An excerpt from the Short Course in the Worlds of God and Classifications of Existence, by Marian Crist Lippitt
PRIMARY CATEGORIES OF EXISTENCE - THE THREE WORLDS OF GOD
Every Reality that is brought into existence begins with a Source. It has as its purpose its creator¹s purpose in causing it to BE, and its first existence is in the mind of its maker. There also is chosen the power which the inventor will provide for carrying out his purpose. There, too, will be devised the procedure for achieving the purpose. Single acts are planned that will make up that total action, and the attributes essential to the procedure will be decided upon. Finally these aspects will be manifested, or brought down into the outer world of form and space. Then the creation will be given a name to designate the reality - the whole thing, what it is for and how it operates. Of course the inventor must explain what is not obvious about his creation when it is launched into the material scene. We are told that Existence, as a total Reality, with all of its features, including man, is a production of God. So when we learn that our Inventor has provided a detailed explanation of the purpose of that creation and how it should be handled in order for it to operate successfully, why wouldn¹t we be eager to listen?
In the past, perhaps understanding did not seem to be important. Or, like
little children who ask, ³Where did I come from? and are told, ³The doctor
brought you,² people may have been satisfied with their first simple answer: God
created the heaven and the earth, including you. (Gen. 1:1) And if the awakening
heart asked, ³But WHAT am I?² it was once enough to be told that after forming
him, God breathed into his nostrils the breath of life and he became a living
soul. Gen.2:7,W/G 34 (b) But we are not satisfied with that today. This is a
new age, and our reasoning power, ³totally absent² in the infancy of the human
race, BWFp337-8,W/G 57 (e), is now a dominant force in our life and growth. So
the Science of Reality must define the term, ³living soul², before our questions
can be answered. As intellectual beings, we can be seriously handicapped and
confused by what we don¹t know, or by concepts that prove to be illusions. For
reasoning is only helpful when based on true hypotheses. We turn to sciences for
enlightenment. But that viewpoint is from the ground up, and based on human
acts and attributes; and we know more about our own, at least, than any
scientist can tell us. I want to know who I am in terms of my own experiences,
my ultimate goal, my real purpose in life, and my latent potentialities that I
can sense inwardly but that I am unable to understand or REAL-ize. In short, I
need an over-all view of my reality that only my Creator can share or can
reveal. And that is what Bahá¹u¹lláh has been commissioned to bring to
mankind. That is the Science of the reality of man. The fact is that the
Prophets of God, in explaining Existence to us, all began with our Source. This
is evidence of Their divine vision or innate knowledge. They have all had that
over-all view of life - the superhuman view that only the consciousness of a
Manifestation of God can encompass. SAQp.180-1,W/G 39 (p) So we have known for
long ages that ³In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.²
Bahá¹u¹lláh enlarges tremendously this simple verity. Who or What is God?,
people are asking today. This is a question of primary importance. It is one
that as teachers we must be able to answer authoritatively. But even more
important, as ³living souls.² we MUST have a dynamic consciousness of our
Origin, including the Purpose and Power that underlie the outer Self, for
otherwise we are out of touch with our own reality. In the past, these aspects
of Existence have only been known by the Creator Himself and in the Greater
World that plays a part in the process of divine Creating. (B.P. p.125 mid.)
But today they have been unveiled to the Lesser World through the loving
ministrations of the Báb and Bahá¹u¹lláh , the Twin Messengers from that
Greater World, assisted by God¹s Causing, God¹s Spirit and Power, God¹s Will and
God¹s Word; and so we are blessed with the Revelation that we desire.
Enlightenment needed from the over-all viewpoint begins with these simple basic
explanations that enlarge on Genesis 1:1: ³Lauded by Thy name, O Lord my God! I
testify that Thou wast a hidden Treasure wrapped within Thine immemorial Being
and an impenetrable Mystery enshrined in Thine own Essence. Wishing to reveal
Thyself, Thou didst call into being the Greater and the Lesser Worlds, and didst
choose man above all Thy creatures, and didst make Him a sign of both of these
worlds, O Thou Who art our Lord, the Most Compassionate!²( BWF p. 70-1 W/G 11
(z),) ³Know that the conditions of existence are limited to the conditions of
servitude, of Prophethood, and of Deity.² BWF p.328 W/G 13 (b),