Tuesday, April 10, 2007 at 12:12am
A spirit of life in the body of the world
Column: Life at First Sight
Abdu'l-Baha, son of the Baha'i Faith's prophet-founder, Baha'u'llah, is a source to whom I gladly defer on many topics. This week, as I've been reflecting on the Holy Spirit, I've consulted his writings a lot. That's because in his life one can see the perfect embodiment of what human spiritual expression looks like when willingly submitted to complete direction by the Holy Spirit.
His life, which was focused on constant service to others — a life that associated as naturally with residents of New York's Bowery as it did with the socialites of Washington, D.C. — spanned nearly eight decades in its unerring example. So, regardless of what path of faith I might have happened to follow, I knew when I first learned about Abdu'l-Baha that he was a trustworthy source about the things that matter most.
In October 1911, he told listeners in Paris that some kind of "intermediary is needed to bring two extremes into relation with each other. Riches and poverty, plenty and need: Without some kind of intermediary power, there could be no relation between such pairs of opposites."
"The Divine Reality is Unthinkable, Limitless, Eternal, Immortal and Invisible," he went on to say, whereas "The world of creation is bound by natural law, finite and mortal. The Infinite Reality ... is beyond the understanding of man, and cannot be described in terms which apply to the phenomenal sphere of the created world.
"Man, then, is in extreme need of the only Power by which he is able to receive help from the Divine Reality, that Power alone bringing him into contact with the Source of all life." He likens Divine Reality (i.e., God) to the sun, and the Holy Spirit to the rays of the sun. The sun doesn't descend to the earth, he notes, and neither does the earth ascend to the sun. It is the rays of the sun (i.e., the Holy Spirit) that bring illumination and life to earth.
"The illumination of the Holy Spirit gives to man the power of thought, and enables him to make discoveries. ... The Holy Spirit it is which, through the mediation of the Prophets of God, teaches spiritual virtues to man and enables him to attain Eternal Life."
In the following year, 1912, addressing an American audience, he shared more about the vital, life-giving role of the Holy Spirit when he described the means by which true unity will be established within the human race: "The source of perfect unity and love in the world of existence is the bond and oneness of reality. When the divine and fundamental reality enters human hearts and lives, it conserves and protects all states and conditions of mankind, establishing that intrinsic oneness of the world of humanity which can only come into being through the efficacy of the Holy Spirit. For the Holy Spirit is like unto the life in the human body, which blends all differences of parts and members in unity and agreement."
He then urged his listeners to reflect on how diverse the various parts of the human body are. Abdu'l-Baha described how, in a whole and healthy body, there is a oneness of the animating spirit of life that unites all of those parts in perfect combination. "It establishes such a unity in the bodily organism that if any part is subjected to injury or becomes diseased, all the other parts and functions sympathetically respond and suffer, owing to the perfect oneness existing."
Just as the human spirit is the animating element that unites and coordinates the various parts of a human body, so the Holy Spirit is the controlling cause of the unity and coordination of humankind, he says. "The bond or oneness of humanity cannot be effectively established save through the power of the Holy Spirit, for the world of humanity is a composite body, and the Holy Spirit is the animating principle of its life."
The evidence of the ever-increasing dis-ease of that body is all around us. In the course of our lives each day, what might each of us do to harness the power of the Holy Spirit to establish unity in the bodily organism of humanity?
— — —
Phyllis Edgerly Ring, mother of two, is a writer and editor. Her current book project addresses how adults can recognize and nurture children's spiritual nature. She is a former program director at Green Acre Baha'i School in Eliot, Maine, and has been a member of the Baha'i Faith for more than 30 years. Email her at {email columns@bahai.us}columns@bahai.us{/email}. See the website of the Baha'is of the United States for more information. © copyright 2007 by Phyllis Edgerly Ring
His life, which was focused on constant service to others — a life that associated as naturally with residents of New York's Bowery as it did with the socialites of Washington, D.C. — spanned nearly eight decades in its unerring example. So, regardless of what path of faith I might have happened to follow, I knew when I first learned about Abdu'l-Baha that he was a trustworthy source about the things that matter most.
In October 1911, he told listeners in Paris that some kind of "intermediary is needed to bring two extremes into relation with each other. Riches and poverty, plenty and need: Without some kind of intermediary power, there could be no relation between such pairs of opposites."
"The Divine Reality is Unthinkable, Limitless, Eternal, Immortal and Invisible," he went on to say, whereas "The world of creation is bound by natural law, finite and mortal. The Infinite Reality ... is beyond the understanding of man, and cannot be described in terms which apply to the phenomenal sphere of the created world.
"Man, then, is in extreme need of the only Power by which he is able to receive help from the Divine Reality, that Power alone bringing him into contact with the Source of all life." He likens Divine Reality (i.e., God) to the sun, and the Holy Spirit to the rays of the sun. The sun doesn't descend to the earth, he notes, and neither does the earth ascend to the sun. It is the rays of the sun (i.e., the Holy Spirit) that bring illumination and life to earth.
"The illumination of the Holy Spirit gives to man the power of thought, and enables him to make discoveries. ... The Holy Spirit it is which, through the mediation of the Prophets of God, teaches spiritual virtues to man and enables him to attain Eternal Life."
In the following year, 1912, addressing an American audience, he shared more about the vital, life-giving role of the Holy Spirit when he described the means by which true unity will be established within the human race: "The source of perfect unity and love in the world of existence is the bond and oneness of reality. When the divine and fundamental reality enters human hearts and lives, it conserves and protects all states and conditions of mankind, establishing that intrinsic oneness of the world of humanity which can only come into being through the efficacy of the Holy Spirit. For the Holy Spirit is like unto the life in the human body, which blends all differences of parts and members in unity and agreement."
He then urged his listeners to reflect on how diverse the various parts of the human body are. Abdu'l-Baha described how, in a whole and healthy body, there is a oneness of the animating spirit of life that unites all of those parts in perfect combination. "It establishes such a unity in the bodily organism that if any part is subjected to injury or becomes diseased, all the other parts and functions sympathetically respond and suffer, owing to the perfect oneness existing."
Just as the human spirit is the animating element that unites and coordinates the various parts of a human body, so the Holy Spirit is the controlling cause of the unity and coordination of humankind, he says. "The bond or oneness of humanity cannot be effectively established save through the power of the Holy Spirit, for the world of humanity is a composite body, and the Holy Spirit is the animating principle of its life."
The evidence of the ever-increasing dis-ease of that body is all around us. In the course of our lives each day, what might each of us do to harness the power of the Holy Spirit to establish unity in the bodily organism of humanity?
— — —
Phyllis Edgerly Ring, mother of two, is a writer and editor. Her current book project addresses how adults can recognize and nurture children's spiritual nature. She is a former program director at Green Acre Baha'i School in Eliot, Maine, and has been a member of the Baha'i Faith for more than 30 years. Email her at {email columns@bahai.us}columns@bahai.us{/email}. See the website of the Baha'is of the United States for more information. © copyright 2007 by Phyllis Edgerly Ring