Writing in Snow

Midweek Reflections: Contemplating My Spiritual Diet

‘Idál (Justice), 18 Sharaf Honor 174 B.E. - Wednesday, January 17, 2018

Contemplating My Spiritual Diet

Yesterday, I read an offsite blog entry about spiritual diet. The entry suggested that a spiritual diet consisted of more than just prayer and meditation, it also included scripture reading and avoiding those things that we know are wrong such as backbiting and judging other people. All though, I don't think that blog entry mentioned those two thing specifically. Anyway that blog entry got me to thinking about my spiritual diet, and I realized, that while I do read the scriptures, I haven't been reading a specific scripture book (which that entry suggested).

After reading that entry, I decided to go back to reading The Summons of The Lord of Hosts: Tablets of Baha'u'llah. I plan to read, at least, two pages in the evening, and maybe one page of a morning. Last night I read one page, and this morning I didn't read any pages, but I did say the long healing prayer before I got up. Since my smartphone has a Baha'i prayer app, I can access several prayers revealed by the Central Figures of my chosen religion. As a results of reading The Summons, I begin writing a new poem, and I dreamed about writing poems. The dream suggested the theme another poem, which I started this morning.

According to some of the things I've read, a person should read the sacred scriptures twice a day (morning and evening). It's my understanding that I need to approach this scripture reading in an attitude of attention, reverence, and thought or meditation. From my reaction to last night's scripture reading, that is the attitude I took. I will have to focus more on twice a day reading, which means I might have to set my alarm to get up a little earlier or start my computer sessions later in the morning.

"The glory of man is in the knowledge of God, spiritual susceptibilities, attainment to transcendent powers and the bounties of the Holy Spirit."

Bahá’í Writings

One way to acquire "spiritual susceptibilities" is to read and meditate on the sacred scriptures. This coming Sunday, January 21, a devotional service takes place at the Baha'i Center in Las Vegas. The subject of that service is Spiritual Susceptibilities, which should give me some more ideas for poems or blog/journal entries. The above quote was on a flyer that arrived in my Cox.net inbox today. There are three more quotes in that flyer, which I may post in one of my blog entries.