Tanya Chapter 38: The power of intention. part 1

Drawing upon what we’ve learned until now, we can now understand the halacha –– that meditation is not valid in lieu of verbal articulation. Because the soul itself requires no perfecting; it came down here only to draw light upon the vital soul as well as the body. This is accomplished by actual articulation or action via the body. On the other hand, our Sages said that prayer or any other blessing said without kavanah is like a body without a soul. Let’s understand what this means: Both body and soul have Divine life force, and both experience equal, utter concealment of that life force. But when it comes to the amount of life force in each of them, there is a vast difference between them.