Reality, Soul and the Worlds of God

Acknowledgements

Foreword

I. Introduction to Reality

A. Reality Unveiled

B. Rejection of Reality

C. Why Embrace Reality?

D. What is Reality?

E. How to Perceive Reality: The Overall View or Eyes of God View

F. Reality: Kinds of Knowledge, and Powers of Perception

II. Three Conditions of Existence in Reality

A. Overview of the Three Worlds

B. Deity, the Source Condition: Kingdom of the Essence of God

1. “In the Beginning”?

2. The Source of All Being

3. God, The Divine Reality

4. The Inadequacy of Human Concepts of God

5. The Manifesting and Creating of Worlds

a. The Source Power Underlying the Creation of Worlds

b. Manifestation Versus Emanation

c. Infinity

C. The Greater World: The Kingdom of the Manifestation of God

1. The Condition that God Manifests: The World of Prophethood

2. The Cause that God Manifests: His Divine Plan

a. Deity’s Role

b. Manifestation’s Role

c. Soul’s Role

3. The Spirit that God Manifests: The Holy Spirit

4. The Will that God Manifests: the Divine Law

5. The Word that God Manifests: Divine Revelation

6. The Being Who Embodies All that God Manifests

7. The Purpose of God’s Manifestation

D. Revelation: Originating in the Condition of Deity and Kingdom of Prophethood, Manifesting in Creation

1. Ever-flowing

2. Given to Creation

3. Partaking of this Gift

4. The Purpose of Revelation

E. The Lesser World, Servitude, Creation: The Kingdom of the Emanation of God

1. The Condition of Prophethood in Creation

a. Superhuman Condition, Intermediate Between God and Man

b. Provisions for What the World Needs

c. The Light of the World, Making Truth (Reality) Perceptible

d. The Spirit of Truth Now Available

2. The World of Servitude (Creation) in Relation to God

3. Creation as Seen through God’s Eyes

4. Creation: The World of Souls and Reflection of Divinity

5. Matter and Spirit

6. Man: Spiritual, Compared to the Animal

7. Mankind: Combining the Spiritual and Material Conditions

8. The Spiritual World, Progressively Unveiled: The “Kingdom Revealed”

III. The Reality of the Soul – Understanding Your True Self

A. What is the Human Soul?

B. The Soul’s Why or Raison d’Être

1. The Origin of the Soul

2. The Eternal Purpose of God for Man

C. to Know and to Love...

1. The Generating Impulse or Motive Power Underlying all Creation

2. The “to Know and to ____” (fill in the Blank)

a. Worship

b. Obey

c. Reflect Glory of God

d. Serve

3. The Role of Love and Unity in this Generating Impulse

4. Love Binds Man and Creation Together

D. How Spirit Manifests

1. Spirit: Manifesting in Degrees

2. The Holy Spirit

3. The Spirit of Faith

4. The Faculty of Inner Vision

5. The Human Spirit: The Faculty of the Rational Soul

a. The Power of Investigation and Discovery

b. The Limitations of the Human Spirit or Rational Soul

6. The Animal Spirit: The Faculties of the Senses and Memory

7. The Vegetable Spirit: Power of Growth

8. The Mineral Spirit: Faculties of Existence and Attraction

9. The Soul pulls all These Together: The Common Faculty

E. The Life Path of the Soul

1. From Embryonic to After-Life

2. The Soul’s Relationship with Creation

a. Man’s Dominion Over Nature

b. Man’s Responsibility With Respect to Creation

3. The Soul’s Relation to the Body

4. How the Soul can be Independent of the Body During Its Earthly Lifetime

5. The Inner Life and How It Connects with the Outer

a. Higher-Than-Sensory Perception Functioning During Sleep

b. Awareness of Unseen Spiritual Worlds and How It Develops

c. The Tangibleness and Manifestness of the Inner Life

d. Communication Between the Many Worlds of God

6. The Soul’s Life after the Body Dies

7. The Soul’s Purposes and Objectives

8. The Soul’s Pursuit of its Objectives and Highest Potentials

a. No Purpose Without Power To Achieve It

b. The Path or Journey of the Soul

c. The Manner In Which A Soul Needs To Behave

d. The Characteristics of the Successful Soul

e. The Fruit Tree Metaphor

F. The Natures Attributed to Man and the Soul

1. The Higher (Spiritual) and Lower (Material) Nature in Man

2. The Intermediate or Human Nature

a. Human Reality: an Earthly Development Between the Divine and the Animal

b. Character Deficiencies Showing in Human Nature and Beings

c. Natural Humanness Versus True Spirituality

d. Evil, Satan and Hell in Relation to the Soul

e. The Meaning and Importance of Right Choices

f. Evil as Part of the Divine Plan

G. Mind and Knowledge in the Soul’s Activities

1. What Knowledge is – Available Varieties

2. Divine Mind, and How the Soul’s Knowing Power Reflects It

3. The Mind of Man and the Divine Nature’s Knowing Powers

a. The Human Mind

b. Intuition: The Soul’s Higher than Sensory Powers of Perception

c. Faith

4. Potentialities and Limitations of Human Knowing Powers

a. Inherent Powers

b. Hazards

5. Thought: A Vital Power in Soul Development

6. Education: Essential to the Life of the Soul

7. Experience and Conscious Knowledge

H. The Heart and the Love in the Soul’s Activities

1. The Reality of Love

2, The Soul’s Reflection of Love

3. Evil Emotions Caused by Self-Love or Limitations of Human Vision

4. Human Desire and Will vs. the Divine

5. Love and Spiritual Birth/Rebirth into the World of the Kingdom Revealed

I. The Soul as Man Reacts and Lives

1. The Self-Feeding Loop of Growing and Reacting to Life’s Stimuli

2. Growing and Reacting Influenced by One’s Perception of Reality

3. Knowledge, Volition, and Action

4. Animal Nature Aware only of the Physical World

5. Human Nature Aware only of Its Own World

a. What the Human Creature “Sees”

b. “Natural” Human Feelings and Actions

6. Divine Nature Seeing Reality, Reacting Spiritually

IV. The Workshop of Interacting Souls

A. Macro-Cosmic Interactions

B. “Worlds, Holy and Spiritually Glorious”, Traversed Progressively

1. The Physical World: An Outer Expression of Reality that Senses Perceive

2. Human Thought World: A Mental Picture of Reality that the Human Intellect Perceives

3. World of Human Affairs: What Human Reacting Produces

4. The Kingdom Revealed: Reality Seen, and God’s Purpose Fulfilled

5. Entrance into the Kingdom

a. God’s Cause

b. Man’s Part

6. Living in the Spiritual World and Abiding in the Light of God’s Purpose

7. The World Order of Bahá’u’lláh: Part of the Kingdom Revealed

8. The World or Condition of “Departed Souls”

C. Time: A Dimension of God’s Purpose

1. The Reality and Context of Time

2. Cycles of Growth

3. God’s Purpose Unfolding in Time

4. Now, The Day of God: Every Soul Challenged

D. The Religion and the Revelator

1. What is Religion?

2. Purpose and Object

3. Oneness

4. Science and Religion

5. Eternal and Contingent Teachings

6. Purpose: Salvation from the Soul’s Lower Nature through Progressive Acceptance of Reality

7. Revealed Religions Changed to Human “religions”: Need for Renewal

8. The Transforming Elixir: Religion’s Gift to Creation

9. Bahá’u’lláh and His Divine Knowledge and Love

E. God’s Purpose for Man in Fulfillment

1. God Calling Each Soul

2. The Soul Responding through Prayer

a. Are Prayers Answered?

b. The Wisdom of Prayer

c. The Unique Authority and Power of “Revealed Prayers”

d. Worship Conditioned by the Soul’s Vision

e. Supplication Admonished

f. How the Heart Communicates

g. Fulfillment of Specific Needs, Through Prayer

h. The Soul’s Gratitude Expressed in Prayer

i. Concern for Others Best Expressed in Prayer

j. The Beloved, Receiving Our Prayers

3. Translating Reality into Action: Responsibility and Bounty of Bahá’ís

4. Reality and the Worlds of God Glimpsed

Bibliography