Merkava - 4th class

Paradising- The fourth class in the merkava series, the second aspect of keter, primal pleasure

Paradise Portraits

I'd like to share with you a number of short portraits of people I've encountered. They all have something in common which we will discuss later:

1. Rav B- When he is learning Torah he goes effortlessly into a deeper reality. He knows that this state of mind is cure all for any and every situation. He'll gladly sacrifice everything to be here- health, wealth, and even all earthly and heavenly reward. A smile is plastered over his face as he silently dives into a particularly difficult piece, coming up for air and bringing back with him crystal clear understanding from five to six different angles...


2. The Praying Man- He's the first one to begin and the last one to finish. He would embarrass most seasoned professional athletes with long hours of sweat, filled with emotion and activating virtually every organ in his body. After beseeching G-d's help for every possible gray area in his life, he sits down, often times after being on his feet all night long. Sometimes I see him in the midst of his holy workout unaware that there's a big smile on his face originating from some celestial, ecstatic spiritual battle that he just overcame...


3. Oh yeah, then there's Rabbanit K- I've never seen anything quite like her. She speaks to groups of ladies, sometimes to stadiums filled with people. She's completely unaware of what she'll speak about until it starts coming out. She's totally in the here and now and totally connected to Hashem. She's up there on stage talking to Hashem in front of and together with all of the crowd. She screams ,"Yishtabach Shemo, Yishtabach Shemo" (let His name be praised) ten times in a row in rapid fire fashion until she and the whole crowd are bubbling with a very ecstatic energy...


4. There's much more... there's the ecstatic mother, the deep feeling father, the young Yemenite guy who's greatest life pleasure is to groove on people, everyone. Then there's the guy who's so much into writing that he doesn't know he's the one writing. He says, "I just put my pen to paper and Hashem is writing through me." I've seen similar demonstrations from a musician I know and a teacher and a public speaker and the list goes on and on...

Sources for Primal Pleasure

So my question is- what do they have in common? I can see that all these pre- portraits of plugged in people, but I feel that there must be a defining point or mindset that sets these people apart. Let's examine a few sources in the chasidic work called "Shaar Hitbonnenut," the Gate of Contemplation, written by Chabad's Rebbe Dov Ber, the Mittler Rebbe, in which the subject of primal pleasure is dealt with. It is from here that we define this second aspect of keter as primal pleasure. The original source of primal pleasure is in the pre Kabbalistic, creation process of a reality of infinite light. This light, in its unrestricted natural state, is pure primal pleasure. Rav Dov Ber further teaches that this infinite, sourced pleasure is the inner motivator of all subsequent sefirotic, Divine character traits. In other words, there can be no love, fear, wisdom, etc. unless there is a pleasure element to motivate them. Without the gas tank of pleasure filling and energizing all the vehicles of Divine manifestation, the vehicles won't run. This Divine sourced pleasure is so essential to the creation that the Ramchal (Rav Moshe Chaim Luzaatto) opens his classic work, "The Path of the Just," with the idea that man's ultimate purpose is to take pleasure in Hashem. One of the main tenets of the holy weekly Shabbat is to fulfill the mitzvah of taking pleasure in life on that day. The Arizal teaches that the fulfillment of every mitzvah entails five spiritual components corresponding to the five levels of the soul. The highest component is basically the taking pleasure in the mitzvah. Taking pleasure, as we see, is an element that is at the very heart of the creation and the creative process.

Integrating the Previous Belief Elements into a Paradising Formula

Let's take a step back. Let's look at what we've covered so far in this merkava series and how this pleasure element fits in. We've tried to open up a consciousness where my whole world is filled up with the reality of Hashem. He constantly provides guidance and salvation, both from within and from without of myself. Now let's plug in out latest element- primal pleasure. Ultimately, the state we want to get to is a state that I'll call 'paradising.' Paradising is enlisting everything into the here and now- the constant Hashem connection, the pleasure element and the full presence of myself- my upper self and lower self. In short- TOTAL PRESENCE!!

The 24 Hour Paradise- Now Meditation

All right. All we've got left to do is to internalize it all. I have a distinct feeling that this week's exercise and mindset will be the most pleasurable so far. Do the following exercise preferably meditatively, but it's possible to do it also with a spider chart or simply by applying your imagination!! And of course, it's needless to repeat that this exercise and all the rest of them should not only be done once a day for a half of an hour from now on, but in general, the more one does this, the better. This exercise and all others can and should be visualized with a lot of flexibility. Don't only do it for twenty-four hours, rather do it for an hour a week. Play around with it. The idea is to get it into your bones and your consciousness. So, do the following:

1. Picture yourself as a spiritual vehicle, such as a car or a rocket ship. Take a tour of your next twenty-four hours. Notice everything. But especially notice the obstacles that are lined up to keep you from being in a paradise state.


2. Fill up your paradise gas tank!! Pour into it a lot of the love and nurturing that you feel constantly from Hashem. On top of that, add a healthy dose of awareness that all that Hashem does is for the best. Then cap it all off with a firm resolve to groove on everyone and everything. That should do it. The paradise gas tank is filled up to the top.


3. Now start the course again of your next twenty-four hours. This time, when you come up against any obstacles to paradising, zap them away with your supercharged paradise vehicle.

I'd like to sign off with a quote form a chorus of a song I'm familiar with called the "Paradise Song:"

"...I wish I was in paradise every day and every night (2x) There's nothing I yearn for more than getting this paradise song right."

See ya soon with pleasure,
Yitzchak

(For a much more thorough treatment of this subject, see on this site a research paper called "Paradise Living.")