Driven Onward By The Serpent’s Tongue
Question: Why do all pleasures immediately fade? I am so happy when I buy a new car, but a week later I get used to it and no longer care about it. What causes the pleasure to go away? If the Light and the vessel are all that exists, then shouldn’t the pleasure be eternal? Why does it fade?
Answer: It is because the Kli (vessel) changes. The car doesn’t disappear, but my desire becomes greater and the pleasure received from owning the car no longer fills it. The change in the desire is qualitative, not quantitative. In spirituality growth is qualitative rather than quantitative.
The car parked by my house is still beautiful and new, but it doesn’t excite me as before even though just a week has gone by. This occurs because an additional desire (the “tongue of the primordial snake“) has formed inside you, causing the human being in you to ask the question, “What did this purchase give me?” You don’t even realize that you have this question, but nonetheless it awakes in you and spoils all of your pleasure.
After the breaking or the fall of the Tree of Knowledge, a point of connection with the Creator emerged in every kind of pleasure When your desire is filled, that point asks whether you have achieved eternal pleasure. It forces you to immediately search for another way to fill yourself. We have been advancing in this manner throughout all of history, and we would not have developed if not for this. This is what distinguishes a person from an animal: the birth of new desires.
A subconscious need to become similar to the Creator has continuously driven us forward from the time we came out of caves to this very day, and this is a result of the primordial sin. Our desires (Adam and Eve) would have remained as animals if the human being in us did not constantly grow. We start to feel shame regarding the Creator because we realize how different we are from Him. Shame is what causes us to ask the question, “What did I gain from this?” Subconsciously we think to ourselves, “Why do I need a car if I’m trying to reach the Creator?” Even though we aren’t aware of our connection to the Creator, this emptiness gnawing inside of us comes from Him.
From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 9/2/10, “Introduction to the Book, Panim Meirot uMasbirot”
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IT BEGINS WITH A LIE…
What if the car have served him well and he cherishes it (good memories of the pleasure and good service he had gained from the use of the car) as some memorialize, retain, and store their car(s) even long after it is no longer in use and or even long after the owner is dead. Yes, there is such a phenomena where by people still derive pleasure from mundane experiences they have had in the past and even retain and still enjoy it (albeit from memory or memoriam they set up) long after the experiences and even up to the persons’ physical death.
Even I, have fun memories and pleasure from long gone experiences from my childhood that still make me smile and feel warm and good till this day and would most likely remain so till I die.
Could it be that there are some mundane ‘pleasures’ that The Serpent’s Tongue can’t affect and if so how come?