Text-Based Tanya—Week #74

weekly text-based Tanya we are in the middle of chapter 42. we started chapter 42. with a question about awe of Hashem really since chapter 41 we've been speaking about all of Hashem or and love and now in 42 we're focusing on the all part and we're saying where do you get this awe I would like to have all of Hashem where can I get some and we yeah we ordered on Amazon so we say the the place where you order the all from is within you yes specifically it is the May should Obama within you okay what is within you it is a particular function or faculty what is it does yes Das is the technical kabbalistic term for it give me a an English practical translation of what that means what is Das in this context experiential known experiential knowledge great so how do you have experiential knowledge of abstract spiritual Concepts what process is required for that meditation okay so basically in chapter 42 we started off and we said if you want to have all of Hashem which is an emotion there's a cognitive process which will give birth to that and it's really engaging your own internal bainu which has the capacity to take the abstract spiritual concepts of God and turn those into feelings personal feelings that that's where we left off is toiling and meditation synonymous well you mentioned the mentioned toiling he mentioned two types of toil toil of the body and toil of the Soul remember that toil of the body and toil of the Soul we spoke about it last week beat up the body which was similar to which chapter 29 okay and beating up the body doesn't mean throw yourself into a wall what what does it mean well I have a good class over here someone will answer yeah beating up the body means punch yourself what does it mean what right so how do you subjugate the ego what do you do what's the exercise what's the process okay Bethel is the the end goal it's also a cognitive process it's basically reviewing the deficiencies of the ego how the ego gets us in trouble when it when we follow it's it's will it's like we learned in chapter 29. then toil of the Soul means straining yourself to focus on spiritual Concepts to think about God but not just in a Lottie da type way like it's for fun no you have to really break a sweat that's why it's called toil okay where we left off is we actually mentioned a meditation that's from Pierre que aves did you know there are meditations in perkiaves sure there are it says he stockle with him stare at three things what does that mean stare at three things like at the mall when they used to have those things where you have to stare at the picture of the car and it becomes three-dimensional you guys know what I'm talking about okay so I didn't make it up okay you have a whole book of them what are they called not Holograms what no there's a brand name of it for proprietary name of it you stare at it it becomes three-dimensional [Music] [Laughter] they never made it so the piercing obvious says stare at three things what do you mean stare stare means with your mind's eye it means mentally cogitate Focus intensely and intently and what I and Raya an eye that sees voice and shamas and an ear that hears Etc we're talking about God's omnipotence meditate on the concept not omnipotence omniscience meditate on symbolism of God's omniscience and that will lead you to what feeling oh yeah good good the third thing is ETC it doesn't say what it is but do you know what it is very good and all your Deeds are recorded in a book doesn't mean a book of paper it means that everything is uh recorded it's on the record Etc I wonder too and I don't know the answer but it is surely significant because in Tanya as opposed to other teachings of the altadaba which were orally transmitted and then transcribed Tanya was written by the altaraba himself and he was precise with every single word and even spellings of words so I'm sure there is a a reason why he writes Etc not the third thing don't know maybe because everybody has their own way everybody can pick ing that they should meditate on it oh like leave it open yeah like wild card Uno wild card okay okay so everyone could think about whatever inspires all for them okay so now he says and although he has no bodily likeness you know what that expression is from another one that expression doesn't the song go hey so where is that from you know from your grandfather's show yeah s is also one of those uh hits that they sing at the end of the evening okay and although God has no bodily likeness right hold on a second you just told me to meditate on either seas in any year that hears but God doesn't have an eye or an ear he is not a person he has no bodily like this one yeah you understand what the other was asking so how is this visualization going to help me when it's not really true that's the Etc to the contrary but yes it says everything is revealed and known to him infinitely more than a physical eye that sees or a physical ear that hears in other words you're right it's not a physical eye or physical ear it's a it's a metaphor and that's what makes it more powerful because his eye quote unquote is an unlimited eye and his ear quote unquote is uh Unlimited here well not in the physical sense his so this is a he doesn't get into this discussion over here but generally the way we understand it is by the way you can have the same question not about a physical um biological thing like like like an eye but you could have the same question regarding something more rarified such as wisdom would you ascribe wisdom to God or is that an anthropomorphism and our answer yes sure you describe God as as the as having or as having been a sure well that's the 10 spheroes are Hashem sphere is so seemingly we're describing Godly attributes but what we say is that he is the source of these attributes so when we talk about these attributes we're not attempting to describe God we're describing the attributes as we know them with the understanding that we are limited to our own experience and then understanding that God is the source of those attributes and therefore possesses any of those attributes in a manner that infinitely surpasses the way that we know those attributes so he doesn't have a physical eye that sees or a physical ear that hears but that's all the more awe-inspiring and ain't that the point right now right that's the context as we're trying to instill awe and Marshalls you want a better metaphor says it's like a person who's aware of what's the sensations going on in his body in all of his 248 limbs such as cold and hot so a person who knows that his feet are cold not because he's looking at them or listening but because it's his feet he could feel it he could feel it even if his toenail gets scalded or gets burnt he feels that so what are we saying that all of reality exists within Hashem he's not going outside of himself God forbid there is no outside of himself in order to become updated on the conditions of this world everything is taking place within him and so he's completely in tune and aware of it because it's happening within him just like if you would be aware if your your toenail got burnt Muslim ashim is in your brain you know everything that's going on in your body is that's the way metaphorically speaking Hashem knows everything that's going on for all of his created beings in the higher and lower worlds they all come from him like it says for everything is from you so that's his omniscience his omniscience isn't he's got really good uh he gets really good reports he gets updated constantly no no no no that's not his omniscience his omniscience is he's aware of his his self and everything exists within Hashem and just want to check back in with everybody why are we talking about this what's the point of to develop auth thank you for reminding us yes okay you're like you're not impressed okay because maybe you're thinking about it like we're trying to tell you how great God is and if and if that were the goal I don't think it's impressive either because God's infinite so what do you tell me he knows everything that's happening in a finite World he's infinite you're right it's not impressive that's not the point though the point is you have to make it a more subjective experience you have to think about not how much does God know I can't even wrap my head around that so it's a useless whatever if there would even be a way of conveying that it would be useless because I can't wrap my head around it it's not how much does God know how smart is God how up to date is God how informed is God how omniscient is God that's not really the point the point is how much of my life is God attuned to yeah don't think about how smart is God how up-to-date is God that's not the point the point is when I think about my experiences my life when I think about my life my whole story my whole journey everything leading up to this moment did everything that will ever unfold how present is God in that story that's the point the or is that I'm coming to realize how present Hashem is in my life well let's not let's not ask what's for dinner when supper's sitting on the table in front of us he just served us a classic meditation he just served us a meditation he's saying meditate on the eye that sees in the ear that hears he's telling us this will lead to awe now we didn't do it we just talked about it maybe that's part of the problem it was just telling you to meditate and we didn't actually go and meditate on it we probably need to have like yoga mats and everybody goes to their own Corner the soul words branded yoga mats and everyone goes to their own corner and we turn off the lights and everybody just meditates for 20 minutes probably we need to do that but the YouTube people would just no no you're right no one would be quiet you know if you follow me so last night I I was I I was I was in I was in Florida for Shabbos Inverrary no for Shabbos I was an inverter okay it's a very nice community in in Florida it's about 20 minutes from Fort Lauderdale airport it's been Shabbos there it was beautiful that there was a Chabad yeah there okay so then I got on the plane for well first of my glasses broke my glass you want to hear about this okay sure no problem so my glasses broke five minutes before shkia so I had to tape them up and they were all wobbly and it well listen what we did so the guy I was staying with he's like I got a buddy he owns a chain of optical stores in Miami he's going to help us we went to the mall right before my flight and we went in there and the owner of the chain called up the manager and said take care of this Rabbi and they made me these glasses in like 10 minutes Brandon you're so lucky yes so they made the new glasses in 10 minutes flat yeah why so then we got on the plane did he make you a backup so here's the interesting thing I have 10 pairs of the same glasses at home because I you know that Teddy Roosevelt used to do this too I'm not comparing myself to Teddy Roosevelt but he had a paranoia about his glasses breaking when he went into battle he would have extra glasses sewn into well here's the thing so I have 10 pairs of glasses in my office I don't bring them with me when I travel I don't know why because because that wasn't now I will so that wasn't part of my paranoid fantasy have you I need another pair of glasses now why oh now I give you something to worry about it so I thought about the Lasik yeah okay so then my I got the glasses fixed or replaced then we got to the airport then we got out of Southwest because Southwest I had to speak in Baltimore last night now BWI is a Southwest hub my flight was 1 pm and my speaking engagement in Baltimore was 8 P.M it technically should have been fine so anyways the plane took an hour to take off because they said there was weather on in in Miami and then we got about like half an hour from Baltimore and like oh we got to go in a holding pattern because the air traffic control radio is down and and they I learned a new term they said in the DMV I thought DMV was Department of Motor Vehicles DMV is DC Maryland Virginia it means that whole region I learned that last night so then they're like I'm gonna tell you I'm telling you the whole thing because we're not learning Tanya anymore so I'm just going to tell you I I was I was a home I'm going to tell you they're very important okay so and by the way just so you know of course on the Southwest flight I sat in row 16 with the with the best seat you know about row 16. why was it all right very good that's right it's the exit Row in Southwest we have no one in front of you you can stick your feet out okay very good 16 a b or c exit the window okay so then what happened is they diverted us to Pittsburgh so I called my brother he lives in Pittsburgh but hey I'm in Pittsburgh and I'm at the airport maybe I'll come see you well here's the deal I had a professional driver who was supposed to pick me up in Baltimore after my speaking engagement and drive me to well I'll tell you why I did it he needed it I'll tell you why I had a professional data point B no because if I would have flown from Baltimore back to New York there are no more flights there are no red-eye flights I'd have to wait till the morning and I would risk missing this class oh I knew it because of this class so of course I came for this class so I had a driver set up to pick me up at 10 o'clock in Baltimore after the speaking engagement unfortunately we were on the ground in Pittsburgh waiting for air traffic control in Baltimore to clear and I was on the ground in Pittsburgh for like three or four hours I actually even texted the driver and I asked him maybe you want to just drive to Pittsburgh and pick me up there and he was almost going to do that but then then in the end what basically what it there were no flights to New York anymore there were no flights from Pittsburgh to New York so basically what I had to do is I had to finish flying to Baltimore then get out then get out of the airport get picked up by this guy and then drive three and a half hours and I got back at three a.m I got back at 3 A.M I know and then I started around at three in the morning and then I came here thank you yeah I was waiting for Connie to cancel the class I was like no but he's making it nope not gonna miss Tanya Not Gonna Miss Tanya even though in the end we didn't learn any Tanya what can we learn Tanya now because I came all the way for time yes what just to come here that would be a shame not to learn it what are you saying and the material yes thank you yes as suppress your emotion enough yeah right it means surprise surprise surprise your belly or dispenser Evo it but it is really not what it is right right so you want to go back to that I uh well why didn't you bring it up 20 minutes ago when we mentioned it what no 20 minutes ago when I was reviewing what we learned last week and I mentioned what is the strain of the body and what's the strain of the Soul you didn't get triggered until now Okay so the straight very well we spoke about it no problem I don't mind to elaborate even though it's going backwards so what did we say because I feel that we didn't mention what it is what when we were reviewing at the beginning of this week when we were reviewing last week what did we say the strain of the body is remember I said is it throwing yourself into a wall is it punching yourself you didn't really understand and then move on and we didn't even use the word ignore in fact we use the opposite word we use the word Focus what did we say don't think about what you're afraid that I might have said what what did we say okay what did we say well no problem we'll elaborate you're right it is a trouble spot for a lot of people what did we say your ego like understand it's it's without getting what does that look like describe the process the proper process the right correct okay does this take place when you're feeling the urge to eat cake at 11 PM does this exercise take place when you're trying when you're feeling an urge to eat cake at 11 PM no it's it's it is done preemptively it is a regimen this is not a response to urges it's a regimen it's a way of life you'd set aside time to remove certain obstacles to your spiritual growth one of those obstacles is we spoke about this in length in chapter 29 the complacency of the body slash ego that will try to convince you that everything's fine and that we don't need to do anything any differently and if there are any problems it was because other people are to blame and yeah and the way we break it down is by reviewing how how successful or unsuccessful life has been whenever we have allowed our ego and our animalistic desires to dictate our life choices it's just a review it's just a just thinking about okay hold on a second objectively speaking when I do allow my body to run my life how has that worked out for me that's it that's it so it's just it's a it's a an exercise in self-awareness it's an exercise in self-awareness right well yeah I know yeah correct yeah yes you're right yeah is that so that you can become conquer and well in this context you become self-aware because the self-awareness itself removes an impediment to spiritual growth without the self-awareness then we're just going to continue to repeat the same habits and we will not be open for spiritual growth specifically in the area of awe which is the context of this chapter so we're removing the rationalization of the body ego so that we can become receptive to some new ideas that might Inspire us didn't you not in this chapter maybe in chapter 33 we spoke about unbridled Joy 29 okay the rationalizations of the body and the ego that are keeping you complacent rationalizations could we discuss this in like a real life example like a big excuses it's Monday morning the excuses we make for ourselves so we so we think about real life examples and we say okay hold on a second it's like a little intervention you know where they're like Corner the guy and they're like okay here's all your friends and family and they have all this evidence about how you're messing up your life and we're going to make you listen to it and you can't look away so that's what it is yes I didn't I say that this is the same concept we learned in chapter 29. he's you're saying well why is he saying it again he sang it again because he's reminding you that in order to develop the awe you're going to have to be working with a receptive heart and mind and we need we might need to go do some uh touch-up in in the chapter 29 type style to remove some of that rationalization but that's not the point of this chapter just reminding you to keep doing that on a maintenance level because without it we're not going to be receptive so this is a reminder that we need to keep doing it and then what is the strain of the Soul when should we do it right that's not the time to do it the time to do it is a part of your regimen so that when a dilemma comes up you're going to be more aligned with God's will for you this is not a response to what to do in the moment when you're conflicted it's part of a regimen just like ladies you know how like your to your credit I I really I'll say this I won't hold back my praise it's very impressive how religiously people attend this class right that's part of your life you have that carved out and basically very little is going to cause you to miss it okay that's wonderful there are certain things that you need to do for yourself maybe this is the time to mention it now that we're finally on chapter 42. you can't just have a weekly Tanya course and expect it to be life-changing I mean when you're very new to it the ideas are so new it feels so exciting that you think it's life-changing but maybe to some extent it's starting a process of changing your life but to really change your life there have to be daily rituals and routines that you set up for yourself this is not like I'm telling you there's a set schedule for this yeah that too but right now I'm specifically speaking about having a prayer and meditation routine for yourself there are many many meditations that's true that I would sit down and meditate as well the first two days I did it and then I I might I might suggest to you to be very religious about two times a day about your morning routine and your bedtime routine so your morning routine I would strongly suggest to you to engage in prayer meditation before you allow the world to touch you Yeah [Music] well yeah at the very least my Donnie uh but yeah and the truth is you shouldn't even meditate on I'll tell you why because the whole point of Madonna is to say it when you're half awake if you can if you can meditate when you sing with Ani you waited too long first yeah okay you're right so we don't have to do anything else no no yeah so just getting in touch with our feelings and becoming aware of them is a step one but we don't take the time to do that the feelings that not as important okay so should we cancel this class and go stop meeting next week oh we're not meeting next to it yeah yes and when I met yes you just said it correctly you don't agree what do you mean you mean that hasn't been your experience or you don't believe it would be your experience yeah yeah but how can you say that without trying it but this isn't it's here to inspire here's the deal this is not supposed to pump you up this is it's not supposed to some learning the whole point of it is to pump people up okay so since you're telling me the way we ought to learn Tanya let me tell you something about the way we are learning Tanya there are certain ways of studying Tanya or any other subject where the studying itself is the inspiration it makes you feel better it makes you feel good and in certain ways it is healing to an extent as as healing is something can be that lasts for an hour once a week that's not how we're learning at all I believe the way we're doing is the true Chabad style which is we're giving you information the information in and of itself sometimes instance inspired sometimes the cool idea is like oh that's cool but sometimes it's not inspiring no no it's not sometimes it's very technical but the point of it is sometimes you don't even like it yeah sometimes you yeah more than that like it we've had some times where people got very upset which is okay as long as nobody like runs away crying then it's okay you eat a lot of chocolate after sometimes what sometimes you eat chocolate to soothe yourself after the intensity of the sheer yeah okay I'm saying without any irony whatsoever I think that that's probably wise of you yes like if you feel that class was too intense and you need to eat some chocolate to like placate yourself so you can take it again next week then look you've been coming here week after week for for years so obviously you're doing something right so if chocolate is part of what makes it work go ahead use the chocolate um I think it's a case-by-case basis I'm not telling you that everybody should eat chocolate after the time you share yeah the fair chocolate the yeah right and then I realized that it's not I was like I'm frustrated why because I need time I don't have time is that awareness that I did that time okay that's true that but that's a different discussion okay so okay it is okay so so what you're saying is very legitimate and it's true I hmm okay yes it's true it's true and if this were like a one-on-one conversation and some woman were telling me she's feeling awful because she doesn't have kavana during ashvay it might be incredibly important for me to tell her stop beating yourself up you don't have time to concentrate on Ashley you're wonderful you're great stop hating yourself that's that's that could be a very important conversation but if we're trying to go through Tanya I can't stop every line and be like by the way in case anyone's being religiously triggered right now because of stuff that I didn't even do to you you know like like is that my why why is my Tanya class getting derailed because your teachers made you feel neurotic about not having cavan and if you don't think about you have to go back or you're not going to have a good life okay anyway here's the disclaimer about everything everyone is wonderful everyone is good everything you do has infinite value I'm not even but I'm not joking everything you do is wonderful everything is good everything you do has infinite value okay don't beat yourself up it's progress not Perfection we're all on a journey we're all trying to grow okay but let's let's try to stay focused on the specific tools that we're learning about here okay okay so the specific thing okay maybe you'll help me get back on track do we complete that meditation I mean is there more to it um there's a there's a few things left in the chapter are we gonna hear about that to understand so here's the thing he's not going to give you the emotional thing that and and nobody can give you the emotional thing he's giving you the subject and let me just establish this very clearly because this is going to happen over and over and again basically chapters 41-50 this is all this is he's going to give you different subjects listen to what he's going to tell you the whole 41-50 he's going to describe different types of love and awe because there are many different flavors and Stripes of love and arts not just monolithic he's going to have all different types of love and all and that he's going to give you the subject matter that you're supposed to meditate on in order to induce that love and awe studying these words will not induce the emotional experiences that are being described in the text it is a manual so if you read the instructions from Ikea how to build a crib and then you're angry because you don't have a crib that's not how it works you have to follow the instructions so the instructor these are instructions how to do it but reading it doesn't make it happen why do we want love and all okay legitimate question you asked that last week though do you remember I do okay fair enough okay why do we want it I wasn't here last week well my answer to you would be different than it would be to someone who walks in off the street holding a pizza the person walks in off the street I'm not even sure what I would tell them I'd have to figure out why what they're thinking about already and try to like build a bridge to to some type of common ground so I don't know what I would say to them but what I would say to you is okay at this juncture because what you didn't just pick up Tanya and open straight to chapter 42. you you built up to that point so let's just remember where we've been and I know the journey is taking a long time so sometimes we forget where we've been but by the way be thankful that I teach the way that I do because most Tanya classes the pace they go at it would take you seven eight nine ten years okay and I am ruthless about going very quickly relatively quickly so imagine how much more you would have forgotten the whole journey if it would have taken seven years to get to chapter 42. all right instead yeah okay so just remember where you're at you came in at the very beginning of your Tanya Journey basically confused about your own inconsistencies I'm a religious person I do believe that I'm supposed to serve Hashem I just don't understand why I'm not consistently good at it okay so that if if that is the concern a person has that was addressed in chapter 26. okay yeah so the first thing you told us I'm reviewing the whole time you basically now he's telling the first thing he tells us is the the dichotomous nature that having an animal so on a Godly soul and that's why your results are sporadic then he tells us try to focus on behaviors don't worry about your internal motivations those are very hard to control focus on Behavior what we call garments thought speech and action then and he says it the way to do it is just control what you can control yeah make shout out to our life which he explains what she explains at first is simply meaning behavioral just bypass the emotions and just do what you want you I mean do what you need to do when you don't want by the way you know what you can compare that to the ice sponge water the ice you know the ice ones you have that's much so that I live in order to go in that's exactly what you need oh the ice plunge yeah it's so funny the whole world is talking about oh I'm doing my ice bath okay can I tell you something for hundreds of years what we'll see them doing every single morning smash the ice and go to the microphone right now it's a new trend for hundreds of years considered with smashing the ice and going in the mikfa and now it's a new trend okay but it is amazing okay okay so yeah so then we we say but if you're going to only focus on behavioral Perfection and you have no system for changing your emotions so that's not very sustainable so then we learn one method for aligning your emotions to God's will which is to trigger the adrenaline rush we spoke about how any Jew would gladly give up their life in a in a case of martyrdom and that we have to access that in seemingly mundane or pedestrian situations that we normally wouldn't react to with such intensity no this is the No No we we we got completely off of that we're reviewing the whole Tanya now to justify whether or not we're even interested in developing all right now it all started in Florida it all started before got rerouted yeah well that was one one approach as it already exists latently yes that was one approach and then he's like okay got another approach for you well actually no he doesn't do that right away he doesn't do that right away next he says what do you do to deal with your emotional challenges like you feel your life is too difficult right so we dealt with or other emotional challenges so we dealt with those things we had six seven chapters on it it's hard to condense it into a in a one-liner but they were all they're all cognitive reframing they're all different perspectives perspectives how to look at things the Sun what about the Sun the Rays of the sun well that was more of a metaphor about God being present um what about the Sun I said we would all be able to find one of them I don't think we would have passed the midterm you know what maybe I think that the average person in this class or certainly the aggregate knowledge possessed by the totality of this class you would be shocked the level that it's at and in fact not to like I don't want to bash anyone and say it like negative ways but like let's say if you would take a group of people who are in school and studying Tanya and have a class every single day and you know like a Yeshiva I'm not saying which Yeshiva take your pick and compare them compare their knowledge they probably would know more like diyokim like the details of like this word and that word and why it says Etc instead of all your Deeds are written in a book that kind of stuff they probably know better than you guys because I don't teach you that stuff but as far as the flow of the chapters and the main points and and what it actually means in real life this this class is on a very advanced level actual knowledge that's different but yes that's intellectual knowledge and you have to understand the limitations of a class it's like I can serve you food I can even teach you how to cook for yourself but I can't eat it for you or even the bathroom yeah we did one speak about that okay let me let me get to a place where I can stop here and then maybe we'll give you some practical uh homework here so when we were meditating on God's omniscience and we're describing it as how does God know everything that's going on he knows it like you know everything that's happening in your body you know every Sensation that your body is experiencing you're you're aware of what's happening to you okay so everything is happening within Hashem very good all right let's let's just get to a good stopping Place uh uh yeah um I think that's where I am but no created being is hidden from Hashem says and the kabbalistic wise men agree with their ambam this is an important conceptus Cordova writes in the paradise shibidius through knowing himself through knowing himself he knows all of the created beings that are found that exist because of the truth of his existence it's an important theological point which I'm not going to get into especially because we gobbled up so much time with other things there is a great theological debate regarding the nature of Hashem about his knowledge the altareb is saying that this way of looking at it is consistent both with their rambam as well as with the kabbalists namely Maisha Cordova the remark and that is that through knowing himself Hashem knows every detail okay let's just continue a little bit here raksha Marshalls however please remember this metaphor is only in order to placate The Listener amazing but in truth the metaphor is not accurate whatsoever because a person's soul of circles even his nephews and even his meaning not just as nevisha Bahamas meaning not just as animal soul but even as intellectual soul and even his Godly Soul he miss Palace is the soul of a person is actually affected by what's happening to it because the god even The Godly Soul it's invested in the animal soul and therefore it is subjected to whatever's happening to the animal Soul however in contrast to Hashem is not affected by the changes or the occurrences of this world nothing affects any change in him so please understand that on one hand he's totally aware of everything that's happening just like you're aware of everything that's happening to you on the other hand the metaphor is not completely consistent because it's not affecting him because he can't be affected he is the cause not the effect s how he how we affect how he's the revelation of a shot so the sages of the truth meaning the kabbalists already elaborated at length in their books about these Concepts however at the end of the day all Jews believe without any intellectual probing into the matter and we say Hashem who you are you existed before the world existed and you will continue to exist after the world exists you are Eternal you are unchanging you are unconditional existence like explained above in chapter 20 when we were talking about the nature of God's Oneness so he's making an important theological disclaimer that although when we are meditating for the purposes of inducing awe when we meditate on hashem's omniscience we're very very focused on this idea that Hashem is super aware of everything that's happening because it's happening to him at the same time please don't be confused please do not think that he is subjected to and affected by the changes of this world so that they induce a change in him okay so can I have a pen just to mark that we got up to the says okay we got up to where it says okay so you want a little practical meditation so think about yeah yeah strain of the soul is to think about God strain of the body was to refuse to review how poorly your life goes when you listen to your ego strain of the souls think about God okay so here's the assignment think about your life not somebody else's life not a happy Meadow with butterflies and a sun shining or something you could find on stock photo websites not that not picture a brook no think about your life your actual real life I'm not going to tell you think of happy times and sad times I don't know whatever comes up you'll probably find out about yourself when you if you see what kind of pictures are coming anyways think about your life think about that whatever it is that you remember whatever it is that you were conscious of Hashem is certainly conscious of and infinitely more so and infinitely more so so that's it just think about and I'm not going to tell you and therefore feel all because of it if you do this the Out the Devil says you will feel awe because of it so just think about your life think about what you're aware of think about what you've seen and heard and processed and then think about the fact however you have to do it if it's by visualizing the eyelid sees or the other ears however you want to symbolically represent that to yourself think about how hashem's omniscience extends to all of that okay now if you want to do it right now you're welcome to do it to do it right now and if anybody sees anybody else quietly staring into the corner just allow them to do that they're meditating they're okay nobody needs to call hatsala just your friend is meditating just let them meditate