Meditation

1

• Meditation
• and
• Prayer
• Bahia Cross Karida Griffith

2
Spiritual communion

• For the core of religious faith is that mystic
  feeling which unites Man with God. This state of
  spiritual communion can be brought about and
  maintained by means of meditation and prayer.
• And this is the reason why Bahá'u'lláh has so
  much stressed the importance of worship. It is
  not sufficient for a believer merely to accept
  and observe the teachings. He should, in
  addition, cultivate the sense of spirituality
  which he can acquire chiefly by means of prayer.
• The Bahá'í Faith, like all other Divine
  Religions, is thus fundamentally mystic in
  character. Its chief goal is the development of
  the individual and society, through the
  acquisition of spiritual virtues and powers.
• It is the soul of man which has first to be fed.
• And this spiritual nourishment prayer can best
  provide.
• - Directives of the Guardian, p. 86-87

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Prayer

• Man must live in a state of prayer. The most
  blessed condition is the condition of prayer and
  supplication.
• Prayer is conversation with God.
• The greatest attainment or the sweetest state is
  none other than conversation with God.
• It creates spirituality, creates mindfulness and
  celestial feelings, begets new attractions of the
  Kingdom and engenders the susceptibilities of
  higher intelligence
• What is prayer? It is conversation with God.
• While man prays he sees himself in the presence
  of God. If he concentrates his attention he will
  surely at the time of prayer realize that he is
  conversing with God.
• - Abdul-Bahá quoted in Wisdom of the Master ,
  p. 46

4
Worship and Reverence

• In the Bahá'í Cause arts, sciences and all crafts
  are (counted as) worship. The man who makes a
  piece of notepaper to the best of his ability,
  conscientiously, concentrating all his forces on
  perfecting it, is giving praise to God.
• Briefly, all effort and exertion put forth by man
  from the fullness of his heart is worship, if it
  is prompted by the highest motives and the will
  to do service to humanity.
• This is worship to serve mankind and to minister
  to the needs of the people. Service is prayer. A
  physician ministering to the sick, gently,
  tenderly, free from prejudice and believing in
  the solidarity of the human race, he is giving
  praise.
• - Abdul-Bahá, Paris Talks, p. 176-7

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MEDITATION

• It is an axiomatic fact that while you meditate
  you are speaking with your own spirit. ..The
  spirit of man is itself informed and strengthened
  during meditation through it affairs of which
  man knew nothing are unfolded before his view...
• 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.
• - Abdul-Bahá, Paris Talks, p. 174 76

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How to I meditate?

• As to meditation This also is a field in which
  the individual is free. There are no set forms of
  meditation prescribed in the teachings, no plan
  as such, for inner development. The friends are
  urged--nay enjoined--to pray, and they also
  should meditate, but the manner of doing the
  latter is left entirely to the individual.
• - Directives from the Guardian, p. 35
• The first teaching of Bahá'u'lláh is the duty
  incumbent upon all to investigate reality. What
  does it mean to investigate reality? It means
  that man must forget all hearsay and examine
  truth himself
• - Abdul - Baha, Promulgation of Universal
  Peace, p. 61-62

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COMMON ELEMENTS OF MEDITATION

• Stillness/Silence
• The Breath
• Concentration/Focus
• Awareness
• Love

8
The Main idea

• PRAYER
• Communion with God

• MEDITATION
• Communion with ones own spirit

SPIRITUAL DEVELOPMENT