No Third Party Certification

Today, many prefer to eat organic food. I know I do. How do you know if something is organic? A third party organization certifies it. It’s the same if you want to consume only kosher foods, or fair trade foods, gluten free, and so on. But what if you grow some blueberries in your back yard? When you go to pick some berries, do you look for the organic label on them? Of course not. It’s your garden.

A certification can be helpful, but it’s not the thing that makes the food organic. The food itself is organic or it’s not, regardless of what anyone says about it. It’s the same with the truth of your own being. We tend to think that there is some condition that has to be met before we can find our inner “jewel” Divinity. Perhaps we have to get rid of our arrogance, our fear, our anger, or our desires. Then we would be “certified”. But the awareness that sees your arrogance, fear, anger and desires is already free from them! You don’t need to get rid of those things to get to the truth, because truth is not something you get; it is something you are. In fact, there is nothing but the Truth everywhere, always. As it says (Isaiah 6:3), “m’lo khol ha’aretz k’vodo- all the earth is filled with the Divine glory!”

“But,” you may ask, “how can I see my inner jewel of Divinity if all I see is a trash heap of vanity?” Again, you don’t see the jewel of Divinity, you are that jewel. The “jewel” is that which sees the “trash heap”; what is needed is to notice that which is noticing, to fall into that which you are. Let go and fall. There is no arrogance in falling. There is no resistance either, and therefore no negativity, no judgment. Falling into the purity of your own awareness, the vanity drops away on its own. And that is the paradox- it is the seeing of your own imperfections that allows you to discover the perfection!

To clarify further- in this week’s video, Rabbi Yaakov Yosef tells his disciples an enigmatic story… enjoy!