Welcome to Torah of Awakening Guided Jewish Meditation,
Based on Kabbalah and the Tree of Life.
I'm Rabbi Brian Yosef Schachter-Brooks.
In this meditation,
We connect with the sphera of Tiferet on the Tree of Life.
Tiferet lies at the center of the tree,
Representing harmony,
Balance,
Beauty,
And peace.
But for many people,
One of the greatest obstacles to harmony and peace is being judgmental of others.
As it says in Pirkei Avot 2.
5,
Al tadin et chavercha,
Ad she tagi elim komo,
Do not judge a person until you've reached their place.
In other words,
Since we can never really know another person's experience,
We shouldn't waste our energy judging them.
But how do we overcome this impulse to be judgmental?
There is a hint in the wording,
Until you've reached their place.
The word for place,
Makom,
Is also a name of God,
Describing the divine not so much as a supernatural entity,
But rather as the spaciousness within which reality arises,
The underlying beingness of everything.
In other words,
If we wish to transcend the impulse to be judgmental,
We need to first let go of our thoughts and feelings,
Also called ego,
And reach the place,
Hamakom,
That is,
The vast,
Free,
And open space of awareness within which our thoughts and feelings arise.
This is really the essence of spiritual awakening,
Waking up out of ego into our divine essence.
So get comfortable,
Relax,
And let's begin.
Enjoy.
We can visualize the teferet in our heart center,
So bringing awareness to the heart.
If you like,
You can use the colors to visualize radiant sun yellow,
Shining from the heart,
And violet,
Yellow and violet.
And we can chant the affirmation,
The kavanah for teferet,
I am harmonizing,
I am balanced,
I am beauty,
Taking care to let the voice really vibrate.
Let the sound of your own voice and the vibration,
The sensory level of your voice,
Pull you into a deeper,
More present state as we chant.
And our chant,
Nekave lecha,
Our hope is in you.
Leerot mehera betiferet uzekha,
For the inner strength to behold your beauty and harmony in this moment.
When we bring forth a state of presence,
What happens to our perception of what's going on around us?
What happens to our perception of others when we relax from the sheath of ego and be the open,
Spacious presence within which everything we perceive in this moment lives?
Singing together.
Nekave.
And preparing for meditation,
Checking your body,
Being comfortable,
Being alert.
Bringing forth an attitude of generosity,
Generously giving of your attention to whatever is present without judgmentalism.
Using judgment to notice what the mind is doing and to gently but firmly bring yourself back to beholding the truth of the moment.
Offering by bringing your right hand to your heart and offering with lecha,
Deep breath in.
And bringing left hand to your belly,
Feeling awareness down into your belly,
Filling your belly with consciousness.
Awareness permeating your organs.
Healing and gratitude.
Flowing down through your legs and feet and toes.
Rising up chest,
Shoulders and neck,
Arms and hands and fingers.
Taking a nice conscious breath.
Awareness rising up face,
Facial muscles,
Brain and nervous system,
Bringing a little smile to your lips,
Being the loving,
Benevolent,
Indwelling presence.
And affirming this rootedness in the body with na'ase,
Deep breath in.
And bringing right hand to lightly touch forehead as awareness expands beyond the body into the space around you.
Touching the space,
Touching the sounds vibrating in the air,
The feel of the room,
Support beneath you,
Recognizing that all of it is arising in the space of awareness.
Your essential divinity,
Along with thoughts and feelings,
Your physical body,
All of it living in the spaciousness.
And you are the spaciousness.
Kissing your fingers,
Relaxing your hands.
Help us to meditate deeply,
Profoundly.
We've prepared ourselves with words,
Visualizations,
Movements.
Now let's let go of all that and just dive in.
Atyahu.
You who are not separate from anything we encounter,
Anything that arises in the spaciousness.
Atyahu.
You who are not separate from the space.
You who are hamakom,
The space of all being.
You are the divine,
Resting in you.
Atyahu.
Atyahu.
Resting in Atyahu.
Coming back together.
Giving your body a little movement,
A little stretch.
And closing the meditation,
Bringing your right hand to your heart.
Establishing yourself once again in the offering of attention.
Lecha.
And bringing left hand to your belly.
Awareness filling the temple of the body.
Indwelling presence.
And bringing right hand to lightly touch your forehead.
Awareness of the space around you.
Being the open space of awareness itself.
In this week of Teferet,
May we draw on the inner wisdom and the spaciousness of consciousness to be able to respond to the world.
To bring about a result of greater beauty and harmony,
Peace.
I hope you've enjoyed this meditation and that it helps deepen your presence in life and your connection to the tree of life.
If you have,
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Leaving a review,
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Until next time,
All blessings.
