessibility to me, much more serious would be his intellectual accessibility. I need to exhibit no humility about lack of scholarly accomplishment or capability on my part because that is obviously apparent and will be repeatedly pointed out by any who should happen to critique my effort here. I speak of Jean-Marc Lepain as a theologian and if there is some spectrum of distinction between theologians and philosophers my own leaning would be towards the latter in such small degree of capability as I may have. Here too, Jean-Marc Lepain is a 'nominalist' in strong opposition to my 'absolute idealist' position. Also I suppose him to be a dualist, as are most Baha'is, in contrast to my monist position. But all this matters not in my effort to study and appreciate what he has to say. My greatest struggle, for the last several years, aside from not being able to prevail upon other Baha'is to assist me, has been in trying to document the aphorisms directly from the Writings of Baha'u'llah. While I have often been able to find in the Baha'i Writings reference to the concepts - I have more often not been able to find quotes directly from Baha'u'llah that I felt sufficiently direct to whatever issue was hand. The Ocean research data base has of course been of immeasurable help, and I have hopes of one day having access to the syntopical database developed by Marian Lippit. But, be that as it may, the poor and little results of my effort at the moment are, in part, that much of what I have found comes from sources such as Paris Talks which which lie under some cloud of not being fully authoritative sources - leave alone as being directly Revealed by Baha'u'llah. My goal, however, is not a pedantic one. I seek the Reality itself. In this regards I have often found the Writings of Swedenborg to clarify for me concepts alluded to by Baha'u'llah. Indeed I often say that there are many things in the Writings of Baha'u'llah that I would not have understood without the Writings of Swedenborg, and vice-versa, many things in the Writings of Swedenborg that I would not have understood without the Writings of Baha'u'llah. So - now this effort - in which I hope that Swedenborgian scholars will help me to clarify the aphorisms. Here is a link to Jean-Marc Lepain's own comments about the Tractatus Aphorisms. and also a 1933 comment by the Guardian of the Baha'i - made to someone else but regarding the principle being envoked here:
"It is hoped that all the Bahá'í students will follow the noble
example you have set before them and will, henceforth, be led to
investigate and analyse the principles of the Faith and to correlate them
with the modern aspects of philosophy and science. Every intelligent
and thoughtful young Bahá'í should always approach the Cause in this
way, for therein lies the very essence of the principle of
independent investigation of truth.
(Shoghi Effendi, quoted in Scholarship, p. 17) we believe the Counsellors and Auxiliary Board members can perform a valuable service by encouraging the believers to base their knowledge of the Teachings on Sacred Text, together with the interpretations of the Guardian and the clarifications of the Universal House of Justice,
(International Teaching Centre, Concerns about Retributive Calamity, 1984 Jul 01)
Bruce Beach
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