The Soul Wanderers

Quotes of Wisdom: Hua-yen Buddhism

Despite appearances, everything is the same. This is the major idea behind Hua-yen Buddhism, a form of Chinese Buddhism that focuses on metaphysics, namely, the nature of the universe and what exists within it. In the Hua-yen world-view, everything is part of an interrelated “jeweled net” (called Indra’s net) with each jewel in the net being identical. So too is everything said to be “empty,” which is what today’s quote focuses on:

From Francis Cook’s Hua-yen Buddhism: TheJewel Net of Indra (1977):

“Things can only exist because they are empty…emptiness cannot exist apart from entities, since emptiness is a relationship between entities: they create each other, are thoroughly interfused, and in fact are one and the same things.”

Before we get into emptiness, let’s look at what Indra’s net is. A good description of Indra’s net comes from the Avatamsaka Sutra, an important text to Hua-yen philosophy that describes the universe and the various Buddhas and bodhisattvas within it:

“Far away in the heavenly abode of the great god Indra, there is a wonderful net which has been hung by some cunning artificer in such a manner that it stretches out infinitely in all directions…the artificer has hung a single glittering jewel in each ‘eye’ of the net, and since the net itself is infinite in dimension, the jewels are infinite in number. There hang the jewels, glittering like stars…If we now arbitrarily select one of these jewels for inspection and look closely at it, we will discover that in its polished surface there are reflected all the other jewels in the net, infinite in number. Not only that, but each of the jewels reflected in this one jewel is also reflecting all the other jewels, so that there is an infinite reflecting process occurring.”

This is an analogy of the universe, with each jewel being an object in the universe, anything from an atom to a cat to a planet. Now, composite objects are made of many different jewels in the net, but the net can be seen as a fractal with each object as either a single jewel or a collection of jewels: the same results will apply. Each of these entities in the net is called a dharma (a Hindu term that has many meanings, but in Hua-yen it means a specific entity: a fancy way to say a “thing”), and so the universe is nothing but interrelated dharmas. One of the primary purposes of Hua-yen is to discover just what dharmas are and how they are related to each other, which is similar to the task of modern scientists who search for the ultimate constituents of reality in quantum mechanics and particle physics.

Indra’s net demonstrates the concept of emptiness: there is no source that creates the jewels, but all just reflect each other. Cook says, “Existence means that the object exists as a result of conditions; emptiness refers to the fact that what exists in dependence on conditions has no ultimate being in and of itself.” Nothing has a real essence: if it did, it would be unable to change. Existence, then, only derives from interdependence, those countless related dharmas forming Indra’s net, the “conditions” of its existence. This is called interdependent origination. It may sound like a contradiction, but as seen from the quote above, existence just is emptiness. Later on, Cook says, “What is called emptiness from one point of view is called existence from the other.” Indeed, the Buddhist concept of emptiness is not a “thing” or an absence of something, but is rather the interdependent relationship among entities. And since all things are defined by their relationships to all other things, they are necessarily empty.

An analogy used in Francis Cook’s book, which he quoted from Fa-tsang (Fa-tsang is one of Hua-yen’s primary founders from the seventh century), is that of a barn. Barns are made of rafters, shingles, nails, etc., and each part plays an important role in the formation of the whole. Yet outside its place in the barn, the concept of each part existing alone is meaningless: a rafter does not become a rafter unless it exists within the context of the barn: otherwise it is just a piece of wood. It becomes a rafter when it is seen in relation to all the other parts of the barn. Likewise with a shingle, a nail, and so on. Moreover, the barn will not exist if it were not for the parts that comprise it. The whole derives its existence from its parts, but so too do the parts derive their existence from the whole. Neither has an independent existence. If you were to change the parts, you may still make an object like a barn, but the point is that it will not be the same barn that you had before.

Thus, all parts of the barn derive their essence from the fact that they are parts of a whole, and the barn derives its existence from the relationships between its parts. If there were no tiles and shingles, the rafter wouldn’t be a rafter, because it wouldn’t be part of a barn, and likewise with every other part. Since a rafter is a condition for the building, if there is no rafter, there will be no building, but at the same time, if there was no building, it would not be a rafter. And the rafter totally causes the building, as Fa-tsang says: “If [the rafter] does not wholly create [the building], then when the one rafter is removed, the whole building should remain. However, since the total building is not formed then you should understand that the building is not formed by the partial power [of a condition such as the rafter] but by its total power.” So any individual dharma can be seen as possessing total power in creating the whole, a notion that certainly takes some thinking about, since it is quite far removed to how we normally think of parts and the whole that they create.

But Hua-yen goes further to say that each part is identical. The shingle and the rafter share the same power in creating the barn, and moreover, they each have total power in creating the barn: “the part exerts total power in the formation of a particular whole.” How could this be? Well, imagine that you intend to make that barn and have almost everything in place except for one plank of wood to function as a rafter. When you put that wood in, the barn is formed. Hence, the rafter can be seen as creating the barn, having complete power over its existence, as well as the existence of all other parts that form the barn (since if there was no barn, the shingles wouldn’t be shingles, etc.). Take away a rafter, and you no longer have the barn.

Now do the same thing with a nail: the last nail to form the barn has total power in creating it and the other parts of the barn. Take it away, and it is no longer the barn you began with. If you imagine performing this thought experiment with all other parts of the barn, you can see that they each have total power in creating the barn, and so without all these parts, you would not have the whole. This is the identical essence of every part: from the point of view of each being a cause, they each have total power. At the same time, they are different because they are each results of every other part when it is seen as a cause. It is just a shift in point of view: each dharma can be seen as being a case or an effect, and neither view is more correct than the other.

Of course, you could think that making small changes to the barn or replacing, for example, one rafter with another wouldn’t change the scheme of the barn. But it isn’t the same barn anymore. Yes, it is a barn, but not the one you had before. Though bear in mind that this makes more sense with respect to the universe as a whole and the dharmas that comprise it.

Indeed, the analogy of the barn can be applied to the entire universe of dharmas. The same relationships that hold between the parts of a barn also holds between, for example, the parts of a human being, the galaxy, or the universe as a whole. Each dharma has no independent existence and is empty. What we see as differences are only illusory differences of outer form, what Fa-tsang calls “quasi-existence,” because objects are actually identical and empty. All dharmas are identical because they are empty of independent existence. Each is also a cause of all the others, for, taking a single dharma, it can be seen as creating all other dharmas, and if you shift your point of view, the same is true for all other dharmas. If each dharma can create all of reality, then all dharmas must be identical.

Yet at the same time, they are also different because they have different functions in the grand scheme of things. Think of the rafter and the nail in the barn again: although each has no existence in and of itself, needing a host of supporting conditions to define it, they each play a particular role in the creation of the barn. As Cook says, “The whole which is included in the part is already a whole which includes the part, so that the interpenetration of dharma and dharma is repeated over and over, infinitely.” These are the infinitely reflecting jewels in Indra’s net that are both causes and effects: seen as causes, they are identical and contain the power to create all other dharmas, but seen as effects, they are different and interrelated with all the other causes that each have a different function in the creation of the whole.

This is all hard to grasp, and it’s no wonder there are so many books written about this. Another analogy that Cook uses might make the concept of interdependent origination clearer: the idea of a father and son. A father is only a father if he has his son, but a son is only a son if he has his father. These two terms come into existence simultaneously, and can be said to “create” each other. From one point of view, the father creates the son, and in doing so, becomes a father. But from another point of view, the son creates the father (not the human being who is his father, but the fact that he is a father), and in doing so, becomes a son.

Normally, we think of a cause in terms of time: an event x occurs at time 1, which causes an event y at time 2. But in the net of Indra, since each object can be seen as either a cause or effect, it doesn’t make sense to say that one comes before the other. Cause is rather an expression of the interdependent nature of the universe. There are thus two notions of time here: first is the regular “vertical” time that goes nice and orderly from past, to present, to future, and then there is a “horizontal” time that expresses the interrelationships between all dharmas that exist at any slice in vertical time. This is the idea that everything is both a cause and effect of everything else, something that only makes sense when looking at a single slice of vertical time: it’s as if you transcend the three-dimensional reality to four dimensions (with the fourth dimension being time) and are able to move in two directions of time rather than one, just as you can move back and forth in any of the three dimensions of space.

Although the true nature of things as interdependent and essencelessness seems devoid from the reality we live in, if are able to understand this, it helps us realize that the things we think of as ‘bad’ that cause us anxiety and fear such as death, sickness, and pain are just part of the whole and are really no different to what we think of as ‘good.’ Indeed, “It is this very picking and choosing which brings back upon ourselves anxiety, fear, and turmoil, for by dividing up the one unitary existence into two parts, the good and the bad, we distort the reality which is the one unitary existence…To see things in a totalistic perspective means to transcend a small, pathetic subjectivity and see all the pernicious, vexing contraries harmonized within the whole.” In essence, all dharmas are identical in being empty. The Buddhist and Taoist goal of enlightenment is to return to naturalness and transcend our perceptions of good and bad, existence and non-existence, real and unreal. Everything has its place within the net of Indra, and no matter how small any one dharma may appear, without it, the whole would be different. Think of what the Doctor said: “In 900 years of time and space, I’ve never met anyone who wasn’t important.”

This view can help bring more tranquility and acceptance into our lives, and is remarkably similar to views held by Stoic philosophers. It’s not about giving yourself up to “Fate,” but about not getting trodden down by it, because although we find ourselves in this vast net of inter-causality, that doesn’t mean that we are only controlled by countless other things, but that we too can control them. It goes both ways, for everything is equally important. There isn’t a single destiny that everything is heading toward, but the vast collection of dharmas are evolving together, constantly shifting and recreating themselves.

And lastly, the Buddhist principle of acting compassionately toward all beings follows from the Hua-yen vision of the universe. If all things are interconnected and essentially the same, there is no real distinction between you and others: not just other people and living things, but everything that exists. To help others, then, is to benefit the whole, which includes yourself. The work of the bodhisattva is to help all beings who are all linked in this shared destiny. To act merely out of “self-interest” is to be ignorant of the fact that there are no distinct selves. And so, as Cook says, “To act compassionately is to act in accordance with reality,” a view that naturally arises out of studying the universe of Hua-yen Buddhism, the net of Indra of all the jewels of objects in creation.

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Book Review: The Story of the Stone

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The Story of the Stone (also called A Dream of Red Mansions) is a novel written by Cao Xueqin in 18^th Century China. It is a fascinating story about the lives (and even things beyond the earthly lives) of the wealthy Jia family and those that serve them or interact with them in some form or other. Out of the great number of characters (who are fortunately included in a character list at the back of the book), the ones we follow mainly are the boy Bao-yu, who is the incarnation of a magical stone that was in his mouth when he was born, his cousins Dai-yu and Bao-chai, his older cousin Xi-feng, and his maids such as Aroma.

Just note that there are be a few spoilers in here, but nothing major.

First of all, the book was beautiful to read. The descriptions were lovely, and it all flowed so well that you could end up reading quite a lot in only a short amount of time. Except for a few insignificant instances, I couldn’t tell that it had been translated into English rather than written in English originally. One of the many beautiful descriptions is of the stone: “she saw a stone about the size of a sparrow’s egg, glowing with the suppressed, milky radiance of a sunlit cloud and veined with iridescent streaks of colour,” and another describing Xi-feng with a poem:

“She had, moreover,

eyes like a painted phoenix,

eyebrows like willow-leaves,

a slender form,

seductive grace;

the ever-smiling summer face

of hidden thunders showed no trace;

the ever-bubbling laughter started

almost before the lips were parted.”

There are many verses of poetry within the text, either that the characters made up or quoted from, or just descriptions from the author about the setting or characters themselves. Although I thought it was odd at first, I soon got used to it and found it really added to the atmosphere of the story.

The book is also excellent with its portrayal of the characters’ thoughts and desires, especially exploring conflicting ideas and emotions. So although the book is very detailed in its descriptions of the events and the setting, it doesn’t fall short of exploring the characters’ mentalities, as well intricacies of the plots they might have. For example, Bao-yu’s maid Aroma tricks Bao-yu at one point: “By employing only a minimum amount of deceit, she could use it as a means of ascertaining his real feelings towards her and of humbling his spirit a little, so that he might be in a suitably chastened frame of mind for the lecture which she was preparing to admonish him. She judged from his going off silently to bed that he was shaken and a little unsure of himself. Evidently she had succeeded in the first part of her plan.” Xi-feng is also particularly skilled at manipulating people.

There were many priceless moments of humor as well. For example, when Bao-yu and Qin Zhong go to school (though Bao-yu stops going soon after he begins), there is a fight with all the boys throwing things at each other and it just gets so out of hand: you’d have to read it to see, but it’s absolutely hilarious. Also Xi-feng can be very devious: she was definitely one of my favourite characters, probably the smartest, and not shy of taking charge when the situation calls for her, even though she is extremely busy with running the household. Not to mention when she sets up a plot to get sleazy Jia Rui caught the act of coming to visit her for an amorous meeting. This ends up getting him killed because he is trapped outside in the courtyard overnight and catches a chill, though the fact that he dies is really his own fault when he fails to follow the advice of a Taoist doctor. Xi-feng isn’t sorry one bit, and I have to agree with her.

As for the main character, Bao-yu, he is the most intriguing and seems to have a connection to things beyond the mortal world around him because he is the incarnation of the stone, even though he doesn’t realize what this entails. Although he has a glimpse of a higher order in the world, he is largely secluded in the Jia household and lives a life of luxury where his every whim is supplied by his maids. It would be nice if, in the next volumes, he is forced to fend for himself, because now, he has no real responsibilities and so he’s never really tested, which is necessary for the protagonist of a novel. He does, however, suffer his own hardships (besides being bored from not having anything to do) because of his melancholy and reflections about himself and the world and wanting to know where he belongs in it. He is never able to really figure it out though, for he is effectively trapped in the Jia household with his family and almost never gets out in the world. On the rare occasion that he does (Qin-shi’s funeral), he is curious about other people and feels a connection to them, especially a girl who works at a farm: “she was standing watching for him beside the road, a baby brother in her arms and two little girls at her side. Bao-yu could not repress a strong emotion on seeing her, but sitting there in the carriage there was not much he could do but gaze back at her soulfully.” This is what usually happens: he is able to watch life from the safety of his “carriage” of existence, but not able to do much of anything.

Also, his interactions with others causes him much turmoil, especially with Dai-yu. Dai-yu was sweet at first, but once she comes to love Bao-yu, she becomes such a brat and gets annoyed at every little thing Bao-yu does. She’s very jealous of Bao-chai, and always takes it out on Bao-yu when he says or does something even slightly out of line. So although he also loves her, they stay at an impasse for the whole book. Though admittedly, Bao-yu isn’t very mature either, so it’s possible that his love for Dai-yu will pass, especially considering that he takes a fancy to many other people (mostly his cousins and maids. The fact that everyone is a cousin or related in some way does not stop any relationships from forming) at various times throughout the book. As is mentioned during a conversation with Yu-cun near the beginning of the book, Bao-yu has an unusual obsession with girls, not only that he likes girls, but that he has grown up with girls and likes to do the activities they do. We often see that he might even want to be a girl, because he sees them as nobler being compared to males. So he often experiences an unspoken frustration simply because he is a boy and so cannot really be like his cousins. And he is definitely in love with his friend Qin Zhong, though nothing comes of this because Qin Zhong eventually dies. But on the whole, Bao-yu is confused in his life, for he is largely estranged from not only the higher reality beyond the world, but even the world outside his very restricted social situation.

As for the stone Bao-yu is born with, although he is largely ignorant of its powers, he knows the inscription on it, which says:

MAGIC JADE

Mislay me not, forget me not.

And hale old age shall be your lot.

On the reverse, it says,

Dispels the harms of witchcraft.
Cures melancholic distempers.
Foretells good and evil fortune.

The stone indeed accomplishes all three of those powers throughout the book (the first is obvious, the second is to (sometimes) relieve Bao-yu from his melancholy, and the third is when Bao-yu is transported to the world with the fairy Disenchantment where he is able to read a part of a book that lays out the unfortunate fates of different girls in the form of poems (though it doesn’t specify which poem corresponds to which girl)).

This dream ties in to one of the major themes in the book, and indeed, the book is also called A Dream of Red Mansions. This “dream,” or transportation to another plane of existence, is when Bao-yu is instructed by Disenchantment to dispel his “lust of the mind” so he can focus on “the serious things in life” rather than illusions of daily life that will only trap him. So far, in the first volume, she hadn’t succeeded, but I believe there’s hope for Bao-yu yet.

This transport to Disenchantment’s land of fairies touches upon the supernatural order that ultimately forms the basis of the world. This is also hinted at with the characters of the Taoist and Buddhist monks who occasionally make an appearance. They are aware that Bao-yu is the stone, though as you would expect from a Buddhist and Taoist, they don’t get involved in the plot much. Other monks and religious persons only get involved in times of deaths and sicknesses, which also illustrates the fact that what really matters is not the incessant clamour of day-to-day routines and customs that occupy most of the characters’ time, but of the ultimate destiny of our soul when it leaves this illusory world. One particularly interesting part is when Qin Zhong is dying and bargains with the demons while he is unconscious so that he can speak to Bao-yu one last time.

The book’s many lavish descriptions of customs, clothing, and architecture, including an enormous garden that is built just so the family can receive their daughter (who has become a royal concubine) for a visit once a year, is very interesting in itself, but it can also be seen as a mask over the fundamental reality that is spoken of at the beginning of the book, and so the story is in one sense a parody. It is this higher world and the beings within it that ultimately determine the characters’ destinies, which they are largely unaware of, and indeed, we even see that some souls were purposely sent into the “great illusion of human life” for a particular purpose. We can’t decide either when we come into the world or when we leave it, but it is at these times that the characters are able to glimpse a higher scheme of things in which their day-to-day lives are insignificant. Bao-yu is sometimes able to sense when he meets a pure soul connected to a higher world, such as the maid Crimson and Dai-yu, who were sent here by the fairy Disenchantment. Ultimately, everything that happens is in accordance with the laws of karma, and the only ones who are really able to escape them are the Taoist and Buddhist monks, who travel between “the land of illusion” and the higher world.

On top of all this, we learn a lot about the time period (China in the 1700s), such as how people lived, what they wore, the different positions in society, medicine, literature, etc. And given that it was actually written in this time period, we can safely assume that it’s accurate.

I would certainly say that Cao Xueqin is the Alexandre Dumas of 18^th century China: any fans of Dumas would do well to pick up a copy of this book and enjoy.

Quotes of Wisdom: The Worlds of the Kabbalah

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The Kabbalah is an ancient Jewish mystical tradition that explains how the universe and life have come to be, as well as our purpose within the world. As mentioned in my previous post, the Kabbalah has a fascinating system of other worlds and realms of existence above our own. What lies at the base of the Kabbalah is the interpenetration of four different worlds and the Sephirotic tree of life that forms the basis of them all. The quote today is:

From Z’ev ben Shimon Halevi’s A Kabbalistic Universe (1977):

“As the image of God, man has the greatest possibility of realizing the Immanence present in the Universe. The World provides the conditions for man’s work towards perfection, and in return man aids the World towards its completion, so that which has been separated reunites.”

The Sephirotic Tree of Life, as depicted in the various image below, is a map of the universe, both the world at mediumand everything within it. Indeed, we can think of each human being as a sephirotic tree with each sephirot (the circles) corresponding to a different organ or system in the body. Likewise, the various principles in our souls can be mapped onto a sephirotic tree, as well as the planets in our solar system, the path of enlightenment, and the angelic hierarchies. The Kabbalistic tree can also be mapped onto the different Indian chakras of the body, the different hypostases in Neoplatonism, and the different worlds in esoteric Buddhism, but I won’t go into these other traditions here. There are many different interpretations of the Kabbalah, but I’m going to focus on what I’ve learned from Z’ev ben Shimon Halevi’s books as well as Manly P. Hall’s The Secret Teachings of All Ages.

Each sephirot in the tree is labelled by a different Hebrew words. They are often called ‘spheres,’ ‘sapphires,’ or ‘emanations.’ Keter is the crown, and it is from here that the others emanate. Binah and Hokhmah are the male and female principles, and Da’at corresponds to perfected knowledge. There are many interpretations about what each sphere stands for, and they are not mutually exclusive: they’re supposed to have many meanings. Each sphere, from Malkhut (the lowest) to Keter (the highest) corresponds to a different level of enlightenment/states of consciousness. During a spiritual seeker’s development, they will progress up the sephiroth (plural of sephirot) from their more impulsive animal nature to become a spiritual being. The sephiroth can all be seen as different worlds, where everyone in a lower level of enlightenment is in a lower world, unable to perceive the higher reality of existence around them. Those above encompass more worlds since they are beings of a higher spiritual dimension.

There are said to be 32 paths in the Kabbalah, corresponding to the 10 sephiroth and 22 letters (Hebrew alphabet), which are on the lines between the sephiroth. The sephiroth are unchanging principles that, as has been said, are instantiated in many different realms of being. The letters are variable, and there are many different ways to trace paths between sephiroth. By the flow of energy through the sephiroth, there emerges various processes as impulses flow from one sephirot to another. Indeed, the tree of life itself is created with the emanation from Keter as the initial impulse, giving rise to each letter and the subsequent sephiroth.

The sephiroth on the far left column comprise the pillar of Form, those on the right, the pillar of Force, and those in the centre, the Will or Consciousness, which unites force and form. Both of the two principles are necessary for life and evolution: form provides the structure, and force the energy to create it. Force corresponds to growth and expansion, and form to decay and constriction. Force is also called the Pillar of Mercy, and Form the Pillar of Severity. It is the task of our will to unite these two principles, keeping them both in balance. Form and Force are the Yin and Yang of Taoism, the Boaz and Jachin of Freemasonry: both are necessary, but one without the other will lead to imbalance and strife.

The Kabbalistic tree pictured above is actually one of four worlds. These worlds are called Azilut, Beriah, Yezirah, and Asiyyah. They are all interlaced to create one enormous tree of life with Azilut’s Keter at the top (see picture to the left). Azilut is also called Emanation, in that it is the first realm of being beyond that of absolute non-existence, which is the ultimate God. Each of the sephiroth in Azilut correspond to different aspects of the Divine. All these sephiroth, as well as the worlds beneath them, are produced by the emanation from the first sephirot as it expands its power. It is impossible to have the lower sephiroth without the higher ones above them, because they receive their existence from them, just like you can’t have the branches and leaves of a tree without its supporting trunk and roots. Indeed, the Kabbalah often uses the analogy of an inverted tree with Keter at the base and Malkhut at the top.

Beriah, the second world, also called Creation, emanates from the Tiferet of Azilut, forming another tree of life interspersed with the first. This is where time begins “as Creation moves away from the Eternal and Changeless Perfection of Azilut into expansion and contraction that are the essence of the Beriatic World of Creation.” This necessarily introduces imperfections, because with time, there is change, and even if things begin perfectly, they will necessarily become less perfect as time passes (because if they stayed perfect, they would not change, and time implies some form of change). Beriah, however, is very close to perfection, and its tree is often split into seven Heavens inhabited by Archangels that bring the further worlds into being and instantiate certain principles depending on which sephirot they correspond to. When these principles manifest in the lower worlds, they will correspond to physical laws (gravity and the like), karma, and the impetus behind cycles of growth and decay. Beriah also corresponds to Plato’s world of Forms, containing the archetypes of, for example, celestial phenomena, plants, and animals. There is no growth and decay in Beriah, but rather, it has the potential for existence that will actually come into being in the worlds below. These are the laws and the templates for beings that will be subject to the laws, a blueprint rather than a physical or spiritual substance. Indeed, Halevi says, “In the World of Creation only essences can exist,” and “in Beriah, although the destiny of each creature is determined, it cannot actually move through its stages, it cannot grow and manifest the different stages of existence.”

Moving along to Yezirah, which is also called Formation, we have a further emanation that creates the Yeziritic tree of life. In this world, things can now change their form, though they are still spiritual rather than physical beings. Allegorically, this is where the Garden of Eden lies, as well as the realm of Angels. It is still connected to Beriah, with the Tiferet of Beriah forming the Keter of Yezirah, and so the forms and laws of Beriah can be manifested in this world. Similar to the Archangels, the Angels of Yezirah have no will of their own, but operate according to the principles embodied by the sephiroth, with each angel residing on either the pillar of Force, Form, or Will. Complexity increases in the world of Yezirah, and although it still abides by the laws of the worlds above it, it derives more specific laws of its own, effective laws, one could say (e.g., like how Newton’s gravitational theory is an “effective theory” of Einstein’s more complete theory of gravity in general relativity).

The last world is Asiyyah, the physical world. Arising from the Tiferet of Yezirah, its upper sephiroth are still connected to the spiritual world of Yezirah. Here, physical particles, galaxies, planets, and all forms of life reside. The “void,” or vacuum, from which particles and energy emerge is the higher dimension (Yezirah) that provides the spiritual essence of the physical world, which Halevi says “is of a metaphysical nature, that is, it is concerned not with substance so much as with laws.” So there is an emergence of something out of “nothing,” similar to what physicists have observed, a principle that is manifested throughout the entire interlacing tree of worlds.

A useful analogy for this series of emanations (in all worlds) is that of white light dispersing through a prism. White light is pure and colourless, but it has the potential to disperse into different colours. When it passes through a prism and splits into various colours, it is less “perfect” than it was originally because the many colours are each less than the source that they came from. The white light, however, is undiminished with the creation of many colours: it is the same before it enters the prism, and the colours can return to white light if they are combined. This is an analogy for the descent and eventual return to a higher state of being [to think of this a bit more scientifically: each of the colours has a range of wavelengths that is narrower than white light, since white light contains all visible wavelengths (e.g., red light is ~ 622 – 780 nm, whereas all visible light is ~320 – 780 nm) so white light can be seen to be more “complete” than the colours it comprises. Yet at the same time, if one were to combine the colours, they would have white light, so there can be a return to perfection if the multiple colours combine to become white again]. And likewise, since we cannot “see” white light (we just see what it is illuminating) as we can see coloured light, it appears that the coloured beams arise out of nothing, when in truth, they come from a higher level of existence that we, in the lower world, cannot perceive. Thus, it appears that particles can arise out of “nothing” simply because we cannot perceive the Yeziritic world with our physical senses.

The two pillars of force and form are also at work at the basis of the physical world. We can describe matter as either waves (form) or particles (force), but ultimately, matter takes on both characteristics. It may also be possible to match up different elementary particles to the sephiroth on the tree, though I won’t go into that except for saying, as regards the three pillars, protons, neutrons, and electrons (the primary constituents of matter), would fit onto the pillars of Force, Will, and Form respectively (as seen by their charges).

Planets and stars can also be understood in terms of the sephirotic tree, as well as plant and animal life. The development of more complicated forms of life eventually allows for the formation of consciousness. This, however, would not be possible without the higher worlds because the souls of humans (or other animals) arise from Yezirah, residing in the overlapping lower tree of Yezirah and upper tree of Asiyyah. Yet we still have the ability to reach the higher worlds, and this is ultimately the destiny of humankind. As the quote above says, man is called the image of God, which means that all four worlds are latent within us (the word “image” is used because we arise from the process of emanation that began from God originally, just as each colour is an imperfect “image” of the white light from which it was dispersed). This means that we have the potential to realize the powers of the higher worlds if we can raise our consciousness to them. This is the “Immanence” of the higher worlds that is present even in the lowest sephirot of Malkhut.

The allegory of the fall of man represents the spirit of man descending from Yezirah into the physical world of Asiyyah. However, in Asiyyah, evolution provides “a gradual ascent of matter toward Spirit,” and so since we are beings from Yezirah in essence (and really, if you trace the line of emanations upward, we are all essentially from Azilut), we can return to that state after the development in the physical world is complete. The key to human existence is consciousness, because with it, we can choose to return to the upper worlds. This is only possible because of the interpenetration of the different worlds, and the fact that humans have a complicated enough physical body to allow for a soul to incarnate within it (of course, other animals do too, but this book considers humans primarily).

The interlaced psychological and physical bodies of humans (corresponding to the Yeziritic and Asiyyatic trees) create the different bodily systems and mental faculties such as the Self and the Soul (read the book to see more details!). And as we know, our minds and physical bodies are always related, and when there is a disturbance in one, there is often a disturbance in the other.

As has been seen in the descriptions of the worlds above, one of the main ideas of the Kabbalah is the interpenetration of different worlds. For example, the Keter of Asiyyah is the Tiferet of Yezirah. Every sephirot emanates from the Keter at the top of the corresponding tree, and are all contained within it (this is similar to dimensions, but all these worlds aren’t physical). The higher worlds are spiritual, and these can only be perceived by someone dwelling at that level of enlightenment. There are be traces of these higher worlds in physical world and within our own souls, but they are like projections of higher dimensions onto lower ones: if we shone a light on a sphere, we would only see a circle upon a screen because two dimensions can only show a projection of three dimensions rather than its entire image. Although our souls from Yezirah are present in Asiyyah, we often don’t notice the presence of higher worlds because of the constriction of matter in Asiyyah. And yet, since they overlap, it means that it is possible to reach higher levels of being/states of awareness because the potential is already inside of you.

So these are the worlds and some details about the Kabbalah and the Tree of Life. Bear in mind that I have condensed everything A LOT, so there’s much that I’ve left out, but the main idea of emanation and the structure of the worlds is hopefully clear. And so the Kabbalah has much to offer us: it is a great tool to understand the world we live in as well as how it came into being and our place within it.

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Quotes of Wisdom: The Kristos

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Although the word “Christmas” derives from “Christ’s mass,” it is not only a Christian holiday, but one that relates to many traditions around the world. The word Christ originated from the Greek word Kristos (also spelled “Christos”), and represents the illuminated saviour of humanity. So for today’s quote, let’s return to that wonderful encyclopedic book The Secret Teachings of All Ages:

From Manly P. Hall's The Secret Teachings of All Ages (1928):

“This Christos, or divine man in man, is man’s real hope of salvation—the living Mediator between abstract Deity and mortal mankind…Since the Christos was the god-man imprisoned in every creature, it was the first duty of the initiate to liberate, or ‘resurrect,’ this Eternal One within himself. ”

The Kristos can also be seen as the solar power revered by different nations around the world. The Kristos has all the powers of the “Sun,” or the powers of God. For example, we have Ra, the supreme god in Egyptian religion, and Osiris, the son of Ra and the saviour sacrificed for humanity. The Kristos is the mediator between humans and God, and is at the same time, he is a human and God himself, thus representing the perfected human and the latent divinity in every person. So although there were particular incarnations of the Kristos throughout time to lead humanity to the light, his goal is ultimately to bring out that same divinity within us, as the quote says. That is the true “Kristos”: not only one man, but the potential for all of us to assume our true nature and “resurrect” the higher powers within ourselves and become a perfected human.

The celebration of Christmas on December 25 corresponded to the date of the winter solstice on the Roman calendar. Having the birthdate of the Kristos on the shortest day of the year is significant symbolically: the saviour is born on the darkest day of the year, representing the time when humanity needs him most. After his birth, the days begin to get longer, and hope and life will soon be renewed with coming spring (though spring will take a while to come, at least if you’re in Canada…). The martyrdom and resurrection of the Kristos has also been prevalent throughout many religions, and is also related to astronomy, in particular, the Sun, which rises from the “tomb” of winter at the end of every year to illuminate and revive the world. Some of the saviours who are related to the Kristos and the crucifixion doctrine include Jesus, Prometheus, Apollo, Buddha, Atys, Adonis, Bacchus, Osiris, Krishna, Horus, Indra, Ixion, Mithras, Pythagoras, Quetzalcoatl, Semiramis, Jupiter, King Arthur, and Orpheus.

The Kristos is also known as the Divine Mind, which is personified in these saviours. Regarding the Divine Mind, Manly Hall says, “The Divine Mind offered Itself as a living sacrifice and was broken up and eaten by the world. Having given Its spirit and Its body at a secret and sacred supper to the twelve manners of rational creatures, this Divine Mind became a part of every living thing. Man was thereby enabled to use this power as a bridge across which he might pass and attain immortality. He who lifted up his soul to this Divine Mind and served It was righteous and, having attained righteousness, liberated this Divine Mind, which thereupon returned again in glory to Its own divine source.” And so the Divine Mind, or Kristos, is the bridge whereby we can reach the divine, and Christmas is the celebration of his birth into the world, the key to raising humanity to enlightenment.

As mentioned above, there have been many crucified saviours throughout history. Indeed, Thomas Macall Fallow, in the Encyclopedia Britannica, says that “The use of the cross as a religious symbol in pre-Christian times, and among non-Christian people, may probably be regarded as almost universal.” This includes Christians, pagans, druids, Tibetans, the Chinese and Japanese, Egyptians, the Central American Natives, and the Greeks and Romans. Although there is much that can be said about the cross symbolism itself, I’ll just look at how it applies to the universal saviours and their crucifixion.

For example, the first missionaries of the Christian Church, when trying to convert pagan Greeks and Romans to Christianity, tried to emphasize the similarities between Jesus and their own gods (“sons of Jupiter”) so that pagans would be more willing to accept the Christian doctrine.

Indeed, in the New Testament, Jesus is referred to being “called of God an high priest after the order of Melchizedek,” so that, as Manly Hall says, this makes “Jesus one of a line or order of which there must have been others of equal or even superior dignity.” Those of this order were priest-kings in ancient times, though little is known about them. This could very well be referring to the line of Kristos incarnations throughout history, which Jesus was a part of.

King Arthur also represents the Kristos in the Arthurian legends (though the historical Arthur has certainly been mythologized into a greater figure than reality). Various powers are associated with Arthur, including his tutelage under the magician Merlin, and the sword he pulls from the stone that establishes his divine right to rule. The creation of his Round Table and the moral codes and the legacy he left behind is characteristic of the Kristos. It is often portrayed that there were either 12 or 24 Knights of the Round Table, which signifies either the 12 zodiac signs (which also correspond to Jesus’ 12 apostles), or for 24, signifying each of the zodiac signs divided into two parts, one for the day and one for the night. Also, at the centre of the Round Table is a rose, symbolic of the resurrection. Arthur’s untimely death by those who disbelieved him (in this case, his son Mordred killed him) also follows closely with that of other saviours. Thus, Arthur can be seen as the Sun, his knights the zodiac, the Round Table the universe, and his sword Excaliber the sun’s rays with which he vanquishes darkness and evil. As Manly Hall says, drawing the sword out of the stone has alchemical symbolism of “the withdrawal of the sword (spirit) from the anvil of the base metals (his lower nature),” thus attaining the perfected state of the Kristos.

Krishna represents the Kristos figure in the East Indian religions. Krishna, while playing his flute in the forest, was crucified upon a tree by his enemies. He had previously known of his impending death, and had prepared himself for it by bathing in the river Ganges and praying to heaven. After his death, his disciples came to recover his body, but it had disappeared, and the tree upon which he had been crucified was covered with great red flowers.

Quetzalcoatl, the feathered snake god of the Central American Natives, is thought to have come out of the sea bearing a cross, and was also covered with red crosses on his garments. The cross has become a sacred symbol to the Mayas, and Quetzalcoatl was crucified and nailed to a cross (and is often depicted as being crucified along with two thieves). He was then cut into pieces and put into a cauldron. This is also similar to the Egyptian legend of Osiris, who was cut into pieces by Set and scattered about the world. Osiris is later resurrected by Isis, and as seen above, he also symbolizes the Sun.

And so the abbreviation “Xmas” might be a more fitting title for Christmas. “X” stands for the Greek letter chi, which is the first letter in the Greek word for Kristos (Khrīstos), and so with “Xmas” we are able to appreciate all the saviours that have sacrificed themselves so that we might come to attain a higher level of being, and ultimately, the sacrifice that must take place within each of us to become connected to our divine source.

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Quotes of Wisdom: The Buddhist Cycle of Worlds

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Our ideas about evolution are usually tied to the Earth, in particular, the living beings upon it. But we can also learn about the evolution of the universe at large: how it has developed over time to produce the world we live in. But what if this was all a small portion of what is really out there? What if the evolution of conscious beings took place across many different worlds in many universes? This is an idea from esoteric Buddhism, the inner doctrine of Buddhist philosophy that is usually hidden from the majority of monks (for more about esoteric Buddhism, see my previous post). The quote for today is:

From A. P. Sinnett's Esoteric Buddhism (1883):
“The evolution of man is not a process carried out on this planet alone. It is a result to which many worlds in different conditions of material and spiritual development have contributed…The system of worlds is a circuit round which all individual spiritual entities have alike to pass; and that passage constitutes the Evolution of Man.”

These worlds form what Sinnett calls a planetary chain, consisting of worlds into which souls can incarnate in living beings. There are seven worlds (planets, globes, spheres…call them what you will), each with differing degrees of spirituality and materiality. Although they are physically far apart (likely in different universes), they are “bound together by subtle currents and forces” that the souls can travel through. The first world is entirely spiritual: there is no matter in it, but only spiritual forms that will later take shape physically. I like to think of this as the world of Plato’s Forms, though Sinnett doesn’t mention that.

As you progress through the chain, the worlds become more physical with the introduction of matter, which life energies are bound up in. On our world (Earth), spirit and matter are approximately equal, so we are at about the middle of the chain (4th world). The picture on the right illustrates this with the spiritual worlds at the top and more material worlds at the bottom.

Throughout this planetary chain, there is a flow of souls which Sinnett calls the “human tide-wave,” though a better term would be the “soul tide-wave” because these souls don’t always incarnate in humans. In any case, the tide-wave is the flow of the majority of souls between the worlds. The tide-wave only occupies one planet at a time, though some rare souls break apart from the tide-wave and have their own wave of evolution. On each planet, the souls pass through a series of incarnations and are able to develop throughout their lives on that planet. When the time is right to move to the next world (after the souls have passed through a series of seven “races” of humans [and by races, I mean stages of development, like Neanderthals, homo sapiens, etc.]), the souls are all ferried to the next world to start the process again. There is a limit to how much we can evolve on any particular world, and so this series of worlds, all with different physical and spiritual properties, serves as the vehicle for higher evolution beyond that which a single planet can provide. As A.P. Sinnett said, “The Darwinian theory of evolution is simply an independent discovery of a portion—unhappily but a small portion—of the vast natural truth.”

We don’t pass through the chain merely once, but many times, so we will return to Earth again after our present evolution here is complete (though only after we pass through the other worlds…which takes a while!). At each new round, the souls will progress to a higher stage of their development even though the world they incarnate in is less spiritual. So “there is a progress downwards, so to speak, in finish and materiality and consistency; and then, again, progress upward in spirituality as coupled with the finish which matter or materiality rendered possible.” So to develop spiritually, there needs to be some form of matter (the progress downward) in order to go back upward spiritually. An artists needs to not only have the idea of a perfect sculpture (spiritual world), but they also have to be able to build it (physical world) to truly be an artist.
To use another silly analogy, it’s like a bouncy ball: it starts out at, say, the height of your chest, and then you throw it down to the ground. When it bounces up, it goes even higher than it was originally, most likely soaring above your head. So there’s a sort of “rebound” for souls descending into matter: although it seems that going into more material worlds is devolving, it allows for the possibility of attaining higher spiritual development.

So there is a co-evolution between matter and spirit, and although it’s hardly fathomable to us, it’s easier to grasp when multiple worlds are taken into consideration. So our view of evolution on the Earth is incomplete without recourse to the other worlds we came from and the ones we are headed toward. Indeed, Sinnett believes that the primary driving force of evolution is the spiralling progress of souls upward, and so the evolution we perceive on Earth, with natural selection and survival of the fittest, is only a subset of this. The impulse of the Earth to develop higher forms for souls to incarnate into is initiated by the tide-wave from the previous planet. Evolution begins with inorganic substances and progresses to all forms of life. It is about developing organized forms, going through the minerals (inorganic substances), vegetables (all plants, really), and then animals. It is only in the animal kingdom, however, that forms are progressed enough to support the development of souls. In the mineral and vegetable stages, there is just one undifferentiated spiritual “monad” directing the evolution of the world.

And so, “in the scale of spiritual perfection it [the soul] is constantly ascending.” A nice way to visualize this is to have each world as a point on a 3-dimensional plot with space on one of the lower two axes, the spectrum of spirituality and materiality on the other, and time on the vertical axis (see pictures below). Of course, this represents 1-D space because to have 3-D space, you’d need 5 dimensions (which I can’t draw for the life of me), so this is just an analogy.

Imagine starting at the pink world on the very bottom, the most spiritual world, as seen by its position on the spirituality/materiality axis. The grey dots represent the tide-wave of souls travelling to the next world after their incarnations on the previous world is complete. These are those mysterious “subtle currents and forces.”

We progress upward in the spiral as time passes, going from one world to the next. So the souls travel through the worlds in loops, and additionally, the progress upward is simultaneously a progress toward higher forms of life in each of the worlds. The different colours represent the different world cycles: the souls starting in the first planet, say, planet A, progress to B, and so on until G, after which they return to planet A again (shown by the start of a new colour). These waves continue on to the next planet to help prepare for the next stage of life.

Now, although there’s always a wave of evolution progressing through these worlds, each planet will at times go into obscuration. This is when the animal and plant life slowly devolve without the great tide-wave to spur its evolution forward. Eventually, the world returns to the state it was in before the tide-wave of souls incarnated in it. A world is left in obscuration for considerable periods of time while the tide-wave makes its way through other worlds in the chain. However, the world will not become totally devoid of life. Let’s say that the tide-wave is on planet C, and that D is in obscuration from the previous cycle. Once the fourth race on planet C is concluded, planet D will begin to prepare to receive the tide-wave. First, during the fifth race on planet C, the mineral kingdom on planet D begins to evolve out of obscuration, and during the sixth race on C, the vegetable kingdom begins to evolve, followed by the animal kingdom, etc. So when the tide-wave of souls is ready to progress to planet D, human evolution has begun and is ready to take the souls into human form.

This means that the evolution on one planet is in direct connection to that on the next (and previous) planet. And since at each round, the souls progress to higher states of spirituality and refinement, despite obscuration, some developments from the previous cycle are preserved, for as Sinnett says, “there are processes of vital action which go on in the resting world even during the most profound depths of its repose. And these preserve, in view of the next return of the human life-wave, the results of the evolution that preceded its first arrival.” So there is some information, in the matter and spiritual properties of the world, that is preserved—or “remembered”—by the world through countless eons. We could thus say that the planet has a sort of memory, and perhaps (though this is more speculation) the beings that live in a particular world can tap into that memory and so learn of the previous cycles of life that have progressed on their planet. Indeed, perhaps this is how the Buddhist mystics discovered the planetary chain and the worlds that comprise it.

Currently, it is thought that we are in the fourth round of the tide-wave, and on Earth, we inhabit the fifth “race” of human beings (which supposedly began around a million years ago. The fourth race, according to Sinnett, was the Atlanteans). There are also seven sub-divisional races, and in each of these, seven branch races, which a soul incarnates in at least twice. So for each soul to make its way through all these incarnations takes a LONG time, especially considering that the soul goes into a state called Devachan between incarnations (which we won’t even get into in here!). Sinnett estimates that any given soul will have at least 800 lives (taking some other factors into account) on each world. Yet although these enormous periods of time are unimaginable to the human mind, this evolution does have an eventual end: it doesn’t go on indefinitely. To put it crudely, the end goal is for us to become gods.

Turning to recent times in this vast evolutionary scheme, physicists on our world have been grappling with the quantum world of subatomic particles and have postulated a multiverse to account for how quantum particles can appear to be in more than one place at the same time. But Buddhists (and the Ancient Greeks, and various other ancient cultures: see my previous post) already theories about a plethora of worlds well before modern physics came into existence. Although much of this is beyond that which we can hope to learn by scientific methods (e.g., how can we use physical science to learn about spiritual worlds when science is about understanding the physical world? This then falls under the realm of occult science, which deals with both), we might hope to catch a glimpse of it through our human science and philosophy.

So this is the general idea of the world cycles in esoteric Buddhism. It might sound far-fetched, but if those studying the occult sciences are correct, then the 200,000 years since humans have developed on Earth is hardly a drop in the vast ocean of all the lives that have existed and those that we are evolving toward in the future.

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