Category: Spirituality
-
Combating the roots of racism
I hypothesize that this may be one of the roots of racism… the misinterpretation of holiness. This verse in Genesis is talking through a spiritual context / lens: “And then there was light… and light is good.”
The face is charity, it is not all that important (what we look like – our physical person).
Our character, our intention, our (nonphysical) heart and soul is where our spiritual lightness is.
https://www.chabad.org/6503822
Please consider donating to the Truth and Reconciliation project: https://www.descendants.org/
-
Seeking The Incomprehensible
by Sean Macken
These words are a celebration of life and seeking what cannot be comprehended.
Table of Contents
- Episode 1
- Episode 2: Starfields
Episode 1
Seeking compassion. I looked as close as I could. I looked deep. I looked beyond my visual capabilities. Into the ether of microscopic. Beyond microscopic and into atomic. Was is there? Need I look beyond atomic into Nano and Pico and beyond.
Where is compassion?
I found a universe in a single electron.
Was it all ideological? I slowed time. I must find a way to contemplate this, to fathom the realness of this existence.
Wait… I must recenter myself. I am seeking compassion. Compassion is there. Compassion is everywhere. We must believe. It is not what the eye sees. It is what our instincts, our human auras feel. We feel compassion.
These spiritual concepts, they are all theoretical and ideological? No, they are substance. They are real. Compassion is real.
Through actions and intentions compassion is there.
Yet the search for compassion, I have found compassion and I have been led further.
I have been let into another chamber.
I have been led to another gate.
I have been led to another opening.
I have been led to another fold that is unfolding.
I have been led to another room to contemplate.
Is this what reality is?
I looked beyond cosmic energies and I found a universe inside of a particle. Inside of an electron. Inside of a single photon packet.
She is there, for you, for you.
She speaks:
“I am that I am”
“I am”
And she is there for you, always. She has always been there for you.
Time stretches again.
Finally we are alone together, her and I.
I’ve been waiting, yet she is sacred…
she and I have always walked alone
through this garden… through this opening.
I jumped into nothing and fell inside of an electron. Another single electron, yet there was no universe inside. It was only I and it took me far, far and fast beyond to the other side.
The electron took me to her again. Yes we must. I chased her. I chased her, yet she only will be found when she would like to be found. I chased and chased her. I yearned and reached for her hand. Please reveal your hidden self to me. I yearned. I yearned. She told me she has always been there. I knew this yet I wished to drink. I wished to be holy, to have only the holiest, my sacred, natural, and pristine water on my lips. I wished to kiss her. I yearned and yearned.
The electron flung me to another universe, to another planet, and to another sun.
I burst in flames, and entered into nothingness.
I spoke to her for I could not see.
Where are you, I have been searching. I’ve been yearning.
At the opening I walked through. She was there and spoke “I am”
Though how could I know if she is finally mine? I wish her to be all mine.
Yet the spirit in uncontainable.
She told me that we have always been only each others.
I searched and searched.
For the spirit won’t make you want more than your fill.
I wished for more and I looked above.
The above told me that there is always more. Always more of the unknowable. Always more of the incomprehensible to be revealed.
I jumped through the inside of an atom.
The protons were praying and the electrons were dancing.
I jumped on a photon and rode it through matter.
How could this be that the spirit intoxicates so cleanly.
Earthly wines of wines cannot start to quench your thirst compared to the infinite.
It was a puzzle that the photon showed the electron.
They were all so organic, yet structure was there too.
Another gate opened.
An opening appeared.
A chamber door opened too.
I drank more of the spirit and she was there and told me “I am”.
Episode 2: Starfields
I went surfing on starfields with nothing except my naked body.
The winds of the spiritual ether touched my fingertips.
I laughed with joy at how the omnipotent just likes being tickled in her armpits of the deepest valleys just when I jump barefooted from mountaintop to mountaintop.
How could you comprehend I am asked, yet everyone knows I’ve drank the wine of her spirit and am babbling the purest logic and reason that exists.
She wished to being me in to the opening of the next realm’s portal.
I told her that her hair makes me wish to kiss both cheeks on her face at the same time.
She replied that she covers her hair to keep me yearning
and I told her that our game of love is as infinite as her beauty.
We laughed at how the passing electrons are mere roller coaster rides
and that stretching time is too much fun when we are to enter the chariot set for “who knows which circuit”.
“I don’t really get everything” I told her yet I wish I said that all I would like is to hold her hand until we get sweaty and then after that we could jump into each other’s psyche and swim inside of the other’s aura.
She liked that, yet knew it was just me telling her that “I am in love with her, soul and all”
The cosmos were at it again, dancing with each other.
I yelled “Time to get serious and mind your orbits” and we laughed together for eternity… until we started crying tears of joy that refilled the waterfall’s spring.
The water was coming out of a rock’s crevice and it filled Earth’s seas.
Each microbe became a new planet that giggled with joy upon birth.
I fell through the moon and screamed “Is our love amorous!?” The incomprehensible quietly whispered “We are much beyond just that!”
Finally I felt a comfort, as if I could rest gently.
When I awoke it was as if the world was plotting, scheming, and conspiring for my good health, wellness, happiness, and success.
I yelled “Leave me alone immediately!” and we both laughed laughs of innocent and giggly fun.
The metatron’s metadata was finally appearing correct and I had the spiritual guide I was looking for.
She asked me: “Are you searching for me?” and I replied “Perhaps we are searching for each other!”
That appeared to be the correct response because she took me by the hand and brought me to the 5th dimension’s spiral staircase. Each step enters another dimension. I wondered how that is possible and the Z-index multiplied exponentially.
The bewildering wilderness all of a sudden was civilized and I couldn’t help but ask “Are we getting closer to the incomprehensible?”
The only answer was silence so I knew that could of meant Yes, No, Maybe, or all of the above.
Opening after opening was new portal after portal and chamber after chamber.
I realized that visuals are a mere mirror sometimes and what you see may not be what is actually there.
How, amidst such exploration could a man such as myself not yearn for her hand?
She comforts me when I need introspection. Her hand is all I wish for. Sometimes holding hands is more intimate than any other closeness in existence. She could be she and I could be I, yet our yearning for each other continues growing stronger and stronger.
With every sip my intellect gets sharpened.
With every sip my spiritual thirst gets quenched.
I ask her if I am seeing what I am seeing and she replies:
“I am”.
-
Close your eyes and have Faith – Procreation Consent
I, Sean Thomas Macken, hereby give consent for any female to procreate with me if that woman knows and loves me. I understand that this may be in another reality, another timescale, culture, and I may not be aware of it even occurring. My main concern would be the ensure that we are being responsible and our futures will be many years filled with happiness and love and kindness to each other. I prefer to be married first, before any sexual intercourse, and I would hope that our marriage lasts our entire lives, yet whatever the circumstance, it is very important to me that you and I are honest and do so honestly if we procreate. Also, planning and the future is very important to me so we can teach our children how best to survive and thrive, while being good people.
Minimum Criteria – diversified genetics from myself and appropriate / legitimate.
I would hope that if I ever get married that it is in the name of love and our fire of love burns for eternity.
I, in my reality, have not met a woman to marry or start a family with yet. I would love to be a Father and Husband and I would love being faithful to my wife and I’d love to provide for our family. I feel my natural predisposition and natural propensity is being a family man, yet in my reality I have not found a way to make that happen yet.
Family Goals Worth Striving Towards: Body - Mind - Soul Body: Being kind to our physical bodies, as if they are Holy Temples. Mind: Sharpening our intellects and deepening our knowledge. Soul: Enriching our souls with humble spirituality. Values: Honesty Love and kindness Charity - Giving forth value (time, effort, energy, objects, etc...) to those beyond and "outside of" self. Understanding Practicality, Reason Honor, Respect Humility
A Female’s Pregnancy On Demand – P.O.D.
Future Financial Planning – Make sure to try to communicate with me to get an honest and full disclosure of my financial situation so I/we can provide for our family.
-
Black
I love the color black. It comforting to the eyes, soothing.
It is gentle, trustworthy, calming, and restful. It is humble, and holy and light and good and kind.
Of course you cannot overgeneralize. This is at the stark outer regions of the final polarization of absolutism, and my simple opinion at that.
Between black and white, I would choose black. It is simpler, more peaceful, gentler. Black is love.
On a practical level, where reason and a certain blindness exists (I like white too), white can be humble and kind and holy and unpretentious, but not nearly as well as black can be those things.
It’s really an irrelevant argument. It means nothing because such an argument depends on individual, unique context.
You can of course use the visual aesthetics and biological reaction to symbolize or represent, but those symbolisms and representations are not the rule, they are isolated use-cases. Black is… White is… Yellow is… Green is… Blue is… Orange is… Violet is… Purple is… Red is…
Oh, dear, lovely, humble, kind, holy, and loving black, surround, hide, and protect me with your simple comfort and let me always rest easy.
-
Project: “Tefillin”
I am not a Jew, though I consider myself spiritual. Throughout my life I have really loved learning about other religions. You can find gems of profound wisdom in every religion, but I must tell you that in Jewish literature, I have found some of the most profound ideas that there are! I love some ideas of Judaism. I especially find interesting the mystical Kabbalist ideas. To me, Judaism is “natural”. It has a very natural evolution and sequence of coming to existence and becoming what it is to this very day. That evolution is documented. My first experience reading a Torah is that it is like a story. I have read the Old Testament before, and the difference was that the Torah reads like an Earthy story.
Years ago my community, Albuquerque, out of “nowhere” got “hit” with certain “street problems / issues” such as fentanyl (aka “blues”) and more “forced poverty” than was there before. As people tried to define what was occurring, these poor victims of forced poverty and addiction to the cheap “blues” found ways to survive and the community deemed them “encampments”.
After a while, I decided that I was going to make a personal “community service” effort. The most “dire” streets in Albuquerque, where the crime and homelessness is abundant at times was previously called “The War Zone”. It is on Central between San Mateo and Wyoming, zip code 87108. The city renamed this area to “The International District”. In this zone you can find people “nodding out” doing the “blues” in the open air public, as well as thieves and beggars and prostitutes. There are lots of encampments there. It is a sort of crime zone. I am convinced that it may be an area that documents “wrongs” / “crimes” from other timescales / visibilities / spaces. A latitude / longitude replication / documentation zone? Catch a case, foo!
When I decided to make a personal community service effort I decided that I would go do community service on Central in the War Zone. I felt it was somewhat dangerous, so I had to prepare. I learned many lessons. First of all I started bringing my camera and very quickly learned that people there get paranoid with cameras. I took my bike with a backpack and I brought water and food and essential supplies to give to people. I learned another lesson pretty quickly, do not give them money, give the people there, or offer to give them essential supplies. They are the marginalized of society and could use water and food and hygiene basic supplies. It really does help them. They could use meals there. Make a bunch of sandwiches, if you can afford it and go give them out to the people on the street.
Charity is the greatest Commandment
In doing so, I met people, and I heard their stories, and they are not so different than all of us who function normally in society.
They are normal people whom have had a tragedy to their persons and they are coping with the trauma of that.
I started thinking about the beautiful prayer that the Jews do, as a Commandment, with Tefillin. It is a prayer that reminds them that G-d liberated them out of the bounds of Egypt. You might compare these poor, forced poverty, forced drug addicts to Jews in the bounds of slavery in Egypt in the sense that these people NEED to be liberated from bounds outside of their control.
So I purchased a set of Tefillin and I brought it with me on my community service trips in The War Zone. I am planning on bringing it with me, and sharing my Tefillin with people who might want to learn how Jews pray and might find it a special prayer experience.
This is how I interpret the Tefillin prayer: “Dear G-d, thank you for freeing us from the bounds of slavery. Let this Tefillin prayer be a reminder that you liberated us. Let this Tefillin be bound to me as a sign and reminder.”
I pray G-d liberates all of these people from their dire, vulnerable situations of poverty and addiction.
-
The Relevance of Yeshua
*Praying hands image from Third Rail Supply: https://www.thirdrailsupply.com/products/512-pray-for-us-black-pray-hands-xxl
I am a non-practicing Catholic. I love Catholicism. Where I live, the Church is a Holy refuge, a sacred place and institution to find spiritual union with G-d. The other faiths are our family, our cousins, our brothers and sisters, like everyone, every person is family(even atheists and non-believers). One human family.
Though I am not a churchgoer, Catholicism is my core. Catholic values: Kindness, Humility, Forgiveness, The Golden Rule, Charity, Faith, Hope, Prudence, Fortitude, Justice, Temperance, and Love.
I often think about the relevance of Jesus’ message: forgiveness, not throwing the first stone, treat others as you’d like to be treated, and Yeshua suffered and died for our sins, every single sin, so that we don’t have to suffer or die for our sins. He loved us that much! That is the relevance of Jesus! Life is meant to be lived!
Signs of G-d’s love! …And G-d is a good G-d who loves us and has plans for our happiness and success!
With these profound messages Yeshua is most definitely a prophet.
Let our houses, all of the houses of humanity work on our foundation of loving-kindness, universally, that every human deserves. The details won’t be as important in the future once we all have a foundation of our needs met, loving-kindness, dignity, charity, empathy, hope, forgiveness, humility!
The point is kindness, Hillel had it right! “The message of the entire Torah is kindness, the rest of the Torah is just commentary!” The most important take-away from the Torah is kindness! Loving-kindness!
I encourage you to purchase some Dr. Bronner’s Magic Soap and read the label. It is like a breath of fresh air. I love the logo. To me, their logo of a white hand and arm shaking a black hand and arm is symbolic of a polarized separateness meeting in the middle, civilly, through a shake of a hand. Bridging a polarized black/white separateness with kindness. Let us always find intercultural competence, reaching across the aisle through kindness, a worthwhile effort between houses.
-
Shevirat HaKeilim, Tohu, & The Stain of the Sky
I once read the most beautiful and profound, yet simple creation myth, yet what I read, I forgot. From what I remember there was some objects traveling to Earth, they were made of glass. The glass objects were shattered and scattered all over the Earth. It is the human’s job to gather all of the broken pieces and bring them together to make the objects complete again. I had totally forgot what the story was. Everything I searched for was to no avail, I thought I had lost this story, until tonight. I had even written a story that was inspired from this creation story called “The Stain of the Sky”. I swear though that the vessels were glass! Here is the story I wrote inspired from Tohu’s Creation Story, dealing with some relevant issues, and then after the story, there is further information of the Tohu story. Yay! I’m so excited I found this story again!
The Stain Of The Sky
There was once a person who lived in the Sky.
He was a bad man, a stain of the Sky.
He was a predator and he would stalk some Earth people.
The Earth people would be his victims. He would steal from them.
He was a murderer.
He would rape Earth people’s women and wives.
All of the Earth people feared the stain of the Sky.
The Earth people knew he was doing wrongs to them, and they prayed.
The Spirits of the Sky heard the Earth people’s prayers.
After they saw the stain of the Sky doing wrongs, the Spirits of the Sky
said to the stain “You are making the Earth people fear the Sky,
when they once loved looking up at the Sky. Now, because of you,
the Earth people don’t want to look up. All they think of is
the wrongs from you, the stain of the Sky.”
The Spirits of the Sky consulted with Mother Sun.
Mother Sun and the Spirits of the Sky decided
to forever ban the stain of the Sky from flying and from living in the Sky.
They turned him into a light blue plastic object and threw him
to the Earth. The light blue plastic object broke when it hit the ground
and shards of broken plastic were spread and lost around the entire Earth.
The stain of the Sky is lost and will be forever trying to put itself back together
and to find itself.
Maybe, if you find a piece of light blue broken plastic,
you can help the stain of the Sky heal and find itself.
When you find pieces of broken light blue plastic: recycle or throw away the plastic
so that one day the stain will be put back together, will find itself,
and will be whole again. Recycle the artwork and create a pretty artwork by gluing the broken light blue plastic together.
Then, you can create a new happy story, from a sad sad story.
This will make the Spirits of the Sky and Mother Sun very pleased.
The Fallen Sparks of Tohu:
https://www.chabad.org/library/article_cdo/aid/3593030/jewish/The-Fallen-Sparks-of-Tohu.htm
From Google’s A.I. Summary:
The story of creation from Tohu comes from Kabbalistic Judaism, a form of Jewish mysticism. The story, known as the “Shattering of the Vessels,” or Shevirat HaKeilim, explains the existence of a seemingly flawed, scattered world by describing a primal cosmic accident. The word tohu refers to the primordial chaotic void that existed at the beginning of creation.
The process of creation and shattering- Divine Contraction (Tzimtzum): In the beginning, there was only God’s infinite, limitless light, known as the Ein Sof. To make room for creation, God had to withdraw and contract His presence, creating a vacant space.
- The Ten Vessels (Sefirot): To fill this void, God emanated ten vessels, or Sefirot, to contain the divine light. Each vessel was meant to contain a different aspect of God’s energy.
- The Breaking of the Vessels: The light was too powerful for the vessels to contain, especially the lower seven, which represented more finite qualities. The vessels shattered, and the divine light was scattered into billions of holy sparks.
- The Fallen Sparks (Nitzotzot): The shards of the broken vessels and the sparks of light fell into the abyss, becoming the basis of our material reality. Our flawed world is understood as a composite of these divine fragments.
The meaning of the scattered story
- Explaining Imperfection: The story offers a theological answer to the problem of evil and imperfection in a world supposedly created by a perfect God. It posits that flaws are an inherent result of a cosmic accident rather than an intentional part of the design.
- Repairing the World (Tikkun Olam): The ultimate purpose of humanity is to gather the scattered sparks of divine light and restore the primordial vessels. This process is known as Tikkun Olam, or “Repairing the World”.
- Human Purpose: By performing righteous acts and observing the commandments (mitzvot), humanity elevates the holy sparks found throughout creation. This ongoing process hastens the Messianic era, when the world will finally be repaired.
- Reconciling Chaos and Order: The Kabbalistic myth explains the tension between the chaotic, empty state (tohu va-bohu) mentioned in Genesis 1:2 and the divine spirit “hovering over the waters”. The darkness and chaos represent the shattered vessels, while the divine spirit symbolizes the potential for repair.
Shevirat HaKeilim
From Google’s A.I. Summary:
“Shevirat HaKeilim,” also known as the “Breaking of the Vessels,” is a central concept in Lurianic Kabbalah, a school of Jewish mysticism. It describes a primordial event where the initial divine emanations, or sefirot, shattered due to the intensity of God’s light, creating a state of disharmony and scattering “sparks of holiness” throughout the universe. The Zohar refers to this as “the death of the kings”. Humanity’s task is to repair this broken world through Tikkun Olam, a process of spiritual restoration.
Elaboration:
- The Initial Creation: In Kabbalah, God, known as Ein Sof (the infinite), contracts to create space for creation. He then emanates ten sefirot, which are vessels meant to contain divine light.
- The Shattering: The vessels, representing the sefirot, were not strong enough to contain the immense light of Ein Sof and shattered. This shattering is the “breaking of the vessels”.
- Scattered Sparks: The shattered fragments of the vessels are believed to contain sparks of holiness, scattered throughout the universe.
- Human Role: The concept of Shevirat HaKeilim emphasizes humanity’s role in spiritual restoration or Tikkun Olam. Through our actions and intentions, we can gather these scattered sparks and elevate them, contributing to the repair of the world.
- Tohu and Tikkun: The shattering of the vessels is associated with the “world of Tohu” (chaos), while the process of repair is linked to the “world of Tikkun” (repair).
The Ten Sefirot:
https://en.anthro.wiki/images/7/78/Sephirot_Tree.jpg
The Sefirot (singular: Sefirah) are the ten divine emanations or channels of God’s energy, fundamental to Jewish Kabbalah and visualized on the Tree of Life. They describe the process of how the infinite divine light emanates into our finite reality, acting as attributes of God and also as spiritual centers within the human psyche and body. The ten Sefirot are Keter (crown), Chochmah (wisdom), Binah (understanding), Chesed (mercy), Gevurah (judgement/strength), Tiferet (beauty/harmony), Netzach (endurance/victory), Hod (splendor/glory), Yesod (foundation), and Malkhut (kingdom/divine presence).
Key Aspects of the Sefirot
- Divine Emanation:.The Sefirot represent stages through which the infinite divine essence (Ein Sof) expresses itself in the created world.
- The Tree of Life:.In Kabbalistic tradition, the Sefirot are depicted as ten spheres arranged on a diagram known as the Tree of Life, with paths connecting them.
- Inner Divine Wisdom:.The Sefirot are considered fundamental concepts in Kabbalah, the inner wisdom of the Torah.
- Human and Divine Connection:.The Sefirot are both divine attributes and energy centers in the human body and soul, providing a way to understand the divine immanence in creation.
The Ten Sefirot
The specific names and their order on the Tree of Life are:
- Keter: (Crown): The divine will to create.
- Chochmah: (Wisdom): The initial plan or spark of wisdom.
- Binah: (Understanding): The development and manifestation of the plan.
- Chesed: (Mercy/Love): Divine love and boundless giving.
- Gevurah: (Judgement/Strength): The force of strict law and judgement.
- Tiferet: (Beauty/Harmony): A balancing force between Chesed and Gevurah, uniting them.
- Netzach: (Endurance/Victory): The power of enduring love or persistence.
- Hod: (Splendor/Glory): The power of majestic glory or humility.
- Yesod: (Foundation): The channel that transmits divine power to the lower realms.
- Malkhut: (Kingdom): The presence of the divine in the material world.
