Eros and Holiness: Part Seven – Marc Gafni
marc gafni
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Eros and Holiness: Part Six
The Path of Love
One cannot be told that life is worthwhile; one must experience the erotic love of living first hand. Yet so few people have an unmediated sense of the adequacy, dignity, and worth of their lives. It is, however, this very erotic sense that is so essential in making our lives a triumph. So many of us today are second-hand consumers of second-hand joy―never touching love or Eros directly. And when love fails, there truly is nothing left to live for. For love―not the narrow romantic expressions of it, but erotic love in all areas of our existence―is the core of life itself.
We are confronted, personally and globally, with a stark choice: Love or Die! It is that simple. Love is no longer a luxury but an absolute necessity for the survival of the individual and the planet. In the last half century, modern psychology has documented an age-old truth. A fully nourished baby who is not held in loving arms will die. So, too, our world, personal and global, even with all the resources, intelligence, and technology at our disposal, will die without being held in love. We must embrace a personal path with heart and a global politics of love.
Life is a choice. What is the rhythm of our dance? Are we dancing masters or bottled bees? Who are our dancing partners― desperation and emptiness or Eros and Shechina? Are we lovers in all facets of our lives or are we apathetic, deadened, and indifferent? Are we sources of safety and caring or are we abusers and manipulators? Are we spreading wisdom and love or are we inflictors of emotional, spiritual and even physical pain on those closest to us? Bees in bottles always sting. But everyone knows that to sting is to die. The only way to not sting is to learn to be a dancing master.
The great mystery tradition of Hebrew wisdom is about a radical and profound path towards becoming just such a dancing master. The ancient temple in Jerusalem was the center of a society where the Hebrew mysteries were practiced and taught. At the core of the temple mysteries lies an ancient set of radical understandings about sex, love, and eros. In the deep yet provocative temple mysteries, we are taught that sex is not eros. But, as we shall see, in the esoteric temple mystery, sex models for us what it might look like to live erotically in all of the non-sexual dimensions of our lives.
The temple mysteries are a unique Tantra, opening us to the possibility of becoming great lovers in all of the arenas of our lives. The Hebrew mysteries gently but powerfully chart a path, which, if we but have the courage to walk it, will teach us how to live erotically in every facet of existence.
We live in an age when ancient wisdoms long relegated to the dustbins of the spirit are being reclaimed. The Zohar, magnum opus of Hebrew mysticism, teaches that our era is the one in which the “Gates of Wisdom will be opened.” We live at the dawn of a new age in which for the first time―after several aeons of intense spiritual evolution―we have the vessels to hold the light of the ancient secrets. The mystics suggest we may well be able to hold the light more deeply than even the ancients for whom the wisdom was initially intended. It is only now, after law, science, and ethics have been integrated into our psyches, that we can go back and reclaim Eros, Shechina and enchantment.
Marc Gafni
