[csilla]

While we are learning about and working on Connection, i don’t remember signing up for the below reminder app, and it’s been going to spam for 6 weeks without my knowing, but wonder if it’s the Upper Force that brought me to look in spam and find it today…  (of all days ! )

A Spiritual Guide to the Counting of the Omer
Forty-Nine Steps to Personal Refinement
Day Six of Week 6: Yesod of Yesod

Examine the bonding aspect of bonding. The forms it takes and its level of expression. Every person needs and has the capacity to bond with other people, with significant undertakings and with meaningful experiences.

Do I have difficulty bonding? Is the difficulty in all areas or only in certain ones? Do I bond easily with my job, but have trouble bonding with people? Or vice versa? Do I have problems bonding with special events in my life? Examine the reasons for not bonding. Is it because I am too critical and find fault in everything as an excuse for not bonding? Am I too locked in my own ways? Is my not bonding a result of discomfort with vulnerability? Have I been hurt in my past bonding experiences? Has my trust been abused? Is my fear of bonding a result of the deficient bonding I experienced as a child? To cultivate your capacity to bond, even if you have valid reasons to distrust, you must remember that G-d gave you a Divine soul that is nurturing and loving and you must learn to recognize the voice within, which will allow you to experience other people’s souls and hearts. Then you can slowly drop your defenses when you recognize someone or something you can truly trust.

For bonding to be possible it must embody the other six aspects of bonding. Successful bonding must also include actualizing the bond in constructive deeds.

One additional point: Bonding breeds bonding. When you bond in one area of your life, it helps you bond in other areas.

Exercise for the day: Begin bonding with a new person or experience you love by committing designated time each day or week to spend together constructively.

[csilla]

i think the lessons thus far have said that the type of connection to others entails acknowledging their concerns and letting them know and feel that i really do care about their concerns, which means they see in me someone they can trust and the connection from me to the other person is maintained, which over time deepens. Likewise, if another person acts toward me in that way, i begin to feel and consider that person trustworthy and in that regard i allow myself to feel connected ‘back’ to them incrementally, in proportion to their continued standpoint of altruistic concern (which, unfortunately may drop off soon after a certain degree of trust is reciprocated.);  the common plight, the common desire, would be in everyone’s desire to be distanced from egotism and attain higher levels of spiritual experience.

[csilla]

i feel something similar, but just now i felt like hoping the continuation of the process will succeed in deepening my new unfolding inner experience, like easing into a hot bath

[csilla]

i’m very surprised about my growing kind, compassionate awareness of others, as a result of the last course. I’m noticing how much more simple it is to be with the people in my daily life, as my active participation seems to diminish in importance and how others seem to feel better with my more ‘simple’ mode of interaction, which is like gently swishing the surface of a stream along with the current — and i remember more often people’s smiling back at me. i think before the recent KabU classes i was wary of others wanting something from me, but now it seems that people seem more content in their own lives, and they don’t really want anything in particular – and they appreciate being acknowledged with a few simple words and a light sprinkling of happiness. idk, but i’m increasingly curious about learning more

[csilla]

not too many ideas are coming up for this one, atm, but, i’m thinking something like under the conditions proposed there would be decreasing polarization, accompanied by elimination of many problems based on that alone, with lasting solutions, since the basis of those types of conflict would be eliminated.

The approach to the persisting issues would be a variation on Bentham’s utilitarianism, i.e., without the minority, since the goal of everyone would be seeking the mutual benefit of others (rather than suffering the tyranny of democratic majorities’ interests).

Ultimately, it seems likely that since the Upper Force is Unified and doing all of this anyway, maybe political philosophy, sociology and other academic subjects have less insights to offer than Kabbalah. we shall see 🙂

[csilla]

What most inspired me in the course was the relationship between the video lessons and the recommended readings

What have I learned about myself in the process, by ‘simply’ studying the KabU lessons and reading the recommended Kabbalistic texts, was the “hidden me” that seems to be emerging in the most unexpectedly natural (and oddly most placid) way, like the truest-to-myself me (so, i suppose that’s why it seems so natural).

I wish for my fellow students in their spiritual development to experience the same gradual revelation and unfolding, by studying the KabU lessons and reading the recommended Kabbalistic texts.

The ongoing feelings of deepening gratitude for these opportunities to grow are also a part of this discovery process.

[Author]

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