Kabbalah and Dzogchen
"Meditation is a distraction. We imagine that if we learn this or that technique we will become holy. Does Torah say become holy or be holy? It says be holy (Leviticus 19: 2). There is no becoming, no need to change, no sense of time, progress, transformation, or journey."
Rabbi Rami Shapiro
From Rabbi David Cooper on Kabbalah "View":
"This definition of small mind is not intended to be interpreted as a demeaning notion for it is an all-inclusive representation of the way people see things, without regard to the fact that it includes all genius and all ignorance of human perception. So, Einstein’s equations fall into the category of small mind just as much as small mind includes someone who is considered mentally challenged because of extremely low intelligence. The essential point is that when the human mind is clinging to a particular thought-subject, it is in the realm of mochin de katnut ( small mind). Obviously, most of us live our lives in this realm most of the time.
In opposition to mochin de katnut, there is a realm of consciousness described in Kabbalah as mochin de gadlut, literally “big mind.” The awareness of big mind is not limited in any way by any of the variables described above. Big mind has no limit at all—it is aware of everything, everywhere, at all times. Indeed, it is primordial awareness itself.
Small mind continuously sees imperfections, it judges and criticizes how life is unfolding, it wants to fix things and make things better. Small mind also experiences strong emotions and is often dissatisfied and frustrated. But small mind is sometimes happy and even joyous. In the end, however, one of the most common conditions of small mind is its sense of confusion—it wonders often about how life works and if there is any purpose to one’s existence.
One of our predicaments in this life is our continuous propensity to be overwhelmed by the appearance of things and our complete immersion in the belief of our separate self. These two aspects of our lives are reinforced time and again, day after day, moment after moment. As long as we believe there is a central “me,” and that this “I” engages unlimited worldly objects, we are forever surrounded and immersed in the realm of small mind.
Yet, consider this idea of mochin de gadlut, big mind. It has the following qualities.
It recognizes each moment as perfect, just the way it is.
Big mind is equanimous about matters (but not apathetic), it is sharply aware of the conditioning that lies under all of our activities.
Big mind is never dissatisfied with the way things happen, it is a calm, expansive, spacious state.
It sees clearly the mystery of life and rests comfortably in the state of “not knowing” what is going to happen from moment to moment. Small mind has an urge to be in some kind of control; big mind recognizes that the intrinsic nature of creation is that it is unknowable and uncontrollable."
Isaiah 45:6-7King James Version (KJV)
6 That they may know from the rising of the sun, and from the west, that there is none beside me. I am the Lord, and there is none else.
7 I form the light, and create darkness: I make peace, and create evil: I the Lord do all these things.
King James Version (KJV)
Deuteronomy 4:39King James Version (KJV)
39 Know therefore this day, and consider it in thine heart, that the Lord he is God in heaven above, and upon the earth beneath: there is none else.
"Some would argue that God is a divine spark inside things. Others would argue that God is a spirit outside things. God is not inside or outside. God is the very thing itself. And when there is no thing, but only empty space? God is that as well. Picture a bowl in your mind. Define the bowl. Is it just the clay that forms its sides? Or is it the empty space that fills with soup? Without the space, the bowl is not a bowl. Without the side, the bowl is not a bowl. So which is the bowl? The answer is both. To be a bowl, it must have both being and emptiness. It is the same with God. For God to be God, for God to be All, God must manifest as both being and emptiness. In Hebrew, we call being yesh, and we call emptiness ayin. And that is what God is: yesh and ayin.
Being (yesh) is that manifestation of God that appears to us as separate entities—physical, spiritual, and psychological. Emptiness (ayin) is that manifestation of God that reveals all separation to be illusory: the universe is empty of separate beings.
When eternity reigns, there is no yesh, only ayin; being returns to emptiness, and creation is no more. All is annihilated and empty of separate being."
Rabbi Rami Shapiro
"Devekut is a metaphor for self-unification. Devekut is a time when the outer person is revealed to be illusory, a figment of the language, an iron barrier separating us from God. Now only an unselfconscious awareness remains, an awareness that bears a wonderful similarity to the Divine. On Yom Kippur, a woman in my congregation offered a personal prayer in which she prayed for the wisdom to “wish to be who she was.” Devekut is when the one who asks and the one who hears become the same. We realize to our embarrassment that we have been who we were all along and that it was only linguistic convention that tricked us into thinking we were someone else."
Rabbi Kushner
"Ayin literally means “nothingness” or “the void.” It derives ultimately from the first principle of the Torah path, which is that God is One. Ayin is the state of complete Oneness (non-duality), by which is meant either God or the egoless state of a person who is in complete unity with God. The active form of this cleaving is often called devekut, literally “merging” or “cleaving.” Both Kabbalists and modern scholars have long recognized that there are several stages of ayin, or devekut. As Scholem wrote, “… there [are] different ranks of devekut itself, such as ‘equanimity’..."
"Ayin is a state of Essence. It is the Ground of Being. It is God itself. One may think of it as the quality of soul that is beyond time, space, or any corporeality. Each person may access this place.
In the truest sense, each person is this.
But it is unrecognized and unknown in most people’s lives. A meditation I use often in my teaching is derived from Dov Baer of Mezritch. Dov Baer teaches extensively about ayin in his book Maggid D’v’rav l’Yakov. The bulk of his teaching helps us to first perceive ayin as an “in-between” space. One homey example he gives of an in-between space is when an egg becomes a chicken.
It is the space that occurs after words are dropped away and before the next word appears.
It is spacious and without boundary. It is nothingness, but it is also Godness. It is the most profound of spaces. I direct my meditators to concentrate on this in-between place, allowing them to begin to experience ayin."
Rabbi Avram Davis
"This Light is the Ein Sof (the kabbalistic term for the “Empty God-force”), which is filled with boundless, creative strength. At this moment, and at every moment of existence, the Ein Sof is creating the entire universe anew in dazzling, cascading energy."
Dr. Edward Hoffman
"Jewish belief emphasizes that God continually creates the universe from nothingness. God continually is bringing existence forth from nonexistence. The doctrines and meditations developed in the early eighteenth century by Rabbi Dov Baer of Mezritch and Rabbi Levi Yitzhak of Berditchev emphasize the importance of connecting with the undulation of nothingness and consciousness. Human consciousness oscillates between a state of void and a state of cognitive consciousness, the latter being born out of the former and then returning back to it. Among the later Hasidic masters, this approach produced meditative practices involving Bittul, the temporary negation of ego."
Rabbi Steve Fisdel
"Many Eastern meditations are the product of a realization that this world is an illusion—samsara or maya. Judaism also recognizes that this realm of our consciousness is false. We call it Olam Hasheker, the “false world”! Indeed, the Hebrew word for “world”—olam—has a truer translation in “hidden.”"
RABBI LAIBL WOLF
"There is a technique of meditating on ayin, on “nothingness,” which is traditionally seen as especially demanding and dangerous. It is also certainly the most open-ended of all the meditative techniques..."
"The best way to get a handle on ayin is to compare it to Buddhism. The Buddhist concept of sunyata (emptiness) is similar to ayin—not identical, but very close."
"You could say that these are two ways of describing an underlying reality that, presumably, is one and the same. But whereas sunyata is central to Buddhism, most Jews have never heard of ayin. Even in Kabbalah, it’s talked about very rarely. In Hasidism, it’s further developed, but of all the Hasidic teachings, maybe one percent is devoted to ayin. Yet, ayin is central because it represents the moment of transition from Infinity (Ein Sof) to the sefirot (chakras). Ayin is how God unfolds. Creation is rooted in nothingness. There are roots for this positive sense of nothingness within Judaism."
"Talmud states: “The words of Torah do not become real except for one who makes himself as if he is not.” Job asks rhetorically, “Where is wisdom to be found?” The word ayin in this verse is a question: “Where?” But already in the Talmud, ayin is interpreted as a noun: “Wisdom is found in nothingness.” In Kabbalah, it becomes Divine nothingness. Its roots lie in rabbinic literature, but Kabbalah expands this."
Rabbi Daniel Matt