# Additional Sources 2 # The Practice: Vocalizing the Divine Name - *hazkarat hashem* / הזכרת השם ## 1 Your heart is your master and your God dwells within you. Our first class will focus on your experience of the basic elements of the practice. This emphasis on your experience reflects Abulafia's teaching: >[!cite] Abulafia on the Practice >לא תצטרך... להטריח עצמך לבקש ספרים או חברים או רבנים ללמדך מה שיחסר לך מן החכמה. כי רבך הוא לבך, ואלוהיך הוא בקרבך. ספר אמרי שפר > You do not need...to bother yourself searching for books or comrades or rabbis to teach you what you lack in wisdom, for your heart is your master (*rav*), and your God dwells within you. > > *Imrei Shefer* ## 2 Spiritual Practice in the Service of Y-H-V-H. Our focus in this course is on the vocalization (*hazkarah* - הזכרה) of divine names as a spiritual practice in the service of Y-H-V-H. Let's begin our exploration by clarifying these concepts. > [!info] An explanation of spiritual practice > In the context of this course, spiritual practice means engaging in an activity with the purpose of achieving **altered states of consciousness** in which we **encounter Y-H-V-H** in an intensified form. This is how I understand Abulafia's instruction for vocalizing the name, but it is important to point out that I am unpacking what he means by using concepts borrowed from my experience of practicing yoga and the teachings of contemporaries such as Ram Dass and Eckhart Tolle. > > An **altered state of consciousness** is a state that is different from our day-to-day state of mind. Our day-to-day states of mind are characterized by identifying with our ego-personas (our name, our story and our social roles). Abulafia characterizes this state of mind as "thoughts of this world". In this state, our heads are often filled with verbal thoughts and inner movies and talk shows about our personal dramas, with an emphasis on evaluating whether we are getting what we want. This may be a perfectly valid state of mind, but sometimes it results in a sense of being small, threatened and blocked. > > There are many altered states of consciousness relevant for spiritual practice in the sense meant here. Some of them are characterized by quiet equanimity; Others are hypnotic, trance-like, ecstatic or rapturous. Sometimes the experiences are erotic or musical or otherwise sensual. Abulafia and others describe these experiences in a great variety of ways. Since altered states of consciousness are subjective, its often hard to understand what people experienced from their descriptions. You need to make an effort to connect descriptions of spiritual experiences written by others with your own experience. > >**Awareness - Presence - Being / הוויה** > There is one altered state of consciousness that I think of as the foundation for the others. Following contemporary traditions like Ram Dass and Tolle, we might call it *awareness* or *presence*. Abulafia calls it "becoming alive in the world to come", as we will see below. This is a state in which we stop telling stories and watching internal movies about who we are and what we want. In this state, its as if the internal talk show about myself that's often playing in my head is turned off. Or, maybe its still broadcasting, but its in the background. When thoughts and images and bits of story pass through my awareness, they are like clouds, and my awareness is like the sky, through which they pass. Or another metaphor is the movie screen: Movies are projected onto the screen - the screen is where they happen - but the screen doesn't play a part in the drama; it is the space in which the drama happens. > >**Space and Flow** > >This sky awareness or presence is associated in my experience with two qualities: space and flow. Space refers to the release that I experience when I feel the weight of my day-to-day train of thoughts slip off from on top of me. It is sense of relief and liberation; like dropping a burden and relaxing into a wide expanse. Flow refers to feeling awash in creative energy. When the burden of narrowness falls away for a moment, and I feel the freedom of the expanse, a sense of possibility and motivation to do creative things often awakens in me. I call this the experience of flow. *Space* and *flow* are qualities that characterize *awareness* and *presence* in the sense that I mean. >[!info] An explanation of **יהו-ה** Y-H-V-H. >The letters יהו-ה for most streams of Jewish religion symbolize the true object of service and worship; they are the powers or entities or attributes that we aspire to embody in our lives and to cultivate in the world. They are symbols of the most high, the ultimate good, the set of everything that we recognize as truly valuable. > >For every person who sees the world through the prism of יהו-ה, they mean something different, since the meaning of life is different for each person. At the same time, many of the traditional attributes associated with these letters are recognized as virtues by all human beings. These attributes include wisdom, consciousness, love, justice, beauty and compassion. These attributes are drawn from the names and qualities associated with the ten sefirot of the Kabbalah. All ten sefirot are contained in the four letters Y-H-V-H. > >In the context of this course, we are particularly concerned with Y-H-V-H as the aim of spiritual practice. This layer of meaning is a subset of the broader symbolism of the name, which contains everything that matters. Following traditional Kabbalistic symbolism, Y-H-V-H symbolizes the two qualities, space and flow, mentioned above. The Yah of the name, associated with the three upper sefirot, symbolizes space - the expanded awareness we experience when we let go of identification with the ego-persona. The Vah of the name, which is associated with the seven lower sefirot, symbolizes the flow of creative energy that is opened up by the space of the Yah. In Vah, that energy differentiates into *hesed* (love), *din* (justice), *tiferet* (beauty) and so forth. Then we feel motivated to love, to pursue justice, or to begin some other creative project. > >In spiritual practice, we shed our day-to-day state of mind, which is characterized by inner talk shows about the ego-persona and its relative success in life, and enter altered states of consciousness in which we encounter Y-H-V-H in an intensified manner. Awareness/presence is one of the most important of those states, and also a prerequisite for them. Evoking awareness/presence within ourselves, and then combining it with the elements of the vocalization, is what this practice is all about. Entering into the awareness or presence described above, in which we let go of our day-to-day train of thoughts, and experience space and flow, is how I understand Abulafia's instruction for preparation before vocalizing the divine name. As I understand him, getting into this state of mind and being is a prerequisite for vocalizing the names. > [!cite] From Abulafia's *Kavanah* for the *hazkarah* (Intention for the Vocalization): > וטהר לבך ונפשך מכל מחשבות העולם הזה. וחשוב שבאותה שעה תפרד נפשך מגופך. ותמות מן העולם הזה, ותחיה לעולם הבא, אשר הוא מקור החיים הנמצאים המפוזרים בכל חי. > Purify your mind and soul from all thoughts of this world. And imagine that at this time, your soul departs from your body. And you die in this world, and become alive in the world to come, which is the source of all life, the life dispersed among all living creatures. Abulafia calls our day-to-day state of mind, in which we identify with our stories and social roles, and in which we play movies inside our heads about our successes and failures, "thoughts of this world". When he says that your soul leaves your body, he is using the body as a symbol of "this world" and the day-to-day state of mind. When he says that we must "die in this world", he means letting go - for awhile - of our sense of individual self. Since in the state of awareness or presence, we let go of our thoughts and stop listening to the talk show about ourselves, its as if our persona (with its story and social role) dies. We leave it behind. Now that we are dead in this world, we become alive in "the world to come". This phrase symbolizes for Abulafia and other medieval Jewish thinkers the dimension of the eternal. It is the space and flow of awareness unburdened by the need to play a part in the ego's drama. In this space, since we leave our individual identity behind, we become "all life", the undifferentiated source of life, that surrounds and is the source of every individual life. <div style="page-break-after: always;"></div> ## 3 The Basic Elements of the Vocalization Now that we have clarified our terms, we have a sense of what a spiritual practice in the service of Y-H-V-H might mean. We will now turn to the elements of the vocalization. The practice involves four basic elements: ![[2 Basic Elements]] When we vocalize a divine name, we combine these four elements. Below is the Hebrew letter *alef*. The *alef* is a sign, one of the basic elements of the vocalization. For Abulafia, and much of Jewish tradition, the *alef* is the letter of unity, the root of all letters and all existing things. It is both the first letter of the alphabet and the number one. Familiarize yourself with its shape. <p style="text-align: center; font-size: 200px; font-family: 'David', serif; margin: 0; line-height: 1;">א</p> Now, let's experientially explore the basic elements of the practice one by one. What we want to do is to bring our awareness/presence to each element in its turn. Once we have tasted each element by itself, we will begin to combine them into different permutations. It is awareness/presence that combines [מצרף] the elements together into the הזכרה / *hazkarah* / vocalization of the name. <div style="page-break-after: always;"></div> > [!tip] *Ma'aseh* - Practice > **Getting Centered in Awareness/Presence** > > Sit comfortably on a chair or cushion. Face forward with your neck and back straight, but not rigid. Breathe in and out. Let go of verbal thoughts; turn your attention away from any talk shows going on in your head. Relax. Imagine that any thoughts and feelings that pass through your mind are like clouds passing through the sky. You are the sky, not the clouds. Evoke in yourself the space and flow of awareness/presence. Let's practice this for a few minutes. > > In order to help clear your mind of verbal thoughts and evaluations, try asking yourself: "What is the next thought that I am going to think?". The momentary pause that follows that question, before an answer emerges, is the space for which we are looking. (This method is borrowed from Eckhart Tolle's *The Power of Now*). > > **Breath** > > The breath is in some ways the most powerful element of the vocalization. It is a very effective way of evoking awareness/presence. Let's now focus that awareness on the breath. Feel how the air enters and exits your body. Focus on how it feels while letting other thoughts fall away. Focus your attention on your breathing. In this state, slowly inhale and exhale ten times. > > **Voice** > > Now we'll add the element of voice. As you exhale, and for the full length of your exhalation, say one long *Ohhhh* (as in Joe). Your vocalization of the *Oh* should end as you run out of air and so reach the end of your exhalation. > > As your breathe and vocalize, notice how this practice is as much about the body vibrating as it is about the sound that your ears hear. Let your awareness sink into your voice as you exhale. Try to let go of all verbal thoughts and movies about your life. Vibrate like this for ten exhalations. > > **Sign** > > Look at the letter *alef* above. Notice how it comes into existence through the contrast of colors on your screen or page, as seen by your eye and interpreted by your brain. Focus your attention on the letter as you breathe. Clear your mind of everything except the letter. Close your eyes and imagine the letter. Breathe silently for ten breaths with your mind focused on the letter. > > Now, continue for another ten breathes, vocalizing the *alef* with your *Ohhhhh*. Notice how your breath, and the vowel that you vocalize, give movement and life to the letter *alef*. In this way you are binding the *alef* to your breath and to the vibration of your body. The cord tying it all together is your *awareness/presence*. > >**Movement** > >Above, we have already touched on one of the most important meanings of *movement* for the practice of vocalizing divine names: The vowel which *moves* the letter, as when you give movement and breath to the letter *alef* through the vibrations of your voice. > >Abulafia's practice involves another form of movement related to the movement of the vowel: Moving your head in a motion that recalls the placement or shape of the vowel in Hebrew. You'll learn more about this below. For reasons explained later, the sound *Ohhh* is associated with turning your face up towards the sky. > >Let us explore this experientially. First, sit comfortably with your neck straight and your face forward. Inhale. Now, start to exhale while vocalizing *Ohhhh*. As you vocalize, slowly turn your face upward, so that you exhale the last of the air from your lungs as you finishing turning your face upwards (your maximum height is as high as is comfortable; be careful not to strain your neck). Then, without inhaling, turn your face back down so that you are centered and facing forward, and then inhale. When you exhale again, pronounce the *Oh* and turn your face upwards again. Do this 5 times. Focus your attention on the motion. > >Once you've got that down, don't just move your head, but also direct your heart (which in pre-modern Jewish sources is the seat of your thoughts) upwards with the motion of your head. I like to imagine that my awareness is flowing out of my heart and ascending out in front of me as I raise my face towards the sky. Do this 5 times. >[!info] Vocalization = Awareness + Breath + Sign + Voice + Movement > Once you finish practicing the motion, sit and reflect: You have now experienced the four basic elements of vocalizing the divine names: breath, sign, voice and movement. >[!info] Awareness/Presence: The First and Final Element >Your awareness, freed from identification with the stories and drama of the ego-persona, is the most important altered state of consciousness aimed at by spiritual practice. It is the first and final element of the vocalization.