Holistic Health and Direct Action for Spiritual Leaders | News Break
A holistic approach to health and physical fitness is essential for individuals and groups to feel renewed. The great triad of mind, body, and spirit must be respected and developed. “A sound and healthy body is dependent on a sound and healthy soul.” Isometrics and yoga involving deep breathing relaxes the body. Tai chi and martial arts are also great. Eat healthy organic foods whenever possible. It states in Exodus God is the ultimate healer. Psalms 106:3 even says, “happy are those who are charitable at all times.” Positive visualization and faith will provide you with the spiritual abundance you need.
True wealth is measured with emotional, spiritual, and intellectual gains. Each year our experience brings greater wisdom and the soul never dies. We reach a higher state when our goodness, virtue, and selflessness provide us with ascension, but we must also fulfill our responsibilities on the earthly plane. Pain must thru transformation become righteous action. As our tears of sufferance grow, we become stronger and wiser. Like Buddha and the Dalai Lama know, suffering is a part of life that helps us appreciate the joys of existence. We all make mistakes. Jewish Renewal admits repentance is more important than righteousness. Mistakes are opportunities to learn and grow.
Do not forsake your righteous principles for family, money, job, or society. Do not negotiate out of fear except from your own values and standards. God overcomes all sickness, poverty, and death. Replace fear and anxiety with joy and celebration. Do not give up on yourself or fellow humans but be careful to defend yourself against evil. Refine yourself even in your most mundane activities. God is in everything and all you do every moment. Your soul, part of God, is your compass.
A righteous government is of, by, and for the people and it places faith in God who created everything from one source. These principles were presented to Abraham and then Moses on Mount Sinai. These Ten Commandments were the first precedent in legal history for equal rights and a just democratic society. It was groundbreaking and would not be established in the West until the Enlightenment when it was termed “natural rights.” The Ten Commandments contained respect and praise of God, human life, others’ rights and property, and all creatures, as well as an independent judiciary. Sound morals and ethics are created by timeless and universal laws. The first principle of government is of course to provide security and peace while respecting individual rights. When the wealthy abuse the poor and the worker, there are spiritual repercussions ripe for repair. We are at such a point of inequality in world and American history. What shall we do to heal the divide?
Maimonides wrote in the Laws of Kings 4:10 everyone must be a leader seeking to “fill the world with justice.” Leaders are not those filled with ego, arrogance, and self-interest. Leaders take a global and even universal view. The true leader is an example of his or her teachings. Moses was so humble he did not want to even approach the Pharaoh. Moses was a leader because he was selfless, virtuous, devoted, visionary, humble, and courageous. As Maimonides wrote in Laws of Knowledge 5:1: “Just as a wise person is knowledge, so too must he be distinguished by his actions, behavior, and conduct.” Wisdom does not complete positive change on the earthly plane. Only direct action can do that, and it is our duty to take direct action to protect all people’s God given natural rights and liberties under the Soul of the Ancient Law.
Kabbalah teaches we as part of God all have masculine and feminine characteristics. We know the nature of women is often subtle and men more aggressive. God’s feminine characteristics, the Shekinah, must above all not be forgotten. Both gender-associated Kabbalistic pillars are important for a uniform whole, whether it be for a human being or society. Both genders should share in the responsibilities of the home and in decision-making. Even beautiful and erotic love making of the Heavenly Father and Divine Mother detailed in the Zohar revives the Universe. Let us also remember Adam was androgynous. It is on earth as it is in the heavens.
We must learn to balance the scientific and spiritual. This is possible because they are intertwined. The Internet today does allow us more possibilities to be compassionate and universal. It also can lead us to indoctrination if we do not learn to see issues from multiple perspectives. We live in an age of unrivalled materialism, but redemption and heightened spiritual consciousness are also now upon us with equal splendor. The shame is now more than ever there is a divide between rich and poor and more devastating violence and war and poverty and hunger. We must deal with the deification of evil (devils) focused on greed and lust focused on the material. People are so much more than commodities. We must rebel against slave wages and white-collar crime by elevating and strengthening our minds, bodies, and spirits.
Upheaval is a sign of change. The dark times Jews face now is a sign a new renaissance of Jewish life looms on the bright horizon of dawn’s early light. We are moving now toward a new world order in which freedom and spirituality reign supreme. In troubled times, there is nothing more important than defeating fear, hate, and violence.
Faith in the here and now is the way to victory. God is with you when you are alone and afraid. Abraham and David, Moses, Jesus, and other Prophets were at least in part sheep herders, and so naturally they found God and their connection to all God’s creations and cosmic order alone in the wilderness. Such solitary meditation leads us to Redemption which the Midrash says will come by “an attack on an Arab nation by Persia (Iran).” This is an interesting prophecy considering the recent (2015) nuclear non-proliferation treaty by the United States with Holocaust denying and terrorism financing Iran. Iran has dishonored this and many other international agreements as it pursues annihilation of Israel and human rights. Integrity by the pure at heart is a clear sign an individual or group is ready to receive the Light of the Almighty. Darkness is simply the absence of Light and it only needs a little space or crevasse to shine.
We need a grassroots awakening. God is wherever you let Him/Her in, so we must learn to introduce God energy to our studies, conversations, and ways of living. Each of our unique missions is important. Become aware of your mission and channel all your energies toward it. Faith does not replace reason. It should enhance it. Reason is the expression of God and it tells us how to live. Faith tells us why. God created the metaphysical laws of nature and we may discover divine unity studying and experiencing the historical, theoretical, and practical sides of Jewish mysticism. This is the holistic and loving path of Jewish Renewal in the Age of Terrorism. Without evil, there can be neither renewal, transformation, nor redemption.
Originally published at https://www.newsbreak.com.
