Parashat HaAzinu 5783 — 10/08/2022
Beginning with Bereishit 5781 (17 October 2020) we embarked on a new format. We will be considering Rambam’s (Maimonides’) great philosophical work Moreh Nevukim (Guide for the Perplexed) in the light of the knowledge of Vedic Science as expounded by Maharishi Mahesh Yogi. The individual essays will therefore not necessarily have anything to do with the weekly Torah portion, although certainly there will be plenty of references to the Torah, the rest of the Bible, and to the Rabbinic literature. For Bereishit we described the project. The next four parshiyyot, Noach through Chayei Sarah, laid out a foundational understanding of Vedic Science, to the degree I am capable of doing so. Beginning with Toledot we started examining Moreh Nevukim.
Devarim 32:1-52
I am writing this in the days between Rosh haShanah and Yom Kippur, so I want to take a break from Rambam (please hold the applause) and reflect on some themes of the Ten Days of Teshuvah (Repentance).
There are several themes in Rosh haShanah. It is called Yom haZikaron / The Day of Remembrance; Yom haDin / Day of Judgment; Yom Teru’ah / Day of Blowing the Shofar. I think these three names correspond to the three long sections of the Musaf Amidah: Malchuyot (Kingship) corresponding to Yom haDin; Zichronot (Remembrances) corresponding to Yom haZikaron and Shofarot (verses relating to Shofar or trumpet blowing) corresponding to Yom Teru’ah.
All these three themes are Gd-focused. We speak in the Malchuyot verses of “crowning Gd as King” (meaning our acceptance of Gd as King – Gd doesn’t need us to crown him, rather we need to crown Gd to put our lives and our individuality in proper perspective). The Remembrance verses all focus on Gd’s being all-knowing and having all eternity spread out before Him. The Shofarot verses are about Gd’s Revelation and Redemption – the heavenly Shofar blew at Mt. Sinai and will blow again when Mashiach comes.
In lesson 8 of the 33-lesson Science of Creative Intelligence course Maharishi famously stated, “When Existence becomes Consciousness, Intelligence becomes intelligent, and it is this intelligent aspect of Intelligence that prepares to play the part of Creative Intelligence.” (This is presumably not a temporal progression, since it takes place on a level that is transcendental to time.) Existence is Pure Being, the basis of all beings, but it is inert and unable to create. But since Existence also has the aspect of Consciousness, it can become conscious of itself, and this self-referral gives rise to the internal, virtual dynamics of Existence/Consciousness which appears to us as “objective” reality.
We can look at the Rosh haShanah prayers in this framework. Although a king of flesh and blood may be very active, the essence of what he does (or should be doing) is simply to be the basis and embodiment of the kingdom. All the activity of the kingdom takes place on the basis of the laws of the king. This is especially true in a constitutional monarchy, where everything is done in the king’s (or queen’s) name, but the monarch stays above politics and really doesn’t do anything. Perhaps those who live under constitutional monarchs have an intuitive understanding of this relationship between the monarch and the nation, because calls to get rid of the monarchy generally go unheeded. When we speak of Gd, of course, Gd is the basis of all being, and all the activity of the universe takes place within Gd, without Gd’s ever acting at all.
When we move to the Zichronot verses we see expressions of knowledge, in particular Gd’s Omniscience. Knowledge, of course, is structured in Conscious-ness, and Gd’s Knowledge is, according to Rambam, indistinguishable from His Essence. Maharishi describes Pure Consciousness as the “home of all knowledge,” because it contains the intelligence that gives rise to all the activity in the universe, which, as we have said, is just the virtual dynamics within Pure Consciousness itself. So Gd, on the basis of His Knowledge, which is his Being as well, creates the universe.
The Shofarot verses have to do with Revelation and Redemption, which is the full gamut of the creative process. It begins with Gd alone, then Gd created a being that could come to know Him. That’s certainly worth a blast of trumpets! The ultimate goal of that process of creation is that we actually do come to know Gd and to expand our consciousness so that action in violation of Gd’s Will is not possible. Creation of a society of such individuals is what Redemption is all about – becoming free of the shackles of limited awareness and assuming our full dignity as human beings for whom Wholeness is the lived reality of everyday life.
The process by which we bring Redemption ever closer is regular daily contact of the mind with Pure Consciousness. This is the essence of t’shuvah, return – it’s a return to our own essential nature which is unboundedness. This of course is the process we are supposed to be going through during the Aseret Y’mei T’shuvah / Ten Days of Repentance, culminating in Yom Kippur. In a sense, this process is creation-oriented, and in particular, human being oriented, since human beings are, to our knowledge, the only material beings that have a consciousness that is self-referral enough to “do t’shuvah,” to return our mind to its source in the transcendent.
During this time of “return” we seek to return to Gd, to the state of perfection of Adam and Eve before their sin. In Rambam’s explanation we seek to return to a state where we evaluate everything in terms of its truth value, rather than our evaluation of its being “good” or “bad” – that means, in relation to our own satisfaction. In Vedic Science terms, we seek to achieve a state where our Self is known, experientially, to be unbounded and completely separate from the relative creation. Since we can be completely “objective” and detached from any personal consideration, we evaluate everything as it is, not colored by our personal wants and desires.
The penitential prayers of the 10 days and the fasting and “afflicting the soul” of Yom Kippur are a kind of “practice” in achieving this detachment, and I would hazard a guess that there are additional practices that were passed down orally and are not found in our prayer books, that gave direct experience of the transcendent, and there may have been ones that were specific to this time of year. Of course, the TM technique is a form of t’shuvah as it gives the direct experience of Pure Consciousness, which is the basis of all creation, as we have discussed at length.
The highest level of “returning” occurs in Unity Consciousness, where the infinite basis of life is experienced not only as our own Self, but as the essential nature of every object of perception – wholeness becomes the all-pervading experience, both inward and outward. We have traversed the full range of experience, from Pure Consciousness alone with itself, to Pure Consciousness permeating all creation. We have moved from Unity to diversity and back to Unity, only to discover that Unity is all that there is, and we never really went anywhere at all. The guru tells Jonathon Livingston Seagull, “Perfect speed is being there.” Veda and Torah tell us, “Perfect enlightenment is Being Here.”
Chag Sukkot Same’ach!
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Commentary by Steve Sufian
Parashat HaAzinu
“Ha’azinu” means “Listen”: not just “hear” but “listen, listen with full attention.” As he speaks to our ancestors (and to us), Moses calls upon Heaven and Earth to listen. Not only Heaven and Earth outside us, but within us.
He praises Gd and rebukes Israel from turning away from Gd. Moses concludes by telling our ancestors (and all generations) to set our heart to his words so that we may command our children to obey Torah. Better than this is to live so Torah is alive in us and our words and lives will be so alive we need not command our children to obey Torah – they will Live in our Universal Love, in Torah and will naturally be and act in harmony with Torah.
The central message in Moses’s song is that there is no god besides Gd.
Gd Says, “See now that it is I! (who Am your Rock and Your Shelter). I Am the One and there is no god like Me”. See now that I, I am the One, and there is no god with Me; I kill and give life, I struck down and I will heal, and none can save from My Hand.” Deuteronomy 32:39
As we realize this, we realize the implications of Gd Being One: not only is there no god besides Gd, there is nothing but Gd and all that exists is an expression of Gd, within Gd. Everything is Gd from the Universe, to galaxies, stars, planets, mountains, trees, people, ants, stones and quantum bubbles; all actions, thoughts, feelings, decisions, memories and plans.
And so, when Gd praises or rebukes, Gd is Praising or Rebuking Gd; Gd is playing a game in which Gd is the Director, Screenwriter, Actors, Camera Crew, Audience and Reviewers. Gd is the virtuous and the villains.
Gd is all thoughts and all decisions, all actions and all roles.
But, that said, we can’t spend our lives constantly thinking “Gd is All, Gd is my thought, I have nothing to do with anything…” and so on. We have free will to act naturally, spontaneously, just being the people we are, with the personalities and skills we have, yet always favoring what we know to be right, letting our heart always fill with love for Gd and our neighbor.
Torah as Divine Sounds and Glowing Streams in our consciousness: Torah as meaning, literal and symbolic; Torah in the vast range of commentaries on it; Torah in our feelings, thoughts and conversations, help us to develop a firm sense of right and wrong, help us to act with wisdom, and to better and better return to our Source — Gd. Gd Hides, playing the roles of every limited value: humans, galaxies, ants, stones, quantum strings; Gd Guides the seeking to return for all roles and Reveals Gd to the roles as Gd Chooses.
So not only at the time of Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur but every moment always, let us do the greatest kindness, the greatest love, to ourselves and our neighbors and attune ourselves to Torah, to Gd: naturally, spontaneously comfortably, easily but steadily, consistently, routinely, uniting more and more with Universal Love and Joy, the One and Only “I”: Gd.
Baruch HaShem