OG and ST

The Oneness of God and Individual Investigation of Reality

By John Taylor; 2006 Apr 08

Toward the beginning of these adventures in Oneness we speculated that
maybe each of the dozen or so mentions of a "Great Being" in the
Lawh-i-Maqsud is intended as a link between a Baha'i principle and the
mother or master principle of them all, the Oneness of God. Now, in
this and upcoming essays, let us try that out for size. Back then I
categorized under the first principle, "search for truth" or
"investigation of reality" the following "Great Being" extract from
the Lawh-i-Maqsud:

"The Great Being saith: The heaven of statesmanship is made luminous
and resplendent by the brightness of the light of these blessed words
which hath dawned from the dayspring of the Will of God: It behoveth
every ruler to weigh his own being every day in the balance of equity
and justice and then to judge between men and counsel them to do that
which would direct their steps unto the path of wisdom and
understanding. This is the cornerstone of statesmanship and the
essence thereof. (Tablets, 166-167)

Baha'u'llah right afterwards underlines this passage yet again,
assuring the reader that the "secrets of statesmanship and that of
which the people are in need lie enfolded within these words."
(Tablets, 166-167) Insofar as the world needs good leadership and
"follower-ship" too, this is the Holy Grail.

What is statesmanship? Politicians are presently the most reviled of
trades, worse than lawyers and car salesmen put together. Most people
think of a statesman as a politician who towards the end of his or her
career rises above the conniving, squabbling and self-promotion of
politics and seeks the esteem of posterity. A statesman asks the
question, "What can I do that our grandchildren will value the most?",
and then does whatever it takes to accomplish that. In times of
crisis, like now, the demands of posterity are impossibly
contradictory to business-as-usual, to received political idiom. That
is why statesmen are so pathetically hard to find, even politicians of
ordinary integrity are as rare as the philosopher's stone.

The sad fact behind it all is that the public long ago gave up not
only on politicians but, much worse, on humans and human integrity
generally. If nobody seeks, none will find. How often do we put our
hope for a better future not in people but in things, in improved
technology, new techniques, better computer software smarts,
artificial intelligence, anything but men and women? Yet for a
believer in God, there is no other hope. The human is the image of
God, and nothing can be higher or more reliable than what reflects the
Supreme Being.

We will look closer at what is "enfolded" within Baha'u'llah's words,
step by step. The fact is, I meant to jump right in and attempt just
that three days ago but instead found myself writing two essays on the
Biblical term, "dominion." This may not have been the distraction I
feared, for now I am inclined to think that dominion describes in one
word what comes out of these four discernable steps to statesmanship
in this "Great Being" statement. Thus a statesperson would be a
responsible public servant who upholds the dominion and raises the
standard of dominion governance.

In any case, here are the Great Being's four steps to true statesmanship.

Step number one. "The heaven of statesmanship is made luminous and
resplendent by the brightness of the light of these blessed words
which hath dawned from the dayspring of the Will of God." This prelude
makes it explicit. Statesmanship is first of all our principle of
Oneness of God, specifically the "one lamp" facet of oneness.

By far the greatest promoter of one lamp was none other than Jesus
Christ. One lamp is central to the message of Jesus and every divine
teacher since Him has worked from where He takes us. Jesus admonished
all who believe not to rely on their own lights but to set up one
universal light, one common lamp:

"You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hid.
Neither do you light a lamp, and put it under a bushel basket, but on
a stand; and it shines to all who are in the house. Even so, let your
light shine before men; that they may see your good works, and glorify
your Father who is in heaven." (Matt 5:14-17, WEB)

The utter reasonableness of upholding one lamp rather than many is
clear, yet we persistently forget and lapse into the chaos of personal
property, individual might. Imagine a dark room with many seekers
crawling about with flashlights. The multiple moving beams of light
shows up detail in the corners for the individual holding the torch,
but just try to see the big picture, the whole room at once. Put down
your lamp and you see only chaotic confusion. Rumi's tale of the four
blind men and the elephant is based upon this parable of the lamp.
Four blind men feel an elephant and each privately concludes that it
is a rope, or a snake, a tree, a flag, anything but the actual beast
standing before them. If they were not blind, the problem does not
arise. "Ye have eyes and cannot see," people need inner as well as
outer vision.

This religious principle of "one lamp" consciously illuminated science
from the time of its birth. Francis Bacon, looking back to the Bible
even as he helped found the scientific method, wrote,

"...were it not better for a man in a fair room to set up one great
light or branching candlestick of lights, than to go about with a
small watch candle into every corner?" (Advancement of Learning, 26)

The one lamp principle gave rise to the open sharing of scientific
knowledge. Until then, discoveries were kept secret and died with the
discoverer. The wisdom of researchers sacrificing narrow interests for
wider ones is responsible for the prosperity of the modern era. Many
little lamps combine through the open sharing of scientific knowledge.
This is a fundamental pillar of science.

The principle continues to expand today. Computer technology is seeing
open systems, specialists separated by thousands of miles developing
software in common, resulting in the Linux operating system among many
other accomplishments. Most recently it is reported that even large
corporations are learning the benefits of sharing freely formerly
proprietary software components with all who may have a need for it by
making them easily available on their sites. The repercussions of the
one lamp principle are endless. Only in the past few days a Canadian
study reported its finding that the availability of well trained
librarians is directly linked to better performance of students in
school. Without doing anything directly to students or schools
themselves, brightening the central light of a local library has
unforeseeable benefits for one and all.

The following steps of the Great Being to statesmanship are the one
lamp principle applied first to the individual, then to social life.
Take step two, self-judgment. Baha'u'llah says, "It behoveth every
ruler to weigh his own being every day in the balance of equity and
justice." This is hard-core investigation of truth, self taking self
into account regularly, alone, silently, reflectively, in utter
sobriety.

Nothing can substitute for the integrity derived from diurnal weighing
of self fairly and impartially. Once again, the personal perspective
of the lamp principle was unforgettably articulated by Jesus Christ,

"For where your treasure is, your heart will be there also. The lamp
of the body is the eye: if therefore your eye is sound, your whole
body will be full of light. But if your eye is evil, your whole body
will be full of darkness. If therefore the light that is in you is
darkness, how great is the darkness!" (Matt 6:21-23, WEB)

Justice would be a facade without personal search. As Socrates taught,
"An unexamined life is not worth living." Conversely, an examined life
is beyond price, for the one lamp is nothing else than the recognition
of certain central truths by many people. Their integrity synchronizes
the one central lamp with many personal perspectives and allows
coordination investigation of reality. Only then can the law be
applied without.

"Evil men understand not judgment; but they that seek the Lord
understand all things." (Prov 28:5)

This leads to the third step to statesmanship, "to judge between
men..." An enlightened self allows a servant to proceed to outward
judgment, for all see its justification and results. The statesman's
actions will then appeal not only to her grandchildren, but also to
contemporaries. The next two steps demonstrate precisely how to
perform that miracle.

"...and then to ... counsel them to do that which would direct their
steps unto the path of wisdom and understanding."

Rarely do leaders in our time advise how to be wise. To do that you
must understand and be wise yourself. They cajole, badger, flatter and
pander, but rarely do they summon up the courage to direct steps to
the understanding of one central lamp. The day will come when young
future leaders will go over the talks of the Master in close detail in
order to learn how to speak and what to say in public. His words are
general, encouraging, kindly, uplifting, inspiring, insightful and
enlightening. "Truly the light is sweet, And a pleasant thing it is
for the eyes to see the sun." (Eccl. 11:7, WEB) They make the right
way seem easy, natural and pleasant. He always started with first
principles, oneness of God, power of spirit, covenant, and then
proceeded to their implications in specific principles. There is more
to unfold, but for now I will close with words of the Master
explaining how the lamp of enlightenment leads to the greatest of the
worldly principles, universal peace.

"Had material civilization been combined with Divine civilization,
these fiery weapons would never have been invented. Nay, rather, human
energy would have been wholly devoted to useful inventions and would
have been concentrated on praiseworthy discoveries. Material
civilization is like a lamp-glass. Divine civilization is the lamp
itself and the glass without the light is dark. Material civilization
is like the body. No matter how infinitely graceful, elegant and
beautiful it may be, it is dead. Divine civilization is like the
spirit, and the body gets its life from the spirit, otherwise it
becomes a corpse. It has thus been made evident that the world of
mankind is in need of the breaths of the Holy Spirit." (Abdu'l-Baha,
Tablet to the Hague, p. 8)

--
John Taylor

badijet@gmail.com