On the Ontological Circle: Onto God Do We Return

"Santa Cruz (Insights Conference) 010, Counselor Aghdasi"

Uploaded on April 16, 2007 by Alyosha19 on flickr

I have had a link to "The Ontological Circle" on my favorites for a year and only today had the chance to peruse it. Profoundly insightful. -gw

Ontology is the study of "being", Epistemology is the study of "knowing". In Ontology the question is what actually exists, meaning that it has an independent external existence and is not imaginary or merely a construct of our minds. So for example among the philosophers there are those who are materialists (they believe that only physical matter exists and everything else is a figment of our imagination), idealists (who believe that ideas exist in a more concrete sense than do material objects which are viewed as only existing apparently, having no substance), dualists (who say that both matter and spirit exist independently) and monists (who say that both matter and spirit are aspects of the same underlying reality). Most people from Abrahamic traditions subscribe to dualism, while those from Eastern religions lean more towards monism. ... My understanding is that the Baha'i writings are unique and do not fit nicely into any of these old philosophical categories. So it is best to describe the Baha'i view in its own term rather than by comparison with the old world categories. ...

Now, consider a circle. On the top put God, and at the bottom put the creation. Divide the creation into 4 groups: Mineral kingdom, vegetable kingdom, animal kingdom, and human kingdom. Consider the half circle on the right, lets call this the arc of descent (coming down). And the half circle on the left is called the arc of ascent (going up). As you go round the circle in a clock wise fashion we can say that we come from God, and unto Him we return. The journey from God to man on the right of the circle depicts the stages of creation, and the journey from man back to God on the left side of the circle are the stages of our spiritual maturation, our journey back to God....

[T]he arc of assent is sometimes 7 valleys, at other times it is 4 valleys, etc. So we must understand these terms to be relative in nature. ...

In popular conception many Sufis have said that through purification man can annihilate his self and effectively "become God". The most important feature that separates Baha'i conception from typical Sufi or Neoplatonic ideas is that the start of the arc of decent is the Will of God, and the ultimate stage of the arc of ascent is unification with the Will of God. Because there can not be any direct link between the Essence of God and His creation the Primal Will of God becomes both the source and the ultimate goal of the ontological circle. In the Iqan this Primal Will is the Manifestation of God. The Primal Will is also referred to as the Command (amr) or the Word of God.

...[T]he active force that affirms all the different stages of creation is the Word of God. There are many statements in the Writings on this subject, and they contain an inexhaustible source for inspiration and contemplation.

Warmest Bahai Love
Farzin

http://www.bci.org/bahaistudies/courses/Iqan/ontological.htm