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Edgar Cayce and the Kabbalah. John Van Auken
Читать онлайн.Название Edgar Cayce and the Kabbalah
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isbn 9780876046265
Автор произведения John Van Auken
Жанр Религия: прочее
Издательство Ingram
Spirit Being (Yechidah)
Our highest level of being is Spirit Being—Yechidah (meaning the “single one”). Here is the ultimate unity of the individual in God, as an individual spirit within and one with the Great Spirit. The Spirit Being is the highest of the five levels of being. It is the one made in the image of God. (Genesis 1:26) Here we also find that the superconscious mind is one with the Universal Consciousness of the Creator.
Cayce viewed the spirit entity as a thing apart from anything earthly. Here’s one example:
Q: Does the spirit entity have a separate consciousness apart from the physical, and is it as the consciousness of [Mr. 900] when he dreams, or has visions, while asleep?
A: The spirit entity is a thing apart from any earthly connection in sleep, yet connected. For the earthly or material consciousness is ever tempered with material conditions . . . [the spirit entity] partakes of the spiritual forces principally. In consciousness we find only projections of subconscious and superconscious, which conditions project themselves in dreams, visions, unless entered into the superconscious forces. In the consciousness of earthly or material forces there enters all the attributes of the physical, fleshly body. In the subconscious there enters the attributes of soul forces, and of the conscious forces. In the superconscious there enters the subconscious forces, and spiritual discernment and development.
EC 900–16
We have three basic levels of mind: physical consciousness, soul subconsciousness, and spirit superconsciousness. The physical is far from the spiritual, but the soul bridges this gap, connecting all of our parts—from the highest to the lowest and back again. There are also three distinct qualities of being: our outer projected self, our inner soul self, and our infinite spiritual self.
Levels of Being and the Chakras
The Cayce readings and other sources would associate the four lower chakras—root, navel, solar plexus, and heart—with the Living Being (Nefesh). These chakras are also associated with the four children of Horus in Egyptian mysticism, as well as the four beasts in Ezekiel, in Daniel, and in Revelation. (Much more on these will be covered in chapter 13.) The three higher chakras—throat, third eye, and crown—would be associated with the Soul Mind (Ruach) and the Soul Being (Neshamah). See illustrations 27 and 28.
In Cayce’s teachings the throat chakra is associated with the will and is thus the first step to reconnecting with heavenly awareness and oneness with God. As one subdues his or her personal will and seeks God’s will, one turns from this outer, lower reality to the inner, higher ones. The crown and third eye are luminaries of higher consciousness and renew energy in the body. This energy flows from heavenly realms through the crown (the soft spot in the head of our body as infants). When flowing, it opens the closed third eye, the mind’s eye. This is also the region of the large frontal lobe of our brain, which so distinguishes us from animals. This area contains most of the dopamine-sensitive neurons associated with reward, attention, long-term memory, planning, and drive. In the frontal lobe resides the ability to conceive of future consequences resulting from current actions, to choose between good and bad actions, to recognize the best choice from among several options, to override and suppress unacceptable social responses, and discern similarities and differences between things or events.
Cayce recommended meditation for improving one’s bodily condition and raising one’s level of consciousness. He spoke of drawing up the energy and consciousness from the lower chakras to the higher ones. In his meditative method, the energy and consciousness rise up from the base of the spine to the base of the brain; then to the center of the brain, where the crown chakra awakens (the soft spot); and then flows over to the great frontal lobe, where the hypothalamus and pituitary glands (the master glands of the body) are located. Interestingly, Cayce associated the seven chakras with the body’s seven endocrine glands, which secrete their hormones directly into the blood system. The root chakra corresponds with the gonads (testes in males, and ovaries in females), the navel with the Leydig cells, the solar plexus with the adrenal glands and pancreas, the heart with the thymus, the throat with the thyroid, the crown with the pineal, and the third eye with the pituitary gland.
The Origin of Evil
Cayce also teaches that the three lower aspects of being—Soul Being, Soul Mind, and Living Being—existed long before we ever contacted the third dimension and physical life, clarifying that original sin was not a sin of the flesh, as is so often taught, but occurred in the spirit, in the soul, before it entered physical life. Souls brought their lower urges with them; flesh did not cause these urges, but it certainly facilitated a heightened expression of them. (EC 262–52)
Kabbalah teaches the same idea. When there is sin, darkness, or a defect in the creation, it is caused by a separation of what should be united. Souls may become, by misuse of their free wills, so completely focused on themselves that they become separated from the Whole. Of course, there really is no way that we can be outside of the Whole, but we can become unconscious of our oneness with the Whole. When this occurs, the mediating flow between the Creator and the created is broken, disrupting the creative flow and bringing darkness, evil, illness, and a sense of separation and aloneness. Even angels fall when this occurs.
The Counter to Evil
However, there is a countering influence to this separation. Both Cayce and Kabbalah teach that the higher aspects of our being, Spirit Mind and Spirit Being, are as pure and perfect as the moment they were conceived by God in God’s image. These higher portions have never left the presence and “throne of the Most High.” Even the least among us has his or her pure being in God’s presence.
The Zohar teaches that only the Nefesh is capable of sin. But that sin occurred before carnal life. This is why so many spiritual teachers purport that sin occurs in the heart and mind before it is manifested in the life of the body.
Changing the Name of God
Let’s conclude by reviewing stages of our Creation as expressed by changes in the name for God.
The Scriptures begin, breshit bara elohim [there is no distinction between lowercased and uppercased letters in Hebrew], “In the beginning God . . . ” The first name for God, as seen is this first line of Genesis, is Elohim. It is a plural Hebrew word that may be interpreted as “the Deities,” and the verse about creating us is translated in the plural as well : “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness.” (Genesis 1:26; emphasis mine) By using the plural form, the authors were likely attempting to convey the collective nature of the Creator, to keep us from thinking that God is a divine individual, projecting individuals in its image, and that God is in some way a separate Being from us. Rather, it is a collective consciousness within which all the Creation was conceived and in which all exists. Elohim may be likened to the great assembly spoken of in Psalm 82:1, indicating all exists within this collective: “God is in the assembly of God; he is judging among the gods.” Curiously, though, when this plural name is used, it is commonly construed with singular verbs and adjectives, adding to the belief that this is not polytheism