When recently have you experienced pure joy?  I had to ask myself this very question as I watched a recent episode of Oprah Winfrey’s new Lifeclass. Leave it to Oprah to get me thinking.

In this Lifeclass she showed several episodes of the Oprah Show when people experienced “joy rising,” including one I wrote about before. (This one always makes me feel great!)

I watched her show and laughed and cried. And I admitted to myself that I have had little joy in my life over the last four or five years.

Oh, I’ve received joy from watching my children grow and excel and mature. I’ve had some joy from my work. But I haven’t had the type of “joy rising” experienced by those on Oprah’s shows…or by Oprah herself in some of the situations she aired.

How many of us do experience that type of joy? What can we do to allow it in, to make it happen?  I think that’s really the question.

The answer I think comes in giving and receiving. That’s what I saw Oprah doing—giving in so many, many ways. And that created joy rising inside her—and inside the people around her. They received her gifts. They had to be willing to receive.

I read a book an participated in its challenge earlier this year. It’s called 29 Gifts: How a Month of Giving Can Change Your Life. It’s an amazing way to change your energy and to focus on giving. My book, The Kabbalah of Conscious Creation, also talks about the need to give and to receive.

However, I think there’s even one more step: to feel grateful for even the smallest things.

Tonight I was grateful to laugh and to cry and to vicariously feel joy because of the joy rising I saw in other people.

Life’s too short not to enjoy at least some of it. I know we should enjoy every moment…but we can start small if we aren’t finding enjoyment now. We can enjoy the sunset, the cat purring, the smile on a child’s face, a hand holding our own, the fact that someone loves us, the tweet or email saying our work is appreciated, the yummy ice cream we treated ourselves to after dinner. Or we can enjoy giving something…anything to someone we know that brings a smile to their face.

When and how do you experience joy…and can you experience more of it? I’m surely going to try.

As I wrote in yesterday’s post, we must give as well as receive. The two are integrally connected. Indeed, when we give, we open ourselves to receiving. We also become “like God,” since God is the Giver and we are the receivers. We, therefore, move closer to God, reducing the separation we tend to feel or to believe exists between us and the Divine.

Yet, as I explained yesterday, if we only give we don’t fulfill our Divine purpose, which is to receive. So, today we go on to part two and learn how to be both givers and receivers.

Receiving and then Giving for the Sake of Giving God Pleasure

We are supposed to develop a will to receive in order to give pleasure to our Creator. Of course, we are personifying God, but bear with me. We accept gifts from God, because it makes God happy. That’s all we have to “do.”  The giving is simply in accepting the gift.

Plus, since God wanted to give to us for the sake of giving us pleasure, we achieve true affinity of form with God when we do the same in return. Prior to this, we do, indeed, become givers and “like” God but not in the total sense of what I’m talking about here.

Okay, so the fact that God receives pleasure seems a bit far fetched, I know. This takes us back to this idea of God as a “man” or “woman” with feelings. I don’t really want to go there.

If, however, we simply say that the formula involves a Giver and a receiver, by not accepting what we are given we don’t complete the formula. To better understand how the process works, think of God like a power source and humans like electronic pieces of equipment. If we (the pieces of equipment) don’t receive (allow in) the electrical current, we short circuit the system. We send the electricity back to Source where it goes “ZZZZT!” Now, that probably wouldn’t feel too good at that end, would it? Plus, the flow of electricity would be stopped at our end and sent back. Our equipment wouldn’t run well, if at all, nor would we receive what we need. At the other end, the Source remains unlimited and the energy can be resent, but the circuitry along the way could eventually become damaged if we continued to only give or not to receive. Plus, by only giving and not receiving, eventually, we’d run out of power. Like a battery-run electric item, our battery would eventually run out of juice. We would find ourselves lacking what we need most.  I think you get the idea.

We want to transform our receiving into giving because this “gives pleasure” to our Creator or fulfills the purpose of Creation. As written in In the Shadow of the Ladder,” In Kabbalah, giving to each other is likened to giving to God. By using the will to receive in order to give, we become in affinity of form with the Source. We become one with the Creator. This is a new and complete form of vessel that did not exist prior to the creation of the worlds. This vessel now fulfills the ultimate purpose of creation in that it enables God to give pleasure to His creatures without leading to separation between the vessel and the light.”  In other words, we can receive all that we desire including oneness with God.

And at the end of the day – at the end of our lives – we can’t take any of the “stuff” with us. What we will want more than anything at that last moment is to know we are one with our Creator.

And What About Giving to Others?

So, how does all of this relate to what we Jews call tikkun olam, or repairing the world, and tzedakah, or charity?  Here’s how I understand it.  First we must heal ourselves. The healing (tikkun) we must do on ourselves revolves around manifesting a new desire – the desire for a higher consciousness. This consciousness is one that actually sees or experiences receiving as giving.  In other words, in our minds and in our experience the two acts must become one and the same.  When we accomplish this, we truly become one with God. We tap into the Divine flow of light or energy or “gifts” that constantly flows forth, and enable God to fulfill the purpose of creation. This purpose revolves around God giving us pleasure -desires granted, needs filled, fulfillment in whatever form we conceptualize.

And when we give, we become channels for God’s light and energy. We become that very same constant current of electricity, that ever-flowing river of abundance, that very same Source of all that is, ever was and ever will be.

If that’s not good enough reason to give, I don’t know what is.

If you liked these two posts, you might enjoy The Kabbalah of Conscious Creation.

One of the major premises in my work, both my writing and teaching, revolves around the need to give as well as to receive. The two are integrally connected. Indeed, when we give, we open ourselves to receiving. Yet, we don’t want to give in order to receive.

When we give, we make room to receive, for something else to move into the space we have created. In the Kabbalistic story of creation, God contracting to make space for all of Creation. In the void that was created, God sent a beam of Divine light or energy. From that, everything we know of as the world in which we live–including ourselves–come into being. Each time we create space by giving, Divine light and energy in all its many forms fills the void we create as well. This becomes a constant flow of giving, receiving, giving, receiving, giving, and so on.

In my current work writing The Kabbalah of Conscious Creation in its full length, I have been trying to fully understand the true nature of giving – at least as put forth by Rabbi Yehuda Lev Ashlag. Relying on In the Shadow of the Ladder, a wonderful book on his teachings, as my primary source, I’d like to grapple a bit with this idea here and to ask you to try and implement the concept of giving on a deeper level in your life.

Today, I will give you one part of the equation:

God is the Giver, We are the Receivers

Let’s begin with the idea the God’s nature is to give. The Creator is a Giver and we were created as receivers. Typically, our will has us focused on receiving for ourselves alone. I know that sounds terrible, but it’s true. Most of us are focused on our own desires, and with good reason. First of all, it’s our nature as pure receivers to desire things for ourselves, and in this physical word we often feel we have unfulfilled needs. We need to receive more.

Our goal, however, lies in becoming not only a receiver, but a giver. As I said, giving opens us up to receiving. Ah, the ego, says, “That’s great. I can get more.” However, we want to aim for a more spiritual reason to give. Yes, we want to get more, but not necessarily more material things. We want more spiritual things. You see, as long as you are a receiver and God is a Giver, a separation, albeit possible a perceived separation, exists between you and God. Most people – at least those on a spiritual path – would like to draw closer to God. What we actually want to get from giving is a connection to our Creator.

Giving for the Sake of Giving

So, we begin to place restrictions on how we use our will to receive. Even though it is our nature to receive for ourselves alone, we try simply to give instead of to receive.  We give for the sake of giving. We receive in order to give to others.  This makes us givers. And if we are givers, we are like God. We achieve something called “affinity of form” with God, and the separation between us and our Creator diminishes or disappears. Thus, we feel our Divine connection, and we receive what we desire – a relationship and a connection to our Creator.

However, there’s one problem with this scenario. We aren’t fulfilling our end of the cosmic bargain. God created humans for the purpose of giving us pleasure. Pleasure comes in the form of receiving Divine gifts. (That’s right, the fulfillment of our desires.) God was supposed to give, and we were supposed to receive. If we only give, we can’t receive. If we don’t receive, God receives no “pleasure.”

For today, just consider this concept. Think about how you give and how you receive. Consider if you give more than you receive or if you receive more than you give. Think about the idea that you are born to receive. How does that make you feel?

Tomorrow we will go on to part 2.

The winter holiday season offers us a wonderful time to focus on hope, faith and miracles.

Chanukah revolves around the idea of miracles—a small band of Jews fought against a large army while trying to preserve their religious freedom and won. They had hope and faith and a miracle occurred. Plus, during the rededication of their temple, a small jug of oil lasted not for one day, but for eight—another miracle.

At its most basic foundation, Christmas revolves around the winter solstice and the hope and faith that the short winter days will once again grow long. Additionally, it focuses on the miracle of the birth of Jesus. No matter what story you want to believe about Jesus, he lived a miraculous life that offers many people hope and faith.

The tradition of giving gifts at this time of year, one more common to Christians but adopted by Jews as well, allows us to turn our attention to consciously giving to others. While I’m known to criticize the commercialization of these holidays, giving from the heart consciously is a good thing. We all need to learn to give consciously, and the holidays season provides as good a time to start as any.

Sometimes giving consciously creates its own set of miracles. Try giving every day of the holiday season and see what happens. You might be amazed. In fact, this action alone might restore you faith and hope in many things. Don’t just give because it’s a holiday; give all month long…and then continue giving. These can be small gifts of energy or time. A prayer is a gift. A hug or a smile is a gift. Give a gift that fulfills your soul purpose; these can be the most powerful gifts of all. Just give consciously. See what happens.

Two weeks ago I attended the San Francisco Writing for Change Conference. There I met an amazing woman: Cami Walker. She authored the book 29 Gifts and started 29Gifts.org. Cami lives with the diagnosis of Multiple Sclerosis. While she suffers from many of the symptoms and for a while could hardly walk, she now mostly walks on her own, manages to work several days a week and even goes to conferences and meets people like me. And she claims this is because she changed her attitude by giving 29 gifts in 29 days. This opened her up to the work of gratitude, the link between giving and receiving, and the fact that God exists in all things.

Pretty amazing stuff, huh? Knew this stuff already?

Either way, Cami’s challenge is worth taking. I started giving my 29 gifts three days ago. If you want to take the challenge you can read about it Cami’s story here or about the origins of the 29 day giving challenge here. You can read the book, you can log in at 29gifts.org and blog about your experience, or you can simply start giving gifts. I’ve read the book and I’m blogging about my experience on the site.

I suggest you read about the challenge and what types of gifts to give. They don’t need to be big gifts. They simply need to be conscious gifts. Even a prayer for someone counts as a gift. A helping action can count as a gift. A kind word a small deed…these count.

I decided to take the challenge not only because I thought it was a great idea, but also because I was intrigued by Cami’s story–both the turn around of her medical condition and the publication of her book. I also was interested in the dovetailing of her book and mine: The Kabbalah of Conscious Creation. In this book I talk about giving from a place of soul purpose. People have a desire to manifest their desires. When our desires stem from our soul purpose and we manifest those desires  with the intention of sharing them — giving them to others — we tap into the Divine flow of giving and receiving. God is the ultimate Giver. We were created as receivers. However, to draw close to God, we must also act as Givers. Then we can be one with the Source.

Cami says basically the same thing in much simpler terms. When we give, we receive. The two acts are part of the same continuum. And when we participate in acts of giving, we feel gratitude and closer to God.

I don’t care whose work you read, the point remains the same. Give. Don’t do it because you want to receive. Just start giving and watch what happens. You’ll be amazed.

The other day I read something interesting: According to Jewish teaching, two types of “good” exist. There is objective good and subjective good.

When we desire good things and long for good things and try to manifest good things in our life–or things we perceive or judge as “good,” fall into the category of subjective good. Our human concept of good is subjective; we are limited in how we see things and we can’t see into the future to know if the things we want are actually good for us. In fact, many of the things we want aren’t good for us. That’s why in the Jewish tradition when we wish for something or try to manifest something “good” in our life we qualify our prayer with the words “for the good” or “l’tovah.” The prayer often said is: May God fulfill all desires of my/your heart for the good.” This refers to the objective good.

What is the objective good? This is what is actually good for us, and only God can know this. Possibly our soul knows this as well. We don’t know what is good for us–at least not often.

While we long for a “good” life, health, job, relationship, finances, car, etc., sometimes these things and conditions lead us down paths that don’t benefit us. We become jaded with wealth and turn to alcohol or drugs or success causes us to become corrupt in our business dealings. Good relationships or an easy life may cause us to forget to appreciate what we have and to take advantage of those we love or for get to care for what we have. On the other hand, sometimes misfortune and a difficult live consisting of what we subjectively deem “bad” causes us to advance, grow, become strong, persevere, appreciate things more, become wiser, become a more giving person, and ultimately achieve more success and happiness.

When we don’t receive the good we want in our lives, when we don’t manifest what we want and think is best for us, maybe it is for our own “good.” Maybe God, or some higher power, knows better and is preventing us from having what we want. Consider that when you think your creative visualizations, the Law of Attraction, deliberate creation, your prayers, or some other technique you are using to manifest good in your life doesn’t seem to be working.

Much of the time, we are consumed with desires. We want to have something different than what we now have. We want to be something different than what we now are. We want to go somewhere different than where we now exist.

Although God created us in such a way that it is natural for us to have strong desire, it’s also important for us to learn to accept where we are and what we have in this moment. We have to learn to have desires and also be in the moment—and feel okay in the moment. If we are constantly longing for something else, this causes us to “future” in a negative way. We constantly creatively vision about the future and create negative thoughts and feelings that go with those visions because we don’t have what we desire.

Thus, we must learn feel good about our desires and then to move into acceptance. We must feel “okay” with where we are and with what we have despite the fact that we possess as yet unfulfilled desires.

If we remember that God is in the moment—not in our futuring and dreaming and visioning. That’s why creation happens in the moment. We create our desires in the moment. Knowing this helps us learn acceptance.

Simply be with God in the moment and know that as you connect with God and feel good about that connection, your desires are being fulfilled. Let God know about your desires and then let them go: Let go and let God.

I’ve been asking myself the same question over and over again. Sometimes I ask it in different ways. And I keep searching for an answer.

I realized yesterday that I keep getting the same answer over and over again, but I don’t ever really “hear” it. Or I don’t quite “get it.”

Sometimes we have to pay really close attention when we are asking questions so we can discern the answers given to us.

I’ve been trying to refocus my business and my business activities. I keep wondering, “Should I go in this direction or in that direction?”

Opportunities keep coming up. I keep wondering if I should take advantage of them because they could provide me with income. Yet, they aren’t really what I want to do.

Yesterday, I finally got it. I’d heard the same thing over and over again; in fact I’d heard myself say the same words. I picked up a book that I’d read before, looked at the advice within its covers and thought, “I get it.” It was a book about making a living writing books…lots of them. I coach people on writing books and getting them published and have been trying to do the same for myself for a number of years–but I’ve been stuck on just one way of doing it and one or two types of books.

I walked down the aisle of a grocery store and saw something else, and said, “I see the answer.” It was an aisle filled with magazines. I have a degree in magazine journalism, but I rarely write for magazines these days. Many of those magazines are ones I’ve dreamed of writing for.

I’ve often said, “I just want to write.” Recently I’ve been thinking about writing more–creating more written products of all types (including my blogs).

Yesterday I heard, I saw, I understood. I got it. I’ve always known I was supposed to write. I’ve always known that’s what I was supposed to do. I just wasn’t willing to see that that is, indeed, what I want to do and should be doing.

How about you? Are your answers right in front of your nose, as my mother used to say? Can you hear them? Can you see them? Why not pay a little closer attention for the next few days. You might be surprised to find that the answers to your questions important questions will show up clearly if you just open your eyes and ears. Ask, then pay close attention.

Today Jews all over the world celebrate the holiday of Shavuot. On this day, the sixth day of the Hebrew month of  Sivan, they commemorate Moses receiving the Ten Commandments. This holiday also is known as the Festival of Weeks named in Exodus 34:22 and Deuteronomy 16:16. Shavuot is celebrated seven weeks and a day (50 days) after Passover. Christian texts call this day “Pentecost” (50).

On Shavuot, we remember and celebrate the giving of the Torah at Sinai. However, the Torah is not just the scrolls that contain the stories of our ancestors or, as some people believe, the word of God. The Torah contains wisdom imparted to us in the form of those stories and in the words of God. At Sinai, Jews also received the Oral Torah.

More than that, we each have a Torah of our own. We have our own wisdom, much of which comes from our own lives and the stories we tell about them. It comes from the lessons we have learned as we have lived and how we then share that wisdom.

Everyone has a Torah–unique and individual as well as part of The Torah. It all blends together.

Today, on Shavuot, whether you are Jewish or not, consider your Torah. (After all the Torah is the Old Testament or Bible; Christians read this as well. Muslims are descendants of Abraham. We are all one.) Are you open to receiving the Torah–your Torah–today? Are you willing to share it with others?

Know that the more you give your Torah (wisdom) to others, the more you will receive it (wisdom).

Rebbe Nachman of Breslov said we all must be teachers. As we teach, we open ourselves to learn more. In fact, we elevate ourselves to the next level so we can learn more, and by so doing we leave a spot open for someone else to move up and into.

Elevate yourself, and elevate someone else by giving your Torah.

Receive your Torah today on Shavuot. Ask God to Give it to you. Be open to receiving it. Then give your Torah to others. Share your wisdom: through teaching, writing, speaking.

Chag sameach (Happy holiday)!

My husband bought me earrings for Mother’s Day. Not just any earrings, though. He bought me long, wand-like dark green tourmaline earrings. They were made by a woman I know. She’s down on her luck and could use the money.  She now sells her jewelry at a store in Los Gatos, CA. (Soon it will be available on the Internet.) She’s an artist, too. (Read about her here.) It was a double gift…one for me, one for Dalana.

I thought the earrings were black tourmaline, they were so dark; that’s what my husband told me they were. Today, Dalana told me they were green. Perfect! Good for creativity, manifestation, money, business, and warding off negativity. All things I need…want.

The last piece of jewelry I got for Dalana had a piece of blue and pink tourmaline in it. Those were perfect, too…at the time. Still are really. They help with intuition and psychic ability. But these earrings are perfect as I work on my books, my other written products, my workshops, and my editorial/consulting and speaking business.

Dalana said she was waiting in the shop. She was finished for the day, but she felt she was supposed to meet with someone. Then my husband came in. He bought the earrings. She said they must have been made just for me. Her daughter “charged” them up.

It will feel good to wear them…for many reasons. I’ll know my husband bought them for me. I’ll know they are helping me build my business. And I’ll know the gift I was given helped Dalana financially. When my husband gave (paid for the earrings), Dalana received. When I received the gift, I continued the circle of giving and receiving. I also gave Dalana pleasure, since she knew I loved the earrings.

A nice Mother’s Day gift.