This is a meditation that uses words of Jesus in Aramaic.
These words are part of the set of teachings called the I Am sayings that appear in the Gospel of John.
This particular saying is usually translated as I am the good shepherd.
The Aramaic for this is Inana Reia Talba.
Inana Reia Talba.
Which literally means that I am,
That is the connection of the small self to the greater self is what helps lead us in the right direction.
The right direction at the right time and the right place.
Talba in Aramaic really means ripeness,
Being at the right time at the right place.
Reia,
The word for shepherd,
Includes a sound that means what is being led are those parts of our inner being which are wandering or confused or often feel out of sync.
So the way we've been doing this in a native Middle Eastern sense is we breathe with the words,
We feel the words,
And then gradually at the end we let the words disappear and we're just holding the feeling in our heart.
Breathing in the heart is very essential to native Middle Eastern practice because for the ancient Middle Eastern peoples the heart was the central thing.
They considered that the heart would gradually expand from the center of the chest,
The feeling of the heart,
Up and down to include the whole being in a sort of spiral like this.
So let's close our eyes briefly and if you would care to join me please one hand lightly over the heart.
Then we feel our breath rising,
Our breath falling,
And we're simply breathing first with the first word that Jesus uses,
Ina,
Ina.
This is usually translated as I am.
Literally in Aramaic it means I,
I,
The connection of the small self to the only self,
The Holy One as it would be framed in Aramaic.
We're breathing from the heart deeply,
Deeply inside of us,
Connecting our own sense of individuality,
Our own selfhood with that greater self,
The consciousness behind the whole cosmos.
It's suffusing all of nature.
Another way to put this is to simply breathe in the moment with a sense of presence.
We're present in this moment in this breath.
We might add in this connection our feeling for any teachers or guides or healers who have inspired us in our life,
Those who have helped bring us back into rhythm within,
Return us to ourselves,
Help us reestablish our intuition,
Or simply inspired us with their creativity.
Adding now to the phrase on the breath,
Rea talba,
These shepherds who have helped guide us back to a sense of ripeness,
Rightness in the present moment.
Inana rea talba.
Inana rea talba.
We breathe with these words just a little bit longer in the heart,
Feeling the heart itself as a sacred space.
Gradually now letting go of the words themselves,
Simply breathing with the feeling that remains.
It's a feeling of connection as though through all of creation back to the source.
Amen.
