19. Searching For Meaning

Hello,

Welcome to guided Jewish meditations.

My name is Eliezer.

Man contemplates the universe,

The vastness of space and all that it contains and wonders,

Am I alone?

Is there a meaning behind all of existence?

A reason I exist?

A mission for me to complete?

Or is my life a product of random mutations that created this wonderful reality out of utter chaos?

To search is to be human.

It is the quest of the soul,

Forever searching for connection and meaning.

Today's meditation is an exploration of this desire of the soul.

The searching for transcendent meaning as we attempt to quench this thirst of the divine spark within each one of us.

The father of all monotheistic religions,

Avraham,

Was a searcher.

At an early age,

He raised his eyes to the heavens and realized that a greater mind must be at work.

That life is infused with meaning and purpose and that order exists everywhere.

He made it his life's journey to search for this divine mind,

For the creator of all and to attach himself to this higher power completely.

What he discovered would forever change the course of history as the monotheistic religions that claim him as their patriarch established as their core principle the belief in a single divine creator.

This belief established the values upon which all of western society is built.

The intrinsic divine value of man created in the image of his creator with his self-evident rights to freedom and justice.

This is the legacy of Avraham,

The first one to search and find the infinite source all on his own.

During today's meditation,

We will try and walk in his shoes looking for the divine within the world around us.

This is your time to completely be yourself.

Select yourself as you are without regret or fears.

You are in possession of a divine soul connected to the one that keeps you alive at this very moment.

Recognize yourself as someone seeking the truth,

A connection to what lies beyond and as someone searching for meaning and light in the darkness that pervades today's world.

This is your right,

Your privilege and your journey all in one.

Find a quiet place where you can meditate.

Dim or turn off the lights.

Find a comfortable place where you can sit or lay down and slowly close your eyes.

Begin breathing deeply and evenly,

Regulating and steadying your mind with slow,

Even breaths.

Feel your mind further,

Allowing the air you breathe in to fill your mind with warm light,

Soothing your consciousness and relaxing your body.

Remove from your heart any feelings of anxiety,

Fear or expectations.

Continue taking deep,

Even breaths and slowly bring your mind closer and closer into a deep,

Meditative state where your body feels safe and relaxed and where your mind and soul take control of your existence.

We are divine beings.

You open your mind's eye and look around as you find yourself standing in the midst of a beautiful meadow,

Surrounded by all sides with a carpet of soft grass.

The morning dew has evaporated into a gentle layer of fog that has settled onto the grass,

Creating beautiful patterns that move in the warm breeze.

Beautiful bushes of flowers,

Standing in rows sorted by color,

Extend from the center of the meadow,

Where you are standing,

Into all directions.

The song of birds greet your ears with their gentle melodies,

A divine orchestra making its way into your mind.

Above you,

The sky is a shade of dark satin blue,

Extending as far as the eye can see,

Meeting the green grass at a point on the horizon.

The breathtaking world around you gently vibrates with the energy of spiritual potential,

The vibrations meeting your soul,

Causing it to come alive.

Everything in this world has its place,

Plays its role,

A key actor in the play of life.

Take a deep breath.

The air entering your lungs is sweet and warm,

As you slowly raise your arms to the heavens,

Taking another deep breath.

As you close your eyes,

You lower your arms as you allow the stunning beauty of the world around you to enter your mind and soul.

It fills you with emotions of gratitude and joy,

As you again open your eyes,

Allowing the beauty around you to fill you with happiness.

The song of birds greet your ears with their gentle melodies,

A divine orchestra making you feel the breeze.

You begin to walk straight ahead.

As your legs approach the fog before you,

It slowly moves to the sides,

Creating a path that leads ahead of you into the mist of the horizon.

As you begin walking down this path,

You look up and find that the path leads to an ancient stairway,

Slowly appearing in the distance.

Looking at the steps,

You begin climbing these ancient stones,

Their surface cool against the soles of your feet.

Reaching the top of the stairway,

You arrive at a small platform high above the earth beneath you.

As you make your way to the center of the platform,

You take in the breathtaking view this vantage point affords you.

To the north,

All you can see is the endless reach of the meadow,

With its flowers,

Birds,

Colors and sounds.

To the east,

You see several mountain ranges extending into infinity,

Their snow-capped peaks giving way to the awesome ruggedness of their mountains and hills.

In the south,

Beyond where you were standing before,

The grass meets a shore of fine white sand,

With an endless ocean gently washing up against it.

And to the west,

A short distance beyond your position,

A thick forest takes over the landscape,

With only the tallest trees pointing through the sea of shades of dark green.

You close your eyes and breathe in deeply.

The warm air fills your senses as you slowly clear your mind of all thought.

Alone with all this beauty around you,

You prepare your mind and soul to meditate on your existence.

The world around you,

With all its magical beauty and splendor.

The world around you,

With all its magical beauty and splendor.

The world around you,

With all its magical beauty and splendor.

You begin to feel a stirring of your soul,

The part of your consciousness that never stops seeking,

Always looking for a connection with eternity.

Questions begin to form in your mind.

Who created all this beauty and order around you?

Where does all this incredible design come from?

There are over 390,

000 known species of plants,

8.

7 million known species of animals,

And over 7.

5 billion people on planet Earth.

There are 1000,

Million,

Million,

Billion planets in the observable universe,

Each one an entire world of its own.

As you allow the magnitude of these figures to penetrate your mind,

The question that lies at the root of all begins to form in the core of your being.

Why does anything exist at all?

What is the source of all this magnificent order that fills the universe?

Are universes eternally spawning new universes with no beginning and no end?

Is this universe,

With its billions of galaxies,

Its unimaginably large size and massive content,

The result of some random accident of fantastically unlikely odds?

As these questions reverberate in your mind,

You begin to feel a heavy darkness descend upon you,

Surrounding your soul.

It is the darkness of randomness that begins to invade your consciousness,

The possibility that all of existence is nothing more than the result of an accident.

As this darkness encircles you from all sides,

You breathe in deeply and focus your mind on the divine spark within you,

Your soul,

Forever connected to its source.

You begin to meditate on the possibility of a creator,

Of a designer behind all this marvelous design,

A divine mind that keeps everything going at every moment,

Forever present and in complete control.

In the stillness of your mind,

You recognize that order cannot emerge from chaos,

That everything in your world points to intelligent design and that you have the ability to choose light from darkness,

Order from randomness and a divine connection from being distant and disconnected.

It is a choice you make every day using the one ability no other living creature has,

Free will.

Meditate on your free will,

On your ability to search and to choose light,

Order and a connection to the divine mind that designed,

Created and maintains all that exists.

Your meditation intensifies,

Allowing your soul to come alive.

Deep in the center of your consciousness,

As you focus your mind on the thirst for spirituality and meaning that emanates from the center of your soul,

An escape from the randomness and darkness that attempts to drown it and prevent it from connecting to the true source of all of existence.

As you breathe in deeply,

You feel the radiance of your soul begin to push away the darkness as the light from the divine spark within you begins to emanate outwards.

It is the radiating light of the truth of the existence of a creator,

The acknowledgement of a designer of all this supremely fine-tuned order on a molecular level that now fills the air around you with its light.

As the last of the darkness evaporates into thin air,

You are approached from all sides with a recognition so powerful it fills your mind and soul with exquisite light.

This world,

The world that you live in,

Was created and designed just for you.

Your soul was carved from the very essence of the infinite source and placed in your body in this world because your life is magnificently important.

Your personal path,

The mission and journey for which you were created,

Requires you to search for meaning for your own soul's connection,

Exploring it and owning it.

It is your task and privilege to be proud of it,

To cherish it and make it your daily task to build upon it.

This path,

Your relationship with the source of all,

Is your quest in life.

To take the incredible step of acknowledging that all of existence is not an accident,

That it has meaning and purpose,

Is to recognize that you have been put here to search,

To ask,

To probe and to explore the underlying questions of existence.

Meditate on your soul's search for connection and meaning,

And on the importance of life,

A divine gift given to you by the source of all.

When this search results in a daily thirst to connect,

A true dedication to discover the divine reality that surrounds us,

It is at this point that you discover true purpose in life,

A reason to exist that transcends money,

Fame or temporary pleasures that come and go.

It is a search that leads to eternity,

To enriching your eternal soul,

Causing the divine light that reaches you from beyond to brighten more and more every day.

It is a search that makes every day vitally important,

Every breath a precious gift,

A life used in the pursuit of the divine.

And when you find this connection,

This relationship with the infinite source,

It becomes yours eternally,

A very part of you that changes who you are.

It becomes as permanent as your soul,

Forever connected to its source.

Complete this meditation by focusing on your own personal search,

Your relationship with the divine,

And how you continue to bring light into your life,

Your community and your world.

We have arrived at the conclusion of this meditation.

Begin breathing deeply and evenly,

Slowly bringing your mind back to the present.

Thank you for joining me today.

The search for meaning and the divine is a lifelong task.

I hope this meditation has helped you a little bit to accomplish another step in this journey.

My name is Eliezer.

May peace be with you.