{"id":31,"date":"2007-04-01T22:14:43","date_gmt":"2007-04-02T04:14:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/northernway.org\/weblog\/?p=31"},"modified":"2013-03-26T05:11:41","modified_gmt":"2013-03-26T09:11:41","slug":"why-do-kids-suffer-kabbalahs-answer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.northernway.org\/weblog\/?p=31","title":{"rendered":"Why do Kids Suffer? Kabbalah’s Answer"},"content":{"rendered":"

My Jewish pal and writing partner Dr. Lauri Loewenberg<\/a>\u00c2\u00a0“the Dream Lady”\u00c2\u00a0was on The Today Show this morning.\u00c2\u00a0 They flew her up to NYC.\u00c2\u00a0 Lauri emailed this evening saying,<\/p>\n

———<\/p>\n

On the flight back from NY I was sitting across from a mother and her daughter who was probably three years old.\u00c2\u00a0 The little girl obviously had some form of cancer as she had hardly any hair and was wearing a surgical mask.\u00c2\u00a0 I heard her tell her mother, “Everything looks dizzy Mommy.”<\/p>\n

Sigh.\u00c2\u00a0 I’m having a hard time getting over it.\u00c2\u00a0 I realize at least I CAN eventually get over it… but that poor little girl and her mommy… [they may never heal]<\/p>\n

———-<\/p>\n

I wrote back to her with a less coherent and more rambling version of the following:<\/p>\n

Oh how tragic.<\/p>\n

I’ve given MUCH thought to this subject of suffering children since Rhea (my just turned four-year-old daughter) has kidney disease and has endured much.\u00c2\u00a0 I run into suffering children whenever Rhea has gone into the hospital and she has had a fair amount of suffering herself, to the point of developing PTSD.\u00c2\u00a0 Many opportunities make me ponder this topic.\u00c2\u00a0 (Rhea however is doing great since her surgery two months ago).<\/p>\n

Just last night I stood in the bookstore and read the stirring conclusion of The Gifts of the Jews: How a Tribe of Desert Nomads Changed the Way Everyone Thinks & Feels<\/a>.\u00c2\u00a0 It’s by the same guy who wrote How the Irish Saved Civilization and Why The Greeks Matter — Thomas Cahill, a non-Jew with very clear sight of history. Anyway, his stirring and sobering conclusion quotes Dostoevsky, “The suffering of children is the greatest proof against the existence of God.”<\/p>\n

I remember reading that same thing in philosophy class (Dostoevsky’s novels are considered works of philosophy) and being depressed by it.\u00c2\u00a0 I think it’s in Crime and Punishment.<\/p>\n

I recently read in one of the books from Kabbalah.com<\/a> that all the bad deeds and evil thoughts of mankind sort of rise up and mix together into a kind of black cloud.\u00c2\u00a0Pardon the simplistic\u00c2\u00a0 explanation of this concept, but I just today formed these thoughts in order to explain it to my kids.\u00c2\u00a0 So bear with me, here…. Sometimes bolts of that darkness cloud come down and hit a child, a baby even, give them cancer, an abusive parent.\u00c2\u00a0 Or bad bolts of darkness from humanity’s collective crap hit a woman who then gets raped, a young man who gets murdered, etc.\u00c2\u00a0 The dark cloud then gets fed some more and grows even bigger. Innocents suffer because of all the negativity humans do and think.<\/p>\n

Michael Berg writes that by changing our own consciousness from one of “wanting and getting to one of sharing and giving,” we can actually not contribute to this black cloud that affects us all so badly.\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0Furthermore, if enough of us keep doing that — adopt an attitude and even a way of life that is focused on giving and sharing and never on wanting and getting, getting, getting — we will gradually create a cloud of Light above us all, so to speak, that will cancel out that bad black cloud.<\/p>\n

A critical mass can be reached.\u00c2\u00a0 We can leap forward out of this endless cycle where children suffer and life seems horrid so often.<\/p>\n

Then something else clicked when I read a certain part of the Kabbalah book I mentioned above (the book I was reading is, The Secret<\/a> by Michael Berg NOT the Law of Attraction movie The Secret, but a book which gives a true Secret, an unselfish, utterly unmaterialistic spiritual Secret).<\/p>\n

In philosophy they call this “problem” the Problem of Evil or theodicy.\u00c2\u00a0 Anyway, I wrote in the margins of The Secret<\/a> by Michael Berg the other night that we all agreed in unison to come to earth, to incarnate into bodies and live a life (or lives if you believe in reincarnation) in order that humanity might evolve, leap into the next level or phase.\u00c2\u00a0 I imagined a sort of pep talk God\/dess gave all of humanity before we and God together(!) decided to create this planet and populate it.\u00c2\u00a0 Perhaps S\/He said to all of us, “Some of you will die before you’re ever born.\u00c2\u00a0 Some of you will be filthy rich while others of you will starve to death, end up in prison, be born with terrible diseases.”\u00c2\u00a0 But.\u00c2\u00a0 Sick children and even crime victims “teach” other members of this human race so many valuable lessons…\u00c2\u00a0 you’ve heard how a sick child “touches lives” and indeed on the plane last night one such touched my friend.\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0 Evidently we all work as a team to help the collective Mind come to higher awareness.\u00c2\u00a0 Poignant moments, suffering, shake us up, make us think, make us SEARCH for the meaning of death, life and the meaning of suffering, existence, evil and all those cosmic questions.\u00c2\u00a0 Suffering and diseases like my daughter’s and cancer compel some of us into scientific research, but for the vast majority of us, they make us question and ponder the cosmic doctrines like origins of life, why the hell innocents have to suffer, does God exist, what the freak are we here for, etc.<\/p>\n

So I think we all said, okay, I agree.\u00c2\u00a0 Even if I have to be a kid with terrible cancer, or a senseless murder victim in order to help some others of us, my fellow human-thinkers, head down the deep-thinking path, thus leading us all collectively a bit closer toward the Leap of Evolution we hope to make, so be it.\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0 How noble we all must’ve been (hah) to make such a choice.\u00c2\u00a0 It is said some people didn’t want to come to earth on this rather frightening mission to help consciousness make this evolutionary leap.\u00c2\u00a0 They felt they were not cut out for such a scary adventure, and those folks remained in whatever state they were in, and\/or perhaps became angels.\u00c2\u00a0 In Judaism and the Kabbalah both (sometimes they are different) it is agreed that there was a finite number of souls “sent” to earth to fill the Hall of Souls.\u00c2\u00a0 It all makes sense to me when I merge it with my other metaphysical studies and philosophy studies.\u00c2\u00a0 I just love Kabbalah.\u00c2\u00a0 (Now that I’m forty plus, hee hee).<\/p>\n

I really like the way the Kabbalah Centre<\/a> people deal with the Problem of Evil. They don’t even call it that, not being philosophers but rather kabbalists.\u00c2\u00a0 They sure are tight writers, the Bergs, consisting of a father and his two 30-something sons. All three of them have the Jewish gift of parable.\u00c2\u00a0 Just like Jesus had…\u00c2\u00a0 Man can they come up with the most perfect little teaching stories.\u00c2\u00a0 Short and sweet and they sink right into your consciousness like a Zen lightbulb blazing on.\u00c2\u00a0 The Berg’s mother, Karen, wrote God Wears Lipstick: Kabbalah for Women.\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0 I like it immensely, too.\u00c2\u00a0 Cool deck of cards available to go with it.\u00c2\u00a0 She doesn’t use the parable gift like the men in her family, but cites cool little case stories, letters she’s gotten, conversations she’s had, and vignettes from her life.\u00c2\u00a0 It’s sad the way critics\u00c2\u00a0excoriate and even mock\u00c2\u00a0the Kabbalah Centre and the Bergs.\u00c2\u00a0 I have been around the block these past couple of decades reading, meditating, studying all manner of spiritual systems from Self-Realization Fellowship, to Advaita Vedanta, Buddhism, Golden Dawn, Gnosticism, Judaism, New Age, Shamanism, pre-Christian European religion, Zen, Osho, Metaphysics, Hermetics, Christian Qabalah, Ken Wilber and my favorite tradition (the one I never left and still work in) esoteric or alternative Christianity.\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0 I have learned to spot false gurus, greedy teachers, have been fooled by more than one.\u00c2\u00a0 The Kabbalah Centre people are not such.\u00c2\u00a0 I don’t know them personally of course, but I can read in the multitudinous words they write in blogs, books, website articles, that they are truly unselfish, giving people.\u00c2\u00a0 Ye shall know them by their fruits, said Yeshua.\u00c2\u00a0 And let the teachings they offer speak for themselves, ’cause it is good stuff.\u00c2\u00a0 Ancient stuff… with Judeo-Christianity all over it.\u00c2\u00a0 No prosperity Gospel (Jesus was a rich man,\u00c2\u00a0so should you be!)\u00c2\u00a0crap or get-rich-off-Christ stuff like Joel Osteen and others.\u00c2\u00a0 No get rich by winding up God. \u00c2\u00a0 And no winding up yourself since you are\u00c2\u00a0<\/em>the Creator God, or co-creator, as is taught in the other book by that name, Secret: Law of Attraction<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Anyway, I still like my good ol’ Christian Qabalah but boy howdy do I like the Kabbalah Centre<\/a> material too, enough to send my own students there when they sign up for our Qabalah elective course<\/a>.<\/p>\n

As for other answers to the Problem of Evil….I’ve never liked the eastern concept of Karma.\u00c2\u00a0 It doesn’t resonate with me, never has seemed quite believable though it does seem neat and tidy.\u00c2\u00a0 But it means my daughter Rhea was a bad person in a previous life so was born to suffer and “pay” for her sins this time.\u00c2\u00a0 Hogwash.\u00c2\u00a0 Ken Wilber<\/a> and other modern philosophers also disagree with this you-deserve-it idea.\u00c2\u00a0 Ken Wilber speaks elegantly against the New Age concept that if you think hard enough, focus and believe, you can do anything, cure anyone, get any materialistic thing (the “we each create our own reality” doctrine).\u00c2\u00a0 Ken’s wife Treya died of cancer and Ken couldn’t heal her. \u00c2\u00a0And now he himself has a debilitating illness.\u00c2\u00a0 He’s one of the greatest thinkers to ever live, not to mention\u00c2\u00a0very spiritual — got the mind-spirit union goin’ on.\u00c2\u00a0 Yet his mental power isn’t good enough, strong enough in his conviction to accomplish mind over matter healing? Even deep thinkers like Ken, and holy men and women around the world can’t snap their mental fingers and win the lottery or heal someone of cancer.\u00c2\u00a0 Mind over matter just isn’t that strong.\u00c2\u00a0 I think the Kabbalah Centre does teach that the Zohar can heal like that…it can bring about miracles, but it is a holy book, not someone’s personal wish for healing or riches.<\/p>\n

Such poignant moments as what my friend witnessed on the plane, reach into us and give our heart and our very soul a little shake.\u00c2\u00a0 They compel us to think deeper than we normally do.\u00c2\u00a0 To exercise our right as a thinking one (the term mankind comes from the word mannaz which means the thinking ones).\u00c2\u00a0 Furthermore, we must each of us be a meaning-seeker.\u00c2\u00a0 The one thing that makes us different from animals is our ability and our drive to find meaning in everything from dream symbols to suffering to ink blots.\u00c2\u00a0 We are the same as the animal kingdom, going about seeking food, shelter and pleasure, unless we think and seek meaning in life.<\/p>\n

We are kept on track by suffering. \u00c2\u00a0Negativity encourages us to keep digging, keep seeking the meaning of life, not just stop evolving and be complacent life-enjoyers, pleasure seekers.\u00c2\u00a0 Slogan idea:\u00c2\u00a0 To be meaning seekers, not pleasure seekers.\u00c2\u00a0 By seeking meaning we help humanity as a whole leap into the next phase of our evolution and then all pleasures will be available to us.\u00c2\u00a0 Or at least we will have a new fuller understanding of what the heck pleasure is, and may not really want it for pleasure’s sake.\u00c2\u00a0 One thing is promised however, if we can make it to humanity’s next level:\u00c2\u00a0 pain and suffering won’t be around.<\/p>\n

Perhaps we’ll be bored, who knows.\u00c2\u00a0 Or perhaps we’re part of the Creator’s mind, each of us a firing neuron in His\/Her “brain” or of some Godling’s brain.\u00c2\u00a0 A Godling is awakening and we are part of that evolution to help him\/her reach immortality.\u00c2\u00a0 Immortality would be a painful existence and might go horribly wrong if the Being in question doesn’t go thru proper phases of evolution.\u00c2\u00a0 Freaky thought — we are all part of an awakening God’s\/Goddess’ mind.\u00c2\u00a0 That reminds me of yet another book I had to read in a philosophy class, in fact the first philosophy class of all, Phil 101.\u00c2\u00a0 Childhood’s End<\/a> by Arthur C. Clarke.\u00c2\u00a0 It describes in a classic sci-fi format how all earthlings combine into one Overmind, mature and “leap” into the next phase.\u00c2\u00a0 “Initiation,” Blavatsky would call it.\u00c2\u00a0 Becoming god, the New Age and perhaps even the Kabbalah Centre and the Theosis doctrine of the Eastern Orthodox Christian Church would call it…<\/p>\n

–Katia<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

My Jewish pal and writing partner Dr. Lauri Loewenberg\u00c2\u00a0“the Dream Lady”\u00c2\u00a0was on The Today Show this morning.\u00c2\u00a0 They flew her up to NYC.\u00c2\u00a0 Lauri emailed this evening saying, ——— On the flight back from NY I was sitting across from a mother and her daughter who was probably three years old.\u00c2\u00a0 The little girl obviously … Continue reading Why do Kids Suffer? Kabbalah’s Answer<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10,11],"tags":[265],"class_list":["post-31","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-kabbalah","category-problem-of-evil","tag-problem-of-evil"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.northernway.org\/weblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.northernway.org\/weblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.northernway.org\/weblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.northernway.org\/weblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.northernway.org\/weblog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=31"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.northernway.org\/weblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":809,"href":"https:\/\/www.northernway.org\/weblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31\/revisions\/809"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.northernway.org\/weblog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=31"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.northernway.org\/weblog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=31"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.northernway.org\/weblog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=31"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}