The Womb of Consciousness
From a spiritual world view, each of us is the gardener of our lives. Macrocosmically, we plant the seeds or conceptions in our garden of consciousness. These conceptions eventually are birthed into our time–space existence as displays appearing to our external perceptions we call experience. These external perceptions, in turn, prompt us to take action in this time–space world.
This conceptualization to birthing is analogous to physical conception on a microcosmic (and microscopic) level. Like the seed created by the meeting of the sperm and egg, a conception is a germinated seed. This conceptual seed is then planted in what I coin the "womb of consciousness" – analogous to the sperm–egg seed planted in the womb of the woman. In the womb of consciousness, this seed gestates much as the seed in the woman’s womb gestates. This conceptual gestation acts as the placenta nourishing and giving form to the conception until it is birthed into the time–space existence. We internally perceive this conceptual gestation as an image in the womb of consciousness.
The moral of the story: Be aware of the seeds you are planting. Take responsibility for them; nurture the ones you want by perceiving them through the internal perception of image; and rid yourself of the seeds you don’t want, either by reversing them, or seeing yourself taking them out by any means you choose (in imagination anything is possible). Thereby, you are at once pro–choice and pro–life.
Coveting
The 10th Cosmic Law states: Do Not Covet. Coveting consists of eight distinct components covering the essence of this term "covet." The eight are:
- envy
- jealousy
- competition
- comparing
- claiming for oneself what doesn’t belong to oneself
- possessing for oneself what doesn’t belong to oneself
- avarice
- greed
Envy means wanting what someone else has. It refers to a two–party situation. Jealousy means wanting who you have. It refers to a three–party situation. Envy contains the seed cause for war. Jealousy contains the seed cause for murder.
From envy and jealousy spring competition and comparing. These two characteristics are ubiquitous in human relationships. Competition governs innumerable endeavors such as: sports, economics, dating, education, to name a few. Comparisons have constantly been thrown in your face since you were young. These unnecessary measuring devices stimulate envy and add all the dire ramifications ensuing from there as well as from competition.
Naturally, envy and jealousy give birth to possessing and claiming what does not really belong to us. Just think about whom in your life has attempted to lay claim to you or to stake possession or possessiveness to you, your time, attention, property, or whatever.
It brings us to avarice and greed. Avarice is an extreme impulse to acquire, hoard, gobble up, overstep boundaries, while greed represents wanting more, better, and different with its attendant feeling of discontent with the blessings already available or apparent in your life. Can we think of a more representative quality than greed to define a primary – if not the primary – value system propelling American society?
Of course, we can penetrate deeply into each one of these properties discussed above, but here I think a nice schematic outline can suffice to start everyone paying attention to how we may be exercising one or more of these covetous qualities. Perhaps, in doing so, you might begin to see how they may be destructively influencing your life.
In future Dr. Jerry’s Corner comments I shall define the disturbances associated with each of the other 10 cosmic laws as they pertain to our everyday life. Next will be the Ninth Law: Don’t bear false witness.
I’m particularly emphasizing these 10 cosmic laws for without them to act as a beacon to guide our life we shall incessantly create the misery, suffering, discord and insanity that dominate the world in which we live and to⁄in which we are mutually participating and contributing… unless we choose to do otherwise.
Final Things
The journey toward final things – death, resurrection, immortality – known as "eschatology," begins with first things – our human body. We are here in the linear time–dimensional space existence. It is from here we proceed toward everything we yearn for, be it material or spiritual. We are given at birth the means necessary to achieve any end we choose, either individually or collectively. For the majority of us there are no limits to which our spiritual aspirations can take us, which is not so as it appears for our material aims. In the latter instance we have to consider our individual bodily limitations and the capacities we truly have. Also, there are numerous resistances we face in the world from others who want to block our ambitions, or from environmental circumstances that simply stand in the way. Interestingly, when it comes to spiritual life there are no resistances or obstacles. The heavens are the limit!
In my exploration of final things, which has been the central aim of my life for the past 20 years, I have discovered what I believe to be the tools and methods to continue life, extend living, perpetuate existence, and become eternal. There are 18 tools⁄methods. The number 18 equals life in the esoteric wisdom. Amongst them there has to be a particular one that any given individual can find amendable. By the law of holography, where the one contains the all, any one of the techniques (or more if so chosen) can encompass all the others; and any one of them can take you to the destination I envision as possible for us – immortality. Here is a diagram to illustrate this point.
The circle represents wholeness, integrity. You are a point on this circle as part of the whole, yourself being whole as well. On this circle every being can fit as it is a mathematical truism that there are infinite points on a circle, so there is no end to whom may be placed there. We can also regard the circle as our planet. We want to go to the center, which is truth. We know the shortest distance between two points is a straight line. Take a straight line to truth. However, as we start out we find ourselves diverted and distracted by a myriad number of possibilities grabbing our attention, taking us off the path. So, our journey may look like this.
Yes, so many possibilities, so many exciting areas to traverse. What happened to the original path? It has been obscured, maybe forgotten. The expenditure of energy to take on all these possibilities is enormous, while the expenditure taking the straight path maximizes energy conservation. It’s pure, free of contamination.
The conference I’ve conceived and orchestrated this coming October 17–19 in New York City is called "Imagination, Spirit & Immortality." Amongst the inspirational, experiential presentations and talks about the legitimacy and authenticity of resurrection and immortality, I shall be conveying some of these straight path methods and techniques. Take a look at the conference brochure on this website for a full description. Looking forward to seeing you there.
Globalization
Professor Richard Rubenstein, Professor of Conflict Resolution at George Mason University, writes in his book, Thus Saith The Lord: The Revolutionary Moral Vision of Isaiah and Jeremiah (New York: Harcourt Books), that the way to world unity and fulfillment of Isaiah’s second proclamation of the end of war and the subsequent unity of human brother⁄sisterhood is through globalization. I have to agree, but for reasons somewhat askance from Professor Rubenstein’s. His views await your perusal of his book. The way I see it, globalization will bring the materialistic, mercenary, acquisitive impulses to an end, embedded as they currently are in the five dark currents of will: to take, to keep, to hold onto at the expense of others, to advance at the expense of others, and the desire to be great.
What globalization brings has two distinct possibilities opening the door to spiritual life and the eventual restoration of the Edenic existence awaiting us:
1. The hyper–materialism that would ensue would bring people to realize how the satiation of material life would not bring the happiness and peace of mind hoped for. Then satisfaction needs to be looked for in different quarters, namely an inner turning to the spiritual dimension and its consequent renunciation of the five dark currents of will.
2. The explosion of the five dark currents (that spiritual life requires be short–circuited) leads to an exhaustion of our resources. Given that we run out of goods, there is nowhere to go but to turn to the one resource we cannot exhaust: Spirit. I suspect this concern of running out of resources materially is prompting the desire to find out if other planets within our reach are habitable. This latter term is not mine but is used by NASA in its exploration of Mars. NASA’s concern is whether Mars is habitable (note: not inhabited). Why is this important? Because, amongst the non–meek who currently inherit the earth there is a sense that our resources are running out and that we need to explore the possibility of exploiting what the red planet has to offer.
It would be nice if the exploration of inner space – the spiritual dimension – matched the extraordinary outlay of funds (that could be used for problems besetting us on earth) used to explore outer space. Be that as it may, globalization brings a real possibility to the fore for a genuine evolutionary shift in consciousness. Of course, it needs be considered that such globalization taking place under the five dark currents will bring with it unparalleled strife and misery. However as the entropy (breakdown, decomposition, decay that is automatically built into material life) this direction of globalization will produce will give way to a neg–entropic impulse of greater order, complexity, organization, and truth will prevail in the world.
Conscience
A cosmological point: the preservation of our world⁄planet depends on three interdigitating factors: (1) conscience; (2) will; and (3) memory. The latter two ’ll take up in future Dr. Jerry’s Corners. Now, for the first one – conscience. Since according to the renowned mystic poet Rumi the world is run by drunkards and thieves, not to mention my discovery of murderers, we can discern one unifying theme amongst this trio: namely, an absence of conscience. This lack of care or feeling for how our actions may impact another, or concern for the condition of others, or lack of remembering the plight of the disadvantaged, is certainly brought to awareness by reported catastrophes.
I have in mind the recent earthquakes in China and the cyclone in Burma. In these instances it came clear that the thieves, drunkards and murderers were having their way. In the case of Burma the helpless masses were just mercilessly treated as dispensable shadows having no ostensible worth. In the case of China the heinous policy of murdering the babies to limit families to only one child (given the families wanted more) came back to bite them in the behind, so much so they had to revoke the one family–one child policy. We also may take note of our own backyard catastrophe in New Orleans when our government did not act appropriately.
I could go on and on about the killing fields all over the world. The point is: there is no chance for peace, collaboration, cooperation without conscience. The teaching of conscience is sorely lacking in our global educational system. But, it is with conscience where the legal and moral systems meet, where spiritual justice can prevail. It is interesting to note that in the Western bible there is one phrase that is quoted 50 times (the most oft quoted in the entire text): help the widows and orphans in their troubles and travails. Each of us can endeavor to practice conscience, not to be a thief, drunkard, murderer (this latter has many variants), values subtly encouraged in many, many societies and extolled in the media. Conscience can be learned. Without it no real spiritual evolution can take place for us individually, or collectively. Certainly, we have to take on this way personally and primarily. And, don’t expect the institutions to lead us into a conscience–based collective.
It is by becoming conscience–based individuals that we will have an impact on shifting these institutions toward social responsibility. So it was throughout history that the "outsider" came along, stirred the pot, and monumental changes, socially and spiritually, took place. This phenomenon is called "moral logic" or "qualitative logic" where the part is greater than the whole – one person affects a large mass of people. The spiritual teaching of conscience appears in such places in the wisdom literatures as the eight–fold Buddhist precepts and the Monotheistic 10 precepts or 10 laws⁄commandments. How these may be lived out or applied in our everyday life may be found in my book Healing Into Immortality, or in my 8–CD audio set The Natural Laws of Self Healing.
Voluntary Suffering vs. Involuntary Suffering
To suffer is to bear. The bearing we suffer is ordinarily painful. Pain is a sensation and mental state experienced as harmful to us in some way. However, pain can actually be of two sorts: debilitating or constructive. The latter is often called "growing pains." Spring training in baseball terms is that time when players get their muscles in shape to prepare for the opening season. The process can be painful as the kinks are worked out. The etymological root of pain in the West also gives rise to the word punishment. In Sanskrit the root has to do with purification. In spiritual terms we go through the inevitable pain of this great journey to purification, eventually to union with our Divine source.
So, there can be suffering through pain leading to happiness. Suffer the pain, physically and mentally, of getting in and staying in shape in your gym and you’ll experience some semblance of happiness.
Getting back to suffering, there are two types. One has deleterious effects for⁄on us, the second spiritually elevates us. The first I call "involuntary" suffering, the latter "voluntary" suffering. Involuntary suffering consists of habitual, conditioned, repetitive behaviors with their attendant disturbing feelings and sensations. In this case we don’t take charge of the suffering; it takes charge of us. For involuntary suffering the case is different. Here we choose to take charge and agree to accept and weather the distress inherent there, for we have an intention toward something we regard as more valuable to us. We undergo willingly short–term pain for long term–gain. In involuntary suffering we are conditioned to seek a short–term gain resulting in long term-pain. The gain here comes about through efforts to avoid pain as quickly as possible. That’s the mantra of early life conditioning we all suffer when we are not in charge and others are in charge of us.
Spiritual life recommends taking the path of voluntary suffering, putting yourself in charge knowingly for a long-term gain through short-term pain. There are no shortcuts to spiritual illumination. Pain is a normal part of the process, for be it Karma from the East or Justice from the West, we have made and do make errors, the debts so incurred have to be met and paid up. In addition, there is a future calling we all hear early in life. Very few answer this future karmic beckoning regarding it as painful in some way. It goes against our conditioning and habit of wanting pleasure and avoiding pain. Then, we retreat to the comfort of illusory “security” and “safety” of our materialistically based life, which somehow doesn’t seem to stem involuntary suffering and, in fact, perpetuates the pain in most instances.
Detachment
The law of detachment is the law of love. When God sought to create the world – according to the spiritual teachings of Kabbalah – He⁄She covered everything and was everywhere. In a great act of love and mercy He⁄She contracted Him⁄Herself leaving a space for something to be created in that void. That "something" was the created world. Thus, we find ourselves here in this sacred place through an act of cosmic detachment.
Since we are: (1) made in God’s image and likeness; (2) have free will and choice; (3) are a microcosm of the macrocosm, we are here to emulate God. By withdrawing or detaching, we reenact God’s act of creating space in which a new creation can come into being. Pregnant women are doing this all the time, for at the time of labor they begin contractions coupled with creating a space for a new birth to come into existence.
What a loving act it is to make space for another to be, express and become who he or she is without having to be concerned over someone else trying to control, manipulate, or otherwise gain domination over them. Only such a loving act of detachment reverses the Darwinian notion of survival of the fittest where one gains supremacy through dominating or subjugating others. True love takes quite the opposite stance.
In connection with the experience of attraction, the existence of space created through the act of detachment puts us in immediate contact with the forces of divinity or the universe (if you prefer). As we emulate God, so does God, through the agency of His⁄Her force of love, come to sustain and support us. This is the cosmic law of attraction. We create the space through detachment and the universe is attracted to us, it comes to fill in exactly what we need. By detaching we bring to us the great gifts the universe has and wants to bestow on us.
This is the secret behind The Secret.
Alzheimer’s
There have been recent reports of an "alarming" increase in the incidence of Alzheimer’s deterioration. A number of ideas have been adumbrated to account for the occurrence of this difficulty, most of these attributions connected with physical causes.
I would like to add a spiritual dimension to the mix. I start from the position that we are endowed with the possibility of establishing four types of memory during the course of a lifetime. These are:
1) Factual memory = the retention of the multitude of facts thrown at us from early childhood on to teach us what’s here in the world.
2) Logical memory = that memory instilled in us in later childhood to help us make sense of all those facts.
3) Moral memory = the recall of those elements pertaining to our relationship to divinity, to the Creator from which we have come. Usually this memory comes to the fore later in life.
4) Vertical memory = that memory required to make sense out of those elements and also what this divinity, and all it implies, is about.
As we grow older the factual-logical memory naturally begins to erode. If and when this happens should there not be a moral–vertical memory available to replace the factual–logical, a void in consciousness occurs, as it were, so that nothing more exists for that person, certainly in terms of human relationships. The feeling of love dissipates for that person, and life’s meaning seems to disappear from his⁄her existence. Thus, that individual appears to be unrelated to the world around him/her.
A corollary to the foregoing is that we are always faced with a choice in life between committing ourselves to an essentially materialistic or spiritual life. This choice urges itself upon us more intensely as we get into our 40’s. If we opt for the materialist life, thereby excluding the spiritual, then the moral and vertical memories are not developed. Hence, when the earlier memories begin to erode nothing is available to fill the void.
An intermediary possibility presents itself here. For creative types like Woody Allen, Irving Berlin, and Bob Hope who live the materialist existence, as they get older the creative impulses serve to fill in as the memory erodes, so they can retain an ongoing relationship to life.
I expect the logicians reading this to find the exceptions to my assertions, which in no way disproves the veracity of the spiritual perspective. Any articulated verbal presentation, of whatever sort, is always subject, by logic, to having its major premises reversed⁄destroyed, as Kurt Gödel maintained over 80 years ago when he won the Nobel Prize for this discovery. However, displays of logic can never invalidate the premises and foundational principals, or the experiential truths, of spiritual life.
For those who want to give plausibility to the spiritual materialist viewpoint, where materialism is wedded in an unholy alliance with spirituality a la Madonna and many other public personalities who profess to be "spiritual" while seeking material wealth, no contradiction is either discussed or brooked, I can only echo the wisdom of our ancient masters on this matter when it was stated that "one cannot serve two masters at the same time."
It’s All in the Preposition
In spiritual life there is a tremendous amount of written material across all traditions. Words play a pivotal role, especially in how these traditions are conveyed and understood. In the Western tradition of which I am quite familiar, I have come to learn about the importance of prepositions in understanding certain spiritual points. I’ll share four such instances:
- in – for
Are you living in the moment, or for the moment? If it’s the former you are on track spiritually. If it’s the latter you are following the hedonistic⁄materialist path. Finding sensory pleasure at any cost is your anthem.
- in – of
Are you living in this world, or living of this world? If it’s the former you are on the road to spiritual participation in life. If it’s the latter you have put your eggs in the basket of materialism, a form of life that is not spiritual. Can you be a spiritual materialist (a common phenomenon these days)? No. Spiritual point: You can’t serve two masters at the same time. In this case Divinity – Mammon.
- to – for
Are you responsible to someone or for someone? If it is the former and are responsible to them we may speak of adult responsibility, such as our being together in a shared world having care toward one another. It it’s the latter then you may very well be co–opting the freedom of someone else, or unduly taking over choices and decisions for others in a way that can diminish others (of course we are exempting those who may be in coma, unconscious, under the age of seven years old, or incompetent by law).
- about – to
Do you speak inwardly about yourself to another you, or do you speak inwardly directly to yourself? If it’s the former you are getting a handle on a spiritual practice of self mastery. If it’s the latter you are in a debate with what we term your "false self," one which you will always lose and will thereby ultimately suffer. How does that work? I use myself as an example. The usual way: I (True Self) speaks directly to jerry (false self), i.e., Jerry speaks to jerry. Jerry always loses, jerry wins. The spiritual way: Jerry speaks to a Larger Jerry about jerry. Jerry wins, jerry loses. Keep doing this and observe what happens to you.
Logic and Intuition
Please take note how often in the media commentators mistake the terms "logic" and "intuition." Most often they cite an idea that is intuitive by terming it counterintuitive, meaning what? The idea is logical so call it "logical." When you are intuitive call it "intuitive." What is the necessity for the modifier "counter"? Intuition is almost never given its proper due as the essential way knowledge in human relations and relationships is gleaned. Logic is reserved for understanding how the mechanical world operates. It can never allow you to understand the world of human experience. Actually, it is incorrect to apply logical thinking to such experience so that the word "counter–intuitive" has no application at all since intuition is operating on different levels of comprehension that can’t be compared. Even the phrase "I have to figure this out," or any of its variants, is used incorrectly when applied to human relationships in any form. "Figuring out" is a phrase applicable to logic, but has no relevance elsewhere.
Intuition permits us to apprehend by a process outside the logical mechanism of syllogistic thinking. It allows us to think in wholes, to see how elements are related to each other, without the necessity of drawing conclusions, as happens with logic. It is unconditional thinking, i.e., it doesn’t depend on immediate information supplied by ordinary logical construction of thought. The experience is one of knowing that you know, but not knowing how you know. Intuition consists of disinterested intellect – needing no conclusions to be decided – combined with disinterested instinct – needing no immediate fulfillment – both bridged by intuitional language called image – needing no causality.
You will not hear much of this latter way of non–natural, scientific thinking over the airwaves or other mainstream media outlets. So, when the speaker seeks to use the word "counterintuitive" for something intuitive so as to say it’s not logical and therefore, should be discounted, don’t be misled – or even worse – bamboozled.
Semi–Delusional Thinking
Delusional thinking is generally defined as a fixed idea or belief that can’t be modified by any evidence to the contrary. In addition, such thinking, when it becomes part of an organization of psychotic thought process, effects our functioning in life.
Since we human beings are really different from each other in degree and not in kind (as psychiatry postulates), almost all of us are subject to some measure of delusional thinking. That is, we hold onto some idea(s) or belief(s) contrary to the evidence.
By the time we reach the age of seven or eight we have become complete humans. Along with this development our essential belief systems are in place. Once they are in place they remain fixed and become the basis for our attitudes and actions until and unless some event of major magnitude intervenes to change the rules. Barring that sort of circumstance, nothing, no evidence to the contrary, will budge us off a held idea or belief.
Consequently, we are walking around with semi–delusional thoughts that have some impact in⁄on our lives, although unlike the unfortunate soul sitting in a state mental hospital, they haven’t invaded our everyday life to bring decay into our existence. Nonetheless, there is some price to pay for such thinking, often with some really injurious results. Case in point: "There are weapons of mass destruction in Iraq". Contrary to the evidence, a mass delusion set in, leading the way into a seemingly interminable devastating war.
Moral of the story: Let he who is free of error cast the first stone. We are all guilty of condoning such delusional thinking.
Cause and Effect Thinking
Cause–effect thinking is an anti–spiritual way of explanation. It’s the foundation for most misconceptions that are at the basis of all conflicts, struggle and discord in the world. Consequently, on the mental level, cause–effect thinking may be one of the, if not the, most destructive force we know. There are two salient points about cause–effect thinking for this presentation:
1. It is based in and determined by linear time, the latter being the deciding factor as to the truth of something;
2. It is exclusionary in its function. In order for it to achieve some status it must exclude all other possibilities, such as the cause of strep throat is the streptococcus bacteria.
Regarding point 1: cause–effect thinking either projects one into the future through if–then thinking, viz., if we keep searching for the organism that causes cancer, then we shall be able to cure it. Here we have a projection into a time frame that doesn’t exist – the future – and this illusory magical thinking is treated as meaningful and as a reality. Other cause–effect statements are based in the time frame of the past – another illusory realm that doesn’t exist, since the past is over, ended, done, finished, gone, e.g., this person is a child molester because of what experiences happened to him in childhood.
Point 2 is an extension of point 1 in that cause–effect thinking must always arrive ultimately at a conclusion, often experienced as "This is it!" Once that happens, the door closes on investigating other possibilities. By its very nature, then, such thinking must exclude other possibilities as having value or meaning. Spiritual life of the West is inclusionary. Its thinking is based in relational, correlational terms and is called analogical. This type of thinking allows us to see the kinship between things where we can observe points of similarities as well as dissimilarities. This kinship function permits us to see the wholeness and⁄or functionality of something. For example, if I hold my left hand up to the mirror what I see in reflection is my right hand. These two hands are similar, yet dissimilar. However, I am seeing the wholeness of handedness. I am seeing the kinship between them. Through this kinship phenomenon we can come to see the relationship between what is known and what is unknown, i.e., God, so that eventually everything becomes knowable.
Analogical thinking allows for understanding our relationships in the world of human beings, while cause–effect thinking, at best, relates to our understanding in the mechanical, non–human world. Unfortunately, the latter, as the body of logical thinking, is constantly mis–applied in prompting us to "figure out" our human relational world, a task which it is ill–suited to accomplish and whose results are impossible to achieve.
The Supercessionist View
One of the main sources of anti–Semitism derives from the supercessionist view of Christianity versus Judaism (and later, as we shall see, Islam toward Judaism as well as Christianity, so that their views are anti–Semitic and anti–Christian). Supercessionism holds that Judaism merely serves as a platform upon which a greater tradition is built, namely, that of Christianity, which holds the key to salvation for human beings.
I’ve underlined greater to be synonymous with supercessionism, the latter term meaning to supercede. Christianity, therefore, supercedes Judaism. To this end the Christian world has made a persecutorial attempt over the past two millennia to force Judaism to accept this position. The latter group has, of course, continually resisted these attempts at conversion at the risk of their lives, which has commonly been the case.
I would now want to offer an alternative term to greater⁄supercessionism offering a more rational and less violently provocative possibility. The term is "different." This re–framing stems from my understanding of the work of Prof. Ori Soltes of Georgetown University. He has demonstrated that Judaism and Christianity stem from the same point of origin evolving out of a dispute erupting around 200 B.C.E. in Judea, a southern portion of Israel. This rift centered on whether the Book of Prophets was closed in 400 B.C.E., or whether prophets continued to exist and the book should not be closed. I shall not go into length about this issue and more can be discovered at Prof. Soltes’ website. But, the split that occurred pitted these two groups against each other, persisting to the present time.
Essentially, we have two parallel streams of thought like two brothers, such as Jacob and Esau, having an unresolved squabble with each side vying for supremacy. Unfortunately, the consequences of this battle turned horrific, as I described above.
However, we don’t have really a greater⁄better religion; rather, we have two different points of view, each going its separate way. Acknowledging they are different allows one to make a sure choice as to which direction one feels comfortable with. Acknowledging this choice gives validity to accepting the other’s movement toward freedom and acting to preserve this freedom for the other, as well as for oneself.
As for Islam, they believe their god and prophet supercedes and eclipses the Jewish and Christian versions, excluding the latter two groups of people from the ranks of human beings, the latter considered to be infidels⁄unfaithful⁄sub&ndhuman. Islam’s view is distinctly supercessionist. The supercessionist view definitely does not include human freedom as one of its virtues or priorities. In fact, it seeks to deprive human beings of freedom as outlined above.
In this supercessionist maelstrom we can see the adverse effects of organized theology posing as religion: tying oneself to God. This definition of religion is a spiritual one promoting every human being’s right to find God on his⁄her own terms unencumbered by the dictates of an organized institution seeking its own will to power rather than seeking to preserve the will to freedom of every human being who is able to find one’s own clear path to the Divine.
The Second Fall
The first Fall takes place in Eden when Adam and Eve choose against God, i.e., against spiritual life. This theme is repeated later on in the Bible when Moses leads the Israelites to the earthly Eden called the Holy Land, the land of milk and honey. After Moses’ death, the Israelites enter this Edenic existence led by Joshua, then the Judges, and finally Samuel, before the advent of King Saul.
Although the Israelites are illuminated at Mt. Sinai when they receive the Torah, this group of about 1,000,000 wander in a desert of rather small proportions for 40 years before becoming spiritually cleansed. The desert is the perfect setting for spiritual practice, free from the interfering distractions of everyday life. The revelatory experience of Sinai gives us a group of highly evolved beings who have come near to God, an experience not given to many, then and now. Their communal mission, as Isaiah puts it, is "to become a light unto the world and a nation of priests." However, it is only their children who are able to enter the land of Israel and fulfill this mission.
Upon entering the earthly Eden, a span of about 200 years transpires from Joshua through Judges to Samuel. The rulership during this time is inconsistent and unpredictable; certainly not on the level of Moses. Samuel, however, is a great prophet and leader. But his sons are a different sort: they are unscrupulous, cheating and stealing from the people. Consequently, the people cannot fully trust Samuel, who is either unaware or blind to his sons’ activities. The populous then demands a king like all the other nations around them. And when Samuel replies "Why not me?", the community, for some puzzling reason, doesn’t take the opportunity to speak about his wayward progeny. Samuel then warns the people about the inherent dangers and consequences of taking on a king, but to no avail.
Opting for a king in lieu of a prophet–leader, the community veers away from their spiritual path and mission – which demands persistent practice and vigilance – and embraces the values and practices of the less–developed, mistake–ridden, error–in–living nations surrounding them. But the Israelites have nothing to learn from their neighbors and their neighbors have everything to learn from them, for the greater tend to teach the lesser, not the other way around! Rather than becoming "a light unto the world and a nation of priests", the community derails and gets mixed up in the insane affairs of the manmade world; and it hasn’t gotten back on track for the past 3,500 years. Until this mistake is corrected – and it can be rather quickly – the manmade world cannot come into order and fulfill Isaiah’s other famous vision: the lion lying with the lamb, swords beaten into plowshares and not knowing war anymore. The remedy: teaching the lessons learned in Sinai, spreading the perennial universal wisdom of the 10 Precepts.
The Holy Grail
Much speculation has arisen about the grail chalice since the arrival of the Da Vince Code book and movie. Here’s one spiritually–based input.
The chalice is a cup: more specifically, the cup of Elijah that is poured full of wine at every Passover Seder to herald the arrival of this special prophet – the one of immortality. It is a biblical fact that the prophet Elijah never died. (He is one of two biblical personages, the other being Enoch, who don’t die.) So, at the celebration of freedom from slavery known as the Exodus from Egypt (Egypt meaning attachment to the senses and the worship of materialism) homage is paid to the possibility of the defeat of death – immortality and resurrection – that is, the culmination of this spiritual freedom undergone by the freed Israelites in the Sinai desert. It is this defeat of death that lies at the heart of Western spirituality, "the last enemy to be defeated" as was penned by Teilhard de Chardin.
When Jesus drinks from the cup, it is not his cup he cites but the cup of Elijah, at which time he exclaims: "This is my blood." At first, it seems like a blasphemous act to drink from Elijah’s cup (it is left untouched and then emptied at the end of the Seder), but Jesus was aware of his impending arrest that evening, as it was an open secret that imprisonment was near. He drank from the cup at the Seder to send a message to his disciples about what his mission really was, and to remind them of his teaching that resurrection and the defeat of death was a concrete, literal reality⁄truth. He wanted to emphasize this by claiming his direct connection to the prophetic line and its patriarchal predecessors in Monotheism, that he would fulfill this mission. His subsequent resurrection gave a dramatic stamp of authority to this teaching.
The interest in searching for the grail that has inspired so many legends, books, even movies, touches on this deep yearning we all have to escape⁄defeat death by finding the key to⁄cup of immortality. This search will not end until we have made this discovery. My year–long course Living Sinai In Egypt plunges deeply into the necessity and logic for this search.
One footnote to this point: Seemingly blasphemous acts are sometimes needed to awaken or shock a populace out of complacency or numbness. So it was that the Maggid of Messeritch, the successor to the Baal Shem Tov (the founder of Hasidism), doused the Shabbat candles between his thumb and forefinger to the dismay (to put it mildly) of his followers. When asked about why he did this he said that he foresaw what was to happen to the Jews of Europe. He did so about 100 years before the advent of Adolph Hitler.
Relationships
Relationships are commonly predicated on the formula of "me real–you shadow". This goes to say that the childhood sense of only my life is real and intensely felt while others appear to exist, but seemingly at the periphery of my life, is carried out in adult life. For most, the sense of "me real–you shadow" is not shed. It becomes noted in psychiatric terminology as "narcissistic" or "self–absorbed, egotistical or egocentric". Those cast into the shadows accept this role through intimidation. They become slave–like in their behavior, servants as it were, to serve the egos of their masters who seek to play this game, often to avoid feeling inferior themselves by becoming self–important. Such relational skewedness is the antithesis of love where the genuine loving relationship is "me real–you real". If you find yourself in the shadows, don’t stay there. It is not where you will find love, even though you have deceived yourself that the promise of love offered by the self–centered one will come to pass. It never will.
You can look at my link for mental imagery exercises – Out of the Shadows to find a way to change this situation for yourself.
Living Sinai in Egypt
All spiritual practices demand a turning inward to find out who we really are, to know ourselves as Subject by subjective means. Many disciplines require periods of withdrawal – often extensive – to allow for this inward discovery free of external distractions and diversions. In the Western tradition, to which this year–long program is devoted, this point was made decisively when the great teacher Moses led a band of slaves out of Egypt into the Sinai desert to freely engage in such practices without external impositions.
In the esoteric⁄spiritual wisdom understanding, Egypt represents enslavement; that enslavement to materialistic, sensory, hedonistic, acquisitive attachment to material, quantitative, essentially dead, idolatrous life. Sinai represents the realm of Spirit free of attachment to things, and where detachment from enslavement and entrance to freedom can happen.
The departure from Egypt⁄enslavement to Sinai⁄freedom is in accord with the thrust of the world’s spiritual doctrines. However, the journey through Sinai was not the end of the story. It was, actually, the beginning. For it became necessary for this group to carry out a new mission imparted to it from the Divine Source, namely: to spread abroad this message derived from the Sinai experience. As the prophet Isaiah wrote: "You are to be a nation of priests (teachers), a light unto the world." The way this teaching was⁄is to be imparted was⁄is of a special nature. It was⁄is supposed to teach us how to become free through the diversions, distractions, threats, temptations of the Egyptian world that surrounds us in daily life. It is the very perturbations, tumults, distresses encountered in this disordered Egyptian life that are used as the prompt, the teacher as it were, to propel us into Sinai. Therefore, there are no retreats to retreat to, no necessity to isolate yourself from the community. To the contrary, we act to bring a therapeutic impulse to the world to help cure the disorder. That’s what Isaiah had in mind.
To bring this curative effect about we actually have to live in this world, but not be of it. We do not want to abandon the world by any means. To be in it, but not of it means to live Sinai in Egypt. That is what my teaching is all about. I live in, perhaps, the most Egyptian city – New York – in the world. Here we are put to the real test. However, my methods seem to have borne fruit not only for myself, but for many here who have experimented with these ways.
A good deal of inspiration and direction has come from my teacher, of blessed memory, Colette Aboulker–Muscat plus the works of Valentin Tomberg and Robert Rhondell Gibson. They all helped me understand, absorb, and assimilate the major strands of Western spirituality: Monotheism and Hermeticism. To this amalgam I have added my own original techniques and methods to provide a comprehensive curriculum of spiritual education delivering a cohesive and practical approach to changing your life forever for the benefit of yourself, those around you, the greater community, and the world at large. This, then, serves as the introduction to Living Sinai In Egypt.
Less is more…
Did you know that guided imagery done quickly promotes the most powerful healing effects? This understanding is based on a homeopathic principle of healing which says essentially that a micro amount of a substance can produce a macro response.
So then, practicing guided imagery for a few seconds… five to thirty can be sufficient to set off the body’s natural pharmacy of helpful curative substances.
It is also helpful to do these imagery exercises at the same time each day, three times daily… preferably (a) upon arising, (b) at 5 PM, and (c) before going to bed.
Take care not to do them lying down. Ideally, do them sitting up in a straight back chair with arms. Don’t cross your hands or legs. That’s all it takes!