Laibl's Spiritual Inspiration - The Josef Kryss Wholistic Center

BLOG 34: A SPIRITUAL MONET

spiritgrow@laiblwolf.com (Laibl Wolf) — Tue, 06 Apr 2010 12:33:00 +0000

Blog 34: 14^th April 2010

A Spiritual Monet

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

The art student studies the Monet in awe and amazement. The exchange of light and shade; the subtle swirl of the brush; the uplifting spirit tinged with a hint of mystery – pathways to a spiritual experience that has enthralled connoisseur and idle doodler alike.

Every delicate and understated expression of a master is laden with deliberateness – layers of unfolding truths. An oft repeated Hassidic tale speaks of a student who stealthily slips under the bed of his master just to observe how sleep-mastery is expressed.

The sleeping giant we call world is a labyrinth of discovery – not just lateral discovery of the lands and continents, flora and fauna, topography and seismic activity, but also a vertical dimension – personality, motivation, fulfillment and love. the fourth dimension invites the spiritual searcher into an elaborate crystal dewed web of energetic Sefirotic forces that coagulate and discharge like an ever-changing cosmic chameleon. Here too lies mastery – Divine mastery, a spiritual Monet extrapolated into an unimaginably complex tapestry of universal art.

The student of life must lie at night under the Master’s bed staring at the enormity of the star studded canopy above. The enormity of a star’s energy – its pulsating ebb and flow of solar might, hinted only in its twinkle to the naked eye. And yet, that same energy, and more, lies embedded, like a coiled spring, in the smallest particle of matter. And beneath that tiniest particle – the equivalent of the same spiritual thrust that launched creation.

In the same way that every cell of the body contains the whole, so does every particle contain the Cosmos and the creative energy that launched the ever expanding big-bang. And that galactic explosion was birthed by the still small voice – the embryo of first creative breath that emitted the primordial sounds: ‘Yehi Ohr’ (let there be the [creative]light).

We may be mere mortals, blind to the enormity of the brush strokes of creation. But within each one of us stirs the potential appreciation of a true connoisseur. We may be only peeking over the shoulder of the Artist at work. But life provides us with glimpses of immense beauty, pattern, and unending depth latent within moment of now, an echo of what was, and a hint of what will be.

Life has to be lived – with depth and consciousness. What a loss to run frenetically from self imposed crisis to into personal morass, from artificial busy-ness to superficial socialization. Spend time looking over the Artist’s shoulder, peer through His eyes. Discover the wonderment of the dynamic art we call conscious, sentient life.

(Your comments are invited: Click on reception@spiritgrow.org and let me have the benefit of your insight)

Laibl’s web site: www.laiblwolf.com - Laibl’s blog site: www.laiblwolf.com/blog/ – Spiritgrow – The Josef Kryss Wholistic Center, Australia site www.SpiritgrowJosefKryssCenter.org

BLOG 33: THE COLLECTIVE SOUL

spiritgrow@laiblwolf.com (Laibl Wolf) — Wed, 31 Mar 2010 06:41:00 +0000

Blog 33: 31st March 2010

The Collective Soul

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

Think of it logically. Earth has a surface area of billions of square miles Continents like North America and Africa occupy many of these millions. There are countries like Australia and Greenland that are significant slabs of planet earth. The peoples of these countries and continents have a rich tapestry of collective memories that weaves a blanket of national histories. The footprints of national psyche leave indelible impressions that school children dust off to discover their forbears’ courage and heroism. Time and history intertwine in a mysterious experience of space, soul, and infinity.

Each national tribe has a profound spiritual connection to the earth it occupies. This connection is expressed in the intangibility of pride and belonging. It is reflected in the songs, the ballads, the narratives, and the dance of feet that twirls the dust of the soil and extends the head beyond the sky.

Planet Earth has one tiny fulcrum – a land mass of mere metres in comparison. It’s spatial insignificance is in remarkable contrast to its historical impact on the denizens of world societies. It has featured in the history of all major religions, empires, and continues to dominate the headlines of contemporary media. The utter illogicality of its historical centrality is breathtakingly absurd. This global and historical anomaly is Israel.

It is erev Pesach – the eve of the festival of Exodus – a festival that celebrates the pre-birth of the Jewish nation and its first national pilgrimage and settlement of the holy land. This was the first reading, the Haggadah, of and by the people of the book. I am sitting on a bus looking at Bedouin skin tents dotting a seemingly barren sandy, rocky hilly terrain. And just as suddenly I see the green oasis and date palms of Jericho. The contrast is magical. The illusion of lifelessness and listlessness belies a frenetic and energetic fertility one layer below – a metaphor for the indomitable human spirit.

Suddenly my subconscious memory arouses collective memories. I see camel trains patiently crossing invisible desert routes wending their way to cities of old. I sense the feeling of excitement and expectancy as the caravan children chatter their imaginative colorations of the next watering hole. My pre-birth mind envelopes the deep-seated strength of many generations of pioneers who set their compass to unknown cross-hairs of a tiny country that boasts climatic differentials true of the largest continents and the consequent flora and fauna of huge land masses.

In this moment I am those people, those fields, those trees and those shifting sands. I am the paved stones trodden on by centuries of warring armies, of generations of Jewish pedestrians, by traders from the most distant shores of the known and unknown world. I blend into time and space and my collective unconsciousness invades my being. I am yesterday’s person, living today and yet apprehending a prescient knowing of a pre-ordained tomorrow.

My words could be the words of an American Indian binding with his Americas. Or the dreamtime walkabout of Australian aborigines. But my words are those of a Jew whose soul is intertwined with a biblically recorded rootedness with a tiny tract of intractable real estate – the biblical land of Israel.

The minute hand rises to the fullness of an hour. Radio headlines spit out images of a fleeting now. The facile comments of talking heads reduce to mere background static, white noise, that loses its audibility in the vibration of eternal words. My soul’s roots intertwine with the collective soul of a people that transcends history and politics.

I am who I am. And I am home.

(Your comments are invited: Click on reception@spiritgrow.org and let me have the benefit of your insight)

Laibl’s web site: www.laiblwolf.com - Laibl’s blog site: www.laiblwolf.com/blog/ – Spiritgrow – The Josef Kryss Wholistic Center, Australia site www.SpiritgrowJosefKryssCenter.org

spiritgrow@laiblwolf.com (Laibl Wolf) — Mon, 29 Mar 2010 08:26:00 +0000

BLOG 33: THE COLLECTIVE SOUL

spiritgrow@laiblwolf.com (Laibl Wolf) — Sun, 28 Mar 2010 13:13:00 +0000

Blog 33: 31st March 2010

The Collective Soul

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

Planet Earth has one tiny fulcrum – a land mass of mere meters in comparison. It’s spatial insignificance is in remarkable contrast to its historical impact on the denizens of world societies. It has featured in the history of all major religions, empires, and continues to dominate the headlines of contemporary media. The utter illogicality of its historical centrality is breathtakingly absurd. This global and historical anomaly is Israel.

I am who I am. And I am home.

(Your comments are invited: Click on reception@spiritgrow.org and let me have the benefit of your insight)

Laibl’s web site: www.laiblwolf.com - Laibl’s blog site: www.laiblwolf.com/blog/ – Spiritgrow – The Josef Kryss Wholistic Center, Australia site www.SpiritgrowJosefKryssCenter.org

Thank you for attending my presentation and purchasing my materials. I do hope that it met with your expectations and that you benefited from it. It was a pleasure to have you in the audience.

Kindly note that your credit card will be processed in AUSTRALIA and therefore you will find an item on your next statement from Australia in the name of Spiritgrow. Do not be confused - your credit card has not been stolen - it is the purchase at the our event together. The amount will be at the equivelant conversion rate. (If you asked for ordered material for sending to you there will be a small shipping charge included)

Wishing you much joy and success.

Many blessings

Laibl Wolf

BLOG 32: TAPPING INTO THE INFINITE

spiritgrow@laiblwolf.com (Laibl Wolf) — Sun, 21 Mar 2010 11:47:00 +0000

Blog 32: 23rd March 2010

Tapping into the Infinite

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

One person sees an insurmountable obstacle. The other sees an exciting challenge. What determines the reframing process? Why do so many people employ a tried and failed screensaver of the mind – defeatism, while others revel in hues of bright green – a go signal?

The key distinction lies in the dynamics of self confidence, self worth, self esteem, and self belief – unleashing the power within. The defeatists’ psyche is a fragile montage of broken jagged glass edges. The slightest misstep will cut and maim. The victor’s mind-set is in the form of a flow, a surge of energy, a spiritual surfer whose synergy with the wave guarantees an exciting and successful quest for the shoreline.

Slave mentality characterized the original exodus. A doubt-stricken mutinous rabble fought tooth and nail to subvert its future. If it were not for the indomitable spirit and self belief of its charismatic leader, Moses, the Exodus would have imploded. One man molded the collective consciousness of a fledgling nation. One man reframed the deadening expanse of sand and dune to see a highway to freedom while the millions feared the terrors of the unknown.

The reframing process is not a neat logical exercise. As a mind-manager I can set out the ABC’s of mental steps to reframe and shift perception. But success comes at a tipping point. And that point lies not in the brain but in the heart. Academic understanding, alone, cannot produce a paradigm shift. It has to be alloyed to a self-belief that draws on the infinite wellsprings of the soul.

Karate: slamming the edge of one’s hand against the brick can become a bloody gory failure of torn skin and shattered bone. Or the same kinetic energy can slice through the stone like putty. The difference lies not in the power expended. It lies in completing a circuit – the circuit of mind, body and soul. If the soul is not tapped, even the mind cannot assist the body. The ABC’s may be there, but the infinite has not been enlisted.

Have you experienced that surge, that power, that infinite capacity that comes with absolute self confidence? It is awesome. Nothing can stand in your way. It defines a Mohammed Ali in the boxing ring, a Roger Federer on the court, and a Roger Bannister on the athletics field. Their great successes came not from mere technique and strategy – body and mind. Their extraordinary successes were the result of unbounded belief that ‘it can be done’ when no-one else believed it possible.

That was Moses. He believed that he could transform a slave nation and propel it into the annals of history – a trajectory that finds the enigmatic survival of the oldest extant culture, the Jewish people, still vibrantly active on the world stage. He possessed the magic, not of the magician, but of the power beyond the conscious. Each one of us possesses that same aptitude.

A wise master, the Alter Rebbe, once said that should relive daily the existential experience of being a Moses - a training exercise to touch the infinite within. To simulate our inner ‘Moses’ we must assume the same posture as those forbears did – hence the Matza (unleavened bread), wine, bitter herbs, afikoman, (‘desert’ Matza) employed in the (upcoming) Passover ceremony known as Seder (structured replay of the Exodus). By recreating the same spiritual panorama we simulate a success story and apply a formula that profoundly transforms obstacle into challenge, and challenge into success.

May the force be with you.

(Your comments are invited: Click on reception@spiritgrow.org and let me have the benefit of your insight)

Laibl’s web site: www.laiblwolf.com - Laibl’s blog site: www.laiblwolf.com/blog/ – Spiritgrow – The Josef Kryss Wholistic Center, Australia site www.SpiritgrowJosefKryssCenter.org

blog 31: hypo criticism or hypocrisy

spiritgrow@laiblwolf.com (Laibl Wolf) — Sun, 14 Mar 2010 12:45:00 +0000

Blog 31: 16^th March 2010

Hypo-criticism or Hypocritical

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

Hypocrisy is an astounding human phenomenon. Fully integrated, exquisitely wired, electro-statically interfaced, chemically inter-laced, Homo sapiens, will think one thing, say another, and then do what neither thoughts nor words professed. If this were a robot we would consign it to the garbage heap. Wikipedia very generously suggests that “Humans have a highly developed brain, capable of abstract reasoning, language, introspection and problem solving.” Well, that definition is practiced in the breach!

Just observe: Sophisticated countries around the world continuously spy on each other, have lockers full of copied passports for immediate use, invade the privacy of myriads of its citizens, offend all basic laws of democratic society – yet they will all, in unison, point a morally accusing finger at a naughty Mossad. (Let’s not even consider that Israel is probably the only country in the world fully surrounded by countries that have no compunction about wiping it off the map!). Or, the leader of opposition in Australia will admit publicly that he would counsel his daughter against indiscriminate sexual liaisons, only to be called a prude by a ‘liberal’ media culture. Yet when asked about his own daughter, one of the ‘free-thinking’ editors stated that he needed ‘to think about the matter.’ Hmm. Furthermore, what was defined as progressive ‘raunchiness’ by twentieth century tabloids now sees the very same publishers ‘progressively’ at the forefront of ‘morals’ and ‘scruples’. ( Morality must be currently a lucrative sale, huh? Wham I having difficulty believing that these former flower-children have become straight-laced conservatives?). And then we have paragons of virtue, including ‘holy’ clergymen, sexually exploiting those under their charge. (But that’s ok because the church is cleaning up its act. Oh really? (How about making a few citizen arrests Mr. Pope, and handing over culprits to the police?)

Who are the hypocrites? Weak-kneed, loose-principled, quick-fix-ated, vote-getting, status seeking brand of Homo sapiens. And the best way to duck for cover – point the finger at the next person.

We are so used to hypocrisy at a macro and micro level that cynicism hardens our sensitivities – even dulls us into docile acceptance. It’s not our fault says the government – it’s the contractor we hired! Hey, what happened to the Westminster rules Mr. Premier? It’s not our fault say the divorced-but-come-out-fighting-financially head-butting-parents of a teenage crim, - he’s just a bad apple. Another chorus: It’s not our fault say the huge mega-industrial chemical poisoners of our food chains - as cancer rates soar to record highs curiously paralleling ‘food giants’ profits – in fact we are helping society by dealing with an exploding world population. (I suppose a ‘people-cull’ is one way to contain population growth!)

Some will exclaim that I am being hypo-critical. To which I would respond: what’s wrong with being a straight, honest, caring homo sapien? The ancient Talmud notes in an exquisite piece of wisdom-teaching that “a person’s outside should be like his inside”. No double standards. No blatant hypocrisy. No mixed messages. Just thinking morally, speaking truly, and doing it well. Is that difficult? Apparently yes.

I think it’s time Mrs. ‘Preachy’ Clinton decided to give back a piece of Washington to the former owners, the Red Indians, before tongue-lashing Israel about sharing its Jerusalem. I think it’s time media players stopped bending morals to the enriching temptation of tabloid sensationalism and appealed to the higher quality of its readers, not the lowest common denominator. I think it’s time each one of us, took a cold hard look at the words that come out of our mouth and practice the values we truly espouse.

A challenge: next time you are at your cocktail party, poker game, family table, or football match, share with those around you something you truly believe in. Don’t camouflage yourself from with cleverness, brazenness, and bravado. Don’t suck up to the guy you want to con. Have the courage to change the moral climate of the world. Inject a first wave antidote combating the shallow hypocrisy that is becoming cynically accepted as a new norm.

As a wise man once said: Be the change you want to see in the world.

(Your comments are invited: Click on reception@spiritgrow.org and let me have the benefit of your insight)

Laibl’s web site: www.laiblwolf.com - Laibl’s blog site: www.laiblwolf.com/blog/ – Spiritgrow – The Josef Kryss Wholistic Center, Australia site www.SpiritgrowJosefKryssCenter.org

BLOG 30: DYNAMIC MEDITATION

spiritgrow@laiblwolf.com (Laibl Wolf) — Sun, 14 Mar 2010 12:42:00 +0000

Blog 30: 9^nd March 2010

Dynamic Meditation

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

Every day we wake to paint on the canvas of life. We choose the colours. We choose the shapes. We choose the position. Life’s meaning is embedded in these choices. The alternative is to become a victim of circumstances and other people’s agendas.

Choice requires kinetic energy. The potential energy of facing a fresh canvas needs to be transformed into active energy of mindfulness and consciousness. This is not a passive languid exercise. The moment of choice becomes a fission point – a tipping point – a spark that kindles the wood of enlightenment. But only if your meditative moment is well practiced. Meditation is not simply quieting the mind. At times it needs to be an energetic flow of inspired colours, hues and techniques. I call this ‘dynamic meditation’.

In the moment of choice the waves of uncertainty collapse into a new reality - so state quantum physics and Chabad philosophy.

What are the tools needed to actuate the moment’s potential? Well practiced spiritual rehearsal that leads to a new default response for the searching mind, viz:

a) When: There is a reason why a challenge, encounter, even a mere thought, occurs at any particular point in time. What clue does it reveal about the wisdom of your potential response?

b) Why: Why did this scenario arise? What is its background? What were some of the emotional and self-preservational ‘thrusters’ that launched it?

c) Who: Who has the universe selected to be your teacher in the moment? The personality, circumstances, and nature of the person(s) who is being sent to you as an agent of learning, is significant.

To practice ‘dynamic meditation’ means to re-train and re-create new default responses to moments of challenge, change, uncertainty, and evolution. The restraint-harness that blocks the creative moment of choice is fear. The antidote: the realization that you are not in charge, you are not in control. Yet the universe has already provided you with a true solution. Find it. It is there. In Kabbalah we call that the principle of Hashgocho Protis (you are under the beneficent and watchful eye of the Universe). Is that comforting? Might be initially frightening to some. Yet this repose of humility and acceptance creates a completely fresh canvas to paint your mind-picture of this moment. And it frees the mind to engage in healthy search – ‘dynamic meditation’.

This is trainable, learnable, teachable, and do-able. It will free you from the entangled web of former adversities, hurts, and emotional cripplers. These three W’s (When, Why, Who) hold the key to becoming a virtuoso of the soul, a Rembrandt of the brush, a Frank Lloyd Wright of design.

Be creative. Let me hang your painting on my wall!

(Your comments are invited: Click on reception@spiritgrow.org and let me have the benefit of your insight)

Laibl’s web site: www.laiblwolf.com - Laibl’s blog site: www.laiblwolf.com/blog/ – Spiritgrow – The Josef Kryss Wholistic Center, Australia site www.SpiritgrowJosefKryssCenter.org

blog 29

spiritgrow@laiblwolf.com (Laibl Wolf) — Tue, 02 Mar 2010 23:08:00 +0000

Blog 29: 2^nd March 2010

Of ‘Bluebeards’ and Soul-speak

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

I was participating at a farbrengen tisch last night – it being Purim. farbrengen, you ask? An old style Hassidic rap-session around a table where you get high on Torah, charisma, and a little help from the ‘geller’ and ‘vaysser’. Purim? Read: carnivale - Jewish style. ‘geller’ - Yiddish: yellow, colloquial Hassidic jargon for whiskey). ‘vaysser’ – Yiddish: white, colloquial jargon for vodka. Tisch – Yiddish: lit. table, but laden with food. Now you know exactly where I was and what I was as doing last night. Reads like a long tweet, no?

Here we were – a bunch of ‘blue-beards’ (and some younger black-beards) and some ‘fremder mentchen’ – guys off the street who don’t get it as yet because they walk the ways of the western person. Quite a motley assortment of humans cutting loose because Purim is when you cut loose.

And the ‘blue-beard’ with the whitest hue was holding forth, regaling each guy around the table with his ‘neshomodicker’ (soulful) challenge: “You’re laughing but are you really happy?”. The ‘vaysser’ was really kicking in and a truer level of self was beginning to reveal itself. (Lest the cynical distort this modern tale with a suggestion that a farbi - Aussi slang for Farbrengen – is a tenuous excuse for a drink too many, let it be quickly notedf that the elders in our tradition keep the less experienced ‘farbrengenners’ well in check!)

There are occasions when intellectual repartee can lead to truths. Off hand. I don’t recall any example. Just watched an u-tube when a supposed ‘Kabbalist’ ( a dime a dozen these days on Google) posed this question and went on to dissect the elements of happiness with such depth and clarity that I felt truly sad. Oy! Painful. Happiness is experienced not intellectualized, man! Don’t you get it? Well I guess he won’t because he makes a mint dissecting – bit like a spiritual morgue.

So the head ‘farbengenner’ was beginning to work his way deeper into the psyche of his fremder mentchen and they were beginning to wonder whether they should be smiling or crying because the ‘bluebeard’ was now challenging their most basic understandings of happiness. You mean watching a guy kicking a piece of leather around the ground does it for you? Conquering another chic is your high point of life? (These contemporary Hassidic types are quite up with the lingo!). And so he went on destroying each one’s veneer of happiness.

‘Don’t you get it?’ he roared. “Happiness means connecting! Means looking the guy seated next to you and being willing to put your life on the line for him. Looking G-d in His face and saying with the fullness of heart: I am with you Man! Happiness is not about ‘me’. It’s about Oneness. You know how Haman (the villain of the Purim piece) got so close to annihilating the Jews of ancient Persia? Because they were ‘scattered’. No, not just scattered in mind, that too, but scattered from each other, separate, uncaring, unable to act in unison, lacking a sense of achdus (one-ness).”

And so it went. And the miracle occurred – as it does at all farbengens. The façade disappears. The veneer is penetrated. The lies we live dissolve. The feet might feel a fraction rubbery as we leave the tisch but the wobble gives us freedom to change direction. We swivel on a new fulcrum. It’s not longer the play of mind and heavy rationalizing justifying why we are the way we are and a mentality of ‘poor me’. It’s the soul singing. We stop being a victim and wake up from our stupor. And we feel a new liberation – the pathway to true happiness.

Purim is about waking up, not about losing it! Where were you this Purim? Where are you now? Happy? Pesach is around the corner - spiritual liberation. Get ready. How? Make Purim every day till Pesach.

(Your comments are invited: Click on reception@spiritgrow.org and let me have the benefit of your insight)

Laibl’s web site: www.laiblwolf.com - Laibl’s blog site: www.laiblwolf.com/blog/ – Spiritgrow – The Josef Kryss Wholistic Center, Australia site www.SpiritgrowJosefKryssCenter.org

BLOG 29 ADJUST YOUR RADAR SCREEN

spiritgrow@laiblwolf.com (Laibl Wolf) — Sun, 28 Feb 2010 22:54:00 +0000

Blog 28: 23^RD FEB. 2010

Adjust Your Radar Screen

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

(Apologies: the link to my new mini-meditations was unresponsive last week – so here it is – live and active! )

Speaking of unresponsiveness, why is the world so unresponsive to my needs? I want happiness. I want security. I want consideration. I want time for myself. I want to engage in a meaningful life. Why doesn’t it happen?

The short answer is: it is happening all the time, but our ‘inner ambience’ is not registering it.

If a radar system is set to pick up air traffic within the parameters of 1000 feet and 25,000 feet it will display the blips of all approaching planes between those height limits. What if a plane flies in ‘below the radar screen’ – below 1000 feet? It simply won’t register. Is it there? Of course! Is it being detected? No!

Our formative childhood experiences, our relational background, and our life’s circumstances – all these calibrate our internal radar screen. Couple with that the particular radar system we are using – the nature of our particular soul - and you have individual and limited vision on your consciousness-screen. For one person a nasty retort leaves a deep anger that festers for days. Another person will treat the incident as a passing annoyance and treat it like water off a duck’s back not giving it a second thought. For one person a difficult parent/child relationship will leave deep emotional scar-tissue undermining future relationships. For another, childhood pain is simply neutralized in the joy of new relational opportunities in life.

What can we do to recalibrate our internal radar system? We begin with the proposition that life presents us each, individually, with just the right opportunities that perfectly match our soul’s potential. This is an axiomatic teaching in Kabbalah. But we are given the choice of registering life’s offerings correctly on our consciousness screen. The designer of our ‘radar system’ provided us with the capacity to change the settings. This mechanism is called free choice. But if we are technologically impoverished, we don’t know how to adjust the settings. Our consciousness might be calibrated poorly. Life’s opportunities and teachings pass by undetected. The world seems unresponsive to our needs!

I assure you that learning the skills to change your consciousness settings will provide you with an abundance of life’s gifts. But to become a spiritual radar technician you must train - especially if life has taken a toll on your ‘settings’. The training program has many tools. To let go of fear (link ), to detoxify poisonous emotions and enjoy happiness (link ), to think well of ourselves through self esteem (link ) , to experience the inner radar system – our soul ( link) – these are important tools that reshape our minds and hearts, our consciousness – our inner ambience.

The world is indeed responsive to your needs. Train the inner eye to recognize the wonderful opportunities that arise daily in your life. Train to experience change. Change your radar settings.

(Your comments are invited: Click on reception@spiritgrow.org and let me have the benefit of your insight)

Laibl’s web site: www.laiblwolf.com - Laibl’s blog site: www.laiblwolf.com/blog/ – Spiritgrow – The Josef Kryss Wholistic Center, Australia site www.SpiritgrowJosefKryssCenter.org

blog 26 inspired living

spiritgrow@laiblwolf.com (Laibl Wolf) — Wed, 10 Feb 2010 06:34:00 +0000

Blog 26: 10^TH Feb. 2010

Inspired Living

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

Mechanics. Going through the motions. Waking. Working. Sleeping. And same again. What does it mean? Does it mean? Am I simply using up other people’s air by breathing.

So many people go through life without their soul flowing! Their most uplifting moment is the cheeseburger and coke - gastric juices rather than spiritual juice. Their momentary high is chemically generated. After which the sugar/cocaine/fats fix wanes. And then? Of course. The screen. Escape into virtual living (or dying). Or, for more escapism, alcohol or drugs do the job so effectively. No need to cope with anything – except the after-effects. But at least you don’t have suffer the boredom, the monotony, the meaninglessness. Just the downers to be relieved by the uppers.

This ‘soul-less’ condition, is increasingly prevalent. The cure? Seek a ‘soul-mortgage’. Seek a loan from the Intergalactic Inspiration Bank. It works like this.

You heard of a ‘dybbuk’? Read Sholom Ansky’s book of the same name or watch the movie and you will have a fictionalized rendition of the phenomenon – a soul that doesn’t quite make it back to its source and hangs around trying to invade convenient bodies, vying with that body’s true soul for domination of the body. In Kabbalah there is also a phenomenon of a ‘Tzaddik’s (master’s) spiritual touch’. A spiritual master is aware of many souls and can touch their souls from the distance and across time resulting in moments of profound inspiration. The many masters have over time created an ‘inspiration field’ from which we can draw on. But since we operate on the plane of time and space, the inspiration needs a physical catalyst – an inspiring book, an inspiring lecture, an inspiring meditation, an inspiring sunset.

Creation anticipated the explosion of mechanical jobs, routine lifestyles, repetitious fast food, and small boxed apartments. It also planted Tzaddikim throughout the generations to lead and inspire. The Tzaddik’s ‘messengers’ include prosaic venues like the world wide web, the blogosphere, social networking through face-book and twitter, cinema, and even the i-phone and its apps. But the soul must tap into the right wave-length of reception, otherwise it’s just another book, another film, another phone call. Only when you are truly open to the Tzaddik’s touch will your loan from the Inspiration Bank be approved.

How can you prepare to be inspired? Join a team. Join a movement. Join an idea. Join something larger than yourself. Pursue a value. Reform society. Help someone in need. Communicate, read, watch. But look for the message. It will always be there. But your spiritual eyes must be open. It may be 106.7 on the FM dial or page 331 of Crime and Punishment. The bank loan can be approved everywhere. The Tzaddik’s power is awesome – especially in death when the Tzaddik’s soul is free to roam without limits.

How is the loan repaid? With your good works. Inspiration to make the world a better place. Make the world a better place and your credit rating improves allowing you to seek an even larger loan. Sounds like a good and affordable deal.

(Your comments are invited: Click on reception@spiritgrow.org and let me have the benefit of your insight)

Laibl’s web site: www.laiblwolf.com - Laibl’s blog site: www.laiblwolf.com/blog/ – Spiritgrow – The Josef Kryss Wholistic Center, Australia site www.SpiritgrowJosefKryssCenter.org

NO.25 BIONIC SPIRITUALITY

spiritgrow@laiblwolf.com (Laibl Wolf) — Thu, 04 Feb 2010 02:08:00 +0000

Blog 25: 3^rd Feb. 2010

Bionic Spirituality

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

Man is becoming increasingly G-d-like. Artificial intelligence machines and bionic engineering point to our ingenuity. We are trying hard to mimic components of life itself. Surgically rerouted nerves provide arms or legs to replace limbs blown away by road bombs. Modular prosthetic limbs are miracles to the victim of negligent driving. Electronics circumvent damaged light receptor cells providing sight to those injured in drunken bar brawls. Motorized springs allow an artificial ankle to push off, simulating real leg movement for the player injured by foul play. It is not inconceivable that we will be engineering skin that senses temperature and touch for those burned by deliberately lit bushfires. 50% of our inventiveness is G-d-like. The other 50% is the product of human frailty – poor choices, fear-drivenness, and ego centrism.

We are clever – even prophetic. Much science fiction of the past 70 years anticipated the world of today and even tomorrow. Where we seem to fail miserably is how to be wise with the external mechanical forms that we ‘create’. Will the merger of man and machine produce bionic warriors instead of healing the blind? Will the immensity of power latent in the micro energy fields of inner matter become agents of destruction? Will greed and power corrupt our cleverness producing pain in the place of wholeness?

In truth the gap between man-made bionic engineering and the perfection of divine wisdom remains infinite. We can mimic external elemental forms but cannot create even the smallest living microbe, let alone the ‘particle of wisdom’.

But we are potentially G-d-like in one very real way: we exercise choice. We can choose to master the limb to strike our fellow human in pugilistic ‘entertainment’ or to embrace the stranger. The same limb, the same intricate bionic ‘machine’, perfectly crafted by the divine craftsman, can kill or save. We humans play with the toys of matter and have achieved noble success, but it is the arena of mastery and wisdom that defines our progress or regress.

We have colleges, universities, institutes of technology, all feverishly working towards discovering arrays of sophisticated gadgetry with patent potential, thereby lining the institutional coffers to cope with surging administrative and employment costs. But where are the higher halls of learning that equip our scientists, technologists, healers, participators in social mechanics, with the mastery of their bodies guided by the wisdom of their choices? We teach our children to read, write, add, and subtract – right through to the sophistication of quantum physics and Shakespeare sonnets. But where are the courses on how to harness the power of speech to create comfort zones and esteem, to manage body behavior to be congruent with a sensitive nature, to live consciously and compassionately in the moment of provocation – the other person’s weakness?

The pathway to mastery and wisdom holds the key to the future impact of our bionic adventures. The skills needed to exercise choice wisely require wisdom-masters and mastery-coaches. The tools of meditation, introspection, change-practices, positive thinking, and empathic postures - these are the real measure of society’s progress. If mechanics outstrips wisdom we are doomed. We are becoming increasingly powerful in manipulating the energies and matter of creation. But are our mechanical successes handicapped (if not rendered, ironically, self-destructive) by the foolishness of poor choice, absence of mastery and wisdom, and stricken though myopic fear and egocentrism.

All of us need to embark on ‘the road less travelled’ – self-understanding and self-mastery, which flow from wise and guided contemplative and practical meditation. A wise one with awareness once said: we have discovered the enemy and the enemy is us. The ancients in Kabbalah taught: rather than destroy the enemy, transform him into a friend. To be a friend, know yourself – and practice change.

(Your comments are invited: Click on reception@spiritgrow.org and let me have the benefit of your insight)

Laibl’s web site: www.laiblwolf.com - Laibl’s blog site: www.laiblwolf.com/blog/ – Spiritgrow – The Josef Kryss Wholistic Center, Australia site www.SpiritgrowJosefKryssCenter.org

BLOG 24 You are a Brand

spiritgrow@laiblwolf.com (Laibl Wolf) — Tue, 26 Jan 2010 13:04:00 +0000

Blog 24: 27^th Jan. 2010

You Are a Brand

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

One of the major marketing tenets is the significance and strategy of branding. The experts inform us that successful branding holds the key to marketability and sales. Two companies whose branding strategies are often cited as models are Virgin and Apple. Both are hugely successful companies. Virgin is noted for its adventurousness and flair, and Apple is associated with creative elegance and remarkable techno-prophecy.

Their success goes well beyond the efficacy of their products. It goes to the core of our belief systems – our belief in these companies. Branding launches beliefs. Once you have flown with Virgin you are hooked by youthfulness, jocular approach, cabin lighting effects and the Virgin touch in all on-board services. Once you experienced the Apple Mac or i-pod, it is difficult to revert back to an ‘ordinary’ PC or a renegade MP3 player. Our belief in their legend is supreme. So when Apple notifies the market that a Mac Tablet is about to be launched, even though the concept is not new, the compelling belief that Mac does it right immediately guarantees a successful market launch.

Choose a leader whose ‘branding’ excites you and encourages you to place your beliefs in him or her. Not too many, right? Obama exuded charisma that launched the Obama brand. Yet it has largely dissipated in the tatters of false hope and broken promises. The rhetoric outstripped real-politik and the brand tarnished in the dust-heap of economic woes and geo-political failures. Even a Nobel prize couldn’t resuscitate the brand. The Obama brand has lost its sparkle.

Marxism, communism, and socialism were also once touted as political brands of their future. But the after-shocks of their human failures left belief in their brand in the coarse hearts of a few hardened radical leftists. The Palestinian brand of an oppressed and humiliated nation became undressed and naked through competitive self-aggrandizement, adoption of Goebbels’s lies strategy, and a culture of blackmail-induced European market countries handouts.

So what leadership brand inspires you? What political, philosophical, psychological , or religious brand compares to Apple and Virgin? Is that cynicism I espy in your eyes?

The answer: You have to become the brand. You have the capacity for honesty, decency, consistency, and personal leadership. You can overcome temptation and peer group pressure. You can express your giftedness and abilities. You are a brand. You are Apple. You are Virgin. But it takes an act of courage to believe in your own brand to the point that you actually live it.

Tomorrow morning, wake up with a sense of mission. Allow the world to benefit and be inspired by your uniqueness, the image of your higher self. Your brand is much more powerful than Apple or Virgin. But for the brand to have reach you have to live a true version of you! Allow others to believe in you by living your brand – openly, courageously, and truly.

(Your comments are invited: Click on reception@spiritgrow.org and let me have the benefit of your insight)

Laibl’s web site: www.laiblwolf.com - Laibl’s blog site: www.laiblwolf.com/blog/ – Spiritgrow – The Josef Kryss Wholistic Center, Australia site www.SpiritgrowJosefKryssCenter.org

BLOG 23

spiritgrow@laiblwolf.com (Laibl Wolf) — Wed, 20 Jan 2010 01:29:00 +0000

Blog 23: 21^st Jan. 2010

A Spiritual Illusion

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

Kabbalah leveraged this message: all is One. We are in constant states of inter-relationship. There are no states of ‘separateness’. There are no gaps between concentrations of matter. These are filled with consuming energy. There are no gaps between the petals of a rose. These ‘spaces’ are dusted with a cacophony of fragrance. There is no gap between you and me. An ever-changing kaleidoscopic consciousness field embraces us.

Spiritual energy coagulates into concentrated forms: humans, animals, plants and things. These appear for the briefest sub-set of infinite time – for 120 years, for a few months, for a brief micro-second. All time is naught in the face of infinite. Sometimes the energy-space simmers and bubbles in the heat of estrangement and fear. At other times its soft undulating spiritual landscape stills, softly basking in the entrancement of love and connectedness.

Words are so poor. How can I, a finite human being, begin to speak about the non space of Oneness? Trapped as we are in the consciousness fields of discrete moments, of an uneven but ongoing now, we can only stutter sounds of inner awareness – that all is One, that what our seemingly mundane and ordinary lives experience is really a spiritual illusion.

There is a treasure chest of insight entombed within the mortal heart. Words are poor containers for its expression. If it could be pried open our seeming separateness from each other would shimmer and disappear, like the entry of Stargate or when the voice says ‘Scotty, beam me up’. So many people and nations smart from myopia – oblivious of their higher consciousness. In truth, we are projections from the same Source. We are brothers and sisters. If only we basked in the brightness of the other, then there would no longer be strife, quarrel, war and carnage. Nation would not lift sword against nation, nor would they practice war any more.

How can we part this curtain of illusion – the purposeful sleight of hand of the holy Magician? Through deep meditation and profound contemplation. The Chabad masters call this hitbonenut. Then could we carry the refined spiritual postures with us wherever we go. At least we should strive to hear the echo of that meditation and recall the aura of that contemplation. This is 24/7 spiritual work of consciousness and awareness to arouse the sensitivity to mutual respect, profound appreciation, and deep love.

We must strive beyond the illusion of separation. We must allow the mind’s inner-knowing to overcome the veil of insecurity and fear of separation.

In the year 2448 of the Torah calendar, time stood still and space was undressed. We were rewarded with a brief glimpse beyond the veil of illusion. This experience was encoded onto our psyche. Since then that encrypted truth dominates the soul seeking its freedom. Free it and the tipping point of creation will have been reached.

(Your comments are invited: Click on reception@spiritgrow.org and let me have the benefit of your insight)

Laibl’s web site: www.laiblwolf.com - Laibl’s blog site: www.laiblwolf.com/blog/ – Spiritgrow – The Josef Kryss Wholistic Center, Australia site www.SpiritgrowJosefKryssCenter.org

blog 22

spiritgrow@laiblwolf.com (Laibl Wolf) — Thu, 14 Jan 2010 00:04:00 +0000

Blog 22: 14^th Jan. 2010

A Carpet of Snow

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

Being an Aussi, gazing at a snow covered mountain-side, close- up, is an exhilarating and rare experience. I am in Aspen, Colorado to deliver a lecture, but cannot help but stare at the majestic panorama and thank the Divine sculptor for the immense beauty of the cosmic handicraft.

From the distance, the glistening white carpet covers the cracks and fissures of architectural ineptitude. Our boxed houses often jar the undulating smoothness and curvature of a perfect landscape. But come the gentle snows and the white-covered roofs hide this disparity bringing a commonality with the gentleness of the white pure and pristine vista that meets the eyes here in winter.

In the same way, human misbehavior jars the beauty of human potential. Terrorism is a cancerous blight. Greed and envy are reflections of human ugliness. Self deprecation, a result of absent self-worth, is a vacuous cavern of emptiness. Sometimes however, the landscape of human frailty enjoys the purifying and uplifting cover of spiritual whiteness. These glistening crystals of whiteness sparkle through love, forgiveness, compassion, and profundity.

For the Jewish soul, the universal blanket of whiteness is viscerally felt on Yom Kippur (also notated in the plural as Yom Kippurim - the Day of Atonements). On this sacred occasion the soul is purified, stains are scrubbed clean, and a weight of darkness is lifted off our shoulders. Another time-zone is approaching that offers this opportunity again – Purim (the festival of drawing lots). Interestingly, both names have the common letters of Purim. At a Kabbalistic level this bespeaks a connection. But how could the gravity and seriousness of Yom Kippur at all compare with the seeming lightheartedness and raucous festivities of Purim? Therein lays the power of whiteness. When are we most profoundly at one with our soul? When we are in a state of intense Deveikut (profound meditative state of connectedness with the All), but also when we are in a state ecstasy, totally in love with life, fully experiencing its moment of intense beauty. Purim reflects the glistening whiteness of joy. Yom Kippur reflects the intense whiteness of inner retreat.

The physical and spiritual snows melt. The ‘reality’ of our daily lives fills the stage of our present tense. The working days of the week confront us with their urgency and necessity. Yet the truly spiritual person allows the ambience of whiteness to enter into the arena of the seeming ordinary and mundane. The snow continues to reflect its whiteness in the exigencies of the daily events. The potential purity within all things can be opened, uncovered, and the core of whiteness perceived.

I watch the skiers gliding gracefully down the white velvet of earth’s carpet. And I think: how much easier life can be if we allow ourselves to glide upon the whiteness of positive disposition, joyful personality, compassionate nature, deep insight. These choices are always available for us to make. Do you have the courage to make this choice? Do you have the commitment to glide gracefully through life? Do you have the dedication to train, practice, and focus on the goal? I believe in you. You can do it!

Laibl’s web site: www.laiblwolf.com - Laibl’s blog site: www.laiblwolf.com/blog/ – Spiritgrow – The Josef Kryss Wholistic Center, Australia site www.SpiritgrowJosefKryssCenter.org

blog 21

spiritgrow@laiblwolf.com (Laibl Wolf) — Wed, 06 Jan 2010 06:36:00 +0000

Blog 21: 7^th Jan. 10

Metaphors, Allegories and Analogies

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

The video game is where imagination merges with reality. Life is where reality merges with imagination. Life is a fixed marker. Imagination is the variable. Life is the stage upon which we, the actors, imagine our existence.

What a wonderful piece of dynamic art we are. One moment our consciousness draws meaning from the flower. Another moment it’s not the flower but the room that contains the flower. Might it be the imagination that contains the room with the flower.

We don’t see reality. Reality looks through us. We are the filter. The creative products of our endeavors are the physical manifestations of our filter.

The sense of touch. Trillions of molecules interfacing with another trillion molecules. Replay on another stage: touch is exhilarating, adventurous, sensuous, and informational. So what do we have here? Collisions of objective particles that produce a flow of feelings. Tangibility meeting intangibility.

Perhaps there is no reality. It’s all interpretation, subjectivity – it’s about me, the ‘I’ within. Even pain is subjective. Prepare a person for pain and it will be felt more acutely. Our eyes see. Our ears hear. Our consciousness interprets. Would the real reality please stand up? Is it the eyes, the pain, or is it the awareness of sight and the feeling of pain? Or is it consciousness interpreting reality?

I pick the flower and hold it in my hand. It feels light. It looks intricate and beautiful. It lifts my spirits. It leads my thoughts and imagination in the direction of beauty and enlightenment. So reality does move the imagination after all. Or is my imagination changing reality? Or is my consciousness directing my imagination to create a new reality?

Are these just mind-games? Is this a semantic exercise? Is it a philosophical excursion? Or even mere musings of an intellectual wanderer?

I have chosen to believe that reality exists. I have chosen to believe that I am part of reality. I have chosen to believe that my perception of reality contributes to its evolving nature. I have chosen to believe that reality is meaningful. I have chosen to believe that I am meaningful.

I have chosen to believe.

I have chosen.

The waves of uncertainty collapse into a new moment of reality.

Life is not a video game.

Laibl’s web site: www.laiblwolf.com - Laibl’s blog site: www.laiblwolf.com/blog/ – Spiritgrow – The Josef Kryss Wholistic Center, Australia site www.SpiritgrowJosefKryssCenter.org

blog 20

spiritgrow@laiblwolf.com (Laibl Wolf) — Tue, 05 Jan 2010 06:50:00 +0000

Blog 20: 31^st Dec. 09

In Seven Days, Please

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

Design a world by mail order. Provide specifications. Seek delivery within seven days. Here it is:

I would like a world that is an expression of dynamic art. Everything should be in a state of motion. ‘Everything’ should include the tiniest concentrated energy units – particles, and the macro shapes that create much larger constellations. Allow the particles to vibrate and inter-relate in their own worlds and orbits. In fact I would like worlds within worlds.

Kindly allow a macro scale of this world to include variations of wavelengths that would produce colors. And also throw in scents, textures, tastes, and sounds. Perhaps it might be nice if this world would have the power of daily renewal, like being reborn each day. But write-in a daily variation within the program providing subtle daily changes.

Let the world have an up and down. Perhaps the ‘up’ can have an infinite expanse and the ‘down’ have oceanic holes of peer-through material that can support floating and surface motion. Let this world also have three dimensions of space so that the colors, growth dynamics, and daily variation can be experienced viscerally.

You know what? Maybe the central element should be consciousness. I mean, something that could actually experience the wonderment of this art piece. Perhaps we could even have a series of different qualities of consciousness experienced by different sentient elements: by things that crawl along the lower axis, that move freely in the ‘peer-through’ material, that know how to negotiate the movement of air. What might be interesting is to have all these moving parts in motion faster than the rotation of the dynamic canvas. Better still, let’s include a sentient creature that can appreciate the relative changes, the variations, the relationships between all things on this canvas. Hey, that could produce another dimension of consciousness called time.

I have another idea: let’s share the development of the software program with a really high-capacity sentient being – let’s call it Human. Even allow the Human to make mistakes in co-writing the software so that it can grow and evolve through trial and error.

Wow! This is becoming really interesting. Just got another idea. Allow this super-sentient Human to have a dual track of consciousness –mindful appreciation of the overall design, plus a dimension of feedback that can motivate it further, feelings.

And since you, the designer, know that ultimately every element of this art work is inter-connected and individually meaningful, allow this human to grope in the darkness of youth – say a maximum of 120 years, to slowly discover the power and ecstasy of Oneness .

Most of all, I would like the created elements to have an inkling that you exist. Keep it recessed deep within the software so that you need to be searched out. Perhaps leave your signature in every element of the total design – a sort of hide’n’seek. There, but not there. A potential for humility.

Do you think you can have this ready in seven days?

Laibl’s web site: www.laiblwolf.com - Laibl’s blog site: www.laiblwolf.com/blog/ – Spiritgrow – The Josef Kryss Wholistic Center, Australia site www.SpiritgrowJosefKryssCenter.org

BLOG 19: DEC. 24TH 09 PEERING INTO THE DEPTH

spiritgrow@laiblwolf.com (Laibl Wolf) — Fri, 25 Dec 2009 00:24:00 +0000

Blog 19: 24^th Dec. 09

Peering into the Depths

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

Take a round piece of soft dough. Press your finger deep into it and then remove it. What do you find? A hole. That’s strange. What was visible on the surface is now embedded deep within.

Upon which Kabbalah comments, somewhat cryptically: the foremost intention is hidden in the completion. Well, perhaps the Kabbalah doesn’t use those very words, but you know what I mean. Or do you? Let me explain.

You wish to build your dream own home. Your original vision is the pristine ball of dough. Months of intense planning extrapolates your original vision. The architect drafts the plans. Let the builders begin! Excavation, pouring of foundations, up go wall slabs, the roof, and the finishing trades - the finger presses into the dough - and voila, your new home. Somewhat simplified? But here is the point. The original inspirational vision culminated in tangibility: bricks and mortar, paint and furniture. Your original vision is now deeply embedded in the physical spread of your new home. The finger of construction pressed the inspirational design into a deep hole. And the onlooker has to peer through the rooms of the house, into the ‘deep hole in the dough’, to discover your original inspiration.

Another Kabbalistic reading of the same concept: the stone at the top of the wall fall furthest from the wall. The more spiritual the source, the more hidden will be its physical manifestation. It is a bit like Alice in Wonderland. Tumbling into the ‘worm hole’ she finds herself in an upside-down world where the obvious is the obscure and the obscure masks the obvious. We live in that ‘worm-hole’ and find ourselves in an upside-down world: pain, worry, evil, insecurity, anxiety, inequity. Ironically, here, deep below, is where we can discover the profoundest truths: joy, fulfillment, growth, love, faith and profundity.

And yet another Kabbalistic reading: ‘the end is wedged in the beginning and the beginning is wedged in the end’. Meaning: the beginning – the inspirational (spiritual) design for the home - is now embedded in its (physical) structure (down the worm-hole). But the vision of the completed product (the world at the bottom of the worm-hole) was always there in its earliest moment inspiration (pristine ball of dough).

Hence the Jewish spiritual emphasis on profound respect for the seemingly mundane aspects of life: protecting the environment, nurturing plant life, acting kindly to animals, and sharing our income with others. Thinking right, speaking right, and doing right, at the most practical and material level, reveals the purpose behind the breath of life that animates existence – the highest inspiration: creation.

G-d pressed Its Finger into the Dough. And you and I live in that profound Void. The filtered light that dimly reveals our spiritual environment down here in the void below, allows us to peer through the looking-glass and discover this world’s inverse, the higher truth, viz. the original Creative inspiration. The process of discovery is what facilitates the mystical co-experience of the original moment of Divine inspiration.

Laibl’s web site: www.laiblwolf.com - Laibl’s blog site: www.laiblwolf.com/blog/ – Spiritgrow – The Josef Kryss Wholistic Center, Australia site www.SpiritgrowJosefKryssCenter.org

BLOG 18 - REB NOIACH

spiritgrow@laiblwolf.com (Laibl Wolf) — Thu, 17 Dec 2009 05:41:00 +0000

18. Blog: 17^th Dec. 09

Reb Noiach – A Tapestry of History

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

May I share with you? My holocaust survivor parents emigrated from Poland to Australia after the Shoah. I was two years of age. The new émigrés concentrated in Melbourne in an area that in some ways mimicked the Lower East side of NY, albeit on a much more modest scale. They immediately began work on make-shift cheders, shules, bakeries – all the accoutrements of a transplant from the Old Country. And their children were their life.

I often play back in my mind those early days –the late forties and early fifties. The characters stand out vividly in my memory banks. These colorful, soulful, and oft strange personalities occupy centre stage when I allow myself these reveries. Their quest for survival in their newly chosen country of Australia also revealed eccentricities - the obvious scars of a cruel war, a legacy of tortured spirits. One arena in which these stage characters played their life roles was a small shule that my father took me in those early days – the Shtibel.

The Shtibel was a small house off a back lane leading off a wider Carlton street. The lane was unpaved and entry to the house was from its rear. The first structure that greeted the visitor was an external latrine - the welcome door to the property. But just to have a shule was of itself a miracle. Did it also have to be landscaped and architecturally planned? Just to breathe Melbourne’s air rather than the Zyklon B of gas chambers was a miracle.

Once inside the Shtibel, this youngster was to find himself in a strange incomprehensible world of unrecognized heros, each of whom could have been the star character of a Broadway stage play based on their destroyed lives.

A Polish dominated shtibel consisting of Chassidim, albeit lapsed Chassidim on the whole, clean shaven, modern (though shabbily) dressed, had its own differentiated character. Informality of prayer meant conversational interludes not found in the Siddur (Prayer book), and argued debates (to the point of near physical altercation) on the propriety and authenticity of differing customs of prayer order.

Between the ages of three and ten, I sat with my father at one of the tables (no pews in this discordant and motley setting) at the northern end of a large room that housed the shule. At our table was the gentle giant, Mr. Goldhirsch obm, who always took the trouble to warmly greet this inconspicuous youngster, leaving a warm memory that continues to touch my heart. Then there was Reb Schmiel whose large buck teeth complemented a raucous sense of humour that sent waves of laughter while the ba’al teffillo fought valiantly but futilely to establish his vocal dominance over the room. The Althaus and Kluwgant boys mischievously tied together talles (prayer shawl) fringes of unsuspecting separate wearers (somewhat safer than co-joining their shoelaces). And the very correct and dark suited gabbeh (warden), Mr. Gedaliah Segal, did his very best to arbitrate the competing calls on aliyos (honorifics for Torah readings) honors, and seating disputes.

The survivors were nothing if not colourful. Only later, upon greater maturity, was I to tag the adjective, ‘tortured souls’, to the naively conceived ‘colourful’. But among the many dozens in that shtibel community there was one individual who sat on the opposite side of the room from my father and myself, facing us. He looked younger than the rest. He was short, very thin, with sharp angular features. He sat symmetrically, always composed, and his talles over his head, lined at the front with the silver embroidery common to the Hassidic movements. His relative youthfulness and poise left a deep impression on me. I never spoke with him. But I often watched him, observing carefully, in the way that a small boy sometimes does. He had such composure, and also a beautifully sweet singing voice. He also knew nusach (the traditional melodies and intonations) very well and was often called upon to lead the congregation (if that is not an inflated description of this amazing collection of rag tag survivors of the churben – the European destruction). Oh, I forgot to mention. His name was Reb Noach (Noah). Surname: Herbst.

Many years later, fifty five to be exact, his granddaughter married my son. I find this nothing short of amazing. Why? Not sure why. Just is. That a youngster of four or five would be curious about a young man who sat on the other side of a prayer room, and many decades later, Divine planning would bring these two families together. Life is wondrous, mysterious, and complex.

Reb Noiach passed away last week. But his memory thereby crystallized into stronger relief in my mind – in inverse proportion to the world’s loss through his passing.

I am still looking at people’s faces. I still wonder how future unfolds. I remain in awe of the pattern that G-d weaves through the tapestry of history.

Laibl’s web site: www.laiblwolf.com - Laibl’s blog site: www.laiblwolf.com/blog/ – Spiritgrow – The Josef Kryss Wholistic Center, Australia site (soon up after extensive ‘renovation’) www.SpiritgrowJosefKryssCenter.org

BLOG 16

spiritgrow@laiblwolf.com (Laibl Wolf) — Thu, 03 Dec 2009 05:44:00 +0000

16. Blog: 3^rd Dec. Oct 09

You Are Significant – So Live Accordingly

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

What are you? A speck of dust in the expanse of the Cosmos? A brief sound in the symphony of creation? A momentary flash of consciousness in a sentient eternity? A mere blip on the radar of infinity?

Hundreds of generations have lived and died. Civilizations have risen and faded. And here you are – reading a blog. What does it mean? What does your life mean?

The nihilists believe that life is pointless and human values worthless. The skeptics believe that real knowledge of anything is impossible. The agnostics ask questions knowing that answers are arbitrary. And fellow travelers generally don’t address any life issues and carried along by the tidal throng.

Is it possible to aspire to a life of meaning? To a life characterized by esteem and self worth? To a life perceived as an essential link in a chain – an indispensable piece of the puzzle of consciousness?

That is exactly what the tenets of Jewish wisdom teachings instruct. In the early morning, when the higher consciousness of dreams give rise to the lower consciousness of a waking world, Jews enunciate a traditional meditative affirmation Modeh Ani . In that phrased focus there is a definitive phrase that carves out the Jewish response to meaninglessness. It states: You have restored to me my individuality, my distinctiveness, my giftedness – my own Neshama (soul). This single phrase becomes the imprimatur of life’s meaning. Yes, you count. You may be a speck, but a speck that produces an infinite multiplier effect that changes the course of history and creation. You may be a sound but you resonate and reverberate throughout the eons of time providing creation with your own set of life-notes. You may be a mere flash of consciousness, but that flash continues to shine throughout the enormity of time. And you may be a blip on a Divine radar screen, but that blip is observed as a significant positioning of your very being.

Personal significance flows from the realization that you have spiritual assets to contribute to people, life, and world. That your thoughts and feelings leave a real residue in the ether of time/space. That your actions become the spiritual building blocks of higher realms. That you count – and I, together with everyone else, am a beneficiary of your largesse, your inner beauty.

So go out into the world and practice personal leadership. Be a unique contributor to the radical act of creation. Be a true co-creator of an unfinished universe. Practice Tikkun (Cosmic repair of broken vessels) through the act of Mitzvot, the Aramaic root of which (Tzavta) which means: connectedness. Connect with life and lives, and live a life of significance, self worth, and contribution.

Yes, you count.

Laibl’s web site: www.laiblwolf.com - Laibl’s blog site: www.laiblwolf.com/blog/ – Spiritgrow – The Josef Kryss Wholistic Center, Australia site (soon up after extensive ‘renovation’) www.SpiritgrowJosefKryssCenter.org

BLOG 15: IS YOUR GPS WORKING?

spiritgrow@laiblwolf.com (Laibl Wolf) — Wed, 25 Nov 2009 19:23:00 +0000

15. Blog: 26^th Nov. Oct 09

Is Your GPS Working?

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

‘The main thing is to keep the main thing, the main thing’. (Steven Covey). The most important thing is whatever you are doing right now. (The Kotzker Rebbe). ‘Just do it!’ (Nike). Three wisdom teachings. A recipe for a full and meaningful life.

Covey’s word-play seeks values clarification and prioritization. The Kotzker’s insight provides life’s journey with depth and beauty. Nike makes it happen.

A perfect formula. The only problem: The GPS seems to be malfunctioning. We entered the right addresses: Monday morning workout, Tuesday night family time, Thursday study group, daily meditation, etc. But it didn’t happen. Got to bed too late Sunday night and didn’t get up in time for that jog. Tuesday night came but family members had other plans scattering in all directions. The Simons dropped by Thursday night and, well, we couldn’t ask them to leave, could we? Actually, am having a hard time focusing in the mornings, mind is wandering, meditation just too challenging, too much on my mind.

Sounds familiar? Face it, the problem is not with the GPS! The problem is you. The calm and pleasant voice, the soul’s Tom Tom, informs you where to go at each turn but you are simply not listening! The plan is there – but you don’t have the ‘zitz fleisch’ to follow it through. The good intentions lack commitment, fore-planning and finesse. You know the main things, but don’t protect them as main things. You are doing what you are doing, but doing it at the wrong thing. You are assiduously clambering up life’s ladder, but it’s leaning against the wrong wall – doing it, but undoing it!

The world’s most profound wisdoms aren’t worth a cracker if you lack strength of character. The key lies in true consciousness and awareness. So here are Laibl’s three rules for getting the job done:

a) On Sunday afternoon take five minutes with your wall calendar, Microsoft outlook, i-pod, or note pad. Make three appointments - with yourself. Clear three half hour time frames for physical, spiritual, and family events. Protect those appointments with the dedication you reserve for business and medical appointments.

b) Prepare for those protected times by checking out the landscape: prepare any equipment you may need. Make sure the people you seek the company of have cleared their own time frames for you. Review preparations and arrangements the night before.

c) Give each event three minutes quiet thought just before it takes place. Build that extra time into your appointment time.

Don’t let life slip by. You don’t want to find yourself lying on your deathbed wallowing in the sorrow of lost time, complaining, “I just didn’t have the time”. Wrong! You did. But you lacked true commitment to the radical act of living. The GPS was working perfectly well thank you. You just kept steering in different directions.

Do it, (Nike), mainly (Covey), now (Kotzker).

Laibl’s web site: www.laiblwolf.org ; Laibl’s blog site: www.spiritgrow.blogger.com ; Spiritgrow web site: www.SpiritgrowJosefKryssCentre.org

spiritgrow@laiblwolf.com (Laibl Wolf) — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 06:23:00 +0000

14. Blog: 19^th Nov. Oct 09

Living in the ‘Now’

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

‘Chochma’ trans. ‘wisdom’; defined in the Kabbalistic system as the source of Divine creation; explained in Chabad psychology as the creative element in thought process - the locus of consciousness.

Spiritual ambience stems from Chochma consciousness. This state of awareness and mindfulness defines the moment, providing it with definition. It becomes the lens through which the soul perceives the moment of ‘now’.

Most people deny the soul a perfect lens. They deny themselves the freedom to draw on their optimal Chochma flow. The consequence: they can’t live in the ‘now’. All too often the ‘fishing expedition’ into the mind is tarnished with past guilt and regret, or distorted by worry and anxiousness about the future. Their moment of ‘now’ has no opportunity to get a ‘shoo-in’. Their lives are entrapped in time warps, trapped lives, lives devoid of the joy of ‘being here, now!’.

When the Kotzker Rebbe was asked what is most important? He replied: what you are doing and thinking right now!

The ‘now’ can become a locked door due – a result of emotional-non-intelligence. Tattered emotions cannot force this door open. But it can also become a spacious vestibule – a gracious hallway leading to new vistas, creating new opportunities, defining another possible future.

Right now, at this moment, there are infinite possibilities and futures open to you. Choose one and the door closes behind you – as quantum physics notes: the waves of uncertainty collapse into the reality of this moment of choice. Choose wisely and the immediate future also aligns with joy, purpose, and enlightenment. To do so requires skillful application of Chochma potential. And this, in turn, requires spiritual space and consciousness in the moment – living in the ‘now’.

The most poignant moment for the practice of Chochma consciousness is relationship. To touch another with the eyes, to read the other’s soul, to enter into symbiotic oneness with mind, heart and spirit – these are the moments of true worth and entry into a higher state. Most people wait for this to happen. They wait for the right person. They wait for the right moment. They wait for the right resolution of problems and issues. They wait till they can ‘afford it’. They wait for life to serve the moment up on a silver platter. And they wait, and wait - forever.

The template of creation seeks the ongoing practice of human mastery - training, discipline and mentoring by a wise one. (The Kabbalah was passed on generationally through individualized mentoring). Such dedication and commitment to Chochma-consciousness opens the doors to ‘right moments’. True spiritual warriors know that waiting doesn’t cut it. They realize the power to create moments. They don’t see ‘silver platter service’.

Become a spiritual warrior. Live in the ‘now’. Seek enlightenment in classic mastery works such as ‘the Tanya’. Engage a spiritual teacher. Find a personal mentor. Train your ‘chochma’. Make your life truly meaningful. Evolve significance in your life. You don’t need to wait for that opportunity to visit the Himalayas sitting lotus-positioned at the foot of some guru. It’s within your reach – right around the corner of your home, right on your desk computer e.g. Chabad.org . Or email me. Happy to advise. We can all help each other along the road less travelled. In the words of the Mishna: ‘…Now go and learn’.

- Laibl’s web site: www.laiblwolf.com - Laibl’s blog site: http://www.laiblwolf.com/blog/ – Spiritgrow: The Josef Kryss Wholistic Center, Australia site (soon up after extensive ‘renovation’) www.SpiritgrowJosefKryssCenter.org

BLOG 13

spiritgrow@laiblwolf.com (Laibl Wolf) — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 21:35:00 +0000

13. Blog: 5^th Nov. Oct 09

Trans-Atlantic Personalities

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

Europe is old. It’s a haughty matron, head held erect, yet realizing within that age has taken its toll. Steeped in history of religious wars, national dominances, glorious architecture, and decadent church and barony, its sun is waning - its last gasps at relevancy reflected in an abortive quest for pan Europeanism: power.

The Americas are a brash and brassy teenager. The suburban go-getter is inventive, fast-talking, enthusiastic and lacking all of the old world savoir-faire. This lad is not interested in royal intrigues or dukedom of castles. He is about markets, challenges, and the exhilaration of wow!

Lands imprint the psyche of its inhabitants. The smooth, correct, cool, and lean European. The uncut American diamond, raw around the edges, innovative and fast talking.

The Lubavitcher Rebbe once attributed the quality of Hessed (generosity and compassion) to the national character of America. It has been good to the Jews. It has been good to many peoples – a veritable melting pot of refugees escaping the ‘enlightened’ technologies of the Last Solution or those allergic to the cigar smoke of a dictatorial Cuba, or those fleeing the nouveau Asian dictators, and those escaping from drug warlords of South America and Mexico. Where else in the world do you find a body of legislation protecting the rights of illegal aliens and providing them with services and support? Certainly not on that old continent across the ocean whose niceties belie innate intolerance, anti-Semitism, and petty national jostling and beatific pontification from Rome.

I watch the pan handler, the busker, the tramp on a busy New York avenue. What strikes me is not the thousands that pass by, anticipating outcomes of in their next sales meeting. What impresses me are the many dozens who take the time to stop and drop a coin anonymously into a hat, an outstretched hand, or a fiddler’s case. You discover the spirit of a nation not by its majority actions but by its still small voice within – the minority who are the soul of the nation. I walked the streets of Vienna and observed the same human shame, embarrassment and anguish in the faces of those who are forced to beg. But the litmus test of response registered indifference. The minorities are tolerated, not integrated. Same in Copenhagen, Milan and London.

A nation is born, grows, and ages. Sometimes we observe the death throes of a people –a civilization. Inevitably birth takes place somewhere else contemporaneously. The process takes decades, even centuries, like the eonic death of a dwarf star and the slow motion cataclysm of an emerging new sun.

The Jews are an anomaly. We should have died a thousand deaths. And here we are, always figuring centrally in the emergence of new nations, disproportionate in Nobel prize lists, sitting on governmental advisory bodies in countries around the globe. We exist against all odds – bonded, despite ourselves, a people, a culture, a civilization, propelled mysteriously through the passage of time by a spiritual energy that is indefinable – yet historically and patently visible in its effects and results.

To endure means to enter into a synergistic relationship with the energy of the time-wave of the moment. A collective exercise as well as an individual challenge. Where are you on the graphic axis of this synergy? Are you riding the wave of Jewish survival to shore? Or will you go the way of the sun-set of Europe? Live life with Jewish vibrancy. Don’t just go through the motions – the old talk of allegiance, loyalty, fealty. Become an agile spiritual surfer with dexterity of spiritual footwork. Catch the right wave. Be brash, be brassy, be innovative – but always led by the compass of an ancient wisdom that teaches us historical mastery.

www.laiblwolf.com

blog 12

spiritgrow@laiblwolf.com (Laibl Wolf) — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 21:32:00 +0000

12. Blog: 29^th Oct 09

Red Square - Revisited

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

The air was damp. The cold arctic pushed the ever-present dampness to seep into the skin with blistering force - a typical Moscow autumn day.

My first visit to Russia. A connotation of dictatorial suppression of human freedoms and ideals. The camouflage of communist clichés about equality and egalitarianism could not forever hide its truth of terror and apparatchiks. My spiritual antecedents had been carted off to Siberia for expressing their truths. And here was I – in Red Square, outside the gates of the infamous Lubyanka Prison – the friendly home of the KGB, Cheka, and its antecedents – a building so tall that Siberia could be seen from its basement (as the Russian joke goes).

Thumbing my nose at its massive gates and smiling within - how the wheel turns! I had just come back from one of the most moving Shabbatons I had ever conducted, just outside Moscow, with a karge participation of latter-day refuseniks. These refuseniks weren’t defying a malicious secret police as had their predecessors. The new ‘refuseniks’ are defying the more pervasive and cancerous effects of freedom, economic opportunity, and social acceptance.

I sang, prayed, and conversed with latter day heroes. Keen, single minded about their Jewish quest to the point of simplicity (some might misinterpret as naivety), we spent hours oscillating and vibrating in subjects like nationalism, ritual, identity, Mitzvot, music, emotion, Talmud, mysticism, adversity, feminism. These Russians are intellectual, genuine, and determined to be Jewish to the core. The softness of western Judaism does not appear in their sharp edged keenness to authenticate their previously estranged lives.

After leaving the retreat centre 50 K from Moscow, I visited the Chabad centre in the heart of this newly emerging cosmopolitan city. And what a centre. Many a Jewish community centre in wealthy USA would be envious of these premises, six stories high, with basketball courts, swimming people, gym, classrooms, three restaurants, and a magnificent synagogue. All run by bearded Rabbis, Chassidim to boot! This is a Chabad centre to reckon with – and it’s the major player in town. And Jewish to the core!

So think to myself: here we are in Australia, USA, and even Israel – free to choose linkage to our historical past, free to express as Jews, free to explore the wisdom baggage of centuries. How many of us take these liberties to heart? The Russians do. Those who had trodden warily under the watchful cameras of the secret police are now thumbing their noses at their former tormenters and transforming a former Jewish stutter into a fully expressed Jewish soliloquy.

I left Moscow with a sense of elation. I aspire to be a latter day refusenik like those I had met here for a brief weekend. They taught me much more than I taught them – of that I am certain.

www.laiblwolf.com

BLOG 11

spiritgrow@laiblwolf.com (Laibl Wolf) — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 21:29:00 +0000

11. Blog: 23^rd Oct 09

The Surrealism of Warsaw

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

I had vowed never to set foot in Poland. The extermination of my family there had indelibly marked that country with a glaring DO NOT ENTER stamp embossed in my heart and mind. Poland was the ’killing-fields’ that took my family, my people – the seat of systematic destruction of Jewish Europe. But the call of a Chabad emissary crosses boundaries of reasoned decisions and emotional bias. It touches the soul. So I went.

As Divine providence would have it, my flight schedule required me to spend a full day and a half in Warsaw. So I allowed myself to venture out to the government sponsored Jewish memorials. First stop – the station where cattle trucks took my people from the Warsaw ghetto to their gaseous liquidation. A somber grey stoned square suitably inscribed with a few fitting quotations. This token gesture adjacent to a school of psychology – a surrealistic contrast: murder alongside an institute dedicated to human insight.

Next stop – a memorial to the Warsaw ghetto uprising. An imposing slab with the grotesque sculpture of tortured fighters hewed three dimensionally out of raw stone. On this particular afternoon a huge crane hung limply on the large adjacent site. The foundations for another Jewish museum to rise from the ashes of the six million. Another ‘virtual’ attempt to jog future memories, to record history.

Memories and history. There is no Hebrew word for history. A cannibalized word, ‘historia’, doesn’t cut it. ‘Historia’ is the stuff of academic debate - cold, detached narrative. Scientific, methodological, meticulous. A bit like the records room of the crematoria

The authentic Hebrew, the holy tongue, has only one word which approximates consciousness of the passage of time -‘zecher’ – to remember. ‘Historia’ is not ‘zecher’ . One is passive, and the other active. One is an ‘add-on’ to a brain-centred storage house – the other an active prod to bodily emotions.

The crane; another museum - ‘historia’. But how do we transform cold detachment into the motivational heat of human motivation? ‘Zecher’ – by allowing the memory of my murdered forebears to express through my hands, feet, heart and mind. By creating a truly experiential memory which only comes through a bodily involvement with a living tradition, a recollection of our first encounter at Sinai, a consciousness of life itself through the prism of Jewish eyes. I must live Jewish. Not just a cerebral Jew; not even merely a cardiac Jew, and certainly not a culinary Jew. A Jewish life that is practiced with the hands and feet – Mitzvot.

I flew out of Warsaw, still vowing not to return. But I was not the same person. It was no longer a matter of ‘historia’.

www.laiblwolf.com

FW: Laibl Wolf Inspiration & Blog 9

spiritgrow@laiblwolf.com (Laibl Wolf) — Tue, 13 Oct 2009 15:37:00 +0000

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.