Succah Meditation

So, I was thinking about what goes into constructing a Succah booth, and then about sharing time in it, and I came up with this meditation:

Intro:

One of the vital aspects of participating in the mitzvah of Succah, comes with the understanding that we are attempting to create a holy space …a safe, healthy, happy life connecting and loving surrounding.

To achieve this level of existence necessitates that we connect with our most knowledgeable and enlightened self, on every major level of our current manifestation, including our body, mind, heart and soul.

I then started thinking of these aspects as they relate to the Succah.

The “body” of the Succah booth is what went into building it in a way that meets the basic requirements of a succah, temporary walls and a partial covering for the ceiling, a reminder that our homes and lives are always subject to forces of nature and life that are beyond our control.

This year, our succah booth had a few special additions including that this was the first time we used branches from our cedar tree for the roof, and that the gourds decorating our ceiling came from a mystery plant that grew in one of our flower beds.

When thinking about the “mind” aspect in relation to the Succah booth, I deduced that the impetus for carrying out this custom comes from some kind of negligible grasp of history and religious tradition that encourages us to construct these booths as a way to meet the needs of reinforcing our connection to our life heritage.

The “heart” of the Succah reflects the love that went into creating our booth as a loving, welcoming place to gather and celebrate the miracles of nature and life that the Sukkot festival reminds us of.

The “soul” of the Succah comes from the people who are gathered together now, and from all of those people who have gathered together in succahs throughout history to celebrate life.

Much like the lulav and esrog, this guided meditation is designed assist us in bringing these same four aspects of our being, our body, mind, heart and soul, together, in order to attain our highest most connecting space.

Body… Sense your body’s life energies filling your being.

Mind … Know how your thought process functions and those things you consider to be life’s truths.

Heart …Love’s absolute answer to all our questions.

Soul … our mystical connection to the Whole.

Body, …mind, …heart …and soul.

Joined together,

here we go.

Body… our body’s. Our physical being. Feel your body filled with the breath and the essence of life.

Then slowly, release all.

Let your outer energies collapse inward

until you locate your center balancing space.

Relax …and breathe.

Mind…

Mind over matter, the substance makeup of our human existence.

Don’t let thought distractions

lead you off in other directions.

Know … the place you are

is the space for you to be…right now.

Let your – self – be - right here, right now.

Heart…

Once we’ve centered and balanced our body and mind,

it’s time to add the magical ingredient.

Love is the secret handshake

for entering the “wholeness” level of our existence.

Love adds clarity to our vision,

to fully visualize the miraculous we see

is but a drop on life’s canvass,

a multilevel dimensional art far beyond 3-D.

Our being here is a gesture of the universal Artist’s love and creativity.

Charged with love,

we can soar freely.

We are now free to enter the soul dimension of our existence,

the mystical space of Oneness.

Like the branches on our Succah booth,

the thread of our essence is forever entwined in the ever weaving thread of the fabric of existence.

Wait until you meet the “Quilter!”

Body, …mind, …heart …and soul.

Joined together,

here we go.

Here we are.

Enjoy!

Once we have achieved our shared holy space, the ways we choose to use our energy from then on, from now on, determines how close, and how strong, we maintain our connection to our enhanced state of wholeness.

The words we speak, the things we do, the sounds we make, the thoughts we think, either help to positively contribute to maintaining our loving, sacred life space, or to create a degree of separation between us and our highest, most understanding and life connected self.

Yet, living our lives is a good thing. It gets us out to enjoy, appreciate and celebrate our existence on this amazing world, a garden/world/home planet filled with fantastically wondrous life forms. It sets us free to be fallible humans, to make our mistakes, learn from them, and to grow in all types of fantastic ways, to live and laugh, and love.

Free Will – It is our move. We make our choices. Where and how far away can we safely get from our life connecting space, and how much does it affect us when we do. If we do get separated, will we take the time to make things right, to be able to find our way all the way back to our best self.

Succot reminds us that for our own well being and health that we need to take the time to make a life connection.

Body, …mind, …heart …and soul.

Joined together,

here we go.