Enclosed By the Infinitely Frail; Permeated By the Immanently Elusive

somewhere i have never travelled,gladly beyond
any experience,your eyes have their silence:
in your most frail gesture are things which enclose me,
or which i cannot touch because they are too near                                                                                                                                                                                                --e.e.cummings

How often do we yearn to feel Divinity...How frustrating for the seeker of Light to constantly be praying to a Being that seems so far, so aloof, so unreachable...It seems clear that if we could only hold the Ineffable tangibly, our lives would change; if we could only experience His embrace, never would we let it loose; we would open our whole selves and devote our hearts to Him. 

When I found him whom my soul loveth: I held him, and would not let him go...

                                                  --Song of Songs 3:4

                                                             

But maybe we need to better learn how to search, where to search, how to touch, how to hold...

Tanya Chapter 48:

Contemplating on the greatness of the blessed En Sof (Infinite), the intelligent person will realize that as His name indicates, so is He— there is no end or limit or finitude at all to the light and vitality that diffuse from Him...Had the worlds descended from the light of the blessed En Sof without "contractions," but according to a gradual descent, from grade to grade by means of cause and effect— this world would not, in such case, have ever been created in its present form, in a finite and limited order...[And so, His light is radically contracted to the extent that] only an extremely minute portion of light and vitality illuminates and reaches the lower creatures in a revealed manner, as it were, pervading them and animating them so that they might receive existence ex nihilo, and be in a state of finitude and limitation. This constitutes an exceedingly contracted illumination, and it is considered as virtually nothing at all compared with the quality of the limitless and infinite illumination...[which] "encompasses" them from above and is called "sovev kol almin", the light that encompasses the worlds.

The meaning of this is not that it encircles and encompasses from above spatially, G-d forbid, for in spiritual matters the category of space is in no way applicable. But the meaning is that it "Encircles and encompasses from above" in comparison with the so-called "revealed" influence, for influence which is in the category of "revelation" in the worlds, is referred to as "investiture", being "clothed" within the worlds, for the influence that they receive is clothed and comprehended by them; whereas the influence which does not come within the category of "revelation," but remains in occultation and concealment and is not apprehended by the worlds, is not described as being "invested" but as "encircling and encompassing." Therefore, since the worlds belong in the order of the finite and limited, it follows that only an extremely minute and contracted reflection of the flow of the light of the blessed En Sof clothes and reveals itself in them in a revealed form, and this, only to animate them in a finite and limited state. But the principal light without contraction to such an extent, is called makif ("encircler") and sovev ("encompasser"), since its influence is not revealed within them, inasmuch as they belong in the order of the finite and the limited.

In other words, His infinite light is present-it does not just encompass us spatially- but it is not revealed to us, for it is too great to be revealed within our perception. Whereas His contracted, permeating light is revealed within us, becomes us, bringing us and all of reality into existence.

Yet we see not any Godly light at all. We do not feel His Presence in us, permeating us, animating us, just as we do not feel his infinite light that is beyond our perception. How then could the finite, contracted light be termed "revealed"?


Imagine, a ten-year-old child walking into an auditorium where Albert Einstein is lecturing on the theory of relativity. He might sit there for hours, but is utterly "encompassed" by the lecture; they "circle" the vessels of his cognition; none of the words "enter" his reality and he is unable to perceive Einstein's greatness at all.

Later on, Einstein might grace this child with a private tutoring session. He will then explain to the 10-year-old basic mathematics. The 10-year-old will grasp everything Einstein will say-indeed, he will not feel any transcendence at all. Einstein's words and explanations will be so "revealed" to him, that in this case as well, none of Einstein's greatness will be felt. 

But for an opposite reason...Einstein has now contracted himself to "manifest" as a ten-year-old.


Do you understand why we have a hard time holding on to God, why we do not feel embraced by His infinity, and permeated by His vivifying, finite light? Can we now appreciate how easy it is to do so?

somewhere i have never travelled,gladly beyond
any experience,your eyes have their silence:
in your most frail gesture are things which enclose me,
or which i cannot touch because they are too near                                                                                                                                                                                                --e.e.cummings

Bear in mind about the Creator that “the whole earth is full of His glory” (Isaiah 6:3) and His Shechinah (finite, indwelling light) is constantly at your side...And think that you are looking at the Shechinah which is at your side as you are looking at physical objects...Always be joyful. Think and believe with perfect faith that the Shechinah is at your side and watches over you. You look at the Creator, blessed be He, and the Creator, blessed be He, looks at you. 

                                                       --The Ba'al Shem Tov, Tzava'at Harivash 137

   Contemplation of the Divine crowns all of life, without distinguishing between lofty and lowly. As it embraces rational thought and purifies it, so does it exalt and enrich the imagination; it refines the will, just as it empowers abilities.
   The need to think about God, however, is a drastic descent and necessary to man only as a therapy. Atheism is an unfavorable preparation to the greatest level, when there will no longer be a need to think about Divinity, for life itself will be the Light of God.

                                         --Rabbi Avraham Yitzchak Kook



And, similarly...

Love means never having to say you're sorry.
  
                                          --Erich Segal, Love Story


For one never apologizes to one's self.

And a healthy person need not talk and express his feelings to himself either...



Rabbi Moshe Leib of Sassov used to tell his followers that he learned what it means to love from two Russian peasants. Once he came to an inn, where two thoroughly drunk Russian peasants were sitting at a table, draining the last drops from a bottle of strong Ukrainian vodka.

One of them, in a slurred drunken drawl yelled to his friend, “Igor! Do you love me?” Igor, somewhat surprised by the question answered, “Of course Ivan, of course I love you!”

“No no”, insisted Ivan, “Do you really love me, really?!”

Igor, now feeling a bit cornered, assured him, “What do you think? I don’t love you? Of course I love you. You’re my best friend Ivan!”

“Oh yes, yes?” countered Ivan. “if you really loved me … then why don’t you know what hurts me and the pain I have in my heart?”








You came to me, to open my eyes.
To me your body was a view,
A window and a mirror.
You came as night comes to the owl
To show him, in the darkness, all things.

And I learned: There's a name
For each eyelash and fingernail,
And for every hair on the exposed flesh.
And the scent of childhood,
The scent of paste and pine,
Is the night aroma of the body.

If there were torments -
They've sailed towards you.
My white sail into your darkness.
Allow me to go, oh allow me to go
And kneel on the shore of forgiveness.    

                                                   --Leah Goldberg





            

I was asleep, but my heart awake: It is the voice of my beloved that knocketh, saying, Open to me, my sister, my love, my dove, my undefiled; For my head is filled with dew, My locks with the drops of the night.


I have put off my garment; how shall I put it on? I have washed my feet; how shall I defile them?
                                           --Song of Songs 5:2,3




When I was a child
I caught a fleeting glimpse
Out of the corner of my eye.
I turned to look but it was gone
I cannot put my finger on it now
The child is grown,
The dream is gone.
I have become comfortably numb.
                                               --Pink Floyd

Looking at God in the Eyes--Part 3

[Continued from here and here]

Lift up your eyes to the sky: Who created all these?
                                                             --Isaiah 40:26



Must I really be turning my head upwards to look at Him in the eyes? The world has such beauty and is teeming with ineffable grandeur...must I really escape from it to behold His Presence?



It's not what you look at that matters, it's what you see.

                                                      --Henry David Thoreau



[Contemplate in the mind as follows:] "The light of the blessed En Sof (Infinite), which pervades all the worlds...including also this place where I stand...was the only existence before the world was created, [so is It now] without any change, as is written, 'For I, the Lord, have not changed,'...Everything [is] in His presence, and is truly nothing at all other than Him."


Allow the soul to enlighten her eyes with the truth of the unity of the light of the En Sof, with a perceptive vision and not merely by cognition alone...this is the core of the whole [Divine] Service.
                                                         
                        --Rabbi Schneur Zalman of Liadi, Tanya, Chapter 29




The sky is not a place; it is a way of perceiving reality. Lifting one's eyes up to Him means focusing on His Light pulsating through the details right in front of you, within you, around you. It means utilizing every wonderful experience of being as a window through which you see Him smiling at you. 


This is the secret of the redemption of our world. Making Heaven a place on Earth...




How many times must a man look up
Before he can see the sky?...
The answer, my friend, is blowin’ in the wind
The answer is blowin’ in the wind.
                                                           --Bob Dylan


The wind of our nostrils, the Messiah of the LORD...

                                                            Lamentations 4:20

Resting in God--PART 2

There's no place like home

There's no place like home!

                               --Dorothy (L. Frank Baum), The Wizard of Oz

How lovely is your dwelling place,

Lord Almighty!

My soul yearns, even faints,

for the courts of the Lord;

my heart and my flesh cry out

for the living God.

Even the sparrow has found a home,

and the swallow a nest for herself,

where she may have her young—

a place near your altar,

Lord Almighty, my King and my God.

Blessed are those who dwell in your house;

they are ever praising you.

                                Psalm 84

But how can one's yearning soul find a home with God, in His courts, in Him? Where must we go?

"Thou art higher than my highest and more inward than my innermost self..."

                          

                                                                    --Augustine of Hippo



"Thou art close, O God..."         
                                                                --Psalms, 119:151

"Closer than anything that is close..."
                                                               --Ibn Ezra

Resting in God

And may we take refuge and rest in the shade of Your wings, as on the day when "The LORD came down in a cloud"  (Exodus 34:5)
                                                      --Siddur, Daily Prayer Book

How can we possibly rest in God here, now, today, just as on the day He descended upon Sinai? But that, indeed, was what was revealed on that day. The truth of what we are.

The ultimate purpose [of creation] is...that the Divine light of the blessed En Sof (Infinite) shall shine forth...throughout this world...The Divine light will be revealed...without any cloak, as it is written, "No longer shall thy Teacher hide Himself...but thine eyes shall see thy Teacher..." The Messianic Era...is the fulfillment and culmination of the creation of the world, for which purpose it was originally created...Something of this revelation has already been experienced on earth, at the time of the Giving of the Torah, as is written, "Unto thee it was showed, that thou mightest know that the Lord He is G-d; there is naught else beside Him"... And the Rabbis, of blessed memory, explained, "They looked eastwards and heard the speech issuing forth: 'I am the Lord your God,' etc., and so [turning] towards the four points of the compass, and upwards and downwards...there was no place from which He did not speak unto them...."

                                                             --Tanya, chapter 36

                                                                             

Allowing yourself to rest in God is like a wave resting in its essential nature, the water. Imagine a wave rising and falling on the surface of the ocean. Observing the wave, we can see it has a beginning and an ending; it comes up and it goes down. The notions of beginning, ending, going up, and going down may scare the wave and she may think, "Before rising up as this wave, I didn't exist, and soon I will become nothing again." It seems as if before the wave comes up it's not there, and after it goes down it no longer exists. How could a wave be a happy wave if she's caught in these notions of birth and death, beginning and ending, going up and going down? But there's a way out, an opportunity for her to be saved. When she bends down and examines herself, she discovers that she is water. She's a wave, but she's also water. As a wave she may be described in terms of being and nonbeing, coming and going,. But water cannot be described in these terms. The moment the wave realizes she's water, she's free- free from such notions as birth and death, coming up and going down. The wave is water right in the here and the now.

Just as the wave doesn't need to go looking for water, we don't need to go around seeking God. Just as the wave can rest in water, we can rest in God. In the here and the now. With mindfulness and concentration we are able to touch our true nature of no birth and no death. .

                                                                  --Thich Nhat Hanh

I lie on the seashore, the sparkling flood blue-shimmering in my dreamy eyes; light breezes flutter in the distance; the thud of the waves, charging and breaking over in foam, beats thrillingly and drowsily upon the shore---or upon the ear? I cannot tell. The far and the near become blurred into one; outside and inside merge into one another. Nearer and nearer, friendlier, like a homecoming, sounds the thud of the waves; now, like a thundering pulse, they beat in my head, now they beat over my soul, wrapping it round, consuming it, while at the same time my soul floats out of me as a blue waste of waters. Outside and inside are one. The whole symphony of sensations fades away into one tone, all senses become one sense, which is one with feeling; the world expires in the soul and the soul dissolves in the world....



Perception is a breaking apart, a forming, a separating, and then again a joining together. The unity of the spiritual and the sensual, of the subject and the object, is experienced in feeling. The divisiveness of perception is broken by the welling up, even the overflowing, of feeling. Whoever eats of the tree of perception divorces himself from the paradise of feeling.



                                                                                      --Karl Joel