Humility is the silent partner of endurance. Its strength is in its silence. Its splendour in its repose. Humility leads to yielding, an essential element of humility. However, the resulting yielding should not be confused with weakness and lack of self-esteem.

Humility is modesty. It is acknowledgement (from the root “hoda’ah”) saying “thank you” – to G-d. It is recognising your qualities and strengths, while acknowledging that they are not your own. They were given to you by G-d for a higher purpose than just satisfying your own needs. Humility is modesty. It is recognising how small you are which allows you to realise how large you can become. And that makes humility formidable.

Endurance draws its energy from the acknowledgement of humility. Human endurance goes only as far as your tolerance level. Acknowledging that your strengths come from a higher place gives you the power to endure far beyond your own perceived capacity. It gives you part of G-d’s enduring strength.

A full cup cannot receive any more. When you’re full of yourself and your needs, “I and nothing else”, there is no room for more. When you “empty” yourself, by giving yourself over to something which is greater than yourself, you allow in more than your limited ability. You are also able to receive “new" information and energy. Humility is the key to transcendence; to reach beyond yourself.

Humility is sensitivity; it grows from recognition that you can be better than you are and that you expect more of yourself. Although humility is silent it is not a void. It is a dynamic expression of life that includes all seven qualities of love, discipline, compassion, endurance, humility, bonding and sovereignty. Humility is active not passive. Not a state of being but an interaction even in its calm and inaction.

The Glory of Sensation

This week my focus is on accepting MY own experience. Explore the manner in which my perceptions present themselves, appreciating how each sensation allows sensory vibration to manifest. I encounter the wonders of my physical sensations for their own sake now.

The Sefirah on the Tree of Life

Hod represents the form of sensations – the images, touches, sounds, tastes and smells that we perceive. Hod is on the left side of the Tree of Life, the side reflecting forms that contain the energies flowing from the right side of the Tree. Each sensory perception can be understood to be a particular container in which we experience the formless energies that result in these particular sensations.

Through physical sensation we begin to know our world—and discover ourselves within it. Hod brings sensory information to that which already contains mental and emotional forms. Through Hod we begin to truly know our form, our selves, in the world.

Hod provides the container for Netzach without which Netzach cannot manifest. Hod is the sensational perception that is informed by Netzach.¹ Hod is the form of each and every perception. It is the shaping of the vibration that is perceived via the senses. At this level, the vibration takes shape as that which we know sensually. Each sefirah receives from all above it and transmits to all below, except for the first and the last.² The shapes that Hod contains are not sensory vibration alone, but also feeling and emotional energy. Since the energies flowing to Hod already contain colourations from the higher sefirot, the forms that Hod provides already include these influences.

There are sensations we enjoy as well as those we do not, just as there are feelings we are more comfortable with than others. Our work is to become aware of our own sensations, our own perceptions. Such awareness enables the shifts in perception through which we more directly learn the “truth” these sensations contain, thus enabling them to find their proper expression.

A necessary part of our journey is to become more aware of the intensity of energy, the “juice” of Netzach, which is carried by a particular sensation. Begin to honour and explore that energy when not bound up in the container. It is the acceptance of the container that allows us to integrate it properly.

Elohim Tzeva’ot means “G-d of Hosts”. Elohim reflects the aspect of the One we meet as an “Indwelling Presence” within a world of multiplicity. Elohim helps us understand the truth of the One manifesting as the many. Tzeva’ot, translated “hosts”³, has the connotation of an “army”, a group of great force. Here, the “force” is contained in each particular perception. The Elohim is the Unity hidden within the apparent multiplicity of perceived forms. Our perceptions have the strength to convince us of the reality of our world. From our perceptions we learn about ourselves through our relationship with that world.

Meditation for the Fifth Week at HOD

We move into higher energies of being becoming more aware ֹֹour current experience. In **Hod** we meet the particular forms in which our perceptions present themselves. Thus **Hod** informs our current experience of the world

Reflections

“Shine Your Presence” upon us… Your Presence is shining forever. Whether it shines “upon me” or not, depends on my relationship with G!d, my world, and my self.

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Footnotes

1. We say the right side informs and the left “enforms”. The right side in-forms – energises the formation of the container, and the right enforms – is encloses in form. In addition, we must not forget that the energy that Hod receives is made up of all the energy of all the other sefirot—but also contained is the energy it receives from Netzach. That is why one of the depictions of the Tree is one in which there is a complete Tree in each sefirah, ad infinitum! ↩︎

2. The energy of the sefirah radiates horizontally and vertically, covering the lower semi-circle. The energy of any sefirah that is more than one layer, i.e. sefirah removed, is carried along, forming part of the energy of the neighbouring sefirah on one layer below. If the upper sefirah is blue, and the lower is green, then the final energy transmitted will be green. It is not an addition, but a composite. Gene transfer uses a similar model. One can receive genes from the grandparent, that are then integrated into the makeup of the parent, that the child then receives. ↩︎

3. These “hosts” are the myriad perceptions we experience. Elohim is indicative of the unity within these hosts, each containing some Light (gold) of the Creator. An analogy for these hosts is that of colour. Within white, we find all the colours we experience, each one affecting us in a different way. ↩︎