Posted by john on September 01, 2001 at 14:43:06:
In Reply to: Kaballah posted by pollavon on September 01, 2001 at 10:20:42:
: To answer John's questions, I was thinking about my dear friend Alex when I posted this. He is reading a translation and I shared this passage with him. I agree with you John that indeed, the Kaballah is not to be taken lightly and that Jewish mystics study lifetimes in order to try and get their heads around it, if it happens at all. We studied ABOUT it in my undergrad program and the translation I have is more like poetry than anything else. Keep in mind in this and all my posts, I come from a place where discovery is fearless and necessary. Regardless of a persons religious grounding or foundation, for me it is vital to learn about other religious beliefs as well. I do understand, however, that if one is not educated about things and goes off on weird roads that sometimes, these paths can take on an almost occult flavor. This is why my ultimate life's work will be teaching about different religious traditions in a scholastic manner. So you see, I am biased.
: I wanted to share this passage with everyone because regardless of its origin I think its message is univeral in appeal and strength. Also, I could post other passages from different sacred texts that say almost the same thing. I am fascinated by the synchronistic messages within religion as well. This is where my penchant for cultural anthropology comes into play.
: Thanks for caring enough to enjoy the wonder.
: Bill, I love your mind. I was hoping you'd tell us about the stick. I knew it would be magnificent.
I like that fearless discovery thing. I've been shedding my denominational skins for years now and every layer is freer and lighter. I love to study other people's beliefs as well. I just prefer the practical(the real meaning, root: practice) rather than the scholastic because it is easy to write books about and from a perspective, but the meat is in what happens when people put it into practice. For instance, slight aside, Hinduism is one thing in books, but in practice everyone is a Hindu in the minds of most average rural hindus. They recognize the presence and revelation of the divine in many many incarnations and none are excluded, thus images of Jesus sit beside Ganesh and Shiva and Buddha in a temple. But in books, hindu has no Gods because Brahman is Atman.
Anyway with relation to Kabbalah, I think there is a danger in the secrecy. What is on the surface is really cool. What they actually seek, I don't know. But I do know that in practice it ends up like a secret society trying to dabble with powers far beyond their control. At this point if spiritual talk creeps you quit reading because I have to touch on it now. Kaballah is very much like dark witchcraft in that it seeks to effect personal power in the unlocking or invoking of powers that are supposedly controlled by these runes (ancient Hebrew is really a runic language) and processes. The reason I caution against Kaballah is that i used to dabble in these kinds of arts and honestly had quite a bit of success getting things done for me in the psycho-spiritual sense. The problem is that eventually you realize that your guide is really only toying with you until it can get you in a place to devour you. Now in the terms of Kaballah, it invokes some extremely powerful names which i won't even mention. and when these names are invoked they are present immediately. Now I know from experience even feeling these things coming will make you lose control of your bodily functions. I don't think anyone wants to chance using Christianity as a spiritual bungee against that kind of weight. I say this because nothing can harm us because Christians are higher than all of these things spiritually by virtue of Jesus and the holy spirit which has restored us to the level of priests... that is if you can hold on to that knowledge in the face of such intimidation. I spent years getting out from under it. It's flat out bad news. That is the danger of the Kaballah... it is real. It's a whole different game than playing with tree spirits or taro cards and the like.
Anyway, I just probably revealed a whole lot more than I should here.. but in the spirit of free discussion, so what. Thanks for opening this up Paula, I love to talk about this stuff.. and feel free to rebut, dialectic is the best way to learn.