More Potential

Week 1 of the Omer: Chesed (Mercy)

Week 1 of the Omer: Chesed (Mercy) - Lovingkindness, benevolence

• Love is the single most powerful and necessary component in life.
• Love is the origin and foundation of all human interacitons.
• Love allows us to experience another person and to allow another person to experience us.

Day 1: Sundown Tuesday April 3 to sundown Wednesday April 4, 2007 - Lovingkindness

• Everyone has the capacity to love, the question is if and how we actualize and express it.
• Is it difficult for me to let someone else into my life?
• Do I allow room for someone else?
• Am I afraid of my vulnerability?
• Am I able to express my true feelings?
• Do I only love those who I can relate to and who relate to me?
• Do I have the capacity to love a stranger?

Day 2: Sundown Wednesday April 4 to sundown Thursday April 5, 2007 - Discipline

• Healthy love must always include an element of discernment.
• Love with discretion is necessary.
• Am I hurting another by becoming their crutch?
• Do I respect the one I love, or is it selfish love?
• Help others on their terms....not mine.

Day 3: Sundown Thursday April 5 to sundown Friday April 6, 2007 - Compassion

• Love is often given with the expectation of receiving love in return.
• Compassionate love is given freely and expects nothing in return.
• Offer a helping hand to a stranger.

Day 4: Sundown Friday April 6 to sundown Saturday April 7, 2007 - Endurance

• Does my love withstand challenges and setbacks?
• Do I give and withhold love according to my moods?
• Can I be counted on to love in the bad times as well as the good?

Day 5: Sundown Saturday April 7 to sundown Sunday April 8, 2007 - Humility

• Are you able to forgive your loved one, able to bend or compromise your position?
• Rise above yourself and forgive or give in to the one you love, even if you're convinced you are right.
• Do I realize I receive more than I give through love?

Day 6: Sundown Sunday April 8 to sundown Monday April 9, 2007 - Bonding

• A sense of togetherness actualizes love with a joint effort.
• Eternal love is an intimate connection that benefits both parties.
• Build something constructive with one you love.

Day 7: Sundown Monday April 9 to sundown Tuesday April 10, 2007 - Nobility

• Love allows you to know your special place and contribution in this world.
• Complete love must have a sense of freedom and personal sovereignty.
• Let love bolster your spirit and enrich your life.

01 - What is the Omer?

The Torah, the Five Books of Moses, and its stories, are, in essence, the story of our lives.  The Torah is a spiritual blueprint that illuminates the intricate details of our psyches and our soul.  Every event in the Torah reflects another aspect of our inner personality, and is a personal message for each and every one of us.  Every story has relevance for us today and assists us to explore the inner dimension of our soul.  The Torah teaches us how to actualize our human potential.

Two events in the Torah, the Exodus from Egypt and the receiving of the Torah on Mt. Sinai, are bridged by a space of time of 49 days.  These 49 days teach us how to regain control over our emotions, showing us, step by step, how we must recreate and refine our character in order to achieve personal freedom.  We can be slaves to our personalities, driven by forces over which we often seem to have no control.  These 49 days show us how we can step out of our emotions, out of our selfishness, out of our Desire to Receive for the Self-Alone, which is the source of all negativity in our lives and in the world.

The energy of Pesach, Passover, returns every year on the full moon of Aries, the 15th of Nissan.  The energy of Shavuot, Pentecost, the giving of the Torah to Moses on Mt. Sinai, returns 50 days later.  The 49 days between these two events is called the Omer.  The instructions in the Torah are clear.  Leviticus 23:15 says "You shall count for yourselves...seven weeks, they shall be complete".  How does this information have relevance for us today?  The significance lies in a deeper understanding of the story.

The process of the Israelites receiving the Torah at Mt. Sinai began with the Exodus from Egypt.  The word the Torah uses for Egypt is Mitzrayim.  Mitzrayim (Egypt) means a place of narrowness, a place of limitations and boundaries, and represents all forms of conformity and definition that restrain, inhibit or hamper our free movement and expression.

The cosmic cycles are a predictable pattern of energy.  Why?  Because the energy of the Lightforce of the Creator does not change.  The structure does not change.  What changes is us.  Mankind can change.  It's up to us to determine how much of this energy, how much Light, we want to receive.  Once a year, at Pesach, we are given the gift of the energy of freedom.  We can step out of our negative thoughts, out of our limitations.  But we need to work hard to prevent ourselves from slipping back into our old habit patterns, back into our old addictions.

These 49 days illuminate the different aspects of our emotional lives and tell us the story of our souls.  Each of the 49 days is a unique energy flow that assists us to examine and refine the corresponding emotion.  Each of these seven weeks highlights one of the seven emotions and qualities of human experience.  Each week is a specific attribute and each day within that week represents a different aspect.  A fully functioning emotion is multi-dimensional, and includes within itself a blend of all seven attributes.

The goal is to accomplish as much as we can through our own initiative so that we are prepared to reach and touch the Light of Shavuot and become capable of expressing ourselves above and beyond the definitions and limitations of our beings.  This day-by-day analysis gives us the ability to stand back and take an objective look at our subjective emotions.  Seeing the strong and weak points enable us to grow towards emotional and spiritual maturity as we apply ourselves to the development and perfection of our feelings.

Before we begin, Rabbi Isaac Luria, the Ari, states that we must accept the precept "Love thy neighbor as thyself".  We should make every attempt to feel love for everyone in the world and care for their welfare as we do our own.  This is the foundation for taking an objective look at our own personal negativity and learning how we can recreate ourselves.  The purpose is so that we know what we need to change in order to become sharing human beings and manifest the energy of freedom in our lives and in the world.

6. Resolve

We hereby resolve...............

We are thinking about making a change, a fundamental change.  We are going to make a resolution to do something, to be something.  We are making a resolution to be the cause of change in our lives and thereby in the world.

Let's explore what this means.

Webster's dictionary tells us that "re-solve" is made up of two parts.  "Re" means again or anew.  "Solve" means to find a solution.  During the First 12 Days of Aries our challenges are resolved into simple elements so that we can find a solution.  It's like being on a treasure hunt for the pieces of ourselves that are blocking us.

The dictionary says that a synonym , a word with almost the same meaning, of "resolve" is "decide".  So, in effect, we are going to decide to face our challenges, and resolve to remove our blockages.  Is this simple?  Yes.  Will it be easy?  No!

The dictionary takes us even further on our journey.  It describes "resolution" as the progress from dissonance to consonance.  I know, the words are growing and perhaps getting harder to understand.  By using more letters they are drawing more meaning to our awareness.  The words use familiar letters in ways that will capture our attention and our imagination.

Dissonance is lack of agreement, especially inconsistency between the different beliefs we hold, or the inconsistency between our actions and our beliefs.  Consonance is harmony or agreement among the components.  During the First 12 Days of Aries we are allowed to resolve our challenges into simple elements so that we can find a solution.  We are searching for a solution so that we can create harmony within ourselves by removing the inconsistency between our actions and our beliefs.  We are searching for a solution so that we can bring harmony to our interactions with others.  We are searching for a solution so that we can bring harmony to our interactions with the world around us.

Our resolution is to progress from dissonance to consonance.  We have an opportunity to see how to bring our actions into alignment with our beliefs, and to see how to bring consistency to all our beliefs.  During the First 12 Days of Aries we will be given opportunities to distinguish the individual energies that are contained in each astrological month and to see how they manifest in our lives.  This will allow each of us to see what energy we need to learn how to control.

Learning to control the energy is critical to our purpose.  When we fail to take control of the energy we get caught in our reactive behavior.  To progress we need to be able to see what it is that we need to learn how to do.  That's our purpose during the First 12 Days of Aries.  We can gather our courage, face the places where we are challenged, and know that these are the places where we have blockages between us and the Light, blockages to behaving with complete human dignity.

Imagine that each time we are faced with a challenge, each time we are tempted to fall into our reactive behavior, we can take a picture.  We can freeze that moment in time and create a photo album of how we behave when we are influenced by the energy of each month.  I'm not sure that it's a photo album that I would want to have out on my coffee table for everyone to see when they come to visit.  However, as I write I realize that when I behave without awareness, when I let my reactive nature take over, it is much worse.  Instead of having a picture to look at, there is a live performance.

As we approach the beginning of the First 12 Days of Aries we can plunge headfirst into the opportunity to ask the Light to show us who we are.  When challenges come, that is when the Light is being turned up in our lives so we can see our blockages.  When the LIght is turned up in our lives it increases the sharpness and the clarity of the image of who we are.  When the Light is turned up in our lives it is to guide us to the solutions.

This leads us to the synonym, a word with almost the same meaning, of resolution: Courage.  Courage is the mental or moral strength to venture, to persevere, and to withstand danger, fear or difficulty.

There is another interesting connection in the dictionary.  The Latin root of the word "courage" is shared with the Latin root of the word "heart".  As we find the courage to learn more about ourselves we will learn that we are on a journey to the heart of who we are, to our character, to our feelings and to our inclinations.  As we seek the heart of who we are, we will find our essence.

All of us can ask the Light for the gift of courage to seek our heart and find our essence.

5. Resolution

Resolution allows us to develop the clarity and sharpness of an image.  Greater resolution allows us to clearly define the image.

4. Shabbat in Bergen-Belsen April 20, 1945

During the First 12 Days of Aries work to be open minded, to look for the signs from the Light, and to listen to what others are saying.  Chasing an idea can be like chasing a butterfly.  Sometimes it is in front of you, sometimes it stops for a brief second, and sometimes it turns and causes you to chase it.  If you catch it you need to be very careful so that you do it no harm.

The use of the word "resolution" was questioned by one ofyou because it is often used in terms of conflict.  However, there is another meaning, in terms of light and visibility in an image.  That is what I was going to write about today.  Then something happened that has opened another opportunity for awareness.  It appears there is something we need to think about before we talk about "resolution".

As if by "accident" one of my special friends sent an email and asked me to transcribe a recording made in Germany in 1945.  The email said it was urgent.  As I listened to the short recording and typed, I knew this was something all of us should be aware of.  This is a message of hope in the midst of incredible chaos, pain and suffering.

If all of us can remember this recording during the First 12 Days of Aries we will know that our temporary reactivity, our needs, our personal agenda is meaningless in the face of the work we have committed to do.

Listen: http://geneaology.org.il/BergenBelsenHatikva.mp3

(Transcription of the tape)

Seven years ago today a remarkable recording was made in the German concentration camp of Bergen-Belsen. The recording became part of a radio report on the liberation of that death camp that was filed by Patrick Grodon Walker who worked for the BBC.

Recording from Shabbat Services April 20, 1945

This is London calling North America.

The day I reached Belsen concentration camp, the fifth day of liberation, was a Friday, the day before the Jewish Sabbath.  Something like half of the surviving prisoners at Belsen were Jews.  And the Jewish Chaplin to the British Second Army, the Reverend L H Hartman, held an eve of the Sabbath service in the open air in the midst of the camp.  It was the first Jewish service that many of the men and women present had taken part in for six years.  It was probably the first Jewish service held on German soil in absolute security, and without fear, for a decade.

Around us lay the corpses that there had not been time to clear away, even after five days.  Forty thousand or more had been cleared, but there was still one or two thousand around.  And people were still lying down and dying, in broad daylight, in front of our eyes.  This was the background for this open-air Jewish service.

During the service the few hundred people gathered together were sobbing openly, with joy at their liberation, and with sorrow at the memory of their parents and brothers and sisters that had been taken from them and gassed and burned.  These people knew they were being recorded.  They wanted the world to hear their voice.  They made a tremendous effort, which quite exhausted them.

recording of Hatikva

3. Timing is Everything

Have you ever made a New Year's resolution?  How many of them have you kept? 

Mine lasted a few days, or a few weeks, if I was lucky.  Some of them only lasted long enough to think about them.  I was sincere when I made them, but the tendency is to forget or to let them fall by the wayside.  Have you ever wondered why New Year's resolutions are so hard to keep?

Maybe the answer is simple.  Maybe our timing is off.

We know, even it is' only a dim awarenss, that different calendars have different New Years.  How many of us have ever thought about the New Year for the Zodiac.  I didn't even think in terms of an astrological calendar, let alone that it had a New Years.

According to the astrological calendar New Year's day is the first day of Aries.  That will be March 19th in 2007.  The reason why it's March 19th, and why it changes every year, is something that we can explore later.

Contained in the wisdom of Kabbalah is a very special understanding about the First 12 Days of Aries.  This wisdom tells us that each of these days corresponds to the subsequent months of the year -- one day for each month.  According to the ancient texts, we can take control of our ego, our energy, our desire on these 12 days and prepare to make our entire year better.

Being in the right place, at the right time, and taking the action opens doors we can only being to imagine.

2. Flammarion Woodcut

The Flammarion woodcut, an anonymous wood engraving, whose first documented appearance is in Paris in 1888.  It depicts a man, dressed as a medieval pilgrim and carrying a pilgrim's staff, peering through the sky as if it were a curtain to look at the inner workings of the universe.  (source Wikipedia)

A segment of the original transcription translates "A medieval missionary tells us that he has found  the point where heaven and Earth touch...."

               

1. Opportunity is Knocking

We have a huge opportunity from March 19 to March 31, 2007.  It's the First 12 Days of Aries.

When we speak of the First 12 Days of Aries, we are referring to a complete day, a day in the biblical sense that starts with sundown and ends the next sundown.  As well, we are referring to the name of a month found in the astrological calendar.

The wisdom of Kabbalah teaches that each one of these First 12 Days of Aries corresponds to one month of the Zodiac.   These 12 days are our opporutnity to take control of the energy for the entire year.  We can rise above the influence of the Zodiac.  Think of it as a new Year for the Zodiac -- and we are going to make resolutions that we can keep for the whole year.

By working on ourselves, by working with the energy for each day, by learning how we can control it, we can become stronger.  When we discover our strengths, and our weaknesses, we can do more for ourselves and, by extension, for the entire world.

You are invited to be part of this "experiment".  Come with an open mind and the willingness to discover more about yourself.  Come prepared to be honest with yourself.  Come prepared to challenge yourself.  Try to follow the steps.  See if they make a difference for you.  The goal is to know what works for us, not to blindly follow in another's footsteps.

If you have any thoughts or questions, post them so we can look for answers for all of us.  Each of us has a different perspective, a different experience, a different awareness.  It is when we work together that we can see a bigger picture.  It is when we work together that we can make the best choices.  It is when we work together that we can bring the uniqueness of our diversity into union and harmony.

If you know others that you would like to include, please send them this blog address.

Success is a Decision

We can wake up and move toward success. 

We can clear away the clutter. 

We can learn new things. 

We can stop pressing the snooze button. 

We can take action.

We can have it all.

Life supports our desire.

Life brings us everything we need.

S M A R T Goals

Specific

Measurable

Achievable

Realistic Risk

Time Limit

Success is a decision.

You create your own reality.

Decide what you want and move toward it.

You are in the perfect place – exactly where you need to be.

There is always something you can do to move forward.

Each effort is a chance to learn and to rediscover yourself.

Put consistent and persistent energy into moving toward your goals every day.

Life supports you – whatever you need to get started will surface.

Trust your intuition.

The answers are already inside you.