Question: What is the difference between faith above reason and below reason?

Answer: If you annul yourself before the teacher because you’ve decided in your mind that it is worthwhile in order to attain spirituality, this is called faith below reason. After all, your mind endorses this kind of self-annulment: You think that the teacher is great, and with his help, you will be successful.

You need to feel the might of your ego to the fullest, the whole Pharaoh that exists within you. You need to feel these two points, Pharaoh and the Creator, meaning the extent to which you want to remain in your ego, criticizing the friends, yourself and everything in your environment, to remain in all the various calculations with the logic and potency of your sharp, rational mind.

Only then will you be able to decide that in spite of it all, it may be worthwhile to lower yourself since the mind sees that otherwise you will not attain spirituality. This is called faith below reason. Or you can go in faith above reason. How does it work? How can you go against your mind, what calculation must you make that will enable you to rise above your intellect?

This pertains not only to your attitude toward the teacher, but also toward the friends and the Creator. After all, you relate to something that is outside of you. The teacher provides the direction, you annul yourself before the group, and your friends do the same. Your goal is to unite like cogwheels, where you are dependent on them and they are on you. If you work within the group to carry out the teacher’s instruction, you will merit the revelation of the Creator, the general force of bestowal.

You annul yourself before the teacher so as to accept his advice. You annul yourself before the group so as to actualize this advice in practice, so that together, with them and within them, you can reveal the Creator.
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From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/13/2011, Shamati No. 59

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