XML FeedsTHE MEDITATION ON ALEPH
1 I AM,
Without beginning, without end,
Older than night or day,
Younger than the babe new-born,
Brighter than light,
Darker than darkness,
Beyond all things and creatures,
Yet fixed in the heart of every one.
2 From me the shining worlds flow forth,
To me all at last return,
Yet to me neither men nor angels
May draw nigh,
For I am known only to myself.
Ever the same is mine inmost being;
Absolutely one, complete, whole, perfect;
Always itself;
Eternal, infinite, ultimate;
Formless, indivisible, changeless.
3 Of all existences I am the source,
The continuation, and the end.
I am the germ,
I am the growth,
I am the decay.
All things and creatures I send forth;
I support them while yet they stand without;
And when the dream of separation ends,
I cause their return unto myself.
I am the Life,
And the Wheel of the Law,
And the Way that leadeth to the Beyond.
There is none else.
4 I am the Fire of Mind
Which divideth itself
Into the Superior and Inferior natures,
And putteth on a robe of flesh
To come down.
I am the vital principle of all that is.
Nothing is that does not live,
And of that life I am the source.
As it is written:
“First the stone,
Then the plant,
Then the animal,
And then the man.”
But before the stone, I am the FIRE,
Distributed equally in space,
Nowhere absent, filling all.
And before the Fire, hidden within it,
I am the pure KNOWING
Whence all forms flow forth.
5 Apart from me
There is neither wisdom,
Nor knowledge, nor understanding.
Into every state of knowledge do I enter,
Into false knowledge as well as into true,
So that I am not less the ignorance of the deluded
Than the wisdom of the sage.
For what thou callest ignorance and folly
Is my pure knowing,
Imperfectly expressed
Through an uncompleted image
Of my divine perfection.
Woe unto them
Who condemn these my works unfinished!
Behold, they who presume to judge
Are themselves incomplete.
Through many a fiery trial of sorrow
Must they pass,
Ere the clear beauty of my wisdom
May shine from out their hearts,
Like unto a light
Burning in a lamp of alabaster.
6 I am the doer of all.
Nothing moveth but by my power.
Mine is the healing influence
Flowing down from consecrated hands,
Mine the venom of the adder’s fang.
Nothing falleth but by me
And in whatsoever riseth
Mine is the power that lifteth up.
7 My presence is the substance of all things.
I am the virgin snow on mountain heights;
I am the fruitful loam in valley depths.
I am the gold and silver of the temple vessels;
I am the mire on sandals left by the faithful
at the temple gate.
See me and regard me equally in all,
O Israel, And thou shalt see indeed.
8 For seeing thus, shalt thou see, too,
That nothing is, or can be, my antagonist
All, and in all
Shall I fight myself?
What hath power to limit or defeat
The very source of power?
Know then, that all thy sense of conflict
Is but the shadow-play of ignorance.
Wait with patience on me, thy Lord,
And in my appointed time
Will I make clear what now is dark,
And show before thee, straight and true,
A path of safety
In the very place where now an abyss of terror
Seems to open at thy feet.
9 I am the beginning of all beginnings,
Checked by neither time nor space,
Held by no bonds of name or form.
Present everywhere,
Centering the full perfection
Of mine exhaustless power,
I am thy Lord, O Israel,
And Lord of countless hosts.
Seek me in the Holy of Holies,
In the heart of the true Temple,
On the Holy Mountain.
Behold, I am with thee always,
And I never sleep.
10 I am the Height above all heights.
My descent reacheth likewise below all depths.
Yetam I poised forever between Height and Depth
In perfect balance.
Consider me under the aspect of ALEPH;
There shalt thou find both Height and Depth
And the path also which joineth them
For descent and return.
11 ALEPH in truth am I,
The OX of solar fire
Whose radiance lighteth all the world,
Whose life-breath ebbeth and floweth
In creatures great and small,
Whose power taketh form
In all the acts of men, of beasts, of plants,
Yea, and of things which seem inanimate, as well.
ALEPH am I, the patient burden-bearer,
Strong to carry the heavy load of the manifest.
ALEPH am I, the Eternal Worker,
By whose might all fields are tilled,
And from whose life all seeds
Derive their growth and increase.
ALEPH am I,
The First and the Root.
From mine unfathomable Will
The universe hath its beginning.
In my boundless Wisdom
Are the types and patterns of all things.
Before all worlds I WAS;
In all worlds I AM;
And when worlds are but a memory,
I SHALL BE.
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COMMENT ON ALEPH
A L E P H, pronounced awlef.
Transcribed as “A”.
The number 1.
Meaning: Ox.
The Fiery Intelligence.
1 Throughout this text the proper name “Israel” should be understood as
applying to the spiritual Israel. This name means “He shall rule as God”,
and thus the text is addressed to all who, by identifying themselves with the
Divine Will, become unobstructed channels for its expression. Thus they
truly live the Divine Life, and consequently share in the Divine Rulership.
2 “To me neither men nor angels may draw nigh”. Nothing conscious of
separateness can approach the Reality of the Absolute. When all at last
return to the One, the differences that constitute various classes, such as
plants, animals, men, and angels, will vanish.
4 “I am the vital principle of all that is.” This is a reference to the
attribution of Ruach to the letter ALEPH. The Hebrew Ruach is analogous
to Sanskrit Prana, Greek Pneuma, and Latin Spiritus. Every one of these
words means Breath, and every one means Life. The meditation says
emphatically that this Life-Breath animates even those forms which are
commonly regarded as being lifeless.
5 The phrase “my works unfinished” is a key to the whole philosophy of
good and evil running through these meditations. In the thought of the
author, we live in a dynamic, growing organism, which we call “the
universe”. The purpose for which that organism has been projected into
relative manifestation is not yet fully achieved. It is not a finished
mechanism, a thing made, once and for all. Rather it is a living Being,
whose life includes innumerable lesser lives and lesser degrees of
knowledge.
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Source (.pdf). From "The Book of Tokens" by B.O.T.A. About Paul Foster Case. Illustration.
URL: http://www.a-w-i-p.com/index.php/spiritual-matters/2011/03/24/the-meditation-on-lemgalephl-emg
