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It has come to me in a very clear fashion that everything one does is Yoga, is part of the journey back to The Beloved, the Self, God. All of our acts, everyone and everything that we encounter, are part of our spiritual path.

There is no other path than that.

This way of looking at things is reassuring to me. It helps to remove the worry that I am getting off track, that I have made a wrong choice. Not that I think this removes any responsibilities. We still have to pay attention and notice what is happening. We still have to do our own work. But that is just it. You do the work that you have before you and that is exactly the work that you should be doing. In the meantime there can be all this doubt, all this wondering if I am on the right path. Just do the work that is in front of you. There is it is, right there.

Many years ago before I moved to California to join a yoga meditation ashram, I read a description of the yoga they taught in a book by Baba Ram Dass, The Only Dance There Is. It said that when the Kundalini was awakened (through the Grace of the teacher), all things that you needed to progress on the spiritual path would come to you naturally. It’s true. I am not sure that awakened Kundalini is a requirement for this. It seems that this is true for all people. (Though I do definitely recommend Kundalini Awakening, which is another story altogether!)

A while back my missionary son told me that his goal in life was to “change the world.” At first I kind of thought, “yeah, I felt like that when I was young too” and just dismissed the notion. After I had heard him make that statement a number of times I realized that changing the world is the greatest goal that any of us can have.

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I recently began to connect the idea of changing the world with the Butterfly effect. The basic idea of the Butterfly Effect is that the flap of a butterfly’s wings in Brazil could set off a tornado in Texas. Small events can have extremely large consequences. Every single action effects everything else, or at least effects so many seemingly unrelated things that the repercussions are huge.

The implications from this are staggering. Every single decision that a person makes changes the world. Every second, every act, every thought (at least according to the Law of Attraction) changes the world.

For example, while driving someone cuts you off, or honks at you, etc, the choice you make in that moment will have a ripple effect on many other things and people. Your choice to be angry or forgiving, to honk back or say a prayer, will and does cause a change in the world.

Suddenly I see how important it is to behave in a certain way, what a great responsibility we all have. I also see how intimately connected to each other we are.

Changing the world is not just a great goal, it is inevitable! The fact that you or I continue to exist changes the world. Knowing that, we might as well move it in the best direction that we are capable.

So, lets take this blog post as another example. If you had asked me not too long ago if a short blog post of mine could change the world, I would have said, no probably not. But now that I think about it, I’m not so sure.

The fact that the star of the movie was once the president of the NRA not withstanding, the other night when watching the movie Ben-Hur, I had a pretty explicit Mystical Experience.

There is a scene in which Judah Ben-Hur (the Charlton Heston character) gives Jesus a drink of water as Jesus is carrying his own cross to his own crucifixion. As I watched that scene, I was thinking what a great honor, what an amazing bit of karma to be the person who was right there in that moment, to be able to give Jesus a drink of water. What a great honor. I imagined the infinite blessing that must have reigned down upon him in that moment. I imagined all of the angels rejoicing in such an act. And as I was thinking these things, I heard a voice in my head, the voice of Jesus. He said, “No, no act is any more sacred than any other act. Every good thing, every kind act, every time one person gives anything to another person, it is a Sacred Act. And each time, infinite blessings reign down upon all people.”

A bit later in the movie, we see the blood of Jesus flowing across the ground as it runs down the cross. I thought about the fact that there is a place on the planet where that happened, where to some extent there is still some trace of the Blood of Jesus, however slight. Again I heard the voice. “No, no place is any more Scared than any other place. The fact that I as a man walked there, that I particularly walked there, is not important. You are not supposed to follow me, to walk on the same ground as me. Embody my Spirit. Into your hands I commend my Spirit.”

Along with over half of the world, I have recently been contemplating some of the concepts surrounding “The Secret” and the idea of the Law of Attraction. One of the major ideas involved in this is the fact that you need to be able to control your thoughts. Not only can a person control their thoughts, but they can choose which thoughts to have.

A while back I had a very strong first-hand experience of this, though this particular experience was of the negative type.

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What is a miracle? I believe a miracle is when the Light shows us the way.

What I mean is whenever we have a hunch, whenever we feel lead to a decision or a course of action, when we feel a push from inside, a miracle has occurred. If we have the inner stillness and presence of mind to actually listen and act on the push, we may see the miracle, but usually we think that something like this is too small to call a miracle.

We are constantly surrounded by miracles. We are constantly receiving guidance from the Light. Open your spiritual eyes and see.

As Jesus said in the Gospel of Thomas, “If your eye be single, then your entire body shall be filled with light.”

בראשית ברא אלהים

The elements of existence/non-existence organized themselves into the Elohim. In order to do this some of the elements allowed themselves to function as containers and other elements allowed themselves to function as that which was contained. Still other elements began to function as the motion and resistance between and within the containers and the contained. Hidden behind and around all of this there is the indeterminate, the endless pool of all possible combinations. The mystics of all ages have on occasion been able to see and experience this Limitless Light.

“Aleph represents the supreme energy-subtle, alive, but not existing as itself in the space-time world we know, because it is imaginal. It is the primal energy in all; and all that we know is in aleph.

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The 22 letters of the Hebrew alphabet are considered Divine. It is said that they are the Language of Creation, that The Holy One used them to create the entire Universe.

In my 23 years of experience with Kabbalah I have come to the understanding that the core of the Kabbalah is the 22 letters of the Hebrew alphabet. I have had profound experiences that stemmed from a relationship with these energies. I highly recommend developing such a relationship. One of my goals/hopes with this blog is to point a way to such a relationship.

In ancient Hebrew there are not separate numerals such as the Arabic numerals that we use. Each letter in the alphabet also represents a number.

These 22 letter-numbers present a science of energy. Each letter is a separate unique energy pattern. Through meditation and use of these letters, one can begin to enter into the process of creation.

This post represents a brief beginning toward understanding these concepts. In posts to follow I will be offering more ideas. This will start with a series of posts about each of these 22 letters with relevant quotes from leading Kabbalaists.

All is One.

There is One Source, One Force, One Unknowable thing that is behind, within, and around all things.

This One partakes in every event, every occurrence. Even though this One is perpetually active, it is also the ground upon which all repose rests. This One is the Great Stillness, the Pregnant Zero before the Big Bang, the stillness of meditation.

The Aleph seems to be the best representation of this One that we have on this plane, as far as I have expereinced. The Aleph is the great pulsation of Life-Death, as Carlo Suarez puts it.

I beliveve that this One can be, to some extent, connected with, that one can come into contact with it. This is the heart of all true religions, insofar as they are mystical at their core.