Infinite You, Transcendentally & Practically
The more you focus on your pleasures, the more you will understand and experience what you care about most deeply. You are already in the realm of Keter. The fresh clarity of spiritual spring water awakens something ancient within us. As you breathe in its cool, transcendental mist, it kisses your skin, renewing the quiet grace of life. Droplets shimmer in the light on the surface of the spring, shining just enough to remind you: there is a divine dimension, part of our essence that we are remembering.
You and your soulmate walk into the water – it’s the perfect temperature. This is a space where you see who you are at your deepest essence – a world beyond imagination; of energy that reflects an attribute and emanation of God, present everywhere and anywhere.
This “place” is simply in our minds. It’s acknowledging our source of motivation – the sefirah of Keter. It is water that is always calm. From this still place, a mist of pleasant ideas surrounds us – the next emanations of God.
Keter – literally “crown” – is like water droplets falling upon our heads, unseen, yet applying ratzon (God’s will) to all there is. Keter is the most powerful aspect of any creation, asserting itself where nothingness begins to be transformed. It’s represented by the tip at the top of the letter yud (י). Yud is shaped like a single water drop. It is also the first letter of God’s four-letter name. Keter’s simplest identity is as the bridge to the Or Ein Sof (the Infinite Light of God; also, the light prior to any creation).
Keter is our connection to God’s infinity, and through it, we can connect to the part of us that is infinite as well. This is a place beyond the laws of nature and its balance. In fact, Keter doesn’t need balance, nor is it born from balance. Keter is the place in which we recognize heartfelt desires as if long-forgotten memories, and therefore we come to understand what we have the most will to bring into being now.
Shouldn’t remembering what we care about most be effortless? Isn’t that what you have the most will for? Wouldn’t you say that will is your essential identity? When you think about it, the one thing you can’t force – and therefore the most spiritual and powerful thing of all – is your genuine sense of identity.
From the perspective of psychology, it has been shown that our wills; our freely chosen actions (that is, the ones for which we feel intrinsic motivation) are deeply rooted in the cognitive aspects of identity.[1] I was also inspired by research on the science of motivation, to realize that in kabbalistic terms, Keter is the source of all identities.
Your truest identity is your highest self. A fundamental question that we must periodically ask ourselves is: what gives us the most pleasure, ratzon, satisfaction in our identities right now? We will build on this question in further chapters, but for now, consider this question, and start to focus on what you love the most.
[1]Di Domenico, S. I., & Ryan, R. M. (2017). The emerging neuroscience of intrinsic motivation: A new frontier in self-determination research. Frontiers in Human Neuroscience, 11, 145.
You can check out the author’s book here: Better Than You Wished For
