Focusing on film directing, and a string of fashion shoots from Dolce & Gabbana, Luis Vuitton, Versace and more, Madonna is continuing to enjoy her career and her relationship with young 23 year old Jesus Luz. She hasn’t been working on Music recently because her time is consumed with film.

Madonna continues to practice and study Kabbalah and is an active member of the Kabbalah Center.  Her love of philosophy, spirituality and the meaning of life is evident throughout her music career.

She’s currently working on a new film W.E.

Madonna explained to Interview, “Yeah, [it's] the movie everyone thinks I’m making that’s supposed to be a musical about the duke and duchess of Windsor. I don’t know why that got in the newspapers. The duke and duchess of Windsor are in the movie, but it’s not going to be about them. It’s really about this other woman’s journey, and the duchess is kind of her spiritual guide… I use the Sotheby’s auction in 1998 of the duke and duchess of Windsor’s estate as a device to flash backward from.”

She added, “I’ve been writing it for the last two and a half years, to tell you the truth. It’s been kind of an obsession of mine. I started writing it when I finished filming [2008 directorial debut] Filth and Wisdom. It was actually an idea I had before that, but I made Filth and Wisdom because I realized that I didn’t really have a right to make a bigger film until I made a smaller film — and learned how to make a film.”

Happy Birthday Madonna.

Astrology Quicky:

Madonna was born a Leo on August 16, 1958 at 7:05am in Bay City, Michigan.

Sun in Leo in the 12th house

Moon in Virgo (Ascendant) in the 1st house

Mercury in Virgo in the 12th house

Venus in Leo in the 11th house

Mars in Taurus in the 9th house

Jupiter in Libra in the 2nd house

Saturn in Sagittarius (ret.) in the 4th house

Uranus in Leo in the 12th house

Neptune in Scorpio in the 3rd house

Pluto in Virgo in the 1st house

Madonna’s astrology chart shows clear signs of her personality.  A lot of her planets are hanging around her 12th house and ascendant, with Sun in Leo and Moon in Virgo, there’s a lot of evidence for her need and desire to express herself artistically, sexually with a lot of focus on mysticism, and spirituality.  Her Saturn in Sagittarius shows a lot of her connection in terms of origins of religion and her sense of responsibility to continue going deeper into her beliefs and search for deeper meaning.  She has a natural desire to study philosophy and search for inner wisdom. Being born into Catholocism, it’s no surprise she’s felt a strong connection to religion from an early age (4th house). Pluto and Mercury in the 1st house, shows further emphasis on taking the symbolism of the Virgin and moving it beyond it’s limits.  Venus in Leo, there’s no surprise there either with her iconic persona and glamorous beauty. Although excesses have done her well, there is a tipping point and she should keep her plastic surgery balanced. Jupiter in Libra in the 2nd house is a sure sign she loves to make money and is very good at it. With an average income of at least $50 million per year, she definitely knows how to build success. She has a prominent materialistic side and success is hers when she wants it.

Light is fearlessness.
Light is compassion.
Light is all giving and it’s, it’s immortality.
It’s a place where there’s no chaos, no pain and no suffering.

Light is the laws of the universe.
You can do things to connect to it, or you can disconnect.
That’s what I say I fear… disconnecting.

~ Madonna

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© 2008-2010. A course in Kabbalah by Sephir.
Symbolic Living.

Be sure to read Kabbalah Part 1 and Kabbalah Part 2 first.

Authentic Kabbalah Part 3

The Desire’s Development

As previously mentioned, the desire to receive is the core of the universe, and all that exists within it in all its possible stages of development (inanimate, vegetative, animate and human) consists of certain strengths of the desire, which entirely determines its manifestation in our world. Let’s suppose, if we increased the desire of a tree (vegetative), it would turn into a cat (animate), and if we increased a cat’s desire a bit more, it would turn into a human being. Kabbalah tells us, that our world is a projection of the spiritual roots descending from the upper worlds, and beyond the illusion drawn by sensory perception, there is nothing, except for the desire to receive pleasure, and the pleasure itself.

Although the structure of the desire and its development will be explained in the further part of the course, a short explanation, however, may as well be given at this point. All that exists in each world is divided into four levels: Inanimate, Vegetative, Animate, and Human. These correspond to four levels of desire, and similarly, every object consists of these levels, and each level consists of sub-levels structured the same way.

Desire is often depicted as a vessel, or circle.

Let’s clarify, what is our place in that global desire structure, and what role do we play in it. As we already know, the whole process of the universe development is an exact projection of constantly growing desire to receive. There are several rules according to which the process of desire development works:

Hence, the whole process of development of humanity is merely a manifestation of constantly growing desire to receive. I hope it’s clear, that every action follows certain desire, and there is no action without a desire. We don’t control our desires, but they control our actions – they appear, develop, and disappear according to a constant pattern. Thus, knowing the structure of the desire, and its development pattern, our world becomes absolutely predictable. The appearance of human being is the last (4th) stage of desires development – its inner development can be depicted as follows :

Obviously, the dates are approximate. Please note, that humanity appeared around 40.000 years ago, and remained existing on the lowest (inanimate) level of egoism, which corresponds to simple desires of physical body -sustainingits existence. It consists of simple desires for food, sex, sleep, parenting etc. In fact, this level is not considered egoistic, as egoism deals with social desires only (to be explained later). As egoism level gradually grows up with the increasing speed, a new level of desire appears. There was a certain amount of people, who climbed up to the higher level of egoism (vegetative), while others remained existing on the lower one (inanimate). Invention of money was merely a way to express that new egoism layer, to express that particular division in society. People belonging to the vegetative level of desire felt differently than others, more separated from each other. Meanwhile, egoism kept growing up, thus creating a new level of desire, which appeared the same way as previous one. While two lower levels kept existing, a new one ascend to the upper level of egoism, thus creating a new form of desire. The aspiration to power, fame, and honor corresponds to the animate level of development, and obviously represent much bigger desires than the previous ones. The mechanism that this desire is based on is the same : people belonging to this level felt even more separated from one another, thus the need to express oneself in the society caused such manifestations, as wars, politics etc. The last level of the desire development embodies aspiration to knowledge, meant to be used on the same basis, as previous desires – to express one’s position in the society.

The levels differ from one another in two parameters, that gradually change from stage to stage : amount of people included, and egoism size.

Hence, the higher level of desire, the more egoistic state it represents, and the fewer people belong to it. This proportion is constant for each level of Nature (inanimate, vegetative, animate, and human) Although the amount of people living on the globe increases, this proportion doesn’t vary.

Desire and pleasure

The question is, why does humankind change so fast, whereas animal, vegetative, and inanimate level remain almost the same throughout thousands of years? Why our egoism is constantly growing? Let’s clear it up. In fact, there are only two distinct components that the universe consists of : desire, and pleasure. There is nothing else in the objective reality (beyond its form drawn by 5 senses) except for these two forces : reception and bestowal. The force of reception is represented by desire to receive, also called “the creation”, however, the force of bestowal is a manifestation of the Creator within the desire – in other words, with regard to our sensation.

Please note, that both receiving and giving is only an action, that doesn’t indicate whether it’s egoistic, or altruistic. Egoism and altruism represent the intention of action, not the action itself. Intention can be imagined as an electric charge – plus and minus. Hence, there are 4 possible combinations :

1. Receiving to receive pleasure (egoistic reception) -
2. Receiving to give pleasure (altruistic reception) +
3. Giving to receive pleasure (egoistic bestowal) -
4. Giving to give pleasure (altruistic bestowal) +

Egoistic reception (1) is what we know from our world – 95% of population represent this state. Egoistic bestowal (3) also exists in our world – around 5% of population are involved into “altruistic” organisations, etc. Altruistic bestowal (4) doesn’t exists in our world, and it’s impossible to reach by a human being. This is the quality included in the Creator, and this is the orgin of pleasure (hence, pleasure is considered to be a purely altruistic force). Altruistic reception (2) is possible only through method of Kabbalah, and this is what kabbalists do (to be explained later).
Egoistic intention of the desire means no more and no less, than sensation of pleasure within the desire (inner sensation). However, altruistic intention is a sensation of pleasure beyond the desire (sensation of what is outside). Thus, what we deal with in our world is either egoistic reception, or egoistic bestowal. Let’s examine what happens when altruistic pleasure (+) enters an egoistic desire (-) :

If the desire doesn’t match the quality of pleasure (their charges aren’t identical), it becomes destroyed by pleasure. The spark of pleasure received this way is called : “ner dakik” (hebr. tiny spark of light), as Kabbalists tell us, that people in our world don’t even know what real pleasure is, as they have never felt it. Let’s examine how this model of reception works :

1. The only goal we have is to receive pleasure. Regardless of its form (buying a car, making a career, eating french fries), all we want is at least that slight sensation of fulfillment.

2. The empty desire (without fulfillment) is felt as suffering, and the fulfilled desire is felt as happiness. This is what we want, right? To be happy.

3. Usually, it takes a pretty long time until we achieve our goal. It can take a day, a month, years, even a lifetime. As we feel empty throughout this process, we suffer.

4. Once we achieve our goal, we feel happy for a little while (a spark of light). Let’s say, I have been dreaming about buying a new car. To afford it, I had to work hard for many years. And finally, I can buy it. I feel happy, I got what I wanted. Tomorrow I’ll feel a bit less happy than today. In one week, I won’t even remember about that happiness. I’ll feel empty again, and some new, bigger desire will appear, making me suffer again, forcing me to go through the same process. Looking back, we see how much time we had spent on achieving the desired object, but received very little pleasure in return. Likely, our life consists of 99,9% of suffering (emptiness) and 0,1% of happiness.

Let’s take a look at what happens when the desire is being destroyed by pleasure :

Once the desire (along with spark of pleasure) disappears, a new one appears. It’s bigger than the previous one, therefore requires more time and effort to achieve. Accordingly, it causes more suffering, because the bigger emptiness is, the more suffering comes from it. This is the constant pattern of growing egoism, according to which our desires develop.

We live under a constant influence of the Creator, which represents utterly altruistic quality (altruistic bestowal). This influence doesn’t vary, and never changes. However, as our egoism grows up, and thus a degree of dissimilarity with the Creator’s quality increases, we receive more and more negative result (suffering) in return. Thus, this model of reception causes destructive results of interaction between the creature and the Creator.

Growing egoism increases a degree of dissimilarity to the Upper forces.
Hence, on the one hand, receiving pleasure is our inborn life core, but on the other hand, we are virtually incapable of receiving it, as the pleasure destructs the desire itself. At this point it can be concluded that we are born to suffer. Once man reveals this, one common question arises : “What is the meaning of my existence?”. Before we answer this, let’s go back to the question we asked previously : why does human level change so fast, whereas the lower levels (animate, vegetative and inanimate) remain existing on the constant level of egoism? What is the difference between 4th level of the desire, and the rest of them (1, 2, 3)?

1. The first level (inanimate) represents the smallest desire to receive pleasure, therefore it affects only the sum of all the elements, and is not separately manifested in each of the inanimate elements of nature.

2. At the next level (vegetative),the will to enjoy is bigger, and already manifests in each particular element. Hence, each element at the vegetative level already possesses the ability for individual movement (for example, plants open their petals and turn toward the sun). This level includes such processes as absorption and excretion, yet beings at this level still lack the sensation of individual freedom of will.

3. At the third level (animate),the will to receive pleasure grows even larger. Desire produces individual sensations in each particular element and creates a unique life for everyone, one that differs from those of the others. However, there is no sense of empathy with others at this level. These beings still lack the necessary compassion or pleasure with regard to others.

4. Finally, the fourth level (human) creates the desire to receive pleasure based on sensation of others. The previous levels cannot sense others and can generate simple needs only within the limits of their own desires. On the human level, a person who can sense another acquires the other’s needs.

The difference between the levels is pretty slight, and it’s still unclear, why humans egoism grows up, as apposed to lower levels. It is important to understand, that only human level is egoistic. In fact, there is no egoism on the lower levels of existence, because there is no freedom of will, and there is no sensation of others. These levels are entirely guided by the Creator (nature), so that no free choice remains. We observe, that these levels exist in perfect harmony. As we already know, egoism has nothing to do with the basic needs (sustaining one’s existence) – it manifests with regard to others, thus causing corrupted relationships between a person and the environment. Hence, 1st, 2nd, and 3rd levels unconsciously exist being perfectly connected with the Creator, whereas the human being is the only egoistic element in purely altruistic surrounding.

According to the law of equivalence of form, the Upper forces put pressure on the lower level, thus forcing it to change, so that they become identical. The higher degree of dissimilarity to the Creator a man reaches, the more destructive influence from above he may expect. A man can be compared to a cancer cell, that doesn’t feel the common desire of the whole body, and focuses on satisfying its own needs instead. A cancer cell, being surrounded by an altruistic environment consisting of healthy cells, gives up providing the body with esentially important elements, and begins to absorb them for pleasing itself. Thus the whole body dies, along with a cancer cell.

Being a sole egoistic component of the universe, a man doesn’t sense the unity of the world he lives in. His perception is limited to inner world, which is an illusory projection of inner qualities. This is pointed out in the Book of Zohar :

Quote:
Open slightly your heart to me, and I will reveal the world to you.
The Book of Zohar

In Kabbalah, the full spectrum of man’s desires is called “heart”. Thus, it’s said, that once you transform your desires, so that they are directed to outside reality, you will witness the reality itself, the way it exists regardless of observer, beyond time, space, and form.

It’s been said, that inanimate, vegetative, and animate levels have no freedom of will at all. Their behavior is determined by inborn mechanisms, thus they are absolutely guided by the Creator. The question arises : is there any freedom of will when it comes to a human level? This is indeed a very important question to be clear up.

© 2008-2010. A course in Kabbalah by Sephir.
Symbolic Living.

Coming up next in Part 4

Freedom of Will, Meaning of Life and more

Bookmark and share this page and come back soon for further Free learning in Kabbalah.

Unauthorized reproduction of this material is prohibited

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© 2008-2010. A course in Kabbalah by Sephir.
Symbolic Living.

See Kabbalah Part 1 before continuing onto Part 2 below.

• What is Kabbalah?
• What Kabbalah is not.

Authentic Kabbalah Part 2

What is an additional sense?

First off, let’s clarify how ordinary senses works, and what is reality. A kabbalist is a person who ascends to a higher level, beyond form and matter, and from there observes our world and the world that has been revealed to him, perceiving both worlds as one whole. This is why, many kabbalistic sources, including those that are thousands of years old, like Sefer ha Zohar (written 2000 years ago), or the ancient Midrash Raba, (3700 years ago), speak of the problems concerning the perception of reality.

According to Kabbalah, there is no objective reality whatsoever. To begin with, each living creature perceives it differently. If our sensory organs were different, we would see the world differently as well. If we could see in ultraviolet or x-rays, if we could hear, smell or feel in a different frequency ranges, then our world – the sum of our sensations -would be completely different and would draw for us a completely different picture. That fact clearly indicates that the world is basically our subjectively perceived reality, which exists within us. These days even science is developing a clear understanding that our world is illusory, as it depends solely on our sensory organs – their frequency range and mode of operation. Hence, ordinary science doesn’t examines the reality itself, but subjective sensations that our senses along with our brain draw for us.

Authentic Kabbalah - External World

Let’s take a look at the following example : if I knock on the table—you hear a sound. A certain action creates a certain wave. This wave reaches your ear, strikes the eardrum, moves through all the systems, (electrical, chemical), reflects in your brain, which compare it with familiar data, determines the origin of a sound, and informs you of it. What does all this have to do with whatever took place on the outside? Please note, that the external wave itself never gets through your ear – what you actually hear is subjective reaction on the wave coming from your eardrum, not the external sound itself. The rest of our senses work the same way, thus providing us an illusion of external reality we live in, including time, space, and movement.

One important question remains to be cleared up. Is there any external world at all? Kabbalah tells us that external reality doesn’t exist, and neither are there any external phenomena – everything exists within man. And outside of us there’s nothing, except a constant force within which we exist, and based on our compatibility with this constant force (the Creator), various kinds of internal phenomena occur within us, and create within us all sorts of sensations.

The lack of external reality is clearly perceived by kabbalists. They observe the forces that draw an illusion of reality within us. How do they attain those forces? Kabbalists add one additional sense to their usual five sensory organs. It’s called “soul” (נשמה – neshama). It functions according to a fundamentally different principle. The soul itself is a certain degree of similarity to the Creator, meaning, to the altruistic quality. The higher degree of similarity a kabbalist reaches, the more objective reality he attains. As opposed to 5 senses, the soul isn’t connected to the body, as it’s not egoistic. The sensation coming from the soul is a pure picture of the outside world, without form, time, space, and other illusory parameters created by 5 senses.

Authentic Kabbalah - Soul

Moreover, when Kabbalists attain the outside forces, their attainment is absolutely accurate and scientific—with graphs, formulas, and precise measurements. An altruistic perception does not disturb one’s worldview. It gives a sensation, awareness and knowledge of the world just as it is, irrespective of the observer. This sort of sensation doesn’t replace an illusion of the physical world – quite the contrary, it expands one’s perception with an additional layer of reality.

There is a simple question that might appear at this point : Why should one attain another reality that exists outside of him? How does it benefit him?

In fact, we are being pushed toward the entrance to this new reality, and we must enter it, because existence in this uppermost external reality, is eternal and complete. This is what nature is pushing us toward, and this is the final goal towards which humanity was directed from the very beginning. This issue will be explained in detail when discussing the stages of egoism development.

What kabbalists understand by “World”?

I believe, now it’s clear, that there is virtually nothing outside except certain forces, that influence us in the constant way. We have no idea that we live under absolute influence of the Upper forces. All variety of states we go through is caused by our inner change, not the change of the outside world.
This dependence can be depicted as equation :

Inner qualities + CONSTANT = The world man lives in

Hence, by “World” (עולם – olam) kabbalists understand a full spectrum of inner qualities, as the inner qualities solely define what reality we live in (by inner qualities I understand a certain degree of the soul development).

For example, the term Our World (עולם זה – Olam ha Ze) indicates, that a person living in it doesn’t have a soul (the level of similarity to the Upper force is equal to zero). Thus, the term itself doesn’t refer to the outside reality, but to the inner state.

Our World is something Kabbalah doesn’t deal with – this is a subject examining by ordinary sciences. Kabbalah examines the spiritual worlds only. Spiritual (קדוש – kadosh) also means “separated” – that is separated from Our World (egoistic quality).

While attaining the spiritual worlds, kabbalists remain living in Our World. It means, that altruistic quality doesn’t replace inborn egoism – so on the physical level nothing changes. The spiritual attainment is an additional layer of life, and it has nothing to do with one’s daily life.

The Purpose of Kabbalah

First off, let’s briefly sum up the main concepts :

1. Kabbalah is an accurate science allowing one to investigate and define man’s position in the universe. It allows one to empirically reveal the spiritual roots of the universe, thus answering almost all possible questions one might have, including : what is the meaning of life, why we are born, why we live, where we come from, and where we are going. Kabbalah is not a theoretical study, but a purely practical one. Man learns about himself, what he is like, and what he needs to do to change himself in order to attain the higher state – thus he reveals his own spiritual root, climbing to the top of spiritual ladder, being guided step by step, and stage by stage.

2. Kabbalah is a method of reaching the spiritual world, that can be shortly defined as the most perfect state of existance, characterized by constant and infinite pleasure. By studying Kabbalah, we develop another sense, allowing one to gradually attain the spiritual world, while still living in physical reality.

The word “Kabbalah” comes from the word “le kabbel” (to receive), that is to receive pleasure. Kabbalah describes the motives of every action as “the desire to receive”, that is the core of the universe, consisting of four levels : human, animal, vegetative, and inanimate. Thus, Kabbalah itself is a science of reception, the method of reaching the inborn goal of human being – infinite pleasure beyond its form.

Who is a kabbalist?

A kabbalist is a person who, on the outside, is like any other person. There is nothing unusual in the outward appearance. They are ordinary people who, through studying Kabbalah, acquired an additional sense – a sensation of the hidden part of the world.

A kabbalist can perceive the entire universe with this newly acquired sense, perceiving both our world and the spiritual world as a whole reality, just as we perceive our everyday reality. Kabbalists feel the Upper world and directly attain it. Kabbalists see that everything descends from the Upper world and appears in ours. They see all the causes and effects because they simultaneously exist in both the Upper World and in our world.

Hence, kabbalists aren’t religious, and they don’t believe anything except for their own empirical attainment. Obviously, kabbalists have nothing to do with Judaism, nor any other belief system, though many might think otherwise.

An ordinary person perceives only a fraction of the surrounding universe and calls this fraction our world, whereas a kabbalist perceives the entire scope of the universe.

This has been Part 2 of Authentic Kabbalah.

Much more about Kabbalah coming soon.

Bookmark and share this page and come back soon for further Free learning in Kabbalah.

Unauthorized reproduction of this material is prohibited

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