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Click here to
download a pdf version of our distance learning kabbalah brochure (includes
application form)
Click here to download
a pdf version of our distance learning psychosynthesis brochure (includes
application form)
Kabbalah:
Kabbalah is a way of understanding all aspects of ourselves and is a rewarding
guide for personal and spiritual development.
Based on a map of consciousness called the Tree of Life, Kabbalah, or Qabalah
(an alternative spelling), is relevant to modern everyday life, offering
greater freedom and fulfillment through including the experience of both
our spirit and shadow sides.
Want to know more about Kabbalah, Qabalah and the
Tree of Life?
What is the difference between Kabbalah
and Qabalah?
Is non-Jewish Kabbalah authentic
or not?
What group courses do you offer?
What books can I read about Kabbalah?
Do you have any articles I can read
about Kabbalistic topics?
What does Kabbalah say about sex
and parenting?
Is Kabbalah a kind of therapy?
What is the link between Kabbalah
and Christianity?
What are energy bodies and how
does Kabbalah describe them?
What does Kabbalah say mediumistic
or channeled material?
What links do you have to Kabbalah,
Qabalah and related topics?
Anything we haven't covered, please let us know .
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The Something and Nothing
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the prospect of death
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Kabbalah for Life
How to use
the power and wisdom
of this ancient tradition
In the midst of life there is the tree of life, which bares all manner
of fruits, continuously: and the leaves of the tree are for the healing
of the nations. (adapted from Revelations, 22:2)
That the Kabbalah flourishes depends upon its relevance in the modern world
to political and social issues as well as for individual development and
healing. The central principle of the Kabbalah is respect for oneself and
equal respect for others. This respect depends upon the acceptance of oneself
and others for being as we are. We may intend change but we do not require
it. From this ground of mutual respect a deep relationship can happen, a
relationship of equals, rather than relationship built upon hierarchy (someone's
better than you and someone's worse), or prejudice (you are the right colour
and she is the wrong one). Deep relationships built on a ground of mutual
respect are the basis of healing.
The key to understanding ourselves is through the nature of relationship.
The tree of life, built as it is upon correspondence and relationship, provides
the structure for this key. The work we then do with the Tree is equivalent
to putting the key in the lock and turning it. As souls with a personality,
a body, thoughts, feelings, sensations, touch, and so on... all the things
we have which enable us to relate to the world - we are the hands that turns
the key. The relationships between us and the world, in all their different
facets, are what provide restriction and freedom, peace and war, all the
different manifestations of harmony and discord we experience in our world.
This is equally true intrapersonally and interpersonally.
It is not that we need to become more free, or more harmonious, What we
need is to recognise our part in the interaction between polarities and
take responsibility for our actions that move the balance one way or the
other. This is the respect for which the Qabalah provides a framework -
the tree of life. When we stop trying to be better (hierarchy) or believing
we are better or worse (prejudice), and accept ourselves and others for
what we all are - equally humble and equally powerful human beings - we
free up our ability to interrelate, to understand others for their similarities
and differences to us.
For freedom to exist we have to include all the interplay between our different
subpersonalities, all the different parts of us. Through including them
all, we can respond both to our inner and outer impulses better. This makes
us more effective in our relationships in the world. To attempt to include
all the different parts and aspects of ourselves is a tall order. Using
the tree of life helps this process because it is a map both of connections
and how we make those connections. As well as that, the structure and pattern
of the basic Tree of Life diagram is an energetic replica of how such connections
are made in the brain.
When we connect with the tree of life, it is as if everything becomes brighter,
warmer, stiller, because we are no longer confused, we are free. In this
state we relate to others in a more appropriate way. That doesn't mean we
all go round radiating love and harmony and light and 'isn't it wonderful'
feelings. Sometimes we will feel awful, some days will be filled with conflict,
boredom, distrust. There will be differences between us still, but we will
glorify the differences between us because we are able to understand these
differences also as part of ourselves.
I'm not trying to 'sell' you the Kabbalah or persuade you to join up to
a Tree of Life cult. I am sharing my experience because it seems worth sharing.
Whether you find anything in it for yourself is your business not mine.
I could have lived my life so far without the Kabbalah and I may well have
been successful. Anyone can live without knowing about or using it. And
using it does make a difference. The Kabbalah makes life easier and brings
more meaning to it. This isn't because of a magical trick, spells or sorcery.
The Kabbalah can improve our lives through attunement and correspondence.
With all the correspondences to the tree of life, the more you know how
to use them, how to relate everything you experience back to this central,
core structure, the freer your consciousness becomes to hear the inner voice
of soul and reconcile its manifestation through everyday events.
The essence of the Kabbalah, however, is simply attuning oneself to the
tree of life. We can easily get caught up with details, but if we step back,
the correspondences come second. First and foremost is the shape of the
tree and understanding what the different spheres represent. The key then
is living with that image. You do not even have to think about it or imagine
it every day. Some while after you start working with the tree of life,
it `lights up' connections inside your brain in the pattern that matches
the tree of life. Everything corresponds. Everything is clearer.
It does not matter what we believe, what religion we belong or don't belong
to, we can image the tree of life and make our own connections. That way
we build up the tree of life in us, and then we become part of an overall
pattern. A Buddhist who has connected with the tree of life and a South
American shaman who has connected with and understood the tree of life are
going to have a much better understanding of one anothers' ways. A politician
who has learned and connected with the tree of life will similarly have
a better understanding and ability to respond to differing political viewpoints.
Perhaps the Kabbalistic vision is too radical to apply to politics. We could
arrive at a time when the majority of people, or a large enough number of
them were working with the tree of life. Perhaps it only needs ten per cent
of people, or some such figure, as described in the 'hundredth monkey theory'.
If enough people were holding the tree of life in consciousness, it would
cause a relatively very large change to the political and social scene.
Then it would not be relevant to talk in terms of what a right wing or left
wing politician might do, because that would not be the way the system would
be operating anymore. In that context, the shining image of the tree of
life is really just one facet of a bigger plan, a bigger tree of life!
There are so many different aspects to the changes that are happening so
clearly to everyone on every level - political, geopolitical, physical,
social, climatic, socio-political, social, and so on, and including the
esoteric concepts of cyberspace, quantum physics and such like. All these
changes at all these levels make up a tree of life that is part of a much
bigger scheme that in Kabbalah we ascribe to the veils of containment. There
are three of these veils and what happens behind or beyond them is probably
amazingly interesting. Kabbalists say, however, let's concern ourselves
with what we've got to deal with here, the work here and now on this side
of the veils.
In terms of healing, the tree of life helps to make us whole, to heal, to
include more of ourselves in the whole picture of life. We need to be whole
in ourselves to be able to combine with another 'whole being' to create
a greater inclusion and synthesis. The more of us move towards wholeness
in this way, with or without the tree of life, the more of us there are
to work together in the common goal of planetary harmony. We do not even
have to work together: knowing and understanding this togetherness exists
in itself releases vast potential. Once we are healing ourselves, the best
next step in this healing is healing others. The tree of life is an ideal
agent for this change.
Will Parfitt is a UKCP registered psychotherapist and an experienced
and innovative group leader. Trained in Psychosynthesis, he has more than
thirty years experience of working with psychospiritual development, and
he travels internationally to run courses on a variety of subjects including
kabbalah and psychosynthesis. Will is author of several books
including 'Kabbalah for Life' and 'Psychosynthesis: the Elements and Beyond'.
© Will Parfitt 2008 (v8.1)