33. Shalom: A Peace Meditation

The Jewish Meditation Hello.

Welcome to Guided Jewish Meditations.

My name is Eliezer.

In ancient Hebrew,

Words contain within them the spiritual energy that is the essence of the meaning of the word.

The very letters of ancient Hebrew are vessels for divine light,

And when these letters form words,

They combine their energies into concepts,

Ideas,

And spiritual secrets that contain within them all the mysteries of the universe and beyond.

The Jewish Meditation This is also true about the ancient Jewish word for peace,

Shalom.

According to ancient divine wisdom,

This word means connection.

This wisdom also teaches us that in order to find true peace in his life,

Man must make peace with three parties,

With himself,

With others,

And with the Creator of all.

During today's meditation,

We will delve deeper into the secrets of this holy word,

Shalom,

And in the process,

Develop and further the peace we find in our lives,

Within our families,

Our communities,

And finally with the eternal Creator.

The Talmud The Talmud teaches us that the Creator of all found only one vessel which had the ability to contain with it all the blessings of life,

The vessel of peace.

Without peace,

Blessings have no way to take a hold,

As any influx of divine light will flow away from those who have no peace in their lives.

Peace isn't just a life without strife.

It is a life where all the blessings of the infinite source can find a place to flow into,

A place to call home,

A permanent residence of the blessings of the Creator.

Finding peace isn't just a way to process the past.

It is also a way to create the possibility for the blessings of the future.

The Talmud Please find a quiet,

Comfortable place to meditate.

You should feel safe,

Secure in the knowledge that the next while belongs only to you,

A special gift of relaxation and connection to the Divine you give just to yourself.

Sit or lay down,

Close your eyes,

And relax your body and mind.

Take a deep breath and allow the air entering your body to completely fill your lungs.

Then exhale,

And as you do so,

Further relax your body,

Legs,

And arms.

Continue breathing this way,

Slowly and deeply,

And allow the air to purify your mind and soul,

Filling them with a gentle,

Calm light,

Further relaxing you and bringing you closer and closer to a deep meditative state.

Take a deep breath and allow the air to purify your mind and soul,

Filling them with a gentle,

Calm light,

You find yourself standing in space,

The vastness of complete emptiness surrounding you from all sides.

It is completely still and the warm air that surrounds you brushes up against your skin as a calm stillness settles on your mind.

You feel completely safe here.

Nothing can hurt you.

It is now that you can truly be yourself,

Experience yourself as you truly are in possession of a holy divine soul yearning to connect to the divine.

As you breathe in deeply,

The shimmering outlines of an ancient Hebrew letter appears before you,

Its lines drawing streaks of white light against the nothingness of all.

As this light solidifies in your mind,

You begin to behold the completed outlines of the letter shin appear before you,

The first letter of the word shalom,

Peace.

The shin slowly fills with divine light and as the light completely fills the entire letter,

It rapidly expands before you,

Its triangular base centered in your mind's eye and its three arms reaching up into the darkness above you,

Towering before you in bright light.

You allow the breath of this letter to enter your mind and soul and continue meditating on it,

Allowing it to penetrate and permeate your entire existence.

As your meditation on this letter continues to deepen,

You experience a gentle voice beckon you from within the light of the first arm on the right of the shin.

It speaks to your soul without words,

Gently pulling at the strings of your soul,

Asking you to come closer.

As you take a deep breath,

You shift your complete focus onto this portion of the shin.

As you allow it to grow in your mind until it fills the entire expanse of your consciousness,

You begin to experience a question that grows from the nothingness of your subconsciousness until it solidifies in your mind,

A question so raw and honest it catches your breath and challenges your very core.

Are you at peace with yourself?

Have you been able to accept yourself and your life just as they are with the recognition that all that you are and everything that exists in your life is in perfect harmony with the will of the Creator of all who watches over you at every moment?

As this question takes a hold of your consciousness,

You continue meditating on peace with the Self,

Of discovering and embracing your unique journey in life,

And to recognize that every challenge you face is there to help you become all that you can be.

Meditate on this experience of peace with yourself.

Accept all that you are and allow this peace to become one with you,

A core portion of who you are.

Your meditation on being at peace with yourself continues,

And in your mind's eye you find yourself stepping back from the right arm of the shin.

As the entire ancient letter once again fills the scope of your mind,

You again experience a voice reaching out to your soul,

Beckoning you closer.

It emanates from the middle arm of the shin,

The center of column reaching up into the darkness that surrounds you.

You again begin approaching this arm of the letter,

And as you reach it,

You experience the voice materialize into images of individuals in your life,

People with whom you have experienced times of tension and strife.

They appear as brief flashes of their faces,

And the negative energies they seem to arouse in you when thinking about them begins to arise in your consciousness.

You take a deep breath and pick one person in your life,

A person with whom you would like to experience peace with,

Despite your differences.

As the image of this person grows in your mind's eye,

You become aware of your soul deep within your consciousness as it shares with you a deep truth.

There is a soul within each person on earth,

A holy divine spark of life,

A divine connection,

Connecting every person with the eternal creator of all.

To be at peace with others is to recognize that every person is a unique creation by the master creator,

Every life on a divine mission to perfect their soul and the world they live in.

There is no requirement to agree in order to respect,

Because to respect another person is to recognize their role in the play of life,

A role just as divinely fashioned and balanced as yours.

As you allow this truth to permeate your mind,

You experience a deep influx of light spreading forth from the center of this arm of the shin,

As it surrounds you from all sides and eases away any traces of negative energy you may have experienced earlier on.

In its stead,

You feel this light fill your mind and heart with its healing energies as a new prospect of peace with the people in your life begins to take a hold of your soul.

A peace so powerful it carries within it the ability to soothe away any feelings of resentment and hurt.

It is now that forgiveness becomes a new possibility,

The recognition that peace with others carries within it the gift of forgiveness,

The unburdening of the heavy weight of anger and resentment,

A gift only you can give yourself.

As your meditation on the middle arm of the shin continues to intensify,

You experience a new beckoning of your soul as the third and final arm draws you near to it.

It reaches out to you from deep within it as radiating waves of divine light materialize in your mind's eye,

Surrounding you and uniting your mind with this light.

As you begin to follow this light to its source,

You approach the final arm and as you reach it,

You feel it surround you and take you into its very essence.

It is now that you begin to experience the highest form of peace that is possible,

A peace that leads to a life lived to its very fullest,

That a single moment gone to waste,

A life filled with peace for the infinite creator of all who is connected with you and watches you at every moment of your life.

It is when you have achieved peace with yourself and when the recognition of the divine nature of others has led you to peace with everyone around you,

It is then that the highest level of peace can be experienced,

That of the deep knowledge and understanding of who is truly in control of all.

To live in peace with your creator is to recognize that your life and all its challenges were custom created just for you.

It is to acknowledge and experience that you are vitally important to the very existence of the universe and that your soul was chosen by the source of all to be the spark of life within your body,

Heart and mind.

To travel with you on your journey in life,

To live every day in virtue and honesty,

With compassion and love,

And to try and see the divine hand in everything around you.

Continue meditating on this peace,

The highest and deepest peace of all,

That of you with the infinite source.

You you allow your meditation to continue to deepen and you experience a change in the letter shin that has been at the center of this visualization.

The shin begins to encircle you as the base of the letter extends beneath your body and the three arms form a perfect circle,

Encircling your body and head in your mind's eye.

As the arms form prongs,

Just like those of a diamond ring as they reach up and above you into the infinity of your mind.

As you breathe in deeply,

A divine secret begins to form in your consciousness.

With your life at peace with yourself,

With others and with your Creator,

You have now created a new vessel,

One that was not there before,

A vessel for the divine blessings of the eternal source of all to flow into.

It is at the climax of this meditation that you recognize that this shin,

The shin of Shalom,

Is in fact a vessel that constitutes the three levels of peace in your life,

Its prongs reaching up into the infinite,

One that is capable of allowing you to experience an increased awareness of the divine blessings in your life.

Allow this secret to surround and enter your mind and soul.

It is through peace that you are able to experience what was previously inaccessible to you,

A life filled with the blessings of the Creator of all,

At last at peace with you.

As we approach the conclusion of this meditation,

Please give yourself some time to slowly bring yourself back to the present.

Take a number of deep breaths and allow your mind to gently return to your body and your surroundings.

Continue doing this for about half a minute.

Thank you for joining me today.

Peace truly often is the missing ingredient to a content life lived to its fullest and I hope that this meditation has helped you a little bit along this path.

My name is Eliezer.

May peace be with you.

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