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Basics in Kabbalah What is Kabbalah? |
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Part
9 As
explained in the previous chapter, there are holy sparks of truth in foreign
cultures that can and should be returned to their source in Torah. To give
an example of the conversion process: We learn in Kabbalah that there are
fifteen contact points or energy centers down the middle line of the body.
To one familiar with yoga, the seven chakras immediately come to mind. The first stage of the conversion process is to know not to confuse the two concepts. The chakras are not the body's true energy centers and derive from impure, foreign sources. The
second stage of the conversion process begins with the realization that
although all of the spiritual and physical properties attributed to the
chakras by yoga are certainly not true, there may be points of wisdom that
one has gained from the study of chakras. These points of wisdom must be
totally disassociated from their impure source and not called by their
foreign name, just as a true convert to Judaism must totally disassociate
from his past. Thereafter,
one may proceed to the third and final state of the conversion process--the
recognition of the true source of the seven points and their functions in
the complete, rectified system of the fifteen contact points described in
Kabbalah. Now one may fully believe in the newly redeemed wisdom that
had previously been trapped in a foreign shell. Let
us note that the three stage conversion process described above corresponds
to the three stage paradigm of Divine service taught by the Ba'al Shem
Tov: submission, separation, and sweetening. Knowing that the chakras
derive from an impure source is submission. Disassociating the points of
wisdom from their source is separation. Incorporating the points of wisdom
in the complete system of the fifteen contact points, as taught in Kabbalah,
is sweetening. Finally, a word about Eastern meditation. Eastern forms of meditation pose most serious problems for the seeker of truth, and are strictly forbidden. The mantras used in Eastern meditation are for the most names of idols. The entire system draws its energy from an impure source that creates in the psyche--by the endless repetition of a mantra that numbs the true inner senses of the soul--a false sense of negating the ego, antithetically opposed to the true sense of bitul ("selflessness"), characteristic of Judaism in general and of Jewish meditation in particular.
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