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demonstrated this truth to thee through thine outward body, whereby that which is partaken by the ear cannot be enjoyed by the eye. Thus, it is incumbent upon thee to comprehend, in a similar way, such manifestations , that each station hath its own food. That which delighteth the eye is not the same thing that delighteth the ear, inasmuch as the ear beholdeth not and the eye heareth not.57 In the writings of the Báb, the question of meaning has two different dimensions. The reflective dimension pertains to the degree of clarity with which the different layers of reality are reflected in a symbol. While all created beings potentially reveal all reality, they reflect this reality in differential degrees of clarity corresponding to their own existential level. Those who occupy high spiritual stations are able to perceive meanings that others at lower spiritual stations are unable to discern. The second dimension is the creative dimension of meaning. Here the meaning of a word is equivalent to the existential effect of the speaker’s uttering that word. The word spoken by the Manifestation of God is qualitatively different from the word of an ordinary human because it is the Creative Word: it is creative in that it has the power to produce change at all levels of reality and to bring into existence new states. Ordinary human meanings can also produce creative results, although to a strictly limited degree. The hierarchy of the meanings of symbols is thus a result of both the reflective and creative dimensions of those symbols. In a work explaining the Tradition “He hath known God who hath known himself,” the Báb begins His interpretation by setting out the hermeneutical principles, or rules of reading, that are necessary to understand the words of the Sacred Text. These rules are actually attitudes with which the reader should approach that Text. The first rule is to purify the heart in order to attain an understanding that is unbiased and undistorted by traditional received rules and methods: “I adjure thee,” He writes, “before any other utterance, to pay heed unto my counsels, that thou mayest attain and be not of those whose affairs suffer, for verily there is no path to recognition save through recognition of these counsels . First, thou must, before all else, purify thy heart from any rule that thou hast acquired from thy divines and learned ones. . . .” The next rule is to be conscious of the principle of the hierarchy of creative meanings—that is, to refrain from reducing the divinely inspired, revealed Word to mere human discourse, and to recognize that these 62 gate of the heart words possess a vastly superior spiritual potency and meaning which is expressed in particular terms according to the recipient’s level of understanding : Second, thou shouldst never compare the words of thy Imáms with the words of the people, for verily utterance is a manifestation of the reality of the one who uttereth, and a mirror that reflecteth that which is in his heart. Thus, just as their own being is a sure testimony for all the worlds and an indisputable sign from God, glorified be He, so are their words . . . which do not resemble the words of any other creatures. Their utterance, which is at once all-encompassing and all-perfect, is the proof of God unto the people. . . . All existence is the outcome of one letter of their utterance. . . . Thus the word of the Imám, peace be upon him, embraceth all things and streameth forth in all the worlds according to the conditions of their inhabitants. The final rule is to consciously apply the second principle in regard to the sacred words, as a safeguard against misinterpretation: “Third, thou must refrain from interpreting, to the best of thine ability, the words of the Immaculate Souls, in regard to any imperfections, but, rather, [interpret them] through exaltation and honour.”58 Any perception of imperfection in such texts is an error on the part of the reader and a failure to grasp the meaning of the text. The words of the Manifestation are unique in the sense that they are the creative Logos through which all things come into existence. Infinitely creative at all levels of reality, those words give rise to infinite meanings . These infinite meanings are the intended meanings of the Manifestation. What is meant, thus, by “words” is not just the visible alphabetical...

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