Kabbalah: Like Abraham, if you were to ask God some questions...?

If you were to ask God about existence, what would you like to ask about? Maybe "Why are we here?", "What is with all this 'suffering'?", "How does life "work" - I mean, where is the owner's manual?", "Am I in charge, or am I a puppet of my genetic programing, or something else?", "How many alternative universes are there anyway?", "Can I change my life or the world by how I think and feel?", "How do I know if I am on the right track?", "Where do I meet my soul mate?", and the age old question: "Is that all there is?" (or, "Why do I still feel so empty?")

The Kabbalah is a mysterious document with authors going all the way back to before Judaism. The Kabbalah has recently been talked about, not as a religious book, but as a mystical view of how God works and how life works. The modern study of the Kabbalah might even be considered a "how to" book for living ones life by correcting oneself. In the beginning, the Kabbalah asks us to consider some questions and then to observe nature for the answers. This is what Abraham did and he was considered the first Kabbalist who met with his Creator by choosing the path of light. He then taught everyone who would stop and visit him. Here are his questions: 1.) What is our essence? 2.) What is our role? 3.) When we look at ourselves we fall short, when we look at the Creator, we see perfection. Why create the imperfect? 4.) Why, when there is no beginning and no end, things are finite? 5.) What is the purpose?

Here is what Kabbalah teaches: 

Human behavior appears imperfect. The actions of humans show people enjoying the suffering of other people. There is a desire that says, "I feel good only if I control others." The human attitude toward others is a problem. Beyond the basic desires of food, shelter and sex, the acquisition of money, honor, and power are the goals for which humans hunger. None of these goals satisfies the human soul in the end. This appears to be what we are when we look at human behavior. This Youtube illustrates the Kabbalah view of humans and their goals as taught by Rav Michael Laitman, PhD.  

The world we live in is fragile and temporary.
Was creation born in a "big bang"? Did we exist, born out of nothing? We are an innovation from our creator, but why did he/she create us? Is the answer in what existed before our creation was made? The Creator made creation for a personal reason. All of creation is a fragile and temporary place where mankind resides, as "bad fruit" that can become "good" through internal, natural forces.
We are really one with the creator who made us, but there's a problem: 
We are all made by the creator, so we are all from the same source, a soul, split into small pieces and separated from everything else. Each soul piece encased in the bubble feeling very alone or empty, we are wanting to receive. We feel opposite to the benevolent/light that wants to give to us. When we feel opposite, it interferes with receiving.
God/Creator wants to give to us, but our wanting to receive shines a light on our short-comings: 
The desire for connecting with God makes us aware of our flaws, hating others and therefore hating God. It makes us search for a way to correct the flaws. Seeing the flaws makes us feel that we must correct them because they are abhorrent to us.
We are at the center of creation.
We eventually will be forced to do the right thing. In the meantime, those who ascend toward the creator by studying the Kabbalah will ascend and the more they ascend, they will become increasingly distant because the spiritual world will be "real" when compared to creation.
The Kabbalah and the spirit of the Old Testament/Torah appear to complement each other.
So in light of this information, I would say this is a set-up for connecting with the forces of God/Light/Creator. So far it appears that Kabbalah is not a religion but it does not conflict with religion and may even complement it. My next post will continue to address basic ideas of the Kabbalah. It qualifies as mysticism because it is about finding ways to get closer to God.

An Occult Science of Verbiage

Praying to God is a way to forge a relationship with Him. In prayer one can praise God for all that is good and ask for assistance. Prayer is a way to ask God for intervention. Each person prayed for often experiences miracles large and small (e.g. healing, rescue, guidance, safety). 

But not always. Where prayer does not appeared to be answered, it is believed that God knows the "bigger plan" and what you prayed for was not a part of that plan. Then one is reminded, "God does not give you more than you can handle." Prayer is the occult science of verbiage that leads to miracles large and small. Yet even though many of these outcomes cannot be explained, they are not considered "magic", because it was God's choice to do or change these things. 

The other "magic" or "miracle" part of prayer, even without the prayer being answered, is a relief that you can take the burden and put it with God.  "Let go, and let God" comes to mind. But this raises a question about response to prayer: If no one prayed, what would the outcome have been? Is God involved even when no one prays? Does what we pray, our spoken word, guide events? The Bible states that in the beginning, God is "word" and we use "words" to pray. God is in all things, being as He is the creator, but is God then also the words we speak? Especially when it comes to prayer? 

God does not necessarily answer prayers as one would have them answered. But prayers are answered. Even when it seems like they are not. One time I was in a lot of pain and asked God for relief but the pain persisted all day. (It was the flu.) God did not respond to my prayers, at least not in a timely manner. It shook me up.  (There is a lesson in my experience with God around that issue. ) Perhaps because my prayer was only in my mind and not spoken out loud... or God was teaching me to be patient...?

The Kabbalah teaches that God must be invited and that humans have a great deal more power over whether or not God intervenes in our lives and on the planet. According to the Kabbalah, God did not "drive Adam and Eve out of The Garden of Eden", no, Adam drove God out (God left because He was not wanted)... So, news to me, and maybe you - according to Kabbalah, we are in Eden right now... and the only time God intervenes is when he is invited. He is invited by the sound of your "words". 

Mysticism of Kabbalah has been a guarded secret until recently. Just in the last three years much information has been put on the Internet about Kabbalah and the Zohar, Kabbalah's primarily read book of teachings. Much in the Kabbalah teachings focuses on how we invite God to be in our lives.  Those of God's works recorded in the Bible as Miracles appear to have been done for His own mysterious purposes, a reaching out, to communicate with Humans. As a people, it is believed that we might hold some sway with God: Words as in prayer, chanting, or songs sung in repetition are some ways the "word" is used in prayer and supplication. Once again, the word is God and we speak the "words". 

Like many people, I believe in God because I have had that one mystical experience. Personally, I don't need further proof. How it all works remains an intriguing mystery though. Understanding it "all" is personally unimportant and probably an impossible task. It seems that being present in life, family and community acts as the humans' destiny on earth. 

That being said, a rock solid faith in God can mean anything. The point is to remain honest with yourself. If something does not feel "right", step away from it and, for example, examine cause and effect out come possibilities. Not knowing the whole truth, means your mind is alive with questions, ideas and life, full of growth, forming authentic truth based on reading, learning from others and reflecting on everything, everything. Studying the history of religions, human history, cultural development, the human brain studies, and mysticism in human culture helps create a picture of humans intersecting with God through the occult science of verbiage. You are welcome to respond with ideas of your own. I respect, with an open mind, your own experiences. 

oops! I left my notes at home so you get THIS instead!

I have to eat gluten-free. Before learning I had a problem with gluten, I had been eating pretty healthy my whole life. But what I did not know was that the food my parents grew up eating is no longer the food we eat. The food we eat has been bred to maximize production, withstand pests, and sometimes it has been genetically modified to accomplish these goals. 

This idea that we are messing with the genetics of the plants and animals in our world when we are still trying to understand how genetics works is a big worry. For example we recently learned that what was called "junk" in the cells is actually important information that can turn our genes on or off. 
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/09/06/science/far-from-junk-dna-dark-matter-proves-crucial-to-health.html?hp&_r=0

Now we learn that we are ecosystems for more genetic information than our own cells could ever dictate. The alien life in our bodies use us as their ecosystem and we need "them" in order to work properly.

 

Scientists Try to Measure Mystic Experience

In this 15 minute video, you will hear about what happened with the scientists who went to study people experiencing mystical events that other people could not see or hear.

 Scientists are always looking to prove or disprove measurable events. Brains can be assessed while responding to stimuli. In this way, scientists can measure which parts of the brain are stimulated during specific types of activities.

Imagine the brain in the act of schizophrenic visual or auditory hallucination. There is a heightened degree of visual or auditory stimulus in specific areas of the brain that are related to vision and hearing. Those areas of the brain (receiving visual and/or auditory stimulus) light up with activity far beyond that of normal activity. The heightened brain activity in these areas are directly correlated with the person who is responding to their schizophrenia. The person's own brain's creation of sights and sounds do not exist beyond the brain. The belief is that an imbalance in the brain stimulates extreme auditory or visual stimuli causing people suffering from schizophrenia to become confused, and frightened, by what they are experiencing. They believe that their experiences are "really happening" when in fact they do not exist in anyone's reality except the one suffering from the stimuli.

Mystical experiences were believed to be measurable in the same way as schizophrenia. The video above explains the story of a group of scientists who went to measure the brains of people experiencing mystical events. From what they learned, it appears that scientists still have not been able to capture heightened or unusual levels of brain activity in the visual or auditory parts of the brain with people experiencing mystical events. Instead, the people who were having visions and communications with The Virgin Mary appeared to have perfectly normal brain patterns. How this affected the scientists is very interesting!

Kabbalah (or Qabala) & Science: Yes, "What the Bleep"

I begin with a small rant about Numerology:
Right now I have had my fill of numerology. Just viewing a few conspiracy theory Youtubes using numerology to prove so many events... (I think you can prove anything you want with numerology... )
The only Youtube I was impressed with (so far) regarding the Kabbalah and numerology was one for a music teacher at Emory University.

Kabbalah & Science:
In therapy, the therapist needs to meet the client at the place where that client "is". The client's perception is the key to the client's personal growth and insight. This is how I am (as a client of "life" if "life" is my therapist)  For example, The Tree of Life appears to be similar to the Chakras used in Eastern meditation. That makes sense to me because I have some exposure to that concept.
Kabbalah approaches the science of "being". The teachings of Kabbalah, ancient knowledge about "being", connect to science, especially the eye-opening field of Quantum Physics which has showed us that "reality" as we know it is very subjective. (The perspective of the person viewing/experiencing the reality affects the reality.) It has turned modern, observable science on it's head... how do we now, for example, understand double-blind experiments when something benign can turn powerful or something powerful looses it's power? Traditional modern science still creates a framework of expected outcomes, but it is not all measurable and results can change. How much of the change is affected by each one of us and are we all living in parallel universes that seem the same most of the time and yet they are distinctively different because of the power of our own perception?

Jewish Mysticism: Kabbalah & The Tree of Life

Quirky Mystical Experience O.T. Style: One of the most curious parts of the Old Testament for me has been Ezekiel 1:1-28. To make a long story short, Ezekiel has a mystical experience with alien beings of God. Creatures with multiple heads (human, eagle, lion, ox) that moved rapidly about in flashes of light. These living creatures had wheels that moved about on the land and air carrying the multi-headed creatures of God. (For more detail to understand the fear and Majesty of Jewish mysticism read it.) 
The God-Connection: There exists ancient secret teachings written in Hebrew that are not in the Torah (Old Testament) but are part of the Kabbalah. These texts are the Talmud, Midrash Rabba, Sefer Yetzira, the Bahir, (and many other Rabbinic texts). A significant change happened in the study of the Kabbalah in the Middle Ages. There appeared newer text in Old Aramaic called the Zohar. The Zohar defined the Talmud, Midrash Rabba, Sefer Yetzira, the Bahir, and other Rabbinic texts. The Zohar text is extensive with additional information and teachings. In one lifetime of study one could never learn all it has to offer on how to be close to God, please God, and control God. (Yes, I did say "control God".) The Zohar has pretty much become the heart of Kabbalah. 
Controversy:There are a lot of details a student of Kabbalah can follow that seem like superstitious activities to my science-ordered brain: Like wearing a red string around your wrist to ward off evil. The secrets are generally complex and many celebrities in California have picked up the study of the Kabbalah while many Jews argue that in the wrong hands it is misunderstood ideas of bits of ritual for personal gain and even dangerous knowledge. They argue that it was kept a secret knowledge to protect minds who could not manage the information. The Zohar is being translated into English by a student of Kabbalah. It is believed that lacking the original Old Aramaic, it will loose some of the meaning. 

The Tree of Life: The most important part of this knowledge, in my crash course in the kabbalah, is The Tree of Knowledge which is also known as the Anatomy of God. Here is a Youtube featuring the Tree of Life.

This next Youtube is the first of about 5 (or 6) ten minute videos on the history of the Secrets of Kabbalah: (It is a History Channel production. I watched all episodes and recommend it.)

Are Mysticism and Islam like Oil and Water?

Early Islam was born in mysticism. Historically famous Islamic Mysitics included Halaj, Rumi, Shathali, Al-Bistami, and Al-Ghazali.  Great mystic minds meshed their own desire of growing close to Allah (God) into a version of Islam that matched their increased perception of what the mystical experience created in their minds. (Remember how in my own experience I felt an overwhelming love that was not earthly available, ever. I knew it as I experienced it.) These men each discovered their own versions of what I like to call the God-Truth. I admire that they remained true to what they perceived was happening while, in detail, they were actually veering away from the Islam religion through their mystic experiences. Coming back to "rational thought", they struggled with balancing the mystical experience with the strictures of their faith. (The laws, rules and regulations that tell the in-group who is "in", and who is "out".) 
Al-Halaj:858-922 AD  
He was an unusual Sufi because he shared openly what he experienced in his mystical interactions. Most Sufi's would keep these experiences to themselves but Al-Halaj was one who connected mystically with God and felt that all that was left of him was God, he had been absorbed. He was a poet and fearlessly expressed his God-truth... and was executed for his heresy. "I am the truth", There is nothing wrapped in this turban but God." 

Rumi 1207-1273 AD
He was a literary Sufi Persian poet who believed that humans evolved from animals to attain a higher spiritual plane in seeking God. He wrote about love. Rumi's devoted followers began calling themselves Mewlewi Sufi. That order was founded on 1273 following his death.

  Shathali was a Sufi mystic and has a following among the Sufi.

Al-Bistami: 804-87(4)? CE
Bastami was one of the first Open Sufis who spoke of "annihilation of the self in God". (fana fi "Allah") and "subsistence through God". The "annihilation of the self" means the release of the ego to be united with God.

Al-Ghazali:1058-1111 AD

Educated in predominantly Sunnite Islamic teaching, and an interest in Sufi mysticism which was popular in that time,  Al-Ghazali suffered a religious disconnect between the world of reason, worldly cares, and the sensory world of his inner spiritual development. The depth, eloquence and array of his written work, continue to educate Islamic thought today. His writings weakened Greek Teachings and emphasized Islamic teachings, established philosophy as dismissible if it contradicted or challenged Islamic teachings, and put the science of Islam before rational scientific understanding. He also challenged the invincibility of the Imam, or spiritual teacher. He felt that a man should be able to study for himself and find the knowledge that will lead to divine thought and closeness to Allah. Women were considered very weak and of dubious morality and limited intellect. He did believe that women deserved to seek some religious education by asking their father or husband for that opportunity. His writings have been the predominant Islamic view until the recent extremist views evolved in the last 30 years. His focus was: renunciation of this world, seclusion and cultivation of the innermost self. And so he continued until his death in 1111 AD. After the life of  Al-Ghazali, Islam has not had much evolution of thought or further development. 

The Sufi-style Islam that carries the rich history of mysticism is not evident with the militant version of Islam that has increased in popularity with some groups within the past 30 years. There is so much to learn from study of these colorful individuals who affected their rich mystic heritage! Islam does have mystic experience in it's history, but other than with the Sufis, I am not sure it is practiced much. 

Unrelated to the general topic - 

I just have to add: As a woman, I find it a little off putting. I suppose I am too focused on being a person rather than a woman. I just don't see that I am so different from a man. The emphasis in religions over who is what sex seems like the value system used in "high school" to me. My take on it: Let's be responsible adults and monitor our own behaviors and keep our noses out of other people's business. 

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