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LIFE
IS THE REAL BASIS AND THE LIGHT
OF EXISTENCE
The
perfection of a thing’s
existence is through life.
Moreover, life is the real basis
and the light of existence, and
consciousness, in turn, is the
light of life. It is also life
that constitutes the foundation
of everything. Life appropriates
everything for each living
thing, and only through life can
a living creature claim that
everything belongs to it. The
whole world, it can claim, is
its home and the entire universe
is its property conferred upon
it by the Owner.
Just
as light causes (concrete)
things to be seen and, according
to one theory, is the real cause
of color, so life may be said to
unveil the creation. It is life
again which causes the qualities
to be realized, and the
archetypes to gain material
existence, thus making the
particular acquire universality
and universals be concentrated
in a particular.
Life
also causes existence to attain
to perfection and achieve the
rank of possessing a soul, by
making countless factors unite
into a whole to become a
sentient, percipient being.
Furthermore, life is the
manifestation of oneness in the
realm of multiplicity, and the
reflection of unity in
plurality. See how lonely a
substance is without life, even
though it is as big as a
mountain. Its interactions are
restricted to its own location,
and whatever else exists in the
universe means nothing to it
since it is unconscious of other
existents. Now observe a minute
living being such as a honeybee,
what close interactions it has
with the universe, particularly
with its environment of plants
and flowers--so that it can
properly argue that the earth is
the garden or the market- place
where it does business. The bee
has, through the unconscious
instinctive senses which enthuse
and motivate it, in addition to
its external and inner senses,
close relations and familiarity
with most of the species in the
world.
If
the effect of life upon the
humble honeybee is so great, how
much more will it be upon man,
as it expands into his
consciousness, reason and
intellect. Man, by means of
reason and consciousness, which
are the light of life, travels
through the higher worlds of
corporeal and spiritual
existence as easily as he passes
from one room to another in his
house. That is, just as that
conscious and living being may
go in spirit as a guest to those
worlds, those worlds too come as
guests to his mirror-like spirit
by being reflected there.
Life
is a most manifest evidence of
God’s Unity, a greatest source
of His bounty and a most subtle
manifestation of His Compassion;
it is also a most hidden and
delicate embroidery of His art.
Life is really so mysterious and
subtle that even the life of
plants, which is the simplest of
the levels of life, and the
awakening of the life-force in
seeds as the beginning of a
plant’s life, is still not
fully understood. Although it is
something commonly observed by
man, it has remained a mystery
from the time of Adam, since the
human mind has been unable to
grasp the nature of life.
Life
in both its outer or material
and inner or immaterial aspects
is pure. The Divine Power
creates life directly without
the participation of causes,
while on the other hand It
employs natural causes in the
creation of everything else. The
reason why God operates behind
the veil of natural causes in
the creation of things other
than life is that man, being
unable to discern Divine Wisdom
in some occurrences, might
ignorantly ascribe to Him some
things which he deems
unpleasant.
In
short: It may be argued that
inanimate things cannot be
regarded as really existent, not
being substantially different
from non-existence. Life is the
light of the spirit, and
consciousness is the light of
life. Since life and
consciousness are so important,
and a perfect harmony evidently
prevails over the whole
creation, and again since the
universe displays a firm
cohesion, and as this small
ever-rotating sphere of ours is
full of countless living and
intelligent beings, so it is
equally certain that those
heavenly castles, those lofty
constellations, should have
conscious living inhabitants
peculiar to themselves. Just as
the fish live in water, so those
spirit beings may exist in the
heat of the sun. Fire does not
consume light, on the contrary,
light becomes brighter because
of fire. We observe that the
Eternal Power creates countless
living beings from inert, solid
substances and transforms the
densest matter into subtle
living compounds by life. Thus
It radiates the light of life
everywhere in great abundance
and furnishes most things with
the light of consciousness.
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