Torah-Veda

An Interspiritual Journey
Find Your Inspiration and Follow It

WELCOME TO TORAH-VEDA

Torah and Veda are two ancient sources of spirituality still vibrant today. Torah is conveyed through the sacred language of Hebrew and Veda is conveyed through the sacred language of Sanskrit. The focus here is on meditation, mysticism, philosophy, psychology and the underlying spirituality that has been incorporated into religions, and not as much on the religions themselves. Your comments and posts are welcome.


Quote of the Week 419 - Listend/Hearing for Non-material Sustenance

Quote of the Week 419 - Listening/Hearing for Non-material Sustenance


Every one who is thirsty, come and drink. He who has no money, come, buy and eat. Come, buy wine and milk without money and without price. Why do you spend your money for that which is not bread and your labor for that which does not satisfy? Listen carefully to Me, and eat what is good. Let your soul delight in abundance. Incline your ear, and come to Me. Hear, that your soul will live…


--Isaiah 55:1-3, The Living Torah translation by Rabbi Aryeh Kaplan

CURRENT TEACHING SESSIONS




Interfaith/Inter-Spiritual Contemplative Groups


Please check out the following, which is an ongoing activity that may be of interest:


https://www.zgatl.org/contemplative-group.html


https://www.zgatl.org/ongoing-groups.html


http://www.interfaithci.org/contemplative.html


https://faithallianceofmetroatlanta.org/recent-events/programs-events/ongoing-programs/











Thursday, October 29, 2009

Quote of the Week 112 - Jewish Atheist Spirituality

Is spirituality possible only in the context of divine inspiration? Of course not. Why do you need a god to experience awe at the grandeur and beauty of the natural world? Why do you need a god to feel inspiration and excitement, sometimes to the point of tears, upon seeing a beautiful work of art or hearing an incredible piece of music? Theists have no corner on the spiritual market…Secular Humanistic Jewish organizations eschew the divine and focus on the earthly essence of their existence…Despite the multiplicity of ways of acting out our secular Jewish consciousness, we are united, I hope, in the belief that human beings are in charge of human affairs without the need to seek divine intervention as inspiration or as the object of our supplication.


--Jerald Bain, emeritus professor of medicine at the University of Toronto and endocrinologist at Mt. Sinai Hospital, Toronto. From an article in the Autumn 2009 edition of Jewish Currents magazine. [Secular Humanistic Judaism is a movement of Jewish atheists who adhere to the perspective described above, with an emphasis on social activism and civil rights based upon ethical and moral principles, with roots in a heritage of left-wing activism and labor union support. Some of the leading organizations are the Congress of Secular Jewish Organizations, the Society for Humanistic Judaism, and the Workmen’s Circle. There are Secular Humanistic Jewish congregations and rabbis.]

Monday, October 26, 2009

Bibliography/Book Review; Kaplan, Aryeh. Jewish Meditation, A Practicla Guide; The Living Torah; Sefer Yetzirah, The Book of Creation, etc.

Bibliography/Book Review;
Kaplan, Aryeh. The Living Torah; Jewish Meditation, A Practical Guide; Sefer Yetzirah, The Book of Creation, In Theory and Practice; The Bahir Illumination; Meditation and the Bible; Meditation and Kabbalah.

Rabbi Aryeh Kaplan, ingrained in Orthodox Jewish practice and tradition, was nevertheless a pioneer and maverick who endured some controversy and criticism from within Orthodox circles. This was due to his being perhaps the earliest of modern Jewish teachers and writers to reveal to the general public aspects of traditional Jewish Meditation practices and related mystical teachings that had long been kept concealed within the province of secretive Kabalistic learning circles. His early works were the first cracking open of the floodgates that have since followed, resulting in the current glut of teachers and books on these subjects. He authored an incredible amount of thoroughly detailed and researched material in his relatively short life span. His writings are not as easily accessible to the casual reader as some other modern day authors on these subjects who followed him, such as Joseph Gelberman, Zalman Schacter-Shalomi, David Cooper, Arthur Green. He tends to be more on the dry, scholastic, academic side, although not quite as dense as the normal style of college professors or PhD candidates writing for scholastic journals or dissertations. This is because his scholasticism is obviously infused with the depths of personal experience, so his writings possess a potency that is lacking in mere intellectual exercises. But if you can stick with his writing and presentation style and wade through it a bit, you can be richly rewarded.

The Living Torah is his annotated translation of the Five Books of Moses and the related Haftorah portions. I have found that for any serious study of the Torah, particularly for those of us who know little biblical Hebrew and are relying on translations, it is important to compare at least two annotated translations. It is impossible for any translator to convey all of the nuances of meaning contained in the Hebrew, or the many “read-between-the-lines” extrapolations of meaning that have developed in the Talmud and other sources. Translators are constantly making difficult choices of what words to use in the primary text translation, and how extensive the annotations should be to provide alternatives and further elaboration and opinions. Anyone who reads only the main text of any translation without some supplementation via annotations or commentaries is barely scratching the surface of the rich texture of meaning and nuance. The primary text is almost like just a very brief outline or summary. There is no question that the choices translators make are influenced by their own prejudices, agendas and slants, and thus the need for reading more than one annotated translation. Kaplan’s version has gained a great deal of respect among many Jewish circles, and he honestly points out in his annotations many alternatives to what he selected for his primary translation. Many of his annotations are very brief, although he occasionally goes into great and intricate detail on some subjects.


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Jewish Meditation, A Practical Guide is one of the ground-breaking works I mentioned above. He had earlier written Meditation and the Bible and Meditation and Kabbalah, both of which are on my “to do” list. In his introduction to Jewish Meditation, he admitted that the earlier works were not accessible for practical application for those not already familiar with basic theory and practice. Thus he wrote Jewish Meditation, A Practical Guide in response to a need for such a manual, and thus my reason to read it first and put the other books on this subject on the back burner. I will merely here add to the chorus of many others who highly recommend this work for anyone interested in meditation generally, and in Jewish meditation specifically.



As indicated, the above was written from memory, having initially read this book several years ago, and before I read Meditation and the Bible and Meditation and Kabbalah. After reading them, I felt it worthwhile to go back and review Jewish Meditation, A Practical Guide, to see how Kaplan incorporated the principles from the earlier works into his more practice-based volume. I can now therefore provide a more detailed summary from this recent, fresh re-reading, which I believe is worthwhile because of the importance of these three books in framing the Jewish meditation movements that followed after them.



From the perspective provided to me by my background in the raja yoga and Vedanta systems, it was very interesting to once again become acquainted with Kaplan’s approach. He begins with introductory chapters about the usefulness and purpose for meditation techniques comparable to what is found in many meditation manuals. His definition of meditation is very broad, including many different practices which other traditions, including my yoga tradition, would call by other names, such as concentration and contemplation. He acknowledges that there are different Hebrew terms for these various forms in order to distinguish them. But his basic definition is “Meditation consists of thinking in a controlled manner. It is deciding exactly how one wishes to direct the mind for a period of time, and then doing it…Meditation is thought directed by will.” This is actually a little disappointing to me, because for me, the core of meditation is about non-doing, of locating that place of quiet mind that already exists within us, sitting/bathing in it, which elicits a heightened state of receptivity, and allowing whatever comes to unfold and be received from sources beyond the mind. This is consistent with the definition of the word “kabalah” meaning “receiving”. Kaplan does acknowledge this as an advanced form which focuses on “nonthought” or on nothingness. As he states in Meditation and Kabbalah, he repeats that “this form of meditation can be dangerous and should not be attempted without a practiced guide or master”. For me, the other forms that he describes as structured and directed contain the most potency when initiated after the quiet mind state is engaged, not before, as he seems to advocate. The remainder of the book reviews various practices — structured, unstructured, directed, undirected — which he gleaned from the research contained in his earlier books, which he deems relatively safe, although there are still warnings against engaging in some practices without guidance and without knowing how to re-engage into a balanced mental state of functioning in normal worldly activities. He tries to distinguish Jewish techniques from others, and there is no question that there is a great variety of practices within the Jewish tradition (almost a dizzying variety), some which may be unique and particular to Judaism, but for many practices, the similarities to descriptions from other traditions is inescapable. This includes a mantra practice like in yoga, utilizing Hebrew phrases instead of Sanskrit, which is my preferred Jewish meditation technique. Certainly, what is unique to Jewish practices is engaging Hebrew phrases and Jewish scriptures and sources, but other traditions similarly engage phrases from their chosen sacred languages and scriptures. He is very insistent on maintaining that although there may be similarities between Jewish and non-Jewish meditation practices, and that “all forms have characteristics in common”, that “does not imply any special relationship between [them]” or that one is derived from the other. This reflects, in part, a concept of what I call “similar independent revelation”, but it strives to deny, somewhat unconvincingly, that similarities exist because they derive from a common source, ascribing them to something more like insignificant coincidence. However, he elsewhere acknowledges that there was a significant interplay and mutual influencing between Jewish sages and mystics from other traditions, including Christians, Sufis and Indians.



The chapter on contemplation contains a few interesting subjects. One is an analysis of various levels of meaning and significance to the Tetragrammaton that I found very interesting. It describes the Yod in terms similar to the concept of “bindu” in yoga: the point of origination of everything. This beginning point Yod becomes encapsulated into the first Heh, entering through the top opening, and emerging through the bottom opening as the Vav, because it has gestated into this form of the Vav, which is an elongated Yod. This also brings forth images of a lingam from the yoga descriptions, and is consistent with Kaplan alternately describing the two Heh’s as hands that contain the Yod and the Vav, or as wombs containing them. The second Heh is then impregnated with the Vav, and brings forth the physical world as we know it. This corresponds to other conceptions that the four letters correspond with the four worlds, culminating in the lowest world of physical manifestation.



The other subject that I found interesting in the chapter on contemplation concerned contemplating on a flame. In his other books, Kaplan cited references that were all over the place concerning the colors of a flame and their significance, some that seemed contrary to descriptions found in other traditions. However, in this book, the references he cites are a bit more consistent, but nevertheless quite perplexing in some respects. He states that the sources state there are five basic colors to the flame of a candle or oil lamp: white, yellow, red, black and sky-blue. He maintains that it is easy enough to perceive the white, yellow and red, but the black and the blue are much more problematic, because they do not appear in a common candle flame. He states that the black refers to darkness around the flame, and the blue appears only on an inner mystical level outside the black. I recently gazed fairly closely at a candle flame, and repeated this exercise again to confirm my earlier memory. Contrary to Kaplan’s assertion, I found a definite, but small, sky-blue color at the base of the flame (sort of like an upside-down cap to the flame), which then gave way to an inner tongue of dark/black that started a little below the upper tip of the glowing orange wick (my wife said it looked more purple to her). This black tongue was enveloped in a bright yellow tongue, and on the most external layer, there was a less bright yellow tongue. There was a distinct line of demarcation between the two yellow tongues. I did not see white or red, other than the glowing orange tip of the wick. I was also curious about the relationship between flame color and temperature. A quick little internet research revealed many layers of complexity to this question, but the simple answer concerning the candle is that the blue is the hottest, and it gets less hot from there. Kaplan goes into some detail about the profound significance to the inner-manifested blue aura around the candle, as it signifies the blue sapphire of the Throne of Glory and is also associated with the “third eye” of prophetic insight and vision. He provides a poetic description: “It will be the most beautiful sky-blue color imaginable, like that of a summer sky over the Holy Land. The color will have an almost awesome beauty”. He then follows this with some contradictory statements, which nevertheless are quite profound: “Of course, the blue color is not a physical reality, it is entirely a creation of the mind. But according to the Zohar, the blue sensation is a revelation of the spiritual. In a sense, it denotes that one is seeing the spiritual essence of the light that is radiating from the candle. There are sources that indicate that in more advanced meditative techniques it is possible actually to see visions in this blue field. Furthermore, in conjunction with the revelation at Sinai, when the Israelites had a vision of the Divine, the saw ‘under His feet like a brickwork of sapphire’. Similarly, when the prophet Exekiel saw the Throne of Glory, he described it as being the color of sapphire. Thus blue is always a color associated with vision and prophecy.” So he begins by stating it is a creation of mind, but then proceeds to explain that it is something much more than a creation of mind. This is an issue I found running throughout this book because of his definition of meditation as a method of directing the mind through will. But he seems to also be recognizing that at some point, this willful manipulation of the mind gives way to visions not created by the mind, but rather revealed to the mind from a source beyond mind. My intuition is that this blue is the color of the primordial flame of the burning bush, known as “agni” in yoga, and explains why many Hindu images are depicted in this color, such as Krishna and Shiva.



I have also been very interested in a notion I have found only from Kaplan about the black/dark flame, the lamp of darkness. It is very interesting to me that at the heart of the candle flame, above the blue foundation, first appears an inner core of dark/black. The yellow tongues are outside of that. Although it is a very different perception than what Kaplan describes, it is nevertheless there. Conduct your own experiment and see what you see!



There is a chapter on visualization followed by a chapter on nothingness, in which Kaplan persists in describing techniques by which the mind is actively engaged in fostering up images and conceptions, even that of nothingness, instead of encouraging a mode of inner receptivity by which one looks to receive images and a sense of nothingness originating from the Divine source within and beyond the mind. For me, meditation is not about manipulating the mind, but rather quieting the mind, which enables discovery of states of consciousness beyond the mind. Imagining Divine Light or Divine Sound through a visualization/fabrication of the mind is not the same as experiencing Divine Light or Divine Sound coming forth on their own accord as an inner revelation. Kaplan, however, warns against “spurious visions” that might come forward into the mind of a novice meditator. It is certainly important to guard against images and “visions” that are mere inner emotional churning machinations of an agitated mind stirred up by the meditative process, as distinct from real revelation, but there are criteria to distinguish between the two. Real revelation is not accompanied by an emotional charge, but is rather quite dispassionate and matter-of-fact in its appearance. Kaplan cites some sources that recommend banishing spurious visions, and replacing them with the Tetragrammaton, although later in the book, he states that the Baal Shem Tov encouraged an inspection of them. This is consistent with the suggestion of my spiritual master, Swami Rama, that it is an important process of self-therapeutic meditation to allow such images and thoughts to arise without getting emotionally involved with them or acting upon them. He suggests a process whereby a beginner just “lets them go” (at a stage when they are moving and changing rapidly), an intermediate “observes” them (at a stage when the chattering of the mind-stream has slowed down a bit), and an advanced practitioner “inspects” them from all angles (at a stage when thoughts/images/emotions arise at a much slower pace, allowing for this thorough inspection. This is a valuable inner process of self-cleansing and inner purifying heat that will eventually burn up these limiting obstructions and clear the way to deeper states of meditation, when the lower chattering mind gives way to the higher quiet mind. Swami Rama exhorts against attempting to suppress such rising thoughts, suggested by the “banishing” described by Kaplan, but offers an alternative method somewhat similar to Kaplan’s suggestion of replacing those visions with that of the Tetragrammaton: giving the mind a positive alternative productive thought to contemplate, being either a mantra or positive visual image. Another alternative method suggested by Swami Rama is to visualize an inner fire altar located above the third eye and direct all unwanted obstructive thought patterns to be burned/sacrificed at that altar. This is similar to an internal practice mirroring the sacrificial offerings described in the Torah performed by the High Priests of the Temple in the external world, burning up the lower animal nature on the altar.



He devotes a chapter to “Conversing with God”, focusing on the technique prescribed by Rabbi Nachman of Breslov, discussed in Meditation and Kabalah. He then launches into two related chapters, “The Way of Prayer” and “Relating to God”, focusing on the central prayer of the Amidah as not only a prayer, but as a meditation device/long mantra. He goes into some detail about the history and deep meaning to the Amidah, and methods to recite it in a meditative fashion, all of which is very fascinating. He quite curiously concludes with a discussion of kundalini yoga in the context of the directions of bowing and raising up in reciting the Amidah. He relates the 18/19 blessings of the Amidah/Shemoneh Esrey as corresponding to the vertebrae of the spine, and that the bowing and rising up is an exercise intended to activate the spine and the kundalini energy associated with it. He distinguishes the Jewish approach from the yoga approach, stating that while the yoga approach focuses on stimulating the ascending energy rising from the base of the spine upward, the Jewish approach focuses on the descending energy coursing down from the mind/head through the spine to energize the body, or more precisely, that the head is bowed down to the body so that the spiritual energy from the head is employed to activate the lower kundalini energy to spur its rise up the spine. Serpent power only energized from below upward is depicted negatively, resulting in the serpent power of the rigid spine reigning supreme in the yoga tradition, while serpent power energized by the head first in the Jewish practice renders the serpent power subservient to the head, and thus acceptable. I have addressed issues concerning these concepts elsewhere, most specifically in a piece entitled “Schechinah, Rise of the Feminine” available on the Yoga and Judaism blog, and also in the book IVRI: The Essence of Hebrew Spirituality, and I will not repeat them at length here. In short, I agree with the caution that efforts at raising the kundalini from below should be tempered by or taken in context with the concept of the descending energy of grace coming from above. However, I disagree with the traditional Jewish take on the serpent repeated by Kaplan that “the serpent is seen as the enemy of mankind. The serpent is the tempter, who tries to use sexual energy to draw humans away from God”. But even Kaplan admits that the Jewish sources use the serpent image in a positive context if the Jewish practice is engaged, that after bowing down and infusing the body with spiritual energy, we “can rise and lift energy from the spine to the head, ‘rising like a snake’” [quoting from the Talmud. The primordial serpent power/Shakti/Schechina is the source of both the Good Inclination and the Evil Inclination. Without it, humans would not exist to be tempted! In this discussion, Kaplan is careful to repeat the proviso: “This is not to suggest that there is any relationship between the Jewish teaching and that of the East, but merely to point out that the spine is universally recognized as an important conduit of energy”. Duly noted!



The Chapter on Unification is devoted to an examination of the Shema prayer, as its message is the message of Oneness. Although in my own personal practice, I utilize the Shema in a rapid repetition mantra method, Kaplan states the Talmud discourages such a practice, stating that “one who repeats the Shema should be silenced”. However, I utilize it in silent internal mode, so there is nothing external to be silenced, so perhaps I am okay with it. I find it to be a powerful practice. Kaplan’s recommendation is the exact opposite, to repeat the Shema very slowly in a meditative practice. He notes the similarity between the word, “Shema” consisting of Shin, Mem and Ayin, and the words “Shem” meaning “name” and “Sham” meaning “there”, both consisting of Shin and Mem, with no Ayin. He notes that the Sefer Yetzirah identifies three “mother letters”, Shin, Mem and Aleph, with Shin designating chaos and fire, Mem designating harmony and water, and Aleph designating the silence at the foundation of all sound. He describes a simple meditation technique contained in commentaries on the Sefer Yetzirah whereby the “Sh” sound is internally intoned on an outbreath, followed by the silence of Aleph on the inbreath, followed by the “M” sound on the next outbreath, and repeating that sequence. He states that the Ayin in the word Shema designates diversity within unity.



“It is easy to understand why the shin and mem are important. The shin has the sound of s or sh, and hence, of all the letters in the alphabet, it has the sound closest to white noise. White noise is sound that contains every possible wavelength, and is usually heard as a hissing sound. On an oscilloscope, the s sound would appear as a totally chaotic jumble with no structure whatsoever.”



“The opposite of white noise is pure harmonic sound. This is a hum, like the sound of a tuning fork. On an oscilloscope, this would appear as a perfect wavy line, the epitome of order and regularity. This is the sound of the mem.”



“The shin thus represents chaos, while the mem represents harmony. The Sefer Yetzirah says that the shin represents fire, while the mem represents water. The shin denotes a hot, chaotic state of consciousness, while the mem denotes a cool, harmonic state. This is significant, since in many meditative traditions, the m sound is seen as one that leads to tranquility and inner peace. The sound itself seems to be conducive to the harmony that one seeks in the meditative state. The s or sh sound, on the other hand, is more closely associated with our normal, everyday level of consciousness. It is also interesting to note that the ‘still small voice’ (1 Kings 19:12) in which Elijah heard God is translated by the Sefer Yetzirah as a ‘fine humming sound.’ It appears that the m sound was closely associated with prophecy.” Pp 129, 130.



The Chapter on The Ladder discusses the vision of Jacob’s Ladder, and how midrash relates that the ladder had four steps, relating to the four letters of the Tetragrammaton, the four worlds, and also to four layers of the soul. He also describes how the sequence in the traditional morning shacharith service guides one through these four levels, starting from the most gross to the most subtle, and then brings one back down to earth to instill the highest consciousness into daily living. He contends that the entire service can therefore be regarded as a meditation.



The Chapters, In All Your Ways, The Commandments, and Between Man and Woman contain a Jewish version of Tantra. They express the concept that every single action can be viewed as sacred and conducted as meditation in action. First, In All Your Ways expresses the idea that God is immanent in all things, so dealing with anything is dealing with God. Second, The Commandments expresses that there are certain activities that have been designated as particularly helpful in providing direction and spiritual guidance in life. And third, Between Man and Woman expresses that proper sexual relations is a particularly unique sacred activity, as it mimics the very act of ongoing creation whereby the interplay between male and female is essential for creating and sustaining anything and everything.



The book ends with a chapter entitled Remolding the Self. As sympathetic as Kaplan appears concerning Chasidism, Jewish Mysticism, and Kabbalah, it is interesting that he ends the book with this chapter discussing the Musar movement, which he says was a reaction to Chasidism. He explains that Chasidism had to a significant extent degenerated into a type of cult worship [my term, not his] of the various designated rebbes whereby “the guide became more important than the mountain. Many Chasidim regarded their rebbe as the paradigm of the saintly man and lived the righteous life vicariously through him. The Musar movement developed among the Mitnaggedim, opponents of the Chasidic movement. Musar schools taught that it was not enough to live the righteous life through a master. Every individual had an obligation to strive to live the righteous life in his own right. Beyond that, the Musar movement offered a program through which every person could gradually perfect himself.” He explains that Musar focuses on one’s relation with one’s fellow beings in addition to one’s relationship with God. Musar means “self-perfection”, and as such, focuses on methods to overcome individual shortcomings in order to be a better citizen of the world. Kaplan contends that the type of introspective Musar “self-help” techniques can be seen as individualized meditations, and that by engaging in these meditations, which are similar to the practice of affirmations found in some non-Jewish movements such as New Thought, the results can be realized. However, unlike a lot of New Thought “Power of Positive Thinking” approaches, in which just glowing positive attributes are emphasized, Musar starts with the practitioner honestly identifying and acknowledging a specific character flaw or weakness, and then identifying and focusing on the flip-side positive attribute to it in order to eliminate the flaw and replace it with its positive counterpart. In concluding the book with this chapter, Kaplan is making the point that the real test of spiritual development is not only in attaining lofty meditational levels, but in how one brings those attainments to bear in one’s interactions with the everyday mundane world and its challenges and relationships, starting first with the family unit, and especially between spouses. Perhaps the greatest testers to our spiritual development that we have are those closest to us, who can challenge us and press our “hot buttons” like no one else. This is the ultimate “reality check”, where “the rubber meets the road”. [The last three phrases in quotes are mine, not Kaplan’s!] 
Sefer Yetzirah, The Book of Creation, In Theory and Practice is Kaplan’s translation and extensive commentary on this significant kabalistic text, including its several versions. As discussed above regarding the Torah being just like an outline or summary which requires annotation and commentary to even begin to fully grasp the texture of meaning lying beneath the surface, this holds even more true for the Sefer Yetzirah, which is considered one of the primary texts of kabalistic teaching, along with the Zohar and the Bahir. That is because the primary text is extremely brief and terse, and without extensive elaboration through commentary by someone familiar with and capable of deciphering its short-cut code language and terminology, it is virtually inaccessible to the casual reader. As described in my introduction above, this is Kaplan the scholar and practitioner at his best. It is not a casual or easy read, but for anyone with an interest in the details, even the minutiae, of Jewish mysticism and esoterica, Kaplan is a master at articulating these intricacies.

His book on The Bahir is another on my extensive “to do” list. It looks like a treatment of this text similar to his treatment of the Sefer Yetzirah.


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I have now read Meditation and the Bible. It is quite interesting and inspiring. It validates many of the hunches I have had about the authenticity of Jewish meditation practices. He has conducted painstaking research, providing translations from little-known texts never before translated into English. He weaves together references to meditation and meditative states through his analysis of terminology that many scholars before him did not cognize. There is a heavy focus on the biblical Prophets and evidence that they entered meditative states in which they attained their prophetic revelations. He also refers to two hatha yoga-like prophetic postures, both of which are most likely variations on the child pose. There is also a focus on the Psalms as either tools for entering meditative states, or as descriptions of experienced meditative states. There is a particular focus on the 119th Psalm, which curiously is organized in groupings of eight verses marked by each letter of the Hebrew alphabet per grouping. He points out that this particular Psalm contains a high number of references to words that relate to various forms of meditative states or techniques. 

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I have also now read Meditation and Kabbalah. It picks up where Meditation and the Bible leaves off, venturing into other sources of Jewish meditative practices over the centuries. It opens with an overview and then presents a review of various sources, beginning with the Talmudists, the Zohar and The Hekhalot. There is a lengthy section on Rabbi Abraham Abulafia, who was born in 13th century Spain, documenting his approach and the extensive influence he had on his contemporaries and in subsequent years after his passing, particularly in the Mediterranean and the Holy Land. Abulafia wrote extensively and in great detail, to the dismay of many others opposed to him and his actions, some because they believed such matters were heresy, and others who believed such matters should remain the province of secret groups. Abulafia’s main focus was on letter permutations of Bible phrases and words, utilizing a method of actually writing them, as well as intoning them, in order to reach revelatory states. He also engaged in elaborate breathing exercises and body movements, particularly with movements of the head. Kaplan affords Abulafia great respect, while acknowledging the many controversies surrounding him and his teachings, particularly certain claims that could easily be interpreted that Abulafia believed himself to be the Messiah, and a rather bizarre and delusional effort to attempt to convert the Pope at that time to Judaism.

The next section reviews “Other Early Schools”. It begins with the significance of the school of Provence, France in the late 1100’s, as the first source putting kabalistic teachings into writing that had previously been passed on secretly in verbal form only. It is considered the source of the written Bahir, a precursor to the Zohar, which appeared later. It then reviews the work of Rabbi Joseph Gikatalia of Spain who lived in the 1200’s and 1300’s, and his contribution describing meditating on the sephirot and the divine names associated with them. Next is a chapter on Rabbi Isaac of Acco, who lived in the Mideast and then moved to Italy. He was a contemporary of the Ramban, Abulafia, and Moses de Leon (redactor of the Zohar). This is followed by a chapter about the publication of the Zohar and the issues that still remain concerning whether Moses de Leon was merely a redactor/conveyer of an earlier text dating back to Shimon bar Yochai from the second century, or whether he authored it himself, via divine revelation or merely his own imagination. The section on “Other Early Schools” concludes with chapters on “Occult Schools” which overlapped practical kabala/debased magic, with meditation, and on the 16th Century Rabbi Joseph Tzayach who lived mostly in Jerusalem and Damascus.



Following this is a section on the development of kabalistic centers in Safed and Jerusalem in Israel and a review of the early sages that established it. These were mostly rabbis from Portugal and Spain who immigrated to Safed following their expulsion from the Iberian Peninsula in 1492 as part of the Inquisition, and those that followed them into the early and mid 1500’s. These include Moshe Cordevero (the Ramak), Joseph Caro, Jacob Berab, Joseph Saragossi, Joseph Taitatzak, David abu Zimra (the Radbaz), Judah Albontini, Joseph Tzayach, Betzalel Ashkenazi, Shlomo AlKabatz.



There is also mention of a mysterious figure who apparently was not a rabbi, described as “a cryptical messianic figure from Kheybar on the Arabian peninsula” by the name of David Reuveni. He influenced a Rabbi Shlomo Molcho, who had remained in Portugal as a Marrano convert to Catholicism, but who had secretly continued to study Judaism. Reuveni persuaded Molcho to re-embrace Judaism and flee from Portugal. Molcho later developed a meditative technique whereby he could contact a Maggid, “a kind of angelic spokesman”, and taught this technique to other noted Rabbis. Molcho’s ego eventually got the best of him, and thinking that his charisma could win over the King of Spain/Holy Roman Emperor Charles V, he ended up being burned at the stake for heresy. The book includes a very odd drawing of what is represented as his autograph.



Rabbi Joseph Caro had been one who learned the technique for contacting a Maggid from Molcho, and Caro actually wrote a book containing the revelations of this Maggid, Maggid Mesharim, an excerpt of which is reproduced. From this excerpt: “This is the mystery of Unity, through which a person literally unifies himself with his Creator. The soul attaches itself to Him, and becomes one with Him, so that the body literally becomes a dwelling place of the Divine Presence.”



Included are excerpts from a work by the Ramak (Rabbi Moshe Cordevero), Pardes Rimonim, describing, among other things, a system of meditation utilizing the consonants of the Tetragrammaton with different vowels and colors all associated with the different Sephirot. From this excerpt: “If one is pure and upright in deed, and if he grasps the cords of love, which exist in the holy roots of his soul, he can ascend to every level in all the Universes.”



There are two short sections devoted to Rabbi Chaim Vital, who lived in the mid-1500’s and early 1600’s, mostly in Safed and Damascus. This was a time of much growth in kabalistic communities like Safed, spurred by the first printing of the Zohar, making it more easily accessible to more people. Kaplan notes that Vital is usually discussed in the context of being the chief disciple of Rabbi Isaac Luria (The Ari), a giant in kabalistic thought and innovation. Vital is credited with recording many volumes describing the teachings and techniques of Luria, preserving them for future reference, as Luria himself wrote very little. However, Kaplan notes that Vital was actually only under Luria’s tutelage for less than two years, and lived on many years after Luria’s passing, during which time he became more distanced from Luria’s teachings and influence, and immersed himself in earlier sources. Kaplan notes that Vital wrote “one of the most remarkable books about the meditative Kabbalah, and one of the very few ever printed…Shaarey Kedushah (Gates of Holiness). Although the author states that he learned these methods from the Ari, much of the material comes from older sources. Indeed, the unpublished Fourth Section of this book consists almost entirely of quotations from older texts…[it] stands alone as being the only textbook of Kabbalistic meditation ever printed.” The unpublished Fourth Section describes specific methods of meditation, many of which Vital gleaned from earlier sources, including Abulafia, Joseph Caro, and others, which he confirms by personal experience as being valid and effective. It also contains much detail about extensive preparatory steps for meditation, including complying with all 248 positive commandments and immersing in a mikvah. One significant method is called Yechudim (Unifications), and involves imaging and permutating biblical Hebrew letters. Another method involves mantra-like repetition of selected phrases from the Mishna.



This is followed by a lengthy section on Rabbi Isaac Luria (1534-1572), known as The Ari (The Lion). He is generally acknowledged as having more influence on kabbalistic thought and practice than any other single person. As noted above, Rabbi Chaim Vital was his chief disciple, and was responsible for preserving thousands of pages in multiple volumes of The Ari’s teachings, as virtually nothing exists written directly by The Ari. Although born in Jerusalem, he spent most of his years in Egypt, where his mother moved after his father’s death to live with her brother. Luria was recognized early on as a spiritual child prodigy, and studied and mastered the Talmud at an early age under the tutelage of various leading sages of that time living in Egypt. By age seventeen, he had started studying the Zohar and meditating intensively and extensively. Only two years before his death at age 38, he moved to Safed due to guidance received in a meditation, where he succeeded the Ramak as leader of the Safed school of kabalah.



Kaplan states that it is a very difficult undertaking to try to summarize the expanse of Luria’s teachings and do them any justice. However, Kaplan nevertheless attempts such an undertaking. He says Luria builds upon, clarifies, and expands upon some basic concepts of the Zohar: The Ten Sefirot, The Partzufim, the Adam Kadmon, the Four Universes, the Five levels of the Soul, and devises meditative practices that incorporate them.

Another significant Lurianic concept is that of the “shattering of the vessels”, and the rectification/repairing of the fragments of the shattered vessels (tikkun), which I will not attempt to summarize here.



Kaplan describes meditative prayer exercises developed by Luria called “Kavonot” that were applied to all sorts of daily activities, rendering them sacred. Next is a description of more internal meditative practices called “Yichudim” (from the word, “yichud”, meaning uniting, and thus yichudim means “unifications”, quite similar to the root meaning of the word “yoga”). Yichudim are a number of complex meditative practices utilizing permutations and combinations of various divine names, particularly the Tetragrammaton, Adonai, Elohim and Ehyeh. Kaplan goes into some detail describing these practices. Of particular note to me as a Jewish yogi are some descriptions that parallel concepts found in yoga: 1. A practice fostering a state with a description similar to the state of yoga nidra (yogic sleep): “You will be worthy of knowing all that you desire and receiving answers to all that you ask. This, however, requires great concentration. You must clear your mind of all thought, and divest your soul from your body.”  2. There are many descriptions involving practices balancing male and female energies. 3. Descriptions of male and female energies related to the right and left nostrils, respectively, corresponding to the pingala and ida in yoga descriptions.



The final section of the book is on The Hasidim. Kaplan provides a quick overview of the history of the Hasidic movement, beginning with the surfacing of the Society of the Nistarim under the leadership of the Baal Shem Tov (Rabbi Israel ben Eliezar, 1698-1760). Although this intensely secret kabalistic society had existed for many years under many leaders before the Baal Shem Tov, he is credited with initiating the Hasidic movement in Eastern Europe by virtue of making these teachings more widespread and revising them so that they would be accessible to the common man, including meditative techniques. A primary focus was transforming prayer into meditation and focusing on elevating through the various kabbalistic worlds through prayer/meditation. Hasidic writings also made reference to Ein/Ayin – Nothingness, although Kaplan warns that it involves the most difficult path of “undirected meditation [which] is one of the most dangerous methods in classical meditation and should not be attempted except under the guidance of a master.” He nevertheless acknowledges that it is “highly significant”.



Kaplan ends this section and the book with a chapter on Rabbi Nachman of Breslov (1772-1810, founder of the Breslov Hasidic lineage). He discusses his recommended method of Hitbodedut/Meditation, which involves bringing forth one’s inner thoughts in silent reflection and conversation with the Divine. 
 

Thursday, October 22, 2009

Quote of the Week 111 - In the Beginning

AND THE EARTH WAS VOID AND WITHOUT FORM. This describes the original state-as it were, the dregs of ink clinging to the point of the pen-in which there was no subsistence, until the world was graven with forty-two letters, all of which are the ornamentation of the Holy Name. When they are joined, letters ascend and descend, and form crowns for themselves in all four quarters of the world, so that the world is established through them and they through it. A mould was formed for them like the seal of a ring; when they went in and issued, and the world was created, and when they were joined together in the seal, the world was established. They struck against the great serpent, and penetrated under the chasms of the dust fifteen hundred cubits. Afterwards the great deep arose in darkness, and darkness covered all, until light emerged and cleft the darkness and came forth and shone day came from the side of light, which is the right, and night from the side of darkness, which is the left, and that, having emerged together, they were separated in such a way as to be no longer side by side but face to face, in which guise they clung to one another and formed one, the light being called day and the darkness night, as it says, “And God called the light day and the darkness he called night.” This is the darkness that is attached to night, which has no light of its own, although it comes from the side of the primordial fire which is also called “darkness”. It remains dark until it is illumined from the side of day. Day illumines night, and night will not be light of itself until the time of which it is written, “the night shineth as the day, the darkness is even as the light” (Ps. CXXXIX, 12).

Zohar, Volume 1, Folios 31a and 31b, Soncino translation

Monday, October 19, 2009

10% Discount on YOGA AND JUDAISM, SECOND EDITION, ENDING SOON

This is just a friendly reminder that the 10% discount for direct sales from the publisher ends at the end of October. To get the discount, go to http://stores.lulu.com/yajc or www.lulu.com and search "Yoga and Judaism". At checkout, enter the coupon code FALLREAD (no spaces) and click the update cart button, which should show the discount.

This is also a reminder that YOGA AND JUDAISM, SECOND EDITION, is now available in broader distribution, including Amazon, Amazon UK and Barnes and Noble.

Sunday, October 18, 2009

Georg Feuerstein, Green Yoga, and Spiritual Activism

Georg Feuerstein, Green Yoga, and Spiritual Activism

Dr. Georg Feuerstein has been someone I have admired for a long time. He has been a life-long scholar and practitioner of Eastern spirituality, especially yoga-related matters, and has written many comprehensive books on various related subjects. I am currently wading through his encyclopedic The Yoga Tradition, Its History, Literature, Philosophy and Practice, as I regard it as a valuable resource to deepen and broaden my knowledge of this subject. He was a student of Bubba Free John during the same period in which I was attracted to him. Like me, he eventually became disillusioned and moved on. We also share a long-time affinity for the Indian sage, Ramana Maharshi. He has participated to a limited extent with Yoga Mosaic, an international forum for Jewish yoga teachers. Around 2004, he moved from the U.S. to Canada, and began focusing on Green Yoga, devoting all of his energies to this cause, and now considers himself semi-retired. I came across his Green Yoga site recently on the web, and read with interest several of the articles posted there. You can check them out for yourself at www.traditionalyogastudies.com. (In addition to Green Yoga, Traditional Yoga Studies focuses on the premise that I share and promote that there is much more to yoga than the physical exercises, and bemoans the fact that these other aspects have been widely ignored, while simplified materialistic body-oriented approaches have dominated). A comparable site advocating “spiritual activism” from within a framework of deep mystical Judaism is www.theshalomcenter.org, led by Rabbi Arthur Waskow. I have listed these sites on the “Links” section in this blog.


Feuerstein has become convinced that we are on a collective suicidal collision course due to global warming and related environmental catastrophe. He developed the concept of “Green Yoga” to appeal to yoga practitioners as a loose world-wide community most receptive and sensitive to his message. That is, to do more on personal and collective levels to “talk the talk and walk the walk” concerning reorienting lifestyles and activities to reverse the causes of environmental disaster. Largely due to the influence of his wife Brenda, who has a background in this area, he advocates drastic changes in lifestyle to minimize our “carbon footprint”, such as severely limiting use of motor vehicles, air travel, and utilizing only paper products made of 100% recycled materials. There is a nascent parallel to this approach among various progressive Jewish circles, most notably, Jewish Renewal. “Eco-kashrut” engenders the notion that implicit in the mitzvot of the Torah is a responsibility to be good stewards to the planet earth to which we have been granted dominion. Sound environmental practices are thus inevitable imperatives.


He is adamant, dedicated and extreme in his personal practices, and in his insistence that anyone with a proper moral compass who intelligently considers these matters would have to come to a similar conclusion, and thus should follow suit in their personal lifestyle. He makes it clear that this means much more than mere feel-good home recycling. Things such as air travel and use of paper and print media should be severely minimized, if not totally eliminated. It is clear from some references on his web site that he has experienced some push-back to his proselytizing from folks with the attitude of “don’t tell me how to live my life” and “don’t lay your guilt trips on me.” For someone who believes that life on the planet earth is at stake, his insistence is understandable. He is particularly indignant at the idea that not only are human beings treading a path to their own destruction, but in so doing, they are destroying and imperiling the existence of all other non-human forms of life on earth. He cites the rapidly increasing and ongoing level of species extinction documented by modern science.


Feuerstein acknowledges that if any significant change to our current course is to occur, it is unlikely that there will be sufficient numbers of people who will personally follow the lifestyle he advocates to effectuate such change. He therefore also proposes political involvement through what he has termed “spiritual activism”, an acknowledgement that the pursuit of individual spiritual self-transcendence is not inconsistent with activist engagement in the political process, a notion that he acknowledges he had dismissed for most of his life. He does not offer any concrete avenues for suitable and effective engagement in such activities, leaving that thorny question up to individual determination. He further recognizes that Divine Intervention and assistance from advanced beings in more subtle realms would also be useful, and he appeals to all so inclined to invoke such assistance and guidance through meditative and prayerful avenues.


Whether one agrees with Feuerstein’s conclusions and his call to action is a matter for each of us to decide and determine how to respond. It is certainly not something that should be lightly dismissed without serious thought, however depressing it may be.


Whenever I go to an airport, I often wonder about all of these people scurrying about to catch a plane, or having just gotten off of a plane. Where are they all coming from and where are they all going to, day in and day out? How much of this coming and going is necessary or productive? Is this really efficient? Can there be a better way to conduct our lives?


I recall a fellow I knew who was a high-powered business consultant living in Atlanta with a young family. People in this realm of business are “project-based”. They are hired on by a customer for the duration of a particular project, which may be several weeks or several months, and then move on to another one. He would travel all over the country to work on such extended-period projects for specific clients, often staying overnight during the week, and coming home to his family on weekends. I remember in particular, one such project he had in Denver. At the time I thought of the stress it created on his family life, being away from his wife and young children for such extended periods of time, even though he would come home on weekends. But I also thought of how inefficient this model seemed to be, just due to the cost of constantly flying him there and back on a weekly basis, and paying for his hotel during the week. Now add to that the cost of the carbon footprint to all of that air travel. I did not question his expertise or talent, but I couldn’t accept that there wasn’t someone of similar ability available in the Denver area who could have done the job and gone home to his family every night instead of this guy flying in and out from Atlanta. And then I started imagining that there was probably some other company in Atlanta that was likewise flying some other consultant in from Denver! How many times are comparable scenarios repeated throughout the country and the world on a regular basis? And again I wonder about all of those people scurrying about in airports all over the world, every day of the year, year in and year out.


On the other hand, Feuerstein uses as an example a situation in which he and his wife were invited to attend and present at a yoga conference in Australia. Instead of personally attending, they presented via video-conferencing, thus minimizing their carbon footprint in this circumstance. Likewise, there was some criticism along these lines about President Obama’s trip to Denmark in 2009 to personally promote Chicago as the site for the 2016 Olympics. The critics argued that he could have accomplished the same thing via video conferencing at a much lower cost, both financially and environmentally. However, there were other opinions that Chicago’s surprising loss in the first round of voting was due to Obama not staying long enough in Europe and pressing more flesh. Certainly there is probably more room for effective video-conferencing in many circumstances, but in others, there may be no substitute for personal presence, including at such events as a yoga conference, where an atmosphere is created by the physical presence of the attendees and presenters that cannot be otherwise qualitatively duplicated. I doubt that the Camp David accords could have been effectively conducted without in-person exchanges, and a Bruce Springsteen concert attended in person is certainly of a different quality than seeing it on TV. I guess Feuerstein would argue that the time for such luxuries, along with many others, has past.


In one particularly interesting article, in further consideration of his recognition of the need for some form of social or political activism, Feuerstein reviews the thought of anarchists such as Derrick Jensen (who advocates violent militant attacks on existing structures by others, while disavowing any willingness to personally participate) and Ted Kaczynski, the Unabomber (who personally took it to that next level for several years until finally getting caught). It was curious to me that Feuerstein gave them such serious consideration and expended the time to write about his musings and share it with the rest of the world. Perhaps there were recruitment efforts coming from such quarters by which he felt he needed to make a formal response. Perhaps it is because he sympathizes with their views to the extent that they overlap with his criticism of consumerism, corporate and political power-mongering and greed, and environmental destruction, and a shared sentiment that humanity as a whole seems to be engaged in a collective death wish intent on the inevitable destruction of planet earth. Perhaps he felt a need to address eco-terrorism. Whatever the underlying motivation, he felt a need to address this subject, first analyzing its merits, and then criticizing and rejecting some of its ideology and most of its methods.


As for Jensen and Kaczynski, he concludes that they both likely suffer personally from intellectual and emotional “short circuits” fueling their world views and calls to action, and that the world of anarchism and eco-terrorism is inhabited by many maladjusted sociopaths. He then critiques anarchist ideology generally, even if not fueled by obvious sociopaths. He identifies one strain of anarchism that is intent on rejection and destruction of any form of social order, based upon some libertarian notion of acute individualism. They naively believe that in the aftermath of the nihilistic revolution which they advocate, folks will figure out how to peacefully coexist and take care of themselves. Another strain doesn’t go quite so far, recognizing the necessity for some kind of social structure, but that it can be non-hierarchical instead of existing hierarchical models, which inevitably lead to unconscionable concentrations and abuses of power and wealth by a few.

Feuerstein concludes that no form of anarchism has ever worked or is likely to work. It has not in the past and is not likely to in the future because humanity as a whole remains “mostly arrested at the juvenile stage of emotional development.” He suggests that it could work, but only if we became “fully adult, emotionally, intellectually, and morally”, which is not the case. Because it is not the case, in addition to non-hierarchical anarchist solutions being doomed to fail, it also contributes to the dire problems we are currently encountering. Seems like we’re caught between the proverbial “rock and hard place.”


I had the pleasure of experiencing a brief study opportunity in my college days with Murray Bookchin, an avowed anarchist at the time. He explicated the view that anarchism is distinct from nihilism, in that anarchism believes in the need for social structure, but that it should be arranged in a non-hierarchical fashion, instead of the dominant hierarchical model. A quick internet search on him reveals an update that later in his life, he distanced himself from any labeled anarchist movements, but until his death, he remained committed to concepts of extreme decentralization. He also tied in his ideology and criticism of the status quo with ecological and environmental advocacy, and apparently had a significant influence on the green movement worldwide.


I have a problem with non-hierarchical ideology, in addition to Feuerstein’s critique that it requires mature adult participation, something that is obviously lacking today. (Anyone who has had the dubious pleasure of participating in a homeowners’ association, which to a large extent mirrors the type of decentralized self-governance envisioned by Bookchin, will probably understand my reticence to agree with the notion that such a model is more favorable than what we currently have. Also, with a divorce rate in the US at around 50%, indicative of a mass inability to maintain even stable family units, it is unlikely that these same people who can’t hold families together would have the capacity to get along in grass roots cohesive communities). It appears that in non-human worlds, both higher and lower, that hierarchy in some form or fashion, is a prevalent natural structure. There is certainly plenty of evidence of hierarchical structure in the animal world, and likewise, in realms discussed in the esoteric literature of both the East and West of Great White Brotherhoods or other comparable schemes of evolutionary beings existing on planes of ever-increasing subtlety (mystical Judaism alludes to angels and archangels and the “hosts” over which YHVH is lord). The point that is missed in our modern structures is that in the higher spiritual realms, in addition to being hierarchies of subtle and gross power, they are also hierarchies of maturity, responsibility and service. A significant characteristic is the lack of or minimized ego. In contrast, our temporal hierarchical leaders, both in business and politics, tend to be ego-driven power-mongerers, leading to unpleasant consequences.

In another article, Feuerstein acknowledges that we are in the middle of what in the Indian tradition is called the “kali yuga”. According to Indian cosmology, creation is subject to repeating vast cycles and ages of time. At some juncture, relative creation is absorbed back into the absolute, and then eventually re-emerges to commence another lengthy cycle in the realm of relativity. Within each cycle of relativity are several rounds of repeating ages, of which there are four, marked by the levels of enlightenment versus levels of darkness. The first age, sat yuga, is almost 100% enlightened; in the second, treta yuga, the light/dark ratio is 75/25; in the third, doaper yuga, it is 50/50, and in the fourth, kali yuga, it is 25/75. According to this Vedic cosmology, we are currently in the middle of one of the 25/75 darkest ages, a kali yuga, but nowhere near a time of the cessation of the relative world.


While Feuerstein acknowledges this, and I would think, based upon his background, would accept this as a valid view, he nevertheless, like many current “End of Timers”, points to peculiar aspects of our time that appear to be like no others before them. The conclusion is then drawn that these times appear to be an apparent exception to this scheme, and thus all bets are off; we are on a road to fairly quick extinction if we do not alter course dramatically very soon. At times, he expresses exasperation, futility, and resignation. It saddens me to encounter these moods being expressed by such a great mind and soul who has contributed so much to the spiritual inspiration and upliftment of so many. By such expressions, he seems to reject and rail against the very stark realities that he at the same time acknowledges, as if he was expecting something better. Besides environmental issues, a great deal of the world’s population is starving, sick, and subjected to violence and brutality, as it has been for thousands of years. In the most “advanced” societies (which are the biggest contributors to environmental waste), we misuse the freedom we have attained, let alone what we would do if we were granted even more. Juvenile, fundamentalist, imperialistic, intolerant, oppressive religions dominate. The definition of “Mature Adult” held by one of the world’s leading societies is that such persons can legally consume pornography.

We had an opportunity to reassess and re-orient after our world was brought to a stand-still by the events of 09/11. We had another such opportunity when our financial world came crashing down in the fall of 2008. Both times, the response was to pick ourselves up, dust ourselves off, and continue with business as usual.

I agree with the premise that we cannot continue with business as usual, and that nothing much is going to change in any meaningful way unless there are dramatic institutional changes, from top down, in addition to bottom up grass roots efforts. Another of my college-days studies was of the book, Culture Against Man by anthropologist Jules Henry, which is as telling an indictment of our current system as any, written decades ago. Examining what has led to our current predicament, it is clear to me that the current legal and economic schemes related to corporations and how they conduct business needs careful reevaluation. Former President Bush, rightly or wrongly, concluded that an entity like AIG had to be saved because there would be too many severe economic ramifications on the US and world economy without government intervention. What is particularly alarming about this specifically, and the recent economic crisis generally, is that AIG was a leading participant, at the largest scale, engaged in questionable practices of financial sector companies, operations that don’t directly produce any tangible goods. I’m not sure how or whether their operations directly contribute to the gross national product, as I don’t see exactly what product they are producing, other than shifting a lot of money around in incredibly complicated secondary market financial machinations. They don’t produce food, shelter, clothing, consumer goods, entertainment, art, or anything else that adds to the sustenance and quality of life. Something is terribly wrong with a system that has gotten to the point where the survival of any one such company, or even a sector of such companies, is equated with the survival of a country’s or world’s financial well-being.

Conservative political and economic ideology professing minimal government interference with personal and business life overlooks a critical factor and distinction. Corporations, by their very existence and definitions, are creations of the government. They are not endowed with the inalienable rights referred to in our Declaration of Independence and guaranteed by our Constitution, because they are not natural persons of flesh and blood. A “free” market which is the exclusive domain of these artificial legal entities has little to do with our cherished individual liberties. Advocates of the former have been very successful in pulling the wool over many people’s eyes by intertwining and equating the two. Particularly concerning the raging health care debate, there are many that are endeared with the idea of reserving our rights to be subjected to the inept, unresponsive bureaucracies of profiteering corporations as a lesser evil than being subjected to a government-run non-profit system. This, despite the fact that many other of our essential services are relatively successfully government-run or highly regulated, such as police, fire, EMS, schools, libraries, armed forces, gas, electric.


Our legal system has concocted the charters, state-by-state, that grant corporations the right to exist and to conduct many of the functions of natural citizens. There are no standards, criteria, background checks for applying for a corporate charter. All that is needed is to comply with some rote requirements to submit a little bit of paperwork and a designated fee. And what is the reason for these government-created artificial entities? President Obama has employed a great deal of rhetoric about responsibility, but at least one reason for the existence of corporations is to limit responsibility. One corporate form is actually called an “LLC”, standing for “Limited Liability Company”, but all corporate forms serve the purpose to limit the liability, and thus the responsibility, of the corporations. Business lawyers are quite familiar with “shell corporations”, manipulations of the system that exist for the sole purpose of shirking responsibility.


On a yearly basis, there are probably thousands of circumstances whereby corporations sue and are sued, by each other and by individuals, and are subject to regulatory and government investigations and proceedings, whereby all kinds of wrongs and infractions are alleged, civil, regulatory and criminal. And millions of dollars are paid in settlements, judgments, and penalties by the corporations alleged to have been engaged in such wrong-doing, with the vast majority being resolved on the basis of no liability or wrong-doing being admitted or conceded. The incidents of corporate criminals being sentenced to jail and restitution, such was with Ken Lay (Enron), Bernie Ebbers (WorldCom), or Richard Scrushy (HealthSouth) are few and far between. It is much more common for corporate wrong-doing to be punished with a slap on the wrist, and then it is back to business as usual. The average citizen has no idea of the depth or breadth of corporate malfeasance that occurs and is punished on virtually a daily basis, as there is very little news exposure about these matters. Multi-national corporations, with their extensive bureaucratic corporate structures do not behave as your local business merchant on “Main Street”. There is much lingo about “corporate cultures” and “growing a business”, as if they were social, organic structures. But corporations are synthetic; they do not have hearts or souls.


Corporate influence on government, either directly or indirectly, should be eliminated or minimized. Our current system, whereby the same corporation or special interest group will provide support for opposing candidates in political races, whereby their influence and access is assured regardless of the outcome, is an abomination to the principles of a properly functioning democracy and should not be tolerated. Only natural persons who would be eligible to vote should be able to support political campaigns or have any sort of access to our elected representatives. The government has every right to intervene in corporate affairs, not only because the government has bailed out so many companies, but because the companies, unlike natural citizens, are creations of the government. There is no question that irresponsible corporate behavior has brought us to dire economic and environmental straits. There needs to be a heightened assertion of the rights of natural persons as paramount over the rights of corporations, which need a great deal of reigning in. And now back to the stark reality of life in the kali yuga.

Perhaps the misguided ideological anarchists who are not sociopaths have some faint memory of a past lifetime long ago in a period of sat yuga, for which they subconsciously long to return. Don’t we all! But the reality is that we are in the middle of a kali yuga. We are quite dumb and half-blind. There is no Utopia lurking around the corner, as many believe, whether it be man-made by reform or revolution, or ushered in by one of the many versions of a Messiah floating around. What is the basis for such an expectation? Let’s get real here. This does not mean that I am saying we should not “rage against the dying of the light”, only to do it by retaining a broader, more realistic perspective, and thus, equanimity. It remains our obligation to responsibly, maturely participate in this dance of life to the best of our abilities.


In Sy Safranky’s Notebook in the October 2009 issue of The Sun magazine, he discusses similar themes as Feuerstein, focusing on the pessimistic conclusion of British scientist and inventor James Lovelock that it is basically too late to avoid global environmental catastrophe. There is no question that history includes times of tremendous upheaval, both man-made, nature-made, and maybe a combination of the two. I do not doubt that we may be approaching such a time, and that we may be in for a very rude awakening and total reorientation to our physical existence imposed upon us. And as with Mr. Safransky, I wouldn’t even attempt to question what is probably very convincing science, but I nevertheless conclude, as he has, that “my intuition tells me that it’s premature to throw in the towel.” I would add that I don’t think the Vedic cosmology has gotten it wrong. It posits our survival, not our demise, despite times of intense darkness and ignorance and against all seeming odds.


The fall 2008 financial crisis and its aftermath has deeply shaken the consciousness of many average people, and even elitist pundits and experts in America and throughout the world. Consider, for example, Alan Greenspan’s remarkable confession that core beliefs upon which he had been operating for years have been proven to be incorrect. Confidence in the status quo has been placed in doubt, as perhaps never before. Although I have decried that it appears that we are again on a course of back to business as usual, perhaps there is still hope for a significant quantum shift for the better, both from the top down, and the ground up. Despite the knee-jerk shrillness of reactionaries screaming at town hall meetings, there may be among many others an uneasy acknowledgement that “business as usual” is wearing pretty thin, opening up the possibility for receptivity to significant change.

So is any of this much consolation? Am I mindlessly spouting the platitude that “hope springs eternal” while standing on a sinking ship, trying to bail out the rising gush of water with a teacup? We need to work, to continue, to endure, to carry on, no matter how Sisyphean it may appear. We’re stuck with what we’ve got. We’re in the middle of a dark age, and as a consequence, we are collectively, of course, juvenile and immature. Those of us who possess this recognition need to carry on in the most genuinely mature, adult, and responsible fashion we know how, and not “go gentle into that dark night”.


I realize this is quite a departure, and a lengthy one at that, from my basic focus on spiritual awakening, nurturance and expression. I felt moved to respond to Georg Feuerstein and add to the conversation. I remain committed to my belief that the enduring cure lies at the most subtle levels of consciousness, and I remain resolved to carry on the best I can, whether it be groping in the dark or navigating through the light. In that regard, as Dr. Feuerstein, I urge everyone to consider implementing some form of meditative spiritual practice focusing on healing of the whole of humanity and the planet earth as at least one simple avenue for spiritual activism, if nothing else. The practice of Ruach El Shaddai/Breath of Balance healing meditation procedures described on this blog and in Yoga and Judaism, Second Edition, provides one such method, wherein I suggest that each session ends with the planet earth as a whole as the subject. In my conducting of meditation classes, as many other meditation teachers, I know that one of my challenges is to persuade the students of the efficacy and benefit of incorporating a regular meditation practice into their lives. With the advent of this healing meditative practice, I have a new selling point: If you don’t want to meditate for yourself, then for heaven’s sake, at least meditate for the benefit of others!

10/13/09

Thursday, October 15, 2009

Quote of the Week 110 - Michael Mirdad: The Soul Transformation Process

Michael Mirdad: The Five Stages of the Soul Transformation Process

[I admit that I have not kept up with all of the new stars being constantly added to the constellation of modern spiritual teachers. In my meanderings, I came across a presentation and interview about a new book by Michael Mirdad in a recent edition of Evolve magazine (which is basically a marketing tool of a distributor for “new age” types of products). He is described, among other things as a “world-renowned spiritual teacher, healer and author” and a “teacher’s teacher and healer’s healer”. He has several other books, and apparently makes the lecture circuit at Unity Churches and various conferences. He seems to have a broad orientation, but anchored in some form of mystic Christianity, as he refers to “Christ Consciousness”, which among metaphysical Christians equates to a consciousness of the Divine Heart, or Tiphareth, from a Jewish mystical perspective. His newest book is called You’re Not Going Crazy…You’re Just Waking Up!, The Five Stages of the Soul Transformation Process. I found the basic message as summarized in that article and listed below to be a very helpful articulation of stages of inner spiritual transformation, which he calls the “Soul Transformation Process”. He emphasizes that this is not a description of a one-time all-transforming event for an individual, but rather a description of one of many such events that a person may continually undergo in an ongoing process of inner transformation, some being of greater or lesser magnitude, with an extreme version being what has been called “the dark night of the soul”.]

The Five Stages of the Soul Transformation Process

1. Dismantling: The process begins when there is something about your life that has been stuck or stagnant for too long and is now ready for change. Your soul activates the process to shake things up a little, or a lot.
2. Emptiness: Now that the illusions you held about life have been exposed and have begun to dissipate or Dismantle, you’ll feel Empty and depressed – mainly due to the time, effort, and (what you thought was) love you’ve invested in the dissipating illusions.
3. Disorientation: Since the life you thought was intact, needless to say, clearly wasn’t, you will now be in a state of Disorientation and possibly doubt everything, including your abilities to do anything right or to make good decisions.
4. Re-building: Now that you seem to have lost something (or maybe everything), you may have learned how to trust and surrender. In so doing, you are probably open to new ideas and inspiration, all of which are leading you to the potential of creating A New Life.
5. A New Life: This is the stage wherein you reap the obvious fruits of the healing, patience, and humility that you’ve developed. Having set aside your limited humanness, you can take the understanding of your Divinity to a whole new level.