My heart is constricted, we say in sorrow, and the heart stays exactly as it was. ‘Abdu’l-Bahá begins with that ordinary figure of speech to open a distinction He calls pivotal: some realities the senses meet, sun and sound and taste, while others, love, mind, grief, knowledge, have no place or outward form and can only be understood. Because nothing outside the senses is available for speech, every intelligible reality must be cast in a sensible mould to be spoken of at all, which is why mirrors, hearts and wombs do so much work in spiritual language and why reading them literally misleads. Plato’s divided line, with its visible images and intelligible objects, meets the same problem from another direction [1]. The distinction reaches far: to the spirit that neither enters nor leaves the body, to God’s knowing of things before they exist, to a world beyond death as unimaginable from here as this world is from the womb. The way continues into spirit and immateriality, into the seen and the hidden, and into the difference between sight and insight.
But rational realities such as the intellect, the soul, love, sorrow, joy and the five inner faculties - if you wish to explain these you are compelled to cast them into sensible forms before explaining them.
For example, sorrow and grief, which are rational realities, you express through constriction, saying "My heart is constricted," whereas the heart remains in its original state, neither constricted nor expanded. But sorrow is a spiritual condition, and when you wish to express it you are compelled to make a comparison with sensible things.
(‘Abdu’l-Bahá, 1911-Apr ca., to Ishaq son of Panihas -- AB00262)
02
The other kind of human knowledge is that of intelligible things; that is, it consists of intelligible realities which have no outward form or place and which are not sensible. For example, the power of the mind is not sensible, nor are any of the human attributes: These are intelligible realities. Love, likewise, is an intelligible and not a sensible reality. For the ear does not hear these realities, the eye does not see them, the smell does not sense them, the taste does not detect them, the touch does not perceive them.
… But when you undertake to express these intelligible realities, you have no recourse but to cast them in the mould of the sensible, for outwardly there is nothing beyond the sensible.
(‘Abdu’l-Bahá, Chapter 16, Intelligible Realities and their Expression through Sensible Forms, 1904 ca. -- AB00259)
03
Know that created things are of two kinds: material and spiritual, sensible and intelligible. That is, some are perceptible to the senses while others are only perceived by the mind.
Sensible realities are those which are perceived by the five outer senses: so, for example, those outward things which the eye sees are called sensible. Intelligible realities are those which have no outward existence but are perceived by the mind. For example, the mind itself is an intelligible reality and has no outward existence.
(‘Abdu’l-Bahá, Chapter 74, The Relativity of Good and Evil, 1904 ca. -- AB01360)
04
Thus these realities are not evident unto the eyes. However, the reality of perception doth witness them. But outer sight will remain veiled and deprived.
Sensible beings, for instance, include minerals, plants, and animals: those things which can be perceived with the physical senses; in other words, they can be seen with the eyes, heard with the ears, and smelled, touched, or tasted. All such things are subject to change. But those things perceptible to the intellect cannot be detected with these physical faculties. For example, knowledge and understanding are intelligible realities.
(‘Abdu’l-Bahá, Address to the Baha'is and others at Parsons home in Dublin, 1912-Aug-07 -- ABU0184)
06
Know thou that human perceptions are resolved into the intelligible and the sensible. The sensible, being that which is familiar and comprehensible, requireth no interpretation or allusion, but rather explanation and clarification. The intelligible, however, consisteth of spiritual realities that are intelligible rather than sensible--abstract, sanctified, and holy--having no outward forms whereby their expression might be readily achieved without metaphor and allusion.
(‘Abdu’l-Bahá, to Brother of Ibn-i-Abhar -- AB00258)
07
For otherwise, egress and regress, descent and inherence are characteristics of bodies and not of spirits--that is, egress and inherence pertain only to sensible realities, not to intelligible subtleties; and intelligible realities, such as reason, love, knowledge, imagination and thought, do not enter, exit or inhere, but rather denote relationships.
For example, knowledge, which is a form acquired by the mind, is an intelligible thing, and to speak of entering into the mind or exiting from it is absurd. Rather, it is a relationship of acquisition, even as images are reflected in a mirror.
(‘Abdu’l-Bahá, Chapter 25, The Holy Spirit, 1904 ca. -- AB01290)
08
Existence is of two kinds: intelligible existence and concrete existence. Created things had intelligible existence before their concrete existence, meaning they were known to God, then they attained concrete existence, meaning they became realized externally. Sight has no connection to intelligible existence, it has connection to concrete existence. … The name "All-Seeing" is different from the name "All-Knowing." Created things were known to God, but the name "All-Seeing" had no connection to the realities of things. When they became realized in the world of existence, the name "All-Seeing" connected with them.
(‘Abdu’l-Bahá, 1910-Oct-17, to Jadhdhab, Azizullah son of Isma'il Namdar -- AB00954)
09
The nature of the world to come is intelligible, not sensible, and its relationship and analogy is the analogy of this world in relation to the world of the womb. Is it possible to understand the faculties of hearing and sight, of cognition and apprehension in the womb, even in imagination? Nay, by God!
(‘Abdu’l-Bahá, 1911-Mar-01+, to Shaykh Amin (Egypt) -- AB01459)
10
Perceptible realities can be explained. But the intellectual realities cannot be explained by or through words. You may try to explain by words. … This is the intellectual reality and is not perceptible by the senses.
(‘Abdu’l-Bahá, Words to Fugeta et al, spoken on 1920-Jan-01 -- ABU1881)
11
The animals are keen in sensation, but man is endowed with piercing vision. Every moving creature apprehendeth sensible realities, but intelligible realities are disclosed and perceived by the seeing knower.
All sciences, arts, inventions, crafts, and discoveries of realities proceed from this singular power. This is a power that encompasses all created things, comprehends their realities, unravels their hidden mysteries, and brings them under its control. It even understands things that have no outward existence, that is, intelligible, imperceptible and unseen realities, such as the mind, the spirit, human attributes and qualities, love and sorrow, all of which are intelligible realities.
(‘Abdu’l-Bahá, Chapter 48, The Difference between Man and Animal, 1904-Oct ca. -- AB00057)
13
There are three kinds of light.
… The third light is the light of the intellect. This has three functions. It is the manifestor, the seer and the comprehendor of phenomena.
(‘Abdu’l-Bahá, Words spoken at Baltimore Hotel in Paris, 1913-May-22 -- ABU2757)
14
When we consider the world of existence, we find that the essential reality underlying any given phenomenon is unknown. Phenomenal, or created, things are known to us only by their attributes. Man discerns only manifestations, or attributes, of objects, while the identity, or reality, of them remains hidden. For example, we call this object a flower. What do we understand by this name and title? We understand that the qualities appertaining to this organism are perceptible to us, but the intrinsic elemental reality, or identity, of it remains unknown.
(‘Abdu’l-Bahá, Public address given at Parsons home on 1912-Nov-10 -- ABU0102)