This is Reb Zalman, a’h, speaking at Naropa University on April 9th, 2014, just before his passing, sharing thoughts on updating of traditions. Whether Jewish, Buddhist, or JUBU, his words are very powerful. The “Town Hall conversation” video can be watched here on Naropa’s Youtube page. [Transcribed and Edited by Gabbai Seth Fishman]

The Fourth Turning

Table of Contents:

Welcome!
Making a Space
Remembering Rinpoche
A Fourth Turning of Buddhism
Re-Programming Tradition
Words/Experience
The Four Noble Truths
Source of Compassion
Awakening Awareness
Organismic Reality Map
Collaboration
World-Enchantment
Art, Music, Celebration
L-Chayyim!
From a Conversation with Reggie Ray
Inner Part
Imagine!
Innovate!
Tune In Subtle Vibrations
Body Types
Stories
Patience
Hothousing Spirituality
Blessings

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As Reb Zalman (ztzvkl) would sing, (click here): Tamid Echad / Always and Forever One!

~~~

Reb Zalman (olav hashalom) was our very heart.
He made it seem easy to make us a whole
       between Jews, across divides, a message of echad.

If we’re so universalist, so why be Jewish?

Every religion is a vital organ — including ours.
Could a body become all liver? Absurd!
Moshiach, Christ, the Mahdi, the Avatar and Maitreya
       will all come to an eco-kosher sudenyu. Oy, what a sudenyu!

When we’ve receded to a place where we seem insignificant to God,
       it’s a heresy greater than thinking God is small.

You are not an “oops” of God!
In God’s present your lifetime has significance!

Oh! Secularist’s nascent spirituality!
Oh! Popular believer: Become “shiviti Hashem l’negdi tamid”!

So whether:

Religious or Secular,
Hasid or Mitnaged,
Mystic or Atheist,
Panentheist or Pantheist,
       (“Kinderlachen, geh gesunderheit!”)
Renewal, Frum, Liberal, Ultra-Orthodox, Reform, Conservative, Secular Humanist, Christian, Muslim, Buddhist, Hindu, Native, Mammal, Bird, Reptile, Micro-organism, Charm, Rock, Planet, Galaxy, Black hole:

How can we get it together? Together!

Tamid Echad! Always and Forever One!

Reb Zalman brings the following text he composed for Hoshanos (freely translated by Gabbai Seth Fishman)

הוֹשַׁעְנָא לְמַעַנְךָ אֶלֹהֵינוּ הוֹשַעְנָא
הוֹשַׁעְנָא לְמַעַנְךָ בּוֹרֵאנוּ הוֹשַעְנָא
הוֹשַׁעְנָא לְמַעַנְךָ גוֹאֲלֵנוּ הוֹשַעְנָא
הוֹשַׁעְנָא לְמַעַנְךָ דוֹרְשֵׁנוּ הוֹשַעְנָא

כִּי אִיבַּדְנוּ אַדְמָתְךָ כִּי בָּזִינוּ בְּרִיאָתְךָ גִיעַלְנוּ גִדוּלֶיךָ דָרַכְנוּ עַל דִשְׁאֲךָ הָרַסְנוּ אֶת הַהֲוָיָה וְקִלְקַלְנוּ וְשִׁחַתְנוּ זָרַמְנוּ זִיז שְׂדוֹתֵינוּ חָמַסְנוּ חַיוֹת רַבּוֹת טָרַפְנוּ טִנִאֲךָ יָקַדְנוּ יְעָרוֹת כִּרְסַמְנוּ כְּרָמִים לָכַדְנוּ לְבָנוֹן מָאַסְנוּ מַעֲשֶׂיךָ נִאַצְנוּ נְטִיעָתְךָ סָלַלְנוּ כְּבִישׁים סְבִיבֵי בָּתֵינוּ עִינִינוּ עוֹפוֹת עִם רַעַל פִּגַלְנוּ פֵּירוֹתֵינוּ צָדִינוּ צָבִים קָצַרְנוּ קְמוּשׁוֹת רוּחֵנוּ רָזוֹן שִׁמַמְנוּ שִׁטוֹת תִיעַבְנוּ תָלַמִים

Save us, please, as if we were Your very self, our God, save us, please.
Save us, please, as if we were Your very self, our Creator, save us, please.
Save us, please, as if we were Your very self, our Redeemer, save us, please.
Save us, please, as if we were Your very self, our Attender, save us, please.

For we have destroyed Your ground For we have spurned Your creation We have polluted Your generous gift We have trampled upon Your verdure We have broken the life-sustainability of existence And we have damaged and we have ruined We have stormed upon bloom of our fields We have robbed a home for a multitude of life-forms We have ripped Your basket of goodies We have bogged down forests We have infected vineyards We have seized forests / Lebanon We have loathed  Your handiwork We have rejected your planting We have paved paths around our home We have tortured birds with poison We have mutilated our fruits We have ensnared reptiles We have harvested thistles We have reaped sparsity We have ruined a  dream We have abominated mountain ridges

From Reb Zalman:

HOSHA’NOT  / הושענות are recited while walking with the Lulav and Etrog around the Torah desk, each one on its day, each day of Sukkot. All seven are then also recited on Hosha’na Rabba, THE GREAT HOSHA’ANA DAY and in some communities these seven are also accompanied by the sounding of the SHOFAR.  This version following the traditional one is based on the seven days of the Creation story and follows the English ABC while the traditional version has all the letters of the Alefbet and is based on other levels of the interpretation of the quality of the days. The traditional versions Hosha’ana 4, 5 and 6 have strong ecological concerns and were the encouragement to offer these

For the first Thursday – turn (This year,  September 19, 2013)

Hosha’na for the sake of the Aura of life the Beams of Light the Clearness of Light the Dynamics of Light the Effulgence of Light the diFfraction of light the Glory of light the Haloes of light the Illumination of light the Joys of sight

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A different and organismic way to understand the Sparks and other Kabbalistic Ideas

In order to have a better reality map, I look at the terminology of the Kabbalah and then I ask – “Do its teachings relate to the quantum field?”

A [key] question [of one’s reality map] is, “What is it that the soul intuited and came to [see as] knowledge?”

The soul’s intuition (and Kabbalah’s) is of a spiritual totality which happens in the right hemisphere of the brain where representation is not done through words.  However, in order to remember what I have experienced I have to tell it to myself in the verbal/conceptual language of the left hemisphere.  For this, I have to find some words.

If I try to teach anything of Kabbalah to you,  I know that I have to use words to make myself understood.  On your part, I need to invite you to stretch from the words into what the words contained in their inner meaning. My challenge in the communication is in trying to describe something for which there is not a good vocabulary.

Therefore, to explain Kabbalah we borrow vocabulary from left-brain philosophy. Unless we learn how to hear what is behind these words and to find and attune the reality in the words to the vibratory regions of consciousness to which they refer, the words will not convey the reality that lies behind them.

Remember that  all descriptions from mysticism are translations from the experienced reality. The reality was experienced and made conscious by the right brain sensors in a simultaneous way with all the inherent paradoxes occurring to  one in that consciousness in a parallel fashion. However, the only way that theophany is forwarded to the left brain is in serial fashion – one word at a time.

Unless you, the recipient, are able to somewhat restructure the information — by emulating the parallel manner of the original intuitive experience and by making way for incorporating the paradoxes through disconnecting the censor who waylays the information with its protestations of “contradiction!”  — then the communication of the right brain will seem worthless and ridiculous.

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A quick survey of YouTube returns a long list of videos featuring Reb Zalman.  They are listed here in the following categories:

Jewish Renewal, Organismic Paradigm, Reb Zalman Davvenen, Inner Life, Kavvanah, Calendar/Lifecycle,  Intimacy and Spirit, From Age-ing to Sage-ing, Deep Ecumenism, Tshuvah,  Reminiscences, Psychedelics, Communities.

With gratitude to the many videographers, (most notably, Rabbi Sarah Leah).

Jewish Renewal

Hello Renewal
Reb Zalman reviews his legacy
What is Jewish Renewal?
Renewal Visions for future
Renewal Visions for future 2

Organismic Paradigm

We are just a cell
Shifting toward healing the planet

Davvenen

Tour of Reb Zalman’s davvenen space
Putting on the tallis
Praising with Heart and Flesh
Andalucian Zikr

Inner Life

In Your Blessed Hands
Covenant is unique to yiddishkeit
Rosh Hashanah inner work
Rosh Hashanah inner work 2
Freeze-dried Psalm 23 as Reb Zalman heats it up
Affirmations and Jew-ing
Interpersonal aspects of the inner life
Reb Zalman’s legacy of increasing attunement
Using the imagination, Baal Shem Tov and Star Trek
On relating to God during prayer and role of ego
On Avot 1:14
The Baal Shem‘s Spirit

• Kiss of God, shmooze with Father Thomas Keating, descriptions of closeness with God that they share

Part 1
Part 2
Part 3
Part 4
Part 5

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The following comes from Reb Zalman on this week’s Torah portion, Balak.  [NOTES by Gabbai Seth Fishman] 

When Balak called on Bilaam to come and curse the people, 

Balak, as we get it  from the Torah, was an Aramean, because Pethor, the city where Balaam was, was near the Euphrates and not quite where the Moabite country was.

[NOTE:  Numbers 22:5, “Balak sent messengers to … Pethor, which is by the river of the land of his people.”]

now there are several words being used for curse:

The Zohar has a remarkable thing about how Balak was a magician. 

[NOTE:  Zohar Balak (3:184b) states that Balak was called “ben Tzipor“ because he would use a bird as a means to perform his magic and he also understood wisdom by way of a bird.]

For Balak, there was something impossible at that point about handling the Jewish people’s presence, and therefore, he wanted to have a kind of curse put on.  Not everybody believes that verbal curses or magic and voodoo can really influence things, but this is exactly what Balak wanted; he really believed that curses work.

The lightest curse is kal, l-kalel, which comes from “making light off,” and just sort of like, “insulting.”

The next one is arur which is really much stronger.  And it was this second kind of curse, arur, that Balak wanted to do. 

Aror is to remove the protection from somebody.  A person under the influence of a curse of Arur will not then be protected.  Then, the karmic power that was to have taken vengeance on a person is able to do so. 

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The following text by Reb Zalman is from this week’s Torah portion, Shabbos Shlach Lecha. (Click here for Hebrew/English version). [Notes by Gabbai Seth Fishman, BLOG Editor]:

“Written for Shabbat preceding new month of Tammuz, 5743 / 1983 in the Holy Land“

Send out for yourself men who will scout the land (Numbers 13:2)

The divine name, YHVH, for the month of Tammuz, according to the tradition of permutation of letters, is found in an acronym of last letters from the verse, (Esther 5:13) “zeH (Heh) eynenU (Vav) shoveH (Heh) lI (Yod) / this is worthless to me,” which spells YHVH backwards, i.e. HVHY.

[NOTE:  This is the verse found in Siddurim that show the monthly permutations of the name.  Cf, https://www.jewishrenewalhasidus.org/wp-content/uploads/tziruf.pdf for all the months and their texts as found in Siddur Ha-Ari.] 

And consider: The sign of Tammuz is Cancer, its quality is water sign and its chief characteristic is the level of wife as center of household and family, the astrological House of the Home. The particular letter for this month is chet and sense, hearing, which goes beyond all the senses.

For this time of year, a theme is the churban / destruction of the Holy Temple

[NOTE:  From the 17th of Tammuz to the 9th of Av is the period of mourning.] 

in the name of ADN”Y

[NOTE:  Each name of God alludes to a different Sefirah, and this one alludes to Malchut.]

and, for this reason, Moshe prayed:  (Numbers 14:17) Now, please, let the strength of ADN”Y be increased, as You spoke, saying“

[NOTE:  S/He gave us the thirteen attributes to invoke Hir mercy.]

for at this time,

[NOTE: Of Tammuz; of the destruction.] 

the power of DiBBuR / speaking right is very weakened.

[NOTE: Moshe prayed to the name Adn”y to strengthen the power of speech.]

For, (Exodus 14:3) “Closed in upon them is hamiDaBBeR / the power of speech” and there is no Peh-sach / open mouth (Pri etz chayim – Shaar Mikra kodesh 80:4).

[NOTE:  Usually read as “Closed in upon them is hamidbar / the desert; and Pesach / Passover.]

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Hanukkah video talk for Santa Barbara, November 2009
by Rabbi Zalman Schachter-Shalomi

Contents

Sacred Time Consciousness
Hanukkah: Not Just for Kids
Lost Sanctity: A Crisis
Sanctuary: Alive and Conscious
Waning Daylight
Elu V’Elu
Miracles and Habits
One’s Own Perspective
The Aesthetic Dimension
Gaian Awareness
Enlightenment
Dreydl
Latkes

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Dear Friends:

Reb Zalman and Rebbitzin Eve recently returned from the trip to the UK. 

Before the trip, Reb Zalman wrote in the Rosh Hashanah Yesod Foundation Newsletter: 

“God willing, this November, Eve and I will be participating in a meeting convened by Prince Philip at Windsor Castle in the United Kingdom. It is to be a summit of religious leaders proposing ways in which the power and wisdom of our traditions can blend with the needs of the hour. Please keep this in mind during your High Holy Day prayers this year, and also pray for the grace to be able to shift our shared consciousness in the direction of our most harmonious integration, for the good of the life we share. All this can sweeten the good that is in store for us this coming year.” 

And here’s Eve’s report on the trip:

Report from Windsor
by Eve Ilsen

“For the first three days of November, Reb Zalman and I were privileged to participate in an event in the UK, hosted by ARC, the Alliance of Religions and Conservation, aptly called “Many Heavens, One Earth”.

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