Kabbalah for Today: Installment 2
Hello, I am Gail Ginsburg, welcome to Installment 2 of Kabbalah for today. A video introduction to traditional Jewish mysticism designed to help you along your personal spiritual journey. In installment 1, I defined Kabbalah is the sum total of Jewish mystical practice in teachings intended to connect in individual with God. In other words, Kabbalah Jewish Mysticism is meaningful only in practice. It is something you do a way of life. In terms of practices, meditation is extremely significant within all mystical traditions and Kabbalah is no exception.
I will begin this session by teaching you a very simply meditative breathing technique which will form the basis of the more extensive and specifically Jewish meditative practices that I will teach you in future installments. I called this simple technique 363 breathing and it goes like this:
First of all, get yourself seated comfortably. Relax your neck and shoulders because we all carry a lot of tension in our neck and shoulders. Put your feet flat on the floor and lay your hands open on your lap. Close your eyes and breath as follows, in through your nose to the count of three. Then exhale through your mouth to the count of six and as you exhale do so from the depths of yourself, draw deep within you and exhale blow out everything that is binding you up all your tensions, your anxiety, your stress, your fears, your worries, forcefully blow them out of your body. In through the nose the count of three out through the mouth to the count of six. Do these three times and let us practice it now.
You can use this technique to begin meditative sessions or anytime you feel stressed or conscious. If you need to make a difficult phone call or take a test anytime is the right time to breathe. I talked this technique to many, many people and I have had many reports back of how it saved the day. For example, one claustrophobic gentleman needed to have an MRI inside one of those confining clinging MRI tubes and he said that he would not have made it without 363 breathing without this simple and surprisingly effective breathing technique.
Now that we are relaxed and focused, let us talked about the main Kabbalistic symbol, the tree of life which is portrayed us 10 interconnected vessels or sephirot. Here is a very simple chart of the sephirot, which I will have available on my website www.neshama.org or you can email me and I will be happy to send you a copy.
What is this all about? Well, a sephirot, the plural sephirot is understood as a channel of divine, creative energy, or life force. This basic concept of Kabbalah teaches us about the ongoing process of God’s creation as God’s infinite light shines forth gradually to form what we experienced as material reality. These ten vessels or energy pathways are variously called the sephirot or the 10 divine emanations, the 10 divine radiances, or the 10 divine qualities.
The sephirot, each of which has a name and various qualities associated with them represent 10 modes through which God manifests God self. The sephirot are not God, but there are a way of portraying the medium through which the specific qualities and attributes can be ascribe to God. The word sephirot is related to a Hebrew word, which means to express or communicate. This implies that the function of the sephirot is to express a certain attribute. It is also related to the word sapphire. A sapphire as you know is a beautiful gem that is brilliant and illuminating, implying that the function of the sephirot is to give light.
Although the next ten in Solomons, we will take the sephirot one by one describe them and consider how they might be meaningful in the individuals in your personal spiritual development. Beginning at the top of what is often visualized as a tree with the roots at the top or as a human form, the highest and top sephirot is known as keter. Keter that really means crown. Unlike the other sephirot, nothing can really be said of keter, it has no color, and it has no characteristic because it is of the unknown realm closest to inner self, the unknowable dimension of God. It is darkness, reflecting the contraction of inner self by divine will, a contraction that allows creation to have space, to exist.
Although these may seem all very remote and strange, it can be helpful to us as an expression of the aspect or potential within each of us that connects with what is beyond ourselves with the ultimate reality with the divine. And as a results serves as our inspirational and motivational guiding force in life. It is truly the crown of the human personality which connects us with our highest and best self. Here is my suggestion, if you do not yet practice meditation, start by setting aside five or 10 minutes each day. Begin with the 363 breathing technique to quite your body and mind. Then focus your inner light, your inner spiritual self upwards in the direction of keter seeking inspiration to connect with the unknown, the unseen, yet the all loving presence of God, which is both within and beyond us.
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