Below is a clip (6:35 mins) of my kabbalah teacher Yehuda explaining the spiritual purpose of our trip to the Dead Sea. They call it the Dead Sea because it's so salty, nothing can live there. I floated in it -- bobbed like a cork. I've never seen any such thing. I got one tiny drop of water in my eye and had to get out and run for the shower to flush it. It burned like holy hell.
Spiritually speaking, the sea is dead because other waters flow into it, but nothing flows out. A metaphor for life, really. Kabbalah explains the universe works on a 3-column system of energy. Left column (desire to receive), Right column (desire to share) and Central column (restriction between the two). Very much like a lightbulb -- the negative charge (left), positive charge (right) and central filament that brings the two together and restricts the flow of energy so it generates light.
Laws of energy dictate that whatever you receive, you must, at minimum, share 10% to create that circuitry. Not because you are a good person. Not because it's the right thing to do. Only because, if you don't, that energy gets blocked and eventually dies like the Dead Sea.
This was the first lecture I heard at the Kabbalah Center in NY when I was a new student. It's what had me search for a charitable project to put my energy into. It's what lead me to Raising Malawi. I still donate to other charities, but I wanted to find a big, grassroots cause I could throw my life at to a) unlock my energy and b) grow my vessel/capacity to receive.
That's what my fundraising amounts to for me personally. Does anyone have a clue how much I dread fundraising? I can't stand it. But I want to build this left column muscle of mine. And I want to grow my consciousness and chip off some of the more negative aspects of my personality. And mostly, I want to die knowing that I made a difference. That my existence mattered.
I remember when I took my friend Ananya for a past-life regression at this place (a guy's home) he found in Chicago. He wanted some company in case the guy 'regressing' him pulled any tricks. So, I waited in the livingroom. Ananya went back into a separate room for about an hour.
He was all groggy when he came out. I asked him, "so what is it? were you a king or something?" Ananya comes from privilege in this life, growing up in Dubai with servants and whatnot. His grandma was good friends with Endira Gandhi. He's a lovely person and one of my best friends, so I expected great things.
Anyway, he comes out of the session and shakes his head. He told me he lived a few interesting lives but there was one that really bothered him. He was a very simple man in this particular life. He never married. He died peacefully in his bed with his dog sleeping quietly nearby. Wholly unmemorable. It really got to him.
I think about that story every now and then when my life gets so busy that I spend more time chasing it than designing it. No matter what my reasons for spending my time as I do (chores, work, yada yada) in the end, the legacy will be mine. I certainly want peace, but I don't want to die with any potential in tact. I still don't know how to levitate. I'd like to learn that. Seriously, what if all of the change that needs to happen in the world is sitting idle just waiting for me to change it? I wasn't wired to think like that. I still don't think like that, but i'm trying my damndest to elevate my consciousness.
Here's a shorter clip (1:38) about how hard and important it is to share 10 percent. It's really a matter of consciousness.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment