Learn Integral Jewish Meditation

Spiritual awakening is the realization that you are far more than your thoughts and feelings. Beneath your personality, there’s a radiant field of awareness, free from negativity and connected to the aliveness of the present moment. Integral Jewish Meditation brings to life the Awakening teachings and practices of Judaism in a direct and experiential way, and offers tools to bring the power Presence into every moment of daily life.

Transcript

Welcome to IJM,

Integral Jewish Meditation.

During the next 25 minutes,

You'll get to experience the transformational power of IJM for yourself,

And when you're finished,

You'll have a complete daily meditation practice.

I want to begin by giving you a brief outline of this practice.

No need to memorize this or take notes.

You'll understand more as we get into the material.

Here we go.

This practice consists of three main parts.

Part one is called Awakening.

Part two is called Presence.

And part three simply repeats part one.

Part one,

Awakening,

Also has three sections.

Opening the heart,

Embodied awareness,

And spacious awareness.

In this part,

You'll learn a practice to wake up these three levels of your being,

Heart,

Body,

And mind,

Using movement,

Visualization,

Intention,

And chanting.

Part two,

Called Presence,

Is much more simple.

In this part,

You'll let go of all the techniques except for one simple chant that you'll repeat in your mind.

When you're ready,

You'll let go of the chant as well and simply dwell in a state of inner freedom and spacious mind.

In part three,

We'll return to the awakening practice of part one.

As you learn each part,

We'll move back and forth between learning about the practice and actually doing the practice.

During the learning,

I'll talk about the Hebrew words we'll be chanting,

Where they come from,

Their inner meanings,

And the intentions or kavanot to bring to them.

Again,

Don't worry if you don't grasp all this information at once.

When we move into the practice,

I'll remind you of what you've learned,

And then you'll start to get it experientially rather than just intellectually.

Also,

Since this recording is packed with content,

You may want to listen to it several times to fully absorb the teachings.

And of course,

Each time you listen,

You'll deepen your understanding that much more.

So again,

Don't strain to grasp and remember everything I'm talking about here.

Whatever you grasp on each listening is fine,

And you can always return to this recording and get more out of it later.

After you've listened as many times as you need to become comfortable with the material,

You can try using either of the two guided meditation recordings you've received.

Those recordings will simply guide you through the meditation without all the teachings,

Leaving it to you to bring the power of what you've learned to the practice.

So let's move on to Part 1,

Called Awakening.

Part 1,

Awakening,

Beginning with opening the heart.

To begin,

Please come into a comfortable position.

You can be seated,

Standing,

Or lying down on your back.

Take a few nice deep breaths,

Bringing awareness to the flow and movement of your breathing,

Relaxing any muscle tension that you don't need in this moment.

We begin by awakening the energy of the heart,

And coming to this moment with a spirit of love and devotion.

We're going to awaken the heart with the word lecha,

Which means for you.

Lecha comes from a scriptural prayer,

Chronicles 29-11,

That begins,

Lecha ha-shem ha-gedula,

For you,

O God,

Is the greatness.

In Kabbalah,

The word gedula,

Or greatness,

Refers to the great quality of loving kindness called chesed.

So the verse,

For you,

O God,

Is the greatness,

Is a dedication of one's heart to the Divine.

For many people,

The word divine,

Or God,

Means a supreme entity,

The God of the Bible stories.

But the esoteric or inner tradition teaches differently.

As the Zohar puts it,

Woe to those who say that the Torah contains no more than stories.

They're looking at the outer garment and no more.

So where do we find the inner meaning of God?

You can find it right in the Hebrew name for God,

The sacred,

Unpronounceable four-letter name.

Actually,

The name consists of three letters,

Yud,

He,

And vav,

With the he repeated at the end for four letters.

These letters come from the verb to be,

As it's expressed in all three tenses,

Past,

Present,

And future.

So a translation of this divine name would be all being,

Or all existence.

On this inner level,

God is not an entity or a character in a story.

God is reality itself.

God does not merely exist,

God is existence,

And right now there's nothing but God.

Everything you perceive,

Everything you feel,

Everything you think,

And your consciousness itself is nothing but God.

And your access point to God,

Of course,

Is always this moment.

So when you chant the word lecha for you,

Have in mind that you're opening to all being,

To all existence,

And the spirit of loving connection.

Lecha is your power word for invoking this inner shift.

Let's try it now.

First take a nice deep breath.

Now place your hand on your heart and bring awareness there,

Imagining a light shining from your heart center.

Bring to mind that your very life is nurtured by everything around you and within you in this moment.

From the air you breathe,

A gift from the trees,

To the food and water that nourish you daily,

Gifts from the earth and the sun.

To all the organs and systems of your body,

And the vast and infinitely complex symphony of forces creating your very existence in this moment.

And even beyond all the forces and beings is being,

Or existence itself,

Creating and sustaining you now.

So in gratitude for all that you're receiving,

Offer yourself,

Your attention and your presence lovingly to this moment,

To existence as this moment,

And let's chant together like this.

And chanting together,

Lecha.

Embodied awareness.

Next you're going to go even deeper by fully connecting with your body.

We'll also be chanting the power words,

Naasei Vanishma.

What does Naasei Vanishma mean?

There's a single Hebrew word that's a spiritual wake up call to become present.

That word is Shema.

Shema literally means hear or listen,

But it's a metaphor for becoming present in all of your senses.

Shema is also the core of all the Jewish prayers.

There's a verse in the Torah,

Exodus 24-7,

That uses a different form of the word Shema.

It comes from the story of the Israelites receiving divine revelation at Mount Sinai.

Here's the scene.

The Israelites all stand in rapt awe while the mountain smokes and quakes engulfed in cloud and fire.

The verse then describes,

Va-yom-ru-kol-esher-di-ber-hashem Naasei Vanishma,

Which means,

And the people said everything that the divine speaks,

Naasei Vanishma,

We will do and we will hear.

So when the Israelites say Naasei Vanishma,

We will do and we will hear,

It's an expression of attention and awe.

This awe of God called Yirah in Hebrew is associated with the spiritual quality of Gevurah,

Strength.

It's the counterpart to Chesed,

Loving kindness.

Chesed is about Ahavat Hashem,

Love of the divine,

The feeling of wanting to give of yourself,

Of drawing close in intimacy with being.

Gevurah is about Yirat Hashem,

About being careful,

About paying attention.

Not in a fearful way,

But in the way you would give your full attention while walking on a tightrope,

For example.

It's about limiting your stream of thinking so that you can fully connect with the present,

With however the divine is speaking in this moment.

After all,

If God is being itself,

Then whatever is happening now is literally divine revelation.

The ordering of the words in this verse,

Naasei Vanishma,

Is strange.

Why does it say,

We will do and we will hear?

You would think that the words should be the opposite.

First you hear the instructions,

Then you can do them.

But the fact that the words are reversed,

We will do and then we will hear,

Naasei Vanishma,

Teaches a key insight,

That in order to truly connect with God,

With existence,

With this moment,

You have to pay attention to what you're doing.

You have to keep your awareness in your body.

So we become present by bringing awareness into the body and its movements,

Particularly the movement of breathing.

To do this,

Bring your hands down from your heart and place it on your belly,

Over the navel area,

Seeing your belly radiant with light.

Now feel downward into your hips,

Down into your thighs,

Your knees,

Your calves,

Your feet and your toes.

And now bringing your awareness also upward into your chest,

Outward into your shoulders,

Down your arms,

Flowing into your hands and letting your awareness rise upward into your head,

Shining outward into your face,

Bringing your lips into a subtle smile and filling your whole body with the light of awareness,

Resting your attention in the flow of your breathing.

And now with your hand on your belly,

Dedicate your intention to fully inhabit your body by chanting the power word na'ase,

Which means we will do.

Na'ase.

Let's chant na'ase together.

Na'ase.

Spacious awareness.

And now with the open heart and embodied presence,

We're going to transcend beyond the physical and the emotional to the awareness itself that fills your heart and body.

To do this,

Bring your hand upward from your belly and touch your fingers to your forehead.

Notice your own awareness,

The awareness that's aware of your body,

Your feelings,

Your senses and anything else that appears in its field.

Thoughts,

Sounds,

Sensations,

All appearing in the living space that is your awareness.

We're going to affirm your basic nature as this radiant awareness with the power word v'nishma,

And we will hear.

V'nishma.

Let's chant v'nishma together.

V'nishma.

And let yourself fall into the boundless depths of this moment.

And when you're ready,

Kiss your fingertips,

Transmitting love and blessing to your organs of action,

Your hands,

And then relax your hand down to your side or into your lap,

Feeling the three major centers of your body,

Heart,

Belly,

Mind,

Alive and glowing with presence,

And resting awareness on the flow of your breathing.

That's the first part of the practice called awakening.

Let's do this awakening practice one more time so you can get the full flow without the teachings in between.

So place your hand on your heart,

Seeing your heart radiant with light,

And offer yourself to the divine,

To reality,

With lechah.

And now bring your hand down to your navel,

Filling your belly with light,

And bringing awareness down into your hips,

Legs,

And feet,

Upward into your chest,

Shoulders,

Arms,

And hands,

And upward into your head and face,

Bringing a smile to your lips and chanting naase.

Naase.

Now bring your hand up to touch your forehead,

Awakening your awareness of awareness itself,

The unchanging open space of this moment with viniśmā.

Viniśmā.

And kiss your fingers and relax your arm.

We now enter the second part of the meditation,

Simply called presence.

In this part,

As you continue to let your body be still,

Resting your attention on the flow of your breathing,

We're going to begin repeating the power words atāhu in your mind.

The word atā means you,

But spelled a little differently,

When an ayin instead of an alif,

Atā means now.

So in our chant,

Atā will mean you are the now.

Hu means it,

But it's also a divine name in its own right.

The first letter,

He,

With its breath sound,

Ha,

Symbolizes the breath of life.

The second letter is vav,

Which means and,

Hinting that existence is all-inclusive.

It's always yes and,

Yes and,

Yes and,

Including everything that arises.

The third letter,

Alif,

Is also the number one,

Reminding that the life of all existence is one reality.

So both words together,

Atāhu,

Means you are this moment,

You are the ultimate,

You are the one reality.

The purpose of repeating atāhu in your mind is to gently guide your awareness away from thinking and into presence.

So when your mind wanders from the words,

Just gently bring your mind back to atāhu without judgment.

And at some point,

When your mind is ready to let go altogether,

Let the words cease and just rest your attention on the flow of your breathing.

And when thoughts arise again,

Simply return to repeating atāhu and when you're ready,

Again let go of the words altogether and just be.

And begin chanting in your mind,

Atāhu,

Atāhu,

Atāhu,

Atāhu,

Atāhu,

Atāhu.

I'm going to stop the piano now and we'll meditate like this in silence for a few minutes.

So don't worry that you won't hear anything.

This is your chance to meditate on your own.

After a few minutes,

I'll bring you back with the chime and piano music.

V you you you you and let's prepare to come back into your activities with the awakening practice once again so place your hand on your heart seeing your heart radiant with light and offering yourself to the divine to reality with lecha lecha and bring your hand down to your navel feeling your belly to be glowing with light seeing the light radiate down into your hips legs and feet upward into your chest shoulders arms and hands upward into your head and face bringing your lips to a smile and chanting naase naase and now bring your hand up to touch your forehead awakening your awareness of awareness itself the unchanging open space of this moment with veneshma veneshma and kiss your fingers relax your arm take a nice breath remembering to stay present with a spirit of loving service to the one being that steps up to you in every form every person every situation oh say shalom bim romav the peaceful workings of the highest of heights who yeah I say shalom elenu may that peace be made upon us they'll call Israel they'll call ha Olam and upon our community and upon the whole world vm roux and we say I'm a

Reviews

What a treat this was. I will return to it often. Thank you.

A complete new approach to meditation I will definitely come back to grasp more
from it.

This was very different from the usual guided meditations…so I think because of that reason I used more of my whole being to practice ❣️. It’s good to be a beginner 🎁. Thank you for this lovely and deeply loving session😇

Toda raba! That was beautiful. Really needed a Jewish connection to my practice.

Loved it and learning the words from where they stem and the metaphors

Very organized and thoughtful practice! This meditation made me feel more in touch with my Jewish roots :)

Awesome! One of my favorite meditations! Thank you 🙏🏻

Thank you for sharing this - it’s a true gift. And thank you for guiding me to some of the treasures within my own tradition. I look forward to studying and practicing this to enhance my Journey. שלום🕍 Metta☸️🙏 سلام🕌

Nice to have a meditation utilizing the strength of our tradition . Kol tov!

Thank you for this. I will listen again and again until the chants and meanings become each breath.

Thank you so much for this!! What a beautiful blessing. Thank you for your teachings and light ❤️. Toda raba!!!

I Love this and want to learn all of the Hebrew words. Thank you so much for sharing this on Insight Timer!

From Hawaii I am a man whose mother “Ima”. Converted to Judaism over 30 years ago. I have a sister that married a Jewish man, who is truly is my brother now. Thank you for your teaching “ I am glad to heard this teaching “. I started to the read the book “ The Source “ over twenty years ago. And I couldn’t finish it because of pain it caused me for all the suffering that the Jewish people have endured. I am now 3/4 way through the the Audio book. And I know that I have to finish. On Fridays I text Ima Shabbat Shalomha, adding in the love “Aloha “. And now it applies to you also. Mahalo Nui Loa, Christopher Joseph Kelly, my father before passed away was a Roman Catholic. I myself have always believed in the just one.

This is the most meaningful meditation for me thus far. Thank you so much! I’m listening to this on Yom Kippur and it reminds me that my tissue that is to be present. I have so much gratitude and I’m going to listen to this again. And would like to also listen to the guided materials that you mention that are available. Toda Raba! 🙏🏼❤️🙏🏼

So interesting and relaxing. Now would love to see a guided meditation without the teaching that I could follow regularly. Thank you 😊

Informative and calmly relaxing within a peaceful space.

the oneness , the light, the hearing