Today is the 17th day of the counting of the Omer: Tiferet of Tiferet

In some ways, Tiferet of Tiferet feels connected to a Japanese concept: 物の哀れ - mono no aware: the beautiful sadness of things. It is a beautiful sadness that one experiences at the same time as joy, the paradox of Nirvana and Samsara simultaneously co-existing. It is the beauty of the open heart.

When you meet someone who is living from the place of the open heart you can't avoid seeing that person, regardless of who they are or what they look like, as beautiful. And when you can see it in them, it is because this open-heartedness has been activated in you by their presence. In the presence of a Bodhisattva the experience of non-duality is activated momentarily. This is Tiferet of Tiferet -- the momentary gift of experiencing the love, beauty and harmony of the universe.

For this very Buddhist meditation on a Jewish mystical practice, I close with a quote from the 2nd Dalai Lama (1475-1542):

All things in Samsara and Nirvana are but mental labels and projections.
Knowing this one knows reality; seeing this one knows what is true.