There are five outward material powers in man which are the
means of perception—that is, five powers whereby man perceives material things.
They are sight, which perceives sensible forms; hearing, which perceives
audible sounds; smell, which perceives odours; taste, which perceives edible
things; and touch, which is distributed throughout the body and which perceives
tactile realities. These five powers perceive external objects.
Man has likewise a number of spiritual powers: the power of
imagination, which forms a mental image of things; thought, which reflects upon
the realities of things; comprehension, which understands these realities; and
memory, which retains whatever man has imagined, thought, and understood. The
intermediary between these five outward powers and the inward powers is a
common faculty, a sense which mediates between them and which conveys to the
inward powers whatever the outward powers have perceived. It is termed the
common faculty as it is shared in common between the outward and inward powers.
For instance, sight, which is one of the outward powers,
sees and perceives this flower and conveys this perception to the inward power
of the common faculty; the common faculty transmits it to the power of
imagination, which in turn conceives and forms this image and transmits it to
the power of thought; the power of thought reflects upon it and, having
apprehended its reality, conveys it to the power of comprehension; the
comprehension, once it has understood it, delivers the image of the sensible
object to the memory, and the memory preserves it in its repository.
The outward powers are five: the power of sight, of hearing,
of taste, of smell, and of touch. The inward powers are also five: the common
faculty and the powers of imagination, thought, comprehension, and memory.
- ‘Abdu’l-Baha (Table talks in Akka, authenticated by ‘Abdu’l-Baha; ‘Some
Answered Questions’ – 2014 revised translation by the Baha’i World Centre)