Welcome to this Tree of Life guided meditation.
We're here to end the day together and to get to know the deeper parts of ourselves.
We're here to meet our energetic body,
To experience our intrinsic wholeness and our intrinsic holiness.
I want you to call to mind the image of the Tree of Life.
I want you to see it in your mind's eyes,
Its colors,
Its swirling shapes,
The channels of energy that connect and move through it.
Right now,
As we end the day together,
We settle into deep relaxation.
We're going to map that Tree of Life on our bodies.
We're going to remember that whatever this day held,
Whatever stresses or fears,
Whatever wounds,
Unkind words or missed opportunities,
That those are fleeting things,
That you are here now,
Safe and whole.
And that even if the outsides of you picked up a little bit of soot today,
Perhaps a mess here or there that needs to be dusted off,
That the deepest parts of you are untouched,
Whole and pure.
Now before we can begin to explore the deeper parts of ourselves,
We need to fully relax.
And that's what we're here to do.
We're here to end our day with a sense of wholeness,
To let go of any moments of frustration or sadness or overwhelm or loneliness.
And instead to settle back in to an intrinsic sense of wholeness.
So take a look around where you are right now,
Maybe in your room or maybe on a comfy couch.
And just become aware that right now,
If you are listening to this podcast,
You are all right.
In fact,
You're probably better off than 99% of the people on the planet.
You're warm,
You probably had food to eat today,
And you're safe right now.
So take a moment now and come to a comfortable position.
Maybe you're stretched out on your bed.
And just give your weight fully over to whatever surface is holding you.
Whether that's a couch or a chair,
Or your bed or the floor.
Uncross your legs,
Uncross your arms,
And take up as much space as you need.
And take a deep breath in and just feel your basic sense of okayness.
I am okay.
I want you now to call to mind the image of the Kabbalistic Tree of Life.
Its 10 swirling energy centers arranged like a holy ladder.
See their colors in your mind's eye.
Red,
Orange,
Yellow,
Green,
Blue,
Indigo,
Violet.
See their arrangement top to bottom,
The pairs that face each other,
The individuals that stand alone.
And let this image of this sacred ladder be in your mind's eye as we relax our bodies.
So your body is stretched out and calm.
And we begin from the tips of the toes.
Relax your feet.
Relax your feet.
Your feet are completely relaxed.
Relax your calves.
Relax your calves.
Your calves are completely relaxed.
Relax your knees.
Relax your knees.
Your knees are completely relaxed.
And just letting whatever is arising come up and out.
So if you need to sigh or cry,
Just as it comes,
You let it move through you.
Relax your quadriceps.
Relax your quads.
Your quads and thighs are completely relaxed.
Your legs are completely relaxed.
Relax your pelvis.
Relax your pelvis.
Your pelvis is completely relaxed.
Relax your belly.
Relax your belly.
Your belly is completely relaxed.
Relax your ribs.
Relax your lungs.
Relax your diaphragm.
Relax your heart.
Your torso is completely relaxed.
Relax your shoulders.
Relax your shoulders.
Your shoulders are completely relaxed.
Relax your arms.
Relax your arms.
Your arms are completely relaxed.
Relax your hands.
Relax your hands.
Your hands are completely relaxed.
Relax your neck.
Relax your throat.
Your neck is completely relaxed.
Relax your forehead.
Relax your eyelids.
Relax your cheeks.
Relax your tongue.
Relax your face.
Your face is completely relaxed.
You are completely relaxed.
Take a deep breath in.
Feel fullness.
And exhale out the mouth.
Feel everything soften.
And know that if now you fall off to sleep,
That is just fine.
May you be carried into a land of peacefulness and wholeness,
Of healing sleep.
Remaining in stillness and calm relaxation.
Let's begin to map the ten on our own bodies.
So if you would rather not move at all,
Just trace them in your mind's eye,
Making a mental note to look at the picture of the Kabbalistic Tree of Life before settling into meditation each night.
Or if it feels right to you,
Take one finger and rest it at the tip top of your skull.
This part of the human body that comes into the world still open,
The soft spot on a newborn baby's head.
This is the seat of Keter,
The energetic crown we wear,
The aspect of us that has never left home,
That has never felt lost,
That could not possibly forget where it comes from,
That it is divine,
Because it is still very much in that place.
This is our crown,
Our sovereignty,
The part of us that is so whole it could never be broken,
So radiant it could never feel tarnished or small.
This is Keter.
Take your finger and touch the base of your hairline where bangs would grow if you had them.
This is Chochmah,
The energetic seat of intellect,
The part of you and of the Creator that has the capacity to name,
To label,
To use language,
To create categories,
To know a thing,
And so too this is the beginning of duality,
The ability to recognize this and not that.
Here divinity begins to be limited to enter our world of light and dark,
Of this and that,
And yet through your divine aspect of Chochmah,
Of wisdom,
You can see the infrastructure of our world,
The way it is built,
Its complexity.
This is your divine intellect.
Move your finger to the space at the center of your eyebrows,
Your third eye.
This is the energetic center Bina,
The seat of your intuition.
Bina is feminine,
Chochmah is masculine.
All of us regardless of the gender we perform in the world are equally like God,
Like Goddess.
Bina is the seat of your intuition,
The part of you that knows without labeling,
The part of you that makes art and takes awe in the sunset,
The part of you that knows what your friend needs even before she asks.
This is your divine capacity for intuition,
For knowing and creating beyond language.
Chochmah is what we colloquially refer to as right brain thinking.
Bina is left brain thinking.
Keter Chochmah Bina is the supernal upper triangle,
The part of you that is more divinity than humanity.
Moving down we meet the pair Chisid and Gvura.
For tonight let's place each of our hands over our eyes ever so gently,
Imagining the right eye as having the capacity only to see with love,
With Chisid.
Overwhelming,
Unconditional,
Divine love.
Our tradition tells a story of a world that was initially created only with love.
Love filled every nook and cranny.
Love sewed every thread between every piece of creation.
It was radiant but it was boundaryless.
There was no sense of I at all.
There was just we and we and we.
On the right we have the divine attribute of Chisid,
The face of you,
The face of the creator,
Which is all love.
On the left we have Chisid's partner,
Its counterbalance known as Gvura,
Limitation.
That which can channel the limitless divine,
Those threads that unite us so much that we forget our separate sense of self.
Gvura is the holy capacity to erect boundaries.
To say,
No,
This is my limit.
Stop there.
With Gvura we protect ourselves.
We protect what matters to us.
We direct.
We build containers for Chisid.
Chisid and Gvura act like a scale.
Too much to one side and there's all light.
Too much to the other,
There's all darkness.
But we,
Holy humans,
We are here to be who we are.
Bring both your hands to rest on your heart.
Chisid and Gvura come together at the heart,
The sacred holy I.
I was born for a reason.
I have a unique voice.
The Sfira of the heart center is called Tiferet,
The holy I.
Here I am.
I have above me Chisid and Gvura,
Chochmah and Binah.
I wear a crown of Keter.
I am whole.
I was born to be me.
Nobody else alive today or ever before and nobody yet to come can bring what I have been sent to bring to this place,
To this moment.
I am Tiferet.
I am splendor.
Place your hands now on the bones of your pelvis,
Your fingers extending out and up towards your torso.
Resting,
If you're a woman,
On your ovaries radiating through the backside of the body to your kidneys.
We have here on the right Netzach and on the left Hod.
Tiferet,
Netzach and Hod make up the lower aspects of our ego.
Netzach,
Eternity.
The part of me that wants to know I'll be remembered.
The cares about how I am seen,
How I am noticed.
And Hod,
Beauty.
The part of me that sees the externals in the world and the seat of prayer from which I feel longing.
We are this week in the week of Hod and so let's let our attention dwell here,
Listening deeply on the left side of the body,
Feeling the way the gut holds so much of our emotion,
How we're digesting our lives and our day.
Allowing this churning to find its way to travel up,
Up,
Up the ladder.
Making its way to Netzach,
The part of you that knows that you will be remembered.
That you are bigger than any changing thing.
Tiferet,
The part of you that says I.
Gvura,
The part of you that sets limits,
That knows how to make use of a holy know.
Chesed,
The part of you that loves unconditionally.
Binah,
The part of you that knows through intuition,
Pre-language.
Chochmah,
The part of you that orders your world.
And Keter,
The tip-top of your ladder that has never left home,
That has never forgotten your sense of place,
That knows that you are plugged in,
Interconnected with all of creation.
So let the yearning and churning of the gut travel up the supernal ladder,
Travel up through the energy centers of the body and return it to source as prayer.
In these last quiet moments of our meditation,
Be in your yearning and know that you are seen and loved,
That the things you need and desire are good,
That you deserve to have your needs met,
Your hopes realized.
Be here in deep breathing,
Each inhale drawing in blessing,
Each exhale giving back in prayer your yearning,
Each inhale feeling more whole,
Each exhale feeling more peace.
