Being and Doing

I bear witness, O my God, that Thou hast created me to know Thee and to worship Thee.

This duality of knowing and worshipping God is found in many places in the Bahá’í Writings and in the Universe. A simple way to explain it is being passive or being active. The Universe was created through the interaction of these two opposites:

The world of existence came into being through the heat generated from the interaction between the active force and that which is its recipient. These two are the same, yet they are different.

In the material world, quantum physics tells us that every particle is also a wave and every wave is also a particle or particles. For example, atoms and molecules are also waves, and light waves are also made up of photons (particles of light). While in physics things are simply both of these, in the human kingdom this duality becomes more complex because it is a higher and more spiritual kingdom. In the human kingdom there is a scale between the most active and the most passive.

The same duality is reflected in the way Bahá’u’lláh describes Himself:

Sunset over the ocean

I am the Sun of Wisdom and the Ocean of Knowledge.

The Sun is like a colossal particle and the ocean is a huge mass that moves in waves. And since the Writings in many places say that we are a little bit like God, for example 'He hath known God who hath known himself.', it can be said that each of us in one way is like the Sun, or like a particle, and in another way is like the ocean. Which one we are is determined by whether we are currently being active (worshipping God), or passive (knowing God).

If we relate this to what we said about the spiritual spectrum of colors, we can see that the yellowish, lower frequencies of light given off by the Sun correspond to stronger, more active and masculine qualities, and the blue or greenish higher frequencies reflected by the ocean correspond to higher, more feminine and thoughtful qualities.

An example of this duality in action in the world is a musical concert. The musicians as a unified group are like the Sun, they are actively radiating spiritual qualities in the form of music and illuminating the audience – they are worshipping God. The audience as a group are like the ocean, passively absorbing the spiritual heat and light of the performance and moving in waves, particularly if they are standing up – they are knowing God through the performance.

Some societies, generally in the West, tend towards individualism, which means people behave more like particles, whereas others, generally in the East, are more collectivistic, meaning people behave more like waves. This is why Eastern societies are generally more harmonious than Western ones.