A map to a pathway:
Dear You[1],
We can tell each other how our life has been, which in essence (and writ small) is a tiny postcard, or map of where/what we’ve done and how we got there.
The Earth is a single globe, and everything is One (everyone understands this in their own way, but we mostly agree that All is Greater than the self which separates itself from it).
This means that every map in some way relates to any other, and so too, every life’s journey to each other.
Maps can contain Legends: codes and colours for increasing the amount of information: not only can we describe hills, but we can tell the difference from mountains. Learning to see deeper into a map – on paper, or an other’s life – is the true axis of discovery (which is to say: the surface of life’s endeavours are the media, not the message, of life’s sparks of satisfaction).
Here is a legend – :
- First read An explanation of the aleph-bet for the word BEGED, but precede with this introduction:
- If an alphabet is so informative about the words it composes, then words in that alphabet are designed with a Legend which is superbly designed, thus greatly inspiring the possibility of wonder and mortal hope (that they may be infallibly true in their roots).
- It can be useful to compare Kabbalistic “contemplation” to Yogi “yolking”, imagining a yoga that anchored the mind to frames of reference beneath appearances. For example, comparing meditating on a candle flame (incl. The mind takes the form of the flame) to repeatedly observing the aleph-bet aspects of the candle flame[2].
- [Optional, read Part One to get a sense for what it would mean to have an infinite document, which operated like a technology (semiotic artefact) built out of technology (a divine alphabet)
- [Optional, read Yitro to get a sense for the aspect of the infinite document which is the mapping of the mind
[Not included, but optional: read Tetzaveh and Notes on Hindu psychological hermeneutics
- Then read this text.
- Coloured boxes within footnotes are suggested possibilities for the “wisdoms” which can be the enlarged sphere of light which emanates from the Torah (and thus how they can relate to Torah reading, and freedom-from-slavery).
- Add this introduction first time reading:
- Just like Bet-Gimmel-Daled can suggest depths of complexity and discovery within the language.
- Just like the Kabbalistic lighthouse can reveal the alien cogwheels behind the mind’s life – just like a microscope can reveal the proteins which chain to form biochemical life.
- Here too there is an imagination and consideration of possibilities.
- Here too there is a consideration of a freedom which aims for all that possible. (Fear and entropy look as kin to the savvy and certain).
I once heard of a dream in which every door opened onto a challenge, and behind the final door, when opened by the dreamer, stood themselves. “I am the last challenge.”
Introduction: The setting:
Purim tells the story of a kingdom which is the setting for danger. It is the danger of losing our unlimited nature. The risk is not that we are limited; the risk is that we limit ourselves. It tells this story through the age-old story of life: over-coming each hurdle the world places before our feet (like a gallow[3]).
The countries of the kingdom[4] in Esther are described as “Hodu to Kush” & 127 in number, which is taught to unravel some its complexity by also being described in terms of tax and islands[5]. In a moment
[Brain/storm:
- 127 territories, including 100 from word mem-samech, and 27 from word for islands
- Enjoying the meal (the bush which never burns, the golden calf) + pre-morning of Bnei R. Gamliel.[6]
- Hudo till Cush
- Melech → Achashverosh → 8th king of Edom → Bina of Bina → mem plus mem = pei but also pei squared = pei sofit times chet → woman (nun[7] to intellect, cf. Histone acetylation & IgE (??) temporary teaching of Self vs Other [or similar in microbiome] (explain how plus is a two-dimensional function (bet), while times is three, explain how to imagine this by using blocks)
- Purim is last holiday, represents the female aspect of freedom (which is more developed in narrative-sense). [But nb. Holiday of pushing boundaries][8]
- Letters of:
- Esther vs Hadassah
- Mordechai
- Achashverosh
- Haman vs Amalek
- The final separator: Moshe vs ve’atah is like Ani vs Atah relates to Seuda which Esther invites two men
Synopsis:
- Hodu is the way our force of self-definition (the power to fulfil “I am not this”; hei) is symmetrical (vav) with our capacity for opportunities (daled) and all that is contained within those opportunities’ spaces.
- Kush is the way our power to contort into different forms (caf) contain different capacities for unifying all that we are (shin).
- These 2 describe the geographical range of “cultures” which oppose the destruction of Amalek
- Pure belief in a single answer that covers all of life is mitigated by apriori metaphysical and psychological deterrents:
- “Missing out” on different opportunities – since there’s more than one path up the mountain, the walking of a path feels like it must mean losing out on something else
- “What’s the difference” between different ways of finding an identity – since there’s more than one profession which teaches mountain climbing, it feels like to choose any route of progress must mean be a form of limiting potential (of other professions).
- This will link to I vs You. The fear of missing out, and being less, is wrong, the emphasis should instead be “there are different paths and they all get to climb and be mountain climbing” which is the essence of discovering (cf. The comparison with what was not had).
- These can also be mapped onto the 100 + 27 (although these can be read along an independent axis – but here joined to make singular narrative)
- Hodu is like 100 which is like kuf which is like the way “all the different cultures add up to a range of potential which is the vehicle for true purpose”. This is like a tax (mem + samech) since the tapping of potential (like the daled, mem) brings out a unifying perspective (samech, like lamed).
- Cush is like caf + zayin, since all the different possibilities of unique ways of giving rise to different fruits from which humanity can nourish.
- Pure belief in a single answer that covers all of life is mitigated by apriori metaphysical and psychological deterrents:
- The cause of risk to Israel (the population within self which is responsible for becoming Other, i.e. becoming things that were outside Self) is inevitable since to be Israel to be guilty of the “original sin” which is the desire to know, to be a Self, to burn without being consumed, to see the shape of the infinite towards which is being aimed (golden calf).
- Midrash that vessels of Beit Hamikdash taken out during banquet: being reminded of what “infinite” means is a shock from the complacency of the mundane quest for satisfaction and meaning.
- Link to surrounding Parasha/Haftorah:
- Shaul begins a war against Amalek, and thus is the first impression of our internal kingship of Israel
- Shlomo builds permanent Mishkan[9]
אֲחַשְׁוֵרוֹשׁ
Aleph
Chet
Shin
Vav
Reish
Vav
Shin
[1]
[1][3]
[6]
[10]
[30]
[60]
[100]
[7][8]
[8]
[8][9]
[200] [300] [400]
[5] [6] [7]
[100] [200] [300]
[5] [6] [7] [400]
[200] [300]
[1]([2]/[3])
[8]([9])
[8]-[300]-[6]
[300]
||
[6]([10])
[200]^[2]
||
[60]-300-[1]
[300]\\[3]
Can look at Achashverosh in different ways. In this era, it is curious to emphasize the aspect of self which aims at unity (vav in space of 10, 100, and shin in space of 100). Can tell it as this story:
The prism of being
Which serves as the support for discovering possibilities from which
Unity can be honed into
Continuity with the possibilities
Such that all these are indistinguishable from the unity.
The analogy with multiculturalism should not be taken too far:
Unity is a foundation for peace, it is not literally the goal of peace (since the goal is more akin to peace amongst differences, rather than homogeny – e.g. the wolf and lamb can be part of the same tribe).
Unity is the king of the world that is shared, but it is not its directive (since it lacks directive (vulnerable to the auctioneering by markets).
For this reason, Unity King can become indistinguished from Haman
Self-definition (hei) based on an aesthetic of empowerment (mem in space of vav) which makes the power-to-determine its purpose (nun-sofit in space of yud).
[1] CONNECT THIS TO ANI vs ATA re HAMAN vs ACHASHVEROSH (SHAUL vs DAVID; but also WOMAN in ALL (incl. MEN) & SHLOMO in ACHASHVEROSH (or EZRA vs MORDECHAI in MEMUCHAN)
[2] Minor example: the uniting force within the expression (aleph-shin, uniting force within the expression of a fire, e.g. flame) releases an expression which shows itself as the possibilities upon which the expression occurs (aleph-vav-reish, the expression of light onto a surface reveals the possibilities within that surface).
[3] The feet (raglayim) can represent that aspect of life which is “dragged along with our motivating cogitations and preferences” including the habits and external chained consequences of life. Here I mix metaphors, but the gallow as a tree can be summarized as “The gifts of the world being used instead as cages”.
[4] It is possible to see the world (wisdom) as though the world were a reflection of the internal landscape. It doesn’t map in a simple way, it might not be possible to see that that tree is this range of mind, but it is nonetheless possible to look at that tree as some range of mind. This can be explored through different modalities of extroversion, e.g. “the people in my life reflect characters within my psyche”; “the geological terrestrium reflects that garden within my ego’s self-determination”.
[5] http://www.chabad.org/library/bible_cdo/aid/16483#v=1
[6] Cf. http://www.chabad.org/kabbalah/article_cdo/aid/778413/jewish/Purim-and-the-Secret-of-Wine.htm
[7] Cf http://www.chabad.org/kabbalah/article_cdo/aid/778414/jewish/Waking-the-King.htm re tzaddik-vav-mem, cf. Letters achashverosh re shin on vav vs hamel mem on vav.
[8] Cf. http://www.chabad.org/kabbalah/article_cdo/aid/704837/jewish/Sleepy-Head.htm
[9] Just like the names within the Torah can be read as mappings (encoded by a deep legend) of aspects of the mind and the self, so too the names can be read within one another (cf. Israel in the world and the world in Israel). So too Shlomo within Achashverosh; Ezra and Haman within Memuchan; Cyrus re these.).