The Law of Attraction: If You Don’t Want to Receive in Order to Give, You May Not Get

I had the most phenomenal conversation this morning with a Kabbalist in Safed, Israel, that gave me a much clearer understanding of how the Law of Attraction works from a Kabbalistic spiritual perspective. Given the fact that I do, in fact, believe that our thoughts are creative and that what we focus upon expands, and that I hear the criticism being heaped upon the author of The Secret for her book and DVD’s materialistic bent, I wanted to share a little of what I’ve learned.

As Avraham Loewenthal, a Kabbalist and artist who’ve I’ve mentioned before, explains it, the fact that we want something for ourselves is natural. Desire is part of our inherent nature. Of course we want to get “things” or to receive them; therefore, we want to discover how to get what we want.

Along the way, we realize that we receive most easily when we are in the process of giving. Giving makes us happy. When we are giving, we are open and able to receive. We become a vessel to hold God’s ever flowing abundance and goodness. That’s why when we are giving we feel happy. And when w are happy, we find that the things we want are easier to obtain. Sometimes they even just come to us.

That leads us to a consciousness of giving to get something in return. It’s a step in the right direction, but we aren’t yet there. Next, we must learn to receive for the sake of giving. At this stage, what we want cannot be found in anything physical for our desire is for a new consciousness, a consciousness that wants to receive for the sake of giving. This represents giving in the truest sense.

God gives, and we receive, but as long as we only receive – or we try to get “things” for our own purposes -- God remains the giver and we remain the receiver. We remain separate from the Divine. When we receive in order to give – by giving purely out of a desire to give, we remove the separation between the ultimate giver – God – and the receiver – all of creation. We become one with God, who’s only known characteristic is Its ability to give goodness to creation. When we begin giving for the sake of giving, we we are expressing that part of us that is created in God’s image, and the separation between Giver and receiver disappears.

That said, it isn’t easy to accomplish this feat. Yet, Avraham taught me, it is in the effort of trying that we find that we are truly doing the work we were put her to do. And part of that work involves being grateful for what we do have, being happy where we are now, having faith that what we desire will come to us, and cheerfully accepting that if we don’t receive what we want or need right now, something better will come to us in just the right time. I learned something similar from another Abraham, the one channeled by Esther Hicks. Abraham teaches that we must learn to be happy where we are, because if we are constantly wishing to be somewhere else, we will always be in a place of lack. And from a place of lack, we receive only more lack. But if we are happy and grateful in the moment, we open ourselves to receiving something else – something that resonates with the vibration of happiness and gratitude rather than with the vibration of lack.

That’s if for now…I’m off to try and practice this. Easier said than done, I know. Thanks for letting me try and explain these difficult concepts here in my blog first. They'll be put into by Abracadabra! booklet next. If you have any comments or thoughts, please e-mail me. I'd loe to discuss these concepts.

Sharing My Good News: An Agent for Every Book Project!

For any writers out there, I want to share some really fabulous news. (I know, I usually try to write something thought provoking or that teaches a principle of some sort, but today I just had to share!) I have managed to go from having no literary agent representing me to having two – well…actually three – representing me all at one time! Yahoo! Thank God! Baruch HaShem! And they’ll all be at the Book Expo America in New York at the beginning of June peddling my three current book projects. Can you believe it? I can hardly believe it myself! I am so very, very grateful to them for believing in me, my work and my projects. And they all tell me that they hope to bring me good news come the first week of June, and, God willing, they will.

So, I have found an agent to take on my Jewish celebrity cookbook project, which should have been in stores for the 2006 holiday season…but wasn’t. If you recall, that book had a publisher, but the book was returned to me so I could find a larger publishing house to take it on. Yesterday, I found the perfect agent to take on that job for me, and she feels confident that she will have success in doing so. Yeah! I’m grateful to the 90 celebrities who signed on to that project and offered me their time, support, stories, and recipes. If the book is successful, we will all help MAZON: A Jewish Response to World Hunger help others around the world.

And, as you already know, my other agent is shopping my candle lighting as a spiritual practice book. She has another agent in her firm also selling my book on boys in the dance world, which was inspired by my son’s dancing endeavors.

(Okay…don’t ask how I will write two books at once, handle anything thrown at my by the publisher of the cookbook – which is complete -- and keep up with my client’s editing. I should be so lucky to have that problem.)

Shabbat is nearing quickly…and when I light the candles later this evening I will have so much for which to be grateful and I will celebrate my success by allowing myself to welcome in the Shechinah and to rest peacefully and joyfully in this sanctuary in time. As I work madly on trying to make the changes to the cookbook proposal my new agent requested, I will feel so filled with gratitude and with wonder at how the Universe works. I attribute my “success” not only to my diligence and perseverance, but the powerful energy of my intention and my knowing that I would, indeed, get these works published. I totally trusted…well, I had times of doubt, especially with the cookbook, but I would shrug that off and get back to work and back into a place of knowing it would work out.

Last week I resigned myself to approaching not only two new agents (on the suggestion of the last agent who had just turned down my cookbook project) and three small publishers (one the suggestion of my first agent and the person who brought the cookbook project to me in the first place. That said, when I actually sat myself down to write the letters and put the packages together, I did so with the intention of actually finding an agent. I changed my AOL password to reflect my desire to have an agent of a publisher for the manuscript by 6-07. Every time I typed in that password, I remembered my goal while at the same time I knew that as I had placed the parcels in the mailbox I had released the book and its outcome to a higher source. I had released it. I stopped thinking or worrying about it, except each time I typed in that password and affirmed that I would, indeed, have an agent or a publisher by June.

Now, I do this thing with the password all the time. Sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn’t. I think so much of what makes it successful comes down to my own attitude. How strong is my intention? Have I released whatever it is I want, thus creating space to receive my desire, or am I holding on to it and filling myself with worry and negative thoughts? Am I trusting that what is for my highest good and the highest good of the project and those concerned with it will come to pass? Am I offering gratitude to God for my desired outcome having become manifest even thought it actually hasn’t yet; in other words, am I trusting that it has manifest in the World Above and will, therefore, soon manifest in the World Below? Am I behaving “as if” what I want already exists in my life and feeling all the joy and fulfillment that would come with that experience?

If I can answer “yes” to these questions, my affirmation works well, because of all these other things I have done. And that’s the “secret” to manifesting what we want, isn’t it?

By the way, my new booklet, Abracadabra! The Kabbalah of Creation, 7 Mystical Steps to Manifesting Your Dreams and Desires will be available in July! It will talk about some of the tools I use to create what I want in my life, and today I realize more than ever how very powerful those tools truly are. If you’ve heard of the bestselling book and DVD The Secret, my booklet (which will one day be a book – mark my words!) puts the principles set forth in The Secret through a Jewish mystical lense. (You can preorder it now in my store.)

So, I will move through today gladly putting my energy into the last thing I personally can do to sell my Jewish celebrity cookbook – finishing the proposal. Then I will again release the project – this time to my new agent as well as to my God. May the perfect publisher take on the book.

Ken yehe ratzon. May it be God’s will.

Shabbat shalom!

Shavuot: Coming to Mt. Sinai and Into the Presence Again

Shavuot hovers less than a week away, a chance to once again stand at Mt. Sinai and receive the 10 commandments and the Torah. Yes, stand once again, for it is said that every Jews was present at the giving of the Torah.

When we celebrate Shavuot by staying up all night studying we move through 50 “gates” on our spiritual journey to experiencing God – to once again standing in the Divine Presence. As the first rays of light crest the nearest mountain or ocean or plain, God draws closer and we rise to meet Ruach HaOlam, the Spirit of the Universe..

What a beautiful vision.

I turned down the opportunity to teach on Shavuot. I have children and a husband and work, and I can’t give up the whole next day to sleep. Maybe I would be so refreshed by the experience that I would have no problem getting through the day, but I know my rabbi has cancelled all b’nei mitvah tutoring for that, I assume to sleep and rest. I’m sure I would not have been functional after being up all night.

While part of me wants to stay up on my own – I know someone who does that – I know I will be long asleep when the sun begins to rise. So, I began to wonder: Are there other ways to reach this height, to move through the gates, and to be in God’s presence?

My first thought was that we stand in God’s presence each Friday evening when we light the Shabbat candles, this time just before sundown. The lighting of the candles and the blessings we say invoke the presence of the Shechinah, the Divine Feminine. In Jewish tradition, each time we study Torah, God joins us. And each time we build a mishkan, a sanctuary, God joins us there.

I believe God joins me what I pray earnestly, when I speak from the heart and when I meditate and experience even one moment of being in the now – for God resides in the moment.

People have always believed that there were times when the veil between heaven and earth became thing and it was easier to access and to experience “the other side” – Divinity, Heaven on Earth, something greater than ourselves. Shavuot represents one of those times.

So, in whatever way you can, I suggest using the energy of Shavuot to move through the veil, to invoke the Divine Presence, to rise to meet the Creator. Do it in whatever way you like – studying all night, meditating, praying, conducting a ritual of your own making. I plan to do a little studying , a little praying, a little meditating, all within the structure of a ritual. What ritual? I’ve a few days to think about it…and I hope that when the time comes, I will open to the Diving flow of light and energy and know exactly what to do and that my actions and invocations will bring me to the foot of Mt. Sinai once again.

Ken yehe ratzon. May it be God’s will.

A Kabbalistic Conscious Creation Session -- By Myself, For Myself

With all the buzz about the best-selling book The Secret and my own focus on looking at conscious creation, or what these days is most commonly called The Law of Attraction, from a Kabbalistic perspective, you’d think I’d focus my thoughts with little problem. While I am normally in the habit of focusing my thoughts of what I want – and combining these with my feelings of having what I want – on a regular basis, these last two weeks I just can’t seem to focus on anything. Nor can I add in the final step to the conscious creation process – action. As a result, I’m not achieving the results I want. (Maybe that's why it's taken me so long to post a new blog...) I’m not manifesting my desires – in fact, I’m often creating just the opposite.

I get up in the morning and immediately my mind tries to go in too many directions at once, but since you can only think about one thing at a time, it just jumps from one subject or interest or issue to the next continuously. This renders me unable to concentrate on any one thing. I feel like I’m in a meditator’s worst nightmare. Of course, my feelings jump around along with my thoughts, leaving me with the sense that I’m playing emotional leap frog. Not only can’t I seem to train my thoughts or feelings on any one thing for any length of time, I also can’t seem to put energy into action for more than 15 minutes at a time. I sit at my desk all day and feel totally distracted and unfocused and don’t get anything done.

Yet, because I am not disciplined with my thoughts, they go where they like. My thoughts are on things I don’t want, things I don’t like, such as being scattered, not getting things done, fears that my lack of focus will result in negative consequences (unhappy clients, rejected manuscripts and proposals, not enough money). It’s as if it’s easier to think about what I don’t want than what I do want.

So, is it something in the stars affecting me in this way? It would be nice to blame my condition on something out of my control. Actually, I think the problem is simply that I have too much going on – really. I’m scattered. If I’m not working on one book project, I’m working on another. Or I’m trying to teach a teleseminar or write a booklet. Or I’m promoting myself on line or trying to get speaking gigs at radio shows or at synagogues and churches. And when I’m not doing those work-related activities, I’m playing taxi drive to my two kids, acting as my son’s talent agent and manager, planning meals, shopping and running errands, and handling camp physicals and other doctor’s appointments. Oh, then there’s the bill paying, gardening, cleaning, and laundry to handle as well. And, I’m supposed to exercise at some point… So, what’s a girl to do? What would a Kabbalistic conscious creation coach – or a teacher of The Secret (the Law of Attraction) – tell me to do?

Ah, well…I would tell the girl – me – to take a deep breath and stop for a moment. Then I’d tell her to make a list of the projects at hand, the things she wants to create and the desires she is wanting to fulfill. Then, I’d tell her to chunk them down into two or three tasks. I’d have her break her day into sections, with each section devoted to one thing only. I would tell her to turn off the phone and shut down her Internet connection – unless that portion of the day was devoted to phone calls or e-mails – and to only focus on that one job at hand. First, as Esther Hicks channeling Abraham would say, do a little segment intending. Focus on what you want during this segment of your day. Imagine yourself accomplishing what it is you want to accomplish and feel what it would be like to reach that goal. Think it, feel it, visualize it – and then take action for the allotted amount of time.

I would also recommend that when she wakes up and she spend 10 minutes focusing on her goals before she ever gets going with her day. I’d have her say the goal as an affirmation – a positive statement of the goal achieved or what she wants received – and then follow this with a brief visualization of what it would look and feel like to have accomplished what she set out to accomplish. Then I’d have her spend a few minutes several times during the day reviewing those goals. She’d end her day by looking at the goals she needs to work on again the next day and writing new ones for the following day.

Lastly, I’d have her start and end each day with a prayer that all her thoughts, words, feelings, and actions be devoted to serving God and the highest good of all who will be touched by her actions and goals achieved.

Lastly, since she has spent the majority of the day in the Kabbalistic worlds of thinking, feeling and doing, I’d recommend that she spend some time in the evening – and maybe in the morning as well or just before beginning work – in the world of being. This could mean meditating, praying, chanting, or simply staring at the wall. This would allow her to get in touch with herself and with a Higher Power, so she would allow a Divine flow into her life.

That’s it: Kabbalistic conscious creation for the person who has too much going on to focus – or who needs a way to focus so she or he can effectively create what they want rather than what they don’t want. A trip through the worlds of being, thinking, feeling, and doing as a way of getting focused and moving towards what we want to manifest. The Kabbalists would say that in this way we don’t attract but we instead create our desires.

Now…let’s see if I can take my own advice and make that Kabbalistic trip myself.