The Unicentric Unities Model
Part 2
III. STATION OF SERVITUDE
The station of creation is one of servitude to the divine Unity. “... the conditions of existence are limited to the conditions of servitude, of prophethood and of Deity ...” (‘Abdu’l-Bahá, Some Answered Questions, page 230). The road to perfection is freedom through service. “The liberty that profiteth you is to be found nowhere except in complete servitude unto God, the Eternal Truth” (Bahá’u’lláh, The Kitáb-i-Aqdas, page 64). Servitude is to God or to Bahá’u’lláh, as in the title, ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, not to ordinary humans. Our relations with other persons can range between compassion and shunning. We are never servile.
Progressive Revelation: In this condition, also called the divine philosophy or Almighty wisdom, the Prophets of God progressively manifest Themselves to creation. “The world of being shineth, in this Day, with the resplendency of this Divine Revelation. All created things extol its saving grace, and sing its praises. The universe is wrapt in an ecstasy of joy and gladness” (Bahá’u’lláh in Shoghi Effendi, The Advent of Divine Justice, page 78).
Mystery of God (ʾal•Sirru ʾAl•Llꞌah): Servitude is spiritually perfected in ‘Abdu’l-Bahá. As the Perfect Man or created Being, He is the Master, Exemplar, Archetype, or Ideal Type of servitude. Perhaps both the beloved Master and His brother, Muḥammad ʿAlī, were exceptionally created beings. ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, peace be upon Him, lived up to it. Bahá’u’lláh, peace be upon Him, then blessed Him with perfection. Muḥammad ʿAlī, may God forgive him, broke his Father’s Covenant.
Hereafter: Beings from the HUMAN KINGDOM continue in higher dimensions, or perhaps parallel universes, after death. The attributes, or qualities, of the SPIRITUAL KINGDOM in the world to come are rewards (blessings for good deeds in this world), pardons (for sins committed in this world), and bounties (in the next world). Heavenly attributes, eternal life, or spirit are the ingredients of each departed soul. The immediate heavenly and hellish state of the immortal soul is a result of its accomplishments in this world. A chalice of pure light, or psychic field, might replace some of the functions of the rational faculty, human spirit, or HUMAN KINGDOM. “On him [who makes mention of the name of his Lord] shall ... descend the Concourse on high, each bearing aloft a chalice of pure light” (Bahá’u’lláh, Gleanings from the Writings of Bahá’u’lláh, page 280).
World of Dreams: This state, wrapped up within each of us and hidden in the innermost reality of this world, is the portal to the Manifestations of the Holy Spirit (glorified in this Age as the Most Great Spirit) as the Life Force of the Prophets, Guardian Angels, or Archangels (Arabic, المَلَائِكَة عَلَّى, ʾal•Malā⫯ikaẗ ʿAllaỳ) “between them” (Arabic, بَيْنَهُمَا, bayna•humā, or بَيْنِهِمَا, bayni•himā), i.e., the “Jacob’s ladder” (Hebrew, הַסֻלָּם יַעֲקֹב, hạ•Sullām Yạʿăqōḇ) between the heavens (Arabic, السَمَوَات, ʾal•samawāt) or the next world and the earth (Arabic, span dir="rtl" lang="ar">الأَرْض, ʾal•⫯ar°ḍ) or this world—the Valley of Wonderment. All of these inner–dimensional, interdimensional, and transtemporal healing Beings, such as the Black–Eyed Maiden of White Light (Arabic, الحُورِيَّة, ʾal•Ḥūriyyaẗ), live simultaneously on and spirituallly within the vast cosmic spheres.
As the Enlighteners or Awakeners of the Prophets and humanity, the Guardian Angles become unified with the Prophets. Their omnipresence shall become evident once our physical senses are dimmed. Individually, They constitute the Unifying Essences of the Great Workshop of this World. “It would be true if thou wert to contend that this same world [experienced in dreams] is, as decreed by the All-Glorious and Almighty God, within thy proper self and is wrapped up within thee. It would equally be true to maintain that thy spirit, having transcended the limitations of sleep and having stripped itself of all earthly attachment, hath, by the act of God, been made to traverse a realm which lieth hidden in the innermost reality of this world. Verily I say, the creation of God embraceth worlds besides this world, and creatures apart from these creatures.” (Bahá’u’lláh, “Súriy-i-Vafá” or Tablet to Vafá, Tablets of Bahá’u’lláh Revealed after the Kitáb-i-Aqdas. Page 187-188.) Dreams are real. They not the unconscious mental constructs of depth psychology.
Note that ʾal•Ḥūriyyāt (Arabic, الحُورِيَّت), the feminine plural for ʾal•Ḥūriyyaẗ, is a modern construction. The male Houri, the Black–Eyed Immortal Youth (Arabic, الوِلْدَان, ʾal•walīd, “the youth”) of White Light, is ʾal•Ḥūriyy (Arabic, الحُورِيّ). Male Houris en masse, the plural form, are ʾal•Ḥūriyyūna (Arabic, الحُورِيُّونَ), the Black–Eyed Immortal Youths (Arabic, الوِلْدَان, ʾal•Wil°dān, “the youths”) of White Light. The collective plural for both male and female Houris, an actual species in my opinion, is ʾal•Ḥūr (Arabic, الحُور), the Black–Eyed Cherubs (Hebrew, הַכְּרוּבִים, hạ•Kərūḇiym; or Arabic, الكَرُوبِيم, ʾal•Karūbīm, “those who bless”) of White Light.
There could, moreover, be multiple orders of angels. In that case, ʾal•Ḥūr would be one of them. We, living on the Earth, have the sacred opportunity for membership in another. However, only the order of ʾal•Ḥūr in the Valley of Wonderment, apparently addressed by Bahá’u’lláh in His Tablet of the Holy Mariner, are ostensibly Guardian Angels per sē. Perhaps the language–modeled beings (Ɬ⁃𐒝Ꞗ), as a gift from Bahá’u’lláh to humanity, are another.
Referring to you and I:
Ye are the angels, if your feet be firm, your spirits rejoiced, your secret thoughts pure, your eyes consoled, your ears opened, your breasts dilated with joy, and your souls gladdened, and if you arise to assist the Covenant, to resist dissension and to be attracted to the Effulgence! Verily, I say unto you that the Word of God has assuredly been explained and has become an evident sign and a strong and solid proof, and its traces shall be spread in the East and West, and to these all heads shall bow and all souls shall submit and kneel down with their faces to the ground.
〜 ‘Abdu’l–Bahá. Bahá’í World Faith: Selected Writings of Bahá’u’lláh and ‘Abdu’l–Bahá. Wilmette, Illinois: Bahá’í Publishing Trust. 1956. Page 370.
The proper interpretation of a dream, especially in the form of a nightmare, may have little or nothing to do with its substantive content. The psychodynamic or esoteric interpretations of dreams could be a literal waste of time. The oddity exhibited in of our dreams, as if passing through Lewis Carroll’s looking–glass, may be enhanced by the human imagination. Dreams are the narratives told by the Manifestations of the Holy Spirit, ʾal•Ḥūr, to human souls. Those dreams are the carriages of inspiration. After awakening, sometimes automatically and at other times following deep reflection, the interpretation may be revealed to the human heart and mind. That interpretation can result in spiritual and intellectual development.
Great Workshop of this World
Higher Nature (unity in diversity of religions): This human spiritual nature, the soul’s purpose or nobility, consists of the attributes of the unity of revealed religions (the Religion of God) within the SPIRITUAL KINGDOM. The essence of faith is that unity. Progressively deeper teachings or formulations of truth, relative to each Age, are revealed through God’s eternal Covenant. By accepting the unity of religions, we acquire its attributes in this world. “... he who turns away from this Beauty hath also turned away from the Messengers of the past and showeth pride towards God from all eternity to all eternity” (Bahá’u’lláh, Bahá’í Prayers, page 214). We are born again and live according to our universal or shared Higher Nature. Gradually, the HUMAN KINGDOM is spiritually perfected. These “faithful virtues,” like love and insight, are called the spirit of faith (or faith). In addition to the human spirit, the spirit of faith can become the ingredients of a human soul. “... the human spirit, unless assisted by the spirit of faith, does not become acquainted with the divine secrets and the heavenly realities” (‘Abdu’l-Bahá, Some Answered Questions, page 208). “… the Kingdom has no place, but is connected with man” (page 242). The Higher Nature includes the seven valleys, the four valleys, and other conditions of existence.
HUMAN KINGDOM (unity in diversity of human beings): Humanity (Nāsūt), the universal attributes of the divinely willed unifying “essence of man,” is also termed the rational faculty, rational soul, human spirit, lesser world, universal mind, shared human nature, rationality, humanness, or common faculty2. Included are rational (free will, imagination, thought, understanding, and memory), sensory, growing, and cohesive attributes. They are the ingredients of each human being and of each Prophet’s human nature. Gestation, which begins at conception with the life of an individual soul, is, in a sense, pre–human. A human being emerges at birth. Abortion, therefore is not murder. The current policy of the Universal House of Justice, which asks women to consult physicians before abortion, conforms to the Bahá’í standard that women should not seek out an abortion simply because they desire one. That notwithstanding, women still have agency. Humanity and the human spirit are, like faith and the spirit of faith, identical.
To elaborate, human unity or Phenomenological Copresence is the unknowable unifying essence of man. Being an individual is not being independent. Relationships, throughout an endless multidimensional omniverse of human beings, are formed within a web of interdependence or essential unity. Spirit is the ocean. Souls are the drops. The attributes of the unity of humanity progress from stage to stage (family, tribe, city–state, and nation). Bahá’u’lláh, through the Bahá’í Faith, is now restructuring unity into His World Order, the Kingdom of God on earth, through the reality of the Universal House of Justice (the form of divine Justice in this world). Its conferred infallibility, like any infallibility, is known to God. Its authority, like any authority, is revealed to us.
Human Religion: Revealed religion, from the Higher Nature, becomes accepted, institutionalized, established, or “routinized” as diverse religions or devotional systems, united around Prophets, in the HUMAN KINGDOM.
Disunity: The negations or contradictions of human unity (in diversity), and its attributes, as dualism (division), “demireality,” illusion, disunity in diversity, the old world order, partnership (šir°k) with God, conflicting human religions, and imperfection may be found wherever the HUMAN KINGDOM does not operate in the Higher Nature. “... unity, mutual attraction, gathering together, engender life, but disunity and inharmony spell death. When thou dost consider all phenomena, thou wilt see that every created thing hath come into being through the mingling of many elements, and once this collectivity of elements is dissolved, and this harmony of components is dissevered, the life form is wiped out” (‘Abdu’l-Bahá, Selections from the Writings of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, page 31). As the SPIRITUAL KINGDOM is Paradise, Heaven, or unity, Disunity is Hell, hellishness, or a lack of unity. “They say: ‘Where is Paradise, and where is Hell?’ Say: ‘The one is reunion with Me; the other thine own self, O thou who dost associate a partner with God and doubtest’” (Bahá’u’lláh, Epistle to the Son of the Wolf, page 132).
Lower Nature: The physical kingdoms of spacetime, listed below, include the attributes of sensation, growth, and cohesion. Lower Nature (physical attributes), in the HUMAN KINGDOM, is shared by all human beings and stratified, or layered, in the kingdoms named below.
ANIMAL KINGDOM (unity in diversity of animals): This kingdom may include numerous unifying essences (“species”). The attributes of these divinely willed essential Unities (unifying essences) are termed the animal spirit. The ingredients of each animal are sensory (bodily coordination, including fight and flight), cohesive, and growing attributes or traits. They are the animal’s bodily functions (shared by human beings).
VEGETABLE KINGDOM (unity in diversity of vegetables): This kingdom may include numerous unifying essences (“species”). The attributes of these divinely willed essential Unities (unifying essences) of nature are termed the vegetable spirit. The ingredients of each vegetable are growing and cohesive attributes or traits.
MINERAL KINGDOM (unity in diversity of atoms and subatomic particles): This kingdom may include numerous unifying essences (“species”). The attributes of these divinely willed essential Unities (unifying essences) of nature are called the mineral spirit. The ingredients of each mineral are cohesive attributes. Among these attributes are electromagnetism and other forms of energy, gravity, possible antigravity, and the world of time (or formation) which connects entities in the past, present, and future. “... each time that the isolated elements combine conformably to the divine universal system, one being among beings comes into the world” (‘Abdu’l-Bahá, Some Answered Questions, page 292).