Tuesday, November 23, 2004
AskMoses - Isn’t it naive to be happy all the time, even when bad things are happening?
(My note: this is so spot on! There is a constant fount of joy inside!)
Isn’t it naive to be happy all the time, even when bad things are happening?
King Solomon wrote in Ecclesiastes: “To everything there is a season and a time, for every matter under heaven…a time to weep and a time to laugh; a time to mourn and a time to dance…” The Zohar, the classic work of Kabbalah, describes the inner psyche of man as “weeping lodged in one side of the heart, and joy lodged in the other.”
Both these ideas imply that there are appropriate times for mourning and weeping and other times for joy and laughter. This is actually not as easy as it sounds. Have you ever seen someone acting depressed at a wedding or someone at a funeral or house of mourning talking frivolously? To be in tune with the moment is real wisdom.
Yet, there is an even deeper understanding where we learn to be joyous and broken hearted at the very same time. The world is so beautiful and a cause for true joy, how can I not be happy. On the other hand, the world is so full of human suffering and pain, how can I not feel broken hearted. Both these realities are actually true and a simultaneous state of joy and inner pain is thus appropriate. The trick is to not let joy drown out our empathy for others, while not letting our aching heart blind us to all the good surrounding us.
A classic example of this is the Jewish wedding ceremony where at the very apex of joy we break a glass to remind us of the destroyed Temple and all the pain of the world. Conversely, on Tisha B’Av when we fast and mourn for the destroyed Temple, tradition tells us that that on this very day the Messiah is born.
Rabbi Avraham Arieh Trugman
Isn’t it naive to be happy all the time, even when bad things are happening?
King Solomon wrote in Ecclesiastes: “To everything there is a season and a time, for every matter under heaven…a time to weep and a time to laugh; a time to mourn and a time to dance…” The Zohar, the classic work of Kabbalah, describes the inner psyche of man as “weeping lodged in one side of the heart, and joy lodged in the other.”
Both these ideas imply that there are appropriate times for mourning and weeping and other times for joy and laughter. This is actually not as easy as it sounds. Have you ever seen someone acting depressed at a wedding or someone at a funeral or house of mourning talking frivolously? To be in tune with the moment is real wisdom.
Yet, there is an even deeper understanding where we learn to be joyous and broken hearted at the very same time. The world is so beautiful and a cause for true joy, how can I not be happy. On the other hand, the world is so full of human suffering and pain, how can I not feel broken hearted. Both these realities are actually true and a simultaneous state of joy and inner pain is thus appropriate. The trick is to not let joy drown out our empathy for others, while not letting our aching heart blind us to all the good surrounding us.
A classic example of this is the Jewish wedding ceremony where at the very apex of joy we break a glass to remind us of the destroyed Temple and all the pain of the world. Conversely, on Tisha B’Av when we fast and mourn for the destroyed Temple, tradition tells us that that on this very day the Messiah is born.
Rabbi Avraham Arieh Trugman
AskMoses - How can Chassidic Judaism demand an attitude of joyfulness with so many problems in the world?
How can Chassidic Judaism demand an attitude of joyfulness with so many problems in the world?
Problems in the world? That's precisely why Chassidism demands a positive attitude.
Chassidism stresses happiness because being happy smashes obstacles. When you don't just live life, but revel in it, nothing will get you down.
As for problems, well, a true chasid simply doesn't see them as problems. Chassidism teaches that we are not human beings having spiritual experiences--we are spiritual beings having human experiences. And among those human experiences are "problems."
When the student of Chassidism meditates on the fact that G-d is the One and Only Source of all things, he or she remembers that everything has a purpose and goodness can be found everywhere--even in problems. The student then realizes the intimate relationship he or she enjoys with his or her Creator, and therefore welcomes the challenges of life with relish and vitality. Chassidism focuses on the fact that G-d has chosen us to be His partner in creation, for through Mitzvah observance we are assured that we perpetuate the world's existence. In fact, we find that the entire purpose of Creation is for humankind to transform the unrefined physical world into a refined, spiritual place.
Belief in G-d is critical, of course, but without a positive belief in G-d, one of happiness, that belief can rapidly sink into one of gloom and doom.
So Bobby McFerrin is right: "Don't worry, be happy!" (Is he a Chassid?)
Sarah Levi
Problems in the world? That's precisely why Chassidism demands a positive attitude.
Chassidism stresses happiness because being happy smashes obstacles. When you don't just live life, but revel in it, nothing will get you down.
As for problems, well, a true chasid simply doesn't see them as problems. Chassidism teaches that we are not human beings having spiritual experiences--we are spiritual beings having human experiences. And among those human experiences are "problems."
When the student of Chassidism meditates on the fact that G-d is the One and Only Source of all things, he or she remembers that everything has a purpose and goodness can be found everywhere--even in problems. The student then realizes the intimate relationship he or she enjoys with his or her Creator, and therefore welcomes the challenges of life with relish and vitality. Chassidism focuses on the fact that G-d has chosen us to be His partner in creation, for through Mitzvah observance we are assured that we perpetuate the world's existence. In fact, we find that the entire purpose of Creation is for humankind to transform the unrefined physical world into a refined, spiritual place.
Belief in G-d is critical, of course, but without a positive belief in G-d, one of happiness, that belief can rapidly sink into one of gloom and doom.
So Bobby McFerrin is right: "Don't worry, be happy!" (Is he a Chassid?)
Sarah Levi
Gary Schouborg PhD - Letting Go in Everyday Life
Gary Schouborg PhD - Letting Go in Everyday Life
(Amazing, here is this person, Dr. Gary Schouborg, describing the experience of Unconditional Happiness. Wow, so much of what he wrote could be me discribing it. I'm going to do some drastic editing of this page to shorten it up. I'll use (...) where I edit also use of italics and bold is mine. To read the original and view his website click the link above.)
Unconditional Happiness
During meditation, we begin to experience a happiness that is unconditional in the sense that it does not depend on our thoughts or circumstances. It is a satisfaction that abides while all our other experiences, with their pleasant and unpleasant qualities, come and go. This unconditional happiness is a sense of feeling whole, of not needing something further to be happy. We should not confuse unconditional with perfect and acceptable happiness. Perfect happiness requires that all our desires be satisfied. Acceptable happiness requires that enough be satisfied that we would rather be alive than dead. In contrast, unconditional happiness is unconditional precisely in existing however successful we may be in achieving our desires. It abides whatever our thoughts or circumstances may be.
Unconditional happiness also emerges as a unique gift (gratia, grace), something that neither we nor our circumstances have produced. Our circumstances do not produce it, because they constantly change whereas unconditional happiness abides. Nor do we produce it, though we do collaborate. Like any other gift, unconditional happiness requires both a giver and a receiver. If the receiver doesn’t have a receptive attitude, there is only a transfer of goods but not the experience of a gift. When we let go of all our thoughts in meditation, we adopt a radically receptive attitude, one that is necessary but not sufficient for unconditional happiness to emerge, just as being receptive to a gift is not sufficient for actually getting one. Who then is the giver? Precisely as unconditional, this happiness is not tied to any specifiable cause or giver. For this reason, religious traditions have called the giver God, the Absolute, Cosmic Consciousness, or Brahman. I would suggest, leaving the argument for another time, that the cause is a neuropsychological condition, perhaps the activation of endorphins in the absence of the cognitive processes that give specificity to our everyday experience. (My note: I've wondered about biological markers. It's possible I have an ongoing blast of endorphins that could be measured and documented. It would be interesting to test for some kind of biological markers and document them increasing and decreasing according to the thinking process engaged in.)
Because we do not experience unconditional happiness as having any specifiable cause, we do not experience it as occurring at any specifiable time. (My note: I wonder who the 'we' is that he refers to, does he mean that he exist in unconditional happiness or is he saying the 'human we', making him the convoy but not necessarily the receipent of truth.) What is specifiable is when we awaken to it. But because there is nothing temporally specifiable about unconditional happiness itself, we experience it as already there — outside temporal categories, so that we cannot say it goes in and out of existence. This sense of unconditional happiness as pre-existing our awakening to it is strengthened by its contrast with clinging — the illusion that to be really happy we must have something specific that we do not presently have, something that our thoughts or circumstances can give us. When we let go of that expectation, we awaken to unconditional happiness. (More accurately, some of us awaken to unconditional happiness and others are left only disillusioned. We don’t yet understand why individual experiences differ.) (My note: Ok, really... who is the 'we'?) If we yield again to that expectation, we lose unconditional happiness. This incompatibility between clinging and unconditional happiness gives the impression that the latter is a constantly existing state to which we lose access by clinging and gain access by letting go. However, all this is how we experience unconditional happiness. (My note: Ok, he's taking a branch away from my experience here. I'm thinking he isn't in the experience, he's reporting it from what he's learned and been taught. Oh ya, reading the next part, ya, he's reporting on what he's learned, letting go isn't the whole thing.) A causal explanation may tell us something different. Perhaps letting go activates endorphins, which produce unconditional happiness. In that case, though we experience unconditional happiness as a gift, we may indeed be actually producing it. Or perhaps there is some constant brain state that produces unconditional happiness, which brain state we lose access to when we cling and regain access to when we let go. This explanatory issue is an open question until we know more about the relationship between neural processes and our experience of unconditional happiness.
Conditional Satisfaction and Dissatisfaction
Experiencing unconditional happiness heightens our awareness that our ordinary experiences are conditional: transitory and interdependent. We discover that we unnecessarily create suffering for ourselves by clinging: mistakenly attributing unconditionality to merely conditional experiences. We grasp at conditional satisfactions because we mistakenly take them to be necessary for our unconditional happiness; and we rigidly avoid conditional dissatisfactions because we mistakenly suppose them to destroy our unconditional happiness. In clinging, we look for (unconditional) happiness in all the wrong (conditional) places. We therefore diminish the conditional satisfactions otherwise available to us. No longer feeling whole, we find ourselves wanting more no matter how successful we are in achieving our desires. And whatever dissatisfactions we experience only intensify our sense of incompleteness.
In contrast, if we let go of clinging to pleasant experiences, we discover that we can enjoy their momentary pleasure while maintaining our unconditional happiness. And if we let go of rigidly avoiding painful experiences, we find that at worst they go away more quickly than if we obsess about them, that their painfulness is moderated by our simultaneous experience of unconditional happiness, and that at best our disinterested observation of them may even dissolve the pain itself.
We therefore realize a second sense in which we are already happy. We have seen that we experience unconditional happiness as prior to our ordinary experience in the sense that we cannot describe the happiness itself in temporal categories. It seems timeless and in that sense predates our ordinary experience. However, our experience of unconditional happiness is temporally prior to future everyday experiences. Therefore, once we experience unconditional happiness, we are already happy before we ever engage in everyday activity. Success in everyday activity is not necessary for us to be happy. At this point, there arises the ancient problem expressed most famously in Plato’s allegory of the cave: if we are already happy, why would we pursue any goals at all? Instead of engaging in practical, everyday activity, why wouldn’t we just rest in our happiness? Indeed, it seems that a very few mystics enjoy doing just that. (My note: Ok, this is exactly what I wondered when I first experienced the imense bliss in light at the age of 16 - 17. Now he is discribing those experiencing constant unconditional happiness as mystics, so yep, it's not him.) However, most of us want to pursue other goals because we enjoy it. Once we experience unconditional happiness, our pursuits become a flowering of an inner happiness that already exists, rather than an attempt to fill a life that is incomplete.
To see how this realization transforms our everyday lives, let’s suppose that we have just lost a substantial amount of money in the stock market.
Emotional Transformation
...
What most fundamentally transforms our daily lives, then, is that in letting go in meditation we begin to experience an unconditional happiness that abides while conditional pleasures and pains come and go. This unconditional happiness provides a felt perspective on the conditional goals of our everyday life, so that we do not mistakenly think that our happiness lies in achieving them. We can then invest with equanimity, because our happiness is not hostage to our results. We are disappointed by our loss, since it’s unpleasant to fail and pleasant to succeed. But we are not made unhappy, since unconditional happiness does not depend on whether our conditional life experiences are pleasant or unpleasant.
Performance Transformation
...
Beyond Re-Collection
...
Summary
We can learn the process of letting go in the relatively simple environment of meditation. By letting go, we learn to discern between unconditional happiness on the one hand and conditional satisfactions and dissatisfactions on the other. On returning to our everyday lives after meditation, we take time outs and let go when we find ourselves clinging to our goals, making them more important than we should. We move beyond this ad hoc management of our activity to personal transformation by identifying and letting go of habitual attitudes that continually impel us to cling. The key habit is identification, where we mistakenly believe that some conditional satisfaction can give us the unconditional happiness that we truly seek or that some conditional satisfaction can destroy our happiness. ...
AskMoses - What's Judaism's opinion in regard to psychics?
AskMoses: What's Judaism's opinion in regard to psychics?
There is no doubt that there exists people who possess genuine powers. The question remains: how are these powers to be regarded Does the fact that one possesses an inborn tendency towards spirituality indicate that this person is inherently holy?
The answer is no. In Judaism, the prophet (one who is able to foresee future events with absolute accuracy and unmatched precision) is regarded with the greatest admiration. Yet the psychic, possessed of seemingly identical ability, is at best regarded with apprehension.
The difference lies in the source of these spiritual powers. A prophet's powers do not stem from within him. It is a Divine influx which comes from without, from above. A prophetic experience occurs independent of the prophet; he is merely a conduit for it. The powers are generated and initiated by the will of G-d. The prophet must prepare himself for the eventuality, but ultimately he is but a vehicle for the manifestation of the Divine Will. The source of a psychic's abilities, on the other hand, is from within. Their spiritual intuition originates from within themselves. Because of the dissimilarity, there exists a marked distinction of quality between the psychic and the prophet. While the prophet is distinguished as a man of extreme humility and humbleness, prevalent character traits of many psychics are self-centeredness, ego and at times, even arrogance.
In a sense, the innate psychic power is a talent like any other talent, much like a musical ability, an artistic sensitivity and the like. Being that it is an inborn talent, a natural gift and not a revelation from above, it is subject to free will. On the other hand, prophecy or any other form of Divine inspiration is a direct expression of the supernatural, an emanation originating from above. Consequently, it is intrinsically divine and holy.
Since psychic power is a human potential, like any other human potential it is amoral, that is to say, neither moral nor immoral. It can be used in a positive manner or used in a negative manner. The power itself has no intrinsic value--it is neither good nor bad. You thus have good psychics and not-so-good psychics.
Sarah Levi
There is no doubt that there exists people who possess genuine powers. The question remains: how are these powers to be regarded Does the fact that one possesses an inborn tendency towards spirituality indicate that this person is inherently holy?
The answer is no. In Judaism, the prophet (one who is able to foresee future events with absolute accuracy and unmatched precision) is regarded with the greatest admiration. Yet the psychic, possessed of seemingly identical ability, is at best regarded with apprehension.
The difference lies in the source of these spiritual powers. A prophet's powers do not stem from within him. It is a Divine influx which comes from without, from above. A prophetic experience occurs independent of the prophet; he is merely a conduit for it. The powers are generated and initiated by the will of G-d. The prophet must prepare himself for the eventuality, but ultimately he is but a vehicle for the manifestation of the Divine Will. The source of a psychic's abilities, on the other hand, is from within. Their spiritual intuition originates from within themselves. Because of the dissimilarity, there exists a marked distinction of quality between the psychic and the prophet. While the prophet is distinguished as a man of extreme humility and humbleness, prevalent character traits of many psychics are self-centeredness, ego and at times, even arrogance.
In a sense, the innate psychic power is a talent like any other talent, much like a musical ability, an artistic sensitivity and the like. Being that it is an inborn talent, a natural gift and not a revelation from above, it is subject to free will. On the other hand, prophecy or any other form of Divine inspiration is a direct expression of the supernatural, an emanation originating from above. Consequently, it is intrinsically divine and holy.
Since psychic power is a human potential, like any other human potential it is amoral, that is to say, neither moral nor immoral. It can be used in a positive manner or used in a negative manner. The power itself has no intrinsic value--it is neither good nor bad. You thus have good psychics and not-so-good psychics.
Sarah Levi
AskMoses- Is there an explicit mention of the afterlife in the Torah? (Bolding mine)
AskMoses:
Is there an explicit mention of the afterlife in the Torah?
This is one of the questions that is asked and re-asked continuously in medieval Jewish thought. This question has vexed the greatest minds throughout the ages, beginning with the 10th century Iraqi sage Rabbi Saddiah Gapn, to the present. One of the prominent Jewish thinkers of 15th century Spain, the Abarbanel, offers that the answer is quite simple.
He argues that the Torah does not mention the rewards of the World to Come because that is not what the Torah is about. The rewards that will be received in the future, after life on this realm has ceased, should not be a pertinent factor in one's behavior in the present life.
What is relevant to the discourse of life, is life as it is now, life at this very moment.
The intention of performing Mitzvot should not be for the attainment of rewards in the after life, nor, should one feel that life is being lived to rectify that which has been done in a previous incarnation. What occurred in previous lives is not important, nor is it important to know what will become of us in a future world, what is relevant is Today.
Any diversion of one's attention into the future or the past is a stolen moment from the extraordinary opportunity to live life in the present, and to make it special and worthwhile.
Rabbi DovBer Pinson
Is there an explicit mention of the afterlife in the Torah?
This is one of the questions that is asked and re-asked continuously in medieval Jewish thought. This question has vexed the greatest minds throughout the ages, beginning with the 10th century Iraqi sage Rabbi Saddiah Gapn, to the present. One of the prominent Jewish thinkers of 15th century Spain, the Abarbanel, offers that the answer is quite simple.
He argues that the Torah does not mention the rewards of the World to Come because that is not what the Torah is about. The rewards that will be received in the future, after life on this realm has ceased, should not be a pertinent factor in one's behavior in the present life.
What is relevant to the discourse of life, is life as it is now, life at this very moment.
The intention of performing Mitzvot should not be for the attainment of rewards in the after life, nor, should one feel that life is being lived to rectify that which has been done in a previous incarnation. What occurred in previous lives is not important, nor is it important to know what will become of us in a future world, what is relevant is Today.
Any diversion of one's attention into the future or the past is a stolen moment from the extraordinary opportunity to live life in the present, and to make it special and worthwhile.
Rabbi DovBer Pinson
AskMoses - Does Judaism Believe in Heaven and Hell?
AskMoses: Does Judaism believe in Heaven and Hell?
Judaism does have a concept of reward and punishment in the afterlife. However, since words we use bring to mind certain images, particularly “Heaven” and “Hell,” it is better to use the Jewish terminology which comes without the baggage.
When someone dies, the disembodied soul leaves this sensory world and enters “Gan Eden,” the spiritual Garden of Eden (a.k.a. “Heaven”). In the Garden of Eden, the soul enjoys the “rays of the Divine Presence,” a purely spiritual enjoyment dependent on the Torah learning and good deeds done while in a body. Every year on the yarzeit, the day of passing, the soul ascends to another level closer to G-d. This gives it tremendous pleasure.
Before entering the Garden of Eden, though, every soul must be refined, for it cannot enjoy the Divine Presence to the fullest degree with the pleasures and coarseness of our physical world still engraved on it. These would give the soul poor “reception” of divine radiance, and must be removed.
In order to restore the level of purity the soul had possessed before entering the physical world, it must undergo a degree of refinement commensurate to the degree which the body may have indulged itself. If a person sinned in this lifetime, as most of us do, then, to continue the radio analogy, we have serious interference. This means there is even more cleaning to be done. This cleaning process hurts, but is a spiritual and mental process designed not for retribution, but to allow one to truly enjoy his/her reward in Gan Eden. This cleaning process is called “Gehinom,” or, in the vernacular, “Hell.”
Sarah Levi
Judaism does have a concept of reward and punishment in the afterlife. However, since words we use bring to mind certain images, particularly “Heaven” and “Hell,” it is better to use the Jewish terminology which comes without the baggage.
When someone dies, the disembodied soul leaves this sensory world and enters “Gan Eden,” the spiritual Garden of Eden (a.k.a. “Heaven”). In the Garden of Eden, the soul enjoys the “rays of the Divine Presence,” a purely spiritual enjoyment dependent on the Torah learning and good deeds done while in a body. Every year on the yarzeit, the day of passing, the soul ascends to another level closer to G-d. This gives it tremendous pleasure.
Before entering the Garden of Eden, though, every soul must be refined, for it cannot enjoy the Divine Presence to the fullest degree with the pleasures and coarseness of our physical world still engraved on it. These would give the soul poor “reception” of divine radiance, and must be removed.
In order to restore the level of purity the soul had possessed before entering the physical world, it must undergo a degree of refinement commensurate to the degree which the body may have indulged itself. If a person sinned in this lifetime, as most of us do, then, to continue the radio analogy, we have serious interference. This means there is even more cleaning to be done. This cleaning process hurts, but is a spiritual and mental process designed not for retribution, but to allow one to truly enjoy his/her reward in Gan Eden. This cleaning process is called “Gehinom,” or, in the vernacular, “Hell.”
Sarah Levi
AskMoses - Gan Eden (Right here, right now - my note, Sandra)
AskMoses: I'm told that when a person passes away, the soul goes to Gan Eden. Where is this place?
I can guarantee you that no matter how many billions of dollars are invested in the space-program, NASA will never succeed in sending a shuttle to send regards to all our relatives...
Gan Eden is spiritual, and therefore is no place and every place. For example, where is the theory of relativity? That's a silly question, because an intellectual concept is not defined by the parameters of place or time. Only the physical is evaluated based on these factors. Gan Eden is a spiritual level which the soul experiences. In fact it is possible for a great tzaddik (saint) to experience this level while alive on this world. N. Silberberg
I can guarantee you that no matter how many billions of dollars are invested in the space-program, NASA will never succeed in sending a shuttle to send regards to all our relatives...
Gan Eden is spiritual, and therefore is no place and every place. For example, where is the theory of relativity? That's a silly question, because an intellectual concept is not defined by the parameters of place or time. Only the physical is evaluated based on these factors. Gan Eden is a spiritual level which the soul experiences. In fact it is possible for a great tzaddik (saint) to experience this level while alive on this world. N. Silberberg
AskMoses - Jewish Afterlife
AskMoses: Do Jews believe in an afterlife?
There isn't anything after life, because life never ends. It just goes higher and higher. The soul is liberated from the body and returns closer to her source than ever before.
The Torah assumes this in its language many times—describing Abraham’s death, for example, as "going to rest with his fathers" and similar phrases. The Talmud discusses the experiences of several people who made the trip there and back. Classic Jewish works such as Maavor Yabok describe the process of entering the higher world of life as a reflection of the soul's experiences while within the body: If the soul has become entrenched in material pleasures, she experiences the pain of ripping herself away from them so that she can experience the infinitely higher pleasure of basking in G-dly light. If she is soiled and injured by acts that sundered her from her true self while below, then she must be cleansed and healed.
On the other hand, the good deeds and wisdom she has gained on her mission below serve as a protection for her journey upwards. You want a real good spacesuit to make this trip.
The Zohar tells us that if it were not for the intercession of the pure souls above, our world could not endure for even a moment. Each of our lives is strongly impacted by the work of our ancestors in that other world. Grandma’s still watching over you.
Why should souls basking in divine light above be at all concerned about what’s happening in your mundane life below? Because, there they feel the truth that is so easy to overlook while down here, that this lowly, material world is the center-stage of G-d’s purpose in creating all that exists.
That is also why, at the final resolution, all souls will return to physical bodies in this world.
Rabbi Tzvi Freeman
There isn't anything after life, because life never ends. It just goes higher and higher. The soul is liberated from the body and returns closer to her source than ever before.
The Torah assumes this in its language many times—describing Abraham’s death, for example, as "going to rest with his fathers" and similar phrases. The Talmud discusses the experiences of several people who made the trip there and back. Classic Jewish works such as Maavor Yabok describe the process of entering the higher world of life as a reflection of the soul's experiences while within the body: If the soul has become entrenched in material pleasures, she experiences the pain of ripping herself away from them so that she can experience the infinitely higher pleasure of basking in G-dly light. If she is soiled and injured by acts that sundered her from her true self while below, then she must be cleansed and healed.
On the other hand, the good deeds and wisdom she has gained on her mission below serve as a protection for her journey upwards. You want a real good spacesuit to make this trip.
The Zohar tells us that if it were not for the intercession of the pure souls above, our world could not endure for even a moment. Each of our lives is strongly impacted by the work of our ancestors in that other world. Grandma’s still watching over you.
Why should souls basking in divine light above be at all concerned about what’s happening in your mundane life below? Because, there they feel the truth that is so easy to overlook while down here, that this lowly, material world is the center-stage of G-d’s purpose in creating all that exists.
That is also why, at the final resolution, all souls will return to physical bodies in this world.
Rabbi Tzvi Freeman
AskMoses - Miracles
AskMoses: "Why don’t miracles happen anymore?"
In truth, if we could see all the miracles about us, we might be too stunned to take a step forward. Perhaps our lives are nestled in a pocket of natural events, born of a world of outrageous miracles. Here are a few thoughts, from our sages and others, on the nature of miracles.
Heisenberg has finally done away with the traditional scientific notion that cause and effect are somehow mechanically linked. Today it is quite unscientific to hold that one event is an inevitable consequence of another. There are only probabilities. With the 19th century dogmatic, mechanistic, and deterministic attitude of science out of the way, science can no longer be used as an excuse to reject events that defy the so-called, "Laws of Nature." —The Rebbe, Rabbi Menachem M. Schneerson (adapted from a letter, 1972)
These things people call amazing coincidences, synchronicity, small miracles—this is the way the world is supposed to work. It is only that the world is in slumber, like a sleeping person who does not see, does not hear, does not speak— so that nothing distinguishes his head from his feet, his heart from his brain. So too, the world lies deep in a dream where anything is possible, but nothing seems to have a goal, where only chaos reigns. . .
. . . It takes only one person to open his eyes, his ears, his mind and his heart, and the objects of this world fall into place and work together, as they were meant to be. —Rabbi Yosef Yitzchak of Lubavitch (adapted from a talk, 1940)
There are four types of miracles:
1. Those that supersede nature entirely, such as occurred in the Exodus from Egypt.
2. Miracles flimsily dressed in a guise of nature, such as the victory of Chanukah and the Purim story.
3. Miracles of coincidence and synchronicity, where it is apparent that things out of the ordinary have occurred—yet all events have normal explanations.
4. Miracles that go unnoticed, perhaps even perceived as unfortunate. This last form is the greatest of all. A time will come when our eyes will open and we will see these hidden miracles and say, "The miracles of Egypt are nothing in comparison to these." —The Tzemach Tzedek (19th century)
In truth, if we could see all the miracles about us, we might be too stunned to take a step forward. Perhaps our lives are nestled in a pocket of natural events, born of a world of outrageous miracles. Here are a few thoughts, from our sages and others, on the nature of miracles.
Heisenberg has finally done away with the traditional scientific notion that cause and effect are somehow mechanically linked. Today it is quite unscientific to hold that one event is an inevitable consequence of another. There are only probabilities. With the 19th century dogmatic, mechanistic, and deterministic attitude of science out of the way, science can no longer be used as an excuse to reject events that defy the so-called, "Laws of Nature." —The Rebbe, Rabbi Menachem M. Schneerson (adapted from a letter, 1972)
These things people call amazing coincidences, synchronicity, small miracles—this is the way the world is supposed to work. It is only that the world is in slumber, like a sleeping person who does not see, does not hear, does not speak— so that nothing distinguishes his head from his feet, his heart from his brain. So too, the world lies deep in a dream where anything is possible, but nothing seems to have a goal, where only chaos reigns. . .
. . . It takes only one person to open his eyes, his ears, his mind and his heart, and the objects of this world fall into place and work together, as they were meant to be. —Rabbi Yosef Yitzchak of Lubavitch (adapted from a talk, 1940)
There are four types of miracles:
1. Those that supersede nature entirely, such as occurred in the Exodus from Egypt.
2. Miracles flimsily dressed in a guise of nature, such as the victory of Chanukah and the Purim story.
3. Miracles of coincidence and synchronicity, where it is apparent that things out of the ordinary have occurred—yet all events have normal explanations.
4. Miracles that go unnoticed, perhaps even perceived as unfortunate. This last form is the greatest of all. A time will come when our eyes will open and we will see these hidden miracles and say, "The miracles of Egypt are nothing in comparison to these." —The Tzemach Tzedek (19th century)
Monday, November 22, 2004
AskMoses Fear of G-d
AskMoses: "What's all this business about being 'G-d fearing'?
Fear of G-d has many levels.
When we say people are G-d fearing, we normally don't mean they live in fear that G-d might punch them out for doing the wrong thing. That's a quite shallow fear of G-d.
The real meaning of G-d fearing is fear of separation from G-d - just as an infant is afraid of being left alone by its mother. So too, a healthy soul realizes that certain actions will place a barrier between herself and her Beloved One above, and so she does what she can to avoid those actions.
Rabbi Tzvi Freeman"
Fear of G-d has many levels.
When we say people are G-d fearing, we normally don't mean they live in fear that G-d might punch them out for doing the wrong thing. That's a quite shallow fear of G-d.
The real meaning of G-d fearing is fear of separation from G-d - just as an infant is afraid of being left alone by its mother. So too, a healthy soul realizes that certain actions will place a barrier between herself and her Beloved One above, and so she does what she can to avoid those actions.
Rabbi Tzvi Freeman"
The Inexistence of the Universe | Chabad.org > Parsha > Va'etchanan
The Inexistence of the Universe Chabad.org > Parsha > Va'etchanan
(Note: The bold is from me to highlight the/my mission statement. Sandra)
From the Chassidic Masters
The Inexistence of the Universe
Based on the teachings of the Lubavitcher Rebbe, Rabbi Menachem M. Schneerson
Groping for a transcendent word in a vocabulary generated by our physical lives, we seize upon "light." Light is our metaphor for the incorporeal, the spiritual, the Divine. We speak of an era of "enlightenment" dispelling dark ages of ignorance and ignominy, of a "ray" of hope penetrating the blackness of despair, of the Divine "light" that bathes the virtuous soul.
Light straddles the defining line that runs between the physical and the spiritual. Sans weight, sans mass, sans just about any of matter's properties, light is the most ethereal of physical "things." Perceptibly real, yet free of the qualities we ascribe to the objects of our perceptible universe, light serves as a bridge of allegory between a mind grounded in a material environment and the metaphysical abstractions it contemplates.
None Else
In his Tanya, Rabbi Schneur Zalman of Liadi employs the metaphor of light to explain what is perhaps the most radical truth expressed by the Torah: the inexistence of the universe.
Twice in the 4th chapter of Deuteronomy (verses 35 and 39 respectively) the Torah makes this amazing statement:
You were shown to know that G-d is the G-d,1 there is none else beside Him.
Know today, and take onto your heart, that G-d is the G-d, in the heavens above and the earth below, there is none else.
The ever sensible mind, confronted with overwhelming evidence to the contrary, may perhaps interpret these verses to mean that there are no gods other than He. I -- the mind will insist -- the body I occupy, the table it is sitting at and the computer screen it is am looking at, certainly exist. These verses, then, are only affirming the basic tenet of Judaism -- that there is but a single, singular creator and ruler to the universe.
Not so, say the Kabbalists and the Chassidic masters: "there is none else" means that there is none else. Indeed, they explain, to maintain that there are existences other than G-d is ultimately the same as maintaining that there are other "gods" beside Him. What real difference is there between saying that the universe is governed by thousands of gods, or by a god of good and an equally potent god of evil, or by a very powerful god who (almost) always triumphs over a much weaker Satan, or by a great and mighty god who pervades every iota of existence save for a single cubic centimeter of space? Ultimately, one is saying that there is more than one independently potent force in existence. To say that there is a god with the power to create and destroy universes, punish the wicked and reward the righteous, cause galaxies to spin and crops to grow, but that there also exists a single pebble with a power independent of His -- be it only the power to exist -- is to deny His exclusive divinity and power.
So when the Jew daily declares "Hear O Israel, G-d is our G-d, G-d is one," this is more than an affirmation that there is but one deity. It is a statement on the inexistence of all else save His one being.
Real In Relation
Yes, we perceive our own existence and the existence of the myriads of objects and forces we call "the universe." But this is our finite and subjective perception of reality. If we could observe reality from the all-transcendent perspective of the Creator, we would see a "world" devoid of selfhood and being. In the words of the Tanya: "If the eye were allowed to see the life and spiritual content flowing from the utterance of G-d's mouth into every creation, we would not see the materiality, grossness and tangibility of the creation, for it would be utterly nullified in relation to this divine life-force..."
Modern physics demonstrates the relativity of apparent absolutes such as time and space. An object or event cannot be said to possess an intrinsic size or duration: these are always a matter of perspective. The same object may be an inch in length, as observed from point A, and a hundred miles long, as observed from point B; the same event can be said to transpire over the course of a second or a thousand years, again depending on the position and velocity of the observer. The mind may have to bend over backwards to assimilate a vision of reality so radically different from its first-hand experience of its environment, but every high-school science student has read of the experiments and seen the diagrams that demonstrate this truth.
But the Torah has a more demanding task for the mind: to comprehend the relativity of existence itself. To understand that the very it-ness of creation, even the very "I" that is the making the observations, are also a matter of perspective. That while the created reality perceives itself as real, there is a higher perspective from which reality is the truth that "there is none else beside Him."
Where, in our experience of the universe, is there an example of this sense-defying truth, an analog that may aid us in achieving this tremendous leap of mind? What model have we for the relativity of a thing's very existence? Light.
Light exists. We regard light as an entity distinct of its emitter, distinguishing between a luminous body and its luminescent expression. An observer on earth, for example, perceives both the sun and the light that extends from it, and hence our dictionary includes both the term "sun" and "sunlight". But what would be the perspective of an observer within the sun? Would he, too, perceive "sunlight" as an existence distinct of the sun? Obviously not. Light, by definition, has a source and a destination, an emitter and an observer; light is information -- a communication from one thing to another. Light, then, exists only in relation to that which is outside of its source, but not in relation to the source itself. If sunlight is defined as "the sun's luminescent expression" then it cannot be said to "exist" within the sun, where the very notion of "expression" is superfluous and meaningless.
Does this mean that the entity we call light "begins" outside of the sun? Again, the answer is obviously No. The sun itself is not dark; the luminescence that extends from it certainly pervades it. It is just that the concept of "light" has validity and meaning only to an observer outside of the light's source. Lacking substance of its own, light exists only insofar as it serves its function: to carry information and effect from its emitter to that which lies outside its emitter. Where it has no function (i.e. within its emitter), it does not exist -- not because it is any less "there," but because it lacks the context that defines its existence.
Light, then, both exists and does not exist at the same time, depending on the context in which it is viewed. It goes from non-existence to existence not by undergoing any intrinsic change but simply by being observed from a different vantage point -- a point in relation to which its function has significance.
So light, explains the Tanya, is the metaphor through which we can try to understand the relative existence of the universe. Our world is "light" emitted by G-d: an expression of His omnipotence, a revelation of His majesty.2 As "light," the created reality has no substance of its own, no intrinsic being; its "existence" is defined solely by its function -- to express and reveal its Emitter. So the world exists only as observed from without its Creator and Source. As seen from G-d's perspective, it does not merit the term existence -- again, not because it is any less "there" (G-d, after all, tells us in His Torah that He created a world) but because in relation to the Divine "sun" the defining function of the sunlight of creation is utterly insignificant.
[Rabbi Schneur Zalman takes this a step further, pointing out an important difference between the sun/sunlight analogue and the Creator/creation relationship it illustrates. With the sun, we identify two distinct areas in whose context the "existence" of sunlight is considered: outside the sun, and within the sun. Outside the sun, sunlight exists; within the sun, it is non-existent. Regarding the Almighty, however, the existence of this "second perceptive" is also only a matter of perspective. In truth, there is no "area" that is outside of G-d's infinite reality; the "vacuum"3 into which G-d emanates His light is a vacuum of perception, real only from our mortal perspective. In other words, G-d did not create a reality outside of Himself, only the perception of a reality outside of Himself. So the "light" of creation is, in truth, "sunlight within the sun" -- that is, non-existent light. To us, the world exists only because we perceive ourselves as being "outside of the sun" -- a perceived vantage point from which "sunlight" is perceived as an "existence."]
The View From Sinai
As cited above, the Torah twice reiterates the exclusivity of G-d's existence, twice in the same chapter proclaiming that "there is none else" other than He. For there are two paths by which man may come to appreciate the nature of his reality vis-a-vis the Divine: from the top down, and from the bottom up.
The first verse (verse 35) is referring to the day that "G-d descended on Mount Sinai" in a unilateral revelation of His all-pervading truth. On that day, Moses reminds the assembled community of Israel forty years later, "you were shown to know that G-d is the G-d, there is none else beside Him." On that day you were raised above the arc of your subjective vision of self and existence and accorded a glimpse of reality from His perspective.
The revelation at Sinai was a brief "foretaste" of a future world -- a world in which all masks and superimposed "perceptions" will fall away. A world in which "your master shall no longer shroud Himself; your eyes shall behold your Master"; a world in which "the world shall be filled with the knowledge of G-d as the waters cover the sea" (Isaiah 30:20 and 11:9). The world of Moshiach, when, as the Zohar puts it, "G-d will take the sun out of its sheath" and obliterate the concealment that effects the perception of a reality outside of His.
Bracketed between the revelation at Sinai and the revelation of Moshiach, we live in a world in which our Master does shroud Himself -- a world in which the sun remains sheathed and we are not "shown to know." It is regarding this world that the Torah enjoins us, in the second verse cited above, to "Know today, and take onto your heart" that "in the heavens above and the earth below, there is none else." The knowledge is there, embodied in the heavens above and the earth below: in every blade of grass, in every sunset, in the depths of our minds and in the sublimity of our hearts. In this world the onus is upon us to unearth this truth, comprehend it, and incorporate it into our hearts and lives.
This explains the difference between these two verses. When we are shown the Divine truth, there are no details, no mention of "the heavens above and the earth below." As viewed from the supernal perspective, the particulars of creation fade to insignificance. One does not even see the distinction between the spiritual ("the heavens above") and the material ("the earth below") -- only the singular truth that "there is none else beside Him." But when our quest begins from the bottom up, it is precisely these details and distinctions that build our knowledge and appreciation of the Divine truth. The more we delve into creation's components, the more we recognize them as rays of Divine luminescence. We recognize that creation is "light": an existence defined not in term of self-being but as the bearer of a higher truth.
Based on the teachings of the Lubavitcher Rebbe; adapted by Yanki Tauber
FOOTNOTES
1. In the original Henrew, HaVaYeH is Elokim. "G-d" is first referred to in the verse as HaVaYeH (the "Tetragrammaton"), the Divine name that connotes G-d's timelessness and His transcendence of the created reality, and then as Elokim -- the Divine name that connotes G-d's infinite power as expressed in the countless particulars and fathomless intricacies of His creation. As the source of the plurality and diversity in creation, Elokim is also "screen" that conceals the oneness of G-d, allowing for our world's sense of self and distinctiveness of being. By comprehending that HaVaYeH and Elokim are, in essence, one and the same, we come to appreciate that our existence is nothing but an expression of His all-transcendent, all-pervading reality (see the discourse V'Yadaata 5657 by Rabbi Sholom DovBer of Lubavitch)
2. Thus, light is the first creation, and the exclusive creation of the First Day, for light is existence in its most basic form
3. The Kabbalistic works of the "Ari" (Rabbi Isaac Luria, 1534-1572) speak of a tzimtzum ("self constriction") of the Divine reality that created a chalal ("vacuum") and makkom panu ("empty place"), into which G-d emanated the Divine "light" that is the essence of the created reality. Chassidic teaching, citing the verse "I, G-d, did not change" (Malachi 3:6) and the Zoharic axiom "There is no place devoid of Him" explains that the tzimtzum was not the creation of a literal void in the Divine reality (G-d forbid), only the creation of the perception of such a void -- a perception that allows the created reality, even as it is wholly absorbed by the Divine reality "as the sunlight within the sun," to perceive itself as a distinct existence.
The content on this page is produced by Chabad.org, and is copyrighted by the author, publisher and/or Chabad.org. If you enjoyed this article, we encourage you to distribute it further, provided that you comply with our copyright policy.
(Note: The bold is from me to highlight the/my mission statement. Sandra)
From the Chassidic Masters
The Inexistence of the Universe
Based on the teachings of the Lubavitcher Rebbe, Rabbi Menachem M. Schneerson
Groping for a transcendent word in a vocabulary generated by our physical lives, we seize upon "light." Light is our metaphor for the incorporeal, the spiritual, the Divine. We speak of an era of "enlightenment" dispelling dark ages of ignorance and ignominy, of a "ray" of hope penetrating the blackness of despair, of the Divine "light" that bathes the virtuous soul.
Light straddles the defining line that runs between the physical and the spiritual. Sans weight, sans mass, sans just about any of matter's properties, light is the most ethereal of physical "things." Perceptibly real, yet free of the qualities we ascribe to the objects of our perceptible universe, light serves as a bridge of allegory between a mind grounded in a material environment and the metaphysical abstractions it contemplates.
None Else
In his Tanya, Rabbi Schneur Zalman of Liadi employs the metaphor of light to explain what is perhaps the most radical truth expressed by the Torah: the inexistence of the universe.
Twice in the 4th chapter of Deuteronomy (verses 35 and 39 respectively) the Torah makes this amazing statement:
You were shown to know that G-d is the G-d,1 there is none else beside Him.
Know today, and take onto your heart, that G-d is the G-d, in the heavens above and the earth below, there is none else.
The ever sensible mind, confronted with overwhelming evidence to the contrary, may perhaps interpret these verses to mean that there are no gods other than He. I -- the mind will insist -- the body I occupy, the table it is sitting at and the computer screen it is am looking at, certainly exist. These verses, then, are only affirming the basic tenet of Judaism -- that there is but a single, singular creator and ruler to the universe.
Not so, say the Kabbalists and the Chassidic masters: "there is none else" means that there is none else. Indeed, they explain, to maintain that there are existences other than G-d is ultimately the same as maintaining that there are other "gods" beside Him. What real difference is there between saying that the universe is governed by thousands of gods, or by a god of good and an equally potent god of evil, or by a very powerful god who (almost) always triumphs over a much weaker Satan, or by a great and mighty god who pervades every iota of existence save for a single cubic centimeter of space? Ultimately, one is saying that there is more than one independently potent force in existence. To say that there is a god with the power to create and destroy universes, punish the wicked and reward the righteous, cause galaxies to spin and crops to grow, but that there also exists a single pebble with a power independent of His -- be it only the power to exist -- is to deny His exclusive divinity and power.
So when the Jew daily declares "Hear O Israel, G-d is our G-d, G-d is one," this is more than an affirmation that there is but one deity. It is a statement on the inexistence of all else save His one being.
Real In Relation
Yes, we perceive our own existence and the existence of the myriads of objects and forces we call "the universe." But this is our finite and subjective perception of reality. If we could observe reality from the all-transcendent perspective of the Creator, we would see a "world" devoid of selfhood and being. In the words of the Tanya: "If the eye were allowed to see the life and spiritual content flowing from the utterance of G-d's mouth into every creation, we would not see the materiality, grossness and tangibility of the creation, for it would be utterly nullified in relation to this divine life-force..."
Modern physics demonstrates the relativity of apparent absolutes such as time and space. An object or event cannot be said to possess an intrinsic size or duration: these are always a matter of perspective. The same object may be an inch in length, as observed from point A, and a hundred miles long, as observed from point B; the same event can be said to transpire over the course of a second or a thousand years, again depending on the position and velocity of the observer. The mind may have to bend over backwards to assimilate a vision of reality so radically different from its first-hand experience of its environment, but every high-school science student has read of the experiments and seen the diagrams that demonstrate this truth.
But the Torah has a more demanding task for the mind: to comprehend the relativity of existence itself. To understand that the very it-ness of creation, even the very "I" that is the making the observations, are also a matter of perspective. That while the created reality perceives itself as real, there is a higher perspective from which reality is the truth that "there is none else beside Him."
Where, in our experience of the universe, is there an example of this sense-defying truth, an analog that may aid us in achieving this tremendous leap of mind? What model have we for the relativity of a thing's very existence? Light.
Light exists. We regard light as an entity distinct of its emitter, distinguishing between a luminous body and its luminescent expression. An observer on earth, for example, perceives both the sun and the light that extends from it, and hence our dictionary includes both the term "sun" and "sunlight". But what would be the perspective of an observer within the sun? Would he, too, perceive "sunlight" as an existence distinct of the sun? Obviously not. Light, by definition, has a source and a destination, an emitter and an observer; light is information -- a communication from one thing to another. Light, then, exists only in relation to that which is outside of its source, but not in relation to the source itself. If sunlight is defined as "the sun's luminescent expression" then it cannot be said to "exist" within the sun, where the very notion of "expression" is superfluous and meaningless.
Does this mean that the entity we call light "begins" outside of the sun? Again, the answer is obviously No. The sun itself is not dark; the luminescence that extends from it certainly pervades it. It is just that the concept of "light" has validity and meaning only to an observer outside of the light's source. Lacking substance of its own, light exists only insofar as it serves its function: to carry information and effect from its emitter to that which lies outside its emitter. Where it has no function (i.e. within its emitter), it does not exist -- not because it is any less "there," but because it lacks the context that defines its existence.
Light, then, both exists and does not exist at the same time, depending on the context in which it is viewed. It goes from non-existence to existence not by undergoing any intrinsic change but simply by being observed from a different vantage point -- a point in relation to which its function has significance.
So light, explains the Tanya, is the metaphor through which we can try to understand the relative existence of the universe. Our world is "light" emitted by G-d: an expression of His omnipotence, a revelation of His majesty.2 As "light," the created reality has no substance of its own, no intrinsic being; its "existence" is defined solely by its function -- to express and reveal its Emitter. So the world exists only as observed from without its Creator and Source. As seen from G-d's perspective, it does not merit the term existence -- again, not because it is any less "there" (G-d, after all, tells us in His Torah that He created a world) but because in relation to the Divine "sun" the defining function of the sunlight of creation is utterly insignificant.
[Rabbi Schneur Zalman takes this a step further, pointing out an important difference between the sun/sunlight analogue and the Creator/creation relationship it illustrates. With the sun, we identify two distinct areas in whose context the "existence" of sunlight is considered: outside the sun, and within the sun. Outside the sun, sunlight exists; within the sun, it is non-existent. Regarding the Almighty, however, the existence of this "second perceptive" is also only a matter of perspective. In truth, there is no "area" that is outside of G-d's infinite reality; the "vacuum"3 into which G-d emanates His light is a vacuum of perception, real only from our mortal perspective. In other words, G-d did not create a reality outside of Himself, only the perception of a reality outside of Himself. So the "light" of creation is, in truth, "sunlight within the sun" -- that is, non-existent light. To us, the world exists only because we perceive ourselves as being "outside of the sun" -- a perceived vantage point from which "sunlight" is perceived as an "existence."]
The View From Sinai
As cited above, the Torah twice reiterates the exclusivity of G-d's existence, twice in the same chapter proclaiming that "there is none else" other than He. For there are two paths by which man may come to appreciate the nature of his reality vis-a-vis the Divine: from the top down, and from the bottom up.
The first verse (verse 35) is referring to the day that "G-d descended on Mount Sinai" in a unilateral revelation of His all-pervading truth. On that day, Moses reminds the assembled community of Israel forty years later, "you were shown to know that G-d is the G-d, there is none else beside Him." On that day you were raised above the arc of your subjective vision of self and existence and accorded a glimpse of reality from His perspective.
The revelation at Sinai was a brief "foretaste" of a future world -- a world in which all masks and superimposed "perceptions" will fall away. A world in which "your master shall no longer shroud Himself; your eyes shall behold your Master"; a world in which "the world shall be filled with the knowledge of G-d as the waters cover the sea" (Isaiah 30:20 and 11:9). The world of Moshiach, when, as the Zohar puts it, "G-d will take the sun out of its sheath" and obliterate the concealment that effects the perception of a reality outside of His.
Bracketed between the revelation at Sinai and the revelation of Moshiach, we live in a world in which our Master does shroud Himself -- a world in which the sun remains sheathed and we are not "shown to know." It is regarding this world that the Torah enjoins us, in the second verse cited above, to "Know today, and take onto your heart" that "in the heavens above and the earth below, there is none else." The knowledge is there, embodied in the heavens above and the earth below: in every blade of grass, in every sunset, in the depths of our minds and in the sublimity of our hearts. In this world the onus is upon us to unearth this truth, comprehend it, and incorporate it into our hearts and lives.
This explains the difference between these two verses. When we are shown the Divine truth, there are no details, no mention of "the heavens above and the earth below." As viewed from the supernal perspective, the particulars of creation fade to insignificance. One does not even see the distinction between the spiritual ("the heavens above") and the material ("the earth below") -- only the singular truth that "there is none else beside Him." But when our quest begins from the bottom up, it is precisely these details and distinctions that build our knowledge and appreciation of the Divine truth. The more we delve into creation's components, the more we recognize them as rays of Divine luminescence. We recognize that creation is "light": an existence defined not in term of self-being but as the bearer of a higher truth.
Based on the teachings of the Lubavitcher Rebbe; adapted by Yanki Tauber
FOOTNOTES
1. In the original Henrew, HaVaYeH is Elokim. "G-d" is first referred to in the verse as HaVaYeH (the "Tetragrammaton"), the Divine name that connotes G-d's timelessness and His transcendence of the created reality, and then as Elokim -- the Divine name that connotes G-d's infinite power as expressed in the countless particulars and fathomless intricacies of His creation. As the source of the plurality and diversity in creation, Elokim is also "screen" that conceals the oneness of G-d, allowing for our world's sense of self and distinctiveness of being. By comprehending that HaVaYeH and Elokim are, in essence, one and the same, we come to appreciate that our existence is nothing but an expression of His all-transcendent, all-pervading reality (see the discourse V'Yadaata 5657 by Rabbi Sholom DovBer of Lubavitch)
2. Thus, light is the first creation, and the exclusive creation of the First Day, for light is existence in its most basic form
3. The Kabbalistic works of the "Ari" (Rabbi Isaac Luria, 1534-1572) speak of a tzimtzum ("self constriction") of the Divine reality that created a chalal ("vacuum") and makkom panu ("empty place"), into which G-d emanated the Divine "light" that is the essence of the created reality. Chassidic teaching, citing the verse "I, G-d, did not change" (Malachi 3:6) and the Zoharic axiom "There is no place devoid of Him" explains that the tzimtzum was not the creation of a literal void in the Divine reality (G-d forbid), only the creation of the perception of such a void -- a perception that allows the created reality, even as it is wholly absorbed by the Divine reality "as the sunlight within the sun," to perceive itself as a distinct existence.
The content on this page is produced by Chabad.org, and is copyrighted by the author, publisher and/or Chabad.org. If you enjoyed this article, we encourage you to distribute it further, provided that you comply with our copyright policy.
Judaism - Oneness, Christianity - Duality
Christianity branched away from Judaism when it redefined god as a dualism. That god and his creation are separate, (G-d forbid).
Once the Christian church had dualism they were able to go on to create eternal hell and eternal salvation. The Christian church came up with those concepts approximately 60 years or so after the death of Christ.
Christians could drop the dualism, eternal hell and damnation, return to G-d is One and still know they are Loved.
I use to struggle with why the Christian church was so messed up, being raised Christian. I'd say to my mother that G-d is one and she a devote Missouri Synod would quote Genesis saying that God created the earth, therefore the earth could not be part of god. (or something like that)
I was recently discussing G-d with another devote Christian woman and I mentioned everything and everyone was G-d. She went after me like she was going to light me on fire, saying that her concept was a superior one since she believed that God was able to create life out of nothing. *sigh*
I just looked at her, realizing that nothing I said to her would make any difference.
Anyway, my thanks to Dr. Doreen Virtue who in her book on working with Divine Guidance mentioned the difficulty some Christians have in connecting to their own Divine Guidance because of their believe in a Dualism.. That God is separate (G-d forbid) from his Creation.
Reading that line it all clicked for me.
Here the Christian lady, who is this really really wonderful person, had her face turn so freaking ugly when she started spouting that there where three things she would die for. That Christ is god, that Christ died for her sins, and that Christ was from immaculate conception. (Ah.. My own note here.. Really what difference does the third point make if the first two points are granted..... I mean really...) It was so weird watching her.. This is the second time I've seen her do the Christian thing where she gets really ugly... Freakishly so, like demon possession looking. My tatic... back away slowly and keep an open path to the door. :)
I left her home shaken. Well, here's the thing, I had asked G-d to show up and talk for me when I was at her home.. and that's how the conversation went.. even that the topic would come up was different.
After digesting it and analyzing it for hours/days that's when I finally realized fully that the only way to help those types of people is indirectly. To not speak with them at all on the topic. Instead to keep working on liberating myself, anchoring heaven as the Chariot of Heaven and to help liberate the other Love Beings.
Thought I'd blog some Kabbalah, Judaism, Oneness for ya, that being, here's some posts from Chabad.org ;)
Once the Christian church had dualism they were able to go on to create eternal hell and eternal salvation. The Christian church came up with those concepts approximately 60 years or so after the death of Christ.
Christians could drop the dualism, eternal hell and damnation, return to G-d is One and still know they are Loved.
I use to struggle with why the Christian church was so messed up, being raised Christian. I'd say to my mother that G-d is one and she a devote Missouri Synod would quote Genesis saying that God created the earth, therefore the earth could not be part of god. (or something like that)
I was recently discussing G-d with another devote Christian woman and I mentioned everything and everyone was G-d. She went after me like she was going to light me on fire, saying that her concept was a superior one since she believed that God was able to create life out of nothing. *sigh*
I just looked at her, realizing that nothing I said to her would make any difference.
Anyway, my thanks to Dr. Doreen Virtue who in her book on working with Divine Guidance mentioned the difficulty some Christians have in connecting to their own Divine Guidance because of their believe in a Dualism.. That God is separate (G-d forbid) from his Creation.
Reading that line it all clicked for me.
Here the Christian lady, who is this really really wonderful person, had her face turn so freaking ugly when she started spouting that there where three things she would die for. That Christ is god, that Christ died for her sins, and that Christ was from immaculate conception. (Ah.. My own note here.. Really what difference does the third point make if the first two points are granted..... I mean really...) It was so weird watching her.. This is the second time I've seen her do the Christian thing where she gets really ugly... Freakishly so, like demon possession looking. My tatic... back away slowly and keep an open path to the door. :)
I left her home shaken. Well, here's the thing, I had asked G-d to show up and talk for me when I was at her home.. and that's how the conversation went.. even that the topic would come up was different.
After digesting it and analyzing it for hours/days that's when I finally realized fully that the only way to help those types of people is indirectly. To not speak with them at all on the topic. Instead to keep working on liberating myself, anchoring heaven as the Chariot of Heaven and to help liberate the other Love Beings.
Thought I'd blog some Kabbalah, Judaism, Oneness for ya, that being, here's some posts from Chabad.org ;)
The Unbearable Heaviness of Being | Chabad.org
The Unbearable Heaviness of Being Chabad.org: "The Unbearable Heaviness of Being
By Yanki Tauber
Perhaps the most radical statement by Judaism is to be found in this week's Torah reading. "G-d is," says Moses to the assembled people of Israel. "There is nothing else" (Deuteronomy 4:35).
Some would be quick to point out that a number of eastern religions and philosophies also make the inexistence of the universe a central component of their world-view. Life is a dream, reality an illusion, in truth all is nothingness. But that's not what Judaism says. Judaism says that there is a world -- the first sentence of the Torah states that G-d created one, and the rest of the Torah instructs what should be done with it. Those who seek to escape reality are called "sinners". And yet, at the very same time, G-d is the only existence -- "There is nothing else."
Hundreds of discourses and thousands of pages of Chassidic teaching are devoted to discussing this paradox, which touches on the very crux of Judaism. You'll find samplings of these discussions in this week's magazine -- in Tzvi Freeman's six-part essay on Freedom of Choice and in the "From the Chassidic Masters" section of our Parshah summary. But in this article, I'd like to ask a very un-philosophical question: So what?
So I don't exist. Or I don't exist and do exist at the same time. So what? I still have to get up in the morning, I still have to deal with my landlord, my credit card balance, my mother-in-law, my co-workers and this guy whose elbow is crushing my ribs on this crowded subway car. It might make interesting reading, but in the final analysis, what difference does it make?
The problem is, "so what?" happens to be Chassidim's favorite question. Which means that there are at least as many pages discussing the practical implications and applications of the existence/non-existence paradox as those discussing the paradox itself. This is not going to help us make this discussion any shorter.
So let me just leave you with one thought. Think back to the last time you argued with a friend, or the last time you lashed out in anger at a loved one or a stranger. Now ask yourself: what if you took yourself just a little bit less seriously? What if you were just a tiny bit less certain that you actually exist?
By Yanki Tauber
Perhaps the most radical statement by Judaism is to be found in this week's Torah reading. "G-d is," says Moses to the assembled people of Israel. "There is nothing else" (Deuteronomy 4:35).
Some would be quick to point out that a number of eastern religions and philosophies also make the inexistence of the universe a central component of their world-view. Life is a dream, reality an illusion, in truth all is nothingness. But that's not what Judaism says. Judaism says that there is a world -- the first sentence of the Torah states that G-d created one, and the rest of the Torah instructs what should be done with it. Those who seek to escape reality are called "sinners". And yet, at the very same time, G-d is the only existence -- "There is nothing else."
Hundreds of discourses and thousands of pages of Chassidic teaching are devoted to discussing this paradox, which touches on the very crux of Judaism. You'll find samplings of these discussions in this week's magazine -- in Tzvi Freeman's six-part essay on Freedom of Choice and in the "From the Chassidic Masters" section of our Parshah summary. But in this article, I'd like to ask a very un-philosophical question: So what?
So I don't exist. Or I don't exist and do exist at the same time. So what? I still have to get up in the morning, I still have to deal with my landlord, my credit card balance, my mother-in-law, my co-workers and this guy whose elbow is crushing my ribs on this crowded subway car. It might make interesting reading, but in the final analysis, what difference does it make?
The problem is, "so what?" happens to be Chassidim's favorite question. Which means that there are at least as many pages discussing the practical implications and applications of the existence/non-existence paradox as those discussing the paradox itself. This is not going to help us make this discussion any shorter.
So let me just leave you with one thought. Think back to the last time you argued with a friend, or the last time you lashed out in anger at a loved one or a stranger. Now ask yourself: what if you took yourself just a little bit less seriously? What if you were just a tiny bit less certain that you actually exist?
Question 5: Oneness | Chabad.org
Question 5: Oneness | Chabad.org: "Question 5: Oneness
By Tzvi Freeman
Since there is nothing else but His Oneness, what room is left for us to make any difference?
The Short Answer:
Yes, there is nothing else but His Oneness, but that Oneness includes the fact that He created a world. A world means a place where there is free choice.
A Little Longer Answer:
This question touches the essence of Torah and Judaism: There is nothing else but Him, and we are serving Him. Yes, that is a paradox -- for if there is nothing else but Him, what are we doing here serving Him?
It happens in the most basic creed of Jewish faith. A Jew declares morning and night: "Hear O Israel! The Eternal is our G-d. The Eternal is One." If He is One, then there is nothing else. Nothing, not even this world is external to His Oneness. Everywhere you look, there is nothing but Him.
And then we say, "Blessed be the name of the glory of His kingdom, forever and ever." Now there is a kingdom! Something external to the king that he rules over! It implies that there is a world independent of Him, only that He dominates it. But didn't we just say that there is nothing but His Oneness?
The easy way out is to say that all this world and everything that occurs within it is no more than an illusion. Plenty of existential philosophers, including the Hindus and Buddhists, have come up with this exit door: We just think we exist. We think we have free choice. But there is no truth or meaning to any of this, and best we just shake ourselves out of the dream and wake up to the fact that we are no more than figments of our imagination. Some call it transcendence, others enlightenment. Free choice, to them, is just another delusion of those trapped in darkness.
But Torah does not provide any easy exits. It begins, "In the beginning, G-d created the heavens and the earth." He really did. And then He told us, Do this, don't do that. Which means He considers it a reality.
When Rabbi Menachem Mendel of Lubavitch (1789-1866) was asked for proof that our reality is not an illusion, he pointed to the Mishnah concerning Shabbat: One who pretends to harvest on Shabbat by illusion (sleight of the hand) is free from punishment. If all the world were an illusion, the rabbi explained, nobody could ever be culpable of breaking the Shabbat!
The Creator created a world. A real world. And that means a place where our actions make a difference. He decided this place would really exist -- it wouldn't just be an illusion of our minds. And so, that's what it is.
How this jives with His Absolute Oneness is a paradox. So He created a paradox. That's what creating a world out of nothing is all about -- doing the impossible. Creating a world means creating a second reality: The first reality is that there is nothing else but Him. The second reality is that there is a world here that He is sustaining. Both realities are true.
In Chabad Chassidut, these two realities are called Daat Elyon and Daat Tachton, literally, the Higher Consciousness and the Lower Consciousness. Answers 1-4 above were entirely from the perspective of the Lower Consciousness.
One clue to grasping this paradox is provided in the classic work of Rabbi Meir Gabbai, Avodat HaKodesh:
"Just as He has the power of infinitude, so He has the power of finitude. For if you will say that He does not have this power of finitude, you have thereby detracted from His perfection."
The capacity of this Oneness to express itself in finite forms and pluralities is then no more than the ultimate expression of perfect Oneness. Cheap Oneness is impotent. G-d's ultimate Oneness is expressed in His creating us with our capacity for free choice.
There is an analogy given to understand this: A wise and enlightened teacher has attained a great truth. But is he able to express this truth in such terms that a simple student can grasp it? Even if he will distinguish the elements of this truth that his student can relate to from those far beyond him, even if he will reduce the intensity of his revelation a hundred times over, the idea will still remain outside of the students world. To relate his experience to the student, he must dress it up within parables and examples borrowed from the students world, using terms, objects and characters entirely foreign -- even diametrically opposite to the essential thought he wishes to communicate.
If he cannot accomplish this task, then no matter how great and brilliant his revelation, it turns out to be limited in scope. It exists in his world, but not in the world of his students. If, on the other hand, he is successful, he will have revealed the true boundlessness of his truth, that, like the speed of light, it functions equally from within every frame of reference.
So too, above: If Oneness excludes the possibility of anything other than simple, infinite oneness, then that itself is a limitation. True Oneness is expressed in the capacity to bear its opposite: The autonomy of a created being. When these two poles co-exist, neither diminishing from the other in any way, Oneness is expressed in its ultimate form.
Like the movements of an oriental martial artist, fusing stillness and motion, gentleness and force, the Torah dances between the singularity of G-d and our multifarious reality. Grasp one of these truths alone, and you have no truth at all. Grasp both at once, and you have G-d.
For more on this topic, see The Bubble.
By Tzvi Freeman
Since there is nothing else but His Oneness, what room is left for us to make any difference?
The Short Answer:
Yes, there is nothing else but His Oneness, but that Oneness includes the fact that He created a world. A world means a place where there is free choice.
A Little Longer Answer:
This question touches the essence of Torah and Judaism: There is nothing else but Him, and we are serving Him. Yes, that is a paradox -- for if there is nothing else but Him, what are we doing here serving Him?
It happens in the most basic creed of Jewish faith. A Jew declares morning and night: "Hear O Israel! The Eternal is our G-d. The Eternal is One." If He is One, then there is nothing else. Nothing, not even this world is external to His Oneness. Everywhere you look, there is nothing but Him.
And then we say, "Blessed be the name of the glory of His kingdom, forever and ever." Now there is a kingdom! Something external to the king that he rules over! It implies that there is a world independent of Him, only that He dominates it. But didn't we just say that there is nothing but His Oneness?
The easy way out is to say that all this world and everything that occurs within it is no more than an illusion. Plenty of existential philosophers, including the Hindus and Buddhists, have come up with this exit door: We just think we exist. We think we have free choice. But there is no truth or meaning to any of this, and best we just shake ourselves out of the dream and wake up to the fact that we are no more than figments of our imagination. Some call it transcendence, others enlightenment. Free choice, to them, is just another delusion of those trapped in darkness.
But Torah does not provide any easy exits. It begins, "In the beginning, G-d created the heavens and the earth." He really did. And then He told us, Do this, don't do that. Which means He considers it a reality.
When Rabbi Menachem Mendel of Lubavitch (1789-1866) was asked for proof that our reality is not an illusion, he pointed to the Mishnah concerning Shabbat: One who pretends to harvest on Shabbat by illusion (sleight of the hand) is free from punishment. If all the world were an illusion, the rabbi explained, nobody could ever be culpable of breaking the Shabbat!
The Creator created a world. A real world. And that means a place where our actions make a difference. He decided this place would really exist -- it wouldn't just be an illusion of our minds. And so, that's what it is.
How this jives with His Absolute Oneness is a paradox. So He created a paradox. That's what creating a world out of nothing is all about -- doing the impossible. Creating a world means creating a second reality: The first reality is that there is nothing else but Him. The second reality is that there is a world here that He is sustaining. Both realities are true.
In Chabad Chassidut, these two realities are called Daat Elyon and Daat Tachton, literally, the Higher Consciousness and the Lower Consciousness. Answers 1-4 above were entirely from the perspective of the Lower Consciousness.
One clue to grasping this paradox is provided in the classic work of Rabbi Meir Gabbai, Avodat HaKodesh:
"Just as He has the power of infinitude, so He has the power of finitude. For if you will say that He does not have this power of finitude, you have thereby detracted from His perfection."
The capacity of this Oneness to express itself in finite forms and pluralities is then no more than the ultimate expression of perfect Oneness. Cheap Oneness is impotent. G-d's ultimate Oneness is expressed in His creating us with our capacity for free choice.
There is an analogy given to understand this: A wise and enlightened teacher has attained a great truth. But is he able to express this truth in such terms that a simple student can grasp it? Even if he will distinguish the elements of this truth that his student can relate to from those far beyond him, even if he will reduce the intensity of his revelation a hundred times over, the idea will still remain outside of the students world. To relate his experience to the student, he must dress it up within parables and examples borrowed from the students world, using terms, objects and characters entirely foreign -- even diametrically opposite to the essential thought he wishes to communicate.
If he cannot accomplish this task, then no matter how great and brilliant his revelation, it turns out to be limited in scope. It exists in his world, but not in the world of his students. If, on the other hand, he is successful, he will have revealed the true boundlessness of his truth, that, like the speed of light, it functions equally from within every frame of reference.
So too, above: If Oneness excludes the possibility of anything other than simple, infinite oneness, then that itself is a limitation. True Oneness is expressed in the capacity to bear its opposite: The autonomy of a created being. When these two poles co-exist, neither diminishing from the other in any way, Oneness is expressed in its ultimate form.
Like the movements of an oriental martial artist, fusing stillness and motion, gentleness and force, the Torah dances between the singularity of G-d and our multifarious reality. Grasp one of these truths alone, and you have no truth at all. Grasp both at once, and you have G-d.
For more on this topic, see The Bubble.
Kabbalah The Spiritual and the Physical | Chabad.org
The Spiritual and the Physical | Chabad.org
The Spiritual and the Physical
By Tzvi Freeman
Spirituality: That of reality which escapes definition. The truth of things before we measure them.
To approach Kabbalah, we need to forget the common words we use. Forget physical. Forget spiritual. These are meaningless. Worse, they are lies.
They suggest two island kingdoms at eternal war with one another. As though the spirit is a redundant intrusion, a nuisance from another world. As though the physical stands on its own, only suffering intermittent invasions of spooky, spiritual stuff.
In the language of the Kabbalah, we talk in terms of light, of wind, of rain and of clay (see table at right).
There is no conflict, but a hierarchy, a harmony, an interdependency and a unity. Light becomes all things, as photons become electrons and protons-yet always remains connected to its source. Rain condenses from the air, just as the material is only a condensation of the spiritual. Even clay can be molded to absorb the elements from above.
What is the physical, after all? What stops my feet from plummeting through the ground beneath, my hand from passing through the cup it holds? What are the two things that meet and mutually agree to let neither pass?
Certainly, not the particles of which they are composed. These are relatively as distant from one another as the stars and the galaxies. That mug in my hand is almost entirely empty space. Especially since none of its particles occupy any real space. They are described in quantum physics as no more than infinitesimal points where x and y meet. How do mathematical points spread so sparsely feel so hard to my hand? Could empty nothingness be holding back empty nothingness?
Ask a physicist and he will tell you something mystical: The particles do not interfere with one another. Their energy fields do. The electromagnetic field that organizes the particles of your hand meets the field that organizes the mug. The two conflict. And that is the palpability we call physical: Particles that occupy no space, suspended in their positions and orbits by a force.
And what is that force? Why does it behave the way it does? Where does it come from? What is it plugged into? What causes it to be the way it is? All the measurements we make with our devices will not tell us. They may aid us to dissect its fundamental properties, trace it back further and further to its hypothetical origins. But at every turn along this road, the billboards will ask the same question: How does it come to be the way it is?
If there is one thing our foray into the realm of subatomic particles has told us, it is this: Even if we believe that crystals can be explained by molecules, molecules by atoms and atoms by their particles and fields, nevertheless we are left with one big hole: Matter does not explain itself.
So what is matter? It is a miniscule set of instances that allow a certain degree of defined measurement. That aspect of reality that our mind's perception can resolve. The vast majority of the cosmos inherently eludes definition. Therefore, we don't consider it to be part of our reality. But in fact, it is the essence of our reality. This is what the Kabbalah means when it talks about the spiritual: That which explains the material, but remains beyond it.
The material world extends from that which we call spiritual. Therefore, to understand it at all, we need to understand how it first exists in that spiritual source. This is the realm of the Kabbalah.
By Tzvi Freeman, author of Be Within, Stay Above and Bringing Heaven Down to Earth
Previous Kabbalah Files:
What Is Kabbalah?
The Spiritual and the Physical
By Tzvi Freeman
Spirituality: That of reality which escapes definition. The truth of things before we measure them.
To approach Kabbalah, we need to forget the common words we use. Forget physical. Forget spiritual. These are meaningless. Worse, they are lies.
They suggest two island kingdoms at eternal war with one another. As though the spirit is a redundant intrusion, a nuisance from another world. As though the physical stands on its own, only suffering intermittent invasions of spooky, spiritual stuff.
In the language of the Kabbalah, we talk in terms of light, of wind, of rain and of clay (see table at right).
There is no conflict, but a hierarchy, a harmony, an interdependency and a unity. Light becomes all things, as photons become electrons and protons-yet always remains connected to its source. Rain condenses from the air, just as the material is only a condensation of the spiritual. Even clay can be molded to absorb the elements from above.
What is the physical, after all? What stops my feet from plummeting through the ground beneath, my hand from passing through the cup it holds? What are the two things that meet and mutually agree to let neither pass?
Certainly, not the particles of which they are composed. These are relatively as distant from one another as the stars and the galaxies. That mug in my hand is almost entirely empty space. Especially since none of its particles occupy any real space. They are described in quantum physics as no more than infinitesimal points where x and y meet. How do mathematical points spread so sparsely feel so hard to my hand? Could empty nothingness be holding back empty nothingness?
Ask a physicist and he will tell you something mystical: The particles do not interfere with one another. Their energy fields do. The electromagnetic field that organizes the particles of your hand meets the field that organizes the mug. The two conflict. And that is the palpability we call physical: Particles that occupy no space, suspended in their positions and orbits by a force.
And what is that force? Why does it behave the way it does? Where does it come from? What is it plugged into? What causes it to be the way it is? All the measurements we make with our devices will not tell us. They may aid us to dissect its fundamental properties, trace it back further and further to its hypothetical origins. But at every turn along this road, the billboards will ask the same question: How does it come to be the way it is?
If there is one thing our foray into the realm of subatomic particles has told us, it is this: Even if we believe that crystals can be explained by molecules, molecules by atoms and atoms by their particles and fields, nevertheless we are left with one big hole: Matter does not explain itself.
So what is matter? It is a miniscule set of instances that allow a certain degree of defined measurement. That aspect of reality that our mind's perception can resolve. The vast majority of the cosmos inherently eludes definition. Therefore, we don't consider it to be part of our reality. But in fact, it is the essence of our reality. This is what the Kabbalah means when it talks about the spiritual: That which explains the material, but remains beyond it.
The material world extends from that which we call spiritual. Therefore, to understand it at all, we need to understand how it first exists in that spiritual source. This is the realm of the Kabbalah.
By Tzvi Freeman, author of Be Within, Stay Above and Bringing Heaven Down to Earth
Previous Kabbalah Files:
What Is Kabbalah?
What's the priority, what to do next?
Invoice or web site. Urgency of end of life and urgency of end of month. End of life = get the message out. End of month = get money for rent.
Sunday, my Shabbos day two. Sweeten it by having Malavah Malka go to Monday. :) Harsh in Galut.
Would appreciate having a staff.
Ok, will do invoices... Tomorrow, tonight, web site! ;)
Sunday, my Shabbos day two. Sweeten it by having Malavah Malka go to Monday. :) Harsh in Galut.
Would appreciate having a staff.
Ok, will do invoices... Tomorrow, tonight, web site! ;)
Calling on Source - bring cash
Mordecai. It all comes from the Divine, go only to Source. No doubt on the Source, Doubt on my ability to work clearly with Divine Guidance. *sigh* Horse with a light mouth. What is the purpose of me not having cash?
Sunday, November 21, 2004
Moon people - lunar people
Sleep schedule, so upside down. Bed at 7:30 am, wake at 7:30 pm.
Hmm.. thought pops in. The Day starts in the Evening. In Gan Edan, in the time of creation, the day starts with the evening. There was Night, there was Day, the First Day. So, it's like the evening is the most creative part. The day starts with the evening, it started with creating. It creates and then there is the fruit of creation. Hmm.. Moon people. There's the sun and you have to be up with the sun? The solar calendar was made for the kings of the other countries and the Lunar calendar is us. We are the Moon people, we are the people of the lunar calendar. Huh. And then there is this piercing into being part of this ancientness. And it's almost like pre-human human. This feeling of this entity, this tribe, this beingness. And then flashing back to back, being with cats. But still this chilliness of being ancient.
Hmm.. thought pops in. The Day starts in the Evening. In Gan Edan, in the time of creation, the day starts with the evening. There was Night, there was Day, the First Day. So, it's like the evening is the most creative part. The day starts with the evening, it started with creating. It creates and then there is the fruit of creation. Hmm.. Moon people. There's the sun and you have to be up with the sun? The solar calendar was made for the kings of the other countries and the Lunar calendar is us. We are the Moon people, we are the people of the lunar calendar. Huh. And then there is this piercing into being part of this ancientness. And it's almost like pre-human human. This feeling of this entity, this tribe, this beingness. And then flashing back to back, being with cats. But still this chilliness of being ancient.
It's not my job to judge, it's my job to choose.
It's not my job to judge. Note to self, not my job to judge. It's my job to Choose. Choose the elements for my life. Other people choose the elements for their life. Judgement? Judgement is not on my job list. That's incredibly liberating. In choosing life, life is like a rush down a ski hill.
Saturday, November 20, 2004
The world reveals everything happening at once.
Even the world reveals to us that everything is happening at once. Is not night happening at the same time as day? Winter is at the same time as Summer?
Anchoring - Creating
There is Anchoring and there is Creating. And there is Creating to Anchor.
Friday, November 19, 2004
testing the hello system
Wednesday, November 17, 2004
The Happiness Club
Were people to get on the same page as me, it would all be done.
Always been far ahead of everyone. Being ahead of every body is like.. Hello.. Hello.. Anyone here yet? The great thing is not having a sense of lack. I don't need anyone else to be here, for me to be here. Connected right into Source, right into Divine. Only at certain times I will feel the sadness of the planet. I realize there is so much suffering going on. If people were to get up to the same page that I am on, the whole thing would be done. It would all get flipped into light and everyone would be into joyfulness. The thing that really bothered me about the whole Christ thing is that people would follow him because of miracles, yippie. *sigh* I have been around so many people doing so many miracles. To follow someone because they are more powerful.. Well, that worked, yep that worked. Because people are still rooted in Illusion and Ego, they are looking for someone that can really torque on the Ego-Illusion realm. In Buddhism, two paths. One goes to Power, the other to Enlightenment. I now see both sides to everything. I see the good in all things. I am so happy I have happiness crunches, put a web camera on me. ;)
Divine as lover. Ladder. Ascending. Matrix. Gan Edan
The Great Illusion. It believes that everything is separate. Fear of everything. It's all that ego stuff. Live life thru your highest understandings. Create an active matrix to view life thru. G-d is One and everything is G-d in form. Keep the highest revelation as an anchor to frame the world in. Having the Divine as my Lover and everything being my Lover in Form. So, everything I see is my Lover being expressed in the World of Form. When I see other people, really what I'm seeing is Her manifesting as other people. In the ego realm it's looking at this Tibetan guy and saying, what's that guy's schtick, and then there is going up the Ladder. Going up the Ladder is going to a Higher level of Realization and then going down the Ladder is going down into Ego. My personal goal is ascention. Helping people is impersonal, there is not really me, only the Divine. One thriving big white light matrix. If one thing is casting off darkness it's increasing the light of the entire matrix.
Sleep, neighborhood kitten, choose love, we are all one.
Sleep like an astronaut.
Neighborhood kitten spends a night over. Cat behavior.
One cat is a lover, two cats becomes a family. Do you hold back love to avoid jealousy? Do you go flat out in love and allow the Divine to move through you and just watch it move through? Choosing love instead of choosing jealousy avoidance. We are much more connected then our own solitary lives. Watching international news, watching guy in Tibet. People think it's us and the other, I'm watching this guy in Tibet, lighten up there energy there and thusly lightening up the energy everywhere. Everyone's good acts are all helping and everyone is one. The biggest illusion is that it's another person over there doing something. It's like me over there lightening the energy.
Neighborhood kitten spends a night over. Cat behavior.
One cat is a lover, two cats becomes a family. Do you hold back love to avoid jealousy? Do you go flat out in love and allow the Divine to move through you and just watch it move through? Choosing love instead of choosing jealousy avoidance. We are much more connected then our own solitary lives. Watching international news, watching guy in Tibet. People think it's us and the other, I'm watching this guy in Tibet, lighten up there energy there and thusly lightening up the energy everywhere. Everyone's good acts are all helping and everyone is one. The biggest illusion is that it's another person over there doing something. It's like me over there lightening the energy.
Monday, November 15, 2004
Mission statement short form
Ok, Mission statement. End Pain and Suffering on Planet Earth. Shift the planetary paradigm from illusion/ego consciousness/pain and suffering to Truth/Source-Divine-God-Goddess consciousness/love, gratitude, joy and ecstasy. Liberate the love beings.
Mission statement multi takes ;)
Mission Statement Take 1
Liberate the love-light-star beings.
The world has a common consciousness. The world is wrong.
We are a new consciousness. We are amplifiers of source. Source is a radio station of love. Humans talk of an emptiness inside. My insides are full, glowing, vibrating love. World says it can't exist. It does exist. Here's the mission: be who you are, be the real you. When you are the real you will be happy, joyful, in ecstasy. Liberate yourself, illuminate yourself. My mission here is to get the message out to you about a second consciousness. So that you will know that YOU are right.
Mission Statement Take 2
Chariot of Heaven
Mission Statement Take 3
Love beings
Liberate the love-light-star beings.
The world has a common consciousness. The world is wrong.
We are a new consciousness. We are amplifiers of source. Source is a radio station of love. Humans talk of an emptiness inside. My insides are full, glowing, vibrating love. World says it can't exist. It does exist. Here's the mission: be who you are, be the real you. When you are the real you will be happy, joyful, in ecstasy. Liberate yourself, illuminate yourself. My mission here is to get the message out to you about a second consciousness. So that you will know that YOU are right.
Mission Statement Take 2
Chariot of Heaven
Mission Statement Take 3
Love beings
Just going to go audio :)
Sunday, November 14, 2004
Joe and the Volcano
"A character in the film Joe Versus the Volcano uttered this profound truth: "Almost the whole world is asleep. Everybody you know, everyone you see, everyone you talk to. Only a few people are awake and they live in constant total amazement. "
Friday, November 12, 2004
Why Do Jews Exclude Other People? | Chabad.org
Why Do Jews Exclude Other People? | Chabad.org: "Why Do Jews Exclude Other People?
By Tzvi Freeman
Question:
I've been asking this from everybody and I can't get an answer: Why do Jews exclude other people? My fiance's parents told me that for a Jew to marry a non-Jew and have children is worse than the Holocaust! I don't get it. Am I really that terrible? In a world with 6 billion people, what kind of G-d is the Jewish G-d, who chose a tiny percentage of the population of the world and left the rest without G-d's mercy?
I don't think I have to mention that I'm not a Jew myself, but I am in a relationship with a Jew, and I want to know more. I want to understand, because right now, I have big problems finding acceptance and respect for Judaism, which of course causes problems in our relationship. I could ask him, but I would rather ask a rabbi, since I expect you to have deeper knowledge than my boyfriend.
Hope to hear from you soon.
Answer:
I'm glad you were persistent in asking your question, and I'm glad you've given us a chance to answer.
First, please keep in mind that I didn't make any of the statements you are citing. Start reading fresh, like we've never discussed this before. Because, we haven't.
I'm sure you understand that every creature G-d has made on this planet wishes to survive. Not just each individual critter wants to go on living, but the mothers want to see their children survive and those children want to see their children survive and so on. In other words, each species wants to endure and survive.
We Jewish people also want to survive. We are a tiny portion of the 6 billion you mentioned. We've been around for almost four thousand years. At times, we made up more than 10% of the world. At other times, much less. Right now, we're lthan a quarter of a percent.
Each people makes their contribution to humanity -- inventions, ideas, wisdom, music, art, culture. As a people, we've made many important contributions to the rest of the world. Such as monotheism, the value of human life, equality before the law, the concept of world peace. All these and many other ideas that are central to our society today find their source in the Bible and the other traditions of the Jewish people. Since Biblical times, we have made many more contributions to the societies in which we lived, whether in ethics, in philosophy, in medicine, in the sciences...you name it. So it would make sense that the other nations of the world, as well, would want us to survive.
Do we claim superiority? I don't think so. Christians and Muslims both attest to the truth of the Biblical account, where we were picked out by G-d to perform a mission -- to be a light unto the nations. We contend that G-d never changed His mind. And, as anyone can see, we've accomplished much of that mission. Most of the ethics we were charged to teach have been accepted by most of the world. Maybe they haven't put it all into action -- but they will, and we believe that time will come very soon.
Do we exclude others? Absolutely not. Any person who wishes to join the Jewish people and their holy mission is welcome, regardless of race, color, sex or family background. We only ask that they commit to keeping the rules G-d gave us, just as the Jewish people accepted those rules when they received the Torah at Mount Sinai some 3300 years ago. And if they opt not to join, we believe that the righteous people among the nations will share in the rewards of the time to come. I don't know of any other religion so liberal as to say such a thing: You don't have to join us, you don't have to do the things we do, just believe in one G-d and fulfill the basic requirements of every human being to society, and you're in.
So what's so terrible about us wanting to survive? Obviously, we aren't going to survive if we intermarry with everyone else and raise our kids as just a muddle of everything. Our only route to survival is for Jewish people to marry Jewish people and bring their kids up as good Jews.
Of course, if a girl from a non-Jewish family decides she wants to join the Jewish people, well, what's stopping her? But we don't push that sort of thing, because, first of all, we're not out to push our thing on others. You can be a righteous non-Jew and be loved by G-d, so why should we push you down a path you weren't born into? You may well resent it later on -- as often happens -- and that doesn't make for a good marriage. And, secondly, some people become Jewish just for the sake of marriage, and then once they're married, the whole thing is dropped. Which means we have to be a little scrutinous about accepting converts, to be sure they're doing this because they truly want to.
I hope this explains things a little for you. If you still can't swallow it, please write me back.
I wish you all the wonderful things your life has in store, not one should go missing,
"
By Tzvi Freeman
Question:
I've been asking this from everybody and I can't get an answer: Why do Jews exclude other people? My fiance's parents told me that for a Jew to marry a non-Jew and have children is worse than the Holocaust! I don't get it. Am I really that terrible? In a world with 6 billion people, what kind of G-d is the Jewish G-d, who chose a tiny percentage of the population of the world and left the rest without G-d's mercy?
I don't think I have to mention that I'm not a Jew myself, but I am in a relationship with a Jew, and I want to know more. I want to understand, because right now, I have big problems finding acceptance and respect for Judaism, which of course causes problems in our relationship. I could ask him, but I would rather ask a rabbi, since I expect you to have deeper knowledge than my boyfriend.
Hope to hear from you soon.
Answer:
I'm glad you were persistent in asking your question, and I'm glad you've given us a chance to answer.
First, please keep in mind that I didn't make any of the statements you are citing. Start reading fresh, like we've never discussed this before. Because, we haven't.
I'm sure you understand that every creature G-d has made on this planet wishes to survive. Not just each individual critter wants to go on living, but the mothers want to see their children survive and those children want to see their children survive and so on. In other words, each species wants to endure and survive.
We Jewish people also want to survive. We are a tiny portion of the 6 billion you mentioned. We've been around for almost four thousand years. At times, we made up more than 10% of the world. At other times, much less. Right now, we're lthan a quarter of a percent.
Each people makes their contribution to humanity -- inventions, ideas, wisdom, music, art, culture. As a people, we've made many important contributions to the rest of the world. Such as monotheism, the value of human life, equality before the law, the concept of world peace. All these and many other ideas that are central to our society today find their source in the Bible and the other traditions of the Jewish people. Since Biblical times, we have made many more contributions to the societies in which we lived, whether in ethics, in philosophy, in medicine, in the sciences...you name it. So it would make sense that the other nations of the world, as well, would want us to survive.
Do we claim superiority? I don't think so. Christians and Muslims both attest to the truth of the Biblical account, where we were picked out by G-d to perform a mission -- to be a light unto the nations. We contend that G-d never changed His mind. And, as anyone can see, we've accomplished much of that mission. Most of the ethics we were charged to teach have been accepted by most of the world. Maybe they haven't put it all into action -- but they will, and we believe that time will come very soon.
Do we exclude others? Absolutely not. Any person who wishes to join the Jewish people and their holy mission is welcome, regardless of race, color, sex or family background. We only ask that they commit to keeping the rules G-d gave us, just as the Jewish people accepted those rules when they received the Torah at Mount Sinai some 3300 years ago. And if they opt not to join, we believe that the righteous people among the nations will share in the rewards of the time to come. I don't know of any other religion so liberal as to say such a thing: You don't have to join us, you don't have to do the things we do, just believe in one G-d and fulfill the basic requirements of every human being to society, and you're in.
So what's so terrible about us wanting to survive? Obviously, we aren't going to survive if we intermarry with everyone else and raise our kids as just a muddle of everything. Our only route to survival is for Jewish people to marry Jewish people and bring their kids up as good Jews.
Of course, if a girl from a non-Jewish family decides she wants to join the Jewish people, well, what's stopping her? But we don't push that sort of thing, because, first of all, we're not out to push our thing on others. You can be a righteous non-Jew and be loved by G-d, so why should we push you down a path you weren't born into? You may well resent it later on -- as often happens -- and that doesn't make for a good marriage. And, secondly, some people become Jewish just for the sake of marriage, and then once they're married, the whole thing is dropped. Which means we have to be a little scrutinous about accepting converts, to be sure they're doing this because they truly want to.
I hope this explains things a little for you. If you still can't swallow it, please write me back.
I wish you all the wonderful things your life has in store, not one should go missing,
"
Sunday, November 07, 2004
Seattle
Part 1
Part 2
Part 2
