FW: Laibl Wolf Inspiration & Blog 9

Laibl Wolf Inspiration & Blog 9

When the Heart Soars

- Laibl Wolf, Dean, Spiritgrow - The Josef Kryss Wholistic Centre, Australia

Words are packages that contain the flow of mind. Feelings are packages that contain the flow of heart. In this succinct manner do Chassidic teachings of Kabbala explain the two flows of consciousness - Mind and Heart.

Even the great poets and word-smiths struggle to capture the nuances of the experience of love in words. Words are the coinage of mortals. Love, the Divine gift, cannot be compressed into finity of words. Love is the experience of creation, of discovery, of the exquisite taste of connectedness and intimacy. An experience of feelings, not words.

That unique work of practical Kabbalah, the Book of Tanya, describes love as the ultimate truth embedded in the act of the Cosmic ‘big bang’. The echoes of that Divine radicalism continue to reverberate through the Cosmos and transmute into our humanly expressed love for each other. Love is more than the experiential titillation of the body. It includes all the nuances of Hessed (the gift of sharing and compassion). It is the glue that bonds discrete centres of energy called souls.

The author of the Tanya, the Alter Rebbe, identifies three qualities of love. The first is latent in all of us. This ‘hidden potentia’, Ahavah Nisteres (‘concealed love’) is the antenna that directs our life’s purpose. It is unveiled through meditation, study, and practice. It allows our heart to soar to immense heights of self-realization. Through the power of love we experience the Infinite – we touch G-d.

One would have thought that the wings of love that soar so high would define human limits and be restricted to the gifted few. Not so, states the Alter. We all possess this potential. But it takes work and effort to manifest it. There is however an even higher state of love called Ahavah BeTa’anugim (the love of ultimate pleasure). This is experienced by the Tzaddikim (the spiritual masters). It is an ongoing state of deep connectedness with the Divine that knows no limit or boundary. It does need to be called upon, worked for, aroused, or tutored. It simply is. An ongoing state of deep ecstasy and profound oneness with the All.

One would be pardoned for imagining that there exists a love no higher. Not so, teaches the Alter Rebbe. There is a love in the third degree - a love borne out of darkness. It is the light that shines into the deep cavity of heart after the veil is removed – when the illusion is lifted. This is the love of the ‘ba’al teshuva’ – the one who makes a discovery of true love after having lived a lie, after groping in the darkness of confusion and spiritual blindness – the deception of the ego self (Nefesh Behamis).

Hence the Talmudic wisdom teaching: where the ‘ba’al teshuva’ (spiritual returnee) stands, even the Tzaddik (master) cannot stand. In the Jewish spiritual mastery teachings, even the Tzaddik must transform into a ‘ba’al teshuva’ i.e. the master also has infinite potential of growth and higher self-realization. The master also grows! Unlike the eastern notion of the Buddha as perfection, the Tzaddik experiences the limitless ‘nirvanna’ but is capable of transcending to infinite growth levels without end. Each step higher becomes a greater intensity of the third degree of love and the experience of Oneness. But the Tzaddik experiences this incrementally, if at all, notwithstanding the status of Master. The ‘ba’al teshuva’ experiences transformation constantly and grows geometrically. Hence the psychology of the returnee – never satisfied with a status quo and always questing for more.

A little light pushes away much darkness. Why? Because the power of transformation takes place at the ‘tipping point’ of spiritual fission. The resultant release of immense energy splits the spiritual atom. The world is transformed. The person is transformed. ‘Living-lite’ is transformed into profound enlightenment.

The experience of love draws directly from the fount of Infinity. It is never quenched. In the inexorable quest for love, the world is turned on its head.

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