Day 7, Malkhut within Hesed
Hesed (lovingkindness, ever-flow, no boundaries, no restraint, unconditional giving)
Malkhut (kingdom, the reflection of everything) Malkhut represents the power that ultimately unifies all the diverse powers of the Sefirot and holds everything together. Without Malkhut, creation would remain incomplete.
Entering into the 7th gate, I noticed a little fear . . . I stopped (Just barely within) to see if I could tell what was happening. Yes, I sensed a guarded, protectiveness. It was as if I was entering a dark cave and didn't know what to expect but yet imagined the worst. I also noticed a part of me wanted "to run." Of course, another part did not want to miss this gate -- that's the part that doesn't want to miss out on anything.
So, I did what my practice teaches me to do -- breathe, pay attention to the breath through my belly, and notice what's happening. A few minutes of breathing is all it took for me to become very present with myself. The moment I felt present with myself I felt I had more space to be exactly where I was -- truly within Malkhut. And, from where I was standing in that moment I could see many, many reflections of myself being reflected back to me from everyone I'd been in contact with this whole week . .. and then over the past month . . . and then over the past year . . . and then over my whole life. The qualities reflected were inclusive -- good and not so good, some I hide even from myself.
Somewhere in my archived information/memory I remember reading that the spiritual state often identified with Malkhut is "humility." I sat with that for a moment and decided to see what I could find on humility on the web. Here's an excerpt from a blog I liked where a woman wrote about humility (more so, what it is not):
. . . what humility is not is a good place to start. Humility is the absence of many things that we can do without.Humility is not about deprivation. Humility is about more, not less. A humble heart gives more, has more room, sees more good, and is more generous.Humility doesn’t make itself less. It doesn’t think of itself at all. So less cannot happen.Humility does not bring itself down. It raises others up higher yet. A humble heart can hold up a chin. For a heart to do less would be to devalue everyone. Humility is about giving value, not taking it away.Humility is not false. It doesn’t pretend to something it’s not. It doesn’t deny the truth about what is good. A star needs to shine fully bright to remain a star. A humble star knows that shining is what it does well and is generous with its light. Falsehoods in any form, are not humility. They are a denial of the truth, that’s something else.Humility is without guile. It needs no plot, no plan. It has no needs at all.Humility is not about me. It doesn’t make me bigger or smaller. It’s about everyone else.We don’t know when we have it, because when we look at ourselves it is gone.
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment