The Kabbalah, Reality and Psychospiritual Transformation

The term Kabbalah literally means “tradition” though it originally referred to the tradition of Jewish mysticism (Ponce, 1978). While the term came into existence about the thirteenth century, the roots of the Kabbalah can be traced to Genesis I, the Zohar and the Sefer Yetzirah. Kabbalism is a tradition in which reality is depicted as a pulsating emanation process transforming itself through increasingly complex thresholds of differentiation (i.e. interrelationship), beginning in an incomprehensible void like state and extending to individual consciousness (Lubicz, 1985; Sholem, 1995). Kabbalism asserts that the individual can become aware of this universal process through the intellect (Sholem, 1995). This in turn is thought to bring about psychospiritual transformation. In this light the Kabbalah provides what could be likened to a Jewish mystical cognitive yogic tradition for attaining an ultimate unitive state of consciousness (Halevi, 1995; Ponce, 1978, Sholem, 1965b). In this article we will overview key elements that are pertinent to our topic.

The first aspect of Kabbalism we will consider is the underlying notion of En-Sof or Ayin-Sof. En-Sof means literally “without-end”. It is the Kabbalist’s name for God which symbolizes the ultimate state of reality. It is an entirely nondifferentiated state and is void-like in nature. All things exist within En-Sof. In Kabbalism En-Sof represents the incomprehensible nothingness, at once imminent and inactive, in which our universe finds itself. Because it is in itself unmanifest and entirely nonrelational it is not describable, hence it is unfathomable. It is not Being and it is not Non-Being. It is by nature beyond classification and comprehension. The most we can say about En-Sof is that it exists in its non-existence (Ponce, 1978). Sholem (1995) refers to it as the hidden God. It comes before God the creator and cannot be localized in space or time. The En-Sof was not the cause of the universe. It bears a close resemblance with Wu-Chi in the Taoist model.

For the Kabbalist, En-Sof stands before God the creator of the Old Testament. The only activity of En-Sof is a process of light emanation. Described in several ways, a classic version of this process was developed by Luria (1533-1573). Only two books circulate which appear to have been written by Luria, The writings of the Sacred Lion and The Book of Concealment (Sholem, 1995). When asked by a student why he did not write more of his theories down his reply was, “it is impossible, because all things are interrelated” (Sholem, 1995, p.254). Luria’s theory of the process of En-Sof is based on the notion of Tsimtsum originally thought to mean “concentration” or “contraction” but it is probably more accurately translated as “withdrawal” or “retreat.” Luria asserted that En-Sof being equally everywhere withdrew or contracted from a spot in itself (Kabbalists say “Himself”). In abandoning a region within and creating a kind of mystical primordial space, the En-Sof created a place for the act of creation and revelation. In other words, if God was everywhere equally there was no place for creation, so God (i.e. En-Sof) withdrew from a part of itself to create, in effect, a sacred space. En-Sof left a bit of itself behind in this sacred space forming a kind of residue often likened to what is left in a bottle of oil, after the contents have been poured out. Kabbalists call this residue Reshimu.

Through its first act of contraction, En-Sof created a sacred space within itself. While several versions of what occurred next circulate, in all, an emanation process flowed forth producing energetic and material thresholds of increasing differentiation. The “divine light which flowed into primordial space - of which three dimensional space is a late development - unfolded in various stages and appeared under a variety of aspects” (Scholem, 1995, p. 265). Thus all existence began as an emanation of “God’s” light in the primordial space of it’s own creation. Luria theorized a series of emanation events with each increasingly complex and successive event occurring through a contraction and expansion cycle. His model depicts a cyclic cosmic process of progressive differentiation through thresholds of increasing complexity (Sholem, 1995).

In Luria’s model En-Sof’s emanation is a transformation process that produces ten thresholds of energetic existence, called the Sefiroth. Each emerging Sefirah subsequently participates in transforming the original emanation thus producing the next. As they emerge, the Sefirah self-organize into three increasingly complex triads of energetic interaction followed by the last and most complex Sefirah through which our 3 dimensional world comes into existence. Hence the Sefiroth represents an energetic transformation process producing, in descending order, an energetic holarchy (a system of systems) composed of four increasingly differentiated worlds or states of being. Typically referred to as a “Tree of Life” the sefiroth are organized in such a way to produce a center trunk with left and right branches. The individual Sefirah interact through 22 paths or patterns of interrelationship. Both the Sefirah and their paths of interrelationship constitute the aspects or attributes of En-Sof and are represented by the ten circles and 22 lines that make up the Tree of Life. Collectively they are “plainly regarded not as steps of a ladder between God and the world, but as the various phases in the manifestations of the Divinity which proceed from and succeed each other” (Sholem, 1995, p. 209).

For the Kabbalist, the ten Sefirah and the interrelationships between them form a complex dynamical system producing the endless gradations, degrees, or thresholds through which we may know God. The Sefirah are alternatively referred to as the ten faces of God and the ten names of God and thought to combine to make one holarchic face/name for God. Through them the four worlds or superstates of being self-organize. Collectively they express a self directed emanation process, self-organizing in particular interrelationships, each self-organization a transformation of En-Sof. As the names and faces of God we can surmise their energetic nature provides the attributes of both light and sound.

The word “Sefiroth” literally translates to “numbers” and is represented by the ten elementary and primordial numbers. The 22 letters of the sacred Hebrew alphabet represent the paths between the Sefirah. Together they “represent the mysterious forces whose convergence has produced the various combinations observable throughout the whole of creation; they are the ‘thirty two secret paths of Wisdom’ through which God has created all that exists. These Sefirah are not just ten stages, or representative of ten stages, in their unfolding; the matter is not as simple as that. But their end is in their beginning and their beginning in their end, as the flame is bound to the coal” (Sholem, 1995, p.76). The process is clearly recursive.

These thirty-two interrelationships, ten phases of emanation and four states of being descending in an order of progressive differentiation create a self-directed, self-reproducing, recursive process that mathematician’s today would term a fractal holarchy. Each Sefirah is self-similar to the others in that each is a phase in the emanation process of En-Sof. Each interacts with the overall system providing feedback to the system, which directs the overall at all orders of magnitude. In these regards the system is recursive and self-similar at all orders of magnitude. “Everything is linked with everything else down to the lowest ring on the chain, and the true essence of God is above as well as below, in the heavens and on earth, nothing is outside him” (Moses de Leon in Scholem, 1995, p. 223),

The Sefiroth has two aspects. With one aspect the Sefiroth is energy as vehicle of change and transformation within En-Sof. With the second it represents eternal supra universal principles of interrelationship as vessels of energy through which En-Sof's emanations flow. They illuminate each other; self organize into realms and contextualize existence. From this orientation the Sefirah are the manifold qualities that shape reality. The Sefiroth therefore ultimately represents both the forces and substance of reality. En-Sof’s emanation takes on different colors or characteristics as it passes through the various energetic aspects of itself, the Sefiroth.

“In its act of emanation, the En-Sof stands in relationship to the first Sefirah, Kether, as cause is to effect” (Ponce, 1995, p.113). This is at once a crisis of Will and Self-revelation turning the repose of En-Sof, the Inexpressible Fullness into an energetic oneness. In this first Sefirah the plan of the entire universe is contained in undifferentiated unity. Kether is God the creator of the Old Testament. Kether’s relationship with En-Sof expresses the emergence of a fundamental duality. Through this primary interrelationship the pure potential for increasingly differentiated interrelationships comes into existence. Kether is the pure undifferentiated energetic potential of En-Sof. It references a fundamental equilibrium, the central point where the duality of existence as pure potential and En-Sof as that from which this potential sprang are counterbalanced. It is often thought of as “a monad of pure energy in which is contained the power, the pure potential, of opposites in unity” (Ponce, 1973). It is the primordial point between being and nothingness. “The point serves to illustrate what the Kabbalists of the thirteenth century call the ‘origin of being’, that Beginning” of which the first word of the Bible speaks” (Sholem, 1995, p. 218). In its active energetic nondual nature it is like Tai Chi in Taoism.

Implicit in and emerging from Kether are the two active potentials of Sefirah are Hokhmah, “the will of creation”, and Binah , “the discerning intelligence of creation”. The latter is functionally equivalent to the Yin principle of Taoism while the prior is equivalent to the Yang principle. They are the pure potentials for polarity. In this sense, they constitute extreme polarity in potentia and are represented as Divine Wisdom and Intelligence respectively. The dynamic interrelationship of Hokhmah, Binah and Kether produce an equilibrium understood by Kabbalists to constitute a supra universal realm of existence known as Atsiluth, the world of emanation. Atsiluth while reflecting supra universal interrelational potential represents only the subtlest form of differentiation. En-Sof’s emanation next produced; Hesed (“Love”) and Gevurah (“Judgment”) representing the poles of divine love and retribution. They are balanced by, the third Sefirah of this second triad, Tifereth (“Beauty”). From these three, a second world of emanation or state of existence comes into being. This is Beri’ah, “the world of creation”. It is the realm of truly pious spirits and highest-ranking angels. This is both a material and nonmaterial reality.

The next three Sefirah: Netsah (“Victory through endurance”), Hod (“majesty”), and their balance Yesod (“foundation”) compose the third realm, called Yetsirah, the world of formation. They are hard to understand from these translations. Netsah is typically understood to mean the “force filling creation” while Hod refers to the concept of “form” or “structure”. They are balanced by Yesod representing the concept of the unconscious beneath the surface foundations of existence. In this world or state of being are the lower angels. Each of the Sefirah, as they move in succession from highest to lowest, subtle to gross, diminish in quality from the original emanation of Kether until the “ensuing impurities of passage” gather with the tenth emanation called Malkuth (kingdom), to form the forth and last world, realm and level of being Asiyah (Ponce, 1973; Sholem, 1995). The word translates into the world of making. It is the most differentiated and differentiating state of existence. This is the world of matter and of evil, the world of nature and human existence. Malkuth is often viewed as the visible aspect of universal feminine creative energy, the counterpart to the masculine Kether. Malkuth is referred to in this capacity with the term Shekhinah having multiple levels of association. It literally means, “indwelling” and refers to God’s Divine creative presence in the universe and in the individual. The presence of God then is His Shekhinah. At another level it is considered not only a Divine entity but also the feminine aspects of God hence the association with Malkuth.

Among Kabbalists there are two alternative views regarding the nature of the four worlds. The major difference between them is that in one view each of the ten Sefirah contain within them the entire Sefiroth ad infinitum. In other words every emanation contains within it all ten emanations at infinite orders of magnitude. In this orientation the emanation process is thought to bifurcate again and again in each of the four worlds. It “ is necessary to realize that each Sefirah is sometimes thought of as containing within it ten lights, each light containing another ten, & so on ad infinitum ” (Ponce, 1995, p. 113). The qualities and essence of each world or state of existence diminish as differentiation increases reflecting a descent into the gross level of the fourth world. Every Sefirah has at least one of these lights illuminated. In the first four Sefirah, all lights are illuminated at all orders of magnitude. God’s emanation flows freely. In Malkuth, our reality, most of the lights are not illuminated. In an alternative and earlier view the Sefirah are thought distributed throughout reality but are not necessarily repeated within each emanation. In all Kabbalist models however, all Sefirah are considered present in both Kether and in Malkuth where Kether is considered God and Malkuth his implicit presence.

As a result and in general Kabbalism holds to the idea that as above, so below. The Sefirah exist in Kether (above), and Malkuth (below). At our human order of magnitude, in Malkuth, they are, for most part, unrealized or not illuminated, existing as pure potential. They are, in this way, veiled to consciousness (Ponce, 1973; Sholem, 1995). While the Kabbalist’s goal of life is to ascend through the realms of being, the goal of psychospiritual transformation is to awaken the Shekhinah and consciously ascend the Sefiroth. This implies becoming aware of the Sefiroth both as principle and manifestation; interrelating all experience to and through it; and balancing its energies within, creating a dynamical equilibrium of union with God (Ponce, 1973; Sholem, 1995). For the Kabbalist, this path will necessarily extend beyond death, possibly many lifetimes. It will ultimately free consciousness by creating a state of complete unity with the nature of reality, which is nonrelational or nondual. Hence the goal of Kabbalism, like other traditions we have discussed, is nondual consciousness.

Because the individual has all the Sefirah within him or herself, the individual has the capacity to experience the four realms of being. Kabbalists associate this process with development through three progressively less differentiated states of consciousness. These states of consciousness constitute successive developmental thresholds as well as aspects of the soul. Individual consciousness therefore develops through interrelating these aspects of soul. The highest and third threshold or state of being/development, Neshamah, represents the soul proper, the Divine. It highlights the individual’s integration of experience from the highest world, Atsiluth, and represents the inner balance of the energies of the first triad of Sefiroth. It cannot be maintained without the lower states as a foundation. The second threshold of the developing soul, Ruah, reflects the individual’s ability to integrate experience from the second world Beri’ah. It is this aspect of spirit that interconnects and mediates the poles of Nefesh and Neshamah. Ruah is the seat of moral qualities integrating the highest and lowest stages and is associated with the second triad, Beri’ah.

The first stage of soul development, Nefesh, is considered the grossest level of the soul, the vital or instinctual animal soul. It is the raw vital or instinctual energy necessary for survival and propagation. Nefesh is associated with the third triad and the third word of Yetsirah, as well as the tenth Sefirah of Malkuth, representing the fourth world of Asiyah. Hence the Nefesh reflects a potential to exist in the two most differentiated states of existence and consciousness. The Zohar asserts that all three soul-aspects are present in Nefesh corresponding to the “new and deeper powers the soul of the devotee acquires through the study of the Torah and through meritorious action.“ Neshamah, on the other hand, representing the Holy Soul, the Kether within, can only be acquired through the intellect that is to say the realization of the individual’s intellect. Through realized intellect, we integrate all cognition and gain access to the underlying patterns and ultimate truths of God and the Universe. Aspects of this three-soul model are reminiscent of the Tibetan Buddhist Trikaya or Three Bodies discussed earlier.

Kabbalists use a variety of techniques to ground them for the transformation process. The Torah must be firmly grasped before studying the Kabbalah. This foundation provides a moral, ethical and intellectual frame from which to make a conscious ascent or cognitive evolution of the soul possible. In general however Kabbalist’s do not agree with typically accepted translations of Genesis 1. These are naive and “idiotic” according to Suares because they do not reflect Kabbalistic interpretations of the ideograms that make up each line. We refer the reader to Suares for greater explanation.

There are few Kabbalist techniques to induce psychospiritual transformation, however, in some cases these have been observed as well (Scholem, 1995). To understand them better, it is helpful to know that many Kabbalists suggest the Sefiroth manifest as energy centers in the individual soul corresponding to areas of the body. By consciously integrating these energy centers, unitive consciousness is possible. In Kabbalist models, there is a direct path or connection between Kether (the ultimate male principle) and Malkuth (the feminine passive principle) known as the Shekhinah (feminine creative principle). This organization is present in the human as well. Kether is present as an energy center in the head, Malkuth an energy center in the base of the spine and the Shekhinah is the energetic path between them running parallel with the spine. At all orders of magnitude however what exists in Kether at an active level exists in Malkuth at a dormant level. Since the individual exists as a further transformation of Malkuth, all the potential of Kether (i.e. the Sefiroth) lie dormant within. This means that the Sefiroth exist in the individual and in God; as above, so below. Once again we see self-similar iterations of a fractal holarchy at different orders of magnitude.

The Shekhinah must be activated within, for the individual to develop through the stages of the soul. As many Kabbalists suggest the Shekhinah marks a path energetically extending from the base of the spine through the center cavity of the spinal column to the brain (Ponce, 1995; Yudelove, 1999). There are many inherent similarities between this concept and the basic premise of Hindu Kundalini yoga. Kundalini energy is thought to be the creative energy of the universe (shakti) lying dormant in each individual’s root energy center at the base of the spine. The object of Kundalini yoga practice is awakening the kundalini energy and sending it directly through a channel corresponding to the center of the spine up to the crown of the head, which in both traditions represents the experience of nondual energetic existence. In fact several models have been done associating the two (Ponce, 1995; Yudelove, 1999).

Notes

Through the Sefiroth we see existence as a complex and dynamical pulsating emanation process. It is an energetic projection within En-Sof that self-organizes in pulsations as thresholds of increasing differentiation. The interactions, of the thresholds, produce all manner of existence within the unfathomable nothingness of En-Sof. As all transformations of En-Sof’s emanation come into an out of being within En-Sof, each participating in the emergence of the next, the process is entirely recursive. With the Sefirah holistically repeating at various orders of magnitude and collectively a part of the greater Sefiroth, the ultimate nature of Kabbalistic reality is describable as a fractal holarchical system.

We can now see that Tsimtsum, the very contraction and expansion process of emanation is exactly what obscures the interrelationship between individual and En-Sof. The interrelationships obscure the pure potential. Kabbalistic psychospiritual development is “the pursuit of unification and perfection, that is the bringing together of the body and psyche and the harmonizing of their component parts into an accord with the higher worlds”(Halevi, 1979). The Kabbalah depicts a psychospiritual developmental process that transforms the individual by increasingly integrating the various potentials of the Sefiroth on increasing numbers of levels leading to a greater sense of unity and increased awareness of overall interrelational potential. It is literally a fractal awakening.

References

Halevi, Z. B. S. (1979). Kabbalah: Tradition of Hidden Knowledge. New York:

Thames and Hudson Inc.

Kaplan, A. (1997). Sefer Yetzirah. York Beach: Samuel Wiser, Inc.

Ponce, C. (1973). Kabbalah. Wheaton: Theosophical Publishing House.

Scholem, G. (1995). Major Trends in Jewish Mysticism. New York: Schoken

Books.

Suarès, C. (2002). The Cipher of Genesis. York Beach: Samuel Wiser, Inc.

Yudelove, E. (1999). The Tao & The Tree of Life. St. Paul: Llewllyn

Publications