Spiritual Map Reading
Do you enjoy the company of angry people? Of course, you don't; no one else does, either. If a person isn't winning popularity contests...
9. Society dislikes angry people.
Do you enjoy the company of angry people? Of course, you don't; no one else does, either. If a person isn't winning popularity contests, he should check one of two things: His temper control or his deodorant, because one of them isn't functioning properly.
10. Anger clouds truth.
We've already learned that nothing chases the divine soul away like anger does.
The more a person succumbs to anger, the more his brain loses control over the body. Anger vanquishes the brain like a marauding aggressor. The brain, with the help and guidance of the divine soul, has the ability to discern truth.
If the divine soul leaves a person, that person is rendered incapable of discerning truth. In the absence of the divine soul, a person's evil inclination – the coalition of bodily appetites and base urges – reigns exclusively. Such a person makes decisions according to his or her own base desires, and not according to truth.
Simply speaking, a person whose divine soul reigns over the body first seeks truth, and then forms opinions accordingly. On the other hand, when the evil inclination prevails, the bodily appetites motivate a person. Such motivation leads to a fabricated truth, which in turn dictates that person's decision-making process.
Let's illustrate the above principle: Suppose that an anger-prone person has lost his divine soul, and is therefore motivated exclusively by his bodily appetites and his base inclinations. He sees a beautiful married woman. In the absence of truth, he rationalizes numerous reasons why he is entitled to that woman. His thought process is the opposite of truth – first he decides what his appetites are, and then he fabricates a "truth" that allows him to pursue the satiation of his appetites.
A person with "soul control" is the exact opposite: He also sees a beautiful married woman, but immediately tells himself that coveting another man's wife and adultery are two serious breaches of the Ten Commandments, the universal truth accepted by the entire monotheistic world. If that person's brain were a keyboard, his soul would press the "delete" button on any thought of another man's wife. Such an individual first asks what The Ten Commandments say, and then forms an opinion or a mode of action, thereby living his life according to the parameters of truth, and not according to the dictates of his appetites and base urges.
Angry people are especially not interested in hearing anything that fails to justify their anger. Anger goes together with spiritual impurity, the opposite of holiness. Truth and holiness are closely connected. Consequently, angry people are far from the truth.
11. Anger causes amnesia.
The physiological and neurological influences of anger are far-reaching. Have you ever noticed how angry people clench their fists and grit their teeth? Such phenomena are the result of nervous reactions, which lead to muscle contractions.
Anger not only causes contraction of muscles, it also causes contraction of blood vessels, which directly bring about a sharp rise in blood pressure and a reduction of oxygen to the brain. Lack of oxygen severely diminishes the brain's ability to function properly.
An angry person's heart has to work twice as a hard as a tranquil person's heart in order to pump the same amount of blood to the body. Anger causes excessive wear and tear on the entire cardiovascular system. That's another reason why angry people are candidates for an early death.
Angry people suffer from a decreased flow of blood to the brain. In extreme cases, anger is liable to trigger a stroke. In mild cases, a person temporarily loses a substantial portion of his thought capacity, and becomes forgetful. As such, anger is a direct cause of amnesia.
12. Anger locks the door to spiritual gain.
The divine human soul is our spiritual engine. Anger, as we learned previously, chases away the divine soul. Expecting to make spiritual gain without a divine soul is like trying to drive a car with no engine – you go nowhere.
You might ask, "What's the big deal if I forfeit spiritual gain? So what if I'm not the generation's symbol of righteousness or a spiritual guru?"
The problem is twofold: First, in spirituality, there's no such thing as standing in one place. Either a person makes spiritual gain, or else falls deeper into the pit of slavery to base and bodily appetites. Second, is it prudent to spend an entire life chasing after the body's material desires, especially when the body is so short-lived, while ignoring the needs of the divine soul, especially when the divine soul is eternal? The answer is obvious to any objective thinker.
Life's biggest tragedy is the waste of valuable days chasing insignificant follies, while ignoring the eternal benefits of cultivating the divine soul.
Summary
We've now completed the first segment of our trail, and we've hopefully gained a better insight to the who's, what's, and why's of anger. As we mentioned previously, a good physician knows that an accurate diagnosis is essentially fifty percent of the cure. So, now that we've diagnosed our temper tendencies, and have heightened our awareness of anger's pitfalls, we're now prepared to grab our anger by the horns and to deal with it. The coming chapters will give us the spiritual tools to eliminate anger from our lives.
We now begin the second segment of our trail to tranquility. This chapter introduces us to spiritual awareness (SA). The more we achieve SA, the happier we are.
Spiritual awareness is the key to tranquility. Once we become spiritually aware, we easily overcome anger, stress, anxiety, and depression. That may sound like a bombastic claim, but it's really very simple: Emotional disorders stem from misuse of the soul. Spiritual awareness (SA) is the mechanism that properly activates the divine soul. As soon as we begin to use our soul properly, emotional difficulties become a figment of the past.
Our divine soul, centered in the brain and with a relay station in the right side of the heart, gives us a fortified mental ability that far surpasses our basic biological brains.
Without SA, we don't scratch the surface of our personal potential.
Life without SA is like trying to fly a jet airplane with diesel fuel. Maybe the sputtering jet will be able to taxi down the runway for a few hundred yards, but it will never get off the ground. Even worse, unrefined fuel wrecks the jet's engine. By the same token, without SA, a human is emotionally and spiritually grounded. The lack of SA does a lot more damage to person's life than diesel fuel does to a jet engine.
If your brain is analogous to a jet engine, then SA is similar to highest-octane refined jet fuel. With SA, you'll climb to heights you never before imagined.
There is no such entity as wisdom devoid of spiritual awareness. People think that they can be nuclear physicists or computer engineers without spiritual awareness. They're correct. A person in high tech is no more than a technician, several rungs more sophisticated than a plumber or shoemaker. You don't need wisdom to unclog a drain or to send a satellite into outer space. You do need wisdom to differentiate between good and evil. — Rabbi Naftali Moskowitz, the Melitzer Rebbe
Rebbe Nathan of Breslev says that the worst form of punishment after death is people's shame in discovering that they had the potential for fulfilling their wildest dreams, wasted their time and energy on basic bodily urges. This chapter will help you prevent such a nightmare.
If you're an unpolished gem, SA will make you glitter. Even if you think you're a flawless one-carat diamond, SA will show you that you're actually a rare three-carat diamond, suitable for a king's crown. The more you acquire spiritual awareness, the more you'll expand your spiritual and intellectual horizons. Since spirituality is limitless, spiritual awareness offers you limitless personal potential and happiness.
This chapter answers four basic questions about spiritual awareness:
1. What is spiritual awareness?
2. Why does a person need spiritual awareness?
3. How do I attain spiritual awareness?
4. How do I know if I have spiritual awareness?
Question one: What is spiritual awareness?
Kabbalists cite two types of human intellectual power – sensual awareness and spiritual awareness.
Sensual awareness is the knowledge and intellectual power derived from activating the five senses – smell, sight, hearing, speech, and touch. Sensual awareness governs thought processes by virtue of experience, extrapolation, and appetite. Here's how:
§ Experience – we refrain from touching fire because we know from experience (either our own or other people's) that it burns. Our vocabulary, as well as most of our basic functional knowledge, stems from the experience category of sensual awareness.
§ Extrapolation – we believe that the nation of China exists even though we never visited there. Why? We know that the map is honest and accurate about the USA and Canada. We therefore have no reason to believe that the map would lie about China. Also, we've seen people with Oriental appearance who claim that they come from an Asian country named China. Maybe we've also seen magazine articles, photos, or films of China. Our senses gather all their stored information and our sensual brain extrapolates that there is a country in Asia by the name of China.
§ Appetite – this is the strongest area of sensual awareness, and often governs decision-making and thought processes against all logic. For example, a bank robber knows that he stands a 90% chance of going to jail, but his lust for money overrides all other sensual intelligence. The same goes for a diabetic who eats sugar, an alcoholic, or a person who covets someone else's spouse.
A person whose brain functions exclusively on the level of sensual awareness can become an engineer, a doctor, or a nuclear physicist, but is still unable to feel the presence of a higher supernatural power. Such a person can also become a philosopher or a theologist, but will remain far from the truth since his or her sensual appetites continue to dictate thought processes.
Since a baby's conditioning results exclusively from sensual awareness, sensual awareness (actually the regime of the body) dominates a person's brain, consequently suppressing spiritual awareness (the reign of the soul). As such, many people remain spiritually undeveloped their entire lives[1].
Since sensual awareness and body are both finite, the body's rule over the soul is tantamount to confinement in a prison. Your soul – which is both eternal and limitless – can't stand confinement. Therefore, spiritual neglect is the root of untapped and misused potential, unhappiness, and emotional disorders.
Spiritual awareness is the knowledge and intellectual power derived from activating the divine soul. Since the divine soul within each human is both eternal and totally spiritual, SA gives us the power to transcend all physical limitations, including time and space. SA widens our intellectual horizons, grants us extrasensory perception, and enables the mind to rule over the body.
The spiritually aware recognize that a supernatural power – God, The Creator, The Almighty, The Holy One, or however you prefer to call Him – is the ongoing creator and sustainer of the entire universe. Moreover, the spiritually aware are capable of distinguishing God's presence within themselves and within every other creation – mineral, plant, animal, and man. Spiritual awareness enhances one's comprehension of oneself and of the environment, and thereby broadens intellectual horizons and expands personal potential.
The dynamics of SA: The more a person activates the soul, the more he or she develops spiritual awareness. The more one attains spiritual awareness, the more one's divine soul develops and thrives. The more a soul thrives, the more intimate a person's relationship with God. The closer one gets to God, the more one achieves inner peace and overcomes emotional ailments.
[1] Girls receive their first taste of spiritual awareness at age 12, and boys at age 13, since girls mature emotionally faster than boys do. Puberty gives a massive reinforcement to sensual awareness, vanquishing the first sparks of spiritual awareness. Unless a person makes a concerted effort, or comes from a home with high spiritual motivation (such as the Chassidic lifestyle), genuine spiritual awareness during the teen years is rare. Therefore, sensual awareness dominates most people's lives exclusively until they're well in their twenties. As such, the decades-old exclusive regime of the senses is most difficult to overcome.
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