MAKBLOG

There are three basic levels of text interpretation in the Judaic tradition: Literal/Biblical, Theoretical/Talmudic, and Mystical/Kabbalistic (Fishbane, 1998; Kenton, 1980). Literal/Biblical text interpretation includes the historical, biblical, and narrative levels of the material. Theoretical/Talmudic text interpretation consists of the extrapolation of the philosophical, ethical, moral, and religious doctrines, laws, and teachings that are woven into the fabric of the written material. Mystical/Kabbalistic text interpretation seeks to unearth the hidden and concealed metaphysical teachings buried in the text.

From an Integral perspective these three levels can be seen as correlated to the Big Three of 1st Person (I), 2nd Person (WE), and 3rd Person (IT) perspectives. The Literal/Biblical level of interpretation is the 3rd Person or IT level of the text; it is the surface structure; the directly observable aspects of the material. The Theoretical/Talmudic level of the text is the 2nd Person or WE level of the text; it is the communal meaning patterns just under the surface of the text; it is the blueprint for how we should treat each other, of what is right and good and just. The Mystical/Kabbalistic level is the 1st Person level of the text; it is level of secret teachings that guide us into a personal experience of the Divine. These three levels are The Good, The True, and The Beautiful, and when integrated together, they reveal a deeper and more expansive vision of the Word, the Logos.

Taking the story of Passover as an example… On the literal level of interpretation, Passover is a ritualistic retelling of the story of a historical biblical event, the Israelites’ exodus from bondage in Egypt. On the theoretical level, the story and rituals of Passover have many philosophical, ethical, moral, and religious lessons to teach us about human behavior and the human endeavor to live according to the teachings of the religion of Judaism. Traditionally, the rituals of Passover, including the Passover Seder, tend to focus on these two levels of interpretation and understanding.

On the Judaic mystical level of interpretation, Passover can also be seen as a powerful vehicle for personal and communal psycho-spiritual development. From the Mystical-Kabbalistic perspective, the Passover story of a people being freed from the bondage of slavery is transformed into a road map for how an individual can be freed from the bondage of limited consciousness (Kenton, 1980); the land of Egypt becomes the realm of narrowness of body and mind, and Moses becomes the Higher Self being called upon by the Divine to free all the different voices of the psyche (the children of Israel) from the bondage of the ego or the limited self (Pharaoh).

Several years ago I attempted to create my own Passover Haggadah or prayer book (Kaplan, 2003) that integrated all three levels of interpretation and discovered a deeper and more profound experience than I had ever encountered within the Judaic tradition. This was my first Integral Passover…in that I experienced Passover on a physical, communal, and psycho-spiritual level of being and becoming.

References

Fishbane, M. (1998). The Exegetical Imagination: On Jewish Thought and Theology. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.

Kaplan, M. A. (2003). A mystical Passover: A transformational Passover haggadah. Pacific Grove, CA: Original Gravity.

Kenton, W. (1980). Kabbalah and Exodus. York Beach, ME: Samuel Weiser, Inc.

Image: Passover Shehechianu by Baruch Nachshon

A Mystical Passover,

Prayers for the Awakening Self,

Original Gravity,

and

The Experience of Divine Guidance

are now available as eBooks from the Google eBookstore.

Judaic spiritual practice can be divided into four major cyclical patterns of observance: The daily cycle – weekday practices; the weekly cycle – Shabbat practices; the monthly cycle – welcoming the new month; and the yearly cycle – festivals and Holy days (Falk, 1996). The daily cycle focuses on the cyclical spiritual practices that occur during the day and includes three prayer services (morning, afternoon, and evening) performed on weekdays (Sunday through Friday).  The weekly cycle draws us into the cycle of the Sabbath, which creates and honors the cyclical spiritual practices that occur at the end of each week. This cycle connects us with the sacred pattern of creation (the seventh day). The monthly cycle brings us into harmony with the phases of the moon and the cyclical spiritual practices that occur from month-to-month. The yearly cycle expands our practice to the historical and seasonal patterns of spirit through the celebration and observance of the festivals and Holy Days.

Two additional patterns of observance exist within and around these four major cycles. These patterns fall into the two categories of the momentary cycle and the life cycle. The momentary cycle consists of the blessings and benedictions that are practiced from moment to moment, awakening us to the sacredness of all things and providing a vehicle of expression for the gratitude we feel for the blessings in our lives.  These practices include blessings and benedictions for all our actions and reactions in life from eating, sleeping, and going to the bathroom to traveling, seeing beautiful sights, and experiencing something new. The life cycle observances are the blessings and benedictions we use to celebrate meaningful life events such as births, weddings, and funerals.

Excerpt from: Prayers for the Awakening Self: A Psycho-Spiritual Siddur for Judaic Weekday Practices by Mark Allan Kaplan, Ph.D.

PRAYERS FOR THE AWAKENING SELF: A PSYCHO-SPIRITUAL SIDDUR FOR JUDAIC WEEKDAY PRACTICES

NOW AVAILABLE IN PRINTABLE AND READ-ONLY EBOOK EDITIONS

Prayers for the Awakening Self offers mystical and psycho-spiritual translations of traditional Jewish daily prayers and practices designed to invoke deep personal transformation of heart and spirit.

FREE ONLINE PREVIEW

TESTIMONIALS:

“I loved this siddur. Yesher koach!”
- Rabbi Rami Shapiro (Author of The Angelic Way and Minyon)

“This is a remarkable piece of work. I really enjoyed it, especially your humanistic translations of the prayers. Keep up the excellent work.”
- Rabbi Roger Ross (Executive Director of The New Seminary)

OFFERED IN FOUR EBOOK (PDF) EDITIONS:

• $10.00 – Read-Only eBook Edition for Digital Viewing Only
• $22.00 – Personal eBook Edition for In-Home Personal and Small Family Use (Printable/up to 4 copies*).
• $40.00 – Family eBook Edition for In-Home Personal and Large Family Use (Printable/up to 8 copies*).
• $90.00 – Congregational eBook Edition for Public/Non-Commercial Printing Use (Printable/up to 18 copies*).

*Additional permissions to print available for purchase for all printable editions at $5.00 per copy.

PRODUCT DETAILS:

Author: Mark Allan Kaplan, Ph.D.
Contributor: Maja Apolonia Rode
Format: PDF, 8.5 x 11
Pages: 92 pages
Language: English/Hebrew
Item Number: OGPUB-PASE
ISBN-13: 978-0-9797980-2-3
ISBN-10: 0-9797980-2-7

AVAILABLE FOR PURCHASE AT: http://www.markallankaplan.com/publications/awakeningself.htm

KABBALAH-CONCEPTS BOOK REVIEW NO. 12

Title: “A Mystical Passover: A Transformational Passover Haggadah”
Author: Mark Allan Kaplan, Ph.D.
Publisher: Original Gravity
URL: http://www.markallankaplan.com/publications/mysticalpassover.htm

With the Festival of Passover around the corner, I thought it appropriate to share with you details regarding a very beautiful and highly compacted text, in which the Pesach seder and the period of Omer are addressed from mystical and contemporary perspectives, these being aptly reflected in the title “A Mystical Passover: A Transformational Passover Haggadah.” The author tells us that this work represents a process comprising, in his own words, “a radical interpretation of the Passover rituals and prayers into a language and process that resonated with my own heart while also attempting to honor the heart of Judaism itself.”

Having said that, it is important to note that Mark Allan Kaplan’s “Mystical Passover” offers all readers, Jews and non-Jews alike, a way to mental, emotional and spiritual transformation. The ancient saga of a nation being freed from bondage and slavery is “reinterpreted” in a manner which allows the reader the opportunity to have a personal “exodus,” so to speak, i.e. being “freed” from the “bondage” of Mochin Katnut, the limited consciousness of the egoic pseudo-self, literally “passing over” into Mochin Gadlut, the condition in which personal consciousness is expanded to embrace the greater “whole,” and so, whilst transcending into physical, emotional, mental and spiritual freedom, “awaken” the real “Self.”

With his unique “Haggadah,” Mark Allan Kaplan invites all and sundry to transform the traditional festival of “Pesach” into a personal journey in which “the land of Egypt becomes the realm of narrowness of body and mind, and Moses becomes the Higher Self being called upon by the Divine to free all the different voices of the psyche (the children of Israel, the Awakening Self) from the bondage of the ego (Pharaoh).” What is truly effective about this specific journey of transformation, is the actual process of “acting it out” in a physical manner, e.g. cleaning the house and the traditional “Pesach” preparations, candle lighting, assembling of family and friends, chanting and the various aspects of the Passover Seder itself, etc., all interpreted from a mystical perspective, so that these will combine into a “pathway through the metaphysical gates of these ancient and sacred rites of inner and outer freedom,” which the author correctly maintains will lead to “the discovery of a personally transformative psycho-spiritual Passover experience.”

The process expounded in “A Mystical Passover: A Transformational Passover Haggadah” also incorporates the “extended journey” beyond the “Festival of Passover,” this being the seven week cycle known as “Sefirat ha-Omer” (Counting of the Omer). Traditionally these seven weeks comprise a period of self examination between Pesach (Passover) and Shavuot (Feast of Weeks). Each of the seven weeks represents a spiritual cycle attributed to one of seven Middot (qualities) equated with the seven lower Sefirot on the Kabbalistic Tree of Life, i.e. from Chesed to Malchut. Each of the seven days of the week is likewise related to one of the mentioned lower Sefirot, hence the days of the first week would be Chesed in Chesed, Gevurah in Chesed, Tiferet in Chesed, Netzach in Chesed, etc.

In this particular regard, I find the section titled “Meditation and Practices – For the Days of Passover and the Counting of the Omer” in Mark Allan Kaplan’s “A Mystical Passover” especially meaningful and beneficial. The week/day/sefirah associations are rendered into physical, psychological and spiritual “aspirations,” to be achieved by the one undertaking this “journey of transformation.” For example, what the author terms the “weekly energies” of the seven weeks respectively associated with the mentioned Sefirot, would be “Mastery of the Body,” “Mastery of the Ego,” “Attainment of Willingness,” “Attainment of Will,” “Submission of the Soul,” “Access to the Spirit,” and “Contact with the Divine,” all vitally important factors in what I like to call the “Work of Self Creation.”

Now, this text is available as an ebook in various editions. A “personal edition” will cost you $22.00, permitting the printing of 4 copies, whilst the “family edition,” which allows the printing of 8 copies, costs $40.00, etc. If these prices should not suit your pocket, you could acquire the “read-only” edition for $10.00.

So, check out Mark Allan Kaplan’s website, and whilst you are there, you would do well to investigate the rest of that very interesting domain on the world wide web!!

Jacobus G. Swart
KabbalahConcepts, March 21, 2010
The Sangreal Sodality

A MYSTICAL PASSOVER: A TRANSFORMATIONAL PASSOVER HAGGADAH

NOW AVAILABLE IN PRINTABLE AND READ-ONLY EBOOK EDITIONS

A Mystical Passover: A Transformational Passover Haggadah offers a powerful psycho-spiritual approach to the Passover experience and includes individual and group psycho-spiritual exercises to help transform the holiday into a deeply mystical and magical experience for young and old alike. This unique Passover haggadah incorporates all three levels of Judaic interpretation (Biblical, Talmudic, and Kabbalistic) and integrates perspectives and practices from all the current Judaic movements (Orthodox, Conservative, Reconstructionist, Reform, and Renewal).

FREE ONLINE PREVIEW

TESTIMONIALS:

“Thank you for your magnificent work. Our Passover was not only Mystical, it was magical.”

“I received the Mystical Passover today. Thank you very much. It is so in line with my way of thinking. God bless you.”

OFFERED IN FOUR EBOOK (PDF) EDITIONS:

• $10.00 – Read-Only eBook Edition for Digital Viewing Only.
• $22.00 – Personal eBook Edition for In-Home Personal and Small Family Use (Printable/up to 4 copies*).
• $40.00 – Family eBook Edition for In-Home Personal and Large Family Use (Printable/up to 8 copies*).
• $90.00 – Congregational eBook Edition for Public/Non-Commercial Printing Use (Printable/up to 18 copies*).

*Additional permissions to print available for purchase for all printable editions at $5.00 per copy.

PRODUCT DETAILS:

Author: Mark Allan Kaplan, Ph.D.
Contributor: Maja Apolonia Rode
Format: eBook (PDF), 8.5 x 11
Pages: 60 pages
Language: English/Hebrew
Item Number: OGPUB-AMPE
ISBN-13: 978-0-9797980-5-4
ISBN-10: 0-9797980-5-1

AVAILABLE FOR PURCHASE AT: http://www.markallankaplan.com/publications/mysticalpassover.htm

Autumn leaves swirled around the cracked pavement of the alley, being blown in spiraling waves by the strong Midwestern winds. White billowing clouds swiftly rolled across the bright blue sky above, and the electric power lines gently hummed around me. In an instant all my pains and fears vanished and I was filled with a sense of awe and wonder. Somehow I felt the power and beauty of the unseen forces at play all around me, and I sensed a presence of something vast and deep and unknown around me and within me. A feeling of safety and peace filled me, and I stood there for what seemed like hours.

Over the years, I have returned to this memory over and over; bathing in the gravity of that experience; and remembering to open to the unseen forces at play in every moment, both within me and all around me.

*Excerpt from Original Gravity: A Personal Narrative Theology Inquiry into the Experience of Seeking, Receiving, and Following Divine Guidance by Mark Allan Kaplan, Ph.D.

Announcing the publication of…

The Experience of Divine Guidance: A Qualitative Study of the Human Endeavor to Seek, Receive, and Follow Guidance from a Perceived Divine Source

By Mark Allan Kaplan, Ph.D. 

ABSTRACT

This research study examined the experience of seeking, receiving, and following guidance from a perceived source of divine wisdom. Nine advanced spiritual teachers (5 men and 4 women) from 7 spiritual traditions participated as coresearchers in this study. Coresearchers were North American or European born, predominantly Caucasian, California (USA) residents between the ages of 52 and 74. Coresearcher participation consisted of individual semistructured in-depth interviews. The questions and topics of discussion used for the interviews were developed through a process of researcher heuristic and spiritual self-inquiry. The results of a grounded-theory-based qualitative content analysis of the interview transcripts suggested that the experience of divine guidance, as measured in the current study, is characterized by a common structuring of the experience that includes general categories, factors, and patterns which appear to manifest into various particular and contextual forms depending on the individual person, event, and circumstance. The reported common structures of the experience included: The perception of a divine source of guidance; the experience of seeking, receiving , and following guidance from this perceived source; and various contributing, impeding, developmental , and mediating factors . Additionally, each coresearcher reported a unique metaphor of divine encounter that appeared to give them an archetypal and visceral way of describing and holding the experience. The researcher appeared to experience each of the coresearcher’s metaphors of divine encounter through some kind of resonant learning or mimicking process. A Guidance Experience Template, Guidance Experience Evaluation Checklist, and Synthesized Guidance Practice were developed as aids to counselors, practitioners, and researchers exploring the experience of divine guidance. The findings of this study, and the development and implementation of guidance-related applications in this research, may advance the understanding of this common and historically significant human experience, and offer a valuable contribution to the fields of transpersonal psychology, spiritual guidance, and spiritual psychology.

Proquest Dissertations And Theses 2005.  462 pages; [Ph.D. dissertation].United States — California: Institute of Transpersonal Psychology; 2005. Publication Number: AAT 3174544.

Index terms (keywords): Divine guidance, Guidance, Spirituality, Religious experience, Transpersonal psychology

Source: DAI-B 66/05, p. 2855, Nov 2005

Source type: DISSERTATION

Subjects: Developmental psychology, Religion, Theology

ISBN: 0542126788

 
Many years ago, while I was backpacking through Europe, I began to notice myself falling into two distinct patterns of experience. One pattern seemed to consist of periods in which everything flowed smoothly. Things would unfold effortlessly and seemed to work out perfectly. I would meet people who would point me in the right direction where I would in turn meet others. I would have the sense that I was in the right place at the right time and that there was a grand intelligence guiding me. All the elements of my life and the life of those I met seemed to be in some kind of beautiful synchronized orbit held together by some strange unseen force … and life felt rich and full of “original gravity.” 

Then, suddenly, I would find myself in another pattern of experience. Everything seemed to go wrong, and I was out of the flow. I sensed that I was in the wrong place at the wrong time. Places I wanted to see would be closed or inaccessible. People seemed distant and cold. I felt isolated and alone. Every step was an effort, and I felt out of synch with everyone and everything. 

Slowly I began to realize that there were certain thoughts and perceptions that seemed to precipitate and support these two different patterns of experience. A surrendering of my plans, expectations, and past memories preceded the periods in which I experienced a sense of flow and effortlessness. During these periods of flow I would tend to be totally in the present moment. I seemed to naturally accept things and people as they were. The periods in which I experienced everything being out of balance seemed to coincide with planning, expectations, and/or following a past idea, suggestion, or desire. A flood of past memories and future concerns also marked these times. 

The qualities of my flow experiences were very similar to those described by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi in his writings on flow(1990; 1993; 1997. These qualities include the loss of self-consciousness, a sense of being part of some greater entity, and an altered sense of time (Csikszentmihalyi, 1993). This experience of flow is “… like being carried away by a current, everything moving smoothly without effort” (Csikszentmihalyi, 1993, p. xiii). 

At first I tried to manipulate myself into having these flow experiences, but that only seemed to send me farther into the other experience. I began to see that each pattern of experience was related to the other. My periods of flow seemed to come from the surrender produced by the culmination of the frustration of the “out of the flow” experiences. 

When I finally surrendered to the whole process the rest of my journey was filled with miracles and blessings. I felt guided at every step by a loving and compassionate force beyond my comprehension. Though I had explored spirituality and caught glimpses of this force prior to my trip, none of my previous experiences compared with the combined depth, magnitude, duration, and everyday integration of my experiences in Europe. 

When I returned from my trip overseas I was unable to retain my deep and continual connection with this force, yet somehow I felt as though I had awakened from a deep unknown sleep. Everything seemed different; old familiar people, places, and experiences had a different quality to them. It was as though my center of gravity had shifted. 

It is a disturbance of the equilibrium of the self, which results in the shifting of the field of consciousness from lower to higher levels, with a consequent removal of the centre of interest from the subject to an object now brought into view: the necessary beginning of any process of transcendence. (Underhill, 1961, p. 176)
 

Before my journey, my life was centered on career and finding romantic love, with short excursions into the realm of spirituality. After my experiences in Europe, the center of my life seemed to shift toward becoming the best human being I could become, and to find a way of reconnecting with the experience of Divine Flow. I began to explore, more deeply and earnestly, the world’s spiritual and religious systems for knowledge and practices that could aid in my journey. And ultimately, I was lead to a process of self-reflection and self-inquiry to deepen my quest to understand this strange and wondrous experience of being in the Divine Flow. 

*Excerpt from Original Gravity: A Personal Narrative Theology Inquiry into the Experience of Seeking, Receiving, and Following Divine Guidance by Mark Allan Kaplan, Ph.D.

Many years ago I traveled to London for the first time and met a sixty-year-old British postal worker in the Duke of Wellington Pub in Soho.

He bought me a bottle of barley wine and told me it had a very good original gravity.

I asked him what he meant by original gravity.

He explained that it was the British method of expressing the strength of a beer.

He winked and said I should always make sure I’m partaking of strong original gravity.

As he spoke these words he seemed to momentarily transform from an intoxicated postal worker into a sparkling-eyed mystic.

In my mind, the phrase original gravity blossomed into a metaphor for living life to its fullest, and over the years it has become the catch phrase for the state of being I aspire to attain in my life and through my work in creative expression, education, spirituality, research and healing.

*Excerpt from Original Gravity: A Personal Narrative Theology Inquiry into the Experience of Seeking, Receiving, and Following Divine Guidance by Mark Allan Kaplan, Ph.D.