Truth's Unified Law

Connecting to Truth's Eternal Law

By John Taylor; 2009 Feb 19, 13 Mulk, 165 BE

Yesterday we discussed the specific knowledge and abilities that Comenius laid out for a well trained person, as envisioned in his chapter on universal school reform in Panorthosia. He also had broader objects in mind for education. In the Pampaedia, or Universal Education, he said,

"The final purpose of education is to demonstrate to all men how all things are co-ordinated and connected by the eternal laws of truth." (Comenius, Pampaedia, quoted in Daniel Murphy, Comenius, A Critical Reassessment of His Life and Work, p. 124)

You can speculate all you want on the meaning of this, but to me it points right at the first two Baha'i principles, search for truth and oneness of humanity. In combining and coordinating these two "pivotal" principles we build up common ground on which love and knowledge can embrace. Truth we gain from individual investigation of reality, and we apply truth in the "kindness imperative" of the oneness of humanity. That is, if some are ignorant we teach them, if some are weak, we strengthen them, if some are poor, we enrich them; that is, we do not discriminate or put down the disadvantaged, we love and serve them, starting first with those who are most in need. These twin principles are hinted at in the proverb,

"Do not let kindness and truth forsake you. Bind them around your neck. Write them on the tablet of your heart." (Prov 3:3, WEB)

There is no doubt that those running the world are not comprehensive thinkers, nor are the educated of today grasping the "eternal laws of truth" that Comenius said they must aim at. Our best and brightest, the most sophisticated thinkers on offer are hardly grasping the basics. If they were, would the world be on the brink of total collapse? Would the environment be a shambles and climate mechanisms be so badly out of whack? Unlikely.

Nor can we Baha'is claim to understand the eternal laws of truth in our custody. The Guardian was quite emphatic that our education has not prepared us any better than the world about us.

"Baha'u'llah has given us a Revelation designed to raise mankind to heights never before attained. It is little wonder that the minds of individual believers, no matter how perceptive, have difficulty in comprehending its range. It is the words of 'Abdu'l-Baha and the Guardian which elucidate this vast Revelation and make clear the manner in which different statements relate to one another and what is implied by the Revealed Word. Without the bright light of the Covenant, this Faith, like all those before it, would be torn to pieces by the conflicting opinions of scholars applying limited human reasoning to divinely revealed truths." (Shoghi Effendi, quoted in UHJ letter, "Separation of Church and State, 27 April, 1995)

As the Guardian says, the one thing that holds search and oneness together in a single, coordinated whole is the covenant, the eternal bond between us and our Creator. Otherwise, as he warns, the limited understanding of the most learned -- and believe me, without a comprehensive Comenian education, the more learning we gain, the more contentious and opinionated we are likely to become -- will certainly tear us apart, as it is already doing to the world around us. Abdu'l-Baha said that,

"...civilization is conjoined with barbarism. Progress and barbarism go hand in hand, unless material civilization be confirmed by Divine Guidance, by the revelations of the All-Merciful and by godly virtues, and be reinforced by spiritual conduct, by the ideals of the Kingdom and by the outpourings of the Realm of Might." (Selections, 284)

It is not hard to see that barbarism is kneaded into the fabric of civilization. In recent years, this has become so obvious that it is impossible to mention the advantages of civilization without sounding ironic or sarcastic.

I have noticed, in reading some of the greatest minds of history, that history's most brilliant unifying thinkers tend to come around to world federalism towards the end of their lives. Comenius spent his working life as an educator and only in the end did he jump into the negotiations to stop the war between Holland and England, and then to write his last work, the Panorthosia. This came so late in his life that he was unable to see it published personally, and most of it remained unknown for some three hundred years afterwards. Another example was Immanuel Kant, who wrote his sketch for a world government's constitution in the mid-1790's, not long before his dotage and death. And the biography of Einstein that I just audited says at one point,

"As in science, so it was in world politics for Einstein: he sought a unified set of principles that could create order out of anarchy, a system based on sovereign nations with their own military forces, competing ideologies and conflicting national interests would inevitably produce more wars. So he regarded a world authority as realistic rather than idealistic, as practical rather than naive. For the remaining ten years of his life, his passion for advocating a unified governing structure for the globe would rival that for finding a unified field theory that could govern all the forces of nature." (Walter Isaacson, Einstein, His Life and Universe, p. 488)

Not being mathematically inclined, I will probably never understand relativity theory, and not being a philosopher the Critique of Pure Reason will always remain a mystery to me, but I can understand the latter ideas on peace of Einstein and Kant. Peace and God are all but synonyms, and Baha'u'llah taught me that the end of all things is knowledge of God. What I do not understand is why so few have followed the best and brightest. Why is it that only a handful of geniuses care to follow the final purpose of education where it leads, to a unified field theory of political life, which,

"...demonstrate(s) to all men how all things are co-ordinated and connected by the eternal laws of truth."

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John Taylor

email: badijet@gmail.com
blog: http://badiblog.blogspot.com/

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