Lesson
11: Yud Meditation And when Abraham our father probed and penetrated
the 22 Hebrew letters and he engraved them on his heart
and carved them in his mind…he received the Divine
and a covenant between his ten fingers; this is the
covenant of the tongue, and a covenant between his ten
toes; this is the covenant of circumcision. All the
mysteries of the 22 letters were revealed to him through
the medium of water were they drawn, through the medium
of fire were they emblazoned, through the medium of
air were they agitated and they were placed in time
and space. Sefer Yetzirah Chapter 6 Mishnah
7
Our
final lesson for the 231 Gates series is a design
that occurred from play. Having cut out ten Yuds,
I started to manipulate them into patterns that
had some coherence and then a figure emerged.
The figure itself was amazing as well as the elements
that appeared in the negative space of the figure.
What is meant by negative space is the inside
of the figure. So first, look carefully and see
what you see. What do you see in the outline of
the ten Yuds? What do you see on the inside?
The
letter Yud is about the soul—the level of consciousness
one lives. The highest level of the soul (in Hebrew the
word for soul is Neshama) is called Yechidah—singularity/interdependence.
The highest level of consciousness is therefore recognizing
how one’s uniqueness fits together with every other
uniqueness.
From
the bottom up inside the figure:
The
first mediation figure in the negative space is the
head of the ox. The ox is powerful, dutiful and accepts
the yoke of its master to plow the earth and prepare
it for growth. Our instincts are the energy that drives
us to spiritual growth—we must direct that energy
in the service of the holy.
The
second meditation figure is the child/human, with her
arms spread out in total acceptance. She is Yedida—the
girl made of Yuds.
The
word Yedid in Hebrew is constructed of the word Yad-Yad
(Yad means hand)—a yedid is a friend—hand
in hand.
The
third meditation figure is the heart flower (in the
Eastern tradition it is referred to as the lotus flower).
There is a story of the Buddha’s sermon simply
consisting of raising a flower in his hand. Only one
disciple understood the sermon. The flower is…just
there. In Jewish tradition it is the story of Jonah’s
gourd (in the end of the biblical book on Jonah and
the whale). One day here—flowering and giving
shade, the next day gone—the pulsating in &
out movement of life and love.
The
fourth meditation figure is the candle and the flame.
The flame wants to return to its source but it stays
attached to the candle, to serve its highest purpose.
The goal of enlightenment is to reveal the light here—to
share the light with others and rectify the world.
