The Kabbalistic definition of 'SOUL' will BLOW your mind

that word soul is such a powerful world but also such a mysterious word what does it mean and we talk about I have a soul Within Me is it energy is it something spiritual is it uh something else we know one thing and a very basic technical level the difference between a live human being and God forbid and not live human being something has shifted you can have everything intact in the body but it's not alive so what is that Force as you know my Approach semantics are semantics the words you use is not that relevant it's the spirit of what we're trying to convey when we interact with each other as human beings you and I right now you're with your friends with your loved ones with a stranger who's interacting so obviously there's a physical Dimension to it I see your face I hear your voice I pick up your scent I can relate empathize with your feelings we can intellectually Bond but it's clearly far more than just a physical interaction between two bodies this is a personality involved there's a vibe there's an entire experience that transcends time and space as we know it you can think about someone you love they may be a million miles away and there's a connection all that goes on to the under the rubric we'll call the soul the soul connection but it's one thing to talk about it it's another to experience it and experience is the key to everything here because not everything can be empirically identified with our sight sound taste touch and smell especially Soulful matters and when you learn to develop the tools that Express and relate to your soul a whole new Vista Whole New Horizons open up and opportunities both for yourself and understanding yourself and your relationships with others so that's what we're going to address this is all based on the chapter of body and soul first chapter and toward a meaningful life begin with a story number of years ago probably 15 years ago maybe more I received a phone call it was the editor of Kirk Douglas who recently passed away the famous actor Kirk Douglas and she tells me I want to tell you something very touching Mr Douglas who I've been helping with Simon and Schuster publishing and working editing and Publishing his book climbing the mountain had a stroke recently had a stroke and as a result it left him somewhat paralyzed I left him somewhat incapacitated and he would cry and cry and cry sometimes for hours and he actually writes about it in his book climbing the mountain the crying so I or someone I think she told me she did or someone else that gave him a copy of my book toward a meaningful life we gave him a copy of the book and he began reading it and it became such a source of comfort and Solace for him and indeed in climbing the mountain when it was published they sent me the book and there's a whole section Kirk Douglas writes how he used to be so sad he lost his fact some of his faculties couldn't get he wanted to get things done he couldn't move properly his mind told him one thing his body would not cooperate and he would cry he just could not bear it it was so overwhelming he says in the first lines of a book I read called toward a meaning for life it says have you ever cried for no apparent reason that's exactly the first line in the book have you ever just burst out in tears for no apparent reason this is the soft voice of your soul crying out for attention asking to be nourished with at least as much care as you nourish your body that's the opening paragraph of the first chapter this is what he quotes it he says so I started thinking to myself is this my soul These Tears it put in the hotel New spin a whole new perspective on my crying instead of just being crying and just feeling so sad and overwhelmed maybe it's my soul speaking to me what does my soul look like what is my soul all about and that is the beginnings of his journey which he documents in the book with the apropos name climbing the mountain to climb the mountain it's very moving for me when I heard that I wrote him a letter we corresponded and when he passed away a few months ago remind a reminder of it but I said to myself you know all of us have voices expressions that manifest themselves in our lives and it's really your soul speaking to you it just speaks a different language it doesn't speak with words Whispering into your ear it speaks with sentiments one of them is crying for no apparent reason that's an existential cry from a deeper Part of Yourself as I said the word Soul I'm comfortable with that word but I know some people are not so the words that significant the message sometimes it's the other way around in the next paragraph I write have you ever experienced a truly sacred moment when despite the constant turmoil of life you felt the profound sense of awe and belonging that too is the voice of your soul expressing a deep satisfaction with its intrinsic connection to the forces of spirituality and there are other voices I'll give another one which is not such a positive one anxiety I don't mean to sound morbid but people who are not alive dead people are never anxious anxiety is the voice of your soul feeling frustrated we'll deal with that in the chapter on fear and anxiety it's frustrated something is out of sync dissonance that's another voice when you start thinking of it that way basically every sentiment every feeling every expression you have coming from within whether it's a positive one or a negative one it's all positive it's your soul speaking to you your body speaks to you through hunger pangs through fatigue through um aching muscles it's telling you do something through pain physical pain all these are a call of the body to respond eat a meal drink a drink exercise improve your nutrition improve your diet your hygiene and on and on the soul also has a language however its language is far more emotional far more subliminal and these are all the voices of your soul so whatever you're going through especially in our day and age meaning in the pen era of the pandemic and all the unknowns and uncertainties have definitely evoked all kinds of feelings so it's not just emotions it's your soul speaking through through your heart through your emotions so don't ignore it and get to know the most important part of who you are what makes you tick some simple simple terms everything in existence has a body and a soul in the broad sense of the word let's take a table here's a table I'm sitting by a table the body of the table is the actual structure of the table its size its measurements what it's made of its legs the function the function of the table is its spirit it's its Soul I'm going to use it to eat a meal it's easy to give a class I'm going to use it to study on I'm going to sit with my child and we're going to do homework together a book a book has a body these are the letters on the page the words the typeface the design but what message is it conveying that's the spirit that's the soul of the book musical notes the notes themselves is the body it's the language the music is the soul we speak right now I'm using words but what message am I conveying that's the soul some people are excellent oratory skills they have The Gift of Gab in how to speak but what are they saying is it resonating is it words from the heart there are others who speak very soulfully but they don't have the right language so they need to develop the body they need to develop the instruments and the tools so think of it like the instruments the vehicles the channels and that which is being conveyed through the channels everything has a spirit and a body so when it comes to ourselves the simple question is what is the body the body we know the Expressions we have the soul is the spirit within the intention the purpose our deeper calling so in essence what you want to have is a life where your body is a vehicle for your soul not your soul is a vehicle an expression of your body like a ship you want a captain of the ship the captain is telling the ship where to go the ship is the way to go it's the vehicle so what is the deeper Spirit of a human being it is your purpose it is your life purpose your mission in life just like a business needs a mission statement cannot exist without one that's the vision and mission statement and then there's the Tactical plan the plan of operations the strength the Strategic plan how are you going to do it the how is the instrument is the vehicle the why is the purpose so in different words you can say this the soul within a person is the grand Cosmic composer's intention for which you were placed here your body is the musical note your soul is the music is the song so in a sense being in touch with your soul is being in touch with your Core Essence how many of us our lives are driven by what we do by circumstances I ask people very often I ask them I say so who are you what makes you tick who are you and very often they'll give you their business card and when I point out that your business card tells me what you do doesn't tell me who you are some people with a sigh will say well what I am has become a product of what I do what I do is Define who I am when it should be the other way around no who you are should Define what you do so in business it's very clear a business begins with a mission statement and then it implements it it may it may tamper with a mission statement until it gets it right but at the end of the day that's the driving force in our lives as well getting to know your soul living a soul-driven life a soul-centric life instead of a body-centric life means looking with the eyes of purpose of deeper meaning of calling of your unique voice your unique music a body-centric life is looking at the tool chest the instruments you have which means looking from the outside in now all of us live our lives very often looking from the outside in but that's with everyone around you you yourself should be looking from the inside out when you meet somebody obviously you have no other option but to look from the outside in you see the person see their body language you see whatever you can pick up with your five senses with your instincts with your intuition and then you start getting to know the person you're traveling from the outside from the surface from the package the outer package inward yourself is the exact opposite you wake up in the morning you don't need to look in the mirror to know you're there you feel yourself from within but we're not accustomed to think of ourselves that way so we also begin to look at ourselves from the outside and think how ludicrous that is what appearance you have how others look at you how others measure you up do you please are you satisfying someone else's expectations soul-centric thinking is confidence confidence oozing from within a sense of self and then all everything else around you is an extension of that that doesn't mean selfishness or arrogance or um self-interest is at the heart of it it means a sense of self and then when you look at others you also begin to look for that inner soul within them that's how it works when you when you focus on your inner it's far easier than natural to focus on everybody else's inner that's the nature of the way it works so with that let us talk a little more about this soul this is a very powerful verse in the Book of Proverbs the soul of a human being is the flame of God it's a flame the closest approximation to a soul is a flame let's think of a flame um it is the only physical object that defies gravity that we can see with our physical eyes you light a flame light one and you'll see the flame Rises it's the wick that keeps it grounded what does that tell us that Soul works exactly the same way it's always Defying Gravity it is transcendent in nature means it's always seeking to grow it's always looking upward I tell a story in this chapter a beautiful story the young boy who later would become a great Master Mystic teacher mentor to many and he was as a child playing with other children on a ladder they were climbing up and down you know children play he was the only child that had the courage to climb to the top of the ladder the other children climbed halfway up three quarters of the way up his grandfather who was watching closely called over the little boy and said to him tell me I was watching you play why were you the only one that had the strength the courage to go all the way up to the top of the ladder and the others did not now you'll see why he turned out to be who he was he said that my grandfather it's very simple when the other children climbed they kept looking down as they climbed higher they kept looking down so they saw how high they were they were afraid they're so far from the earth with a accustomed to be so they were afraid to climb higher when I was climbing I kept looking up I was climbing I kept looking into the sky and I saw how low I was so motivated me it motivated me to climb higher we all have those two options in everything we do in life we look back we look down then often we say look how far I've gotten makes you feel even a certain sense of Pride I don't need to climb higher you're with other people who've less accomplished than you almost likely you're not going to be motivated to climb more climb higher because you say look compared to them look how high are you but when you're around people that have accomplished more than you when you set the goals that are Beyond sites to New Horizons you see how low you are you see how little you've accomplished comparatively speaking that's a motivator that's what the soul does to the human being we have these two voices one says you've done enough no problem procrastinate you can be a little lazy today you don't have to be that motivated if you need your pride think about all the accomplishments you did yesterday the day before the soul is a flame Flames don't think like that a flame is always flickering always licking the air wanting more look at the difference there's a Hasidic expression that an animal created for a particular purpose has never seen heaven because they walk on all four so their face is usually facing to the ground or close to the ground that's why we look at animals with all due respect to them this is not an insult because that's exactly what they're meant to be part of Nature's structure don't seek to build better homes to have two homes to have three cars to have better mobile phones fax machines to learn how to travel they're not they're not concerned about quarantines they frankly don't even go to therapists or have neurosis they're calm animal Bliss grazing The Meadows or wherever their habitat may be feed breed protect their young bring the Next Generation they're completely satisfied they live in the same habitats today as they did a thousand years ago human beings are always Restless they're always seeking to improve Better Home better Technologies better medicine which also has the other side yes that we can have neurosis and we can be very restlessness can turn angst can turn into anxiety but we seek just imagine how many billions if not trillions of dollars were spent on NASA alone space travel exploration of outer space to satisfy one thing human curiosity we want to know what's out there we see the heavens we see the stars we see the planets is there life out there is there someone like us out there what's out there what's on this Moon because that's what a human being is like a flickering Restless flame seeking reaching transcending it has its challenges many of us would sometimes prefer animal Bliss I know a cardiologist very beautiful man Beautiful Soul but he had not very diff has a very difficult life and he said to me once Robbie Jacobson can you just pray for me one day of total peace total con you know he's a has a good sense of humorous I said to him you mean like a flat line so he said no no no no no no not that calm a flat line of course in the cardiogram is the last thing you want to see it means the heart has stopped what is a cardiogram healthy heart look like a wave a balanced wave it has its Peaks and its values if the Peaks are too high and the valleys are too low too much anxiety or too much resolution too much tension or too much resolution you need balance but life is all about a wave it's all about Cycles it's a pulsating energy the mystics call it rotse and shove to seek and to return tension and resolution a healthy measure of angst of feeling motivated and Restless because you want to go higher is a very healthy element too much calm where everything is fine is not consistent with the human spirit on the other hand on anxiety that doesn't have resolution anxiety where you're so frustrated that you haven't reached certain Heights without internalization is equally challenging so the voice of our soul my friends is the healthiest and most important thing we need to access I'm always I'm always taken by the tragic line in Oliver Wendell Holmes poem the voiceless who says alas to those that die with their songs still inside them alas to those that die with their song Still inside them often people equate it together with the rose line most men lead lives of quiet desperation we have a song inside each of us you don't need to go search with us anywhere you don't need to buy you don't need to purchase it it's yours it's actually not just yours it's what makes you unique your unique music your unique voice you were born an original don't become a copy embracing that voice allowing it to speak to you nourishing it nurturing it responding to it giving it attention like you would a flower through watering and nurturing and nourishing it is the key and the what you get in return is your song your voice so understanding Life Through The Eyes Of the Soul the eyes of your soul takes all gives you a whole new perspective on everything you look at things from the inside out you walk outside you see a beautiful tree nice weather a rainy Stormy Weather and you look for the soul within the message everything has a deeper reason everything has a soul with it everything has a deeper narrative so may you all be blessed may we all be blessed to touch that Soul especially in turbulent times like now where much about our outer lives have been upended disrupted on many levels whether the pandemic of covid-19 or the pandemic of racial tensions long Brewing it is an opportunity to look at things with a soul to look at another people donut Souls don't have colors souls are not defined by race they're Divine by Your Divine Mission and each person on this Earth of our seven and a half billion people has unique indispensable Souls mission in this world let's look for it let's embrace it let's express it and when that voice is expressed then I express my voice and you express yours and everyone around us we encourage each to express each other's voice we have this beautiful Symphony that on one hand everyone is indispensable on the other hand we all complement each other in one large Grand Cosmic song that will transform this world instead of a world of hostility and of distancing and of Separation a world of Harmony within diversity be blessed and be well thank you

Channel: Rabbi Simon Jacobson at Meaningful Life Center

Views: 261,162

Keywords: spirituality, soul, meaning, purpose, god, kabbalah, torah, chassidus, mysticism, psychology, bible, practical bible

Id: lk84Dg0WRf4

Length: 23min 46sec (1426 seconds)

Published: Mon Mar 27 2023