Sunday, July 20

Lately, there's been a lot of controversy surrounding The Kabbalah Centre. If I didn't know firsthand what these teachings have done for people - most of them regular people like you and me - then even I would question it.

But I do know. And I know you can't strive to change the world without controversy. And Kabbalah is definitely no stranger to controversy.

As a matter of fact, Rav Shimon Bar Yochai, author of Kabbalah's principal text, The Zohar, had to deal with it. He spent 13 years in hiding to escape the persecution of the public.

But Kabbalah works. And that's why we are no longer in hiding.

The Kabbalah Centre carries a tradition of men and women who believed this wisdom is too important not to be disseminated widely. Regardless of controversy, or the threat of disapproval, we cannot restrict access to this wisdom - for any reason.

That's why we offer Kabbalah to all whose lives can benefit from it, whoever and wherever they are.

So, what can we take from this 'incident', and such incidents of criticism, judgment, and assumption into our own, everyday lives?

The lesson is actually the very first you'll find in every beginning Kabbalah course in our Centres. It's at the start of almost any book we publish:

"Don't believe a word of what you read." Power of Kabbalah, p. xviii

The second lesson follows soon after - don't allow your senses to deceive you. If you or someone you know has benefited from the wisdom of Kabbalah - whether through a book, class, teacher, or perhaps just an email - you owe it to yourself to give it a try.

I'm sure you've misjudged a friend or family member in the past because of something you've heard, or even seen, out of context. You may have been divorced, fired, or just plain ol' bawled out because of someone misjudging you.

Before you jump to conclusions, remind yourself:

...I DON'T SEE THE FULL PICTURE.

By injecting that nuance of humility, you allow the Light to come in and show you the truth.

One final thought: every single proven scientific theory, Oscar-winning film, and life-saving medical cure has its critics, and then some. If criticism (or judgment, humiliation, and the like) is the cost of inspiring millions of Kabbalah students around the world to transform their lives for the better, thereby putting an end to pain and suffering in the world, it's a price we're willing to pay.

Results speak for themselves. That's why I know it's a price you're also willing to pay.

Saturday, July 19

Have you ever had a gut feeling that if you went to this one particular party, even though you were tired and grumpy, something good was going to happen to you? Or have you ever just known that if you walked down a certain street, something bad would happen?

This is your intuition guiding you. And your intuition is provided by the Light.

According to Kabbalah, there is a curtain separating the physical world (1% realm) from the spiritual world (99% realm.) This curtain is all that keeps us from total fulfillment.

Intuition is one means of pulling aside the curtain.

Familiarize yourself today with that feeling in your gut, with first thoughts that pop into your mind. Trust your initial instinct. With each step you take towards listening to your intuition, you will draw that curtain open further.

 

Friday, July 18

What is Light, spiritually speaking?

It's joy. It's unconditional love and compassion. It's that which animates us and fills our body with life.

And you experience it all the time. Any moments in which you feel genuinely happy, when joy floods through you...that's the Light. When you are pleased by a job well done, when you are tingling from falling in love, when you are perfectly relaxed on a boat on the ocean, when you are laughing so hard with friends that you think you're going to explode, when you watch someone you love earn something they deserve. The source of all of this is the Light.

The Light is on 24/7. We only need to step back from our rational, self-serving minds, and let it do its magic.

Allow yourself to feel the Light today. Just let yourself experience the joy, love and compassion that is inside of you. That's it.

 

Thursday, July 17

Kabbalah recognizes there are two spheres affecting our lives: spiritual and physical.

Though the physical cuts us up and spits us out at times — or, conversely, cradles us in its hands and gives us everything beyond what we could think to ask for - let's remember, this is not our only realm.

By opening our mind to the spiritual alternative, we allow a transformation to occur, after which we begin to realize that the physical fades, the spiritual remains.

Keep an open mind today. OPENING THE MIND IS SPIRITUALITY!

Wednesday, July 16

Before we can truly help others, we must first learn to help ourselves.

It's like the oxygen masks on an airplane. We are instructed to put on our own oxygen mask before assisting small children or others in need. The reason for this is that if you don't know how to help yourself, and are therefore not fully functioning, you will not be able to help anyone else. Without your own oxygen mask in place, you may pass out before safely securing someone else's. Then, clearly, you will have been of no help at all!

Today, make sure your needs are met. Not the superficial desires, but the deep yearnings of your soul. Get enough air in your lungs so you'll have that much more energy to truly help others.
 

Tuesday, July 15

One illusion in life that gets us into lots of trouble is the feeling that there isn't enough good stuff to go around.

It's like watching your favorite dessert being sliced before your eyes and everyone reaching in for a big, thick piece, and it's still nowhere near your turn. You start thinking you're going to be left out, so you quickly come up with strategies to make sure you definitely get your share.

Most of our daily thoughts involve keeping someone else from getting theirs.

Now imagine the relief you'd feel if the waiter walked out of the kitchen carrying two more trays of dessert, fresh out of the oven, and announced that there were several more baking. You'd realize then that there was more than enough for everybody. And you'd realize that there was no need to expend all that energy on stressing over your slice, the size of it, the quality, the order in which you received it. You could have relaxed and just enjoyed yourself the whole time.

Keep working, moving forward, sharing and caring about the people who cross your path. You'll get your slice in due time. The harder you work for it, the tastier it'll be.

 

Monday, July 14

If you connect directly with the Light without the careful use of restriction (the decision not to have immediate gratification), you will reenact what happened in the Endless World when the Light fed the Vessel (without fulfillment) and created Bread of Shame (if these terms are unfamiliar, I explain them in The Power of Kabbalah.)

If you satisfy your desire right away without first becoming the cause of your life, the experience will burn you out. But that immediate delight can be so seductive that we find ourselves engaging in the same behavior again and again and again.

Break an addictive pattern today. Or at least set the intention to do so. Remember the deal you struck with the Creator way back when.

In what relationships and behaviors are you creating Bread of Shame?

Sunday, July 13

Reactive behavior creates intense sparks of Light but eventually leaves darkness in its wake.

Nestled within our reactive behavior is the desire for instant gratification. It offers a quick high that makes us feel alive and in control of our lives. We can become addicted to this feeling.

As we see in the case of a light bulb, when we resist reactive behavior, we generate Light. When we opt instead for instant gratification, we also create a very bright light. A direct connection occurs between our reactive desire (the negative pole) and the Light (the positive pole), producing a momentary flash of delight followed by darkness, because the bulb has burned itself out.

This is one of the unseen laws of the universe, not unlike gravity. If you jump out of a tall building, you will fall to the street below even if you are unaware of the existence of gravity. The same holds true of electricity. If you play with a live, high-voltage wire, you will get electrocuted even if you can't see the source of your demise.

Today, look into the areas of your life where you are sticking your finger in the socket. Ask yourself if the momentary jolts are worth all that pain.
 

April 6 - 12, 2008

A student recently wrote to me: "I want to stop judging people but I can't. It's like breathing, it's part of who I am and what I do. I'd have an easier time holding my breath. What can I do?"

The great sage known as the Baal Shem Tov said something beautiful that speaks to this, but it's not poetry or philosophy or a metaphor or a nice way to live your life. It's reality what I'm about to share with you. Here it is:

Whatever annoying behavior you see in someone else is inside you. That person is a mirror showing you what you've got to correct in your life. Somewhere within your consciousness, either on the surface, mid-level, or deep within, you have Continue reading from THE KABBALAH CENTRE

March 30 - April 5, 2008

Everything is about the effort. If something comes too easily to you, don't trust it. If there is blood, sweat and tears involved, trust it. The Light is there.

Why is life all about effort? Let's take thirty years of kabbalistic study and boil it down into four bullet points. And trust me, you can study what I am about to reveal to you for the next thirty years [or a lifetime,] understanding step by step the process of creation as revealed in Rav Ashlag's Ten Luminous Emanations. But we're busy people, so let's get to the point.

God created perfection
You and I are part of that perfection
We inherited the DNA of God, and Continue reading from THE KABBALAH CENTRE

MARCH 23 - 29, 2008 

How do you have certainty when the doctor is calling with bad news, when the government is padlocking your front door, when your child is suffering from illness? Let's be realistic here, most of us aren't on that level, yet.

For the rest of us who haven't yet mastered certainty consciousness, it's a process that looks like this: we have doubt, we acknowledge the doubt is from the Opponent, and we move on. Continue reading from THE KABBALAH CENTRE

MARCH 16 - 22, 2008 

It's not so easy to be spiritual in tough times, is it? Why?

Spirituality, by the kabbalistic definition, means facing chaos and transforming it into order. It means you walk into the eye of the hurricane and you turn it into a sunny day. That's the definition of spiritual.

The chaos of life is what gives us the opportunity. Our instinct is to run from chaos. When there is a mortgage crisis, global crisis, political crisis, environmental crisis, it's an opportunity to be transformed into its opposite state. Continue reading from THE KABBALAH CENTRE

MARCH 9 - 15, 2008 

Let's face it, we've all hurt people in ways in which we'd hate to admit. And those of us who are aware of the universal law of cause and effect are concerned about the spiritual damage we have done. I wrote about this a few weeks ago and the response was overwhelming. Many of you really took the message to heart and began owning up to some behaviors you've been hiding from.

I bring this topic up again because I cannot stress enough how important it is to hold ourselves accountable to our deeds. Because if we don't, the universe will. Continue reading from THE KABBALAH CENTRE

MARCH 2 - 8, 2008 

On Friday, March 7th, we begin the second month of Pisces. Two Pisces? What gives?

The regular [Gregorian] calendar is based on the Earth’s revolution around the Sun; it is comprised of 365 days in a regular year and 366 days in each fourth or leap year. By contrast, the kabbalistic calendar is based upon the lunar calendar; it is comprised of 355 days in a regular year, each month corresponding to one of the twelve signs of the Zodiac (12 x 29/30).

However, seven times in nineteen years there occurs a leap year, which contains an additional (thirteenth) month, Pisces II. This means the correspondence between the lunar and solar calendar is maintained.

Kabbalistic astrology is based on the lunar calendar because the moon represents the desire to receive, the true essence of humanity. Therefore, kabbalistic astrology reveals the true basis and nature of our existence.

What all this means to us is on the 7th we get to genetically modify the seed that contains all the fruit that will be borne in the coming month. As Pisces I comes to an end and II begins, it’s as if we get a double dose of Pisces energy. Continue reading from THE KABBALAH CENTRE

FEBRUARY 24 - MARCH 1, 2008 

I was at a coffeehouse the other day and overheard a conversation between a father and his son. The son, who appeared to be home from college, asked his dad, "Do you think there will be peace in the Middle East?" The father put down his paper and said, "You can't get along with your mother, how do you expect the Palestinians and the Israelis to get along?"

After a good laugh, I got to thinking how wise and profound that simple statement was. It's easy to get behind a cause or a political figure or a movement but perhaps causes and political figures and movements would be more effective if we got behind the most important cause of all - creating peace between me and everybody in my life.

The Kabbalists' solution to peace in the world is to address the root cause of fragmentation and separation in the world: our own intolerant behavior towards one another. Continue reading from THE KABBALAH CENTRE

FEBRUARY 17 - 23, 2008 

I read a response recently from someone who read a Tune Up in which I mentioned getting bullied as a kid. He confessed that he was a bully in his youth. Now that he has kids and is more spiritual, he has this pit at the bottom of his stomach when he thinks about all the people who are afraid of their shadow because of the torture he inflicted upon them.

On a human level he is afraid of the damage he did and on a personal level he's terrified of the karma he created for himself.
Rather than answer him directly I thought I'd answer here because we all have done things we wish we could take back prior to becoming as enlightened as we are today. And chances are, we are still doing damage, knowingly or not. Continue reading from THE KABBALAH CENTRE

FEBRUARY 3 - 9, 2008 

One important thing to remember is that desire is what draws us together. Desire for world peace, desire for love, desire for pizza, desire for new shoes. No matter how profound or trivial, human desires are our common link. And everyone desires happiness. Yet we often mistake someone else's search for happiness as being "anti-me."

How often, for example, have you thought a friend, a teacher, or a relative was mad at you because they'd been giving you less attention than usual, only to discover they'd had a personal tragedy in their lives - perhaps a death, an illness, or a family quarrel - that was simply making them withdraw for a bit? Not just from you, but from everyone, until they felt settled again.  Continue reading from THE KABBALAH CENTRE