My Highest Spiritual Aspiration

What is your highest spiritual aspiration?

As I have previously mentioned, I believe that the true journey of spirituality invites one to live a life of full engagement and dialogue, ongoing commitment to spiritual expansion and growth. I also embrace the essence of G!d as Holy Process, and  the continual unfolding of relationship, and that we, too, are in the ongoing Holy Process of Becoming, the sum total of everything that brought us to this moment, plus our capacities to grow and choose, and become better, vibrating at higher, sacred, holy frequencies. All of which meets us in each moment, along with the infinite potential as we grow.

The Divine urge, then, is for each of us to make the best possible choice at every moment, the choice towards growth and love, to make decisions to be my Best Self. There is no better concept of my highest spiritual aspirations than this.

Who put this magnet in my heart that draws me deeper and deeper into G!d? What set my life to curve around the Divine, like the spirals of a plant or a galaxy reaching for the Beloved? Something Higher within me, when I am receptive and actively aspiring to serve G!d in the world, when I keep the channels open to that deep place within myself, to grow and develop my capacity for expanding awareness and deeper compassion. Growing along spiritual lines, developing the capacity to be compassionate and aware of my every thought, word, and action, and how they impact me and those around me, and allow me to tap into accessing my unique, deepest, G!d-given energies, allowing the divine energy of life to work and flow though me, and thereby effectively live in a way which transforms life: mine and those with whom I come into contact.

In practical terms, my highest purpose and spiritual aspiration is to be a compassionate presence to myself and in the world, to teach, to mend, to stand in the gap. It is to live intentionally and with purpose, to feel inspired and to be an inspiration to others, to let go of old thought and behavior patterns that challenge me and hold me back, to find joy in the moments, to remain in my grounded center, to transform the broken fragments and find therein the Holy, and to continue to open to life’s full potential. Each day can become an opportunity for growth and discovery when I bring my highest spiritual aspiration and love into it, when I act with love and clear intention, and remember that everything I do, no matter how seemingly small, is an opportunity to grow.

Our Torah in B’reishit says “Lo tov heyot adam levado,”  that “It is not good for humans to be alone.” This is not limited to the narrow concept of marital partners; rather, it expands our consciousness into the deeper need to be connected, rooted, attached to other souls also in the process of becoming. The more I relate, the more I am connected, the more life feels meaningful and important.

Martin Buber agrees, that, “All real life is in relationship.” The I of the I–Thou is infinitely richer than the I of the I–It. The person we become in an intimate relationship with others is so much deeper and more real than the person we are in the impersonal, superficial, functional relationships of daily routine.

Our Torah also tells us, “Kedoshim t’h’yu ki kadosh ani,” to “Be holy as I [G!d] am holy.” Where do we find this holiness in our common daily experiences? When we gather around the table for Shabbat, we pray Kiddush. Is it the wine itself which is sacred? Or is the holy in that moment the gathering, the bonds which draw us together to become aware of the holiness in our very gathering? When we gather to celebrate Kiddushin, a wedding of two souls uniting to become one, we symbolize it with rings, an eternal, unbroken circle, and sometimes we say, “Haray at mekudeshet,” “You are holy to me.”  Is it the ring that makes the bride holy? Or is it the love? When we mourn the loss of a loved one, we gather and pray Kaddish together, not alone, because we know that death cannot sever the bond and we need community more than ever in those moments.

Kiddush, Kiddushin, Kaddish, Kadosh, Kedusha— all mean holiness, and all mean opening the self to embrace another, bonding with another, holding the other close, never letting go, making the other part of one’s self at the soul level, the I–Thou level. We form around ourselves a circle. The circumference of that circle can be narrow, or it can expand into an ever-widening circumference of holiness. Adonai Echad, G!d, is the Infinite circle of concern encompassing all of life. To continue to open up myself, to draw my circle larger and larger, to keep growing spiritually, in compassion, awareness, even holiness (though not in a narrow definition of being holy) is my highest spiritual aspiration.   To truly become shoftim Elohim, G!d’s partner.

At the center of the Temple was a sacred room, kodesh ha’kodeshim, the holy of holies, where G!d’s presence was said to dwell, the sacred place where heaven and earth touched. When the earthly, human-constructed Temple was destroyed yet again, the earthly, material, physical connection with G!d had been severed. Yet, we have not lost our spiritual home in this world, nor have we lost G!d, nor have we lost our capacity for spiritual growth and holiness. If the earthly place is gone, we now find holiness in sacred acts and holy moments, within ourselves and one another, and in our gatherings – in the energy of gathering together and becoming the vessel of G!d in this world. This means I must become the very holy of holies, the point of connection between heaven and earth. Can there be any higher spiritual aspiration than that?

It is important to note that fifteen verses after the commandment, Kedoshim ti’h’yu, “You shall be holy”, comes another, and perhaps the most radical demand of us: “Vahavtah l’reacha k’mocha,”  “You will love the other as yourself.”  I begin living my highest spiritual aspiration by opening myself to others, and I am changed. With each addition to my circle, I am reshaped, expanded, and slowly, my soul grows. My soul evolves to embrace the whole world, to cry at the pain and suffering in the world. And I grow into a soul who is moved to act, to change the world, to bring healing by my imperfect and flawed compassionate presence, to always reach towards a higher potential within myself, to evolve and grow as part of the Holy Process of G!d, and I do this by one simple, flawed but fully lived moment at a time, taking the smallest of opportunities to keep reaching towards my Highest Self.

This evolving, growing, higher vibrating soul is constantly created one moment at a time, growing deeper and wider, ready to embrace the world, to serve compassionately, selflessly, fearlessly, actively, and imperfectly. The goal is not perfection, but progress; to refuse to turn away from doing the hard work of growing my soul, every day to arise and put my hand to the plow once again, not to become complacent or indifferent. To continually renew, reinvent, recreate, and re-energize this holy spark within. To answer the call to become Shoftim Elohim in bringing wholeness and holiness to the world.

This is my highest spiritual aspiration. To this I am called. To this I turn, daily. To this, I unconditionally pledge all of my imperfect, flawed self. At the end of my life, Rebbe Gelberman reminds us that I will not be asked why I was not Miriam or Sarah or Rachel or Esther, but if I was the best Morgan I could be. It is my aspiration to be able to answer, “Hineni!” Which is to say, “Yes, I have been fully present to You, to these moments which you have given me.”