The Unities Model of Existence
Dedicated to my blessed parents, the late Corinne and Harold Foster
Copyright © 2011 Mark A. Foster, Ph.D. All rights reserved.
  1. STATION OF ESSENTIAL UNITY
    1. Any  essence is a unifying structure, an inner reality, or a collective center of beings and things, not the beings and things themselves. The highest Essential Unity (the Deity, infinite Essence, divine Unity, True One, Godhead, Great Being, and Source), the rational and unknowable God, exists in this Station. He is the “Unifying” or “Unification” (Arabic1, al-Tawḥīd), and the unknowable Essence, of the Prophets or Divinities. Since these Prophets, in Their Oneness, also occupy this Station of He is God, rejecting even One of Them stakes a claim at “sharing” (al-širk) in God’s Sovereignty and Dominion. God is, in addition, the Unity of the SPIRITUAL KINGDOM and the innermost Essence of the lower unifying essences (essential unities, universal realities, or collective realities). Existence, in its diversity or individuality, can be seen as one. Because all lower essences, attributes (including religious moral codes), beings, and things depend upon God, they can be created, changed, or destroyed relative to His Will.
  3. SPIRITUAL KINGDOM: This Kingdom of Names and Attributes is manifested by the Prophets, in the STATION OF DISTINCTION  (or Prophethood), to all existence. Sometimes the Kingdom is referred to by only one of the Names of God. Instead of a Trinity, there is an Infinity of Prophets (the STATION OF DISTINCTION) united through One God (the STATION OF ESSENTIAL UNITY). The divine Singular and the divine Plural have been unified. Within the STATION OF SERVITUDE  (or creation), the Kingdom of God is emanated as the Hereafter and as the Higher Nature.
    1. STATION OF DISTINCTION
    2. Prophethood, or the Greater World, is the progressive Revelation of divine Manifestations. The Essence of God is manifested in relationship (ancient, eternal Covenant, Cause, or Command) with humanity. These uncommonly human Prophets (God manifested as Souls) share, and are made up of, the individualized Attributes (Holy Spirit, Primal Will, or Word) of the Unity of God. Revelations of specific Attributes result in differences between Their teachings. We learn about the Unity through Its Reflection in diverse Individuals, or Prophets, with personal Names and Missions. To us, not  among Themselves, Baháʾuʾlláh has the highest Station. He is the Supreme Manifestation of God. The Prophets have a different nature (Attributes) than human beings.
    3. STATION OF SERVITUDE
    4. The station of creation is servitude. “... the conditions of existence are limited to the conditions of servitude, of prophethood and of Deity ...” (ʿAbduʾl-Bahá, Some Answered Questions, page 230). Servitude is spiritually perfected in the Mystery of God, ʿAbduʾl-Bahá. As the Perfect Man or created Being, He is the Master, Exemplar, Archetype, or Ideal Type of servitude. The road to perfection is freedom through service. “The liberty that profiteth you is to be found nowhere except in complete servitude unto God, the Eternal Truth” (Baháʾuʾlláh, The Kitáb-i-Aqdas, page 64). Perhaps both the Master and His brother were exceptionally created beings. ʿAbduʾl-Bahá lived up to it. Baháʾuʾlláh then blessed Him with perfection.
    5. Hereafter: In the Hereafter, beings from the HUMAN KINGDOM continue after death. The attributes, or qualities, of the SPIRITUAL KINGDOM in the world to come are rewards (blessings for good deeds in this world), pardons (for sins committed in this world), and bounties (in the next world). Heavenly attributes, eternal life, or spirit are the ingredients of each departed soul.
    6. Great Workshop of this World
    7. Higher Nature: The unifying essence within this human spiritual nature is the unity of revealed religions (the Religion of God). Progressively deeper formulations of truth, relative to each Age, are revealed through God’s eternal Covenant. By accepting it, we acquire the attributes within the SPIRITUAL KINGDOM while still in this world. We are born again and live according to our Higher Nature. Gradually, the HUMAN KINGDOM is spiritually perfected. These “faithful attributes,” like love and insight, are called the spirit of faith (or faith). In addition to the human spirit, the spirit of faith can become the ingredients of a human soul. “... the human spirit, unless assisted by the spirit of faith, does not become acquainted with the divine secrets and the heavenly realities” (ʿAbduʾl-Bahá, Some Answered Questions, page 317). “... the Kingdom has no place, but is connected with man” (page 242).
  4. HUMAN KINGDOM: This kingdom, which contains the unknowable unifying essence of man or human unity, is sometimes called humanity or the lesser world. To be an individual is not to be independent. Relationships are formed within a universal web of interdependence or essential unity. The attributes of this divinely willed unifying essence, “the essence of man,” are termed the “rational faculty” (the rational soul, rationality, the human spirit, or human nature). Souls in this kingdom can be governed by their Higher Nature or by Nature. Included are rational (time, imagination, thought, understanding, memory, common sense2, and, the distinguishing trait of this world, free will), sensory, growing, and cohesive attributes. They are the ingredients of each human soul (human being) and of each Prophet’s human nature. By a unity of revealed religions, the unity of humanity has progressed from stage to stage (family, tribe, city-state, and nation). Baháʾuʾlláh is now structuring human unity into His World Order, the appearance of the Kingdom of God on earth, through the reality of the Universal House of Justice (the form of divine Justice in this world). Its conferred infallibility is known to God. Its authority is known to us.
    1. Nature: Within the physical kingdoms below are attributes of cohesion (such as energy, magnetism, and gravity), growth, and sensation (bodily coordination). For human beings, Nature is our lower nature.
  6. ANIMAL KINGDOM: This kingdom may include numerous unifying essences (“species”). The attributes of these divinely willed essential unities (unifying essences) are termed the animal spirit. The ingredients of each animal are sensory, cohesive, and growing attributes or traits. They are the animal’s bodily functions (shared by human beings).
  7. VEGETABLE KINGDOM: This kingdom may include numerous unifying essences (“species”). The attributes of these divinely willed essential unities (unifying essences) of nature are termed the vegetable spirit. The ingredients of each vegetable are growing and cohesive attributes or traits.
  8. MINERAL KINGDOM: This kingdom may include numerous unifying essences (“species”). The attributes of these divinely willed essential unities (unifying essences) of nature are called the mineral spirit. The ingredients of each mineral are cohesive attributes.
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1 I am not fluent in Arabic, but I can work with it. Unless otherwise stated, all English translations are from the Arabic or Persian languages (or, in some cases, a “Persianized” Arabic). There are differences, which will be evident, between the system of transliteration, or romanization, of Arabic and Persian words contained in official Baháʾí texts and the ISO (International Organization for Standardization) system adopted in other parts of this work. Diacritics (the signs used in transliteration) for various languages have sometimes been modified in quotations. Focusing on both translation and transliteration has, from my perspective, been a way to draw close, in my heart, to the individuals and ideas being discussed. Perhaps your experiences will be similar. Learning any “tongue” comes through love:
Speak in the Persian tongue, though the Arab please thee more;
A lover hath many a tongue at his command.
From Rūmī’s Maṯnawī (Persian, Maṯnavī), quoted by Baháʾuʾlláh, “The Seven Valleys,” The Seven Valleys and the Four Valleys. Page 58.

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2 al-Ḥiss al-muštarik (Ancient Greek, koiné aísϑésis) is the common faculty (or common sense). ʿAbduʾl-Bahá appears to be using the term in a similar way to Aristotle. However, and this is just a hunch, perhaps ʿAbduʾl-Bahá was also teaching us to use our common sense, as generally defined (avoiding excessive speculation), when making observations.
The intermediary between the five outward powers and the inward powers is the sense which they possess in common-that is to say, the sense which acts between the outer and inner powers, conveys to the inward powers whatever the outer powers discern. It is termed the common faculty ....
ʿAbduʾl-Bahá, Some Answered Questions. Page 210.

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