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Transcript: Chesed meditation, kindness meditation practice. Sit comfortably, in an alert position. With your spine aligned as much as it can be, reaching up to the sky, without being uncomfortable, just keep it as straight as possible.
Notice your breath, maybe lengthen your breaths. Feel the comfort of being alive.
Then, start to yourself, or if you’re alone, maybe outloud, your phrases. If you’re using my phrases, they are: May I feel safe. May I feel strong. May I feel content. May I live with ease. May I feel safe. May I feel strong. May I feel content. May I live with ease.Â
Continue with those phrases for the entire time you are sitting, for twenty minutes. And notice whether it becomes if the phrases become somewhat automatic, so you might be reciting them subvocally while you’re thinking about something else. When that happens, just return your attention to the phrases. Try to recite them slowly, giving attention to each one, each time.Â
May I feel safe. What would it feel like to feel safe in my body right now?Â
Feel strong, feel content, to be at ease. Each time, explore. May you have a wonderful practice.Â
Rabbi Jacob Staub, Ph.D., graduated from RRC in 1977. Staub has served on the RRC faculty since 1983; he served as the College’s vice president for academic affairs and academic dean from 1989 to 2004. He was instrumental in developing RRC’s Spiritual Direction Program and has taught Jewish spiritual direction across North America, including at Spiritual Directors International and the Spirituality Institute of Metivta. He co-directs Bekhol Levavkha: A Training Program for Jewish Spiritual Directors at Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion in New York. He has served as a faculty member and board member at Nehirim: GLBT Jewish Culture and Spirituality.
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