Stabs at Oneness

Random Stabs at Oneness of God and Man in Scripture

By John Taylor; 2006 April 15

Belief in God is a grey eminence, mystical, affirming yet negating,
for of what we can see and know it only says: not this, not that. The
roots of a greater learning run way beneath, deep underground. God
transcends understanding, and His unity is more One than any one we
can grasp. The stoic philosopher Plotinus expressed this as well as
any:

"In sum: The Unity cannot be the total of beings, for so its oneness
is annulled; it cannot be the Intellectual-Principle, for so it would
be that total which the Intellectual-Principle is; nor is it Being,
for Being is the manifold of things." (Plotinus, Six Enneads)

My 11 year old daughter, Silvie, is involved in a new Baha'i inspired
children's theatre group in St. Catherines, and for that she is
required to memorize part of the following extract from the Peace
Message. She stands and uses her hands and voice with great
expressiveness, saying:

"Racism, one of the most baneful and persistent evils, is a major
barrier to peace. Its practice perpetrates too outrageous a violation
of the dignity of human beings to be countenanced under any pretext.
Racism retards the unfoldment of the boundless potentialities of its
victims, corrupts its perpetrators, and blights human progress.
Recognition of the oneness of mankind, implemented by appropriate
legal measures, must be universally upheld if this problem is to be
overcome." (Universal House of Justice, 1985 Oct, The Promise of World
Peace, 29)

The last sentence here hints at a polarity in the Baha'i principles
with oneness of humanity on one pole and racism, or more broadly
prejudice, on the other. On one side of the sphere, one, on the other,
many. Every Baha'i principle attacks its own pet prejudicial problem,
and each them is far out on the opposite pole of oneness of man.
Equality of the sexes addresses sexism, which negates human oneness
every bit as much as racism; oneness of religion addresses fanaticism
and "holier-than-thou-ism," which rivals racism as a cause of war;
universal peace deals with nationalism; economic equity attacks Mammon
and the seductive assumption that richer means better, and on and on.

I suppose another way of saying this is that instead of using negative
methods, in effect chasing a thousand skittering demons back into
hell, you can suppress them all at once by raising up the sun of
oneness. The positive method of promoting oneness of mankind is most
economical. And the sun behind the sun is the oneness of God. One God
implies one creation, and above that, one race of thinking beings, the
oneness of humanity. This warms all else in truth and justice and
chases out every skulking demon.

Whew, I am starting to feel overheated. I had better take a break.

On my break I read the pictures of Scientific American to Thomas;
although he is only six years old, he understands it on His own level.
He is fascinated with black holes and kept asking for more of one
article on that subject that I could barely comprehend myself, much
less simplify for him. Also, Silvie practiced her lines with me,
reading the above quote aloud several times; I could not resist
calling her attention to another quote that another kid in the theatre
group is memorizing. This short sentence is so important that I think
everyone should chant it as a mantra. I advised Silvie to say it
boldly as soon as anyone asks her what the difference is between
Baha'i and other philosophies or world views.

"The well-being of mankind, its peace and security, are unattainable
unless and until its unity is firmly established." (Gleanings, 286)

Not of course that we can expect this to go by without an argument.
You will find out, Silvie, that most people disagree fervently.
Whereas Baha'is would put unity on the front of the peace train as the
locomotive, everybody else would shunt it way back to the rear. It
would be the caboose.

The first thing to do is to emphasize that this ostensibly strange
Baha'i attitude is the result of an essentially mystical way of
understanding things. Yes, unity has huge consequences practically and
politically, but the main Baha'i concern is with firming up the
mystical preconditions. This could be why Baha'u'llah turned to that
theme first in His Mission, after visiting the remote caves of the
Solomon mountains. Which is why, looking over the references in the
Writings to oneness this morning, I realized for the first time how
central Baha'u'llah's early works, especially the Seven Valleys and
the Four Valleys, really are to understanding His teaching about unity
and oneness.

Baha'u'llah's teachings on unity in His later work is, as it were, the
plant and the flower above ground, the part that you can see, the part
that bears fruit and that you can use. However, the root of all is
underground, buried deep in the mysticism of the Valleys. Here is the
fertile ground from which all else springs. If you just present a
plant without its root, it will fall over, and even if it doesn't, it
is just a cutting not a plant. A cutting will die, sooner or later.
Cuttings cannot thrive or reproduce on their own, which is what a good
teacher must be aim to accomplish.

A teacher does not merely convey data faithfully and passively, like a
computer monitor. As the saying goes, teaching is not conveying
learning; it is passing on a flame. A teacher is a sort of knowledge
farmer. Just as a skilled agriculturalist nurtures and replicates a
crop in its entirety, a teacher looks not only to help learning but to
show students how to teach in their turn. First the farmer grows the
crop but in doing so picks out the best seeds from the most improved
plants to plant next year. That is the essence of creative teaching.

This arises from the nature of knowledge itself. The fact is that by
far the greater part of all knowledge is mystical. This is so even of
material things. Physicists tell us that what we see of the matter in
the universe is only a tiny percentage of the actual mass out there;
most mass in space is so-called "dark matter," about which they know
almost nothing. If that is true of the outer world, how much more must
it be of the inner reality, the mystic realities that orient and
strengthen the heart! The greatest part of what we can know is far
beyond expression or conscious retention, like the roots under a
plant. This prayer seems to stretch to the meta of metaphysics,
outstretching transcendence of oneness.

"O Lord! The tongue of my tongue and the heart of my heart and the
spirit of my spirit and my outward and inmost beings bear witness to
Thy unity and Thy oneness..." (Baha'u'llah, Tablets, 114)

Which is why I would advise you, Silvie, whenever possible in teaching
human oneness to go straight to its mystical root, unity in the heart
of the seeker; make sure that is firm and healthy, do not worry about
irrelevant opinions and arguments. Do it early on, and return there
often. A plant can look healthy but if the roots are dead, you are
wasting your time. The loveliest cut flower is nothing but dead mulch.
Most impressive in my perusal this morning was this passage, from the
fourth of the Seven Valleys, the valley of unity.

"O my friend, look upon thyself: Hadst thou not become a father nor
begotten a son, neither wouldst thou have heard these sayings. Now
forget them all, that thou mayest learn from the Master of Love in the
schoolhouse of oneness, and return unto God, and forsake the inner
land of unreality for thy true station, and dwell within the shadow of
the tree of knowledge." (Seven Valleys, 28)

Outwardly, physically, we reproduce, we are born of our parents and in
our turn we bear our own offspring, and they bear theirs. That has its
own lessons, but in the "schoolhouse of oneness" we forget them, we
bear our seed, learn from it and then forget, just as we live during
the day and then pass into the nothingness of sleep. Unconsciously,
forgetting everything, we learn through dreams our greatest lessons.
That is when the "Master of Love," in realms beyond expression, visits
and teaches.

The idea of oneness as a school turns up again in the Kitab-i-Aqdas.
But we will leave that for another time and place.

--
John Taylor

badijet@gmail.com