Mussar Program Class #13

Transcription

1 Mussar Program Class #13 Challenges provide the curriculum for our spiritual growth. by Alan Morinis 2007 JewishPathways.com 1

2 "A person who has mastered peace of mind has gained everything." (Rabbi Simcha Zissel Ziv, the Alter of Kelm) Jewish sources use several terms to name the soul-trait of undisturbed equanimity. The most descriptive is menuchat ha'nefesh, calmness of the soul. The calm soul rides on an inner even keel, regardless of what is happening within and around you. I liken it to surfing. Even as the waves are rising and falling, the calm soul rides the crest, staying upright, balanced, and moving in the direction you choose, though exquisitely sensitive to the forces that are at work all around. But before we surf off into this peaceful and beguiling sea, I want to bring up one of the first Mussar teachings that piqued my interest in this tradition. It was from Rabbi Israel Salanter, the father of the Mussar movement, who said: As long as one lives a life of calmness and tranquility in the service of God, it is clear that he is remote from true service. Here we are being cautioned that "calmness and tranquility" are contrary to spiritual service. This sentiment is echoed in a more general way by Rabbi Adin Steinsaltz, who writes in The Thirteen- Petalled Rose: The Jewish approach to life considers the man who has stopped going he who has a feeling of completion, of peace, of a great light from above that has brought him to rest to be someone who has lost his way. Only he whom the light continues to beckon for whom the light is as distant as ever, only he can be considered to have received some sort of response. These teachings tell us that the Jewish spiritual journey isn't supposed to lead you to a station called peace and tranquility. Rather, if that happens to be where you lodge at some point along the way, then you've been traveling the wrong track. If you're living in a state of equanimity, you need to shake yourself awake because you've clearly fallen asleep. 2

3 It's seductive to think of a total escape from the storms and turmoil of life. Comfort, sweet and soft, invites us to snuggle down and drift off to sleep. Can that be a spiritual goal? Imagine you're on a ladder. Would you want to be asleep? And yet shalom peace is one of the highest Jewish values. And menucha calmness or rest is the essence of Shabbat. So how can we square the positive and negative sides of equanimity? The fact is that we can have both. Having the soul-trait of equanimity doesn't spell the end of our struggles, but is rather an inner quality that equips us to handle them. Trying situations crop up in everyone's life. This is not accidental. Life is constructed to give spiritual trials to the soul (nisyonot in Hebrew) that score direct hits on the traits of your inner life where you yourself are particularly vulnerable. That's what makes them tests! If you are a person prone to anger and someone steps on your toe (literally or figuratively), or you are sorely tempted to steal and someone leaves an open purse right under your nose, then you have a spiritual test. What's the ideal? To rise to the test and to triumph with flying colors. This means stretching into the middah (soul-trait) in a way that is both difficult for you to achieve, and good for the soul. The reality, though, is that you could go either way. That's why the test is real. If you pass a test, then that aspect of your inner being gets strengthened and you earn the right to move on. Otherwise, you are likely to encounter the same test again at some future point. When one thinks of tests along the curriculum for growth, negative challenges likely come to mind lust, greed, rage, arrogance. But there are positive challenges as well. Success, for example, can sometimes be more of a challenge than failure, for arrogance and greed feed on success even more effectively than on failure. 3

4 So life keeps delivering tests to our doorstep, whether we happen to be living through days of darkness or when things are going well. We do ourselves a favor by embracing our struggles because they are inevitable, woven right into the plan. In fact, if we are committed to our own growth, we won't even want our struggles to end! A Scenario One night the Moss family came home very late from a wedding. Everyone was exhausted. When they got to their front door, Dad couldn t find the key. They all started to search in the car, on the sidewalk but after a few minutes they came up emptyhanded. The baby started to cry and everyone was freezing in the winter night. What do you think are the best, rational steps the family should take? Who should do what? Envision what would ensue if the family began to panic. Envision what would ensue if the family acted with order and calm. Distancing Yourself When you see struggle as not only inevitable but as spiritual practice, you are being true to the Mussar insights of staying awake on the Jewish way. This says nothing, however, about the inner attitude you adopt as you contend with your challenges. Here's where equanimity comes into play. In his letter to his son, Nachmanides (Ramban) advises: "Distance yourself from anger." And in Orchot Chaim (Ways of Life) of the Rosh, we are advised, "Distance yourself from pride." This phrase, "distance yourself," shows up elsewhere as well. We are surely not being told never to be angry, proud, jealous, etc., because Mussar teachers consistently assert that this would be an unrealistic goal. Everyone experiences the full range of inner states, and in and of themselves, 4

5 every inner trait is neither good nor bad. More important is how we respond to what we feel. "Distance yourself," then, can mean only two things. Either we are to stay physically far from other people who are angry, proud, etc., or we are being directed to develop some kind of inner distance from the experience of our own anger, pride, and other incendiary middot. Although there are definitely times when we ought to stand away from powerful outer forces, we should be less concerned about these external influences than we should the impulses that arise within us. We are solely responsible for the inner forces that can lead us astray and so these are our first priority. In order to create some distance between the stimulus that comes at us, and our reactions to it, we need to cultivate a strong inner witness. This perspective helps keep you from being infected by those outer influences that swirl around you. That same inner faculty also keeps you from being pushed around by the forces that arise within you. The distanced witness is not susceptible to the tides of doubt, temptation, jealousy, etc., that wash through the interior world. Cultivating an inner witness means being sensitive and aware of what is taking place inside you, without being identified with the feelings themselves. You remain separated from them. Let s say, for example, that you find yourself waiting in a line while the person in front of you fumbles through a purse apparently crammed with every conceivable thing except the needed credit card, and you start to feel impatience that is quickly becoming anger. At that moment, recall the need for the inner witness, and call yourself to pay attention to the sensations you are feeling as just that sensations. They don t compel any sort of response. You just witness them and so don t identify with them as being you. Do we still face real struggles? Yes. Do the consequences matter? Yes. Do we still feel the full range of human emotions and drives? Yes. In other words, every aspect of your current life is real and important. 5

6 You would be wise to embrace it, because it's your curriculum. But at the same time, cultivate the witness which will make you the calm master of the inner realm, and not the victim. The ideal state of tranquility is not a state of numbness. Rather, the ideal is to remain conscious and balanced in the midst of whatever might be going on within you and around you. When things are going well, it is easy to remain calm, but when things get difficult, we tend to get all stirred up and turbulent. We have the potential to remain calm amid the storm, but developing that capacity requires practice. Meditation is one practice that fosters tranquility. A regular practice of meditation involves sitting still and silent for a period of time every day. Inevitably, a wide variety of inner states arise some pleasant, some not. Over time, you can get quite good at simply living in their presence, without feeling slave to any of them, whether repugnant or alluring. This practice prepares you to be calm in the face of all sorts of turmoil. I'd like to offer another practice to the same end. Rabbi Steinsaltz describes the Jewish spiritual experience as a constant beckoning toward the light. If we take that word "constant" seriously, then the light we seek must be present at all times and in all situations, no matter how murky or even dark they appear to us. We are assured that it is there, and that we are capable of seeing it, but it is up to us to cultivate the inner sensors that are alert and attentive to it. This can t be described any better than inner light. The more we try to describe it, the less accurate is the description. Even calling it light is a metaphor. It is a presence that defies classification in the terms of this world, but is perceptible nonetheless. Your practice for this period is to tune into the inner light that is present in all things and beings. This may not be easy to do at first, because we are not looking for physical light, but something more 6

7 subtle. To start with, it is valuable just to pick out an object that is right near to hand and to ask the question, "Can I see the inner?" Look for a subtle, brilliant presence behind the apparent surface. In time, as you explore, you will begin to see what Rabbi Steinsaltz is pointing to. As you strengthen this practice, over time you will grow increasingly aware of the radiant Presence that is a constant in the ever-shifting contexts in which you live. Here s a perfect application of having a key-phrase for this middah. In addition to the morning affirmation, you can remind yourself several times a day to seek the inner light. If you have eyes to see, and if you are patient, it is there in all the people you meet, and in the telephone and the apple, too. Are you in a café? Take a different look at the coffee cup. Or are you in a classroom? Look at the blackboard, then look again. Can you glimpse the light within everything you see? Record your experiences in your Accounting of the Soul Diary. This is not a mystical practice, but mental training. By assigning your mind the task of looking for something that is to be found in every situation, you will cultivate and strengthen your inner witness. The outcome is that you will have equipped your mind with the capacity to anchor itself in a solid and tranquil place. From there you can observe life even amid the churning seas of emotion that arise in stormy episodes. Without this training, you are likely to be tossed about on the waves of inner feeling that wash through you; with it, you are capable of mooring your consciousness in the role of witness, and so be tranquil. An inner eye connected to the constant light won't give you a life of fewer challenges and struggles. But it will help you develop the trait of equanimity, which will in turn helps you to engage and triumph. That's may be why the Alter of Kelm tells us: "A person who has mastered peace of mind, has gained everything." Here are some suggested key-phrases for you to use: Rising above the good and the bad. Be still and witness. 7