8/26/2023

“while you meditate you are speaking with your own spirit” - 'Abdu'l-Baha explains

It is an axiomatic fact that while you meditate you are speaking with your own spirit. In that state of mind you put certain questions to your spirit and the spirit answers: the light breaks forth and the reality is revealed.

You cannot apply the name “man” to any being void of this faculty of meditation; without it he would be a mere animal, lower than the beasts.

Through the faculty of meditation man attains to eternal life; through it he receives the breath of the Holy Spirit—the bestowal of the Spirit is given in reflection and meditation.

The spirit of man is itself informed and strengthened during meditation; through it affairs of which man knew nothing are unfolded before his view. Through it he receives Divine inspiration, through it he receives heavenly food.

Meditation is the key for opening the doors of mysteries. In that state man abstracts himself: in that state man withdraws himself from all outside objects; in that subjective mood he is immersed in the ocean of spiritual life and can unfold the secrets of things-in-themselves. To illustrate this, think of man as endowed with two kinds of sight; when the power of insight is being used the outward power of vision does not see.

This faculty of meditation frees man from the animal nature, discerns the reality of things, puts man in touch with God.

8/19/2023

God’s “most exalted Pen”

I swear by Thy glory and Thy sovereignty which overshadow the kingdoms of earth and of heaven! Were any of Thy chosen Ones and Thy Messengers to meditate on the manifold evidences of Thy most exalted Pen—a Pen which is driven by the fingers of Thy will—and were he to muse on its mysteries, and its tokens, and all that it showeth forth, he would be so perplexed that his tongue would fail to extol and describe Thee, and his heart would be utterly unable to understand Thee. For he would, at one time, discover that from this Pen there floweth out unto all created things the water that is life indeed, and that the Pen itself hath been named by Thee the trumpet whereby the dead speed out of their sepulchers. At another time he would find that there proceedeth from this Pen such fire as Thine own Revelation can kindle, and as He Who conversed with Thee (Moses) on Sinai hath perceived. 

- Baha’u’llah  (‘Prayers and Meditations by Baha’u’llah’)

8/12/2023

“certain things are, by their very nature, a mystery to us, at least in our present stage of development”

... of course the Bahá’ís can and should meditate upon the significances of the writings, and endeavour to grasp their meaning to the uttermost. There can be no possible objection to this. However, certain things are, by their very nature, a mystery to us, at least in our present stage of development.

- Shoghi Effendi  (From a letter dated 14 January 1942 written on behalf of Shoghi Effendi to an individual believer; compilation: ‘Prayer and Devotional Life’, prepared by the Research Department of the Universal House of Justice, February 2019; Baha’i Reference Library of the Baha’i World Centre)

8/05/2023

“God is indeed the Maker of all things”; “All do His bidding and… celebrate His praise”

Say: God is indeed the Maker of all things. He giveth sustenance in plenty to whomsoever He willeth. He is the Creator, the Source of all beings, the Fashioner, the Almighty, the Maker, the All-Wise. He is the Bearer of the most excellent titles throughout the heavens and the earth and whatever lieth between them. All do His bidding, and all the dwellers of earth and heaven celebrate His praise, and unto Him shall all return. 

- The Báb  (‘Selections from the Writings of the Báb)

8/01/2023

“Through meditation the doors of deeper knowledge and inspiration may be opened”

Through meditation the doors of deeper knowledge and inspiration may be opened.  Naturally, if one meditates as a Bahá’í he is connected with the Source; if a man believing in God meditates he is tuning in to the power and mercy of God; but we cannot say that any inspiration which a person, not knowing Bahá’u’lláh, or not believing in God, receives is merely from his own ego. Meditation is very important, and the Guardian sees no reason why the friends should not be taught to meditate, but they should guard against superstitious or foolish ideas creeping into it.

- Shoghi Effendi  (From a letter dated 19 November 1945 written on behalf of Shoghi Effendi to an individual believer; compilation: ‘Prayer and Devotional Life’, prepared by the Research Department of the Universal House of Justice, February 2019; Baha’i Reference Library of the Baha’i World Centre)