Baal HaSulam “The Teaching of Kabbalah and Its Essence”: All the worlds and everything that fills them in their every detail emerged from the Creator in one, unique, and unified thought. And the thought alone cascaded and created all the many worlds, the creations, and their conducts, as explained in “The Tree of Life” and in the Tikkunei Zohar.

“Thought” is the force that descends and acts in its derivative. The power of the thought forms the “material” of the desire and then acts in it, imprints itself in various forms. The desire accepts these “imprints” and changes accordingly.

The material of the desire inevitably passes through a series of changes in which we feel they come from a certain thought. Thus, the thought enters the desire, the mind enters the heart. And then the desire thinks: “What do I want? Why? What motivates me?”

Entering the desire, the thought “corrupts,” changes it, until it becomes aware: “There I am, and there is the preceding thought that created and changes me. This means that it is better for me to join it. Let me have my thought through which I control the desire, rule it, instead of it controlling my calculations.” Indeed, while the desire dominates, our life is determined by the requirements of the body, so isn’t it better to entrust the management to the head, the mind?

Kabbalists discovered that nearly six thousand years ago, and then during the three periods, two thousand years each, the Lights were entering the vessels, the thought entered the desire. And today, all of humanity, everyone’s common desire discovers and realizes the result of this process, “What is happening to us?” The situation is bad; we suffer, live in a lie, not knowing the reasons, not finding solutions… Why?

Thus, the thought inspects the desire and the states, “it is guilty of what is happening. Apparently, it has to be managed differently.” And gradually, we are approaching the point of this solution: Will the thought manage the desire or the desire manages the thought? This is our choice.

Question: However, the thought and desire inherent in us are opposite to the Creator. Our thoughts are opposite to the plan of creation…

Answer: True, otherwise we would not be able to know Him. We must know the truth, and this is only possible from lies. Everything is conceived only from its opposite. We need bitter to know sweet and darkness to know light because the darkness is opposite to the light; otherwise, you could not recognize anything. You need a measuring point that is outside of the measured properties, a benchmark against the calculations that are made.

We are vessels, desires, and only in this way can we measure, feel, and understand something by comparing the two opposites. The Creator is united, and we are not. We need a comparison; otherwise, we seem to float in a vacuum devoid of any landmarks without a sense of direction.

Moreover, if we were put in a special liquid with special conditions, with the same gravity as our body, then we would stop feeling it.

The same thing can be done with our consciousness; if it is free from polar orientations, then we lose a sense of our self, our existence, because we are unable to feel the opposites.

So, as the created beings, we can measure and evaluate ourselves only by contrast. In Kabbalah, it is said that the advantage of the light is known from darkness. Thus, you will not reach perfection if you have not passed through all the troubles of the world, through its “underworld,” the opposite side of the “Garden of Eden.” But you can know this “kingdom of darkness,” like a wise man, who still in darkness, sees the emerging dawn.

However, the question arises: If today I see perfection from afar but I do not feel it in my vessels, then what will happen tomorrow? I do not agree to “look at the paradise through binoculars,” I want to enter its gates.

That is why there is a need for the breaking and its subsequent correction. It is enough if we feel the gap between us slightly, and then the rest we will get from the group in the finished form.
[121371]
From the 4^th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 11/25/13, Writings of Baal HaSulam

Related Material:
In Disagreement With Oneself
Turn All Of The Evil Potential Into Good
Unifying The Two Forces Of Nature Within

Filed under: Daily Kabbalah Lesson, Group Work, Spiritual Work | 1 Comment →