Arcanum 0 – the Fool: A pilgrim in Sedona. (In the distance you can see the peak called Thunder Mountain, at the foot of which Robert lived)
..
When I met Robert Adams in 1996, the surrounding Arizona landscape spoke volumes to me of his teaching and his face and eyes. I walked and explored each day into the sacred red rock wilderness: Robert’s Ashram. At the end of my booklet “Imponderables” – (see the last four posts) – I included the following Kabbalah passage from the Lubavitcher Tanya, which also spoke and sang to me of Robert: about No thing.
Ampitheatre – Bishop’s Rock
..
From the ‘Tanya':
“… FOR WHEN the intellect in the rational soul deeply contemplates and immerses itself exceedingly in the greatness of G-d, how he fills all worlds and encompasses all worlds, and in the presence of Whom everything is considered as nothing – there will be born and aroused in his mind and thought, the emotion of awe for the Divine Majesty, to fear and be humble before his blessed greatness which is without end of limit, and to have the dread of G-d in his heart.
“Next, his heart will glow with an intense love, like burning coals, with a passion, desire and longing, and a yearning soul towards the greatness of the blessed En Sof. This constitutes the culminating passion of the soul, of which scripture speaks as ‘my soul thirsts for G-d, my soul longs for thee.’ This thirst is derived from the element of Fire, which is found in the divine soul. As students of natural science affirm, and so it is also in the Tree of Life, the element of Fire is in the heart, whilst the source of Water and moisture is in the brain (or third eye?) … referring to the faculty of Hokhmah called ‘the water of the divine soul’.
“The rest of the seven emotional attributes of man are all offshoots of fear and love and their derivations.
“Da’at, whose etymology is found in the verse: ‘And Adam knew Eve’, implies union. It is that faculty which binds one’s mind with a very firm and strong bond to, and firmly fixes one’s thought on, the greatness of the blessed En Sof, without diverting one’s mind.
“Even one who is wise and understanding of the greatness of the blessed En Sof will not – unless he binds his knowledge and fixes his thought with firmness – create in his soul true love and fear, but only vain fancies.”
From the ‘TANYA’ Ch.3
by Rabbi Schneur of Liadi, 1787
NOTES
En Sof – ‘without end’, the Infinite, ‘has no beginning
Hokhmah – revelation, wisdom, ‘the potentiality of what’ – the second of the Ten Sefiroth or emanations of En Sof
Da’at – unknown cognition, awe, abyss. Union of worlds and of man with woman. Knowledge in the sense of concentration.
The meaning of these three letters within Bishop’s Rock – Aleph, Cheth, Daleth – is ‘EChD – from One to Oneness’. It emerges from the infinite Silence, and returns into the Silence.
The fear and love of God are Gevurah and Hesed on the Tree of Life: the soul triad’s equilibrium.
Tree of Life with Robert’s teaching of Four Principles, Three Vehicles and Three Virtues. Note Gevurah and Hesed – constraints/severity and grace: the fear and the love.
..
When Robert was a teenager in New York, he woke up saying “God … God … God” – who passed his school exams for him while he gazed upon the atoms in class. He had a Jewish mum and a Catholic dad – or was it the other way round?
To me he said, “it never ends, there is no end”; and he said, “relax“. He said other things, but I couldn’t understand them through his Parkinsons whisper – I could only absorb and feel.
Robert’s transmission of the silence between the words, felt part and parcel of my Kabbalah and alchemy studies. It is all the One, wearing Joseph’s many coloured coat of dreams, dharma and pilgrimage. As the Sufis say – from the Source, we return to the Source. We emerge from God, moving into God.
..
From my photo album –
Bishop’s Rock and Oak Creek, Arizona
“Your Self doesn’t know the answer.
The true Self has no question.
Therefore there is no answer.”
Robert Adams
..
..
..
**
My adventure invites fellow travellers. I am a poet, an artist and a seer. I welcome conversation among the PHILO SOFIA, the lovers of wisdom.
This blog is a vehicle to promote also my published work – The Sacred India Tarot (with Rohit Arya, Yogi Impressions Books) and The Dreamer in the Dream – a collection of short stories (0 Books). Watch this space.
All art and creative writing in this blog is copyright © Janeadamsart 2012-2014. May not be used for commercial purposes. May be used and shared for non-commercial means with credit to Jane Adams and a link to the web address https://janeadamsart.wordpress.com/
