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Selfless vs selfish. We vs me. If each of us puts the collective good above our personal good the decisions made in every situation would differ significantly.
I don’t know if I was a Kabbalist in a former lifetime, but I have always had a similar perspective on prayer and the collective good. You can only imagine the debates I’ve had over the years with my Jewish, Christian, and Muslim friends about prayer. I would ask them “if you believe that God is omnipotent, omniscient, omnipresent, infallable, eternal, and knows the end from the beginning, then how would it make sense that by complimenting God and asking repeatedly for something that you could get God to change his plans for you or the world?” And that doesn’t even take into account that most of my friends were born in the USA into middle-class or upper middle-class families and have enjoyed a standard of living and level of safety that less than 10% of the people of this planet have. How audacious to ask for more when we were already given SO much more than the average person on this planet. Then there’s the concept of mutually exclusive prayers. For example, when a person asks for things like fame and fortune but also asks for their family to be safe, happy, and close. Could it be that God did not give you that big promotion because he knew that it would cause you to work more hours, to be tired all the time, impatient, and not able to spend enough quality time with your spouse and children? So could it be that by not giving you that big promotion God gave you a situation that would better allow you to achieve your more important intrinsic desires as opposed to your more external and material desires? Prayer as done by most people reminds me of the Arabian stories of the Djinn: you are granted 3 wishes, you get whatever you wish for, but somehow whatever you wished for is turned into a curse. That is why I never ask God for anything aside for things like “perspective” or “correction” knowing that if I ask for something selfish or materialistic it would only open the door for me to be taught an uncomfortable lesson (LOL!).
Now for my questions…
If it is our intention for the collective good that is the true prayer, then is there any need for specific prayers if we already have unshakable faith in the Creator always giving everyone and doing everything in the world that are exactly what is required for their personal and our societal evolution?
If we have an unwavering “knowing” and unshakable faith rather than fleeting and changing feelings in regard to our Creator’s plan for us and for our world, how would we experience the “ascending” and “descending” process described in Kabbalah?
The concept of “humility” and being “less than” was discussed in reference to the other Kabbalists in our group. This concept was related to being more in equivalence with our Creator. This makes no sense at all. Our Creator doesn’t feel “less than.” Our Creator doesn’t even enter into the arena of comparisons of any kind.
Do the feet compare themselves to the hands? Does the liver compare itself to the kidneys? NO! They each do their jobs to the best of their ability and rely on the other organs to do their jobs to the best of their abilities.
I would make more sense to me that that our goal in being part of a Kabbalist group would be to avoid comparisons of any kind and to simply offer our best in any situation accepting that there will always be others who can offer more in certain ways in certain situations or that the group’s goals may or may not make sense to us at any given time.
It would seem to me that this “humility” and “less than” scenario described is more of an exercise or a place along our evolutionary road to one of non-comparison and unquestioning cooperation.
What of the things I have stated are in alignment with the Kabbalist perspective?
In what ways might I be confused about these things?
We have been told about becoming part of a group of 10 Kabbalah students in what was called a “lab.” It was explained that by working with an intimate group of others who have a point in their hearts and by working through a set of exercises that it is the only way that we can advance in our Kabbalah practice. We were explained that unlike other spiritual disciplines it is actually impossible for an individual to achieve correction and ascend working alone. Only as part of a group of other Kabbalah students who are all working together towards the same goals is it possible for us to achieve correction and to ascend. I look forward to taking this next step.
