Indeed, O brother, if we ponder each created thing, we shall
witness a myriad consummate wisdoms and learn a myriad new and wondrous truths.
One of the created phenomena is the dream. Behold how many secrets have been
deposited therein, how many wisdoms treasured up, how many worlds concealed.
Observe how thou art asleep in a dwelling, and its doors are shut; on a sudden
thou findest thyself in a far-off city, which thou enterest without moving thy
feet or wearying thy body. Without taxing thine eyes, thou seest; without troubling
thine ears, thou hearest; without a tongue, thou speakest. And perchance when
ten years have passed, thou wilt witness in this temporal world the very things
thou hast dreamt tonight.
Now there are many wisdoms to ponder in the dream, which
none but the people of this valley can comprehend in their reality. First, what
is this world where without eye or ear or hand or tongue one can put all these
to use? Second, how is it that in the outer world thou seest today the effect
of a dream which thou didst witness in the world of sleep some ten years past?
Consider the difference between these two worlds, and the mysteries they
conceal, that, attended by divine confirmations, thou mayest attain unto
heavenly discoveries and enter the realms of holiness.
- Baha’u’llah (‘The Seven
Valleys’, revised translation by the Baha’i World Center included in ‘The Call
of the Divine Beloved’)
