5 Realms of Existence - Baha'i Cosmology - Part 2

Part 2 of a multi-series presentation on this subject. Time stamps below 👇 

Spiritual Cosmology examines the structure of reality, it's different stations and realms of Being: God, Angels, Manifestations, Prophets, etc.
We explore its importance, how it furthers world unity, and lays out a basic Baha'i model.

Sections: 

1. 0:15 Review of Part 1 
2. 6:50 Háhút - The Unknowable Essence 
3. 29:10 Meta-Reality
4. 54:14 Final Thoughts

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Chapters

• 0:15 Review of Part 1
• 6:50 Háhút - The Unknowable Essence
• 29:10 Meta-Reality
• 54:14 Final Thoughts

Transcript

speaker 0:   0:00
Hello, friends. So today we're starting our second set in the series on behi cosmology, and I want to stress a couple points to some review in that thing. One of the things I want to stress that I mentioned last time was the difference between shallow and deep unity. So often the unity of religion is presented as if they're unified in the fact that they relate to a refer to the domain of the sacred. And in addition to this, they have moral principles or ethical principles or spiritual principles that seem to thread through the different dispensations, such as the virtues of the compassion of honesty, of justice and mercy of forgiveness. From all this is true, one might say that these were simple expressions, if you will, of the different ways in which human kind has found that we can live together in a cohesive whole. And then this concert of the sacred yes, while being, say, unity, unified, if you will, is radically, radically different. And I mentioned this in the last video that oftentimes, when we look at the different world religions, we see a conception of God do with in the Old Testament that doesn't seem to really accord with the way God is expressed in the New Testament or the God of the New Testament seems to be radically different than that of the Cran or for that matter, of the Buddhist or Hindu scriptures. And when it comes to the high writings. As I said, I want to try to show that there are models and ways of looking at the sacred in its realms in its layers of ontology layers of existence, and see that actually, we can find a deep unity that the high faith holds within it a model of religious unity that is not really been explored. Now this is understandable. I know when I've had the blessing of sitting in the presidency of Christians or secularists for Buddhists or Muslims, etcetera. Throughout my life as a pa Hi, A discussion will ensue between different behinds on the perspective, off the manifestation of God and how that might relate to the Christian or the concept of the divine itself, and how that might relate to Buddhism or Hinduism and often times. But we end up having is, if you will, a beautiful debate amongst behind ourselves because what we have within the body. Faith is a shocking amount of Scripture. The writings of the Bob about Allah have abnormal hall and show the offending it and hallucinations by Universal's of justice are really, really something that would actually fill multiple shelves. So naturally, there's a challenge that we have to be able to come to a place of a true and unified understanding of whether the high writings themselves are saying. And this truly is understandable. Every dispensation, every religion throughout the history of humankind has had to go through this process of attempting to understand what these different techs are seeing. While we all might agree that their sacred or that the messenger is divinely send, we haven't got a maybe we'll a perfect and never will have a perfect handle on what is actually being expressed within these texts. Very often, this actually occurs through trying to find tune what it is that the dispensation say in their relationship to another religion. For example, Christianity itself had a great deal of answering to, if you will, the Greco Roman world as well is that the Jewish world and trying to if you will pin down what it is that is actually being sent in the New Testament and the process of dealing with very dominant or prominent views that save you will certain groups didn't actually believe or correct. Is this process of dialogue and discussion and debate simply that I'm hoping to begin here? As I said previously, I hope this has really seen merely as a conversation starter as a longing to try toe have the opening of a conversation about a framework of what the divine is. What are the layers of reality and what is the sacred within the by writings. So I chose this quote initially won because of this familiar and Ely, and secondly, because it actually has a clarity. It gives a picture where we can see that Mahala in this prayer seems to be referencing a series of layers. And we looked at these as all created things. The Romans not suit the inmates of the old highest, the Congress and hi Zuri Malik oot the inmates of the all highest paradise Jabba route to the realm of power and beyond them, the tongue of grandeur itself from the all glorious horizon. So you have fall, create things now Suit Concourse and hi Malla cooch the inmates of all highest paradise and beyond them the time of grandeur itself that thou art God. So we end up seeming to have created things concourse and high. The inmates realize paradise and the tongue of grandeur itself that thou are gone. And it's stating that the one that has been manifested is he whose name has been sent down with the pendant most high and through whom the letters be any have been joined in it together that existence itself was joined in it together through this one that was manifested so again, what I want Oh, really stress here just for a moment is that this is not a list, if you will, the horizontal list that this is actually a hierarchical ist attacks on a structure of ontology that is being expressed by mahalo in this prayer that there is the created thinks the concourse and high the inmates of the all highest paradise and beyond them, the tongue of grandeur itself, from the old Gloria's horizon that thou art caught to begin toe Have this. If you will fight full structure this Pfeifle reality that is the model that we're trying to it will launch the study from and begin that is the fundamental basis for our exploration. So in this, one of the things I want to do is to take a look at a series of different texts that seemed to outline this massive structure. And I want to also try to, if you will illustrate than many of these concepts. Rice, while seemingly theologically specialized or rarefied, are actually not bizarre concepts that all their concepts that we oddly I think experience almost everyday life that there are, if you will, signs and traces and tokens within the world that we experience that give us a sense of these different stations in these different realities. So that is something I will get, pausing at times to go into and to explore more fully. So at this point, I want to begin with a realm of how out the realm of ultimate reality. And naturally we want to ground our exploration of this within behi texts. So I'm going to start with the passage from Mahala from the gleanings from the writings of the whole. The unspeakable ultimate is what I call this without a ponder in nine heart from now until the end, that half no end and with all the concentrated intelligence and understanding which the greatest minds of attained in the past or will attain in the future was divinely ordained and suffer reality, this sign of the revelation of the all abiding, on glorious God that will fail to comprehend its mystery or appraised its virtue. Having recognized that powerlessness to attain to an adequate understanding of that reality, which abideth with in me that will readily admit the futility of such efforts has may be attempted by the for by any of the created things to fathom the mystery of the living God, the day star of unfailing glory, the ancient of everlasting dates. This confession of helplessness, which mature contemplation was eventually impel every mind to make is itself the acme of human understanding and market the culmination and man's development at the beginning of this passage, that's stating if we were to ponder in her heart for all time with all of the intelligence under stranding of the greatest of minds, this divinely ordained and subtle reality on the sign of the revelation of the old abiding God, we would fail to comprehend its mystery. Now it sounds at first is if we're talking about the manifestation of God or we make talking about divine reality itself. But it says, having recognized by powerless to contain an adequate understanding of that which provided with Indy, you will readily admit the futility of trying to understand ultimate rallying itself. And I think this is very profound and very beautiful, and it's trying to place human conceptions within their rightful place. You know, I often have said in fire sides and deep ings and conversations that I I consider, for example, God, the all knowing one of the common appellations of the divine, if you will, and literally I don't know how many socks I have. I'm not entirely sure how many books I own. I don't know the square foot of eating really a single room in my house without actually having to go back and measure it. So when I begin to consider the all knowing itself as a title as a station as a reality, it is absurd, utterly, utterly absurd To think that I could comprehend the divine itself. And here is talking about even that subtle reality inside ourselves. And I think it's generally an experience reality that we do not fully understand even the consciousness within which we abide. We're not really fully aware of the reality of any other consciousness, right and let alone any other consciousness, but even our own. And I think that when we begin to look at these, if you will common titles of God, the all powerful right, the all knowing the ground of all beauty and virtue that when I tried to take a look at power, I actually have exceedingly limited efficacy over my reality. I control control my body, and I can control what comes out of my mouth sometimes, and I can manipulate things in the world yet if we're really going to begin to consider the concept of God, whether or not God even exists. But if we begin to actually consider the concept of God, I started thinking of things like the sheer force of tectonic plates, or I consider the power of, say, Niagara Falls, just the sheer power of it, let alone the power of the planet itself, right, or the molten core or the power of one son when I begin to consider, say, the power of, like, the movement of the planetary core or tectonic plates, let alone this on my mind has already maxed out on any conception of actually how much power that is is like if you say something. I know we have words for these things. It's like if you say, Well, this is a 1,000,000,000 light years away, 100,000 light years away. Really? That just suddenly just completely taps out my mind. But what that really could possibly mean. So when I consider, say, the sheer force and power that is actually encased within a single atom, right, maybe to consider the power of an atomic bomb I can't, Coop, I cannot properly conceptualize that, let alone the sun itself or the amount of power it exerts over the planets within our solar system. I can't amend. Imagine the power within a small cross section of the planet I live on, or even the power that is actually held within a cup, literally the physical material of a cop. But if we begin to have this movement, we start considering the reality of the amount of sheer force and power of the laws of nature and what they govern throat our Milky Way. This this becomes just utterly nonsensical. But God, even if God wasn't riel, the conception of God is the old powerful, the source of all of the laws of nature and the universe. The author, the one who actually created all sources of power that a human being or any eternally living being within this cosmos could experience. But this brings us to another concept. If we actually look at truth itself, I am standing in a room and there is the truth as to how many fibers here in my jacket there is a truth to the distance of my face from the camera. There is a truth as to how many, if you will. Microorganisms are in this room. And there is a truth as to what is the spatial relationships between all those microorganisms in this room or the spinning of an electron and its electron shield with every part of my body. As soon as I begin to really contemplate any physical object that I could possibly think of and then simply take in the room that I'm actually standing in the amount of, if you will, truths that one could know about. This room is unfathomable. I don't even you all the objects in the room that I'm standing him so well, maybe kin to start. And it is what I really hope people will do when you really begin to contemplate what it means to be the all knowing it is unfathomable. If I was to meet an individual who could tell me every single object in this room and all their spatial relationships and all their temperatures and all the movements and how long they will exist, how long it will take the cardboard, which is in this room that my son uses to create things how long it will take it to deteriorate in each and every specific issue, the fluctuations in temperature on and on and on and on. If I'm gonna meet one person who just knew all the truths about this room, let alone any I'm borrowing even my own thoughts and my hopes and my desires of my dreams, just the actual physical relations of this room. But if I now take that very concept just like power, and I begin to expand it out I begin to actually push that out. Well, what if I knew everything was in the city? I live where everyone is, how fast every vehicle is moving, et cetera. And then I just push that If you will push that that fresh hold out and out and out and out I have already, if you will know, tapped out in a sense, on the idea of knowing everything in a small room in my own house, let alone within the city province, country, a continent, ah, planet. Once I start moving that out to understanding what the old knowing means with implications of even my own solar system, we're talking about amount of particles that is just utterly inconceivable. And there was a very strange fact that there is a truth, actually, whatever that means. There is a truth right now about how many, if you will, living beings there are, say, under the surface of Europa or are not. There are truths out there for all these things. And the concept of the divine is that that truth is known, my an entity which we commonly refer to as God. This goes to when we look at I've experienced virtue. For example, in beauty, when I see beauty and I experienced physical beauty and the beauty of goals and purposes within my own life, the things I strive for, the things I see other stride for and I even mean not in the philanthropic sense. But when someone is trying to be a beautiful artist, when someone is attempting to reach out to humanity and share their hearts, if you will, the currents of their heart in visual art, this there's beauty there that is unbelievably exquisite, but that can be in billions of hearts low when we begin to move through concepts like how many times a day today has someone in the face of wishing to be dishonest for their own self benefit actually chose to be honest, and these are actually very peculiar to some maybe quantifiable conceptions. We might not be able to gather all of them, and some of them might be self interested or partially mixed up with self interest. But you have individuals through out the human population right now, striving to be generous or being generous, and imagine taking all of that generosity or collecting, if you will. The love of every single mother for their child, right? For the sacrifice that anything's a father might make for his son or his daughter, or the compassion that all these millions and billions of people might have for their fellow human beings, even if it was one fleeting moment within their life. And we were to collect that over the course of human history, all the virtues and attributes which are often the if you will, the attributes expressed off God, it himself, hers. Health, right. We start to get a sense of what love might be, and it is surely unfathomably beyond the heart of this individual or the heart of any individual that I know. So I want to distress this at this moment that it is really important when we begin to look at religious texts, even if you don't believe in the existence of God to begin to contemplate what it isn't like, what the reality of that title is the old only they all love it. The self subsisting right thes air, things that are unfathomable to us. And here it's telling us that we were to try to look at even hurl themselves, and I would I find myself? He went around myself to explore what it means and how little I know of what I even know how little I know of even the nature of my own love, for my own capacity, for honesty, my own capacity for justice, right? There are truths, even in my own mind, that I don't even remember learning that suddenly come to my mind in the moment of talking. We ourselves are well springs. And it's saying, if you come to a recognition of the sign of one's own self and over the reality around you, you will recognize the futility of such efforts as may be attempted by the or by any of the creative things to fathom the mystery of the living God. And I do genuinely believe an offer for your contemplation that this is a self evident truth. If one is willing to be mindful of reality, and this is going to be a common theme as we move through cosmology that very often what religious tasks Sorry, what religious texts. What religious scriptures are asking us to do is to be exceedingly mindful of the reality in which we actually live and try to come to terms with it, whether it be ugly or beautiful and to recognize those things. So we're going to move now. I leave that in your in your heart and mind we're going to move to another text. And this is actually from, um, Abdullah Hall in a work called Propagation of Universal Peace. And it is a rather long text, and we're going to go through a series of longer texts and I hope to Really, if you will flash out these models that we're looking at, What is the reality of divinity or what do we understand by God? When we consider the world of existence, we find that the essential reality underlying any given phenomenon is unknown. Phenomenal 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 to flower. What do we understand by this name and title? We understand that the qualities appertaining to this organism are perceptible. Tow us with the intrinsic, elemental reality or identity of it remains unknown. It's external appearance and manifest attributes are knowable with the inner being. The underlying reality or intrinsic identity is still beyond the cannon perception of our human powers. So Herr runs again, Ababa Hawes asking is to contemplate the world of existence. So we're saying, What is the reality, divinity or what do we understand by God, Anabel Hot saying We'll consider the world of existence, be mindful to it and find that the essential reality underlying any given phenomenon is unknown. So you're saying this isn't just some peculiar notion that we might actually apply to divinity itself, but rather, man quote man discerns only manifestations for attributes of objects, while the identity or reality of them remains hit. So I may take the simplest of objects a coffee cup, right? And as I'm looking at this coffee cup, I am seeing a visual experience off that object time. Seeing its shape, its color. I might pick it up, and I might feel its weight. And as it increasingly begin to actually study it, its features that shapes made its cracks or chips. I'm still seeing an external expression, a manifestation have some fundamental underlying reality that I do not have access to. This is actually a physical manifestation of some exceedingly odd object in its fundamental reality. So I only perceive, quote its external appearance and manifest attributes those air. That's what our noble to me but the inner being the underlying reality are intrinsic. Identity is beyond my conception, given that the realities of material phenomenon are themselves Impenetrable, unknowable. And I guarantee, within our fundamental physics, we're going to be exploring and exploring in exploring its morning and new riches. Mrs and peculiarities We're going to be presented to us, even if we're simply studying Coffee Cup. Then he says, How much more This is true concerning the reality of divinity that holy essential reality was transcends the plane and grasp of mine meant that which comes within human grasp is finite and in relation to it. We are infinite because we grasp it. So ab mobile home makes a statement here for us to consider that if the reality of divinity could be contained within the grasp of the human mind, it would, after all, be possessed oven intellectual existence on Lee a concept without extraneous existence, an image and that's what we find within the writings of Abd of all Over and over. He stresses this fact that actually, if we have a concept of something, if we have a concept of divinity, that is something that we can picture and we can create this image or likeness or this understanding we are. Cells are superior to that understanding because it is something on idea a concept that we can contain. He sums this up. Therefore, every conception of divinity which has come within the intellectual of human being is finite or limit. It is a pure product of imagination, whereas the reality of divinity is holy and sacred, above and beyond all such concepts. So once again he's using this idea of look at the physical world, looking to create a world in which you exist. Pay attention to it that your access to even the simplest of things right themselves are only through attributes of manifestations. And if you're now moving to, if you will, a concept within your own mind not even looking at a physical thing and you're attempting to create this image or likeness within yourself that is actually circumscribed is actually surrounded by and contained within your own mind. Abdul Bahar then continues, but the question maybe as how shall we know God? And the answer is the same as the cup. Anyways, we'll see how this works out. We know him by his attributes. We know him by his science. We know him by his name's. We know not what the reality of the sun is, but we know the sun by the raid by the heat by its efficacy and penetration. We recognize the sun by its balance, tea and a Fulgence, but is what constitutes the reality of the solar energy that is a noble tow us The attributes characterizing the sun, however arguable if they which to come in touch with the divine reality. We do so by recognizing its phenomena. It's attributes and traces which are widespread in the universe. So he's telling us that we know God by his attributes, signs, names, it's phenomenon, it's attributes and traces. When I was just this isn't actually a peculiar notion at all, either. We know all phenomenon by their if you will names their signs and their attributes right, the traces that we have of it. Even when we were actually looking at something like an elementary particle, we're working through the medium right of some secondary observation. We were trying to see the reality of something from its external phenomenon. And if this is so natural and perfectly understandable within the everyday realm, why would it then apply somehow differently to the divine and we will return to this again and again. All things under Boss says are expressive of that one. Reality flights are shining, its heat is manifest, its powers expressive and its education or training resplendent everywhere. What proof could there be greater than that of its functioning or its attributes, which are manifest? And then he stresses in this final paragraph of this quote, right? Asked answering the question How the reality of man can ever comprehend the reality of God, he says. It is self, evidently an impossibility. Hence we can observe the traces and attributes of God, resplendent in all phenomenon and shining as the sun at midday. So when we look at the truth of reality of divinity, we see that this isn't actually a bizarre concept, that we would only be able to know if you will manifestations off that divine reality of that unknowable essence, if you will, because within the re eight. Within the creative world we experience all the time, that's what we experience. We experienced the attributes or qualities of a physical object. In addition, we actually experience on Lee, if you will, the attributes and qualities and names and signs and traces of each other's consciousness of each other's personalities. This is what's happening in this very moment. You're seeing the signs and traces and manifestations, if you will, of my thoughts and feelings surrounding some subject. You don't know the inner essence of what my thoughts are or what my unknown underlying and ultimate nature is. You're just seeing a physical body in front of you moving in certain ways and expressing signs and traces of an intellect and thoughts and feelings underneath is why we have to be, really I get it. Well, trust this really pay attention to the reality in which we live. So now we're gonna move on to some other Central, if you will meta texts on my med attacks. I mean ones that will give us an understanding of, if you will, the overarching conception here. We're gonna move into several quotes from the Bob and I find some of the ways that the Bob in the selections from the rays of Pop Express disease is profoundly poetic and exquisitely clear. So I'm gonna try and look at this coach and go just by paragraph by paragraph. So the starts in Paragraph three if I weren't sailing upon the sea of God's names, which are reflected in all things, no thou that he's exalted and sanctified from being known through his creatures or being described by his servants. Everything that we hold, this has been called into being to the operation of his will. How can such a creative thing therefore be indicative of his essential oneness? God's existence in itself testified to his own oneness while every created thing, by its very nature pair of evidence that has been fashioned by God, such as the proof of consummate wisdom in the estimation of those who sail the ocean of divine truth. So it says, we're if we're sailing on the sea of God's name's reflected in all created things, we would see the divine being is sanctified from being known or described by his hurts. That everything you're seeing has been called into being for the operation of his will now, we just looked at this in the courts of Abdel Bahar. And if we look at, if you will remember, we were like I was expressing how if I say like, God is all knowing Well, obviously, when I say although I try to stress this and stretch this, that is only gonna push, if you will to the outward borders or periphery conceptually of what I can think of of knowing hole things. And obviously that is a unfathomably pale conception. Even I can't even really understand, as I said, what it would like to know everything that's in the room and all the truths contained within it literally have a room which I'm standing right and that any description, if I say the whole loving that's going to be an expression Havas faras I constrain my concept of loving. Okay, we're gonna move her out for he have however, that went sailing upon the sea of creation, known over the first remembers, which is the primal will of God may be likened under the sun God. I've created him through the potency of his mind and 1/2 from the beginning that have no beginning caused him to be manifest in every dispensation, threw the compelling power of his behest. And God will do the end that no, if no end continue to manifest him according to the good pleasure of his invincible purpose. No, Before actually going into this section of the writings of the bomb, I'm gonna jump ahead further ahead than I'd fought initially and try to point something out. Every experience we have of something really of anything is through its manifestations inside, through its attributes from its names and descriptions, its qualities. And what I propose is that when we really look at this concept of well, normally we try to say if, as God, the term used in the high writings being hoat, which actually has its history within the Islamic tradition, that in the higher writings this reality is actually that was just behind theatrical. That's what is behind the traces and signs and manifestations all of the divine. Then, in a sense, it is even beyond what is ineffable. Any, uh, any, if you will appellation every description and equality we could possibly give to it will only be an expression of some attributes or quality of that reality. which is not its essence. And I want to cut you for a second Just a toe. Really? Hammer this home in my own understanding the male studies of the high writings ultimate reality is actually almost never talked about. It is referenced as a reality. But that discussion quickly moves within the BEHI writings to an expression of this primal will have got that we will see in this passage the first remembrance because the manifestation is the embodiment of the attributes, the traces of science. So look at this passage if you're sailing in the sea of creation, Right? So if you were sailing upon the sea of names imagine this. You have all this the old loving, the all knowing the all compassionate the most is just you have all these different If you will names on the top of a rolling ocean. The Bob here is seeing if you're sailing on this sea of names, you realize that none of these actually can describe that reality out that our got rain and even that's going to become quote fight. But see, they have all these names and they're not actually describing their mere quality signs. Attributes that are manifested for our sake and then something. He moves in the next very next paragraph says. However, if you're sailing upon the sea of creations or in the sea of creation, no, thou that the first remembrance, which is the primal will of God, Maybe like and under the sun, we're going to see this come up again and again and again in the viral writings. Very often, I think we and there's a good reason for this will take the expression of the son of reality or the image of the sun to be a reference to God himself. And I'm gonna propose this early on that that actually is not what's going on. And it says here the first remembrance, which is the primal will of God, maybe. Like another son, Anabel House says the same thing. That's something it shifts. It says God created him through the potency of his mind, any half from the beginning that have no beginning caused him to be manifested in every dispensation through the compelling power of his behest, and God will, to the end that have no end, continue to manifest him. There is a profound divine singularity occurring here. The image of the sun within the behi writings is relating to the primal will of God. The first remembrance of God, if you will the embodiment of all his attributes and signs in our if you will, on the sea of creation when they see of creation, there was this primal well that could be liking of the sun And this primal will This first remembrance again quote is manifested in every dispensation and God will continue to do so. Continue to manifest him to the end that no with no end. So what you suddenly have is there is this son and I'm gonna propose now that this is what we mean by loud tongue of grandeur through whom the letters be any of the jointed together. And this entity we see manifested right in every dispensation from the beginning that has no beginning under the end, that now with no end. So there is this divine singularity which we see in the multiplicity of different representations and not only upon earth but all throat, all of creation. And again I would recommend the friends. If you're interested in some of the other topics writing this to look at the worlds beyond deepening and see a fuller expression of this and we'll get back to that. I know thou indeed that he resembled the sun Were the rising of the sun to continue till the end of half. No end. Yeah, they're half not being nor will ever be more than one son and where it settings to endure forever more so there have not been nor ever will be more than one son. It is this primal will which appears resplendent in every prophet and speak with fourth in every revealed book It no, with no beginning, inasmuch as the first arrived with its first nous from it and no, with no end for the last. Oh, if it's last nous unto it. So look at this. No, there's this divine reality and I'm gonna say this is the manifestation, Okay? This primal will there has not ever been more than one son boxes here and this primal wheel roll a purist, resplendent in every prophet and speak it for fun. Every revealed book. It's interesting it No, if no beginning or end, we keep having the same thing that were the settings of the sun to go on forever, right? It would always be this one, son, and it has no beginning and no end. And this entity is, if you will, the source and focal point of all the names of God, he says North beginning no beginning. Inasmuch as the first derive of its first nous from it, the concept of first nous itself is actually a description of that entity that son, we're not moving to paragraph six. In the time of the first manifestation, the primal will appeared in Adam and they have no I became known in Noah and that they have Abraham in him. And so on the day of Moses, the day of Jesus that a Mohammed the apostle of God the day of the point of the beyond by on and the day of him whom God shall make manifest and the day of the one who will appear after him, whom God shall make manifest Hence the inner meaning of the words uttered by the apostle of God. I am all the profits and as much as what shyness resplendent each one of them have been and will ever remain the one in the same son And again I wanna stress is this is off. This is a picture that I see that is different than how I often hear it described There is this one son that has actually speak of fourth has three appear respondent Every prophet speak of four for never revealed book, right? It was Adam Noah, Abraham Moses, Jesus Mohammed The point of the buy on which is the Bob himself Him whom God you'll make manifest Mahala and the one who will appear after him. So there is. It's not simply that they're sharing a story and they're unified in their conception of sharing a tale of the divine being Or they each are kings of you will. Now we're going to see that there is a distinction somewhat between them. But there is one son that is manifested in this multiplicity. There is the one. And then there is the many, if you will, there is the zero out nothingness that we could describe the single, the one and then all the different numbers if you will being built up out of that set. This is something that we will see repeat again and again and again and Now I want to actually go to another quick reference here from the Bob where he says, sanctified, Are thou O Lord, my God, unto whom all rendered Thanksgiving? Whatever I mean, a firm of the would be what a wanton crying before the what ever mention any choose to make of the with the essence of transgression. And whenever the praise whereby may glorify thee glorify the he would amount to share blasphemy. No one else besides the have been or will ever be able to fathom my mystery. Neither have anyone succeeded. Normal. Anyone succeed at any time in discovering, In essence, in this passage, he's saying that really, in the end, if we were to be truly, truly and deeply aware, we would realize that any description would be a wanton crime. Whatever praise, I mean glorifying would be shared Blast. What is it meaning? And saying that no matter what, any entity and this is including the Bob himself would describe of, in essence, right would actually be all utterly and completely short of the reality of even this seat, if you will, of those attributes. Now again, I want to try toe. If you really look again at some of the simple examples I gave. Imagine if you will a dog, your dog or your cat and that dog or that cat is attempting, threw me out or barks to describe the reality of their master. But you know that that dog or that cat is sitting in your living room with you. Say, even listening to this for listening to you discuss history or anything, really, they might actually be just discussing how to open a door home. That dog or that cat cannot understand what you're talking about, has no access to the domain of your purposes and goals. Plans, overarching hopes or dreams. The dog doesn't know what a door novice. I can't really understand the mechanics of a window. It really will have no conception of what a fork is. Yet are we expecting that this dog is able to describe the reality of even the simplest human being? Imagine a child right? Trying to express how smart someone like, say, Albert Einstein is Neil's board. Charles Darwin, someone trying to attempt to express truly out say the piercing insight that they actually possessed. Unable to do so, they would have to be that individuals peer to really get a sense of how intellectual or understanding they were. If we cannot truly express the complexity of a piece of stone, literally, we have whole disciplines physics and chemistry and geology in order to try to strike this. How are we to ever describe the complexity of another human being, not even a brilliant scientist for our own self? And again, walk this up, try to look at what this shows us about reality rain. So if we have the in affability inability to describe even the lesser how much more the greater So I'm gonna read another small passage from the Bob. This is a divinely inscribed book. This is the outspread tablet is indeed the frequented fame. The sweet scented leaf, a tree of divine revelation, the surging ocean, the utterance which lay concealed the light above every light we need. Every light is generated by God through the power of his behest. He of the truth is the light in the kingdom of heaven and earth and whatever's between them, through the radiance of his light God in part of illumination to your hearts and make a firm your steps ever chancing me and yield praise on him say this is of a certainty is the garden of repose loftiest point of adoration the tree beyond which there was no passing The blessed low tree, the most mighty signed, the most beauteous countenance on the most Coley faith. The Bob actually does say no pure or like this. More similar itude or equal can ever be joined with him. God! And then he turns to this passage and looked at the titles that were given to this being the divinely inscribed book l Spread Tablet frequented fame. And it says, the tree of divine revelation The surging ocean, the light above every like the loftiest point of adoration. And again, the tree beyond which there is no passing the blasted low tree, The most mighty sign, the most beauteous countenance, the most calmly faith. So here, the manifestation of God. And we're going to see that actually, the concepts of the tree beyond which there no passing the moat tree, the most mighty sign and the countenance of God are all titles of the manifestation of God even more. Or if you might let, sir, we'll find that it's actually his speaker on whom these actual titles are applied. But there was this place we can reach where we meet the face of God because beyond there is essence that we only see if you're a coal in the passages about we only see the manifestations of the sun. That's the analogy. Menus for the manifestation. So even the manifestation of God, remember, this is singular, that which appears in Noah and Abraham in the Buddha Krishna that that being we only see its face, if you will. The face of the sun, the attributes and surface of the sun, his radiance and heat We don't know its essence either. How much more do we not know? The divine, ultimate divine court, if you will. No. This is where I think this is where we sort of have to have a break. Uh uh, in our discussion because, really, what ends up happening within the behind writings discussion of ha hoot that ultimate happiness, the essence of essences, if you will, is that because it's in the realm already of inevitability and we only know its manifestations and traces and signs and the beehive writings those of the Bob the Howl Ababa Hall ultimately and unendingly acknowledged, that is that essence behind the essence of you will that is the source of all and that they are mere servants of it. Much of the cosmology, the layers of ontology, because they can be discussed suddenly fall beyond that top room. This becomes just a blank that really we only speak of Huemer doing theology and cosmology. We only really are talking about load we're only talking about, though a manifestation the calmly face, the countenance, the tree beyond which there is no passing the divine low tree. That's what we're really, really talking about. And I think this is going to ease our passage toothy subjects and enable us to get more particular and more precise. And look at more and more writing surrounding this because, really, who does crossed off now? In addition, if we look at this well, if we're trying to look at what Romans were talking about and one is literally just join axe rain and on a zero behind a zero, if you will, we also already have explored the realm of Moloch, coot to a certain degree on bridging beliefs. This is the world's view on Siri's like leave her seven sets, if you will. Seven steps in that study, I will give some quick reminders as to what's in them so we can keep this picture going and I will refer to it on and off we go. But we're not going to do a study of the concourse on high here because there is a study of the concourse and I We're not going to just do a study of the natural world here, okay, at this time, because that is actually a completely different studies. So hard coat is gone. Malik oot is ah whole study, not suit is the realm in which we're living. So what are some central reminders that I ought to put forward here regarding Malik? Because they will apply conceptually to the worlds above that of the inmates of the allies, paradise and the dung of grandeur itself. That manifestation some of the central reminders I want to put out is to recall that in our study of the realms beyond, we looked at passages from the different central figures and we saw that there are infinite worlds. Both, if you will, countless, if you feel like a multi multi multi verse. And they are infinite in the range vertically that the corn course on high that domain that we pass into beyond this life actually goes on forever, but that in each of these worlds there is a heaven and help. And this is something I stressed again in the worlds beyond deepening that the central, the central figures, the behind writings tell us that in each of these realms there is a heaven and hell that in each of those worlds there was a manifestation of God that we in this life are creating our body, if you will are spiritual body for the next world. Great. And I did quote one that were that fat body is composed of the elements of that world. And then we are developing that body that we will inhabit upon the death of this. This in which we live, that we are ourselves or if you will multiply the realize a ble right there is this essence that we are that itself becomes embodied over and over in spiritual realms, if you will, and that one can inhabit this domain of Malik oot this Congress and high eternally, and that in each of these worlds there is a heaven and hell, which is acknowledged his recognition or deniable of the manifestation of cod, and that our job is actually to explore and seek out truth and beauty and virtue and pat the source of beauty. For Chu, power and truth in each of those worlds have got now all the conceptual confusions, if you will, because if we can take Bala coat, that's a different study. We've already done it. How it's crossed off death lawsuit, the nature of war world in which we live. We'll leave off. We can now look at what we have now. Is this sun the primal will the first remembrance the low tree, the tree beyond, which is no passing the tongue of grandeur from the obligatory prayer through whom the letters being even joining it together. And then we have this Thean mates of your wife's parents, and I propose that this is actually where all the confusion seems to really occur. Why there is this confusion within the different dispensations and how we have understood are different scriptures. So these it's really, if you will, the one in the many. What is the relationship doing with one The manifestation of God and it's indulgences. It's traces its manifestations that sign that symbols and how that relates to the station of some very peculiar characters. And I'm going to state up front of that that I believe this is his primal will. What was called the Primal Will or the first remembrance for the word right is what we really see being talked about within the distant, different dispensations. And I hope you'll join me for the next section, which will look more into now that we've been ableto it will cross of Hollywood and Malik you to not suit and Wheeler left with Jabba route and loud and that being the manifestation of God, the one the son and it's embodiments any, if you will a category, if you will, of the inmates of the all highest paradise and how this relates the different dispensations we will see later. But I'm goingto take a moment here and we're going to stop, and when we come back in, our next session will be looking at the difference between the one and the many and what we can actually hash out in that room.