Leonard Cohen, who died last week, was a profoundly influential and much-loved singer and poet who drew many ideas from the Kabbalah.
Although later in life he identified as a Buddhist, his love of and reverence for the Jewish faith and especially its mystical teachings shone through everything he wrote.
One of his most famous lines, "There is a crack in everything - that's how the light gets in", is a trenchant reframing of a well known idea from the Kabbalist text, the Book of Splendour (in Hebrew, the Zohar).
Many people who profess to "know" the Kabbalah know only the basics of the diagram of the Tree of Life, the Sefirot, often used in so-called magical arts. This diagram is indeed very important to understanding how the energies of God work in particular situations, but to know only this - along with some Hebrew letters - is to remain ignorant of the Kabbalah's most profound ideas.
One of these, to which Cohen is referring in the line quoted above, is that when God created the world, he first made vessels of clay into which he poured his light and love. Sadly, the light proved too strong for the frail vessels, and they shattered.
Subsequently they were re-formed, but inside them the light of God was now imprisoned, making what the Kabbalah calls the "sparks of holiness" that are to be found in everything existing.
The light may be liberated by the intentional acts of conscious men and women, the Kabbalah says, and it explains how this may be achieved.
In these teachings, the Kabbalah's theories come very close to those of Buddhism and to the Work. For, just as in the Buddhist Noble Eightfold Path and in the Work's instructions to act consciously and not from a state of sleep, the Kabbalah says that our intentions, our state of Being when we carry out a particular action, make that action fruitful or otherwise.
The light of imprisoned splendour may be freed from its shell of matter only when awakened people act to deliberately let it out, as it were.
What is this but a different way of speaking about enlightenment and the role of higher energies - hydrogens, as the Work terms then - in spirituality?
And what does this mean in practice?
Judaism teaches that very ordinary, everyday day acts can be elevated to the realm of the spiritual when blessings are said and when spiritual intentions guide our actions. So, for example, the act of preparing and eating a meal is to be carried out in a state of waking, with consciousness, and blessings said before we eat. By doing so we liberate the sparks of holiness that are to found in the food we eat - the higher hydrogens - and then the holiness that dwells within us is increased and also set free when needed. If you study the Food Diagram, you will see how this actually takes place.
Of course, this is the very essence of the Work teaching about consciousness! In the Work we're not told to say particular blessings: that is optional, although I, along with many others, find saying grace and other blessings during the day is extremely helpful in focusing my attention.
But living in a state of awakening means that we are already in a state of higher consciousness than when we forget and fall asleep, living solely in life, acting mechanically and without intention.
Judaism prescribes many blessings to be said at various times during the day, over different daily actions, and if all are them are remembered, the Kabbalist - including many Orthodox Hassidic men and women who would not necessarily claim that title - lives in a state of awakening. And this is exactly what we are told to do in the Work.
Similarly, Christianity and Buddhism also prescribe certain prayers and blessings to be said in a state of self-remembering during our ordinary daily lives, and in just the same way we will find if we obey these guidelines that we are living in a state of awakening. The Work calls prayers and blessings "reminding factors", and they are important aids to staying awake, just as surrounding ourselves with sacred pictures and reading Work books also provide necessary reminders.
In many ways I believe Leonard Cohen was well on the way to enlightenment. If you look at his birthchart, his chief influences were those of Neptune and Mercury; Neptune inspired him with the highest ideals for mankind and universal spiritual awakening, while Mercury enabled him to study higher teachings and to communicate them through his work as a poet and singer.
In his daily life he was often misunderstood and criticized, and trusted the wrong people, but he took everything that happened as a means to spiritual progress.
One example I find particularly poignant is his love for, and unselfish dedication to, the Jewish people and especially the State of Israel. He greatly admired the morality and idealism of the Israeli Defence Force, and gave free concerts to them and to many others in Israel.
When the Palestinians protested that he was ignoring them and their own wishes for peace, Cohen immediately offered to put on a free concert in Ramallah, to share his songs and his longing for peace with the Palestinian people.
They, however, refused, saying that they would not have anything to do with someone who had visited Israel! And that was the end of that peace initiative.
Cohen did not allow their rejection to cause him to hate them, however, and to the end of his life he wished profoundly for peace and reconciliation in the Middle East; his daily actions and his attitudes to those around him embodied these ideals in material form.
We've said goodbye - or rather, "So long, Leonard" - to one of the greatest popular singers and poets of our time. His ideals and his music will continue to inspire as long as people remember his songs; and through them, the ideals of the Kabbalah will also find expression.
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