40 Days Elul Practice: Mussar Mindfulness, Day 28 Of Elul

Okay.

Welcome.

Thank you for joining us.

If you've just arrived,

Allow yourself to settle,

Come into the present moment.

We are beginning very shortly.

We are here on Zoom,

Or live stream on LinkedIn,

Facebook,

Or of course,

YouTube,

Where you can find all the previous recordings for this practice that we've been engaged in during the whole month of Elul,

Which is the Jewish Hebrew month that begins before the High Holidays of Rosh Hashanah,

The New Year,

Or Yom Kippur,

The Day of Atonement.

So we are on day 28 of the Elul.

And we are right near Rosh Hashanah.

We are beginning tomorrow evening,

Entering the New Year.

So this is our last time joining before the New Year.

We'll continue after the New Year during the 10 days between Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur because this is a 40-day practice that we do in Musar mindfulness.

So I'm delighted that you've joined us.

I am Rabbi Hasi Oriel Steinbauer of the Institute for Holiness,

Kehilat Musar.

We are here based in the Galil in Israel,

But of course,

Live stream online to include the whole world in our practice.

So thank you for joining us.

Delighted to have you here today.

So just a quick summary of what we've been doing,

Which is during the first week,

We engaged in self-forgiveness practices of teaching and guided meditation.

And then we moved into the second week of a relationship that was at ease for us,

That someone that we wanted to forgive or bring forgiveness to,

But it was an easy relationship.

And that's what we worked on during the second week.

In the third,

We looked at a neutral person,

Often an acquaintance,

Someone that we might see only weekly or once in a while,

Could be as simple as someone that we see at the grocery store.

But as we know,

We can have sometimes a difficulty in those relationships,

Even a person cutting in front of us in a car that we don't know.

And we have to deal with that during the year of how we're going to let go and have forgiveness or not.

So that's what we've paid attention to in the third week.

And finally,

In the fourth,

Which we had last week,

Which was our difficult relationship,

A person that tries us most,

That we need to work on forgiving and maybe even asking for forgiveness,

Any harm or suffering that we caused in the previous year.

So now we stand here together,

Taking this refuge in community,

In this practice together,

And in God,

Where we stand together,

As what we say in Hebrew of Ba'agudat Ahad,

Basically,

As one spiritual community.

And we need that strength right before Rosh Hashanah to move forward with where we are in our practice and where we need to be right now.

So we are going to cover our kavanot,

Our intentions for today,

And we're going to move right into a guided meditation with some silent meditation.

So give me one minute,

Please,

While I share screen with you and pull up the correct thing.

Technology always takes a little second.

Thank you for your patience.

Okay,

You should see before you a kind of purplish screen.

If you do give me a thumbs up if you're here.

Thank you.

So it takes a team right takes a village.

So we have here our kavanot,

Our intentions for today's practice.

And this is the threefold practice,

We are caring for the self,

By extension,

By caring for the self,

We're caring for others.

And we're also strengthening our relationship as a divine.

So we say this is something I am doing to strengthen my own soul,

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

And this is something I'm doing to strengthen my relationship to others,

So I can be a better conduit of God's good to others when they need me.

And finally,

This is something I'm doing to strengthen my relationship with the Creator,

So that I can be a better conduit of God's good to others when they need me.

So holding that intention,

Allowing that to enter,

As we move forward,

I want you to come to a comfortable yet upright position.

If you need to stand,

Go ahead with the chair next to you,

That you stay safe.

If you need to lie down,

Go right ahead,

But keep your eyes open and alert.

Otherwise,

You might fall asleep.

For the rest of us who are sitting,

Allow your sit bones to really sink into your chair or your cushion to really feel rooted.

Put your feet on the ground if they're not folded under you,

So that you are between heaven and earth and you feel rooted by Mother Earth,

Held.

And if you need to,

You can put your hand on your heart or in your lap.

And take a moment now to just go ahead and take three deep breaths to allow whatever might be stuck inside of us to release.

Notice as you're trying to arrive,

If there's any striving,

If there's any thoughts that are pulling you to the past or planning of the future,

Many sensations in the body that are calling for your attention,

Just honor them,

Recognize them and accept them and say you'll visit them after your practice.

Allow your inhale and your exhale to come slowly into the same amount of time,

Allowing yourself to arrive to some sense of stillness.

For those of you who are new to meditation,

You will just simply follow my words and then use your breath as your anchor.

So if your thoughts roam,

You just bring it back to the breath.

Today,

We will engage in a mindfulness meditation for that which is really unbalanced in us,

That we really come to a sense of equilibrium and equanimity as we enter the new year.

So often we get caught up in reactions.

It can be worry,

Stress,

Or anxiety.

You may be even thinking back to your four weeks of practice,

Having some anxiety of did I accomplish what I set out to?

Have I forgiven?

Feeling that there is just too much to accomplish or too many demands.

Never being able to get it all done.

These may be thoughts that run through our mind right before the new year.

We may even catastrophize of thinking bad things will happen if I don't finish them or accomplish them,

If I don't get everything done.

In our case of forgiving others and forgiving ourselves,

Perhaps even forgiving God or asking God for forgiveness,

This sometimes can bring up what we call states of worry and of stress.

These are states.

That's what they precisely are.

With time,

They will pass.

For in these states,

We tend to treat thoughts as if they're truth.

There's some core that will remain.

We create scenarios of the future and it's easy to head down this road of telling ourselves a story.

And our mindfulness practice now is a key antidote to this,

To states that arise within us.

We invite ourselves to step outside of our stories and come back to our direct experience.

And this all prepares us for our practice,

This kind of sense of tushuva of returning.

What we essentially do this whole month of Elul and heading into Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur,

We come out of our stories,

We come to the present moment,

We're able to really practice today,

We enter calm of mind and of body,

And then we cultivate present moment awareness of a gentle dance.

So to find that calm,

That relaxed posture,

Setting away that is comfortable,

Easy and settled.

Your back straight,

Allow your shoulders to relax.

Attention in your body,

Calming the body and the mind,

We begin to notice our breath and we invite the quality of calm,

This mida,

This soul trait of equanimity,

The ability to ride the waves of whatever states arise within us.

Breathing in,

Calming the body,

Breathing out,

Calming the mind.

From time to time,

You will hear me go silent.

You may continue your practice with your breath as your anchor.

Breathing in,

Calming the body,

Breathing out,

Calming the mind,

Subtly in arriving a stillness.

We are slowly dropping out of thinking mode to an awareness of the body.

You may begin a body scan from your face and your eyes,

Your jaw,

Your tongue,

Inviting relaxing of your face and of your head,

The shoulders softening your back,

Inviting relaxation to any area of tension,

Any area where you feel holding,

Clinging,

A struggle.

Now we bring our awareness to the whole experience,

The whole body,

Whatever is present with kindness and acceptance.

Invite a smile to your face.

Those messages that we can be at ease,

That we can accept ourselves just as we are right in this moment,

That we can forgive ourselves.

There is no moving to asking God for forgiveness if we cannot also forgive ourselves.

I share with you the clearing poem by Martha Pozzuwet,

Who brings the quality and attitude that we bring to this practice.

Do not try to save the whole world or do anything grandiose.

Instead,

Create a clearing in the dense forest of your life.

Falls into your cupped hands and you recognize and you greet it.

Only then will you know how to give yourself to this world,

A sort,

A world so worth of rescue.

And this is what we are doing together right now.

We are making a clearing in the dense forest of our lives.

Allow yourself to be present with whatever is here for you right now.

Opening to the here and now.

See if you can meet whatever arises with acceptance and gratitude.

You may want the contact and warmth of your hand on your heart or on your belly.

Rumi,

The Sophie poet speaks about welcoming all that arises as guests from his poem,

The Guesthouse.

Before I share with you this poem,

Recall the person that you used in your practice in the past week or any of the people from the past four weeks of your practice and invite them now as honored guests into your heart space,

Into your practice.

And Rumi says,

This being human is a guesthouse.

Every morning,

A new arrival,

A joy,

A depression,

A meanness,

Some momentary awareness comes as an unexpected visitor.

Welcome and entertain them all.

Even if they are a crowd of sorrows who violently sweep your house,

Empty of its furniture,

Still treat each guest honorably.

He may be clearing you out for some new delight.

The dark thought,

The shame,

The malice,

Meet them at the door laughing and invite them in.

Be grateful for whatever comes because each has been sent as a guide from beyond.

Meet whatever arises with curiosity,

Acceptance,

And compassion.

Bring your awareness to your breath.

Receive the breath as your gift.

As your mind wanders and at will from time to time,

We are training our mind to be aware of the thoughts,

The emotions,

The thoughts,

And the feelings to come out of habitual thoughts,

Out of habitual stress or anxiety.

And in this practice,

We're creating new pathways or lost in the sensation of your body or lost in emotion that's carrying you away.

That moment,

That space between the match and the fuse,

When you realize that you had gone off,

You are awake.

Honor the gift.

Bring your attention back to the present moment with your breath as your anchor.

Come back to your breath and come back to your body.

Can you feel a little opening,

A petta of any peace,

Of acceptance?

Perhaps even of the neutral and maybe the pleasant.

The poet Dorothy Hunt says in her poem,

Peace is in this moment without judgment and the heart space where everything is welcome.

And it is safer to do this here in community together.

We stand before God practicing.

If you encounter any resistance,

Which also can be very normal to practice,

Simply come to the awareness of your body as a whole.

So your feet rooted on the ground,

Sitting on your sit bones,

Nice and heavy with your erect spine,

And perhaps your smile on your face.

See if you can come to awareness where the resistance is being held in your body.

Is it in your chest?

Is it in your belly?

Drop down and feel the sensations of the body and notice how they come and go.

Staying with sensations as long as you can,

The ones that are calling for your attention,

For your chesed,

For your love.

Bring kind awareness to them.

As we move into some silence,

Notice any stories or narrative that you tell yourself and bring yourself back to the direct experience.

I will go on mute now while we sit in silent meditation and you will hear me ring the bells when we are to come out.

Gentle loving kindness and curiosity.

If you notice any anxiety that comes up thinking I didn't ask for forgiveness or I didn't forgive,

But this is all about the practice to simply begin again.

It doesn't all have to be done before Rosh Hashanah and it doesn't have to end.

We do this practice daily.

That is all part of our Muhsar mindfulness and we only are able to do so when we are ready with compassion and acceptance.

Chant with me and slowly open your eyes when you are ready.

Meet us back into this virtual Zoom room from people all over the world.

Thank you.

Thank you for honoring yourself and your practice and our community.

Delighted,

Just delightful to have you,

Very grateful.

We move into our practice of reciting our forgiveness prayer before we go to sleep traditionally as Jews,

But we say it now together in community.

And I will be saying it both in the Hebrew and English today.

I'm going to share.

And just to confirm that you see before you Hebrew words.

Thank you.

So you'll notice here that it starts with mohem and that is the masculine singular.

And you're welcome to say that for if you identify with masculine singular language,

For those who identify with feminine singular,

You would say mohelet and that's actually the only verb that you need to be aware of here.

It says,

Haremi mohele mohelet.

Lehol mi sheik ish o v'chik nit ozi.

O she'chah ta k'nekdi.

Bein begufi,

Bein be'moni,

Bein be'chvodi,

Bein be'chol asherdi,

Bein be'ones,

Bein be'vratzon,

Bein be'shogeg,

Bein be'mazib,

Bein be'dibor,

Bein be'mase,

Lo ye'anesh shum adam be'sibati.

And then the English now.

I hereby forgive anyone who is angered or provoked me or sinned against me,

Physically or financially,

Or by failing to give me due respect,

Or in any other matter relating to me,

Inadvertently or willingly,

In voluntarily or willing,

Inadvertently or deliberately,

Whether in word or deed,

Let no one incur punishment because of me.

And as you know,

From the four weeks together,

And now in our fifth week,

I always add,

May I forgive,

May they forgive me,

May we let go of what we need to let go of.

This is the practice during the 40 days Elul practice.

Thank you so much.

Before we close together,

I want to wish all of you a shana tovah u'metukah,

A sweet and happy new year.

The sefer chayim tiktavu,

May you be written in the Book of Life.

And I want to say that we will meet again,

B'zvat hashem,

God willing,

On Thursday,

September 9th,

At 1.

30 p.

M.

Eastern Standard Time,

10.

30 a.

M.

Pacific Standard Time,

Or 8.

30 p.

M.

Israel time.

And then we will continue into the following week on the 12th,

13th,

And 14th,

Which is Sunday,

Monday,

And Tuesday,

As we are in the 10 days between our shoshana and yom kippur.

So again,

Honor yourself,

Your practice,

Your community,

Take refuge in all of us and in God,

And the Musa,

My infamous practice.

Thank you for today.

And I wish you a really meaningful and safe Rosh Hashanah,

May you be able to be with whom you need and want to be with.

Thank you so much.