Kabbalah Channel: Can Music Change People?
Posted on September 5th, 2010
We are under the 125 degrees or worlds or concealments. This concealment is beneficial for us since it prevents us from seeing how insignificant we are compared to the perfect state of Infinity. Instead, we can only observe our inability to become similar to a higher spiritual degree.
Nonetheless, in order to advance in correcting ourselves we have to sense affliction. If we undergo correction while being in the group, then we disclose our suffering like a child playing a game. The child wants to accomplish something, he doesn’t succeed, but he nevertheless does his best and keeps trying to master a challenging toy.
Through your efforts, pain, and inability to act you discover your oppositeness to the Light one degree at a time. You must work against the Light since otherwise, you will not feel any difference between you and the Light; you won’t sense the Creator thanks to the sum total of these dissimilarities.
Suppose you are in a king’s palace, but you know nothing about it and therefore do not appreciate it. Then you start experiencing and researching it. You have to observe all the objects and states around and learn the entire range of connections and contradictions between them. By doing so, you achieve a state when you rule over the world, just as a king.
From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 9/3/10, Shamati #50
Related Material:
Laitman.com Post: Concealment For The Sake Of Salvation
Laitman.com Post: The Game Of Life Contains The Thought Of The Creator
Laitman.com Post: The Soap Opera Called “My Life”
Dear Friends, please ask questions about these passages from the great Kabbalists. The commentaries in brackets are mine.
Main Kabbalistic Sources: The Book Of Zohar
An exception is Rashbi and his generation, the authors of The Zohar, who were granted all 125 degrees in completeness, even though it was prior to the days of the Messiah [before our time]. It was said about him and his disciples: “A sage is preferable to a prophet.” Hence, we often find in The Zohar that there will be none like the generation of Rashbi until the generation of the Messiah King [our generation]. This is why his composition made such a great impact in the world, since the secrets of the Torah in it occupy the level of all 125 degrees. [This is not because the world understands it, but rather because the Upper Force is in it.]
Hence, it is said in The Zohar that The Book of Zohar will be revealed only at the End of Days, the days of the Messiah. This is so because we have already said that if the degrees of the students are not at the full measure of the degree of the author, they will not understand his intimations, since they do not have a common attainment. [The need for The Book of Zohar arises at the End of Days of egoism’s development, when humanity begins to realize that its path is corrupt and wants to correct itself. This is because one can draw the force, the Light of Correction only when he reads The Zohar with the correct intention: to correct oneself.]
And since the degree of the authors of The Zohar is at the full level of the 125 degrees, they cannot be attained prior to the days of the Messiah. It follows that there will be no common attainment with the authors of The Zohar in the generations preceding the days of the Messiah. Hence, The Zohar could not be revealed in the generations before the generation of the Messiah. [Egoism was not developed enough.]
– Baal HaSulam, A Speech for the Completion of The Zohar
Related Material:
Laitman.com Post: When Will The Messiah Come?
Laitman.com Post: Before The Ari, The Gates Of Wisdom Were Closed For Us
Laitman.com Post: The Coming Of The Messiah
The Book of Zohar is being revealed now because it is a source of strength which can carry out all the corrections and advance us. Just as a train or a car cannot move without electricity or gas, we cannot advance without The Book of Zohar which gives us energy, “fuel” for advancement.
In addition, The Zohar reveals to us where we are situated, who we are, where we are advancing, and for what purpose. It reveals the whole path to us. In essence, it is the Light that illuminates the whole space that surrounds us in order for us to see where we are. The Zohar is the Light that gives us an opportunity to feel in our minds and hearts who we are and what we represent, how we are arranged, how we sense, think, and make decisions. It is the Light that illuminates the goal to us so that we understand to where we are advancing, with what speed, what is happening, and what to do.
The Zohar is the Light that gives strength, the Light that corrects us, and the Light that advances us on the path. It does everything. However, we need to rouse this Light and it’s not easy. After we rouse it, there’s nothing more to do because it knows how to arrange and carry out everything. We merely need to rouse it.
We think that the science of Kabbalah demands some impossible effort from us. However, the entire work is actually in our hands. After all, the Light needs to come and influence us. This Light is called Surrounding Light since it cannot clothe a person directly, clearly, and openly. It does this indirectly and we only feel the results of its actions but not it itself.
Under what condition is the Light drawn? It is drawn according to law of equivalence of form or the law of equality: The Light comes to the extent that I desire to become similar to it. How do I perform this action in order to become similar to it? Something that is called the group has been placed before me, and initially I hate it. In the same manner that I am opposite to the Light, I am also opposite to this Kli (the spiritual vessel) called a “group.”
To the extent that I try to unite with the group, to enter it, the Light affects me to the same exact degree. I am situated below, “under the group,” and it is on top, “above the group.” It turns out that I work on uniting with the friends, and to the extent that we unite the Light influences and corrects us. It unites us and the Light (the Creator) is revealed in our unification.
If this is the case, then everything is in my hands. The Light waits for me to perform this effort. I cannot unite with others; I merely need to desire this and to exert effort. Then it will happen.
Therefore, before we read The Book of Zohar, the strongest source of Surrounding Light, I need to think about the fact that I must unite with others, thereby preparing the vessel (Kli) for the Light that will glue it together and be revealed in it. After all, the Light is revealed only in the unification, in the place of the former breaking.
From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 9/3/10, The Zohar
Related Material:
Laitman.com Post: The Zohar Is The Most Powerful Thing In The World
Laitman.com Post: There Are Five Worlds Between Us
Laitman.com Post: The Field Of Intentions
Laitman.com Post: Why Do I Need This Whole World?
The Zohar, Chapter “VaYechi (And Jacob Lived),” Item 170: Upon the departure of one’s soul, all his kin and friends in the world of truth walk his soul and show her the place of Eden and the place of the punishment.
Question: People who have undergone clinical death speak of visions they experience, which in many ways are similar to what The Book of Zohar describes. However, these people don’t know the first thing about Kabbalah.
Answer: Understanding Kabbalah does not help a person see the spiritual world. The Upper World can only be felt in a corrected soul. Whether or not a person studies Kabbalistic books is irrelevant. The important thing is whether one wishes to correct himself.
We can look at clinical death experiences in two ways. On one hand, when a person falls into a critical state, it is a heavy blow to the physiological body, which is nothing more than the desire to enjoy. Our body only appears to us as something corporeal that takes up space, but in reality it is only the desire to enjoy a particular type of fulfillment.
If this desire feels emptiness or suffering, it naturally doesn’t want to feel the place (desire) in which it feels pain. It wants to reduce and restrict this place, to live less, to disconnect its senses, take drugs, and so forth. Any person feeling emotional or material suffering wants to restrict it, that is, restrict his perception of the world even to the extent as the desire to stop living.
But by feeling suffering and wanting to ascend, to escape this place that is full of darkness, pain, blows, wars, and diseases, meaning, to rise from the terrible suffering above this world, a person is essentially making a spiritual action. You don’t do it for the sake of bestowal or because you are drawn by spirituality, but because the suffering is pressuring you so much that it forces you out, like a pit popping out of a cherry when squeezed, and you are led upward.
This is the path of suffering, but it is not advancement because in this you do not draw closer to the goal. In fact, you don’t even know there is a goal; you’re simply running away like a beaten animal from the stick. But either way, you rise above your ego, the desire to enjoy. You want to nullify it, thinking: “I don’t want anything, just leave me alone!”
Suppose you stole a billion dollars and were caught and sentenced to life in prison. At that moment you desire only bread and water and to be back home. That’s it! Yet prior to that you wanted a billion dollars! The desire reduces itself, as though ascending by “faith above reason.” It is ready to be in bestowal, to reject and restrict itself so that it does not feel the suffering that punishment brings.
And that is when people begin to sense the truth; a connection with the Creator becomes revealed to them, at least to some degree. However, it passes very quickly, and people are unable to fully take in or retain this state because they lack their own permanent Kelim (spiritual vessels). And so the feeling passes.
In 99.9% of the cases, the sensation of something otherworldly relates only to people’s psychosomatic experiences. Since they live in suffering, confusion, emotional cloudiness, and faulty internal systems, it’s merely their imagination.
The purpose of creation is not for a person to feel the spiritual world in a state of clinical death. We have to feel spirituality in a state of total soundness and function in it like the researchers that have knowledge, understanding, sensation, and power. We have to come to be like the Creator.
From the 2ns part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 9/2/10, The Zohar
Related Material:
Laitman.com Post: Life And Death
Laitman.com Post: Spiritual Advertisement
Laitman.com Post: When Spirituality Becomes Our Life
Kabbalah Channel: What Exactly Is Spirituality?
A letter I received: We now witness the emergence of a new social structure of online communities. A virtual reality is being built which, for the time being, lacks any rules or ideology. I think that our method is most appropriate particularly for these online communities and not for the real world since the latter is terribly inertial and filled with a myriad of different ideologies. Meanwhile, in the virtual world, changes are taking place every few days rather than every few decades.
Surely, it is not a spiritual world, but it is no longer a material world either. It is a new playground for the human mind where it can play out different scenarios which could only be checked in the physical reality over decades or centuries.
In Israel, it is possible to work like in the old days, creating a physical infrastructure, and we see over the last few months that it works wonderfully. However, in all the other parts of the world, you won’t be allowed in anywhere. All spots have been taken both in the physical world as well as in its ideological structure. Changes will occur only under the influence of cataclysms.
While a “material” person will not even listen to you, a “spiritual” person will grasp the essence of Kabbalah immediately. A person that exists in these virtual worlds will tell you: “If your game is interesting, let’s play. Why not?” I see this as the only chance for us to change something in the external world.
My Comment: I agree with you about almost everything. We are trying to accomplish this with our Stimulator: to create a new social unification, the one and only State of Kabbalah in the world. The constitution is “love your neighbor” according to the law of the Upper Force of Nature. All the laws, rules of behavior, relationships, and decisions are based only on the laws of the nature of bestowal. Baal HaSulam writes about this in the article “The Last Generation.”
Teenagers perceive online communities as their family. They reject live communication in favor of virtual communication. Online communities are becoming strong psychological points of reference for users.
Related Material:
Laitman.com Post: Choose A Benevolent Future
Laitman.com Post: My Spiritual Stimulator
Laitman.com Post: The “Spiritual Stimulator” Is a step Towards The Future Society
Question: How can I know what the absolute void is?
Answer: It is difficult to imagine what the absolute void is. It’s similar to the feeling of wanting something and not being able to get it. But in the spiritual world, it’s a horrific sensation which is referred to as the “black illumination (void) of Malchut.”
It appears when the Light exits the will to receive and a person experiences a black abyss. It is a frightening sensation of the void. We think that unfilled space means freedom, as if I stepped into the cosmos and am now free from everything. But the void is the unfilled desire.
We don’t comprehend how this can happen since the Creator is constantly supporting us, like a baby on a cushion; He always provides protection, confidence, and fulfillment for us. He reveals to us a mere tiny void, the suffering, to the degree that we are able to bear it and evolve.
But the sensation of the entire (!) void of the unfilled desire is dreadful. Very rarely is such a state revealed to a person and for only one reason: To allow him once in a lifetime to feel the bottomless depth of Malchut.
From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 9/3/10, "The Teaching of the Kabbalah and Its Essence"
Related Material:
Laitman.com Post: The Black Illumination Of Malchut
Laitman.com Post: Spirituality Is The Unity Of Darkness And Light
Laitman.com Post: The Lack Of Desire Manifests As Lack Of Fulfillment
Our Argentine group opened the Bnei Baruch Kabbalah Learning Center in Buenos Aires. The information about the upcoming Kabbalah Fundamentals Course is being advertised throughout the entire country, in the monthly issue of "Uno Mismo," and on Facebook. Best of luck! We are with you!
Related Material:
Laitman.com Post: Lessons From The South American Congress In Argentina
Laitman.com Post: A Public Lecture In Buenos Aires, Argentina
Rabash, Shlavei HaSulam, “What is the Matter of My Making A Pact in the Work”
Download: WMV Video|MP3 Audio
The Book of Zohar – Selections, Chapter “VaYechi (And Jacob Lived in the Land of Egypt),” Item 187
Download: WMV Video|MP3 Audio
Rav Yehuda Ashlag, Talmud Eser Sefirot, Vol. 6, Part 15, Item 59
Download: WMV Video|MP3 Audio
Writings of Rabash, Letter #34
Download: WMV Video|MP3 Audio
Dear Friends, please ask questions about these passages from the great Kabbalists. The commentaries in brackets are mine.
Main Kabbalistic Sources: The Book Of Zohar
Rabbi Shimon Bar-Yochai’s soul was of the Surrounding-Light [Ohr Makif] kind. Hence, he had the power to clothe the words and teach them in a way that even if he taught them to many [egoistic, uncorrected masses], only the worthy [very few] of understanding would understand [by correcting themselves or by yearning for self-correction. If a person doesn’t pursue this goal, The Book of Zohar repels him, invokes in him a sensation of rejecting it].
This is why he was given ‘permission’ [from Above] to write The Book of Zohar. The permission was not ‘granted’ to write a book in this wisdom to his teachers or to the first ones who preceded them, even though they were certainly more proficient in this wisdom than he. But the reason is that they did not have the power to dress the matters as did he [to reveal it only to those who really strived for it].
– Baal HaSulam, “Disclosing a Portion, Covering Two”
Related Material:
Laitman.com Post: Traveling With Rabbi Shimon
Laitman.com Post: Study The Book Of Zohar Together With Rabbi Shimon And His Group
Laitman.com Post: The Zohar Is For Those Who Yearn For The Light
Laitman.com Post: The Zohar Is Being Revealed For Us
Daily Audio Version-MP3
Get the Weekly eNewsletter
Follow on Twitter
