KNOW THYSELF

This is our spiritual inheritance, our gift to humanity and our mission in life: To embody the loftiest of spiritual experiences within a material reality and to disregard the status quo – or create a new one; not to divest from worldly realities or to fight against them, but to transform them, to rebel with them against the prevailing structure, and create a new world order.

The soul descends from its pristine, spiritual abode into a dirty world of half-truths and outright lies, where sleight-of-hand magicians and con artists rule by virtue of their mastery of the art of illusion.

The soul descends from its pristine, spiritual abode into a dirty world of half-truths and outright lies, where sleight-of-hand magicians and con artists rule by virtue of their mastery of the art of illusion. Transcendental consciousness is replaced by confusion. Perfect unity is exchanged for a fragmented, chaotic existence. And throughout it all, the soul is forced to endure the most humiliating indignations imaginable, to eat and breathe and sleep like an animal, to be held prisoner by a physical body and an animal soul, trapped within our natural, earthly tendencies.

In spite of all this, the soul wants to come here. Though this may be the world of lies, it is also the world of purpose. Though it may be a world of illusions, it is also the world of action. The soul’s purpose is to refine the pit into which it is thrown, and make a beautiful castle out of it. For the soul to remain spiritual is hardly a great feat. For the animalistic within us to be boorish is obviously pointless. In either case, we do not achieve anything worthy of the soul’s descent. Our job is to transcend both and live in a state in which they are one – we are to become transmetaphysical. To live on a level in which the animal and the spiritual within us work together, like a horse and rider, to pursue the same agenda.

The Israelites of ancient Egypt left the most powerful and advanced civilization of their time to faithfully follow G-d and Moses into a desolate, blistering desert full of snakes and scorpions. Imagine a North American today choosing to give up the comfort and security we enjoy to go live in a war-ravaged, disease-infested nightmare of a country for the purpose of spiritual enlightenment. And this act is perceived as the defining moment that marks the foundation of the Jewish nation, emblematic of our capacity to overcome the trappings of materialism and connect to G-d – even if it means you have to do something a little outrageous.

This is our spiritual inheritance, our gift to humanity and our mission in life: To embody the loftiest of spiritual experiences within a material reality and to disregard the status quo – or create a new one; not to divest from worldly realities or to fight against them, but to transform them, to rebel with them against the prevailing structure, and create a new world order.

The counting of the Omer, marking the days between Passover and Shavuot, is a period of introspective stocktaking. Each day represents one of the soul’s unique faculties, making it an opportune time to get to know the soul, its powers and how to draw on them to fulfill our mission of making ourselves and this world into a spiritual abode.

Perhaps all that it takes is for one person to become truly transmetaphysical, to grab the bull by the horns and actually live as if the material and spiritual are one, and teach the rest of us how. Maybe it could be you.

Reproduced with permission from Exodus Magazine