Nugget #45

Altruism works toward the good of all as a collective unit.  Ego separates evil impulses thus minimizes it longevity and strength.  It divides and conquers evil so that collectively evil cannot ultimately rule.  Is it possible Genesis 11:6 is reflecting this?

The ego is necessary for the success of Altruism.  The ego is meant to be subjugated not do the subjugating.  The tail is not to wag the dog.  Each Individual is meant to be an expression of the soul and meant to carry out a specific purpose that will eventually force altruism to win.  Without the ego none of this would happen.

When speaking of the ego we typically think of its extreme and excess.  However, in a measured and controlled way, we can find use for the ego that will benefit creation.  As is usually the case, we humans tend to go overboard and forget the need for balance.  The collective cannot over power the individual, in terms of purpose, and the individual cannot over power the collective.

Ask yourself: Contemplate the above thoughts.  How do we set out to create the proper balance?

Nugget #44 – Nullify the ego?

In the previous post we can easily conclude that the ego is useless and serves no meaningful purpose.  Thus it should be nullified and totally annihilated.  That however is not the case by a long shot.

Thinks for a moment, the ego separates and divides which ultimately ends in disorder and chaos.  The unified collective becomes a disarrayed and ineffectual mess.  This would mean that unity is not possible under the ego.  The whole becomes less than the sum of its parts.

Evil by nature cannot become a collective and thus evil cannot become a predominate force in the universe because of the ego.  It may seem like evil does rule but it cannot for the collective will eventually return to a proper state.  All egos have their own agendas, their own desires, their own designs, and direction.  The ego is present to protect us in the grand scheme of things.

Ask yourself:  Does the Tower of Babble (Genesis 11:1-10) reveal the frailty of the ego?

Nugget #43 – Changing the Desire of Actions

Every human being is a microcosm of the whole.  So who and what we are (as individuals), is a reflection of who and what the whole is.  The ego ignores this and creates the illusion that the individual is somehow disconnected and not needing of any help or coexistence.  It does not consider the consequence of its actions upon others.  It is the antithesis of a holistic world.  Altruism is the realization that everyone needs each other, and everyone is necessary for the good of all – it desires a holistic integrated world.

How do we change from being egoist to altruist?  How do we start the transition?  What is the first step?  Simply put is work on the desire.  Change the desire, the “heart”.  The heart represents the sum total of our desires.  We know the heart cannot change overnight.  It can change slowly.

Ask yourself:  Are there intensions in your life that are not in sync with your actions?

Nugget #42

We have talked about the ego and desire for the last two Nuggets.  There is one more aspect we need to include as part of this picture - altruism.  Altruism occurs as the desire for self only starts to subside.  As our awareness rises and we become more aware of Neshamah, Chayah, and Yichadah we learn that others are us, meaning there is no individuality but rather community/unity.  We, at the Nefesh level are living in an individualistic and self-centered illusion.  As this illusion dissipates, we see there are no me, myself, and I but rather “WE”!

Leviticus 19:18 “Love your neighbor as yourself, for I am HaShem.”  We work to this means for this is the eventuality we will be forced to accept.  We will eventually see every man is not an island but every man is in fact everyman.  Man is a collective unity as expressed at higher soul levels.

However, in the mean time, during the transition from ego to altruism, we will have much turmoil.  Most of us will be going kicking and screaming.  It is up to us to make the transition quickly and easily, or with pain and long suffering.

Nugget #41

Our experience of creation is primarily at the physical level through our 5 senses.  We are physically based and focused without much desire for a higher awareness of the esoteric in general.  By permitting the ego to run its full course, in the physical realm, man’s desire will increase for a greater awareness of what we call the spiritual realm.  Not as an academic exercise but as a permanent experiential existences.  This connection, to the upper realm, is our destiny.  This is created via a stronger and better-focused desire on our part.  Man typically learns best from mistakes not successes.  The ego will push us to making mistakes that will force us to learn.  This will drive us to seek our higher selves, the upper soul.

We will be forced to look for answers from above no from below in our physical realm.  We will be forced to seek wisdom (light) outside of what man can offer.  The nuttiness we are now seeing, and are increasing, are due to the Creator permitting the ego to become exhausted.  Once the ego is exhausted then people will seek the correct answers from above.  Deuteronomy 6:5 “Love HaShem your Elohim with all of your heart (Desire), with all of your Soul (Lower soul connecting to the Upper Soul), and with all of your strength (Actions: such as loving your neighbor)” is that seeking taking place.  Read the entire verse of Jeremiah 31:33 and remember “heart” is the “sum of our desires”.  This verse describes the end condition we are waiting for.

Ask yourself:  Are there examples of people’s souls waking up in the world and attempting (maybe not succeeding though) to push aside the ego?  Does this seem to be more prevalent than in the past and is it increasing?

Nugget #40

We will continue from the last Nugget by focusing on the ego.

During this time of exploitation the ego was and is being permitted to run rampant without check.  Keep in mind that no matter what institution that is in command (ie. Government or Religious) is in power because of the majority.  Don’t be fooled into thinking the people are ruled over by a system but the people rule over it.  For it is made of the people.  Thus these systems are ruled by the ego.  Take any institution or governing system and see if the ego rules it.  We would be hard pressed to come up with just one that is not ruled by the ego if we are honest with ourselves.

Kabbalah teaches us that the ego is increasing and will increase till it cannot be satisfied by anything the world can offer.  This may seem to be a bad thing.  It is actually a good thing. We were meant to experience and eventually overcome the ego.  This is an underlying theme of the TNK.

Contemplate passage within the TNK that support the idea of overcoming the ego at an individual level, communal level, at all of humanity level.

Nugget #39 - Globalism, Egoism, and Altruism

In Nugget# 37 I mentioned ”global” as becoming a common part of our vocabulary today.  It is in reference to this our awareness of a global community, that it is unavoidable.  Here I would like to expand this a little more and relate it to the ego and altruism.

The reason for past commercial success in capitalism can be summaries in one work – EXPLOITATION!!  Society has always feasted on exploiting of others and is not unique to our times.  For example we see price hikes on gas and food when a storm threatens.  This is true even though there are plenty of supplies in the pipeline.

This system was based upon taking advantage of a resource without consideration to the impact or costs to the environment and others.  Most tycoons of this system were and are ruthless and uncompromising people.  Vast Empires were formed to meet the “needs” of this system since its inception for the last few hundred years.  However, its foundation was laid thousands of years ago.

The ego looks to have power, wealth, and exclusive knowledge.  We can see this in our current system and history teaches us that it has always been there.

Ask yourself:  Look around at current events.  Why does it appear things are going a little nutty?

Nugget #38 - The Sabbath and the soul

The lower soul has darkness, thus our lives are chaotic in nature.  This is why we constantly have to adjust our nature – taking on G-d’s nature.  We are not permitted to relax.  The Sabbath is meant to be a day of rest from that constant adjusting.  We tend to focus on identifying work and its avoidance to a greater degree than we have to.  Many times we are literally working harder at avoiding work then we should.  The work to be avoided is not only a job, but it is also to keep ourselves out of situations that require us to adapt our nature.  In short we rest to avoid social conditioning by a culture that is opposed to the Creator’s will.

This work we are to avoid having to adjust or defend our nature.  We need a chance to catch our breath.  During our week we are adapting and adjusting to the Creator’s will.  We are also fortifying that positive nature we developed that is contrary to our world.  On the Sabbath we are to rest from that toil.

Ask yourself:  Do you use the week to prepare for the Sabbath so that it becomes a day of being at a higher plateau or is it a day to refrain from work only?

Nugget #37

Wisdom (light) will eventually permeate our lower soul.  When this occurs, and it is slowly happening, the light will eventually overwhelm our folly.  That is the time we are waiting for.

The way this will be accomplished is by the raising of our awareness.  Right now our awareness is primarily at the lower end of our soul, that being the Nefesh; though our awareness of the upper soul is increasing at the moment.  This is why our emotions are getting stronger and we are beginning to have less interest in satisfying our 5 senses.  Meaning our senses are satisfied more for the sake of our emotional desires than before.  This is a general statement not an all inclusive statement.   We are seeing a world that is being faced with emotions of fear and a search for joy for instance.  As our world becomes smaller our awareness of others is also increasing.  We are finding we indeed do need each other.

Eventually there will be a balance of the upper and lower soul so that freewill will be preserved.

Ask yourself: Look at the news and social media.  What is driving our culture and changes in policies generally.  Why are we all of the suddenly interesting in the economic health of other countries, the UN as the sovereignty of independent nations are slowly eroding.  Have we notices “GLOBAL” become a major part of our vocabulary where a few years ago we did not care about those we would never meet?

Nugget #36 – Wisdom and the Soul

Nugget #36 (April 9) – Wisdom and the Soul

Back in Nuggets #27 and #28 we learned that light, that being wisdom, brings order to chaos. It is interesting to note that there is no true randomness or chaos; rather there are degrees of disorderliness. Wisdom brings about that order. Thus there is no total absence of wisdom. 

In the previous few Nuggets we learned about the soul, from unity with the Creator, down to the individual (the upper and lower soul).

Chaos or degrees of disorderliness that exists gives us the ability to experience a wider range of freedom of will in the lower soul. The upper soul does not have the disorder that we experience at the lower level. This however does not mean that wisdom will not increase and chaos decrease.

Ask yourself: Can I see light/wisdom in the darkness? Scientists tell us that there is always light detected in darkness. Is there wisdom in those areas where there is no wisdom? Can anyone or anything be completely evil? Can everything truly be good since G-d is good and all is for good?

Nugget #35 – Upper/Lower Soul

Back in Nugget #30 I touched upon the upper and lower soul.  Let’s take another look at this.

The upper soul is a collective of all the possibilities of the soul combinations that can exist while the lower soul is the unique expression of that soul as an individual.  Think of the human race.  Collectively we contain all of the possible combinations of our makeup.  We are hard pressed to find two humans that are exactly alike.  Though we may come extremely close, the reality is they are still differences.  Yet every one of us, and those of the past and future, were and will be unique.  Collectively we are all human but each is specially created for a unique purpose and thus no two can be alike.

The lower soul is where our uniqueness is expressed for that special purpose reserved for it.  That unique soul inhabits that unique body.  The Creator determines which combination of the soul attributes will express itself in a body and when.  It is possible the same combination will appear two or more times but not very probable.  So the chance David ben Shaul returning (reincarnation in whole) is not likely, though parts of that soul have (in the past) and will continue to appear in the future, more than likely through my children.

The upper and lower souls are never disconnected.  They are part of a continuum.

Ask yourself: Look at your children and see if they exhibit any attributes of their relatives, such as a great grandparent that they never met.  If so, ask yourself how this can be?

Nugget #34

Chaya is where we become aware of others.  Our value is not in being an individual, but rather as being part of a whole, the universal soul.  In Genesis 2:7 a breath of life (Chaya) was breathed into Adam.  Interestingly, life is found not in the individual but in the whole of the community. Think of “Love your neighbor as yourself” (Leviticus 19:18).  Love is required since you and your neighbor were created at the same time with the soul of life.  Peace, security, and a sense of meaning and purpose are found in the collective soul.

Yechidah is where our soul is connected to the Creator.  At this level we are practically on the verge of being nullified (ceasing to exist).  This nullification is due to the overwhelming presents of the Creator, but we are not at that point, just very very close to it.  Love HaShem your G-d (Deuteronomy 6:5) means draw close like we do with our spouse but not so close that we cease to exist as an individual.  Remember Enoch (Genesis 5:24) so loved G-d that he was taken by G-d.  This is an example of one being absorbed by the whole.

To recap; the Nefesh is our connection to flesh and our 5 senses.  Ruach is our connection with a spirit and our emotions.  Neshama is our connection with truth and our intellect.  Chaya is our connection with others through the universal soul.  Yechidah is our connection to the Creator.

Take the last few Nuggets and think through these levels.

Nugget #33

The next level of awareness is Ruach.  The Ruach is where we experience our emotions.  It is where we start to become aware of the existence of truth. 

Many of our emotions are driven by conflict of interests.  In our case it is the desire to have our will realized, and the will of the Creator to be realized.  It is also the realization of the individuals will and the collective/altruistic will to be done.  The conflicts between those opposing forces produce resistance that results in emotions.

Neshama is associated with our intellect.  Our intellect is meant to search for and identify truth that is part of us.  This is the awareness of our mission or purpose as an individual.  With this true purpose we are able to connect with the collective.  We want to KNOW who we are!  Not as an individual but as part of the whole.

Ask yourself:  We are all pieces of a puzzle.  What shape is yours and how does it fit into the collective?  What is my true purpose in relationship to others as a collective whole?