Passion and Happiness - Redeeming in order to Reveal
A Chanukah Message
All passion is for learning Torah, praying fervently to Hashem and emulating Hashem's 13 Attributes of Mercy. All happiness is a byproduct of these pursuits.
Happiness has become trapped in time and space by many different pursuits. They are not lasting, nor are they the highest level of pleasure a person can experience.
The world as we know it, filling dependency needs and creating gratification, is effacing as we dilate towards a new world, one where the pursuit of filling our needs and satisfying our gratifications will be made obsolete by the light of Moshiach. How our needs and desires will be filled when Moshiach comes depends on our efforts NOW, while we have free will, to trade them out willingly for devekus in Hashem through learning, praying and emulating.
Unfortunately, the darkness of the galus is that we have fine-tuned angry defensive responses specializing in the goal of intimidating in order to dominate and thereby seemingly come to some kind of happiness. This is false. Happiness comes neither from dominating others, taking from the world, or "getting away with" whatever we are doing that is somewhat below par in order to reach our goals undetected, hiding in the darkness, in the limitations of human existence and revelling in our ability to take what gratifications we like in a way we can control. This is far from happiness.
Happiness of the soul comes only from learning Torah, fervent prayer and emulating HIs 13 attributes of mercy, enlivening the being within us, the true being, that He creates with His breath, our neshama. All passion must be re-directed there, redeeming from fear and anger that are fallen awe of Hashem , fallen into serving the self in time and space instead of being redirected to serve Hashem..
It would be great if people could latch onto the idea that rebuking others, intimidating others, subjugating or humiliating others "chopping heads off" is neither what Hashem wants nor the source of happiness. And this is not a reference to actual beheadings. Every time we react defensively and subjugate and humiliate another person we view as criticizing us or triggering our fears of loss of love or value, especially the value the ego believes it should receive as esteem, and that defensive reaction is in our minds justifiable for embarrassing and causing hurt and pain to another, we are chopping off their head, causing them embarrassment which Torah tells us is like killing them. Our belief in this natural response must be reduced. We must expose how it is the power of evil that gets released when we succumb to these false messages, creating damage that has a far wider range of impact than we realize.
How can we stop? We must redefine who we are to our effort to emulate Hashem and from there, we can begin redeeming.
We learn it from Rochel who knew that every person is a hailik of Hashem and keep the ninth commandment, do not bear false witness, which requires that we at all times realize we live in a world where confusion of mind is our natural state but our being state is to relate at all times with being made in His Image, and therefore love that relationship so much that its pleasure is sought on a constant basis making the natural defensive reactive choice less important and relegating it to its true value as a natural resource from which we can redeem ourselves and fold that strength through the words Hashem Echad into a positive being that will fill the place of lack with light and blessings. In order to do this it requires full circumcision of the heart, cutting as well as peeling back what appears to be our self, our identity, that in fact is only a garment, a garment that provies nutrients in the form of energy that can be redeemed and folded into the words Hashem Echad. For this, we must understand we are the being Hashem creates and peeling back our reactions is NOT a disappearance of self but an emergence and expression of the image in which we are made, in the image of Hashem's 13 attributes of mercy .
When a body decomposes, it returns to basic elements. the body itself disappears, but the elements remain in the ground and will one day be reconstituted, may it be today. In this way we can understand how pulling back everything that feels like the self and instead redeeming the energy from whatever the issue is and saying Hashem Echad can form something important. We fill the area where there was lack with the elements stirred from our physical nature re-organized with intention to lead Hashem's 13 attributes of mercy into the darkness, bringing in healing and light and blessings.
We willingly flip the control of the heart from the lower urges to the mind's free will to reflect Hashem's 13 attributes of mercy, and we emerge from our struggle in that moment as a holy being. By throwing away the concerns of the self in time and space and replacing it with consciousness that the being we really are is fulfilling its mission in providing some raw material elements extracted from the subjective reality reactions and deliberately folding what is redeemed into the words Hashem Echad, we literally form a positive being to bring healing, benefit and light to the world
The place to pause is understanding we are all in confusion of mind UNLESS we do this run to return to Hashem, creating every moment a positive influence through saying Hashem Echad, redeeming elements from a natural condition and bringing them into the service of Hashem. We are the ox that chooses to serve Hashem but we have to remember to put on the yoke and pull ourselves up and out of our natural reactions. Then we are able to light the real light, the light of reflecting Hashem's 13 attributes of mercy into the world.
May the understanding of this seep into us and may the light of Chanukah soon bring a new light to the world.
Happiness has become trapped in time and space by many different pursuits. They are not lasting, nor are they the highest level of pleasure a person can experience.
The world as we know it, filling dependency needs and creating gratification, is effacing as we dilate towards a new world, one where the pursuit of filling our needs and satisfying our gratifications will be made obsolete by the light of Moshiach. How our needs and desires will be filled when Moshiach comes depends on our efforts NOW, while we have free will, to trade them out willingly for devekus in Hashem through learning, praying and emulating.
Unfortunately, the darkness of the galus is that we have fine-tuned angry defensive responses specializing in the goal of intimidating in order to dominate and thereby seemingly come to some kind of happiness. This is false. Happiness comes neither from dominating others, taking from the world, or "getting away with" whatever we are doing that is somewhat below par in order to reach our goals undetected, hiding in the darkness, in the limitations of human existence and revelling in our ability to take what gratifications we like in a way we can control. This is far from happiness.
Happiness of the soul comes only from learning Torah, fervent prayer and emulating HIs 13 attributes of mercy, enlivening the being within us, the true being, that He creates with His breath, our neshama. All passion must be re-directed there, redeeming from fear and anger that are fallen awe of Hashem , fallen into serving the self in time and space instead of being redirected to serve Hashem..
It would be great if people could latch onto the idea that rebuking others, intimidating others, subjugating or humiliating others "chopping heads off" is neither what Hashem wants nor the source of happiness. And this is not a reference to actual beheadings. Every time we react defensively and subjugate and humiliate another person we view as criticizing us or triggering our fears of loss of love or value, especially the value the ego believes it should receive as esteem, and that defensive reaction is in our minds justifiable for embarrassing and causing hurt and pain to another, we are chopping off their head, causing them embarrassment which Torah tells us is like killing them. Our belief in this natural response must be reduced. We must expose how it is the power of evil that gets released when we succumb to these false messages, creating damage that has a far wider range of impact than we realize.
How can we stop? We must redefine who we are to our effort to emulate Hashem and from there, we can begin redeeming.
We learn it from Rochel who knew that every person is a hailik of Hashem and keep the ninth commandment, do not bear false witness, which requires that we at all times realize we live in a world where confusion of mind is our natural state but our being state is to relate at all times with being made in His Image, and therefore love that relationship so much that its pleasure is sought on a constant basis making the natural defensive reactive choice less important and relegating it to its true value as a natural resource from which we can redeem ourselves and fold that strength through the words Hashem Echad into a positive being that will fill the place of lack with light and blessings. In order to do this it requires full circumcision of the heart, cutting as well as peeling back what appears to be our self, our identity, that in fact is only a garment, a garment that provies nutrients in the form of energy that can be redeemed and folded into the words Hashem Echad. For this, we must understand we are the being Hashem creates and peeling back our reactions is NOT a disappearance of self but an emergence and expression of the image in which we are made, in the image of Hashem's 13 attributes of mercy .
When a body decomposes, it returns to basic elements. the body itself disappears, but the elements remain in the ground and will one day be reconstituted, may it be today. In this way we can understand how pulling back everything that feels like the self and instead redeeming the energy from whatever the issue is and saying Hashem Echad can form something important. We fill the area where there was lack with the elements stirred from our physical nature re-organized with intention to lead Hashem's 13 attributes of mercy into the darkness, bringing in healing and light and blessings.
We willingly flip the control of the heart from the lower urges to the mind's free will to reflect Hashem's 13 attributes of mercy, and we emerge from our struggle in that moment as a holy being. By throwing away the concerns of the self in time and space and replacing it with consciousness that the being we really are is fulfilling its mission in providing some raw material elements extracted from the subjective reality reactions and deliberately folding what is redeemed into the words Hashem Echad, we literally form a positive being to bring healing, benefit and light to the world
The place to pause is understanding we are all in confusion of mind UNLESS we do this run to return to Hashem, creating every moment a positive influence through saying Hashem Echad, redeeming elements from a natural condition and bringing them into the service of Hashem. We are the ox that chooses to serve Hashem but we have to remember to put on the yoke and pull ourselves up and out of our natural reactions. Then we are able to light the real light, the light of reflecting Hashem's 13 attributes of mercy into the world.
May the understanding of this seep into us and may the light of Chanukah soon bring a new light to the world.