The soul beyond place: signs of an inward reality

To a supreme degree is this true of man, who, among all created things, hath been invested with the robe of such gifts, and hath been singled out for the glory of such distinction. For in him are potentially revealed all the attributes and names of God to a degree that no other created being hath excelled or surpassed. All these names and attributes are applicable to him. Even as He hath said: "Man is My mystery, and I am his mystery."

O thou who gazest upon the Kingdom of Abha!

Whatever the pen may write and the tongue may utter is but a drop from the surging ocean that exists within the reality of the soul and consciousness. It cannot be fully explained.

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For the Kingdom is not a material location but is sanctified above time and place. It is a spiritual realm, a divine world, and it is the seat of the sovereignty of the almighty Lord. It is exalted above bodies and all that is corporeal, and it is freed and sanctified from the idle conjectures of men. For to be confined to place is a characteristic of bodies and not of spirits: Time and place encompass the body, not the mind and the soul.

… The spirit is absolutely placeless and immaterial, but it has a connection with the body, even as the sun has a connection with this mirror: The sun occupies no place within the mirror but it has a connection with it.

The human body is in space; the soul has no place in space. Space is a quality of material things and that which is not material does not partake of space. The soul, like the intellect, is an abstraction.

Man possesses a gift by which he is distinguished from all other creatures-a spiritual principle which is bodiless, pure, simple, or uncompounded, which is superior to place and time.

Some say: "We cannot see the soul." This is correct, for the soul is incorporeal and not a body. Therefore, how can it be seen? Whatever is visible requires a body, and if it is a body, it is not a soul.

Modern philosophers say: "Nowhere do we see a spirit in man, and, although we have investigated the inmost recesses of the human body, nowhere do we perceive a spiritual power. How then are we to imagine a power which is not sensible?" The divine philosophers reply: "The spirit of the animal is not sensible either and cannot be perceived through our material powers: How do you infer its existence? There is no doubt that it is from its effects that you infer in the animal the existence of a power which is lacking in the plant, and that is the power of the senses--sight, hearing and the other powers.

Although the spirit is hidden from view, still its commandments shine out like rays of light upon the world of the human body. In the same way, although the Kingdom of heaven is hidden from the sight of this unwitting people, still, to him who seeth with the inner eye, it is plain as day.

This other and inner reality is called the heavenly body, the ethereal form which corresponds to this body. This is the conscious reality which discovers the inner meaning of things, for the outer body of man does not discover anything.

Even the ether, the forces of which are said in natural philosophy to be heat, light, electricity, and magnetism, is an intelligible and not a sensible reality. Likewise, nature itself is an intelligible and not a sensible reality; the human spirit is an intelligible and not a sensible reality.

O thou who art enthralled by the beauty of truth!

There are two types of conditions and circumstances in life: those which are governed by the rule of matter, by the universal laws and principles of physical reality, and those which transcend these rules and break the limitations of external reality.

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The soul acts in the physical world with the help of the body. When it is freed from the body it acts without an intermediary. We see with our physical eyes, but with the help of our thoughts we can see other lands. America was discovered through the mind. The day the soul becomes detached from the body it has but this second means of action - without intermediary.

The spirit, in its realm of abstraction, is independent of the body. It possesses all attributes. By itself, without need of the body, it sees, hears, and speaks; it is detached and separated from all physical powers, yet possesses all these perceptions.

But how can I prove to you that you are or have an immaterial soul? Can I measure, weigh, touch, prove your soul?

As our knowledge of things, even of created and limited ones, is of their attributes and not of their essence, how then can it be possible to understand in its essence the unbounded Reality of the Divinity? For the inner essence of a thing can never be known, only its attributes.

He said it was very difficult to speak of the Spiritual Kingdom in any way to make our finite minds understand, or even grasp a faint conception of its mysteries and glories; that when we speak of love, - a thing we all know well - we are obliged to make a comparison and say it is like fire, in order to convey the idea to the intellectual mind.

Abdul Baha: The reality of spirit, because it is not corporeal, cannot be in bodily form. We cannot say it is like the fire, or like water, or like flame, or like odor. In the world of man it has no likeness. … It is beyond explanation, for it is a reality of the intellect, and not a thing which can be perceived.

Perceptible realities can be explained. But the intellectual realities cannot be explained by or through words.

And this spiritual remembrance is sanctified above explanation and clarification, for this inner reality and spiritual state cannot be comprehended or depicted through partial minds and Arabic or Persian words or other physical languages.

Whatever is spoken or written cannot interpret the secrets of hearts nor explain the verses of breasts. Only a drop from the ocean can be expressed, and but a single grain from the harvest revealed.

O servant of the All-Glorious!

Whatever may be written, the description of the heart and soul remains still concealed, and this hidden mystery remains sealed. For how can pens have the capacity to record infinite meanings, and how can ink have the power to explain and expound the realities of the realm of heart and soul?

O my God and my Beloved! I know not how to remember Thee or by what means to mention Thee, for I perceive that the very reality of remembrance is in itself severed from the places of Thy description, and in its essence and being is bewildered before the effulgent rays of the Sun of Thy Glory.

As to your question concerning the reality of the soul, it is a divine sign and a heavenly essence which all the learned have failed to comprehend and all the wise have been powerless to understand.

… Verily the soul, as it is, is a sign among the signs of God and a mystery among His mysteries. It is the Most Great Sign and the Herald that giveth tidings of the divine worlds. Within it lieth concealed that which the present world with all its capacity is powerless to mention or describe.

It cannot be said that the subtle spirit hath entered into and penetrated the body, for the former is immaterial while the latter is bound by the constraints of time and space.

Although this is a serious topic and worthy of investigation, thou art of course aware that mixing and commingling, entering and exiting, ascending and descending, and penetration are among the properties of bodies, not souls. If a reference to the soul mentioneth "penetration," this referreth not to the reality but is intended metaphorically, for there is a condition in the spiritual world that is sanctified from every conception which can only be expressed in this physical world by such terms as "entering," "penetrating," "mixing," and "commingling."

We have already explained that the spirit of man is not contained within the body, for it is freed and sanctified from ingress and egress, which are among the properties of material bodies. Rather, the connection of the spirit with the body is like that of the sun with the mirror. Briefly, the human spirit is always in one condition. It neither falls ill with the illness of the body nor is made healthy by the latter's health; it does not become weak or incapacitated, wretched or downtrodden, diminished or lessened---that is, it suffers no harm or ill effect on account of the infirmities of the body, even if the body were to waste away, or if the hands, feet, and tongue were to be cut off, or if the powers of sight and hearing were to be disrupted.

The rational soul---the human spirit---did not descend into this body or subsist through it to begin with, that it should require some substance to depend upon after the constituent parts of the body have decomposed. On the contrary, the rational soul is the substance upon which the body depends. The rational soul is endowed from the beginning with individuality; it does not acquire it through the intermediary of the body.

The reality of the spirit is abstract - it is not physical, has no space, and occupies no place.

The human spirit refers to the rational soul by which humans are distinguished from animals. It is not from the realm of physical elements but rather from spiritual substances that are not subject to corruption.

The answer to the third question is this, that in the other world the human reality doth not assume a physical form, rather doth it take on a heavenly form, made up of elements of that heavenly realm.

And the answer to the fourth question: the center of the Sun of Truth is in the supernal world---the Kingdom of God. Those souls who are pure and unsullied, upon the dissolution of their elemental frames, hasten away to the world of God, and that world is within this world.

The search for truth causes the emergence of the spirit, for the spirit cannot be perceived through physical senses, but is manifest and evident through inner powers. Although man's body is perceptible, his spirit is hidden yet rules over the body. The spirit has two modes of operation: one through instruments and means, that is, seeing through the eye, hearing through the ear, speaking through the tongue. … The other operation is without instruments, as in the world of dreams where one sees without eyes, hears without ears, speaks without tongue, and travels without moving the feet.

This human spirit, which is the rational soul, encompasses all things, discovers all things, and comprehends all things. It is this that brings forth the mysteries of being from the invisible plane to the visible. This is the power that brings all material arts, sciences and inventions from the invisible realm into the visible realm. Though this power is not perceptible to the senses, its effects are evident and manifest. Though it cannot be seen with the outward senses, it is perceived with the inner senses.

Be it known that to know the reality or essence of the soul of man is impossible, for in order to know a thing, one must comprehend it, and since a thing cannot comprehend itself, to know one's self in substance or essence is impossible.

If thou wert to contemplate with the minds of the first and the last unto eternity upon this divine subtlety and manifestation of holy eternality, thou wouldst assuredly find thyself incapable and wanting in truly knowing it. And when thou observest thine own powerlessness and limitation in attaining to the knowledge of the sign that exists within thyself, thou wilt surely behold with the eye of inner and outer vision thine own impotence and that of all created things in knowing the Divine Essence and the Sun of eternal glory. The acknowledgment of powerlessness in this station, when based on insight, is the utmost limit of the knowledge of the servant and the highest attainment of the worshippers.

But in this world all those called into being are new souls. It is not that a former soul becometh incarnated in another person, or that another individual becometh the soul of a former individual. Nay, rather they correspond with each other through manifestations; that is to say, he will be in the station of his soul, but his soul is not incarnated and the state of the soul does not become embodied.

… Understanding the world of souls is impossible in this world of bodies. That world is unlike anything you can conceive in your imagination. In these perishable bodies one cannot perceive the immortal worlds, save through that which ye sometimes behold in a dream.

The rest of this tale comes without words, To the heart of one who possesses the light of soul

In any case, in all conditions praise with joy and give thanks with delight, for you have been rewarded before the labor and mentioned before remembrance, for He is the ever-Powerful, the Doer without being questioned, the Ever-Living, the Almighty, the All-Encompassing, the Most High.

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Regarding the passage in Gleanings, on the subject of the soul, it would be impossible for man to obtain a full grasp of this reality within him. The little knowledge we can have regarding this subject has been disclosed to us by Baha'u'llah and He has revealed it only to the extent that our limited minds can comprehend.

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