Quote of the Week 262 - Bitul: Self-nullification or Selflessness

Bitul is the spiritual state associated with the inner experience of chochmah, whereby one's consciousness opens up to a continuous flow of Divine wisdom and new insight through one's nullifying his sense of autonomous and self-sustained being. Bitul is the experience of ayin, of being nothing within the omnipresent radiance of God's infinite light. In general, there are two identified levels of bitul:

Bitul b'metziut ("existential nullification") constitutes the absolute form of bitul whereby one loses all sense of independent existence. This is the state of bitul in the world of Atzilut, whose consciousness, permeated by the supernal level of chochmah (Abba mekanen b'Atzilut), is solely that of God's omnipresence.

Bitul hayesh ("nullification of [one's] somethingness") constitutes a lower form of bitul whereby one is consciously involved in the process of nullifying the outer layer of self (ego). This is accomplished by the concentrated effort to experience the continual recreation of all reality, including oneself, as "something from nothing." This impresses upon one's consciousness that there is no independent reality attached to one's sense of "somethingness." This is the state of bitul present within the three lower worlds of Beriah, Yetzirah and Asiyah, while its conscious experience is dependent upon one's Divine service. Divine consciousness in the three lower worlds derives from the chochmah of malchut d'Atzilut, referred to as the lower chochmah, thus giving rise to the lower level of bitul.

--From the teachings of Rabbi Yitzchak Ginsburgh, as prepared by the Gal Einai Institute, www.inner.org

Quote of the Week 261 - The Role of Conscious Beings

 

I acknowledge my role and responsibility in evolving a planetary consciousness in me, and by example in others around me. I have been part of the aberration of human consciousness in the modern age and now wish to become part of the evolution that overcomes the aberration and heals the wounds inflicted by it. This is my right as well as my duty as a conscious member of a conscious species on a precious and now critically endangered planet.

--One of the Sixteen Hallmarks of the New Consciousness comprising The Oneness Declaration by Ervin Laszlo, as contained in The Intelligent Optimist magazine (formerly Ode) January/February 2013 edition

Quote of the Week 260 - The Revenge of the Spirit

Perhaps environmental pollution and the painful gap between the rich and the poor do not constitute the major challenges of our civilization. Perhaps the real challenge lies in the way humankind meets the world- that is, in human consciousness. Consciousness is what makes us unique in the history of evolution. But we have yet to embrace fully what it means to be human…

External evolution requires internal evolution. That was the dimension Abraham Maslow added to the basic Freudian needs: our search for meaning. We strive to develop our consciousness to achieve self-actualization…

The time has come for the spirit to escape from institutions, organizations, structures, strictures and systems. The development of the economy, technology and society is bringing human autonomy closer and closer. Modern individuals have infinitely more opportunities to organize their own lives than did those of previous generations We are at the threshold of a revenge of the spirit. This is the top of Maslow’s pyramid; self-realization. Consciousness separates the human being from other living creatures. We are all recognizably unique and our desire is to fulfill that uniqueness. The next phase of evolution is about becoming conscious beings that direct ourselves. That’s the way to happiness vitality intelligence and health.

The vision of the autonomous individual should not be confused with the current culture of individualism. At a higher level of awareness, the autonomous person realizes her independence relies on the respect and tolerance of others. As more and more people find their own way to spiritual development, they realize that every person, every creature, is part o a greater whole. This growing awareness is changing society. Personal development on a large scale – in sharp contrast with the collective mass hysteria of the various religious – adds a new dimension to the evolution.

If the expansion of consciousness is the mark of the future, it will have a profound effect on the way we equip and organize our world. As awareness rises, equality and community become stronger forces at the expense of old-fashioned, overly controlling rules and overly dominant institutions that promote competition. We will see less emphasis on power, more space for self-organization. That will amount to less winning or losing and more spontaneous synergy on the road to a common outcome.

We are discovering that the pollution of the mind gave rise to the pollution of the environment and that ecology is not just about preserving resources and nature but about realizing humanity’s place in the creation of the universe. “Self-realization will make us spontaneously inclined to value and defend the integrity of the world around us,” said Arne Naess, the founder of the deep ecology movement.

Self-direction will transform standardized education systems, as children cease to be asked to parrot what they read in books selected by their teachers and parents but learn to discover, develop and capitalize on their own talents. Self-determination is also crucial for our health. Autonomous individuals are more healthy individuals. And so increased consciousness will dismantle the expensive, rule-bound system of health care…

In the end, what an Indian master once told me accurately describes our mission: “The greatest journey we can make is the journey within. While going nowhere, while staying right here, we can travel an even greater distance inside.” That journey begins with feeling, listening, looking and experiencing, and sometimes by taking a moment in our busy lives to experience our connection with creation, to invite the future in, to discover that happiness is more than matter or property, to learn that health is, first and foremost, an individual, inner experience…

Come, let’s invest in our dreams of a world renewed, trusting that a new era is now supporting our longing. “It is our duty – as men and women – to behave as though limits to our ability do not exist. We are collaborators in the creation of the universe,” said French philosopoher Pierre Teilhard de Chardin. And we should never forget that we are here to trust and realize our dreams. There’s no more fundamental change.

--Excerpts from the article, The Revenge of the Spirit in The Intelligent Optimist magazine (formerly Ode) January/February 2013 edition

by Jurriaan Kamp, editor-in-chief

Quote of the Week 259 - The Spirituality of the Original Inhabitants of America

Their world was multitudinous, densely populated by active, sentient and sensitive spirits, spirits with consciences, memories and purposes, that surrounded them, instructed them, impinged on their lives at every turn. No less real for being invisible…the whole of life was a spiritual enterprise…the universe in all its movements and animations and nature was suffused with spiritual potency.

--Excerpt from a book by Harvard historian Bernard Bailyn, The Barbarous Years, as contained in an article by Ron Rosenbaum in the Smithsonian magazine, March 2013. Bailyn does not use the term “Native Americans” in designating the “original inhabitants” of America, but simply “Americans”.

Quote of the Week 258 - What You Are Looking For

What you are looking for is who is looking.

--St. Thomas Aquinas

Quote of the Week 257 - Freedom and the Self

He is free who, knowing through his mind the Self in moving and unmoving objects and observing It as their substratum, gives up all superimpositions and remains as the Absolute and the infinite Self.

To realize the whole universe as the Self is the means of getting rid of bondage. There is nothing higher than identifying the universe with the Self. One realizes this state by excluding the objective world through steadfastness in the eternal Atman [the higher Self that exists within each individual].

--verses 338 and 339 of Vivekachudamani of Shri Shankaracharya, translated by Swami Madhavananda

Quote of the Week 256 - Finding One's Own Self

One’s own self is well hidden from one’s own self: of all mines of treasure, one’s own self is the last to be dug up.

--Friedrich Nietzsche

Quote of the Week 255 - True Universality

True Universality does not consist in knowing much but in loving much.

-- Jakob Burckhardt

Quote of the Week 254 - The Delight of the Invisible

What delights us in visible beauty is the invisible.

--Marie von Ebner-Eschenbach

The Kabbalah of the Unicorn

The Kabbalah of the Unicorn

In lieu of the Quote for the Week this Week, I present the following.

A few months back, I made a two-part presentation at the Vedanta Center of Atlanta on the Book of Job. (The audio recordings of these sessions are available in the “links” section of this blog, in the right column). In preparation for this presentation, I came across something at the end of the Book of Job that had not previously caught my attention, but this time, my spiritual radar perked up on encountering these passages. They recite that in the aftermath of his ordeal, Job was restored in greater abundance than he ever had in the past. Included in this new abundance were seven new sons and three new daughters. A few things that caught my attention about this recitation: here is one of the infrequent occurrences in the Tanak where an unusual prominence is attributed to females in a variety of ways. First, the names of the daughters are provided, but not the names of the sons. Usually, it is the other way around, where men’s names are provided, but not the names of women, wives and daughters. Second, it is emphasized that Job gave his daughters an inheritance, just like their brothers. This appears quite extraordinary, and a more radical extension of the limited inheritance extended to women under certain circumstances related in the Torah concerning the daughters of Zelophedad (I leave it to the reader to research this for themselves, if they are not already familiar with it). Lastly, but not leastly, concerns the significance of the names of these three daughters, particularly the third one, Keren-happuch. My intuition and limited research about this unfolded many interesting connections. I also realized that my limited knowledge of the nuances of Biblical Hebrew would restrict my full exploration of all of the aspects of this subject and its various connections. So I commissioned a study of this subject on a deeper level by Rabbi Gershon Winkler, a scholar and practitioner of traditional Jewish teachings and uncommon kabbalistic and shamanistic roots underpinning the Jewish tradition. Below is a result of his research that I wanted to share due to its profound insights and inspiration. I highly recommend the works of Rabbi Winkler, particularly his book, Magic of the Ordinary. You can check him out further at his website, www.walkingstick.org.