Читать книгу Edgar Cayce and the Kabbalah - John Van Auken - Страница 15

Translating the Kabbalah term Nefesh is easy, but understanding its meaning in this context is tricky. It means “breath,” but as the glass-blower metaphor indicates, it is the breath inside form, inside the glass object, which is the body. Kabbalah considers this portion to be the “Living Being,” in the sense of a “breathing creature” encased in form. Notice that the form is not the creature; rather, the creature is inside the form. This portion was the second Creation, which occurred in Genesis 2, not the first one, which occurred in Genesis 1, in the image of God. Here is the passage related to this Creation: “And the Lord God made man from the dust of the earth, breathing into him the breath of life, and man became a living soul.” (Genesis 2:7) The word man in this passage is actually the Hebrew word adam, with a lowercased a, not the name Adam that is later used but the Hebrew word that means “beings” or “persons.” The word adam has the connotation of being reddish in color, resulting from the reddish flush of life-giving blood in this being. What is most disappointing is that in the biblical book of Numbers (considered to be the fourth book of Moses), the term adam is always translated as “persons” (Numbers 31:28, 30, 35, 40, 46), while the Hebrew word ish is used to mean “male” or “man” (Numbers 1:4 and throughout). But, in Genesis, adam is translated as “man” instead of “persons,” leaving us with a misconception that the first being was masculine.

These beings were formed from the dust of the earth, and the breath of life was breathed into them. Here the translators use the masculine pronoun “him,” despite the fact that, at this point in the Creation (Genesis 2:7), the being contained both feminine and masculine qualities—it was androgynous! The separation of the gender qualities did not occur until later, in 2:21. The reason for the separation of the genders was that, in this new realm of duality (life and death, good and evil, night and day, yin and yang), where the heavenly oneness is now separated into individual bodies (one soul to a body), the beings were alone inside separate bodies, and they were lonely: “Then the Lord God said, ‘It is not good that the man [adam=beings] should be alone; I will make him a helper fit for him.’” (Genesis 2:18; RSV) But no helper that was fit for this level of being was found among all the creatures in this new dimension, so God took a portion from within the beings and made the companion.

The man [beings] gave names to all cattle and to the birds of the air and to every beast of the field; but the man [beings] had no one like himself as a help. And the Lord God cast a deep sleep upon the man [beings], and took a rib [tsela means a “side” of its whole nature, not just a rib] from him while he was sleeping, joining up the flesh again in its place. And from the rib [side] which the Lord God had taken from the man [beings] he made a woman [ishshah=female], and took her to the man [ish=male].

Genesis 2:20–22

Another important detail of this Creation is that there were actually two creations of the feminine. The first was Lilith and the second was Eve. Curiously, Edgar Cayce’s readings state that there were also two Edens. The first one was in Poseidia, Atlantis, the birthplace of Lilith, and the second was the biblical Eden between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers, in what is today modern Iraq, the birthplace of Eve. This idea of an initial companion that preceded Eve is found in the writings of many early Jewish writers. There are also ancient depictions of Lilith. See illustration 18. In Cayce’s chronology, the first Eden, with Lilith, occurred roughly a hundred thousand years before Eve’s Eden.

We should note that when we properly translate the term adam as “persons,” even “humankind” as a whole, we find the answer to the age-old question of how Cain could have found a wife, when the previous passages give the impression that the earth only had Adam, Eve, and Abel for Cain to choose from! The term adam indicates that the Creator used the dust of the earth and the breath of life to create humankind, not just one person, and certainly not one male, from which a little rib was taken to create his companion.

It is also important that we realize that humankind was created twice, once in the image of God (Genesis 1:26) and once from the dust of the earth (Genesis 2:7). This is the origin of the idea that we have a dual nature: divine and human, godly and earthly, spirit and flesh, essence and form, energy and matter. Next, we must realize that we, as godlings, have been diminished further through the separation of the gender qualities that were originally combined, naturally one, in every soul. A male is projecting only half of his whole soul being, and a female, only half of hers.

As we are now on the ascent of our soul journey through matter, it is natural that, for many years now, men have been struggling to get in touch with their feminine side and women have been struggling to get in touch with their masculine. It is only natural, because the soul self is both feminine and masculine.

Let’s move on to the animal nature of this portion of our being. This fifth and lowest part of our being influences and is influenced by the bodily instincts, our animal nature, which contains all the base urges, cravings, and desires of bodily existence. But here also is our human nature, with its three-dimensional mind and personality, so shaped by our cultural and socioeconomic upbringing and genetic makeup. The animal and human nature compose our earthly Living Being. It is a thing apart from the heavenly, divine portions of our being.

Even when not incarnate, the cravings and habit patterns of this portion possess us, like a ghost that still desires physical sensation. Remember, the creature is inside the body, not the body itself, so even after the death of the body, this aspect of our being continues to influence us.

This “Living Being” is a dynamic that needs to be subdued, trained, and directed. Hinduism depicts this portion as a charioteer with the reins of the five stallions of the physical senses, which want to run wide and free! If the charioteer restrains self-seeking, self-gratifying impulses, then he or she opens the door to higher consciousness.

This lowest portion of our being is symbolized in the biblical character of Cain, whose name in Hebrew means “acquired” (from the Hebrew verb qana and explained by Eve herself in Genesis 4:1, “I have acquired one with the help of the Lord.”). This is an acquired aspect of our total being. It is willful, self-centered, self-seeking, and not perfected, as reflected in Cain’s character. God says to this aspect of our being, as to Cain: “Sin is crouching at the door [of your heart and mind]; its desire is for you, but you must master it.” (Genesis 4:7, italics mine) Sin, in Kabbalah, is imbalance and disharmony, most often caused by rebelliousness among the free-willed forces of life. When Cain rules, Abel (meaning “breath” in Hebrew but with the connotation of vapor, implying something transitory) is killed!

Abel is replaced with Seth (in Hebrew, Sheth), this name implying a new appointment. Again, Eve explains her choice of the name: “God has appointed [shath, meaning “replaced”) me another offspring . . . ” (Genesis 4:25) Seth is the ancestor of Noah, whose generations repeople this part of the world after all the evil ones are cleansed by the Great Flood. Cain’s progeny has moved far from Eden to the Land of Nod, east of Eden, which is modern-day Afghanistan. Cain is buried south of Kabul, Afghanistan. Isn’t it interesting that we find ourselves back in the lands of Nod (Afghanistan) and Eden (Iraq), and struggling over the Holy City of Jerusalem? Yet these involvements indicate that we are on our return path whence we came.

This acquired outer self has become so dominant that we assume it to be our whole being—who we feel we are—the rest of our being having fallen into our unconsciousness.

Edgar Cayce often addressed the issue of our outer, earthly self. In the following record, a young man asked Cayce how he might receive guidance from higher forces while in the body.

Q: How can [this] body become aware of the higher forces in himself as a guidance?

A: Seeing it, close self—mind, eyes, ears—to the outside world; recognizing as a fact that, “If I would know, if I would be, if I would comprehend, I must open my inner self—not the outer self—to those influences.” And then the awareness flows in.

EC 257–170

Here is another of Cayce’s comments on this aspect of our being:

Let the light that shines without be lighted by that light which is created from within, making the activities of the inner self and the outer self in accord.

EC 262–40; italics mine

Since this is such a physical level of our being, the incarnate portion, it is also important to consider the body’s effect on our being. Cayce was very much aware of this, and as a holistic health resource, he (named “the father of holistic medicine” by the American Holistic Medical Association) often associated bodily conditions with feelings of separation between the outer self and the inner self. Here’s one example:

The sympathetic system has been under such strains that all along those centers where there are particular centralization between the cerebrospinal and sympathetic system, makes for those of heaviness to the body, depressions in the feelings, as of far away feelings, as separations at times between the outer self and the inner self . . . as if the heart and lungs were too full for the body, heaviness in the lower portion of the torso, the feet feel as if they would drag, stretchy feelings through the lower portion of the limbs themselves. These are rather indications than causes. These are reflexes from an overtaxed mental and physical being, with improper nourishment or sustenance coming from the blood supply to bring buoyancy to the whole physical being; the brain feeling at times dull, as if unable to think farther on, as if it would stop. This all from the sympathetic system, and needs rather that of the resuscitation of elements in the physical being as would bring to the body those of renewed energies that would supply the whole system.”

EC 4393–1

Our outer being, this Living Being, is very much affected by the body’s condition and its physical surroundings. The mental portion inside the body needs the body to be properly assimilating nutrients and eliminating toxins that build up. Our outer being also needs to turn within to find the true light, love, and life. However, the inner path is often perplexing to the outer self. The inner path does not fit within the three-dimensional model of life. Let’s consider this further.

To help us grasp the odd, inner way to enlightenment and spiritual breakthrough, Cayce recommended reading Tertium Organum by Ouspensky. Among other things in this text, Ouspensky explains that a dimensional breakthrough requires an altered state of consciousness, because the next dimension does not exist in the present dimension. For example, imagine a one-dimensional being searching for the second dimension. This being may run back and forth on its single plane of existence and not find the second plane. The second dimension is perpendicular to its entire reality. It is totally alien to its current plane of existence. To clarify, imagine the first dimension as a single line —. The second dimension would be a perpendicular line to that line . Note that the second dimension does exist in the first. It is another reality, at a 90° angle to the first. And the third dimension does not exist within these first two dimensions. A two-dimensional being may run up and down and back and forth in its reality, but it will not find the third dimension without having a breakthrough from normal consciousness, because the third dimension runs in a plane that is perpendicular to the first and second dimensions, creating the corner of a cube.

This brings us to our three-dimensional selves and our search for higher dimensions beyond our reality. We now understand that the higher dimensions are not in the third dimension. We must experience an altered state of perception. Nothing in the projected, three-dimensional reality will lead us to the fourth dimension. What is more perpendicular to an object-oriented being than venturing within itself? We must move from objects to thoughts and mental images within our minds. These are the “things” of the next dimension. Consider that they have no physical form, no projected shape, yet they have substance. Their form is not matter but the energetics of thoughts, imagery, and feelings are very real to us. It is not a physical cube but the thought form and feeling of it that is fourth-dimensional.

Grandmother’s body may have died, but her deeper mind and core energetics live on; thus we can feel her, even see her with our deeper, dreaming mind’s eye.

Cayce could not always distinguish thoughts from actions in the astral accounts of persons he was giving readings for. That is, he was not always able to determine whether the person had actually done something or just thought about doing it, because thoughts are as real as actions in the higher dimensions he was attuned to!

Thoughts are things, and may be miracles or crimes in action.

EC 105–2

Each thought, as things, has its seed, and if planted, or when sown in one or another ground, brings its own fruit; for thoughts are things, and as their currents run must bring their own seed.

EC 288–29

We find these same teachings in Scripture:

For as he thinks in his heart, so is he.

Proverbs 23:7

The inner dimensions are as real and potent as the outer. The outer self must seek within to know these higher dimensions. This naturally leads us to the next level of our being: the soul mind.