Max Headroom Principle

The Max Headroom Principle

By John Taylor; 25 March, 2006

We have been edging sideways into the notion that the Revelation of
the Bab acts on some deep mystical level as a Mother and that of
Baha'u'llah as Father. Together they are nurturing the understanding
of One God into maturity and independence. As the Qu'ran admonishes,
"No just estimate have they made of God, such as is due to Him."
(Q39:67, Yusuf Ali) Now for the first time in human history most
people most of the time will be conscious of God, His Oneness and
transcendence, as we were meant to. This new consensus upon One God
will be the foundation where the diverse, contending peoples will fuse
of their own will into one people of God. That is the mother of all
goals. Consider what God tells the Bab (Qurratu'l-Ayn) in the 23rd
Chapter of the Qayyumu'l-Asma about the purpose of His revelation,

"O Qurratu'l-'ayn! We have, verily, dilated Thine heart in this
Revelation, which stands truly unique from all created things, and
have exalted Thy name through the manifestation of the Bab, so that
men may become aware of Our transcendent power, and recognize that God
is immeasurably sanctified above the praise of all men. He is verily
independent of the whole of creation." (The Bab, Selections, 49)

One need only read "The Dawnbreakers" to witness the passionate love
for God that moved so many to give their all for the Bab. What greater
proof of God's power, sanctity and independence could there be than
these serial martyrdoms? These earth shaking events were the great
birthing, incomplete as a story but conclusively proving consolation.
Qurratu'l-ayn, "Solace of the eyes," by the way, is an Arabic
expression that refers to the relief of a mother after her
accouchement upon seeing her newborn babe alive and healthy, the fruit
of her labors. Her eyes are consoled by the new life. A martyr is a
spiritual solace of the eyes, a witness of conscience. A martyr has a
voluntary birth into the next world, spiritually a truer parturition
than physical birth. The Bab was Himself a Martyr, as were most of His
supporters. In terms of yesterday's essay, these martyrdoms would be
brilliant, spectacular flashes of "slow meteors" streaking across the
night sky.

There is one unique aspect of the events associated with the coming of
the Bab that `Abdu'l-Baha once pointed out, the fact that most often
Baha'u'llah was right there on the spot, personally guiding,
nurturing, counseling these great souls as they fought their battles,
both spiritual and literal. No religion has had such close attention
in its planting from another Manifestation of God as that of the Bab.
In the case of Tahireh, Baha'u'llah more than once had her rescued
from her enemies. These wonderful souls were in most cases personally
trained and guided by Him, and, as at Badasht, were often coached and
rehearsed in their public interaction. This Father was no absentee
"deadbeat dad." He did not distance Himself. He was there in the thick
of things, right to the end. In the darkest crisis after the attempt
on the life of the Shah, He Himself came forward and was first into
prison, the Black Pit of Tihran. Here, in this darkest, dankest sewer,
the torrent of new Revelation rushed down over His yoked head and
shoulders and spoke to him in the personification of a woman.

Baha'u'llah subsequently refined and extended the Bab's declaration of
purpose above, which is restricted to our recognition of divine power
and transcendence. His declaration of purpose includes our specific
role and reason for being, to know and love God.

"All-praise to the unity of God, and all-honor to Him, the sovereign
Lord, the incomparable and all-glorious Ruler of the universe, Who,
out of utter nothingness hath created the reality of all things....
Nothing short of His all-encompassing grace, His all-pervading mercy,
could have possibly achieved it.... Having created the world and all
that liveth and moveth therein, He through the direct operation of His
unconstrained and sovereign Will, chose to confer upon man the unique
distinction to know Him and to love Him -- a capacity that must needs
be regarded as the generating impulse and the primary purpose
underlying the whole of creation." (Gleanings, 65)

This unique distinction of a human being, the ability to know and love
God, did not come about on its own. It is the fruit of the mystic
unity between the Bab and Baha'u'llah; each is One, their Cause is
one. A sort of meiosis of their spiritual genes combines and splits
and from that is born the egg of a new human, one that knows and
loves, who in maturity can generate new life, consciously responding
to the divine purpose.

The maturity of creative power works individually and in groups. I was
forcefully reminded of this at the end of our latest Spiritual
Assembly meeting that I attended a few weeks ago. It was as if I was
asleep (not literally, I do not think) and a spiritual hand slapped me
awake with the words of the closing prayer for Assemblies. In an early
translation it starts off like this:

"O God! O God! Thou dost look upon us from Thine unseen Kingdom of
Oneness, [beholding] that we have assembled in this Spiritual Meeting,
believing in Thee, confident in Thy signs, firm in Thy Covenant and
Testament, attracted unto Thee, set aglow with the fire of Thy love,
sincere in Thy Cause, servants in Thy vineyard, spreaders of Thy
Religion, worshipers of Thy Countenance, humble to Thy beloved,
submissive at Thy door and imploring Thee to confirm us in the service
of Thy chosen ones. Support us with Thine unseen hosts, strengthen our
loins in Thy servitude and make us submissive and worshipping
servants, communing with Thee." (`Abdu'l-Baha, Tablets of Abdu'l-Baha
v1, p. 16)

Even if I thought I was awake in the Assembly meeting, how could I
have been? Who could bear in mind this long list of explosive virtues
and attitudes? It is too much to take in consciously.

I did a word search and found that this is the only prayer that starts
off with the image of God looking down from the "unseen Kingdom of
Oneness." Why only in this Assembly prayer? Puzzling over that, I
named several of these essays "unseen heights" because the image of a
knowing but unseen Overseer haunted me. The prayer pictures
unforgettably what the principle of Oneness of God seems to be about,
about maximum headroom, about beholding and being beheld by an unseen
kingdom and as a result thinking "outside the box" of former human
limitations.

I think this prayer was meant to shake us awake at the close. None of
the virtues invoked is traditionally associated with power. It is
startling. Machiavelli's ruthless, amoral Prince is its mirror
reverse. Here is a wholly new concept of power, the fruit of the Bab's
goal, "that men may become aware of Our transcendent power..." If God
has all power, we have only humility, knowing and loving Him like God
knows and loves us. This prayer seems just as if one were listening to
a summation address by the Exemplar, Who all this time has been in
spirit sitting in a chair at table with us. He sat with us during the
easy part of consultation, the deliberation and now He formally ushers
us out of the consultative congress into the difficult part, action,
carrying out the Assembly's decisions both in letter and in spirit.

A sleepwalker cannot really be said to have a plan, but I suppose I
have gone into all this now, in the middle of talking about
Heraclitus, because one of the prime operating impulses of philosophy
and the concept of One God is to "speak truth to power." Plato at the
height of his powers went off on a hopeless mission to coach a
pleasure loving young tyrant in how to be a philosopher king. He was
aware of the inherent futility of the endeavor but he made the
attempt, saying that this is what wisdom must always seek to do. The
wise long to unite knowing with acting, love and wisdom uniting with
political power.

Jesus prophesied that this unification would one day take place. He
foresaw a spirit of truth who will guide unto all truth, One who
"shall not speak of himself but whatsoever he shall hear, that shall
he speak." Baha'u'llah echoes this in the apothegm at the beginning of
His major Tablet, "Words of Paradise,"

"He is the One Who speaketh through the power of Truth in the Kingdom
of Utterance." (Tablets, 57)

This is why the Creative Word comes first, and all follows from it.
Those who place words of truth first clue into its spirit and exude an
atmosphere of virtue, and thus gain the support of the "unseen hosts"
invoked in the Master's prayer. This is how the One is bringing about
a new cycle of human power. The Logos that Heraclitus discerned brings
order to flux and chaos, which is inherent to material existence. The
Logos is the parenting of the Bab and Baha'u'llah, which allows us to
hold Logos in our very heart and consciousness. This Word makes us for
the first time, individually and in duly constituted groups, worthy to
bear the otherwise all-corrupting force of power.

--
John Taylor

badijet@gmail.com