Kabbalah and Philosophy

Where does one begin a journey to find meaning and fulfillment?
One does not begin, one first finds oneself at the mercy of a blind desire that seeks something it does not know. Beginnings and endings are contained within the self-devouring circle, or ourobouros, of life. 
If we were to speak of knowledge this could be an examination of philosophy, science, or even religion.
There are many varieties of knowledge, yet all are contained in the general premise of knowing-ness(a pejorative term, a mere shell of desire).
To know, we must transcend knowing, just as the same principle applies universally - as Einstein has said, to jump on the table, we first must jump above the table.
The question becomes, not one of knowledge, or even what knowledge, but why.
What goal have we set before us?
A teleological question then. 
What is telos? It is more than a goal or end. It is the desire for transcendence of purpose as well. Perhaps Telos is most truly, self-transcendent. ["Alone of the shells is the serpent Nogah found in holiness..."] 
But before we can transcend purpose, we must attain purpose.
So in the case of purpose, the principle is actually opposite as mentioned above. Why? Because we seek the why, that is why!
Why what? Why anything? No, that will not do, the question must be refined, honed, sharpened, trained, and even attained.
For this journey, no help will come from a wiser or more attained source.
This journey begins with the end, the delicious apple of Eden, and with the seeker turning back upon himself to once again find the beginning and also his eternality and victorious joy.
And in doing so he not only attains the purpose that inevitably lies within every mythical beginning, he, in actuality, reality, objectively, attains the why behind the why - which is, "Why even ask why?"

To quote Emmanuel Levinas from "Difficult Freedom":

"The numinous or the Sacred envelops and transports man beyond his powers and wishes, but a true liberty takes offence at this uncontrollable surplus. The numinous annuls the links between persons by making beings participate, albeit ecstatically, in a drama not brought about willingly by them, an order in which they founder. This somehow sacramental power of the Divine seems to Judaism to offend human freedom and to be contrary to the education of man, which remains, action on a free being. Not that liberty is an end in itself, but it does remain the condition for any value man may attain. The Sacred that envelops and transports me is a form of violence." 

So then this blind drive that awakens within one, is a form of absolute ontological liberty. Freedom to not merely attain Being, but the being within Being of Heidegger's metaphysics.[see: Fundamental Concepts of Metaphysics]. That which is held out over the Abyss...
This is the mythical "small self", ego, "Created Creature" that contains within it, the seed of Unity which one  liberates from the dross of numinous experience, that is, in so far as he has created a new beginning in his revolutions around the Sun(the Ego which the soul houses).
Why? First, because "it is good"(Ki Tov). Secondly because what he seeks cannot be found, but only created. And yet this is not an action taken upon ex nihilo nihil fit, rather, this is uncovering the Something that truly came before Nothing. (The Upper Force behind the Void)
Yet, the uncovering, the aletheia, the unconcealment, is not the revelation of Truth.
It is the surrender of Truth, and the revelation of Unity, or, "the revelation of the Creator's godliness to the creatures").
One's act of creation, depicting an image of one's desire, to bestow upon it a vision of itself - can only be done in communion with Truth.
And, in order to be in communion with Truth, as we have already laid down, one must surrender, or transcend, Truth.
In this we find ourselves not in communion with each other(perhaps the essence of religion), but in Union with the Being inside of every being. That is, the macrocosm that is reflected in every microcosm.
Perhaps we could call to mind Indra's net, or a holographic universe, where within every nexus(form of connection) is a node(essence of connection), and implied within every node is a complete nexus. Also put, the forms we adopt in order to reveal the aforementioned Unity have already been completed, or filled, with the abundance they both desire and exist within, as every form exists in a sea of mutually interpenetrating forces. 

Any way we might like to view this, the answer is the same at every point of this web:
"Raq B'Yachad!"
Only together, do we rise higher, and dig deeper - into that which encompasses and surrounds Creation. In doing so, we build a world above the corporeality that pulls at us, a new world that has never existed and can never exist as a potential form among forms(or a thorn among thorns)and that has nothing to do with Being or being!
Here we are no longer subject to the whims of the sea, eternally tempting us to return to lesser things, to draw out more being from Being and in doing so falling into the forgetfulness which plagues corporeal man - the forgetting of the Other. The fall from grace, from love of man. 
No, we now ride upon the sea in a vessel only possible by mutual effort, mutual guarantee(Arvut), and love of friends.
This vessel(Kli) is the beating heart of our One True Identity, the body of Adam Kadmon.
The sea of Ain Sof, Infinity, has been tamed and satisfied.
All this becomes possible as we hear the call - "Love thy neighbor as oneself" and feel roused the desire to serve, and to love. It is said "There is no coercion in spirituality" - this is the Love of being by Being, and the eternal service to every soul that lies dormant in every shell.

B'Shalom,

Jack Holden

*Stay tuned for further explication of the method of Kabbalah, and perhaps get a taste for the form of Connection and Love that we practice!