Sunday, October 11, 2020

Here is a task not for the faint of heart. It may be that you have to acquire a few grey hairs in order to consider it. Or a few personal successes in order to endure it. Or a strong belief in a Being greater than yourself of which you are a part.

If you feel that you are “ready” then take a deep breath. Journey back through your life. Cognitive Behaviorists would tell us to reframe our negative experiences whenever we look back with regret. If your spirit is strong enough, and only you can answer this “if”, begin to visualize or otherwise experience, the patterns in your life.

What experience seems to surface, over and over, taking different guises, scenarios, or cast of characters? If you can’t “see” this very clearly, you are not ready to go on. But if a pattern of seeming misfortune seems to emerge, as you ponder this quest, you have begun to realize your TIKUNE.

Tikune is a Kabbalistic concept that means “spiritual correction.” The Buddhists view it as “Karma”. Jung called it “the Shadow”. St. John of the Cross wrote about “the Dark Night of the Soul.”

Before we plaster over the wound, let’s take a look at what it is leading us to consider:

What dark energy did you bring to your marriage before it ended in divorce? Was “the Other” seen as the total villain? Look deeper.

What thought patterns led to the disease you acquired? Did it seem to come from nowhere? Look again.

Look into the face of a childhood abuser. Are you the victim? Or was this brutality trying to lead you to a deeper truth about yourself and humanity?

These are hard questions. But if your soul can endure, you have come face to face with your Tikune for this lifetime.

Let your cognitive reframe of your suffering lead to “How can I serve?” This is where fulfillment lies.

“Why is there so much rivalry and competition amongst friends and relatives? Because it is possible that they share the same Root Soul from which each reincarnated a particular, unrealized attribute for the purpose of actualizing it in this lifetime. If they only knew that their bickering is a result of each of their soul’s competing with the other in a suckling from their common Root Soul, they would love one another and not be in conflict.” *

*Sixteenth-century Rabbi Chayyim Vital of Calibrese in Sha’ar Ha’Gil’gulim, Intro. 20, para.6