Welcome to the Torah of Awakening podcast,
Exploring meditation and consciousness in Kabbalah and Hasidism through an integral lens.
I'm your host,
Rabbi Brian Yosef Schachter-Brooks.
Although I've been teaching online since 2016,
This is the first official podcast I'm releasing.
In this episode,
I'll be talking about how meditation can transform our whole relationship with life,
Help us get free from negativity and resistance,
And why the core practice of acceptance doesn't mean resignation,
But actually empowers us to respond to life's challenges from our deepest potential.
We'll be looking at all this through the lens of the Torah reading,
Parashat Tetzaveh,
Shemot,
Exodus 2720-3010.
We'll then have a guided meditation,
Including a Hebrew chant for the letter Aleph,
And time for quiet meditation,
During which I'll play soft piano music.
If you like,
You can pause the recording at that point,
Either to lengthen the silent meditation or to meditate without the piano.
I hope you enjoy,
And if you do,
You can help support this work by giving a comment or review,
And subscribing or following.
And now,
On with the episode.
Enjoy.
So this is a true anecdote.
Someone once told me that she hadn't done anything of value in her life,
That she had messed up so much that her life was worthless.
I encouraged her to notice that those were unhelpful thoughts,
That she didn't have to buy into those thoughts.
But it's true,
She insisted.
What is true,
I said,
Is that those thoughts are present.
The feelings that come with those thoughts are present.
The sense of your body breathing right now is present.
The sound of my voice is present.
That is true.
She started to relax a little bit,
Baruch Hashem,
Because as we know,
She could have punched me in the mouth instead.
When a person is captivated by thoughts and feelings,
It is not always helpful to point it out.
One has to be ready for that kind of pointing.
We may or may not be able to help another person get free from the web of ego,
But there is one person we can always help,
And that is ourselves.
Notice,
There is,
Right now,
An absolute truth,
And that is the truth of whatever is arising in your experience in this moment.
The point of this truth,
However,
Is not necessarily the experience.
The point is noticing that you are noticing.
The point is realizing that you are the awareness that notices.
When you can see clearly,
Here is a thought,
Here is a feeling,
Here is a sensation,
Then there can be this profound shift in your identity.
You are not trapped by any thought or feeling.
You are the openness within which this moment unfolds.
This is freedom from the constriction and angst of ego,
Represented by Mitsrayim,
Slavery in Egypt,
And from this perspective of inner freedom,
Then you can easily inquire,
Is this or that thought helpful?
Is this or that thought destructive?
Spiritual teachings often come in diametrically opposed pairs.
There is a teaching of the Hasidic master,
Rabbi Simcha Bunim,
That everyone should carry two slips of paper,
One in each pocket,
And one should be written,
I am but dust and ashes,
And on the second,
For me the world was created.
As one goes through life,
One should develop the wisdom to know when to take out which slip of paper.
Could there be more diametrically opposed messages?
How could both these statements be true?
But the point is,
Our thoughts are not true or not true.
They are either useful or not useful.
From a spiritual point of view,
They are useful if they move us from ego to freedom,
From resistance and resignation to acceptance and empowerment.
That's important to see,
Resistance and resignation on one hand,
And acceptance and empowerment on the other.
It's true,
Acceptance means letting go and letting things be as they are,
I am but dust and ashes,
But that doesn't mean passivity or weakness.
Often it means the acceptance of responsibility,
For me the world was created.
This moment,
This situation,
As it is,
Right now,
Is.
How shall we respond?
Shall we turn away,
Deny and ignore?
Or shall we address this moment as it is and step up to what must be done?
This too is acceptance.
This too is freedom.
Not freedom from responsibility,
But freedom from resistance to accepting the responsibility that has come to you.
There's a hint in our verse.
V'ata tetzaveh b'nei Yisrael,
You shall instruct the children of Israel.
V'yikchu eylecha shemen za'it zachkatit la'maor,
To take for you oil of olives,
Pure,
Crushed for illumination,
Le'ha'alot ner tamid,
To kindle a continuous flame.
So,
On the literal level,
This is an instruction for operating the menorah,
The ritual lamp in the mishkan,
The tabernacle in the wilderness.
But on a deeper level,
There is an interesting feature about this verse.
On one hand,
The olive oil is being used to kindle a flame,
But on the other hand,
The flame is called ner tamid,
A continuous flame,
Implying that it's already burning.
This is a wonderful metaphor for consciousness.
On one hand,
As human beings,
We are already conscious.
The oil is already burning,
So to speak.
The ner tamid,
The continuous flame of our consciousness,
Is the space within which these words are being perceived right now.
The question is,
Are you conscious of your consciousness?
You are already aware,
But are you aware that you are awareness?
She'men zayit zakhkatit la'maor,
Olive oil,
Pure,
Crushed for illumination.
To wake up from the dream of ego,
To become aware on this deeper level,
We have to purify awareness from its identification with thoughts and feelings.
This is zakh,
Crushed.
Like the olive,
There's a hard pit at the core.
That's the ego.
How do we do this?
Be the loving presence that surrounds your ego.
No need to try to get rid of it.
That's just more ego.
Instead,
Accept the fullness of your experience as it is,
Resistance and all,
Feelings and all,
Without adding to the story,
Without buying in,
So to speak.
In other words,
By accepting the moment fully and feeling your feelings,
You illuminate the awareness that is already there,
Causing it to burn more brightly,
Liberating it from being trapped in the forms of thoughts and feelings,
Yet also present with your thoughts and feelings.
This is the beginning of awakening,
Represented by the first letter,
Aleph.
And so this letter,
Aleph,
With its two arms reaching up,
Two legs reaching down,
We can do a pose with our bodies to embody this openness to feeling,
Lifting our arms above our heads with our palms open to the sky.
And let's chant this affirmation.
And our chant,
Echad ve'en yachid ki echudo,
One,
And there is no oneness like the divine oneness.
Nelam ve'gam ensof.
Nelam,
Incomprehensible,
And also infinite.
Ensof le'achduto is its oneness.
This is a prayerful description of God,
But it is also a description of consciousness in the sense that when we consciously become open to whatever is arising,
Then we can recognize our experience in this moment as one.
Normally,
We are dividing up things,
Things we like,
Things we don't like,
This moment and the moment we're trying to get to.
But in this conscious,
Present openness,
There is one experience in all of its richness.
And so we can sing.
Letting the words vibrate in your body.
And preparing for meditation,
Checking your body,
Being in a comfortable and also alert position,
Conducive to stillness,
Taking care to making sure that your hands are free.
If you're holding your device,
Best to just set it down for now,
Letting your hands be free,
Eyes closed or unfocused.
And bringing forth an attitude of offering your attention from your heart.
This attitude of presence with,
Being with whatever is arising and experience right now.
A level of thoughts,
Feelings,
Sensory awareness.
Bringing your right hand to your heart.
Offering attention with Lecha,
Deep breath in.
And bringing left hand down to your belly.
Feeling awareness pouring down into your body,
Filling your belly with consciousness.
Permeating your organs.
Flowing down through your legs,
All the way down to your feet and toes,
Filling the lower part of your body with consciousness.
Attention rising up,
Chest,
Shoulders and neck,
Releasing any excess tension from your shoulders and neck.
Arms,
Hands and fingers,
Taking a nice deep conscious breath,
Feeling the flow.
Letting the sensation of the flow of the breath capture your attention more than your thoughts.
Becoming not so interested in the thoughts,
Letting them be there but not so interested.
Much more interesting is this feeling of face,
Facial muscles,
Brain and nervous system.
Bringing a little smile to your lips,
Being the benevolent,
Loving,
Indwelling presence.
Life in the body,
Affirming with Naase,
Deep breath in.
And with left hand on the belly,
Right hand coming up to lightly touch your forehead.
As awareness shines like light beyond the body,
Out into the space of the room.
Whatever awareness finds around your body,
The objects,
The support beneath you,
The light,
The sounds vibrating in the air,
Resting there and recognizing that all of this,
All of this perception of the world as well as the inner world of thoughts and feelings are all arising in this vast space of consciousness.
This space represented by the Aleph,
This openness,
This boundlessness.
Deep breath in.
And kissing your fingers,
Relaxing your hands comfortably in your lap.
Bless us to meditate deeply and effectively.
Let our memories be active moment to moment so that we remember what we're doing instead of getting lost in the streams of thinking.
What is it we're doing?
We're being openness.
Feeling,
Sensing,
Relaxing the thinking mind,
Anchoring it in the Tefila.
Atiyahu,
Atiyahu,
Chanting.
Resting the mind in the silent repetition of atiyahu.
And we come into silent meditation.
Coming back together,
Taking a nice stretch.
And closing the meditation,
Bringing the right hand to your heart,
Offering your attention with lecha.
Deep breath in.
And bringing left hand to your belly,
Awareness,
Feeling into the temple of the body.
And bringing right hand to lightly touch forehead,
Awareness opening up into the space around you,
Being the open space of awareness itself.
May this quality represented by the letter Aleph of openness to what is arising and experience of knowing ourselves on the deepest level as that open space.
May this midah,
This ability and quality,
This skill be available to us moment to moment,
Alive within us.
May it be the place from which we respond to the world as it arises around us.
I hope you've enjoyed this learning and practice session.
If you have,
You can help support by giving a like,
Leaving a comment or review,
And subscribing or following depending on the platform.
Until next time,
All blessings.
