Refining Utterance (101-105)

What about the value of silence?
101) "The essence of true safety is to observe silence, to look at the end of things and to renounce the world."

(Baha’u’llah, Tablets of Baha'u'llah, p. 156)

[See #10 for Baha’u’llah’s definition of “the world.”]


102) 'How great the multitude of truths which the garment of words can never contain! How vast the number of such verities as no expression can adequately describe, whose significance can never be unfolded, and to which not even the remotest allusions can be made! How manifold are the truths which must remain unuttered until the appointed time is come! Even as it hath been said: "Not everything that a man knoweth can be disclosed, nor can everything that he can disclose be regarded as timely, nor can every timely utterance be considered as suited to the capacity of those who hear it."'
(Baha’u’llah, Gleanings from the Writings of Baha'u'llah, p. 176)

103) "The wise are they that speak not unless they obtain a hearing..."

(Baha’u’llah, Persian Hidden Words, No. 36)

104) "The tongue faileth in describing these three Valleys, and speech falleth short.* The pen steppeth not into this region, the ink leaveth only a blot. In these planes, the nightingale of the heart hath other songs and secrets, which make the heart to stir and the soul to clamor, but this mystery of inner meaning may be whispered only from heart to heart, confided only from breast to breast."
(Baha’u’llah, The Seven Valleys and the Four Valleys, p. 30)

*["These three Valleys" appear to be the Valley of Contentment, the Valley of Wonderment, and the Valley of True Poverty and Absolute Nothingness.]


105) "Baha’u’llah says there is a sign (from God) in every phenomenon: the sign of the intellect is contemplation and the sign of contemplation is silence, because it is impossible for a man to do two things at one time—he cannot both speak and meditate."
(Abdu’l-Baha, Paris Talks, p. 174)

Next