{"id":1147,"date":"2017-06-20T23:30:07","date_gmt":"2017-06-20T23:30:07","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/thetravellerslastjourney.com\/shai\/pushing-lilacs-out-of-dead-soil"},"modified":"2019-09-02T03:29:03","modified_gmt":"2019-09-02T03:29:03","slug":"pushing-lilacs-out-of-dead-soil","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thetravellerslastjourney.com\/shai\/2017\/06\/20\/pushing-lilacs-out-of-dead-soil\/","title":{"rendered":"Pushing Lilacs Out of Dead Soil"},"content":{"rendered":"

Editorial notes<\/strong>:
\nShai opens this essay on how life and beauty (symbolised in the term \u201clilacs\u201d) can be produced out of what looks at first like mere dead materiality (\u201cdead soil\u201d) with what looks like a claim to have had a mystical experience of God. He terms that experience as \u201cHow I solved the theocratic paradox in trans-noumenal space\u201d – \u201ctrans-noumenal space\u201d refers to the infinite \u201cspace\u201d that transcends all finite beings and things as such. \u201cThe theocratic paradox\u201d is that the infinite God creates and dwells also in the finite universe. In the context of the following paragraph this suggests that he \u201csolved the paradox\u201d by experiencing infinity directly). This, he then tells us, was induced by smoking a cocktail of marijuana and methamphetamine, after going 30 hours without sleep.<\/span>\nThe content of this ecstatic trance apparently related at least in part to the Torah, since Shai immediately begins discussing that. He suggests that the Torah is the self-unfolding of God into the world, with each book of the Mosaic Torah revealing a different stage of this self-expression. Breishit tells \u201cWhat I am\u201d: i.e., it is about the sole God of the universe, who created it and humanity as well. Exodus tells \u201cWho I become\u201d: i.e., the personal God of history, unfolding in and shaping time (God gives his Name as Ehyeh asher Ehyeh, I am becoming what I am becoming, or I will be what I will be). So, He redeemed Israel from Egypt and ordered them to build the Tabernacle sanctuary so he will dwell amongst them. Leviticus tells \u201cWho I change\u201d: i.e., the whole people Israel and especially the priestly tribe of Levi, through the regime of mitzvoth and priestly service. Numbers tells \u201cWho I spread\u201d: i.e., the 12 tribes, prepared for the settlement of the Holy Land. And Deuteronomy tells \u201cWho I transform\u201d: i.e., again the people Israel, readied finally to fulfil its destiny, after it has been purified through chastisements, purgations and repentance.<\/span>\nThen Shai returns to the topic of mystical ecstasy itself (describing it as the \u201cMerkabah\u201d mystics of the Talmudic period described it, as riding \u201cthe chariot\u201d) and how difficult it is to actually attain that.<\/span>\nIn his second section of the essay, \u201cPart 1,\u201d which promises to discuss \u201cA theory of ancient Semitic script metaphor overlay,\u201d in other words, an explanation of how the Hebrew of the Torah overlays reality with deep metaphors of communication. Then he proposes that, according to Torah perspectives, God has presented the entire world of things and beings on so many levels it is very difficult or impossible to grasp all of them. (He refers to those things and beings as zot, Hebrew for \u201cthese,\u201d signifying, I think, the \u201cthatness\u201d of things, their actual being in itself, what Shai earlier has called \u2018noumena\u2019 as opposed to the world of appearances, \u2018phenomena\u2019, things as they appear to us or are used by us for other goals.) The depth and levels of actual being, zot, is why the first efforts at seeking truth and the right path are so often flawed and erroneous, even idolatrous. Then Shai phrases things very oddly and even seems to be contradicting himself, since just this complexity of actual being is taken as excusing or at least explaining such idolatry, so that the tiny hints or \u201ckisses\u201d from the divine \u201cshow the way to a god that hides themselves before lower incarnations.\u201d The phrasing may be meant to suggest that God leaves infinity when creating the universe, first becoming a mere entity, a god which then forms into multiple entities in the course of materialising in the world. All of this seems to be hinted at by the phrasing about a lower-case \u201cgod\u201d who hides \u201cthemselves before lower incarnations.\u201d So, the worship of \u201clower incarnations\u201d is actually of \u201cgod\u201d who is \u201chiding\u201d in them, and when the worshipper awakens to that he\/she is cleared of any guilt for the error, Shai says.<\/span>\nThis leads to \u201cPart 2: How I thought to use archaic rituals of self-penitence to cast far older blessings.\u201d<\/span>\nFirst of all, the above meditation shows that \u201c(M)y past errors were the result of past-beliefs which were at the time good, although specific negative-outcomes were collateral.\u201d Secondly, given this exoneration, all that seems to be needed, according to Shai\u2019s account, in order to be purged and to attain spiritual contentment, is a ritual re-enactment of the carrying of bones or ashes across a river, as Moses did when carrying Joseph\u2019s coffin with him in the Exodus from Egypt. The details of this \u201carchaic ritual\u201d (which was actually not halakhically prescribed in the Torah) are presented very allusively and obscurely in the text, and I do not understand the import of those references. Possibly the \u201cbones,\u201d \u201cashes,\u201d and even \u201criver,\u201d are mere metaphors having only spiritual or poetic meanings to Shai. But the ultimate goal is clearly stated: one comes to \u201cBeauty,\u201d i.e. Tiferet, the 6th sefirah (counting from the top) representing the heart of God.<\/span>\nParts \u201c3\u201d and \u201c4\u201d are similarly too personally referential, poetical and obscure to be readily understood [EZ*<\/sub>]. <\/span>\n*Many thanks to Dr. Evan Zuesse for providing the commentary for this essay.<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

How I solved the theocratic paradox in trans-noumenal space<\/strong><\/p>\n

[4cc methamphetamine, 1,3g decent weed, new glass pipe, 30 hours since sleep.]<\/span><\/p>\n

There are all sorts of models for thinking about how the Torah works.<\/p>\n

Can look at the books:<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. What I am<\/li>\n
  2. Who I become<\/li>\n
  3. Who I change<\/li>\n
  4. Who I spread<\/li>\n
  5. Who I transform<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    Or at some of the \u201cblurbs\u201d which pocket its pages:<\/p>\n