The ancient Ebenezer story is linked to the modern Israeli town of Kafr Qasim. It is a hill-top town with an Arab population of about 25,000 residents and is located approximately 12 miles east of Tel Aviv on the Israeli side of the border with the West Bank.
In modern times the town is tragically remembered as the site of the
Kafr Qasim massacre, when Israel Border Police killed 49 civilians on
29th October 1956.
The Ancient Story
Approximately
2,500 years ago the settlement was close to the site of two battles
between the ancient Israelis and their neighbours and enemies the
Philistines, a war-like people said to have originally migrated from
Crete.
According to the book of Samuel in the Nevi'im (the book of Prophets in Judiasm and the Old Testament in the Christian bible) the Israelis lost heavily in both battles. It is recorded as 4,000 deaths in the first battle and 30,000 deaths in the second battle. Not only did they lose soldiers they also lost territory and the Philistines occupied many of the Israeli border towns.
After
about 20 years, pressure built to the point where the Israelis wanted to
initiate military action to retake those territories and break free
from the oppression of Philistine occupation. They approached their
spiritual leader the prophet Samuel and asked for his advice and
support.
The cultural and religious background to this was that
the Israelis had a deeply ingrained ethnocentrism believing themselves
to be their god JWHW's (Yaweh or Jehovah in modern translation) "chosen people" tasked with spreading the message of monotheism.
But in preceding years they had moved away from JWHW and were worshipping other foreign gods and idols. However, Judaism forbids idolatry,
in all its forms, both then and now. Thus their two major defeats by
the Philistines came to be recognised as a withdrawal of JHWH's support
because of this.
Samuel called a meeting of the Israeli leaders and told them:
“If
you are returning to the LORD with all your hearts, then rid yourselves
of the foreign gods and the Ashtoreths (goddesses) and commit
yourselves to the LORD and serve him only, and he will deliver you out
of the hand of the Philistines.”
The mythic truth
The
Israeli leaders debated this amongst themselves and decided that they
would drop their worship of foreign gods and worship only the Israeli
god YHWH.
In the ensuing battle the Israelis prevailed and the
Philistines were decisively defeated. Following this the Israelis
reclaimed their occupied towns and secured their border and lived in
peace for many years thereafter.
Raising the Ebenezer stone of help
After the battle, Samuel the prophet went to the settlement where the Israelis spent the night before the battle and erected a stone monument and called it "Ebenezer" which means in Hebrew "Stone Of Help".
He
did this as a permanent reminder to the Israelis to stay faithful to
YHWH the one true source of their strength and victory. In modern
framing:
So what's
the point of this old story about Ebenezer and how does this apply to me today?
Depiction of the Battle of Eben-Ezer from the Dura-Europos synagogue (pre-244 AD)
To understand the personal significance and application of this story here are four pointers to help understand the context:
# We live in an energetic universe. This perspective is science based and proven.
# We also live in a participatory universe. This perspective is supported by science but not yet fully proven by science.
# We are energetic beings. Our energetic state has a significant impact on the life experiences we create and attract.
# There are 3 levels to the mind:
Where
it all goes horribly wrong
To quote from an earlier article on Living With Your Thoughts:
"Given
that we are fundamentally energetic beings existing in an energetic
universe we need to understand, relate to and work with our higher self.
It is the portal to, in the conventional sense, everything 'out there'.
However,
'Windows 10' (the ego) is not an energetic being but it thinks it is!
Its sphere of operation is defined by our sensory perceptions. For
'Windows 10' seeing is believing. Because its role is to control it
thinks it does - or should - control everything.
This is, of course, a major delusion and is where the whole teaching in mainstream belief systems of dying to the self comes into play."
This is the present day mythic truth drawn from this ancient story
In
the historical period of these ancient Israelis, and in common with the
later monotheistic belief traditions, the realm of the spiritual
dimension was seen as distant, other and outside of the self (using the
word self in the modern understanding of the whole self).
In
keeping with their belief system, the ancient Israeli's viewed
themselves as JHWH's chosen people, and JHWH was their source of
guidance and power. So when they disconnected from this source and
engaged with the false gods and goddesses (what to the modern view we
would see as the preoccupations and projections of the egoic mind) they
failed.
When we do likewise, and deny or ignore our spiritual or
energetic nature, step out of alignment, and follow our egos, we too
will ultimately fail.
Unlike
the ancient Israelis our battles are more likely to be internal battles
with our negative thoughts and the associated negative energetic
states.
These thoughts stem from the older part of our brains
that generate the flight/fight response, and that host our more basic or
animal nature, and from conditioning - courtesy of the dominant adult
figures in our lives when we were younger.
In adulthood we are all influenced by the zeitgeist, the media in general and for younger people by social media in particular.
To counter the effects of these negative influences takes time and more importantly effort.
We
are talking quite literally about a renewal of our minds. Think of this
as re-wiring of our brain. This is why meditation is spoken of as a practice.
The purpose of your creating Ebenezer stones of help
is to enable multiple points of contact with these reminders throughout
the day and, over time, reinforcing these truths in your mind.
To aid your practice I offer the following Ebenezer stones of help that I have created and that I use:
# Collection of phrases, sutras and verses that have deep personal energetic resonance
- These can be drawn from many different sources. The key thing is that speak to you.
- I hold a file of these phrases on my laptop as screensavers which change at preset intervals.
- I hold a file of these phrases on my phone which I can read when I am out walking and taking a break.
- I have a paper copy of these beside my bed which I read before I go to sleep at night and in the night if I wake up.
# A powerful visual image that has deep personal energetic resonance
- I have a picture of a man in a chariot which has a powerful and personal symbolic meaning for me.
- I have that picture on my laptop as a screen saver.
- I have a picture of this image mounted and framed and hanging on my kitchen wall.
- I even have a mug with this image on it!
# A gratitude box
-
This was something that a friend made and gave me containing 60 little
hand-made notes of personal things for which I am grateful.
Next Article: Going With The Flow - The Balance Of Being And Doing
Return from "Your Ebenezer Stone Of Help" to: Walking The Talk
Or to: What Is Spirituality?
- What if everything we think…
LATEST ARTICLES
Self Dialogue - Working With Your Many Selves
Self Dialogue Is About Working With ALL Levels Of Your Mind. The key to effective self dialogue is to have tools, techniques and resources that work with all levels of your mind. This simple self-faci…
The Balanced Brain - The Ultimate Route To Personal Transformation
How To Experience The Benefits Of A Balanced Brain. Underpinning all of the belief systems and practices that offer routes to personal change, transformation and spiritual growth is the balanced brain…
How To Make Better Decisions - By Avoiding The Narrative Trap
To Understand The Truth We Have To See The Whole Picture. One of the best ways to make better decisions is to have a deeper understanding of the many things that might stop that happening. To understa…
The Greatest Love - The Most Important Relationship You Will Ever Have
Yet Most Will Never Know It Everyone of us has a place, in our hearts there's a space, that is home to the greatest love of all. This love transcends everything we think we know about the world of for…
Everything Is Connected And Why You Don't Feel It
...And Why It Matters
As human beings we are skating on very thin ice with our sense of self and certainty about "how things are" and what we like to think of as reality:
Who Is In Charge Of Your Brain?
How Not To Be Stupid. Who is in charge of your brain? This is not a silly questions. It matters because the outcomes that you experience in your life are determined by how you respond to the events th…
How To Be A Winner On A Very Large Scale
The Incredible Benefits Of Selective Attention. This is not a typical article about how to be a winner. We are not going to talk about goal setting, the importance of habits, the power of focus and al…
The Metagame Approach To Life
How To Achieve Your Biggest Objectives.
The metagame approach to life is all about winning and achieving your biggest objectives by:
- Understanding the bigger picture
- Being better by doing things d…Shantideva - The Way Of The Bodhisattva
Walking The Path Of Compassion. Shantideva the 8th century Indian Buddhist sage is famous for his treatise "The Way of the Bodhisattva" delivered as an extended teaching to the monks of Nalanda monast…
Reframing History - Deconstruction And Discussion Not Destruction
History is always about context, not imposing our own moral values on the past. For those of us fortunate enough to live within western democracies, we are living in an age where a vociferous and into…
Tao Te Ching - Connecting To Your True Source Of Power.
How To Be Lived By The Tao. The Tao Te Ching is one of those books that many people read, few understand, and even fewer put into practice. The only way to know the Tao is to experience it, and it is…
How Things Really Are - The Inbuilt Design Flaws
Chaos, Disorder And Decay Is The Natural Order Of Things. Nobody has the perfect life. We all struggle and strive to attain health, wealth and personal happiness. Yet these three big areas: our health…
Intuition Or Anxiety - Are There Angels Or Devils Crawling Here?
How To Tell The Difference Between Intuition and Anxiety. How do you know whether the voice of your intuition is real or just the product of your inner anxiety? Several months ago I was having a drink…
What Is Truth - How To Tell A Partial Truth From The Whole Truth?
How the truth and nothing but the truth is often not the whole truth. My great aunty Flo broke her arm and died. It is true that she broke her arm in 1923. It is also true that she died in 1949. But t…
Duality And Life Beyond Your Thinking Mind
Duality and life beyond your thinking mind focuses on the limitations of time, foreground and background, duality and "stuckness". The first aspect of duality and life beyond your thinking mind focuse…
The Conscious Mind Is Limited - Be Aware And Be Prepared
Being aware is the first stage of being prepared. The conscious mind is limited in so many ways. There are some who would argue that there is no such thing as conscious thought and that it is represen…
Your Inner Map Of Reality - Here's Why You Think The Way You Do
The big picture of how your inner map of reality creates your feelings, thoughts, and behaviours. Your inner map of reality is based on the filters of your own ethnic, national, social, family and rel…
The Failure Of Cancel Culture - Suppression Not Engagement
Why we need to wear our beliefs lightly and develop negative capability. Throughout history people have campaigned to fight beliefs, ideologies, and injustices that they perceived to be oppressive, di…
4 Big Reasons Why We Get Stuck In Our Attempts At Personal Change
Most People Spend Their Entire Life Imprisoned Within The Confines Of Their Own Thoughts. This first of the 4 big reasons why we get stuck is, in my view, the most important. The "self-help industry…
How Do I Change And Why Is It So Hard?
We Would Rather Die Than Change, And We Usually Do In my experience, the vast majority of people who say they want to change don’t change. Most people reading this won’t change because they don’t real…
The Illusion Of A Separate Self - Windows 11 With Self Awareness!
Beyond the content of your mind you are so much more than you think you are. When we talk of "myself" this is the conventional way of referring to our self image which is in fact the ego's constructio…
Finite And Infinite Games - Dazed, Confused & Ultimately Transcendent
This is not an instruction manual, it is a wake up call!
Over this past week I have read Professor James Carse's highly regarded "Finite And Infinite Games - A Vision Of Life As Play And Possibility"…
The Gap And The Gain - How Your Brain Sabotages Your Happiness
How Your Lizard Brain Sabotages Your Happiness We are hardwired to measure our progress in any and all areas of life where we have goals and aspirations. We can't not do it. But what we measure and ho…
How To Wake Up - 4 Simple Practices To Help You Wake Up Now
So What Exactly Does It Mean to Wake Up - What Is "Enlightenment"? There is nothing magical, mystical or mysterious about waking up we’re actually having glimpses of enlightenment all the time. Enligh…
Situational Communication - Different Strokes For Different Folks
Situational communication is about taking account of 3 often ignored factors about the other person. You are a situational communicator when you recognise that effective communication is not an event…
How To Influence Without Authority - 6 Key Tips
The secret to how to influence without authority is that you get what you really want by giving other people what they really want. We live in an interconnected world and knowing how to influence with…
Change Questions To Change Your Outcomes
Asking The Right Questions Is Critical For A Successful Change. Every time we initiate a significant change - whether in our personal life or in an organisation - we will most likely over-estimate our…
Group Culture - The Invisible Software That Rules Your Life
Group culture is: "How we do things round here". We like to see ourselves as free agents making our own choices and living authentically but the reality is that The Matrix has many layers and we are u…
Why Getting From A to B Is Not Aways A Straight Line
In circumstances of significant change, the progress from A to B will not be in a straight line. We run our lives largely on auto-pilot. In most circumstances your experience of getting from A to B is…
The Art Of Persuasion Planning For Success - Here's How To Do It!
To be successful in the art of persuasion you must ensure that certain things happen. To be successful in the art of persuasion you must establish a framework of what has to happen to get you to that…