40 Days Elul Practice: Mussar Mindfulness, Day 16 Of Elul

Welcome to today's teaching and sitting.

We will begin in one minute.

Thank you for your patience.

Today's sitting will begin in one minute.

Go ahead and settle yourself,

Bring yourself to the present moments.

Joining me in this virtual amazing world zoom grateful to have you.

We are also live streaming on Facebook.

Yeah,

YouTube and LinkedIn so welcome to everyone who is following.

I am rather a class you're real Steinbauer the founding director of the Institute for holiness Kehila,

Musa,

The Honda kadusha.

We are based in the galil in Israel,

And we offer teachings and settings,

Both online,

All over the world.

And also here in the present moment in Israel.

When we can of course due to covert and a pandemic.

I'm grateful to have you and to be here during this practice together.

For those of you new and to just joining us we are now entering the 16th day of a little,

A little is the Jewish Hebrew month,

The month right before the Jewish New Year known as Russia Shana.

We traditionally have for centuries,

As a people engaged in some sort of introspection,

Some sort of practice from the new moon of a law to either Russia Shana or young people.

We are engaging in what's called 40 days,

A little practice,

Musa mindfulness,

Where we engage in the Jewish practice of most are with being informed from mindfulness of the insights tradition and Buddhism.

So I'm grateful to have you.

We always begin with our cabinet,

Which I will pull up now.

And I would like to give our attention for today's practice.

And if you're here with us I ask that you please go ahead and mute yourself.

Thank you.

To do this practice to commit to a half hour of your time is an act of self care and the Musa tradition.

You are engaging in something that is going to cause more resilience,

More strength,

A form of care that allow you to eventually take care of others better and to bring service to bring God's good into the world so we say before doing acts of caring for the self.

We say with this cover now this intention.

This is something I am doing to strengthen my own soul.

In order to be of benefit to others in the future.

So we begin with this always.

And pull this up.

And with you are with us yesterday we are entering the third week of this practice.

But first week we concentrated on self forgiveness self honor,

A form of compassion,

Hara Hamin.

In order to bring ourselves to balance to be able to forgive ourselves.

The second week,

We focused on someone beloved to us someone that we have an easy relationship,

But that we still in being human cause some form of unpleasant or suffering that happened in the past year.

And we were called with love this person.

And we practice around forgiving them if they caused us suffering,

And then seeking forgiveness from them.

The strengthen strength,

This practice strengthens us to be able to take responsibility,

And to be able to reach out to others.

So now that we are in the third week.

We are bringing up a neutral person.

That is more of an acquaintance that we either run into on a daily or weekly basis.

That doesn't cause either some strong reaction but isn't someone close to us in our circle.

So this nurture neutral person this is where we are engaging right now where we are offering forgiveness to them in our own hearts,

If they might have been rude to us in patients,

Whatever might have happened in the past year with this natural person and sometimes it can be neutral people can be many people in our lives that we have these tensions.

Sometimes some of us actually end up not really living as much in alignment with our values with people that we are neutral that are just acquaintances that we run into,

More so than either people close to us,

Or that we might have a difficult relationship with.

So these are the people that we sometimes take for granted.

The person who packs our groceries,

The person who delivers our mail,

The person who I don't know,

Whatever you might have in your life that's just fits in that category.

So,

What is key in this practice right now is building our honor,

Our kavod,

That we really see this person created in the image of God,

Because that allows us to see that they are human,

And that we can open our hearts to forgive and accept.

And also if we've harmed them in any way that we can extend,

We can ask for forgiveness.

What we want to move to doing I want to just share briefly some texts that I have with you that covers honor.

So this one actually comes from a text called Every Day Holy Day by my teacher Dr.

Alan Morena,

My teacher of Musar,

That I've been learning with since 2001.

And on page 52,

Covering the mida of kavod of honor,

Actually not 52,

The first page 50,

He says,

Every human being is due honor,

The honor and respect just by virtue of being human,

Which means embodying a divine soul made in the image and likeness of God.

Because we are only human,

We are scarred and marred.

But those are superficial blemishes.

Look deeper,

And you will perceive the glowing radiance of a holy soul.

Develop eyes to see the soul and bow down and honor.

We in our practice are developing eyes to see the soul,

One day at a time together in community to strengthen each other.

With that,

I'm going to move us into a guided meditation.

And it's going to be an honor,

Compassion meditation,

Because when we strengthen that muscle,

That builds emotional resilience and allows us to be able to have the courage to take responsibility when we need to to ask for forgiveness.

It also gives us the courage to forgive.

So please come to a sitting upright position.

You're also welcome if you have any pain issues or discomfort or you've been sitting all day to a standing position with a chair next to you,

Or you are welcome to lie down with eyes open to make the tour to remain alert and awake.

You're also welcome to do a walking meditation if you're able to listen to my voice during it,

Especially if you have training and that's meaning you've been practicing walking meditation for some time.

Everyone else come to an upright position with dignity,

Created in the image of God.

Alert,

Not stiff.

If you want ease and comfort.

And take three deep cleansing breaths to bring yourself to the present moment.

Allow yourself to arrive.

Allow yourself to come to stillness.

Notice before we begin if there are any thoughts that are pulling you away from the present moment,

Any bodily sensations calling for your attention.

Recognize and accept and allow.

Honor and gently say I will visit you later.

And return to your breath and to the present moment.

This form of honor meditation and the Musa tradition is tied deeply to compassion,

Which builds emotional resilience and moves us to the system in our brains this care system that we care for ourselves and others more so as we build this muscle.

It is normally practice with words,

Phrases of intention and wishes of kindness and honor and goodwill,

Both to the self and others.

We are to remain open with kindness to whatever feelings arise.

Take some moments to deeply relax and let go of any tension,

Both in the mind and body.

Relaxing the shoulders,

The chest,

The eyes,

The scalp,

The belly,

Easing into the body and mind and invite a smile.

Smile always relaxes our nervous system and the brain and sends a message of ease and safety to the body and to our practice.

I share with you a teaching by Ben Azzai from the Jewish tradition,

He would say in the Mishnah,

Purkay Avot four three chapter four,

Three.

Do not scorn any human being and do not discount any thing.

For there is no person who has not had her or his hour and no thing that has not its place.

So when we start pulling up that neutral person or people in our lives that have either hurt us cause suffering or us the other way.

We want to remember that they too have suffered.

They too have had their hour.

From time to time,

You will hear me go silent.

You can trust that I will return if you are new to meditation.

Allow yourself to be here with your anchor of your breath,

Bringing your attention back to your breath.

With kindness and acceptance.

I want you to recall any unpleasant.

Or painful interaction with a neutral person.

Anything that you held in your heart that you allowed it,

The suffering to be present,

To stay with you.

We will set our Kavanah intention now to honor and hold any of these difficult feelings or sensations in the body with care,

Compassion,

And understanding.

First,

We will honor ourselves to be able to then honor this neutral person.

You will repeat these phrases.

After you hear them from me.

May I be safe.

May I be kind to myself.

May I accept myself just as I am.

May I forgive.

Open to whatever bodily feelings arise.

Meeting whatever you are experiencing right now.

With kindness,

Acceptance,

And honor.

When the mind wanders as it will.

Gently bring your attention back to your phrases back to silence back to your breath.

And now we will use our phrases towards our neutral people to whoever we have in mind.

May they be safe.

They be kind to themselves.

May I be kind to them.

They accept themselves just as they are.

May I accept and honor them.

May I forgive them.

If this practice of strong feelings or emotions.

You can always come to the awareness of your breath and return to your phrases when you are ready.

The self compassion and honor.

We will sit silently now.

Opening to whatever arises,

Knowing that we have the capacity to be present for it.

You may always ask yourself,

Can I be with this.

And we will ring the bells,

When we are to join one another back into our sacred circle.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Allow yourself to feel if there's any opening.

With your practice.

You feel a softening,

Where you can see more fully the humanity of this neutral person or people.

We can allow them in with a smile.

Gentleness.

Open your eyes if you've had them closed.

Allow yourself to come in to this sacred circle together.

Thank you.

Honor the practice on yourself.

Honor God.

Delightful to be here on day 16 of their rule together.

I have a short,

Sweet story to share about neutral people and the practice.

So today,

I'd like many parents were taking my children to buy last minute items for school at the large mall near Haifa.

You're familiar with Israel.

And it was packed with people,

Everyone wearing masks packed with parents with children.

And we were waiting in a long line,

Which already is a practice in Southland with impatience.

And just smiling everyone also practicing honor.

And in the honor practice,

We have a morning affirmation,

A phrase that we say each and every one Holy Soul.

We chant this for two minutes in the morning to just get it into our subconscious to enter the heart.

And I'm sitting there singing to myself,

Each and every one the Holy Soul just allowing it to be there.

And I get up to the counter and the person waiting on us with very impatient,

Very just overworked,

Probably underpaid.

I'm just not able to see me and my humanity and honor.

And so I greet her,

Of course,

I greet her.

And that's part of the practice is greeting people.

And that softens her a little.

She's able to be a little bit more present.

But you could see she's frazzled.

And I've been practicing or any of us depending on where we are in the continuum of where we are in any need that that's all right.

I might have been really triggered by how she treated me with impatience,

Short,

Quick.

Let's get this over with this transaction.

Of course,

She has a whole line of people.

So I have to be aware of her needs and not taking up too much space,

Which ties into the need of an avant humility.

But had I not been doing the practice,

I probably would have taken it personally.

I would have gotten angry or at least annoyed and frustrated.

And this is it.

This is my neutral person.

I have these natural people all day,

Just like you.

If we're out for out interacting and really just applying the practice each and every one Holy Soul and keeping that gentle smile on that openness.

Just trying to appreciate the route we're here and we're all trying to do our best.

And so I'm grateful.

I'm grateful for this practice because it allows me to let go of interactions like that,

To forgive that person,

Forgive the any tension,

Anything that I might have held and not be able to open up and let go.

And so this is what we can do this week with all the neutral people that come to mind or that we interact with on a daily basis.

It's really bringing more of that acceptance,

Really recognizing what's happening in the present moment,

Trying to be mindful and awake.

Of,

Wow,

Am I being triggered?

You know,

Owning our own reactions so that we can actually respond with wise discernment.

So with that,

We will enter our classic forgiveness prayer that we have in our lovely Jewish tradition that we say before the Shammah at night.

We say it together now.

And I will have my my my lovely worker today in mind and everyone that is my part of my neutral people.

You too.

So together,

I hereby forgive anyone who has angered me or provoked me or sinned against me physically or financially or by failing to give me due respect or in any other matter related to me.

Involuntarily or willingly,

Inadvertently or deliberately,

Whether in word or deed,

But no one incur punishment because of me.

May I let go.

May I forgive them.

I ask for forgiveness when I have caused suffering.

We at the Institute for Holiness.

Kehilat Musar.

Welcome your donations either daily or at the end of this 40 days.

If this is a practice that is deeply meaningful to you and has you benefited from.

This is a free will offering on our part.

And it is part of the Buddhist tradition called Dana to offer if any amount that you're able to would support our work to continue to offer things like this.

We also accept sponsorships and honor or in memory of someone.

We thank you for joining us.

Thank you for your practice,

Taking refuge and God in this community here of Musar mindfulness and in Torah,

And all of us together.

Thank you.

I will see you tomorrow.

Bezvat Hashem with God's help.

At the same time,

830 Israel time.