I walk amongst men as the fragments of the
future: that future which I contemplate.
And it is all my poetisation and aspiration
to compose and collect into unity what is fragment and riddle and fearful
chance.
And how could I endure to be a man, if man
were not also the composer, and riddle-reader, and redeemer of chance!
To redeem what is past, and to transform
every “It was” into “Thus would I have it!”— that only do I call redemption!
--Friedrich Nietzsche, Thus Spake Zarathustra, Chapter
42
Neitzsche viewed life, chance, and his fellow human beings as pieces of a grand puzzle- pieces which he has the capacity to connect to form a cohesive, glorious picture. Stated differently, he hoped to shape the future by weaving together the 'present' fragments of life--- not as a god, but rather as a human. He termed man's ability to unify life's multiplicity- our "redemption."
Jewish mysticism incorporates and enhances this same concept, but empowers mankind even further. Not only does man as an individual experience personal redemption through unifying the fragments of life, he also fulfills the entire purpose of creation. By meditating upon God's unity, the All permeating the parts, the present physical separations are elevated into a divine whole.
The corporeal world....is called
"public domain" and "mountains of separation." And these
are transmuted to light, and become a "private domain" for His
blessed Unity, by means of [prolonged contemplation of] this faith [in the
unity of the world within God].
--Rabbi Schneur Zalman of Liadi, Tanya, Chapter 33
--Rabbi Schneur Zalman of Liadi, Tanya, Chapter 33
Combine Nietzsche's idea with the Tanya's, and you land up with this idea from Thomas Merton:
At that moment the point of our contact with Him opens out and we pass through the center of our own nothingness and enter into Infinite Reality, where we awaken as our true self.
Our discovery of God is, in a way, God's
discovery of us. We cannot go to heaven to find Him because we have no way of
knowing where heaven is or what it is. He comes down from heaven and finds us.
He looks at us from the depths of His own infinite actuality, which is
everywhere, and His seeing us gives us a new being and a new mind in which we
also discover Him. We only know Him in so far as we are known by Him, and our
contemplation of Him is a participation in His contemplation of Himself.
We have become contemplatives when God
discovers himself in us.
At that moment the point of our contact with Him opens out and we pass through the center of our own nothingness and enter into Infinite Reality, where we awaken as our true self.
--Thomas Merton, New Seeds of Contemplation, Chapter 6
Why does our contemplation of God's unity redeems us? Says Merton, because through us meditating upon G-d, we enter His consciousness. When we enter His consciousness, we create the bridge that allows us to traverse from our limited, tiny human fragments into the wondrous land of Ultimate Infinity. We become a part of God Himself. At that point our true self awakens. For what is truly us- is actually God.
The prophets (Ezekiel 16, etc.) liken the
pain necessary to reach redemption to the pain of childbirth. There are,
unfortunately, many types of suffering in the world. Why to this pain?
Because to heal all other maladies, the
medicine needs to be brought from someplace else. Salvation from the pain of
childbirth comes from taking out what lies within.
Each man is pregnant with the capability of
bringing about Redemption.
--Rabbi Moshe
Leib Rabinowitz, Grand Rabbi of Munkatch
Jewish Mysticism teaches that the deeper meaning of Man's banishment from Eden was to turn the entire Earth into a Garden of Eden.
That is done by transforming every aspect of the diverse world into another portal back into the Garden. It means feeling Him in every aspect of the world, humanity, and one's self.
Uniting the two waters.
Becoming "men, whose darkness is illumined not by lightning, but by some kind of crystal or similar stone, or other substances that possess the property of shining during the night."
Uniting the two waters.
Becoming "men, whose darkness is illumined not by lightning, but by some kind of crystal or similar stone, or other substances that possess the property of shining during the night."
This means arousing the Godly selves that lie dormant within us and coaxing it forward to act as the blazing, guiding lantern which will eradicate the darkness of "fragment and riddle and fearful chance".
Redemption lies within. True redemption is the birthing of the soul.
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