Re: Be careful of judging the Faith by currant standards
- From: Douglas McAdam <douglasmcadam@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Mon, 10 Apr 2006 08:43:58 CST
On Apr 7, 2006, at 3:07 PM, mavaddat wrote:
It seems to me that "the reality based standard" is and will always
remain beyond all human conception. How, then, can we propose to judge
anything by such a standard?
Thank you for your reply Albert. Though I didn't actually say that we
should rely solely on the senses or believe only in what is tangible. I
was merely proposing that a rational is the best way that we can ever
come to say that we know anything objectively. How exactly, if not by
rationality, would you propose that we become conscious of the
spiritual world? How do we become informed of the Divine Kingdom?
Dear friend-
My mentor spent 35 years indexing the Writings, mostly of the Baha'i Scriptures, Bible, some from the Qu'ran. She accumulated over 300,000 quotes and cross referenced them to the Three Conditions of Existence, as well as the various Categories and Classifications of Existence named in the Writings and the Sub-classifications or Phases of Reality she discovered in the process. In other words she produced a sort of beginner phase of any science, the phase of identifying and classifying, describing defining, etc. the phenomena under study.
Strange thing is that the Phases of Reality grouped themselves by our three natures, i.e. Animal or Physical Nature, Human Nature and Divine Nature. They are as follows---
Purpose and Powers---perceived by our power of Faith and Intuition.
Life Pattern,--- a series of Acts strung together in TIME, each with a Begin and End, or Cause and Effect, or Motive and Result to be seen by our intellectual powers in the Fourth Dimension of TIME
Immediate Acts, Qualities or Attributes and the Names of things ----to be seen in the Three Dimensions of Physical Space by our physical senses.
Our physical senses are the "eyes of the body" so to speak.
The Intellectual power is the "eyes of the mind", so to speak.
The Powers of Faith and Intuition are the "eyes of the heart"
Each nature therefor has an augmentative and unique degree of the Knowing Power given us by God. Each also has a degree of the Loving Power too.
So we have a holistic model of reality and we also have identified the powers of perception enabling us to perceive and react accordingly.
Therefor there is no mystery as to what constitutes reality and we can see that it also fits the definition of reality which summarily states that reality has both a material and immaterial or spiritual aspect.
All of this is gained from the Revelations from God. So there is no excuse any more of not knowing reality or how to deal with it. Reality has been revealed and so is the Behavior Pattern necessary for us to face and deal intelligently with it. The Behavior Pattern of each nature has also been identified.
This is part of what I present in my rehabilitation classes to criminals and addicts.
One of the ways we teach this is to use the analogy and story about the wee child seeing for the first time a Toaster.
The child asks -
What is it----and the father says. "It is a Toaster" and thus has Named it.
What is is made of--the father has the child touch the metal, plastic etc. and explains how it is wide, tall and long, i.e. the three dimensions of physical space.
What does it do--again the father will put in a piece of bread and the child will see it heat and light up and finally the toast will pop up and thus the Immediate Acts are demonstrated.
He does this several times and the child sees several Acts in succession each with a Begin and End and thus a Behavior Pattern is perceived.
What is it for, the child asks--the father explains it is for making toast for the family and thus has explain the Purpose of the Toaster.
How does it work ---the father explains electricity and how it has both heat and light and can demonstrate both to the child.
Now if you are lucky the lesson will stop here but many children are very bright and will ask how the electricity comes from the wall plug, where does the line come from, how is the millions of watts stepped down to the level of an appliance and the father must then answer by explaining the Power Source, the Transformer and types of Appliances or Lights and how each is used for a specific purpose.
This all can be related to the Three Natures by analogy, by saying our physical senses are like a 40w bulb and only gives us enough light to read, and if we turn up the power and have 75w we can see more of a room and with 100w we get a real good look at all things in the room. Our three natures shed more light on reality as we turn up the power.
Besides demonstrating the Three Natures, three degrees of Knowing and Loving powers (KandLpowers or KandLicity) we also are conceptualizing the Power Source (God) the Transformer (Manifestation) and Applicance (Creation).
There is more to all this but time and email space is prohibitive.
The point is we DØ know what reality is for it has been divinely revealed and proven by our knowing capacity. And we DO know how to react successfully to reality for that too have been revealed by God through His Manifestations.
As Baha'u'llah has stated---
The first duty prescribed by God for His servants is the recognition of
Him Who is the Dayspring of His Revelation and the Fountain of His laws, Who
representeth the Godhead in both the Kingdom of His Cause and the world of
creation. Whoso achieveth this duty hath attained unto all good; and whoso
is deprived thereof hath gone astray, though he be the author of every
righteous deed. It behoveth everyone who reacheth this most sublime
station, this summit of transcendent glory, to observe every ordinance of
Him Who is the Desire of the world. These twin duties are inseparable.
Neither is acceptable without the other. Thus hath it been decreed by Him
Who is the Source of Divine inspiration.
(Baha'u'llah: The Kitab-i-Aqdas, page 19)
Reality in totality has been unveiled to us in this day.
Here is a small excerpt from a talk given years ago by Dr. Daniel C. Jordan which was based on what has been discovered from the Baha'i Revelation----
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Throughout history, human beings have felt compelled to accept what has been intuitively self-evident about themselves, namely that the phenomenon of life includes far more than a mere collection of chemical compounds. The “far more” part of life has been and is variously referred to as the soul or spirit, etc. Such acceptance gave rise to religion, philosophy, and the arts. Science, however, having adopted a more limited assumption about the nature of reality of man, has, for this reason, made its major achievement in understanding the lower ontological levels of being that are primarily dominated by the physical laws of physics and chemistry. It is for this reason that we have achieved such incredible technological advancements, but have not made too much progress in moral and social development.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
God bless,
doug
.
- References:
- Re: Be careful of judging the Faith by currant standards
- From: mavaddat
- Re: Be careful of judging the Faith by currant standards
- From: albertv
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- From: mavaddat
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