The Tree of Life Exploded

For I’d say about 13 years now, since the blistering summer of 2004, Ive been studying the Kabbalistic Tree of Life, the object of Jewish mysticism.

Recently Ive taken it upon myself to explain the thing through video lectures. I did so after handing the baton of pure philosophy videos to my friend Sauwelios, who works under the name The Occident.

I’ll be posting my kabbalistic videos in this thread. Feel free to ask me questions, I’d of course be glad to answer them. The first lecture is about the veils of negative existence, which represent an explosion of a Parmenidean type positivist logic, from which actual positing can occur comprehensively, and unfold into a world-tree, an intellectual phenomenon shared by many cultures in widely varying types, natures.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=06ZfESt3Bpk[/youtube]

Jacob … I agree that Kabbalah is one of the world’s more mature religions … mature as in not overly contaminated with politics … economics … finance and so on.

Greetings, Pilgrim - that’s a welcome observation. One of its advantages is that it is impossible to use the tree to enforce dogma . Dogmatic people are quite simply too stupid and poor of spirit to grasp such rich dynamic, and too lazy to not grasp for easier means. I had a large section on this in the Chesed video…which I found to bitter and cut out.

Here’s episode 2, on the first Sephira: Kether, the Crown.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BgOxRSYGWFo[/youtube]

As of now, I am more interested in the background context for this system. I think this is a rather bold (but also intriguing) statement you made in your video, “Pineal gland and pituitary gland are processes of hormonal activity/vitality that precede the emergency of consciousness.” We now know that it is possible to survive without pituitary or pineal glands (some people have to have these glands removed because of tumors) but have to supplement with hormones after the surgeries. So, these glands (especially pituitary) do affect consciousness/thought/mood, among other things, but emergence of consciousness (consciousness itself) is not dependent on them.
However, that really brings up another question as to how these connections were even made in the first place, and some interesting things did come up. In my research, most of the Kabballah system was developed in the Middle Ages during the Ottoman Rule. It is also known that many physicians/doctors were Jewish (and even employed in Ottoman empire as Sultan’s personal physicians), so there is a possibility that some of the anatomical knowledge and its working had to be mystified. Generally, in Middle Ages open surgery was forbidden on a human body, so any kind of insight resulting from it could also be considered ‘mystical’ knowledge. (The movie The Physician is a good movie to watch to get an idea) Just imagine the things doctors had to do in order to gain a knowledge of the (live) workings of pineal and pituitary glands? shudders

Yes, it certainly has. Im not going into that at this point, I will when I approach the 22 Paths.

I wonder what you find esoteric about my explanations. I try to keep it purely logical.

Jacob … that Kabbala has survived is a blessing for humanity … confirms the theology of ‘remnant’ mentioned so often in the OT.

I watched your video and here is what I took away:

  1. Encouraged to hear your comments about infinite potential. Reminded me of my belief that every human is pregnant with enormous potential.

  2. One of the graphics resembles the ‘Yin Yang’ graphic … though the Yin Yang graphic is not a graphic but an actual rendition of how the universe operates … at least relative to this planet and the sun.

  3. You stated … paraphrasing … the Kether descends into duality and duality descends into multiplicity. For me … an echo of Loa Tzu thought in the Dao De Jing

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I know almost nothing about Kabbala … save a brief comment heard on TV about 20 years ago … paraphrasing … “adherents to Kabbala must share or the tap of wisdom is shut off”. By sharing you are ensuring a continual flow of wisdom into your being. :slight_smile:

I am trying to figure out how someone came about this kind of system. There must be some concrete examples from nature that were used as a model. If not, then to me, it’s just pure unattached fantasy.

(Dante’s inferno was also made up of nine levels)

And cats are believed to have nine lives. :smiley:

Im glad you respond to such a particular item in the series, Pilgrim. Yes, this unlimited potential is a very great asset of the Tree of Life philosophy. And what’s more, it is entirely logical.

There is infinite potential simply because there is nothing limiting the potential. There is no natural limit to potential-as-such. And the Tree of Life offers us one of the many ways humanity has to tap into that potential. It’s very powerful to just meditate on the ten spheres of the tree from Kether down to Malkuth, which I will try to make easier by producing a series of videos on each.

But even more powerful is starting with the veils of negative existence, Ein, Ein Soph, and Ein Soph Aur, before moving on to the fountainhead of Kether.

That is indeed remarkably similar, or identical, to the working of the supernal triad. Pythagoras was no stranger to this either, and of course it is simply a correct observation about the human mind, and its way of dividing single things in three attributes, such as in the simplest of terms, subject/object/action, past/present/future.

Its very good to encounter that phrase. It’s very true that this work re awakens wisdom and joy in me that had lain dormant.
Thinking about, and explaining the tree is always a process. You never know what direction the thoughts will take, you only decide where they will be ending up. The mind finds a new path each way, and it is always sensible.

In the lower Sephirot, this mixed with a lot of sensuous experience, scents, dreaming, animals, etc. In the higher sephirot, the greater philosophical principles and contradictions come to play.

Here’s the following episode, dealing with the first manifest and limited impulse - the birth of the will.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=em-hmbYgJeo[/youtube]

Jacob … inspirational comments … both here and in your video.

  1. Your words … “unborn potential” … my words “pregnant with enormous potential”.

  2. Your words … “weave your own basket”. For me, when people hear or read words like “unborn potential” … “pregnant with enormous potential” the mechanical … robotic … (un)thinking reaction is “fame, fortune,power”. The result being the doors and windows to Kether are slammed shut. The opportunity to “weave your own basket” has evaporated.

  3. You wrote … “Veils of negative existence” . I like the word ‘veil’ and all that it implies … still not convinced how these "veils’ are lifted … inclined to believe “openness” is the key … openness being a voluntary exile from our personal reservoir of consciousness. (our lifetime library of personal experiences).

  4. You wrote … “You never know what direction the thoughts will take, you only decide where they will be ending up. The mind finds a new path every way and is always sensible.”

For me, more echoes of Lao Tzu thought … a pillar of Lao Tzu thought is “spontaneity” reflected in his theory of Wu Wei. I’m not flogging Lao Tzu … simply expressing my excitment at the parallels between Kabbalah and Dao De Jing.

More emerging thoughts on the topic of “veil(s) of resistance”.

  1. A journey to Kether demands/commands an inward journey.

  2. An inward journey demands/commands a voluntary exile from our lifetime outward journey … a temporary separation from our reservoir of personal experiences.

  3. Like the notion of a ‘Beginner’s Mind’ …
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  1. I’m not talking about a memory wipe … yet … at least a temporary setting aside of all memory.

  2. An inward journey is intimidating … and rightfully so. The journey is fraught with peril … some imagined … some real. Likely explains why so many people who start the journey abandon the journey long before they reach the destination.

  3. Read this article a few hours ago … comments from a Catholic perspective that seem relevant. ronrolheiser.com/turning-inner-c … SBittIrLMy

  4. The journey to Kether is usually long and difficult … the visit with Kether very brief and the return journey to self very quick. We are told we should “chop wood” after the return journey. ergo: return to the daily humdrum of life … yet … one who has made the return journey never returns to his/her previous world view … previous life view.

:sunglasses: Reminds me of the first people to make the return journey to the Americas … the “New World”. These people created the foundation for the mass migration that followed. Seems logical the same pattern applies for the journey to Kether … those who successfully complete the journey become the ‘bridge’ for the subsequent mass migration of humanity.

Pilgrim,
I think it’s right to associate the veils of negative existence, which are the keys to the infinite potential (the keys to remove the arbitrary limits of this or that form) with the sort of empty speaces the article describes. It is certain that no one can come to any spiritual understanding or power from within a crowd, or a family, or any type of group. It must be attained in solitude with nature. By the way I am honestly honored you are getting something out of these videos.

As an aside, I personally think the idea of closing off temples from the outside air is insane, and a place like that can never actually help ascension. All modern religions tend to do it, where of course classical temples were built more from the idea that the Earth is home and the sky is the roof. I can never breathe in a church. When I do I need to vomit.

Pandora,
I have indeed not even mentioned the obvious, that the Tree is modeled after the human body. The logics are related to the endocrine system, of course, otherwise it would be unrelated to human nature. Its just that the endocrine system is in turn related to… necessity. It unfolds. Ive done quite some study on the hormone sequencing, the cardinal function of the pineal gland in producing basic materials for a hormonal chemistry - so one will normally, to name some examples, place the pineal gland in Kether and/or Chokmah, the pituitary in Binah and Daath, the adrenal glands in Netzach, the testis in Yesod, etc.

Being built from Euclidean and Pythagorean logics while embedded in the described Parmenidean positivism, the claim is that the tree can effectively represent a blueprint of the human being qua its potential for self-knowledge. Fanatics will claim that the human is modeled after the tree. they misunderstand: the claim is that the tree is modeled through the same logics that gave birth to all things in nature, and that it explodes these logics into human thresholds: what only ever interests me in a theory or model such as this tree is what it’s worth in term of its fruits. My philosophy certainly is facilitated by the cognitive-emotive methods disclosed by working through the Tree of Life.

Here’s the fourth video, third Sephira, Binah: Understanding, the head of the pillar of Form and Severity.
The sphere related to the Great Mother, Isis, Astarte, Maia, the great sea from which all life springs.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dCKK5hlXTrc[/youtube]

As of now, I am more interested in the background context for this system. I think this is a rather bold (but also intriguing) statement you made, “Pineal gland and pituitary gland are processes of hormonal activity/vitality that precede the emergency of consciousness.” We now know that it is possible to survive without pituitary or pineal glands (some people have to have these glands removed because of tumors) but have to supplement with hormones after the surgeries. So, these glands (especially pituitary) do affect consciousness/thought/mood, among other things, but emergence of consciousness (consciousness itself) is not dependent on them.
But to me, that brings up another question as to how these connections were even made in the first place, and some interesting things did come up. In my research, most of the Kabballah system was developed in the Middle Ages during the Ottoman Rule. It is also known that many physicians/doctors (even employed in Ottoman empire as Sultan’s personal physicians) were Jewish, so there is a possibility that some of the anatomical knowledge and its working had to be mystified. Generally, in Middle Ages, open surgery was forbidden on a human body, so any kind of insight resulting from it could also be considered ‘mystical’ knowledge. (The movie The Physician is a good movie to watch to get an idea) Just imagine the things doctors had to do in order to gain a knowledge of the (live) workings of pineal and pituitary glands? shudders

The pineal gland starts the chain of hormonal production in the embryo. Like other glands such as the thyroid it often shrivels and/or dies off, this is precisely the problem of our time - many are cut off from the source. Even if this is only symbolically as the being is already become its own loop, Im convinced that these things arent supposed to dry out, just like the Earth isnt supposed to be deforested and like the oceans arent supposed to have the life in them die out as rapidly as it is happening - something is off, and that is precisely why a lot of us are reaching back to such tools as these, where the entire cosmos (order) of the human body is respected.

As for ancient brain surgery:

Note also that 99 percent of all pre-Christian texts in the West-Roman Empire were burned, and slightly less in the Byzantine realm. Most occult, Egypt-oriented studies (the Jews are in ways an Egyptian tribe) resurfaced in the East through accidentally surviving fragments. The Jews themselves haven’t exactly been reliable in showing the back of their tongue, and the Kabbalah is deferred to as the soul of the Torah, so I imagine secrecy is involved. After all, the things reason for existing is to convey power.

Do you believe in fate?
General question to everyone.

Aside from the linear progression through time, where we do things and things happen to us, we have the orthogonal, upward directions where we have insights and breakthroughs.
Such insights and breakthroughs are what you should imagine if you ask yourself what a Sephira is meant to represent. One needs to break into them by life altering visions. And so we ascend up the tree and alter our fate - not so much what happens to us, as how we responds to it and thus where we end up as a result.

Or from the experience enforced on us by other humans.

In the upward approach, I would attribute this to Hod, the Mercury sphere, following the emotive Moon sphere of Yesod.

Which would rely on a purified Yesod. The moon sphere of memory and the subconscious, the physiological, to which pertains “The Vision of the Machinery of the Universe”.

Yes, and I have personally have seen young men perish on such paths. None of them was proficient in the kabbalah though - they all took from all schools but trusted no system but what they hoped could become their own.
I was never under the impression that I had created my own body, so I had less problems with accepting some basic truths about it that I didnt invent, like that we have a left and a right brain hemisphere between which consciousness emerges.

As a human in Kether, we want to do little else than chop wood or clean dishes - nothing is so pleasant as hands on work when one is in the clean states of consciousness.
I ve never said or really explicitly thought this - now I see Kether as Malkuth -
I now see the source inside of my own personal bond with the Earth and its demands -
that this is truly the challenge once a certain insight has been reached - to place pure effort of the source into daily affairs
and this is indeed very zen, and very tao-like.
There are many tools, but the world never changes its nature.

What the kabbalah offers is a long, arduous and aggressively transformative path, it is in this sense different from Tao- more alike to Kriya- and Kundalini-Yoga.

That’s an interesting similarity, and though I am not excluding possible brain surgery practices by ancient Egyptians, I think when considering all possible origins, something like a Lanner (or Barbary) falcon is a better candidate for the origin of the representation for the Eye of Horus.
theflacks.co.za/wp-content/u … IS-ONE.jpg

I read this yesterday … part of a commentary on Scriptural readings:

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For me, the question that begs to be asked is … are these “insights” random or targeted to specific individuals. If targeted … how? I floated a suggestion in another OP that didn’t get any traction. Our DNA is a transmitter/receiver and our brain is the processor(CPU)

Almost every morning I chop cabbage for my wife’s birds … the best part of the day for me. :slight_smile:

Reminds me of my posts in another OP about the symbiotic relationship between a seed and the soil.

IMO Taoism is not sufficiently well known in the West … for example - the Taoist discovery of the human energy meridians … acupuncture and the Taoist discovery of how to harness and channel energy in Kung Fu and Tai Chi … particularly how to use your opponent’s energy against him/her. :slight_smile:

Maybe that’s the reason I’m in China … there are no churches here. :slight_smile: earth is home and the sky is the roof … and the food ain’t so great. :slight_smile:

For me, churches, mosques, temples and so on have their place … excluding as you said … a place to help ascension. Reminds me of what the local priest told me many years ago … we were discussing my ‘watershed moment’ … paraphrasing … if God is calling you … He will call you alone.

I listened to your video … took away the notions you mentioned … “form” and “force”. The Dao De Jing uses the terms “Being Within Form” and “Being Without Form” … do you ‘see’ any parallels?

The tree is a model of the human ability for consciousness. It’s a blueprint of relations, of different faculties of consciousness.

The number 10 was likely chosen for the same reasons that we ended up using it for our other calculations as well - it suits our mind.

It makes perfect sense to use the minds most natural inclinations when building tools to enhance it.

9 is however an entirely different number from 10.

Okay, for Kabballah system, I’ll go with ten fingers, then.

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aish.com/sp/k/Kabbala_4_Why_10.html