tag name Mirrors type: Metaphors and allegories; Philosophy; Religion, general web link bahai-library.com/tags/Mirrors variations or mis-spellings mirát related tags - Manifestations of God; – Concepts, Philosophical; – Concepts, Religious; Light; Material world corresponds to the spiritual world; Moon; Soul, Human; Sun referring tags Find Me standing within thee (phrase); Manifestations of God, Multiple stations; Realization of potentialities Inventory subject Manifestation of God as mirror; Human soul as mirror; divine light, attributes within notes See also:
selected quotations
(authoritative sources)These quotations reflect common presentations of Bahá’í views; the materials below may show a wider range of interpretations and contexts:
"... A pure heart is as a mirror; cleanse it with the burnish of love and severance from all save God, that the true sun may shine therein and the eternal morning dawn. Then wilt thou clearly see the meaning of “Earth and heaven cannot contain Me; what can alone contain Me is the heart of him that believeth in Me.” And thou wilt take up thy life in thy hand and with infinite longing cast it before thy newly found Beloved..."
– Bahá'u'lláh, The Seven Valleys", ¶43, in The Call of the Divine Beloved (BH00047)
"O Sun-like Mirrors! Look ye upon the Sun of Truth. Ye, verily, depend upon it, were ye to perceive it. Ye are all as fishes, moving in the waters of the sea, veiling yourselves therefrom, and yet asking what it is on which ye depend.” ... “I complain unto thee, O Mirror of My generosity, against all the other Mirrors. All look upon Me through their own colors.”
– The Báb, quoted by Bahá'u'lláh in: Epistle to the Son of the Wolf, p. 160 (BH00005)
"... Upon the inmost reality of each and every created thing He hath shed the light of one of His names, and made it a recipient of the glory of one of His attributes. Upon the reality of man, however, He hath focused the radiance of all of His names and attributes, and made it a mirror of His own Self. Alone of all created things man hath been singled out for so great a favor, so enduring a bounty..."
– Gleanings from the Writings of Bahá'u'lláh, XXVII (BH00690)
"... We must endeavor to increase our capacity daily, to strengthen and enlarge our capabilities for receiving them, to become as perfect mirrors. The more polished and clean the mirror, the more effulgent is its reflection of the lights of the Sun of Truth..."
– 'Abdu'l-Bahá, The Promulgation of Universal Peace, talk #10 (17 April 1912) (ABU0456)"... the rational soul, or the human spirit, does not subsist through this body by inherence—that is to say, it does not enter it; for inherence and entrance are characteristics of bodies, and the rational soul is sanctified above this. It never entered this body to begin with, that it should require, upon leaving it, some other abode. No, the connection of the spirit with the body is even as the connection of this lamp with a mirror. If the mirror is polished and perfected, the light of the lamp appears therein, and if the mirror is broken or covered with dust, the light remains concealed..."
– 'Abdu'l-Bahá, Some Answered Questions, chapter 66"... Our meaning is that the life of the Kingdom is the life of the spirit, and that it is eternal and sanctified above time and place, even as the human spirit, which is placeless. For were you to search throughout the human body, you would be unable to find a specific place or location for the spirit. The spirit is absolutely placeless and immaterial, but it has a connection with the body, even as the sun has a connection with this mirror: The sun occupies no place within the mirror, but it has a connection with it...."
– 'Abdu'l-Bahá, Some Answered Questions, chapter 67"... Now regarding the question whether the faculties of the mind and the human soul are one and the same. These faculties are but the inherent properties of the soul, such as the power of imagination, of thought, of understanding; powers that are the essential requisites of the reality of man, even as the solar ray is the inherent property of the sun. The temple of man is like unto a mirror, his soul is as the sun, and his mental faculties even as the rays that emanate from that source of light. The ray may cease to fall upon the mirror, but it can in no wise be dissociated from the sun..."
– 'Abdu'l-Bahá, Tablet to Dr. Auguste Forel"... The fifth degree of spirit is the Holy Spirit, which is the mediator between God and His creation. It is like a mirror facing the sun: Just as a spotless mirror receives the rays of the sun and reflects its bounty to others, so too is the Holy Spirit the mediator of the light of holiness, which it conveys from the Sun of Truth to sanctified souls. This Spirit is adorned with all the divine perfections. Whensoever it appears, the world is revived, a new cycle is ushered in, and the body of humanity is clothed in a fresh attire..."
– 'Abdu'l-Bahá, Some Answered Questions, chapter 36
"... Yet for that Essence of essences, that Truth of truths, that Mystery of mysteries, there are splendours, effulgences, manifestations, and appearances in the world of existence. The Daysprings of those effulgences, the Dawning-places of those revelations, and the Sources of those manifestations are those Exponents of holiness, those universal Realities and divine Beings Who are the true mirrors of the sanctified Essence of the Divinity. All the perfections, bounties, and splendours of the one true God are plainly visible in the realities of His Holy Manifestations, even as the light of the sun is fully reflected with all its perfections and bounties in a clear and spotless mirror. And if it be said that the mirrors are the manifestations of the sun and the dawning-places of the daystar of the world, this is not meant to imply that the sun has descended from the heights of its sanctity or has become embodied in the mirror, or that that limitless Reality has been confined to this visible plane. God forbid! This is the belief of the anthropomorphists. No, all these descriptions, all these expressions of praise and glory, refer to these holy Manifestations; that is, every description, praise, name, or attribute of God that we mention applies to Them..."
– 'Abdu'l-Bahá, Some Answered Questions, chapter 37
bahaidata.org Q5569 · Links to Bahá'í wikis (bahai9, bahaipedia, etc.) references bahaipedia.org/Manifestation_of_God#Mirror_analogy; bahai9.com/wiki/Lawh-i-Hád; bahaiquotes.com/subject/mirror; www.bahai.org/library/authoritative-texts/search#q=mirror
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