Just as people are unable to explain physical or emotional experiences without words, the Kabbalist would say that we cannot realize the meaning of life itself without exploring profound depths within ourselves. All of our knowledge will fall short of its potential when not informed by the clarity and awareness that comes out of spiritual knowledge.
What do spiritual teachers mean when they talk about “enlightenment”? They are usually referring to a quality of knowledge that casts a light of revealed truth. Some teachers suggest that enlightenment endows one with supernatural powers, but most teachings are not not concerned with paranormal displays. They focus upon an extraordinary refinement of everyday characteristics inherent in all human beings. Walking on water might be a useful skill in a serious flood, but bringing loving kindness into difficult situations is far more beneficial. Flying, walking through walls, and manifesting gold out of lead are interesting metaphors for the enlightened being, but forgiving all who have caused us harm, serving all who need to be fed, or turning away from revenge, hostility, and violence is truly astonishing.
Most of us go after tiny mosquitoes with a vengeance. We react strongly when we experience emotional betrayal. We can rationally defend our position on many physical, emotional, and intellectual issues, especially when we feel we are being mistreated or misunderstood. This is not to say that the enlightened response is always accepting, and yielding. Rather, it is simply to note that our conditioned reactions to many activities are not the way an enlightened person would react under identical conditions.
So, people pursue spiritual paths for various reasons. Becoming more skilled with family, friends, and even strangers, acting more gracefully, being more loving, more accepting, more generous people are noble aspirations. My personal view is that there are no fully enlightened people but there are untold numbers of enlightened acts. Each day we have many opportunities to achieve enlightened acts, and each time accomplish one, the world is a better place.
From my perspective, following a spiritual path is far more a way to live one’s life than it is a means to achieve a goal. A true spiritual aspirant is one who realizes the continuing process of enlightening many times every day. This is an ongoing process. There is nothing higher than a moment of kindness. One enlightened moment is not better or higher than another. However, the process itself affects the practitioner. That’s what spiritual “practice” means. We develop a pattern of doing more and more enlightened actions, we become “better” people, we break out of old habits of conditioning, and we come closer and closer to attaining the true potential of our natural kindness. What more would we ask of a “practice?”
The purpose of spiritual practice is to gently and consistently move us from our mundane place, where we normally “hang out,” to a place of greater and greater refinement. Through practice, we begin to reflect and react in different ways. This change in our behavior causes a couple of significant results.
An enlightened action changes the dynamics of a situation. It affects all the people engaged and how things will unfold after the situation. It affects how we, who have changed, feel about ourselves. In addition, there are a multitude of variables that arise out of this change of behavior. Even the smallest circumstance can and will change the way life unfolds in the future. All this can occur from manifesting a gentle smile in a situation that might normally have evoked an angry response.
Spiritual practice has a series of tiny ekstasis that arise when we behave “out of place” of our normal reactions. “Normal” is quite different from “natural.” Normal is how we are conditioned to respond from the time we are conceived. But the spiritual principal at the base of many traditions is that our natural inclinations are what arise when we realize the true nature of things.
When we stop believing that we are each the center of our universe, when we recognize the interconnectedness of all beings, when we see the source of life and its extraordinary display, we naturally release our ego-needs that cause us and others so much pain, We naturally become wiser and more compassionate, and find ourselves more at peace with whatever is happening in each moment. Over thousands of years, spiritual explorers have reported that their practice leads to greater and greater naturalness of being.
This naturalness of being is built upon a profound sense of selflessness, and this results in the peacefulness of total inclusivity, absolute non-separation. When there is no separation, there is no place needed for the selfless realized being. The condition in which there is “no place,” and there is no ego-self, is the state of absolute ecstasy. When we engage in an on-going flow of enlightened actions, this ecstasis slowly becomes a continual opportunity—but never fixed, never permanent, for life itself remains a constant unknown.
Keep in mind that the achievement of enlightenment should not be our goal of practice. This is a self-defeating expectation. True practice results from an ongoing engagement in what everyday life presents. Manifesting enlightened actions is the best we can hope to accomplish. Each and every time we succeed, we change the world.
From Ecstatic Kabbalah by David Cooper, with permission of the author.
*Rabbi David Cooper will be leading a workshop Dec. 15, 2006.
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