To Light Up the Night

While all souls are unique in a myriad of ways, there nonetheless exists a common template from which they are modeled for (Genesis 9:2) “…in the image of God [Elokim], He made man [the human condition].” Since the Divine name Elokim has the specific connotation of God manifest through nature, we could surmise that this Godly image models human nature. Being imprinted with this normative pattern sets up the parallel between the sefirot as channels of Divine revelation and that of the pathways of self-expression of the powers of the soul.

Peering into the deepest recess of the human psyche, we can ‘image’ many of the psycho-dynamics therein and correlate them with ‘naturally’ occurring Divine modes of revelation within Creation. Drawing on Psalms 39:7, we happen upon another complementary expression that states: “Only in shadowy darkness [literally an ‘image’] does man make his way….” The blinding light of the uncut and unedited quintessence of the soul proves to be a nonstarter for any significant discourse about a person’s psychological condition. Only when the ‘image’ is substituted for this endless or boundless sense of being, can the finite figure of a person, a self and an ‘I,’ surface. We must remember that this comes at a great expense in that the image or ‘tzelem’ shares a common sub-root with the word tzel meaning a ‘shadow,’ which causes the picture of our humanity to become ‘shadowy darkness’ with respect to the original ‘great light.’ My ‘self’ or ‘I’ gets defined and forms an image by casting a shadow. Prior to this there is just the bald truth of an as-of-yet undefined non-separate self. We ‘make our way’ in the dark-light of this image; we walk in it. This image frames all of our inner acrobatics.

Briefly, in Kabbalah the basic features of this image (tzelem) derive from its three Hebrew letters (Tzadik, Lamed, Mem). According to the Arizal, the letter Tzadik relates to the three lower soul levels called nefesh, ruach, neshamah which in turn correspond to the seats of behavioral control, emotion and cognition (all of which are considered to be graspable as localizable ‘inner lights’ of the soul). As for the Mem and Tzadik, they are signs of the two surrounding lights (the distant and close surrounding soul properties of our two levels of Samech) which match up with the soul levels called yechidah and chayah respectfully.

Our clue to the meaning of this arrangement can be unearthed from an additional citation, this time from Habakkuk where he exclaims (2:4) “…for the righteous person shall live by his faith.” The name of the 18th Hebrew letter Tzadik also means a ‘righteous person’. In this particular example, the text reads “b’emunato” which literally translates as ‘in or by his faith.’ Some commentators explain that the Beit prefix (‘in’ or ‘by’) numerically equals two and thereby intimates that there are two levels of faith.

Engaging our experience with the intellect, we seek to differentiate one thing from another in a process of clarification. By contrast, faith (pure and simple) surrounds our field of knowledge. Pure faith completely transcends the intellect and thus qualifies as a distant surrounding soul power (makif ha’rachok). From the standpoint of simple faith nothing in existence penetrates within it for all of Creation, with respect to the superconscious origin of faith, is considered like nothing (or no-thing, no object that could be intended by the knower in and of itself). All things great and small, no matter where they show up on the Great Chain of Being, cannot measure up to faith. This is because faith is the immeasurable. It therefore surrounds all of Creation and all of consciousness equally.

Sometimes, the kabbalists depict this distant surrounding property as the ‘great circle’ (egul ha’gadol) that circumscribes all of the worlds from top to bottom with complete equanimity. As a level the experience of ‘surrounding all worlds’ (sovev kol olamin) it connects with the yechidah or ‘singularity’ the soul. Since knowledge and understanding require a basis of comparison or contrast, the night of the superconscious dissolves such distinctions. Everything becomes singular and incomparable. My world–rendered unthinkable as it drifts far from thought–becomes fundamentally unknowable like a dream that I cannot awake from with any memory of its occurrence. Upon trying to recollect it, it immediately vanishes from my mind.

Spatially the great circle could be compared to the non-space around space or the non-place that the universe is expanding into. How can I travel to the outer rim of our cosmos, to the fringe of Being itself, when my mind has not be granted a passport? Only with faith as my connection to the fundamentally unknowable can I leap into the unspeakable Beyond. With faith as the night of knowledge figured as undifferentiated darkness encircling the incandescent bulb of consciousness, its distance from me assures its remoteness and removal from being an object of intellectual inquiry.

When it comes to the second level of faith, we are tapping into an in-between state. Here, faith is partially enclothed within the intellect. Extreme intellectual honesty acknowledges the ‘legitimation crisis’ of thought, the self-serving, self-referencing aspect of our rationality. Thought that thinks above and beyond what it already knows qualifies as transcendental intuition. Our intuition has neither touched down on the ground of our rational mind, nor does it fly away into the unconscious without a trace. Instead intuition steals across the border of the unconscious/conscious divide, smuggling in the products of faith into the arcade of the mind.

When faith flutters close enough to the mind, I experience its proximity. While it may come from nowhere, it permeates everywhere. I sense it as the foundation for all of my conscious experience, beginning with my primal awareness of the world being created something from nothing at each and every moment. What is apprehended as the basic pulsation of life as it is lived, correlates with the level of the soul known as chayah or the ‘living one.’ Life is created all around me all the time. Rather than being something completely abstract, life and living do pertain to me. This experience is pertinent to me and thus constitutes the close surrounding (makif ha’karov) soul property. In this instance, life itself (or my intuition of life happening, cycling in and out of existence) becomes another dream state. ‘Life is but a dream’ could well be the conclusion of one who bears witness to the world reacquiring existence through the incessant intrusion of the creative act.

To review: the distant dream circle can be understood as the envelope of the unknowable whose psycho-spiritual manifestation is depicted as a Crown of Keter (the first of the sefirot). The crown encircles the head from the outside but does not make direct contact with the brain or consciousness itself. With the inner circle or close surrounding light of the soul, the distance is effaced. Rooted in the underside of the the cranium, flowing through the membranes is the seed-spark of intuition or Chochmah. Its flashes do more than photograph the film of life, they also remind us of the impermanence of the world. Life surrounds us from up close, faintly hugging consciousness and squeezing it ever so slightly.

For Part 12 our constellation construction continues, beginning with our native understanding.

http://www.interinclusion.org/inspirations/circus-of-dreams-part-12/

http://www.interinclusion.org/inspirations/circus-of-dreams-part-10/

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