Kabbalah is the most commonly used term for the esoteric and mystical teachings of Judaism. The word Kabbalah itself means "to receive," to receive the knowledge and wisdom of the tradition. The wisdom of the Kabbalah is vast and requires a lifetime of study. Its teachings cover the origin, structure and evolution of the universe. It addresses questions regarding aspects of human nature, the origins of good and evil, and the nature of suffering.
Jewish mysticism and the teachings of Kabbalah have long been secret, meant for only a select group of religious Jewish men who were over 40 years old, were married, and had studied the Torah and the Talmud (Jewish Law and commentary). Kabbalstic teachings were transmitted orally from master to disciple, however when the temple in Jerusalem was destroyed, the great rabbi-sages started to write them down so that they wouldn't be lost forever. There is no one book called "The Kabbalah". There are many manuscripts of individual Rabbi's interpretations of the basic principles. The Sefer Yetzirah, (The Book of Creation), one of the oldest Kabbalistic texts was said to be attributed to the Patriarch Abraham. Other important texts date from the fertile period between the 12 and 16 centuries in Europe.
The teachings were often purposely written in an obscured or cryptic form to keep the knowledge from being understood or misused by the uninitiated. One needed a teacher or guide to be able to understand them.
Today, many of these teachings are available to the layperson, translated by scholars and rabbis into English. Within every generation that has studied and contemplated the Kabbalah, there have always been those teachers who have added new interpretations to the body of knowledge, keeping it vital and current to the times.
The aim of Kabbalah is to transform one's consciousness so that there is sustained contact with the divine. That is no short order!
The Kabbalah offers a systemized view of levels of consciousness and teaches how to integrate and live an awakened life at each level. Like any spiritual path, there are no easy fixes. Meditation is the practice of concentrating one's mind for the purpose of gaining self-awareness, exploring the true nature of reality, and having direct experiences of the spiritual nature of existence.
Our essential nature is multi-dimensional and connected to everything, but we are trained from a very early age to disconnect, to live on the surface and to believe our reactivity rather than to search for the root causes of our states.
One who works with the Kabbalistic tradition participates in giving back to creation/life in the following way:
We receive God's light through practice, we open to the fullness of each level of experience and we embody that fullness in the flow of our life. The more we can do that, the more our soul develops. The more our soul develops, the more we become better parents, teachers, students, employees, and human beings. We become creative channels for that energy and give back to the world constructively, non-egoically and with an awareness of the unity of all of creation.
The beginner practitioner and the advanced practitioner have the same aim: to prepare the heart for the influx of the divine consciousness. This is somewhat akin to the wave of the ocean hollowing out a niche in a rock: it is the ocean (God or the Divine) itself that prepares the vessel to be worthy. We show up and start the dialogue -by longing for this connection. The universe is actually structured to respond.
Divine light or awareness is intelligent and knows exactly what we need. What any practice does is establish the regular time and commitment to open to that intelligence and light. Our bodies, minds and psyches have to be prepared to receive the response. This happens in increments with daily attention. So like any other practice, one gets out of it what one puts into it. Ultimately we experience a greater sense of peacefulness, awareness, centeredness and connection.
The Tree of Life is the main symbol of the Kabbalistic view of creation. It shows reality to be a ladder of divine attributes, that are like vessels containing God's light. To understand and study the Tree of Life is to be transformed by it. It consists of 10 Sephirot. The sephirot are divine emanations: living qualities or attributes that makeup every created thing. Like the study of DNA on the microcosmic side, or the planetary systems on the macrocosmic side, the Tree of Life teaches us about the basic relational building blocks of energy/light that form our being and our world. It is a template of our relationship with the earth, the cosmos and each other.
The practice is always self-healing in the broadest sense of the word - coming into more wholeness as we understand our struggles. The Tree of Life is a model of how to look at the polarities in our lives and reach a place of synthesis or harmony. Further studies of the Tree of Life, emphasize different aspects of personal healing and spiritual attainment. The Tree can be used for meditation and contemplation, which is ultimately self-healing.
My understanding of Kabbalah comes from practice and constant study.
I work with the Tree of Life daily, as a Kabbalistic healer, embodying the attributes of the Tree to help people heal on the physical, mental, emotional and spiritual levels. Even still, I feel like I am constantly learning and receiving new understandings.
The most rewarding result of studying Kabbalah is that the more one opens, the more one receives knowledge, wisdom and understanding directly from one's own experience. This is a tangible experience: first as the flow of energy and light into blocked areas of my being, and then as changed experience in the physical world. Kabbalah is like a big cosmic map through which I understand the workings of the universe.
