“One should constantly turn the mirror of his heart squarely toward God… This is the only cure for attacks of evil thoughts.”

Question: What is the source of evil thoughts that disturb those who do not wish to entertain them?

Answer: “They come from other minds; they are reflected. One should not become a mirror for them - to reflect them; neither should one try to control them, for this is impossible; it only aggravates the difficulty, causing more to appear.

One should constantly turn the mirror of his heart squarely toward God so that the Light of the Sun of Truth may be reflected there.

This is the only cure for attacks of evil thoughts. The face of the mirror should be turned toward God, and the back of the mirror toward the evil thoughts.” (From a table talk by ‘Abdu’l-Baha, ‘Daily Lessons Received at Akka January 1908”, by Helen Goodall and Ella Goodall Cooper)

To “act according to the precepts and the counsels of God” makes a soul “a divine physician to mankind”

If in this day a soul shall act according to the precepts and the counsels of God, he will serve as a divine physician to mankind, and like the trump of Isráfíl [1], he will call the dead of this contingent world to life; for the confirmations of the Abhá Realm are never interrupted, and such a virtuous soul hath, to befriend him, the unfailing help of the Company on high. Thus shall a sorry gnat become an eagle in the fulness of his strength, and a feeble sparrow change to a royal falcon in the heights of ancient glory.

Wherefore, look not on the degree of your capacity, ask not if you are worthy of the task: rest ye your hopes on the help and loving-kindness, the favours and bestowals of Bahá’u’lláh—may my soul be offered up for His friends! Urge on the steed of high endeavour over the field of sacrifice, and carry away from this wide arena the prize of divine grace. (‘Abdu’l-Baha, ‘Selections from the Writings of ‘Abdu’l-Baha’)

[1] Believed to be the angel appointed to sound the trumpet on the Day of Resurrection to raise the dead at the bidding of the Lord.

Human soul is that “unifying agency” that causes the various organs and members of body to “function in perfect harmony and with absolute regularity, thus making the continuation of life possible”

By nature is meant those inherent properties and necessary relations derived from the realities of things. And these realities of things, though in the utmost diversity, are yet intimately connected one with the other. For these diverse realities an all-unifying agency is needed that shall link them all one to the other. For instance, the various organs and members, the parts and elements, that constitute the body of man, though at variance, are yet all connected one with the other by that all-unifying agency known as the human soul, that causeth them to function in perfect harmony and with absolute regularity, thus making the continuation of life possible. The human body, however, is utterly unconscious of that all-unifying agency, and yet acteth with regularity and dischargeth its functions according to its will. (‘Abdu’l-Baha, ‘Tablet to August Forel)