knowledge of self
Editorial introduction
Bahá’u’lláh urges His friends to know their own worth, and in the same breath to journey through the horizons and within themselves with penetrating vision. Self-knowledge, in His teaching, begins there: not with a catalogue of tastes or achievements, but with the discernment of what raises a person up and what brings him low. True loss, He warns, belongs to one who spends his days a stranger to himself. The human eye, the Writings observe, sees far into the faults of others and stays blind to its own, and even awareness of the self’s endless intrigues becomes a reason for gratitude, since it keeps the soul awake. Yet the inward road has a horizon it cannot cross: whatever the seeker reaches lies within his own heart, while God remains beyond. The Tao Te Ching likewise prizes mastery of oneself above the conquest of others [1]. From this threshold the way continues into the daily reckoning of one’s own deeds, into the soul as a mirror awaiting light, and into the discipline of teaching oneself before teaching anyone else.
Say: O friends! Know your own worth and relinquish not your stations. … With perfect wisdom, an illumined heart and penetrating vision, journey through the horizons and within yourselves, and take heed.
How strange that one should be occupied with the faults of others while heedless of his own faults!
The eye of man is both blind and keen-sighted: blind to the sight of his own imperfections, yet sharp and far-seeing in discerning the faults of others.
Everyone is better informed of the condition of his own soul than the souls of others.
...One must always search for his own shortcomings so that he may repent at the Threshold of Oneness and become protected and guarded; otherwise, pride and haughtiness will take possession of one's heart, and this will cause deprivation of the Bounties of the Court of Singleness. As thou hast realized thy own shortcomings, rest thou assured that thou art firm in the Covenant and Testament, and in the love of the True One are steadfast and growing....
And has thou realized thy own shortcomings? One must always search for his own shortcomings so that he may repent at the threshold of Oneness and become protected and guarded; otherwise, pride and haughtiness will take possession of one's heart and this will cause deprivation of the bounties of the Court of Singleness.
The truthful Joseph said: "Verily the soul commands to evil except as my Lord shows mercy." As long as man is aware of this deficiency, he remains awakened and under the shadow of the mercy of the All-Forgiving Lord. But as soon as he shows the slightest negligence, he becomes preserved in vanity and a mine of evil. Therefore give thanks to God that you are aware of the whispers of the self and its endless intrigues.
Tests are not sent as punishment, but in reality to reveal the soul to itself. Tests reveal strength as well as weakness and provide opportunity to remedy defects.
A person should first test their knowledge within themselves to see whether it is practically applicable or merely theoretical.
Beware lest ye forget courtesy, for a person is known by his courteous behavior, not by his wealth. Take pride in your knowledge and refinement, not in your ancestors and garments. Hearken unto My counsel and be not of the heedless ones.
O friends! Know ye your worth and recognize your station, lest what ye have borne in the path of God be lost.
Man is like unto a precious sword: as long as it remaineth concealed in the sheath no one knoweth its excellence and beauty and its precious nature, for it is concealed and veiled from sight. In like manner, until man's humanity becometh manifest his worth remaineth unknown.
Man is like unto a sword, and its essence is forbearance and godliness. So long as it remaineth sheathed in the scabbard of self, its true quality remaineth unknown.
Man is like unto a sword, and its essence is forbearance and piety. As long as it remains sheathed in the scabbard of self, its quality remaineth unknown.
This is the moment of freedom from the chains of self and passion - liberate yourselves.
Free yourself from self and thoughts and imaginings that you may attain eternal life.
He answered: "Cast away thyself, and come." Leave behind this insistent self, and draw nigh.
Q. [asked for a definition of a pure heart]
A. The pure heart is one that is entirely cut away from self. To be selfless is to be pure.
They are extremely egotistical and self-centered, yet completely unaware of human virtues and even of the sciences taught in schools.
The "perceiving soul" of man is the power which discovers. Wheresoever it is directed it discovers the hidden mysteries therein, and brings to light that which was veiled.
We must endeavor to discover the world of humanity and the mysteries hidden in the reality of man.
All teaching and knowledge are enclosed in the soul of man, because his soul encompasses everything. To study means to try to bring them to light.
Consider, for instance, the rational soul which is a divine trust deposited within human beings. Observe within thyself how movement and rest, will and purpose, and all else above and below these, as well as hearing, sight, smell, speech, and other outward and inward senses, all exist through its existence. Indeed, were its connection with the body to be severed even slightly, all these senses would be deprived and prevented from their effects and actions.
I soar not in the kingdoms of the heavens and the earth and all that is between them save that I may know Thy handiwork within myself.
"The object of God's teaching to man is that man may know himself in order to comprehend the greatness of God.
"The essence of loss is for one to pass his days and not know himself." The meaning is that until man recognizes the Truth, he remains deprived of knowing himself, for man must first perceive the light of the sun and by that light observe himself, since without light nothing can be seen.
One needs eyes, one needs eyes - and this eye is the vision of consciousness which comes from God's grace and culture in harmony with the angel.
The mysteries of love are the secrets of the heart, not something perceived by hearing and sight. They are connected and conditioned upon spiritual sensibilities, not upon worldly senses.
Look with the eye of thy heart: thy reality is the Lordship of thy Lord for thee through thee - thou art He and He is thou, except that thou art thou and He is He. He has a station of unity, His identity is pure essence - no mention, no indication, no expression of this station except through inability, and this is the perfection of unity through negation of attributes and Lordship, which when there is no object of Lordship has no mention, no encompassing, no manifestation.
The entire Law is but a path for the servant to journey toward his Lord, but through movement toward the pivot We have indicated. As for the way to reach this pivot, know thou that attaining unto the station of thine own reality is attaining unto thy Lord, and it is the station of pure God-fearingness, as one of the Prophets asked about God, saying: "How can one reach Thee?"
For however much detached minds and pure souls seek to penetrate the worlds of Inner Knowledge, their understanding will never penetrate more than that station which is a sign pointing towards the Monarch of Primal Oneness which He has placed as a trust within the reality of man. And however much they may fly with triumphant wings in the limitless space of what is knowable and observable, they will read naught but the letters of the book of their own selves. … For example, consider a circle; however much a compass moves, it can only move around the point which is the centre of the circle.
The Primal Point states that no matter how high the people of ascent may climb the ladders of spiritual knowledge, they ultimately return to their own selves.
And as for what thou didst mention regarding thy powerlessness and nothingness before His countenance - this indeed is true recognition.
Though whatever arrives from those pages - even if a hundred thousand letters, pages and books should come - all are contained in a single word, and it is: "Verily, my self, my being, my essence, my spirit, and whatsoever lay hidden in my innermost heart belong to God alone."
O Hussein in Sad, He is the Mighty! It hath been known to that honored one that the purpose of creation hath ever been and shall ever be the knowledge of God, and this knowledge dependeth upon the recognition of His servants who perceive the Truth through their own vision and heart and nature, for imitation sufficeth not, whether in acceptance or rejection.
Further quotations · supplied wording and references
The human subtle reality (al-latifat al-insaniyya), also called the soul (nafs), knows in a variety of modes. When it knows through reflection, the mode of knowing is called reason ('aql). When it knows directly from God, the mode of knowing is called the heart (qalb), which is contrasted with reason.... There are not two different entities known as reason and heart, though there is a real difference between the modalities of knowing.
When Ali asked Mohammad, 'What am I to do that I may not waste my time?' the Prophet answered, 'Learn to know thyself.' (Azid ibn Muhammad al-Nasafi, in A Treasury of Traditional Wisdom)
For pray do not ... spin your airy fables about moon or sun or the other objects in the sky and in the universe so far removed from us and so varied in their natures, until you have scrutinized and come to know yourselves. After that, we may perhaps believe you when you hold forth on other subjects; but before you establish who you yourselves are, do not think that you will ever become capable of acting as judges or trustworthy witnesses in the other matters. (Philo Judaeus, in A Treasury of Traditional Wisdom)
He who knows others is wise; He who knows himself is enlightened. (Lao Tzu, Tao te Ching, xxxiii)
Withdraw into yourselves and look. And if you do not find yourself beautiful yet, act as does the creator of a statue that is to be made beautiful; he cuts away here, he smoothes there, he makes this line lighter, this other purer, until a lovely face has grown upon his work. So do you also: ... never cease chiselling your statue... (Plotinus, in A Treasury of Traditional Wisdom)
...if anyone is going to admit that it knows God, he will be compelled to agree that it also knows itself.
[The Intellect] saw, as if in utter amazement, and, since it held something of [the Good] in itself, it had an intimate awareness of it and came into a state of longing.... In this way the soul also loves that Good, moved by it to love from the beginning.
And when he was demanded of the Pharisees, when the kingdom of God should come, he answered them and said, The kingdom of God cometh not with observation: Neither shall they say, Lo here! or, lo there! for, behold, the kingdom of God is within you.
No matter how high the soaring ones fly in the utmost degrees of knowledge and understanding, ... they are but reading letters from the book of their own selves, and reaching only to the brilliant unseen signs that are enshrined in the reality of their own beings, and circling round the centre of their own entities.
This most great, this fathomless and surging Ocean is near, astonishingly near, unto you. Behold it is closer to you than your life-vein! [cf.
We beseech God that He may graciously vouchsafe His grace unto all men, and enable them to attain the knowledge of Him and of themselves.
The more we search for ourselves, the less likely we are to find ourselves; and the more we search for God, and to serve our fellow-men, the more profoundly will we become acquainted with ourselves, and the more inwardly assured. This is one of the great spiritual laws of life.
For thought and discussion