Baal HaSulam, “Introduction to The Book of Zohar”: When you examine the above three states, you will find that one completely necessitates the other, in a way that, if one were to be cancelled, the others would be cancelled, too.

The most common and understandable complaint against the Creator is: Why didn’t He create everything in the finished form? Seemingly, what would be easier?

Why does He need us to suffer and thus, consciously or unconsciously, curse Him as the cause of our suffering? Why has He created us not perfect, but completely opposite? Why do we become as we develop worse and worse and recognize this over and over again? We become aware of this to the point that this no longer causes uneasiness and becomes routine.

So, maybe, the Creator has “overlooked,” “missed,” or “left something unfinished”? How can such imperfect actions originate from perfection? This “customer’s complaints” sound quite fair.

On the other hand, if you try to look at the matter from the Creator’s side: indeed, why did He have to create the three states of creation and lead us by the path of great suffering from the first to the third state? How could the second state, the fall from Infinity into our worst contradictory world from which we ascend back, become possible? How can He Himself manage all these systems, to be included, “clothed” in them, so as to manifest various forms of relations and teach us lessons?

We understand that parents in our world have no alternative because, as it is said, “the impulse of man’s heart is evil from his youth.” Here, strictness in relation to children is necessary. But why does the Almighty Creator resort to such methods?

In short, all the key issues with respect to the created being are focused on his three states, on the spiral from perfection (1) through the system of the worlds (2) to perfection (3),  and here lies the problem of life and death, the problem of suffering, completely divorced from spiritual awareness. We cannot justify all this within the framework of our mind.

However, if we understand the true relationship between the three states, then we will solve all similar problems, working out a systematic approach to them, as they will arise before us again and again. In fact, the Creator has created the unique, perfect first state. It is unchangeable; nothing happens there contrary to perfection. However, this perfection is revealed not in the Creator, but in the receiving created beings, and only in their inner state that we call the “third.”

In the first state, created beings do not feel themselves at all; they do not really exist. They begin to manifest themselves as existing to the extent that they attain perfection. By rising from the current state and attaining spiritual degrees, to that same extent, they feel their existence until they rise to their full height, on par with the Creator.

Thus, perfection inherent in the first state stems from the third, in which the created being attains it. But at the beginning, they just represent Reshimot, potential, and have to go through a certain process to eventually achieve perfection. This process is the second state.
[124833]
From the 4^th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/5/14, Writings of Baal HaSulam

Related Material:
A Door To The Unknown
Steps Along A Great Road
The Dawn Of Awakening

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