Life, Motion, Atoms

I began this in September and finish it now. Please forgive the 8 month delay. This also is completely unedited. There is probably much revision that needs to be done.

Everything comes from God. The Báb writes, "There is none other God but Thee and in truth unto Thee do we all return." Though human's are the beings that have been designated with the soul and the capacity to recognize God as our Creator, other beings still feel his presence. Bahá'u'lláh in the Tablet of Carmel declares, "Sanctified be the Lord of all mankind, at the mention of Whose name all the atoms of the earth have been made to vibrate, and the Tongue of Grandeur hath been moved to disclose that which had been wrapt in His knowledge and lay concealed within the treasury of His might."

Do we look at the claim of vibrating atoms figuratively or should we take this literally? Let us begin with the idea of laws of attractions. Everything is held together by various attractions such as gravity, magnetics, electromagnets, nuclear forces, etc. In like manner, the human hearts are attracted by love for one another which bring us together. Such as the sun which has a greater pull on the planets closer in orbit to its center, we also have a great pull on those whom we love to be near us at all times. Hence, Bahá'u'lláh wrote, "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."

To continue from this point, our greatest love must be our Creator for He gave us life and everything we possess. The same goes for all the atoms and all of Creation. They vibrate at the sound of the name of their Creator.

The reality is that everything has a spirit. The Master spoke, “In the mineral world the spirit shows itself, but limited to that mineral condition.” With the mineral being the lowest of the kingdoms, we can assume all else above has spirit too. It is simply to the capacity to show whatever this spirit may be. For the plant, this is growth. For the animal, it is movement and frolicking through the lower kingdoms. For man, it is the knowledge of God.

However, we need another piece of existence and this is the soul. ‘Abdu’l-Bahá said, “When we speak of the soul we mean the motive power of this physical body which lives under its entire control in accordance with its dictates.” It is through our soul we have free-will and understanding. It controls what patterns we will choose to follow in life; whether we will find God within us and show forth the virtues He bestowed upon us or not. Then there is also “the power of the mind” which “gives [man] a power whereby he may investigate the reality of every object. It leads man on and on to the luminous station of divine sublimity and frees him from all the fetters of self, causing him to ascend to the pure heaven of sanctity.” Through the mind, we understand science and the natural world. In a Tablet to August Forel, the Master writes, “It is by the aid of such senses as those of sight, hearing, taste, smell and touch, that the mind comprehendeth, whereas, the soul is free from all agencies.” Likewise, as the soul cannot comprehend the physical realm, the mind cannot comprehend the abstractness of the realm of the soul. Our Faith, thus, cannot be something we ponder and piece together with equations and observations. Rather, we need to detach ourselves of the physical mind and instead focus on the soul, and there we will find the attributes latent within us.

Finally, we return to the spirit. What is it? In the Divine Philosophy we find written, “The spirit is the axis round which the eternal life revolves. It is conducive to everlasting glory and is the cause of the exaltation of humanity.” It is the divine energy which keeps everything going together and which interconnect everything in life.

You may then ask if the spirit causes life. This I cannot answer, but I can again quote ‘Abdu’l-Bahá and say, “The test of existence is motion. An object which has in itself the power of motion lives. If motion is withheld growth ceases. That is mortality.” It is settled then, everything that is not at 0 Kelvin is alive because every atom at every moment is moving, vibrating (I do not mean here, that even in death we are truly alive because the atoms in our dead body are moving. I mean that the dust we are made of is alive. They are simply the building blocks which give rise to another type of motion, which is our existence). Let us quote the Master again,

“There are different degrees of motion. There is a motion of transit, that is from place to place. For example, the revolution of the earth around the sun; a bird flies from branch to branch. Another kind is the motion of inherent growth, like that of man from the condition of childhood to the estate of manhood, or the development of a tree from the seedling to its full fruition. The third is the motion of condition — the sick man passes from the stage of sickness to the state of health. The fourth motion is that of the spirit. For instance, the child while in the mother's womb has all the potential qualities of the spirit, but those qualities begin to unfold little by little
as the child is born and grows and develops, finally manifesting all the attributes and qualities of the spirit. The fifth is the motion of the intellect whereby the ignorant become wise; the indifferent, alert; the dark, illuminated and the carnally-minded, spiritual.

In this century a great impelling stream is manifest in the world of intellect. Minds have been stirred by this impulse and have made marvelous progress. The sixth motion is that of the eternal essence. That is to say, all phenomena either step forth from the arena of non-existence into the court of objectivity, or from existence into non-existence. Just as being in motion is the test of life, so being stationary is the test of death and when a moving object stops it retrogrades. To stop means to fall. When a tree stops giving fruit it decays.

In other words, man must throughout all the degrees of life evolve and progress day unto day, for life is continuous. The manifestors of divine law have appeared so that they may confer upon man an ideal power which will enable him to advance along all the degrees of human attainment. The power of the world of existence is limited, while the power of God is unlimited. If the reality of man should not be confirmed by a divine power human progress would terminate.
On the other hand, the divine reality is unlimited and immeasurable and can never stop or deteriorate, therefore the holy souls who are confirmed with this divine power are likewise.”

Yes, that is a huge quote-but I really could not leave any of it out. The existence of the atom, or the life of the atom I should then say, is that of the first degree. From place to place. It does not move a far distance, but it moves all the same. (Quick side note: What do you think of the sixth degree of motion in terms of quantum mechanics where for some period of time, it seems as if the electron does not exist as it passes through a double slit?)

Now all of this may seem crazy, but hang in there. Using all of the above definitions, we can assume that the atom is alive, and if it is alive, it is part of the mineral kingdom and thus has spirit. Now, spirit is all interconnected together with one another in the divine energy of life.
Since everything is interconnected, we all feel the same pains (or at least should if we open ourselves up) and happiness. The atoms vibrate at the power of the Word, as mentioned at the beginning, and they feel the evolution of the human spirit as they progress from one Dispensation to another (i.e. from Christianity to Islam). Here, the power is so great, that the world is literally shaking at the tumultuous changes occurring and the pains and strifes we inflict upon one another.

I do not mean to go against science and say that earthquakes and weather patterns are occurring because of God. No. I do not mean that. The proper scientific conditions need to be in place, such as two straining faults, or enough evaporated water traveling at certain speeds. But what I mean is perhaps the atoms can “think” and put themselves in this proper position as they turmoil at our turmoil.

The Independent Investigation of Truth

After a long hiatus, we return to the second of the twelve principles of the Bahá'í Faith. This would be the Independent Investigation of the Truth. Previously, we have covered this idea while studying the first two paragraphs of the Kitáb-i-Íqán. The first paragraph begins with the deceleration, "No man shall attain the shores of the ocean of true understanding except he be detached from all that is in heaven and on earth."

Before we continue, we must define what man is. In The Divine Philosophy, 'Abdu'l-Bahá breaks up the idea into three parts. You have the soul, the mind and the spirit. He writes, by "the soul we mean the motive power of this physical body which lives under its entire control in accordance with its dictates." Thus, the soul is in control of everything we do. There are two natures of the soul, one which may be compared to darkness and the other to light. The soul is in charge of our free will, thus it allows us to go either way. However, referring to the Seven Valleys, we need to make it the Will of God, hence we teach and pray to give life to our soul, thus allowing us to make good decisions (by good, meaning to following the Will of God).

After the soul, we fall to the mind "which unfolds to his vision the secrets of existence... whereby he may investigate the reality of every object." The mind is the power of comprehension. We are very curious beings, taking our surroundings and manipulating them to our advantage. Though many of our thoughts are simply neurons charging through the brain as action potentials, there must be more to it than that. It really comes together from evolution. As animals evolved from the sponge to anemone to shellfish, sensory organs began to form. Eyes sensed the light and changes in light would be noticed and could either mean danger or safety. Taste and smell became tests for food with many nutrients or food which was dangerous to eat. Hearing could sense nearby enemies or prey to catch. Touch allowed the body to know it was being attacked. These senses became centralized in a super-organ called the brain. Here, the mind and storage areas were created as memories so that we could keep everything we had learned and build from it. It allowed for greater and more efficient survival. Today, rather than solely memorizing places good for food, we also use the mind for discovery of natural laws which guide our world and which we can manipulate to our advantage.

Finally, we come to the spirit "which is an emanation from the divine bestower... the effulgence of the sun of reality, the radiation of the celestial world, the spirit of faith..." It can perhaps be better described as the divine energy which gives us eternal life. We learn about the twin dichotomies of being and doing. Being is simply the existence where the mind and soul exist. However doing is within the realm of the spirit as it is what causes us to rise above simple existence and use whatever capabilities we have for our own benefit. 'Abdu'l-Bahá writes, "that although the souls of humanity are living, yet if they are deprived of contact with the spirit they are as dead." Since it is with our free will that we learn to worship God, praying and service are as life to the soul while wandering in the mist of promiscuity is as death. The spirit is our desire to reach this highest end-both physically (witnessed through our lives) and spiritually (witnessed through our dreams). We need to learn to activate both ends of the spectrum in order to complete our lives.

Through the soul, man chooses good or evil; through the mind, man comprehends his surroundings; through the spirit, man has energy for both the soul and the mind. The three work together in order to create our being. So when Bahá'u'lláh writes, "No man shall attain the shores of the ocean of true understanding except he be detached from all that is in heaven and on earth," He is speaking of all three components of our existence. The soul must follow the right path towards God, the mind must give up what it has stored as knowledge which will keep it from falsely negating truth and the spirit must be the energy which causes this detachment on both ends.

So why is this Independent Investigation of the Truth a good idea? In religions of old, there were priests and other clergymen which controlled the day to day activities of everybody. They interpreted the Writings and the commoners accepted whatever was told of them as true. However, during those times, many people did not have the ability to read or write-they did not have the time to learn. Instead, they would have one person designated to do this job and he was almost as a keeper of knowledge.

Today, literacy is becoming universal. Due to education becoming available for all people (hence the Universal Education as another major principle of the Bahá'í Faith), almost everybody has the ability to read and write and decide for themselves what they think is true rather than simply blindly following somebody else. Our minds were made to manipulate and understand; what is its use if we simply listen to another person? Man "can never enter the abode of immortality, nor partake of the cup of divine nearness and favour, unless and until he ceases to regard the words and deeds of mortal men as a standard for the true understanding and recognition of God and His Prophets." It is not to the words of other people we turn to when trying to comprehend but to the words of God and our own minds to see what we can understand.

This does not mean we should not try to explain things to others. It is wonderful to share our own ideas and build upon each other. We are social beings and have the ability to teach one another. Why waste time learning something for oneself if one can learn it faster from another? However, we need to always have proof and validation for whatever is claimed. We must also never force somebody else to accept an idea which they do not believe. This is contrary to the Independent Investigation of Truth.

The spirit is necessary for both ends for our progression.

Next time we will cover the Unity of Religion