Time, Space, & Consciousness

Kabbalah identifies three dimensions of creation: Olam, Zeman and Nefesh i.e. World (space), Time (change), and Soul (consciousness). These are the three elements that constitute the whole reality of the world - including the spiritual realms.

Each one of these has its distinctive flow. The soul 'flows' into our individual being through the bio-machinery of the brain. From the brain the spiritual energy distributes to the various parts of the body. The soul is the source of our consciousness - normal and higher consciousness. It is the source of our personality and is the only real aspect of a human being. The body not only disintegrates in time but over a decade, not one cell of the body, indeed not one single atom, is the same as it was a decade earlier. Yet our personality subsists as new cells are formed and the 'matter' of our being continues to evolve. Your soul is the real 'you'.

The flow of space, in Kabbalah, derives from the 'holy of holies' in Jerusalem, on the Temple Mount. Since the destruction of the Temple, the source of space resides in each one of our inner selves. Mass and energy are interchangeable. Space derives ultimately from consciousness - soul.

So also does time flow from a source. The source is Rosh HaShannah - the 'head' of the year. This beginning is the first day of the Hebrew month of Tishrei. On this fateful night, the spiritual source of the coming year is 'conceived in G-d's womb' and begins its inexorable flow for the remainder of the 12 months. The nature of this flow is to a large extent determined by our own choices, behaviours, and commitments. That is why the Jewish New Year is not celebrated with streamers, fireworks, partying, or 'drinkathons'. Rather, Rosh HaShannah is a time of introspection, meditation, prayer, commitment, as well as festive meals that signal the confidence and joy in the coming flow of time.

May your World be imbued in the coming year with higher consciousness - Soul, and may each day - Time - become a vehicle for your higher contribution as a co-creator of an unfinished universe.

Training Resource: Talking to G-d (tape- Laibl Wolf)

MASTERY

Become aware of how long a minute is. Time yourself for one minute - while standing, all the time aware of the flow of time. A minute is a very long time. Many thoughts can cross into your consciousness during one minute - perhaps even twenty or fifty thoughts. Since each thought creates change in the Cosmos, just become aware of how many minutes of 'real time' - conscious, mindful, time, you can contribute to the world this year.

MEDITATION

Review the year in your mind. Try to recall highlights and 'low-lights'. Take some time scanning your personal world, your responses, your hopes, your aspirations, your successes, and your failures. Undertake one specific additional contribution, Mitzva, that you will make to the world this coming year. Connect deeply with the Creator and sensitise to the rhythms of creation - rhythms that you share intuitively with the world at large.

Meditation Resource: Activating Your Higher Self (audio tape - Laibl Wolf)



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The Power Of Love Within

What's in a name? Take Aaron for example. It's a warm, biblical name. It has the connotation of trust and understanding. Perhaps this is because the original Aaron was an epitome of love and caring.

But a name is more than mere connotation. Kabbalah teaches that a person's name comes from the soul. It is connected with the essence of a person far beyond the conscious. So we can journey into the deeper self through the vehicle of a name.

The Hebrew letters spelling the name Aaron (Alef, Hei, Reish, Nun) also spell out the word for something being visually present (Nir'ah). This gives a sense that the deeper nature of the Biblical Aaron had much to do with drawing down sublime spiritual flows to visually benefit humankind. The master, Rabbi Shneur Zalmen of Liadi, notes that Aharon was the first Hebrew Kohen (priest). He possessed the power to draw down a degree of compassionate love known as Rav Hessed (abundance of cosmic compassionate love). He is known to have transformed enmity between people into love, and also to confer the aura of love over a group or even the nation. His heirs, Kohanim, inherited this trait and continue this process to the present day. (Interestingly, genetic studies have revealed that Kohanim have a unique genetic marker that identifies them as a distinct historical grouping).

Not only do they have this capacity to draw on cosmic love and shower it on others, but also the spiritual flow is characterised by velocity and speed. Like a mighty river that has fast flowing waters that carry away anything in their path - hurt, envy, hate, or misunderstanding. The Rav Hessed power of Aaron not only reconciled warring parties but did so with amazing speed and velocity. Don't you sometimes feel transformed by simply being in the presence of someone? Aaron had that affect on people, but even more so. His was a clear example of non-local phenomena!

A further example of this took place during the archetypal dispute for leadership - Korach's challenge of Moses. The spiritual test came in the strange form of a competition: which disputant could make an almond branch bloom. Aaron, who acted in Moses' stead, did so with amazing speed. In fact the Hebrew word for almond (shaked) literally means 'speed' as well, it being the fastest growing of the all fruits. It was a particularly good receptor of Aaron's spiritual powers.

Although most of us do not possess Aaron's amazing powers of Rav Hessed, we do have an innate power of loving kindness known as Hessed Olam (worldly compassionate love). In other words, every one of us has the power to reconcile people with differences, to resolve disputants in conflict, to foster love where its lack is apparent. This capacity derives from our inner soul, but it needs to be aroused. When it flows strongly and with velocity, it can carry away with it any ill feelings, enmities, jealousies, and vengeance. A Kohen can do so with great force. But we all possess the power to draw it down to the earthly plane.

Remember, you are much more powerful than you think. You are created in the image of the Cosmos and possess its powers as well. Use your powers to resolve the disputes around you, as well as disputes within the self. You have the power. Use it wisely.

MASTERY

Focus on your capacity to love. How do you do that? It is not like focusing on a navel or a flame. It requires you to focus on your flow of empathy and compassion and then to direct it to someone. There are two inherent problems related to such focusing. The first is to summons empathy. The second is to focus appropriately. Propriety means a feeling that doesn't exploit the other, actively or passively. The more difficult test is to arouse empathy. The meditation exercise below may assist.

Follow-up resources: Transforming Anger (audio 2-tape set by Laibl Wolf)

MEDITATION

Bring to mind someone you may harbour a grudge against, distrust, or just have a bad feeling towards. Revisit the circumstances that may have brought this about. Introduce a new element: what must have been the shortcoming that caused that person to hurt you or be insensitive to you. Picture that shortcoming as a wound with a trickle of blood flowing out. That person's behaviour/words were the result of a wound - an emotional wound. You may not know how that wound was inflicted - even possibly self-inflicted. Just be aware: when a person hurts you, they are hurting. Heal them with love, empathy, and compassion. Visualise these three being bandages that you strap over the other's wound.

Follow-up resources: Love/Hate Relationships (audio tape by Laibl Wolf)



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Emotional Consciousness

Consciousness is a multi-layered experience. Each layer has the potential to rise and occupy our attention. Awareness takes place either by 'default', or through conscious intention.

For example, when you are sharing time with someone whom you love, the pleasure and joy are often masked. It may seem that you are each taking each other for granted. Here you are, close and warm friends or family, and yet the consciousness of love may be submerged as the mind is occupied with the 'now' of stimulating discussion or participation in joint activity. In these moments, the consciousness of love takes a back-seat, while the immediacy of the communication or behaviour comes to the fore.

If asked whether you love your parent or your child, you would always answer yes, and with vigour. But what proportion of the day are you truly conscious of that love? For many parents, dedicating mind/heart time to their child may be a matter of an hour or two, and often considerably less. Yet, love is nevertheless present - in the back seat, located under various layers of momentary preoccupation.

In a Hassidic discourse, the Alter Rebbe, Rabbi Shneur Zalmen of Liadi, exemplifies this phenomenon in this way. In the presence of his parent, the son's love is latent, located deep within the recesses of the heart. So much so, that the son may, in the moment, completely oblivious of his love for his parent. Ironically when the child is geographically distant from the parent, then the tyranny of distance constantly assails the son, and his consciousness of his love for the parent becomes palpable, and may even torment him. Proximity sometimes blinds, and distance brings love into stark relief.

That is why often the closest of families fight amongst each other. They forget that they are in love! The consciousness of love is so deeply recessed that they lose sight of it. Only conscious focus on the love, daily, can keep the 'loving feeling' present.

Our relationship with the Cosmos is similar. The Creator is seemingly removed and out of sight. There is a gap of immediacy and consciousness of the 'seeing Eye' and 'listening Ear' - a temporary deafness to the beating of the Cosmic Heart. The exigencies of the moment take over and that is where our consciousness lies. The antidote - each day must begin with a dedicated focus on the Creative force that animates and maintains a purposeful world, a world that is replete with beauty and design. Each morning we need to uncover some of the superficial layers of shallow consciousness and allow the day to become an opportunity for you to fall in love with life.

Training Resource: Awakening to a New Dawn (audio- Laibl Wolf)

MASTERY

When you are next with someone whom you are close with, try to stop in the middle of the conversation or activity, and recall for a moment the deep bond that ties the two of you together. Try to do this with two or three close ones during the day, for a whole week. You will find a dimension of closeness begins to grow that goes far beyond the relationship as it stands right now.

MEDITATION

Bring to your mind's eye the presence of a loved one. Go back in time and explore the beginnings and maturity of the relationship. Picture the auras of love flowing from the person towards you, and enveloping you in a cacoon of gilded light. Allow the sense of touch to sensitise to the love flowing between you. Commit yourself to be aware of this aura when next you spend time with your loved one.

Information Resource: Achieving Inner Balance (audio - Laibl Wolf)



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Spiritual Renewal

A nation's stories reveal its national psyche. What distinguishes the ancient Jewish spiritual tradition is its complete negation of fiction. With the rare exception of a small section of the ethical literature and one branch of Hassidic literature, the story is not a story - it is a statement of reality, and truth is stranger than fiction.

Take the story of Noah and the global flood. A man hears a Divine instruction from Above and spends decades constructing a huge ferry that carries the species of the world across time into a new future. A mere story? Some will say so. Yet it is a curious fact that the account of the flood is contained in so many of the ancient pathways.

But the mystics of the Torah never doubted the veracity of the story. There was indeed a huge tidal destruction of the inhabited world. Why? Was it an act of cosmic wrath? Not so. Kabbalah teaches that the foremost energy that guides the Cosmos is that of Hessed - goodness and compassion. Wrath is incompatible with this spiritual posture. There is clearly something much more sublime in the account of the flood.

Anyone who has been involved in renovating their house will recall those moments of self-doubt: I should have started right from scratch rather than tinkered with a bit here and bit there. But starting from scratch also destroys the memories and the emotions that are the fabric of our context and consciousness. What we would desire is the best of both worlds: a house with clean aesthetic lines and function, while retaining the warmth and homeliness of its antecedent. We want to clean it up.

Something went wrong - not with creation, but with the 'wild card' - the joker of the pack - the human being. The Cosmic house had to be renovated. Noah was chosen as builder-foreman.

That is why the Hassidic master, Rabbi Shneur Zalmen of Liadi, describes the flood as a cleansing process. The waters of the flood are like the waters of a ritualarium - a Mikveh, where the waters spiritually cleanse the dross that accumulate in our life's endeavours. The world received a spiritual cleansing, and this set the course of history on a course of hope and purpose.

Noah's is not a story. It is an account of spiritual redirection. Noah's very name reflects the positive nature of the events. The name 'Noah' is etymologically connected to the word for inner peace and tranquillity. This describes the mind and heart of the world after the 'clean-up' of the flood. Just as a Mikveh has to have 40 seah (an ancient measure of volume) of 'living' waters, so did the flood last for forty days.

In all seeming adversity there is both opportunity and positivity. It may not always be apparent - even if we look for it. But it is there. But that is only true of true stories of a sentient universe - that which we call 'reality'. The fiction that derives from a finite human mind cannot contain the code for eternal truths. Hence the bias against fiction.

Training Resource: The Healing Light (audio - Laibl Wolf)

MASTERY

Every moment and place has a doorway for our entry. But we may not have the agility to enter with ease or elegance. Our clothes may become soiled. Our thoughts may become confused. Our feelings may be inappropriate. How many words we say that later we would like to retract? How many thoughts do we think that we would like to recant? Therefore be pure in the spiritual clothes you wear. Be spiritually agile. Move elegantly through the trappings of life.

MEDITATION

Sit silently and recall your last meaningful conversation. What door did this episode open? Replay your words in your mind and determine what legacy they left - both for you and the other. What feelings did that conversation awaken in you? Are these optimal? Could they be spiritually refined, even now, long after the conversation has ended. Every week, perhaps on Shabbat, enter your ark and rise above the turbulent waters of everyday affairs. Enter your spiritual spa and purify both body and soul.

Meditation Resource: Relax and Breathe (audio)



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