“Chochmah is the first of the Three Mothers, the three faculties (along with rational understanding and integrative knowledge) that compose your intellect (seichel). Chochmah is not reserved for the righteous but is given freely to all, even the foolish and inhumane. The challenge is not to earn wisdom, but to access the wisdom already inside you.” From Tanya, the Masterpiece of Hasidic Wisdom
Two kinds of suffering
Humans – two kinds of suffering: physical & mental
Able to activate the “witness’ the true “I” – can get some distance from your thoughts.
Dimensions/levels of the Soul
Taken from: rabbidavidcooper.com Five Dimensions Of the Soul – God is a Verb
Nefesh – world of action, most connected with our physicality – atomic structure, everything particle of matter has a Nefesh (stays with the body the longest after death) / sometimes called the animal soul (different rabbis describe this differently), foundation of the soul levels, integral with life itself. It has to go through purification after death/deal with purification…
Ruach – The world of Formation, Ruach means wind or spirit – associated with elementary consciousness and information that moves through the senses, in human it is related to speech and emotions, which are constantly moving within the body – Nefesh is associated with body awareness, reach is correlated with emotional awareness. Spirituality is founded upon the reach level of the soul (moved to tears). Love on this level is more real to us – longer lasting – our sense of purpose and meaning in life depends a great deal on if our reach is nourished. Nourishment is the result of how we live our lives – where we spend our time and the raw material we ingest through our senses. Experiences affect the spirit like food – is it agitating, soothing, stimulating, disturbing, calming, strengthening…When the ruach is raised to its highest elevation, we attain a state of awareness that is described as ruach hakodesh – Holy Spirit
Neshama – The World of Creation – same root as breath. This soul level is associated with the higher awareness and angelic realms, it is a defining quality of human consciousness –
Zohar: “The nefesh and the ruach intertwine together, while the neshama resides in a person’s character. This is an abode which cannot be discovered or located. Should a person strive towards purity in life, he or she is aided by a holy neshama. But should the person not strive for righteousness and purity of life, this person is animated only by two grades: nefesh and ruach.”
Whereas we all have the power to develop the neshama aspect of our souls, there is no assurance that we will do so. From a spiritual perspective, our life is fired (potters analogy) by conscious action (fuel) and clean living (oxygen). This gives us access to expanded realms of awareness. Human life is not complete without the neshama. The neshama emanates from an elevated source, while the ruach emanates from a somewhat lower origin. When these two sources unity, they shine with a celestial light and are called “lamp.” The lamp of God is the neshama of humankind.” Neshama is an aspect of soul that is directly connected with the divine source of life, it is via the neshama and the higher levels of soul, that we co-parner with God in the continuous unfolding of creation. The neshama is pure in its essence. It cannot be blemished. When we die, it immediately returns to its source.
Chayah – The World of Emanation – little connection to the body, mostly dwells in other realms, gain awareness of the level when we enter altered states, when we experience “oneness”. This is the Kabbalistic real of “wisdom” and “understanding”
Yehidah (unity) – The world of Will, most connected with the source of awareness. Center point of the soul, disappears into the infinitude of creation, part of the soul that is “hard wired” directly into the essence of the Divine. It is not “with” us be we are never apart fro it. Duality dissolves – far too subtle for human consciousness.. Yehidah – is our ultimate link with God, never be separated from the Divine. When all else fails, the awareness of our yehidah endowment may be sufficient to carry us through.
Endless Light by Rabbi David Aaron
Levels of the soul: page 85
Yichida – universal Soul, yearning to love Hashem
Chaya – collective Soul – sense of self-transcendence
Neshama – Meaningful thought, sense of idea/mission/our unique role in the world
Ruach – Meaningful speech, sense of truth
Nefesh – Meaningful action – sense of good and bad (obey?)
Animalistic soul – life force, consciousness of needs for physical survival
Neshama – we each have a job to o that nobody else should be doing, also yearns for purity – you are who you are suppose to be in this world, awareness that we are entitled to happiness in this world, but it only comes when we are in step with who we are suppose to be.
Nefesh, ruach and neshama are the three levels of the soul known as the inner lights, illuminate our path from within, each to a greater degree (pg 94). Next two are outer levels – Chaya is the collective soul – because of this we have a need to belong, need to love and be loved. Without a sense of belonging, you can’t feel that there is total meaning to your life. Yearning to being a part of a greater community… Why the Torah teaches us to love our neighbors as ourselves…
Yichida – sense of identification with the ultimate, Universal Soul- only get brief insights, sparks of illumination, this aspect of our soul years to love Hashem with all our heart, all our soul, with all our might. The soul yearns to bond with the All of All – BUT the EGO sends out a lot of interference, a lot of static, the ego gives the self a false sense of independence, severed from any greater context. (The big lie that Rabbi Ari explained at Kabbalah and coffee on 2/7/21 – that we are separate and independent, but we need this deception to have free will and find our way back to God).
Dark Wood
In the middle of the journey of our life, I came to myself in a dark wood where the straight way was lost. Dante Alighieri
The Divine Comedy: Canto I
“The forces of death and devastation are met with death and devastation; the forms of chaos are met with chaos and are consumed by the ultimate biblical symbol of chaos –raging water.
The Heart of Torah, vol 1
Rabbi Shai Held
He who digs a pit will fall in it, and whoever rolls a stone, it will roll back on him. Proverbs 26:27
Control your actions
“You can achieve the level of inbetweener at any moment for it does not require you to despise your passions, only to control your actions – to turn from evil and do good” in your deeds, speech and thought.” pg49
Interesting to me that deeds are first, then — speech, then thought. Our mind salivates thoughts without our control – we can work to control our attention – we can work to attend to certain thoughts, but thoughts will come and go and some we want, many we don’t. We can control our actions. We can control our speech.
You can unite your body, heart and mind to be dedicated to G-d’s Way/Will. If your deepest wish is to unit with G-d it means emanating compassion, joy, enthusiasm, truth, order, kindness. If you act out of accord with G-d’s Will, you feel it and you will be separated from G-D. The egoic shell arises from the animal self working hard to protect and “feed” itself and consequently it stays divided from Oneness through these self satisfying and selfish acts. The yetzer ha-ra justifies all actions that require hiding, lying, cheating others etc.
“Selfishness arises from a sense of fear and scarcity. Fear and scarcity arise from the egoic shell of self-isolation (kelipat nogah) And this egoic shell arises from sitra achra (state of mind), the other side of G-d, the side that sees only the many and denies the One and the very possibility of unity. ” pg 48
Tanya, the Masterpiece of Hasidic Wisdom by Rabbi Rami Shapiro
Loved into existence – man, select of creation
Loved into existence, put here for a reason
Bishop Bill (via Arthur Brooks)
Sages say – we are the select of creation
Ego & separation
“Since then I have met… many people who are always busy, busy, busy, trying to fill every possible moment with work or activity or mind-numbing entertainment – anything to prevent that dreadful moment of silence when they can no longer drown out the cry of their soul. They may succeed, but only for a little while, because the soul is strong. It roars like a restless lion, rattling the bars of the cage the ego has built for it.
As long as the ego insists on breaking the world into separate pieces, setting one against the other, there can be no peace outside, and therefore no peace inside. The soul knows its true identity is bound up with all other souls and the Soul of Souls. As long as it is imprisoned in the ego, the soul moans and cries and is in pain. You feel as if you are at war. The Hebrew word for peace, shalom, is also the word for completeness. The soul is never compete or at peace in the ego. Although the ego thinks it is complete, self-defined, and self-confined, that is an illusion.
The irony is that he who things he is complete and independent of others, lives an illusion and is truly incomplete. However, he who knows he is incomplete and interdependence with others is upon the path toward our completeness.
Hearing the cry of the soul is the beginning of freedom.” pg 121
Endless Light by David Aaron
Clinging and Aversion
“The person in training must seek to rise above, so as to stop seeking out pleasure and steering away from pain; to stop clinging to living and abhorring death…” Musonius Rufus, Lectures, 6.25.5-11 Daily Stoic by Ryan Holiday
When you feel you are suffering from a pain or situation that won’t go away — stand back for a moment and imagine others going through the same thing (or something similar – there is no way understand/feel others’ pain exactly), but you can say a prayer – I see your pain, I know that pain myself, may we all be freed from it at a time to come. This helps us “rise above it”, knowing all beings suffer… Ask yourself can I have compassion for the suffering? Yes, because I have suffered.
Macbeth – instruments of darkness tell us truths
“But ’tis strange and oftentimes, to win us to our harm, the instruments of darkness tell us truths, win us with honest trifles, to betray’s in deepest consequence” (1.3.124-28)
Pushed by Drives, Pulled by Values
“Philosophy is simply asking us to pay careful attention and to strive to be more than a pawn. As Viktor Frankl puts it in The Will to Meaning, Man is pushed by drives, but pulled by values.” These values and inner awareness prevent us from being puppets. Sure, paying attention requires work and awareness, but isn’t that better than being jerked about on a string?”
Yetzer ha-ra (pushed down the wrong path), Yetzer Ha-tov (pulled toward your higher self)
The Daily Stoic by Ryan Holiday