God is the Giver, We are the Receivers (Part 1)

One of the major premises in my work, both my writing and teaching, revolves around the need to give as well as to receive. The two are integrally connected. Indeed, when we give, we open ourselves to receiving. Yet, we don’t want to give in order to receive.

When we give, we make room to receive, for something else to move into the space we have created. In the Kabbalistic story of creation, God contracting to make space for all of Creation. In the void that was created, God sent a beam of Divine light or energy. From that, everything we know of as the world in which we live–including ourselves–come into being. Each time we create space by giving, Divine light and energy in all its many forms fills the void we create as well. This becomes a constant flow of giving, receiving, giving, receiving, giving, and so on.

In my current work writing The Kabbalah of Conscious Creation in its full length, I have been trying to fully understand the true nature of giving – at least as put forth by Rabbi Yehuda Lev Ashlag. Relying on In the Shadow of the Ladder, a wonderful book on his teachings, as my primary source, I’d like to grapple a bit with this idea here and to ask you to try and implement the concept of giving on a deeper level in your life.

Today, I will give you one part of the equation:

God is the Giver, We are the Receivers

Let’s begin with the idea the God’s nature is to give. The Creator is a Giver and we were created as receivers. Typically, our will has us focused on receiving for ourselves alone. I know that sounds terrible, but it’s true. Most of us are focused on our own desires, and with good reason. First of all, it’s our nature as pure receivers to desire things for ourselves, and in this physical word we often feel we have unfulfilled needs. We need to receive more.

Our goal, however, lies in becoming not only a receiver, but a giver. As I said, giving opens us up to receiving. Ah, the ego, says, “That’s great. I can get more.” However, we want to aim for a more spiritual reason to give. Yes, we want to get more, but not necessarily more material things. We want more spiritual things. You see, as long as you are a receiver and God is a Giver, a separation, albeit possible a perceived separation, exists between you and God. Most people – at least those on a spiritual path – would like to draw closer to God. What we actually want to get from giving is a connection to our Creator.

Giving for the Sake of Giving

So, we begin to place restrictions on how we use our will to receive. Even though it is our nature to receive for ourselves alone, we try simply to give instead of to receive.  We give for the sake of giving. We receive in order to give to others.  This makes us givers. And if we are givers, we are like God. We achieve something called “affinity of form” with God, and the separation between us and our Creator diminishes or disappears. Thus, we feel our Divine connection, and we receive what we desire – a relationship and a connection to our Creator.

However, there’s one problem with this scenario. We aren’t fulfilling our end of the cosmic bargain. God created humans for the purpose of giving us pleasure. Pleasure comes in the form of receiving Divine gifts. (That’s right, the fulfillment of our desires.) God was supposed to give, and we were supposed to receive. If we only give, we can’t receive. If we don’t receive, God receives no “pleasure.”

For today, just consider this concept. Think about how you give and how you receive. Consider if you give more than you receive or if you receive more than you give. Think about the idea that you are born to receive. How does that make you feel?

Tomorrow we will go on to part 2.