SpringBoard - always bounce back

Last posting we talked about the fact, that spiritual descent (which obviously causes emotional, mental and other “falls”) is necessary for the ascent that follows it.

The dynamic works exactly like a springboard – you always swing down in order to jump up.

It would be a mistake to think that we need some other external “positive energy” to swing us up.

The very momentum of descent should be used to ascend – that’s the core principle!

Again this can be illustrated in the springboard example – the very energy of the down swing is propelling us up – if we are ready to use it.

What is required of us is only to learn how to detect the start in upward move, connect to it, harness it and ride it as high up as it goes!

Now the practical part – how do we actually turn around?

First of all we need to understand that there is no harm in trying to turn around at any moment

- usually we can’t even conceive the idea of a turnaround while we are in a state of a free fall.

The fact that we are able to contemplate the thought of bouncing back means that the window of opportunity to do it is NOW!

It’s always best to catch the very first chance for the spring up. If we miss the first one, there will be the next, but it is going to be lower and the second one won’t let us jump back as high as the first one.

Once we realize that NOW is the moment, we should start DOING something that brings us UP. The actual practice can be very different for every person. Among general techniques that have intrinsic holiness and, hence, work for many people, are Tefillah (prayer), reading Tehillim, going to a Mikvah (if it is appropriate for our situation), learning Torah and more. (Torah learning can be very powerful tool if one knows how to engage the heart, not only the head).

Listening to the favorite upbeat music can be very powerful consciousness changer

(avoid negative dark music that can sent you flying way lower).

There is a pitfall in this situation however:

Since we have a lot of kinetic energy from the downward movement, we might be subconsciously tempted to release it in unproductive ways.

Typical things we frequently do in that situation:

Using eating, drinking, gambling and even drugs as an outlet for relieve

(The list here can run unfortunately long, those are just some examples).

This might even take a seemingly innocent form as eating lots of chocolate to feel a bit better.

I’m actually pro-chocolate, however I prefer to eat it in different circumstances, for Oneg Shabbat (enhancing pleasure of Shabbat)  for example .

In general, we should avoid resorting to lower-level pleasures – this only dumps the accumulated energy “into the ground”.

While the process may make you feel a little bit relieved for a short time (since the discharged energy doesn’t create the “downswing” pressure any more), it’s a dead end, since the turnaround does not happen, nothing constructive is accomplished and we get stuck with lower energy level in the “down” state.

Spilling negative emotions on someone.

While this may feel like a release, the energy is re-routed towards negative means creating unpleasant reality in our present and future.

Feeling the energy pressure can create very unpleasant feeling, however we need to recognize it as the moment of opportunity. This is the moment when we can call to Hashem in the manner beautiful Psalm 130 is teaching:

From the depths I called you Hashem (Psalm 130:1).

Interestingly the Psalm 130 is among others called “Psalm of Ascents” – Shir Hamaalot.

May Hashem always help us to find the right steps for the Ascent! And if we don’t see the steps we only need to ask Him to reveal us the way up, the “how to” of the upward swing, since the persistent Tefillah can achieve anything!

Shabbat Shalom!

ascent · chocolate · consciousness · Energy · HASHEM · Ish Tam · Mikvah · Oneg · Prayer · Psalm · Shabbat · springboard · subconscious · Tefillah · Tehillim · Torah

Below are some very practical meditations that help to experience and live the holiness of Shabbat - in a very real way.

Shabbat Shalom!

SHABBAT MEDITATIONS

by Kabbalist Rav Yitzchak Schwartz

What follows is a number of Shabbat meditations and a short summary of the Torah principles which they are based on.

All of these meditations are drawn from a series of Shabbat essays taught by the previous Slonimer Rebbe (Zatzal) in the second volume of his work Netivot Shalom.  The common thread running  through all of his essays (and I have only chosen a select few) is consciousness … the unique sublime Garden of Eden consciousness that we all can get a taste of in this world with a concerted effort…… and thereby sensitize ourselves to a life of true paradise in this world and in the next one.

I hope that by practicing these meditations we can open up more and more of this sensitivity.

1. ASCENT MEDITATION

(An introductory meditation or mind state which is the root of all the other meditations and mind states).  The Kabbalah teaches that starting on Friday afternoon and culminating towards the end of Shabbat, there occurs “Aliyat Olamot” – “Ascent of the Worlds”.  The imagery presented to us is that of one world rising or elevating against a backdrop of its present placement up to a realm which is above any type of negativity whatsoever.  Practically speaking, this can be experienced as an ever deepening state of awareness of one’s soul and the removal, layer after layer of all that which separates it from the Master of the Universe.

********Focus on your present state of being, physically, emotionally, spiritually etc.  See yourself now entering into a sort of cosmic elevator which climbs incrementally from one floor of a tall building to the next higher one to the next etc etc until it reaches the top.

Every time that elevator climbs up a few floors, focus again on the various aspects of your state of being, and allow yourself to experience a pure and holy state of being, stripped of all pretence and falseness and negativity ….focus on how this  consciousness saturates you through and through and allows you to experience your inner Divine self.

Allow more and more of this pure holy positive Divine energy to saturate you more and more as the elevator climbs.

2. THE RETROACTIVE FUSION MEDITATION

When one is privileged to experience a higher state of being, they feel as if all that they do and accomplish, is not really them at all, but rather Hashem doing it through them.  This is not only true of their present state of being, but is also true with regard to what they can recall of their past accomplishments.

********Focus on a list of the highlights of your previous weeks – either based on a written one, or a stream of thought recollection that you do in your mind right now.

First see every detail and feeling of your week’s highlights or main accomplishments as being that of your own doing.

Then reframe every aspect of every accomplishment as being infused, enabled and empowered by The Master of the Universe.

3. THE EVERYTHING IS PERFECT MEDITATION

Shabbat is a mindset that is patterned after a future era when there will be nothing lacking, not in people nor in anything else.  All will be experienced as being whole and perfect just as it is, and there will be no need to rectify anything or anyone else including ourselves.

*******Focus on seeing everyone in your life in their perfected state;  First scan the people you know (start  with one or two and expand your list), and foresee or project what they will be like when they eventually reach their state of perfection.

Then project how differently you will relate to them when you are seeing them in this state.

Next see even their areas of lack as being stepping stones towards their perfection.

Finally, in real life, relate to these people as if you already see them in their perfected state.

Do the same entire process for yourself.

4.       THE PLEASURE (Oneg) MEDITATION

Rebbe Shlomo of Karlin Ob’m taught what was overheard, being declared in the heavenly realms, an extremely important lesson;  ‘‘Even if a person is very careful to observe all of the positive and negative commandments of Shabbat in all of their fine detail (and to properly observe these Mitzvot in all of their fine detail is of utmost importance, of utmost severity and requires a huge investment of energy), but nevertheless do not make a concerted effort in this life to feel or to experience at all the sweetness and pleasure of the Shabbat, so too, when they get upstairs in their post life eternal environment, they will not experience this pleasure and will rather be like an unfeeling bench!’’  This is because the atmosphere of the spiritual strata is filled with only pleasure and happiness, and if one doesn’t condition oneself to this atmosphere now, how will they be sensitized to it in the future?!

********Focus on taking pleasure on:

THE PAST:            All the accomplishments that Hashem allowed you to accomplish last week.

THE PRESENT:    All the physical delights of the day – eating, sleeping breathing and other bodily pleasures as well as spiritual pleasures.

THE FUTURE:      Ask that Hashem should surprise and delight you for the remainder of the day.

5. THE REBIRTH MEDITATION

When we are plugged in to the true energy of Shabbat, i.e., being so much in Devakut in a fused clinging state with Hashem that we know that anything we do or want that is against Hashem’s will is not really our will, but something external to ourselves, then Shabbat provides us with a similar effect as that of Yom Kippur – a cleansing, purifying atoning, rebirth effect.

********Plug in to how Shabbat allows me to connect with my true Ratzon (primal will)…. and see that it is truly an extension of G-d’s Will, and all that I do, or have done in the past that is not on this pure Divine fused soul level, is not the real me, but something external to me.

Now focus on how this mindset infuses me with a spiritual purity and cleansing that ultimately enables me to feel like I am being reborn.

6. THE EXTRA SOUL MEDITATION

We receive a gift on Shabbat —a gift referred to as an Extra Soul [Neshama Yetyairah]……the Verse says that upon completion of the initial Creation process Hashem rested—the word describing this Divine Rest, is ‘VAYINAFASH’—-this represents a state of mind , where one’s Soul takes center stage—where one is primally motivated on Soul matters, such as one’s Eternal Divine purpose , life force, mission and pleasure…..the Kabbalists inform us that there are  actually real Souls from the Garden of Eden that come into us and fill us up with their presence for the duration of the Shabbat

*********At the beginning of Shabbat and through out the night and day, be present to the inner elevated feeling that  you experience-your ‘Neshama Yetairah’—-notice how the way that you relate to others to yourself , to G-d and to life in general is elevated….Cultivate this experience—notice how one Shabbat’s ‘Extra soul’ feeling is different than another Shabbat….notice how this Extra soul goes through a growth process on Shabbat itself, and how this experience relates very much to your previous week, and how, by being present with  this experience, you can actually draw it into your upcoming

7. THE RAAVA D’RAAVIM [WILL OF WILLS] MEDITATION

Before departing Shabbat, we reach the culmination point—the highest ascent of consciousness….This state of being comes at the time when the sun is going down and the light of day grows dim and there is an internal knowledge that the power of the day will soon be taken away from us—and we will be called upon to jump into the cloudiness and darkness of the weekday world, where we must constantly cope with trials and tribulations to the best of our creative abilities……..so our hearts open up with the deepest of yearnings —a yearning to be able to stay here alone in the Presence of the Lord, and at the same time, a yearning to be able to draw upon all of the insights and heart-openings that we experience right now—into the coming week

*********As the Holy Shabbat day draws to a close, allow yourself to feel a deep yearning welling up inside of you—a yearning to return to the Divine womb….a yearning to constantly be inside of Shabbat…. A yearning to cling to Hashem constantly with every thread of your being…. A yearning to be able to draw from all the highest times [such as this present moment], into the low times [such as the weekday-relative to Shabbat]—to draw down  all of the feelings and insights and love and awakeness.

Aliyat Olamot · ascent · Garden of Eden · HASHEM · Meditation · Neshama Yetairah · Netivot Shalom · Oneg · Pleasure · Rebbe Shlomo of Karlin · Rebirth · sensitivity · Shabbat · Slonimer Rebbe · Soul · Will · Yom Kippur

A friend writes:

“… the only problem or question is why after such a great [spiritual] reward and awakening… I get tested immediately and I feel like I not just fail, but fail miserably. And I feel like I am going backwards for some time before I get up and begin to slowly move forward. I feel like there is an explosion and a big drop before things get better and start going up. “

Well, the good news is, there is no such thing as “always steady spiritual growth” -
the real spiritual growth always have those wild up/down swings,
you usually can affect their depth and direction, but not to avoid them completely.

Moreover,  not only the descent is unavoidable, it is completely necessary for the ascent to happen.

This is connected to the non-homogeneous nature of time

Rav Akivah Tatz has great MP3 lecture you can download for free here:

Time and Timing
Same concept is explained in one of his essays in Living Inspired

Now the practical approach: How do you deal with it in real life?

This is best to explain by analogy with swimming in the sea or ocean in high waves. You can’t fight the waves and rise when the wave actually goes down – this will result in some unpleasant experience. Instead one needs to be composed and feel how the wave goes, follow it when you have to, slightly correcting your way within the wave as it goes up and down, up and down… When you tune in, this can be very enjoyable feeling.

Similarly in life “waves”, I try to stay detached and watch how it goes almost from a side. I know it’s difficult to stay detached from all that hormonal rush going along with emotions, however the key is to realize it’s not you – it’s the body, the body that goes into established patterns of reactions. Once you change the perspective, you can start changing those patterns of “guts reactions” as well.
The ”Restore My Soul” (Meshivat Nefesh) is compilation from Rav Nachman’s of Breslav teachings on the topic of ascent/descent dynamics, it explains those beautifully and gives plenty of practical advice.

ascent · descent · Energy · Ish Tam · Kabbalah · Living Inspired · Meditation · Rav Akivah Tatz · Rav Nachman of Breslav · Time · Tzaddik · Wave