It is striking how private and personal the most fundamental
spiritual exercises of prayer and meditation are in the Faith. Bahá'ís do, of
course, have meetings for devotions, as in the Mashriqu'l-Adhkar or at Nineteen
Day Feasts, but the daily obligatory prayers are ordained to be said in the
privacy of one's chamber, and meditation on the Teachings is, likewise, a
private individual activity, not a form of group therapy. In His talks 'Abdu'l-Bahá
describes prayer as "conversation with God," and concerning
meditation He says 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."
- The
Universal House of Justice (From a message dated 1 September 1983 written on
behalf of the Universal House of Justice to the National Spiritual Assembly of
the Bahá'ís of Norway ‘Messages from the Universal House of Justice 1963 to
1986’)
