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.

On Transcending The Physical

Mystic teachings of antiquity have always taught that we are more than just our bodies, that we are divine sparks undergoing a physical experience through the medium of our physical bodies. The main thrust of mystic practices has been to transcend the physical in order to realize the divinity within and experience the supernal realms of existence.

For most people, transcending the physical would mean denying many of the things that an ordinary person would consider normal, be it in terms of diet, material possessions, participation in everyday affairs, and so on. In this case, spirituality has been equated with self-sacrifice. For me though, while a certain amount of restriction and discipline is indeed necessary, living the life of an ascetic is not always the best path to enlightenment. In fact, too much withdrawal can leave a person ungrounded and out of touch with the needs and sensitivities of everyone else. This neglect can even lead to the failure to take care of one's own body.

However, everything in the universe has its place and this would include the physical world. This wonderful biological construct called the human body is a marvel of sacred geometry and the miracle of life, therefore it makes no sense to discard it while we are not yet done with our time in this world. While this may seem at odds with how many people would view spirituality, I found something interesting in the field of athletics that may help shed some light on the role of the physical in driving our spirituality forward.

We've all heard the saying that boxing is 90% mental and 10% physical. However, for anyone who has actually taken up boxing, it's very physically demanding to the point that one would say it's all physical. One boxing website I visited goes so far as to say that: Boxing is 90% mental and 10% physical. But that 10% physical requires 100% of your physical capacity.

Now here's the interesting point. According to the same boxing website I mentioned earlier, professional fighters have developed their physical capabilities and conditioning to the point that in the ring, they're not thinking or focusing attention on their physical body anymore, leaving their minds free to think of strategy and outsmarting the opponent. That's where the 90% comes in, after you've basically mastered your physical conditioning.

There's an interesting parallel in the selection process for special forces soldiers. If you've watched any of the military-themed shows such as Discovery Channel's Surviving the Cut or History Channel's Special Forces, you will see that prospective special forces candidates are run through a meat grinder of physical challenges such as forced marches with heavy loads or long distance swims, usually with little or no rest, lasting several weeks until only the toughest remain and earn the opportunity to be trained as a special forces soldier.

In one episode, one of the selection instructors was interviewed. The sergeant who was interviewed said that the selection process is structured such that physical fitness can only carry one so far. Beyond a certain point, pushing on becomes a mental effort. He said the physical body's limits can be pushed as long as you're mentally strong enough. And it's these soldiers that the instructors are looking for, those who can dig deep and push forward in situations when someone less mentally tough would have given up. Often it's not the big, muscular or athletic ones who make the cut.

In both the boxing and special forces examples, the way to transcend the physical is to fully engage it rather than to shun it. Again, the case of the famous Shaolin monks comes to mind. These monks develop themselves to the pinnacle of martial arts prowess, but only as a means to get to the next level.

Many modern esoteric authors categorize Eastern/Oriental mysticism as inward looking, or focused on detachment, while Western/Occidental mysticism as more focused on mastering one's surroundings and being participative. But actually, they are two sides of the same coin, because you can find elements of both inward and outer directions from both sets of traditions.

For instance, the several systems of Indian yoga develop particular aspects of the self. The more popular Hatha Yoga develops the physical/etheric body, and the early fame of Indian yoga comes from the extraordinary physical feats performed by certain yogis. Bhakti Yoga develops one's emotional body through devotion and this is furthered through Karma Yoga, or compassion in action. Rajah Yoga strengthens the mental body and increases soul contact. Every level is important, which is why the physical is not overlooked.

In the book A System of Caucasian Yoga by Count Stephan Colona Walewski, there is a passage that reads:

I am on this earth,
to reclaim the earth,
to turn the deserts into paradise,
a paradise most suitable to God and His associates 
to dwell therein.

Like any mystic knowledge, there are several levels of meaning to the above prose. On one level, the earth refers to this physical plane and we should also work to improve our surroundings and help other people when they need spiritual nurturing. On another level, the prose refers to the perfection of the body that the I AM presence is working towards.

The Freemasons refer to the self as the inner temple, symbolized as Solomon's temple that was built "with neither sound of hammer nor iron tools." But as with any building, the foundation has to be strong which is why if you look at the Kabbalistic Tree of Life, Malkuth (Kingdom) whose planetary association is Earth, rests at the bottom. But immediately above Malkuth is Yesod (Foundation) and it is on this Foundation that all the other sefirot rest.

A Spanish proverb puts it nicely: A person too busy to take care of his health is like a mechanic too busy to take care of his tools.

As we go further on this spiritual journey of ours, we are called to realize the importance of every aspect of our being, and this includes the physical. Let us properly build our foundation lest we encounter instability on the path later on.

End Game Plays?

Last September 12, President Noynoy Aquino signed the Anti-Cybercrime Act of 2012 into law. While everyone's attention was on the RH Bill, the signing of the Anti-Cybercrime law took almost everyone by surprise. One may even be led to speculate that the furor over the RH Bill was an effective smokescreen so that the Anti-Cybercrime law could get through unnoticed and unopposed.

While there is a need to have measures to effectively address cybercrime, legal experts have cited several provisions of the Anti-Cybercrime law that are particularly problematic. For instance, one may find oneself in double jeopardy (being charged for the same crime twice). The provisions against libel are chilling because of the vagueness of what comprises online libel and who should be held accountable. Even "liking" or sharing something on Facebook could get one imprisoned for up to 12 years, depending on how law enforcement officials interpret the law. One article even says that the Anti-Cybercrime law makes SOPA look reasonable.

Nevertheless, the Anti-Cybercrime law is not the main focus of this article, so if you want a more detailed explanation on the nuances of the law and how it can be problematic, just watch the video interview below:



It's a 30-minute interview but it's really informative. I would say it's a must watch if you want to understand the Anti-Cybercrime law better. You can also read this article which describes some shortcomings of particular provisions of the law.

One other interesting event I would like to call attention to is the gold-buying drive that I consistently see being advertised in the newspaper. I first noticed the advertisements about 5 weeks ago but I suspect they have been running even longer than that. And these are whole page ads near the front page, so it's not a cheap campaign.

Supposedly, they buy gold, silver and platinum even coming from old watches, ruined jewelry and so on, and the buying locations are located in 4- or 5-star hotels. My wife and I checked out one location recently in order to have an old gold ring with precious stone assessed. Interestingly, the lady we talked to said that they're only interested in the gold. They're not interested in the precious stones, even if they're diamonds.

The whole gold-buying thing is interesting because it shows that someone is seriously trying to stock up on gold. It's more than just investing in commodities because someone wants to have physical possession of as much gold as possible (or, in a more sinister vein, deprive the masses of whatever gold they have).

The above two scenarios are interesting in and of themselves, but with both happening together, the picture takes on an interesting dynamic. I say this because in some of the conspiracy theories I've read, they say that some of the signs towards a run up towards forming a one-world government would be efforts by governments to suppress freedoms and control the flow of information in the Internet. Some theories also talk about a restructuring of the world economy preceded by the destruction of existing economic systems. During such economic turmoil, gold may again take precedence over paper money. Again, all these theories have something to say about December 21 and ascension and the positive spin on these theories is that all these dire scenarios are merely temporary and the shadow forces behind governments cannot enslave humanity through such means anymore.

It's too early to say if all this is idle speculation, but I do think these two events are worth noting. Let's see if other countries would experience similar developments like what's happening here in the Philippines.

Nevertheless, the inherent message is still there, to always be aware and ready to guard our freedoms and our rights. While freedom always entails responsibility, this has always been used as an excuse for people in power to control others in order to get their own way.

Balancing order and mercy is always tricky, but for the most part, people can still sense when a line has been crossed. Listen to your inner voice and let God be your guide.

Are We Ready To Go Beyond 2012?

We are now less than three months away from December 21, 2012. The supposed end of the Mayan calendar has been receiving a lot of attention lately precisely because the date is so near. National Geographic's Doomsday Preppers is up on cable and if you haven't made similar preparations already perhaps you're now wishing you did. Although at this point in time, there's really not much in the way of physical preparations or skills acquisitions that one can do on the scale that's needed to be totally "disaster ready." But that's certainly no excuse not to have some sort of readiness level against most common emergencies.

For all the attention that December 21 has received, that day is still an enigma. What will really happen? We've been bombarded with a smorgasbord of theories ranging from alien invasion, pole shifts, catastrophic direct hits by coronal mass ejections, worldwide economic collapse all the way to the other end of the spectrum involving dimensional shifts, a worldwide raising of consciousness and the end of evil in the world. If there's one thing these theories are consistent with, it's in saying that a big change is coming.

Still, I would advise people not to get hung up on the date because I've also heard from other sources that should something happen, it would happen in January or February 2013 (depending on the source). At this point in time, all we can say is what's in the Bible, that "only the Father in heaven knows the day and the time." But this also carries the implied message that we have to be ready anytime.

Be that as it may, whatever preparations we may undertake is no guarantee for whatever may happen in the future. It's not even a guarantee against the next few hours, because any one of us can suddenly die from an accident or other cause. So what message can we extract during this time of uncertainty about the future? For me, the message would be this: living in the NOW.

The esoteric concept of Now didn't only come from Eckhart Tolle. It is a deep esoteric concept that we can get a hint of in the Bible when God in the burning bush gave His name as I AM THAT I AM. In some of his books, Master Choa Kok Sui mentions that during meditation, some meditators may experience the past, present and future converging, at which point the meditator would be experiencing the Now. That's a very deep concept of Now, something that can hardly be understood without experiencing it. But in order to dissect this concept into something applicable for us, we need to look at other levels of the Now.

For our everyday purposes, we can confine our concept of Now to living in the present. We often remain regretful of our past and fret about the future, so much so that we may miss the opportunities in front of us right now, today, to really appreciate what we have, where we are in life, and undertake the actions that would improve our state.

What if we just finally read that book we've been putting off for some time now, or played with our kid despite coming home tired from the office? What if we just savored the taste of our favorite coffee this afternoon, or finally did that community service we've been thinking about for so long? Today is tomorrow's yesterday, so if we spent today doing good, being happy and being grateful, then tomorrow when we look back we can be content that we made the most out of the day that had just passed. And guess what, we can even do more of that today!

Does this mean that we just act without factoring in the future and other possible events? Not at all. What is important is that we do not waste the time we have right now, to make the most of what we can do during the day, be it in prayer, meditation, helping others, completing a project or spending time with a loved one. Be aware of the things that matter and then go for it. Keep in mind that money, while important, is not the only thing that matters in this world. However, it's up to the individual to decide what to give priority to, although of course it would be wise to pay particular attention to the things that would survive with you after death (knowledge and karma).

If you have the time and resources to do some disaster planning and preparation, then do it wholeheartedly. Just be aware of the need to balance one's time between important tasks (and this includes sleep and rest!), and of course to let go at the end of the day. There are some things that we cannot control nor plan for, including hurts and disappointments, and that's where a measure of detachment is necessary.

I believe the greatest regret is that of time spent unwisely. In that sense, by living in the Now, what may happen in the future does not matter as much as the satisfaction gained by spending one's time wisely and making the most out of the time and resources that one has. So while December 21 is indeed speeding inexorably towards us, let's not forget the most important time which is, as you may have guessed, right now.

Right Of Way

Many years ago (more years than I care to admit) when I was taking my driver's license exam, there was one test question that stood out and I still remember it to this day. The question was, "What is the most important thing to remember about right of way?" The correct answer is: "Don't insist on it."

Insisting on one's right of way can lead to road accidents when other drivers are not street smart enough to recognize who has right of way or if they simply ignore it. It can certainly result in road rage when one's right of way is not respected. How many of us have railed against unruly bus or jeepney drivers who just do what they want on the road and are even the ones who get angry if we scold them?

The concept of "right of way" can also be applied to living life as well. "Right of way" in one sense comes from a feeling of entitlement. A right to speak, a right to feel, a right to get one's way. While it's important to recognize and value one's rights, operating too much from a sense of entitlement can lead us to hurt others by doing what's "right" for us but hurtful to others, or can get us hurt in turn if majority opinion is against us or someone more powerful insists on his/her way.

Just as a sense of entitlement comes from being attached to the idea of our rights or what is due to us, not insisting on one's right of way is a reflection of detachment. And so we go back to the root of suffering according to the Buddha, which is desire (desire being a form of attachment). We suffer when we don't get what we want or we are not given what we feel is ours by right.

We need humility in order to detach and give way, but humility can be difficult if we think that giving way diminishes one's worth in some way, as if we got one upped. It all boils down then to a question of self worth.

This type of reflection is even more important for spiritual people, because humility is not necessarily a given for those treading the spiritual path. For people on the spiritual path, it can be so easy to feel puffed up by one's beliefs or by what we think we know such that the temptation to look down or get angry at "non-spiritual" people is there.

Yehuda Berg of the Kabbalah Centre once wrote that just as we can't be mad at someone for being a bad singer, we can't get upset with someone because they're not spiritual. Again, there is the sense of entitlement that spiritual people deserve the better things in life, so we can get angry if we don't get the treatment or recognition that we feel is due to us.

I've read somewhere that wisdom consists of knowing what to do, if you should even do it, and when to do it if it must be done. As we end the week let's reflect on where our sense of self worth comes from. Does it come from the "treasures we lay in heaven" or from the opinions of other people, especially those most close to us?

It's a question only each of us can answer and it can be a tricky exercise, but how we answer it will determine how easy it will be for us not to insist on our right of way.

One Is All, All Is One

I recently saw an episode of Fullmetal Alchemist Brotherhood, and who would have known that you could pick up something profound from a Japanese cartoon show (popularly known as anime)? Although Animax has had several re-runs of the show, the few times I managed to catch an episode I didn't feel like following the series because it was already late in the season. However, recently Animax started running the show again and I happened to catch the beginning episode so I decided to watch it whenever I could.

Like most anime, Fullmetal Alchemist first started out as manga (comic book series) in 2001 before being adapted into TV in 2003, and then again in 2009 with Fullmetal Alchemist Brotherhood. If you want to know more about the Fullmetal Alchemist universe you can just check out the Fullmetal Alchemist Wikipedia entry. Meantime, I would just like to focus on one particular episode, Episode 12: One Is All, All Is One (the same title I decided to use for this article). This episode details the time the Elric brothers (the main protagonists) were left in a small island by their alchemy teacher so that they could learn to survive and at the same time puzzle out the riddle of "one is all, all is one." How they answered the riddle would determine if they would be qualified to continue studying alchemy or not.

At one point, Edward Elric was already hallucinating from starvation (they had very minimal survival skills that time) when he happened to look upon a trail of ants that started to look like chocolate candy bars in his hallucinatory state. The moment he ate the ants, Edward made the connection between eating a life and living. Earlier in that episode, the Elric brothers caught a rabbit but they couldn't bring themselves to kill it. After the encounter with the ants, Edward then realized that if he had died, the foxes and the rabbits would have eaten him. His body would have been assimilated into the soil, the grass would get their nutrients from the soil, and the rabbit would have eaten the grass (and have indirectly "eaten" Edward's body).

Death is the transition from one form to another, but this transition also allows other life to be sustained when the transitioned form becomes the food that feeds the other. Paradoxically, death gives life. It is a cosmic cycle of life, all of us flowing inexorably from one state to the next, everything interconnected, with our movements governed by a set of cosmic laws.

From the point of view of the universe, we are even smaller than an ant would be to us. We are just "one" within the vast all. However, it is only when these small and seemingly insignificant "ones" are gathered together can an "all" exist. Creation is the totality of all that is. One is all, all is one.

In the Fullmetal Alchemist universe, alchemy is all about discovering the rules that govern life, and then using these rules in order to break things down and rebuild them into another form. Since the natural order of things is already a cycle of breaking down and rebuilding into another form, then life can be said to be one continuous process of alchemy. Alchemy is life itself.

Now how cool is that? I've been reading many different esoteric texts and they pretty much say or hint at the same things that were said above. And it's also so amazing because those short statements summarize the underlying philosophy of these esoteric teachings. There's more to it than that, of course, but for the esoteric student such insights are quite refreshing when seen on TV.

In the Hindu tradition, there are three aspects of divinity. There is Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva. As per the teachings of Master Choa Kok Sui, these three aspects of divinity correspond to Light, Love and Power respectively. Brahma creates, Vishnu preserves and sustains, while Shiva destroys and restores (also called "creative destruction" or breaking down in order to build up into another form). The interaction of these three aspects of divinity is what is being described in the above featured episode.

If you want to watch the episode itself, you can watch it through You Tube below:



It shouldn't be surprising that Fullmetal Alchemist contains a lot references to esoteric knowledge. Hiromu Arakawa, the creator of the series, once read about the philosopher's stone. She got so inspired with the idea of using alchemy in a manga that she read actual books on alchemy. According to the Wikipedia description, Arakawa was more interested in the philosophical aspects of the different treatises rather than the actual process, so understandably a lot of what we see in Fullmetal Alchemist will be the product of artistic license.

It's still interesting though that some hints of esoteric knowledge still bleed out into the series. For example, a couple of the sigils being used in the series (refer to the image at the start of this article) wouldn't look out of place with the Solomonic pentacles found in the Clavis Salomonis (Key of Solomon). I also saw a reference to the Tree of Life with one of the Names of God written on a sefira. But again, we shouldn't make the mistake of using Fullmetal Alchemist as a practical reference guide. It's interesting for its entertainment value, but to make it something more than what it is would be foolhardy and dangerous.

Nevertheless, a dose of insight in the midst of fun and relaxation is always invigorating. It just reminds me that life always finds an opportunity to teach us something if we knew how to take the hint. The lesson then is not to take life too seriously but remain sensitive enough to get whatever messages that life is trying to give us.

Here's to a fun-filled, but very informative, life!