The Afterglow Asleep

We need to be thankful for the simple gifts.

It’s truly a treat to feel awake and not like someone who's dragging along. A body needs to be healthy to do one’s life purpose correctly. Otherwise, one is operating more from a state of “surrounding light” rather than “inner light”. One feels like the body isn’t absorbing the lights flowing from the soul, but, is rather being coerced and burdened by the surrounding soul - whose presence in the sleepy body is tenuous. Sleep creates a bridge which restores the connection. The body shuts out of consciousness to align with the flows of the soul. What a gift!

This reminds me of the early cosmic story found in Lurianic Kabbalah about the “line of light” entering the “afterglow”, an event which molded the pattern for each subsequent instance of a soul entering a body. Ultimately, the “line of light” and the “afterglow” are not made of two separate materials. They are just two different states of Infinite Light. One state is closer to the original than the other - though not in actuality, but, merely as a greater revelation of the original.

The “afterglow” is the Infinite Light which is so deeply suppressed that she’s stuck. She’s lost much of her flexibility which easily came with her former Infinite state. Yet, her hardened state readies her for reaching down into lower levels. The “line of light” is closer to the original Infinite state. He’s still flexible enough to guide and direct the “afterglow”. However, he’s too intangible to reach lower. Instead, he reaches higher. Their connection forms an uninterrupted spiritual cable reaching from higher high to lower low.

Yet, strangely the afterglow needs a deeper sleep, a state of seemingly deeper distance from the liveliness produced by her most previous contact with her Source, to reconnect with her Source afresh. This is like a temporary descent for a higher ascent. Why does the reconnection need to occur in such a paradoxical way and what might “sleep” look like on the “afterglow” level?

In deeper sleep, the “afterglow” more fully surrenders to the line of light. Lingering flashes of life from previous connections are just residuals of the past. They’re not real connections. They’re more like the old stored up juice in a battery on the wane, which operates independently of any recent connection. The “sleep” works because its a submission, surrender, to a restorative higher power. It creates a deeper negative polarity which draws the flow.

The afterglow must go into states of deeper surrender, deeper negative polarity, to truly receive from the line of light. These are states where the afterglow gives up the claim that she can do it on her own. That’s her state of sleep, her ultimate salvation. Similarly with a human being, sleep is the body’s state of surrender to the soul.

Experiences

I think someone had it right when s/he said that in new way for humanity is not to collect possessions, but, experiences. Whether conscious of it or not, all along, the whole purpose of possessions was anyways for the experiences they brought us. “Owning” a possession just meant more frequent access to that particular experience. Or did it mean that? What happened when through frequent usage, the experience become commonplace or even boring? On the other hand, the “owning” meant also a burden as the possession often took up space in the person’s home or even in his/her mind. Also, there were circumstances where a possession took up time and other resources, as it needed caring for.

This is part of why I am so happy today to be in a two bedroom apartment, instead of owning a big house. As time flows onward, technology brings me experiences without requiring the possessions of yesteryear. Just one simple example, I don’t need CD disks, records or tapes to enjoy quality music anymore. There’s YouTube. Another simple example, I no longer need a few house phone to cover every corner of my home. I just keep a small cell phone with me. I now get the same communication experience with less possessions. Then of course there’s Skype, where I can have an even deeper communication experience, something closer to actually being in another’s presence. Thank You for all this.

However, there’s an experience which all this technology can only aid, reinforce, but not totally bring and that’s a relationship which requires someone’s actual presence and that’s male/female intimacy. There’s often a “possession” quality about this relationship, to enhance the experience. I cannot totally have this experience long distance. The other person needs to be in my presence to touch, to share deeply felt eye contact, etc.

This is why couples still need to share physical space to fully experience each other. This is a gift. It enhances the value of a human being’s presence. It says that unlike CD’s, records, tapes, house phones, ... people are not disposable or replaceable. One can’t deeply experience another in a satisfying way without his/her actual presence. There’s at least one other human being whose physical presence makes a huge difference to my whole experience of life itself and my physical presence makes the same difference to her whole experience of life. Besides, experiencing her, I feel a deeper experience of myself too. Similarly, besides experiencing me, she feels a deeper experience of herself too. So it’s really a multiple access experience which can only occur with another’s presence. There’s no technological substitute.

I actually think that this is part of the hallmark of the age we are entering, an age of deeper enlightenment or messianic era. Technology and scientific advances will do much to bring us experiences which once upon a time required a huge accumulation of financial resources and/or possessions. We will even have access to many, many life enhancing experiences, which the very wealthy of yesteryear couldn’t even dream of - effortlessly, without even a chase. What will remain as coveted treasures are levels of experiencing of one’s own self, other human beings and spiritual revelations.

This might be why Rabbi Yehuda L. Ashlag wrote that the messianic era is one when humans move from the desire to receive to the desire to give, as giving opens the door to experiencing another. This could also me what’s coded in the message that loving one’s fellow as one’s self will be what brings the messianic era, i.e. a world where competition for resources and possessions become useless, for a much  greater gift is simply experiencing another human.