Abraham Abulafia: RazielAbulafia.com Brings Abulafia's Wisdom Back to the World

July 31, 2015 - PRLog -- TZFAT - Abulafia's blog ( http://www.razielabulafia.com/ ) is bringing Abraham Abulafia's meditations to the general public. Abraham ben Samuel Abulafia is one of the leading masters of Kabbalah. But his teachings have been considered too ground-breaking to be shared outside the kabbalistic circles. The Kabbalah presented nowadays is mainly about descriptive Kabbalah, while Abraham Abulafia's Kabbalah and meditations are about experiencing unity with the Supreme, instead of just talking about it.

The most popular kabbalistic book, the Zohar ("Book of Splendor", "Book of Radiance") written by another Spanish kabbalist (Moses de Leon), is a description of what kabbalists experienced during their ecstatic meditations. However, the Zohar provides no insights about how to go through a similar experience. Abraham Abulafia, in books like Chayei ha-Olam ha-Ba ( http://www.razielabulafia.com/abulafia/chaye-ha-olam-ha-ba-life-in-the-world-to-come-abraham-abulafia/ ), described the steps of ecstatic meditations.

Abraham Abulafia's books, which arrived to us as manuscripts because mainstream Kabbalah preferred to keep his wisdom secret, include Sefer ha-Geulah, Sefer Chayei ha-Nefesh, Sefer ha-Yashar ("Book of the Upright/Righteous"), Sefer Sitrei Torah, Chayei ha-Olam ha-Ba ("Life of the World to Come"), Or ha-Sekhel ("Light of the Intellect"), Get ha-Shemot, Maftei’ach ha-Re'ayon, Gan Na'ul, Otzar Eden Ganuz, Sefer ha-Cheshek, Sefer ha-Ot ("Book of the Sign"), Imrei Shefer ("Words of Beauty").

Abraham Abulafia was seen as a controversial figure in his time. He went to Rome, trying to convert the Pope to Judaism. The Pope ordered to burn him, but before the order was carried on, the Pope himself died. Many of his contemporary Kabbalists did not appreciate that Abraham Abulafia was sharing his methods openly. Abraham Abulafia work was strongly influenced by the Sefer Yetzirah ("Book of Formation", "Book of Creation"). His work influenced books like the Sefer Raziel HaMalakh (http://www.razielabulafia.com/ "Book of Raziel the Angel”, "Liber Razielis Archangeli"). Both Gershom Sholem and Aryeh Kaplan ("Meditation and Kabbalah") wrote about Abraham Abulafia and his contributions to spirituality.

According to Umberto Eco, who used Abulafia's name in his "Foucault's Pendulum", Dante Alighieri may have been inspired by Abulafia's work.