One of the big sorrows in the world is the end of any cultivation tradition. But the world is marked by impermanence, so that is the fate of ALL sects, religions, creeds and so forth. Even for countries, there is no boon of perpetuity; look at the companies that comprised the DOW JONES INDUSTRIAL AVERAGE at the turn of the century and they are all gone, too. And these were the industry giants — the biggies of the time. In time, Microsoft, Walmarts and even Home Depot will disappear. When I was young, Sear was big — but now it's nothing compared to its former self.

Have I made my point?

If not, consider that  nothing is left of the great Assyrian and Egyptian religions. What about  the Greek mysteries, and European Paganism? Zoroasterism hardly exists anymore and Confucianism and Taoism are basically gone. Who knows what the Aztecs and Mayans were up to before the Spaniards came for "gold, glory and God"? All these traditions once WERE THE WORLD TRADITIONS. All gone now, basically gone. So don't ever think the little (or large) group you've been born into or selected out of choice is THE THING, or destined to last either, or the CHOSEN, select, destined, real one.

In time, Christianity will disappear, Islam will disappear, Judaism will disappear and so on it will go. Yes, they will ALL disappear. This is not blasphemy, this is impermanence which characterizes all phenomena. It characterizes thoughts, it characterizes the universe.

Shakyamuni Buddha even predicted the specific die out of Buddhism saying that the only component left of this great cultivation stream in the far future would be the recitation of the "Namo Amitofo" mantra because it's the simplest cultivation method that exists; all the high wisdom components would die out well before that because people will turn to stupider and stupider religions and cultivation claims, including all sorts of crazy promises such as expounded by the New Age traditions. Their wisdom life would turn off. He talked about this and explained it clearly and talked about how false cultviation streams would arise, all polluted or diluted of true cultivation content. (Not this website — that' s my committment).

Now every GENUINE samadhi tradition will eventually die out, but while alive every genuine samadhi tradition usually has sages within in who can see the future of the tradition. Why? How? Through their samadhi attainments. And thus, they can see into the future of a tradition and see, or predict the various masters who will be born into that tradition, as well as its ultimate end – the termination of that tradition. All things die, all lines are subject to impermanence and via samadhi you can predict the end of a tradition. So it is no special thing that the line of Jewish prophets - basically Jewish samadhi masters — would die out and that this was predicted or "fulfilled." It's really nothing special at all that this would even be predicted. It's not special, just extremely unfortunate. That is the fate of all samadhi traditions, which is why they must be rejuvenated with new teachers over time to keep things alive.

So how can we rejuvenate the Jewish tradition and enable it to start attaining samadhi masters again like Elijah, Daniel and Elisha? I don't mention Moses as an exemplar because his samadhi attainments were extremely low, which is why the tradition's foundations have led to so many problems over time. All three of these master were far higher than Moses in terms of the attainments of the Tao.

Anyway, the Mideast is a great place to cultivate. Greece, Pakistan, Egypt, the Persian states and so forth all benefit from a dry, arid climate which helps with cultivation. It is very difficult to succeed in cultivation in humid environments, and certain types of gong-fu are most easily accomplished only in dry, arid environments. With the arid or desert regions, it is easy to conquer the water element of the body and cultivate some special physical types of gong-fu, especially Rainbow Bodies. It'snot that you can't cultivate them elsewhere, it's just that their cultivation is easiest in dry, arid regions. Remember, there is no exclusivity involved here, so don't get tripped up in things. ALways return to fundamental principles.

Now we don't know what specific methods the old Jewish prophets (samadhi masters) used as the basis of their cultivation. All we know is that today many Jews  prize  the Kabbalah as a cultivation vehicle even though frankly, they don't know how to cultivate using it.  They mix its cultivation with all sorts of  nonsense and miss its basis as a cultivation vehicle. Remember, once you know the principles  of cultivation, you can use anything to cultivate; stray from those principles and you're mostly wasting your time.  So use your time to advantage.

We also know that the Jewish Kabbalists who succeeded all talk about "ayin," or emptiness, non-ego or absence of the self  which means they're cultivating  the exact target everyone else is. Yep! Exact same target, despite any prostests. If you are striving  for the stage of emptiness and no-ego, and that guy over there is also targeting the same, then I don't care how much you try to make your traditions and targets different. "No self" is no self.  Same target. Same stages. Same methods.

Take a look at these excerpts from Jewish masters to get the point that there is no exclusivity here, as much as people would like. That's another fallacy found with  other groups which claim they are the only ones saved, or their tradition is the only one holding the keys, or they are the selected ones. Nonsense, especially when you open up your third eye and see the infinite beings in infinite realms in the universe. That's just the typical propaganda found in Tibetan Buddhism, Born Again Christianity and other schools made to attract followers and keep the tradition alive. Remember I said that wisdom, over time, dies out just as bad money drives out the good.

But enough of that. Continuing….take a look at just a few of these quotes to get a flavor for what I'm talking about:

'The essence of the worship of God and of all the mizvot is to attain the state of humility, namely, — to understand that all one's physical and mental powers and one's essential being are dependent on the divine elements within. One is simply a channel for the divine attributes. One attains such humility through the awe of God's vastness, through realizing that "there is no place empty of Him" (Tiqqunei Zohar 57), Then one comes to the state of ayin [emptiness], which is the state of humility. — One has no independent self and is contained, as it were, in the Creator, blessed be He. — This is the meaning of the verse (Exod. 3:6): "Moses hid his face, for he was in awe. —" Through his experience of awe, Moses attained the hiding of his face, that is, he perceived no independent self. Everything was part of divinity." '(Mevasser Zedek, Issachar Ber of Zlotshov, (Berditchev, USSR, 1817), p. 9a-b.)

Hasidism says, "When one attains the level of gazing at ayin [emptiness], one's intellect is annihilated. —Afterwards, when one returns to the intellect, it is filled with emanation." (Maggid Devarav le-Ya'agov, Dov Baer, ed. Rivka Schatz Uffenheimer, (Magnes Press, Jerusalem: Israel, 1976), p. 224.)

Another Hasidic text says, "Arriving at the gate of Ayin [emptiness], you forget your existence altogether." (The Essential Kabbalah: The Heart of Jewish Mysticism, Daniel Matt, (Castle Books, Edison: New Jersey, 1997), p. 141.)

Yet another quote specifically referring to the Kabbalah: "The sefirot are stages of contemplative ascent; each one serves as an object and focus of mystical search. In tracing the reality of each sefirah, the mystic uncovers layers of being within herself and throughout the cosmos. This is the knowledge that the kabbalist strives for, supernal wisdom. However, there is a higher level, a deeper realm, beyond this step-by-step approach. At the ultimate stage, the kabbalist no longer differentiates one thing from another. Conceptual thought, with all its distinctions and connections, dissolves. " (The Essential Kabbalah: The Heart of Jewish Mysticism, Daniel Matt, (Castle Books, Edison: New Jersey, 1997), p. 180.)

And now the meat…

I don't want you to have to read the Zohar to understand Kabbalah meditation. All I want you to do is the following.

Take a look at the previous blog post on the method of visualizing the four major chakras, with the ROOT chakra at the bottom and CROWN chakra at the top. Huh — the Kabbalah use the same terminolgy…interesting. Then also remember that for cultivation purposes you can focus on your body's chi channels using the group of the left, right and central chi channels (ida, pingala, sushumna), or back, front and central chi channels (du-mai, jen-mai, zhong mai - sushumna). If you open up the left and right, the front and back will naturally open up and vica versa, which I explain on the site articles.

Now take a look at any picture of the Kabbalah with  four chakras on the center line, and the left and right channels flagging the central channel. Presto. You now have enough information to figure out how to be in line with Judaisim and cultivate QUICKLY to get samadhi. Please use it to rejuvenate the Jewish tradition of extinct samadhi masters upon your success.

 

 

Once you understand the basic principles, cultivation is just that simple. It's not mysterious or mystical. Don't complicate it or get lost in garbage, explanations, mucky muck and so forth. Just cultivate. Just throw your time into cultivation.

There are common, scientific principles to spiritual cultivation. Prayer, visualization, and so forth are effective WHEN YOU FOLLOW THESE PRINCIPLES  and ineffective when you don't. The gong-fu achieved and stages of attainment for people who succeed are common, non-denominational phenomena.

ALL traditions rely on similar principles and methods to achieve the same states, and IT IS TRUE that some masters do succeed in proceeding further than others in their own tradition and versus other traditions, but like the Diamond Sutra says, all the sages and saints rely upon their cultivation of the same  principle. So if you want to help save or rejuvenate the line of Jewish samadhi masters, apply these principles to tools within the tradition and you'll get the result I'm teaching you to achieve.

That's how you rejuvenate a tradition.