Finding Divinity Everywhere – Baal Shem Tov On Presence

In this episode, we unpack an incredible teaching of the Baal Shem Tov on the power of Presence and particularly sensory awareness for discerning direction and purpose in your life, followed by a guided meditation based on the Hebrew letter Ayin. Opening song Hashkiveinu and piano improvisation also by Rabbi Brian Yosef Schachter-Brooks.

Hashkiveinu is from the album Ayn Od by BRIAH, and features the vocals of Jeannette Ferber and Bon Singer, along with Sam “Shmully” Markewich on drums, Joshua Miele on bass, and Lior Tzarfaty on guitar.

Transcript

We are standing at Sinai right now. We're standing at Sinai right now. If that's our attitude, If we adopt this paradigm that the message of really the meaning of our existence, What we're here for, Is being told to us right now, Then we step up our attentiveness. We want to pay attention to see if we can get the message. But the attention is the message. Shalom. Welcome to the Tour of Awakening Jewish Meditation podcast. I'm Rabbi Brian Yosef Schachter-Brooks. In this episode, We unpack an incredible teaching of the Baal Shem Tov on the power of presence and particularly sensory awareness for discerning direction and purpose in your life. Enjoy. This is, Again, A teaching from Rabbi Yosef Yitzhak Schneerson from the collection known as Hayom Yom. And it begins with, Our teacher, The Baal Shem Tov, Said, So he's quoting a teaching that he learns from the Baal Shem Tov, כל דבר ודבר אשר האדם רואה או שומע Every single thing that one sees or hears, הוא הוראת הנהגה בעבודת ה' Is an instruction for how to be led in the service of the divine. וזהו עניין העבודה And this is the essence of avodah. This is what avodah is all about, What spiritual practice is all about. להבין ולהשכיל מכל To comprehend and discern from everything דרך בעבודת ה' A path in which to serve HaShem. Really, There are two parts to this teaching. The first part, כל דבר ודבר Everything is, Everything that you see and everything that you hear can be an instruction to be led in avodah. And avodah literally means work or service, But in this sense, It's meant as spiritual practice. And it's amazing that it doesn't merely say that whatever you see and hear can be an instruction in avodah, But rather, Whatever you see and hear can instruct you in how to be led in avodah. Right? It's a subtle difference. It's one thing to say that there's a message there for you, Like whatever you hear, Whatever you see, Whatever's going on in your experience, There's a message for you about what you're supposed to do. What's your avodah? What's your spiritual work that you can get from this message? But this is a little different. It's saying that the message is how to be led by the thing you're seeing or hearing. The experience in the moment is leading you into how to do the avodah. Why? Because in order to receive the instruction, In order to receive the message, That leads us to pay attention in a greater way. Right? But the essence of avodah is to pay attention. That's what avodah is. So if we're holding on to the idea that there's a message about how to serve God or how to fulfill the purpose of our existence, How to be in alignment with the meaning of why we're here in the first place, And that is coming to us right now from whatever is arising in our experience, Then that leads us to pay attention in a much deeper way. Okay? So no longer are we just merely going through some mundane moment of life. No longer are we just doing this in order to get to that. But rather, We are standing at Sinai right now. We're standing at Sinai right now. If that's our attitude, If we adopt this paradigm that the message of really the meaning of our existence, What we're here for, Is being told to us right now, Then we step up our attentiveness. We want to pay attention to see if we can get the message. But the attention is the message. We're listening to get the message, And we're already doing the message. It's an amazing thing. I love teachings like this. It's circular, But not in a meaningless way, In a way that helps us to transcend the linear path of thinking that keeps us stuck in time, Because the whole point of the avodah is to come out of time, To come into the present. Coming out of time is not exactly right. It's more coming out of the mental conception of time in order to actually meet the moment. Why? Because we meet God in the moment. Because God is not something separate from the moment. And this is clarified by the second part of the teaching. The second part of it says that the inyan, Which we could translate as the essence or the point of avodah, The inyan avodah, Is to find your avodah. With other things, That's not the case, Right? With most things in life, That's not the case. When a doctor seeks to diagnose an illness, The point is not the seeking. The point is the diagnosis, Right? You want to get to the end point. You want to know what's wrong so you can fix it. When I have, And I often do have, Tech problems with my computer, And I seek a solution, I seek to fix what's going on, The point is the solution, Not the seeking of the solution, Right? The seeking of the solution is the annoying part. I don't want to seek a solution. I just want it to be fixed. But in the case of avodah, It's the exact opposite. The whole point is not to get some message about a spiritual practice we'll do later on. We'll do it some other point in time. Although we may get messages like that. Insights do come to us. It would be good if I adjusted my practice in this way, Or it might be more urgent, Right? I really need to attend to that relationship or attend to this character challenge that keeps me stuck. We do get messages like that, But that's not the inyan. That's not the essence. But rather, The paying attention itself is the essence. The paying attention itself is the avodah. Everything we see, Everything we hear, And it doesn't have to be restricted to seeing and hearing, It's everything that arises in experience, Meaning everything that's arising right now in our experience, Is or can potentially lead us into that. In this way, This is the core teaching, That every moment of every happening, Meaning all experience, Meaning right now, Is potentially the most important avodah for us. The most important thing we need to learn is how to be led by the fullness of this moment. How to be led by this moment into being present. Or more precisely, To allow this moment to show us how to be led into being presence. And knowing that on the deepest level of who we are, We are this presence. As long as we're looking for things in time, Again, That's not a bad thing. We have to do that too. But if we are completely absorbed into the function and momentum of life in time, And we don't complement it with the most important teaching that's being given to us right now, Not just because I'm saying it, But because whatever's happening in any moment is something. It's a manifestation of being that's calling us to be led into presence, To be led into knowing ourselves as presence. And it's so profound because when we remember this and we do it, Then all of our spiritual seeking, All of our interest in spiritual development and the fruit of that, Which we could describe it as leaving Mitzrayim and coming to stand at Sinai, We could describe it as communing with the ultimate, Communing with Hashem, All of that is instantly available to us. When we remember to be led by what is happening in this moment, All we have to do is remember to seek it, Not seek it somewhere else, To seek it here. It's leading us right now. And there's a subtle shift that happens then, A shift maybe from some kind of tension to a little smile. Here it is. Here we are. That's what we're after. This particular avenue into presence, This presence portal, I think is nicely represented by the letter ayin, Which means I, But of course it's not just visual. As it said in the teaching, Seeing, Hearing, All of it. Because it's not just about seeing or hearing the surface of things, The phenomenon of the moment, But rather the voice of the divine that's coming to us in it. And what is it telling us? Well, It might be telling us all kinds of things. But at the core, It's telling us to pay attention. And that's the essence. So we can bring ourselves deliberately into the practice simply by reminding ourselves with this covenant. And the body pose for the letter ayin, If you look at the shape of an ayin, It has the two heads or the two flames on top representing the two eyes, Which itself is a representation of awareness. And so bringing hands to the sides of your face and framing your eyes to bring attention to attention. And we can chant, I am seeing, I am perceptive, I am perception. The chanting part is important, Not just hearing me say the words, But making the sounds with your own voice. I am seeing, I am perceptive, I am perception. I am seeing, I am perceptive, I am perception. One more time, I am seeing, I am perceptive, I am perception. And our chant for ayin, Describing the divine as removing the slumber of unconsciousness, Removing the barriers from my eyelids, Meaning removing the barriers to presence, To coming fully to the moment, Coming fully to Hashem as Hashem is speaking to us in this moment. I am seeing, I am perceiving, I am perceiving. Sheina, Preparing for meditation, Letting your body be in a comfortable, But also awake alert position. Bringing some attention to your pose, Letting your hands be relaxed, Unencumbered, Back relatively straight, And bringing your right hand to your heart, Embodying this quality of loving offering, Giving your attention from your heart to whatever you are seeing, Whatever you're hearing, Whatever you're experiencing on all levels, Giving attention to all of it. L'cha on a long out breath, Deep breath in, L'cha on a long out breath, Deep breath in, L'cha and bringing your left hand to your belly, Right hand on your heart, Left hand on your belly. As we bring a bit more focus now to our attention to feel down into the body, Permeating the organs in your belly with consciousness, Bringing light, Healing, And gratitude to this temple of the body. Awareness flowing down from your belly, Down through your legs, Filling up your legs, The inner space within your legs, Within your muscles, Within your bones, Filling it all with consciousness. Flowing down through your feet, Down into the floor, Down into the earth. Awareness rising up, Chest, Upper back, Shoulders, And neck, Spilling down arms, Hands, And fingers, Connecting back, Heart and belly, Bringing your attention more deeply into the flow of your breathing. Each breath is like a kiss from the divine, Enlivening us, Breathing us into life. Awareness rising up, Face, Facial muscles, Brain, And nervous system, Bringing a little smile to your lips, Being the loving, Benevolent, Indwelling presence, Consciousness in the body. Deep breath in, And with your left hand on your belly, Bringing right hand up to lightly touch your forehead, Sending your awareness out from the body, Shining outward into the space around you, Touching the sounds, The objects, The shape of the room or whatever space you're in. Everything you see, Everything you hear, Showing you the way, Showing you the path to presence. And on the deepest level, You are this presence. You are this awareness, Vast field without boundary or border within which all experience comes and goes. You are the openness, The vastness. Vinishma. Deep breath in. Kissing your fingers, Relaxing your hands. Ribbono shalom. Bless us to deepen our practice right now, To nourish the deepest level of who we are beyond thought, Beyond feeling. This divine dimension known as consciousness, As we chant, Chanting out loud, Feeling the vibrations of the words in the body, Atahu, Atahu, Or the variations, Atyahu, Atyahi. Atahu, Atahu, Atyahu, Atyahu, Atyahu, Atyahu, Atyahu, Atyahu, Atyahu, Atyahu, Atyahu, Atyahi, Atyahu, Atyahu, Atyahi, Atyahu, Atyahu, Atyahu, Atyahu, Atyahu, Atyahi, Atyahu, Atyahu, Atyahu, Atyahu, Atyahu, Atyahu, Atyahu, Atyahu, Atyahu, Atyahu, Atyahu. You who are not separate from all, You are not separate from anything, Anyone we encounter, You who are not separate from this, Consciousness that we are, You are Hashem. Teach us how to be present, Teach us how to be a companion, To be a vessel of bringing this greater consciousness into this plane, Into this world, To participate in the blossoming of awareness in the world. And letting the tefilah be on the inside, Chanting in the mind silently, Atahu, Atyahu, As we come into silent meditation. Coming back to movement from stillness, Bringing some movement to your body. Nice stretch. As we prepare to come back into our activities, May we more and more completely absorb and integrate this teaching of the Baal Shem Tov. That our instructions, Our knowledge of how to transform this moment into communion with the divine, Is calling to us from all of our senses, From all that arises in this moment. And that we need to simply be aware of that and call ourselves to that attentiveness to receive it. Shalom. I hope you've enjoyed this Torah of Awakening. I'm Rabbi Brian Yosef Schachter-Brooks. Until next time, All blessings.