Reading Reality: Sensing and Perceiving What We Need to Heal

The Baha’i teachings challenge us to awaken to the inner realities expressed in the problems of the outer world. 

We can learn how to read reality, and perceive how to heal. Literacy in printed language is allowing us to understand each other right now.  What if there was another literacy that we can learn, connecting the outside world to the world within?  Wars, hatred and prejudice all originate within us. The events of the world signal what is happening, invisibly, in the inner reality of humanity:

Why this great unrest—wars and the rumors of wars, changing of dynasties, earthquakes, cataclysms? The people cry “Peace, peace; when there is no peace!” Are not these the outer sign that man has lost the inner truth? – Abdu’l Baha, Divine Philosophy, p. 5.

Attention to this relationship between the outer signs and the inner truth can help each of us heal ourselves, and tend to the healing of the world. To perceive humanity’s suffering from the events of the world, and then arise to minister to humanity’s needs, is both a summons and a privilege!

Humanity, through suffering and turmoil, is swiftly moving on towards its destiny; if we be loiterers, if we fail to play our part surely others will be called upon to take up our task as ministers to the crying needs of this afflicted world. – Shoghi Effendi, Baha’i Administration, p. 66.

The All-Knowing Physician hath His finger on the pulse of mankind. He perceiveth the disease, and prescribeth, in His unerring wisdom, the remedy… Be anxiously concerned with the needs of the age ye live in, and center your deliberations on its exigencies and requirements. – Baha’u’llah, Gleanings from the Writings of Baha’u’llah, p. 213.

The physician must first sense and perceive, then act to dispense the remedy. The physician can only heal after reading and understanding reality.

In many ways, our own pain trains us to heal ourselves. It may be that for a time we can ignore our pain, but pain provides information—it directs our attention to sense, perceive, and act to meet our needs. If I am hungry, perhaps for some time I can go without eating, but a headache or some other sensation will cue me in that I need to eat. In this way we learn about the flow of energy and information that governs our digestive system, and allows us to meet our need for nourishment.

Health, then, consists of an equilibrium where energy flows between the outer world and inner world of man, coordinating sensation and perception, and where we learn to understand the inner meaning of outward signs. Abdu’l-Baha describes, for example, the optimal spiritual and physical health of the prophets:

…the holy, divine Manifestations have had a nature in the utmost equilibrium, the health and wholesomeness of their bodies most perfect, their constitutions endowed with physical vigor, their powers functioning in perfect order, and the outward sensations linked with the inward perceptions, working together with extraordinary momentum and coordination. – Abdu’l-Baha, Tablets of the Divine Plan, p. 70.

When outer sensations and inner perception link together, we can heal. The pain we now experience in our societies sends us a sign that directs our attention to the inner truth that humanity is one, an interconnected organism. Each of the pains of the world has the potential to convey this vital information, which may allow us to understand and address our needs and find the remedy for our maladies. Baha’u’llah tells us, “for each day there is a new problem and for every problem an expedient solution.” – The Most Holy Book, p. 90.

Our despair at the happenings of the world may reflect what we already know intuitively—that we can understand and heal. But if we sense our pain and center attention on the outer world of sensation, we are unable to perceive the inner truth. Outward events are linked with inner meanings, which can be read in response to needs. Baha’u’llah counsels:

Let not the happenings of the world sadden you. I swear by God! The sea of joy yearneth to attain your presence, for every good thing hath been created for you, and will, according to the needs of the times, be revealed unto you. – quoted by Shoghi Effendi, Advent of Divine Justice, p. 69.

Let’s consider together the needs of our time and what the Baha’i writings reveal, as well as the sciences and the arts. There are patterns in the energy that binds us together that can help us minister to the needs of humanity. Please read and share your insights during this series of posts, as we explore these ideas together.