Reflections on Jalal

19 Jalal 164 B.E. – Friday, April 27, 2007

Jalal ends, Jamal begins. It’s been an interesting month. My mother is and has been in the Vegas Valley Rehabilitation Hospital recovering from a bawl resection. The April 21, was the First Day of Ridvan, April 22, was a Reflections Meeting, and this evening, April 27, the Feast of Jamal is at 7:30.

I’m still processing these occurrences of Jalal and Baha. I keep an off line journal called Writing My Spiritual Journey; I’m going to review the Baha and Jalal entries within the next week, after I began a new section for Jamal. In my offline journal I write a letter to Baha’u’llah and I write my thoughts on a scripture verse (usually one) each day. The offline journal is to bring myself to account, hence the letter to Baha’u’llah, and to assist in meditation. I seem better able to focus my thoughts if I write them down.

I’ve already began the Jamal section of Writing My Spiritual Journey by picking out the scripture verses to meditate on and write my thoughts about. In Jamal all the verses are from the writings of Baha’u’llah. In Jalal I didn’t pick out the verse before the month began, I picked them out each day and I picked various verses from different Baha’i sources not just scripture verses. However, I have decided that in my meditation I need to focus exclusively on the scriptures.

The idea is to read the scriptures morning and evening, but one is not supposed to just read one is supposed to comprehend what one is reading. Inscribing my thoughts on a scripture verse in a journal is one way to do this. Another way is to read the verse and then sit a while and contemplate the verse. I’ve got a copy of The Hidden Words of Baha’u’llah in my purse. I’ll transfer that to my bedside, read a verse from it, and write any thoughts in a pen and paper journal I keep by my bed. The pen and paper journal is to record any dreams or thoughts I have in the middle of the night. Sometimes I have dreams that I remember on awaking and sometimes I don’t. The pen and paper journal is, also, filled with “thought notes” and poem ideas; I carry it with me when I leave the house.

To get back to Reflections on Jalal; I had a thought at the Reflections Meeting on April 22, that bringing myself to account is a personal Reflections meeting between Baha’u’llah and me. The biggest things that happened in Jalal were the Reflections meeting, my Mother going to the Vegas Valley Rehab Hospital, and receiving information on choosing the date for my pilgrimage. I had to put off my pilgrimage this year, but I’m going to go next year. Going on pilgrimage is one of the things I want to do in my 6th decade. I have a list of 60 things I want to do before turning 70.