Our Inner Universe:
Lessons in Insight with Mitch
Session 1: May 17th, 2023
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How gravity works. Einstein’s theory of space-time. How does the force that drives the progress of evolution work? The five dimensions of creation. Olam, Shana, Nefesh – Space, Time, Soul. The four worlds and the four levels of soul.
Session 4: June 7th, 2023
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Revisiting the four letters of the Divine Name. Expanding the list of Hebrew terms to include rif-uah, healing. A meditation on tefillin – counting the squares. The power of four. The four-ness of tefillin compared to the four-ness of the Kabba in Mecca. Chanting Ohm and Shal-ohm. Counting not by numbers but by filling a pattern. Images that are trance inducing. The Tibetan Buddhist mandala.
Session 7: June 28th, 2023
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We reviewed premises held, but not too tightly, so we might not be constricted by them. The difference between belief and faith. The Hebrew letters as angelic forms. A meditation on the letter Bet, either including or excluding “foreign thoughts”. Re-experiencing Ezekiel’s vision. Superimposing the Divine Name on the narrow bridge. The lower Hey becoming “the gateway to heaven”. Not all respond well to visual meditative technique, so we proceeded to an auditory technique, chanting Shalom a precise number of times according to a pattern.
Session 10: July 26th, 2023
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Out of Body Experience
We begin from where we are, in the present, but we learn that the present is elusive, especially in Hebrew, where it barely seems to exist. The Hebrew for present - Hey Vav Hey Yod - extends to the past, to the future, and is suspended between worlds. We begin there, then meditate our way through the Divine Name, encountering a doorway - the Gateway to Heaven. From there, if we dare, we contemplate the letter Vav, to settle ourselves upon it, then to leave our selves behind.
Session 2: May 27th, 2023
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The hierarchy of matter. The four worlds in perspective. Four levels of encounter. Four levels of learning. Images of physical objects and their parallels in deeper worlds of experience. Is an image idolatrous? The Divine Name written vertically as the image of a person.
Session 5: June 14th, 2023
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The danger of certainty. Belief systems are like exoskeletons; one sheds them as one matures. The four who entered PaRaDiSe. Angels moving between worlds. Inanimate objects in angelic form. Revisiting gravity. A teacup making an impression in the fabric of space-time.
Session 8: July 5th, 2023
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The topic in this session is Balance. We’ll need exquisite balance as we descend in our desire to be close to the Source of Insight, to gain an understanding of the force that makes for purpose and evolution. We begin with Reb Nachman’s narrow bridge, then learn how to use the Lurianic Tree of Life as balance beams. We learned meditations to approach the Gate of Heaven. Then we considered Balaam’s experience with the angel that blocked his way.
Session 3: May 31st, 2023
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In deep meditation, one cannot distinguish between up or down. Tzimtzum – the principle of constriction. A meditation on breathing through the four letters of the Divine Name. Developing a list of Hebrew terms for the force that might account for purpose in Creation. Bracha – the force of blessing. The priestly blessings. A meditation on tefillin.
Session 6: June 21st, 2023
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We again considered how the image of a teacup changes as it descends through worlds, from the physical to the emotional to the conceptual. We did the same for the novel, The Seventh Telling, which had been transformed into a work of art. We examined how the image of a clothespin was transformed into the Claes Odenberg sculpture. We learned the meditative process of Chatzivah and Chakikah (hewing and engraving). Then, with paper and pencil, sketched the process of Ezekiel’s vision.
Session 9: July 19th, 2023
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Surrender is the theme of this session. We opened with the vertical image of the letters of the Divine Name, then shifted to the depiction of the perspective of the Yod-Hey-Vav-Hey. Through a large Hey one could see clearly the Vav, and then beyond the Vav another Hey, and in the remote distance, a tiny Yod. We reviewed our meditation on the initial Hey, then shifted our consideration to the Vav, exploring its centrality in Space and Time. We considered the word for Present in Hebrew. We reviewed false notions we might have held prior to these sessions and considered false notions we might still hold.