Praxis
| He who returns one Soul, it is as if he has redeemed
the entire world.
|
This second principle has been demonstrated in, of all places, the teaching
of basketball. In a famous experiment, a group of basketball players were
tested for their skill at free throws. After a base-line score was obtained
for each player, they were divided into three subgroups: one went about
their regular activities for an hour; the second practiced making free
throws for the same amount of time; and the third sat quietly for an hour,
visualizing themselves making perfect free throws. At the end of the hour
all three groups were retested for their free-throw skills. The group that
showed the least improvement was, of course, the one that did nothing;
the group that showed only slight improvement was the one that actually
practiced making free throws; but the players who showed the most significant
improvement were those who merely sat quietly and
visualised themselves
making perfect free throws. Imagination is diminished reality.
For example, when I sharpen a pencil, I visualize the Holy Sparks within
it being liberated by my actions and returning to their unity with God;
similarly when I eat my food, clean my cat's sandbox, wash the dishes,
dump the trash, see a dead animal on the road, drink vodka, pick my nose,
clip my fingernails, trim my beard, see someone smoking a cigarette, urinate,
move my bowels, embrace another person, pet my animals, shake hands with
a friend, grind coffee beans, turn the pages
in a book, water my plants, swat a fly, give my son a footrub, open
a door, close a window, flush the toilet, break an egg, make an omelette.
Admittedly, there's nothing very "grand" in any of this. It's for the
Prostak and the Ahm HaEretz, the "creaturely man and not the guiltless
one[s] who hold aloof from the world," as Jung has said. The Tikkun of
Yakov Leib won't make you famous, smarter, better looking or more admired
It won't give you samadhi, satori, nirvana or any other form of "enlightenment,"
if that's what you're looking for. It may not even work. What it does do,
however, is saturate every moment of your life -
from the most sacred to the most profane - with a profound awareness
of God and the Sacramental Life. What you do with that, if anything, is
up to you..
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Interestingly, in Yoga and Vedanta, a similar result is accomplished for all "sparks" without intention with respect to any specific sparks. According to Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, for instance, when one "transcends," i.e., experiences transcendental consciousness (samadhi or turiya), the ground state of the Unified Field is reached in supramental experience. This results in the enlivenment of the inherent energy and intelligence (devata) of the field structure (Veda). As a result the entire field response by becoming more lively with creative intelligence. The laws of nature (devas) wake up, so to speak, and operate more efficiently, since they are less burdened by gross consciousness, characterized by inertia (tamas) and selfish desire (rajas). When the knower (rishi value) is awake in itself (in a person in samadhi), then the process of knowing (devata value) is empowered so that the known (cchandas value) takes on its true value as Reality instead of being under the delusion of appearance. This happens not only for the one experiencing samadhi, but also for the entire field. A great deal of scientific research has lent strong confirmation to this hypothesis.
originally posted on Donmeh West
- The Donmeh of the Internet
|
Praxis |
Kabbalah main page |