Kabbalah

Ein-Sof is not His proper name,but a word which signifies his complete concealment in One (Kosover)

The atom, being for all practical purposes the stable unit of the physical plane, is a constantly changing vortex of reactions.

Phonetic: " Eem ein a'nee lee mee lee? U'kshe'a'nee le'atz'mee ma a'nee? Ve'eem lo ach'shav, ei'ma'tai?"

Translation:If I am not to myself - who is? And when I am for myself - what am I? And if not now, then when?

Meaning:


If a person does not help himself and is tuned to himself and his needs, his feelings, who will?


This phrase emphasizes our responsibility over our life. We have the option to choose, but our fate is the consequence of the choices we make.


Once we are tuned to our true selves and existence, our choices would take us to the right way.


Most importantly, we must do the work now, this minute. If this moment seems inappropriate, perhaps the right moment will never come. And the reason the moment seems inappropriate is because our line of reasoning is deriving from our old school of thoughts, our past history - not from the improved or better phase we are aspiring to.

A very interesting quote: the Jewish source justifies the Christian belief in Trinity.

Or Freud?

Id
Ego
SuperEgo

Or the Hindu trinity of Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva (respectively the creator, preserver and destroyer of the universe).

Well, but the Zohar explicitly refers to the Holy Spirit that is the part of the Trinity, and has nothing to do with either Freudism or paganry.

This "paganry" -- Hinduism -- traces itself back to 10,000 BCE. It existed for thousands of years before Zohar, written in 1300 CE. Whenever aspects of an earlier religion show up in a newer one, it does make one wonder about the foundations.

You went and it did it! Reminded me of this song:
Wayne Watson: For Such A Time As This

Now, all I have is now
To be faithful
To be holy
And to shine
Lighting up the darkness
Right now, I really have no choice
But to voice the truth to the nations
A generation looking for God

For such a time as this
I was placed upon the earth
To hear the voice of God
And do His will
Whatever it is
For such a time as this
For now and all the days He gives
I am here, I am here
And I am His
For such a time as this

You - do you ever wonder why
Seems like the grass is always greener
Under everybody else's sky
But right here, right here for this time and place
You can live a mirror of His mercy
A forgiven image of grace

Chorus

Can't change what's happened till now
But we can change what will be
By living in holiness
That the world will see Jesus

Chorus

Husker... I did it? Whoever did it, it is nice to hear you break out in heartfelt song. :wink:

Levels of Self ( Kabbalah)


In terms of ontology of levels of the individual self, Rudolph Steiner proposed has no less than four versions, based on combining the seven-fold Theosophic model with the three-fold Rosicrucian triad of body, soul, and spirit.

Dividing the Rosicrucian triad of body, soul, and spirit into three gives nine principles altogether. This is corelated with the Theosophical seven-fold model to give a quaternity of physical body, etheric body, astral body, and consciousness ("ego"), with four future stages:


3-fold 9-fold 7-fold 4-fold
SPIRIT Spirit Man Atma future stages /
angelic consciousness
Life Spirit Buddhi
Spirit Self Manas
SOUL Spiritual Soul Ego Ego
Intellectual Soul
Sentient Soul Astral body Astral body
BODY Soul Body
Etheric Body Etheric Body Etheric Body
Physical body Physical body Physical body

It hardly needs to be said that the Atma, Buddhi and Manas refrerred to here have absolutely no relation to the original formulations in the Samkhyan and Vedantic traditions of India!



The trinity in Kabbalah is: body, soul and spirit.

Paganry is not pejorative.
Paganry is key to understanding mankind.

My Lord! Are not you a Roman Catholic, Fbaezer? Your real name made me think that you were the one of Spanish origin...

I was Catholic born and raised, with some pagan twists, as most Roman Catholics.

I do not consider myself a pagan. I only stated that paganry is embedded in mankind's "hard drive".

fbaezer -- I wish you'd explain that more. I have been thinking about it, wondering if you meant something similar to C.S. Lewis's natural morality or something else.

Christianity's boom was due to the Roman Empire.
Romans were pagans, as we all know.
Monotheism was not fully accomplished, as saints popped up.
If you go to a Catholic church in Italy, southern France or Spain, you'll see a big imagery, lot of figures of saints, and some of them are worshipped by the average folk, in a similar way as pagan deities were.
A woman I met in a train in Italy may acknowledge that St. Anthony of Padua is not God, but anyway she went to his shrine to thank him for: 1) finding a husband -for which she put the Saints figure heads down until she got a boyfriend; 2) saving her child's life -for which she put, after arguing with the doctor, a little brown robe under the incubator.
And that's not talking about sincretism in the Americas.
Go to East L.A. and you'll see murals of the Virgin of Guadalupe, a symbol of the Mexican-American community, whose shrine was built right over the temple of Tonantzin, a pagan Aztec goddess with similarities to virgin Mary. Still today, millions -and I mean literally millions- of Mexicans go to the shrine every december 12 and thousands of them, mostly non-indians, dance Aztec dances in her honor.
Go to Hialeah, Fla., and you'll find many devout Catholics who dress in white on December 1st and in red on December 4th. Saint Lazarus and Saint Barbara; or rather Babalú Ayé and Changó, former Yoruban deities, brought to this hemisfere by African slaves. You may enter the house of these Cuban-Americans (mostly white), and see their offerings or participate in their 'cleasing' sessions. Perhaps, if you scratch a little bit, you may find out why young Elián González was such a big symbol for both Miami and Havana: circumstances made him an elegguá, a strong lucky charm, with links to the Seven Potencies.

I guess this is something Martin Luther's dismal view of religion did not and would not accept.

I will not enter into the popular massive santification-deification of pop, sports or political figures.

fb - I see. I thought you meant something hard-wired into our evolutionary brains. I think of the Catholic saints as mini-divines, too. At every mass here, people pray to them (and to all those who died in good favor) for intercessions as well as for the greater good of the church and all her people. You didn't mention Mary, but to me she is certainly a goddess figure, providing all three visions of womanhood: the innocent girl, the good mother, the wise crone. There is an overall attitude of reverence to God (Father, Son & Spirit) but it seems the saints are closer to the people, easier to reach, more accessible.

I'm sure you are right... those who follow the [dismal -- LOL, yes!] teachings of Martin Luther would not look with favor on this spreading about of divinity. I don't know for sure but believe that of the world's Christians, most are Roman Catholics or one of the Orthodox churches who also favor iconic saints.