“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
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