Kabbalah — Introduction to the Tree of Life

Elias Rubenstein
Hermetic Academy
Published in
25 min readDec 17, 2019

Today’s topic is the Tree of Life, a symbol from the Kabbalah. In order to understand this lecture, I would suggest having a color image of the Tree of Life to refer to. I’ve given many lectures, written a book and hundreds of instructions on this topic, so as you can see this is an area that’s truly inexhaustible. And that’s the special thing about symbols from the mystery tradition — they are not meant to be covered in a few sentences; rather, they offer us a large field of new questions and therefore answers.

In the Tree of Life we can, therefore, find answers to the basic questions of life. But I would say one of the most important topics, one of the focal points in the mysteries is that we develop to the point where we can ask questions. Most people expect an answer without being able to ask the right question. Even a basic question like, what is the meaning of my life — how many people ask themselves such a question daily? That’s a topic that concerns us every day, and one that we could constantly try to deal with. Or — where do I come from?

Who Am I? Why Do I Exist? What Is My Purpose

Where does being a human lead me? What is it to be a human? Who am I? These are the basic questions that have great relevance in our lives. And if we listen to the mainstream media, then we will see that there are no important questions asked, and by not asking the important questions, we will also find only irrelevant or unsatisfactory answers that can’t help us at all in life.

When we look at world politics, the question is not who is good and who is evil, but rather, what is the meaning of our existence and how do I fulfill it? Is it just what I do, what I think, what I feel today — is it how I act, my feelings towards myself, towards other people? These are the basic questions we could be dealing with. The maturity of our consciousness also determines the quality and maturity of our questions. So that means we can’t get deep, meaningful answers if we’re still unable to ask these questions. And only when you can ask the question, can you embark on the path. The question is the beginning of being led to a solution.

Before we have the will, the open vessel, that allows us ask a question, we are still unable to develop in a certain direction. Only through the basic questions that help us to start researching, will we start dealing with a topic, and ultimately, if we remain constant on this path, will we have the opportunity to find an answer.

The Mystical Diagram of the Tree of Life

The diagram of the Tree of Life is a tool for this. Of course, you can only work with this tool if you can ask the right questions. It’s not enough to be shown a diagram, and to say that it answers all our questions about our life and how our life works and how the cosmos works, where the cosmos comes from, where people come from, to where people develop — these are some of the basic questions we can find in the Tree of Life. But the answers, of course, are only accessible if we first ask the right questions.

Listen to this Kabbalah article on YouTube

Such a diagram offers us many possibilities for this. So you could ask questions like — why does this symbol consist of ten spheres, why are these ten spheres connected by twenty-two paths? Or you could ask — are these absolute colors, that is, colors that cannot be replaced? Why do these colors exist? How does a symbol like this answer the fundamental questions of life?

At first sight, you might say that somehow this symbol doesn’t seem quite harmonious. You might think, here something doesn’t quite make sense, and there something seems to be missing, and so on. But over the course of our studies we come to the conclusion that there is a great harmony hidden within it, and that this harmony expresses itself one-to-one, without delay, directly in our lives. Our entire individual lives, the entire life existence of humanity, the entire cosmos can now be experienced — our entire creation process can be reflected and also reflects perfectly in this diagram.

We see certain numbers within the diagram which are only shown for practical reasons, in order to assist us in our understanding. Originally these numbers wouldn’t need to be there, but they help us to find a chronology. And it’s extremely difficult to understand the Tree of Life using a linear way of thinking, because creation happens all at once.

Divine Trinity

As a practical example, father, mother, child — which are represented in the Tree of Life by the spheres Chokmah, Binah, Tiphareth — can only exist by happening simultaneously. Because how can a father be a father if he doesn’t have a child at the same time? It’s the same with a mother. You can only be a mother if you have a child at the same time. And father and mother can only exist together if they also exist together in this form, in a unity, in a marriage. This is not possible using our linear thinking. But in the chronology of creation, this trinity emanates, which can only exist in a simultaneous world.

This is repeatedly hinted at in many religious writings, not only from the West but also from the East. We find this Trinity — that is, father/mother/child, and in this case, father/mother/son. It arises from a unity, from an original point, from a center of creation. And that is the special thing about creation — creation is something that takes place within consciousness and not outside of it. This means that even the term “existence” is misleading and completely false, because for something to exist means that there must be something outside of it. And this “outside” doesn’t exist. And that is what the Tree of Life shows us, that there is something in one.

That is, this One recognizes within itself a male and female principle, and through this of the male and female a harmony arises. And this harmony through the middle column results in the son of mankind, Adam. There are many terms that can be used — I’ll use a religious term — the divine Father, the divine Mother and the divine Son — this trinity is the first thing in creation that recognizes itself.

There is this one primal principle, which arises in the cosmos through the eternal light, the eternal oneness, which is concentrated within itself and thereby recognizes itself. This means that the eternal finds the focus in itself, and through this concentration the first movement arises. And this first movement, one could say, is the initial impulse, and through this initial impulse a trinity is created at the same time. These three come into being out of one, namely out of Kether, the crown, and they are the first thing that exists.

Then — and this is not to be understood in a linear way, but for our purposes it suffices to imagine it chronologically — as a second impulse in creation, the next spheres emerge. From this trinity — Chokmah, Binah and Tiphareth — emerge four, five and nine, or Chesed, Geburah and Yesod. Then from those emerge three more at the same time — seven, eight and ten, or Netzach, Hod and Malkuth.

What can we understand from this? Something really great — this divinely supreme Trinity. From this arises what is only hinted at in most religious writings, but is never properly explained, namely the aspect of divine severity, justice, karma, cause and effect. There is a law that constantly creates a balance in the cosmos, a perfect justice. And from the layman’s point of view, this divine justice is understood as something harsh, something that can often be experienced as suffering or punishment.

That is, you do something, and then you reap the fruits. And these fruits, they don’t always have to be sweet — they can be very bitter sometimes. So that there are opposing poles, so that there is a proper balance in life, there is also a sphere, Chesed, which is mercy, or grace. Many religions speak of this by simply saying that God is eternally kind, eternally nice, would never punish us and so on — which a complete misperception.

The Ten Sephiroth

The original God is represented in Kether, and then polarity and sexuality come into play in Chokmah, Binah and Tiphareth, and that’s where what we understand as divinity really begins. And then in Chesed, Geburah and Yesod we find principles, the forces that appear in life — the balance between severity and grace.

What is also interesting is that each sphere that has a color, and none of these colors is random. Mixing the blue in Chesed and the red in Geburah results in the violet in Yesod. If we look at another correlation, the blue in Chesed and the yellow in Tiphareth result in the green in Netzach. Red and yellow make orange, and so on. We can see how the light becomes more and more condensed, going from the pure energy in Kether, to the gray in Chokmah, to the dark indigo in Binah. The spheres then continue to emanate downward toward manifestation.

In Yesod we find what we call the subconsciousness — this is the sphere of subconscious programs, automatisms, dreams — you could also say the animal consciousness finds its home here. From there, Malkuth emerge. Netzach, one could say, is the sphere of our desires, feelings and emotional nature. Hod is the intellectual-mental-sphere. And Malkuth is the sphere of earthly manifestation, body, matter, the physical, visible world.

The Fall of Man

It’s important to note that nothing goes any further downward from here. Which means that this is where the great sense of guilt takes place. That is, as soon as we are on the level of the material, visible world of form, we indirectly have what one could also call the Fall of Man. Why the great sin at this point? The sin is that we can no longer pass anything down. As soon as a vessel is unable to let anything continue to flow down, there is a feeling of guilt. It means you can only receive.

Malkuth receives from everything you see above it in the Tree of Life. This means that the material world is an expression of all these spheres which concentrate down here in this vessel, but we experience great suffering because we cannot pass anything on. But this is not a mistake. Kabbalah gives us the big answer. We want to receive in order to share with others. These are the great divine laws which we find in the holy scriptures. The commandment of the tithe is not for nothing. And there’s a reason that it’s not the commandment of the eleventh or of the ninth, but of the tenth.

And as we can see, the Tree of Life has ten Sephirot, ten spheres, and in the tenth sphere is the earthly manifestation. Everything has taken place in order to be able to experience something material in the end. And if we look at it this way, the material world is not a failure, not an error of God, not something from which we must remove or detach ourselves. It’s only explained that way by the false paths that don’t understand where this world really comes from.

Everything that flows in from these higher spheres, we experience as the material world. The problem, the reason we suffer here, is that as long as we only receive, we feel guilty, we experience suffering. And the solution is simple — it’s one that we learn quite easily in the higher spheres — namely, we want to make our vessel of receiving as large as possible in order to share it with others.

Because as long as we only receive, we feel guilty. It’s a divine principle, what we’re experiencing here. In order to free ourselves from bondage — the same bondage we read about in the Old Testament in Egypt and so on — the way to escape this bondage is to follow this higher principle, that is, I want to receive in order to share with others. We also find it in the commandment of the tithe, the offering, so that we may come out of this enslavement and rise to what we truly are.

Levels of Understanding

We all have a physical body and we live in this physical body. But we also have feelings, we also have an intellect, we have subconscious behavior patterns. We have what is called the Self, that is, the one who uses all these tools to experience life here. But we would come to a false conclusion if we would view religiosity and spirituality as stopping with Tiphareth. Mere self-recognition gives us no answers at all in life.

Because as we can see, in the spheres above Tiphareth lie the fundamental answers, these are the fundamental causes for what we experience as the Self. That is, the Self is not the highest thing that can be experienced, not at all. It’s concentrated in the middle of the Tree of Life. This individuality, Tiphareth, has an impulse of the will, which comes from Geburah. It also has a universal memory — that is, the memory of the cosmos, where I come from and what I’m developing toward — which is hidden within Chesed.

The small subconsciousness is in Yesod — that is, the minimal subconsciousness where short-term memories can be stored, such as mechanisms for driving a car, riding a bike, things like that — whereas, the larger subconsciousness is located in Chesed. This is the larger, much longer memory.

But in this area we still don’t find any fundamental answers, because what’s the use of just acknowledging that it’s God’s will for us to experience this or that? That doesn’t give us the answer to where we truly come from. And is Kether the beginning? From the point of view of Kabbalah, Kether is not the absolute beginning, because this Tree of Life is only one world, the lowest world, the material appearance. We could draw three more trees of life above this one — the world of form, the world of archetypes and so on.

But in any case, we should realize that this is just an image of what we experience as life. We can find solutions to problems and conflicts, when we are ready to ask the right questions. The Tree of Life shows us exactly where we can change, or where we can find answers. On the lowest level, we may have emotions that burden us, maybe an interpersonal relationship, or maybe our thoughts are going around in circles and we paint a picture in our heads that doesn’t represent the reality of the situation.

Or maybe we have subconscious behavior patterns that cause us to suffer. This is simply false programming, a misunderstanding of the polarities, of people, of human interaction. But on the lower levels we have no fundamental answers as to why we have conflicts, why we suffer, why this polarity exists between the columns. This polarity in the cosmos cannot be overridden.

The Three Pillars of the Tree of Life

There are three pillars within the Tree of Life — left, middle, right. There are false paths that tell us that one pillar is good and one is bad, and if you just stay on the good, merciful side, you can solve all your problems. But we don’t solve anything that way, because it’s only one pillar. The genuine Kabbalistic path shows us not only the middle path where we find harmony, but also the polarities, because we want to be all-encompassing. And that means we have to get to know the poles.

We have to experience what it’s like to suffer, to be sinful, to be evil, so that we can see the consequences — that is, so that we experience, suffer and learn from the results of our actions. And you can’t override that principle. As soon as we encounter new life experiences which are great challenges, which really cause us to suffer, which we have to solve — then we know, now we have reached a stage where we can change even more. People who don’t go through this can’t experience a significant change.

We see people all the time who have been living the same story for decades. Two decades, three decades, the worldview they held in school is the same worldview they hold in retirement. Always the same stories, which they tell again and again. That means that they haven’t had enough experience to learn why a life situation exists. They aren’t ready to ask the right questions yet.

The Path of Self-Discovery

So that begs the question, is every person meant for this path of self-discovery in this moment? No, not everyone is. The impulse comes from above, from the one primordial will. And as soon as this initial impulse comes down to us out of the individuality, we are ready to ask the right questions. Before that, we never even realize that we aren’t asking the right questions. We would never ask ourselves the important questions such as, why am I here as a human? Is this complete fulfillment? What is my role in this creation? Where does being human take me?

Most people just want to know, what is the point, why am I here, is this my calling, could I be happier, why do I have existential fears and how can I overcome them? The root of this question is that we believe we are separate from the one source, which supplies us with everything and makes everything possible. And when we are separated, then we have existential fears. So, if we ask ourselves, how do I get over these fears?

The answer is quite obvious — by not perceiving ourselves in our own existence, but rather perceiving ourselves in the One. In the One who has been providing for us the whole time. Life is only possible because we are cared for — otherwise life of this kind would not be possible at all. We believe that to be a human means to have ten fingers, two eyes and so on. Man was created in the image of God, but what is man?

Man is in Tiphareth, man has no physical form, is just consciousness, individuality. It does not yet have the physically manifested form which is only tangible in Malkuth. Therefore, if man was created in the image of God, then that is in Tiphareth. This is far away from Hod and Netzach, our feelings and our intellect, and Yesod, our subconscious programs and our animal instincts, and even further away from Malkuth, our body. None of this exists yet in this stage in creation.

So, yes, such a diagram can provide us with fundamental answers, if we are ready to ask the right questions, and if we have the necessary basic knowledge about the mechanisms of the Tree of Life. Mechanisms may not be the best term, because it is a living thing. It’s not called the Tree of Life for nothing, and it’s not called the Tree of Creation or anything else, but of Life.

So that means that it explains to us how life works. This is a far cry from any exoteric scientific research. What’s the use of exploring animals, plants, feelings, thoughts? Nothing at all. It doesn’t give us any access to the origins of why life is truly life.

Perspective of the Higher Planes

A clear spiritual path will always provide us with a perspective on what is presented in the higher planes, and on the worlds above. Different people feel trapped, so to speak, in different levels of consciousness. Some experience themselves primarily on the emotional level. Some people think they’re just their intellect. Some only experience their instincts. Some are at the lowest level and believe they are the physical body, the mechanism of the body. In that case their consciousness is focused in Malkuth.

But that’s no better than thinking you are your thoughts, or your feelings, because individuality doesn’t even begin until Tiphareth. And someone who perceives himself only in Tiphareth experiences only half of his true being as a human. It’s like saying, I am my will, or I am my memory. Some even see themselves as the divine mother, or as the divine father, as God. It’s nonsense to think of yourself in that way. These are just shadows of our true being.

When you experience yourself in Tiphareth, the consciousness is raised, because it’s a path that goes from the top down. Where Kether and Malkuth meet, the spiritual and the material in Tiphareth, then you experience the sun consciousness. That’s what Buddhists are referring to when they say they experience Buddha consciousness, or further east, Krishna consciousness, or in the Christian tradition when they say they experience Christ in their hearts, or in the Kabbalah where one perceives Adam.

There are also many other symbols in addition to Adam in this sphere. But Adam Kadmon, the heavenly man, is embodied in the Tree of Life. This is man. Not just one sphere or the other, but the entire diagram shows the man. We couldn’t take out our heart and still call ourselves human — every part shown here is essential to the whole.

And so we can fundamentally understand our difficulties in life by showing that there is polarity — we have problems only if we do not accept that these polar forces must exist. Without them, life cannot take place. There cannot be only men or only women, but rather this polarity. Through this perception a middle column also exists, one that balances or harmonizes the poles. One could say this middle column is the path of mysticism, where the poles are neither good nor evil. But in order for us to be complete, we have to integrate all spheres into ourselves.

Higher Consciousness

There are some illusory paths where people believe they have achieved Christ consciousness or Buddha consciousness or something similar. If they believe that, then it’s about time they start dealing with the higher spheres. After all, what is Christ consciousness in the Tree of Life? It’s just half of what it is to be human. That’s nothing yet.

Some people do it through meditation, but it doesn’t mean they’ve gotten anywhere. They just raised their consciousness within a meditation, in silence, where thoughts and feelings no longer confuse them, and then they experience the light. What’s so special about that? In the Kabbalah we have only made real progress when this is our permanent state of consciousness. When we constantly perceive that we are this one individuality, anchored directly in the center of this tree.

Not even once do we identify ourselves with the tools we have — our bodies, thoughts, feelings, or instincts. We can’t identify with that anymore. We are no longer slaves to these tools. We use them. It doesn’t mean we have a brilliant intellect. It simply means that we know we are not these things, and have experienced it.

Knowledge alone is not enough. I am constantly aware that I am not my emotions, because I can regulate and control my emotions. I can always decide how I feel. If I want to feel forgiveness now, I can feel forgiveness. If I want to feel hatred, I can feel hatred. It doesn’t prioritize. The power to feel it frees me from bondage. It’s the same with thoughts — some people can’t even master their thoughts. They’re prisoners of their thoughts.

If we master the sphere of thought, we can consciously decide at any time what to think and how long, or whether to think at all. There are times when you don’t want to think, when you want to be quiet, in your consciousness, in your mental sphere, in Hod. That is also the case with Yesod, the sphere of instincts — the one that is so difficult for most people to master.

Of course, the easiest way to do this is through initiation. This level of the subconsciousness is very difficult to purify, to harmonize. Some believe in living in celibacy and suppressing their urges. But we see what happens on this celibate path, especially in organized religions. They imagine that they can cleanse themselves of their instincts. But what happens to them? They suppress their desires, which leads to perverted behavior. And that is completely objectionable.

Purity of instinct means that we act out of love, that we are no longer slaves of this animal instinct, but that we unite out of love. There’s a difference. It’s not to say, I will never unite myself with another person again, but rather, I want to use this power that I have at my disposal out of love. That is the transformation of this power. And we could then continue to transform ourselves within each sphere out of love.

The Beauty of Tiphareth

Let’s go to Tiphareth, the sixth sphere, which is the center of life. There are different ways which lead us through contemplation or self-reflection to experience this sphere of our being. A very simple possibility would be to sit quietly and observe our bodies. The one who is observing the body cannot be the body. There has to be an entity above the body to observe it. If we can observe the body from the inside, then we know, I am not the body, but the one who uses the body. It’s my tool.

Then we can go one step further, observing our thoughts. He who is observing the thought cannot be the intellect. The intellect cannot observe itself. If we can observe our thoughts, we are one level above them. In the beginning we tend to just imagine this. But at some point, we can consciously observe our thoughts from a higher instance, and can directly influence them or silence them. One level higher would be observing our emotions, until we come to the point where we can decide what we want to feel. Then we’ll never again be slaves to our emotions.

They can come and go as they want — we are not them. Yesod, as I’ve indicated, is a difficult sphere. This is the sphere of instincts. We want to observe them, but not get rid of them — quite the contrary, they are a part of life. This animal sphere is vital, it’s the one that gives us life. We all know that the power of procreation also comes from sexual union, that is, by consciously observing our instincts. We don’t want to manipulate them in the beginning, but rather observe which instincts and behavior patterns we have. According to which templates do we act?

The ability to observe ourselves from a distance frees us from many enslavements. When we first begin these exercises, we are only able to do it for a short time before our thoughts or feelings catch up with us. Over time, with enough practice, we rise to the level where we are able to do it permanently. This is Tiphareth, the level of the observer who experiences life. He doesn’t think. He isn’t full of thoughts.

He uses the tool of thought, Hod, the mental sphere. He can also create images, which is why we learn to work with the power of imagination at the beginning of many spiritual paths. The goal is not just to be able to consciously create images or emotions. The goal is to be able to consciously perceive these tools from a higher instance. As soon as we have freed ourselves from this bondage, life becomes more impulsive.

The Path to Mastery

The higher we climb up this mountain, the stronger the wind blows. Everything in life will disturb us. The media, chaotic people, people who are extremely emotional — everything will disturb us, because these things keep bringing us back down, until at some point we have the inner peace where nothing can shake us anymore. At some point we have risen above it and we have inner peace in the interaction with our fellow human beings.

As soon as we master one level, anything that threatens to bring us back there will bother us. So, just because someone reacts impulsively does not necessarily mean that he is totally immature. It just means that there is a conflict between one aspect and another. All his alarms are going off and he is constantly reminded that something is wrong. Once we have solved this and are in Tiphareth, we can deal with the higher aspects of our individuality.

And then you realize you don’t have a will of your own. Before that, we are under the illusion — I decide what I do. We realize in Tiphareth that we don’t decide anything, because we see where the will really comes from — from above. We cannot experience anything without the universal cosmic memory making it accessible. We can’t even imagine anything or feel anything if it doesn’t come down from above.

In the Tree of Life we can also see how these higher aspects in our being interact with us, where the currents come from. There are twenty-two connecting paths which show us the channel through which we experience all of this. So, they are also connected to each other in a way. What’s really interesting is the connecting paths between the poles.

They create the interaction between these extremely positive, extremely negative, extremely male, extremely female — they create balance between the poles. And these unifying paths hold the most conflicts. And as soon as we start to understand this system — that feelings come before intellect, that willpower is above the subconsciousness — then we know which level to aim for in order to bring about the correct changes.

It’s interesting, as soon as we want to change something in Netzach, the level of emotions, it has a direct influence, first on Yesod, our subconsciousness, second on Hod, our intellect, and third, on Malkuth, on our material body and our life situations. But, if we want to change something in Hod, the intellectual level — for example, more positive thinking — then it has a direct influence on Yesod and Malkuth, the subconsciousness and the body, but not on Netzach, the emotions, because the energy flows the other way, from seven to eight.

This means that the combination of thoughts and feelings — for example, the correct image along with a positive feeling — has an enormous influence on our subconsciousness and on our physical body and life events. Of course, if we change something in Geburah — create a balance, make atonement, learn to repent of our sins, use the power of forgiveness — if we use these tools, it has an enormous impact down through the spheres. And the same applies to Chesed.

The Power of Benevolence

If we are benevolent towards the whole of humanity, towards the whole of creation, it flows down and has an enormous influence on everything along the way. This means that the impulse of goodwill can change our whole evolution, all the way down to our body and our experiences with others. To the outsider, an exercise like practicing benevolence seems almost stupid because it’s so simple. But there is a reason why we include these exercises in our instructions. It’s because we understand what it can accomplish. We are working on a very high level, and we know what a direct impact it has in life.

That’s why we recommend certain exercises and methods to effect change instead of others. How weak is a negative thought when we perceive benevolence towards all people? The thought simply dissolves. Because as soon as we feel and perceive benevolence for the whole of humanity, the mental images form accordingly. There’s also a reason that the colors of the spheres are complementary — blue and orange have a direct influence on each other, as well as red and green.

So, merely the desire to atone for the evil deeds that we perform every day has a direct influence on our emotions. It heals them. Work that is done in Geburah effects change in Netzach, and work that is done in Chesed effects change in Hod. Correct Kabbalistic exercises do not operate on the lower levels. We use tools from there, but the initial impulses come from the higher spheres to exert influence on the lower spheres. But the aspirant will not recognize it in the first months and years.

After four, five, or even ten years he will look back and say aha, that has changed in my life. Or maybe after a year he will look back and say, my interpersonal relationships have changed. My environment has changed. My job, or the way I experience my job has changed. Maybe my role in the family has changed, maybe I perceive my family or my fellow humans in a different way. All this can change without us realizing why in the beginning.

The Great Mystery of the Practical Kabbalah

These are very powerful exercises that are handed to us from the Kabbalah when we know how to use them. We don’t need grandiose techniques that have been preserved over thousands of years, but rather tools that are very real and simple for people, but which have enormous effects. And this is only possible if you know the system and how it works.

This is a great mystery, but also a great blessing that we can harvest from the Tree of Life. I want to briefly cover the highest sphere, Kether. Translated from Hebrew, the name of God means “I am.” Unfortunately, we misuse this term in our everyday language. This is the true highest self. It is interesting that it’s simply “I am.” There is no addition, like “I am great” or “I am infinite” — there we see that “I am” is pure existence. Any addition to this “I AM” is only a partial representation of God’s highest existence.

So, whenever a religion tells us, God is this or God is that, that’s only part of it. It is not God in the all-encompassing highest plane of existence. And every time we use the term, I am this or I am that, we separate ourselves. We limit our true being. When we say, I am this name, I am this occupation, I am big, I am small, I am beautiful, whatever you want to say — it all reduces us from our true greatness. Anyone can try it out for themselves. To do this preliminary exercise with self-awareness, you just need a phase of rest and silence, and then to simply perceive within yourself, what is “I am”? This is a word of power.

You don’t have to use the Hebrew term in the intonation, though it is even stronger and connects with a higher vibration. It’s enough to say it in your language and to feel it within you. Then we sense our true greatness. And we also realize how we make our lives unnecessarily difficult through our false ways of thinking and acting. It can be so easy. The tree shows us how easy it can be.

Final Conclusion

So my suggestion for today would be to do this exercise with awareness, in silence. Don’t get carried away if you experience Tiphareth, because as we should always tell students, this is nothing. Because as soon as you think it’s something great, you go around pseudo-enlightened, telling everyone you’re a master and trying to convert them. You are not a master, unfortunately — or rather, fortunately, because no master is that stupid. If these pseudo-masters would see the reality, they wouldn’t be spouting such nonsense.

They would help other people to discover themselves instead of saying, I am the way, follow me and meditate on me and then you will be the great awakened ones. No, if anything we should meditate on the sphere of Tiphareth, on our true self, and not on any external master. And if we need an external master as an example, then we should meditate on the higher consciousness of this master, which is the same as our higher consciousness. Because it’s all one. Man is one.

If we want to meditate on Christ, for example, then on his consciousness, not on him as a person. That would be like meditating on the vehicle he travels in. Who would benefit from meditating on a vehicle? It wouldn’t make any sense. That is the way of the false churches and the false religions. They only talk about the lower spheres as if we could find everything, we need there. All we find there are the tools Christ would use. If we want to meditate on Christ or Buddha or any other master, which I don’t recommend, then only on their higher consciousness.

That consciousness is what unites us.

Originally published at https://www.kabbala-info.com.

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Elias Rubenstein
Hermetic Academy

Founder and director of the Hermetic Academy (www.hermetic-academy.com). Entrepreneur, Author, Lecturer and Artist. Lives in Vienna, Europe.