by Perle Epstein Shambhala Press, (c) 1988.
Summary by Mark Stavish
The following summary was compiled in the spring of 1993 in Providence, Rhode Island. It was part of a course offered by the local body of the Rosicrucian Order (AMORC) at that time and has been included in the instructional material offered by the Institute for Hermetic Studies. Readers will find many of the ideas mentioned below of value in their daily practice.
The Book of Direction to the Duties of the Heart by Bahya ben Joseph Ibn Paquda is an 11th century manual “in connection with the sky and earth, the world and the winds.” It begins with the study of nature as more abstract ideas will lead one to delusions so early on. Bahya was influenced by his Sufi contemporaries. His students were told to “know God with your heart” and that the mind should act as a discriminator of mystical experiences and not be bound to belief or tradition. He divided his practices into ten gates of ‘self-reckoning’ corresponding to the ten levels of spiritual existence. Every physical organism is to be studied, as they can lead us to knowledge of God.
First Gate
First separate the elements of Earth, Air, Fire, and Water. Then recombine them in their various forms. Then contemplate the development of man from an embryo to today. Examine the various mental functions and emotions. From this learn that everything can be a meditation that leads us to God. Learn that it is the breath, nerves, and blood that tie the soul to the body.
Second Gate
Worship God as a result of these contemplations and a natural understanding of the Law of God.
Third Gate
To have trust in God Alone.
Fourth Gate
Acceptance of life and its experiences to come closer to God.
Fifth Gate
Sincerity or hypocrisy.
Sixth Gate
The test of our humility.
Seventh Gate
The seeing of our sins and repentance for them. matching of our internal and external actions.
Eighth Gate
Psychic awakening.
Ninth Gate
Abstinence.
Tenth Gate
Sainthood in the world.
Philo, a first century Jewish philosopher suggested reviewing each day backwards. Moses Cordovero’s “13 Divine Attributes” taught his students to see their body as the Tree. with a feminine left and a masculine right side. Each side had its particular energy. Humility is the highest and the “key to all”. By studying personal and universal Cycles and unifying them in himself, each student advanced.
Ari used the flame of a candle to prophesize, see souls, angels, and the future. He also gave his students specific days for spiritual practices. When walking or doing anything, the body was to be seen as the tree, with head as crown, eyes as hockmah and binah, legs as hod and netzach, and all of it as a throne for the Holy Spirit. “Flying” or Projection of thought was also taught by Ari.
As part of their individual training, Luria would recite verses in the morning to his disciples, as a sort of hypnotic suggestion. He constantly reminded his students, “Everything depends on the intensity of your concentration and your attachment on High.”
Luzzatto, the spiritual heir of Luria, told his disciples to see themselves standing before God and “communicating with him, even though he cannot be seen.” Moving from a personal image to an impersonal formless image via Love. In his Path of the Just, Lozzatto says to shut out external stimuli and direct the mind inward, that we may find our “dear friend” (dodi) who will take us to God.
The “Stone of the Heart” is the focal point of meditation for ‘lovers of God’ according to Rabbi Hananel ben Chushiel (990-1055CE). Rabbi Nathan ben Yechiel (11th century) fixed his attention on the top of his head for meditation and then sought to see in his heart as well. The
‘stone’ is the seven (7) “chambers of the heart”.
In merkabah mysticism ‘putting on the Names’ was a ritual involving the use of a robe with Divine Names written on it. The Book of Clothing (Sefer Ha-Malbush) , a 1st century CE text, details its construction.
“All souls form one unity..” All is elevated by one act. In the heart of the mystic is engraved the names of God, and in the heart they are absorbed. (70 in number)
Through meditation on the spine we discover that humanity is composed of male (active, fiery) energy on the right, and female (receptive, watery) energy on the left. The seven lower spheres correspond to the seven psychic centers along the spine.
“In the form of God He made him, male and female He made them.” (Genesis 1:27)
According to Rbi. Simeon, King David devised the following breathing exercise and transmitted it to David. The result is the Song of Songs (Tiphereth) Ecclesiastes (Din) and Proverbs (Hesed) “evoking Holy Breath”. Breath is a mixture of fire, water, and air. How this breath was taught and its direction to the white matter of the brain is still unknown (at least generally). Simeon did insist that knowing God and Man is best done on earth via the breath.
Shema while visualizing the Three supernals. Focus on the word One and “Blessed Be the Name of the Glory of His Kingdom forever and ever.”
Some visualized the spine as a palm branch with the heart as an etrog (citron) and the body being the tabernacle belonging to the Divine Spirit. Emphasis was on the smell of the citron.
Zohar emphasises the sound of the word of Holiness and linking oneself to it.
Traditional meditation-prayer posture is with the head between the knees.
Ari suggested speaking the Divine names while moving the tongue and larynx, but not vocalizing the sound. He called this “Swallowing”.
Rbi. Nehuniah ben Hakana, “Open your mouth in uttering the aleph, and you extend your mind from the localized toward the boundless.”
By intoning the ‘divine language’ with the intention of invoking its essential nature, we could link ourselves with “boundless spiritual being’ according to Moses Cordovero.
Abraham Abulafia disclosed all the secrets of mysticism. He told all his students not to rush from level to level (madregot). Abdulafia required desire and enthusiasm so that each student could lodge the sounds in his heart of the Divine.
Abulafia described the initial disorientation of meditation as climbing a rotating, spherical ladder while his thoughts spun around him. He called this “locating Metatron with his revolving sword”. It signified passage from one state to another state of being. All of us are imprinted with the divine letters, and we seek to rearrange them and put them in order. Stimulation of dormant letters can create bodily and psychic phenomena:
After much movement and concentration on the letters the hair on your head will stand on end… your blood will begin to vibrate…and all your body will begin to tremble,
and a shuddering will fall on all your limbs,…and you will feel an additional spirit within yourself.. strengthening you, passing through your entire body…(like) fragrant oil, anointing you from head to foot.
To be a kabbalist one must possess certain midot, or qualities: 1) Devotion w/o ambition 2) love of learning 3) mental ability to absorb the techniques 4) self-detachment and evaluation. These are the “Ways of God” needed for initiation.
“All souls have the potential for unity with the absolute..recognition of it would usher in a Messianic Age.”
Lighting Flash of Ezekiel (chayot)
613 = numeric value of Moshe Rabenu or Moses our Master. 248 are the limbs and functions of the human body, 365 are the days of the year.
By having the innocence of a child one can hear the Divine music and experience the Shefa or Divine influx. To facilitate this, he would meditate, first from the top of his head to its center and to its back, and then the same for the heart and abdomen, all the way to the base of his spine, regardless of his purpose, prior to other exercises. “Beginning of the Beginning”, “Middle of the Beginning”, “End of the Beginning”.
Issac of Akko divided the tree into four worlds; advocated constant meditation and sensory deprivation. He emphasized suffering and sin, along with Rabbi Akiva’s martyrdom at age 90.
Mandala of mountains of fire where air and earth meet. The Torah inscribed in a circle of fire, of black fire on white fire, from Moses’s vision. A shorthand version was used with one letter for each passage being used. If you held your gaze for as long as possible it would begin to spin and lead you to kether. This was called the “Apron of King Solomon”. Later it was called the “wondrous circle of Moses”. By the 16th century, metaphors were being used and open discussion and examples of techniques were suppressed.
Aleph – level of soul; Beth – ascending and descending levels of soul; Gimel – undifferentiated consciousness; Daleth – animal self at its highest point; Heh – spiritual self tied to body by breath; Vav – blood; Zayin – bone; Chet – flesh; Tet – sinews; Yod – skin. Moses Cordover divided the human consciousness and body into sound, from which it came. By attuning to the higher sounds one could reintegrate with the divine.
Cordovero’s Pardes Rimonim (The Pomegranate Orchard) is an exposition on Abdulafia’s vowel points. Visualizing letters with points and reducing them to pure sound was its emphasis. They were to be uttered in an emptied state of mind. AO YO are the vowels of YHVH, accompanied with head movements. Some students were given specific sounds to use and no others.
Hasidic method is that of pure prayer. To maintain a prayerful attitude at all times and circumstances.
Rebbe Nachman “God’s Counsel” pray while visualizing each letter in the heart and oneself as a limb of the Adam Kadmon. Prayer from the heart was more important than in Hebrew. Rebbe Shneur Zalman (Born 1747) said that Self is a spark of Divine and united. Meditation on Self as an aspect of the Divine was essential. One must move from the concrete to the abstract in their meditations. “by practicing meditation in a secluded place within himself, he yoked himself to heaven, developing a power of love…drew down the divine influx into his body.”
