Kabbalah
(This is the first article
in a new series on the Kabbalah of Love – stay tuned for upcoming
articles!)
Intimate Love.
What feelings do these words stir up in you? Longing? Excitement?
Pleasure? Fear?
Whatever the feeling, if thinking about intimate love makes your heart
beat faster, I’m not surprised. This feeling is more powerful than
almost any we can experience. That’s because it’s nothing less than
the touching of two souls.
Three years ago I suffered the terrible loss of a younger brother. In an
attempt to actually experience something beyond the painfully limiting
framework of the physical world, I made a couple of visits to a
hypnotherapist who practiced past-life regression therapy.
Under hypnosis, I had an experience that I will never forget. I don’t
know whether it was a dream, a memory from another life, or my soul
expressing itself through images, but this is what happened:
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During the session, the therapist directed me to get in touch with “a
memory from an earlier time”. Suddenly, out of nowhere, I saw myself
as a young woman, Polynesian perhaps, with long dark hair. I was
standing in front of a small white hut, tall green bamboo plants swaying
gently on each side. I walked forward and entered the hut. Inside I saw
a simple room, a dirt floor and a long low wooden table. Cross-legged by
the table sat a young man. As I entered, he looked up into my eyes and
smiled at me.
What happened next is something that made an indelible impression on me.
As I saw his smile I felt a blinding, overwhelming love pass from him
into me. The sensation was as strong as a physical blow. Without
conscious thought, instantaneously, my entire being responded. I was
flooded with a sensation of light, joy and oneness. I felt my heart –
my whole essence - leap out of my body toward him.
The experience was dazzling.
I don’t think intimacy gets more intense than this, the tangible,
intense, overwhelming merging of two souls drawn to each other out of
pure essential love.
Here’s my question: From where did this experience come? I was lying
on a couch in a hypnotist’s office. Outside of the silent therapist,
nobody was there but me. In actual fact, at that moment of overwhelming
love, unity and connection, I was, on the physical plane at least,
entirely alone.
Whether or not this incident actually took place in some earlier life,
at that moment this tangible joy, love and connection was coming solely
from inside of me.
From where precisely did it come? Where was it hiding before this
experience? And where did it go back to when the session was over? How
can a feeling so pure, bright and overwhelmingly real be here one
moment, gone the next?
Many years ago, when a cousin of mine was four years old, she suddenly
looked down at herself and exclaimed: “I’m all alone!” Her mother
quickly reassured her: “Don’t worry, Sweetheart, I’m right
here.”
My cousin’s response? “No, I mean in here! I’m all alone in
here!”
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That feeling of ‘all alone’ is something every one of us can relate
to. Our bodies separate us from each other and from our Source in the
unifying Oneness from which we come. But just beneath the surface there
is a part of each of us that is never disconnected, never alone. This
part is always present, but is concealed – often completely - behind
the stories, struggles and concerns of our ego-based identities.
This ‘all alone’ is the profoundest of illusions. And it’s all the
more profound because it feels so very real.
But this illusion is no accident. In order to allow for the existence of
limitations, boundaries, separateness, polarity, conflict, and free
choice (i.e. human existence) G-d performs a feat more challenging than
any we can imagine. Like the hand within the puppet, He hides Himself
within the fragmented details of Creation while at the same time
remaining their activating force. Like the concealed hand does for the
lifeless puppet, the spark of G-d concealed within you makes you alive.
The goal: to see through the illusion and live in alignment with the
truth.
In truth, despite my example, you are not a puppet. You are created in
the image of G-d. You are invested with conscious awareness and the
power to choose.
You can choose to relate to yourself only within the context of your
limited ‘role’; the specific circumstances, struggles and goals of
your daily life. You can believe, or at any rate live, as if that is the
whole picture. This is like identifying with the appearance and role of
the puppet and with the script of whatever play is being acted out
today.
Or you can choose to look deeper, seeing through the limits of your
ego-based identity and immediate life circumstances to the Creative
Divine spark that makes you live.
So what’s this got to do with love?
Back to my experience. I didn’t know who I was, much less who the man
was. I was disconnected from all stories, agendas, past and future. I
was disassociated from my identity, the puppet. But the love – the
leaping of my heart, my essence, to connect with another, was very, very
real.
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That’s because love is an indelible part of the landscape of the soul.
Like the spark within a flintstone - invisible but unextinguishable -
the spark of pure unconditional love is concealed but infinitely present
within the essence of every one of us.
Kabbalah often compares the soul to the flame of a candle. Just as a
flame is always reaching up, trying to reconnect with its source in the
supernal fire, at the pure heart of all love and yearning is the
soul’s passionate desire to reconnect with its Divine Source.
Within every human being who walks the face of this earth, there is a
pure spark of the Divine Source of us all. Just as we’re drawn to
connect with our Source, we are drawn to connect with that spark. Your
own pure essence is seeking to connect with the pure essence and spark
of another.
As long as you identify exclusively with the puppet, i.e. your limited
ego-based identity, the love that you experience will be limited as
well. You will allow yourself to embrace only that which reinforces your
ego, helps you meet your ‘survival’ needs, and protects you from a
frightening sense of vulnerability. This level of love, although very
human and an integral part of most relationships, is conditional and
agenda-based.
But when you identify with the Divinity within yourself, the part beyond
the stories and agendas, you create an opening for your essence. This
automatically creates an opening for the essence of others. And wherever
essence touches essence – love – authentic love - becomes revealed.
Making it real:
There are two basic paths to creating this opening, and both are
important:
CREATE AN OPENING: Challenge the limiting boundaries of your identity by
doing things that take you out of your comfort zone. It’s especially
important to do this in your relationships. For example: allow yourself
to be vulnerable, let someone else be right, listen to understand
instead of to be understood, open yourself to a new point of view, give
generously of your resources even when it feels hard.
FILL YOURSELF WITH LIGHT: Nurture your inner spark by doing things that
connect you with G-d and your own soul, a higher, truer plane of
reality. Communicate with your Creator from your heart. Get more deeply
acquainted with G-d’s perspective and your soul’s mission by
learning, absorbing and integrating the deep, powerful light of
Authentic Kabbalah. Give charity and practice kindness. Watch for your
messages and for opportunities to make a difference.
All of these things will help you to expand the limits of who you know
yourself to be and create an opening and channel for your essence to
express itself.
© Shifra Hendrie, Kabbalah of Transformation
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Shifra Hendrie is a personal and spiritual coach who has been
studying and teaching the principles of authentic Kabbalah for over 20
years. Her unique, highly effective workshops deliver this
transformational spiritual wisdom in a structured coaching environment,
where it can be integrated and applied to core challenges of
participants’ lives. To download Shifra’s fascinating new book,
“Seven Kabbalah Secrets that Can Change Your Life”, which is free
for a limited time only, go to www.KabbalahOfTransformation.com.
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