Saturday, December 17, 2016

Lost Feminine Self



There is a general understanding that the “Infinite Light” extended a “line of light” into the “vacated hollow” to stimulate her with new life.
However, has anyone also considered that perhaps there’s another reason why this event took place? Maybe, the "Infinite Light" extended a "line of light" into the "vacated hollow" to become energized by connecting to His lost feminine self.


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Gendered Seasons


Summer is a manifestation of the cosmic masculine, a period of time when the warmth radiates primarily from “outside” the planet, the luminous sun.

Winter is a manifestation of the cosmic feminine, a period of time when the primary sources of warmth are from “inside” the planetary zone; firewood, fossil fuels, electricity, etc.

Spring manifests the maturing cosmic masculine. He comes skipping along, bearing sunny blooms like a frolicking adolescent male in love.

Autumn manifests the maturing cosmic feminine. She dresses herself colorfully attired in leaves, like an adolescent female nervously preparing for her first date, under lengthening moonlight.


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Saturday, December 10, 2016

Activating One End through the Other


In Jewish mystical thought, what’s outside of our awareness because it’s beyond is referred to as “surrounding light”. In contrast, what’s within our range of awareness is called, “inner light”. However, inner and surrounding lights cannot be the only descriptions of our relationship with consciousnesses, forces and energies as there is at least one more possible scenario.

There are two reasons why something may be outside our range of perception. Either it’s too high or too low! Meaning, either it’s beyond our perception or below our perception. For example, the seven known colors of the rainbow represent the human eye’s capacity to accept a particular range of light waves. By studying other creatures, science has discovered a light wave above our range, called ultraviolet light (literary, “above violet”) and a light wave below our range called infra-red (literally, “below red”). Of course, these lights above and below our range are just what's popular knowledge.  I would expect that science has by now extended knowledge of the range much further in both directions. (If they haven’t, they are unforgivingly either too asleep or too fund dependant to boldly embark on the adventure of discovering the truth!) Since from the perspective of Jewish mystical thought, these levels of light are from the inorganic the reality’s lowest realm, it’s a given that the range of light extends far upward, becoming more and more alive, as the levels ascend - eventually, just Infinite Light or Infinite Life.

As just mentioned, what is beyond perception is called, “surrounding light”. There’s a special name for what is below perception. In Hebrew it is called, “battel”, which literary means, “nullified”. An example of “nullified” is  a tiny grain of salt dissolved in an immense piping hot pot of soup or a ray of sunlight while still inside the sun, before breaking free into the atmosphere. Similarly, angels might not see our reality, despite sharing the same universe, because our reality is “nullified” in the great spiritual light of theirs.  

Both “surrounding” and “nullified” lights share similarities, as they are both outside of our perceptive range. The Ashlag school of Jewish mysticism teaches that in spiritual terms spatial notions of distance and closeness is measured by similarity and dissimilarity. Two entities which share much in common, are similar, are said to be close. In contrast, two entities which don’t share much in common, are dissimilar, are said to be distance. It’s similar to psychological closeness and distance. People who we share many similarities with, we are close to. People whom we don’t share many similarities with we are distant from. This is not a function of physical space. We can be in close relationship with someone orbiting the planet in a satellite and at the same time we can be distant from our next door neighbor.

Since both  “surrounding” and “nullified” lights share similarities, they must have a connection to each other. Their similarities entails being outside perceptive range as two ends of a symmetrical pole, too high and too low. Thus, they can share at least three similarities. Firstly, they are outside perception. Secondly, they share a pole. Thirdly, their points along the pole are equidistant from perception, i.e. they share an equality of distance from a being’s perceptive range.  

To me, this setup seems to indicate that “surrounding” and “nullified” lights are in a male and female relationship with each other. Usually, what’s male and female to each other bears a high degree of polar opposite similarity. Therefore, the more of what is “nullified” is brought into perceptive range, the more of what’s “surrounding” will also be brought into perceptive range, as male and female work in tandem. Similarly, the more of what is “surrounding” is brought into perceptive range, the more of what’s “nullified” will also be. One end can’t be truly opened without the other end being opened too. It’s magnetic!

The Lubavitcher Rebbe always played on this notion to give hope to a lowly spiritual generation of Jews, many generations away from Mount Sinai and torn asunder by the holocaust, that their very lowliness is reason to believe that they can achieve revelations of the highest spiritual lights - including, ultimately the lights of the messianic era itself.

Quite possibly this is why the Lubavitch movement has risen to such popularity in the past couple of generations. Back in pre-war Eastern Europe, Lubavitch was probably viewed as just one school of Jewish thought and practice among many. And though such themes were always present in Lubavitch thought, it took a generation reaching such a low level for such teachings to really hit home and resonate.

This also illuminates what the Talmud teaches that the Messiah will come to a generation which is either very high or very low. There’s a need for one end of the spectrum to be activated to attract the other.

The value of bringing new perceptions of reality into perceptual range is that success with such efforts actually broadens the inhabited realm. Any given realm really only goes as far as perception allows for. What the inhabitants perceive is the extent of the realm. If their band of perception broadens then their realm expands and is more filled with divine revelations. By bringing into a realm neighboring “surrounding” and “nullified” lights, the realm swells with expansion. Just as a simple example, imagine if we could see infrared and ultraviolet suddenly our whole perception of reality would vastly broaden. We’d experience ourselves as living in a broader earthly realm - when really the only thing that changed was ourselves.


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Thursday, December 8, 2016

Who Moves?


People may be wondering why is it that I focus so much on the “Tzimtzum”. Truthfully, it’s because it’s the universe’s very earliest and still enduring love story. It’s a record of the first interaction between male and female. Also, it has imprinted every male and female interaction ever since ~ whether cosmic or human.

The way the story is related, the Infinite Light withdrew uniformly in all directions. Concurrently, from a different perspective, the dispersed elements later comprising the cosmic feminine gathered together from the endlessly vast fabric of the Infinite Light.   Once gathered, there was a concentration of these elements which pulled together, tighter and tighter, contracting into a hollow sphere; inhabited by a dense afterglow of the surrounding Infinite Light.  It makes sense to me that due to this “contraction” of cosmic femininity, in English the “Tzimtzum” is often translated as, “the contraction”.

There’s a notion in the theory of relativity that when two objects move closer to or further from each other in non-gravitational space, it is unclear which item moved. Of course in gravity filled space, it is clear who moved. The one who expended energy! However, energy to move is only necessary in zones affected by gravity. In a gravity free zone, moving takes no energy. A ball thrown in space would just keep on going, going and ... No stopping! No refuel!

Under such conditions whose moving and whose stationary can’t be proven. Clearly, at least one object is moving or the distance between them would remain constant. However, which one is moving (or even both) can’t be proven. Either object’s status as stationary or moving blur!

If such relativity of motion applies to physical space, how much more so beyond physical space. So who moved away from whom? Did the Infinite Light withdraw outward from the empty hollow (inhabited by the afterglow) or did the empty hollow withdraw from the Infinite Light by gathering, concentrating and contracting into the cosmic feminine? It’s not really clear.

Though commonly held that the Infinite Light withdrew, it should be equally correct to claim that the cosmic feminine, while forming, did the moving as she consolidated and contracted; like the moon in the Midrashic story diminishing herself. In this scenario, it only appeared from her perspective that the Infinite Light withdrew - as both growth and shrinkage are kinds of motion.

It actually makes more sense to me that it was the material of empty hollow which did the moving; rather than the Infinite Light. Here’s why? As it’s stirred by lack, movement is a function of being finite - not Infinite. The more finite, the more lacking. Therefore, in weighing between the Infinite Light and the empty hollow, it makes sense that the more finite of the two would be the one to be in motion;  i.e. the empty hollow (along with the contained afterglow).

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Monday, December 5, 2016

Withdrawal or Contraction?


For those who have studied the story of the "Tzimtzum" from Lurianic Kabbalah, I have always wondered why the "Tzimtzum" is often translated as "the contraction". I would have expected that the word "withdrawal" would have been a more idiomatically apt description of the event.

Today, it dawned on me that besides "contraction" being a better literal translation, it also points to an important aspect of the event. The "Tzimtzum" didn't simply happen by the Infinite Light withdrawing from a space. It happened via a polarization of the earliest expression of cosmic masculine and feminine.

During this polarization, the components of the cosmic feminine gathered together from out of the fabric of the Infinite Light and then "contracted", forming the "Reshimu" or the "afterglow". (It is misleading to think of the newly formed area as hollow or empty. That was only in a very relative sense.)

So it is the "contraction" of the cosmic feminine which was a very key driving force behind the event - making the term "contraction" far more idiomatically correct than I initially thought.

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The Difference


The difference between the blessings of our current lives and those of the messianic era is like the difference between an exiled princess receiving delivered packages of royal food from her parents, often compromised by the circumstances of delivery, and her enjoying fresh delicious foods at her parents' table.


Sufficiency


Please God grant me a sufficiency of my own portion. Whatever I think I lack isn't found in someone else's portion, but in what is yet to be revealed of my own.