---------------
Light,
You evoke mystery.
Mystics envision you.
Auras are made from you.
You’re a precise surgical scalpel.
Objects can’t reach your speed,
Whose constancy boggles, best minds.
While whizzing by us, you don’t travel at all.
While flashing in “light years”, you’re timeless.
You are at once opposites, particles and waves.
You’re a great teacher, twisting our perspective.
We used to think time and space were solid.
We used to think all shared a single clock.
Mental veils ripped, beckoning us to peer beyond;
Beckoning us to embrace space - warped and timeless.
This is how you’re escorting us to appreciate our Creator.
You’re walking us along a red carpet to the timeless Being.
With such an amazing servant, what can one say of his King?
Sunday, July 25, 2010
Tuesday, July 6, 2010
Memories
-----------------------------------------------
From the perspective where I am coming from the Creator has granted us "memory" as a kindness. Its a tremendous blessing to have. I am one of those people who see memory in a positive light.
Yet, to some memory also seems to be associated with prolonging profound pain. For example, throughout world history it seems all too common for individuals and nations to bear long historical grudges over painful deeds committed years, if not centuries, beforehand. As the person or nation is reminded, the pain is being replayed and relived.
An example that most people can relate to is the memory of a loved one who had passed away. Reminiscing about the loved one can be more than simply a walk down memory lane. It can be an encounter with profound pain. So perhaps memory is not such a blessing after all?
Its an Interesting question. However, it seems to me that reliving pain through memory is not a result of having too much memory. Surprisingly, it's actually a result of having too little memory.
Let me explain. Memory comes in two forms: horizontal and vertical. (These are my own made up terms.) Horizontal memories are a collection of memories from our earthly experience, here in physical form. It's what we refer to as history - whether its personal history, national history or world history.
Besides horizontal memory, there is also vertical memory. Vertical memories are memories of experiences in the higher realms from which the soul descended before entering the body. These could be memories of past lives, memories of between lives, memories of the heavenly court, memories of early stages of existence, memories of who we'll morph into in the future, etc. In short, memory of spiritual history.
The reason why horizontal memory can cause such pain is because we don't have sufficient vertical memory to match it up with. The vertical and horizontal versions of memory are a couple. They're supposed to get married, becoming one flesh, one memory.
Without being paired, the horizontal memory remains like a lifeless body craving the supportive animation of vertical memory. However, even without vertical memory every detail of life on the earth plane is really directed from Above. So behind every horizontal event there is a vertical event. It just needs to be remembered, in order to complete the story of what happened. But, if we don't remember the higher parallel event then we know far less than half the story. Sometimes knowing a half story can be less helpful than knowing no story, at all.
We need to somehow grow in vertical memory in order to sweeten our horizontal memory. From a Jewish perspective this is what will happen for everyone in the days of the Messiah. However, even today there are great saintly individuals who are already privy to vertical memory, to one degree or another. That's the Creator's gift to them in order to help them guide others.
When the Messiah's era arrives vertical memory opens up on a grand scale, not just for individuals, but for everyone. There are many things we can do to bring forward that day. Among them bringing peace and friendships between peoples, praying and helping people get along, acts of kindness, more involvement in the spiritual side of life, etc.
With our momentary lack of vertical memory, horizontal memory can be meanwhile sweetened somewhat by finding common ground and interests in broad areas. For example, group projects that appeal to what is universally human, to shared spiritual beliefs and values, etc. This can be accomplished through art, Internet friendships , study groups, prayer circles, educational ventures, etc.
There's an old Jewish story that humorously demonstrates the pitfall of humans having insufficient vertical memory.
Long ago, in a Jewish Eastern European town, there lived a very old, but healthy man. People in the town wondered about his "secret". One day a group of people gathered the courage to ask him.
"So what's your secret?", Chimed their ring leader.
"What secret?", Questioned the old man.
"You know ... how you managed to live so long and remain in such great shape", clarified the ringer leader, as if the old man should have known why he became an object of attention.
"Oh", Laughed the old man. "That's an easy question to answer. I never in my whole life complained. So they never felt compelled to take to where the answers are."
Up until contemporary times vertical memory usually only becomes available to a person after his or her earthbound existence. Let us hope to a brighter tomorrow when the missing memory will also become available to human beings, in bodies of flesh, here on earth. That's part of the sweetness the Jewish people, and many others, look forward to in the Messianic era.
From the perspective where I am coming from the Creator has granted us "memory" as a kindness. Its a tremendous blessing to have. I am one of those people who see memory in a positive light.
Yet, to some memory also seems to be associated with prolonging profound pain. For example, throughout world history it seems all too common for individuals and nations to bear long historical grudges over painful deeds committed years, if not centuries, beforehand. As the person or nation is reminded, the pain is being replayed and relived.
An example that most people can relate to is the memory of a loved one who had passed away. Reminiscing about the loved one can be more than simply a walk down memory lane. It can be an encounter with profound pain. So perhaps memory is not such a blessing after all?
Its an Interesting question. However, it seems to me that reliving pain through memory is not a result of having too much memory. Surprisingly, it's actually a result of having too little memory.
Let me explain. Memory comes in two forms: horizontal and vertical. (These are my own made up terms.) Horizontal memories are a collection of memories from our earthly experience, here in physical form. It's what we refer to as history - whether its personal history, national history or world history.
Besides horizontal memory, there is also vertical memory. Vertical memories are memories of experiences in the higher realms from which the soul descended before entering the body. These could be memories of past lives, memories of between lives, memories of the heavenly court, memories of early stages of existence, memories of who we'll morph into in the future, etc. In short, memory of spiritual history.
The reason why horizontal memory can cause such pain is because we don't have sufficient vertical memory to match it up with. The vertical and horizontal versions of memory are a couple. They're supposed to get married, becoming one flesh, one memory.
Without being paired, the horizontal memory remains like a lifeless body craving the supportive animation of vertical memory. However, even without vertical memory every detail of life on the earth plane is really directed from Above. So behind every horizontal event there is a vertical event. It just needs to be remembered, in order to complete the story of what happened. But, if we don't remember the higher parallel event then we know far less than half the story. Sometimes knowing a half story can be less helpful than knowing no story, at all.
We need to somehow grow in vertical memory in order to sweeten our horizontal memory. From a Jewish perspective this is what will happen for everyone in the days of the Messiah. However, even today there are great saintly individuals who are already privy to vertical memory, to one degree or another. That's the Creator's gift to them in order to help them guide others.
When the Messiah's era arrives vertical memory opens up on a grand scale, not just for individuals, but for everyone. There are many things we can do to bring forward that day. Among them bringing peace and friendships between peoples, praying and helping people get along, acts of kindness, more involvement in the spiritual side of life, etc.
With our momentary lack of vertical memory, horizontal memory can be meanwhile sweetened somewhat by finding common ground and interests in broad areas. For example, group projects that appeal to what is universally human, to shared spiritual beliefs and values, etc. This can be accomplished through art, Internet friendships , study groups, prayer circles, educational ventures, etc.
There's an old Jewish story that humorously demonstrates the pitfall of humans having insufficient vertical memory.
Long ago, in a Jewish Eastern European town, there lived a very old, but healthy man. People in the town wondered about his "secret". One day a group of people gathered the courage to ask him.
"So what's your secret?", Chimed their ring leader.
"What secret?", Questioned the old man.
"You know ... how you managed to live so long and remain in such great shape", clarified the ringer leader, as if the old man should have known why he became an object of attention.
"Oh", Laughed the old man. "That's an easy question to answer. I never in my whole life complained. So they never felt compelled to take to where the answers are."
Up until contemporary times vertical memory usually only becomes available to a person after his or her earthbound existence. Let us hope to a brighter tomorrow when the missing memory will also become available to human beings, in bodies of flesh, here on earth. That's part of the sweetness the Jewish people, and many others, look forward to in the Messianic era.
Monday, June 21, 2010
Paradigm Shift
-----------------------------------------
It has been a long and short sixteen years since the great spiritual leader Rabbi Menachem Mendel Scheerson has departed. To many who just marked the anniversary of this very difficult date, he is known simply as the Rebbe, a term that carries multiple connotations of endearment.
Peering through the time tunnel of all those years since I first became introduced to his teachings, I reflect back on how my life has been so far touched by his teachings.
Truthfully, his teachings enriched my understanding in too many ways to innumerate. However, there is one teaching that keeps popping up as I look back. However, in order to appreciate why this teaching hit the spot with me, I need to lead up to it.
It's human to make certain automatic assumptions about the very fabric of existence, simply taking certain features of the universe as axiomatic. For instance, it's common knowledge that certain people once accepted that the earth is flat. This was axiomatic to their world view. Many thought that if a sailor went too far out to sea, he'd slip off the edge of earth and be cast into space.
I have found a couple of my own similar "axioms" over the years that needed correcting. In my early teens I thought that time was simply part of the very fabric of existence. I thought that time had to be extremely primordial because everything needed a framework of time to exist in. If it had no time to exist, it would cease existing. If there's existence, then axiomatically there also had to be a time frame work to allow it's existence.
Based on this perspective, it seemed perfectly plausible to pop the question to a Rabbi, "Who created the Creator?"
He calmly responded, "Well, the Creator created time just like He created mountains and lakes. Since time is His own creation, He's beyond time, completely transcending it without being affected by it."
"Notions like before and after are functions of time. Without time, there's no before or after. Therefore, your question does not even begin."
I must admit that it was a real paradigm shift for me to essentially flip frameworks. Instead of thinking of time as so axiomatic to reality and unintentionally considering it an all encompassing framework, including of the Creator Himself, I now began to think of the Creator as the all encompassing framework for everything, including of time itself. From this point onward, I considered time merely a sub-framework (which still encompassed much of creation).
I encountered a paradigm shift of similar magnitude from studying the Rebbe's teachings. Like time, I thought that logic and reason were part and parcel of the very fabric of existence. Only, this "axiom" I carried into my adulthood; Possibly because Judaism, being quite at home in rational and logical thought, rarely challenged this "axiom". The few bumps I encountered carrying this "axiom" on Judaism's road I simply glossed over as ideas that might one day make sense when thought through more carefully (possibly in a mystical light).
When studying the Rebbe teachings I encountered for the first time that the earliest stages of creation were pre-logical and pre-reasonable. At these very early stages the Creator was just expressing His divine desire. Only later on in creation, He created logic and reason as a means for bringing His primordial desire into fruition.
This is similar to an architect who first desires a certain house and only afterwards draft blueprints on a drawing board, charting a logical course to bring his desire into fruition.
Therefore, logic is just a created tool to bring the divine desire into fruition. However, just as the Creator transcends time, so too, He transcends logic. Logic is a creation just like mountains and trees (and time) are. Consequently, reality passed through a phase when logic and reason had not yet emerged on scene. Creation was naked divine desire, yet to don clothing of logic.
When we look at certain Biblical commandments, many make sense, some don't. While it might make sense not to allow certain social ills that almost everyone can relate to, do all the ritually based commands readily make sense, if at all?
This was how the Rebbe's teachings paradigm shifted me, I was taught to realize that a command is a divine desire. As desire the commands were brought into being before logic was. Therefore, the commands are truly beyond logic. Therefore, they are not bound to follow logic. Sometimes on the way down to the earthplane, like much else of reality, the commands dress themselves in logic - either more fully or less fully. However, the logical side of a commandment, no matter how compelling, is only its clothing, not the real commandment itself. The real commandment is a soul that logic cannot contain!
It has been a long and short sixteen years since the great spiritual leader Rabbi Menachem Mendel Scheerson has departed. To many who just marked the anniversary of this very difficult date, he is known simply as the Rebbe, a term that carries multiple connotations of endearment.
Peering through the time tunnel of all those years since I first became introduced to his teachings, I reflect back on how my life has been so far touched by his teachings.
Truthfully, his teachings enriched my understanding in too many ways to innumerate. However, there is one teaching that keeps popping up as I look back. However, in order to appreciate why this teaching hit the spot with me, I need to lead up to it.
It's human to make certain automatic assumptions about the very fabric of existence, simply taking certain features of the universe as axiomatic. For instance, it's common knowledge that certain people once accepted that the earth is flat. This was axiomatic to their world view. Many thought that if a sailor went too far out to sea, he'd slip off the edge of earth and be cast into space.
I have found a couple of my own similar "axioms" over the years that needed correcting. In my early teens I thought that time was simply part of the very fabric of existence. I thought that time had to be extremely primordial because everything needed a framework of time to exist in. If it had no time to exist, it would cease existing. If there's existence, then axiomatically there also had to be a time frame work to allow it's existence.
Based on this perspective, it seemed perfectly plausible to pop the question to a Rabbi, "Who created the Creator?"
He calmly responded, "Well, the Creator created time just like He created mountains and lakes. Since time is His own creation, He's beyond time, completely transcending it without being affected by it."
"Notions like before and after are functions of time. Without time, there's no before or after. Therefore, your question does not even begin."
I must admit that it was a real paradigm shift for me to essentially flip frameworks. Instead of thinking of time as so axiomatic to reality and unintentionally considering it an all encompassing framework, including of the Creator Himself, I now began to think of the Creator as the all encompassing framework for everything, including of time itself. From this point onward, I considered time merely a sub-framework (which still encompassed much of creation).
I encountered a paradigm shift of similar magnitude from studying the Rebbe's teachings. Like time, I thought that logic and reason were part and parcel of the very fabric of existence. Only, this "axiom" I carried into my adulthood; Possibly because Judaism, being quite at home in rational and logical thought, rarely challenged this "axiom". The few bumps I encountered carrying this "axiom" on Judaism's road I simply glossed over as ideas that might one day make sense when thought through more carefully (possibly in a mystical light).
When studying the Rebbe teachings I encountered for the first time that the earliest stages of creation were pre-logical and pre-reasonable. At these very early stages the Creator was just expressing His divine desire. Only later on in creation, He created logic and reason as a means for bringing His primordial desire into fruition.
This is similar to an architect who first desires a certain house and only afterwards draft blueprints on a drawing board, charting a logical course to bring his desire into fruition.
Therefore, logic is just a created tool to bring the divine desire into fruition. However, just as the Creator transcends time, so too, He transcends logic. Logic is a creation just like mountains and trees (and time) are. Consequently, reality passed through a phase when logic and reason had not yet emerged on scene. Creation was naked divine desire, yet to don clothing of logic.
When we look at certain Biblical commandments, many make sense, some don't. While it might make sense not to allow certain social ills that almost everyone can relate to, do all the ritually based commands readily make sense, if at all?
This was how the Rebbe's teachings paradigm shifted me, I was taught to realize that a command is a divine desire. As desire the commands were brought into being before logic was. Therefore, the commands are truly beyond logic. Therefore, they are not bound to follow logic. Sometimes on the way down to the earthplane, like much else of reality, the commands dress themselves in logic - either more fully or less fully. However, the logical side of a commandment, no matter how compelling, is only its clothing, not the real commandment itself. The real commandment is a soul that logic cannot contain!
Sunday, June 6, 2010
New Dimensions
---------------------------------
Admittedly, the following essay is speculative. However, it represents a sincere attempt to make sense of our larger reality to the best of my capacity, as of the time writing this essay. At the very least, the essay offers some interesting food for thought.
In her work “Warped Passages”, the physicist Lisa Randall defines a dimension as a passage, a new direction. The following “two dimensional analogy” is not mine. Credit belongs to Edwin A. Abbott (1838-1926) who wrote it into a novel called, "Flatland". It was a work of genius that woke up many intellectuals to the implications of dimensionality.
We live in a universe that has three dimensions of space. Our three dimensions are length, width and height. Had our universe been a two dimensional universe, it would have been flat, containing only length and width. Hence, the name for the fictional universe called, “Flatland”.
A two dimensional creature living in the two dimensional universe of Flatland observes as a three dimensional ball crosses the flat plane of his universe. As the ball moves through, what does this two dimensional creature see? He sees a series of separate discs moving through his universe. In three dimensional space a ball is a single unit. However, in two dimensional space the same event translates into a vision of a series of flat discs.
In its own way, this is a commentary on the state of our own perception. We are biologically wired to see within the limits of three dimensions of space. If an entity existing in four or five dimensional space were to pass in front of our eyes, it would be perceived as fragmented. Perhaps limiting the dimensionality of a creature’s perception is part of the secret for providing that creature with a diversified universe. What's whole in a higher dimensional perception appears fragmented in a lower dimensional perception.
This might also be part of the secret of spiritual realms. These realms don’t necessarily have to exist in a different universe. They simply can be the way creatures wired to perceive more dimensions than we do experience the very same universe. Therefore, what some of what we experience as fragmented, they perceive as whole. So for example a prophet in deep meditation might isolate his or her soul from physicality to the level where s/he might perceive past, present and future as a singular whole, seeing the future with the same ease that s/he sees the present. By contrast, in his or her normative consciousness the past, present and future are experienced in distinct fragments.
A Kabbalah teacher of mine uses this notion to demonstrate how sometimes realities that seem at odds or even contradictory to the human experience, can be in perfect harmony or even a unified oneness in a spiritual realm that has more dimensions to hold it together. For example, he explained the particle/wave paradox of light using this notion.
The doorway to the area of physics known as Quantum Mechanics was opened by experiments that produced mixed messages about the nature of light. In certain experiments light behaved like a steam of particles, called photons. In other experiments, light behaved like a wave. Physicists were confused, “Is light particles or waves?”
My teacher taught me based on the teachings of Kabbalah that light is both waves and particles. Both expressions of light are simultaneously true and co-exist as one seamless entity in a higher reality. If light were seen from the vantage point of its true realm (not from where we're seeing it) it would look like a singular reality. It only manifests separately as particles and waves because human perception can only process in limited dimensions. As a result light fragments in our realm, splitting up an item that is one in a higher dimensional reality.
Following this logic consistently to one of its possible inferences, it seems that a what makes one realm higher than the next might merely be the amount of dimensions that its creatures can perceive in. So literally the perceptions of its creatures create the realm. Creatures capable of perceiving in more dimensions are just by their own perception living in a higher spiritual realm than creatures who perceive in fewer dimensions.
Our Creator is infinite in most absolute sense. He creates and removes dimensions to differentiate realms. He exists as if infinitely dimensional.
Admittedly, the following essay is speculative. However, it represents a sincere attempt to make sense of our larger reality to the best of my capacity, as of the time writing this essay. At the very least, the essay offers some interesting food for thought.
In her work “Warped Passages”, the physicist Lisa Randall defines a dimension as a passage, a new direction. The following “two dimensional analogy” is not mine. Credit belongs to Edwin A. Abbott (1838-1926) who wrote it into a novel called, "Flatland". It was a work of genius that woke up many intellectuals to the implications of dimensionality.
We live in a universe that has three dimensions of space. Our three dimensions are length, width and height. Had our universe been a two dimensional universe, it would have been flat, containing only length and width. Hence, the name for the fictional universe called, “Flatland”.
A two dimensional creature living in the two dimensional universe of Flatland observes as a three dimensional ball crosses the flat plane of his universe. As the ball moves through, what does this two dimensional creature see? He sees a series of separate discs moving through his universe. In three dimensional space a ball is a single unit. However, in two dimensional space the same event translates into a vision of a series of flat discs.
In its own way, this is a commentary on the state of our own perception. We are biologically wired to see within the limits of three dimensions of space. If an entity existing in four or five dimensional space were to pass in front of our eyes, it would be perceived as fragmented. Perhaps limiting the dimensionality of a creature’s perception is part of the secret for providing that creature with a diversified universe. What's whole in a higher dimensional perception appears fragmented in a lower dimensional perception.
This might also be part of the secret of spiritual realms. These realms don’t necessarily have to exist in a different universe. They simply can be the way creatures wired to perceive more dimensions than we do experience the very same universe. Therefore, what some of what we experience as fragmented, they perceive as whole. So for example a prophet in deep meditation might isolate his or her soul from physicality to the level where s/he might perceive past, present and future as a singular whole, seeing the future with the same ease that s/he sees the present. By contrast, in his or her normative consciousness the past, present and future are experienced in distinct fragments.
A Kabbalah teacher of mine uses this notion to demonstrate how sometimes realities that seem at odds or even contradictory to the human experience, can be in perfect harmony or even a unified oneness in a spiritual realm that has more dimensions to hold it together. For example, he explained the particle/wave paradox of light using this notion.
The doorway to the area of physics known as Quantum Mechanics was opened by experiments that produced mixed messages about the nature of light. In certain experiments light behaved like a steam of particles, called photons. In other experiments, light behaved like a wave. Physicists were confused, “Is light particles or waves?”
My teacher taught me based on the teachings of Kabbalah that light is both waves and particles. Both expressions of light are simultaneously true and co-exist as one seamless entity in a higher reality. If light were seen from the vantage point of its true realm (not from where we're seeing it) it would look like a singular reality. It only manifests separately as particles and waves because human perception can only process in limited dimensions. As a result light fragments in our realm, splitting up an item that is one in a higher dimensional reality.
Following this logic consistently to one of its possible inferences, it seems that a what makes one realm higher than the next might merely be the amount of dimensions that its creatures can perceive in. So literally the perceptions of its creatures create the realm. Creatures capable of perceiving in more dimensions are just by their own perception living in a higher spiritual realm than creatures who perceive in fewer dimensions.
Our Creator is infinite in most absolute sense. He creates and removes dimensions to differentiate realms. He exists as if infinitely dimensional.
Friday, May 28, 2010
Angel Eyes
-----------------------------------------------
It seems to me that there is probably only one universe. When seen with angel eyes, it's called paradise. When seen with human eyes, it's called earth.
(inspired by Tanya II)
--------------------------------------------------
There seems to be an inherent subconscious model that some people carry about the relationship between the physical and spiritual realm(s). In this model the realms are separate. There's the physical realm where life as we know it carries on. Then there are either one or more spiritual realms inhabited by souls and angels that are viewed as "somewhere else", i.e. as being in another location.
Careful study of both Jewish mysticism and science leads me to believe that this conceptual model is possibly mistaken. It seems likely that there really is only one universe, shared by all creatures and creations. However, a particular being's capacity to perceive can radically alter its experience of this universe; One universe, but many experiences.
Science has already documented that bees see ultraviolet light, dogs hear sounds we don't, snakes see infrared light and taste the air. What it comes down to is that even creatures we can see, touch and consciously interact with, whose sensory organs somewhat resembles our own, probably have a very different experience of the universe than we do. They are not living in another universe, but rather they living another experience of the same universe.
How much more so would this be the case for beings whom we cannot touch and whose ability to perceive is far removed from are own, like angels and souls. Obviously, when viewing the universe an angel or a soul picks up a very different set of vibes than we do, vibes that probably do not even include what's in our visual or auditory range at all. Such a being is experiencing the universe in a whole different way than we are. The difference is so radical that it can be said that the being is living in a different world than we are. However, this is only a metaphor to describe the gap in the life experience between a physical and spiritual being - even if they are really sharing the same universe.
The following thought experiment can help further illustrate the concept:
A human being is taking a stroll in the pastoral countryside. Along side him, gently floats a soul. The human sees trees, grass, flowers, hills, wide sky. The soul senses energies, thoughts, feelings, life forces and yearnings. Though they both stroll side by side along the same countryside, what's concrete to one is flowing and energetic to the other. Since neither sense the totality of universe, they each get to peek at a different fragment.
It seems to me that there is probably only one universe. When seen with angel eyes, it's called paradise. When seen with human eyes, it's called earth.
(inspired by Tanya II)
--------------------------------------------------
There seems to be an inherent subconscious model that some people carry about the relationship between the physical and spiritual realm(s). In this model the realms are separate. There's the physical realm where life as we know it carries on. Then there are either one or more spiritual realms inhabited by souls and angels that are viewed as "somewhere else", i.e. as being in another location.
Careful study of both Jewish mysticism and science leads me to believe that this conceptual model is possibly mistaken. It seems likely that there really is only one universe, shared by all creatures and creations. However, a particular being's capacity to perceive can radically alter its experience of this universe; One universe, but many experiences.
Science has already documented that bees see ultraviolet light, dogs hear sounds we don't, snakes see infrared light and taste the air. What it comes down to is that even creatures we can see, touch and consciously interact with, whose sensory organs somewhat resembles our own, probably have a very different experience of the universe than we do. They are not living in another universe, but rather they living another experience of the same universe.
How much more so would this be the case for beings whom we cannot touch and whose ability to perceive is far removed from are own, like angels and souls. Obviously, when viewing the universe an angel or a soul picks up a very different set of vibes than we do, vibes that probably do not even include what's in our visual or auditory range at all. Such a being is experiencing the universe in a whole different way than we are. The difference is so radical that it can be said that the being is living in a different world than we are. However, this is only a metaphor to describe the gap in the life experience between a physical and spiritual being - even if they are really sharing the same universe.
The following thought experiment can help further illustrate the concept:
A human being is taking a stroll in the pastoral countryside. Along side him, gently floats a soul. The human sees trees, grass, flowers, hills, wide sky. The soul senses energies, thoughts, feelings, life forces and yearnings. Though they both stroll side by side along the same countryside, what's concrete to one is flowing and energetic to the other. Since neither sense the totality of universe, they each get to peek at a different fragment.
Thursday, May 27, 2010
Even a tiny fraction of priceless is still priceless.
------------------------------------------------------------
Today, I'm going to blog differently. Usually, I write well mannered essays or poems on Jewish spiritual themes that have universal application. Today, I'm just writing. I have feelings inside that need to emerge. A dear friend of mine suggested that I use my blog as a vehicle for this therepy. So whatever happens, happens!
I have this tremendous yearning to find my place in the world. My life is filled with people who have "nitched". They have become Rabbis, doctors, lawyers, teachers, graphic designers, etc. I somehow have not "nitched" out yet. Here I am in my early 40s, my first Grandchild just born, wondering what I'm really going to do when I grow up? What can I do to make a difference in the world? I have an employable skill. However, it does not seem to me to be much more than a meal ticket and even as a meal ticket it has not worked that great in the past decade and even less so in the current economy.
Our lives are made up of moments in time. Can any employer or customer really pay someone for a moment of his or her life? Life is supposed to be priceless. Even a tiny fraction of priceless is still priceless. So, really there's only one way to be compensated for devoting moments of life to a task. This is the joy of knowing that one have "nitched" into one's spiritual role in life. The task may be physical, but yet very personally soulfull.
Humanity is like a large body. Every human being is a cell on that body. As cells we are supposed to help the body grow. However, I feel like a lost unintegrated cell. I can sit all day playing on the computer without feeling an iota less accomplished or satisfied than if I spent a full day earning my meal ticket. Something's very wrong with this picture. It's probably not the way most people feel.
There must be a core goal underneath it all that my soul came down to accomplish. I wonder what it is, but alas to forum is too public for me to feel comfortable doing what some like Julia Camaron would call "morning journals" on. That needs more privacy. However, if you are a person like me who feels that the best eight hours of the day are too empty to be spiritually justified, maybe you should write morning pages too.
Today, I'm going to blog differently. Usually, I write well mannered essays or poems on Jewish spiritual themes that have universal application. Today, I'm just writing. I have feelings inside that need to emerge. A dear friend of mine suggested that I use my blog as a vehicle for this therepy. So whatever happens, happens!
I have this tremendous yearning to find my place in the world. My life is filled with people who have "nitched". They have become Rabbis, doctors, lawyers, teachers, graphic designers, etc. I somehow have not "nitched" out yet. Here I am in my early 40s, my first Grandchild just born, wondering what I'm really going to do when I grow up? What can I do to make a difference in the world? I have an employable skill. However, it does not seem to me to be much more than a meal ticket and even as a meal ticket it has not worked that great in the past decade and even less so in the current economy.
Our lives are made up of moments in time. Can any employer or customer really pay someone for a moment of his or her life? Life is supposed to be priceless. Even a tiny fraction of priceless is still priceless. So, really there's only one way to be compensated for devoting moments of life to a task. This is the joy of knowing that one have "nitched" into one's spiritual role in life. The task may be physical, but yet very personally soulfull.
Humanity is like a large body. Every human being is a cell on that body. As cells we are supposed to help the body grow. However, I feel like a lost unintegrated cell. I can sit all day playing on the computer without feeling an iota less accomplished or satisfied than if I spent a full day earning my meal ticket. Something's very wrong with this picture. It's probably not the way most people feel.
There must be a core goal underneath it all that my soul came down to accomplish. I wonder what it is, but alas to forum is too public for me to feel comfortable doing what some like Julia Camaron would call "morning journals" on. That needs more privacy. However, if you are a person like me who feels that the best eight hours of the day are too empty to be spiritually justified, maybe you should write morning pages too.
Friday, May 7, 2010
Grasping a Thought In Your Hand
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Trying to understand the Creator with a human mind is like trying to grasp a thought with a hand.
(Tanya II 9)
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Early on in my Kabbalah classes, I usually teach my students that Kabbalah does not teach us about our Creator. Rather, Kabbalah only teaches us about our Creator's revelations. Sometimes students react to this teaching with a puzzled look.
I remember the first time I myself encountered this teaching. It was a real let down! I engaged a Rabbi to teach me about my Creator and all he can offer me were teachings about something else.
To help my students rapidly get passed a moment where they might be experiencing an unsettled state of mind, I immediately do an exercise with them. The purpose of the exercise is to help them appreciate the limits of the human mind when it comes to grasping certain very elevated realities.
I’d select a popular student and ask him to try to grab a thought in his hand.
Typically, the student will shoot me this man, are you from out of space look.
Then in feigned seriousness I’d ask the student, “Why can’t you catch the thought? Come on ... maybe you just didn’t try hard enough. Please try again.”
To which the student wanting to duck out of an impossible task will respond, “Hands are not designed to grasp thoughts.”
Then I’d quip, “Neither are minds tools designed to grasp the Creator!”
With this exercise the student has come to appreciate on his own why he cannot grasp the Creator and comfortably self-adjusts his own learning expectations.
Trying to understand the Creator with a human mind is like trying to grasp a thought with a hand.
(Tanya II 9)
*************************************************
Early on in my Kabbalah classes, I usually teach my students that Kabbalah does not teach us about our Creator. Rather, Kabbalah only teaches us about our Creator's revelations. Sometimes students react to this teaching with a puzzled look.
I remember the first time I myself encountered this teaching. It was a real let down! I engaged a Rabbi to teach me about my Creator and all he can offer me were teachings about something else.
To help my students rapidly get passed a moment where they might be experiencing an unsettled state of mind, I immediately do an exercise with them. The purpose of the exercise is to help them appreciate the limits of the human mind when it comes to grasping certain very elevated realities.
I’d select a popular student and ask him to try to grab a thought in his hand.
Typically, the student will shoot me this man, are you from out of space look.
Then in feigned seriousness I’d ask the student, “Why can’t you catch the thought? Come on ... maybe you just didn’t try hard enough. Please try again.”
To which the student wanting to duck out of an impossible task will respond, “Hands are not designed to grasp thoughts.”
Then I’d quip, “Neither are minds tools designed to grasp the Creator!”
With this exercise the student has come to appreciate on his own why he cannot grasp the Creator and comfortably self-adjusts his own learning expectations.
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