Subconsciousness keeps a warehouse of things already done. Why it does this no one knows. Perhaps this will explain why a thing suddenly appears as if from nothing completely in place with everything necessary to sustain its existence all around it. It reminds me of a quick pick system that is used in modern warehouses where the ticket comes in and a package is all ready to go within moments because it is sitting in a bin al ready to go. The only thing left to do is to put a label on this package and send it off immediately. The same kind of dynamic is at work during all communications between conscious and subconscious mind. Training to think in the subconscious is the subtlest force that we will ever encounter. Below the level of thought where we may readily access information is the subconscious where information resides eternally. The question then becomes how we may touch or connect with this inner deepest level of being? The following are suggestions in terms of how to approach such a task.

Keep within the focus of your perception and penetrate deeply the hidden depths beyond. Ride then inside of the latticework of expressions that come your way knowing that every path transcends the other and all directions emanate and lead to Hashem. Hashem represents the subconscious mind. In order for the subconscious mind to act effectively it must be cleansed of all impurities. When the subconscious mind acts effectively we are led into the Promised Land. The Promised Land represents our hearts desires. It represents the resultant of the focus of our conscious mind.

The red heifer sacrificed at the beginning of Parsha Chukat represents the seed of purity meant to purify the subconscious mind. Every offering is to Hashem, to the subconscious mind. The laws of purity that follow all pertain to this cleansing of Subconsciousness. These sacrifices were never meant to be realized in actuality. Their inner mystical meanings once lost could not be maintained by the physical act itself. You see the original purpose of Torah continues and that is to teach man to reach continuously the Promised Land of his heart’s desires. Hashem remains as a symbol of Subconsciousness and man’s relationship in terms of what his conscious mind is focusing upon. If we look at it in this way the mystery becomes all too clear.

This same theme of the spiritual connection between the conscious and subconscious is continued during the waters of Meribah incident. The conscious mind is filled with doubt and the answer is given in the subconscious mind or by Hashem to bring forth the waters from the rock. What are these waters? They are the thoughts of certainty that lead to the Promised Land and slake our thirst for the completion or demonstration of our dreams come true. Moses makes a mistake or misinterprets what he hears from Hashem. He was told to speak to the rock. What is this speaking to the rock? It is a further explanation of how the conscious mind properly communicates or connects with Hashem. It is through thought which then seeds and builds within Hashem. When Moses who represents the conscious mind strikes the rock and brings forth the water he demonstrates his power or the power of the ego. While this brings the water of nourishment to Israel it does not teach them about the connection to Hashem. Moses in a sense has limited the power of connection and this is why he neither he nor Aaron are able to enter the Promised Land. Both of them rebelled against the word of Hashem taking on the power for themselves instead of teaching that every connection to Hashem is through thought and not the power of the ego.

Next on in this parsha they are trying to pass through these hostile lands however despite being willing to pay for their passage they must fight their way through. Why couldn’t Hashem simply open up a passage for them free from strife? One reason is because the people are inconsistent with their faith and haven’t learned how to speak to Hashem themselves. Moses leads them but cannot let go of his ego. Still the voice of the people manages to get through to Hashem who delivers up their enemies to them. Who are these enemies? They are the various versions of doubts that keep us from following the true path of our heart. We have to fight our way through just to connect with Hashem and even then it is a struggle as the ego seeks to hold on to its position. Once again the people are frustrated by lack of water. What is this water? It is the water of right thinking that lays out the pathways to the Promised Land before them. The result of their misuse of thought in terms of Hashem is that Hashem bites most of them like a viper. In essence their doubtful thoughts are what turn out to destroy them. It is only when Moses puts up the serpent of brass that the people their thoughts are brought back to the holy way and all who see this serpent of brass live that were once bitten by the serpents. Thoughts are either promoting life or destruction. Life will triumph over chaos and destruction that is why seeing Life they were born again taken from the hands of death. Finally partaking of this new life they come to Beer where Hashem once again fully in connection with Israel offers the waters of consciousness providing nourishment to their doubt ravaged souls. Once they leave here Israel cannot be stopped no matter what their doubts previously were. All are vanquished before them. They move forward now with a renewed purpose for their consciousness has been restored by the waters of Hashem.

Summary: Thoughts become renewed through connection with Hashem. Hashem is a symbol for the subconscious mind that responds to our conscious expressions. These conscious expressions have as their purpose unity and not the raising of one part of consciousness over another as the ego would try and subvert the mind into a belief that it is separate from Subconsciousness. I become that which I am. Hashem contains our true nature all we need do is but listen. Although we use the name Hashem or the subconscious to describe the operations taking place there really can never be any name for this simply because it is defined each moment by our thoughts and the quality and intensity of our connection with it. The only reason to ascribe any qualities to it at all is because we want to personify its presence in order to bring it nearer to our understanding of it. Keeping in this vein of discovery we deepen our awareness of it every time we seek it in our thoughts or through Torah study which is really just another tool for awakening ourselves to it. As a creative process it only becomes that which we believe it will become. The trick is our belief that turns out to be the connecting link between our understanding of it and the jumping off point where the ego must be left behind. You see the ego cannot believe in it because this would mean the ego could no longer run the show. Belief in it signifies a sense of merging with it accepting its demands and its rewards. It demands attention to it because without this attention our lives become chaos and it rewards us with the images that we’ve been sending into it as prayers that may only take their shape through its particular attribute of grace. This grace is the meaning of ‘the image and likeness of us’ taken from Genesis. Even though it is all powerful and indeed G-d like it cannot act unless it is given something (our thoughts and emotions) to act upon. Consider where the steady course of your life lies and then recognize that this course leads you to and through it as a drop of rainwater merges with the ocean to become a part of its flow.

B’H”

Mark

Time once again moves concurrent with my thinking and expression. Suddenly an opening appears and the Parsha returns. I love the adventure of it all like climbing mountains within to reach these soaring heights where thoughts create grand vistas of unification. Once there my thoughts like waterfalls flow freely. The insights contained within this Parsha are a synthesis of so many rivers of confluence. Indeed they match up perfectly with the currents within and without. I am struck by the similarities between Hashem and the DNA structures that make up our bodies in the proteins of life. There the latticework of connection resembles so much the YHVH that surrounds us out of which all life issues from. I digress perhaps another topic one day. Enjoy with my compliments and best wishes.

B’H”

Mark


Parsha Korach

Rebellion is the message of this parsha. The real question becomes why Hashem has become so involved in the affairs of men that his anger threatens to spring forth at the first sign of rebellion. Why does Hashem seek to destroy what he has protected and why does Moses intervene time and again to avert the judgment? Is the answer that anyone who opposes the rule of Moses must die? What does this rule of Moses represent? Is Moses then a mere tyrant bent only upon the promotion of his family priesthood? Is this simply a power play then? Does Moses win because Hashem listens to Moses and not to those who seek to rebel against him? All of these are surface considerations and as we shall see moving through these passages that Torah however beautiful she may appear from the outside contains much more on the inside where Torah directly touches the heart.

Numbers 16:3 and they assembled themselves together against Moses and against Aaron, and said unto them: 'Ye take too much upon you, seeing all the congregation are holy, every one of them, and the LORD is among them; wherefore then lift ye up yourselves above the assembly of the LORD?'

Korach comes to Moses and says listen, we are all of us holy evoking the message of priesthood that every Israelite is meant to embody.

Ex: 19:6 and ye shall be unto Me a kingdom of priests, and a holy nation. These are the words which thou shalt speak unto the children of Israel.'

So you see this really isn’t an unreasonable request from Korach. After all isn’t this what was promised when the law was given. Korach and his fellow Levites are wondering why they or any of the congregation should be somehow less holy than Moses and the Kohanim? Isn’t all of Israel holy?

Num 16:10 and that He hath brought thee near, and all thy brethren the sons of Levi with thee? and will ye seek the priesthood also?

Moses asks them if they seek the priesthood also that is in addition to serving Hashem via their regular Levite duties. What is this priesthood that Moses is trying to protect? It turns out to be the knowledge of the priesthood that must be safeguarded. This knowledge also includes the way in which the priests speak to Hashem. Korach believes that all of Israel should have this knowledge but from the tone of Moses answer it appears that this request of Korach’s is an amazing example of chutzpah. How dare the Levites aspire to become the Kohanim. The Levites place has already been explained. Korach for his part isn’t only asking for himself but he is asking for this level of holiness for all of Israel.

21 'Separate yourselves from among this congregation, that I may consume them in a moment.'

Hashem speaks for complete destruction but Moses averts this decree and selectively culls the congregation.

26 And he spoke unto the congregation, saying: 'Depart, I pray you, from the tents of these wicked men, and touch nothing of theirs, lest ye be swept away in all their sins.'

Moses defines these men as sinners and sets about their complete annihilation

32 And the earth opened her mouth and swallowed them up, and their households, and all the men that appertained unto Korah, and all their goods.

It is dramatic and final. Moses and the Kohanim will not be opposed. The penalty is death.

17: 3 even the fire-pans of these men who have sinned at the cost of their lives, and let them be made beaten plates for a covering of the altar--for they are become holy, because they were offered before the LORD--that they may be a sign unto the children of Israel.'

And yet the very same fire pans that did not receive the holiness of the Lord now become holy because they were offered before the Lord. Did Moses sacrifice these Levites in the name of the Lord or did these fire pans become holy because of their sacrifice. It would appear so.

17:5 to be a memorial unto the children of Israel, to the end that no common man, that is not of the seed of Aaron, draw near to burn incense before the LORD; that he fare not as Korah, and as his company; as the LORD spoke unto him by the hand of Moses. {P}

The seed of Aaron is preserved for the priesthood. Those in power keep their power.

17:6 But on the morrow all the congregation of the children of Israel murmured against Moses and against Aaron, saying: 'Ye have killed the people of the LORD.'

The people think that killing the people of the LORD has permitted a great wrong.

17:14 Now they that died by the plague were fourteen thousand and seven hundred, besides them that died about the matter of Korah.

These people who spoke out against these killings are also destroyed although not everyone is killed.

Num 18:26 'Moreover thou shalt speak unto the Levites, and say unto them: When ye take of the children of Israel the tithe which I have given you from them for your inheritance, then ye shall set apart of it a gift for the LORD, even a tithe of the tithe.

Okay the fate of the Levites are sealed and their lot in life is set out before them. It is reiterated so that the Levites and the Israelites remember to take care of those that assist in the temple services and all the duties of the temple.

On the surface it appears that Moses was a power hungry tyrant with no regard for the lives of his people. Korach asks a reasonable question. His only crime is asking for the freedom to know all that Moses and the priest know and to share that knowledge with all of Israel. What Moses seeks to promote is the power of the priesthood that should remain sacrosanct even to the destruction of however many lives it takes to compel obedience. What is going on here? How can we look at such a man with reverence? Has he become like so many others; corrupted by the power he wields? It would appear to be so and if we stopped there we should all run away from Judaism as fast as our feet could carry us.
All of these are the petty ego considerations that mankind has dealt with since Adam left the garden. In order to penetrate deeply into Torah we leave these concerns behind.

The Inner Sanctuary:

The secrets of Torah spell out the blueprint for creation. Just as we wouldn’t let child run a bulldozer in a housing development we would let them have the keys to the Torah unless they first learned to operate the basic essentials of life. A person who gets caught up in the details and contradictions in Torah will never see the underlying level of creation; that same level that produces worlds and change one type of effect into another in the vast realm of experience in which we all live and move and have our being. There are two key paradigms to consider when studying Torah. One is the operator and the other is the operation. Moses is the operator. He drives the bulldozer. This is his creation. Hashem is the operation of creation. Moses sets the plans and Hashem executes these plans. Witness the entire panoply all through the ten plagues even to the events taking place within this parsha. Moses gives the word. Hashem confirms and carries out the word. Before there were men this paradigm is illustrated by Elohim who gives the word and carries out its execution that is a key to the male-female G-d represented by this symbol of awareness. In Kabbalah Elohim is truly the way of return back up the Tree of Life into the reality of the level of unity that is both operator and operation. In terms of our own consciousness what we aspire to is this level of Elohim that so perfectly represents the unification of consciousness.

Now we move on to the problem of Korach, the Levites, and the rest of the people who rebelled and were destroyed. I want to focus on a single Intention and how this Intention is Moses, its carrying out is Hashem and the distractions and doubts along the way are Korach et al. A short tale will suffice:

Beryl wanted to build a house. He worked patiently to gather all of the material for this house. Every day he would dream about how he would construct using the growing accumulation of material that he came across each day. This house would be the most magnificent home ever built. It would certainly outshine every other dwelling in the land. One day Shmuel, who had been helping him gather some of the material happened along.

“Beryl,” he said. “You have enough material here for several houses. Surely you should consider building a home for me as well since I helped you gather some of this stuff.

“Where are your plans Shmuel?” Beryl asked him.

“Plans? Oh I have none. I thought I would use your plans,” He said.

“Have I ever shown you my plans Shmuel?”

“Well no but no matter,” Shmuel answered.

“Do you want to live over here and have this kind of roof and these kind of windows?” He indicated on the map as he pulled out a few drawings he had made.

“Not really but we could improvise and then make houses for both of us,” Shmuel told him.

“Shmuel do you know how long I’ve been planning my home?” How long have you been planning your home? Beryl asked.

“Oh the thought just occurred to me now that I see everything here ready to be built up. I mean why waste all of this stuff?” Shmuel remarked.

“Shmuel I appreciate your help and paid you well for it. Go build your own house. You would never be happy with the one I build since it came from my hopes and desires. You have your own dreams to build and to see take shape in front of your eyes,” Beryl told him gently.

At first Shmuel was hurt at being turned away but then later he realized the wisdom of Beryl’s words and was thankful years later when we built his own house in much the same way the Beryl had many years ago.

Follow this chain of association if you will. Beryl is Moses who is the operator or initiator of thought. This is the plan maker. The materials that are gathered and the actual building taking shape are the operations of thought. Shmuel is Korach or the thought that seeks to turn aside from the original intention. In Moses and Beryl’s case there can only be one operator. Consciousness must be focused in order to be effective as an operator. It cannot be diffused but must rely on a central rallying idea; in the case above it is the building of a home. The operation takes place through the gathering of ideas and materials to make the dream a reality. Hashem is the operation or the way in which dreams take the forms of reality or experience. The crucial element in all of this is our connection as in the connection between consciousness and subsciousness.

Thoughts are always vying for expression. Those thoughts that we give the most attention to become are passed to Hashem to appear in our experiences. They in effect become our prayers. If you read the Ashrei with this in mind the prayer becomes alive with meanings all relating to how thoughts seek their expression through Hashem. Think about it like this. Hashem is forever in our midst and forever seeking the unity of operator to operation. We think about something in a special way that transforms this something into a prayer that is passed up and through to Hashem that communicates this prayer into an expression.

PS 145: 15 The eyes of all wait for Thee, and Thou givest them their food in due season.

This perhaps says it best although like a sphere of interconnected light from everywhere we look the ray radiate in the same way. The eyes are our thoughts or visions that seek to know Hashem, that wait for Hashem because these thoughts may only see their expression or their food in due season. This due season is the direct result of passing our prayers over to Hashem for expression.

16 Thou openest Thy hand, and satisfiest every living thing with favour.

Here is the direct expression of this principle of operator-operation in terms of the beneficence of Hashem. One more verse to tie together what we have been saying once again with this parsha.

20 The LORD preserveth all them that love Him; but all the wicked will He destroy.

Moses and the Kohanim, or the thought that has our focused attention shall remain while those other thoughts that seek to rule instead of the focused thoughts will be eliminated. This happens as a matter of course because mind cannot serve two masters. There can only be one. This one is our focused vision.

Conclusion:

Pass over the surface meanings of Torah in order not to become ensnared by the ego. This isn’t about what happened then; it is about what is going on right now intimately connected with your own thoughts. Choose well your thoughts so that all may serve Hashem and not be in conflict with Hashem because a house divided cannot stand. Maintain your focus for it is the truth that you’ve been given to command. Expand your awareness each day to include Hashem for only when the operator and the operation become one will you see the expression fulfilled.

What happens is this. A point is reached along the momentum of thought where the strongest thoughts begin to take charge in a new way; a way that is both productive and proactive. These thoughts are the result of your efforts to remember your focus and all that this implies. Then it becomes like turning on a switch that is intimately linked with causation producing the instantaneous awareness of unity in mind, body and soul. This focus is attenuated internally or subconsciously so that when it finally reaches the level of your surface awareness the thing is already done. The thought becomes the thing even before the thought has finished announcing itself to this surface awareness.

First of all everything happens for a reason that is the major consideration behind all mental alchemy. Not only do we recognize our work in terms of initiating the focal point we also subsequently recognize the every part of its flow. In this way we are determined to keep on course.

The presence of all that is plays the integral part throughout any of these discussions. This subtle awareness can only be experienced as a subtle feeling and then returned to each time as an article of faith. You will be rewarded in these efforts several times in the washing over of energy that flows from above to below. It is within this energy that your awareness of all that is may be strengthened and certified.

The one thing does follow itself into being thereby expanding its nature and causing a feedback loop of understanding that opens the doors for similar types of flow through all along the focal spectrum. Once even the tiniest opening has been realized the flowing of substance into tangible being is intensified.

It happens here and now and is directly a part of everything you do. Remember your vision and expand upon this with both eyes and intuition; the one flowing inside the other. In this way what seems to be comes to be.

Consider the flow of your awareness not just inside of your head but extending outwards into everything permeating this all that is with the energy of your focus. See that the waves of influence you are promoting build themselves into the waves of transformation that are then forming the vertices of the new world order you have initially placed in mind.

Transformation is both the cause and the effect. Energy is moving through you from above to below and conversely so from below to above. In the latter you are reaching up for wisdom or the way to be in terms of what you desire. The former is result of this reaching up that result in the outward flowing of the unity of being.

Once you continue direct your attention to the all power that is surrounding you a curious thing begins to happen. Time instead of moving linearly appears to jump forward geometrically. The only explanation for this is that because your attention has shifted to the all power you are experiencing the timelessness of this all power.

Imagine in front of you and all around you in rays of deepening meaning your thoughts filling and expanding into this all power. Keep in mind now as your focus that this all power is entirely resident at all times in effect waiting to be filled with that to which you have been paying attention. It is your focus that provides this expansion and maintained by following through with your expanded attention that listens and fills each moment with your awareness of all power.

At first nothing appears to be happening since the shift from one type of thinking to another often takes time to impersonate. Then as the focus is continued it becomes second nature and because of this second nature you are able to grow even more familiar with the energy that is flowing in and through from here.

Thoughts become clearer as the representations of this all power are refined and clarified in their focus. It will seem like every part of you is alive to this focus. Your hairs may stand on end and the energy within will seek to merge and grow into this energy without.

Initially it will seem like you are in a pool of this all power floating but having no clear direction. Then the thought will occur to you that not only do you have a definite direction in mind it is this direction that has brought you here to this awareness in the first place. It is in this way that consciousness comes to know itself and to be aware of all that is both contained within and expanding without. The result of this contemplation will feel like you are touching in a most tangible way the essence of reality.

One of the invariable consequences of seeking the all power is that it will respond in kind. It will seek to find out the essence of what you are and by this process produce all that you have been thinking about, i.e. your visualizations of what it is that you have designed to be.

There aren’t any special talents required to make this connection with the all power. All that we need to able to do is to realize that there is something greater than us surrounding and permeating us completely that is amenable to our suggestions to ourselves in every moment. We can never define this all power since it is always becoming however, we may define for ourselves what we are in the moment and then by reflection this all power takes on those attributes of our becoming.

The seed of an oak tree knows itself in the fullness of all that it will become expanding to heights and dimensions astronomically expanded from the initial seed. It reaches within all power and impresses all power so completely that everything that it has become has been expressed fully over and over again so that in truth the seed had the thought of the full grown tree all along and never wavered from its intention.

Like mists before the clouds the status quo passes away easily and majestically unfolding into the world of your vision. It is like this in every case. The application of knowledge is like the learning of a new part in a play. At first there is constant rehearsal in various stages until the part has become a part of you. Then the time for performance only serves to flesh out the part until it sings from you permeating every area of influence that it touches.

What it comes down to is what you are willing to accept in your life as a backdrop for your experience. When you make up your mind it is with a singular purpose. This purpose is clear and undeniably tied to your vision.