A Spiritual Approach to the Manifestation of Desires

At this time of year, you may be thinking about the things you’d like to create in your life. You also might be wondering how you will manifest them. Beyond setting goals, can you attract what you want or use a mystical process to help you achieve your desires? Can you pray and get a response in the form of a new job, car, or mate? Can you ask for and receive what you want?

You can. Lot’s of people from all walks of life use visualization, prayer, The Law of Attraction, and other similar “tools” to help them make their dreams real or manifest their desires. These are great, and I might even say necessary, additions to your goal-achievement strategies.

I’ve spent a lot of time studying Kabbalah, the Jewish mystical tradition, trying to find teachings about and tools for manifesting desires and achieving goals. (They exist!) I’ve written about them here on this blog and in my short book, The Kabbalah of Conscious Creation.

Why Kabbalah? After discovering many of these mystical and metaphysical principles in the New Age Movement and a variety of spiritual or religious traditions, I became interested in finding them within the religion of my birth—Judaism. Later, I became passionate about sharing what I found with others from all spiritual and religious backgrounds because I felt the information was applicable—and both useful and powerful—for anyone.

Also, while the Law of Attraction and some other approaches to manifestation have been criticized for being too materialistic, the Kabbalists take a spiritual approach to receiving what we desire. This tradition focuses on the intention behind what you want to create. Why do you want to create it—for what purpose? If your intention is “correct,” you’ve got the key to gaining energetic or Divine support for your endeavors or dreams.

Kabbalah is not just for Jews, so if you aren’t Jewish, don’t think this post has nothing to offer. Plus, this mystical approach to manifestation is one anyone can adopt—and might want to. This is especially true if you have felt unworthy asking for what you desire or like your focus is, indeed, too materialistic.

What’s Your Intention?

According to some of the greatest Jewish mystics, the purpose of Kabbalah, the Jewish mystical tradition, revolves around drawing close to and serving the Divine.  These Kabbalists claim that anyone who attempts to use the teachings of Kabbalah for material gain not only distorts their purpose but produces enormously negative energy at the same time. (Well, you don’t want to do that, do you?)

That means you want to create or manifest for the sake of connecting with or in some way serving a Higher Power. You don’t want to just create more stuff—at least if you want to produce some good juju.

At the same time, vast amounts of Kabbalistic teachings focus on the structure and methodology of creation and manifestation, and many Kabbalists stressed practical applications of this wisdom. These mystics revolved their teachings around the idea that we should appropriately and practically apply these mystical lessons. For example, a good use of them might be to heal the world in some way, such as to feed the hungry or create peace. Note, however, that your dreams don’t have to be so lofty. You might want to manifest something that helps you create peace in your home, allows you to volunteer at the homeless shelter in your town or enables you to support your children’s passions and interests.

Again, your intention is the focus. Will you use what you create or manifest in a self-serving manner? Are you only creating for personal material gain? If so, don’t ask a Higher Power to help you get what you want!

Use Prayer to Produce Results

That doesn’t mean you can’t pray for what you want. For instance, the Ba’al Shem Tov, Israel Ben Eliezer, a Jewish mystic and the founder of Hasidism, encouraged people to pray for their livelihood. He claimed that not only was it okay to pray for a way to make a living but that it was a sin not to do so on a daily basis. That means you can ask for help with that raise you want this year!

For such a prayer to work, however, you need the “right” intention. For instance, you might pray for a better job so you can provide for those dependent on you, share what you have with the poor, and have sufficient time to devote to spiritual study. You might pray for a new job, so your work doesn’t feel like part of a struggle to survive but, instead, like a way to help others. Even better, ask for help manifesting a new position that provides you with the opportunity to know and to connect with the Divine Presence.

Create to Connect with the Divine

Interestingly, from a Kabbalistic point of view, your intention in acquiring anything for your own purposes should revolve around spiritual development and relationship with the Divine. The mystics believed you should have this intent when working practically with Kabbalistic principles because those same principles are meant to help you develop spiritually and form a Divine connection.

Think of it this way: The teachings of Kabbalah are meant to help you access higher levels of energy—Divine energy. The higher the energy with which you connect on a spiritual level, the more you must direct your intention toward spiritual endeavors.

In this way, you use the energy you access to create more good energy.

From that perspective, manifestation becomes a spiritual practice. Even if you choose not to pray but instead to think and feel your way to creating your desires or to visualize your dreams coming true, your intention impacts the results you achieve. As soon as you decide to manifest with the intention to use what you create for good in some way and to increase your sense of spiritual connection, you increase your ability to make your dreams real.

Develop a New Consciousness

Like most people, you may find it hard to make the jump from “I need a livelihood or more money to survive” to “I need a livelihood or more money for my spiritual development and connection with the Divine.” So take small steps to help you get to that perspective.

Answering the following questions will help you begin developing a new consciousness around your personal desires, whether they be for more money, a different or better way to earn a living, a new car, a  soul mate, or better health.

1. How does what I desire help others or enable me to move farther along my spiritual path?
2. How can I use what I want to help others or move closer to the Divine Presence (or a sense of connection to a Higher Power)?
3. If I had this thing I desire, how would that make it easier for me to direct my energy toward spiritual development or helping others?
4. If I had all the money I needed to take care of myself and those dependent upon me, is there anything else I would still need to make it possible for me to direct my energy towards spiritual development and service?
5. What do I think I must have in order to direct my energy towards spiritual development and Divine connection? Do I need those things to achieve this goal?
6. What can I do now—without the things I think I need or want—to move forward on a spiritual path?
7. If I were to receive _(fill in the blank with the thing you want or desire)_, how could I use it to help others?
8. How can I see my livelihood as helping others?
9. What would I like to receive so that I can give to others?
10. If I were going to pray to God every day and ask for what I need so I can give to others, develop spiritually and connect with the Divine, what words would I use?  What prayer would I say?

In the process of answering these questions and putting what you learn to use, you move away from wanting to receive for yourself alone and into a consciousness of receiving for the sake of giving to others. Also, you develop the intention and desire to manifest more than “things.” You stir your desire to make your life an experience of getting closer to and serving the Divine.

I always find reviewing the practical Kabbalistic approach to manifesting desires important, especially at this time of year. It reminds me that there is more to life on this Earth plane than just “having things” or achieving goals. Indeed, even my mundane goals and desires can take on a spiritual level.

I have lots of goals—especially this year. I’d like to manifest a number of things…and fast! But when I put these desires and dreams in a spiritual context, they take on a different meaning. And I feel differently, even better, about asking for what I want and receiving it.

Kabbalah gives the whole idea of achieving goals and manifesting desires a whole new spin, doesn’t it?

What do you think? Can you give your attempts to manifest your dreams and desires a spiritual spin? And have you done so before and achieved success more quickly?