QUESTION: I am so happy to see you, I am Nilima, and I come from a tradition called the integral yoga of Sri Aurobindo and the Mother, and I know she has deep roots in this land and this culture, so I am here to see what our common ground is and to understand the similarities and the differences. I am here to appreciate it.
RABBAH: welcome to Israel and to our home, Mishkan Hakavana. As I was preparing myself, in knowing the ways that Nilima embodies, I saw that intuitively I chose the right article, because Shekhinah and Shakti, even in the spelling of it, in the letters, you could see it. So, we know that the roots of it are Abrahamic, the Brahmin. Abraham that sent his knowledge, and Shakti being the female part, or Creation itself, the expression of everything that is possible, is Shekhinah. So there are some similarities, and the sensation or intuition of our time. It seems to me that Nilima is right on target in terms of feminine leadership and what it entails.
First I would like to hear your questions. It will give me a platform for connecting, maybe showing the similarities, where the differences lie, and maybe it could be bridged. I would like to hear your question so it will give me the platform to express this knowledge to you, if it’s ok with you.
Q: I read the text you chose: “SHEKHINAH, Divinity In Exile”. It is so perfect, as you said, to have chosen this for today. And it is not so much a question but maybe you can speak about it. There is a line in this book (holding up a book) which is the symbol of Sri Aurobindo, where there are two triangles connecting, very much like the Star of David. The two triangles come together and represent what, I think, you are reading in your article here. It says: “There are two powers that alone can affect in their conjunction the great and difficult thing, which is the aim of our endeavour. A fixed and unfeeling aspiration that calls from below, and a supreme grace from above that answers”.
R: And you would like me to speak about that?
Q: Yes, because I think that is what we were reading here, so if you can, if you think it is the same thing, or how does what I just said speak to it? Because I think that is how I understood your article. That there is a need to receive from MALCHUT, that is the aspiration, and then the aspiration calls down the grace that descends, the grace of the bestowal. So that is how I saw that.
R: I’ll lay the ground. I am thinking of the feminine, or divinity, as a whole being. In Hebrew the feminine aspect doesn't start from below and then climbs up. It’s the presence of, one can say, bestowal. It is the nature of what we call KETER or the crown. And the Crown is the will of the Creator to bestow good to its creatures. So first there was the extension of that will, but it needs a vessel to receive it. The vessel that can receive it needs to go through processes of growth, recognition, and actually develop an attitude, because as it was born, the way it was manifested, is a will to receive, a very strong will to receive, which slowly translated into receiving for oneself. So actually the whole creation is an education system for the 'createe' or the consciousness inside creation, which is the spirit, or our 'self' to actually change 'themself', or allow themselves to reform, not only as a receiving agent, but receiving in order to bestow. Then you have the two triangles meeting, meaning the area or the arena. Where they meet, is where they are similar in their intention, not in their nature but in their intention. Because we cannot annul the will to receive. If there is an active will to bestow there needs to be someone to receive. So in a way the condition of bestowal is reception, that someone will receive. But how? If I receive and you bestow, we are in opposition and we have no meeting point, since we have two totally different intentions and natures. So where those two triangles converge is where we have growth of intention, from the part of the 'createe' that can actually meet the bestowal. And all of our work is to change the nature of reception into being able to receive. Why do we wish to receive? First we cannot live without the light, without receiving the light. But if we are actually just receiving for ourselves we cut 'ourself' from it, we live only on the battery of existence, it’s not life. If we want to enter life we need to have some sort of a screen, an adapter. An adapter allows the intention of bestowal to change us, to reform us, so we still receive but we cause pleasure, joy, to the Creator if we receive Him. He wishes to be received, yet we keep the intention of wishing to bestow. To whom can we bestow? We cannot bestow to Him. We can bestow to other creatures, other human beings, other sentient beings, whatever, so in the moment we are truly generous with others, without a hidden agenda, it’s not an act, it’s not a behavioural act, but an inner change. Then it is a perpetual bestowal: we receive and then we transmit, or bestow, to others, so we become a transmission point of the will of the Creator.
In our generation, at least from the point of view of the reason for Creation, it is said by the ARI (Rabbi Issac Luria) that the reason for Creation is to allow the Creator to be known, to reveal itself through its action, through its name, and appellation. So it’s a demand on humans, female and male, to be able to become a receptive female part, but with the masculine nature of bestowal. So bestowal cannot happen if you don’t have a source, if you don’t have the fuel from where to bestow.
The reformation of our time is not just tackling the ego, it’s not destroying the ego. On the contrary, it's growing it, its receptive nature, to such a degree that there is more of the nature of God, more of the nature of the Creator in the world, but then, we are responsible for its bestowal. So the whole Creation is actually the feminine, because it is the receptive, expressive embodiment of the will of the Creator. And because we adopted only the reception for ourselves, which is the other part of the male, we lost ourselves. We actually don’t know, we are not in contact with our true self. For the true self is the nature of bestowal, the nature of spirit. So the ego is actually repelling, not allowing the spirit to manifest. Meaning, that the spirit in relation to our existence is like the relationship between the Creator and the 'createe'. It’s like the spirit is the agent. Actually this article is a call for us to look and to give us a standing point on how to be able to escape working spiritually for ourselves. So we need to recognize SHEKHINAH, or Shakti, as a living essence. It’s not a mechanical creation, it’s a sensing, feeling entity. One can say that all of Creation, whether nature, animal, humans, plants, fauna, flora, whatever, is the sense tentacle of that Being, the end nerve of that Being. So it’s not only a force or power. This is where Ba’al HaSulam is speaking about neglect, because in a way the wholeness of it is our spirit, our true spirit. So the ego should grow in order to be able to contain, transform and actually bestow. It is not only that it is good for us, or it will be beneficial for the person, or for the community, to reform itself (they will have to) but the reality is that we are looking for a force to work for us, and we actually should. We are offered to look for that force to be in us, in order to serve it. So it’s a call to service.
This was the ground. Please comment and ask whatever you feel about it.
Q: This is beautiful and I can see, I can completely relate. So thank you. I know that Iris has done our course so she would be able to make many connections. I am happy to have the others ask questions and comment, because I feel very complete with what you said and feel very aligned. And I see no difference between what you have shared and what is the Integral Yoga, and the understanding of this duality. Because you use different words sometimes, and sometimes words can become barriers, “oh that’s not our word” you know. You use a different word but the essence of what we are trying to say is the same. So this thing of understanding that SHEKHINAH is inside us, and we don’t have to get into that power of our personal agenda, we have to get in touch with it in order to be of service to it, is what I heard you say. So we say the path of Shakti leadership is to first achieve self mastery, which is have the ability to get in touch with the truth that you are, which is the SHEKHINAH within, and then to be in selfless service of that, so this is the path of Shakti leadership, which is to be in selfless service, which is in a nutshell what I heard you just say, to get past your ego, make yourself a deeper and wider vessel to be able to hold, to be the SHEKHINAH, then one can receive the SHOKHEN and express it purely, right?
R: Yes, because we said that SHEKHINAH is actually the whole of Creation, which means it’s the membrane of connection between us. It means that each one, each spirit holder, is a point on the net, of what is SHEKHINAH, and the way we can actually express the service for her is to connect, because we, I don’t want to say should, but the offer is that I see you not as something that is a reflection to my way, but you as a part of me, you are an essential part of my spiritual body, when I see you I see the part which is actually my limbs, or that which is missing in me, and I am, that which is missing in you. So I cannot actually exploit you, because when I am exploiting you I am hurting myself, or hurting the whole web. The point is how we make sure not to deceive ourselves. Because we could say: yes I would like to bestow, I would like to be in service, but at least in our study, you should always be suspicious of yourself, because it’s like there is a saying, when you help others, or when you pray for another, you receive first, my brain heard it so it becomes beneficial to pray for others because then I receive first. How do you actually overcome it? What is the tool, or the arena, that can actually keep you away from self deception? In a community coming together to study, they could actually see in themselves. In their attitude toward others. They don’t have to express it but they know it in their heart, yes, they are not yet in service. So it is very reflective. I don’t know enough how Yoga actually helps, or keeps the arena of training and reformation for people, except, let’s say, in meditation, when you self-reflect. So the tool is the study, meaning that something in it is a presence, maybe when you read your holy scripture there is a presence there. This is where we read at the end of the article Divinity In Exile. It is said that this is because the word 'Name' indicates attainment. It means the name we use for our feelings, is actually an indication of how much we wish to be in service, but we are full of other things, of other agendas. So I am asking how you build an ecology that can reflect to people their place without scolding them, without threatening, without a threat, to just allow us to see and to pray for reformation.
Q: The things we have, the master key, is a concept called surrender. In the beginning there is surrender, in the middle is surrender, and in the end there is surrender.
R: The way we work is through three stages: we start with surrender, and there are many degrees of surrender. Then we have discernment, differentiation, this is the moment you choose to differentiate between your will and SHEKHINAH's need or will, and you sort of exercise it, because in Hebrew a prayer is not only a way of power, it’s a way of seeing the truth about oneself, putting oneself under the microscope, seeing how I work, choosing not to be like this, and choosing something else. This is differentiation, this is where prayer happens. And then there is the third stage which is sweetening. Actually it is depositing everything that happened to you (or not). It is a different surrender, an active surrender, you deposit everything that happened, all the processes that you have been through, for the benefit of the use of SHEKHINAH, and she will bestow it, or distribute it, in the ways of need, not according to my perception or my wish, but according to the need of humanity. So these are the three stages, three different aspects of surrender. So it’s converging.
Q: Yeah, maybe you can say a few words about that path between SHEKHINAH in exile to a time of correction, what should happen on the way?
R: Well, time of correction and SHEKHINAH in exile are actually a description of the same state. What does it mean in exile? Exile is always exile from consciousness, we are not aware of its presence. In a way we are sending the presence, the life, the entity of SHEKHINAH, away from our life. When she comes to her place, it means the land of Israel, the land of the heart, the land of the heart which Is Real. This is Israel, that which is real, the heart which is real. So it seems that humanity as a whole is responsible for SHEKHINAH being in exile, because we are not conscious of her presence. So, the time of reformation, as you read it, I don’t think it is a good translation but this is what we have now, it’s what is called correction, TIKKUN in Hebrew: it’s not only mending something that is broken, it’s actually constructing the true vessel of oneself. So as long as we are not conscious of the presence of SHEKHINAH, of creation, of the Shakti, we are causing her (since she is a feeling entity) sorrow and torment, and this is the time for us to reform our attitude, our thinking, our feeling, so we bring her back to full presence in our heart, in our reality, in Creation. I am sorry if it’s too heavy but it is a call, a demand on our generation, which is called the last generation, and this is why the female power is awakening. The awakening of the female power is a memory, the memory of that essence, a presence of the meaning of Creation. And in a way, because of the ability to give life - it can be carried, it can be led by those (not necessary ladies) who have feminine instinct, of calling back this presence to our life, actively. So it is an awakening time. And this is why the whole movement of female consciousness is like ladies were asleep to their presence, not the presence of surviving, or the presence of having power, but the true presence of their being, or the being of Creation, as it was formed. It was formed male and female. For humanity it has to be male and female, so we are the female of the Creator, we are the spouse of the Creator, all of humanity. We say it is the time of reformation. There is a timing. We can say it is because of progress or because of modern times but no, it is the timing of Creation. Creation is calling. We are trying to respond. It is a dance of call and response. It is time. And if it does not happen from our awakening to it, we can see it from the trends in the world, it will cause a lot of torment if we do not balance it, and do not respond to it. It is a very important mission and work, which Nilima is doing and everything that is calling for awareness to this call of Creation.
