A human being is part of the whole called by us “universe,” a part limited in time and space. We experience ourselves, our thoughts and feelings as something separate from the rest. A kind of optical delusion of consciousness. This delusion is a kind of prison for us, restricting us to our personal desires and to affection for a few persons nearest to us.
Our task must be to free ourselves from the prison by widening our circle of compassion to embrace all living creatures and the whole of nature in its beauty… . We shall require a substantially new manner of thinking if mankind is to survive.
— Albert Einstein
We've traced the roots and development of Kabbalah and laid out some of its central tenets; we've examined the Tree of Life and some of the methods the Kabbalists used to arrive at their beliefs. But how does all of this relate to our daily life? What is the point of all this information, and what do we do with it?
Kabbalah emphasizes that while reading and the pursuit of intellectual knowledge are important for developing awareness and grasping a global view of our world, more important than book learning and teaching are the experiences we have in our daily life. This is where practical Kabbalah can teach us how to apply what we learn in Genesis and the Tree of Life to our personal circumstances, and show us how to begin the practice of healing the world by healing our corner of it. As in Zen practice, it is important to bring the lessons we learn in Kabbalah back to the ground and to put abstract theory into practice.
The term “practical Kabbalah” does not mean the same thing today that it meant to early Kabbalists. Hundreds of years ago, practical Kabbalah referred to white magic that involved a manipulation of the forces of nature for good purposes. When we put the teachings of Kabbalah into practice today, however, there is no magic or the conjuring of forces involved; but the effect is still the same. Practical Kabbalah has been described as a system of ethics that focuses on a right way of living in community, though with the higher goals of affecting positive change in the universe and of drawing us closer to God (what Kabbalists refer to as “cleaving” to God) through spiritual awareness and the elevation of the physical world to the spiritual one. We don't simply get closer to God through meditation and prayer, we draw closer to Him through actions and thoughts that recognize the connectedness of all the universe and that recognize the existence of God in everything in that universe.
When we lead a Kabbalistic life, we not only have a positive effect on the physical world, but our actions also have a soothing effect on the forces above that in turn cause alterations in the energy that flows down to us and surrounds us. When we commit acts of lovingkindness, they reverberate throughout the spiritual world and help heal or correct the universe. Thus, we not only heal our neighbors and make them feel better, we heal ourselves as well and heal the God in exile.
Opportunities to heal the world abound and are presented to us every day and every moment; we just have to open our eyes to them. Healing the world generally doesn't require monumental actions on our part — although occasionally these kinds of acts are needed too — but rather simple, mundane tasks that help mend the rifts that separate us from each other. It can be a simple matter of running an errand for a neighbor or thanking a secretary for a job well done — tasks that require no great energy on our part — or it can be a matter of controlling our anger against someone who has scratched our car in the parking lot or taken our place in the movie line. It can involve delivering meals to AIDS patients or swallowing criticism of our spouses; or it can be a matter of speaking out against injustices or campaigning for political reform.
Evolution in the larger picture first requires evolution in the smaller one. Focusing first on changing and repairing the separate parts of our own life changes and repairs the bigger picture that contains all of us. It's similar to building a jigsaw puzzle of the Grand Canyon. The whole picture is too vast to do at one time, so you begin with one corner of the puzzle and first match all of the pieces that contain rose-colored rock; then you put together all of the pieces of the river that runs the length of the canyon. All of the small scenes that you complete add up to the larger picture. Thus putting the puzzle together section by section builds the larger picture simultaneously.
Practical Kabbalah revolves around “working the Tree”; that is, studying the various parts of the Tree, the various aspects of each sefira, to see what they tell us about our life and our world. For example, the qualities that define Binah (Understanding) teach us something about knowledge between good and bad, and therefore about repentance and the importance of making reparations for our actions. By passing from one sefira to another, we gain awareness of different aspects of our world and our being that help us repair the rift between the physical and spiritual worlds. When we raise our level of awareness, the gap between these two levels narrows. The more conscious we are of our connection to other people and to God, the less we will act in ways that are separate from them.
We can divide the work of the Tree into two kinds: internal work and external work. Internal work is the work we do on ourselves, on our thoughts and intentions and our perceptions of the world, to help change the way we act in it. This involves seeing the connection between things in the universe, but it also involves being aware of why we think and act the way we do. If we understand, for instance, that our false perceptions of the world and other people as separate from us lead us to treat them with disrespect and lack of compassion, we can alter our behavior. Internal work also involves balancing the male and female aspects inside us, such as developing and giving attention to both our assertive and nurturing characteristics, as well as balancing our intellectual and rational nature with our subjective, experiential side. All aspects of us have their moments of domination — there are times in our life or even moments of our day when we are confident and assertive, and other times when we are thoughtful or insecure. The goal is a holistic one of integrating all these aspects, to exercise all the muscles of our personality and character, so that we become a whole being.
External work is how we put our new perceptions into practice; how we begin to act once we see the world in its connectedness. Our actions, in order to have the greatest effect in the upper world, have to occur on three levels: on the intellectual, on the spiritual, and on the physical. This means that our thoughts (intellect) and intentions (soul or heart) must match the act. It is not enough to just perform a good deed, we have to want to do good by the deed and have the intent to heal the world through the deed. For this reason we have free will. Someone who commits a good deed because he is commanded to do so is still doing good in the world, but not in the same way as someone who does it with the fullness of his heart, with complete commitment, and with knowledge and understanding of the fact that he doesn't necessarily have to do it. Furthermore, to simply do something without really being aware of what we are doing is not the same as having full consciousness of what we are doing. This is what gives an act “wings” and elevates it to a higher level, makes the good energy soar up the Tree.
We will begin our examination of the Tree with Keter and work our way down, but you don't have to begin your work at the top of the Tree; you can start at the bottom with Malkhut and examine each sefira on your way up. It makes sense to climb up, since the highest levels of development are at the top of the Tree and since Kabbalists tell us that Malkhut, the last sefira on the bottom, is the “gate” to the paths of wisdom. It is through Malkhut that we enter the realm of wisdom. Once you have examined all the sefirot, however, you can focus on any sefira as you experience imbalances in your life.
One caveat before we go on: It might seem at times that the sefirot contradict each other. For instance, we are told that we have tremendous power, but that we should also feel as if we have no power. We should strive to have no harshness and our face should be filled with joy, but we should know that anger and evil are also parts of God. Taken as a whole, the Tree presents a balanced picture of existence. But when only parts of the Tree are emphasized in our life or in the world, then the balance is off. The goal of working each sefira is to achieve overall balance. This concept is similar to that of Eastern healing practices, which seek to find balance in the body by working on various areas until energy moves freely through all parts of the body. Kabbalists see our bodies as sacred vessels, like the sefirot, that receive God's energy. When we are unbalanced — for instance, when we spend too much time developing our physical body at the expense of our mind — we are like cracked vessels; our ability to receive and hold the energy is impaired. But when we are balanced — when we apply appropriate levels of energy to care for our mind, body, and soul — the energy has no obstacles to keep it from flowing freely. The aim is to find the balance in ourselves and in our world; to know when to apply lovingkindness and when to hold back; to know when ambition is an appropriate and beneficial quality, and to understand when it crosses the line into obsession.
The lesson that Keter teaches us is one of humility. Humility is the quality associated with Keter because in Keter the “I” does not exist. There is only the No-Thing, because there is no differentiation here. It is the absence of ego and the presence of a being that is greater than any one of us alone. Humility is the recognition that the world is bigger than you or me; it is recognition of the No-thingness in you. The Kabbalists are not saying to be nothing, but to abandon the personae you've developed, to throw away the ego and the person you think you are, to get at the core of who you really are. You are not the physical being that you think you are, you are a part of God. Keter tells us to release the poses and the images we project to the world and recognize that in our essence we are not the powerful businessman or movie star, nor are we the secretary or the computer analyst or the landscape gardener. We are these things on the outside, but inside we are something else. Kabbalists say that to make room for God, you need to empty yourself of you. Creation is the process through which nothingness becomes the I. When we are talking about returning to the state of Keter we are talking about a state in which the I becomes the “no thing” in which we don't see ourselves as apart from God or the world. Gershom Scholem points out that the same letters that form the Hebrew word for “I,” ani — aleph-yud-nun — also form the Hebrew word for “nothing,” ain. Rearrange the letters, and we are transported to the realm of nothingness.
Humility is recognizing your lowliness. Even Keter, which is the closest to Ein Sof of all the sefirot, is not Ein Sof. So no matter how high up you get, Keter tells us, you are still below Ein Sof. You are knee-high to a grasshopper in cosmic terms. This doesn't mean, however, that you are worthless. Humility is not about annulling and voiding yourself and “giving your power over” to other people. We are not meant to be mousy or slink around the office because we think we don't matter. On the contrary, we matter a lot. It's just that we matter no more or no less than the postal worker who weighs our package, the IRS accountant who does our audit, the teenager who delivers our paper, or the millionaire who runs the computer empire. Keter is about selflessness, but it's also about remembering that if the other person is important, if the other person is divine, so am I.
Keter is also about accepting your victories graciously and not letting the praises of other people place you above Creation. Remember your place, Keter tells us from the top of the Tree. But humility also comes from recognizing your faults and your failures and realizing that you are not a perfect being. It comes from accepting these faults as part of who you are; recognizing that you are composed of many parts, none of them good or bad on their own. It comes down to accepting who you are; and that who you are is a spark of the divine, which has the capability of good and evil in it.
In the end, Keter tells us to treat every being as if he or she is God, because they are. We all stem from Nothingness, and we all return to Nothingness as well.
One way in which we can tap into our connection to the realm of No-thingness is to do a meditation in which we imagine the flow of energy that runs down through the sefirot into us, envelops us with all its light, then returns to follow a path up the Tree back to Keter. To do this simple meditation, begin by sitting quietly in a comfortable space with the lights turned out, close your eyes, and breathe. Just breathe in and out and direct your mind to your breath. Follow your breath in and out without trying to control or regulate it. If distracting thoughts arise and pull your mind away from your breath, acknowledge the thoughts, but then gently bring your mind back to your breath. Once you feel your body relax, you can begin by imagining the Tree of Life, with a flow of white light or energy emanating from the top of the Tree. Imagine this white light as something warm and energizing. Watch it flow gently down from Keter to each of the sefirot below, from Hochma to Binah, from Hesed to Gevurah, illuminating each vessel as it fills and overflows it. Then imagine the white light pouring out of Malkhut into you and enveloping you in its warm, unconditional embrace. Sit with this feeling for a few minutes, and when you feel you've received enough of the light, imagine sending part of the light out of you and back up the Tree, through each of the sefirot, until it arrives back at Keter and flows into the source of light that is still pouring out of Keter. Imagine the light as ever-flowing from above and ever-flowing through you. When you feel energized and relaxed, you can bring yourself out of the meditation by gently returning your mind to your breath. Focus your attention on your in-breath and then your out-breath for a minute or so, again not trying to control the breath in any way. And when you're ready, slowly open your eyes.
From Hochma, Kabbalists tell us we should develop an understanding of our connection to all things above and below — to God and to everything else in the world. Hochma is the first of the sefirot to receive from Keter, and it then turns around to give to Binah. Hochma represents the notion of wholeness and connectedness with all the things in Creation. If we feel connected to all things, then we tend to treat things as if they were not separate from us, and we feel compassion for all beings. As a consequence, Kabbalists teach that we should not kill or harm any plant or animal unless it is absolutely necessary for our sustenance. One may kill an animal for food, if necessary, but the killing must be done with full consciousness that the animal is connected to us and connected to God.
When we eat, we eat with the awareness that the food has come from God and that it is serving a purpose to nourish us. Some people believe the Kabbalists are actually advocating vegetarianism or the steps to vegetarianism, and that if someone is truly mindful of the animal they are eating, they won't want to eat it. But the early Kabbalists didn't make this final leap, although they may very well have been implying it.
Either way, the Kabbalists tell us that when we sit down to eat we should first take a moment to reflect on the role of the plant or animal in the universe as well as our own role. We could call Hochma the sefira of Thanksgiving. We acknowledge the divine spark in the things that God has provided us. At the same time that we acknowledge this, we also elevate the food to a spiritual level, acknowledging it as part of the divine Creation. All of this serves as a reminder that we are not the masters of our world and that we do not therefore have the right to treat the world as if it were our property by killing animals for sport, dumping chemicals in rivers, or depleting natural resources. While we may have in Creation a special role that plants and animals do not have, it would be harmful to the world and ourselves to abuse that power.
One way we can live in Hochma consciousness is to be thankful for what we do have. When we go to sleep at night we can do it with the grateful consciousness that we have a roof over our head and a warm bed to sleep in. One exercise for experiencing Hochma consciousness is to take time to appreciate the good things in your life. Focus on what you have and what you are grateful for, whether it be the people in your life, a fulfilling job, a reliable baby-sitter, or an understanding boss. Think about — perhaps even make a list — of all of the things that make you feel good, and focus on this feeling. You might even go the extra step and thank a person who has made you feel good.
We can be thankful for our friendships by taking the time to express our gratefulness for having friends in our life. You can tell your mother that you are thankful for all she has taught you. Of course it is difficult to live in Hochma consciousness all the time, just as it is difficult to live constantly in any state of consciousness. This is not the goal. To remain constant in anything is not natural for human beings nor for the universe. The Tree teaches us that Creation is dynamic; our lives and relationships are dynamic as well. And there will be times when we won't feel grateful for what we have; when the food we eat is devoid of taste and pleasure; when our children annoy us or don't do what we ask them to do; or when our mother interferes in affairs where she's not welcome. And there are times when we simply don't have anything to be grateful for — when someone we love dies or is struck with painful disease; when a relationship ends and all we can feel is the pain. At times like these we don't feel connected to other people; we feel alone and abandoned and victimized, and it feels unnatural to be grateful. But Kabbalists say that feeling grateful is what connects us to people and to life. Often, if we are feeling despair, we are seeing what we don't have rather than what we do have; Kabbalists say that if we see how the world is connected, then we cannot feel lonely. When we see how God has provided for us — whether with a roof over our head, a handout when we are poor, or a simple kindness when we feel defeated — then we cannot feel abandoned.
Binah teaches us about returning to oneness, because Binah is the sefira at which the emanation from Ein Sof becomes refracted. Within Binah, however, everything is still whole. Kabbalists say that Binah is as high as we can reach, that beyond it there is no “I,” and that it is therefore impossible for us to imagine or know the region above.
In chapter 5, we discussed repentance and how it was built into Creation so that Adam and Eve could return to God after straying from Him. Since return and repentance are closely tied, in Binah we meditate on repentance. Binah teaches us about wholeness and about the idea that we are connected to everyone else and are all on the same mission, though our individual routes may be different. But to achieve repentance on the larger level, we have to start on the smaller level and think about the things that we've done that have caused harm.
Therefore, in Binah we examine what we've done to harm someone else. For Kabbalists, this examination can be a daily task that we conduct at the end of each day, taking an account of our actions and words throughout the previous hours. Once we begin to do this, we may find ourselves stopping before we commit an act that we know we will have to account for in the evening. If another has done something to harm us during that day, we can also take the time before going to bed to contemplate our feelings about the action and then release the person from our hurt. Sometimes this cannot be accomplished in one day if the hurt is especially deep or ongoing, but in the case of minor injuries this exercise can help us clean the slate, approach the person with fresh eyes, and avoid perpetuating any further injury out of revenge.
Binah is a sefira that is particularly suited to a meditation practice because it focuses on something tangible, such as a wrong action. One way to contemplate and elevate our mistakes is to meditate on a specific thing we did and try to transform its energy by learning from it. To meditate on repentance, you might simply start a regular meditation practice to relax and focus your thoughts, like the one described in the Keter section. Once you feel ready, you can then think about something you've done, either in the past or earlier in the day, that you know was wrong or that you know hurt someone else. Try to recall how you were feeling at the time you did it. Were you angry or frightened? Were you thinking about something that happened earlier in the day, or something this person said or did previously that you have not forgiven? Were you directing misplaced anger toward someone else on this person?
Now try to imagine the thoughts and feelings of this person at the time you hurt them. Try to imagine the perspective of the person on the receiving end. Are they surprised or hurt? Are they angry by your action? Have you caused them upset in any way?
Once you have examined the hurt from both sides, imagine the two of you being surrounded by the energy of acceptance and lovingkindness. Perhaps you might envision it as the arms of a warm and loving parent who envelops you both. Imagine the forgiveness and healing energy pulsing into the two of you, and feel the connection between you and the other person through the arms of this parent.
Now put yourself back into the same situation and imagine how you might have handled the situation differently. Imagine yourself undoing the wrong — perhaps taking a breath before you speak or walking away instead of reacting. See whether you can envision yourself acting in a different way that acknowledges both your feelings and your connection to the other person. Then examine how this different way of acting makes you feel, and how it makes the other person feel. You may experience a sense of calm and peacefulness at having watched yourself right the wrong.
Once you feel you have worked through the incident, you can bring yourself back by returning to your breath. Place your attention on watching the in-breath become the out-breath. Just follow your breathing like this for several minutes, then when you are ready, slowly open your eyes.
This exercise is not intended to create feelings of guilt; it's simply to allow you to look at an event outside of the emotions that surrounded it when it occurred. At the time you performed the action, maybe you were in a state of mind in which you couldn't think of an alternative action; maybe you were unaware that what you would do would cause harm; or maybe you wanted to get back at the other person for something they did to you. But now, looking back on the incident from the perspective of Binah and Hochma, perhaps you see your act in a different light and see how everything we do is an opportunity for growth. We all make mistakes, and we all hurt people, sometimes unintentionally and sometimes intentionally. The point is not to chastise ourselves for this, but to become aware of what we do so that the next time we are in a similar situation, we can pull back from the emotion and watch what we are doing. Often it is not enough to want to act differently; we first have to be fully aware of what is going on inside us. We have to recognize the fears and insecurities that lead us to act in harmful ways, and once we can identify these, we can begin to change our behavior. With such an understanding, you can then imagine yourself in the same situation, but this time acting in a different way that acknowledges your connection to the other person and that acknowledges your oneness and their oneness with God. You might feel a sense of relief or a sense of cleansing when you see that you have the power to act differently.
This is what repentance is about; it's about transforming our mistakes into lessons and it's about being aware of our behavior and seeing it in the context of the larger picture. The goal is to begin to act from that sense of wholeness and connectedness that we get from Hochma and Binah. Returning to wholeness, teshuva, begins with repentance of our individual actions, because once we become aware of how our actions affect all of Creation, we can't help but think differently before we act the next time.
Hesed is lovingkindness and refers to the total outflowing of unconditional love from God. When we exhibit lovingkindness, we heal the world because acts of lovingkindness bring unification. We exhibit lovingkindness when we have mercy and compassion and empathy for the suffering of other people. We are in a Hesed consciousness when we care for the sick and elderly, nurture a child, or give charity. Healing is accomplished through our relationships with other people. When you take care of a sick person or give comfort to someone in pain, you are at the same time giving comfort to all of Creation, and the act continues beyond the particular moment. Not long ago, my father, a man chivalrous to his bones, stopped to help a female motorist who was stranded along the roadside. When she asked what she could do to repay him, he told her, “Just tell your husband that if he ever sees a woman motorist along the roadside to please stop and help her because she may be my wife or daughter.” Indeed, a few weeks later I found myself stranded on the roadside with a smoking engine, and a gentleman my father's age stopped to assist me. When he stepped out of his car he told me, “I don't know why I stopped; I never do, but I saw you standing there and decided to pull over.”
Charity is an act of lovingkindness, and it is possible to give charity in many ways other than through the obvious donations. You might arrange with your eye doctor to purchase a new pair of reading glasses for a needy patient, or offer to take an elderly neighbor grocery shopping once a week. You might offer to baby-sit for friends who can't afford to hire a sitter. A friend of mine once arranged anonymously to pay the overdue day care bills for another friend who was having financial difficulties. But charity is not just about what we give materially, it's about how we give ourselves as well. Ultimately, this is the greatest charity, because it involves human interaction and the giving of our hearts rather than what can be the sterile giving of money and possessions.
You never really know the effect your actions and words have on other people or on the world. A simple courtesy such as opening the door for a mother whose arms are loaded with a screaming child might be enough to calm her nerves so that she can then respond to her child in a patient and soothing manner. It is said that good deeds bring forth life and bad deeds hasten death. Think about it: when someone treats us with love and kindness it lightens our heart, and when they treat us with disdain it makes us feel heavy and defeated. The world is already full of so much suffering that any kindness has the ability to cross great distances and affect many people.
But Hesed is not only about giving, it's also about receiving, and about your own ability to receive what others give to you. If other people try to help you but you refuse that help, then you are not working in balance. It's a two-way street, and that's why balancing Hesed is about knowing your own boundaries and respecting the boundaries of others. It's about knowing what you need and being able to accept it when it's offered; it's also about asking other people for what they need and being willing to give it.
Another aspect of Hesed is related to the unconditional love that God gives us. During times of suffering, we should remember the blessings of God and give back to Him the unconditional love that He gives us. It's one of the most difficult concepts on the Tree, because the Kabbalists are asking that during the times when we feel the least capable of seeing the good in our life, we should reaffirm God's goodness and recognize that He only gives us suffering out of love and in order to help us learn. The Kabbalists are not saying that suffering is not suffering. They are saying that just as the fall of Adam and Eve was an act of love to help them learn, the sufferings in our life usually contain blessings or lessons to help us grow and become stronger. When someone we love suffers and dies and we want to curse God, it is that moment exactly, Kabbalist say, when we should recall the goodness of God. When we've lost our job and are going through a divorce, when all seems lost, we need to remember that it really isn't. Ultimately, the foundation is still there. We still have God.
We've all heard about people who suffer great setbacks and yet seem to bend in the wind like the reeds. I remember reading an interview with a famous writer who had just lost her home in a fire that burned for days and consumed hundreds of homes in the hills of Oakland, California, in 1991. She had lost everything, including the nearly completed manuscript of her next novel. And yet her conclusion about the loss was that it was a great adventure. She'd write the novel again, she said, and maybe this time it would reveal itself to her in a different way. In the same fire was a renowned photographer of advanced age who had lost a houseful of irreplaceable negatives and prints, the culmination of his life's work. By chance, however, some of his photos had been away at a museum that was organizing an exhibition of his work. For him also the experience was a freeing one. It somehow liberated him to begin fresh (and he was seventy or eighty years old). He said that he didn't realize it until after the fire that the pictures had been in part a burden because they had defined his life. Now he was free to redefine it.
The Kabbalists are not suggesting that we give in to suffering, that we accept bad things as the will of God, or that we allow injustices to occur because there must be a reason for them. Nor do they suggest that we not give a sick child medical care because we think it is the will of God that the child grew ill in the first place. They are simply saying that if God is all things, then He is the good things and He is the bad things. God gives us only the pain and suffering that He knows we can handle, and he gives it to us as a tool for growth. If you can go beyond the suffering itself and see a lesson in it, then you can transform it into something good and useful. And if within the suffering you can find meaning, then you may also perhaps make the suffering more bearable. It's a matter of acknowledging the suffering, but then asking ourselves, What do I do now? We are given choices. Every difficult situation presents us with an opportunity. We can look at suffering as something unbearable and unfair, or we can look at it as an opportunity to learn.
This is not to suggest that the person dying of cancer is not doing his part if he doesn't think about the good things that come from his suffering or the suffering of his family. Kabbalists do not say that we should turn away from someone else's suffering or even from our own, but to look at the suffering and see if there is anything that it can teach us. Is there some way that it can be turned around? Does the illness bring an estranged family together? Does it make others value their life more? None of this detracts from the suffering of the person who is ill; none of it devalues their suffering. But is there anything at all to be taken away from the suffering?
Think about something in your life that is causing you to suffer, and try to see if there is a lesson in it or some hidden blessing. At its most basic level, the blessing in suffering is that it allows us to appreciate our blessings. Without the curses in our life, without the suffering and the challenges, we would not appreciate and recognize the times when these things are absent from our life.
If Hesed is the desire to give, Gevurah is the desire to obtain, to acquire; it is ambition, it is the source of creative and artistic energy and the impetus to invent and discover new things. If Hesed is the outflowing of love and endless giving, then Gevurah is borders and laws and definitions. The power behind Gevurah is what holds a society together and gets things accomplished. It ensures that we have houses that are safe to live in and food that is safe to eat. Gevurah also ensures that the species continues, because without Gevurah there would be no sexual activity, no desire. It is the source of our drive and energy, the will to change things and make things better.
Gevurah is also about restraint and moderation. Kabbalah doesn't want to eradicate or repress our desires. However, we do need to balance them and know when desires are appropriate and when they aren't. When they are laid out in front of us where we can see them, then they have less power over us. When they are repressed and deep in our subconscious, then they work their way up to the surface in a manner that may be less controllable. Take the wind out of the sails of your evil inclinations, Kabbalists seem to say, by addressing them first and not denying they exist.
As with any quality on the Tree, Gevurah applied for the wrong reasons leads to abuse of power. Sexuality and pleasure in food, art, nature, in the enjoyment of a good joke, all come with the gift package of Creation, but these gifts are to be used wisely. Kabbalists say that pleasure is really the spiritual making its presence known in our world. When we enjoy something, we are experiencing its spiritual nature. But everything has its place, and everything is good when it is moderated by its balancing trait. Inappropriate lust that leads us to cheat on a spouse or partner; jealousy that moves us to destroy what someone else has instead of motivating us to achieve something we want — these are examples of Gevurah out of balance.
To experience a Gevurah consciousness, Kabbalists advise us to examine areas of our life that are out of balance by excessive attention to them — eating too much or watching too much TV. There are plenty of ways in which we can introduce discipline into our life to help balance these areas of excessiveness. You might start by making a list of the things you've intended to do or need to accomplish, as well as a list of all the things you spend your time doing instead of these things; then you can create a program that gradually reduces the excessive activity and focuses on completing the things you want to accomplish. For instance, if we spend too much time watching TV or reading romance novels instead of being with our family or attending to responsibilities, we might want to reduce the time engaged in these activities. Instead of eating a bag of potato chips as an evening snack, we might want to opt for something healthier or even a trip to the gym. If our evenings are spent on the telephone with friends, we might want to make only one phone call a night and limit it to half an hour; then spend the remainder of the evening pursuing a course we want to take or helping our kids with homework. If we go to the gym every night, we might decide to drop one night a week from the schedule and pursue a different interest or meet with friends. There are myriad ways in which we introduce imbalance into our lives, either through habit or laziness, and attention to this imbalance is one of the first steps we can take to correct it.
On the external side, Gevurah establishes boundaries in our relationships with other people and finds the balance to giving. If you are drained of energy because you give too freely, or if you feel that people take advantage of you, then you need to establish boundaries. Boundaries are necessary not only in your life but in the world at large. If you spend too much time trying to solve the problems of other people, then pull back and take time for yourself. If you cook dinner each night for your family, ask someone else to take over one or two nights a week; delegate responsibilities and chores to other family members; say No when you need to say No, and don't feel guilty about it.
Tiferet symbolizes harmony and balance and is at the center of the Tree of Life for a reason. Too much of one thing is never good. Even too much of a good thing is too much. That's why we have tough love, the balance of Hesed with Gevurah. This is harmony on the cosmic level. On the individual level, harmony and balance exist in the personality when we unify the lovingkindness and severity within us.
When Tiferet is balanced it is actually not perfectly balanced, but leans a little toward the side of Hesed, toward lovingkindness. Why is this? Because the universe began with an act of judgment, with the concentration of Din, and therefore there is slightly more Din in the world than there is Hesed. We need to balance the severity inherent in our world with a bit more mercy and compassion in order to achieve true balance. A world with a little more Hesed gives us leeway to have Din without it being destructive. We need a slight reserve of Hesed to balance the greater weight of Din in the world. We could also look at it another way. Din is the gravitational force that pulls us downward, that pulls us away from God; we need the thrust of a little extra mercy to overcome this downward pull in order to propel us back up. An equal force of mercy will just keep us in place, but the extra rocket boost of mercy will lift us back in the direction we need to go.
Tiferet is not only about finding the balance between two things, it's about bringing two things together. Making peace between two individuals is also a divine act, because it symbolizes the union of exiled parts of God. To make peace between feuding siblings, old friends, between colleagues or a husband and wife are all acts of unification that reverberate in the divine realm. This is a tikkun; it repairs what is torn and unites what is apart. To practice Tiferet consciousness, then, is to find ways to balance giving and receiving and to mend rifts. If two colleagues are at odds over competing ideas, see if you can find a compromise that combines both their suggestions. If friends or neighbors are estranged from one another, or if you are estranged from a friend yourself, try to find some way to mend the rift and restore the relationship.
The Kabbalist understanding of the qualities of the next two sefirot is never as clear as the other ones on the Tree. But I would suggest that these two sefirot are about dominance and dependence as well as about thoughts and emotions. As mentioned in chapter 5, Netzach is about self-confidence and esteem and assuming leadership. Netzach represents a position of power and can sometimes lean toward a position of dominance. We are experiencing Netzach when we assume a position of leadership or when we take care of a child or are involved in teaching. One of the ways, then, in which we can develop Netzach consciousness is to offer our knowledge or services to someone who might benefit from them; for instance, we might offer to tutor someone in a language or teach someone how to play the piano. If we are an accountant, we might offer to help someone with their tax return, or if we are a gardener we might help someone plant a garden.
But with regard to our internal life, Netzach is also about our feelings and emotions. Kabbalists talk about Hesed (Lovingkindness) and Gevurah (Strength) being supported by Netzach (Victory) and Hod (Splendor). Therefore, how we act is often determined by how we think and feel. If we are angry at someone, or even at the world, we are less likely to want to be kind to that person or offer them compassion. Netzach represents our emotional nature and how we express data that we take in from the world and then respond to the world. It is the place from which we act out of feeling rather than out of thought. Hod, on the other hand, represents our thoughts — the part of us that puts the reins on emotions and keeps them in balance. The way to achieve wholeness is to balance the two so that we are neither governed wholly by our emotions nor wholly by our thoughts.
Emotions are good things. They lead us to have compassion for other people, they lead us to have passion for life, and they lead us to make changes in areas of our life that feel painful. But unbalanced emotion can lead to too much passion, such as out-of-control anger. Some anger is appropriate, of course, but much of our anger is unnecessary. It is connected to other feelings and emotions that are stored inside our subconscious and cause us to interpret the innocent actions of other people in negative ways. Kabbalists aren't suggesting that we repress emotions. Instead they're suggesting we acknowledge their existence and figure out where they're coming from, and then learn how to deal with them. Once you recognize anger and acknowledge it, you need to decide whether or not to act on it.
Acknowledging our anger instead of repressing it is a recipe for psychological health, because we know that a person who represses feelings and emotions, who denies that he has anger and desire and jealousy, is more enslaved by these emotions than the person who recognizes that they exist but manages to deal with them in constructive ways. Suppression is not the way of Kabbalah, although moderation in all things is.
Thoughts and emotions come and go and change. Recognizing this is important for dealing with them. Awareness of when we have emotions and what triggers them leads us to realize that we are not our emotions and feelings, and they are not us. We have a range of responses we can choose from — after all, we have free will. We can choose to act on anger, but also need to be ready for the consequences of that anger and to know whether or not they are the consequences we want. Some emotions we can just observe quietly, as we do with our breath in meditation. We can take note of them and watch them but not act on them. This is the type of control that is beneficial. It's not about denying anything; it's not about punishing ourselves for having anger, it's simply about seeing anger but choosing not to act on it. We don't have to scream at the guy who cuts us off on the freeway or fume at the person who insists on writing a check in the “cash only” line.
One of the meditations recommended for Netzach is to practice breathing in patience and breathing out lovingkindness. In this way, the Kabbalist path is similar to the Buddhist one. When we “breathe in patience” we allow enough time for anger to subside. When we observe the pattern of our emotions, we begin to know ourselves better and know when an emotion is a passing one and should simply be patted on the head like a small child who needs attention, and also when it should be addressed. Furthermore, Kabbalists say that if we do express anger, we should not let it linger, because then anger loses its beneficial quality and becomes destructive. To hold a grudge is an example of this; to give someone the silent treatment is also a response that doesn't heal.
Anger can be positive if it addresses a legitimate injustice. A real injustice, that is — not simply the inconvenience of being issued a $230 parking ticket for using the commuter lane for what we thought was an emergency. We're talking about the anger of people who are oppressed or beaten or are in some way innocent victims. We're talking about the kind of passionate anger that compels good change.
But even then, we need to take care that the anger doesn't control and consume us and thereby do more harm than good. There are people who are legitimately angry for things that have been done to them, but then they let the anger fester. There are people who power their anger into crusades that may ultimately cause good change in society but throw their own emotional balance out of whack. A couple of years ago, Dr. Helen Caldicott was interviewed on national radio about her work with the nuclear disarmament issue, and she spoke about the damaging effect her work had on her marriage and her relationship to her children. We've all heard about people who, powered by anger and a sense of injustice, throw themselves into causes to save the whales or the starving children in Ethiopia — both good causes — but in the process neglect their own families or treat other people worse than the animals they save.
One exercise for dealing with anger when it arises is to just sit quietly with it and watch it. Rather than react, we can try to pull back and look at the anger and examine it; try to understand what is making us angry. Sometimes it's not a specific incident that makes us angry, but our physical exhaustion that makes us unable to respond positively to the people around us. We also have to understand that we decide what makes us angry; the actions and words of other people have less power to make us angry than we have to allow them to make us angry. Sitting with the anger and taking some deep breaths can help us figure out how to respond in a more relaxed manner.
If Netzach is dominance and power, then Hod is dependence. Hod is the child that requires care and nurturing, as well as teaching. We are in a Hod state when we seek learning from someone more knowledgeable than us or seek assistance from someone who can help us. Some of the ways to experience Hod consciousness are to read books or take a course or to ask a friend to teach us a skill that they possess.
In counterbalance to Netzach, Hod also represents our thoughts, which often lead to the emotions we have and to our actions. For instance, it may be thoughts of worthlessness or inferiority that lead us to withdraw from people or imagine slights that don't exist. It may be fears about our partner leaving us that make us depressed and unable to act freely in the relationship. Thoughts have the ability to lead us into all kinds of trouble because we assign them so much power. We think that if we have a thought, then it must be true. And we think that if we have a thought, then we must act on it. If we believe that our neighbor doesn't care about us, then we imagine that the noise he makes is done on purpose. If we think that a colleague is smarter than we are, then we might imagine that the colleague is out to get our job. If we think we cannot affect change in the world or in our life, then it can lead us to despair and inactivity. If we think that other people are talking behind our back, it might lead us to gossip about them in return.
The way to deal with thoughts is to sit quietly with them, as with emotions, and evaluate their validity. Negative thoughts, particularly, have a way of defeating us and gnawing at our self-esteem and equilibrium. One way to examine our thoughts is to keep track during the day of the kinds of thoughts we have, depending on what we want to deal with. For instance, if we feel angry at a colleague, we might keep track of all our thoughts during the day about that colleague. If we feel hostility toward our husband or children, we might keep a list of all the thoughts that come to our mind about what prompts us to feel hostile. This is not an exercise for making a case against the person; it simply allows us to label the thoughts and get them down so we can examine them. Once we have them in writing, we can begin to examine the validity of the thoughts more accurately and to analyze why we have them. Then, when we take into account what the rest of Kabbalah teaches us about our connections to other people and our need for committing acts of lovingkindness, we can tear the paper up and release the thoughts of their power.
Yesod is the foundation of the Tree. It is the trunk upon which the upper sefirot stand. If Tiferet is the male and Malkhut is the female, Yesod is the point of union between the two. Kabbalists talk about Yesod as being the place where the seed is stored; therefore Yesod is symbolic of the male genitals. Kabbalists view sexual relations between a man and woman as a symbolic union of Tiferet and Malkhut; it is the physical union of male and female but it is also the symbolic union of everything in the universe that is separated or in exile. Kabbalists believe that sexual union between a man and woman is the greatest union of all, because on every level the union achieves harmony, including harmony between the physical and spiritual.
If Yesod is the union between the male and female, we experience Yesod consciousness when we achieve balance between the two aspects of ourselves that represent male and female qualities, when we develop our nurturing capabilities as well as our leadership capabilities. We might achieve balance in this sense by looking for ways in which to develop the gender aspect in ourselves that is less formed. For instance, we might learn how to fix a car or work with carpentry or do anything that would develop our independence and strength. Instead of giving our finances to someone else to take care of, we might opt to learn about them for ourselves. On the other hand, we might want to learn how to cook or give a massage or do any other nurturing activities such as taking care of a child for someone or listening to a friend.
Much of what this sefira tells us lies in its position on the Tree. Malkhut teaches us to be humble, to remember that we are on the bottom rung of the ladder, in fact we are lower than the bottom rung because we are actually below Malkhut. Malkhut is at the top of our world, but at the bottom of the world above. Malkhut reminds us that no matter how much power we have here on earth, no matter how many highrise buildings we own and private jets and movie deals we have, we are still at the bottom of the universe.
Malkhut represents the roots. It is through the roots that a tree takes in much of its nourishment, and it is through Malkhut that we experience the world and take in all our data about it. Via the physical senses — sight, hearing, smell, touch, taste — we take in information about the world that we then process through our subconscious (symbolized by Yesod) to develop thoughts and emotions (symbolized by Netzach and Hod) about what we experience. From our thoughts and emotions and subconscious come the impetus for many of our actions and beliefs.
This is from the bottom looking up. But looking down from the top, we see that Malkhut only gets the light or energy of Ein Sof from the sefirot above it. We could say that the sefirot above are the leaves that collect the light, and through photosynthesis they turn the data received from below into the world that we then experience. We said earlier that our actions affect the recipe above, causing the sefirot to interact in different ways with one another and produce the world that we then experience. As it says in the Zohar, “From below must come the impulse to move the power above. Thus, to form the cloud, vapor ascends first from earth… . It is from below that the movement starts, and thereafter is all perfected. If the [community] failed to initiate the impulse, the One above would also not move to go to her, and it is thus the yearning from below which brings about the completion above.” It is through our actions in the lower end of the universe that evolution is initiated, because it is through our world that change is initiated. While God makes His presence known in the world constantly, it is only in our willingness to see it and make contact with it that spiritual connection can occur.
When the Tree is in balance, the energy flow from above is smooth and unheeded. But when the Tree is out of balance, the energy begins to pool on one side of the Tree and become imbalanced. When we act rightly, the flow of energy comes down to Malkhut to nourish her.
Malkhut sits in a position of exile. Exile means loneliness; it means being separated from the people who make us feel whole. One exercise Kabbalists recommend to help us feel Malkhut's position is to go some place to be alone. It's not just about getting away, but getting away with consciousness. Being alone not only gives us time to reflect, but it also give us appreciation for other people, because too much aloneness makes us hunger for company.
Malkhut is the sefira associated with the seventh day of Creation, Shabbat. Shabbat is the only day of the week mentioned in the Ten Commandments, so it must be important. But why? For six days God created the universe, but on the seventh day He created rest. It's an extremely significant idea that God created a day of rest. Think about it: on every other day of the week He created something huge — heavenly bodies, animal and plant life, human beings. But on the seventh day He simply created the concept of doing nothing. Why? Kabbalists say that in creating Shabbat, God created contemplation; He created a space for awareness in which we could take a step back from all that surrounds us and see His presence in it. The specific injunction in Orthodox Judaism is to not do anything on Shabbat that would alter your environment in any way or to not do anything that you would normally do on other days of the week, such as work or shopping or cleaning the house. There are many other injunctions for what should or should not be done on Shabbat, but in general they all relate to relinquishing our mastery over the world. In honoring this day of rest, we recognize God's handiwork in the world and His mastery over it. In doing so we enter a state of awareness and contemplation that can bring us closer to God. If practiced in the way it is intended, Shabbat can be an ultimate day of awareness; it is an entire day for practicing the Zen art of being in the moment and not being distracted by all of the other things that populate the rest of our week. It is said that the world is harmonized on Shabbat, and the channel between the physical and spiritual worlds is cleared on this day.
Because Malkhut represents awareness and the physical realm, one way we can experience Malkhut is to do an exercise in focusing our perceptions. You can do this either simply by focusing your awareness on each of your senses in turn, or you can do it more fully by taking a few minutes to do deep-breathing meditation and then focus your attention on your body. Take in all the data that is available to you. Take note of what your ears are hearing — the barking dog or the cars in the street, the footsteps in the apartment above. Then take note of the taste in your mouth. Are you still tasting the garlic from your pasta lunch or does the flavor belong to your mint toothpaste? Next, focus on your body sensations — the hardness of the chair or floor beneath you, the feel of your shirt on your arms. And what about your sense of smell? Is the air in your room stale, or is the window open? Is the air coming in through the window smoky from the chimney next door, or do you smell the dampness of freshly turned earth? Open your eyes and focus on the wall in front of you. Is the paint chipping or dirty? Is the wall textured or smooth? Kabbalah teaches that we should savor the sensual world around us and take pleasure in all that it offer us. To deprive ourselves of this pleasure is to invite repression and imbalance and to ultimately make ourselves closed off and ill. Sexual pleasure and good food and exercise and everything else that brings joy to the body and helps keep it fit without crossing into the realm of gluttony are all part of the holistic approach to maintaining a healthy balance. Indeed, sexuality is one of the strongest forces that courses through our universe and is viewed by Kabbalists as a fundamental aspect of who we are. Committed sex between partners is viewed as a healing act that brings about unification between the physical and spiritual, and helps bring individuals closer to God by focusing on their connection to each other.
Studying the various lessons that each sefira on the Tree teaches us can help us achieve balance in ourselves and help us recognize our connectedness to everything in the universe. As we work to become more aware of our bodies and emotions, feelings and thoughts, and of our place in the universe, we begin to recognize how our thoughts and actions not only harm or benefit us, but harm or benefit the world. The way we act toward one another has the ability to heal or hurt the divine. When I treat someone badly, I push Malkhut further from Tiferet, I cause the gap to grow wider and wider and I create further exile. The way to heal God, to make Him whole, is to first heal ourselves and our relations with other people. Healing is not just about becoming a more self-actualized person, it's about taking care of community. It's about giving and receiving.
When the world is unbalanced, the energy flow is impeded; when it's balanced, the energy flows evenly through all channels. We want the Tree to run like a well-oiled machine in which the energy comes down the center but touches on the left and the right as needed to balance itself.
The lessons that Kabbalah offers are not new; in the last few decades the world has recognized the same conclusions that the Kabbalists, and many others, arrived at centuries ago. What is so encouraging now, however, is that with the globalization of communication and information, and with our knowledge of what hasn't worked in the world in the past, we now have a situation in which we can really affect global change. But while we can keep this larger picture in perspective, we should never lose sight of our connection to the practice that needs to occur at home.
For some Kabbalists, the end goal in all of this learning and practice is to bring about ultimate unification. Ultimate unification, of course, refers to the Age of Redemption, the appearance of the Messiah, and a return to oneness. But for other Kabbalists, the practice of Kabbalah is simply a lifelong practice in which there is no final arrival. There is no race in Kabbalah. There's no timeclock and there's no finish line. There is only here and now, and every day brings new opportunity for growth and healing. The challenges of life never end, because life is dynamic. If changes ceased to occur, then the universe would cease to exist. As long as life continues, there is something else to experience and to learn. Today's task isn't tomorrow's task. Today the lesson may be one of humility, but tomorrow it may be one of boundaries and strength. We take the energy that comes to us, and we work to balance it. The realm of Keter and Ein Sof remind us that we can never reach a point when we know all there is to know; knowing all there is to know is not even an option for us in this realm. The task is simply to know what we need to know now to deal with the world that presents itself today, and then be prepared to deal with the different world that presents itself tomorrow. Don't look for the final outcome, these Kabbalists say, simply take care of your life as it is — direct your attention to your home and surroundings and community — and the rest will take care of itself.
In the end, we shouldn't forget that while all of this is an act of healing the divine, it is also an act of healing us and of healing the person to whom we give kindness. In Kabbalah it's all about grounding the teaching and bringing it back to reality. You do a little soaring to see the bigger picture, but then you come back to the ground to work on the smaller one. It's like a painter who steps back from his canvas to check his composition, to see that his colors are balanced, and that the picture is coming together as he intended. But once he does this, he then steps back to the canvas to continue working.
Everything that happens to us during the day has the potential for either healing or division. It's all about mindfulness and consciousness, to hold the separate realities in our mind, to be aware of the spiritual consequences of our actions, and be mindful of the bigger picture. When we see this, we understand that we are not helpless players but very powerful agents with the ability to alter the forces of the universe.
In the structure of this book, we began with the principles of Kabbalah on the higher levels, the cosmic levels, and are ending on the physical level. We have followed the Kabbalah injunction to keep things grounded. We've reached the end of the book, but at the same time have reached the starting point. The last chapter is really the first chapter, where the work of climbing the Tree begins. It is from here that we enter the gate of awareness.
The Talmud says that if we cannot articulate what we have learned, then we have not learned it correctly; if we cannot teach or give what we have received, then there is something missing in our grasp of it. If you can give it to other people, then you have fulfilled your role as receiver.
I hope that I've succeeded in imparting my understanding of Kabbalah in a way that enables you to see something of its beauty. While I don't expect this book to give you all the answers about Kabbalah, I hope it has given you the curiosity to begin looking for them in your own way.