THE
SPIRITUAL BASIS OF WORLD PEACE
by
HORACE
HOLLEY
From The Bahá’í World, Volume V
89 and 90 of
the Bahá’í Era
April
1932-1934, A.D., pp. 511-517
DESPITE its serious mistakes in the realm of ultimate
interpretation of values, modern science has made possible one notable advance
of at least indirectly a spiritual nature: it has created within the human mind
a firm sense of the existence of universal law. The modern man inhabits a world whose
processes he is increasingly convinced are understandable and trustworthy,
capable of rational perception, and even where not yet known, impossible to be
held subject to mere chance and caprice.
By this substantial gain, the modern man stands above
and beyond the ancestor whose universe was a superficial appearance concealing forces
and powers whose unknown processes continually suggested a variety of conflicting
aims and wills, contact with which compelled him to develop elaborate rituals
in the nature of a fearful if cunning defense. The modern man, moreover, has won an entirely
new sense of courage and integrity not only from his capacity to understand nature
rationally but also from his proven power of making mechanical instruments and
appliances superior to those with which by nature lie was endowed. In the camera he possesses a superior eye; in
the radio a superior ear; in the electronic tube a touch infinitely more
sensitive than that of the human hand.
But the hour of triumph and conquest in man's age-old
struggle with nature has by some mysterious providence coincided with his utter
humiliation in his relations with himself and his fellowman. Time surely never
witnessed a spectacle more dramatic and more momentous than this tragic
contrast between man as scientist and as citizen, between man as mechanic and
man as the orphan of life, a lost and bewildered soul.
What wonder that many sensitive and fragile personalities
endeavor, in such a terrible hour, to abandon and repudiate all that so much
bitter effort has secured, preferring the passive peace of some irrational and
unworldly faith to the active struggle required in order to extend the powers
of reason from the scientific to the social domain. By quitting the
battlefield, they think to win for themselves some secret treaty, the terms of
which will enable them to continue their existence untroubled, even though the
continuance be as the dreamless sleep of a child.
For the more heroic, the meaning of life in this age
has come to be the supreme obligation, inevitable (and therefore glorious)
because it has been imposed by an historic sequence of events arising from
humanity itself, of going forward to the peak of another mountain of
achievement, far higher than material science, from which the race can rise
above its social ignorance and confusion even as in previous ages man has
achieved victory over other problems which at the time appeared as desperate as
the modern struggle for world peace.
In surveying this supreme obligation in the light of
our rational powers, the formidable antagonism of social institutions
culminating in the armed national states is clearly no superhuman situation but
an antagonism emanating directly from the human will. If we envisage war or economic
disaster as overwhelming earthquakes, as all-destroying hurricanes, the symbol
cannot be made to transfer responsibility from man to the nature, to the universe,
from which actual earthquakes and hurricanes proceed. The antagonistic institutions, large and
small, are nothing more than groups of people willingly captive to a
competitive ideal.
What devastates society is the diversity and conflict
of loyalties; in other words the fatal lack of one loyalty embracing
mankind. Conscious effort for the
attainment of world order must begin here, in an intense and constant
realization of the disparity between the organic unity of the external universe
and the disunity of the subjective world.
Measured by the diversity of loyalties, human society
would appear to be constituted of members of unrelated species no less
essentially committed to strife than the beasts of the jungle or the insects of
the swamp. Because the world of nature
contains different species which pursue and are pursued, it would appear as
though humanity had taken its lesson of life from a lower order, a kingdom of
existence bereft of reason, in which nature has implanted the seeds of
incessant physical struggle.
But the instinct of self-preservation dominating the
animal is adjusted to the attainment of its own goal, while the diverse
loyalties of mankind are impossible of realization. Their effect is to
undermine the very foundation of human life. Not to instinct but to spiritual
ignorance must be attributed that condition of society in which men's highest loyalties
arrive at destruction and death, a self-betrayal rather than a fulfillment of
self.
Every loyalty is composed of two elements: an external object which can be rationally
grasped and perceived, and a subjective motive which is elusive because identified
with the object or goal to be achieved. For this reason, rational comparison of
5n-flicting loyalties is impossible, because the rational power has become
adapted to values external to man and is helpless in dealing with the origin
and character of motives. The motive is prior to the object, and the motive
employs reason as its instrument and justification. Human reason is a
searchlight which throws a brilliant light upon scenes outside and beyond the
realm of motive, but behind the searchlight all is blackest darkness. We therefore insist upon an unvarying and
ever reliable mathematics but tolerate extreme variety and unreliability in
religion. We have become rational in relation to all that is below man, but
remain pre-rational in relation to all that pertains to the human heart itself.
This chasm in the continuity of rational reality is
excused on the assumption that the rational power is inherently limited, can
only deal with a restricted area of values, and that consequently, when the
profoundest human motives are at issue, reason must give way to faith. This assumption means nothing less than that
the searchlight of the rational power cannot, for some reason not explained, be
turned in any direction save that external to human nature. It means also that
man in himself is not an organic unity but is a dual being, split by the artificial
distinction between reason and faith and compelled eternally to act under two
irreconcilable laws. The distinction is not removed but rather further
complicated by the claim that faith is a "higher" reason, a power
having author-fry to annul, at any time, what ordinary reason holds to be
useful, true or necessary. For such a claim establishes more than duality at the heart of human life Ñ it compels a
strife between "mind" and "heart" at crucial moments of
destiny which constitutes the ultimate source of conflict in society as a
whole.
To recapitulate: the civilization in which the very
existence of humanity is enmeshed has become the prey of nationalistic, class,
racial and also ecclesiastical loyalties.
These irreconcilable loyalties have, in our own generation, precipitated
an international war and an international economic collapse which have not only
released the greatest amount of death and suffering recorded in human history
but have impaired the whole structure of civilization. Furthermore, these
loyalties, despite the bitterest experience, remain essentially unreconciled
and are today more highly armed for destruction than in 1914. This is the
objective picture of human life today. When we examine these loyalties we find
them resting upon motives and flowing from impulses which defy control, rooted
as they are in the subjective world of the heart which remains irrational,
while rationalizing its wishes and its aims.
In this world, blind faith and not reason sits upon the throne. But the
demands of that faith no longer correspond to the clear needs of human life. Faith has identified itself not with life but
with death. The power of reason, which perceives the crisis, at present cannot
deal with motives, but on the contrary is the instrument and tool by which
irrational faith forges its own destruction.
Every organized loyalty has rationalized itself into a self-contained
philosophy beyond the reach of successful attack from without and beyond the
reach of suspicion on the part of those remaining within. Society has become chaos
because man is divided against himself. He has become powerful in all realms
where he has applied reason; he has become a helpless victim in the realm where
he has renounced reason in favor of blind faith. The influence which has made man willing to
sacrifice reason for faith, which has convinced him that his deepest motives
and highest loyalties are subject to laws outside or beyond reason, is
organized religion Ñ the exclusive and dogmatic church.
The next step, therefore, for those who sincerely
desire to serve the rational ideal of world order, Lies in a reexamination of
the claim sponsored by the dogmas of every creed and inculcated into the tender
and responsive minds of children, that reason has no concern with the deepest
motives of life but is an alien power which must remain outside the holy of
holies until given the lesser task of justifying the motives adopted, in some
mysterious and irrational way, by faith and also the task of enabling faith to
achieve its aim.
The picture of the subjective world corresponding to
the insane condition of modern civilization is that man's religion has remained
primitive and pre-rational while man s knowledge and capacity for action have
miraculously multiplied. The ghost of the savage behind the altar commands the
soul of the statesman who instigates war and of the economist who turns
industry into a daily and lifelong social combat.
The claim that reason cannot deal with the substance
of faith is a wholly artificial claim. It rests upon an assumption of human duality
directly projecting the conception of warring, antagonistic gods marking the
age of the savage. If God is one, and
God is the creator of humanity, then the human spirit is one in essence and can
achieve an organic unity far beyond this present stage characterized by the
assumed irreconcilability of reason and faith. Since progress and achievement
have followed upon every determined effort of man to control the forces of life
and respond to the rational order of the universe, how can we entertain the
impossible and wholly unauthorized claim that the door to the reality of human
nature is to reason forever barred? One-half civilized, one-half primitive
savage – this condition of humanity is in itself the most challenging proof
that progress, far from being finished and complete, offers today the
possibility of advance in the spiritual realm comparable to that already
achieved in the field of material science.
Abdu'1-Bahi is a world personage in this age with an
importance to humanity f at transcending that of people now exerting supreme social
influence, for the reason that tAbdu'1-BabA carried the power of reason across
the chasm which for us still yawns between intelligence and faith. In Him there existed a consciousness fulfilled
and organically united, blending perfectly the power of understanding with the
quality of faith. His faith had no irrational element, and his reason illumined
the dark recesses where faith is born and its quality determined. Against the whole momentum of an age
glorifying the savage in its religion, He stood rocklike, immovable in the
conviction that these very social disasters are evidence that the time to
attain spiritual knowledge has dawned. In place of the traditional conception of man
as being forever divided against himself, He established a reality which reason
can accept, and faith, true faith, must recognize and extol as the highest
privilege of existence. Perceiving that
spiritual ignorance has run its course in the organization of armed national states,
He spoke with assurance of man's future attainment of world unity and world
order to follow this brief period during which the irrational, savage outlook
is being finally discredited and left behind.
"God's greatest gift to man is that of intellect,
or understanding. Understanding is the power by which man acquires his
knowledge of the several kingdoms of creation, and of various stages of
existence, as well as of much that is invisible. Possessing this gift he is, in
himself, the sum of earlier creations; he is able to get into touch with those
kingdoms, and by this gift he frequently, through his scientific knowledge, can
reach out with prophetic vision. Intellect is, in truth, the most precious gift
bestowed upon man by the divine bounty.
Man alone among created beings, has this wonderful power.
"All creation, preceding man, is bound by the
stern law of nature. The great sun, the multitudes of stars, the oceans and
seas, the mountains, the rivers, the trees, and all animals, great or small Ñ
none are able to evade obedience to nature's law.
"Man alone has freedom, and by his understanding
or intellect has been able to gain control of and adapt some of those natural
laws to his own needs.
“God gave this power to man that it might be used for
the advancement of civilization, for the good of humanity, to increase love and
concord and peace. But man prefers to
use this gift to destroy instead of to build, for injustice and oppression, for
hatred and discord and devastation, for the destruction of his
fellow-creatures, whom Christ has commanded that he should love as himself. . .
.
“Consider the aim of creation: is it possible that all
is created to evolve and develop through countless ages with this small goal in
view Ñ a few years of a man's life on earth? Is it not unthinkable that this
should be the final aim of existence?
"The mineral evolves until it is absorbed in the
life of the plant, the plant progresses until it finally loses its life in that
of the animal; the animal, in its turn, forming part of the food of man, is
absorbed into human life. Thus, man is shown to be the sum of all creation, the
superior of all created beings, the goal to which countless ages of existence
have progressed. . . .
“When we speak of the soul we mean the motive power of
this physical body which lives under its entire control in accordance with its
dictates. If the soul identifies itself with the material world it remains
dark, for in the natural world there is corruption, aggression, struggles for
existence, greed, darkness, transgression and vice. If the soul remains in this
station and moves along these paths it will be the recipient of this darkness; but,
if it becomes the recipient of the graces of the world of mind, its darkness
will be transformed into light, its tyranny into justice, its ignorance into
wisdom, its aggression into loving kindness, until it reach the apex. Man will become free from egotism; he will be
released from the material world. . . .
“There is, however, a faculty in man which unfolds to
his vision the secrets of existence. It gives him a power whereby he may
investigate the reality of every object. It leads man on and on to the luminous
station of divine sublimity and frees him from the fetters of self, causing him
to ascend to the pure heaven of sanctity. This is the power of the mind, for
the soul is not, of itself, capable of unrolling the mysteries of phenomena;
but the mind can accomplish this and therefore it is a power superior to the
soul.
“There is still another power which is differentiated
from that of the soul and mind. This third power is the spirit which is an
emanation from the divine Bestower; it is the effulgence of the Sun of Reality,
the radiation of the celestial world, the spirit of faith, the spirit Christ
refers to when he says: ‘Those that are born of the flesh are flesh, and those
that are born of the spirit are spirit.' . . .
“If a man reflects he will understand the spiritual
significance of the law of progress; how all things move from the inferior to
the superior degree. . . .
“The greatest power in the realm and range of human
existence is spirit – the divine breath which animates and pervades all
things. It is manifested throughout
creation in different degrees or kingdoms.
“In the mineral kingdom it manifests itself by the
power of cohesion. In the vegetable kingdom
it is the spirit augmentative or power of growth, the animus of life and
development in plants, trees and organisms of the floral world. In this degree
of its manifestation, spirit is unconscious of the powers which qualify the
kingdom of the animal. The distinctive
virtue or ‘plus' of the animal is sense perception; it sees, hears, smells,
tastes and feels but in turn is incapable of the conscious ideation or
reflection which characterize and differentiate the human kingdom. The animal neither exercises nor apprehends
this distinctive human power and gift. From
the visible it cannot draw conclusions regarding the invisible whereas the
human mind from visible and known premises attains knowledge of the unknown and
invisible. . . . Likewise the human
spirit has its limitations. It can not comprehend the phenomena of the kingdom
transcending the human station, for it is a captive of powers and life forces
which have their operation upon its own plane of existence and it cannot go beyond
that boundary. . . .
"The mission of the Prophets, the revelation of the holy books, the manifestation of the
heavenly teachers and the purpose of divine philosophy all center in the
training of the human realities so that they may become clear and pure as mirrors and reflect the
light and love of the Sun of Reality.
This is the true evolution and progress of humanity."
In this teaching, if we apprehend it correctly, the
law of progress is revealed as the action of a higher form of life upon a
lower. An element in the mineral kingdom remains in the limitations of that
kingdom until it is gathered up and assimilated by the vegetable kingdom, which
in turn rises not by its own power but through action of the animal
kingdom. Elements in the vegetable
kingdom die in that kingdom to be reborn in the animal kingdom, and similarly
elements in the realm of the animal, when assimilated by man, die to be reborn
as it were on a higher plane.
But how is man to rise above himself? For man there is no higher kingdom of physical
existence to extend this principle of development by actual assimilation of the
physical type. Of the four degrees of
existence in the world of nature, man himself is the apex; wherefore the
elements of man's physical being can go no higher, but through his physical
death are restored to the lower planes. In
this closed circle of physical existence the elements eternally rise and fall,
establishing the rhythmic cycle of the world of nature.
In his primitive, savage state, man sought however to
extend this cycle from the physical to the conscious realm. He believed that he could acquire the
qualities of another man by eating his flesh. This conception, prolonged during
nameless ages, assumed an elaborate ritual and formed the basis of his
religious beliefs. Little by little the bloody sacrifice became refined;
instead of eating the flesh he laid it upon the altar of his tribal god. Eventually the stark savage belief persisted
only as a symbol; it became sufficient to sacrifice an animal in place of a
human being. By Old Testament times even
this more innocent murder was condemned by Prophetic leaders. The sacrifice was preferably wholly symbolic,
by gifts, by flowers and fruit.
Behind this evolution of belief and religious practice
we may feel the burden of a bitter, prolonged struggle for understanding of the
spiritual law of evolution: the conception that qualities are obtained by
partaking of substance had the apparent sanction of nature itself.
Even today the struggle has not been won. For even today the blind faith is widespread
that man draws near God and partakes of divine qualities in mass or communion –
by partaking of a physical substance, a consecrated bread and wine.
What wonder, when religion in its most sacred
teachings has not left behind the primitive savage who sought to evolve and
progress by eating the flesh of his fallen foe – what wonder that mankind has
no capacity to arise above loyalties essentially blind, selfish and partisan,
loyalties that are tribal in essence, loyalties that can devastate the entire
civilized world? For the mirror of
rational intelligence, endowed with power to reflect whatever realities it
faces, has been given no realm of spiritual truth to substitute for the visible
realm of nature – the lower world of insect and of beast.
But ‘Abdu'1-Baha has illumined that lost world of
spiritual truth. He has freed the power
of reason and intelligence from its servitude to biological fact and disclosed
an illimitable universe still to be explored.
The central principle of ‘Abdu'l-Baha’s teaching is
that the Prophets, human though they are in all that pertains to the body,
constitute an order of existence higher than man, a kingdom which acts upon
man, purifying his motives and releasing his innate powers, assimilating man
and raising him to a plane of consciousness transcending his former nature as truly
as the animal transcends the senseless tree. By the spirit that flows through the Prophet,
animating his words, man, in turning sincerely to that Source of Reality, is
saved from the dominance of instincts and motives emanating from the world of
nature which is lower in degree because it lacks the quality of mind.
The relation of man to Prophet is not that of flesh
sacrificed to a jealous tribal god, not that of slave to a Monarch enthroned
upon mysterious magical powers; it is the relation of child to parent, of
student to educator, and the true essence of religion consists in attaining
knowledge of and rendering devotion to the laws and principles of [spiritual] evolution
in the kingdom of spirit. The faithful
student of spiritual truth is, in consciousness, assimilated by and into that
truth, no less actually than the mineral element which the living root absorbs.
As exemplified by ‘Abdu'1-Baha, religion is clearly a
value not merely conforming to reason but
the realm which offers reason and understanding its supreme opportunity[1]. The substance of spiritual truth constitutes
the real world in which intelligence can function freely and become completely
fulfilled. The actual relation of reason
to faith arises from consideration of the fact that it is by faith that man has
capacity to recognize the Prophet – it is the quality of faith which makes it
possible to turn the searchlight of intelligence toward the source of reality;
but the knowledge thereby obtained remains a function of the rational mind. Faith, then, is an expression of will and not
of intelligence. ‘Abdu'1-Baha has
forever freed man from superstition and imagination. He has interpreted the reality of man in the
light of the reality of religion. That
religion in its purity conforms to reason is His fundamental claim.
From this higher level of perception one can turn back
to the condition of divided and antagonistic loyalties which underlies the
sinister turmoil of this period, and apprehend it as evidence of the decay of
the inherited religions. The God-given
intelligence of humanity is functioning in the darkness of unfaith, and hence
the devotion to falsified religions, the hysteria of economic and political movements,
the soul-consuming strife of race and class.
In the rise of psychological sciences which explore the
"unconscious" and "subconscious" fields in man, we have a
valiant, if misdirected, struggle to extend the powers of rational intelligence
to control human motives and beliefs. In
reality, man has no mysterious “subconscious” self, but rather, in his natural
condition, draws upon the instincts and impulses of the animal world. It is the physical organism, directly
receptive to and penetrated by the same forces acting upon the animal kingdom,
which psychologists actually explore. It
is possible to plumb the depths of nature in man's being, but human reality – the
direction of man's true progress – lies not backward in that dark abyss but
forward toward "rebirth" into the spiritual kingdom.
This age, in its confused struggle of ideals, has but
given rational form to the blind feelings of man's physical, therefore animal
organism. Our society vainly endeavors, in its most turbulent mass movements,
to find outlet for fears, rages and frustrated hopes which in the animal are
temporary and harmless, but in a society possessing scientific means of
destruction can lead to nothing else than universal conflict. A rational faith –
a knowledge of how these motives can be transmuted into forces of cooperation –
alone stands between us and this catastrophe. The basis of world order, in short, is a
humanity whose mind is not acted upon from the lower kingdoms but is illumined
by the light of God.
Until men become imbued with true, rational faith, the
supreme goal of world order and peace will never be achieved. For universal peace is a reality only on the
plane of spiritual truth. Civilization
bereft of any source of reality and guidance is a dead body, prey to the
maggots and the worms. Through the power
of the Holy Spirit alone can we leave this death behind.
"The Holy Spirit is the light from the Sun of
Truth bringing, by its infinite power, life and illumination to all mankind,
flooding all souls with divine radiance, conveying the blessings of God's mercy
to the whole world. The earth, without the
medium of the warmth and light of the rays of the sun, could receive no
benefits from the sun. Likewise, the
Holy Spirit is the very cause of the life of man; without the Holy Spirit he
would have no intellect, he would be unable to acquire his scientific knowledge
by which his great influence over the rest of creation is gained. The Holy Spirit it is, which, through the
mediation of the Prophets of God, teaches spiritual virtues to man and enables
him to acquire eternal life."
In this clear, unflickering light reflected from the
mind of ‘Abdu'l-Baha as from a burnished mirror held to the sun, humanity has
been granted capacity of vision in the otherwise darkened subjective
world. By His insight one can rise above
the mass consciousness and apprehend the meaning of the age not as the
superficial clash of nations, classes and races, but as the final struggle of
the animal nature with the spiritual nature of man. The raging tornado has its central point of
perfect calm, and the Faith of Baha'u'llah promulgated by ‘Abdu'1-Baha is the
universal peace hidden from physical sight behind the desperate movements of
the dying civilization in which we live. Entering that Faith, men attain peace within
themselves, and by this peace have peace with each other – the Most Great Peace,
the Peace of God.
