> >Like actors watching one another from backstage, our true selves watch
> >each other as we submerge ourselves into this world and then back out
> >again. To our true selves, these lives are but fancies made to pass
> >the time, to give us a sense of "happening" which our knowledge has
> >made virtually impossible. That means we've learned so much at that
> >stage of the game, that our only choice to keeping the "newness" of
> >our lives is to forget who we are and to sink into this world and to
> >live without any of the knowledge we've obtained over there.
> >It's very depressing when something goes wrong and you remember
> >everything. These bodies we use here, they weren't designed to be
> >emotionally equipped for handling the full knowledge of "what we
> >really are". Most of those who remember everything end up killing
> >themselves so they can start again in a body that is once more
> >ignorant of its origins. It's one of the most difficult things to
> >remain in this life, in this world, when you remember what it really
is.
> >Yet even that, worthless as it is, is a test which we force ourselves
> >to endure. All in the name of existing...
What are the Qlippoth?
The word qlippah or klippah (plural qlippoth) means "shell" or "husk".
The idea of a covering or a garment or a vessel is common in Kabbalah,
where it used, at various times and with various degrees of subtlety,
to express the manner in which the light of the En Soph is
"encapsulated". For example, the sephiroth, in their capacity of
recipients of light, are sometimes referred to as kelim, "vessels".
In normal perception the world is clearly characterized by divisions
between one thing and another, and in this technical sense one could
say that we are immersed in a world of shells. The shells, taken by
themselves as an abstraction divorced from the original, undivided
light (making another separation!) are the dead residue of
manifestation, and can be identified with (bodily refuse of all kind.)
They have been referred to as the dregs remaining in a glass of wine,
or as the residue left after refining gold.
The skeleton is the archetypal shell. By itself it is a dead thing,
but infuse it with a spark of life and it becomes a numinous and
instantly recognisable manifestation of metaphysical evil. The shell
is one of the most common horror themes; take a mask, or a doll, or
any dead representation of a living thing, ****ne a light out of its
eyes, and becomes a thing of evil intent. The powers of evil appear in
the shape of the animate dead - skulls, bones, zombies, vampires,
phantasms.
Luria made the first step in the creation a process called "tzim tzum"
or contraction. This contraction took place in the En Soph, the
limitless, unknown, and unknowable God of Kabbalah. God "contracted"
in a process of self-limitation to make a space (in a metaphorical
sense, of course) for the creation. In the next step the light entered
this space in a jet to fill the empty vessels of the sephiroth, but
all but the first three were shattered by the light. This breaking of
the vessels is called "shevirah". The shards of the broken vessels
fell into the abyss created by contraction, and formed the qlippoth.
Most of the light returned to the En Soph, but some of it remained in
the vessels (like a smear of oil in an empty bottle) and fell with the
qlippoth.
http://www.digital-brilliance.com/kab/faq.htm#Qlippoth
|
