Giving Wisdom a Fighting Chance

Diving more into what I call "hardcore Kabbalah," (the Rabbis find that amusing, considering my chosen profession) which is really just anything outside the realm of the Kabbalah Centre or the Bergs, I cracked open my copy of the "Sefer Yetzirah - The Book of Creation in Theory and Practice" by Aryeh Kaplan the other evening. Some have debated that this book is actually more powerful than the Zohar (highly touted by the Centre), but most all have agreed that it is definitely the oldest (the text itself quoted as early as 6th century) and most mysterious of all Kabbalistic texts.

One thing I learned in the introduction is that Kabbalah is generally divided into three categories: The Theoretical Kabbalah, which deals directly with spirituality via the Zohar; The Meditative Kabbalah, which deals in the use of meditating on divine names, letter sequences and such to reach higher states of consciousness; and The Magical Kabbalah, which through use of the Meditative format, heightens ones senses and abilities in areas such as telepathy and telekenisis. The Sefer Yetzirah is the number one source for both Meditative and Magical Kabbalah.

Hmm... the Sefer Yetzirah just got a whole lot more insteresting than The Kabbalah Centre's new energy drink, didn't it? ;-)

Images of Sissy Spacek at her prom and Luke Skywalker on the ice planet Hoth spring to mind! "Bad, Jason, bad!" I laugh at myself, pushing them out of my foreground.

Upon glancing at the first paragraphs of the first chapter, there's an awful lot of information to take in, though I will say that my mind seems to wrap around it a little more easily than the Zohar. It begins with a lot of numerology. Kabbalists believe there are "32 Paths of Wisdom," thirty-two states of enlightened consciousness and so the Sefer Yetzirah begins with an analysis of the number 32. The first 32 lines of Genesis is the full story of God creating the world and each of those lines is related to one of the 32 states of enlightened consciousness. "God said" also appears ten times and thus, we have what Kabbalists constantly refer to as the Ten Sefirot or the Tree of Life, the ten levels that exist within the soul of a person.

There's so much more. I mean, the six days of creation relating to our physical beings -- our legs, our arms, our torso and our sex organ. The 32 Paths of Wisdom being parallel to our nervous system -- 31 emanating from the spinal cord and the 32nd being the entire complex of cranial nerves, of which there are 12. Actually, that is what stood out to me most here. I will quote from text as follows:

Like the [32] nerves, each of the 32 Paths [of Wisdom] is a two-way street. First, it is the channel through which the Mind exerts control over creation. Secondly, however, it is also the path through which man can reach the Mind. If an individual wishes to attain a mystical experience and approach the Mind, he must travel along the 32 path.

In Hebrew, the number 32 is written Lamed Bet. This spells Lev, the Hebrew word for: heart. It is in the heart that the action of the Mind is manifest in the body. As soon as the influence of the mind ceases, the heart ceases to function, this being the definition of death.

The heart also provides lifeforce to the brain and nervous system. When the heart stops pumping, the nervous system can no longer function and the mind no longer exerts influence on the body. The heart therefore serves as a link between mind and body.

It is for this reason that the Sefer Yetzirah calls the heart "the king over the soul." (6:3) It also describes the mystical experience as a "running of the heart." (1:8)

What a fascinating parallel! Upon analysis and introspection, what this is saying is that without "heart," without good intention, without LOVE... we can not achieve a higher state of consciousness. We can not walk the 32 paths. Our enlightenment (Mind/Brain) depends on our higher states of consciousness (Nerves) which depends on love (Heart).

Or at least, that was my initial interpretation of it. What's yours?

Now, before you run away, screaming, "This is too much! I want my energy drink and red string back!" I'm going to share with you a story of something truly profound that happened to me recently.

A student writing a paper on the differences of Kabbalah and Christianity joined the Exclusively Kabbalah forum to find out more about it. She asked, "If I were to come up to you on the street and ask you what Kabbalah is, what would you tell me?" She was met with a lot of responses that three months ago, I would've looked upon as a foreign language they were so "deep" in their meaning. And even more responses that I still looked upon as such! So, I decided to give her my own "lamen's" answer to her question and began by saying, "Let me give this a shot because I think I'm a little more used to being in your head space than most of the other insanely enlightened beings around these parts."

But after sending out my post, I got a response from one of the members I really admire and look up to as being the most "insanely enlightened" of the bunch that forced me to really take a look at what I was saying there.

His response was: You are identifying with her because you are both unenlightened in an extremely enlightened arena? Well, I don't know many of the 520 or so people who visit this forum - but I can assure you that many of them do not check these posts and many of them are only vaguely interested in QBL. I have been reading about various forms and methods of QBListic inquiry and practice for 8 years. I can safely say I have been practising one or another of those forms for over13 years. How does that add up? I would have to disagree with your implication, I am virtually no more enlightened than you about this subject, I still know next to nothing about the endless future of possibility of anything. I guess we're in the same annoying boat of 'chipperfield' monkeys and the bad part is, now you don't get to switch seats, and if you do, I'll start stalking you, I promise.

Later on in his response, he tackled a moment where I tried explaining to the girl that "Kabbalah promotes unity, the idea that we are all one." His brilliant response to this was: How exactly do you interpret that concept at the moment, Jason? Just so you know, I am definitely not you. I am everything else, just not you. Just so you know. All the other people, except you. Why would I want to be you, cumsponge? ;P

What my dearly beloved Obi Wan is trying to tell the young Jedi here is this: If I am to believe that anyone is more or less "enlightened" than I am, then I am a hypocrite when I say I believe that we are all one. If one is to truly subscribe to that theory, which I most certainly am making a point to, they have to carry it to its enth degree. It is never about connecting or not connecting, being able to relate or not relate, to a person or concept. It is instead: I am this person. I am this concept. Powerful, don't you think?! To be able to walk down the street and know that you are imbued with everything of everyone from Einstein to Sharon Stone, from Charles Manson to Mother Theresa. Wow! That's something that, if you really walk with it, can change your life forever. I know it changed mine.

And my point to you is: Someone wrote this ancient text, hon. Someone translated it from Hebrew to English. Millions of people have been interpreting it forever. If you are going to hold tight to that theory you learned at the Centre about us all being one, you can't say, "This is too deep. I can't wrap my head around this. I can't understand it."

You can and you will.

Actually, strike that.

We can and we will.



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Kabbalah.com
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The Zohar - Weekly Studies
Weekly Kabbalah Wisdom
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Exclusively Kabbalah Group
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Have questions? Need advice? Want to share? EMAIL Jason at jason@jasonsechrest.com