Lament not in your hours of trial, neither rejoice therein; seek ye the Middle Way which is the remembrance of Me in your afflictions and reflections over that which may befall you in future. Thus informeth you, He Who is Omniscient, He Who is Aware. (Bahá’u’lláh, Synopsis and Codification of the Kitáb-i-Aqdas, p. 15)
As someone who has spent a great deal of her life feeling sorry for herself, it was surprising to read that I’m neither to lament when life is going badly or rejoice when it’s going well. This reminds me of a Hidden Word which says something similar:
Be not troubled in poverty nor confident in riches, for poverty is followed by riches, and riches are followed by poverty. (Baha’u’llah, The Persian Hidden Words 51)
So it seems in life we need both the good and the bad, and both serve their purposes, which is to draw us closer to God and help us acquire the virtues we’ll need in the next world. When we live in the middle way, there’s no need to regret the past or fear the future. We can live in this present moment, in which everything is perfectly all right, and trust the next moment to God.
I often gloss over the endings of quotes and prayers, so let’s not do that this time and look what Bahá’u’lláh is teaching us: He is aware of things we can never understand, because He is the Omniscient.
When God teaches me how to behave, I can trust that this way is perfect for me and I am grateful!
What jumped out for you as you read today’s meditation? I’d love it if you would share so we can all expand our knowledge of the Writings!
If you liked this meditation, you might also like my book Violence and Abuse: Reasons and Remedies Kindle
I interpreted the first sentence of the first quotation a little differently. “Lament not in your hours of trial, neither rejoice therein.” “[t]herein” refers back to the subject of the first clause: “hours of trial”. To me there is only mention of the hours of trial in that quotation. We are told not to grieve over our hours of trial, nor are we to be happy about them. Who would be happy about them? -I imagined an emaciated and fanatical monk with only a shredded loincloth reveling in the fact that he is suffering. When you wrote, “I’m neither to lament when life is going badly or rejoice when it’s going well”, I felt you were responding more to your second quotation.
Thanks so much for jumping into the discussion Sandi! I love it when my readers add their ideas so we can all learn. It’s interesting that this quote also refers to “hours of trial” rather than days or weeks or months! I believe that if I can stop lamenting, my suffering will not last long. That’s why this quote is so important to me. It reminds me that no matter what happens, good or bad, God’s got my back.