Perfection Exists Within

All of us have at one point or another done something, or perhaps many things, of which we are not proud. In fact, we may even feel that because of our actions we have somehow damaged our soul, rendering us incapable of growing and maturing spiritually.

To this the Kabbalists say the soul can never be damaged; it can only be covered up.

The spark of soul inside every one of us is perfect and pure beyond words. At every moment we are connected to the Light of the Creator and no action can sever this connection. We can veil this connection, thereby preventing our soul from shining as bright as it can for ourselves and others, but we can never destroy it.

At the core of our being, we are perfect and pure. Always. We must know this if we are to lead the fulfilling lives we are meant to lead. Keep in mind, this is not meant to be a nice message designed to make you feel good about yourself. This lesson is connected to the fundamental kabbalistic concept that states, blessings cannot rest on darkness.

The idea is, when we share with someone, Light is revealed. Naturally, we want to add that Light to our spiritual bank account. However, what the Kabbalists are saying is, if our view of ourselves is dark, then the Light can’t come to us because there is no affinity.

For those of us who are a little too hard on ourselves, we need to change our self-perception so that we can experience the Light our actions are revealing.

Remember this always, we can connect to the Zohar, pursue actions of sharing, and do everything the kabbalists prescribe to reveal Light. However, if we are missing this one essential ingredient, then the Light we reveal will have no place on which to rest.

Seeing our perfection is the groundwork on which Kabbalah is practiced.

We must be ever-vigilant to not push ourselves off the path with thoughts of, I don’t deserve, I’ve caused too much damage – to others and to myself, I cannot grow and change now.
It’s these very thoughts that block the Light of the Creator from permeating our lives.

When we desire a deeper flow of Light and blessings into our lives, we must be conscious of our innate perfection. It doesn’t mean we are not honest with ourselves. We have all obscured our souls with layers of selfishness and hurt, and there is an on-going removal process that needs to take place. But our negative actions can never extinguish our spark of Light.

To put a fine point on it, there is a distinct difference between thinking, I am a bad person, and thinking, I am a perfect soul that is partially covered up by actions I have done.

Self-loathing is so sabotaging because if we are trying to connect to the Light while thinking badly about ourselves, then we simply cannot draw the Light. Therefore, to combat this tendency of unproductive self-criticism, we must strengthen our consciousness to see beyond the clutter, and into the pure, powerful truth at the center of our being.

The Kabbalists take this thought one step further. If we want to help the people in our lives, then we have to see their perfection as well. When we only see the darkness within our friends, students, children, and colleagues, we cannot help them. Only by seeing their perfection can we be of any real assistance.

When I want to help a friend who has done something wrong, I must restrict my natural tendency to judge, because once I am in that frame of mind, it’s useless. I can’t help him any more, certainly not in a lasting way. Rather, what I need to do is remind myself that he is connected to the Light, he is a perfect soul, and all that I am doing is helping him to remove those veils so that his perfection can shine.

This week, concentrate on your greatness. Let this be a focus for your morning prayers or meditations. Remind yourself that you have an amazing soul and that you are always tremendously connected to the Creator. As you strengthen this consciousness, the Creator’s Light can shine brighter than ever before.

Where is the Garden of Eden?

When Kabbalists talk about bringing the gamar hatikun, the end of the correction, also known as messiah, they are not talking about some great change that will one day happen to our world. The change already happened. Messiah is here. We just don’t see or feel it.

The Zohar explains that at any given moment, the perfected version of our world is always right here in front of us. What we see as pain, what we experience as darkness, is an illusion. It is not the true essence of reality. Perfection, completion and fulfillment are with us all the time. We do not see it because our eyes and hearts are closed.

There is an important spiritual reason why this is so. Imagine you were walking in a sand storm, and the dirt and filth was coming up all around you, whipping into your face. Naturally you would close your eyes and mouth into order to protect yourself, right?

The same is true in the spiritual realm. When there is a tremendous amount of darkness around a person, it’s essential that the Creator closes our eyes and hearts. When we are involved in a life that is selfish – and we all are to one degree - we draw upon ourselves all kinds of darkness and negativity. If the Creator allowed our eyes and hearts to remain open during these times, like the sand, it would damage our essence.

Therefore, as protection for us, the Creator closes our eyes and hearts so that the damage that one can do to his soul through his selfish actions becomes greatly diminished.

The understanding here is that the closing of our eyes and our hearts is not a punishment. It’s a favor. And how shut or open they become is dependent on how we live our lives. To the degree our lives are based on selfishness, to that degree our eyes and our hearts will remain sealed.

Conversely, the more we live our lives in the way of the desire to share with and give to others, the more we allow our eyes and our hearts to be opened. And as the Zohar explains, this is the only thing necessary for us to complete our process in this world and to bring the world to the gamar hatikun, the end of the correction.

There’s a story of a kabbalist who ascended to the Upper Worlds one night while sleeping, and asked a group of souls where to find the path to the Garden of Eden.

They told him to follow a specific path. He started walking down this road, a very simple, plain road, when suddenly to his right he saw a few souls sitting and studying together. He asked them, “How do I get to the Garden of Eden?”

“You are already here,” they told him.

“This is it? A gravel road with some grass on the side? This isn’t what I expected,” he exclaimed.

“The Garden of Eden is not an external place. It is within you.”

The idea is the Garden of Eden, the gamar hatikun, the messiah - it’s all here right now. We just do not allow ourselves to see it. The only thing the world is waiting for is our eyes and hearts to open so we may experience what is here now. We don’t have to run out and change the world. We just have to open up and ask – beg - the Creator to give us the ability to open our eyes and hearts so that we may experience what is here, right now.

Surviving Difficult Times

There is a wonderful article by Ben Sherwood in Newsweek about surviving difficult situations. It also focuses on why some people seem to be “luckier” than others in life. It concludes that our attitude, (or to use a kabbalistic term, consciousness) greatly influences our life:

“Luck is not a magical ability or a gift from the gods,” Wiseman writes. “Instead, it is a state of mind—a way of thinking and behaving.” Above all, he insists that we have far more control over our lives—and our luck—than we realize. Going back to the Italian Renaissance philosopher Niccolò Machiavelli, great thinkers and writers have argued that 50 percent or more of what happens in life is determined entirely by chance (or Fortuna, the Roman goddess of fortune). Wiseman says no way. He believes that only 10 percent of life is purely random. The remaining 90 percent is “actually defined by the way you think.” In other words, your attitude and behavior determine nine tenths of what happens in your life.”

While I might not agree that even the last 10% is random, this is certainly a great new understanding for most of us.