Returning To Perfection

Imagine for a moment what your life would look like if everything were perfect. If chaos, pain, and death were not a part of our reality. If earthquakes, hurricanes, and wildfires did not exist. If financial stress, relationship drama, and health scares did not invade our daily lives. A state of perfection so pure that the mere thought of negativity could never possibly cross our minds. 

"From the point of view of the Light, there is only Light."

What if I told you that such a world is not only possible, but that it already exists – and has existed since before the dawn of time?

The great kabbalist Rav Isaac Luria reveals to us that in the beginning, or rather before the beginning – before the creation of the world as we know it – this perfected state, which the Ari refers to as the Endless Light, is all that there was.

The Ari writes: 

“You should know, before the emanations were emanated and creations were created, a simple Supernal Light filled all of existence… There was only a simple Endless Light which filled everything.” – Ten Luminous Emanations, Chapter 1, Section 1, Verse 1

One of the amazing things about Ten Luminous Emanations, one the deepest and most profound of Kabbalistic studies, is that although the material is esoteric and abstract, with the help of Rav Ashlag’s commentary on the Ari’s words, we can begin to see how every little sentence applies to our everyday lives.

Rav Ashlag explains that the words “emanated” and “created” imply that something was missing before. After all, for something to be created, there would need to be a lack of it in the first place. Yet in the same opening, we are also told that the Endless Light is already perfect. It was a complete and total fulfillment, everlasting and all inclusive. The idea of lack or darkness certainly exists in our current reality, but not in the reality of the Endless Light. There, nothing needs to be added, changed, or fixed. The very idea of Endless Light is that of endless perfection. So, it seems like quite a paradox!  

If Rav Ashlag took the time to explain the difference between how the Ari describes the Endless Reality and our chaotic one, it is only because that ultimate state of perfection is within our grasp. All we have to do is learn how to access it.

There is a beautiful phrase my mom, Karen Berg, shares: “The sun never sees the dark side of the moon.” Because we exist in this physical world, we see chaos, darkness, change, and lack. But from the point of view of the Light, there is only Light. No lack or change can be experienced or perceived. No darkness even exists.

That perfected reality isn’t bound by time or space. Therefore, it isn’t just something that once was. It still is. Right here, right now.

"Everything we are is already perfect."

When we look at our own spiritual growth, I believe we tend to think in terms of change and transformation, of becoming better than who we currently are. We try to be someone different, maybe some seemingly unobtainable version of ourselves. But what Rav Ashlag shares with us is that everything we are is already perfect. On some level of reality, the version of me that isn’t plagued by ego and selfishness, fears and insecurities, already exists.

When we extend our most God-like qualities to another, when we expand our capacity to love and care, when we become selfless where once we were selfish, we are not changing and transforming so much as returning to our perfected state of being, and returning the world to its perfected state of existence in the process.

With this teaching, each of us can come closer to a most profound understanding.

Your own perfection has always been there, and it will never disappear.

The world’s perfection has always been there too. A world without darkness, full of peace and total fulfillment.

The gift of each day is the limitless amount of opportunities we have to return to it.