Parting Clouds Of Thought | Jewish Meditation & Vayetzei

What if you could fly above the clouds of thoughts and feelings and see the pure light of consciousness? Find out in this episode of the Torah of Awakening Jewish Meditation Podcast on parshat Vayetzei, with a guided meditation based on the Hebrew letter Samekh, with Rabbi Brian Yosef Schachter-Brooks. "Hashkiveinu" and piano music by Brian Yosef Schachter-Brooks and BRIAH from the album, Ayn Od | Music for Shabbat.

Transcript

For most of us,

The sky has been covered with clouds our whole lives,

Meaning our minds are constantly moving with the clouds of thoughts and feelings.

And without ever questioning what's behind the clouds,

We unconsciously assume that we are the clouds and that the light dimly emanating from the clouds,

That is,

Our awareness comes from the clouds.

In other words,

We think that our consciousness is something that comes from our thoughts and feelings,

But that's because we've never seen the sun.

But what if you could fly above the clouds and see where the light really comes from?

That's what we'll be exploring in this episode of the Torah of Awakening Jewish Meditation podcast on Parshat Vayetzeh with a guided meditation based on the Hebrew letter Samech.

I'm your host Rabbi Brian Yosef Schachter-Brooks.

Enjoy.

Okay,

So this verse is said by Jacob when he stops in the wilderness on the mountain running away from his brother Esau who is coming to kill him.

And he has that vision of Jacob's ladder with the angels going up and down on it.

He says,

So imagine you lived in a place where the sky was constantly overcast so that the sun was hardly ever visible.

From your point of view,

It would look like the dim light of the overcast sky was coming from the clouds themselves,

Right?

Because if you can never see the sun behind the clouds,

It just looks like the clouds are the light.

The clouds are glowing.

And if you were a small child and never heard of the sun,

That's probably what you would assume that the light is emanating from the clouds themselves.

Now imagine that you are that child.

You have no knowledge of the sun and your parents take you for a trip on an airplane.

As the plane gets higher and higher,

You look out the window and you see nothing but cloud all around.

Soon after,

The plane bursts through the cloud cover and you see the blazing sun in the blue sky for the first time.

Imagine what a revelation that would be.

That is actually what spiritual awakening is like.

For most of us,

The sky has been covered with clouds our whole lives,

Meaning our minds are constantly moving with the clouds of thoughts and feelings.

Without ever questioning,

We assume that our consciousness and our thoughts and feelings are identical.

Because of this,

We also don't tend to distinguish between our thoughts and feelings about reality and actual reality.

All we know are the clouds.

We experience the present moment through the lens of our stories,

Through our sense of past and future.

How to awaken from this seductive dream of our minds and hearts and come into the truth of this moment.

V'ifgah b'makom.

He encountered the place.

V'yalen sham.

And he spent the night there.

Kiva ha-shemesh.

For the sun had set.

So,

The setting of the sun is a metaphor.

Jacob is running away from his murderous brother.

He's in a state of inner darkness.

At first he was running and running and running until he encounters ha'makom.

He encounters the place.

He sets down stones for his head and lays down on the earth.

In other words,

He connects with the support beneath him,

The physicality of his present experience.

Then Jacob has a dream in which God appears and he sees a ladder reaching from the earth to the heaven with angels going up and down.

And it says,

V'ikatz ya'akov mishnatoh.

Jacob awakened.

V'yomer.

And he said,

Achein yesh Adonai b'makom hazeh.

Surely the divine is in this place.

V'anochi lo yadati.

And I didn't even know it.

So,

What does this mean?

The divine is not something separate from the truth of this moment.

It is the radiant sun of consciousness ever-present as the perceiving presence that you are.

But there are clouds.

The way to rise above the clouds,

So to speak,

Is paradoxically to connect with the earth.

That's because when we become conscious of our physical sensations,

The clouds of thoughts and feelings can clear up naturally,

Revealing the radiant awareness beneath them.

This is our airplane of earth.

V'yira v'yomer.

He was in awe.

And he said,

Ma no ra ha'makom hazeh.

How incredible is this place.

Ein zeh ki'im beit Elohim.

It is none other than the house of God.

V'zeh sha'ar ha'shamayim.

And this is the gateway to heaven.

Now,

What you don't get in the English is that the word for the place is ha'makom,

Which is itself a name of God.

So if you want to rise above the dark clouds of this world,

The way up is actually the way down.

Come down from your mind into your body and into connection with the earth,

With the support of the physical world,

The world of the senses,

Because this,

Here now,

Is the gateway to heaven.

So we can begin to connect with this quality of the physical world,

Of the earth,

Of the body,

The support beneath us,

Which is all represented by the letter Samech.

The pose for Samech,

Invoking the quality of Samech with your body,

Is simply to take your hands and just to connect with the support beneath you.

If you're sitting on a chair,

Bringing your hands down and feeling the support of the chair,

Feeling the feet on the ground,

And taking that attitude of knowing that you are supported,

Because ultimately it's that sense of being supported that allows the mind to relax.

Why is our mind running around so much?

Because we're trying to figure things out.

We're trying to make sure.

We're trying to ensure.

We're trying to seek protection or seek certain outcomes.

But if we're supported,

We don't have to worry about any of that.

Of course,

We need to use our minds for that in the appropriate time.

But in general,

We want to dwell in that awareness of the support that we tend to take for granted,

Which is ever-present,

Constantly,

Without which we couldn't exist even for a moment.

And so,

Chanting,

I am relying.

I am supported.

I am stability.

One more time,

Feeling the vibration of the words in your bodies.

And our chant for the letter Samech,

Samech lechol hanofalim,

Describing the divine as that which is supporting the fallen.

The goal is not to never fall.

That's impossible.

The goal is to know that we are supported to get back up,

To become stronger in the process.

Rokaha aratzah hamayim.

Reality is like water constantly shifting,

Constantly changing.

And yet at the same time,

It has this quality of rock,

Of stone,

Of being a foundation of our existence.

Singing,

Samech lechol hanofalim,

Samech lechol hanofalim,

Samech lechol hanofalim,

Samech lechol hanofalim,

Samech lechol hanofalim,

Samech lechol hanofalim,

Samech lechol hanofalim,

Samech lechol hanofalim,

Samech lechol hanofalim,

Lecha,

Long out breath,

Deep breath in.

And bringing left hand to your belly,

Feeling awareness down into your belly,

Permeating your organs.

Flowing down from there through your legs,

Down to your feet and toes,

Connecting with the Samech,

A support below you.

Rising up,

Upper back,

Chest,

Shoulders and neck,

Releasing any excess tension from there.

Flowing down arms,

Hands and fingers,

Connecting back with your heart and belly.

Bringing your attention more deeply into the sensation of breathing,

Recognizing that each breath is a support that comes to you,

The gift of life,

The gift of being.

Bringing up awareness,

Face,

Facial muscles,

Brain and nervous system,

Bringing a little smile to your lips.

Being the loving,

Benevolent,

Indwelling presence.

Life in the body,

Na'ase.

And bringing right hand to lightly touch your forehead as awareness opens up to the space of around you.

Aware of the feel of the room,

The sounds vibrating in the air.

And bringing to mind that the world as you perceive it around you and the inner world of thoughts and feelings are all one world of experience.

A rich tapestry of experience arising in the field,

In the openness that is consciousness.

And you are this openness beyond all of it.

Beyond thoughts,

Feelings,

Beyond the body,

You are this field.

Vast and spacious and free.

V'nishmah.

Deep breath in.

Lassing your fingers,

Relaxing your hands.

Ribbono shel olam.

Please aid us in our meditation today.

Help us to meditate profoundly,

Deeply.

Chanting the tefillah,

Atahu,

Or atyahu,

Atyahi.

You,

Hashem.

You who are not separate from anything or anyone we encounter.

You who are not separate from this awareness we are.

You who are the essence of being.

The basic ground of reality,

Atahu,

You are Hashem.

Resting in the tefillah,

Atyahu,

Repeating on the mental level.

As we come into silent meditation,

Thoughts will come,

Feelings will come.

All just elements of experience being the consciousness of them.

Not reaching after a certain experience,

But rather bringing yourself back again and again to be the awareness behind whatever is arising.

Atahu,

Atahu.

Bringing some movement back into your body.

Taking a nice stretch.

As we prepare to come back into our activities,

May we be imbued with this awareness of the constant support that surrounds us,

That is below us,

That is our body supporting this consciousness that we are,

Moment to moment.

Chanting the tefillah.

Shalom.

I hope you've enjoyed this Torah of Awakening.

I'm Rabbi Brian Yosef Shactor Brooks.

Until next time,

All blessings.

Reviews

For years, when studying this Parashat, I would be fixated on wondering why Jacob repeats the "I", when he says, " ...the Divine is in this place,but I...I did not know." I don't know why, but that repeated I feels so important. In this meditation, I was able to let that go and discover new insights into the lesson. I want to live in that place, that moment., and not give my mind/ego the illusion of control or truth. Thank you, Rabbi🙏 ...but I do still wonder about that double I!