Discerning Eye

2007 Mar 16; The Discerning Eye; Fast Times Diary, Part Four

I have been gradually falling behind in my sleep during this fast, burning the candle at both ends. Though in the habit of waking early, this morning I almost slept through the morning window to eat and drink before the sun rises. Only the squawking of Malley the cat to be let out woke me in time, about five to seven. I stumbled out of bed to bolt down a breakfast but never really woke enough to write anything new. Instead, I read over the Master's Tablet of the Universe; I had not read it before. I downloaded this provisional translation a few months ago from the Baha'i Scholar's Library, at,

http://www.bahai-library.com/provisionals/universe.html

I was impressed with what I read. Somebody evidently had asked Abdu’l-Baha about the history of cosmology. By a lucky stroke of luck not planning I happen to have just read a history of philosophy, "The Dream of Reason," by Anthony Gottlieb, which pays special attention to cosmology. Indeed Gottlieb talks more about the origin of the universe than I wanted to know, for I am no physicist. But at least I could appreciate that the Tablet of the Universe as a précis of what Dream of Reason covers. The tablet tells how the universe actually is from a God’s eye point of view and about how early investigators like Pythagoras, Ptolemy and Copernicus have speculated about what it is.

Most impressively, the Master all but answers a question that has been nagging at me since I started into justice as a Baha'i principle a few months ago. The question is about the definition of justice in the second Arabic Hidden Word as the ability to "see with one's own eyes." The questions are along the lines of, "How do I know when I have seen something with my own eyes?," "How do you know that something you think you know has not been influenced by something second-hand, perhaps by something remembered long ago, that may have been learned through someone else's mind or eyes and that now you think it is yours?" “What is the difference between real and borrowed knowledge?” Similar passages on justice also puzzle me, like this one, from the Words of Wisdom,

"The essence of all that We have revealed for thee is Justice, is for man to free himself from idle fancy and imitation, discern with the eye of oneness His glorious handiwork, and look into all things with a searching eye." (Tablets, 157)

If justice is looking with a discerning eye, how do you know that the eye is discerning? Does not what is discerned make a difference? What is the difference between discerning and undiscerning? Both eyes, discerning and undiscerning, will seem reliable to the mind that looks through them, so what up?

Anyway, I read through the Tablet of the Universe and had found an answer to my question; I will deal with that presently. I had not quite finished reading the Tablet when sleepiness overcame me and I had no choice but to plunge back into bed and sleep another hour. In that hour of REM sleep I experienced a not-so-vivid dream that seemed to supplement the Master's answer. Here is the dream:

I wished to express something original. I took a pen and piece of foolscap and started writing it down. Someone else -- all I remember about her was that she was female -- was a hovering presence in the dream, though not to my sight. The dream saw her but I did not. Don't ask how that is possible, it was a dream. I do not even remember whether she also wanted say something original, or whether she was somehow communicating with me. She was ethereal, maybe my guardian angel. We both started writing at the same time. I wrote out my thoughts but when I stopped to read it over I was annoyed to find that I had written her thoughts and vice versa, she had written what I had wanted to say. I tried again and again to articulate thoughts that were mine but no go. Nothing was mine and nothing was hers, it was always the thoughts of one another.

I woke up still stunned. Worse still, now the creeping, crippled cogitation of the long fast afternoon had come much closer. It crawls onto my back and never leaves until the long distant evening. But oh well, at least I now had something to write about this morning, if I write fast. So without further ado, here is Abdu'l-Baha's answer.

He starts off saying that there is a limit to how much you can learn about cosmology by just reading scripture, especially older scriptures. The universe in God's eyes is contacted directly not just through reading about it. He then says,

"For the all-embracing universal Reality is, in the eyes of thy Lord, analogous to the all-embracing human reality which passes in the course of its early development through infancy, childhood and youth. Even though these various stages may manifest certain of the characteristics and virtues of man, yet what are these early manifestations in comparison to the perfections of the mind, the truths of the Kingdom and the mysteries of God, with which the reality of man becomes plentifully endowed after reaching maturity -- the period of its fullest expression?"

He then goes on to all but forbid footnoting and second-hand investigations into the physical universe. When investigating the universe, you use the scientific method not the Ruhi method of memorizing and jawboning about scripture. Here are His exact words,

"For this reason thou must weigh all matters in the balance of this Cause and heed not the idle talk of the blind in heart and those who are captives of delusions and vain imaginations. Such talk is, to those possessed of insight, nothing more than fanciful stories and empty tales. Nay, rather thou shouldst investigate all things in a methodical and scientific way, and by clear proofs, perspicuous signs and incontrovertible evidences, seek to discover the undisclosed verities and the hidden mysteries which are concealed in the inmost heart of the realities of the universe. To those to whom God hath granted insight, whose inner natures are illumined, whose outer natures are refined, whose hearts are pure and whose minds are open and receptive, it is not acceptable, in this great and majestic cycle, to rely unquestioningly on the views of others in matters such as these. Conventional wisdoms and precepts based upon illusion and fancy, and to which no knowledgeable, experienced and intelligent person can reconcile himself are today, in the sight of the truly learned, nothing more than 'deranged dreams'."

The Tablet of the Universe also contains at least two prayers for the physical scientist. If one is ever at a meeting of physicists, it would be good to remember them.