A question I received: During The Zohar lessons I always find myself at war with myself. What can I do to maintain the right intention?

My Answer: That is a natural state for beginners. Try to use the time at the lesson to realize the purpose of your suffering. Who is it in you that suffers? It is your body, your egoistic desire that resists. You have a body, the ego, and the point in the heart which aspires to the Creator. Are you examining your state from within the ego or the point in the heart? If you are one with the point in the heart, then The Zohar shines to you, but this Light is opposite to your ego. It feels adverse to you, like a person that speaks out against you.

Imagine sitting in front of your wife as she criticizes you, saying that something is wrong with you, and you listen and agree with her criticism, realizing that you do need to correct yourself. Your uncorrected ego resists and doesn’t want to listen, but you tell yourself: "It’s not me who doesn’t want to listen, but the ego that the Creator deliberately created within me. I, however, want to listen and to love her, because she is pointing out my real shortcomings that need correcting."

Picture this scene to yourself in the smallest detail until you realize that you really do need to sit and try to cling to every word of The Zohar. You don’t like what you hear? That’s wonderful! You’re not interested in revealing this? Absolutely! The Zohar is opening your eyes to the whole truth, thereby infuriating you and that’s great. That is precisely what it’s supposed to do. That is how the Light influences you, by showing you how uncorrected you are. Precisely then should you rejoice and desire to cling to it.

Now you have two points: the uncorrected Malchut and the spark which you have to connect to the Light. Go with the Light against your uncorrected Malchut, and then The Zohar will cease to irritate you. You will begin to work on yourself with what it awakens within you.

Practice this at home with your wife for a bit, and then the work with The Zohar won’t seem so hard.

From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/9/10, The Zohar

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