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KABBALAH FOR INNERPEACE:Imagery and Insights toGuide You ThroughYour DayGerald Epstein, M.D.ACMI PRESS : NEW YORK

Copyright 2008 by Gerald EpsteinCover art copyright 2008 by Gabriel MolanoAll rights reserved. No part of this work may be reproduced orutilized in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical,including the internet, photocopying, microfilming, recording,or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher.This book is not intended as a substitute for medical advice ofphysicians. The reader can consult a physician in matters relating to his or her health and particularly in respect to any symptoms that may require diagnosis or medical attention.Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication DataEpstein, Gerald, 1935Kabbalah for Inner Peace : Imagery and Insightsto Guide You Through Your Day / Gerald Epstein.p. cm.LCCN 2007907049ISBN-13: 978-1-883148-08-9ISBN-10: 1-883148-08-11. Cabala--Health aspects. 2. Imagery (Psychology)-Therapeutic use. 3. Mind and body. I. Title.RZ999.E67 2008Printed in USA.First EditionACMI Press, 2008351 East 84th Street, #10DNew York, New York 10028Tel: (212) 369-4080www.acmipress.org615.8'52QBI07-600260

Table of ContentsINTRODUCTION. — page 11PRACTICING MENTAL IMAGERY ISPRACTICING KABBALAHCHAPTER 1. — page 25LEARNING THE PRACTICE OF MENTAL IMAGERY:THE TREATMENT THAT OFTEN TAKESONLY SECONDSCHAPTER 2. — page 38THE KABBALAH OF MENTAL IMAGERY:WORKING WITHOUT A GOALCHAPTER 3. — page 46EXERCISES FOR BRINGING FRESHNESSTO THE DAYCHAPTER 4. — page 54ABOUT BALANCE AND PATIENCECHAPTER 5. — page 60MALADIES OF EVERYDAY LIFE: ANXIETY AND PAINCHAPTER 6. — page 77MONEY WORRIES, MONEY TRAPSCHAPTER 7. — page 85WHEN WE LOSE OUR FOOTING: SELF-DOUBT,INDECISIVENESS, DISQUIETING FEELINGSCHAPTER 8. — page 93SURVEYING OUR BODY’S HEALTH

CHAPTER 9. — page 97DEALING WITH PHYSICAL AILMENTS:INFLAMMATION AND MUSCLE SPASMSCHAPTER 10. — page 103IDENTIFYING AN AILMENT’S SOURCECHAPTER 11. — page 113COMBATTING INNER TERRORISTS:THE KABBALAH OF ACTIONCHAPTER 12. — page 124HEALING THE PASTCHAPTER 13. — page 137SLEEP TIGHT: IMAGERY EXERCISESTO BRING SLEEPCHAPTER 14. — page 141AWAKENING TO SPIRITCHAPTER 15. — page 151FINDING SPIRITUAL FREEDOMCHAPTER 16. — page 155LETTING IN THE INVISIBLE UNIVERSEAppendix — page 161NOTES ON HOW TO CREATE YOUR OWNIMAGERYIndex of Exercises — page 172About the Author

Introduction.PRACTICING MENTAL IMAGERY ISPRACTICING KABBALAHThe Relationship Between Spirit and the EverydayWorldThere are two major ways of understanding the relation between Spirit and the everyday world. In oneapproach, you find Spirit by drawing away from theeveryday world. This is the approach of the East,and it is the approach that many popular books offerto those yearning to bring more spirituality intotheir lives. While these books don’t say that youneedn’t worry about the chores, tasks and challengesof everyday life, they pay little attention to everydaymatters. In these books, what is central is adoptingthe attitudes and perspectives that take you closer toSpirit by focusing your mind quietly away from thetravails of everyday life.The other approach to the relation betweenSpirit and daily life is that you move toward the spiritual by bringing it into the everyday.In thisapproach, mundane life is not a hindrance to Spirit; itis the path to Spirit. You do not turn your back on thechores, tasks and challenges of the everyday, butrather use them to open yourself to Spirit. This is theapproach of the West – the approach of “reaching forheaven on earth” – and it is the approach in particular of the path I follow, the path of VisionaryKabbalah. Visionary Kabbalah tells us that to movetoward the transcendent we must first gain masteryover our everyday concerns and difficulties.11

12It is here that we begin to see the conection betweeninner peace and Spirit. To gain mastery of ourselvesin daily life with its bottomless well of challengesrequires that we establish in ourselves the innerpeace that comes from balance and order. In thisway, gaining inner peace prepares us to open toSpirit. At the same time, the practice of Spirit cultivates inner peace.The beauty of Visionary Kabbalah is that itoffers us several easily available practices that doboth – help bring us to inner peace and, at the sametime, to the experience of Spirit. Its central practiceis mental imagery. Through mental imagery, weenter the realm of the timeless, spaceless Divine, arealm that is always present and available to us, ifwe only ask. This realm, called the invisible universe, consists of many worlds of reality and beings,e.g., angels, archangels, cherubim.In this book, I move through typical events andcommon challenges of an ordinary day and showhow mental imagery can help us master our concerns by drawing on Spirit, the source and theessence of our being. In this way we gain innerpeace. Not only do we live healthier, calmer, moreassured, and more moral lives; but we also put ourselves on the path that leads to transcendence.I should explain that the Kabbalah I practice isnot the Kabbalah that has become a kind of pop hitof the moment, whose study and practice has gainedmany adherents, a number of them well-knowncelebrities. This variant is called Ecstatic Kabbalah.About two thousand years old, Ecstatic Kabbalah isbased on chanting combinations of Hebrew lettersduring a meditational state with the aim of bringingthe chanter to the transcendent experience of reach-

13ing out and up toward union with God. In thisunion, one escapes the bondage of conditioning andthe enslavement it brings in the time-space physicalreality that we usually, mistakenly, think of as theonly real world. In other words, in this approach toKabbalah, one strives to leave behind the ordinariness of human life and leap into the transcendent.In contrast, Visionary Kabbalah is four to fivethousand years old and derives from the ancientWestern spiritual tradition of the prophets. TheseBiblical seers from Abraham onwards describe therevelatory experiences which came to them in theirvisionary practice. In this practice, visions of theDivine and the transcendent are transmitted via thesacred language of image. Put another way, image –and imagery – is the language of the Divine. Godspeaks to us through image, and we can reach Godthrough image. It is a mutual process.While Visionary Kabbalah is the language of theDivine it does not mean that the language of imagemoves us directly into transcendence. Quite thecontrary. In Visionary Kabbalah, we cannot moveinto transcendence until we balance our lives onearth. Thus, in Visionary Kabbalah, we use image, aninner hieroglyph, to make God’s presence immanenton earth. We use image to draw on the knowledgewe need to live a healthy, happy, and balanced life.By applying the revelations that come throughimagery, we transform both our personal lives andthe world around us. Once our inner balance issecured, we can proceed up the ladder of self-masteryto make our way first to personal illumination andthen to union with the Divine.

14Why do I say that image is the sacred languageof the Divine?In Genesis (1:26) it is stated that we are made inthe image of God. Image in this context representsthe indestructible immortal seed we are as createdby God. Thus, we bear a cosmic imprint and areopen to receiving a continuous influx of Divine energy, which includes information, messages, and light.These influxes come from the invisible world, whichis the true reality. Those of us who practiceVisionary Kabbalah know it is a science of revelation– revelation that is designed to give us peace, comfort, health, and general well-being, from the simplest aspects of our lives to the most complex.To make God immanent on earth is to bring to eartha new therapeutic impulse that allows us to create anew life, free of conditioning. By transforming ourconditioned servitude into freedom, we transformthe suffering that usually characterizes daily existence into a life of healing and wholeness.We can see this process of transformation in thefamiliar story of Abraham and his encounter withGod, about 4,200 years ago in a part of the world thathad many tribes, all practicing polytheism – the worship of many gods. People sacrificed fellow humansto propitiate one or another god for whatever benefits the god presumably controlled – rain, crops, cattle, and so forth.Abraham’s encounter with God consisted of hisperceiving a great invisible being who in effect said:“I will give you everything that you need on thisearth to sustain, fortify, and satisfy you, includingeternal health and well-being. All I need in return isyour love and devotion.”

15Mental imagery is akin to Abraham’s revelatoryexperience, which became the basis for themonotheistic tradition. Imagery puts us in touchwith the invisible and thus, according to Abraham’srevelation, with what we need in everyday life.Through mental imagery, we access the innerknowledge that helps us heal and brings us back intowholeness; we remember ourselves in a new way,bringing ourselves back to life from the sufferingthat is wearing us down.Remembering Ourselves Into WholenessWhat does remember ourselves mean? It essentially means coming back to life – re-membering. We seethis in the vivid story from ancient Egypt, where Isis, thegoddess of wisdom, re-members her husband, Osiris. Asthe god of the netherworld, Osiris weighed the souls ofthe dead to determine where each soul would go.Osiris’s brother, Seth, was so jealous of Osiris’s powerthat he murdered his brother and then cut him into fourteen pieces, burying them all over Egypt. When Isislearned of this, she scoured Egypt to find the pieces, andafter collecting them, she put together all but one ofthem, restoring Osiris to life.1 She re-membered him.She put his members back together, a process of cosmicreconstructive surgery. Because she recalled him whole,through an act of remembering, both physical and mental, she brought him back to life.1 In the Western spiritual tradition, the woman holds thekey to love, which the man learns through her, and sobecomes complete.

16In mental imagery we re-member and restoreourselves from the fragmentation we experienceboth internally and externally from the disturbingsituations that surround us. We bring ourselves backto life by aligning ourselves with the truths thatcome to us from the invisible universe. This sacredrealm knows what we need and is always availableto us through mental imagery.The revelatory way of the prophets, the systematizers of Visionary Kabbalah, is alive today in theuse of mental imagery for purposes of both healingand spiritual realization. This book endeavors toshow readers how to invigorate their lives in thespirit of Visionary Kabbalah. In a modest way, thebook aims to give everyone the means to become apracticing kabbalist.A Personal NoteIn 1989, I published a book on mental imagery,Healing Visualizations: Creating Health ThroughImagery (which, I am happy to say, is still in print),without a single word about Kabbalah. Many bookson mental imagery take no notice of Kabbalahbecause the authors either have no spiritual interestsor are unaware of the unique connection betweenimagery and Kabbalah. In my case, I did not discussKabbalah because I thought then that placingimagery in what to me was its true and deepest context would ask too much of readers. HealingVisualizations is very much a nuts-and-bolts handbook of imagery treatments for various disordersfrom acne to worry. In 1989, it seemed enough tome (and my editors) to maintain that imagery couldalleviate physical, mental, and emotional disorders.