The Wisdom Of Uniting Everything Within One Root

oneroot It is written, “The Creator created man to be forthright, but people came up with many calculations.” It seems to us that the world is so huge and multifaceted, but that is only because we cannot unite everything within one root and we’re dispersed among various desires. We perform many calculations while searching for different things that can help us gain power and derive pleasure.

Yet when we begin to concentrate all of this within one root, which is to give to Him, we come to one simple principle. We begin to focus everything on one goal, which is to “Reveal the Only One that Bestows.”

This revelation occurs by the principle of similarity, where a person has to build an inner system making all his numerous desires and thoughts follow one simple principle: “There is nothing but bestowal!” Finding the quality of bestowal inside oneself means revealing the Creator. The problem lies in the fact that it is impossible to abandon the numerous calculations and aspire to this one principle, to the only One that Bestows.

However, as a consequence of one’s efforts, a person begins to understand that all the obstacles are meant to help him. They emerge only so that through them, a person would direct himself to the true goal.

The Interferences That Come Our Way Are Help From Above

closer.jpg If we search for the revelation of the spiritual world in the right place – in the connection we build between us, and if that is where we wish to reveal the Creator, then we will demand this connection and it will be revealed to us. On the other hand, if we don’t focus on this goal alone, then we are engaged in a multitude of calculations, and thus we will advance in all possible directions except in the direction of the truth.

But there’s a catch: Even when you try to hold onto just this one direction, various interferences begin to show up, throwing you off aim and trying to distract you with other goals. This happens in order to show you the areas where you lack the precision and sensitivity to keep the right aim. The interferences work to constantly raise your sensitivity, helping you to be directed more precisely toward the right point, rather than just “toward the sky.”

All the various calculations we make are egoistic desires of this world, such as for money, honor, power, and knowledge. These are the various interferences that constantly come to us, and when they do, we should strive not to lose sight of the goal behind them all. We should try to make the goal out through the fog and the derangement of feelings. We will then see that this whole confusion was created for our own benefit.

Our egoism is help against “us” – against our egoistic selves. Therefore, when we change and acquire the quality of bestowal, the interferences will vanish. During the period when spirituality is concealed, there is no other force to help us besides egoism, which directs us toward the goal (the Creator) through interferences.

Learning To Learn From A Kabbalah Teacher

learningtolearn It is impossible to receive spirituality (meaning, to acquire the quality of bestowal that’s similar to the Creator) just by studying the books by yourself. You need a live teacher because only he can connect your present level with the spiritual level. The teacher has to serve as the intermediate level between you and the Creator. On your own, however, you will never be able to “jump” up to the Creator’s level. Your teacher is the intermediate degree between you and the spiritual world. He is able to do this because he exists in both worlds simultaneously.

The Ari and Baal HaSulam both write that intermediate states are the means to shift upwards. For example, see Part 3 of Talmud Eser Sefirot, “Inner Reflection.”

Even if a student could ascend to the first spiritual level on his own, it would still take him a very long time to learn about the Upper World without a teacher’s help, and then he would not have enough time to correct himself. Just like in this world, first you have to grow up for about 20 years, and only then can you begin to live on your own. But if you did not spend the first “20 years” of your “life” next to a teacher, then you are like a child who never received an upbringing or education, and who grew up without any support from adults.

That is why a person must listen to what the teacher tells him and make every possible effort to carry out the teacher’s advice. The student should accept this advice above his own egoistic surmises. Don’t be like a child who refuses to open his mouth and accept food, since what will the teacher be able to give you otherwise?

How Do You Know If You’ve Found A True Kabbalist?

know A question I received: How can someone without spiritual attainment find a true Kabbalist in order to study with him?

My Answer: How can you find a true Kabbalist? Well, what is a true Kabbalist? Baal HaSulam writes that a true Kabbalist is someone who strives only toward the Creator and toward nothing else, such as anything related to this world or himself.

The only means that makes it possible to reveal the Creator, the Upper World, and the quality of bestowal is a Kabbalistic group. The group is a connection among people’s aspirations to reveal the quality of bestowal among them. This quality is called “the Creator.”

You aren’t trying to learn a Kabbalist’s earthly habits from him. What you learn from him is how to cancel yourself, where “cancelling yourself” means to cancel your egoism in relation to the goal – the attainment of the quality of bestowal. You have to accept this goal without any resistance to it, with full trust and no criticism, as if you were a baby.

Criticism and verification have to take place before you accept the teacher as your instructor. However, if you have a point in the heart, then you have nowhere to run from an instructor who is showing you the truth.

But what is “the truth”? It is the force of bestowal, deemed the Creator, and it becomes revealed inside your love for friends and then for the whole world. If you see that the other students and the teacher are trying to accomplish this, without considering anything besides the Creator important, this means you have found the right place to study.

Yet, this still doesn’t give you any guarantee that you will attain the goal. From here on, everything depends on you; this is where your freedom of will starts. But at the very least you have found a teacher and a group, which is the place where the Creator can be revealed.

A teacher is not the flesh and blood person you see in front of you, but attainment of the Creator and experience along this path. What you should be absorbing from him is not the earthly things, but his connection with the Creator.

By Opening The Door Slightly, You Can Glimpse The Upper World

purposeA question I received: You have explained that all worlds from the World of Infinity to our world are similar to each other in all their details as branches and roots. When I read about these worlds in The Book of Zohar with the desire to attain spirituality, and if I connect to the text, then I will enter the Upper World and see the spiritual picture through earthly images and through the book. Is this correct? Does this contact happen only when studying at a lesson?

My Answer: When we proceed through the text in The Book of Zohar, we start seeing an internal spiritual picture by receiving impressions and qualities from the text that the book talks about. We start identifying names of characters, objects, and places of our world as qualities of reception and bestowal that are big or small or good or evil.

A panel of qualities emerges in us in parallel to the picture of this world. This spiritual picture remains in us as a model that corresponds to the allegorical story line. The Zohar uses words of our world to explain the world of the qualities of reception and bestowal, which make up all that exists. These two qualities draw a picture of our world for us, and they also form the picture of the Upper World.

As we accumulate examples of correspondence of the two languages and the two worlds while reading The Book of Zohar, as we learn and organize them within us, we are able to perceive more spiritual impressions.

Question cont’d: For now, does my whole study consist of sitting in front of a book and trying to feel what is written in it, so that it will create spiritual models within me?

My Answer: The result of all our actions in the group and in dissemination, and the conclusion of all our efforts to attain the spiritual world, is revealed within us as images of reception and bestowal, and of qualities of the creature and the Creator as well as their various combinations. Revelation of the soul, which is the sensation and understanding of the Creator, happens as a result of these actions.

Making A Phone Call To The Spiritual World

Dr. Michael LaitmanA question I received: How do you know the answers to all the questions?

My Answer: I have a special “phone” that I use to dial “Above” and get the answers. This “phone” connects the lower world to the Upper World, the lower one with the Higher One. In our world, if I don’t know something, I go to my mom, my dad, the teacher, or to anyone who will answer me. In the spiritual world, however, you have to look for the answers only from Above – you won’t even find them in the book. You have to try to feel them inside yourself because this is where you will connect with the Upper One, who has all the answers.

Each question arises in us as a feeling of emptiness. If I feel emptiness, it means I have a question. If the emptiness becomes filled, that means I have received the answer. If the question is about something that is beyond our world, then the answer is felt in the form of “the Light from Above.”

To “call Above” means I raise my question to the Upper One. My question to Him is called “a prayer.” I ask for the answer, and if I really want to know, then I receive the answer and it fills me. I feel it inside.

How do I answer your question on my “phone?” For example, you ask, “Mommy, can I have ice cream?” Your mother doesn’t want ice cream herself, but she takes your desire, goes to the store, buys the ice cream and gives it to you. Hence, she takes your desire to the store.

I do the same. I listen to your question and accept it inside myself in order to feel it as my own. Then I raise it “Above,” the same as a mommy does when she goes for the ice cream. I then receive the answer from Above and give it to you.

Thus, if I want to hear the question that a person is asking, I need to love him and take his desire as my own, raise it “Above,” receive the answer and give the answer to the person asking the question.

If a person has the ability to do this, then he can receive answers to all questions.

(From the Children’s Lesson at the Eurasian Congress)