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.

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.)