When Balaam responds to King Balak’s call to curse the Israelite people, he is impeded on his way by an angel standing in the path. Balaam responds by beating his donkey because he cannot see the angel. In this meditation, we explore this scene as a representation of our own inner process. We are sent angels — signs and symptoms, obstacles and experiences of pain — along our journey to help guide us to the path of blessing (not curse) for which we were created, but we don’t see these angels. A part of us, the intuitive bodily donkey part, does see these angels, and knows how to align with our divine essence, but we often act with aggression towards this part and towards our own process, hitting at the pain instead of listening to it. In this meditation, we practice listening to our pain and to this donkey part of us, bringing its intuitive non-verbal knowing into consciousness and marveling at the miracle of this access.
Sources:
Numbers 22:2-35
Questions about “yes” and “no” were inspired by: Gabor Mate, When the Body Says No
10 Things Created at Twilight is from Pirke Avot 5:6
The idea of distraction as a kind of aggression was added based on a comment from Natalie Kirsh, a morning meditation group participant, and the idea of the donkey part as a part that we dismiss and devalue as base is from another morning meditation group participant, Judy Warter.
Photo by Pixabay at Pexels
