Twinkle, little soul — claim your sky
Within it (the soul) lieth concealed that which
the world is now utterly incapable of apprehending.
~ Baha'u'llah ~
the world is now utterly incapable of apprehending.
~ Baha'u'llah ~
UNFOLDING OUR WINGS II: Powers of the Soul
Continuing our exploration in the series Unfolding Our Wings, we now look towards the innate capabilities of the soul and the celestial shape that corresponds to our corporeal body.
As we have seen with PART I of this series, "What is Consciousness", even if in its essence the soul remains a profound mystery, the Baha'i Writings allow us to catch luminous glimpses of its immense potential. This is the subject of the present article. Each soul is endowed by God with a specific measure of this potential. It can only be fully manifested through our own efforts and volition. The Bab stating that “No created thing shall ever attain its paradise unless it appeareth in its highest prescribed degree of perfection,” our task in this life is to develop that unique measure, as fully as possible.
The question that arises now is: how do we recognize this unique measure? Obviously not through a sudden revelation, but gradually, through the observance of the divine laws as expressed by the latest Manifestation of God, including sincere prayer, meditation on the Divine Word, and selfless service. In walking this path, the potential that is truly ours slowly unveils itself.
Baha'u'llah revealed this immense potential in a few words:
The limitations we experience here are largely those of the body. The soul itself possesses a tremendous potential that is waiting to be developed and released through our own efforts.… every malady afflicting the body of man is an impediment that preventeth the soul from manifesting its inherent might and power. When it leaveth the body, however, it will evince such ascendancy, and reveal such influence, as no force on earth can equal. Every pure, every refined and sanctified soul will be endowed with tremendous power, and shall rejoice with exceeding gladness.
With this point cleared, let's hear the Master further reveal another profound, but very neglected truth: we possess an ethereal form which is not a second physical body, but a finer, more subtle counterpart — conscious, real, and enduring with which we can soar in the worlds of God while still in this primary life of ours:
It is manifest that beyond this material body, man is endowed with another reality which is the world of exemplars constituting the heavenly body of man… This other and inner reality is called the heavenly body, the ethereal form which corresponds to this body.
So while the body occupies a few spans of earth, the soul may range through the limitless spaces of the heavens and make discoveries in both this world and the worlds beyond. Baha'u'llah Himself describes this station in which our soul can be drawn “from this abode of dust unto thy true and heavenly habitation,” and raised to a condition wherein “thou wilt soar in the air even as thou treadest upon the earth, and wilt walk upon the water even as thou movest over the land.”
Don't we already taste something of this freedom every night? In the dream the soul moves, speaks, meets others, and travels great distances without the weight of the body. Time softens, space becomes fluid, and we awaken with the lingering sense that we have been somewhere real. Is it not a gentle, recurring reminder that the soul is not confined to the laws that govern dust?
As the mirror of the heart grows clearer through purity of heart, sincere turning toward God, steadfastness in the Covenant, and above all through the LOVE of God — that vital force which awakens and transforms the soul — these capacities become more visible and influential.
It is probably through this ethereal form that certain rare phenomena become more intelligible — among them bilocation, the ability to be truly present in two places at the same time. Across the centuries, sincere witnesses have reported this phenomenon in the lives of advanced spirits of various traditions, among them Padre Pio and Saint Anthony of Padua. The accounts are numerous enough to invite deep reflection, yet the mystery endures with a kind of sacred wonder. Such manifestations need not be seen as violations of nature; they may simply be early, partial expressions of a capacity that differs according to each soul’s destiny and to the degree of development it has attained.
Having glimpsed some of the soul’s hidden powers, we invite you to pursue this investigation further with PART III, which leads us into the intermediate realm where these powers find their natural home.
…twinkling ever closer to our celestial home.
Be
wonderfully blessed !
Loesha
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