The Limits of the Physical Realm

I apologize for the long gap between these two entries-I have had much on my plate to work on. In return, I shall go through both the Valley of Love and the Valley of Knowledge in this entry.

We have all heard the phrase "blinded by love." When you fall in love with somebody, you cannot imagine anything but being with your desire. It is appropriate then when the Hidden Words write, "Whither can a lover go but to the land of his beloved? and what seeker findeth rest away from his heart’s desire? To the true lover reunion is life, and separation is death. His breast is void of patience and his heart hath no peace. A myriad lives he would forsake to hasten to the abode of his beloved." Hidden Word 4 Persian. It is a beautiful idea really-complete attachment to something due to attractions we can hardly describe. Yet this creates a problem. The purpose of the Seven Valleys is to describe a journey to detachment, yet right here we have attachment. How can this paradox be mended?

It is the love of God we are to find within ourselves. We need to blind ourselves of our own desires and see only God, our Creator, our Beloved. The stead of this Valley is pain. We all know clearly when a love goes wrong, pain is felt. Pain teaches us unhappiness and we want to avoid it, thus we need to cling to our love. In such wise, we cling to the love of God, thus we do not lose it and find ourselves in misery.

Attar writes, and is quoted by Bahá'u'lláh in this passage:

"For the infidel, error—for the faithful, faith;
For Aṭṭár’s heart, an atom of Thy pain"

But what does this mean? It means this is simply what we desire most from our love. The faithful desires faith while the infidel, error (its a cultural reference I am pretty sure). Attár on the other hand desires pain... God's pain to be specific. But does God feel pain? Perhaps it could mean the desire of a pain so he could understand his love for God more clearly.

For love to be absolutely pure, one must be willing to do whatever it takes to achieve such love-and in the case of our love of God, it means even offering up our lives for the love. What better way is there to show our love than to give up our physical reality-what was given to us by God in the first place? Thus love is the second Valley... We give up our bodies to God, but He gave them to us in the first place, so what does it matter? He dons us atoms to create a physical entity by which we may live and progress-if He wants it back, why should we not give it to Him. This does not mean commit suicide spontaneously of course. Just giving up our lives randomly does not help matter at all because it is like getting a gift from a friend and throwing it away moments later. Giving up our lives for the sake of God is more like a friend gives us a gift and we use it for his benefit. We give up our lives (and it does not even mean we need to die! We could offer up our time, our comforts, our rest and be giving up our lives this way) for the sake of God when protect His Holy Words and the Message He has brought for this day.

But we digress from the topic at hand. We are never quenched by our love and we should continue to allow it to grow and expand. The love we feel for others must stem only because of our love of God; due to our love of God, we love others and ourselves. This love leads to the purity of the heart, and if God accepts this love, we may enter the next Valley, being the Valley of Knowledge.

Unlike the previous two Valleys, this Valley does not have a stead. It is the last of the three limited Valleys-meaning purely physical Valleys. Here, we begin to increase our certitude of Faith and begin to follow "the guiding light of the fear of God." In Arabic, there is a very similar idea behind fear of God and losing the love of God. Our fear of God stems from the very idea that His love will not reach us, hence the Hidden Word writing, "Love Me, that I may love thee. If thou lovest Me not, My love can in no wise reach thee." Hidden Word #5 Arabic. But we are in the Valley of Knowledge, why do we need love? Because everything builds on each other. Remember, if we lose sight of our goal and destination, we must start the entire process over again from the beginning.

Things seeming to be paradoxes will become understandable because they are within the Will of God. For example, "he will... seeth war as peace" has a greater meaning. War is an internal turmoil which should end up bringing peace to the greater whole. It is a tool (when utilized properly). The body uses war in order to protect itself and allow it return to equilibrium. It sends phagocytes and T-cells to infected places within the body and destroy macrophages which make us sick. Without this inner struggle or war, we would not be at peace. Remember, it must be utilized properly. War can also teach us lessons for what we can avoid in the future (much like the body creating antibodies which will be remembered for the next invasion of pathogens). Another paradox mentioned, which may be better understood, is from a Persian poem which writes:

Split the atom’s heart, and lo!
Within it thou wilt find a sun.

Atomic bomb anybody? An atom is so small and so insignificant, but, when opened... it yields the power of the sun (or something similar in nature and strength, far greater than what we understand). And this was quoted 80-90 years before the advent of the bomb, let alone written.

In this valley, an almost inner peace is found. The petty trials within the world no longer cause us pain, but rather we begin to see that they allow us to growth further.

The story of the watchman and the lover really explains the idea of the paradox well. When the watchman chases the lover, the lover finds his beloved in his escape. Thus, what may seem horrible to us at one time, may in fact lead us to a greater path beyond our imagination.

Things of the limited realm become less and less important and less obtrusive. One may argue that this Valley proves that the end justifies the means; that the journey does not matter so long as we reach the end. However, this is preposterous. The means were brought about by things beyond our control. To reach our own ends, we must act with justice and with wisdom. Prayer is necessary-it acts almost as a catalyst in order to decrease the energy necessary to move us forward (a catalyst does not remove the entire necessity of energy use though. Work is still needed). Whatever God sends to move us forward, we must accept it with open arms.

Once this entire idea is understood and acted upon, we will enter the Valley Unity-the first of the limitless Valleys.