Seduced By This Material World

This material world — who could imagine anything more beautiful? The ocean waves at dawn, an old-growth forest in spring, the roaring spume of a Yosemite waterfall, a baby kit fox: all so, so gorgeous!

It’s hard not to thank the Creator every minute of every day for gracing us with such awe-inspiring beauty.

The man-made world contains great beauty, too: art, music, architecture, fashion, film, the soaring catenaries of arching bridges, even the humble mass-produced spoon I ate breakfast with, a triumph of design and utility and balance and just plain rightness.

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You could go through an entire lifetime and never run out of the wonder and beauty in this material world. In fact, many people do.

That seductive beauty can be a trap, though. 

Abdu’l-Baha, the son and successor of Baha’u’llah, the prophet and founder of the Baha’i Faith, said in a speech he gave in Montreal: “The mission of the Prophets of God has been to train the souls of humanity and free them from the thralldom of natural instincts and physical tendencies.” What does that mean for our love and appreciation of creation — and the human creations?

A dear friend of mine called the other day, saying that she had spent the weekend at a Concours d’Elegance. Do you know what that is? It’s a French term that means “competition of elegance,” and it describes events where classic car owners get together on lush green country club lawns to display their gleaming restored Duesenbergs and Rolls Royces and rare Bugattis.

Those high-end car shows began long before cars existed, in 17th-century France, when aristocrats paraded their gilded, hand-built, rococo horse-drawn carriages through the parks of Paris to display their wealth and status.

While these kinds of events may sound like mere exhibitions of excess, or ego gratification spectacles for multi-millionaires — and sure, they can be exactly that — I’ve been to a few myself, and I understand their attraction. I once helped restore and then owned a classic 1952 Jaguar whose original owner, Gwenn Graham, founded the prestigious Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance. The elegant design of that car, a black XK 120 SE Fixed-Head Coupe, entranced me when I first saw it, and despite the fact that I sold it years ago, still pops up in my daydreams now. Oh, those flowing fenders!

So yes, exquisitely designed material things — a car, a building, a monument, a new pair of shoes — have the power to attract our admiration. We can appreciate the craftsmanship, adore the beauty, and revel in the spectacular feats of ingenuity and engineering it took to create such marvels. 

However, as I told my son the other day, you can love cars, but cars won’t love you back. The same is true of anything material.

In the end, every man-made creation, and even the wonderful spectacles of nature, will only last as long for us as our fleeting physical life lasts — they’re temporary, just as this worldly plane of existence is temporary. The physical world inevitably fades for all creatures who live here, you and I included. When we’re gone, they’re gone. The Baha’i writings remind us, just as the scriptures of all the major religions do, that “The dwellers of this ephemeral world, high and low alike, spend their days and nights in pursuit of worldly matters only to suffer, in the end, manifest loss.”

This poignant passage from the writings of Abdu’l-Baha sums it all up:

These few brief days shall pass away, this present life shall vanish from our sight; the roses of this world shall be fresh and fair no more, the garden of this earth’s triumphs and delights shall droop and fade. The spring season of life shall turn into the autumn of death, the bright joy of palace halls give way to moonless dark within the tomb. And therefore is none of this worth loving at all, and to this the wise will not anchor his heart.

He who hath knowledge and power will rather seek out the glory of heaven, and spiritual distinction, and the life that dieth not.

The world works that way, the Baha’i teachings say, because:

… this earth’s happiness does not depend upon wealth. You will find many of the wealthy exposed to dangers and troubled by difficulties, and in their last moments upon the bed of death there remains the regret that they must be separated from that to which their hearts are so attached. They come into this world naked, and they must go from it naked. All they possess they must leave behind and pass away solitary, alone. Often at the time of death their souls are filled with remorse …

So yes, we can all seek beauty, solace, and comfort in nature or in man-made things, but we’re only here as tourists, travelers, transients, destined to depart and go to our true home when our earthly passports expire. They do expire quickly, too. Perhaps that’s why Abdu’l-Baha wrote: “The wise man … doth not attach himself to this mortal life and doth not depend upon it …”

How can we accomplish this important goal? Christ, the Buddha, Muhammad, Abraham, Krishna — all of the holy messengers and prophets ask us to detach ourselves from this passing plane, accept the reality of our mortality, and ready ourselves for the next life. Abdu’l-Baha recommended:

… attach not yourselves to the luxuries of this ephemeral world, free yourselves from every attachment, and strive with heart and soul to become fully established in the Kingdom of God. Gain ye the heavenly treasures. Day by day become ye more illumined. Draw ye nearer and nearer unto the threshold of oneness. Become ye the manifestors of spiritual favors and the dawning-places of infinite lights!

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Personally, I must admit, this isn’t easy for me. I love this world and its delights, and have probably become too attached to them during my lifetime. It’s hard for me to imagine what the next life will bring, and how its delights could possibly surpass the ones we encounter here — but the Baha’i teachings point out that:

… the honour and exaltation of man cannot reside solely in material delights and earthly benefits. This material felicity is wholly secondary, while the exaltation of man resides primarily in such virtues and attainments as are the adornments of the human reality. These consist in divine blessings, heavenly bounties, heartfelt emotions, the love and knowledge of God, the education of the people, the perceptions of the mind, and the discoveries of science. They consist in justice and equity, truthfulness and benevolence, inner courage and innate humanity, safeguarding the rights of others and preserving the sanctity of covenants and agreements. They consist in rectitude of conduct under all circumstances, love of truth under all conditions, self-abnegation for the good of all people, kindness and compassion for all nations, obedience to the teachings of God, service to the heavenly Kingdom, guidance for all mankind, and education for all races and nations. This is the felicity of the human world! This is the exaltation of man in the contingent realm! This is eternal life and heavenly honour!

These gifts, however, do not manifest themselves in the reality of man save through a celestial and divine power and through the heavenly teachings, for they require a supernatural power. Traces of these perfections may well appear in the world of nature, but they are as fleeting and ephemeral as rays of sunlight upon the wall.

I’ll try to detach, and acquire those everlasting spiritual qualities, of course, but it helps to remind myself that being a Baha’i doesn’t mean withdrawing from this world, like some ascetic or monk. The Baha’i teachings do not ask anyone to deprive themselves of the joys of this physical plane, as Shoghi Effendi, the Guardian of the Baha’i Faith, explained in his book The Advent of Divine Justice:

… the maintenance of such a high standard of moral conduct is not to be associated or confused with any form of asceticism, or of excessive and bigoted puritanism. The standard inculcated by Baha’u’llah seeks, under no circumstances, to deny anyone the legitimate right and privilege to derive the fullest advantage and benefit from the manifold joys, beauties, and pleasures with which the world has been so plentifully enriched by an All-Loving Creator. “Should a man,” Baha’u’llah Himself reassures us, “wish to adorn himself with the ornaments of the earth, to wear its apparels, or partake of the benefits it can bestow, no harm can befall him, if he alloweth nothing whatever to intervene between him and God, for God hath ordained every good thing, whether created in the heavens or in the earth, for such of His servants as truly believe in Him. Eat ye, O people, of the good things which God hath allowed you, and deprive not yourselves from His wondrous bounties. Render thanks and praise unto Him, and be of them that are truly thankful.”