Many people are looking for a spiritual path to gain peace of mind, when, in actuality, they should be looking for ‘piece’ of mind. If the goal of my spiritual work is peace of mind, I am actually saying to myself, “Life is hard, maybe too hard; I cannot change what is happening, at least I can have peace of mind.” Kabbalah says, “No! Do your spiritual work!” The Light that you reveal will remove the chaos from your life, and peace of mind will be a byproduct of the process. The ‘piece’ of mind that we are actually missing is that part that will help us achieve what Rav Berg repeats in his lectures and books – mind over matter – allowing us to take control of our life and get the most out of it.
In the Torah portion Masei, it says that the Israelites wandered in the desert from one place to another. However, we know that Kabbalah is not a history course, and we are not just supposed to read the travel log of the Israelites’ journey. The 16th century kabbalist, the Ari – Rav Isaac Luria – reveals to us that, all together, the Israelites camped in 42 locations. As Kabbalah students, the number 42 should jump out at our eyes. The Ana b’Koach (the ancient kabbalistic meditation – the Prayer of the Kabbalist) comprises the 42-letter name of the Creator, and is the sequence that created the entire physical universe and all that is in it. So, one type of energy that we can connect with this week is the root of our creation, the root of our soul.
Rav Shelomo of Radomsk, in his book Tiferet Israel, says that the journey that the Israelites endured was done only to elevate them from one level to another. This elevation started with the slavery in Egypt – the code for ‘slavery’ is the ‘Desire to Receive for the Self Alone’ – and ended in the land of Israel, which is a code for ‘perfected world’ with no pain, suffering and chaos.
This week, we have a rare and unique opportunity to peek at our spiritual journey and evolvement. We can see the root of darkness from which we came – who knows how many lifetimes ago – and we can see the destination: the perfected version of ourselves where all our potential is manifested. We can also see where we are along our spiritual path.
First, what a great opportunity we have to see the entire movie of our life (not just where we are now) from the point of view of our spiritual growth. Usually, we are looking at our life like someone that is getting into the theatre one hour after the movie started. Why? Because we think that the movie of our life – the journey of our soul – started when we were born, and that it ends when one leaves the world. But this is not the case; our soul has been on this journey from the moment the world was created, and will continue until eternity. This is also the source of our confusion and doubts, because when you come to a movie late, you do not understand who is doing what to whom and why. Sound familiar? If we could just have seen what happened before, if someone would have just told us, it would have been so much clearer. Well, guess what? This week we can have the sense of creation. We won’t necessarily see visions of previous lifetimes, but rather gain the sense of responsibility for planting the seeds of everything that appears in our life today.
This is the way we can achieve true ‘peace of mind’! Why?
What is the cause of not having peace of mind? Our doubts. What’s going to happen tomorrow? Am I doing what I’m supposed to do? Does he/she like me? Is this the person for me? Is this the business deal for me? Will I succeed or fail?
If we could just know, with complete certainty, that wherever we are and whatever we do is leading us to the best scenario in our life – we will have true peace of mind. Seeing the big picture this week will help us get there.
So how do we do that?
Our tool this week, naturally, is the meditation of the kabbalist: the Ana b’Koach. As Rav Berg teaches us, the first line of the Ana b’Koach takes us above the limitations of time, space and motion – and this is exactly what we need to see our entire journey and have the certainty that the end station is all good. Knowing that we are coming from the darkness of our Desire to Receive for the Self Alone and yet are destined to live free of pain, suffering and chaos will give us the true peace of mind that we are longing for.
