| Kabbalah
and Education A Kabbalistic Approach to Spiritual Growth |
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| Kabbalah and Jewish Meditation |
Part
59 Two
currents of energy influence the conscious level of the human personality.
The first is from "above" originating within the Divine soul. It
is a will to good that descends from the super-conscious root of
the soul and drives us toward growth and perfection. Its influence is
limited by our character traits. The more we have cultivated selflessness,
honesty, and kindness, the more this flow from "above" will enter
our personality and influence our reality. The more we submit to God's
law, the more profound and enduring will be its effect. The
second current is from "below"
which means that it is under
the auspices of the physical soul. Though ultimately sourced in God, its
route of flow is indirect, entering our field of existence through the food
chain, specifically, the metabolic pathways which extract the
"energy" from our diet. The physical soul utilizes it to exert a
downward pull on us, by seeking physical comforts and pleasures at the
expense of growth and change. It becomes a powerful force of inertia that
opposes, with utmost intensity, the self-sacrifices which must necessarily
pave the way for spiritual growth. Thus the physical soul wills us to remain
earthbound and concerned with material security, while the Divine soul wills
us toward growth and perfection. The intellect must reconcile these two
opposing influences--the force of inertia and the drive toward action. When
the teacher understands how and why the force of inertia arises from within
the physical soul--a force that strong arms the student to remain as
he or she is, to resist change and avoid challenge--then the teacher can
design a plan that circumvents these limitations. Just as it was necessary
to learn everything knowable about the law of gravity in order to design an
airplane that seemingly defied that very law, so too a teacher must learn
everything knowable about the subconscious of his students. The subconscious
drive to maintain the status quo is a powerful force that influences every
aspect of personality, binding it to its present state. Since every human
character trait, both positive and negative, is subject to this force of
inertia, the teacher must assess the "amount" of will that is
maintaining the trait he wishes to rectify; how physically invested is the
student in his or her current state of being, in spite of the spiritual
discomfort this state may be generating. Based on this determination, the
teacher may decide to break his plan down into even smaller steps, and
adjust his expectations of pace and progress accordingly. The process of change is like forcing a train to make a 90-degree turn, its entire momentum must shift from one direction to another. The faster the train is traveling, the more difficult the task. A successful teacher is one who has learned the secret of effecting change through subtle, non-confrontational means. The
cutting edge between success and failure is the extent to which the teacher
enlists the physical soul to support the endeavor; otherwise the desired
change will remain an unrealized fantasy. For this most formidable of tasks
there are several tools at his disposal. The most potent technique for
breaking negative habits and actualizing positive change is prayer. And
convincing his student of that is the teacher's most powerful weapon.
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