The Chime of the Soul

The other day, I had a beautiful memory of a special moment in my early 20’s; circa 1990. Having recently relocated from New York City to South Florida, I just discovered wind chimes and found them totally enchanting. I felt like listening to them is listening to the music of the wind.

During that time I attended a university which had a wide open lawn. Perched in the center of the lawn was a wooden gazebo. Hanging from it’s concave center was a very finely crafted wind chime. I used to sit in the gazebo and meditate to the pretty tonal sounds, hoping for a message from the pleasant breezes.

Having been taught in my spiritual studies that the whole universe is like God’s “garments”, I had hoped to learn how to see and hear His messages from the movements of His “garments”. This included the movements of the sun, moon, stars, birds, animals, fish, streams, ocean waves, natural sounds, cloud formations, thunder, rain  ...

Some may have thought this an effort in the direction of augury; forbidden by Judaism. However, I was not seeking to predict the future, just to have an active line of communication with my Creator. I was so awe struck by just His “garments” and marveled such at His mystery that fell in love with Him. And what’s a relationship without a continual flow of active communication?

Looking back, did I ever feel that I absorbed a message from the breezes? Did the melodious wind chime in the gazebo ever speak to me? No, it hadn’t. It would be too simplistic to say that I felt like I was addressed in a language which I simply did not understand, as if stopped by a foreigner groping for directions. Actually, I felt more like a fish asked to describe the water or as a person asked to describe his or her own face without having ever looked into a mirror. Whether or not this was true, this was how I truly felt.

After trying to hear the wind chime’s message, I continued on to meditate regularly in nature. I lived in South Florida throughout the decade of the 1990’s. I regularly meditated along the nature trails of Greynolds Park (on the lush banks of the Oleta River) and sometimes even in the Florida Everglades. Being mosquito infested, the nature trails in South Florida are usually not great places to sit in one spot for too long. So, I’d stroll the trails talking to God along the way. I referred to these sessions as “walkie talkies”.  Though not by conscious choice, in most cases the “talking” was mental rather than oral.

During these outings into nature, I cannot claim to have discerned the messages of the Creator’s “garments”. Still, the natural setting did serve as a ripe environment for me to hear the messages of my own soul. Plus, the Creator’s “garments” did serve as a great resource and inspiration for contemplation and self-realization. 

Over and over again, I remember realizing how privileged I was to be privy to the artwork of the greatest Artist in all existence. I strolled passed streams, and wooded areas in utter awe over the Divine Artist Who created all of this! I marveled at how the artistic scene I see here and now will never ever be seen again. Unlike a static painting in a museum, it shifts and is constantly re-painted each mili-fraction of a second. The cloud formations populating the expanse of the sky and framing the tree tops, are constantly reshaping. The sun’s position is in orbit. The birds are on the move. The turtles are swimming. The crabs side step their way between the river and their holes. The coconuts bob along in search for solid soil. The breezes constantly shift their intensity and direction. Even some feral monkeys play among the branches. And watch out, there’s a huge spider web! Yes, it too is part of the art, just don’t get entangled. LOL

Perhaps, I was never intended to hear God’s language through nature. I was just intended to be immersed in a fertile setting to hear my own soul. I guess where He talks, so does the soul.

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Vacation

While in the midst of a longer than expected vacation, I wonder what to do with all this unexpected free time. There are so many options leading people to use their vacation time in a variety of different ways; often ranging from just vegging to exerting oneself in a full out adventure. And then of course, there’s everything in between. In almost everyone’s work life the work schedule tends to upset the life balance. What all these choices have in common is that they’re attempts to bring some sort of balance to one’s life; whether it’s time with family, friends, rest, hobbies, interests or simply catching up on having fun.

As for my vacations, I try for a slightly “different” kind of life balancing (when I can). I take my guidance from the earliest known moment when any sort of vacation happened in recorded reality. Kabbalah teach that God withdrew His Infinite Light, leaving a vacated space to populate with finite realities. Until then, everything was awash with Infinity and there was no room for anything finite to exist. This vacated space was the very first known vacation in the history of anything.

We usually think of vacation primarily as an opening in time and not necessarily in space. However, let’s not get too caught up on this. Firstly, Einstein taught that time and space is deeply intertwined. At least for Einsteinian purposes, the two are exactly same thing. Secondly, the Kabbalists were likely appealing to what’s easier for the human imagination to process. Since we actually see space, it is relatively easy for our minds to depict; whereas, time tends to be more abstract. To think in spatial terms about a vacated space in the midst of the Infinite Light, just takes imagining a dark spot in the midst of an immense expanse of light. Even if the thinker knows that this is not the real deal, still it tentatively serves as a useful mental representation. However, to try the equivalent on the time model would require a much larger leap into the complexities of abstract thinking.

Why did this vacation emerge in the earliest reaches of identifiable reality? The main text describing the vacated space, explains that it occurred in order to allow God an arena of expression for His names and attributes, i.e. a stage to act on. For example, only in a finite reality can God’s compassion be actualized into expression. In singular seamless Infinity, there’s no need for compassion.  

We are enjoined to imitate God’s ways; thereby, aligning themselves with Him. Since His vacation was designed (as if) for the purpose of His own self-actualization, it is helpful for us to do the same on our own level. By doing so, we add to our own personal and spiritual growth. For those whose daily work is not very self-actualizing, this may be their opportunity to reset their life balance and introduce some long awaited self-actualization activities into their lives. And for those whose work is already self-actualizing, it can never be self-actualizing enough. There are always pockets of oneself which get repressed in the course of the daily grind. It’s just unavoidable. A vacation might be just that golden opportunity to discover activities which bring out these pockets of self onto life’s stage in the most productive way possible.   

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Light

The Light of God is alive,

  Cause this light is life itself.

As a stream meandering its way,

  Down a lush verdant mountain,

So, it flows down the levels of heaven,                          

Trickling down, drip drop, to earth.

Everything around us, EVERYTHING,

  Is alive with the self-same light.

When will people learn?

  Yes! When will they learn?

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A Fighting Optimism!

Last night, on the fifth night of Hanukkah, I was given a very inspiring gift, the chance to meet someone I have been praying for, for the past couple of years. She was diagnosed with “c” and a mutual friend had asked me to include her in my prayers.

It was a true pleasure not only to meet her, but to see that thank God her return to health is progressing along very nicely. As she related to me her story, she punctuated it with much faith and optimism. I sort of expected this, as I have heard that many, who have recovered, mainly managed it by riding on a wave of faith and optimism.  However, her attitude also conveyed a tonal quality, which I had not at all expected. I heard a “fighting spirit”!

To me, optimists were people who definitely made their earthly efforts, but, their faith emerged from a mainly passive approach and attitude. Even, this recognition was a paradigm shift away from what I believed in my 20’s, some 20 years back. Then, I believed that work and effort basically meant nothing. It was all up to God literally. I felt that hard work largely displayed a lack of faith. Everything was given miraculously. This extreme passive faith, at the time, colored my whole life perspective. Of course, it was encouraged along, by being surrounded by successful family members (on all sides) whose harder times were either behind them or kept very discreet; likely, out of concern for worrying loved ones. So, I never had anyone openly model for me what a “fighting optimism” looked like. Also, a string of siblings who passed away young from a genetic disorder encouraged me to look more heavenward than earthward for the “real answers”.

So, in my early 30’s I suffered until I came to realize that even if my faith is passive, my accompanying work needs to be active; at times, very active!  Life was not working out like a magical carpet ride. This was a huge paradigm shift and rude awakening for someone like me.  Slogans like, “Courage is faith which has said its prayers” began to resonate for me.

However, last night’s encounter was not only with a new person, but with a new attitude - “a fighting optimism”! She smiled wide as she assured, “I am going to beat this!” In a world no longer pervaded with much open prophecy, God often communicates via events, opportunities and out of the mouths of others,

It’s interesting to me that I had this encounter on Hanukkah. Wasn’t a “fighting optimism” what the Hasmoneans were all about? With the kind of passive optimism I had harbored just a moment before my encounter, the Hasmoneans would have waited out their oppression in hiding, praying and living as Crypto-Jews, some 1,700 years ahead of the Spanish inquisition. This is not to cast judgment on what occurred in Spain, as the circumstances were vastly different and therefore, not open to comparison. It’s just to say that a passive faith and optimism would have not achieved the great miracles of Hanukkah.

A “fighting optimism” is rooted in the conviction that yes, we must fight; yes, God wants us to fight; yes and most importantly, God is with us in the fight. It’s even more than simply “courage is faith which has said its prayers”.  It’s that courage is the prayer!

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Light, Water & Fish

In Judaism, an employee must be home before the onset of the Sabbath with enough time to fill a barrel of water, fry a small fish and light a candle in honor of the Sabbath. When reading this requirement, I wondered about the choice of Sabbath preparations used to mark this time period, as the Sabbath is known for so much else as well, such as: prayers, blessings, wine, special loaves of bread and piping hot stew. So, why were these three chosen?

Possibly, it’s because the work week is an expression of restraints on God’s holy light to some extent or another. During the work week a person often struggles and sweats to earn a livelihood. Sure there’s God’s help, but, it’s open expression is somewhat restrained. The Sabbath on the other hand, is a time of grace. During this period God’s light is more openly revealed.

Light, water and fish all emerge from a more openly revealed state of God’s light. They’re Sabbath-like in that sense. Earthly light is an extension and reflection of God’s own light. Water is God’s agent to expansively grant life to all organisms on this planet. Fish is a child of the water, as it emerges from water. Accordingly, what these three share in common is that they’re all expansive expressions of God’s open kindness.

Now the choice of preparations used to mark the minimal required time period for an employee to be home before the onset of the Sabbath suddenly makes sense. It marks the minimal time needed to shift gears from God’s restrained light to His openly revealed light.

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Light/Life

Light/Life

It seems to me that in Kabbalistic thought the notions of light and life are interchangeable. It seems like they are two ways of referring to the same reality, though different aspects of that reality. If so, why doesn't electrical light or candle light seem alive in the way plants, animals and humans do?

I think electric light or candle light is alive! But, it's in the category ofwhat’s called in Hebrew domem ( דומם ), meaning silent, along with rocks and other inorganic materials.

At this level of life, the entities are silent about the life they bear. Yet on Chanukah, we use that "silent" light/life for our menorahs; possibly to teach that even what seems silent, in the right context, can be still quite expressive. It can be used to express a message of freedom of worship and hope.

One day such lights will even be more expressive; actively conveying an expression of life on their own accord. Truthfully, there is no such a thing of something which is not alive. Every detail of existence exists because some drop of God’s Infinite Light flows through it. If it’s not alive in some sense, it would not exist at all. The drop of Infinite of Light which flows into what appears to our naked eyes as inanimate is simply hidden. However, since darkness is nothing more than compacted and suppressed light, there’s nothing which is not filled with life and hence, very alive!

Part of the hope which Chanukah holds out for us is that there will yet be a time when the hidden light will be revealed. The hidden light is not merely a heavenly light, from a higher realm, which will pervade earthly existence. It is also a light which is hidden within the bowels of the physical itself, which is yet to be discovered and/or revealed. There will yet be a time when the light from below will match the light from above in sublime union!

May it happen in our swiftly in our days!

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Letters of Thought

In several places in his Magnus opus, Tanya, Rabbi Shneur Zalman of Liadi makes reference to twenty two letters of thought. By this he refers to the communication which goes on inside of one’s own mind/brain. One may think that he’s referring to the conversations we have in our own heads using our native languages. At times, I considered such a possibly myself.

However, I never felt entirely comfortable with that answer because Rabbi Shneur Zalman clearly states that behavioral actions cannot occur without their first being a communication from these letters of thought. There are populations of people who don’t have a verbal language. Among them are babies and deaf mutes. Yet, they clearly act. So, by virtue of their capacity to act, they too must be in possession of these letters of thought.

So, these letters of thought cannot be referring to internal conversations in one’s own mother tongue. It must be something deeper and more innate; something shared by all humans. Today, we have technology which can serve as a model to help explain what the letters of thought possibly are.

Most people are familiar with computers. Regardless of the native language of the user, all (or at least many) computers share the same innate computer language. From this innate language, the computer forms and projects images, words, music, sounds, etc. into a medium understood by the user. For example, though the computer does not think in the user’s native language, it can communicate with the user in his/her native language.

Similarly with the human mind/brain, buried within there's likely an innate language which is hardwired into every human being. It’s likely extremely similar or even the same within every human being. This language has it’s own basic combining components which operate like letters to make words, i.e. larger units of communication. According to the Alter Rebbe there are twenty two of them, matching the number of letters in the Hebrew alphabet.

I call this language “Brainish”. As there’s English and Spanish, so there’s “Brainish”.  Just like with the computer’s mind, “Brainish” also forms and projects images, words, music, sounds, etc. into a medium understood by the person’s conscious mind. From there the person can have an internal dialogue, speak with another, dream, play, act, etc.

It might be useful for the future of humanity to discover and understand how to consciously access “Brainish”, as this can go very far to increase intelligence and communication in all sorts of ways.

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Ladder of Light

Visible light is merely the low end of the light spectrum.

Beyond are light waves vivid with the consciousness of plant life.

Further beyond are light waves spirited with animal life.

N’ even beyond that are light waves which are human souls.

This light spectrum continues up, even higher and yet higher...becoming increasingly alive.

Always remember that what you see is barely the lowest rung of this massive ladder.

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Utopia upon Utopia ...

As the knowledge base of humanity grows, dark spots leading to ignorance and misdirection shrink.

Knowledge will beget knowledge.

Then kindness from below and blessings from above will permeate the human condition;

Commencing a utopia, commonly called, "the messianic era" ~ followed by utopia upon utopia upon utopia upon...

In a never ending stream of succession.  

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