Hello and welcome,
My dear friend.
My name is Sonia and today I will accompany you in this wonderful journey into a peaceful,
Rejuvenating sleep.
This meditation consists of two parts.
First,
We'll focus on letting go of the tensions and worries of the past day through some calming breathing exercises.
Then I will venture with you into the realm of wonderful dreams by telling you amazing stories written down centuries ago in one thousand and one night.
I will do my best to help you relax and find peace and comfort in the safety of your own bed.
Feel free to get comfortable as I introduce you to our journey.
Twist and turn as much as you wish and find that perfect position that is most comfortable for you.
You can lay flat on your back with your hands alongside your body and stretch your arms,
Legs and relax.
You can curl up on your side,
Laying cozily under your warm blanket.
Feel free to hug a pillow or your favorite stuffed animal.
You can even sit up with your favorite cup of sleepytime tea as long as you make sure that your lights are either turned off or dimmed down.
Allow yourself to just exist in the calmness of the dark.
Allow yourself to embrace the night and let go of the day just for a little bit.
Tomorrow will come another day and tomorrow there will be time for basking in the sun and enjoying life in its full,
Brightly lit glory.
But that will come tomorrow.
Now it's time to let go.
Breathe,
Listen,
Relax and sleep.
Now that you're comfortable,
You might start feeling your body is relaxing.
The tension of the past day slowly leaving your feet,
Your knees,
Your hips and the entirety of your legs.
Your breathing is slowing down and you can feel your belly rise and fall calmly and gently.
Your hands resting,
Getting ready for another day of adventure and wonderful experiences.
Your wrists are relaxing and so are your elbows and your shoulders.
Your neck is gently melting into your pillow,
Allowing itself to let go of the heaviness of your head after a long day.
Your eyes are closed and you're surrounded by the calm and safety of darkness.
And I am here with you.
The gentle sounds of my voice and music are filling up your head,
Pushing away all the stress and worries of the past day.
Now try focusing on your breath.
Can you feel it calming down?
On your inhale,
Imagine the air entering your nostrils,
Swirling around in your head,
Taking all the unnecessary thoughts with it,
Like a fresh gust of wind lifting up leaves and dust off the ground.
As you exhale,
Imagine all those thoughts and worries picked up by your breath leaving your head through your mouth,
Or nose if you prefer.
There is no right or wrong here,
It's just you,
Me,
Breathing and soft reassuring darkness.
Inhale,
Pick up all the silly thoughts and let them go when you exhale.
Inhale,
Allow your breath to stay in your lungs,
And then exhale,
Allowing yourself to let go completely.
Inhale and exhale.
In through your nose and out through your mouth.
In slowly and calmly and out.
In and out.
Just a few more inhale and exhale.
Your body is letting go and your mind is being emptied by the fresh breeze of your breathing,
Picking up all those nasty thoughts and stresses of the past day and leaving it all behind,
Getting ready for sleep and venturing into the wonderful land of dreams and stories.
The third night,
The ending to the story of the merchant and the jinni,
The story of the third sheik and the mule,
And the story of the fisherman.
The mule that though ceased was my wife.
She became enamored of a black slave,
And when I discovered her with him,
She took a mug of water and,
Having uttered a spell over it,
Sprinkled me and transformed me into a dog.
In this state,
I ran to the shop of a butcher whose daughter saw me and,
Being skilled in enchantment,
Restored me to my original form and instructed me to enchant my wife in the manner though beholdest.
And now I hope that though wilt permit to me also a third of the merchant's offense.
Divinely was he gifted who said,
So good,
Even on an unworthy soil,
For it will not be lost wherever it is sown.
When the sheik had thus finished his story,
The jinni shook with delight and remitted the remaining third of his claim to the merchant's blood.
The merchant then approached the sheiks and thanked them and they congratulated him on his safety and each went his way.
But this,
Said Scheherazade,
Is not more wonderful than the story of the fisherman,
The king asked her.
And what is the story of the fisherman?
And she related it as follows.
There was a certain fisherman,
Advanced in age,
Who had a wife and three children,
And though he was in indigent circumstances,
It was his custom to cast his net every day no more than four times.
One day he went forth at the hour of noon to the shore of the sea and put down his basket and cast his net and waited until it was motionless in the water.
When he drew together its strings and found it to be heavy,
He pulled,
But could not draw it up,
So he took the end of the cord and knocked the stake into the shore and tied the cord to it.
He then stripped himself and dived around the net and continued to pull until he drew it out,
Whereupon he rejoiced and put on his clothes.
But when he came to examine the net,
He found in it the carcass of an ass.
At the sight of this he mourned and exclaimed,
There's no strength nor power but in God the High,
The Great.
This is a strange piece of fortune,
And he repeated the following verse,
O thou who occupies thyself in the darkness of night and in peril,
Spare thy trouble,
For the support of Providence is not obtained by toil.
He then disencumbered his net of the dead ass and wrang it out,
After which he spread it and descended into the sea,
And,
Exclaiming,
In the name of God,
Cast it again,
And waited till it had sunk and was still.
When he pulled it and found it more heavy and more difficult to raise than on the former occasion,
He therefore concluded that it was full of fish,
So he tied it and stripped and plunged and dived and pulled until he raised it and drew it upon the shore.
When he found in it only a large jar full of sand and mud,
On seeing which he was troubled in his heart and repeated the following words of the poet,
O angry fate,
Forbear,
Or if thou wilt not forbear,
Relent.
Neither a favour from fortune do I gain,
Nor profit from the work of my hands.
I came forth to seek my sustenance,
But have found it to be exhausted.
How many of the ignorant are in splendour,
And how many of the wise in obscurity!
Still saying,
He threw aside the jar and rang out and cleansed his net,
And,
Begging the forgiveness of God for his impatience,
Returned to the sea the third time,
And threw the net and waited till it had sunk and was motionless.
He then drew it out and found in it a quantity of broken jars and pots.
Upon this he raised his head towards heaven and said,
O God,
Thou knowest that I cast not mine net more than four times,
And I have now cast it three times.
Then,
Exclaiming,
In the name of God,
He cast the net again into the sea and waited till it was still,
When he attempted to draw it up,
But could not for it clung to the bottom.
And he exclaimed,
There is no strength nor power but in God,
And stripped himself again and dived round the net and pulled it until he raised it upon the shore,
When he opened it and found in it a bottle of brass filled with something,
And having its mouth closed with a stopper of lead bearing the impression of the seal of our Lord Solomon.
At the sight of this the fisherman was rejoiced and said,
This I will sell in the copper market,
For it is worth ten pieces of gold.
He then shook it and found it to be heavy and said,
I must open it and see what is in it and store it in my bag,
And then I will sell the bottle in the copper market.
So he took out a knife and picked at the lead until he extracted it from the bottle.
He then laid the bottle on the ground and shook it that its contents might pour out,
But there came forth from it nothing but smoke,
Which ascended towards the sky and spread over the face of the earth,
At which he wandered excessively.
And after a little while the smoke collected together and was condensed and then became agitated and was converted into an efreet,
Whose head was in the clouds while his feet rested upon the ground.
His head was like a dome,
His hands were like winnowing forks,
And his legs like masts.
His mouth resembled a cavern,
His teeth were like stones,
His nostrils like trumpets,
And his eyes like lamps,
And he had dishevelled and dust-coloured hair.
When the fisherman beheld this efreet,
The muscles of his sides quivered,
His teeth were locked together,
His spittle dried up,
And he saw not his way.
The efreet,
As soon as he perceived him,
Exclaimed,
There's no deity but God.
Suleiman is the process of God.
O process of God,
Slay me not,
For I will never again oppose thee in word or rebel against thee indeed.
O marid,
Said the fisherman,
Dost thou say Suleiman is the process of God?
Suleiman has been dead a thousand and eight hundred years,
And we are now in the end of time.
What is thy history,
And what is thy fail,
And what was the cause of thy entering this bottle?
When the marid heard these words of the fisherman,
He said,
There is no deity but God.
Receive news,
O fisherman.
Of what,
Said the fisherman,
Dost thou give me news?
He answered,
Of thy being instantly put to a most cruel death.
The fisherman exclaimed,
Though deservest for this news,
O master of efreet,
The withdrawal of protection from thee,
O thou remote,
Wherefore wouldst thou kill me?
What requires thy killing me,
When I have liberated thee from the bottle,
And rescued thee from the bottom of the sea,
And brought thee up upon the dry land?
The efreet answered,
Choose what kind of death thou wilt die,
And in what manner thou shalt be killed.
What is my offence,
Said the fisherman,
That this should be my recompense for thee?
The efreet replied,
Hear my story,
O fisherman.
Tell it then,
Said the fisherman,
And be short in thy words,
For my soul hath sunk down to my feet.
Know then,
Said he,
That I am one of the heretical jinn.
I rebelled against Suleiman the son of Dawud,
Ai,
And Sakhr Dajini,
And he sent me to his bazir,
Asaf,
The son of Barkya,
Who came upon me forcibly,
And took me to him in bonds and placed me before him.
And when Suleiman saw me,
He offered up a prayer for protection against me,
And exhorted me to embrace the fate,
And to submit to his authority.
But I refused,
Upon which he called for this bottle,
And confined me in it,
And closed it upon me with the leaden stopper,
Which he stamped with the most great name.
He then gave orders to the jinn who carried me away,
And threw me into the midst of the sea.
There I remained a hundred years,
And I said in my heart,
Whosoever shall liberate me,
I will enrich him forever.
But the hundred years passed over me,
And no one liberated me,
And I entered upon another hundred years,
And I said,
Whosoever shall liberate me,
I will open to him the treasures of the earth.
But no one did,
And four hundred years more passed over me,
And I said,
Whosoever shall liberate me,
I will perform for him three once.
But still no one liberated me.
I then fell into a violent rage,
And said within myself,
Whosoever shall liberate me now,
I will kill him,
And only suffer him to choose in what manner he will die.
And lo,
Now thou hast liberated me,
And I have given thee thy choice of the manner in which thou wilt die.
When the fisherman had heard the story of the Afreed,
He exclaimed,
O Allah!
That I should not have liberated thee but in such a time as this.
Then said he to the Afreed,
Pardon me,
And kill me not,
And so may God pardon thee,
And destroy me not,
Lest God give power over thee to one who will destroy thee.
The marriede answered,
I must positively kill thee,
Therefore choose by what manner of death thou wilt die.
The fisherman then fell to short of his death,
But he again implored the Afreed,
Saying,
Pardon me by way of gratitude for my liberating thee.
Why,
Answered the Afreed,
I am not going to kill thee,
But for that very reason because thou hast liberated me.
O sheik of the Afreed,
Said the fisherman,
Do I act kindly towards thee,
And those to thou recompense me with baseness?
But the proverb lieth not that said.
We did good to them,
And they returned as the contrary,
And such by my life is the conduct of the wicked.
Thus he who has said kindly to the undeserving is recompensed in the same manner as the aider of Amomir.
The Afreed,
When he heard these words,
Answered by saying,
Covet not life,
For thy death is unavoidable.
Then said the fisherman with him himself,
This is a jinni,
And I am a man,
And God hath given me sound reason.
Therefore I will now plot his destruction with my art and reason,
Like as he hath plotted with his cunning and perfidy.
So he said to the Afreed,
Hast thou determined to kill me?
He answered,
Yes.
Then said he,
By the most great name engraved upon the seal of Suleiman,
I will ask thee one question,
And wilt thou answer to me truly?
Upon hearing the mention of the most great name,
The Afreed was agitated and trembled and replied,
Yes,
Ask and be brief.
The fisherman then said,
How wast thou in this bottle?
It will not contain thy hand or thy foot.
How then can it contain thy whole body?
Hast thou not believed that I was in it?
Said the Afreed.
The fisherman answered,
I will never believe thee until I see thee in it.
Upon this the Afreed shook and became converted again into smoke,
Which rose to the sky,
And then became condensed and entered the bottle by little and little,
Until it was all enclosed.
And the fisherman hastily snatched the sealed laden stopper,
And having replaced it in the mouth of the bottle,
Called out to the Afreed and said,
Choose in what manner of death thou wilt die.
I will assuredly throw thee here into the sea,
And build me a house on this spot,
And whosoever shall come here,
I will prevent his fishing in this place and will say to him,
Here is an Afreed,
Who to any person that liberates him,
Will propose various kinds of death,
And then give him his choice of one of them.
On hearing these words of the fisherman,
The Afreed endeavored to escape,
But could not,
Finding himself restrained by the impression of the seal of the Suleiman,
And thus imprisoned by the fisherman as the vilest and filthiest and least of the Afreeds.
The fisherman then took the bottle to the brink of the sea.
The Afreed exclaimed,
Nay,
Nay,
To which the fisherman answered,
Yea without fail,
Yea without fail.
The marid,
Then addressing him with a soft voice and humble manner,
Said,
What dost thou intend to do with me,
O fisherman?
He answered,
I will throw thee into the sea,
And as thou hast be there a thousand and eight hundred years,
I will make thee to remain there until the hour of judgment.
Did I not say to thee,
Spare me,
And so may God spare thee,
And destroy me not,
Lest God destroy thee?
But thou didst reject my petition,
And wouldst nothing but treachery.
Therefore God hath caused thee to fall into my hand,
And I have betrayed thee.
Open to me,
Said the Afreed,
That I may confer benefits upon thee.
The fisherman replied,
Though liest,
Though accursed,
I and thou are like the vizier of King Yunan and the sage Duban.
What,
Said the Afreed,
Was the case of the vizier of King Yunan and the sage Duban,
And what is their story?
The fisherman answered as follows.
And that is the end of the third night.
And so I will leave you too for now,
So that you can find refuge in the calmness and darkness of the night.
I hope to see you tomorrow too.
