For the Bar/Bat Mitzvah Service: Guided Meditation for the Flame

You can do this on your own or with a group. If with a group, let your guests know you have guided visualization to share which will involve some chanting first, and some silence afterward. Tell them you will let them know when to emerge from the silence which will last for a few minutes.

Focusing softly on the flames, begin to chant from psalms the sacred phrase: "In Your Light, We see light, B'or-khah, Neereh Or, In Your Light." Recite this together slowly, over and over, let it become a chant. Very slowly take them through each of the levels of soul in the diagram. Be sure to leave quiet time between each level. Reflecting on each level can be very interesting and pleasurable and deserves time.

Unknown Object

Nefesh. The blue core of the flame, is the first level of soul. This is where you sense your soul and body connect, your center of vitality.

Ruah. The yellow band of the flame, this is the layer of anger, joy, sadness, your feelings.

Neshamah. The orange band of the flame. You are more than your feelings, you have another level of soul: your personality, thoughts, memories, opinions and innovations.

Hayah, the black farfrizzlings that come off into the air as the flame burns, represents your intuition. This is also the quality of soul that helps you to stay alive during times when it feels like you are crawling on the ground with your fingernails to survive, to tolerate the sometimes pain of life.

Yehidah, the candle’s heat and light. Who can say where this begins and ends? This is where your soul is unified and undifferentiable from all Being. This is where you occupy space in creation, you are needed and particular and contribute uniquely and at the same time you are in Yechidut, unity as the drop of water is with the ocean, as the leaf is with the tree, as the heat and light of the flame is simultaneously part of the shining of the original light of creation.

Hold a really long silence at the end and then as people come back to a group awareness invite sharing. Please don't require sharing of anyone. Whenever you invite sharing, it might be worthwhile to note the "and" method.
If someone says something about which you feel differently, rather than invalidating them by saying they are wrong, say "and, what works nicely for me is..." or and "what I am noticing is...."

Sometimes when I do this meditation, I sense the expanding flame of each soul in the room along with me, radiating through shining faces and great hearts far beyond each physical body, a light that comes through us from a Source born long before we were and suddenly: the menorah of humanity is revealed.

Still and all, reporting on my mystical experiences isn't having your own. Hopefully the reading is pleasurable and stimulates useful thoughts, possibilities and feelings. Even so, it is much like showing a postcard of a fountain, or picture of someone flying a plane - the words on the back are "having a great time, wish you were here."

It's your turn to try the flame.