| Kabbalah
and Education A Kabbalistic Approach to Spiritual Growth |
|||||||||||||||||
| Kabbalah and Jewish Meditation |
Part
12 Let
us look at the phase of initiation/inspiration and its expression in will.
The state of will that initiates any aspect of the education process is a pure, unambivalent desire to serve God in any way possible. This initial turning toward spiritual service requires what the Ba'al Shem Tov calls "submission," the surrender of personal will to God's will. It means accepting the restrictions and obligations of spiritual work, and ignoring the selfish, opportunistic demands of ego. Then
follows a slightly more developed statement of will. This is the desire to
achieve a state of being where every act is performed for the sole purpose
of supporting spiritual growth. This corresponds to the Ba'al Shem Tov's
stage of "separation" because it demands a high degree of
discrimination. One must continually choose between actions that will
further spiritual development--such as fulfilling the commandments of the
Torah--and actions that are simply mundane. The
final phase in the arousal of will is a desire to realize the inherent
sanctity of every act--to use each moment, each thing, no matter how
mundane, as an opportunity for direct unification with God. The Book of
Proverbs describes this phase in a simple statement: "In all your ways,
know Him." "In all your ways" means through all your actions.
"Know Him" refers to contact and communion with God.
According to the Ba'al Shem Tov, we can only "sweeten" the apparent blandness or even bitterness of ordinary reality if we have first perfected and internalized the skill of discrimination, for the work of transmuting evil into good is founded upon an ability to distinguish reality from illusion. It is obvious that those who have not perfected the preliminary stage of "separation" will not be reliable in differentiating between the true purpose and the illusory ones. Their actions and intentions may therefore not actually reflect God's will, and may have a negative or stunting effect, rather than a nurturing and empowering one. The most common mistake among spiritually aspiring people is the desire to "sweeten" without first making the requisite distinctions.
|
A new chapter of Kabbalah and Education is both: uploaded to the web every week and also sent out via the Inner Dimension (free) weekly Torah message email list.
|
