Article Text
I died to the inanimate (mineral) state and became endowed with growth;
Then I died to growth and attained the life of the animal.
I died from animality and became human (Adam).
Why then should I fear? When have I ever become less by dying?
At the next level, I shall die to being human,
So that I may soar and raise my head among the angels.
Yet even from the angelic state I must transcend,
For everything perishes except His Face.
Once more I shall pass beyond the angel,
Becoming that which cannot be conceived by imagination.
Then I shall enter non-existence.
And non-existence, like the sound of an organ, will say to me:
“Verily, unto Him shall we return.”
1- Darkness or misguidance, synonymous with mineral or inanimate life: Imagine a mine in which various elements exist without substantial motion or consciousness. This corresponds to territorialization in time or substantial motion. Substantial motion is inherent, revelatory, necessary, and decreed for the contingent being.
2- Territorialization in time: With the reception of the Water of Life, parallel to receiving revelation, the human emerges from darkness toward light. This corresponds to temporal territorialization: gaining the effusion of revelation and beginning of the substantial motion toward forming the conscious but illusory mind in the horizontal course of life.
3- Vegetative life, shaped mind: Appearance of form through encounter with light, the emergence of the shaped mind, and plant-like vitality.
4- Animal life, illusory mind: Receiving revelation in order to enter territorialization of station or place, in proximity to the formless or unconscious mind. This marks the beginning of vertical motion of life. In the previous level, the illusory mind was bound by causal propositions of the form “if this, then that.” But in this level, vertical attraction propositions arise, concerned with “why,” “what,” and “how.” The minimum result of this level is the appearance of practical reason or survival-oriented mind in the human.
5- Human life, heart-oriented mind: Receiving revelation so that the heart may be endowed with direction, in proximity to the formless mind.
6- Imaginative mind, distancing from illusory mind: At this level, the human separates from the illusory or shaped mind. With the heart’s perfection toward forming the imaginative space, the creation of concepts from shaped experiences begins, and through a vertical journey, the human begins forming hypotheses and relational concepts from shaped experiences. The minimum result of this level is the emergence of legislative reason.
7- Human station and angelic territorialization, exercise of dream: Receiving revelation for the formation of the inspirational mind. Separation from time and space limits. With the heart’s completion, the human moves—contrary to an emphasis on particular laws—toward universal laws. With the expansion of imagination and the offering of general theory, the human attains philosophical reason.
8- Visionary mind for meeting with the Name: At this level, the human receives revelation for elevating the inspirational mind to the visionary mind. This level is the station of direct witnessing.