Lurianic Kabbalism states that God created the world by contracting himself to create a space without God which allowed the world to be created.
In making room for God within ourselves, do we need to go through a similar process of self contraction to allow God to enter? What would that look like?
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No, I don't think so. Rather, I think we need to do the opposite; I think we need to expand. In order to make room for God, we need to expand our awareness and our consciousness in order to open up and form a place, a space that we can enter. And I think that is what this week's parsha is telling us when it says that all those whose heart feels like donating. And what will be done with the donation? It will be used to make a place for God. Where? The Torah says, not within the tabernacle that is being made, rather within us.
Isn't a donation a form of emptying ourselves? Shifting the focus outside of ourselves to God?
When we expand our consciousness we are making room in ourselves by expansion. I think of a bread baking that forms a large bubble that is filled with nothing. In contraction or expansion the result is the same - there is an empty space within ourselves that allows room for God to enter. Maybe that's the key, we can't occupy the entirety of ourselves to allow God to become a part of ourselves.
Agreed. I think we are saying the same thing, just coming from different points of viewing: From the outside-the-action view (God view), or the inside-the-action view (our view inside of creation). To God, it looks like contraction to make space. To us, we are expanding to make the space.
Interesting that both contraction and expansion can create this sense of becoming porous -- becoming "doorful" and opening up to other realities.
It always fascinates me that we can go both inward and outward to find the same thing. It has to do with getting to the extremes which allows one to perceive God. A good reminder that there is no one "true" way, but many good paths.
I believe that we need the contraction to shape the space in which the Divine will appear. Think of it as shaping the lens, just as you shape the lens of your eye to focus on something. With just Chesed (expansion), there would be no well defined space, like water flowing with no river banks to shape it. Only when it is constrained, through Gevurah, does the beauty of creation begin to emerge.
It would be an inner journey. It is in that stillness that comes from meditation and spiritual practice. All shamanic journeys require first the contraction, through a passage, or down a tree before being able to enter that space in which we are able to interface with the Divine.
I like the image of hesed held in place and directed by gevurah. When my meditations take me closer to God, I often find that my sense of self and my boundaries disappear and I am filled with God's love. One of the purposes of prayer and meditation is to be able to maintain the sense of self while getting closer to God.
While I think that a passage through a tight space, be it tunnel or tree, is common to shamanic journeys, I have not found it to be a requirement to get into the shamanic realm. Do you find a difference between journeys with a narrow space and those with out one?
My approach is always to connect to God and see what happens. I wait to see what God wants to reveal to me.
Yes and I know that Olam Ha'Ba is when we will be walking in that space all the time, "Not only with G!d's name, Bless us all, on our lips, but his presence in our hearts." So we attend the Spiritual Gym as often as we are able:-)
That is an interesting question. One I grapple with myself. There are the two approaches that I have encountered in the two traditions of shamanic journeying that I am familiar with. The first being the Merkava Descent using the Tetragammatron as the protocol that enables one to "maintain one's sense of self". Something like a string that one uses to hold one to this realm. This is why it is necessary also to keep the left brain active in the process.
The second being of Native American tradition. In which the protocol is one of much greater discipline. The difference might be looked at that in order to begin to use the Merkava, one needs years of training. But once one ascends, it is much less constrained. Though not according to Sefer Raziel and others of that ilk that describe the gaurdians at the entrances to the various levels. Whereas the Native American tradition does not require any specific training before reaching it, but once the training begins it is far more rigorous in its approach to this realm. Though this is just an expression of my own exposure to such things.
However, in my experience both forms require that one passes through such a place of constraint before one enters into the angelic realm or any other. It is reminiscent of the vertices that join the various sefirot, as being an expression of this constraint that is necessary - in most cases - for there to occur a transformation of any nature.
There is the exception, when one is "chosen" and has some spontaneous meeting with the Divine or Angelic realms. Some refer to this as prophecy.
Perhaps I can be so bold as to suggest that the methods or practices that you use to "connect to Elohim, Blessed be the Lord of Host" might contain elements that could be described as constraining?
I do like the statement that "One of the purposes of prayer and meditation is to be able to maintain the sense of self while getting closer to God." Well put. Lovely.
I think we are talking about slightly different experiences. Journeying mostly goes through a place of contraint, but healing goes through a place of expansion and connection.
I connect to God when I'm healing by connecting to my patient, expanding, and feeling the Shechina in the room.
I think the most important thing to realize is the great variety of ways we can interact with God.
Send me an email - it's on my website, http://AskanaseAcupuncture.com and we can continue the discussion.
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