The Power of Kabbalah

As you would have gathered, I have been reading a lot. Profusely reading. Yesterday, whilst at hanging out my mate's place, who has a similar thrist for spiritual and personal self-awareness/higher truth etc, I picked up the Power of Kabbalah. This is my first foray into any Jewish spiritual philisophy. Usually I find myself gravitated towards Eastern texts, so it made an interesting read.

Since I won't do justice trying to explain what the Kabbalah is, here is the wikipedia definition

Kabbalah (Hebrew: קַבָּלָה‎, lit. "receiving") is a discipline and school of thought concerned with the mystical aspect of Judaism. It is believed by many to be a form of magic practiced by Ancient Egyptians and Babylonians. It is a set of esoteric teachings that is meant to explain the relationship between an infinite, eternal and essentially unknowable Creator with the finite and mortal universe of His creation. In solving this paradox, Kabbalah seeks to define the nature of the universe and the human being, the nature and purpose of existence, and various other ontological questions. It also presents methods to aid understanding of these concepts and to thereby attain spiritual realization. Kabbalah originally developed entirely within the milieu of Jewish thought and constantly uses classical Jewish sources to explain, demonstrate, or prove its esoteric teachings. These teachings are thus held by kabbalists to define the inner meaning of both the Tanakh (Hebrew Bible) and traditional rabbinic literature, as well as to explain the significance of Jewish religious observances.[1]

A few self-reflective takeways from it:

- My reaffirmed belief that underlying all religious differences, spirituality is united. The search for higher truth is all the same. Kabbalah refers constantly to proactive vs reactive, Light vs Darkness, mind over matter, challenges as stepping stones to spiritual transformation. (Very similar to concepts in Buddhist and Toaist readings).

- Kabbalah uses a lot of references from the real world and the universe. Why? Because those principles are us what guide us. We are not separate. The tree has to plant seeds. So do we. Day and night rises and falls. So do the same patterns happen in life. The underlying gravitional and scientific principles that dictates our reality are on, a deeper level, the same underlying principles which should dictate our spritiual growth. (Note: if this is not making sense, forget me. Hard to articulate this stuff at times)

- Constant references to say: The Bible is a metaphor and you should not take it literally. (ie story of Moses in Egypt, the parting of the red sea, the ten commandaments is just a deeper truth about ego and the soul etc etc)

Here is a brief summary of the text.

Kabbalah's 13 Rules
1. Don't believe a word you read. Test-drive the lessons learned.
2. Two basic realities exist: Our 1 percent World of Darkness and the 99 percent Realm of Light!
3. Everything that a human being truly desires from life is spiritual Light!
4. The purpose of life is spiritual transformation from a reactive being to a proactive being.
5. In the moment of our transformation, we make contact with the 99 percent realm.
6. Never - and that means never - lay blame on other people or external events.
7. Resisting our reactive impulses creates lasting light.
8. Reactive behavior creates intense sparks of Light, but eventually leaves Darkness in its wake.
9. Obstacles are our opportunity to connect to the Light.
10. The greater the obstacle, the greater the potential Light.
11. When challenges appear overwhelming, inject certainty. The Light is always there!
12. True internal change is created through the DNA power of the Hebrew letters.
13. All of the negative traits that you spot in others are merely a reflection of you own negative traits. Only by fixing yourself can you change others.
And finally, ULTIMATELY:
Love thy neighbor as thyself. All the rest is mere commentary.
Now go and learn.

I would like to expand on this a bit more later, but I just wanted to share it with you all before I lost track.