I'm remembering PrometheusPan's estimation of my wrongful interest in
figuring out the influence of the Qliphoth. He felt I was doing wrong.

Unfortunately, by ignoring a problem, one cannot expect it to go away.

Also, GreenMan23's fear of high technology. Sorry, but we must master fear
completely. Someone must. Perhaps the fear visualized to GR23 was not one
having to do with experimental physics. It would be something more spiritual
in nature, to my mind.

Hi, WC.

Of course, the traditional response is not to focus on the Qlipoth as it gives them energy.

However, let me take a bit of a different take on this. It seems like you are saying there is a good side to God, represented by the Sephiroth, and a dark side represented by the Qlipoth, and that we, as a civilization, are veering to the side of the Qlipoth.

I would begin by saying that as soon as you give God qualities--a dark side and a light side--you are falling into a Christian (or at least a Gnostic) attitude and not a Kabalistic one. I see nothing in any Kabalistic teaching that removes us from the basic concept that God is One. God doesn't have a dark side or light side--God transcends "sides" completely. The Sephiroth and Qlipoth, then, are manifestations of God in HIs fullness. Shadows can't exist without light. Light comes from the darkness (although the darkness can't comprehend it).

Still from our limited, human perspective, it does seem as if God has these sides. However, IMO this concept is simply a gift from God so that we can eventually come to know He who is beyond all sides.

Yes, the world is a manifestation of Divine Will. Therefore, life and death, kindness and cruelty, are all aspects of God's well. To everything there is a season.

So why do we hate and fear? Are we truly forsaking God? Let us assume, for a moment, that this is all part of God's plan. Although we have as much chance of fully understanding God's plan as an amoeba does of understanding human love, we can still assume that there is a reason for these things. After all, if there is no reason for them then God must be a babbling insane idiot.

I would contend that there is a reason. To understand the reason, however, requires some background.

After the destruction of the second temple and the dispersion of the carriers of Kabalah, different traditions or "schools" of Kabbalah evolved, usually centered in different areas and around a few major teachers. Sometimes, the different schools focused on different areas of life.

One such school was that of Isaac Luria. One of the things Luria focused on was the greatest mystery of life: what happens after death. He came to the conclusion that our souls continue and reincarnate. Why? Because in each lifetime there are things for us to learn until we become closer and closer to being able to do what even Moses could not, gaze upon the very face of God. At that time we would no longer have to incarnate and would live in paradise forever.

So how do we learn? By experience. Thus, the experience of poverty, horrors of war, death of loved ones, ignorance, fear, hate, depression are there for a reason. We experience them to learn so that in this life, or in future ones, we can take what we learned to heart and no longer need to experience the lessons found in poverty, death, ignorance, fear, etc.

This is an approach that does not abandon life to monastic solitude. Rather, it embraces life to its fullest. It allows us to experience the vicissitudes of hate and how understanding can keep us from the deleterious effects of hate. It allows us to learn how living according to God's plan allows us to be healthy. It lets us learn to feel pity for ourselves, so we can find pity for others.

Without what you called God's dark side, we would never have the opportunity to discover the good that is within us all.

Culturally, we have not forsaken God. We are each doing the best we can with the knowledge we have and the skills we have developed with which to use that knowledge. Everything we do is God's will made manifest.

The fact that you see what the dark that manifests in some people implies to me that, for yourself, you have already learned so many lessons. I hope you can be a shining beacon to those who are still seeking.

Thank God! for what you call His dark side. Without it there would have been no way for you to find the light in yourself.

Differenciate the Dogma & the Knowledge;
With Love & Wisdom one obtains Truth.

ML.