Watercolor by Nurullah

What is Today’s Parsha?

September – December 2021

The weekly Torah Portion (Parsha) follows the Hebrew calendar. Check below for the corresponding common date to drink deeply from the Well of Life with the ladle and cup of Kabbalah and Sufism. We invite you to follow the daily practices and contemplations using Breath, Light and Sound. They just might transform your life… from the inside out!

Vayakhel-Pekudei – Exodus 35:1 – 40:38

Mar 7 – 13, 2021 | 29 Adar 5781

Watercolor by Nurullah

Dreaming Our Lives into Being

For the cloud of YHWH was over the Dwelling by day,

and fire would be by night in it,

before the eye of all the House of Israel

upon all their marches.

– Exodus 40:38

In this week’s double-parsha Vayakhel-Pekudei, the House of Israel donates so heavily to the construction of the Mishkan – the Dwelling – that Moshe says, Enough! The importance of keeping Shabbat is reiterated. And the construction begins. 

Have you listened to Kabbalah 99’s latest podcast with Catherine Shainberg, founder of The School of Images? When you do, you will hear how the line between sleep-dreaming and awake-dreaming blurs. What if someday we wake up and find it was all a dream?

Looking at the Book of Exodus in this manner — as a dream of awakening — reveals much about our human journey. Everyone and everything is you — all different aspects of you. Following Catherine’s method, we can look at what happens from four vantage points:

1) The story

2) Patterns and relationships

3) What it means, from your own experience in combination with the interpretations of others

4) What you take away from this exploration — your own, enhanced experience of the dream and its impact on your perceptions, choices and self-understanding.

So let’s give Catherine’s method a try. Let’s apply this approach to the Book of Exodus.

Exodus as Story

Speaking from my experience as the dreamer, my story goes about like this: I am a slave in Egypt. With difficulty, the leader in me rises up to take me and my people out of bondage. This is in unison with the will of G’d, YHWH — my Truth that cannot be Named. In order to reveal many signs, YHWH unleashes nine plagues on the hardened places in me that can’t let go.

With the last decree, the slaying of my egoic self, I must actively protect my family and my animals by performing rituals — including marking my doorpost with the blood of the sacrificial lamb. Finally, all of the parts of me that yearn for freedom get to escape in the dark of night.

And yet, near the Sea of Reeds, my grasping, fearful self who won’t let go catches up to the me who longs for freedom. YHWH divides the waters so that only the desire for freedom and communion can pass through. With a round-about route, the Unnameable brings me and my kind to the Sinai Wilderness. I feel something magnificent is about to happen. 

There I am instructed how to build the dwelling place for YHWH — that part of me that is Beyond Name. I learn the importance of keeping the day of rest, Shabbat. I am shown 10 Words by which I can live peacefully with all of my selves.

However, doubt resurfaces. Willingly, I give my golden earrings to be melted into an idol I can tangibly see and touch. When I become lucid to what I’ve done, I get angry with myself. Feeling betrayed, I break the Tablets on which G’d has written guidance for life.

And yet, death will not be my consequence. Like a parachute that opens at the last minute, G’d forgives me, and instructs the leader in me to climb the mountain again. This time, I write the Tablets with my own hand. 

I rejoice in this Reunion. I give freely of all that is mine to create a dwelling place for G’d. The wise and skilled builder in me, Betzalel, says to my illuminated self, Moshe:

The people are bringing much more

than enough for the service of the work

that YHWH has commanded, to make it!

― Exodus 36:5

Patterns and Relationships

Really, it would take at least a full chapter in a lengthy book to identify the major patterns in this dream of Exodus. As my own dream, what strike me the most is the relationship between myself and YHWH, the me that can’t be Named. How many times did I doubt? How many times did I pledge my love and allegiance, only to forget again?

A related pattern is Zakar — to remember. In parsha Beshalakh (When Pharaoh Let Go) I defeat doubt with remembrance. To the question, “Is G’d with us or not?” — the answer is to remember. To discover a knowing faith within myself.

Another pattern is the need to participate in my own unfoldment. For instance, in Beshalakh I have to protect myself, my family and my livestock from the 10th Plague. In parsha Va’era (And I appeared) G’d makes three promises to me and to my community: I will bring you out, I will rescue you, I will redeem you from the dry, tastelessness matzah of servitude.

And then in pasha Bo (Come) the fourth promise is offered: I will take you for me as a people. This promise requires reciprocity – I cannot passively receive this communion. I must actively participate in Union. In parsha Mishpatim (Laws, Family) I recall the words naaseh v’nishma, “We will do.”  This is all about action, behavior, deed. Along with my family of selves at the foot of Mount Sinai, I pledge to follow G-d’s words.

Extracting the Meaning

If this were my dream, I would interpret it to mean that my many sides tend to be in conflict with each other, and yet sometimes do unite in glorious harmony. That it can be hard to speak up and be authentic. That purpose is the fabric of human life. And yet, my senses and intellect can get in the way of understanding and acting on my purpose.

And that I must balance my passion to self-actualize with the humility to transcend my limited self and know that All is G’d. That G’d is the bestower, and I am the receiver… which awakens me to the capacity and the calling to serve humanity.

What do others have to say about the meaning of the dream of Exodus? Recently, Kabbalah 99 interviewed Rabbi Mendel Brackman. You can hear more wisdom in his podcast interview: A Taste of Kabbalah: Receiving Wisdom of Torah for Personal and Global Transformation.

To answer my question, what insights do you glean from Exodus as a dream? Here’s how Rabbi Mendel responded:

The Book of Exodus is the journey of the love Hashem has for us, and how we impart that love into the world around us.

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The tabernacle shows us the immense love Hashem has for each of us. The travelings of the Mishkan impart that love into the whole world: how being brought out of Egypt and being given the Torah was for us to share Hashem’s love with the rest of the world.

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When we become a mini-Mishkan, we carry that love wherever we go, showing the journey though our own lives and the world around us is a place that doesn’t reject the divine, but rather welcomes it with open arms.

– Rabbi Mendel Brackman, Chabad of North Metro Denver

From a completely different perspective, we have the words of the chaplain and nature photographer Glenn Sackett. For his full podcast interview, click on: Exploring Beauty and Resilience in Nature and in All Our Relations.

We are not alone. Something happens and we complain. Then G’d intervenes and we remember G’d. Then we forget and kvetch again. Then we find out — we are not really alone. Someone we can’t see knows what we need and provides in ways we don’t expect.

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Ellen White, a Founder of 7th Day Adventist Church, puts it this way: “We need not fear the future unless we forget how G’d has lead us in the past”.

― Glenn Sackett, Explorer of Inner and Outer Worlds

What Is Your Awakening?

In my mind and heart, this dream of Exodus teaches me that the purpose of my life is to contribute to an ethical society — to love G’d and to love each person, all that is, as myself. For truly, we are One Being. This we invoke whenever we say these words of the Sufi mystic, Hazrat Inayat Khan:

Toward the One.

The perfection of Love, Harmony and Beauty,

The Only Being.

United with all the Illuminated Souls

who form the embodiment of the Master, the Messenger, the Message,

The Spirit of Guidance.

After all this exploration, what does the dream… the experience… of Exodus mean to you? How are you Moshe? How are you Pharaoh? In what ways do you serve because of your love of your neighbor? In what fullness of capacity is your love of G’d?

These are big questions to explore today. As big as your LIFE.

This week we will choose practices that bring us into Zakar – Remembrance. For this is our door to Oneness. Through breath, light and sound we create the conditions to tune ourselves with the Infinite and harmonize with the rhythms of this life. This beautiful, chaotic, ever changing, all-pervading Life.

Photography by Glenn Sackett

WEEKLY PRACTICES: Remember to Remember

The Soul Manifestation Process awakens us to the present in the fullness of our being. This gentle, embodied awareness allows the heart to begin to heal its wounds and unify the broken shards of separation. This week, we will work with breath infused with light and sound to allow us to return to the home of our soul.

We will continue with the purification practices as they are foundational to clearing away that which no longer serves us. Return, return. Ours is not a caravan of despair.

Suggestion: Do one practice a day, or do all 6 consecutively. Remember… have your Journal nearby to jot down any insights that may arise.

Audio Recording – Coming Soon

BREATH

To remember our true Self, first we must remove the accumulations and stories of our heart, mind and body. By so doing we purify ourselves before entering into prayer. We will use the energetic states of Earth, Water, Fire and Air to remove all obscurations. Begin with a complete exhalation. Throughout the practice, breathe deeply and rhythmically, with an even exhalation and inhalation.

Earth: Inhale and exhale through the nose 5 times. Feel the capacity for solidity. Release to the earth all that belongs to earth.

Water: Inhale through the nose and exhale through the mouth 5 times. Feel the capacity for liquidity. Set adrift in  water all that belongs to water.

Fire: Inhale, sipping through the mouth, and exhale through the nose 5 times. Feel the capacity for heat and transformation. Give to fire all that desires to be released in flame.

Air: Open your mouth and inhale and exhale through the mouth 5 times. Feel the capacity for expansiveness in the gaseous state. Let the wind carry away all that belongs to air.

Now sit quietly, breathing gently in and out through the nose. Feel the capacity for stillness. This is Ether from which the four elements arise. Do you feel the stillness? A lightness of being? When you are ready, return to your normal breath and open your eyes.

CONTEMPLATION

In this purified atmosphere, we turn to prayer. Contemplate the lines below from the week’s parshot, Vayakhel-Pekudei. And drawing from the words of the Sufi master Hazrat Inayat Khan, consider this quote from the Githas on Meditation and Zikr — a word which means Remembrance. 

LIGHT

Now that we have emptied ourselves with the Purification Breaths and readied ourselves with prayer, now we can rejoice in awakening, and commit to our essential nature.

With eyes closed, breathe in and out gently through the nose. Balance your inhale with your exhale. Keep your body still. Focus on your crown, at the top of your head. On the inhale, visualize the color yellow above your crown. On the exhale, breath out yellow light through your third eye, between your eyebrows. Now imagine the morning light. All is bathed in yellow. Breathe in the deep yellows of earth, exhale pure yellow light. Let it permeate your entire body. Breathe in the sparkling light that dances on water. Stay with this image as long as you feel engaged.

When you are ready, open your eyes and breathe naturally. Witness your experience of this practice. How do you experience the energy of yellow? What qualities arise?

SOUND

We relax ever more deeply, naturally into the home of our soul with sound. The 99 Beautiful Names of Allah carry a sound code with the capacity to quiet our minds and open our hearts to Truth beyond concept. Through repetition, focus and intent, layers of meaning of the Name will be revealed to you.

Ya Hadi (yaa haa-DEE) is an invitation to remember God (zikr) and to remove the coverings over our heart that cause forgetfulness. It offers the light of guidance that illuminates the way for us to overcome self-delusion and find the broad and balanced road, the straight way that offers patience and hope: a life-giving water. (Source: Physicians of the Heart by Pir Shabda Khan).

We recite Ya Hadi 33 times.

• Inhale: (listen for guidance in silence)
• Exhale: Ya Hadi

Afterwards, let the sound of this practice reverberate in your being. Note how you feel. What guidance arises?

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ZIKR

Meaning “remembrance”, Zikr is the repetition of a sacred phrase with the intention of returning to the essence of Unity. Similarly, in Hebrew Zakar means to remember, recall, or call to mind. Today we will offer Zakar in Hebrew and Zikr in Arabic. Simply click on the tab labeled “Zakar” or “Zikr”.

NATURE

This week as you take time to walk in nature, pay attention to the play of light. What conditions give rise to yellow in nature? If you can, walk in the yellow light of dawn. What is dawning in you today?

To be guided in two more nature practices – the Medicine Walk and the 360 Listening Practice – please enjoy the podcast with Maria Rosa Galter: Answering Our Soul’s Longing to Connect in All Dimensions.

Shabbat Shalom!

After 6 days of practice, when Shabbat arrives, observe how this week’s practices shape your Shabbat experience. Be sure to check in Sunday morning for next week’s parsha.

You are invited to comment on how the contemplations and practices for this week have shaped your experience of daily life… any big Ah-ha’s? Please share your thoughts and feelings below.

חַיִּים
L’Hayyim…. To Life!

Ki Tisa – Exodus 30:11 – 34:35

Feb 28 to Mar 6, 2021 | 22 Adar 5781

Photography by Glenn Sackett

Return Again: The Heart of Forgiveness

Return again, return again, return to the land of your soul
Return to what you are, return to who you are, return to where you are
Born and reborn again
Return again, return again, return to the land of your soul

– Rabbi Shlomo Carlebach

Parsha Ki Tisa (When You Take) reveals the human being’s spiraling experience of awakening in its entirety, despite our human frailty. This parsha shows us the path to fulfilling our destiny in this lifetime. 

Mystery of Union

The Alchemical Process is one of dissolution, purification, and union; then re-awakening into selfhood, now with Spirit-in-Matter and Matter-in-Spirit. The journey begins with the Minor Mysteries which lay out the process of letting go of the attachment to one’s temporal being to merge in eternal Oneness. They are called the Minor Mysteries because the process returns one to the natural state. To rest in Oneness.

Stage 1: Separation

The contrast of one’s temporal self and eternal being culminates in the annihilation of the false ego.

• Upon G-d’s request, each one gives a half shekel for the purpose of building the Mishkan – the Tabernacle in the desert. Why? “Half a shekel is the condition that one sets for oneself from within, in one’s own scrutiny and correction. If we perceive reality not by drawing to ourselves but by exiting ourselves, we will suddenly discover Ein Sof (infinity).” Source: Kabbalahblog.com

Stage 2: Rising

Fire distills Spirit further from the body, completing the separation. One further identifies with the real being that one is: pure consciousness.

• Incense used in the Mishkan only for this purpose represents this stage. The smoke rises; and the scent is subtle. The parsha Ki Tisa describes many rituals to reach a certain intention — to open adherents to the highest vibration.

Stage 3: Pure Spirit

In this stage of Pure Spirit, the sense of individuality collapses. Symbolized by the receptive crescent moon, the soul awakens in the state of all possibility and pure potential.

• After all this preparation comes Shabbat. Weekly, we cease from our efforts and rejoice in the coming of the Shekinah – the Divine Presence.

And you are to speak to the Children of Israel, saying:

Above all: my Sabbaths you are to keep!

For it is a sign

between me and you, throughout your generations,

to know that I, YHWH, hallow you.

– Exodus 31:13

Mystery of Spirit

Now begins the inner journey called the Major Mysteries. They are termed thus because, in the miracle of all miracles, Spirit is infused with matter: a vessel expressing divine qualities wherein G’d can dwell — the reason for life itself.

Stage 4: Descent

This is best described as the Alchemical Marriage of Heaven and Earth. Here one consciously participates in the rebirth of spirit into matter.

• YHWH chooses those with wisdom to make all that G’d had commanded:

… in the mind of all those wise-of-mind I place wisdom,

that they may make all that I have commanded you.

– Exodus 31:6

• Moses receives the tablets. In this first iteration, YHWH wrote them Himself. This becomes significant later, as we shall see:

He gave to Moshe
when he had finished speaking with him on Mount Sinai
the two tablets of Testimony,
tablets of stone,
written by the finger of G’d.

– Exodus 31:18

Stage 5: Fixing

To fix and maintain this realization, one must affirm one’s real being against the forces that tend to push one back to what one was. Requiring courage, in this stage we are vulnerable to fear, doubt and forgetfulness.

• The Golden Calf exemplified this human tendency to slip backward. With Moshe remaining on Mount Sinai longer than expected, some of the Children of Israel fell into doubt and despair, demanding that Aharon “make us a god that will go before us.” Instead of a “half-shekel”, this time they give golden earrings to quell their fears — a gift not sanctioned by G’d and for a forbidden purpose.
• When G’d intends to destroy all but Moshe, he wisely pleads on behalf of his people and insures the Covenant — the continuity of the people of Abraham. This time he is instructed to write on the new tablets – himself.

YHWH said to Moshe:

Write you down these words,

for in accordance with these words

I cut with you a covenant, and with Israel.

– Exodus 34:27

This is the way forward in our lives, in unison with the will of G’d, we co-create our experiences in life.

Stage 6: Spiritization

Symbolized by the radiant sun, this realization completes the spiritualization of matter and the materialization of spirit. As a result, the unique contribution of one’s being is impressed upon the universe to outlast the vehicle through which it operates.

Moshe returns from Mount Sinai with a glowing face:

Aharon and all the Children of Israel saw Moshe:

and here, the skin of his face was radiating!

– Exodus 34:30

And thus, the Covenant between YHWH and the Children of Israel was broken and restored. This is the Mystery of Spirit-in-Matter and Matter-in-Spirit.

Come, come, whoever you are. Wanderer, worshiper, lover of leaving. It doesn’t matter. Ours is not a caravan of despair. come, even if you have broken your vows a thousand times. Come, yet again, come, come.

― Jelaluddin Rumi

Ours is not a caravan of despair. The route is not linear, but a spiraling path.

This week we will choose practices that remind us of forgiveness. To forgive others, to forgive ourselves. For this is the nature of Oneness. Through breath, light and sound we create the conditions to tune ourselves with the Infinite and harmonize with the rhythms of this life. This beautiful, chaotic, ever changing, all-pervading Life.

.

Photography by Glenn Sackett

WEEKLY PRACTICES: Returning

The Soul Manifestation Process awakens us to the present in the fullness of our being. This gentle, embodied awareness allows the heart to begin to heal its wounds and unify the broken shards of separation. This week, we will work with breath infused with light and sound to allow us to return to the home of our soul.

We will continue with the purification practices as they are foundational to clearing away that which no longer serves us. Return, return. Our’s is not a caravan of dispair.

Suggestion: Do one practice a day, or do all 6 consecutively. Remember… have your Journal nearby to jot down any insights that may arise.

Audio Recording – Coming Soon

BREATH

To return to the Land of Your Soul, the first step is to release the accumulations and stories of our heart, mind and body. By so doing we purify ourselves before entering into prayer. We will use the energetic states of Earth, Water, Fire and Air to remove all obscurations. Begin with a complete exhalation. Throughout the practice, breathe deeply and rhythmically, with an even exhalation and inhalation.

Earth: Inhale and exhale through the nose 5 times. Feel the capacity for solidity. Release to the earth all that belongs to earth.

Water: Inhale through the nose and exhale through the mouth 5 times. Feel the capacity for liquidity. Set adrift in  water all that belongs to water.

Fire: Inhale, sipping through the mouth, and exhale through the nose 5 times. Feel the capacity for heat and transformation. Give to fire all that desires to be released in flame.

Air: Open your mouth and inhale and exhale through the mouth 5 times. Feel the capacity for expansiveness in the gaseous state. Let the wind carry away all that belongs to air.

Now sit quietly, breathing gently in and out through the nose. Feel the capacity for stillness. This is Ether from which the four elements arise. Do you feel the stillness? A lightness of being? When you are ready, return to your normal breath and open your eyes.

CONTEMPLATION

In this purified atmosphere, we turn to prayer. Contemplate the lines below from the week’s parsha Ki Tisa. And drawing from the words of the Sufi master Hazrat Inayat Khan, consider these lines from Khatum — a prayer to heal our bodies, hearts and souls.

LIGHT

Now that we have purified ourselves with the Purification Breaths and readied ourselves with prayer, now we can rejoice in the reawakening, recommitting to our essential nature.

With eyes closed, breathe in and out gently through the nose. Balance your inhale with your exhale. Keep your body still. As with the practice on breath, focus on your heart center. On the inhale, visualize the color black above your crown. On the exhale, breath out white snow. It’s snowing all around you. Peaceful, gentle white snow. Breathe in the color black; exhale pure, white snow. The sky is gray-white, the light is flat and accommodating.

Black absorbs all frequencies. A portal to the inner world, black is night, shadows, sleep, mystery, depth, ebony, eclipse. White reflects all frequencies. Black withdraws, white manifests into the universe. The color of milk, moon, swan, marble, the white of the eye, white is undifferentiated light. Tentative, simple, impersonal, white is without personality.

When you are ready, open your eyes and breathe naturally. Witness your experience of this practice. Do you feel the calming of your feelings and the purification of your heart? Self-acceptance of what is? What qualities arise?

SOUND

We relax ever more deeply, naturally into the home of our soul with sound. The 99 Beautiful Names of Allah carry a sound code with the capacity to quiet our minds and open our hearts to Truth beyond concept. Through repetition, focus and intent, layers of meaning of the Name will be revealed to you.

Ya Ghaffar (yaa ̣̣g̣̣̣̣ḥaf-FAAR) is inexhaustible forgiveness. Ya Ghafur (yaa ̣ɡ̣ḥa-FOOR) is the essence of forgiveness, because it reveals the depth of the divine heart. (Source: Physicians of the Heart by Pir Shabda Khan).

We recite Ya Ghaffar, Ya Ghafur  33 times.

• Inhale: Ya Ghaffar
• Exhale: Ya Ghafur

Afterwards, let the sound of this practice reverberate in your being. Note how you feel. Does a feeling of intimate union arise?

.

ZIKR

Meaning “remembrance”, Zikr is the repetition of a sacred phrase with the intention of returning to the essence of Unity. Similarly, in Hebrew Zakar means to remember, recall, or call to mind. Today we will offer Zakar in Hebrew and Zikr in Arabic. Simply click on the tab labeled “Zakar” or “Zikr”.

NATURE

This week as you take time to walk in nature, pay attention to the play of light. What condition give rise to white in nature? Black? Gray? On your next rainy, gray day, walk outside, even in the damp. Experience the gray. Experience the shades of gray from deep black to pure white. What does the gray light reveal?

To be guided in two more nature practices – the Medicine Walk and the 360 Listening Practice – please enjoy the podcast with Maria Rosa Galter: Answering Our Soul’s Longing to Connect in All Dimensions.

Shabbat Shalom!

After 6 days of practice, when Shabbat arrives, observe how this week’s practices shape your Shabbat experience. Be sure to check in Sunday morning for next week’s parsha.

You are invited to comment on how the contemplations and practices for this week have shaped your experience of daily life… any big Ah-ha’s? Please share your thoughts and feelings below.

חַיִּים
L’Hayyim…. To Life!