THE CONTENTS OF THIS BOOKconsist of a variety of styles ofinnovation based on oral teachingspassed directly from mouth to ear froma living teacher, within the context of

an unbroken lineage of gnosticrealization. Such opportunities areprofoundly rare. None of theinnovations could exist if not for thosekind enough to bestow such a preciousgift. I defer all credit completely tothem.

CONTENTSCover ImageTitle PageIntroduction: A Guide toContemplativeMysticismChapter 1. The MixingField: An Introduction tothe Six Gates

Gate One:

Recognition of theContinuumGate Two: The KlipotGate Three: TheMixing FieldGate Four: TheFullnessGate Five:ScintillatingDissolutionGate Six: Stabilizingthe Realization

Dissolving-In-Appearing

Chapter 2: Flight of theMerkavahChapter 3: The PregnantSacrificial BeastChapter 4: Gate of theWedding ChamberChapter 5: The Fire ofNondimensionalityChapter 6: The Skins ofNo-thing-ness (a

Summary)Epilogue: Continuing theWorkAbout the AuthorAbout Inner Traditions •Bear & CompanyBooks of Related InterestCopyright & Permissions

INTRODUCTION

A Guide to ContemplativeMysticism

The pathways of the wonders are likeveins in the stock of a tree, andchochmah is the root. They are innersubtle resonances which no mind cancontemplate, except that which sucklesfrom it; a mode of contemplation byway of suckling, not by way of knowing.

—R. ISAAC THE BLIND

CONTEMPLATION BEGINS withintellectual understanding, which

examines a matter within a range ofimplications from a variety of anglesand perspectives. As the doorway ofexamination opens, the mind becomesdwarfed by the sheer immensity ofpossibilities, and the character ofmeaning begins to change. As the mindbecomes aware of its own motion, itpasses beyond mere information intoan inquiry of its innermost nature. Thepractice of sacred contemplation isbased on the understanding that themind’s essential nature is sharedequally with whatever it observes, and

within that confluence the ground of allthings can be directly recognized.

Contemplative inquiry poses aquestion about meaning. What ismeaning in itself? The question servesto reformulate the kind of meaning thatbecomes possible. The quest formeaning in the mystical senseconsiders the nature of knowing ratherthan conceptual meanings that becomeknown. The mind itself concealsmeaning’s essence. As contemplationpasses beyond the gathering ofinformation, flowing currents ofmental textures are released within themind’s felt qualities, which pour forth

like a bath. Within these fields themind immerses, and becomes absorbedwithin an increasingly nonconceptualregister. Within the ocean of deep-feeling tones awareness can recognizethe equalizing nature it shares with allmanifestation, and through their sharednature the fossilized constructs of aperceiving subject and its perceivedobjects can relax into dissolution. Theequalizing nature that becomes evidentin this cognitive supernova introducesthe “meaning of meaning,” theessentiality of all phenomena, whichripens into profound fullness thedeeper contemplation passes.

The mental resonances that arise incontemplation are not intellectualabstractions that feed into the commonbarter of conceptual commerce. Theyare the most intimate of gestures thatdefy conventional communication,even in the subjective exchange thatgoes on within ourselves. Thedifficulty rests in resisting the habitualtreatment of the resonances as ordinaryperceptual objects. The alternative is touse them to awaken a longing for thecore mystery concealed by ordinaryperception. This shift allows the mindto open through the elusive zonebetween the assumption of an

individual perceiver and its array ofseemingly solid constructs. Penetratingthe doorways offered by the in-betweenunmakes the rigidity of both thesubject and its objects, layer by layer,allowing the perceptual process torediscover its original essentiality thatis its great aim.

The outer world known through thesenses and the inner impressionsgathered within the mind participate ina single uninterrupted continuum. Theaspiration to abide beyond the wallplaced between inner thoughts andfeelings and outer perceptions is wheregnostic inquiry begins. However, the

mind cannot simply ignore theapparent differences, and must dealwith those differences by throwingthem into contemplative practice. Thecore of this aspiration invites the mindto bathe in a stream that binds it alltogether, guided by an understandingthat its streaming can never be solidlyfixed in space or time. Absorptionwithin the stream of phenomena posesa challenge to the temporal and spatialhabits that reduce its assumptions tonarrow confining coordinates. If themind takes up this challenge it can betrained to settle into the vast expanseinnate to both itself and whatever it

perceives, and its reductive habits candissolve back into the basic space of itsdisplay. Both the mind and the worldcan then be set free to breathe througha single living nature, and itssubstanceless and sourceless vastnesscan then be investigated unburdened.

Conventional cognitive reflexesimpose structures of containment uponphenomena to try to make sense out ofthem. Contemplation seeks to breakthrough this futile framework byshifting the focus back to its freeessential nature rather than trying invain to grasp it through the logistics ofits circumstance. It begins by

becoming intensely interested in thesecret life whispered through thepresentation of things. This is aninvitation to abandon inner and outerconceptual markers as a way to definephenomena. The abandonment leavesinquiry in free fall. The capacity for themind to lose itself in that free fall iscrucial, and leads to a key question: Ifthe knowing subject and its knownobjects are only mere constructsfabricated by perceptual reflexes, whois there to know anything? What isthere to be known?

Within this question the meaning ofthings can be reborn a billion times

over, liberated successively from theclaustrophobic exchanges ofconceptual associations. This liberationintroduces a register of knowingsuffused within an ultimateunknowability. As the concretizedconstructs become untangled theemphasis shifts from the accumulationof data to a direct gnosemic, or gnosticawareness, that reaches forever withoutever arriving at any fixed destination.Immersion in this endlessnessultimately dissolves the habits thatshape moments in time and locations inspace, and marks the departure fromphilosophical inquiry into mystical

practice.

The subtle feeling tones that arise incontemplation cannot be containedwithin the mechanistic circuits ofdiscursive thought. They resist beingreduced to perceptual artifacts. Mentaltextures arise that are far too delicateand tenuous to be grasped orunderstood, and they simply slip awaywhen the attempt is made to hold themin the usual heavy-handed conceptualmanner. These resonances can only beengaged by cultivating the discipline ofmeditative concentration. Yet, as thatconcentration is cultivated, the echoesof the habitual reflexes persist to reify

and divide a knowing subject from itsmyriad known objects. As a result theperceptual field is shattered intofragments, either loudly or quietly.Until the reflexes are completelybroken through and subdued thecognitive spectrum remains a mixingfield. Within that mixture one learnswhat is truly valuable and what is not.Sorting through it is a skill as rare asany on earth.

Contemplation opens through theconfines of unquestioned mental static.However, descriptions of this processcan be misleading. Contemplation doesnot hold its distractions as foreign

irritants to be dismantled. On thecontrary, contemplation mitigates itsdisruptions by returning them to theopen continuum in which they arise.Immersing the maze of fixations withinthe continuous stream of purepossibility can liberate claustrophobichabits on contact. This releasesbillowing fields of poetic resonancethat saturate the four corners of space,introducing the potential for aparticularly vivid style ofcontemplation that works with the self-ornamenting openness of infinity. Purepoetic sensations shimmer beyondgrasp, and cannot be reduced to either

personal or impersonal terms. Withintheir shimmering an invitation into theessential nature of all phenomenaopens through the sparkle of theirethereal fluttering. The truly amazingthing is that this profound resourcebecomes available without interferingin any way with so-called ordinaryappearances.

Once the continuous expanse isglimpsed through its etheric perfumes,the pristine openness of the infinitebecomes the central concern. Itsrecognition is the antidote for thereductive habits of grasping andconcretization. However, infinite

openness cannot be separated from thefullness of the qualities it exudes. Theopen and the full are one and the same,bound at the root within a singlecontinuum. This continuum is thechangeless ground that alwaysmanifests as constant change, awaitingrecognition at the twilight betweenknowing and unknowability. Heavyordinary conceptuality is invited todrown within it, awakening the mind tothe fact that it has never been otherthan this same mystery from thebeginningless beginning.

Drawing forth the subtle resonancesthrough which the ultimate awakening

ground can be discovered is what thegreat thirteenth- century kabbalisticmaster Isaac the Blind called“suckling.” It is based on a thirst forthe nourishment of absolute meaning inthe midst of the barrage of its relativeprojections. It coaxes and draws forthits nutrition by direct immersion in theonslaught of mind’s upheaval,accepting and rejecting nothing, alwaysreaching further and deeper torecognize what is truly meaningfulwith single-pointed focus.

The suckling is accomplishedthrough the flesh and blood ofappearance, poised at the cusp of its

emergence and dissolution. As poeticresonances flood the perceptual fields,the ground of space sparkles withscintillating life, suffusing it withungraspable beauty. Contemplationtrains the mind to enter this boundlessresource no matter what things appearto do or not do. It hangs with the spreadof pure possibility, hiding within theparade of everyday details, displayingand consuming itself like theOuroboros serpent swallowing its owntail.

Any display of phenomena can beused for contemplative suckling ifawareness is trained to enter the

mixing field of phenomena to endlesslyreach toward its essential nature.Within the clusters of randomnessgnosemic and conventional tendenciesmix, mingle, and permeate one another.Within the amalgam the treasure canbe excavated. The key is the ability torecognize what is truly precious andnot waste energy on lesser concerns. Itcomes down to a question of learningwhat is truly meaningful within thebarrage of possibilities that extend toforever without end.

Meaning never remains static. Itsnature is to move and transmit byremaining fluid and adaptable.

However, its precious essentialitybecomes buried under layers ofassociative identification. The paradeof conceptual identification dims anddulls the raw brilliance thatcontemplation seeks to extract. In orderto understand this the associativeprocess must be taken apart and seenfor what it is.

A conventional mental object posesan equivocation that offers a token orsign to pass along a relative meaning.Conceptuality is always dependentupon its associative contexts to pose itsrelationships within subsets of otheraccepted meanings. Such

approximation can only function withina closed circuit to recount a set ofrelationships that are always changing,becoming modified as the surroundingcontexts evolve.

Absolute meaning outshines relativeconceptual equivocations by cuttingdirectly to the expanse of the ground orbasis of all elaboration. Althoughrelative variation is unlimited, it cannever sum up the limitlessness of itsground’s absolute fullness. There is nopoint of contrast with which to measureor compare the basis of phenomena.Therefore, gnostic aspiration cannotrely upon any set of conventional

relative meanings to pursue its goal.However, the fields of relativetemporary meaning are precisely wherethe practitioner must perform the work.

Any set of relative meanings can beused for contemplation if the mind canclear a path to approach their innateabsolute nature. Breaking through thereified shells that obstruct such pathsdoes not leave a trail of broken pieceswithout value. All phenomena expressequal value. All mental activitywithout exception is the self-elaboration of the awakening ground.The shards of broken conceptions meltback through the same space that they

arose in. The continuum of the mindalso returns, equalizing itself with thebroken pieces of its own vestigialartifacts. The whole process goeswhere all dead dreams go, to theplaceless place beyond the coming andgoing of relative concerns. In point offact, nothing ever leaves that place.Understanding that no construct canever depart the awakening ground ismonumentally important. Whateverinterferes with contemplation onlypersists until the ground itself becomesthe central concern. Through it no suchthings as distractions or interruptionscan possibly exist, and all differences

are made irrelevant.

The equality of temporaryphenomena and pure basic spacecannot be conventionally understood.However, it certainly can be realized asthe unconventional wisdom of gnosis.Gnostic realization is based on openpossibility with no (En) end (Sof). Thisterm, En Sof (often spelled Ain Sof), isused in kabbalistic literature to point tonaked primordial essentiality and theboundless freedom of divinetranscendence. As is the case often inreligious literature, essentialitybecomes both reified as a philosophicalabstraction and mythologized into the

personage of a creator god.

Commonly En Sof is taken as the“cause of all causes” at the top of alinear hierarchy, which most oftenleads to restrictive conceptualassumptions. Liberation from theseassumptions comes in the guise of aparadox. En Sof is the universalcreative ground through whichtranscendent essentiality is expressedas immanent manifestation.Manifestation arises, however, withoutever departing from its transcendentnature. In this sense, gnosticrecognition of En Sof obliterates thecausal linear restrictions imposed by

conceptual habit so that an inherentpurity can be recognized in everythingno matter what. This radical approachto contemplation seeks to realize thatall phenomena, both in form andformlessness, are essentially equal inthe awakening ground of En Sof. Inpoint of fact, even the restrictive habitsof reification and division that seem toobscure and obstruct the mind arenothing other than elaborations of thisholy ground as well.

All of the apparitional variations ofbeing have never departed from En Soffor even one moment. To understandthis statement a few clarifications are

in order. En Sof cannot be reduced toeither a state of being or nonbeing,each category deriving relativemeaning in contrast to its opposite.Such binary fluctuations cannot beabsolute in the ultimate sense, andmerely reflect dualistic designations ofpresence versus absence. In this sense,En Sof both includes and eludesontological categories through theparadox of its wholeness.

The ground of phenomena isreferred to here by the Hebrew wordadamah. The ground is unborn andprimordial, in the sense that it iscomplete and whole prior to whatever

temporary presentations might displayit. Recognizing the primordial expanseequalizes that which cognizesphenomena (perception) with thephenomena that are cognized (what isperceived). These aspects return untotheir mutual basis within gnosticrealization, like pouring water backinto the ocean. Within this great returnvariable revelation and open possibilityexpress a single incomprehensiblemystery, and the rigid boundaries ofso-called subjective interpretation andobjective reality are nullified.

The adamah ground is equal to whatis called basic space. Space is

completely open and pure, but alwayspresents itself in variation. The wisdomof space is that its absolute nature isalways inherent in its relative display.Contemplation neither accepts norrejects appearances; it works throughthem. All phenomena pose anopportunity to return to the primordialexpanse of basic space in the midst ofwhatever happens. The single-pointedgoal of contemplation is the return tothe awakening ground, which is theesoteric meaning behind the termtikkun olam (repair of the world)mentioned in Jewish texts.

The light of knowing and the

darkness of the unknown express asingle unknowable mystery. Thethirteenth-century kabbalistic textFountain of Wisdom calls this mystery“a light darkened by illuminating.” Thedarkening light is the scintillatingwisdom of En Sof that suffuses spacedeep within its guises. The termwisdom refers to the expression of theground inherent in the manifestation ofphenomena. Knowing this wisdomnever ceases to be bright in terms of itsquality of awareness, however, theexpanse itself cannot be grasped, and istherefore dark to the grasping habits ofthe mind. Knowing the nature of what

cannot be grasped is realized incontemplation, wherein a sensibilityarises that radically changes the waythe ground and its phenomena areunderstood. It opens through an endlessrange of subtle overtones that assert theprimacy of space beyond anythingconventionally coherent. Theseresonances change the meaning ofmanifestation, and act as openinvitations into the mystery of theessential nature. Through the invitationof wisdom all relative meanings aresubsumed in a secret meaning-fullnessthat is completely unknowable, yetremains luminous with the primordial

awareness that is innate to space. Spaceis not merely dark or light, but opensthrough a magical intoxicating qualitythat the mind swoons within to losehold and break through itself.

Contemplation discovers theintoxicating nectar within the mixingfield of meaning. The process beginslike a farmer prepares his field. Thesoil is turned each season by carefulconsideration and deep study. Grain isplanted by the discipline of formalpractice, which grows and is harvestedby spiritual breakthroughs. Thebreakthrough experiences are onlyindications of the true harvest. What is

harvested is beyond experience, andabides within the secret bounty ofendlessness the isolated breakthroughspoint to. Unlike a physical farmedfield, the harvest keeps on breakingthrough into its bounty forever.Recognition of the field of infinitebreakthroughs can be fermented anddistilled into an intoxicating liquor,which is the quintessence of primordialwisdom. This distillate is preciselywhat gnostic contemplation becomesdrunk upon. Each drop can swallow thewhole world.

No matter where the mind looks orwhat it does, the perceptual field

provides the opportunity to distill theintoxicating nectar. Even in thecoarsest manifestations the nectar isinnate, suffused throughout theperceived impurities of conceptualassociation. The mixing of tendenciesrenders the nectar dull and opaque, andit is missed by vulgar concerns.Isolation of the intoxicating nectar isreminiscent of the myth of the bird thatextracts pure water to drink from dirtymud puddles. The pools appearhopelessly sullied, but the bird can dipin its beak and draw out the clear wateras if the contaminants that seem todirty it were not even there. The

intoxicating nectar of the awakeningground is a hidden vista within theclaustrophobic universes the mind feelstrapped in. Once discovered, the samespace that imprisons becomes a bath offreedom.

This style of contemplative work isbased on an esoteric view of non-emanation, which differs from theexoteric religious view that posits acreatio ex nihilo (creation out ofnothingness). Bringing something outof nothingness is the foundation of aview concerned with how states ofbeing descend from an ultimate sourcethrough a series of steps and stages.

The process expresses the tendency totreat creation as limited and contained,and its source (the creator) asunlimited and uncontainable. Thisconceptualization reifies both aspects,thus dividing them from each other.Their separation increases as they areconceptually elaborated, greatlydiminishing the possibilities of anonconceptual breakthrough into acommon ground.

En Sof manifests through itsinherent glow or self-illumination,called the Aur En Sof (light of En Sof).This light is infinite and ungraspable(and thus darkening), and its radiance

is equal to basic space. Both space andlight express the mystery of the singleessential nature, albeit from opposingconceptual vectors. The open expanseof space is always luminous, andluminosity is always open and vast.

Problems arise as the understandingof light and space is reified through amisinterpretation of symbolicdescriptions, thereby reducing both toconventional mechanistic conditions.Symbolic narratives in kabbalistic textsdescribe the dynamic power of lightbecoming displaced and retracting tocreate a void within itself, creating ahollow place for the manifestation of

the worlds. The metaphor is extendedas the light retracts, leaving a residualsaturated expanse in which the light isreintroduced in successive stages.Unfortunately these profound symbolsare often mistaken for a literal timelineof the cosmos, and their mysticalmeanings are completely lost.

Emanationism holds that En Sof isabsolute; however, it mitigates thispremise by adding that its light must bediminished in order to manifest itself.The view held in this book neitheraccepts these limitations nor the lineartimeline given to describe theemanation process. The view of non-

emanationism does not discard thesymbols or their sequences—far fromit. The non-emanationist vision drawsout the essential meaning and discardsthe mythology that obscures it, so thatthe holy symbols can express whatordinary words and concepts missentirely.

Belief that the diminishment of theAur En Sof is necessary formanifestation both reifies and divides atranscendent cause from a series ofimmanent effects. In this arrangementthe higher steps down to manifest asthe lower, until the top reaches thebottom, like a ladder. Without setting

out to do so, the perfect wholeness ofEn Sof is completely undermined bythis belief. How can En Sof be absoluteif it depends on the relative limitationsof a mere mechanical process? Theonly conclusion one can draw from thisview is that En Sof must literally leaveits inherently perfect nature to enterinto being. This departure is possiblebecause the conventional habits refuseto stop grasping at being as “real.” Thisview depends upon conventionalconcepts of motion and substance,which renders complete gnosticrealization within relative phenomenaan impossibility.

When emanationist systems are heldas literal descriptions of truth ratherthan symbolic metaphors they becomereified the same way that physical lawsare. What is implied when En Sof istaken to be “real”? What then isunreal? The assertion implies a solidverifiable construct that fits in with allthe other constructs the human realmhas deemed to be realities. En Sof iscertainly not this, but neither is it itsopposite. The question of reality andunreality is irrelevant. These conceptsonly exist in contrast to each other, andthus sidestep the greater issue of non-dual essential nature, which is the heart

of the matter.

Another barrier to mysticalunderstanding is the common tendencyfor kabbalistic symbols to becomereduced to psychological metaphors, aspopularized in humanistic circles.Jungian archetypes, for example,extract symbols from mystical systemsto illustrate a typology of conceptualfunctioning. The Jungian use of thesesymbols is limited to what humanbeings individually and collectivelyknow, feel, and intuit. They cannot passbeyond the conceptual dimension thatdefines human understanding. Anysystem limited to human concerns

cannot ask the ultimate questions,because the concerns always turn theissue back to how the mind identifiesitself and its data. Humanistic systemscannot really ask what the mind is initself. In what, through what, and bywhat does the mind manifest? Where isthe mind? What is the mind’s essentialnature when not reduced toconceptuality?

The capacity to recognize theprimordial purity of En Sof as itpervades and saturates every aspect ofphenomena cannot be satisfactorilyaddressed in texts, and needs to bepassed through direct transmission.

Primordial purity can only berecognized at the intangibleintersection of transcendence andimmanence that is inherent to theliving display of phenomena. However,this quest easily degenerates into anincoherent blur or a fantasy. Thesensations are so tenuous that they flyaway almost on contact, which is onereason they cannot be described intexts with any accuracy. The commondenominator is the sensibility that nostate of phenomena is ultimately solidor stable. The flesh of the paradoxdawns as transcendent absorptionunfolds through an immanent point of

focus, and subtle resonances teach ushow these seemingly opposing aspectspermeate the field of space. Yet, thisonly works if the passage intoendlessness surpasses any otherconcern. The best way to cultivate thisis simply being in the presence of thosewho have made progress with it, andthus the path requires some contactwith a living form of transmission.

Contemplation seeks translucence inthe midst of a seemingly finite andopaque universe. Each step in thehishtalshelut (kabbalistic ladder ofworlds) presents the same central issueanew with each step. Manifestation

either becomes reified into an ordinarymental object or it returns to theprimordial awakening ground.Therefore each step of the ladder isequally precious if it can be realized asinfinity in itself, avoiding theconceptual grasping that instantlyfreezes the cognitive field on contact.

The “fall from perfection” thatreligion imputes to the humancondition expresses a need to frame thescope of human functioning in a linear,reductive way. The fall alludes to thecore habits that perpetuate humansuffering and obstruct the realization ofthe essential nature. These habits are

temporary. Emanationist systems cloudthis issue by incurring conceptualdistance between the concept of theabsolute and the worlds of reifiedperceptions. Consciousness thereforesees itself “falling” into a set ofimperfect conditions that growincreasingly further from theabstraction of perfection it speculatesabout. When this is taken as a literaltruth it corroborates every unevolvedtendency that holds the mind back fromits true potential. Spiritual practiceseeks to remedy its condition bycontinually returning to the awakeningground no matter where it finds itself.

As the return gains momentum, theneed to formulate abstractions lessens,replaced by the sublime qualities thataccompany breakthrough, such aswonderment, bliss, and clarity.

The brilliance and wholeness of theawakening ground is always fullyavailable. However, intellectuallyappreciating this fact and actuallybreaking through to realize it inpractice are two wildly differentaffairs. The tension between relativechange and its changeless basisculminates at a razor’s edge. The purityof En Sof and so-called impurephenomena equalize at the edge of the

razor, which cuts away all relativeimplications that separate them asconcepts. This changes the meaning ofwhat purity implies, and shifts itsimplications from a scale based oncomparison to a ubiquitous virtue. Thevirtue is rediscovered at the razor’sedge of breakthrough wherevercontemplation takes the helm. Thisrealization defies position anddefinition, which is all the human mindknows how to calculate. The braveryand honesty required to head directlyinto what cannot be understood isprofoundly rare; however, it iscertainly possible if the core of human

life can be called from out of itsslumber.

The sages always warned us that theesoteric descriptions of creation givenin texts such as the Zohar cannot betaken literally. They also cannot bedismissed. The accounts describedimensions far beyond the tight circlesof conventional reality. To applyworldly mechanics to these symbolicnarratives demeans them. In order tocome alive such symbols mustcontinually adapt and prove the depthof their meaning over and over again.The symbol languages are spoken inthe twilight between conceptuality and

gnostic realization, and they aredesigned to open doorways directly tothe transformations that make theseparation between them impossible.They are mental bombs that explodethe static rigidity of ordinary reality,packed by master demolitionists.

Gnostic realization is like a flash oflightning, striking simultaneouslybeyond and within human experience.The mystic will not accomplish thegreat aim by incrementally drawingdown abstractions from far away to bepolitely consumed bit by bit. Themystic requires the radical annihilationof the barriers that obstruct what is

already perfect and whole right wherethey stand. The mystic wants to giveeverything over to a fire that consumesbody, speech, and mind—until all thatis left is the expanse of the beloved.Such a conflagration consumeseverything but leaves all the beautypossible in the universe. Such beautyhas no single home in any world, andparadoxically offers the space for allworlds to establish themselves. In thissense the terms beauty, openness,fullness, and meaning are allsynonymous.

Primordial unity is often reified intothe view known as monism. This view

falls short of complete gnosticbreakthrough because it holdswholeness (the monad) as anundifferentiated mental object—an“all.” Any mental object, even anabsolutely vast and formless one thatincludes all things within it, cannot berid of the reflex at the root ofconceptuality. Dissolving the rootreflex of conceptual reduction is thedoorway to realization. Thereforepantheistic systems that are foundedupon a monad retain subtle reification,and express it at every step and stage.Matters are made worse as themythology of a creator god are laden

upon the monad, in which case thequest for realization also hits thesemantic wall of religious dogma.

Breaking through the monistassertion can be critically examinedusing the classic model of the tzimtzumat the onset of creation, as described inkabbalistic texts. The process isdescribed as follows: A dimensionlesspoint coalesces at the heart of the AurEn Sof. There are no secondarycoordinates to compare the point to,thus the point cannot be placed within aconceptual relationship in terms ofscale or position. The point remainsboth un-localizable and central to the

creative process. The point also cannotbe contrasted to the light of the Aur EnSof itself, because the open luminosityis not a cohesive construct that can beset against anything else. Suchassociations are holdovers fromphysical logic, and have no place incontemplative inquiry.

The light of En Sof is anundifferentiated simplicity without anycharacteristics other than creativity,which can be recognized as the “self-darkening brilliance” described in theFountain of Wisdom. To manifest thetzimtzum the light pulls back from thecenter point to its “sides,” leaving a

vacated space (chalal hapanui). Thisopens a void within a circularperiphery surrounding the centralpoint. This becomes the paradox ofmanifestation; space filled by theomnipresent wholeness of En Sof yetappearing vacant and divided.

The contraction of the light isreferred to as the tzimtzum, however,the term also designates the circularboundary left in its wake that appearsto divide what is contained from theuncontainable. Once this symbolicconstruct is established, theperformance of the light of En Sof canbe examined. The narrative gives an

account of the reentry of the light backinto the vacated space, where it isreflected back in stages. Complexexchanges within that reflection ensue,described in various bodies of esotericliterature. However, all of the variationthat is described is predicated on theparadoxical context of the originaltzimtzum.

Profound basic questions arise fromthe tzimtzum. The Aur En Sof is asimple unity, so how can it bedisplaced? Its wholeness is absolute, sohow can an aspect of it be separatedfrom itself? How can finitecontainment abide within

uncontainable infinity? This questionposes the paradox of relative meaningasserting itself in the midst of absolutemeaning-fullness. Obviously the lesseris nullified through and through by thegreater, to the point that the lesser isnothing other than the greater, but yetthe lesser still appears. The conclusiondrawn from this scenario is that greatopen meaning-fullness usurpseverything whether it is evident or not.This establishes the secret mysticaldimension of faith, which is bothhidden and revealed simultaneously.

Jewish teaching is firm in itsposition that divine unity is always

total, and the limitations of creationappear in order to allow growth andfree will to become possible as a subsetwithin it. One must choose what aspectof meaning shapes one’s life. Thefractured display does not fool themystic. The central question remains:How can the essential meaning be heldwhere it appears absent?

Once the context of the tzimtzum isestablished, the light is said to reenterthe vacated space in layers to establishthe primal attributes of phenomenawithin it. These layers are the sefirot,and each sefirah presents the centralparadox of uncontainable essentiality

anew with the presentation of itsparticular quality. No matter whatattribute manifests, it is alwayssubsumed within the mystery of EnSof, and its relative meaning can onlybe provisional.

T h e olamot (worlds) contextualizethe sefirot within the hishtalshelut(chain of manifestation). Within eachstage limitations that support causalityand position appear. Although staticlaws are presented within eachdimension, like all phenomena, theyare open to interpretation. Thenarrative describing the very earlieststages of creation mentioned in the

Zohar provides hints about howoriginal purity is concealed within so-called impure appearances. TheLurianic literature provides detailedaccounts of configurations of sefirotprior to the worlds of manifestationthat structure the universe as it isknown. The texts describe alternateuniverses based on flawedconfigurations that were presented anddestroyed because of innate flaws, andthen shattered and were reconstituted.Shards of light were strewn throughoutthe subsequent layers that reformedaround them, and concealed sparks oftheir original divinity became hidden

throughout the worlds awaiting humandiscovery.

The primordial sparks hiddenthroughout creation invite the mindback to the primordial roots of theoriginal paradox that cannot beunderstood or contained in anyconceivable form. The sparks offer thepossibility of breakthroughs that defystructure and order, cracking open thelogic of the linear hierarchy they arehidden within. The role of thepractitioner is to recognize and raisethese sparks through the radicalrevelation that wholeness is completelyopen and yet presentational, which

continually plays a game of hide-and-seek. This brings up questions ofveracity and application that areimplied by extremely obscure symbolswithin the literature. This becomes aproblem for those who accept theseaccounts as literal protohistories aswell as those who interpret them asmere psychological metaphors. Thesymbols fail to deliver their truewisdom and waste their potential whencalled upon to serve religiousmythology or provide illustrations forhumanistic virtues. The ability toutilize the metaphor in mysticalabsorption is extremely rare, but

luckily is not erased by the frequencyof its misinterpretation.

The tzimtzum provides the contextto continually take the manifestationback to its original paradox. It invitesthe mind to consider the puresimplicity “before” creationsimultaneously with things exactly asthey are. Since manifestation “after”the initial contraction is predicated onthe paradox inherent within it, how canany facet of manifestation do anythingother than return the mind to the basicmystery?

The problem of a timeline appears to

divide an original perfection fromsubsequent creative limitations. Thetzimtzum is described in texts as anoccurrence that begins and unfolds atsome point in time. Why? This isprecisely where the root paradox needsto be reasserted. Prior to conceptualintellectualization there is nodifferentiation of moments in the mind.This is the same way that the mind canapproach the Aur En Sof—prior to anythought. The cultivation ofatemporality is the mind’s naturalstate, and cannot be added to or takenaway. Appreciation of the atemporalstate of the mind directly equates it

with basic space. This connectionunderscores all contemplative work. Inthis sense, it must be understood thatthe tzimtzum never “happened,” andthe metaphor can then be engaged as aconstruct to be unmade rather thanelaborated upon.

Inquiry into the essential naturebefore creation is strictly prohibited inthe Talmud. Such a violation is helpfulin a sense, because radical inquiryalways contradicts the laws ofconceptual habit. Taking the stance of aheretic sets the mind free to inquirebeyond the bounds of logic andexoteric authority. The mystic is only

concerned with the essential natureprior to conceptual elaboration. Whatelse could be important? As theauthoritarian dictums of amythological god are discarded asunuseful vestiges of an outdatedtechnology, contemplation is set free toconsider the jewel that has been castwithin the dung heap. However,contemplation is not a consequence ofhistory, and it remains outside of anytemporal structure. Since the ancientworld (and probably before) there havebeen gnostic outcast lineages that havesought to raise the essence of mysticalteachings out of exoteric religious

contexts into a viable living practice.The difference at this historical point isthat there are no overt culturalrepercussions, and books such as thisone can be published without suchscrutiny.

The universe projected by anordinary human being is structured bytemporal and dimensional positioning.The leap beyond these limitations intounbounded freedom is as rare asanything in the universe. Making theleap is exactly what was intended withthe construction of the tzimtzummodel. The expanse of originalessentiality is what the mystic seeks to

bathe in. As the hidden sparks of thisexpanse are raised bit by bit, aburgeoning vista of awakening dawns.This can only happen throughnonconceptual breakthrough, not byunderstanding intellectual theory.

By conventional logic, the cusp ofthe tzimtzum circle would existsomewhere in space, at some positionallocation. However, coordinates areprecisely what is called into question.The tzimtzum marks the boundary ofall definable relative contexts;however, it cannot disrupt theubiquitous expanse of En Sof. Themetaphor allows a consideration of

space beyond the tzimtzum’speriphery, where relative coordinateshave no meaning, and place and timeare irrelevant. Therefore the circlemarks the barrier of what conceptualityrequires for orientation and territory.

The tzimtzum’s boundary is bestunderstood as a stepping-off point intouncontainability; beyond the apparentcontainment of the worlds. Thereconciliation of the conceptualdivision between these absolute andrelative aspects is the wisdom of theawakening ground, which is based onradical equanimity. This is a directchallenge to the conceptualizing mind,

which posits the ultimate interruptionat the tzimtzum’s border. Gnosticrealization sets out to realize that thereis no such interruption, which liberatesthe circle and everything within itcompletely. Primordial wholeness isindestructible, and the purpose of thecontemplative path is to establish thatthe space that fills and surrounds thecircle are completely equal in nature.This book establishes a methodology towork with equalizing circles throughprecise graphic means, based on thewisdom expressed by the tzimtzum.

The only concern the mystic has isthe approach to limitlessness. Inquiry

has En (no) Sof (end). Through theawakening ground, awareness andmanifestation are equalized in theprofusion of pure possibility:superficial concerns evaporate, andmeaning is continually reborn. Theechoes of this rebirth resonateinfinitely throughout space, and itsimplications have no end.

How the mind holds the coreparadox is the question. A key quotethat expresses this question is takenfrom the Fountain of Wisdom, whichstates: “alef is never less than bet.” Thestatement contrasts seeminglycontradictory values. Alef has a

numerical value of one and bet has avalue of two, which implies thatalthough relative parts appear divided,unity is always implicit. The phrase“never less than” implies that unity isalways disguised within seeminglydualistic contrasts. The premise ofradical unity is the root of all furtherelaboration in kabbalah.

Many orthodox scholars interpretthe tzimtzum in a manner that does notsupport gnostic awakening. Althoughkabbalah and Chassidut are based onprofound non-dual teachings, thecenturies have morphed interpretationsthat fall back into a conventional view

of the metaphors. For example, thekabbalistic scholar Jacob ImmanuelSchochet states:

The principle purpose of thetzimtzum is to create a void inwhich the divine creatures wouldexist and subsist as opposed tobecoming dissolved in the divineomneity. The infinite radiation ofthe divine light having beendimmed and concealed, as itwere, will no longer consume andnullify the contents of the void inthe way that a spark is consumedand nullified in the flame itself,or the way the light of a candlewould be totally absorbed and

nullified in the very intense lightof the sun. (Mystical Concepts inChassidism)

This quote illustrates a conventionaldualistic view of objects and theirsubstantiality. It displays a belief thatthings either exist or do not exist, anddoes not attempt to establish a viewthat passes beyond the yes/nodichotomy. Such a view holds thedesignations that arise and dissolvewith an apparent birth and death to bereliable markers of the true conditionof things. It also seems oblivious toany curiosity or appreciation for thecontinuum beyond what these concepts

assert as real.

Radical mysticism is not interestedin segregating relative distinctionsfrom absolute essentiality. It seeks toentirely dissolve the gulf between themso that all phenomena can express asingle absolute wisdom. It would seemthat dissolving this gulf is preciselywhat Schochet is afraid of. The moreradical mysticism becomes, the lessimportant birth and death become, untilno concern whatsoever is expressedabout these concepts, and belief in theirrelative implications is abandonedentirely.

The lowest common denominatorthat ensures the perpetuation ofreligious orthodoxy is fear. A greatmany religious Jews adhere to halachicprecepts supposedly imposed by acreator god for fear of the consequenceof punishment or annihilation. Gnosisis impossible for the scared creature,because the main concern is anindividual life and its place in acollective human identity. The aspiringgnostic must be completely willing topass away from both individual as wellas collectivized reification. It is exactlythis lack of self-grasping that allowstransparency to En Sof to be

recognized.

The gnostic would gladly welcomethe so-called annihilation that Schochetis so worried about, because it merelyposes the annihilation of relativemeaning. How could absorption ofrelative individuality into absoluteessentiality be anything other than purecommunion with absolute truth? Is thisnot the beloved of all desires?However, there is no cause for worry.The mystic already understands whathas eluded the fretful religionist.Within this understanding theabsorption bath of the awakeningground becomes the only goal worth

pursuing.

I

1

THE MIXINGFIELD

An Introduction tothe Six Gates

N THE GOSPEL OFTHOMAS Jesus

instructs his followers to

“become passers-by.”This instruction impliesthat the mind’s habits canreturn to openness as itswinds pass throughwhatever arises. As themind penetrates theclouds of relativemeaning, each frozenconception can evaporateback into the sky ofperfect wholeness, whichis already its essential

nature.The expanse of its

nature is not a merevacancy; it is an openfullness so complete thatit can never be grasped.The mind may think it cangrasp the qualities of acloud, but it can nevergrasp the sky. Likewise,mind can grasp at somelimited relative meaning,

but the expanse ofmeaning’s fullness willalways elude it. Themeaning of meaning willnever make sense. Thesense of it must beunmade, called out fromthe depths of thedissolution of its habitreflexes as they returninto their basic nature. Inthis sense, the knowinginvolved becomes a kind

of unknowing, which canbe articulated in sixstages, as follows:

The seals of the sixgates

1. Recognition of theContinuum

2. The Klipot3. Vision of the Mixing

Field4. The Fullness5. Scintillating

Dissolution6. Stabilizing the

Realization

This chapter introduceseach of these six gates ofcontemplation throughlinguistic and graphicinquiry. Each iselaborated upon in termsof a main tendency and itskabbalistic implications,which are summarized bydiagrams.

The diagrams used toillustrate the six gates are

composed of circles. Asopposed to tree-of-lifediagrams that tend to beread in a linear ascendingand descending manner,the circular diagrams posea manner of reading thatpasses in and out,bringing up issues of thereconciliation of thelayers of cognition andcreative manifestation.Most of the diagrams

used in this book arecomposed of two circlesthat represent absolute orbasic space (the largercircle) and thedifferentiated space ofrelative phenomena (theinner circle), the smallerbeing a subset of thegreater circle. Betweenthe two circles is atwilight space wherein thetwo circles can introduce

the process of theirequalization: surrenderingthe rigidity of theirboundaries to one anotherto allow a singularessentiality to be realizedin contemplation.Ultimately, thisrealization of essentialityis the main point and theheart of the matter.

It can be a mistake to

think the six gates unfoldmechanically in a strictlinear sequence.However, there is somevalidity to this linear wayof development based onhow the initialbreakthroughs unfold.The mind can only go asfar as its lastbreakthrough will allow.However, thebreakthroughs that have

been cleared present asingle multilayered spaceincorporating all that haspreceded it, superimposedlike transparencies. Thenthe memory of the linearsequence fades andbecomes an artificial setof divisions. Yet still,whatever waits aheadposes a new challengeuntil a stabilized gnosisrenders all the portals

facets on the same gem.

The continuum ofportals is like a housewith six rooms. Each hasa secret passage thatconnects to all the others.The passageways,however, are hidden deepwithin the details of theroom’s construction, andsimply entering the roomand looking at its features

will present only blindsand dead ends. Onceexploration yields thediscovery of a genuinepassageway, clues to thelocation of the next arerevealed. Then themeaning of the wholestructure changes. Thechambers can be seentogether as a singleinterconnected web ratherthan a set of isolated

discoveries. Excavatingthe interconnectedness ofthe gates involvestransmuting the meaningof the exploration. Thefurther the explorationgoes, the more its activityis shaped by the meaningit realizes, rather than theother way around.

Contemplative practicebegins with the love of

silence. Silence in thiscase does not refer to themere absence of audiblesounds, although that isone aspect that calls themind into the greatexpanse of its essentialnature. The great silenceis full, resonant, andspeaks through all things.You can begin by callingto it internally, where itabides without

interruption.

Longing allows silentresonant space to mergewith gnostic intention,like water pouring intowater. If you hold tosilence in the moment itbegins to spread withinthe heart of the mind’schatter, you will notice achange taking placeimmediately. Abide in its

dissolving presence, andits spread will consumewhatever arises.

Love of silence is a kindof hunger or thirst. It goesprofoundly deep. Theurgency to bind with it islike a fire that intensifiesgnostic aspiration. Thesilence can hear youraspiration and canwhisper back, drawing

you into the motion of itssecret winds. If itsresonance is allowed tosuffuse whatever arises,listening with the wholeof your being can cutthrough all the internalchatter. The swifter themind’s clutter can bepassed through, thedeeper the love of silencewill be, and the moreprofoundly it can be

realized as the ground ofall phenomena.

This strange lovetenderizes being with itspoignancy as it thruststhrough rolling fields inendless succession. Loveof silence becomes thesilence when this lovesuffuses itself with itsown longing. Then theparade of projections can

be eclipsed by itsessential nature.

It bears repeating: Loveof silence becomes thesilence, as its lovebecomes suffused withlonging for its own open-appearing expanse. Thenand only then, can themind become absorbed byits most essentialmeaning, outshining the

parade of lesser concerns.

What eclipses theparade of lesserprojections is thepervasiveness of silence.Silence introduces basicspace, which manifestscreative variation withoutinterruption. Space is nota “thing” that can beinterrupted or broken.Through contemplation,

basic space can berecognized in the midst ofits concealment within thearray of seeminglyrandom appearances. Thefallacy about thefragmentation ofphenomena is that there issome substance thatbecomes broken. Spacemay appear fragmented,but always remains open.The gates of

contemplation can openthrough anything, despitewhatever appears. Directinterface with mystery isalways possible, as thesilence of basic spacecalls through its myriadappearances.

The endless parade ofcircumstances concealedwithin the obstructingklipot of the worlds

always seeks to seduceand cajole the mind intoconfinement. Thequestion is whether itscomings and goings willbe the final destination ofthe heart’s desires. Tolong for what might benobler is an arduous andobscure task, but eachattempt is a stepping-offpoint into the heart of theprimordial paradox. If a

prisoner is subsumed inthe intrinsic freedom ofhis own mind, is theprisoner reallyimprisoned? As RebbeNachman states: “You arewherever your thoughtsare” (Likutey Moharan1:21).

O

GATE ONERecognition of the Continuum

NE ELUSIVE CONTINUUMbinds the mind’s inner conditions

with the outer manifestations it takesas real. This single ground ofphenomena is called adamah—theunknowable basis of all that can beknown and all that remains unknown.Recognition of the ground’s essentialnature is the doorway of gnosticrealization.

The mind awakens to the ground bydirect immersion. The ground alreadyperfectly presents itself whileincluding the mind within it, so on theabsolute level nothing needs to bedone. However, on the relative levelperceptual habits will always resistsurrender of their assumed autonomy,and will only go down fighting. Inorder to come to terms with theprofound essentiality of their ownwholeness, the tangled habits thatconcretize and fragment a subject fromits objects must be undone. The processof unmaking these impulses takestremendous effort and is not without

pain, as it goes against every tendencythe mind is used to.

Contemplative inquiry is initiated bymeeting the display of mind’s motiondirectly in the midst of perceiving. Onecan begin by thinking about thinking asit thinks, or observing observation as itobserves. The assumed solidity of theperceptual reality then opens itsreductive patterns, like a salt crystaldissolving into the ocean. As thereifying patterns dissipate they becomeabsorbed back into their ground, andknower and known unfold into freedynamic space.

When the mind’s reductive habitsare deeply considered nothing can befound within them but empty reflexes.When their open nature is furtherconsidered it becomes clear that thereflexes themselves are nothing butaspects of the open and dynamicground that presents them. However,contemplation must contend with itslived-through experience, which beginswithin a habitually self-identified andfragmented state. Together the identityof the subject and all of its identifiedobjects seem to support a random,cruelly broken universe. Before gnosiscan break through the graveyard of

conflicting impulses an intellectualunderstanding and appreciation for theuninterrupted nature of the continuummust be cultivated. Before even thethought of unity can be investigated itis important to establish that theground itself is changeless, despite theappearance of continual change. Thisparadox remains the case no matterwhether sublime gnosis or habitualignorance predominates. The singularnature of the ground supports all statesequally, but is defined by none of them.In this sense the ground is the “virgin”that gives birth to the world.

The ground is the basis of all

meaning, and any investigation of theground is an investigation of meaningitself. When thoughts hit the wall oftheir own limitations, the mind’sinherent dynamism can break throughto uncover streams of mental texturesthat overflow beyond the rigidboundaries that define interior andexterior aspects of experience. Thetenuous territories that define time andlocation then fall into a disorientingmixture, which brings any sense ofobjective reality into question. Thatquestion is paramount. What is theexternal world? What defines internalperception? The possibility of gnosis

opens between these questions, withoutfalling to either side.

The secret life of the continuumunfurls through feeling-toneresonances that hide within their ownechoes. Inner and outer contextualpretenses collapse in their wake. Thisshifts the meaning of perception froman isolated personal activity to adisplay of open space in variation.Understanding the nature of the displayis the key. It hovers at the cusp ofnothingness as it becomes whatever itseems to be, always displaying itsbounty simultaneously as it surrendersto dissolution. This relentless arising-

in-dissolving spills past the associativechains of conceptuality, which cannotever catch it.

The ground is most often associatedwith the display of malkut, but theformative motion of the six middlesefirot is implicit within that display.Thus the presentation of the continuumof phenomena can more easily beapproached through the zivug (union)of the middle six sefirot and malkut,known as the marriage of Zer Anpinand Nukvah in the language of the laterkabbalists. Like a mirror, malkutreflects whatever conditions the middlesix sefirot stir within it. Malkut’s

response is set through the aperture ofyesod, as the influences of relativeexpansion and contraction push andpull from the right and left sidesrespectively through the triad ofNeHiY (netzach, hod, yesod). Thesefirot of NeHiY mark the portalthrough which motion shapes thequalities of the continuum’s display.After all, malkut has no form of itsown whatsoever; it is only space, equalin its essential nature to binah in themidst of the variable expression.

Primordial essentiality assumes thequalities of manifestation without everdeparting from its own most intimate

nature. The perceived fluctuations oftime and location conceal the precioussparks of an unseen fire, which flickerthrough the haze of the continuum.Awakening is possible through eachspark, the sparks being doorwaysleading directly into the heart of thehidden blaze. The fire’s radiance hasno territory or position, and is perfectlyequalizing and complete. Eachprojection is a thread that cannot beseparated from the ground that presentsit. The perception of separate isolatedsparks is only a vestigial assumptionasserted by prior habit. If deeplyunderstood, each spark can break

through the habit field on contact.However, the mind discovers thesparks framed by isolated momentsthat are like the discovery of buriedtreasure within the dirt of mundanereality. The buried treasure is actuallyburied in itself, or rather, in thetendency to be obscured by themisconceptions that are made about it.Each spark defies definition: neithersmall nor large, subjective or objective.In theistic terms, the sparks form acohesive body that renders the field ofappearances as “the living flesh ofgod.”

The ground of adamah and En Sof

are essentially equal. Be careful withthis statement, however, for althoughthey are essentially equal, they are notthe same. En Sof refers to primordialpurity as such, and adamah refers to itscapacity to be presented as phenomena.The distinction may seem semantic,but is helpful when probing beyonddiscursive thought in contemplation.Each primordial spark concealedwithin the field of manifestation canallow the display of the adamah toreturn the mind to En Sof, which itnever left. What obstructs the returnare the habits of reification anddivision, which impose unquestioned

belief in the autonomy of a perceivingsubject cast adrift within a universe ofseparate objects. Contemplativepractice seeks to unmake these habits,but first it must recognize andunderstand that the creative processconstitutes an uninterruptedcontinuum. By acknowledging thecontinuum the sparks can berecognized, one by one, until the fieldof display becomes saturated with theirbrilliance.

One should not stupidly think that ahead is a foot. The display ofmanifestation attests to the fact that allthings are certainly not the same,

however, they are indeed essentiallyequal. Understanding how thingsappear differently within the greaterunderstanding of their essential natureis the key. The conditions that makethe subtle aspects of such recognitionpossible are rare, due to the radicaldifference between the tyranny ofintellectual understanding and theobscurity of the cultivation of gnosis.Breaking through the misconceptionsrelated to this issue constitutes much ofthe preparation for awakening.

The top of the diagram (figure 1)depicts four circles that articulate fouraspects of the quadrisected circle.

Common to all four are a central point,radial line, internal expanse, andsurrounding periphery. Each of thediagrams of the six gates utilizes theseelements to articulate how the absoluteand relative aspects of phenomena arereconciled within the contemplativeprocess.

Below the four circles is the mainelement of the diagram: conjoinedcircles sharing a common radial linethat issues from the center. The circlesconnect from midpoint to midpoint,forming a vesica piscis between them.Each circle is the product of a 360-degree rotation of the radius around

each point. Thus the idea of a commonradius between points implies a singledynamic continuum through which allcontexts extend. Its motion isubiquitous, binding the aspects ofevery relationship, unfolding as theinfinite nuances of meaning areinterpreted.

As the radius thrusts its motion itbinds two aspects, labeled as voice andspeech. They are bound in continuumby the all-pervasive ruach breathrepresented by the radial line. Thesethree aspects are keys to the kabbalisticsymbolism of the Sefer Yetzirah, whichis the basis of many later texts

including the great thirteenth-centuryFountain of Wisdom, which utilizesthese symbols in the followingpassage: “The light that darkens fromilluminating is alef. It is the voice ofvocalized movement, which forms asecond alef. This is ruach hakodesh[the holy breath of gnosis], that is tosay, that which is prior. There is one,which is voice. It becomes speech,which is second alef.”

Figure 1

The terms “alef” and the “secondalef” reflect the mystery of singularity,which is the basic unity that can neverbe interrupted as manifestationunfolds. It is a single continuumbeyond the mind’s grasp. The mysticalways returns to the continuousground of primordial essentiality. Thisreturning shifts the meaning ofperception from a series of separatestates or isolated events to “that whichis prior” to the formation ofexperience. This does not deny thevivid qualities of experience, but shifts

its implication from a post-experientialrecalculation of its outer effects to thefundamental ground that is its centrallife and dynamic essence.

Voice is pure potency, and speech isits display. This represents the entirescope of manifestation. The still, silentpotency and its manifest expression areinseparably bound as a common groundin motion, which cannot be separatedfrom either. Voice, breath, and speechrely on the continuous ground of themystery of En Sof. This is far morethan a chain of cause and effect. Thepower of the voice is explicit in speech,and the capacity for the infinite

variation of speech is implicit in theopen potency of the voice.Kabbalistically, speech and voicerepresent the “back and front” of asingle head.

The ruach breath can be understoodas a verb to highlight the unfixedmotion of the continuum. It expresseshow undifferentiated potency iscontinually thrust into expression.Neither voice nor speech can arisealone. They are always together in themidst of motion, which is theubiquitous breath that suffuses allthings.

No definitive point of origin ordestination can ever be found withinanything. When examined, a thingalways leads back to aninterdependency that links its causalbonds in relationship to another, andanother, on to infinity. Immersionwithin the continuum ofinterdependency is the mark of the firstgate of gnostic inquiry, which is foundthrough the living breath that opens therigid duality habitually impliedbetween so-called causes and so-calledeffects. This is most poignantlyillustrated by the spilt between aperceiving subject and its perceptual

objects, and even the great splitbetween a god and its creation.

At the bottom of the diagram (figure1), below the main vesica piscis, is aversion of the continuum with a subsetcircle set in its midst. This alludes to ahall of mirrors, as the continuum of all-encompassing space reflects itselfthrough itself into infinity. Thecontinuum en-worlds itself anew inendless echoes without end; however,for the sake of simplicity, only onesubset is depicted, althoughendlessness is implied. The tendency toform countless universes is implicitwithin the dynamic continuum of

ruach, as voice and speech play outbeyond linear calculation. Each en-worldment may be taken asautonomous by habit, but that onlyillustrates an ignorance of what thecontinuum implies.

The periphery of the innerquadrisected circle depicts thetzimtzum reflex. The tzimtzum alwaysfolds into itself deeper and deeper, onelayer into another. This infoldingarticulates both how universes becomevariable in their specificity, and alsohow perception becomes detailed.Because the subset circle isquadrisected, it spreads inside itself by

the cardinal directions. Space seems tokeep infolding forever. Whether thatreflex becomes a series of prisons ordoorways is the question. Each layerrides the razor’s edge between freedomand slavery. The message of the path isclear: the gates can always open ifinquiry becomes sufficiently concernedwith its own intrinsic nature. Even themost reified universes can breakthrough their associative chainsthrough the recognition of basic space.

The adamah ground can bearticulated in two ways that are bothcalled an “all-basis.” The ground canbe known either as an “all-basis

consciousness” or as an “all-basiswisdom.”

The all-basis consciousness supportsthe projection of dualisticmisapprehensions that obscure andobstruct essentiality. This allows klipot(obstructing barriers) to conceal En Sofwithin layers of superficialapprehension that allow phenomena tobe mistaken for realms of solid andseparate “things.” In this context, thet e r m consciousness refers to thecontinuum of cognizance that supportsconventional associative habits inwhich the ordinary limitations of time,location, and substance are imposed on

phenomena through conceptualdesignation.

Direct recognition of the essentialnature of the ground dissolves thereifying reflex patterns within the all-basis consciousness, so that it canfunction as a total spark field. Thespark field draws the totality back tothe primordial clarity of its inherentwisdom, which it ironically never left,except within the klipot of perception.The return is a repair (tikkun) thatallows the all-basis consciousness tofunction as an all-basis wisdom. Thereturn therefore represents atransformation of relative mental

functioning, not a change within theessence of phenomena in any sense.The shift allows phenomena to beunderstood as a gnostic display ratherthan through layers of conceptualequivalence. Returning the mind backto its essential ground involvesremembering the true implications ofits continuum.

The habits that accumulate withinthe ground reduce the mind’sfunctioning to superficiality. The termwisdom refers to gnosis itself, as itstrips the associative process raw andleaves the mind naked. Therefore thereturn of relativity is literally a re-

cognition (cognition of that which isprior). The all-basis consciousness andall-basis wisdom are both expressionsof a single awakening ground, which isthe heart of the matter; one groundwhich is expressed as two paths withtwo results.

Because the awakening groundincludes every possibility inherent toboth wisdom as well as ignorance,primordial purity can be soughtanywhere in anything no matter whatarises. This is good news! The groundcan never depart from its essentialnature, and always allows for therecognition of unbounded freedom—

which even includes the freedom tobecome enslaved.

The word adamah consists of thename ADaM in union with the letterheh. ADaM refers to the motion andenergy that constitutes humanperception, the ruach, and heh refers toits fivefold display (five elements,worlds, souls, senses/sense fields). Theword can be broken down further. Alefalone represents the wholeness thatflows in, through, and aroundphenomena as the DaM (blood) ofspace. Its fluid capacity for unendingvariation is the fullness of what isrealized as complete ADaM, or human

gnosis. The display of gnosis is directlypresented by the heh, which is thefivefold array of the Shechinah.Together the letters of ADaM-H revealthe comprehensive union of thetransmission of energy and itspresentation in manifestation,corresponding with the middle sixsefirot and malkut, respectively.

Commonly in kabbalah the nameADaM corresponds to the sefirah oftiferet, which is used to summarize thescope of the ruach’s motion, alsocorresponding to the vav within theroot name YHVH. The second heh ofYHVH corresponds to the display of

malkut. The motion of the vav isreflected within the mirror of malkut toproduce variable appearances. Thebasis of malkut’s responsiveness is thebasic space of its nature, which is tobinah, corresponding to the first heh ofYHVH. The “doubling” of reflectiveexpression within the singularcontinuum is alluded to in the Fountainof Wisdom, which states, “Alef [with anumerical value of 1] is never less thantwo.”

Reflective doubling can beunderstood within the ruach, whichbreaks down into the dual triads ofChaGaT and NeHiY. The doubling

symbolism is especially importanthere, as it forms the structure of thedouble-circle diagrams. Each circledirectly relates to the heh through itsnumerical value of five: the sum of thecenter point within the four cardinaldirections.

T

GATE TWOThe Klipot

HE MIND GRAPPLES withcontemplation in three stages.

First, inquiry approaches meaningthrough intellectual understanding.Teachings are probed, and a continuumof conclusions is extracted. Theconclusions are then deeply considered,held closely within the mind, andallowed to resonate. The impact of theresonant meanings pervades the

conceptual processes. Contemplationcan then immerse within the torrent offeeling tones arising beyond thelimitations of the intellect, whichclothe inquiry in emotiveconsiderations. The feeling tones arethen held close within the mind, andunfold across the felt quality of all life.Then the resonant feeling tones unfoldthe core of being as contemplativesilence. This opens a doorway forimmersion to be absorbed into En Sof,at the heart of all phenomena.However, as one attempts to passthrough, various inner and outerobstructions arise. Confrontation with

these blockages is inevitable. Theobstructions reduce the freedom ofgnosis to an impasse, and stop themental field at the point of conceptualfixation.

The obstructions are called klipot(singular klipah, meaning “shell”), andare the products of reductive habitreflexes that entrap awareness withinself-imposed limitations. The klipotreify and divide both internal andexternal phenomena, and prevent theall-basis consciousness from beingrecognized as the wisdom of En Sof.Because of the klipot the worlds andeverything in them becomes

conceptualized, and each micro-unit aswell as the collectivity of eachdimension becomes an object of themind’s fixation.

There is considerable confusion asto the issue of the klipot (commonlyspel led qlippoth). Some claim theyexist as separate forces on the attack,and some claim they manifest as a“reverse tree” turning holiness upsidedown. This issue can lead bothoccultists and the religious intofantasyland. It is certainly true thatthere are malevolent energies thatdisrupt and trap the mind. Impressionsof these shadowing impulses persist

throughout all the worlds. However, itis far better to hold these tendencies asmere temporary phenomena thatgnostic aspiration passes through,ultimately to dissolve back into thesame ground from which they arose. Itis also important to remember that theklipot express the same essential natureshared by all phenomena, which is EnSof.

When the understanding ofprimordial purity is disrupted bygrasping at mental constructs, theobstructing mechanism at work istermed a klipah. It can arise in the formof anything. The lights and vessels that

constitute any of the worlds canfunction as klipot if they contribute tothe obscuration and obstruction ofgnosis. Yet if the inherent purity of theground can be realized, these samelights and vessels function as sublimebeacons of creative beauty. It is all amatter of the degree to which the purityof awareness is reified into a subjectand an object, so that it appearsfractured and imprisoned in a fixedrealm.

In their most basic essentiality theklipot are primordially pure. This viewdoes not support a distinction betweenpure and impure phenomena in a

dualistic sense. All phenomena withoutexception are inherently primordiallypure, but what this implies requiresclarification. To designate somethingas pure as opposed to impure definespurity by contrast. That is not theprimordial purity referred to here. Thisview of primordial purity is entirelybased on the inherent freedom of EnSof, which cannot be diminished orcorrupted. This is the absolute basis ofthe mind and all its phenomena. Therelative functions and conclusions ofthe mind invite another discussion. Themind’s functions are always pure interms of their absolute essential nature,

but in a relative sense they manifestvarying degrees of transitory impuritybased on how deeply they defer to thehabits of reification and division. In anabsolute sense, even the delusionalhabits are pure. However, to trulyunderstand this statement, primordialpurity has to be recognized in far morethan an intellectual manner.

The human mind, in the sense thatwe know it as the mind, is a set ofrelative functions that shape theassociations that form perception andexperience. These tendencies areneutral, and can be used for therealization of wisdom or the

perpetuation of ignorance. Recognizingits essential nature is not something thehuman mind is generally interested in,or has a tendency to want to do. In fact,all of its functions tend to run the otherway. Therefore relative humanexperience is composed entirely ofklipot, as is the human realm that iscollectively projected from it.

The klipot shape the manner inwhich the universe appears to humanbeings. The general understanding ofwhat the universe is and what its lawsare is strictly a by-product of thecollective habit field of the klipot ofthe human realm. Each individual

klipah arises specific to each moment ahuman mind manifests its tendenciesof fixation. Both the collective andindividual klipot fields have theirrespective inner and outer aspects, andeach inner aspect supports an outeraspect, and vice versa. The complexnetwork of klipot constitutes thegeneral tendencies of the realm, andalso keeps the world appearingdifferently to each human being. Eachmicro-klipah can either open or closean incremental vista of primordialexpanse. Each is a prison wall or a gateof passage. As the possibility ofbreakthroughs dawn, what could be

obstacles can also reveal treasures toornament space with unfoldingvariation, each bit at a time.

Because the mind can willinglysupport either its base reflexes or thepursuit of gnosis, some systems make adistinction by spelling the word Mindwith a capital M to distinguish it fromthe ordinary human mind. In Chassidutthe terms gadlut (expandedconsciousness) and katnut (constrictedconsciousness) are used. The problemwith all of these terms is that both thegreater and lesser functions can still bereified, and the issue of primordialpurity is sidestepped. In this text the

tendency is to use the phrase essentialnature of mind, but the real distinctionis always best made by the context andits content. The real distinction is notbetween two things, but two activities.One heads straight for the machinery ofreflex habituation, and the otherreaches endlessly for gnosis.

Once realization ripens, it is only amatter of how stable it remains. Thetzadik, or “stable realizer,” does notfall back into the klipot to reify asubject or an object. The tzadik’s life isthe seal of the primordial purity thatconstitutes a living gnosis. However,this distinction does not imply

objective moral status. Extractingmoral implications from the issue ofpurity constitutes a decisive break fromthe view of Judeo-Christian religionand theistic systems in general, whichgenerally hold the klipot to be barriersbetween man and god, thus becomingthe mechanisms of “evil.” The non-emanationist view neither supports theexistence of such a barrier or theimplied dichotomy of good and evilthat lies on either side of it. Theseissues are the exclusive domain ofreligion, and can be a tremendoussidetrack for a contemplator.

Occultists and magicians can be

sidetracked in yet another way: byseduction into the dark glamour of thepower of the klipot. This seductionstems from a hunger to dominate andmanipulate experiences to inflate one’sidentity. The adolescent mage is notterribly interested in the all-basiswisdom, and neither is the fretfulreligionist. However, they both sharethe habit of reifying phenomena. Thesolution for both the power-hungrymagician and the moralizing zealot is afundamental shift in view. Becominginterested in the inherent primordialpurity of phenomena renders the issueuniversal. Such consideration

transcends both religion andpsychology, and cuts through therigidity of the klipot almost on contact.Facing the klipot with the intention ofbreaking through their limitations isthe basis of a spiritual practice that cantruly change the meanings the mindimputes to its phenomena. The strengthand disposition of that kind of practiceis shaped in each moment, and in turn,it shapes the meaning of our life.

The klipot are the thickened echoesof the primordial tzimtzum.Structurally, from the perspective ofthe human realm, they perform a viablefunction. However, the mystic is not

satisfied abiding within their limitingstructures. The goal of mysticism is topenetrate the shells of every world.This aspiration should not be confusedwith goals conceived in the ordinaryway as a set of destinations at the endof a linear path. The gnostic dispositioninvites a continuous stream ofbreakthroughs that go on forever,always penetrating deeper and furtherwithout end. What the mysticultimately realizes is that this processnever arrives anywhere. Its endlessnessis the point.

A klipah is formed in three aspects.First, there is the general habit reflex

of reification that is inherent to the all-basis consciousness prior to anyspecific application. Then, themomentum of the prior habit is appliedto the dynamic thrust of creativity thatalways seeks some form of expression.The dynamism then reifies itself as anindependent perceiving subject, andeach instance of its perception becomesreified into a separate perceptualobject. Each time the subject registersthe presence of a new object (includingitself) the reification grows stronger,reinforcing both the solidity of thesubject’s status as well as the solidityof its objects. As the application

accrues momentum and its patterns aresecured within the all-basisconsciousness, the designated partsaccumulate and thicken into a set ofinner and outer klipot (literally“shells”) that function as the status quoof the mind’s circumstance.

Each klipah is composed of theaspects of prior habituation, theapplication of the reflex of reification,and the accumulation of its patterns.The process is reinforced as the mindshares its habitual functions withinrealms that are literally constructedfrom the accumulated klipot of otherbeings. The collective human realm is

the by-product of such interactiveclusters of klipot. The humanperception of time, space, and matter isapprehended according to a general setof rules established within thecollective field. Although thetendencies differ from being to being,the general collective activity is almostnever questioned. One does not choosethis. It comes as the baggage of beingborn into the habit field. It has nodiscernible beginning, but surely has anend that dawns with the onset ofgnostic awakening.

A klipah reduces the open vista ofmeaning to what can be signified and

passed along within a conceptualexchange. It is basically only aconceptual package of data orinformation. Each package compresseswhat is limitless and uncatchable intowhat is small and easily contained. Theklipot are about defining and defendingterritory, even within the shared spaceof their context. They are onlyfortresses of identity and identification.

Whether applied to the role of asubject self or an object the self takesas objectively real, the process appliesthe same reflex of reification. Whenthe reflex reduces meaning to aparticular function a “thing” arises, and

its identity is reinforced through usage.The thing expresses a limited functionsummarized by its conceptual identity.Each can be used as a token within thegeneral exchange of conceptualmeanings, acting as an equivalent for asummary of its limited implications.This is how ordinary semiotic andlinguistic commerce functions,consisting only of limited bits ofinformation exchanged withinfragmentary packages.

The so-called reality of being aperson in a universe is composed of aseries of interactive klipot thatdesignate a set of inner and outer

relationships. As the thrust ofconsciousness self-envelops into aklipah of identity, its sense of presenceis localized in time and space.Someone seems to be here now, and itmust be “me.” This localized presenceforms the basis of a coordinate positionthat is set in relation to all otherpositions. The central function of theidentity allows knowing to be trappedwithin a construct formed to refer to itsown activity. This reflexive activityreinforces the construct of identity as itmoves both outwardly to externalobjects and inwardly to its ownthoughts and perceptions. The

accumulated momentum hardens theklipah’s sense of specificity, and endsup becoming practically impenetrable.

The conventional assumption is thatthe feeling of self-presence and itsmotion can prove the objectiveexistence of an autonomous thinker.This is the mistake made by Descartes.“I think” simply suggests that the mindis in motion. However, the conclusion“therefore I am” posits an assumptionbased on a need for solidity andidentity. It manufactures a cognitivelocus in the midst of the openstreaming of possibility. Descartes’sstatement is a useful summary of the

self- referential impulse, as it attemptsto substitute the conventional reflex ofidentity for open wonder.

The unique klipot formed by amoving stream of mind literally fills awhole universe as it collides with thegeneral matrix of connections aroundit. This interaction forms many levelsof complex relationships of world andsoul aspects. When a contextual realmforms to support an expression ofconsciousness it manifests aconjunction of specific and general andinner and outer aspects. At its core,however, the consciousness responsiblehas no “owner.” The illusion of self

creates the illusion of a context for thatself. The interdependent threads arewoven into a comprehensive field bothfrom within and without. However, noworld or soul has any inherently solidself-existence at all. There is only theexchanged momentum of motion andhabituation. The illusion of a self andits world appears in the manner mostfamiliar to each person, so it goesunquestioned. As consciousness shapesitself, a great responsibility is laid atour doorstep; and it is for this reasonthat it matters a great deal what we dowith our minds. Simply becominginterested in the return of klipotic

consciousness back into its innatepristine wisdom awareness begins todissolve the phenomena that becomefrozen into a supposedly solid universe.This process invites the ultimate tikkunolam, or rectification of the entireworld.

The top of the diagram (figure 2)depicts a quadrisected circle and subsetcircle arising within the continuum of avesica piscis. The vesica piscisrepresents the breath of voice thatspeaks itself forth as universes. Itunfolds infinite en-worldments withinitself, like a hall of mirrors. However,as en-worldment unfolds the mind

meets its habits as the defining klipotof dimensionality and temporality ineach context.

A great circle representing absolutebasic space is presented around aninner subset representing the relativedisplay of space. Within the subset thethree layers form to construct a klipah.The klipah builds a wall that separatesits interior from the open expanse ofbasic space that surrounds it, lockingits phenomena within the perception ofa limited separate existence. The mostinterior layer posits the klipah’sgeneral reflex tendency towardreduction. Its middle layer represents

the self-reifying application. Its outerwall is the accumulated momentum ofthe sum total of its activities, whichharden as it functions.

Figure 2

The three layers of klipot

The klipah’s three layers imprisonthe five alefs within its shell. The alefsrepresent the fivefold expression of theShechinah (heh/5). This expression isperceived in a distorted manner asphenomena are taken for a set ofrelative constructs. Of course, thefivefold expression is inherentlyprimordially pure, despite the mind’stemporary reductive distortions. Thefive correspond to the five pureexpressions of worlds, souls, elements,and senses within the five sense fields.However, when bound within the shellsof the klipot, the mind’s habits onlyfollow the status quo of small

meanings, apprehending open wonderas linear time and localizable space.Thus is the dilemma of conventionallyfixated beings.

Circle of basic space and klipot ofthe subset

A

GATE THREEThe Mixing Field

S HABITUAL RESISTANCESFADE, the scope of meaning

spreads open and the range of thecontinuum becomes clear. A tripleunderstanding of the single continuousground arises. It presents theuncontainable vastness of basic space,a seemingly contained display withinit, and a twilight field in-between thesedesignations. This vision of the triple

space of the single ground beyondreification is precisely what wasmasked by the klipot in the secondgate.

Make no mistake; the three aspectsdiscussed here are not isolatedterritories existing separately to beneatly segregated into localizablecoordinates. Although they can beartificially mapped for purposes ofcontemplation, the triple space isalways complete and whole no matterwhat aspect is considered. If thecontinuum of the adamah is understoodand remembered, the field can presentits aspects without falling into

fragmentation. Understanding the viewof wholeness beyond reification invitesan implicit understanding thattransitory impressions of form andformlessness cannot fracture.

Just like the previous two gates,considerations of the mixing fieldusually enter into consciousness theway that concepts generally do, asNeHiY processes the display ofmalkut’s phenomena. As the zivug ofthe ruach and malkut matures beyondthis juncture, many of the gross klipotdissolve, but subtle klipot persist. Thesubtle klipot hover at the borderbetween gnostic breakthrough and

conventional habituation, andinsidiously permeate contemplationthrough the triads of ChaGaT all theway through ChaBaD to the point ofketer.

The subtle klipot are called klipotnogah (“semi-luminous” klipot), andthey suffuse the overlapping territoryof the vision of primordial purity withordinary conceptually fixated states.The klipot of nogah can obstructrealization as well as extend thepossibility of breaking through (seeAryeh Kaplan’s Inner Space). They areparticularly active in the most difficultand extreme areas of contemplation,

where subtle visionary experiencepresents itself mixed with the vestigialtaint of conceptuality. These mixedzones are where the majority ofprogress in contemplative practice isaccomplished, so dealing with theklipot of nogah represents a crucialcomponent in its development. In thissense, they are especially relevant topractitioners whose lives are subsumedin the in-between space of gnosticrealization that has not yet stabilized.

T h e shefa (wisdom effulgence) ofthe light of En Sof is always availableanywhere. The expanse of binah, whichis the basic space of all phenomena, is

replete with the luminous crystallinedew of shefa. If contemplationresonates deeply within the view of EnSof as the ground of all phenomena,then drops of shefa seep through topervade whatever the ruachapprehends. The seepage is allowedthrough openings within daat, whichallow shefa to come into the ruachfrom keter. Daat can both absorb ordeflect the influx of shefa through thefunction of the klipot of nogah. Assemipermeable membranes, the klipotof nogah surround the most subtleexperiences and act as gateways thateither open beyond conceptuality or

keep it locked within itself.

This is not to say that the klipotnogah are limited to the position ofdaat, far from it; they spreadeverywhere throughout the function ofthe sefirot and the worlds. However,daat represents the apex of theperceptual motion where the paradoxof keter is most poignantly expressed,so it is precisely where the shefa can bebest understood to both pour out or bewithheld within perception. The klipotof nogah are best understood as the lastmembrane of conceptuality betweenthe mind and basic space, and cancertainly be permeated if wisdom

becomes strong enough.

The root paradox of keter is evidentin its role as a container of theuncontainable. The non-emanationistview holds that light of En Sof is notdiminished or degraded in any way asit assumes the function of keter, butketer’s function still appears to restrainand compose the light to pass onthrough the sefirot. Therefore keterrepresents the root paradox that appliesto all sefirot, whose functions extenddirectly from it. Uncontainablecontainment is the key realizationpassed through the shefa, and itsunderstanding is sifted through the

klipot of nogah.

Although the shefa is nothing otherthan the luminosity of En Sof realizedthrough the paradox of keter, and itpours into the ruach through daat, it isfelt most directly in yesod. Yesod iswhere the seal of the zivug of themiddle six sefirot and malkut eitherleads to the realization of wholeness orfalls back into habitual fragmentation.All klipot both gross and subtle can bepurified at this juncture if thesubstanceless clarity of En Sof can beheld as the nature of all appearances.Through a view based on En Sof alone,the true and faithful marriage of

dynamic luminosity and responsivespace reveals all phenomena as a gateof gnosis, without exception.

Between Adam and Eve in theGarden of Eden stands the Nachashserpent. The serpent’s positioncorresponds to yesod, where the zivugis consummated. Adam corresponds tothe ruach and Eve corresponds to thenefesh (middle six and malkut,respectively). The serpent representsthe volatility of the union of energeticmotion and its display, both in theaspects of so-called outer phenomenaand their inner interpretation. Nomatter how the mind designates the

position of phenomena, it is only thismeeting of energy and its display, andis always in the midst of transformingfrom one condition to another.Therefore if the essential nature is notrealized, the ever-changing conditionswill carry the mind into a seeminglyrandom chaotic race for fixation. Theserpent represents infinitely undulatingvibratory waveforms, which thepractitioner works with in the form ofwhatever is perceived. The klipot ofnogah are the front line of thisvibratory vista, which is presented likea screen upon which the volatility isprojected. However, the screen of

perception is not merely doomed torandom associative meandering, andcan purposefully outshine its dimchaotic opacity if it truly desires to doso.

When the realization of the zivugreaches maturity it perfectly reflectsthe indivisible union of chochmah andbinah, which is the unbreakablereproductive matrix of the seed of lightand womb of space. This results in themirrorlike gnosis of ruach hakodesh,which equalizes phenomena betweenthe upper and lower hehs of binah andmalkut. This perfect expanse is a visionof the open sky through the clouds. As

its scope is revealed the boundariesthat define waking life and deep sleepmelt away, and the doorway to theinnermost secret life of the adamahopens. The field of display whisperssecrets through the most mundanedetails, in general and specificcontexts, as all phenomena directlyassert the “light that darkens byillumination.”

The diagram (figure 3) maps out thethreefold continuum space. Because itfunctions as a subset, the circle ofrelative differentiation expresses theessentiality of basic space utterly andcompletely. No apparent barrier can

ever limit space, as its apparitionalparadox fills itself. Space is space,whether it presents phenomena or not.Space assumes three aspects within thediagram:

1. The great circle of theuncontainable

2. The mixing field of resonances3. The subset circle of relative

differentiation (which appearscontained)

This graphic breakdown implies thefollowing:

1. Absolute meaning in itself2. The open, fluid adaptability of

meaning’s application

3. The multiplicity of individualrelative meanings

This triplicity is analogous to H Oassuming the three forms of vapor,liquid, and crystallized ice. The tripleworlds of BeYeA and triple souls ofNaRaN reflect this, as do the threeparts of a klipah shell. However, thekey question arises: What is the H O initself? Can it be recognized innatelybeyond merely being identified withinits transitory forms? How does one getto know the basic essence? What is itbeyond its temporary changes in anabsolute sense?

2

2

The original purity of En Sof isinherent in all things and nothingnessequally. As contemplation cultivatesthis realization many unusualexperiences can arise to rub against theklipot of nogah. Inquiry into theseexperiences can be exceptionallybeautiful and interesting, however,experience itself is the principledistraction. All experience, even themost rarified states that arise inmystical practice, is predicated upon aperceiving subject and some perceivedobject-state. As practice developsexperiential states come and go, andthe habit of grasping after them either

dissipates or remains.

Experience is no more than a signindicating how the work is progressing.The heart of the matter is predicated ona decisive shift from experience towisdom, which arises within an all-consuming concern with the spacethrough which the parade ofexperiences arises. Ironically, this shiftcan only happen in the midst ofexperience. However, the emphasis is amatter of meaning. The resonant windsthat blow through contemplativepractice invite a brilliant wonder thatcan clear the open vista of pure openpossibility, no matter what garment it

is clothed in. No reified grasping canever fathom that openness. Thissensibility is the real treasure ofphenomena.

Figure 3

In our graphic model, contemplativeinquiry renders the line between outercircle and inner subset circlepermeable. This permeability allowsthe space that subsumes both of themto come to the forefront, rendering theoverall vision clear and precise, as theopenness of the greater can be directlyfelt in the lesser. This is the permeableexchange that unfolds as mind entersdeeply within the adamah. Nothing isadded or taken away. What is unused isonly the concept, or view, that thingsare substantial and real in theirseparateness. Gnosis dawns in the

absence of separation betweenessentiality and its display. Throughthe mixing field the aroma of thenectar of equalization invites the silentpoetry of life. However, this nobleaspiration must be sealed by strongfrequent practice. Appearance isalways willing to deceive.

The gnostic purpose of thearticulation of the two circles is toconsider the fallacy of their separation.Absolute and relative aspects cannot beignored. The separation appears but hasno actual reality. This is reflected inthe quote “Alef [1] is no less than bet[2].” As the meaning of this apparent

division changes, the illusion ofdisplay simply carries on.

Within the in-between of the mixingfield where the two circles touch, allphenomena function as symbols.Symbols are constructs that present thequestion of meaning. A key example isthe expanse of four directionsdisplayed by the circle’s quadrisection,known as the four rivers of the Gardenof Eden. Eden is an entire realm ofliving symbol. The klipot of nogahoperate in this symbol landscape,where there is only symbol at the skinof possibility, resting at the razor’sedge where formlessness and the

specificity of form merge. This skindraws relative meaning into question,always asserting the possibility oflimitless meaning-fullness.

The bottom of the diagram (figure 3)depicts the two possibilities: the arrayof klipot on the left and the fullness ofthe adamah on the right. Our viewholds no essential difference betweenthese seemingly opposite conditions,however, the differences must be dealtwith in order to face the mind’s actualcondition. This is one layer of meaningwithin the following quote from theeighth-century master Saraha: “Let usdrink in the lake’s water in which the

mountain-like sky is reflected, and letit happily spend its time at the lake’sshore” (126).

The nature of the lake’s water istotally clear, without disturbances. Itreflects the sky perfectly withoutinterruption, and that clarity isimmovable like a mountain. However,the stillness can move, lapping againstthe shore of variable appearances. Theclarity can then appear unclear. Doesthe water lose its nature? What arisesas fragmentation only fools those whofixate on the relative aspect ofappearances that hover on the surface.Once pure vision passes beyond these

concerns, aspirations to realize theessential nature become possiblewithin the array of whatever ispresented. This transformation happensnowhere else but in the vision of thingsexactly as they are, but the meaning ofwhat that represents radically changes.This is how the contemplativepractitioner happily spends his time atthe lake’s shore.

The meaning saturated field

C

GATE FOURThe Fullness

ONTEMPLATION IS BASED ONthe desire to return to pri- mordial

uncontainability within the display ofwhatever appears contained. As thedesire for return supersedes all lesserconcerns, resonant feeling tones billowforth beyond inner and outerdistinctions. They present the fullnessof the ground that supports allvariation, and is where the nectar of the

quintessence can be distilled. This isthe stream from which poetic beauty isdrawn, opening as the qualities ofexaltation, awe, and wonder. However,make no mistake; even the fullness canfall into experience and becomereified.

Contemplative efforts begin withcultivating intellectual understandingthat permeates the whole conceptualfield. Then feeling-tone resonancesarise from the felt quality of meaning,and the mind immerses within it like abath. Through this bath contemplativesilence introduces awareness to its ownnature. However, while this process

unfolds phenomena continue to spurtout in unpredictable display. No matterwhat joys or horrors appear, theadamah projects its magical array. Itsfullness is a talisman of absolute good,beyond the dichotomy of good versusevil. Recognition of its immensitystrips gross conceptuality on contact,yet the klipot of nogah can still reifythe feeling tones of ecstatic wonder andawe. Until the root of reification istotally broken through the fullness willassert wholeness as experience, albeitin an undifferentiated mode.

The spectrum of possibilitiesbreathes like a living organism,

echoing through infinity. Itsburgeoning permeability allowscascading layers of subtle meaning totumble through gross meanings. Thefullness assumes the form of the sumtotal of all of the layers, as theyinterpenetrate and suffuse space withvariation. Within this mixing field, thecontemplating subject can become lostwithin vastness. Thus the fullness runsthe risk of becoming one mightyperceptual object within which thesubject and all the nuances aresuffused. This amalgam can hoverbetween reification and dissolution in ahighly subtle form.

The habitual residue of reificationposits “thing-ness” upon whatever themind touches, including the minditself, which can swell to become theultimate thing. This can be the case asthe fullness is recognized. There aretwo ways this can happen. First, thevestigial reflexes of conceptuality canreify the undifferentiated field ofphenomena, which floods experience.The oceanic mass that is produced isgrasped and mistaken for the open vistaof space. The result is not anunderstanding of space, but anexperience of undifferentiatedgrasping. The second scenario grasps at

nothingness rather than the field ofsensation, and holds vacancy as anabsolute. Practitioners may have somesuccess at freeing themselves ofconcepts and fixations, but they end upgrasping at an empty void. Suchpractitioners have to realize theluminosity inherent within the fullnessin equanimity with basic space, or thenothingness they cling to will remain amere vacancy that is actually just amental construct based on absence.Each tendency requires what the otherlacks. Those who reify the void requirerecognition of the fullness, and thosewho grasp at the fullness have to

cultivate a better understanding ofspace.

Most modern people subscribe to theview of materialist nihilism, a viewthat arises because primordial purity isignored. Most human beings are noteven vaguely interested in the essentialnature of phenomena, and if it weresuggested, they would reject it outrightas implausible. This is largely becauseauthentic tastes of the wondrousfullness of space have not beendetected within the habit field, whichleaves things dry and mediocre, and inthe true sense of the word, ordinary.

The ordinary view of reality is basedon dualism. Duality arises as causesand effects are set against each other,and are reduced to mechanisticsequences by conceptual associations.Dualistic habits manifest variousdegrees of subtlety, and can bloom intoextremely elaborate metaphysicalstrategies. As tastes of the fullness areapprehended in contemplation, thedualistic patterns expand. When themind actively seeks to enter the field ofvastness it is offered the possibility ofpassing beyond dualistic conceptualityaltogether. If there is sufficientaspirational understanding to cultivate

a view beyond the dualistic constraints,the fullness becomes an open door intothe freedom of sublime openness. Thisis because the fullness is essentiallyequal to En Sof, and is not a mere by-product of any conceptual process orspiritual ideology.

The view that passes beyondordinary dualism but yet continues toreify the fullness is called monism. Itarises as wholeness is grasped at.Monism is a vast improvement overordinary dualism, because the variationof phenomena can be accepted as acomplete unity, and that unity can beconsidered and probed. However, as the

mind identifies the monad it holds it asan endlessly immense comprehensiveconcept, into which perception issubsumed. This is an improvementover ordinary concepts, because at leastthe mind becomes trained intoabsorption. The monad is the greatestmental construct that is possible for themind to engage. It is usually identifiedby deification, which holds the monadas a god. The monad is then held as theultimate source of all things, whichcreates and destroys everything withinitself. The monad then becomes boththe ultimate cause and the ultimateeffect, and the ultimate origin and

ultimate destination.

Breaking free of monism is based onnon-reification. It allows a deepdreamlike poignancy to pass throughall stoppage points, so that fullnessunfolds into infinity like the sky.Contemplation of the sky-like nature ofthe cognitive field draws dissolutionthrough all possible objects, includingthe monad. Holding dissolutionsimultaneously with the fullnessnullifies the basis of the identificationthat would be reified into a monad, andleaves the fullness free to spread asspace. This points to meaning in itself,which eclipses all lesser meanings. The

adamah can then be understood to beequal to En Sof—truly free to expressanything and everything without everbecoming reduced to “one in counting”( a s Tikkuney Zohar states). Thisunderstanding is the door throughwhich something and nothingnessultimately equalize.

As the zivug of the middle six andmalkut matures as the realization of thefullness of the adamah, the upper unionof chochmah and binah is reflectedthrough it like a mirror. The upperunion opens the gates of the ultimatebounty and issues its release, but thatdepends on how clear the mirror of the

lower zivug is for receiving it andreflecting it back. Whatever klipothave accumulated becomes the degreeto which it is distorted and deflected,and thus, reification and divisionbecome manifested in the engagementof phenomena.

As spiritual practice purifies theklipot, ruach hakodesh develops andmalkut becomes a clear reflection ofketer. Every aspect of meaningbecomes reborn within this clarity. Itequalizes the lower seven sefirot withEn Sof by way of keter’s basicquestion: Is space permeable andequalizing, or is it a barrier? What

function manifests as phenomenaappear? If En Sof runs and returns fromits nature without diminishment, onlypurity is known. If not, then all mannerof obstructions take over.

All of the sefirot in each world arecompletely suffused by the shefa of EnSof on the absolute level, but on therelative level each can only hold theinflux according to the degree it isresisted. This paradox is referred to int h e Zohar as “touching but nottouching.” The relative resistance doesnot imply that the shefa is in any waydiminished, far from it. Each echo ofthe tzimtzum forms a vessel that is

always essentially open, but on therelative level appears filled to capacity.The tzimtzum is the root of both thelimitless display of variation, as wellas the reductionist reflexes that beingshabituate. The lower zivug can eitherabsorb the crystalline dew from theskull of Atika Kadisha at the cusp ofketer, or it can spill over with excess.The wasted bounty then coagulates orfreezes, closing up around phenomenato create the three layers of a klipah.

When perception poses no sense ofsolidity or separation the gates remainopen, and no cognitive freezing occurs.This mitigates the sense of individual

selfhood within the perceiver. Whenthere is no knower there cannot be anything known (which is the basis of thefreezing). In the wake of self-identifiedconceptuality the equalization of EnSof spreads throughout the sefirot,which is the basis of realization. As theabsolute emerges as the primeconsideration relative resistances fade,and the fullness of basic space becomesthe heart of the matter. The next twogates deal with the realization of thefullness as it is refined beyond subtleconceptuality, resulting in the wildintoxicating gnosis of ruach hakodesh.

The shefa is the ultimate solvent for

conceptuality and the quintessentialalchemical elixir. If recognized, itpropagates both responsive fluidity andthe fire of its non-reification. It equallycreates and destroys all constructswithout posing any hint of contrast orcontradiction. The appearance ofcontrast only arises with relativedeflection, which is of course taken asmerely a playful display of gnosiswithin the view.

To properly understand the diagram(figure 4), we must analyze a passagefrom the Fountain of Wisdom. Thepassage provides a sequence of fourkey divine names. The first three are

standard names placed along themiddle pillar at keter, tiferet, andmalkut; they are: AHYH, YHVH, andADNY. The fourth is a highly unusualkabbalistic name: YYAY. Thecomponents of YYAY are the keyletters alef (01) and yud (10). Thecontinuum implied between the twoletters represents a scope beyondbeginning and end, which is the basisof acausality. The formula of YYAYfollows the common kabbalisticsequence of the Tetragrammaton,however, the yud (symbol ofessentiality) predominates. Observe:

1. Yud: essential dynamism

2. Yud: essential responsiveness3. Alef: wholeness (alef = 1) of

infinite possibility4. Yud: essential display

Figure 4

Here is the excerpt in which this isgiven from the Fountain:

Return to the first principle priorto vocalization; from whichflames spread five times strongerthan strong, hotter than hot,fiercer than fire; all grasping theyud of transformation.Transformation is vocalization.Vocalization is formation.Formation is the utterance.Continue until the four namesdependent upon the yud are clear.These four letters are “like a coalbound to a flame” (Sefer

Yetzirah). The spark divides intofour heads. All refer to one. Yudis a gushing fountain whosewaters spread into 24 parts. Eachpart has four roots. Each root hasfour branches. Each branch hasfour vocalizations. Thevocalizations split into anindeterminate number until theyreturn again to the fountain fromwhich they are uttered forth.These are the four names. Thefirst is AHYH, the second isYHVH, the third is ADNY, thefourth is YYAY.

The prior “first principle” refers toEn Sof, and its “flame” is the spark of

nondimensional fire that consumes alllesser concerns. The “four heads” referto the cardinal directions of space. Ingraphic terms, this expanse isrepresented by quadrisection. Countingits central point, each circle thus refersto a fivefold array, which correspondsto “five times stronger.” The greatcircle and its subset present two circlesin quadrisection, and thus equal a yud(5 + 5 = 10). The implication bindsabsolute space to its relativeadaptation, which is the total ground inits fullness.

“Yud is a fountain whose watersspread into 24 parts” refers to the inner

and outer lines that are graphicallyformed by the crossed axis lines withinthe circle and its subset. Each quadrantextends 3 lines, which makes a total of12 for all four directions. This numberis doubled when counting both theinner and outer applications, thusmaking 24.

In the diagram (figure 4), thefullness is presented by 5 alefs in unionwith a hexagram, which constitutes thealchemical marriage of tiferet andmalkut; malkut is heh (5) and tiferet isvav (6). The hexagram contains 6 yuds:each of its triangles containing 3 alefswith an alef in the center (6 × 10 = 60 +

alef = 61). This gematria of 61corresponds to the word AYiN (En),meaning “nothingness.”

The layout extends the name YYAYthrough the double triads of thehexagram, which corresponds to theruach. In its midst is a single centralalef. In the correspondence givenearlier the alef of YYAY indicatesyetzirah, and the ruach. This is theaspect through which the gnosticsolvent can permeate phenomena andcoax realization forth. Through thedoubling reflection of the triads,threefold creativity is bound at itsheart.

In the lower portion of the diagramthese aspects are bound within ahexagonal periphery, forming theimage of a cube. This implies thereflex of the six directions falling intothe solidifying habit field of three-dimensional space. This is wherecontemplative work needs to beaccomplished. Inside the cube, as seenfrom a single vantage point (symbolicof a conventional view), are placed thethree alchemical principles of salt,mercury, and sulphur. They are thecatalysts of change employed in thetransformation of habit into realization.

Consider the following extensions:

The sum total of all letters in the sub-circle: 5 alefs + 2 triple-yud triads (60)= 65, the gematria of ADNY, the divinename of malkut (indicates ground ofdisplay); ADaMaH (50) + letters ofhexagram seal (61) = 111, the gematriaof alef (ALP).

The alef represents the all-basisground of adamah, which arises as thegnosis of absolute wholeness. Thearray of YYAY represents the ruachthat dawns as ruach hakodesh (gnosis).Realization is possible owing to theimplicit presence of the ground ofdisplay within the ruach’s motion, thusthe zivug of Zer Anpin and Nukvah.

Through this union the ground isawakened, and the essential nature ofall things is realized. The supernalunion of light and space pervades allthings, and chochmah and binah floodthe perceptual mechanism via daat.This is represented by the first YY ofthe name. Every facet then becomes itsreflection, and only the divine remainsas infinite variation. This is the final Yof the name. Thus alef seals the bondof the yud in its triplicity.

T

GATE FIVEScintillating Dissolution

HE SMALL CONCEPTION of theworlds and everything in them

dissolves on contact as the scintillatingluminosity of En Sof is glimpsed. Asthe static conceptions disappearphenomena does not simply vanish; itis instantaneously reborn in magicalform beyond even the slightest hint ofsolidity or substance. The worldstands-in-dissolving, but nothing is lost

and or gained, while the unknowableknowing of naked wonderment rebirthsitself. Once this secret is recognized,its realization becomes the primarygnostic intoxicant.

The light that darkens byilluminating exudes a radiance thatpasses through dualistic contrasts ofbright and dark as if they posed nodifference whatsoever. This is theessence of the awakening ground. It isalso the case as realization passesthrough the membrane that articulatesthe relative functions of waking lifeand deep sleep, which slip into anequalizing dreamlike twilight.

Direct recognition of thescintillating aspect of the groundreveals phenomena at the razor’s edgeof open possibility betweencontainment and uncontainability,falling to neither side. Whateverappears serves as an invitation into theself-liberating jewellike mists that filland surround the tenuous outlines ofrelative form. The tide of blazingdroplets floods the perceptual field inclusters and atmospheres as thedistillate of the alchemical process istasted. However, until stability iscultivated, these glimpses only swellforth sporadically, and then in a flash

they disappear—and the mind returnsto its habit base in one form or another.

As the klipot of nogah are brokenthrough, the capacity for choicedissolves. There is no subject to chooseand no object to be chosen as themind’s coordinates open into blazingnothingness. Wisdom is choiceless,more vivid and penetrating thananything that can be conceived. Whatremains is literally inconceivable.Tastes of this arise, in small or largepassages, with the induction of shefafrom the permeable skull of keter.

Each drop of shefa is a spark of

boundless fire; an ungraspable blaze,revealing the glow of immensitythrough its portal. Each openswholeness beyond any dimensionalframework, wherein the autonomy ofindividual, collective, and cosmicvolition is nullified. Free will can thenbe understood for the conceptualcontrivance it is. And like magic,spontaneous action manifests beyondidentity and identification. No will is insight—neither cosmos, god, or man.

The shefa streams as crystallinedew, which pours from the gap betweenthe skull of Atika Kadisha (keter) andwhat the Zohar calls “above-above”

(En Sof). This is the cusp ofuncontainable containment as it“touches but does not touch” its ownessentiality. This language is used tothwart any association withmechanistic activity.

The shefa is the incomprehensiblesubstanceless luminosity of spaceitself, beyond any boundary. Itssparkling atmosphere settles beyondscale and directionality, withoutasserting any distinction betweensomething or nothingness. As eachdrop overtakes perceiving, it directlyasserts the shefa-suffused air of keteranew through whatever arises. The

space of display, however it mightappear, opens as the wholeness of theawakening ground beyond reificationor division. This realization clearsaway all barriers between relativedifferentiation and absoluteessentiality, simply because theconcept of a barrier loses its meaning.

Each drop offers the unmaking ofconceptual contrivances, and allows thereturn to the primordial essentialitythat no phenomena ever actually left.Therefore the shefa does not changephenomena; it only dissolves the habitsthat limit their perception. By notconforming to temporality or

dimensionality, the shefa-suffusedfield liberates phenomena fromreduction into substance. Within theshefa a mighty fire consumes the reflexpatterns that support conceptualization,which lead the mind to grasp on toexperience and substantiality. Therecan be no substance or experiencewhere there is no conceptualization,and without a subject to conceptualizeor object to be conceptualized,phenomena are set free.

Once open, meaning is free torespond to any condition whileremaining limited by none. Theessence of meaning offers the continual

possibility of instant adaptation withineach unique stream of variation, nomatter what seems to arise. This is theseed power of manifestation, coequalwith awareness, which impregnates thegestating womb of the appearing. Thechild of these parents is a gnosemicuniverse, complete and whole, rebornbeyond time and location.

The concepts of all and nothing cantake no foothold here, and do not posita distinction between one single sparkand the continuous multitude of sparks.This aspect of “countlessness” emergesfrom a single heart shared by all things.It outshines the standard of measure

with which the realms are constructed.Thus it never falls to “one in counting.”

The sparks that present the dawningof the awakening ground are woventhrough threads, each leading intoincomprehensibility. Unlike physicalthreads, these vector paths begin andend nowhere, and are completelyinterdependent. Each aspect movesevery other aspect of an infinite array.The field of connections is literallyspace itself. It is so full it is open;infinitely vast—a living tapestry ofopenness appearing.

The space of binah, like the

luminosity of chochmah, is inherentwithin the paradox of keter without anydiminishment. Thus they areconsidered two sides of one brainwithin the skull of keter, which offersthe apparent containment of theuncontainable. The realization ofscintillating dissolution points out thatthe basic space of binah is continuouswith, and not obstructed from, theapparitional display of malkut. Ittotally transforms the meaning oftzimtzum, rather than denying it.Manifestation arises and collapses intothe exact same space in the exact sameinstant. Appearing becomes solve et

coagula, a scintillating dissolution.

Kabbalistically, the scintillatingspark field allows the reductive din’im(forces of gevurah) to harmonize intoperfect balance with the chesadim(forces of chesed) such that only tiferet(beauty) becomes possible. Theadamah echoes their formless formwithout the interruption of the conceptsof being or nonbeing. Realizationprevents their echoes from coagulatingin perception, and can only assert EnSof shimmering in the responsivenessof phantom thundering.

In the diagram (figure 5), between

the outer and inner aspects of thequadrisected circle, the mixing fieldopens at the cusp of the subset. This isthe point at which the world of separatethings melts its separateness to assumeits magical insubstantial wholeness.Both absolute and relative can easilybecome conceptual deceptions. Neithercan ever be found by itself. Liberationof the divisive concepts that tear theseaspects apart opens deep withinphenomena, as both circles rejoin eachother in the midst of an equalizingessentiality. Their mutual return toprimordial wholeness is a continualprocess, unfolding without end. The

continual dissolution of relativeboundaries allows perception toparticipate in the nature of thingsexactly as they are, without needing tochange the way they appear.Phenomena are always inherentlypassing away in the midst of theirarising, which is the primary mark ofthe gnostic view.

Figure 5

Each drop of shefa is a spark, andeach spark is an ungraspable point.Each point is a vowel. Within theinterior subset circle are 5 alefs that areclothed by the tenfold vowel array.There are only 9 vowel points, the tenthis counted as the silence of the letteritself. The letter used here is alef (01),and so the 10 vowels together with itbalance as the equation 01 = 10 (seemy book The Sacrificial Universe for adeeper explanation of this formula).

In the lower portion of the diagramthree crowns mark the triple

manifestation. This indicates the soulsof NaRaN and worlds of BeYeAcompletely broken through by the shefaof keter. This realization renders allphenomena as a sparkling bath ofgnosis. The 5 alefs combined with 10vowel aspects represent the completeadamah. This is “all” (KoL), which isgematria 50, the number of the gates ofbinah that open the bounty of keterupon the triple manifestation.

T

GATE SIXStabilizing the Realization

HE SIXTH STAGE marks theindestructible gnosis of the stable

realizer, or tzadik, who has totallybroken through the momentum ofconceptual habituation. Only perfectscintillating radiance remains in thewake of conceptuality, standing-in-dissolving in its variation. Disruptiveklipot are no longer relevant, becausethe tzadik’s mind is completely

nullified to the infinite. This is anabsolute victory over all mind’sobstructions and obscurations. Thestream of the tzadik’s mind has soperfectly bound, equalized, anddistilled the mystery of En Sof thatthere is only continual breakthrough.Breakthrough itself is so complete andwhole that there is nothing remainingto break through. This realization doesnot mark a specific goal or destination;quite the contrary, it is the living sealof no (En) end (Sof).

This does not imply that the tzadikis immune to circumstantial setbacks.If you strike the tzadik he will feel the

physical pain, however, the meaning ofthe pain will be quite different than itis to a conceptually fixated person. Tothe tzadik there is only sublimeessentiality. That essentiality is alwayspresented in wildly unpredictable form,and includes the horrors of the world.Since the tzadik does not grasp at anyobstacle, pain does not becomesuffering. Evidence of this can be seenin the writings of such individuals asKalonymus Kalman Shapira, rabbi ofthe Warsaw ghetto during the Nazioccupation of Poland.

What defines a human being and thehuman realm in general is the shared

momentum of conceptualization.Stable gnosis marks a radicaldeparture. Yet the realized tzadik walksamong us, speaks, and leaves teachingsand images. Therefore his presenceseals the primordial paradox ofimmanence and transcendence. Theembodied display of the tzadik is thepivot of a universal sacrifice, which wejoin in by spiritually attaching our ownlives to the presence of such apossibility. The stable realization thetzadik expresses is a possibility foreveryone and constitutes the crown onthe head of the system.

Gnosis can best be communicated in

symbols. One key symbol is a location-less point echoing infinite peripheriesthrough space. The space that theechoes pass through is spontaneouslycreated by the unfolding of theirpassing. The dynamic bond betweenthe point and its peripheries is like avoice that speaks words it can neverdepart from. Imagine a universeformed of only such words. But what isthe nature of the voice in itself prior tospeech? What is space prior tocontextualization?

Space, as a human beingconceptualizes it, is not the basicprimordial space. It is a manufactured

construct formed by thoughts. Themodel of a static field that things passinto and out from is derived fromdimensional concepts pertaining tocontainment, depth, distance, andvacuity. Basic space is not this. It is theinfinite depth of the nondimensionalself-glow of En Sof. Its infiniteresponsiveness is absolute. As itmanifests differentiated form, itsinfinite expanse manifests with it.Layers of meaning pass through itsdisplay and permeate through itself, byitself, and of itself—literallyeverywhere, anywhere, and nowhere.This completely negates the axioms of

coordinate differentiation that temporaland dimensional location is basedupon.

The crux of gnosis is the realizationthat the magical continuum of the lightof En Sof and the essential nature ofthe mind are equal, and the dynamicthrust exuded by that nature opensspace to suit whatever conditions arepossible. There is no such thing asspace in itself, it is an openexpansiveness that is conformational.It opens as it is applied. This cutsdirectly to the explosive uniqueness ofB’reshit, the basis of the adamah. Itsabsolute dynamism is basic space in a

definitive sense. Even though the openexpanse and the dynamism can bearticulated conceptually as differentaspects, they are two sides of the sameface. As it is glimpsed, the shadows ofconstrictive reflexes evaporate likemists in the wake of its ceaselessdawning, inviting all phenomena tostand unfettered with implications thathave no end.

If the primordial thrust can berecognized for even a moment as longas a finger snap, all worlds and soulscan be sacrificed to the primalconsuming fire. The spark of completewholeness presents total liberation. It

blazes in silence, alone. The tzadik isnothing other than this spark of silenceassuming form, which nullifies theseparation between its singularity andinfinite variation.

Gnostic realization of thenullification of keter within En Sofallows wholeness to explode intomultiplicity without ever leaving itsbasic ground. This explosion isrecounted in Fountain of Wisdom: “Aflow rapid like sparks producedsimultaneously to disperse into manydirections when the blacksmith wieldshis hammer.” What is being referred tohere is an unspoken paradox; a singular

spark beyond being or nonbeing thatcontinually explodes into allpossibilities. The non-dual sparkassumes the form of the animatingpower of speech; the vowel points thatallow the letters to be vocalized. Thegreat spark is a one that is ten. Itsstreams travel to nowhere fromnowhere, as its sparks reacheverywhere from everywhere. Throughthe spark field the voice of silencepasses swiftly into specificity. Allpermutations of letter combinations arevitalized through it, and manifestationbecomes possible.

The vowels mark the outpouring of

the light of En Sof into whatever ariseswithin the seemingly static consonantstructure of manifestation. The vowelsstretch into the streaming torrents ofphenomena, woven into patterns thatform all things. Through theinterconnectivity of the vowels andletters En Sof can do or seem likeanything. It thickens, fills, surrounds,and dissolves its self-generated vessels.Through this tapestry of dropscoalescing as streams the mysteriousphantom thunderings inter-permeateand intersect as mists and oceans. Thisis the meaning of “And Elohim said . ..” This is the real adamah, the ground

of the Shechinah. Beyond loss or gain,it presents the simplicity of B’Reshit.Through it, even the klipot are realizedas primordially pure, and as such, ceaseto be klipot at all. Even in their falsitythe klipot sparkle as insubstantial,vivid, jewellike projections whoseechoes present an endless field. Thissparkling field is felt in stage four(fullness), is clarified in stage five(scintillating dissolution), and becomesstable in stage six. Together thejeweled mists sparkle and shine,carrying the full blessing force of thepath.

In the diagram (figure 6), three

aspects of the vowel points aredepicted streaming off the shefaquintessence in drops through the threestages of en-worldment, as follows:

1. The top diagram places the vowelpoints in the mixing field betweenthe greater and lesser circles,where the absolute and relativeaspects are realized to beintrinsically undivided.

2. The middle diagram spreads itsscintillation to the four directions,suffusing the whole of space.

3. The bottom diagram presentsundifferentiated suffusion inwhich anything, everything, andnothingness abide in scintillating

dissolution equally.

Figure 6

Note: The 10 vowels include 9 activeforms and 1 silent form, as the letteritself. The letters are considered thevessels and the vowel points are thelights that animate them. The tensefirot correspond to the nekudot in thefollowing manner:

1. Keter kawmatz 2. Chochmah patach 3. Binah tzeyray 4. Chesed segol 5. Gevurah shva 6. Tiferet cholem 7. Netzach chirik 8. Hod shuruk

9. Yesod m’loopum 10. Malkut no vowel

The 10 vowels (including silence)are multiplied by fivefoldmanifestation to produce 50, thegematria of the words adamah (ground)and kol (all). Thus the all-basis groundpresents a scintillation of sparks thatanimate the letter-vessels of the divinespeech. The all-basis is elaborated inthe Fountain of Wisdom:

Yud is the fountain. Its roots arerooted, its streams connected, andits drops are based in the tikkunof the circle. The circle surrounds

that which encompasses,encircling that which stands. Thecircle is derived from alef andalef from yud.

“The circle that surrounds” isabsolute basic space. “Surrounds thatwhich encompasses” refers to itsrelative subset. The yud dynamicallythrusts forth the inherent wholeness ofthe alef, which is the basis of space inall its variation. Infinite echoes oftzimtzum reverberate its primordiallight into complexity without everleaving its singularity. Yud and alef arethus equal, but not the same.

As the Sefer Yetzirah states, “Theirend is imbedded in their beginning, andtheir beginning in their end, like aflame in a burning coal” (1:7). In hiscommentary to the Sefer Yetzirah,Isaac the Blind elaborates upon thiswith the following phrase: “The endimbedded in the beginning is aspreading fountain.”

Every so-called end the mind fixatesupon is an invitation to return to theprimordial fountain of B’reshit that isthe dynamic essence of wholeness.Gnosis returns all ends to a continualbeginning without origin or source,which nothing ever departed from. This

is the great tikkun (rectification) of theapparent brokenness of ordinaryperception. It serves as the ultimateoffering through which all lessermeanings can surrender to the greatmeaning-fullness of En Sof.

Rabbi Isaac attributes “beginning”to chochmah and “end” to binah. Byextension, this attributes yud to thedynamic perpetual beginning and alefto the wholeness presented as anunending series of ends in continuum,displayed as the ground. Together theyrepresent the full scope of En Sof as acomplete spectrum.

The beginning in question iscertainly not a mere linear startingpoint. It is a potency that is continuallyreborn as infinite phenomena that standin scintillating dissolution, always new,always fresh. The beginning is realizedas whatever so-called end may bepresented, but its essential status as acontinual beginning always remainsconstant. This transforms theperception of the echoes of thetzimtzum from a series of stoppages toan array of open gates. All displaysthus become permeable, as thecohesive wholeness of the alef’s basicunity stands as an invitation into

tikkun.

U

DISSOLVING-IN-APPEARING

LTIMATELY, ALL SIX GATESare held as a single realization.

This realization allows the value offirst three gates to be directlyexpressed by the conjunction of gatesfour and five. This conjunction is whatis stabilized in the realization of thesixth gate.

This crucial realization is based on afullness that is always dissolving into

scintillation in the moment it arises.The simultaneity of arising and passingaway has no localizable or specificbeginning or end. Gnostic breakthroughdirectly erodes the sense of coordinatedimensionality and temporality oncontact, pointing instead to theatemporal and nondimensionaldisposition of the awakening groundthat is the basis of wonder and awe.

Dissolving-in-appearing is thequintessential gnosemic gesture: acontinual self-consumption that arisesas all things without ever contradictingitself. It is known in the simultaneity ofsolve et coagula. As meditative

stability is cultivated, nothing canobscure or obstruct it, as it shines asthe quintessence of universal mercury.

Its adaptive nature cannot bedefinitively codified into anymechanical process. If dissolving-in-arising can be directly recognized, it isunderstood as implicit in the act ofliving. This speaks to the centralquestion of how an individualapproaches contemplative practice. Arethe six stages a linear technique? Doesa practitioner try to move from one tothe next in a single practice session?This question must remain unanswered,so that each can discover what works in

the uniqueness of each moment. Afixed technique might prove effectiveon one day and become useless on thenext. However, if one works on anunderstanding of dissolving-in-appearing, any moment can be offeredto the service of contemplativepractice.

If a practitioner can simply openthrough space and allow its innateluminosity to manifest as awarenesswithout contrivance, then nothingfurther needs to be done. The onlyproblem is that for most people thisapproach is a total disaster. It becomesfalsified without the person having any

insight into why. The act ofcontemplation then falls into amanufactured contrivance, producing afabricated event accepted as ameditative object of “experience.” Thishappens so effortlessly that people willnot believe that they are evenconceptualizing anything, because theyare immersed in an experience thatthey believe tells them otherwise. Rareis the person who is able to breakthrough this wall.

The practice must open “prior to”experience. This is the primordial ororiginal expanse of B’reshit: theunfixed beginningless beginning

inherent in phenomena. Instead ofmechanically seeking to open theperceptual field, it might be moreaccurate to speak of not letting it close.Reductionistic habits are quiet, andfreeze the mind into habituationwithout the person noticing. Holding toopenness can mitigate this closure, butit can become contrived as well as thepractitioner fixates on a mentalconstruct of what he or she thinksspace is. This faux openness thenbecomes a large and heavy conceptualburden, rather than a substancelessrelease from conceptuality.

The openness of the perceptual field

is penetrated by an organ of perceptionthat cannot be located. It is notspecifically in the brain, in the heart, orthe belly; it is found in the confluenceof all three acting as a cohesive unit.Sometimes this confluence stretcheslike a muscle and strains, or relaxesand lets go. Sometimes it gets tired.Sometimes it cannot function at all andit just gives up. But no matter what itdoes or does not do, the knowingorgans of awareness are always rightthere, wherever the mind is asserted.

Spiritual practice changes itsrequirements continually, and insight isneeded for its adaptation. There are

times when an emphasis on devotionaloutpouring is perfectly suited. At othertimes structured technical meditationsare precisely what is required. At othertimes formlessness is most effective.Hopefully this guide can serve theheart of these fluid responses beyondany of mind’s contrivances.

Presented here is a diagram (figure7) representing the triple worlds ofBeYeA ( briah, yetzirah, assiah) andsoul aspects of NaRaN (neshamah,ruach, nefesh). In its center is a circleof vowel points that represent the arrayof primordial sparks that are drawninto the ruach during contemplation.

Inside of the circle is a hexagramrepresenting the ruach itself. At itsapex is the reflective moon of wisdom,and at its bottom is the blazing sun oflife force. Between them in the heart isthe nondimensional location-less point.In the four quadrants around thethreefold construct are a series ofhexagrams and squares within circles.They extend the graphic form of heh(Shechinah) that contains a small vav(6) and a large dalet (4). The sixes bind(vav/nail) and the fours open(dalet/door), and their union presentsthe magical display of the “standing-in-dissolving” of phenomena. At the

bottom of the image is a mixing bowlwhere alchemical work isaccomplished. In the hexagram at theupper right the mixing bowl receivessupernal luminosity dripping downfrom the moon of chochmah. In thehexagram at the upper left the vitalblaze heats the moon from below.Around the main construct are crownsthat refer to the ultimate paradoxbetween keter and En Sof, whichultimately subsume the worlds andsouls within the nectar of gnosticintoxication.

Figure 7

The next diagram (figure 8) providesplanetary/alchemical attributions thatare rather unconventional. They differfrom both Hermetic qabbalah andmainstream Jewish kabbalah. Thediagram sets the sefirot with theirplanets/metals in relation to the displayfield of malkut. This seals the cohesionof the six days of creation of Genesis 1with the sealing Shabbat space of theseventh day. Correspondences are asfollows:

Figure 8

Chesed Expands aslove/compassion

Jupiter

GevurahContracts aswrath/awe

Saturn

Netzach Expandingexchange;breakthrough

Mars/Venus

Hod Contractingexchange; analysis

Venus/Mars

The middle pillar of the diagramdepicts the exchange of secret mercurytransacted through the sun and moon.Tiferet draws the influence of keter(through daat) corresponding to the

moon. Malkut raises the vital spark,corresponding to the sun. Integrationbetween these aspects is sealed at thegate of yesod, where the quintessenceof secret mercury tempers gold andsilver beyond difference, allowing theirimpulses to be expressed as the singleawakening ground of all phenomena.

A

2

FLIGHT OF THEMERKAVAH

NY CONSTRUCT CANBECOME an opportunity for

contemplative practice, if the properview can be maintained. If the mindlongs deeply enough for awakening,any outer or inner perception can openinfinite gates. Directing the flight ofaspiration through the passageways of

mental fixation and turbulence isalluded to by the ancient symbol of thesky-borne chariot (merkavah). TheJewish mystical tradition has used thesymbol of the merkavah in this waysince the Temple period, long beforethe word kabbalah was used.

The merkavah is carried aloft by thewinds of poetic resonance. Theresonances spread from subtleimpressions that grow within the mostintimate felt qualities. Beyond ordinarythoughts and feelings, the resonancesoverflow past the borders of inner andouter divisions to open and close thegates of mystical ascent. In passing

through them a sense of permeability isdiscovered. When first observed, theresonances are barely there. Hoveringwithin a delicate and tenuous mixingfield, they shimmer in a precariousunsteady balance. The field never holdsstill, and recedes into its habits whenattention presses too roughly. However,the field can open upon a razor’s edge:falling neither to form or formlessness.Within this precious intersection theflight of the merkavah takes off.

The key to the merkavah’s flight isthe capacity to discern wisdom fromexperience. Wisdom cannot becontained within any experiential state,

although it is paradoxically not foundelsewhere. Wisdom is recognized asthe Zohar suggests: “touching yet nottouching” (1:65a). Within the elusiveresonant winds the mind learns the artof unmaking its solidity, to engage itsmost subtle qualities. By unmaking itsresistant coarseness the mind learns tosoar through its winds, and cancombine the delicacy of its touch witha deep longing for the untouchable.

The mind’s subtlety is awakenedthrough concern with the ground ofmystery that presents all things. Thepresence of the ground, both within themind and in all phenomena, is the true

buried treasure in our midst. But nomatter how wondrous our spiritualexperiences may seem, they alwayspresent a potential trap of reificationthat stops the merkavah in its path. Thearrow of mind must not stop at anytarget, no matter how subtle. Hitting atarget means something is grasped andcontained, whether it be a paradise or ahell. Gnosis subsumes the mind withinits own endlessness. The noble aimbecomes clear as the flying arrow isequalized within the space throughwhich it flies. The dynamism of theflying can then be realized asinherently open, and its motion

becomes reborn. If the arrow of mindstops anywhere, contemplation isofficially over.

Walls that seem impermeable can bepermeated by the merkavah, if practicebecomes fierce and persistent enough.However, this does not have anythingto do with changing outercircumstances. This pursuit is utterlyand completely unconcerned withmanipulating the world. Here, themind’s value system is poised to makea decisive shift from an all-consumingconcern with circumstance to a newvista of concern with open essentiality.The greater concern will always usurp

the lesser, and each practitionerstruggles with what is truly importantin his or her mind. The good news isthat the mystical sensibility can becultivated, and concern withcircumstance fades as concern withessentiality grows. It grows with thelonging for release into freedom, whichdeepens into love for basic space. Lovefor the silence and beauty of basicspace is the mark of the aspiration thatsets meaning free.

As gnostic longing matures,meaning is self-liberated into itsessential nature, and individual relativemeanings are subsumed into the

absolute meaning-fullness ofincomprehensible wisdom. We cannotever grasp wisdom with knowing alone.It dawns as it merges with the openexpanse of unknowing in the midst ofeach moment: where moments are sentoff to die within the graveyard oftemporal and conceptual limitations.The gnostic impulse seeks to breakthrough the mind’s layered shadows tounfurl the beauty of this paradox at theroot. Beauty comes into its own, untilall appearance exudes it as analchemical distillate equally suffusedindiscriminately.

The alchemical distillation of gnosisrests on recognizing a single spark ofthe ground within the perceptual field.Through that spark universes collapseand rearise simultaneously. Like alightning flash, knowing and the knowncollapse together in a single instant,and infinite sparks follow in the wakeof the opening. Each consumes thewhole world, yet the world neverdisappears.

Each spark is an opening ofwholeness, and infinite torrents of suchopenings cascade throughout space.They can be siphoned through

contemplation into mists where theopenings accumulate, until all thatremains is opening. The clusters movelike winds and hover like fogs, rainingblessing upon everything. Theircloudlike array defies number, but it allbegins with one spark of breakthrough.The first spark invites the canopy ofstars through which mind enters itsown self-collapse. In this, the light ofawareness (AVR = 207) is recognizedas the mystery (RaZ = 207).

Without the spark of directrecognition the gnostic path isimpossible. However, through theportal of such a spark, the capacity for

continual amazement is boundless. Thespark is a glimpse beyond wakefulbrightness and unconscious darkness inthe “light that darkens byillumination,” as the Fountain ofWisdom states. It ripens in the night ofunknowing and sends its perfumethrough the light of day, felt in thesecret place where both touch. This iswhere the light of the full moon can beseen in all its brightness within thedark night of the new moon.

As practice deepens the winds of theruach become pregnant with drops, asperception’s flavors mix with longingfor openness suffused within the

potency of meaning. The fire ofaspiration boils the mixture within thespace of passing experiences, andfragrances are exuded that invitegnostic intoxication. The great workrelies on not grasping after theintoxicating experiences. Yet if boiledintensely enough the sparks ripen andaccumulate wildly, and from theiraccumulation the continuous ground isrecognized, and the Tree of Life bearsits fruit.

Gnostic intoxication is all-consuming, and it can serve one’spractice or it can drag it into a prisonof grasping and aversion. Conventional

existence is founded on grasping afterpleasure and avoiding pain, and thiscircuit is precisely what is abandonedwhen gnostic aspirations are cultivated.Therefore the mind must learn to passthrough its intoxications, and must notlinger too long within the pleasantaromas of the mixing field. Themerkavah must keep flying until itbecomes the sky.

Mind is the offerer, and all itsphenomena are the offering. The openspace into which it is offered is the solerecipient. All three are aspects of asingle ground that awakens in the act ofsurrender, making it clear that mind is

actually offering itself into theuncontainable. Awakening pours itselfthrough its own expanse as that whichawakens, and that by which awakeningtakes place.

Within the quadrisected circle andsubset, the merkavah flies at thedissolving cusp of the interiorboundary. This has implications thattouch all of space. Quadrisection formsas vertical and horizontal axis linesmeet, allowing four lines to spread tothe corners of infinity. The cardinaldirections offer vectors of motion thatopen everywhere, and thus arrivenowhere in particular. The six

directions (up, down, front, back, right,left) never depart from the expanse.Counted with the meeting point at thecenter, there are five points thatconstitute a heh. The letter can begraphically broken down into a dalet(4) on the right side of the letter and asmall vav (6) on the lower left. Thebinding continuum of the ruach is thenail of the vav (6), and the space ofopen passage is the door of the dalet(4). Together they allude to theShechinah; with a hidden numericalvalue unfolding as a secret yud (6 + 4 =10) as pure beginning-ness, alwaysnew. The primordial dynamism

symbolized by the yud expresses thefull potency of the ten sefirot. The firstword of the Bible, B’Reshit, alludes tothe primordial fountain of the yud.Reshit means “beginning,” and itsprefix (beit) signifies “in” or “with.”The ground is always in and withcontinual beginning, which multipliesin quadrisected space fourfold (2 × 2),reflection reflecting through infinity.

The merkavah carries the mindthrough its obscuring complexes,through the wonders of intoxication,beyond fixed destination. Themerkavah is only a gnostic deliverysystem, fueled by the unbounded

dynamism of B’reshit that is the secretof mercury. A single drop of themind’s secret mercury liberates form,motion, and any subtle resonance. Themercury is nothing other than themind’s own fluidity, therefore itsliberating influence is self-liberation.

Since the primary job of the mind isto present the ground, every constructthat is self-liberated becomes like adream that returns into the awarenessthat dreams it. Self-liberatingawareness consumes every disruptionwith the power to melt the divisionbetween bright knowing and darkunknowing. The unborn blaze of secret

mercury is a self-darkening radiance,hinted at in the Zohar by the term“lamp of darkness” (botzina dekardenuta), which is none other thanthe light that darkens by illuminating.

As the merkavah flies upon thedissolving cusp of experience, the sixdirections are swallowed within thesingular expanse of quadrisected space.The motion of the ruach isconventionally defined by the dualisticactivity of running from and returningto somewhere. Contemplative workstrives to recognize the ground of thismotion, which poses a shift frommotion in space to the motion of space.

As contemplation matures the groundcan be isolated, and rests completelyalone in its purity. Its nature cannoteven be communicated to itself.Plotinus called the realization of this“the flight of the alone to the alone.”

The all-consuming aloneness of theground is silence, which is the basis ofprayer. The prayer is uttered secretlyby awareness as it manifests. If mindplunges into the heart of this speakingsilence it meets itself face to face; andthe knower melts through what isknown, leaving only openresponsiveness like a mirror. Thewitness is consumed, along with its

directions and angles of motion. Itswallows itself with its ownprojections, not unlike the mythicSaturn who eats his own progeny.

Three aspects can be considered.Aloneness consumes the illusion of anobject, and silence consumes theillusion of a subject. Their mutualdissolution swallows any residue thatthere was ever a dualistic error fromthe outset. The merkavah rideswhatever remains poised at the cusp ofthe dissolution. This is the mind’sjourney to itself. As essentiality isrealized, the mind eclipses its ownthoughts and perceptions, and they

arise nullified to their own mostintimate nature.

Mind must love its alonenesscompletely, and crave this alonenesslike a thirst. But what is it that isalone? There is nothing in mind butresponsiveness; it simply mirrors andreflects whatever arises. Binding to theopen expanse of responsiveness isca l l ed devekut (literally “binding”).The deeper devekut passes the more themind is swallowed into its ownessential nature, and the more perfectlythe fragmented vectors of its motionare absorbed. This equalizes the subjectand all its objects. The equalization is

called hishtavut (equanimity). It meltsthe associative chains of contrast intothe simplicity of aloneness. It begins assimple love for the tender, heartbrokensilent space of things. As love distillsits essence all else falls away. Theprocess that isolates the heart of thematter is an aspect of the processc a l l e d hitbodedut (isolation, oralchemical distillation).

The threefold activity of devekut,hishtavut, and hitbodedut reverses thereflexes that support conceptual habits.Under ordinary circumstances thefluidity of mind (mem/water) flowsdown into its fabricated constructs, and

the vital life force (shin/fire) blazes upto catalyze action. Binding, equalizing,and isolating basic space reverses theconventional habit-pattern reflexesattributed to these gestures. Thegnostic reversal allows fluidity toblaze, and its blaze becomes fluid. Thetwo aspects reflect each other andexchange tendencies, and ultimatelycoalesce.

As a result of the reversal oftendencies, the fluid light of awarenessdrips down into the heart from thebrain, and the blazing ocean of spacerises from within the belly to coalescewith it. This coalescence is symbolized

by the sun and moon in zivug-union.The gestures meet face to face, bind,and form a seal to consummate theunion. Once sealed, the zivug rests inprimordial essentiality beyondinterruption; crystallizing aquintessence from silver and goldthrough a secret mercury.

The heart-drop quintessence is theprimordial clarity of vision. It cannotbe made by artificial means. Thecoalescence of the quintessence isalways possible, as everything about itrests prior to the desire to realize it,however, the temporary habits thatconceal it have to be unmade. The

resonant winds of poetic beauty areinvitations into the secret mercury thatguides the merkavah to its nativehomeland. The winds pass through thelayers of obstruction, and navigatemotion deep into the luminescentresonances. The prisons of experienceopen as an array of permeablemembranes as primordial beautyovertakes the mind, which passesthrough itself—into nowhere.

The coalescence of reflectivefluidity and radiant dynamism is theheart of contemplative practice. Brightknowing and dark unknowing areequalized in wedded bliss under the

stars to shine with the light of theunion. The secret mercury is theinnermost motion within cognizancethat magnetizes its path toward itself:knowing without ever breaking the sealof unknowability. The reflections inmotion and their blaze becomeinseparable. This is key. Abandoningduality for non-duality is itself adualistic proposition. One ground dripsand blazes, allowing each phenomenalscenario to become a sacrificialgesture, as mind’s essential natureflows and shines through itself.

As the zivug of sun and moon issealed by mercury, a diamond-like

crystal of absolute purity is formed bythe coalescence. The crystal is seatedupon the throne of the heart, andblazing fluidity shines clearly throughevery possible channel of vision. Itpasses through the eyes and out all fivesenses. The quality of dissolvingscintillation cuts through any reifiedconstruct, beyond any fixation onindividual autonomy, as the conceptsof birth and death are revealed ashollow, baseless rumors.

The triads of neshama-ruach-nefesh(NaRaN) and briah-yetzirah-assiah(BeYeA) pass into self-collapse as theground that presents them usurps the

conceptual reflexes. The supernova ofidentity swallows all notions ofseparate worlds and souls, and yet thephenomena continue. Nothing is takenaway as the conceptual reflexesdissolve because there was neveranything substantial about them tobegin with. Phenomena stand-in-dissolving because both their arisingand their passing away are rooted in asingle magical gesture, crystallized asthe primordial clarity that is alreadyinnate to awareness.

The dynamism of realizationcorresponds to the chayah or wisdomaspect of mind, attributed to chochmah.

Chayah is innately self-liberating. Thethrust of its radiance is instantlyresponsive. Responsiveness is thebinah aspect inherent in the chayah,and it becomes literally anything andeverything. This confluence of ultimatemirrorlike responsiveness and essentialdynamism is the secret of the mercurythat guides the merkavah. However, initself there is absolutely nothingsubstantial. What can be reflected ormoved as the ground of En Sofglimpses itself?

Manifestation cannot be reduced to amechanical process, like a productmanufactured on an assembly line. Its

display manifests spontaneously andwithout cause like a lightning flash.There is no timeline to creation. Theopenness of space does not exist“before” creative activity fills it.Creative dynamism is inherent inspace, and vice versa. The womb ofbinah is inherent in the seed ofchochmah, as luminosity is inherentwith the expanse of space. Light is notseparate from the open vista throughwhich it travels. Space alwaysconforms to motion because it isalways space that is moving. It isbecause of this deep understanding oflight and space that those who ride the

merkavah can literally pass through thesoaring motion of contemplation intoinfinity.

The equalizing union of light andspace cuts to the root of the tzimtzum,and frees each ring of its projectedboundaries from their own reductivelimitations. Kabbalistic texts describethe process of original tzimtzumbeginning with a dimensionless pointat the heart of En Sof. The lightcontracts away to the “boundary” ofinfinity, which is of course limitless,thereby rendering the use of the term“boundary” as symbolic of the capacityfor relative distinction. The boundaries

implied by the tzimtzum process, likethe hierarchy of worlds and sefirot,only pertain to relative distinctions.The absolute is always only En Sof.Therefore, the capacity for relativedistinctions asserts a vacated spacewithin a symbolic circular boundary,whose circumference is beyondlocation. The boundary isolates whatcan be contained in a relative sensefrom uncontainable absoluteessentiality. This poses the rootparadox. Once the vacated space of therelative is established, the light of theabsolute assumes the appearance ofvarious stages, which are arrayed in a

straight line (the kav yosher), which isthe basis of the sefirot.

Without the benefit of a livingtradition the textual information wouldbe taken at face value, and one mightconclude that En Sof literallywithholds and restrains its infinitelight. This is of course ridiculous,because the light radiates wholenessitself. The light of En Sof is a radianceof simple unity, so how can it bedisplaced? Jewish teaching is firm inits position that the divine is perfectlywhole and cannot be interrupted. Howcan unity be complete and yet appeardivided between containment and the

uncontainable?

The problem is compounded afterthe original tzimtzum. The commonview of kabbalists is emanationism,which interprets each layer of lightdeposited within the vacated space asless pure and more restrained than theone that preceded it. Literal belief inemanationist doctrine is the greatestbarrier to gnostic breakthrough whenutilizing the kabbalistic system, and isequally problematic for both OrthodoxJews as well as Hermetic occultists.

Kabbalistic texts hold that a kavyosher (straight ray of light) shinesfrom En Sof back into the vacated

space after it has contracted, and layersof the residue of the originalluminosity combine with the light toform vessels. The vessels accept andreflect the reintroduced light back toEn Sof, providing the basis ofcontainment. This reflexive action islike a great mirror that producesvariable distortions. It is within thisprocess that the grand metaphor can beglimpsed, and a radical shift ofinterpretation can take place. Thesymbols themselves are profoundlyuseful, and need not be discarded.However, the mechanistic andsubstantializing view with which the

symbols are misinterpreted should behighly scrutinized. The profoundmystical view shifts the focus from theprogression of lights and vessels to theessential nature of the light itself. Thisshift represents the breakthroughnecessary to pass beyond intellectualconceptualization into a deepconsideration of the primordial. Theself-serving solipsism of religiousmythology falls away on its own oncemysticism has shed the need for it.

Questioning the essential nature ofthe Aur En Sof sets out to do preciselywhat Jewish religious authorities warnagainst: to contemplate god in its

innermost essence. The halakhic rulingof Rabbi Yitzach Diltash added to earlyeditions of the Zohar is a perfectexample of this. It states that it isabsolutely forbidden to delve into thenature of keter (and beyond). Theexoteric religious reasons for assertingthis rule don’t apply in any way to freegnostic contemplation, and examiningthem is irrelevant to this topic in theextreme. One must choose between thedogmas of religious authority andradical contemplative work. In Jewishlaw it is absolutely forbidden to inquireinto the essential nature of god—sowhat? The very thing that religious

authority considers heresy is the opendoor to contemplation, if the fearfulmythology is taken out of the equation.Maybe that is not an accident.

The original displacement andconstriction of the tzimtzum, theparadox of its vacancy, and thereintroduction of light in measuredstages are all symbols for howawareness grapples with the paradox ofrelative expression. However, this setof mystical symbols can be just asmisinterpreted by humanism as it canby exoteric religious mythology.Leaving behind the creator-godmythology, inquiry into the original

essential nature returns the mind backprior to its conceptual circumstance.This return should never be confusedwith any process within humanpsychology. The return points to theessential nature of the mind rather thanits functioning. Experience, which isthe basis of psychology, cannot everunderstand or reconcile its essentialnature. Humanism is limited by thescope of psychological patterns, theirarchetypes, and the causal habits thatdefine mental functions. Mysticism isfreedom from the limiting concernwith these factors, which grows aspsychological concerns are outgrown.

The longing to recognize essentialityopens the conceptual shells that restrictit. Just the desire to contemplate thismatter renders the mind contemplative.As the mind’s aspirations cease to lendsupport to unquestioned relativeconceptuality, it begins to activelyundermine this conceptualizing. Themind begins to inquire about theluminosity of space in itself, ratherthan perseverate on its role in themechanical exchanges that articulateits functions of filling and surroundingconceptual containers. It begins toconsider space as a ubiquitous mediumfor the permeation of its forms. It then

mixes its sense of permeation withlonging and gnostic aspiration. Thisopens the field of perception to deep,innate scintillating dissolution, whichis a key to the cultivation of all gnosticfunctions.

The paradox culminates at the cuspof keter. As keter’s paradox ofapparently contained uncontainabilityopens, its echoes allow the ground topermeate through every variation ofphenomena. The secret quintessence ofthe ground equalizes being andnonbeing, and seeps through each ringof constriction and reduction,liberating the axioms that capture pure

awareness within experience. Each so-called impasse becomes permeable,and the doors swing open. Then, thevery concept of a door is brought intoquestion. There is nothing to passthrough. The dark sparkle of non-experience becomes recognized asinherent within every perceptual state.This can only awaken within thecontext of dedicated spiritual practice,yet for many it may seem like merephilosophy. We get the universe wedeserve. A mechanical view yields amechanical universe, and a self-liberating view yields a continuousstream of luminous nothingness

serving as an offering, the offerer, andthat which accepts. As the awakeningground is purified the universe arisesas the voice of its own speech, andmanifestation becomes equal toawareness.

The ten sefirot

T

3

THE PREGNANTSACRIFICIAL BEAST

HE WONDERLAND FOREST ofblazing nothingness is a sacrificial

beast, a pregnant beast, filled withworlds and souls. Conventional realityis the ash of its smoldering corpse.Poetic resonance is the rising smoke ofits burning flesh. The mass of itsreality is seized along with its shadow,

unreality. They mix and becomeswollen with phantoms, its skinexcreting the sweat of three dimensionsmoving in a linear continuum.

The beast is slain by words ofprayer, which carry corrosive number-letter codes throughout its body. Beforeit splits open and is consumed upon thefiery altar of sacrifice, its reflexes mustbe caught, bound, and subdued. Itsheart blood can then be extracted as anoffering, pulled from an emulsion offilth and piety, falling to neither side.

The vowel drops of the words enterat the intersection point of opaque liesand translucent truths, where semi-

formless froth hovers between theelements, spontaneously dischargingpoisons where the heart blood isconcealed. The poison of brokenuniverses turns empty reflections intovicious golems that have been driveninsane; causing them to kill, steal, rape,and trade merit for vile excess. Theseshadow beings are rendered helpless bythe words of prayer. Dazed and nearmotionless, they dissolve into theether. The haze of the letterpermutations unmakes the distortion ofthe life force at the cusp of the gates,but its purity cannot be diminishedeven one iota. The mixture is then

boiled in its own agitation until thequintessential heart blood can beisolated. However, its extraction canonly be accomplished prior to theeffects of its toxins.

Note: This chapter presents a textualartifact of the fourth and fifth stages ofthe progression of contemplativemysticism (as articulated in the firstchapter). The imagery might at timesappear raw and untempered, but shouldbe taken as a spontaneous expressionwithin an ecstatic register. An author’srecitation of the text was used as thebasis for a piece of electro-acoustic

music created by John Zorn and BillLaswell, issued under the title TheDream Membrane (Tzadik Records,2014).

As the dull weight of worldly poweris subsumed in the feast of poetics, thematrix of letters is reborn. It speaksitself through renewed permutations ineach detail of its utterance. Throughthe dissolving haze of broken staticconceptions, its animating vowelscoalesce drops of the crystalline dew.Their multiplicity fills immensity withpure sparkling illusion, constituting asingle all-permeable drop-body whoseform consists of infinite en-worlding

peripheries that resonate endlessechoing skins, each hungry to takeitself as autonomous and “real.”

At the ultimate intersection of is andis-not the unique root tikkun for eachcorruption solves the riddle of eachdisplacement. At that place wherenothingness caresses conceptualsolidity, its skins dissolve back throughthe ground with which they wereclothed. This seals the return its nakedechoes never left.

The grim dull flesh of the beast isthe hiding place of countless sparklingvowel-letter fields. They abide in a

secret self-concealing tenderness, andcan only be discovered by trueheartbroken longing. The roar ofsilence can be heard to echo within allthings, riding the razor’s edge of thein-between, as sky and earth collapseinto a single sacrificial gesture. Itoffers complete dissolution in theinstant each moment is coagulated. Inthat great space the offering is sealed,released, and consumed.

The residue of the fractured shellsfrom old discarded beliefs are ready tobe offered up and consumed by basicspace. Sparks pour out from theshattering, as it saturates space in its

dissolving. As the small meanings ofthings become subsumed into greatvastness, light outshines itscontainment, and immensity prevails.

Through the portal of yesod, theruach opens to mix the spectrum.Oceanic blue spiked with torrents ofblood red and blinding white shinesthrough tissued veils of violentmagentas, deep black- purple depths,and scintillating flecked-goldenshimmering crested greens. Each colornuance is a metaphor; a feeling toneresonance, indescribable in the depth ofits psycho-emotive power. Each layeris a sacrifice, gathering to release in its

own flavor register of meltingcircumstance.

The flayed beast cracks open, itssteaming organ membranes liquefyingto rise as color-tinged vapor, offeringthe intoxication of hues to the recessesof space. The fumes thicken and glowwith a faint rainbow sheen, breakinginto pixilated drops that hang in thefive root colors.

Aloneness dissolves the subject-construct, and silence dissolves theobject-construct. They meet as no-concept, in an all-over bath of wonder.The blaze of secret mercury rides the

razor’s edge, distributed evenly in allthings. Sky and earth coalesce eachmoment as a sacrificial gesture. Acrystal tunnel carries the heart-dropquintessence into the en-worldment ofvision. Its path spreads clarity from no-where to no-where, touching nothing.Each drop-universe dawns as infiniteoverlapping permeabilities, suffusingwholeness by complete and totalresponsiveness. Its fingerprint is themirror of specificity according to need.This is a dream of itself awakening.The single reflexive dream is onedreaming itself as zero, as the zerodreams itself as one.

Drawing fullness cannot add, norcan consuming dissolution subtract.The field of space is both your ownbody and the body through which allworlds manifest. It is the expanse oftzimtzum, and the ultimate sacrifice.Through its own most intimate fireeverything offers and consumes itselfat once as a true sacrificial universe.

The beast obstructs its ownrealization threefold; its bones andflesh form its inner and outer aspects,with its blood mediating between. Allthree become permeable as the beast islaid out as a sacrifice. Its lungs areSaturn and Jupiter. Its kidneys are

Mars and Venus. Its belly and head arethe Sun and Moon. The planetarysacrifice tempers and shapes the secretmercury in its heart, which is the heartof the offering. It can vanquish thetyranny of stupid animal power. It canthwart manipulation and harm. It cansubjugate the hunger of beings that hurtdefenseless creatures. It can breakaddiction to stupor and the superficialexhilaration of fantasy. It can consumeand excrete the reification of profoundconsiderations. It can purify thetitillation that distorts spirituality. Itcan release the noose of mediocrity. Itcan save from self and other. It can

deliver the hall of mirrors to a templeof doorways. After the delivery ismade, the work is up to each alone.

The fiery sacrifice of organs is like asupernova of stars or collapse ofplanets through open space. Allaggregates are magnetized into onecataclysmic activity breaking throughouter and inner aspects into sublimeopenness. Purity can always breakthrough the dream of impurity. This isthe ultimate future of the kosher pig; asmotion arises through the wake of itsvestigial temporality, presented priorto that which manufacturescontainment. The fairy tale of solidity

evaporates in the original condition itironically never left; a continual stateof breakthrough obliterating the klipotwhere no interruption takes root.

All klipot are primordially purefrom the outset, and serve as theultimate offering. Impurity is anopinion offered as food. The body ofthe beast swells with impulses, and itsforbidden flesh is eaten with impunitywhen spontaneously realized asintrinsically pure. Gnostic intoxicationis the feast of a kosher pig. What isdigested are the six directions movingnowhere through single-pointed flight,recognized directly within the mixing

field. Its motion is fueled by the toxicimpulses that are magnetized, bound,and subdued—as the skins ofreification are pierced, theirmomentum slaughtered, and thequintessence sipped.

The lungs of the beast respire andthe kidneys purify, in the promise of adiamond coalescing between its headand belly. The brilliance of itsreflections can outshine all residues,clarity passing through the hall ofmirrors like water poured into theocean. Swells and swirls of universesglow like a thousand suns in colorsbeyond the ultraviolet spectrum,

forming the crown of the dead kingupon the head of the pig. Its brainexudes blazing nectar through thechannels of its hairs, and it has a beardand stands as a man.

Upon standing, carried by wheelsunder the carriage of its body, thecrowned sacrificial swine comes faceto face with the bride of space. She isall mothers, daughters, and sisters. Shedescends under the wedding canopywith her crowned mate andconsummates the holy union. Theintoxication of the act resoundsthrough all space equally at this veryinstant. The sweat of union fills every

pore and bathes every cell of the bodyof infinite worlds.

Each becomes a redeemer; a self-sacrificial pig messiah. And thustikkun olam begins in earnest. We faceour resistances head on, open to thespark of perfection disguised asimperfection. The feast of the kosherpig consumes identity andidentification. Its flesh is called“garden.” Its motion is called “Eden.”Their union is celebrated in theenjoyment of the feast. Tensionsbetween movement and display arepersonified by the serpent, thewaveform viceroy, whose undulating

frequencies usher phenomena throughthe self-darkening radiance of thewaking dream.

The sacrificial beast emerges fromthe heart of its own five-organ array.Head and belly are flanked by the leftand right kidneys and lungs. Fromwithin, a blazing halo emerges to holdthe organs apart like an altar. Eachthought, movement, feeling, and formis such a beast. Each presents its organbody splayed in the light of aspiration.All that is needed is a spark from thedeep to ignite its luster.

The fire caresses the beast’s

yellowing skin, passes through its redmeat, and smolders its white bones. Allthree are usurped into smoke to fill theblue sky, suffusing the five worlds withthe meaning and intention of thesacrifice, each according to its level.The three sides—right, left, and center—are configured as Adam on the right,Chavah on the left, and between themis the enveloping Nachash embracingall equally. Through it the wedding isconsummated, and Chavah copulatestwice.

As the blood of conceptionscollapses through itself, it spreadsthrough an unending field of sparks

like a canopy of stars. Each side of thetriune mind echoes through hexagonalpatterns in fivefold array, spinning andspiraling as its implications reproducefluid wonder in tides and pools, callingawareness to stand erect as its owndissolving body. Unfolding andinfolding in simultaneity extrudesmeaning in naked form. All directionssing the hymn of directionlessness,refusing to be held in conception, likean intoxicating vapor that will notsettle into the dullness of experience.

Ordinary conceptuality is the animalof sacrifice. It is laid upon the altar ofcontemplation with the heat of

aspiration blazing below it. Conceptualassociations boil, and subtleimpressions rise. They dissipate, andthe fumes usurp the winds of relativemeaning. As the fumes swallow theassociative connections responsible forderiving relative meanings fromobjects conceived by a conceptualizingsubject, superabundant waves ofincomprehensible vastness consumeany sense of order. Its streams releasemists of resonance, hovering beyondthe grasp of identity and its fears andhopes. Then, the pearlescent sheen ofwonder breaks through, as a display ofprofound rootless beauty. Each drop

opens a gate. Each stream of dropsleads back to its heart, and eachbecomes a pathway for one drop: theuniversal medicine for the disease ofconceptual fragmentation.

The smoldering flesh of the beast islost within billowing clouds of lettersand vowels of all colors and sizes.Nothing is seen through the profusion,which eclipses the parade ofprojections. Swooning vapors take overas the beast dissolves. Born forslaughter, raised for offering, theoutline that lay upon the flaming coalsis a wafting set of echoes that resoundthrough space like a phantom thunder.

The residue of meaning settlesrandomly into thick airs as they clear,amorphously clustering to evaporate ina dizzying array of dying implications.

Said in another way: Fire is appliedbelow the container of earthly thought,and clouds arise in the interior of thevessel. The muddy soil at its bottombubbles, churns, mixes, rises, andoverflows with clouded poison airs. Itsaturates itself, overflows, and bathesitself with caustic volatility like a bath.It draws toxic atmospheres thatintoxicate in six stages. From theintoxication cognizance is extractedbeyond the mind that becomes

intoxicated. It stands alone with nosecond. The soil, clouds, winds, andfluid volatility are eclipsed within itswholeness, and a single drop fillsimmensity. Its meaning eclipses theparade of its own projections. This isthe poison nectar that is also amedicine.

As the Bible states: “My food, anoffering made by fire, is a sweet savorto offer in its due season. This is thefire offering which you shall bring untoYHVH for a continual all-burntoffering” (Numbers 28).

Endless nectar fields present

B’reshit indiscriminately in the clearedsmoke, as dead-end alleys open aslimitless permeabilities. Sacramentalparticipation in appearance isunderstood as radical responsibility forthe manifestation of awareness. Theliving flesh of phenomena hangs on thescale of balance: redemption of adeadening dream that frees itself oncontact, without ever leaving orentering in.

The ancient dream of a crownedsacrificial pig standing with its bride isshot through with infinite dropssuffusing the whole body ofmanifestation. Its impression resonates

through the blood of space, circulatedby winds, and is sweated through itsskins. The messianic animal impulse isexcreted as the secret mercury absorbsits essential virtues, and the assertion iscarried to the four directions by thewheels of the merkavah. Metatronholds the celestial curtain open tounbolt its passage. A blazing oceanstands-in-dissolving, and the chariotdisappears in its wake.

Invite meaning into itself, toincrease as the bloom of impressionsoverflows. Each saturation whispers asong of shadows cast through themembranes of position. When the king

is dethroned by the self-creation of thekingdom there is no longer a need for aking. Fullness returns to the purity itnever left.

This is a dream that dreams itselfawake, restless in the upheaval of itsqualities. Mists of crystalline dewcollect in swirls and streams ofunfabricated primordiality. Eachcluster is a drop, and each drop spreadsa universe; a crown in the head and akingdom to walk upon, raining, mixing,binding, dissolving, and churning inendless permutations. The lightningflash of appearance is its offering.

The point does not enter or leave theseal of its peripheries. Their bondstands as a mountain, collapsingthrough the crystal tunnel to fill thewedding chamber. A single crownshines darkly within all heads.

Magical seal nullifying relativeidentity

4

GATE OF THEWEDDINGCHAMBER

The serpent’s head is reborn as its tailis consumed, the harvest is reapedwithin the fallow field, and the light ofthe full moon is seen on the night of thenew moon.

THE ROOT PARADOX ofmanifestation is that its ultimate

ground is uncontainable essentiality,yet it continually presents itself as anendless parade of what seems to becontained phenomena. This paradox isnot only the basis of its appearance, butis also the doorway to gnosticrealization.

A voice of silence ceaselessly uttersthe speech of manifestation. What isoffered is the awakening force of theground called chashmal (literally“speaking silence”). Chashmal cracksreality open to spontaneously dissolvethe coarse assumptions of its solidity,

so that substanceless wisdomluminosity can shine through the hazeof ripening perceptions.

What is presented within awakeningis what was already there; theuncreated basic space of illumination.The space of light is referred to as theAvir Kadmon or Avira, or primordialaether. Avir Kadmon is the originalpurity of En Sof, and is neverdiminished or restrained no matterwhat manifestation appears to do orhow it is perceived. The Avira is theequalizing essence that is awakened bythe chashmal. Avira and chashmal areaspects of the one ground that awakens,

and is that through which awakening isstirred. The uninterrupted continuum ofthe ground is the basis of allmysticism, and magic as well. TheFountain of Wisdom states:

What first emerges by the lightdarkened by illuminating, whichis the Avir Kadmon, is chashmal.Avir Kadmon breaks open, andfrom the rupture voice issuesforth. The voice spreads andincreases as twenty-six myriad ofmyriads of light. The light thrustsa radiance, and from radiance aluster, and from luster a light.From light is a flaming fire,

giving off sparks flashing andspreading, increasing in the powerof the strength of their size. Therewas never a solid base for them tostand upon.

Radiance is reflected back throughinfinity by its own luster. The radiancegives itself over as the projection of itsluminosity, and the luster acts as amirror. However, the mirror can alsotrap the light, and hold it as a vessel.Since vessels are formed by thethickening of the original luminosity,both aspects share a commondenominator that is the equalizingwisdom that dawns as sparks within the

perceptual field, wherein the opacity ofappearance is outshined by its owninnate primordial dynamism.

Avir Kadmon swallows eachinstance of its own reification, self-liberating each coagulation on contactwithout leaving even one residualthought that any “thing” ever existed.Light collides and dissolves throughitself, passing to nowhere fromnowhere. The field of breakthrough isalways open to swallow whateverseems to have coagulated. Of coursethe image of thickened, coagulatedvessels is a conceptual contrivance, andin truth there is only the Avira

disguised as the five worlds andeverything that appears within them.

The phrase “breaks open” in thequote directly refers to the volatility ofB’reshit, which continually offers thedynamic thrust of creativity. The thrustalways offers an equal potential to loseitself within habituation or find itselfin awakening. The appearance of theuniverse is a perpetual invitation forthe fabricated separations imposedbetween things to dissolve backthrough their ground. This is the mainaspiration of practice, which dependsupon remembering the essentialmeaning of appearance. That

recognition is alpha and omega: thecentral meaning of incarnate life.

Chashmal can be broken down intothe root words chash (silent) and mal(to speak). The root mal also denotescutting (see Aryeh Kaplan, InnerSpace, 168). The thickenings of thehabit fields of conceptual associationthat are taken as solid are literally cutthrough, both in the guise of aperceiver as well as what is perceived.The wisdom of chashmal entersthrough the membrane of the klipotnogah, which passes deep into the fieldof phenomena as a set of openpossibilities. Within the field anything

can happen, from reduction to thegreatest coarseness to the greatestsubtlety. Once “heard,” the chashmalcalls the life force of each klipah backto the ground it never left, as lightcascades across its own expanse.

The dulling thickets of endlessassociative constructs always offerawakening, and never withhold theirbounty. Only the mind can forsake thistreasure by ignoring the possibility.That potential overlaps each deludedmoment, as the ground continues tosupport both its own degradation andawakening. At the perpetual juncturewhere meaning is either degraded or

glorified, the chashmal speaks wisdomor stays concealed in silence.

The speech of phenomenadisappears within the same space itappears in. Its letter combinations areboth filled and surrounded by thatspace, bathing each facet in opensingularity. In Sefer Yetzirah thespeech of phenomena is presented as aliving book, manifested by the processof “engraving and carving” blackletters on a white page. The white pageis the Avira, and the black letters arethe reflections that appear separate,just like the primordial radiance and itsown luster. Engraving fills each letter,

and carving allows each impression tobe distinct from the surroundingcontinuum. Engraving establishes thepositive space within the vessel of theletter, and carving removes thenegative space around the letter.Together they form a coherentimpression that seals the phenomenabeyond seemingly dualistic aspects,which are both only the “back andfront” of a single gesture.

Chashmal breaking through

The numerical value of the phrase“engrave and carve” (ChaQaQV’ChaTzaB) equals 314. This gematriais shared by the name of the guide ofall practitioners through the dreammembrane: the great prince Metatron.His main portal is yesod, where themarriage of the middle six sefirot andmalkut is sealed. The gematria of 314also corresponds to the divine name ofyesod where the marital partners meet,which is Shaddai (ShaDaY). Metatronis the inner mentor of all contemplatorswho ride the merkavah, and throughShaddai the ground he points us to isdiscovered. Our work joins him

through the gate of yesod, as the unionof motion and display is consummated.This wedding is inherent in our ownawakening, and cannot be reduced toeither an outer aspect of manifestationor a mere inner transformation. Then a m e Shaddai breaks through thedualistic division of inner and outer,and is spontaneously evoked togetherwith Metatron’s name. Together thetwo names yield 628: the gematria of“his birthright.”

The words engrave (ChaQaQ: 208)a n d carve (ChaTzaB: 100) equal 308without the vav (and) between them.This gematria is shared with the wordse’ach (meditation). Thus theengraving and carving of permutedletters constitute a living process thatinvites meditative absorption. Whenunderstood as equal to the meditativecontinuum of the ruach, the vav (6) isadded to the sum of the words equalingthe 314 mentioned above. This is likethe seal that binds the practitioner tohis or her own redemptive process.

Whirling torrents of letterpermutations engrave and carve space,

animated by the vowels that breathelife into the letter structures. The resultis a living field of engraving andcarving that is self-liberated uponawakening. The metaphor of themerkavah dissolving into space as itflies points to the same realization.Space is the Shechinah: womb of boththe white of the page and every letterand permutation. On this topic, thegnostic text “Thunder, Perfect Mind”states:

I am the mother of my father, thesister of my husband, and he ismy offspring.

This verse refers directly to theShechinah: the heart of contemplation.The Shechinah is what is contemplated,what contemplates, as well as theactivity of contemplation. She is thebasic space of En Sof that radiates asthe infinite variation of endlessreflection, instantly adapting inresponse to any possible conditionwithout ever leaving her originalprimordial nature.

As both the filling and surroundingspace of every construct, it can be saidthat the Shechinah is the mother oflight. Her openness is the secret (RaZ =207) of light (AVR = 207) that cannot

be separated from the infinite (En Sof= 207). Her open vista accompanies theformative motion of creativity inwhatever it does, so she becomes asister to light in all its modes ofappearing. Whatever arises is a displayof the light’s motion, and the space ofthat display is her as well, and so it isconsidered her offspring. The magic ofthe Shechinah is that she does notchange her essential nature between herroles. This can be studied in two unionsthat span the sefirot:

The upper union:Father yudketer/chochmahprimordial

dynamism

Mother hehbinah basic space(inherent todynamism) asresponsiveness

The lower union:Husbandvavmiddle six formative

motion arisingas qualities

Bride hehmalkut presentationaldisplay

The conventional logic is that themother precedes the child, and is thecause of the child’s existence.However, in order for a mother toactually be a mother there must be achild. Therefore the designation of

mother is dependent upon the child.This reverses the expected cause andeffect. The so-called cause (mother) isunderstood to depend on the so-calledeffect (child) for its designation, whichrenders the effect as a cause.Considering the fluidity with which thereversal is understood cuts throughcausality and allows the mystery of thecontinuum to outshine its coordinates.

The same fluidity applied tobreaking through causal designationscan be applied to the universe andperception. How would we know thatthere was a universe at all unless itentered somehow into perceiving? It is

assumed that the universe precedeswhat perceives it, and that theperceiving mind is born into a universethat has prior existence, and allows itto exist. Therefore the universe seemsto be the cause and perceiving is itseffect. However, the effect ofperceiving becomes the cause of theuniverse because of the necessity of theuniverse having to be perceived inorder to be known at all. Therefore theperceiving becomes the cause and theuniverse becomes its effect. Like theSefer Yetzirah states: “Their end isimbedded in their beginning, and theirbeginning in their end, like a flame in a

burning coal” (1:7).

If the seed of awareness impregnatesthe womb of its own expanse, is it aparent to its own thoughts? Which iscause and which is effect? How domental phenomena indicate anycoherent authorship? Why would it beassumed that there is a thinker prior tothe thought? Is identity not designatedby the thinking alone? Do you existbefore the thought that you exist?

The nontheistic view held hereassumes that creativity does not requirea prior divine entity to pull its strings.Creative activity is uncaused,

sourceless, and spontaneous. TheFountain of Wisdom states: “Only thatwhich generates itself can be calledtruly existent.” Consideration of themagic of spontaneous uncausedcreativity nullifies the linear causalprogression, because a thing cannotcreate itself. In order to create itself athing would have to exist before the actof creation to do the creating. This isimpossible, and contemplation of thescenario allows a break inconceptuality.

The remedy for linear causality is areturn to the open space “prior to”manifestation, without rejecting the

display of its phenomena. The razor’sedge that equalizes form andformlessness can be realized in thatspace, no matter what seems to arise.Each mental construct can be taken as abody, and each body has five functionssymbolized by five inner organs. Eachorgan corresponds to an alchemicalfunction.

Each fivefold collection of functionsis the pregnant beast laid upon the fieryaltar of sacrifice in contemplativepractice, where the body surrenders tothe fire of wisdom. As each functionalunit is caught, bound, and consumed itslife force is extracted, and allowed to

dissolve in the same basic space thatpresents it. Space is a completeundifferentiated body that appears inthe paradox of differentiation. Noconstruct ever leaves space even for amoment. Therefore the sacrifice of thespace-body marks the return to what itactually never left. The return is thesacrificial offering: its fire is sheeraspiration, and its rising smoke is theperfume of poetic resonance. Eachmoment of awakening enacts thisscenario.

The fivefold organ system thatconstitutes a contemplative body canbe applied to either the macrocosm or

the microcosm, but it doesn’t reallymatter in the greater sense of the work.The main point is that each construct,whether vast or tiny, can be unmade inthe midst of its apparent relativefunctioning. It doesn’t matter how theconstruct was made, as long as it canbe unmade in the recognition of theessential nature of its life force. Theassumption of independent existencethat is imputed to the construct is theactual animal of sacrifice. This is thetrue meaning of the temple sacrificesdescribed in the five books of theTorah.

The inner organs of the fivefold

body of each mental construct mirrorthe senses of touch, taste, smell,hearing, and sight. Here they are listedin direct correspondence:

1. The kidneys are the symbol ofpurification, wherein opacityopens into translucence. Thebreakthrough happens withindirect perceptual contact, andcorresponds with the sense oftouch.

2. The intestines extract an ever-increasing potential for growth,releasing life force from captivitywithin limitation. Theycorrespond to the sense of tastethat distinguishes between

nutrition and decay.3. The lungs exchange dim, dull

reflexes for clear, noble gnosticvirtues. This corresponds with thesense of smell, which delights inthe bright perfume of the breath ofgnosis that permeates everything.It is within this bath thatequalization unfolds.

4. The noble virtues are circulated bythe heart, which circulates itsresonance to suffuse every celland impulse. One can listendeeply to the secrets of its silentspeech within that resonance,which corresponds to hearing.

5. Clarity illuminates meaning

within the brain, corresponding tosight. From its luminosity allthings are reborn.

These five functions also correspond tothe aspects of contemplative practicearticulated in chapter 1, in thefollowing manner:

0.The intellectual appreciation of view 1.Purification/kidneysbreaking

through resistantbarriers

2.Extraction/intestine increase of theprofusion ofpossibility

3.Exchange/lungs equanimity asconsummatefullness

4.Scintillation/heart gnosticintoxication andbliss-resonance

5.Clarity/brain illuminationbeyondexperiencestabilizes

The organ layout is adapted fromthree divisions in the Sefer Yetzirah :head, heart, and belly. The head andbelly are the upper and lower aspectsthat extend from a central heart. Thedouble organs of the kidneys and lungs(which have a right and left aspect)manifest their functions of expansion(right) and contraction (left) for theupper and lower aspects, respectively.The lungs serve the upper function, andthe kidneys serve the lower function.

See the following:

Head → brain → moon right/left lung Heart → heart → heart right/left kidney Belly → intestine → sun

Of course the physical functions ofthe organs are used in an allegoricalmanner, and symbolic understanding oftheir functions must displace coarsebiological concerns. Given that, it canbe understood that the functions ofpurification and an increasingextraction cut through and wash awaywhat is unuseful, so that the nourishingagent can be isolated. The nourishmentspreads by resonant action, and thenoble virtues of clarity and brillianceovertake all higher functioning. As therestraining limitations of the klipot aredissolved, the sparks break free of their

shells, and then they are set free toswallow the world.

The body is a whole offering, whichsacrifices itself through the alchemicalprocess. Immersion, absorption, andsurrender unify the beast, and send itstwitching impulses off garmented inclouds of variation, perfumed with thesmoke of aspiration. Its smolderingflesh passes away in each moment. Allconstructs are impermanent, and theirpassing away is used by thepractitioner as a sacrifice. Thedissolution of phenomena is inherent inevery moment anyway, so why notinfuse it with gnostic intention? Why

not make what is already happeninginto prayer?

Sefer Yetzirah ’s array is illustratedby the fire and water tri -angles thatform the hexagram of the ruach. Ablaze rises up from the belly (up-pointing fire triangle) and fluidadaptation flows down from the head(down-pointing water triangle) to meetin the heart, which echoes as thespectrum of the ruach’s motion. In theheart the blaze and the fluidityexchange values and coalesce into alens through which awakening shinesforth. The lens is an aperture into thewholeness of the ground, wherein

awareness and appearance are revealedas an inseparable and uncreatedcrystalline purity that presents allvariation. Its clarity is superabundantand uncaused, yet unseen toconventional vision.

The sixfold flight of the merkavahequalizes the quadrisection of basicspace to the ten aspects of reality. Theyinclude the six directions (up, down,right, left, front, behind), three times(past, present, future), within thereification of the monad (making ten).They are rectified by the equalizingcontinuum of alef (01) to yud (10).Thus dynamism (yud) equalizes its

own inherent unity (alef), and theparadox asserts its display as thesefirot from keter to malkut.

Six and four are implied graphicallywithin a single hexagram. Quadrisectedspace is indicated by the right and leftcorners of the hexagram, which can betraced back to a common center (figure9). This image is contained inDionysius Andreas Freher’sParadoxical Emblems (115), inscribedwith the verse “six come out of one, inone only opening.” The two positionson the right and left sides correspond tochesed-gevurah (upper) and netzach-hod (lower). Their corresponding

organs are the right-left lobes of thelungs (above) and kidneys (below).

Freher’s mention of “one” refersdirectly to En Sof: the all-consumingheart of phenomena. The all-encompassing gesture of all-consumingspace is invested within each vowelpoint as the spark of continualbeginning.

Figure 9

The vertical center line of thehexagram corresponds to the threestations of Sefer Yetzirah ’s triad of

above (head), below (belly), and center(heart). These are arranged in a verticalcolumn as the central channel in thehuman subtle body.

The one is presented fivefold asquadrisection exposes its center. Thispresents a circle to the four directions,and then to infinity, bound throughtheir common heart. It echoes point toperiphery, and periphery to point.Reflecting within as well, as the circleenters itself to form its interior subsetcircle, and so on. The Fountain states:“Alef becomes alef-alef (2) by thedoubling power, then it becomes alef-alef-alef-alef (4), then there is one in

its midst (5), which is neither an alef(1) not less than that (0).”

The point expressed by thewholeness of the surrounding fourpoints is analogous to the way that thesix points of the hexagram surround theseventh point in their midst. Thissuggests the centrality of the Shechinahsurrounded by the sixfold sefirot of theruach. Together this array correspondsto the seven alchemical metals andseven interior planets of esotericastrology. Sixfold motion allows thesingle responsiveness of secretmercury to take form. As DionysiusAndreas Freher states in his

Paradoxical Emblems, “It is finishedwhen seven are one” (139). This isrelated to the menorah, the seven-branched candle of the Hebrew temple.There are two sides with three lampson each, making the six, with a singlelamp in the middle (making seven).The center spine intersects at threeconnection points to the side branches,establishing it as the middle pillar ofthe tree of life. This poses threecolumns with three sefirot on eachside, connecting to the center in thethree places. The manner in which thesefirot correspond to the menorahlamps can be taken in pairs. The two

outermost lamps are hod and netzachthat connect at yesod. The next twolamps are gevurah and chesed thatconnect at tiferet. The innermost lampsare binah and chochmah that connect atdaat. The single center lamp is keter,and the base of the structurecorresponds to malkut.

All of these number constructsexemplify precisely what the fivefoldorgan system expresses. Each constructappears composed of disparate parts,but can be simultaneouslycomprehended as a whole. Once theview that passes beyond the wholenessof being and the vacuity of nonbeing isunderstood, the meaning of theShechinah becomes superabundant.Within the darkness of apparentseparation (arafel = 380) the expanseof the firmament (rakia = 380) opensits inherent light through the fivefolddisplay of each and every thing the

mind does or does not do, revealing themystery of the Shechinah (ShKYNH:385 = 380 + 5).

Various seals formed in the six

sefirot of the ruach

T

5

THE FIRE OFNONDIMENSIONALITY

HE ULTIMATE VALUE of themind is that it can directly realize

that the dynamism that thrustsphenomena forth is equal with thatwhich breaks through to recognize it.Once this continuum is glimpsed, itbecomes clear that it is uninterruptedand completely open, equally the

poison and the medicine.The Fountain of Wisdom refers to

the portals of this recognition as“sparks without a base to stand upon.”The sparks are baseless because theyare totally free, and cannot be graspedwithin either dimension or time.However, the sparks are most oftenuncovered one by one, as mind purifiesitself of the reflexes that reify anddivide.

The last frontier of the mind asks thequestion of how the continuum ofawareness and manifestation will bereconciled. A subject-object supernovaawaits to engulf all of space as it faces

the ultimate klipah in the way of thepath of inquiry. The root of this and allklipot calls itself “I Am”: the totalityof all being subsumed in self-knowing.The I Am takes all thingsundifferentiatedly as its equal. Thisallows all relative beginnings and endswithin conceptuality to appear as asubset of itself. The root of this fallacyis the extremely subtle conceptualityinherent in self-knowing, which reifiesthe monad of being and thus locksitself within a prison that is verydifficult to be released from.

Holding a solipsistic continuum asthe absolute is the primal error of the

theistic view, and it is what adherentscling to as the godhead. It expandssubtle conceptuality into infinity,rather than breaking through it at theroot. This prevents keter fromequalizing with En Sof. Breakingthrough the highest barriers requires atotal sacrifice of the beast of being, aswell as a complete dedication to theopenness of basic space. Only En Sof isabsolute; the expression of itsphenomena, even as a wholeness, isonly an indication of its potency. Themost radical wisdom view alwaysreturns to the open expanse prior to thetzimtzum. Even in its most supremely

subtle form, reification can beunderstood as the opposite of freedom.The reifying impulse of being can bebathed in gnostic yearning, which cutsthrough both being and nonbeing at theroot. Longing to mitigate reification isthe most radical shift the mind iscapable of, and it is the only way thattruly open luminosity can be directlyrealized.

Abandoning duality for non-dualityis itself a dualistic proposition. Theidea that gnosis consists entirely ofsuch a choice misses the point entirely.The initial choice is indeed paramount.The mind enters the path by turning

from the habits of conventionalreflexes. But deep within that directionis directionlessness, and choice opensinto choicelessness. Choosing dissolveswith the rest of dualistic conceptualityas the ground becomes clear. Theground is not chosen. Every choice andvariable is already nothing but theground! As conceptuality is consumedby basic space, identity and volition areconsumed. Yet still, things continue insimplicity, without a subject to graspor an object to be grasped.

Long before gnosis enters into thepossibility of ultimate maturity, thepath begins by recognizing that the

associative process is a dream dreamtby no one. The mind’s concerns shiftfrom the incessant identification ofitself and its by-products to the openspace that fills and surroundseverything. The tiresome parade ofmental artifacts (including personalidentity) whither and dry up, blowaway, and dissolve in the winds ofperceiving. The momentum of their lifeforce can be reborn, which make theheart feel as if it is going to explode.This swelling fullness is authenticheartbreak. It is the only appropriatereaction to the beauty, wonder, and aweof the vista of open appearing space.

With the dawning of the gnosticsparks the parade of dull conceptionsfalls into self-collapse. But where doesit go? The klipot pass to nowhere fromnowhere, dissolving the impressionsthat were made in a nonexistent habitfield. Intangible klipot pass intointangible space, however, things standas they are. There is never anyimpediment to manifestation. But inthe wake of a subject or object, there isno one to be aware and nothing to beaware of.

The paradox of openness andappearance typifies the world ofatzilut. Temporality and

dimensionality return within its lightwithout ever moving anywhere. Thetransformation is entirely containedwithin meaning, and bears no changeupon phenomena. To call atzilut aworld is technically correct inkabbalah, however, it is a slightlymisleading designation. There is nosuch “place.” Atzilut is the puredynamic thrust to display, inherentlynullified to En Sof. It cannot beconceptualized, and self-darkens orself-conceals by its capacity to bethrusted. The thrust is neither positivenor negative. These counterpointedterms only apply to substance that can

be given or taken away. The light ofatzilut is the Aur En Sof withoutquestion, however, taken from thepoint of view of manifestation. Thenon-emanationist view holds that EnSof never steps down from its purity;however, its light can be approachedfrom both the side of containment andthe uncontainable—if it is understoodthat both share an equal essentialitythat cannot be diminished or restrained.

Atzilut is the juncture through which“something” and “nothing” lose allrelative meaning. It is the juncture atwhich individuality collapses. Thetraditional correspondence of atzilut is

chochmah, which corresponds to theyud. The graphic form of the letter hasa swelling body extended from anupper tip. The upper point correspondsto keter, which is nullified to En Sof,the white of the page.

Each mental wind is like a mist ofinfinite spark-droplets that are open tothe light of atzilut. As conceptualthickenings are released, these dropsspread and open. Each drop is acomplete opportunity to dissolvereification into the unfixed heart ofnon-experience. Each can boilconceptuality down to its ultimatepurity, to sweat through the skin of

appearance until the beast is consumed.To conceptuality this sounds like akind of death, which it actually is.

Birth and death, like all conceptualconstructs, are consumed in stages.First one intellectualizes about theview. Then sporadic tastes of vastnesscreep in through feeling-toneresonances. Once tasted, the mindlongs for the continuance of theseresonances, and they are inevitablywithheld. Withholding happens for areason: longing must build and becultivated, which allows for the mixingof openness within the spark-saturatedsurges. This marks the point at which

“something” and “nothingness” meetfor the first time.

As openness and fullness arebrought into recognition of their innateunion, the mind learns to “become” theground beyond grasping. The mindloses track of itself as an object, andsurrenders to the play of unborn lightand deathless space. The key questionsthen rearise: To what and by what doesthis happen? Where is it happening?

Conceptualizing a passage “to”somewhere “from” somewhere elsewill stop contemplation dead in itstracks. The thought “I am becoming the

adamah” is a dead end. One cannotmaintain a concept of oneself andimmerse beyond identity. Ultimately,the constructs of feeling and thoughtcollapse, but their momentumcontinues in a new register. Absorptionuncoils their knots in the twilightbeyond linguistic association. Theparade of mental artifacts stretches itsinterwoven fibers to allow space topass between the strands, until onlyspace remains. The strands dissolve inthe stretching. This is the bath of space,by space, and through space whereinspace immerses in itself.

A spark has no outside or inside; it

is a pure invitation into the mostcomplete bath, dissolving both thebather and the concept of a medium inwhich bathing takes place. This cannotbe presented as a spiritual oddity in theglass museum case of experience.However, it is found nowhere else butin the unfolding of phenomena thatsupports experiential perception. Aphrase that is useful at this juncture is:One must submit all appearances to thefire of nondimensionality.

Ecstasy and terror arisespontaneously during various stages ofcontemplative practice, sometimesarising back-to-back with

unpredictable and alarming intensity.These psychological states can alsoarise simultaneously, overlapping liketransparencies, such that each isperceived through the other. Theoverlapping territory between theextremes produces a stupefyingdisorientation. The sensations thenbecome indistinguishable, as themixture settles into its jarring andfierce attack. Of course, such adisruption is an excellent opportunityfor practice. This paradoxicalintersection is depicted (figure 10) withstartling accuracy in DionysiusFreher’s “Illustration of Deep

Principles.”

Figure 10

As the volatile mixture is identifiedas experience, the perceiving subjectasserts its central position within theamorphous object-field. At some pointthe reification reflex at the core of theexperience falls away without erasingthe projection. There the fire of non-experience blazes forth from itsinnermost spark. Conceptualidentification falls into nonuse withinits wake, simply because it is stunnedand cannot be maintained. A doorswings wide, and manifestation andawareness continue, however, the heartof the field is left open. Scintillatingluminosity saturates immensity

without attaching to or searching foranything. Nothing actually changes, butsomething crucial drops away.Awareness manifests, perfect just as is,no matter what arises or is withheld. Asconceptual interference dissolves, basicspace simply remains open in the midstof phenomena without any specialeffort. The simplicity and non-effort isquite shocking.

The fire of non-experience is onlyinterested in consuming the beast ofreification. Only identity andidentification are burned away.Whatever is left is free to continue toappear or disappear in exactly the same

space. Awareness poignantly caressesits own manifestation with a stunningand savage beauty. Unknowing causesfamiliarity to be unmade, which leavesthings pristine. The result (if that termcan be used) is that the world is un-shit-out by the process that usuallyexcretes it.

A special diagram (figure 11)summarizes the dynamics of thisrealization. The upper section depictsthe breakthrough point within a yud,arising between the confluences of sky-like extremes falling to either side. Theleft represents the endless capacity forterror and panic, and the right pertains

to ecstatic bliss. The two skies meet ata point that passes beyond dualisticcontrasts. The extremes only posemeaning defined against each other bycontrast. There is no bliss without pain,and no pain without bliss beingpossible. The roller coaster theyrepresent can only be transcendedthrough realization of the ground thatsupports them equally, which is neverrevealed by reactive avoidance orrejection.

Figure 11

The section below this depicts rightand left circles merging to form aninterior quadrisected subset via avesica piscis. This opens a worldwithin a world, which representsrelative phenomena within humanperception. Through it the blazingsacrificial fire is mined. The subsetextends the capacity for excavationdown into a fire triangle above a circlesurrounded by flames of consumption.The flames surround (read: go beyond)the four cardinal points of space,indicated by a large quadrisected

circle. In its center is a representationof universal plasticity: a water triangle.Only through the responsive adaptationof universal fluidity (water) is theblaze of secret mercury (fire)awakened.

Realization of nondimensionalityallows the triple manifestation ofBeYeA and NaRaN to collapse into thenaked wisdom of gnosis, representedby three interpenetrating circlesstanding vertically in the lower circleof the diagram. The triple constructs ofworlds and souls have no basis insubstance. They are simple and wholein their essentiality, which is the fruit

of the tree that “opens their eyes” inthe Garden of Eden. Its intoxicatingnectar sees with a single eye, althoughit is expressed through a kaleidoscopeof attributes.

Finally, this from the Book of theSecret Quintessence: “Howastonishing! This phenomenon issuperb! It is the secret of all gnosticawakening! Everything is born fromthe unborn, and at the moment of birth,nothing is born.”

Detail from figure 11

T

6

THE SKINS OF NO-THING-NESS

(a Summary)

One cannot accomplish spiritual workwith the same view that created theneed for it.

HE NEED FOR SPIRITUALWORK is based on one central

problem: a self-identified subject

addictively grasps after what isbelieved to increase happiness anddecrease pain. All attempts to remedylife’s circumstances will ultimatelyfail, as whatever is reached for slipsaway at some point. After a lifetime ofchasing after the fantasy of a panacea,an honest assessment of the situationmight become possible. There is noway to “fix” the life situation. The onlyalternative is a shift away from themanufacture of the untenable scenarioto a set of possibilities that might bemore profound, more honest, and morerelevant to the heart of the matter.

The ordinary human view is

completely fixated on the quality ofexperiences and their projected causesand outcomes. The most radical shiftthat is possible for a human being is toabandon this view, and turn the mindtoward the essential ground ofphenomena. This allows experiencesand circumstances to come and go,leaving the heart of the matteruntouched. Ultimately it becomes clearthat nothing modifies the ground, andawareness and manifestation dissolvetheir separateness and sense of soliditywithin that realization.

The mind is already included withinthe continuum of the ground whether

there is inquiry or not. Everypractitioner has to begin somewhere,which usually starts within the mind’sconventional habits. Habituatedpatterns of thinking and feeling areformed within NeHiY as it processesmalkut’s display. It should be clear atthis point that the absolute nature ofthe continuum asserts no diminishmentregardless of the relative level of itsexpression. Relative perception gatherswhat it has the capacity to hold untilbreakthrough into deeper degrees ofrelative realization becomes possible.It is important to differentiate relativegrowth from absolute gnosis in this

regard, so as not to confuse thislanguage. The absolute gnosis of thetzadik is the rarest thing in theuniverse, but anyone can begin thework at hand wherever they are. Therelative nature of the path is what thepractitioner works with while the viewof the absolute is cultivated andperfected. There is a famous sayingthat perfectly summarizes this: “Keepyour view as vast as the sky, but refineyour actions as finely as flour.”

Even a little direct observationshould prove that inner perceiving andthe designation of outer constructs arebound within an inseparable union, and

the supposed division between them iscomposed only of perceptualassumptions. Most practitioners can bequickly brought to understand that thegeneral concept of manifestation onlyarises because of perception of somesort. Conversely, there can be noperceptual experience withoutmanifestation arising. So which isfirst? Once the quest for a lineartimeline is subsumed within a concernfor the ground, the chicken-and-eggquestion loses its meaning andrelevance. If these designations areprobed deeply enough a criticalanalysis of origins and destinations

points to the deconstruction ofcausality itself. All that remains is aquestion: What is the continuum whennot overtaken by the relativedesignations of inner and outerequivocations?

Questioning the solidity of aconceptualizing subject set against itsconceptualized objects is first ponderedwithin NeHiY, where analyticalreductive thinking (hod) and expansiveenergetic feelings (netzach) areintegrated within yesod. Yesod iswhere the klipot associated withconceptuality arise to obscure andobstruct the marriage of Zer Anpin and

Nukvah. The klipot pose accumulatedpatterns that reify and divide themind’s fixations, which accumulates inthe all-basis consciousness. As theview of the awakening ground is deeplyconsidered, impressions echothroughout all of a person’s intellectualand emotional life. This allows mentalfunctioning to resonate into buildingthe momentum of inquiry, and slowlythe accumulated patterns of the klipotbegin to be purified. Direct inquiryfacilitates purification without theapplication of any artificial technique,but only if it arises suffused withauthentic heartbroken longing. This

combination is extremely rare, despitethe fact that many make such claimswithout understanding the meaning ofthese words.

Once some of the life force isliberated from the klipot, subtle flavorswash through the exchange of yesodwhere the middle six sefirot andmalkut intersect. The resonances of thefreshly liberated influx allow forgreater mental openness and clarity,which can be pointed back toward theground itself. An endless parade ofklipot clogs the mind with phantomdesignations until decisivebreakthroughs vanquish its skins.

Times, places, thoughts, and feelingsarise as seemingly solid objects for aseemingly solid subject to grasp afteruntil a new view shines through. Theshift in view allows each construct tobecome permeable, like an endlessseries of doorways.

Before klipot can dissolve back intotheir ground, their root patterns mustbe directly confronted as they arise inperception. If the aspiration to unmakereified patterns is made clear, theexpanse of phenomena becomesproportionately clearer. Phenomena arenever the problem, only the mind’sfixations in relation to them are. The

thirst for realization calls the groundinherent within the klipot out into thelight, which asserts its permeability.This does not mean that one merelyknocks down walls in a mechanicalsense. The skins of perception can onlybe penetrated through a deep concernwith their essential meaning. If En Sofis truly appreciated, the smallmeanings of phenomena cease tofunction as klipot, and the greatereventually outshines the lesser.However, most practitioners will hit aseries of walls as this is attempted,which is where the work mustpersevere through difficulty.

No matter whether klipot arise ornot, space always presents phenomena.However, meaning hangs in thebalance. The display of malkutprovides appearances unadorned, asperceptual interpretation forms withinthe six sefirot of the ruach. The job ofthe practitioner is to clear the habitsthat cloud this relationship, so that thepoint of contact at NeHiY can functionas a set of “wheels” for the merkavahof ruach hakodesh. First, automaticreactions that reduce the scope andstructure of meaning can bequestioned, with key questions asked.What is lost or gained as phenomena

are equivocated by habituatedexperience? What rests there to make itconscious in the first place? Inquiry isthe medicine for the disease thatdisrupts the zivug, evoked in CorpusHermeticum 13:13, which states: “I seethe universe and I see myself in mind.”What sees? Does a universe existwithout seeing? Are the assumptions ofsolidity in relation to a perceiver andthe perceived helping or hurting thequest for gnosis?

The mind begins its inquiry byconsidering the activity of its thinking.If thinking relaxes beyond self-positioning, it can dissolve into the

open activity of “seeing” mentioned inthe quote. Feeling can take the place ofreductive thoughts, and the field ofperception can be transformed into aseries of “aromas” or textured nuanceswherein the knower and the knownbegin to blend together. Ultimately theblending falls into overall vastness,which passes into an undifferentiatedstate.

The undifferentiated field faces thefinal frontier of its own self-knowing.First, the reflex to divide a subjectfrom its objects passes into wholeness,and then wholeness itself must bereconciled. Within the self-knowing of

wholeness rests the root fallacy called“I Am,” where every projection ofreification begins. Undifferentiatedself-grasping is the primordial “firstmistake,” which echoes through everyreified detail. If clarity and opennesscan break through the basis ofreification at the root, then En Sofbecomes clear.

It is impossible to reify the groundwithout creating mental constructs, andthe ultimate mental construct is beingitself as the monad of I Am. Manysystems are limited by moving nofurther than monistic realization, whichis still locked in conceptuality at its

most subtle point. Awareness stands asa mere conception of itself until itrealizes that the conception has nosubstance, is not located anywhere, andhas no independent existence. Even abrief moment of this realization isliterally mind shattering.

Equalizing manifestation withawareness requires a profoundunderstanding of the scope of thedisplay of phenomena. As the array ofthose possibilities is glimpsed, a visionbecomes clear within the overlapbetween NeHiY and malkut. The visionopens into a vastness that becomestremendously emotive and poetic, as its

aromas spread through ChaGaT. Thethree aspects of the vision arecomposed of (1) space beyondcontainability and conception; (2)space that appears contained; and (3)the twilight of the mixing field inbetween

The symbol of the great outer circleof our diagrams indicates theuncontainable vastness that displaysrelative phenomena as its subset. If theessential nature of the great circle isunderstood, then no display ofsubstance or position can ever be heldas definite. States of relative being arealways provisional. Only En Sof is

definitive. Striving to hold to theabsolute as the basis of the relativeopens the mixing field of the in-between, where both aspects overlapand lose their differences. Phenomenacan then be engaged as a wakingdream: suffused with openness yetvivid in specificity through thetwilight. The deeper the mind dissolvesthrough the in-between, the lessseparate the great circle and its subsetwill seem to be, until awakeningdissolves the basis of separation at itsroot.

The diagrammatic array (figure 12)is artificially divided into three parts so

that the conventional mind canapproach wholeness comprehensively,without falling into an inferior viewthat grasps after the monad. The arrayis analyzed through hod, and as itsenergies are actively felt throughnetzach. Analysis and energy are thenintegrated within yesod, where the“wheels of the chariot” can proceedthrough the wider horizon of ChaGaT.As experience grows extremely subtle,the gates of conceptuality are opened atthe cusp of the ruach in ChaBaD.Awareness can pass through these gatesto meet with its essential paradox inketer, which equalizes En Sof at its

apex. It is there that the I Am can beconfronted, and ultimately brokenthrough as the self-knowing of beingitself is purified by a view subsumed inEn Sof alone.

Figure 12

The three remaining gates (4, 5, and

6) can be understood as degrees ofgnostic intoxication. The gate offullness allows small divisive habits todissolve into a vast realization ofwholeness. If the smaller klipot giveway to a field of continualbreakthrough, extraordinary bliss andclarity can arise. The first blush ofbliss-clarity is tremendouslyexhilarating and pleasurable to thepsyche, very much like a drug.However, like any drug, the influxremains locked within the clutches ofexperience. Even the mostsophisticated experiences arepredicated upon some aspect of a

subject and an object, even if the objectis the subject itself, and has expandedto undifferentiation. This is where thegreat klipah at the root becomes themain concern.

The intoxicating blisses of thefullness are imprisoned within subtleassociative conceptuality, whichfixates on experiences. The reificationof the wholeness of being is only anexaggerated version of what ordinaryexperience does with each individualthought and feeling, even though thesubject and object have become fused.Thus the state of fullness is incapableof breaking free to realize the essential

nature on its own. Its intoxicating andpleasurable aspects are extremelyimportant as the mind grows beyond itsrestraints, and undifferentiation issealed within awareness, however,consciousness will remain boundwithin itself and ceases to make anyfurther breakthroughs until itsintoxication breaks free of itself.

The poignancy of the fullness formswhat is commonly known as “spiritualexperience.” Subject and object blendwith each other and their commonspace becomes clear, as their essentialnature is still subsumed withinexperience. Many systems mistake this

realization for the absolute, simplybecause it is completely vast andlimitless. What is missing is anopenness that passes beyondexperience into unknowing.Unknowing does not replace knowing;it breaks its meaning open. Passingbeyond the divide between knowingand unknowing is the last frontier ofconsciousness. As the ultimate klipah,the total self-knowing of the monadcan only become trapped at the root ofthe paradox of containment. Ratherthan breaking through, mind can getstuck at its most subtle point, and caneven call the endlessness of that self-

knowing expanse “god.”

The medicine for the disease ofmonism is realized through gate five,which requires the fullness ofintoxication to begin. The impulse toreify wholeness is broken by returningto En Sof without reservation, againand again, as the monad is understoodto be unsatisfactory. This is where theview makes all the difference, andsystems that do not understandauthentic freedom fall by the wayside.If the mind is bound within anobsessive longing for the realization ofEn Sof, the self-knowing of the monadeventually dissolves “like mist in the

morning sunrise.” However, thisdissolution is predicated on holding theaspiration beyond any subtleattachment to knowing the qualities ofexperience. This does not imply thatbliss-and-clarity intoxication ceases,far from it. Intoxication continues andincreases; however, the subtleconceptual identification andattachment can be invited to evaporate.Gnostic intoxication can free itself ofitself through the release of sheerintensity, until the impulse to identifyfeeling lets itself go completely. Thisrelease is the scintillating dissolutionof gate five, where the sparks inherent

in experience self-liberate.

Phenomena self-liberate at theprecise spot where experiencedevelops, and nowhere else. If the viewof En Sof supersedes the subtlest rootof all reflexes, then whatever arisessettles effortlessly into the crystallineexpanse of absolute meaning. This doesnot mean that some new aspect ofconsciousness overtakes an outdatedaspect. Wisdom literally consumes theroot of consciousness until itdisappears. Consciousness, which is anapplication of knowingness, is a by-product of En Sof’s blazing. The blazedoes not take sides. The idea that non-

duality can be chosen over duality isitself a completely dualisticcontrivance.

The scintillating dissolution ofrelative meaning begins at ChaBaD,where the gate between conceptualityand gnosis opens. Surely aconceptually fixated being mustinitially make a choice there. However,through that gate the choice reveals itsown contrivance. Each spark thatpasses through is totally choiceless,unbound by any option consciousnesscan conceptually equivocate. Mists ofsparks usurp whatever arises as afreedom from any “thing” coming or

going anywhere. Each thought, word,and deed the spark plays out like adream. This cannot be called any kindof experience, not even a spiritual one,as there isn’t even a monad ofconsciousness to bind it all together.

The freedom of the awakeningground is realized as non-experienceopens in the midst of the parade ofexperiences. This is the key to ChaBaDthat approaches the root paradox ofketer. As identity passes through thedream, only the speaking silence isborne out. This happens between thesubtlest gaps of conceptuality untilstabilization of the release has

dissolved all of the reflexes ofreification. This introduces the sixthgate, which renders a practitioner atzadik.

The tzadik has no individual psychein the sense that there is no moreattachment to the meaning of relativephenomena. Since the contrivances ofexperience cease to be a problem, theworld continues totally free. Allimpulses toward relative concerns areself-liberated prior to their arising,because the creative blaze of En Sof isliterally primordial. The tzadik knowsnothing but primordial realization,which makes it clear that awareness

never entered into or departed from theprimordial purity of En Sof frombeginningless beginning. The tzadik’sbody, speech, and mind all express theparadox of non-experience arising asform, even as what we think of asexperiences seem to presentthemselves in the tzadik’s mind.Despite this array, there is no identityof a subject and no identified objectsanywhere.

Stabilizing gnostic realization is notthe end of a process; it actually opens acontinual beginning. There are threeaspects of the continual beginning: abody, its heart, and the heart’s

quintessence.

The living body of phenomena is awaking dream beyond knower andknown, which the chain of worldsexpresses in profound detail withoutcontradiction. Each attribute offers theequalizing essence of En Sof beyondany concept of a whole or of partswithin it. As the flesh of the dreambody ornaments itself within itsqualities, manifestation and awarenessare revealed as synonymous. Thiscontinuum is the ground as it is thrustinto continual variation beyond origin,destination, or substance. And yetsubstance appears, but not as fact—

rather only as “opinion.”

The heart is primordial uncreatedspace without substance: belimah(literally “without-a-thing,” as SeferYetzirah suggests). Open and yetappearing, the heart of the bodycirculates the blood of space withoutentering or leaving its innately perfectprimordial expanse. Whatever arises ordoesn’t arise is essentially equal, butnot the same. The mind can return tothis paradox again and again by simplyremembering, until all differencescease to be taken as barriers within theawakening ground.

The blood of space is the fluiditythat carries the sparks of awakeningthroughout phenomena, without even ahint of belonging to any internal orexternal context. Its primordial natureexpresses a living quintessence that isungraspable. This is the heart-drop thatis central to knowing and unknowingequally, abiding right in the midst ofall phenomena.

The Talmud gives an account of thewise men of Athens asking the rabbisabout this topic. “Where is the centerof the universe?” they asked. Therabbis replied, “Right here! (pointingup at random).”

The infinite expanse of space isreplete with the potency of theprimordial heart-drop point, which isthe basis of every animating vowelthroughout the speech of the voice ofEn Sof. Remembering the quintessencespreads through each ring of thetzimtzum, as the primordial pointechoes through its peripheries. Thisremembering is the tikkun that rectifiesall reifications of phenomena.Whatever arises within the vacatedspace of the chalal hapanui is equalizedas the parade of appearances is bound,equalized, and isolated. The isolationcan happen anywhere and everywhere

within the appearing space-body. Justlike the rabbis told the wise men ofAthens, the center point is always“Right here.”

The six gates in a circular array

S

EPILOGUEContinuing the Work

The Awakening Ground is the first in aseries of texts dedicated to presentingmystical contemplation as a livingpractice.

EVERAL KEY KABBALISTICTEXTS are recommended for study

in preparation for this path. For ageneral introduction into the subject

from an orthodox perspective, onecannot do better than Aryeh Kaplan’sbooks Inner Space and Meditation andKabbalah. After some familiarity withbasic ideas is gained, original sourcetexts can be utilized. The texts relevantto the work described here include thef o l l o wi n g : Ma’ayin HaChochmah(Fountain of Wisdom); the SeferYetzirah; the Commentary on SeferYetzirah by R. Isaac the Blind; SeferHaIy’yun; Likutey Moharan(particularly volumes 4, 5, and 6 of theBRI version) by Rebbe Nachman ofBreslov; and, of course, the Zohar (inparticular, the books of the Idrot).

In addition to the kabbalisticsources, the following Gnostic andHermetic texts are also highlyrecommended: Book of Lambspring;Splendor Solis; Thunder Perfect Mind;The complete works of Pseudo-Dionysius; Cloud of Unknowing;Paradoxical Emblems of D. A. Freher;and the Corpus Hermeticum.

ABOUT THEAUTHOR

DAVID CHAIM SMITHwas born in 1964 in

Queens, New York. His earlycareer was as a visual artistthroughout the 1980s. In 1990he began an immersion intothe root sources of Alchemyand the Hermetic and Hebrewtraditions of the Kabbalah. In1996 he abandoned visual artfor a total dedication tospiritual practice, from which

came a unique blend ofpractical mysticism andcreative innovation. Thisblend coalesced whileworking with an obscurethirteenth-century text calledThe Fountain of Wisdom,which he mapped outdiagrammatically innotebooks during his ten-yearhiatus from visual art. Theresulting symbol vocabularyserved as the basis for his

2006 return to art, generatingthe content for several books.He currently lives in thesuburbs of New York Citywith his wife, Rachel.

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Title: The awakening ground :a guide to contemplativemysticism / David ChaimSmith.

Description: Rochester,Vermont : Inner Traditions,[2016] | “2016

Identifiers: LCCN2016004376 (print) | LCCN2016005158 (ebook) | printISBN: 9781620555330 |ebook ISBN:

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