Spirituality Studies 55 Arik Segev Three general reactions may arise in response to this awareness. 1. The first is denial, expressed through seeking distraction in the spatiotemporal world and its endless details and internal logic (e.g., Plato 1969, Rep. 5:476a–5:476b or 5:479a–480a). 2. The second, driven by a conscious or unconscious longing for truth, allows the experience of Netzach (of being limited, defeated) to remain present in one’s soul, at least momentarily each day or week – letting the unpleasant existential questions about life, the meaning of the world, and one’s place within it, spark reflection and lead to the next level of awareness: Tiferet. 3. The third response, like the first, seeks to avoid discomfort. However, it does so by leaping directly to Tiferet, adopting only its shallow spatiotemporal rituals, without truly integrating Netzach or allowing its unpleasant, difficult questions to take root and shape one’s inner life. Unlike the preceding awareness of the movements between Hod and Yesod and between Yesod and Malchut, which, in a way, can be described as “natural” (Steinsaltz 2015) and do not appear to demand sustained effort, maintaining awareness of the Hod–Netzach movement requires ongoing psycho-physical effort. This is a long-term self-educational work. This demanding quality may explain why Netzach appears underrepresented in cultural and linguistic frameworks compared to other highly popular and dominant cultural and social events, and why we often prefer to overlook it (see Plato 1969; Segev 2023). As mentioned, awareness of this movement manifests in recurring questions about the meaning of life and our existential status before it. Therefore, high-quality awareness and attention demand a commitment to an ongoing process of deconstructing inadequate, exaggerated projections of eternity we tend to assign to entities in the spatiotemporal world: people, possessions, places, the “I”, the “we”, and other alleged fixed identities. This stage of awareness calls us to “smash these idols”, blow these bubbles of meaning, and, with compassion, view them as fragile and temporary. This mission involves revealing and developing spiritual exercises and existential memorizing practices, such as meditation, contemplation, study for its own sake, prayer, and other rituals, for the working, shaping, and acceptance of Netzach (see Hadot 1995 on the role of spiritual exercises; Hadot 2002 on philosophy as part of that tradition). These exercises may lead to the next level of awareness, the movement between Netzach and Tiferet. 5.4 Stage 4. Netzach to Tiferet Stage four of the evolution of the spirit begins when attention and awareness are directed to the movement of Being between Netzach (Heb. “Eternity/Victorious”) and Tiferet (Heb. “Beauty/Harmony”). This awareness leads the person or group to experience and conceive the logic with which they can harmonize the three previously discovered, prima facie, contradictory movements. Why are they contradicting? While awareness of the movement between Malchut and Yesod causes one to experience and conceive the distinct-physical entities in a spatiotemporal world, among them oneself as a distinct physical being, the second awareness of the movement between Yesod and Hod brings one to experience and conceive the world of distinct-immaterial identities, among them oneself and others as a distinct-immaterial “I”. These two forms of awareness burden the consciousness because of the alleged contradiction between them. For example, the distinct-immaterial “I” prefers to have a social cigarette at a dinner party with many other distinct-immaterial “I’s”, while the distinct-material entities – the body’s lungs and heart – would rather “prefer” that the immaterial “I” did not do so [2]. And then, an awareness of the movement between Hod and Netzach undermines one’s unbalanced Hod experience and immediate natural tendency to see one’s life, needs, and will (as an individual or as a group), as the center and purpose of one’s life and meaning. Thus, attention and awareness toward the movement between Tiferet and Netzach means searching for a systematization of a good and truthful way of life, rules, principles, and overall logic and perspective that would harmonize the three other movements and thus unite one’s life and existence. True intention in embarking on such a quest means the willingness to surrender to, and be changed and educated by, and in accordance with, the laws and the logic that would be revealed. What kind of logic, laws, and rules do people reveal and adopt to fulfill the role of Tiferet? In the Jewish tradition of the Torah world, this place is occupied exclusively by the Torah (e.g., Maimonides 1912, chap. 4). However, in our general spiritual context here, we may refer to other non-Jew-
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