Seventy and Two: Musings on Meaning

I have two ways of loving You:
A selfish one
And another way that is worthy of You.
In my selfish love, I remember You and You alone.
In that other love, You lift the veil
And let me feast my eyes on Your Living Face.
Rabi’á al-Basra

Everyone has experienced synchronicity. You learn a new word and suddenly you hear it everywhere? You start thinking about a concept and people around you start bringing it up? Wikipedia defines synchronicity in a very succinct manner:

Synchronicity is the experience of two or more events which occur in a meaningful manner, but which are causally un-related. In order to be ’synchronistic’, the events must be related to one another temporally, and the chance that they would occur together by random chance must be very small.

I have come to believe, simply from my experience, that synchronicity is very often a divine message. A way of God and the Universe nudging you in the right direction. Although it may be perfectly explainable logically, it is anomalous in our perception. At the very least it cannot be ignored. In my life I have one great experience of synchronicity. Throughout the months before I discovered the Baha’i Faith, while still in a limbo of developing panentheism from my atheism, I kept thinking that a religion ought to be founded that united the Abrahamic Faiths and took the attitude of Islam to other religions (Every people being sent a Prophet). During this time, the Baha’i Faith popped up quite a few times in my life. So, from my experience in life and the experiences of others relayed to me, I strongly believe that synchronicity at least demands our respect and attention.

So, as a result of synchronicity you get another post on vulnerability. I have been thinking about vulnerability as a virtue and a necessary aspect of salvation/theosis lately (I think that Alison Marshall somehow put this idea in my head; I don’t remember quite how though). Today, listening to a podcast from Krista Tippet’s radio program Speaking of Faith (Which I recommend to anyone of any religious or non-religious background), I heard an interview with author and philosopher John O’Donohue. John said something that caused an instant connection in my mind and a personal revelation on how vulnerability functions in the human relationships with God and man. I will share two pieces of the program here, one from John himself, and a quote from his book, Anam Kara:

Mr. O’Donohue: You imagine the surface of the ocean is all restless and then you slip down deep below the surface where it’s still and where things move slower. And what I love in this regard is my old friend Meister Eckhart, 14th-century mystic.

Ms. Tippett: Right. German mystic.

Mr. O’Donohue: German mystic. And one day I read in him and he said, “There is a place in the soul — there is a place in the soul that neither time, nor space, nor no created thing can touch.” And I really thought that was amazing, and if you cash it out what it means is, that in — that your identity is not equivalent to your biography. And that there is a place in you where you have never been wounded, where there’s still a sureness in you, where there’s a seamlessness in you, and where there is a confidence and tranquility in you. And I think the intention of prayer and spirituality and love is now and again to visit that inner kind of sanctuary.

—

In the Celtic tradition, there is a beautiful understanding of love and friendship. One of the fascinating ideas here is the idea of soul-love; the old Gaelic term for this is anam kara. Anam is the Gaelic word for soul and kara is the word for friend. In the early Celtic church, a person who acted as a teacher, companion, or spiritual guide was called an anam kara. It originally referred to someone to whom you confessed revealing the hidden intimacies of your life. With the anam kara you could share your innermost self, your mind, and your heart. This friendship was an act of recognition and belonging. … In everyone’s life there is great need for an anam lara, a soul friend, in this love you are understood as you are without mask or pretension. Where you are understood, you are at home.

At that instant, two quotations I have been thinking of a lot lately, from the Baha’i writings and traditions of the Holy Imam `Alí

O SON OF BEING!
Thy heart is My home; sanctify it for My descent. Thy spirit is My place of revelation; cleanse it for My manifestation.

(Bahá’u'lláh, 59th Arabic Hidden Word)

—

He who has known himself has known his Lord.

Now, the first quotation I actually have not been thinking of. I have been thinking of something that a Baha’i teacher once told me. He said “God gave us this entire planet and everything in it. The only thing He asks for Himself is our hearts. God wants to dwell in our hearts.” I don’t know exactly where this teacher picked that bit of wisdom up, but I see ample evidence for it in the Baha’i writings, and the 59th Arabic Hidden Word is just one of the many places where Bahá’u'lláh intones this incredible call to vulnerability and inner purity.

As I lay in my bed with my dog’s chew-toys in my ears (Which humans know as very expensive headphones :p) all these quotations came together as the answer to the question of vulnerability that I have been exploring as an aspect of Baha’i theosis, especially as revealed in the Hidden Words of Bahá’u'lláh (Which, according to Shia tradition were first revealed to the wife of the Imam `Alí, Lady Fatimah)

John O’Donohue talks about that place in our soul that has never been hurt, remains pure an unaffected by the world. He explains that that place is an identity free of any worldly attachments. Bahá’u'lláh talks about the heart and the spirit, and I believe He is speaking of the same concept, the Gaelic anam. Bahá’u'lláh also tells us that God’s home is that place, anam, and He is manifest within that inmost spirit. This then is what Imam `Alí meant I think, when He said “He who has known himself has known his Lord”. Since God is manifest in the inmost spirit of man, we can only access the very elevated and distant God by knowing Him through Our internal divinity (Our meaning shared between man and God). This also makes the dichotomy of a search for God within versus a search for God without immaterial.

`Abdu’l-Bahá explains that one of the four kinds of Love is love of man for man. But this love is only obtained by two people loving each other for the reflection of God within the other. This is, the Master tells us, the kind of love we should have for everyone, it has nothing to do with their human imperfections, but only with the reflection of God’s perfection within them. Thus, as two people grow closer to each other, they grow closer to God, and vice versa. This is the Gaelic concept of anam kara and it calls for vulnerability.

In life, we do our best to hide our inmost self, we create veils and masks and shields. If someone can see our inmost self, we lose control over the relationship, and open ourselves up to intense hurt. However, if that inmost self is a home for God, and true love only happens when people grow closer to each other and God simultaneously, we are then called to open ourselves up in all our relationships and try to see into the inmost self of others. When we want power in relationships we make ourselves more distant from others and from God. Thus, vulnerability is essential to love of all kinds and to salvation. We must open ourselves to harm and have faith that only good will enter. When we do this, we are following the directions of Bahá’u'lláh and allowing our hearts to become homes for God. Dieing to the world that He many live eternally in us.

O SON OF MAN!
If thou lovest Me, turn away from thyself; and if thou seekest My pleasure, regard not thine own; that thou mayest die in Me and I may eternally live in thee.

(Bahá’u'lláh, Seventh Arabic Hidden Word)

Thanks to Alison, who often helps me clue into important theological lessons lately, I started to ponder vulnerability. I knew it was important, but it is an abstruse idea. This morning, thanks to that divine synchronicity that helps restore my wonder in the natural world, I think I have started to realize some of it and the Hidden Words have become slightly less hidden to me. I apologize if this post was rather wacky, but I worked through my thoughts by writing them to some extent (Which I have heard is a feminine way of thinking; one that I am very dependent on despite the gender gap).

PS: In case there is a synchronitic message here, I will tell you all that I keep writing Imam `Alá instead of Imam `Alí. `Alá is the name of a Baha’i month, and Arabic for loftiness. If anyone thinks that means anything . . . Also, if you want to search for the book Anam Kara, or the topic in general, spell it anam cara.