Bridging The Gap - Kabbalistic Teachings in the Parable of the Rich Man and Lazarus

The Parable of the Rich Man and Lazarus can be found in Luke 16:19-31. To save you the trouble of having to click the link or look it up in the Bible, here's the parable: 

“There was a rich man who was dressed in purple and fine linen and lived in luxury every day. At his gate was laid a beggar named Lazarus, covered with sores and longing to eat what fell from the rich man’s table. Even the dogs came and licked his sores.

“The time came when the beggar died and the angels carried him to Abraham’s side. The rich man also died and was buried. In Hades, where he was in torment, he looked up and saw Abraham far away, with Lazarus by his side. So he called to him, ‘Father Abraham, have pity on me and send Lazarus to dip the tip of his finger in water and cool my tongue, because I am in agony in this fire.’

“But Abraham replied, ‘Son, remember that in your lifetime you received your good things, while Lazarus received bad things, but now he is comforted here and you are in agony. And besides all this, between us and you a great chasm has been set in place, so that those who want to go from here to you cannot, nor can anyone cross over from there to us.’

“He answered, ‘Then I beg you, father, send Lazarus to my family, for I have five brothers. Let him warn them, so that they will not also come to this place of torment.’

“Abraham replied, ‘They have Moses and the Prophets; let them listen to them.’

“‘No, father Abraham,’ he said, ‘but if someone from the dead goes to them, they will repent.’

“He said to him, ‘If they do not listen to Moses and the Prophets, they will not be convinced even if someone rises from the dead.’”

Jesus was Jewish and a rabbi. Rabbis more often than not are also Kabbalists, so it wouldn't be a stretch to suppose that Jesus was also learned in Kabbalah. Whatever the case may be, the above parable contains certain Kabbalistic, and even Hermetic, teachings. Teachings that give a hint of the subtle realities of both physical and spiritual existence.

I arrived at this inspiration while in the process of reading the book Sefer Yetzirah: The Book of Creation In Theory and Practice by Rabbi Aryeh Kaplan. Although I'm not yet done with the book, I can say that to date it's one of the most well-written books on Kabbalah that I have encountered. When I say well-written, I mean that the explanations are technical and precise yet easy to understand. Not an easy thing to do when writing about something as abstruse as the Sefer Yetzirah.

Going back to the parable, the following two esoteric laws are demonstrated in the story: the Law of Attraction (like attracts like; conversely, opposites repel each other) and the Law of Polarity or Duality. What does this mean? Spiritually speaking, distance has a whole different meaning. Two things of similar attribute or vibration, by the Law of Attraction, are drawn to each other. We can say that two things of similar vibration are spiritually close. And by that same Law of Attraction, two things of opposing attribute or vibration can never be joined together as they are literally poles apart. The existence of such a set up is the Law of Duality or Polarity. This is the "great chasm" that Abraham speaks of in the parable above, that cannot be crossed even if one wanted to.

And thus we get a hint about one of the reasons for physical existence. In the spiritual realms, for example, good and evil cannot interact since they are poles apart. The only place where they can interact is in the physical plane, which is how we say people have both "good" and "evil" tendencies in themselves. It is only in the physical realms that we have the opportunity to exercise the free will to overcome "evil" or "negative" tendencies and thus spiritually grow. Going back to the parable, it was only while the rich man and Lazarus were alive that they were in proximity to each other and able to interact (in that Lazarus was feeding off the scraps from the rich man's table). Yet when they both died, they were separated by the great chasm (Law of Attraction) due to their difference in spiritual vibration. This is why the rich man wanted his brothers to be warned while they were still alive.

In the parable, the rich man mentioned "five brothers" that needed to be warned. The number five is a cipher that can refer to the five powers of man, the five spiritual centers that form the pentagram (palms of both hands, soles of both feet, top of the head), the five senses or the five fingers of the hand and their elemental symbolism (in Indian mysticism and certain hermetic magical systems; this is why mudras or hand/finger positions produce certain effects). In the Sefer Yetzirah, it mentions setting the "five against the five" which is symbolism for the 10 sefirot with their counterpart opposites. In this system, each finger of the hand represents a certain sefira.

As you can see, the topic of ciphers is too vast to cover in one article. But on a more basic level, five represents the pentagram, which also symbolizes Gevurah. Interestingly, in pranic healing Gevurah also refers to the solar plexus chakra. The solar plexus chakra is the clearinghouse of energy that distributes prana throughout the whole body. Psychologically, in a positive sense the solar plexus chakra is the center for courage and drive and caring for the self, while negatively it is the center of lower negative emotions such as greed, anger and selfishness. Without taming these lower impulses, it is easy to fall into the same folly that the rich man in the parable lived out during his lifetime. Soul contact is the means by which one tames the lower impulses, and of course we increase soul contact when we live a more virtuous life. The virtues are nurtured through spiritual teachings that are transmitted through spiritual teachers or "Moses and the prophets" as symbolized in the parable.

But how does the physical plane fit into the greater scheme of things? Let's consider the relationship between God and Man. Obviously, Man is a being that is of much, much lower vibration than God, and therefore spiritually Man cannot be joined with God. In case you are wondering how this can be since we are all divine sparks from God, there is a key phrase in the Sefer Yetzirah (1:7): "Their end is imbedded in their beginning." The explanation would take up too much space, but suffice it to say that it refers to our journey towards God. But how do we undertake that journey?

Many esoteric teachings state that there are several strata in the spiritual world, with each subsequent realm being of a higher vibration than the one "below" it. By the Law of Attraction, one is unable to cross over into a higher realm unless one's vibrations match that particular realm. But if we remain in a purely spiritual state, again by the Law of Attraction our existing vibration would make us unable to interact with the higher vibration that we want to reach. Essentially, we would be stuck in place. Therefore, it seems the only way to interact with a higher vibration would be to encounter it in the physical realm.

This process whereby one steadily increases one's vibration through cultivation of the virtues and other good works is termed spiritual evolution. If one follows the spiritual teachings to the best of one's ability, by the time one passes over from the physical realm (i.e. once our physical bodies die), one's vibrations should already be high enough to enter the next higher spiritual realm, and thus the person is "one step closer to God" in terms of spiritual evolution.

T. Lobsang Rampa mentioned in one of his books that incarnation is one of the fastest ways to spiritually evolve. What would take a purely spiritual being millennia to achieve can be achieved in a few years simply by incarnating in the physical realms. I was wondering why this was so before, but now Lobsang Rampa's statement is starting to make some sense.

Of course, what we are seeing here is only one facet of the truth. What comprises the physical changes the higher up one ascends in the spiritual realms. In Alice Bailey's works, for example, the Monadic Plane (Anupadaka) where our divine spark resides is but a part of the Cosmic Physical Plane. The Cosmic Physical Plane actually extends all the way to the Divine Plane (Adi or Plane of the Logos). But at the moment, we need not boggle our minds with such terminologies.

What is important to consider is that physical life is the paradox that allows us to spiritually evolve. Life can be a burden and it can be confusing at times, especially when things seemingly go wrong despite doing everything right. But the fact of the matter is, life is literally a gift and an opportunity.

Americans recently celebrated Thanksgiving. But if we think about it, we go to sleep at night with no guarantee that we will wake up the next morning. The fact that we do wake up should already be an occasion for giving thanks, because we have been given another opportunity to live the life that would allow us to increase our spiritual vibration.

There are even more teachings that are embedded in the parable of the rich man and Lazarus, but again discussing them would take up too much space. But hopefully this article would point the way towards taking another look at the teachings of Jesus the way a Kabbalist probably would have. In case this sounds challenging, it is. But let me end with the following words of Jesus that you can meditate on:

This is why I speak to them in parables:

“Though seeing, they do not see;
    though hearing, they do not hear or understand.

But blessed are your eyes because they see, and your ears because they hear. - Matthew 13:13, 16

Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. - Matthew 7:7

Evocation

Wikipedia defines evocation as "the act of calling or summoning a spirit, demon, god or other supernatural agent, in the Western mystery tradition." These supernatural entities are usually summoned so that the magician may learn something about a particular subject that the summoned spirit is knowledgeable about or to order the spirit to perform a task for the magician.

Spirits have different specialties. If the magician wanted to know more about the making of herbal ointments and potions, for example, a spirit from that sphere of knowledge could be consulted. If a magician wanted to improve the sales performance of his/her shop, the appropriate spirit could be summoned to attract more prosperity and customers for the business.

The concept of evocation or summoning tends to sound diabolical because of all the horror stories we've been bombarded with about runaway demons and evil wizards (it's practically standard fare for Dungeons & Dragons adventures), but in its barest essence evocation is like consulting or hiring a specialist in the real world except that you're using magical means. But one aspect of evocation that many people would question is, why is there a need to summon demons or so-called negative spirits?

According to Franz Bardon, one of the foremost hermeticists of the 20th century, good and evil are concepts created through Man's limited understanding of the universe. From the perspective of the esoteric scholar, good and evil are expressions of the Law of Polarity or Duality, one of the natural laws that makes the universe possible.

One way to see how "negative" and "positive" are both necessary is to look at ants and mosquitoes. Ants can be negative in the sense that they can ruin our food, while mosquitoes bite us and can bring disease. But we know that both species are necessary for the health of the environment and wiping them out can imbalance the ecosystem to the point that it could threaten our survival. The concept of negative connotes destruction, while the concept of positive connotes construction. So another example of how both concepts work together is to look at digestion. If there was no negative (in the sense defined earlier), there would be no way for us to digest our food, because digestion involves breaking down the food (a "negative" process) to allow the body access to the nutrients to repair and sustain itself (a "positive" process).

Going by the examples above, we can expand our understanding of positive and negative to angels and demons. They are entities that have their specific roles in making the universe work as it should. Not everyone can understand what roles these entities may play, the same way not everyone understands how a mosquito is an important part of the ecosystem, but for the magician who has an understanding of these matters he/she can harness these forces in order to further his/her development and act as an agent of Divine Purpose.

That being said, there is a reason for all those horror stories about magical summonings gone awry. Just as no one works with high voltage electricity without proper training and preparation, one needs the same amount of care when evoking spirits. This shouldn't be surprising since one is directly accessing the hidden forces that run the universe.

Just consult any grimoire and you will see the same basic paraphernalia: the magic circle; the wand, sword and knife; the triangle; the magician's robe; the sigils, and so on. The aim of all these is to ensure that the magician doesn't lose control over the magical operation. If you want a more detailed explanation about evocation and the different processes, I suggest you read Franz Bardon's The Practice of Magical Evocation. Even if you don't have any plans of actually evoking spirits, Bardon's book is still good theoretical material and his explanations are clear and easy to understand, without the histrionics that commonly color the prose of classical grimoires.

In case you're still feeling apprehensive about this whole summoning business, it's interesting to note that we actually practice some sort of evocation everyday, most often unconsciously. How? Through the way we think.

The power of thought is a force. This is why we say that energy follows your thoughts. What is this energy? In pranic healing, this pervasive energy is called prana. If energy (prana) follows your thoughts and prana is life energy, the thoughts we put forth are enlivened by pranic energy. In a sense, thought forms are also lower forms of entities. A thought form can gain power when it's very clear and focused or through constant repetition, or both.

There is another esoteric law that states that like attracts like. So if you continuously send out angry thoughts, for example, you attract anger entities and elementals that will send signals to you to produce even more of the energy (in this case, anger) that they are so enjoying. This is true for every negative or positive thought that there is. Therefore, you "summon" the type of entity that is equal to the quality of your thought.

Repeated thoughts by a sufficient number of people can form an egregore, or a gigantic thought form not attached to any particular individual. These egregores have a power of their own and can be accessed through gestures, words of power or rituals. A negative example of this would be the Nazi egregore that engulfed the people of Germany prior to and during World War 2. The Nazi salute was the gesture that filled the person with the energy of the Nazi egregore and at the same time empowered the egregore as long as the person remained a devotee of that belief system.

It's interesting that the process that ensures a safe and successful evocation parallels the same process that helps one attain a happy, healthy and balanced life. During an evocation, the magic circle is not only a protective device. It symbolizes one's divinity or oneness with God. The summoned being is in essence "talking to God" and therefore has to obey the magician. In everyday life, we need to maintain this "magic circle" of our being so that we don't lose control over the thoughts and entities that we are bombarded with everyday. This "magic circle" also serves to remind us to consciously control our thoughts and direct the forces that impact our lives and those of others.

Consider for example the act of earning a living. When we are doing work, we attract entities of productivity so that we are even more energized and motivated to work. However, if we lose control over this impulse to work, these productivity entities can "possess" us and drive us to become workaholics. Same goes for eating. This basic survival instinct can all too easily lead to gluttony if we don't control our appetites. This is how bad habits and addictions are formed. That's why we sometimes end up asking ourselves, "What possessed me to do that?" Anything positive can quickly turn into a negative if we lose control over it.

The ancient Kabbalists say that there is no attribute that can be assigned to the Infinite Being because this Being is beyond all concept. However, if there was one concept that would come closest to describing the Infinite Being, it would be that of will. Will provides the volition or impetus that gives birth to creation. It is through the will that we gain control over the forces that would otherwise overwhelm us if left unchecked.

All of this is easier said than done, of course. But that's why life is a school that gives us all these opportunities to learn and practice. All the descriptions about magic and mysticism make it look like we are gaining the power to control and influence outside events, but in many deeper ways we are actually working to master ourselves.

The Hermetic concept of "As above, so below" is quite well known. So if we subscribe to the assertion that our body is a little universe, a microcosm of the macrocosm, then the concept of self-mastery as a path to God makes a little more sense. We effect change in the outside by first changing the inside. This is the essence that we can extract from all the rituals and practices of magic that exist in the world.

At the end of the day, we ask ourselves: Do we stand at the center of our own magic circle, fully in control of the forces within us so that we may better participate in the Divine Plan? Or do we become enslaved to the entities that we unwittingly call forth in the unguarded recesses of our own mind? That choice is always before us.