Consciousness is Living Matter

The portion of the Bible we read this week, Pinchas, contains the energy of healing. And so let’s use this week to ask the question: What is healing and how do we go about bringing this energy into our lives?

According to the kabbalists, healing begins when we make the internal changes that the universe asks of us. Whether we realize it or not, every time we perform a negative action, we move ourselves closer to the energy of the Desire to Receive for the Self Alone and death; while every time we perform a positive action of sharing, we move ourselves closer to our soul and life.

Healing happens when we consciously bring ourselves closer to the Light, especially when it’s difficult or when we don’t want to or when it is easier to fall prey to our negative thoughts.What do I mean by this? Basically, when we are not at our best—say, when we’ve gone into bankruptcy or when our best friend has just dumped us—these are the times when we must say to ourselves, “I have certainty that even though I don’t have the position I had before or I don’t feel as good as I once did, I know that the sun is shining.” These are the times when we have to say, "I know with certainty that I am part of the Creator’s spirit, and even though He has taken me through this unhappy process, maybe it is to help me jump forward with the Light.”

The truth is what most of us are looking for is that inner peace that comes when we can go to sleep at night after saying to ourselves, “I’ve done what I could today to make myself a better person and the world a better place.” However, we do need to realize that all the things that go smoothly in our lives are just stepping stones to take us to another challenge, another level, another platform from which we can grow. Peace is not just the absence of chaos. Absolute peace comes only when we know that we have tried our best to reach our spiritual level. Yes, maybe we have failed, but nevertheless, we tried—and it is the trying that is important.

There are people who take perfect care of themselves physically but still manage to fall ill. Sometimes we can do our best for our body, but if we forget our soul, we will never achieve the growth that brings our body and soul into balance. So how do we get there?

First of all, the important thing to know is that peace and healing cannot come from a person or place outside of ourselves. And secondly, we need to be willing to do some things that we may not want to do: To have patience when we are frustrated, to smile when we don’t feel like it, to be decent to people and even go out of our way to help someone even when we are “not in the mood for this today.”

But you know what? The statistics out there are actually starting to back up the notion that kindness and sharing benefits the giver as well as the recipient. I recently read about a program at Stanford University called the Center for Compassion and Altruism Research and Education, which is doing extensive research on giving and altruistic behavior—what motivates such behavior and how such behavior helps us.

The truth is that consciousness is living matter, and our sharing thoughts and actions have ramifications beyond what we are able to comprehend with our physical senses. Our individual responsibility to bring the Light extends much further than our place of residence or our place of work. If we really concentrate on changing ourselves in small ways, then each step will bring us closer to healing, closer to the Light, and closer to the time when together we will overcome all chaos, pain, and suffering in this world.

Karen Berg
Spiritual Leader & Co-Director
Kabbalah Centre International

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