Divine Civilization The Spiritually Learned and Words as Mild as Milk Paula Bidwell for The Wilmette Institute

Course on the Secret of Divine Civilization 2013 One of the concepts in the Secret of Divine Civilization requires us to consider the principles and procedures of civilizations from other countries. It has now been clearly and irrefutably shown that the importation from foreign countries of the principles and procedures of civilization... will contribute to the general good... This requires us to open our understand to a more universal manner of thinking, for if we remain in our individual world views we can never imagine the possibility of contributions from other civilizations. This may seem to be a simple and obvious, but there can be a resistance to it that we are unaware of and is maintained with our habits of thinking. To illustrate this point, we might consider the tendency to abbreviate quotes from the Writings and as a result there is a limitation of our frame of reference. These abbreviations have become common and many of us are aware of the more popular ones such as unity in diversity. In the current Five Year Plan 2011-2016, The Universal House of Justice has advised us that, Society speaks more and more in slogans. If we agree that a slogan is commonly understood to be a phrase used repetitively as an abbreviated expression of a fuller concept, then we might examine how our individual world views affect our interpretations and keep our understanding to a less than universal approach particularly with a slogan or abbreviated quote. As an example, I am asking for consideration of one of our common abbreviated quotes that admonish us to speak with words as mild as milk as a good example of limiting our global understanding and thus keep us from the full realization of the possibility of the importation of foreign concepts. The full quotation from the Writings is: Therefore an enlightened man of wisdom should primarily speak with words as mild as milk, that the children of men may be nurtured and edied thereby and may attain the ultimate goal of human existence which is the station of true understanding and nobility Looking at the abbreviated quote, mild as milk in the original text is khasiyat-i-shir literally meaning having the quality and property of milk. If mild is implied, rather than explicit, then the word mild becomes far less signicance and the word milk becomes the signicant and central focus. But in English it is more common to look at mild as the signicant and central focus. Since the word mild is very subjective, it elicits a context pertaining to the times we live in and the cultures we come from, thus keeping us in our individual world views.

If we decide to expand this view and focus on the word milk rather than mild, what are the qualities and properties of milk? Milk is typically dened as the primary source of nourishment for young mammals including humans. If we agree that milk is a primary source of nourishment and that nourishment is commonly dened as substances necessary for growth and health. Then, nourishment would consist of elements and compounds ingested, digested, absorbed and circulated through the bloodstream to feed the cells of the body. With this in mind, milk might be compared to knowledge as ingested, digested, absorbed and circulated. Remembering that the rst part of this quote is about an enlightened man of wisdom, this comparison gains in possible signicance. Consider if the enlightened man of wisdom might be similar or even the same as the spiritually learned, then the following quote gives us some answers to how our words might be considered mild as milk: The spiritually learned must be characterized by both inward and outward perfections; they must possess a good character, an enlightened nature, a pure intent, as well as intellectual power, brilliance and discernment, intuition, discretion and foresight, temperance, reverence, and a heartfelt fear of God. If the enlightened man of wisdom is comparable to the spiritually learned then might not their words also be indicative of the above listed perfections and then adapted to a description of mild? Might their words be described as being of good character, enlightened, pure, powerful, brilliant, discerning, intuitive, discrete, foresightful, temperate, reverent and contain a heartfelt fear of God. So, now its possible that we have a list of descriptions for mild as milk that come from the Writings and are not singularly reliant upon a particular culture or individual worldview. Also, it might be worthwhile to take a quick look at the meaning of words in a more mystical context. For this we can look at Abdul-Bahs list of the ve inner and outward powers. It seems apparent that words can be attributed to the outward powers of hearing (listening) and sight (reading). But what about the inner powers? Words as used in the quote words as mild as milk, seem to have more to do with all ve of the inner powers. Imagination, thought, comprehension, memory and the common faculty which is the connector between the inner and outward powers. So, if words as mild as milk means nourishment then words that strengthen imagination, thought, comprehension and memory are key factors in the denition of mild. Thus we could ask ourselves, are my words imaginative, thoughtful, comprehendible and worthy of remembering? These descriptors might also be reective of the spiritually learned and the man of wisdom.

This seems to to be a good way to describe a universal meaning of words as mild as milk. It is far better than the culturally common descriptors such as rened, moderate, pleasant, etc. Which are constantly changing according to the times we live and the cultures we come from. I believe Bahullhs Message is not subjective nor intended for one people and in order to establish a divine civilization it would be a benet to try to understand and convey the Message in a universal or global context and also to become more aware of our cultural understandings and how they exist within our habits of thinking. 1. Secret of Divine Civilization, Abdul-Bah, p. 32 2. World Order of Bahullh, Shoghi Effendi, p. 42 3. The Five Year Plan 2011-2016, Universal House of Justice 4. Tablets of Bahullh Revealed after the Kitb-i-Aqdas, p. 172 5. The Secret of Divine Civilization, Abdul-Bah, pp. 33-34 6. Some Answered Questions, Abdul-Bah, pp. 210-211