Meditation Tuesday, 22 September 2009
The Rosh Hashanah service provides a good opportunity to put meditation into practice; as we all know the service is fairly long and, for some quite complicated, an occasion where mind is likely to drift all over the place and we end up exhausted.
There are many different ways of bringing meditation practice into this kind of surrounding. Meditation practice at home has to be brought out and practised in the world. For those who have been meditating with me regularly, you know that opening your awareness to the whole room, ‘the soft gaze ‘, in contrast to focusing on some detail , is a good practice. Listening to the sound of the whole room is another way of turning your attention outward; from what goes on in your own little head, to what goes on in the bigger world.
There is a lot of standing in the service and combining good posture practice, as detailed below, with the Three Mothers of Sepher Yetsira, represented by the three Hebrew letters, Aleph, Mem and Shin, goes a long way to helping you stand up straight and comfortable. See link http://www.kabbalahmeditation.org/3 mothers.pps
The 1st mother, the Aleph , is aimed at the neck, pulling the chin back a couple of millimetres, Alexander style, with head pulled up by an imaginary silken thread, up and slightly forwards, Tai chi style. This stretches the back of the neck.
2nd Mother, the Mem, represents the position of the shoulders. The shoulders need to be pulled down away from the neck, pulling the shoulder blades gently together, but with the main contraction just below the shoulder blades. This answers the question of how far forwards or back the shoulders should be.
The 3rd Mother, the Shin, relates to the core muscles as taught by Pilates. With slightly bent knees, pull the front of the tummy in towards the spinal cord, on breathing out. This stretches the small of the back.
These three mothers also straighten out the spinal cord, the aim of the osteopaths, chiropractics, and cranio- sacral therapists.
Finally you might try singing the prayers, those which do not have any tune. You have to make up your own tunes of course. This begins to exercise both left and right brain simultaneously.
Because all these exercises have to be done deliberately, consciously and not automatically, they are all meditative, all raise the level of your consciousness and all are part of “turning to God to be healed” as explained by Isaiah in previous messages.
Very Happy New Year to you all