Kabbalah as a word has the meaning of "receiving". I have been a student (both officially and unofficially) of Kabbalah for many years. Interestingly enough, although the meaning is receiving, the actual object (or one of them) is for you to move from being a receiver to being a bestower.
For a long time, I did not understand that concept. What did I have to bestow? Don't we all need to receive in life? It was only after going through one of the most difficult experiences of my life that I began to write. And it was through writing that I came to understand.
It was not the act of writing which helped me to understand the concept of bestowing. It was actually one of those epiphanies one has. It happened the moment I first saw my first book offered for sale. There was a difference. I had moved from being someone who was solely receptive in my approach to life to someone who had a gift / a message to offer to others. There is no ego in that realization. It is profoundly humbling. Yet there is a difference that is complete and I believe irreversible.
It feels different to be a bestower. You take responsibility for your life in a different manner. It is being on your path and knowing that your actions have meaning and that it is important that you bestow your gifts. There is a satisfaction in that and a quiet joy which becomes stable and readily available. Kabbalists contend and I concur, that whatever you receive does not satisfy (except for a few moments after the act of receiving) and you will always desire something else quite quickly. Like the bottomless pit, the need for the new is neverending. Bestowing is not like that. There is a freedom and an excitement that is not present otherwise.
Right now you may be thinking that you have nothing to bestow. I beg to differ with that. Albert Einstein said that we are all geniuses but that we have been educated to believe we are not. I would agree. We are all here to move from the childish mode of "receiving", where all we want is to have our physical desires fulfilled (which only leads to constant disappointment) to the more evolved mode of "bestowing". That state is where we take responsibility for who we are and gifting others with what we have as talents.
Bestowing is joy whereas the best that can be hoped for with receiving is happiness; Joy is happiness upgraded.
I wish for all of you at this season, this solstice of 2014, that out of the darkness of the winter solstice you become a bestower of your genius in 2015 - not only for yourself, but for all on the planet.
Namaste!
For a long time, I did not understand that concept. What did I have to bestow? Don't we all need to receive in life? It was only after going through one of the most difficult experiences of my life that I began to write. And it was through writing that I came to understand.
It was not the act of writing which helped me to understand the concept of bestowing. It was actually one of those epiphanies one has. It happened the moment I first saw my first book offered for sale. There was a difference. I had moved from being someone who was solely receptive in my approach to life to someone who had a gift / a message to offer to others. There is no ego in that realization. It is profoundly humbling. Yet there is a difference that is complete and I believe irreversible.
It feels different to be a bestower. You take responsibility for your life in a different manner. It is being on your path and knowing that your actions have meaning and that it is important that you bestow your gifts. There is a satisfaction in that and a quiet joy which becomes stable and readily available. Kabbalists contend and I concur, that whatever you receive does not satisfy (except for a few moments after the act of receiving) and you will always desire something else quite quickly. Like the bottomless pit, the need for the new is neverending. Bestowing is not like that. There is a freedom and an excitement that is not present otherwise.
Right now you may be thinking that you have nothing to bestow. I beg to differ with that. Albert Einstein said that we are all geniuses but that we have been educated to believe we are not. I would agree. We are all here to move from the childish mode of "receiving", where all we want is to have our physical desires fulfilled (which only leads to constant disappointment) to the more evolved mode of "bestowing". That state is where we take responsibility for who we are and gifting others with what we have as talents.
Bestowing is joy whereas the best that can be hoped for with receiving is happiness; Joy is happiness upgraded.
I wish for all of you at this season, this solstice of 2014, that out of the darkness of the winter solstice you become a bestower of your genius in 2015 - not only for yourself, but for all on the planet.
Namaste!
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