HERMETIC KABBALAH AND AVAIVARTIKA

Kabbalah is an aspect of Jewish mysticism which consists of speculation on the nature of the divine, creation and the origin and role of human beings. It has its own meditative practices as well as varied devotional and mystical practices bordering at times on what may be considered magical, all of which were normally taught only to those able to understand.

It might seem odd to many that within a page dedicated to Buddha Dharma we should even consider viewing the Jewish Kabbalah, but if indeed we believe that the Dharma is universal then we must be prepared to look without Elitist Arrogance with sincere open and flexible examination of the similarities between any  path which searches for truth even if

its basic tenets (the existence of a creation and god) are divorced from our own beliefs.

We have chosen to study and present only Hermetic Kabbalah here, as many aspects of traditional Kabbalah are so deeply intertwined with Jewish religious beliefs that they require too deep an understanding fo most people, even those within the Jewish faith.

That we should choose to look at the Kabbalah is not rare, for the kabbalah has been studied, used as a guide, and practiced outside of Orthadox Judaism for centuries.

If we dare claim that the Dharma is Universal then we must not turn away from other paths because they are different. What we must be open to is the elements of that true path that coincide and even strengthen our own resolve and aid in our own understanding of Dharma Avaivartika as a base for Awakening.

The word Kabbalah signifies "to Receive" and this is the base of llits concepts and ideas. It is said that the act of receiving tells us about the nature of all life. We must agree, for without receiving in one way ior another there can be no life.

If we consider the Life Force itself of Chan and Dao we find that it is a force of "GIVING" and that giving cannot exist without there being a "RECEIVING".

Now we know and agree with the Kabbalah that the Desire to receive is the basic wheels that turn the world and in the Dharma of Dao and Chan we differentiate between the "desire" which we call clinging and the "natural desire". The former is associated with "clinging," which is not natural and correct Dharma, while the natural desire is a physiological impulse for survival moderated by the Life Force, becoming expressed through cognitive understanding.

The Kabbalah coincides then with the Avaivartika principle in declaring that the "culmilation of the Desire to receive is the desire to receive for others, which is precisely the "Desire to Impart", which is unselfish giving.

We have said that we believe that the Life Force is a process of "GIVING" which is within every human creature in its greatest form. We call it in the Dharma the four boundless sublime states; gladness when others are correctly glad, compassion that is not cognitive, Benevolent Affect that is not stained love, and Equanimity that is divorced from Intellectual indifference.

In the Kabbalah they present this this natural Life Force giving as the "Desire of Jehova" to give, which culminated in the "creation" of a creature which could "receive".

This logical deduction which arises from the personification of the Life Force we cannot accept and the necessity for a creation then falls away within our beliefs.

This principal teaching is called the Wisdom of the Kabbalah, and wisdom here is best understood by asking, "who is wise"?

The answer then for the Kabbalah is, "he who sees the consequences of actions."

It is said then that a wise man does not have to wait for the future to know what the consequences of an action may be. That is because his predictions are not a result of Cognitive lateral or logical thinking, but based on a deeper experience of what we might call Karmic consequences.

How the Jewish Kabbala practitioner views the root as being directed by God and Creation does not affect our common view of the root of Giving and Receiving. It will of course affect all verbal expressions of this root.

It is important here to completely understand the Kabbalah's position on the "coming of the Messiah" which we also find in the Christian religions which evolved from Judaism.

The great Rabbi Isaac Luria, the Holy Lion (Ari Hakodesh) born in 1534, was a Talmudic authority. He concluded that "the coming of the Messiah does not mean that we must wait for some individual to ride through the Gate of Mercy in the Eastern Wall of the city of Jerusalem mounted on a white donkey. Rather, the presence of goodwill towards men and peace on earth, as indicated in the verse (Isaiah 11.6) 'The wolf will lay down with the lamb", is the Messiah. The Messiah is nothing more than a symbol of world harmony."

Thus we can agree once more with the Kabbalah declaring that the thrust of the Life Force in the human creature is towards world harmony, with the continual desire present that this should occur even in the most difficult of circumstances and indications that this will never occur. Hope lies eternal in the breast.

We have already expressed in Chan teachings that intellectual prowess is not a key opener for the Dharma and in fact academic intelligence is in great measure a detriment to understanding and practice and the clinging to words and the auto-assumption of intelligence actually leads one away from the Dharma.

Ari Hakodesh gave us the best Kabbalah overview in saying that the correct study of the Kabbalah did not depend upon the level of cognitive understanding, intelligence or active intellect, but rather his spirit which is incarnated from a supernal level.

What then is this Supernal level?  It can be considered as "coming from on high" or as "belonging to the sky."

From the point of view of our Dao reference, "the sky" is the Masculine Principle, the expression of the Life Force root of the Feminine Principle. This Spirit then which we call "Shen" is the source for our full understanding. Need I say more ?

I must add, however, a quotation by Max Planck, a well-respected physicist who declared "When the pioneer in science sends forth the groping fingers of his thoughts, he must have a vivid intuitive imagination, for new ideas are not generated by deduction, but by an artistically creative imagination."

Each person upon the path is a pioneer sending out the groping fingers of his thoughts. If the fingers are rigid and the skeletal structure is cognition and the flesh Identity, then all that will be grasped are constructs of the mind and the truth beyond words will never be touched.