Originally posted by black beetle
No created creature can get into qeter, for the agent of its consiousness is the field of the formations. But when my consiousness rises beyond the borders of my thoughts, it gains some fractals of the Lux Interna; and then I Know myself as it is
It is my knowledge that, when I act within the sphere of the beautiful naked woman, it is haniel who acts of this mental force, whilst the plexus of absolute mind represents the shape that it takes
It is my knowledge that, when I act within the sphere of the beautiful naked woman, it is haniel who acts through me for the fulfillment of his mission…
I do not say that any of this is incorrect, so far as it goes. But—
Ein Sof emanates, creates, forms and actualizes.* Nevertheless, it is all emanation.
But there is a strange thing: I have before called it a “self-looping”, a kind of recursion in the emanation. But you have helped me here to clarify it—at least for myself…
It is as if
the pressure reverberates on itself. And this reverberation engenders sentience/consciousness/self-reflective consciousness within, through, from the manifestations (e.g., us).
And here I can only speak in paradox: we are both determined and determining agents. We are both acted upon and through; and we act. We are both responsive and responsible beings. We are moved by the pressure, but—because of that
recursive reverberation—we also move. We are never “marionettes” of the pressure.
You remember when I was wondering about the notion of “covenant” in the context of nondualism? You gave me a shove in the right direction. 😉 The secret is in that recursive reverberation. That is what distinguishes QBLH from some other ways. It is the dialectical synthesis between the
unio mystica on the one hand, and Buber’s
I-Thou on the other.
In that recursive reverberation is the “covenant”!
In that recursive reverberation is the way of the
tzaddik, as distinguished from some other mystical understandings. That recursion is the
crucible in which the tzaddik stands—well, we all stand there, but the tzaddik realizes it. (I am speaking of the tzaddik as mystic here, not simply the more conventional usage as a just or righteous individual.)
Now
tzaddik is another name for the sefirah
yesod. This should not be taken literally, but as indicative.
[Yesod (and I depart from much of classical kabbalah a bit here) is—in the assiyah of your body—the hara, the dantien, the crucible of gathered, harmonized (hopefully!) power, guided by tiferet and da’at—in Tai Chi, these are sometimes called the upper, lower and middle dantiens; but often just the hara is called dantien. Your body is also a “map” of the tree, as it is superimposed on
adam qadmon; the human archetype, so to speak.]
The power/pressure is channeled through yesod, and malchut is actualized. Because the tzaddik stands in the crucible, s/he knows that s/he is not only responsive to the flow, but responsible for guiding it—not only guided by the pressure, but also guiding. Not merely determined, but also determining—decisive. Sparks will be set free, or not. Shekhinah…well, that mystery is still veiled to me…
In that crucible of recursive reverberation is the secret of the
mitzvah: “Be holy.”**
Paradox, yes; metaphor, yes. But the “crucible” is real and daunting: the vibrations can crush you or rip you apart, drive you mad. And—paradoxically, perhaps, again—the trick is to…relax; do not add tension. And the secret is: “not to be afraid at all.”***
__________________________________________________
* In Lurianic Kabbalah, ein sof first “contracts” (the
tzimtzum), in order to make “space” (the language is highly metaphorical) in which to emanate the Or Ein Sof.
** This is a different kind of holiness from that which Bodhidharma was negating; they are not in contradiction, they are just different—different usages in different domains of discourse.
*** The Kabbalists seem to have more “
the secret”(s) than Luther had
solas!