I. What Is The First Cause Of The Universe?: Although every creation must have a inventor God is the inventor but not the Cause of the universe. A cause implies a dependency with its effects. Since God is unchangeable God cannot be a cause. As Baha'u'llah explains, it is the "Word of God which is the Cause of the entire creation, while all else besides His Word are but the creatures and the effects thereof."(Tablets, p 140)
Baha'u'llah said that "Once in an age the powerful God sent a Soul to earth endowed with the power of the Great Ether and that such a Soul had all power and was able to do anything."
Led Microscope Light
Ii. What Is The Reality Of Ether?: In 1887, physicists Michelson and Morley tried to measure the incompatibility in the speed of light while the point of measurement moved towards the sun in the morning as well as away from the sun in the evening. This experiment assumed that if space was filled with ether, the measurements should indicate a higher speed of light as the earth moved through the ether towards the sun as well as a lower speed of light as the earth moved through the ether away from the sun. But no change in the velocity of light was ever observed! Later, Einstein declared the speed of light is constant regardless of the velocity of the observer. He also proposed that ether does not exist. Abdu'l-Baha, however, explained that ether does exist as an intellectual reality but is not measurable. He stated that ether is known through the military it exerts such as electromagnetic radiation. The all-pervading ether is a spiritual reality filled with an infinity of attributes that give rise to particles and energy and anything else is born. Ether is a spiritual manifestation of the Word of God that is the basic substance and inherent generator of all created things, both material and spiritual. It is an eternal reality that is spiritual in nature and corresponds to the constituent substance of all things along with that of the human spirit
"The substance and traditional matter of contingent beings is the ethereal power which is indiscernible and only known through its effects, such as electricity, heat and light - these are vibrations of that power, and this is established and proven in natural religious doctrine and is known as the ethereal substance. This ethereal substance is itself both the active force and the recipient; in other words, it is the sign of the Primal Will in the spectacular, world... " (translated from the Writings by Keven Brown, p 28)
Iii .What Are The Attributes Of Creation?: "What is the origin of this world? `Ether', `he replied. For all these beings take their rise from the ether and return into the ether. Ether is older than these, ether is their rest." (Upanishads, vol. 1)
The inventor creates through the Word of God the existence of creatures that manifest Its attributes. The Word of God possesses all of the attributes of God, where each is of infinite capacity. Ether, an intellectual substance, can also be idea of as consisting of all the attributes of God, where each is infinite in potentiality.
There is a inherent equating of the Word of God with ether. However, as Baha'u'llah says in His Tablet of Wisdom, the Word of God "is higher and far classic to that which the senses can perceive, for It is sanctified from any property or substance. It transcendeth the limitations of known elements and is exalted above all the valuable and recognized substances. It became manifest without any syllable or sound and is none but the Command of God which pervadeth all created things. It hath never been withheld from the world of being..."
"Brahman [The Word of God] is that from which the origin, subsistence and dissolution of this world go forward . . . An omniscient, omnipotent cause." Further, "the world originates from Brahman by thought. He wished, may I be many." (Taitt. Upanishad 2,6) Then, "Brahman emanates the world from Itself by idea and enters into it as the Self of all - It is omnipresent".
Causes are all the time changed by their effects, as the Upanishads state: "Mind, impelled by Brahma's desire to create, performs the work of creation by modifying itself, thence ether is produced... Om means ether (akasa) and that ether is the origin of all things may still sound to us more bodily than metaphysical; still the article given ether or akasa shows that more is meant by it than bodily ether and that ether is in fact one of the earlier and less exquisite names of the Infinite, of Brahman, the Universal Self." (Upanishads vol. 1)
"Let every Brahamana, concentrating his mind, fully recognize in the Self all things, both the real and the unreal, for he who recognizes the universe in the Self, does not give his heart to unrighteousness...The universe rests on the Self; for the Self produces the connection of these embodied (spirits) with actions." (Hindu, Laws of Manu)
"How resplendent the luminaries of knowledge that shine in an atom and how vast the oceans of wisdom that surge within a drop! 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. (Gleanings, p 177)
"He therefore who meditates on Om, meditates on the spirit in man as selfsame with the spirit in nature...but that meditation on Om alone, or that knowledge of what is meant by Om alone can fetch true salvation or true immortality. Thus the pupil is led on step by step to what is the highest object of the Upanishads, viz. The recognition of the self in man as selfsame with the highest Self or Brahman." (Upanishads, vol. 1)
Iv.What Is traditional Matter?: Plato stated all contingent things consist of both primordial matter, the traditional substance of the universe and a subtle counterpart, the form or fashioner which fashions the traditional substance into exact observable things. (Plato, pp 456-472)
At the very starting of fashioning God created "formless" traditional matter within which God's attributes fashioned this "formless" matter into personel beings according to their appointed capacities. All are made whether as spiritual beings abiding with God or as beings consuming in time and place.
V.What Fashioned Creation?: "It is the command of Him who all the time covers this world, the Knower, the Time of time, Who assumes qualities and all knowledge. It is at His command that this work (creation) unfolds itself, which is called earth, water, fire, air and ether; He Who after He has done that work and rested again has brought together one essence (the Self) with the other (matter) with one, two, three, or eight, with time also and with the subtile qualities of the mind.." (Upanishads, vol. 2, Svetasvatara-Upanishad),
Baha'u'llah said that two law are inherent in the Word of God, the active force and its recipient. He states:"The world of existence came into being through the heat generated from the interaction in the middle of the active force and that which is its recipient. These two are the same yet they are different...Such as review the generating sway [the communal attributes of God as the Fashioner] and such as receive Its impact [primary matter] are literally created through the irresistible Word of God.." (Tablets, pp 140-2)
To put all this in perspective, `Abdu'l-Baha discusses the three levels of existence: "The first emanation from God is the Bounty of the Kingdom which emanates and is reflected in the reality of the creatures like the light which emanates from the sun and is resplendent in creatures; and this bounty [the Word of God] which is the light is reflected in infinite forms in the reality of all things and specifies and individualizes itself according to the capacity, the worthiness and the intrinsic value of things." (Some Answered Questions, p, 295)
At every instant contingent beings along with the underlying particles of the universe and spiritual realities such as the soul are recreated through the Eternal Word of God. As `Abdu'l-Baha says on this, "All things are branch to transformation and change save only the cause of existence Itself."(Selections, p 157)
Vi How Is The Universe Expanding?: according to the standard Big-Bang law the universe started in a moment of nearly infinite temperature and density some fifteen billion years ago. Then the universe was infinitely or near infinitely hot; it exploded and has been addition ever since the "beginning" of the newest Big Bang.
Vii. What Happened Before The Last Big Bang?: fantasize the pre-Big-Bang universe as featureless, timeless, without attributes or forms. No time, no space, no contingent spirits except those formed in old cycles and no particles existed! Such entities without forms or attributes are traditional matter. "He created Himself - at that time there was no other. He consulted Himself for advice and what He did came to pass. At that time there were no Akashic records, no nether regions, nor the three worlds. At that time only the Formless Lord Himself existed - there was no creation. As it pleased Him so did He act; without Him there was no other." (Shri Guru Granth Sahib, Section 9)
"In the Primal Void the Infinite Lord assumed His Power. He Himself is unattached, infinite and incomparable. He Himself exercised His Creative Power and he gazes upon his creation; from the Primal Void He formed the Void. From this Primal Void He fashioned air and water. He created the universe and the king in the fortress of the body. Your light pervades fire, water and souls; Your Power rests in the Primal Void. From this Primal Void Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva issued forth. This Primal Void is pervasive throughout all the ages...From this Primal Void the earth and the Akashic Ethers were created. He supports them without any illustrated support by exercising His True Power." (Shri Guru Granth Sahib, Section 28.)
At the very starting once the attributes and forms are united with this traditional matter the resulting union starts to explode into an ethereal world of rapidly addition space, time and whirling vortices of ether that began to evolve into the present day universe.
Viii. Why Strings Versus Points?: In classical descriptions of natural forces, mathematical infinities arose from point particles getting too close to other particles. Unpleasant mathematical infinities arise as spatial regions are shrunk to zero. If particles are not thought about as points but are extended like tiny strings the problem of infinities goes away. It has been recognized that theories in which the most elementary objects are "strings" rather than points make sense and avoid erroneous infinities.
With respect to lines or strings, Baha'u'llah alluded to the process of creation in terms of lines: "Know then, that God, praised and glorified be He, took a line, split it lengthwise into two, rotated the one about the other, and so made from them the universe. The line, however, formeth only from the point when you move it. Conceive ye then our meaning" (unpublished Tablet, provisionally translated by Keven Brown; see references). In a sense, nature denies the existence of a point. As an attempted point starts to exist from pre-space, an infinitesimal elapse in time also forms. Since space and time are interconnected, the point moves in space-time forming an infinitesimal line.
A string possesses an infinite amount of modes of vibrations just like the harmonics of a violin string. The energy of each separate mode corresponds to separate elementary particles. Most string vibrations will have unobservable high energies but others include lower energies and attributes of known elementary particles. Such strings would have a greater dynamical behavior especially if these one-dimensional strings could wiggle as well as move about.
In one string law idea strings occupy eleven dimensions but the extra dimensions are micro-compacted to extremely small sizes. These extra dimensions manifest themselves as some internal properties of particles. The excitement roused by string law is that it explains how military and particles interact. This law might unite space, time, matter and military into one unified theory.
These strings can be whether open with two free ends or concluded into loops like rings. The more promising approach is to regard them as closed. The diameter of a string loop or ring is estimated at the Planck measure distance of 10-33 cm. The mathematical string moves and rotates in lowly space but also vibrates in other space dimensions. These vibrations yield energy and angular momentum and, as Einstein hypothesized, energy has mass.
Imagine now that ethereal matter has whirling motions like the air or water in such familiar vortices as tornadoes or the puny whirlpools at the bottom of a draining sink. A inherent model of a underlying particle is then a vibration mode of a tiny loop or indiscernible vortex ring rapidly rotating and vibrating at separate frequencies.
Imagine billions upon billions of such vortex patterns whirling and curling in all directions in the ether. Ether and ethereal rings have attributes of elasticity, density, pressure, mobility, etc. Sensible matter is not the rings but the combined modes of rapid vibrations of the ethereal rings that generate energy, matter and electromagnetic waves. The ether which is around us is the same as the ether which is within us. And the ether which is within us includes the ether within our heart.
The meaning of the term heart used in Baha'i Writings indicates a state of human consciousness that is beyond lowly feelings, beyond thought. It is within the soul and is not the bodily heart. When this spiritual heart is purified it's capable of reflecting the Word of God. In a state of union with the Word of God new purposes can develop in our soul. This may mean new insights into the universe in our quest for knowledge from which we can perhaps contemplate new relationships in or about the universe.
Usually science with a given code of scientific methodology can be done without using the heart. This means that the scientific recipe never in itself is self-sufficient. It may cut an otherwise open mind which should constitute a pure heart that could reflect the reality inherent in the truth of anything we are investigating.
This same state of mind Buddha dealt with as He defined the conditions of mindfulness valuable for meditation. "He who delights in subduing thoughts, he who meditates on impurities of things, he who is ever full of mindfulness, - It is he who will make an end of suffering and destroy the Mara's [The Tempter's] bond.... The meditative one who walks this path is released from the bonds of Mara." (Dhammapada - Sayings of the Buddha, tr. J. Richards))
The Upanishads State: "Ether in the heart (as Brahma) is omnipresent and unchanging.... In the ether all things is born.. As large as this ether is also large is that ether within the heart... What is called ether (Akasa) is the revealer of all forms and names. These forms and names are contained in Brahma, the Immortal, the Self.... He who understands all and who knows all, He to whom all this glory in the world belongs, the Self, is located in the ether in the heavenly city of Brahma (the heart). He assumes the nature of mind and becomes the guide of the body of the senses. He is the beginning, producing the causes which unite (the soul and the body) and being above the three kinds of time (past, present, future). He is seen as without parts after we have first worshipped that adorable God who has many forms and who is the true source (of all things) as dwelling in our own mind." (Upanishads, vol.2)
"He who thus vows his soul to the supreme Soul, quitting sin, passes unhindered to the endless bliss of unity with Brahma. He ... Sees the Life-Soul resident in all things living and all living things in that Life-Soul contained." (Hindu, Bhagavad Gita (Edwin Arnold translator)
Ix.How Is Ether related To The Human Spirit?: All religions state that man is made in the image of God. We consolidate all the names and attributes of God. In His Tablet of Wisdom Baha'u'llah infers that ether bears the closest likeness to the human spirit. Referring to Socrates, Baha'u'llah states: "He it is who perceived a unique, a tempered, and a pervasive nature in things, bearing the closest likeness to the human spirit, and he discovered this nature to be clear from the substance of things in their refined form. He hath a extra pronouncement on this gigantic theme. Wert thou to ask from the worldly wise of this generation about this exposition, thou wouldst contemplate their incapacity to grasp it."(Tablets, p 146)
The human soul has all the attributes of God but with finite capacities for each while ether has all of the attributes of God each with unlimited capacity. The Blessed Lord Krishna said: "I am the Self, seated in the hearts of all creatures. I am the beginning, the middle and the end of all beings....I am the transcendental Om.... There is no being - consuming or unmoving - that can exist without Me."
The human soul that animates the human body becomes an attractor for human attributes in the ether. `Abdu'l-Baha illuminates: "As the spirit of man is the cause of the life of the body...these members, these elements, this composition, which is found in the organism of man, are an attraction and a magnet for the spirit: :it is clear that the spirit will appear in it."
Ether may be idea of as continuous in the sense that it exists everywhere. Just as the flow of air creates pressure or suction forces, similarly the flow of ether creates electric, magnetic, light, heat, and gravity military that are transmitted from one place to another.
X. What Are measure Realities?: In 1900,physicist Max Planck proved energy is absorbed and emitted in assorted amounts called quanta. This started measure theory. Einstein interpreted Planck's hypothesis saying that light waves consist of quanta of energy he called photons. Thus began notions that waves have quanta related with them. Erwin Schrodinger transformed classical equations of particle petition into a wave equation relating position, momentum, time and energy of a material particle as a probabilistic theory. In his model all dynamical variables have probabilistic values. His measure law restricts how literally one can specify position versus momentum and time versus energy. These restrictions correspond to the famed Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle. (Notes)
Xi.What Happened At The Beginning?: measure Physics can conclude the dilemma of a Big-Bang for which some think there may have been no "before". What occurs from moment to moment cannot be thinkable, with certainty. Only probabilities can be given.
Let us fantasize a universe within the first second of its history. Before the universe began there was no time, no space, no matter and no idea of "before." Only the introductory traditional matter existed. Then the Word of God caused this traditional matter to be joined with the eternal attributes of God.
Physicists say matter and energy that we contemplate or measure today initially busy a volume smaller than the dimensions of an atom! [But before the union of the active force with traditional matter all things was initially spiritual!] Matter and energy were caused by the creation of extremely superheated ether vortices. The temperature that was generated by the heat of reaction of the active force (the attributes of God) on the passive recipient (primary matter) was enormous, about 1032 degrees Kelvin. Consequently traditional matter was individualized into billions upon billions of ethereal vortices sweeping out into the newly formed space and time attributes. Secondary components, perhaps sequentially, were formed out of these spinning loops of extremely hot ethereal plasma (like the element Plato called fire). When the extremely hot furnace of ether exploded the energy imparted to ethereal matter was so great that this escaping and whirling ether formed a gaseous matter (the element Plato called air) that was full of particles like electrons, positrons and neutrinos inside this plasma "hot soup."
These underlying particles smashed into each other with energies like 1019 Giga electron volts (GeV) or a trillion times the energy of the biggest particle collider than a physicist can fantasize building. Gravity roared in as a powerful but puny understood sway at this puny scale. While space was addition the particles presence tended to reverse this expansion at rates inversely proportional to the square of the distances in the middle of masses.Gravitation military started a "tug of war" with the military of expansion of the spaces in the middle of masses.
After this starting the expansion would cool this super-hot anarchy of colliding matter. As the universe cooled supplementary the collisions became less violent and began to coagulate into protons, neutrons and other heavier particles. (These were like the first liquid state elements that Plato equated with "water.") Earlier, such a union would have come apart in the violent collisions.
As universal cooling continued, collisions became gentler.After three minutes, temperatures had fallen sufficient to allow protons and neutrons to consolidate into garage nuclei. This is called the nucleosynthesis period.This corresponded to the first solid state (that Plato called the "earth" element), all of which began to rule the increase and formation of our baby universe. Atoms (nuclei plus electrons) didn't form until the temperature fell sufficient to permit electrons to develop themselves around nuclei. The exact temperature for this occurred about 300,000 years later! Before that time no atoms existed. Since we know a lot about nuclear physics we can conclude the relative abundances of the chemical elements that did form. introductory nuclei were nuclei of very light elements. Heavier elements required slower "cooking" in the stars.
Nuclear reactions in stars produced elements whose nuclei were tightly bound and these elements included carbon, oxygen and calcium. Once neutral atoms formed photons could move freely and that is why the microwave photon data arrived so late. This nucleosynthesis law and resulting microwave photons were confirmed by measurements.
When faith is activated in man through man's trust in the Manifestation of God he becomes potentially related to all of reality. The reality of all things is spiritually present within us. Reality resonates in our soul. As we then resonate with all things we may come to understand these realities more deeply. We can contemplate that the world in which we live is alive! "All things are living!" Spirit and life exist according to the requirements of anything stage they are in. So why not enjoy the enterprise of nature in a dialogue rather than conquer it and standard it for our own purpose?
Xii. What Is The Mind-Body Connection?: Since ether has the same substance as the human soul our spiritual soul and attributes we regularly associate with matter come from the same source. The soul literally animates the body. The mind can manifest suggestions or commands to the body whether voluntarily or automatically. Manifestation is a major quality of our spiritual soul. As far as present ideas are concerned, we can reconsider those spiritual realities emerging from the mind such as ideas, thoughts and information. The mind and the heart are faculties of the soul. The soul employs the mind and heart as it deals with data and responses to it.
For idea processes there is active data serving as a link in the middle of our two [material and spiritual] sides (The age-old mind-body issue). What is proposed is that there are not two processes; it is suggested that both are essentially united as one overall faculty.
The mind-body issue has stumped experts over the ages as to how this mind-body boundary is crossed. Before the "crossing," our thoughts and aware decisions generate in our etheric soul. Karl Popper, the philosopher, suggested that consciousness was a manifestation of some kind of force field in the brain! Popper emphasized that many attributes of the "mind" were also attributes of forces. [But the mind is incorporeal yet is capable of being influenced by matter and of influencing matter.] Nevertheless, Popper proposed that the mind is a three-layered structure. The neurons with their performance potentials record the bottom layer that interacts directly with the body. The next layer, the electromagnetic wave fields (produced by neural activities) record the unconscious part of our mind. [But the mind is literally part of the soul that initiates electromagnetic waves that can yield self-acting neural activities that function as a unconscious field.] And in the last layer, that is, the aware mind, our aware reasoning intensities and our aware experiences are capable of interacting through electromagnetic patterns with these unconscious electromagnetic force fields.
These concepts resonate strongly with the idea emphasized by Baha'u'llah about Socrates statement that the soul has the same substance as the ether in which electromagnetic waves persist. Consequently reasoning and decision-making manifest ethereal waves, which are basically electromagnetic waves that interact with the "unconscious electromagnetic fields" of our neural activities.
Some of the laws of physics and some of the attributes of matter might be applied to spirit, ether and the human soul. For example, since ether is of the same substance as the human soul we can apply some of the attributes of ether as a medium for the propagation of electromagnetic waves. Some attributes of the ether are elasticity, density, permeability, pressure, etc. Such attributes furnish an consuming opening to investigate ether, the human soul and other spiritual entities.
The hereafter unfolding of knowledge will be of things that we have not previously known. Baha'u'llah states, "In the days to come ye will literally note things of which ye have never heard before. Thus hath it been decreed in the Tablets of God, and none can realize it except them whose sight is sharp." (Gleanings, p 142)
We are participants in the creative unfoldment of God's Primal Will so that humanity could be related with its inner reality. There is no more beautiful contact than when our participation in Reality goes beyond its accustomed limits. In such times reality takes on new glory or splendor. This becomes an exhilarating contact of the human soul. This contact of oneness with the Eternal some call ecstasy. This heightening sense of realization exposes us to life as it literally is.
References
`Abdu'l-Baha. "Tablet of the Universe," provisional translation by Dr. Ahang Rabbani of `Abdu'l-Baha's Tablet of the Universe, from Makatib-i `Abdu'l-Baha, vol. 1, pp 13-32.
"Some Answered Questions" Baha'i Publishing Trust, Wilmette, Illinois, 60091, 1994.
"Selections from the Writings of `Abdu'l-Baha," Baha'i Publishing Trust, Wilmette, Illinois, 60091, 1989.
"Promulgation of Universal Peace," Baha'i Publishing Trust, Wilmette, Illinois, 60091, 1987.
"Tablet to August Forel," Baha'i Publishing Trust, Wilmette, Illinois, 60091, 1985.
Baha'u'llah and `Abdu'l-Baha. "Baha'i World Faith," Baha'i Publishing Trust, Wilmette, 60091, 1964.
Baha'u'llah. "Tablets of Baha'u'llah," Baha'i Publishing Trust, Wilmette, Illinois, 60091, 1990.
______. "Gleanings from the Writings of Baha'u'llah," Baha'i Publishing Trust, Wilmette, Illinois, 60091, 1976.
______. "Kitab-i-Iqan 192," Baha'i Publishing Trust, Wilmette, Illinois, 60091, 1990.
Keven Brown, "A Baha'i Perspective on the Origin of Matter." Journal of Baha'i Studies, 2.3 (1990): 15-44.
Einstein. "The Born-Einstein Letters," ed. I. Born, Macmillian, London, 1971.
B. Bertotti, R. Balbinot, S. Bergia and A. Messina. "Modern Cosmology In Retrospect," Cambridge University Press, 1990.
Plato, Volume 7, "Great Books of the Western World," published by Encyclopedia Britannica, 1952.
Karl Popper. "Objective Knowledge: An Evolutionary Approach," Oxford University Press, 1975
Popper, K.R., Lindahl, B.I.B., and Arhem, P. (1993) "A consulation on the Mind-Brain Problem," Theor. Med. 14, 167-180. Springer, Netherlands, 1993.
Lindahl, B.I.B and Arhem, P (1994) "Mind as a Force Field: Comments On a New Interactionistic Hypothesis. J. Theor. Biol. 171, 111-122.
Matter and Spirit in Science and Religion
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