Looking for the Wrong Thing...

​   by Reb Gutman Locks   

Looking for the Wrong Thing in the Wrong Place

David asks;

     I saw a few of your videos addressing eastern religion and meditation. While I agree with everything you say and likewise being a practicing Orthodox Jew nonetheless two questions nag me.

     One is that despite the fact that we are the chosen people, and have a great tradition from the Arizal [i] regarding giggul,[ii] we nonetheless find very few if any individuals, other than the Ari himself, who have any awareness of their previous incarnations, let alone those of others. Being that this is such an important part of understanding one’s tikun,[iii] and that it is apparent that earlier generations did have such an awareness, I would hope that we would have some kind of meditational method or tradition for understanding this. On the other hand we find gurus in Tibet for instance who have a comprehensive knowledge of previous incarnations including incarnation as animals and of life forms.

     The other issue is that I can’t really deny how impressive and developed the Tibetan science of the mind and spirituality is, even though I assume that it is a much lower level than real Torah nonetheless even if we say it’s only 0.1% of Torah it’s still impressive for the focus and detailedness of all of its nuances. I’ve heard from others that galut [iv] has caused some part of ancient prophecy to fall into the hands of goyim.[v] Nonetheless that answer does not answer my question of how to get it back.

Gutman’s response;

     The only thing we need to know about our past lives is what we are to do about them today. And the way we do that is not by trying to look back, but by looking at our present abilities and handicaps which are our inheritances from those previous lives. We try to see how we are to apply these traits now. Our tikun comes from knowing and doing what we are supposed to do with this life.

     You are looking for the wrong things in the wrong place. Why do you trust the idolaters’ dreams and imagination about their past lives? Their magic is not our goal. Spending your time looking for these things has apparently taken you away from the actual goal; the objective we are supposed to be looking for which you did not even mention.

     Our spiritual search is to reveal Hashem’s Presence in this world. This should be your goal and this is where you should be placing your energy.

     The Tibetans have a long history of idolatry. For instance, the renowned dalai llama wrote that each village has its own deity but the deity from his village was among the best. He also taught about gods, for instance a god with 21 arms and 4 heads. This man is the spiritual leader of the Tibetans and you admire their practices and what you think are their accomplishments. Nothing taken from idolatry can be useful, and in fact, even the slightest drop of it is forbidden.

     Look in the right place for the right thing; Elul,[vi] Rosh Hashanah, Yom Kippur, our holy days have been given to us so we can accomplish our holy things that we have been sent into this life to accomplish.