e state, and wakefulness is
another. The time of silence is compared to sleep, and manifestation and
guidance are compared to wakefulness.

In the Gospel it is said, "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was
with God."(125) Then it is evident and clear that Christ did not reach to
the station of Messiahship and its perfections at the time of baptism,
when the Holy Spirit descended upon Him in the likeness of a dove. Nay,
the Word of God from all eternity has always been, and will be, in the
exaltation of sanctification.

39: THE HUMAN CONDITION AND THE SPIRITUAL CONDITION OF THE DIVINE
MANIFESTATIONS

We said that the Manifestations have three planes. First, the physical
reality, which depends upon the body; second, the individual reality, that
is to say, the rational soul; third, the divine appearance, which is the
divine perfections, the cause of the life of existence, of the education
of souls, of the guidance of people, and of the enlightenment of the
contingent world.

The physical state is the human state which perishes because it is
composed of elements, and all that is composed of elements will
necessarily be decomposed and dispersed.

But the individual reality of the Manifestations of God is a holy reality,
and for that reason it is sanctified and, in that which concerns its
nature and quality, is distinguished from all other things. It is like the
sun, which by its essential nature produces light and cannot be compared
to the moon, just as the particles that compose the globe of the sun
cannot be compared with those which compose the moon. The particles and
organization of the former produce rays, but the particles of which the
moon is composed do not produce rays but need to borrow light. So other
human realities are those souls who, like the moon, take light from the
sun; but that Holy Reality is luminous in Himself.

The third plane of that Being(126) is the Divine Bounty, the splendor of
the Preexistent Beauty, and the radiance of the light of the Almighty. The
individual realities of the Divine Manifestations have no separation from
the Bounty of God and the Lordly Splendor. In the same way, the orb of the
sun has no separation from the light. Therefore, it may be said that the
ascension of the Holy Manifestation is simply the leaving of this
elemental form. For example, if a lamp illumines this niche, and if its
light ceases to illuminate it because the niche is destroyed, the bount