By Rabbi Shefa Gold
The Blessing
Our consciousness holds in it a memory of utter catastrophe, of the death and rebirth of this planet. The story of the Flood represents this awareness which awakens us to the preciousness of Life. And the story ends with a great blessing, a great promise. It is upon this blessing that our spiritual life rests. God touches our memory of devastation and says, "this will never happen again." She makes a covenant with all of life and places a rainbow in the sky as a sign of that covenant. "I will look upon the rainbow and remember this."
The blessing of the rainbow is the remembrance, the knowing that we are ultimately safe. This deep unquestioned sense of security and trust in the essential goodness and rightness of reality becomes the foundation for the process of awakening. It is so basic that circumstances and events cannot disrupt it. A. H. Almaas calls this quality, "Basic Trust." Its presence allows you to relax and JUST BE with whatever is.
Basic trust gives us the capacity to surrender, to let go of doubt and step into the unknown. As limiting ego-structures dissolve and we open to an expanded identification with Soul, it can feel as though everything we know is falling apart. The rainbow reminds us that whatever happens, we are safe. Even when terrible things happen, when the outer structures are destroyed and we are seemingly paralyzed by fear, the rainbow appears and reminds us of a deeper safety. YES, EVEN DEATH IS SAFE! And that sense of safety becomes the springboard for our next step. This innate and implicit trust in life and reality manifests as a willingness to take that necessary leap into the unknown. And so Basic trust manifests in the courage to be with what is and then, instead of being a reactive victim of circumstance, to live your life from a deep wisdom, from a wide perspective.
Parshat Noah blesses us with yet another rainbow with the story of the tower of Babel. When the tower of our arrogant singular purpose topples, we are given the rainbow of diversity. As we seek to touch the Unity, (and in our seeking there is some hunger for mastery or control,) we are confronted with multiplicity. We are sent on the rainbow journey to know and acknowledge every shade of experience, the whole spectrum of what it means to be human. We are blessed with complex beauty, confounding paradox and the opportunity to know and enjoy every separate color that makes up the magnificent white Light of the One.
The Spiritual Challenge
The Slonimer Rebbe talks about 3 types of faith.
"There are three rungs of Emunah: emunat ha-moah: Trusting Mind; emunat ha-lev: Trusting Heart; but there is a rung still higher, Emunat ha-evarim: Trusting with your limbs/embodiment: where Emunah penetrates every fibre of your being, where horror can’t seize you for your whole body feels the protective divine presence. Complete emunah occurs when it unfolds in all three dimensions. As King David said [Ps. 84] "My heart and my flesh [my body] sing to the Living God." Not just the heart, but also the flesh, our skin and our muscles, our bones and limbs also sing to the Living God, for Emunah suffuses our entire being."
The spiritual challenge is to suffuse our entire being with a sense of ultimate safety, to integrate the promise of the rainbow. That sense of security is our inheritance. And yet at some point we become disconnected from our Source and lose our Basic Trust. We feel betrayed and lose the very ground of being. The spiritual challenge is to re-connect with the truth of our safety, no matter what happens, so that we can again feel "held" by the goodness of Life; so that we can rest in the Divine embrace. Almaas describes the challenge like this:
"It means experiencing the factors which brought about the profound disconnection from reality, and experiencing repeatedly the fundamental truth of non-separateness, to the point where the soul can again rest in the knowledge of that truth. Each new experience of essential truth deepens the soul’s contact with her own basic trust."
As we receive the blessing of the rainbow, we are challenged to remember God’s promise and live our lives in its light. Whatever is blocking that light must be examined with compassion and dissolved through dedicated practice.
When the tower of our singular will for power topples and we are left with the multiplicity of languages, systems, conflicting stories and values, our path becomes confused and scattered. Yet the spiritual challenge is clear. We must not betray the Many for the One, or the One for the Many.
Guidance for Practice
Sometimes experiencing God’s faith in us allows us to find our own faith. There is a sacred phrase in the morning liturgy that says, "Raba emunatecha – How great is your faithfulness!" After chanting this phrase for a while and directing your heart towards a loving Presence, sit quietly and bring your attention to the soles of your feet. Feel God’s loving attention seeing and knowing and loving every inch of your body, moving your attention up to the ankles, calves, knees, thighs…. letting yourself be completely seen, known and loved….releasing any shame or hiddenness…allowing every part of you to be accepted by God’s loving attention….moving your attention up to the genitals, belly, hips , waist, chest, arms, hands….letting God’s gaze touch every wrinkle and crevice with complete acceptance…completely seen, completely known, completely loved….moving up your neck, face, between every hair on your head. When you reach the top of your head, bring your attention to the breath, and imagine breathing in and out from every pore at once, your whole body alive with God’s attention in you. Complete the meditation by chanting "Raba Emunatecha".
(Thank you to Reb Zalman for his inspiration in composing this meditation)