I’ve been reading a short, incredibly dense series of statements by Baha’u’llah from “Words of Wisdom”. Each brief pronouncement names the “essence of understanding”, “the source of courage”, the “beginning of magnanimity”, “true remembrance”, and the like. It is five minutes of reading, and a lifetime of grasping. It concludes this way:

“The essence of all that We have revealed for thee is Justice, is for man to free himself from idle fancy and imitation, discern with the eye of oneness His glorious handiwork, and look into all things with a searching eye.”

Baha’u’llah (1817-1892) was the Founder of the Baha’i Faith and the Author, so the Baha’is believe, of spiritual and practical guidance designed to civilize and unite the world. He called Justice “the best beloved of all things”, and asks the world to completely redefine the concept. So much is about how we learn to see, searchingly, with the “eye of oneness”. He went farther, in another writing, giving the ultimate reason for this surprisingly lovely quality:

“The purpose of Justice is the appearance of unity.”

Not the semblance of oneness, some superficial form ofkumbaya¹ togetherness, but the tangible emergence of the fundamental unity of the human species. This is a world-changer.

¹ Should be said: this is unfair to the word/phrase “kumbaya“, which has become a synonym for naive, Pollyanna-ish and stubborn ignorance of reality. The song “Kumbaya” was a sweet thing, a call for spiritual companionship and closeness in times of trouble. Whew. I feel slightly less guilty of cynicism now.