Discovering The Soul

Laitman_514_02In the News (From Top.rbc.ru): “According to Professor Dimitrios Karussis, member of the Executive Board of the Israel Society of Neuroimmunology and the Head of the Multiple Sclerosis Center, Hadassah University Hospital in Jerusalem, scientists were able to identify a soul in a human being by using MRT technology (magnetic resonance tomography).

Research indicates that Kabbalah study activates a part in the brain which the researches called “faith apparatus.” It activates brain activity and increases manyfold an organism’s resistance to diseases that have left modern medicine helpless.”

My Comment: How can we reveal the soul? It depends on what we want to discover. If that’s the force activating an animal body, then surely it’s doable. Back when I was a student, research about “the weight of the body before and after death”was already being conducted in the world, to define the weight of the soul that allegedly leaves the body.

Everything depends on how we define a soul. Sometimes a man and a woman address each other as “my soul-mate.” If that’s how you define the soul, then you can weigh it. But if we understand that the soul is a part of the Creator from Above, the force of bestowal, then, similar to other forces of our world, it can be identified only by the results of its actions. By perceiving the force of bestowal within the property of bestowal (the desire to give, Kli), we thereby reveal the Creator within us and thus call Him Bore, from the words "Bo" -"Come" (attain it with your property of bestowal) and "Re" – "See" (discover).

There is no Creator without the creature. We are unable to say anything about Him, as He is outside of us, since that’s the essence or the abstract form which we can’t discuss. Kabbalah, being a purely experimental science, forbids us to engage in such philosophical reasoning, as Baal HaSulam states in the “Introduction to The Book of Zohar,” “the judge has nothing but what his eyes can see.”

We need the material on which this spiritual force could act. This material along with the force acting in it will be called the “soul.” Why? It is because the material itself – a part of the Creator from Above that possesses the same property of bestowal – would resemble the Creator.

How can the scientists discover the soul if it exists in the property of bestowal? What kind of devices can they use? What can help them? To discover the soul, one needs the material that would have the property of bestowal.

That could only be when a person has reached such a correction. Then, whatever clothes that material would be called the Light of the soul. The Kli itself, the desire, the material that has the property of bestowal, would be called the soul’s body. Without possessing such qualities, a person of this world is unable to perceive neither the body of the soul nor its Light.

Hence, if we define the soul according to Kabbalah, as a part of the Creator from Above, then scientists have no way of approaching it. One can attain the soul only the help of Kabbalah.

Everything depends on our intention. If we aspire to reveal spirituality, the Light will come and correct our material (desire), so that it becomes bestowing. When the material will resemble the Creator, become the Creator’s part from Above, the soul will arise within us.

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Rising To Infinity Along The Steps Of Love

Laitman_415_01If we were to bestow to the Creator due to the desire that He had instilled in us, could there be love more superficial than that? Essentially, we would love Him because He made us love Him. Love is possible only if the desire originates in us.

That is why it wasn’t an option to create us with a ready desire to love Him, for that would have been disgusting. Love must be completely genuine in its root, it must blossom in an empty space, absolutely selflessly and independently of any received pleasures.

How can we attain such an absolute, pure, and eternal love, utterly selfless without demanding any reward? How can the creature attain the same attitude toward the Creator as He has for it? This desire, the need for bestowal, must be developed by us. Herein lies our entire development from this world and to the World of Infinity: to attain the need for love.

Because we develop it within ourselves, this need for love does not disappear. We hold on to this lack, thanks to which we can love and bestow. For this reason, the spiritual vessel can never be overfilled. It cannot be filled; we merely cover it from Above, as it is written: “Love will cover all sins.” The act of covering only increases the lack. We cover it, but it keeps growing, continuing to blaze brighter and brighter.

That is why the process we undergo cannot be any different, as it stems from the end goal. Indeed, if the Creator wishes to bring us to mutual love, the same love He has for us, then there is no other choice. The entire spiritual ladder has already stretched from the end point to us, to the beginning of the path, and we must continue our journey all the way to the end.

From the 3rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/3/10, Article “Matan Torah”

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When It Was Time To Depart The World

Laitman_059_02The Zohar, Chapter “VaYechi (And Jacob Lived),” Item 157: How much longer was I given to live in this world? I have no permission to inform you this, and a man is not informed of this. But Rabbi Shimon was in great joy on the day of his demise, and there was great joy in all the worlds because of the many secrets he had revealed then.

The death of a righteous person resembles the purification (Hizdakchut) of a Partzuf. When a person leaves his degree and transitions from one world into the other, and especially when he leaves the lowest of all degrees – this world – it is a big joy.

However, we think otherwise, and believe that we live in a wonderful world. We simply haven’t seen anything better besides this world. We have to reveal the spiritual world, as it is said, “See your world in this life.” Then we will realize where in fact we are now.

If a person completes his mission, he doesn’t have to return to this world as it happened to Rabbi Shimon who attained the final correction. From now on he stays only in the higher dimension and doesn’t reincarnate into the lowest material form. Whoever hasn’t achieved the final corrected state in a given reincarnation has to be reborn and live in this world again.

It goes without saying that Rabbi Shimon is blissful not because he finally got rid of the work and can now enjoy rest but because he brought the Torah (the Light that Reforms) to the whole world. This of course overwhelms him with joy.

Lecture on Lag BaOmer 5/1/2010

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My Greatest Virtue Is My Deficiency

Laitman_053_05Everyone asks the same question: if the Creator is omnipotent, why does He put us through the suffering of this whole life that sometimes is worse than death? If He treats us with love, then why does He plunge us into such horrible states? If there is none else beside Him, then how can He do this? Why did He have to create in us an evil nature and demand that we come to goodness through such a long path of suffering?

The fact of the matter is that there’s no deficiency in the Creator, and we need to bring ourselves to a feeling of deficiency on our own. This is impossible without hard work. We are not working hard in order to receive fulfillment, but in order to feel a deficiency. This constitutes the whole process that we go through.

It seems to us that we try to fill ourselves, but this is not the case. We only work on building a giving “Kli,” a desire to bestow within us. The higher we rise, the greater is the deficiency of bestowal, the need to bestow. When we reach Infinity, this will be an infinite, empty vessel (Kli) with an infinite sensation of a lack of bestowal. This is the ultimate achievement of the creature.

From this, we understand that we cannot complete the process in any other way. There’s no deficiency in the Creator to begin with; the very concept of the Creator lacking anything is nonexistent. It is we who need to reach a sensation of a deficiency and particularly of bestowal.

Yet, isn’t His desire to please the creatures a deficiency? No, it’s not. This desire of the Creator comes from perfection. We’re unable to understand this since our desire is a consequence of deficiency. The Creator and I are standing opposite to each other, mutually bestowing to each other with equal desires, but our desires are from completely different roots. His desire comes from perfection since He is initially perfect, and my desire comes from deficiency which I have developed within myself on my own.

Therefore, this deficiency isn’t to my detriment; it’s my virtue and I have reached it myself. I’ve built love for Him within me as the lack of bestowal or the desire to bestow, is, in fact, love.

From the 3rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/3/10, Article “Matan Torah”

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