Kabbalah Moments: Dreams
Posted on March 25th, 2011
In our world “pretense” sounds like something dirty. We scold people for this, “Why are you so unnatural? Why do you pretend and lie?”
But in our case, we are pretending or playing with the most natural and authentic actions because they help us to rise above the material world. As I “play” spiritual states, I imagine myself there and elevate myself to them.
I don’t just want to entertain others by transmitting my joy to them. Joy is not simply laughter, but fulfillment by confidence and the correctness of the path, the goal I believe in. And this joy gives me strength.
This is the same fulfillment that has to reign inside all of us by virtue of our unity, meaning in the true, corrected state, in the world of Infinity. By playing it, I make efforts to fulfill our common desire (the spiritual vessel or Kli) just like in the state of the world of Infinity.
This is a very exalted and worthwhile game which is reminiscent of the Creator’s game with the Leviathan (the mythological whale). The Creator, the desire to bestow, plays with the creation He created, the desire to enjoy, spinning it in all the different directions and filling it with the Light of Hochma.
That is how I want to fill our entire group’s common desire to enjoy with the Light of Hochma. That means I am playing with very exalted things, even though it appears like a very simple action that any person is able to make.
We have to understand that from a person’s perspective, this game is a very serious action. And our ego does not allow us to lower our pride in order to become part of this game and start carrying out these actions in relation to the group. Granted, there are people who find this easy to do externally, as well as others who find it easier to express themselves internally. But the inner work is every person’s obligation and has to result in an elevated mood being maintained in the group.
Externally things might vary. There are times when externally you have to pretend to be inspired all the time because if you are surrounded by “little children,” you cannot allow yourself the liberty of showing them the true state. However, if it is a group of advanced students, they can do the opposite; instead of playing externally, they can remain serious and even express their sadness in order to create an opposition between the internality and the externality. That is how the great Kabbalists of the past behaved. However, we are still small and have to play or pretend externally, expressing joy.
Naturally, all of our dissemination must consist of programs that bring joy and leave people in a good mood. There should be fewer songs that are sad and sorrowful, and more happiness! We have to feel the heart of the friend or of the wide audience and take care not to bring them down or cause them to feel deep sorrow, but instead, to let them feel joy and unification. This is the entire wisdom.
[38787]
From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/22/11, Preparation to the WE! Convention
Only after we have applied all the efforts to unite with each other can we hasten our development and return to the authentic and corrected sensation of reality in order to wake up from this dream, this concealment, in which we exist. We can go by the path of suffering, but it is not development! We do not arrive at an autonomous desire to return to the Light, to the state of adhesion with Him in which we once existed in the world of Infinity.
We have to come back to the world of Infinity and merge with the Creator into one whole, but we must do so by our own desire and by ourselves. It shouldn’t be as it was earlier when, not having the intention, we were under the rule of the Light which sustained our connection with its force, in spite of the complete opposition of our desires. The Light simply filled us without our agreement: This is how we existed in similarity to it, being supported by its force.
But now we have to come to it by our own authority. First, there has be the desire and then its contact with the Light. In the initial State 1, the Light precedes the Kli (vessel). In the final State 3, when we return to that very same unified soul, the desire precedes the Light.
And all the sufferings and afflictions that push us forward do not result in real advancement; we do not correct anything thereby. After all, we haven’t done anything ourselves. And only if we try to act ourselves, meaning to work on our unification which we reach against our egoistic desire, against our resistance, only then our efforts are regarded as our contribution to correction.
Hence, the Light will never concede and allow us to progress without our free participation and the yearning to return to the state of unity. We ourselves have to decide that we are returning to bestowal—to the degree that we unite against the force of the breaking, which dwells among us.
A person has to understand that within his efforts to unite with the others he will find everything: the force of separation, breaking, and hatred, as well as the force to overcome this division: the force of love and connection. And only such actions go toward his account and draw him closer to the final correction. They are the only indication of his progress.
In any situation, we need to try to see ourselves as one man with one heart who represents our collective soul.
[38973]
From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/24/11 Preparation for the WE! Convention
Our world is built of the desire to receive and controlled by pleasure, which this desire keeps running after. We are constantly tormented either by the absence of pleasure or its beckoning light from the future, which forces us to develop.
When a person more or less realizes what he or she wants, it is regarded as the “developmental gene” (Reshimo), which is the part of desire that somehow sees the future delight and yearns precisely for it. In our world, such development occurs naturally. New desires keep unfolding in us, while against them, there is the Surrounding Light that attracts desires to itself, to pleasure.
Essentially, man is desire that yearns to feel good. And if we suddenly stop feeling pleasure at all, we immediately feel a halt and a lack of energy to move on since that desirable pleasure was precisely the source of energy for us.
Thus, we kept developing, moving forth along the chain of Reshimot that were actualizing in us automatically, without us being aware of it. But this chain is finite, and it has come to an end! And now, it gives way to a very unique, spiritual gene, in which the Reshimo (desire) and the Surrounding Light that illuminates it don’t match and are even opposite to each other.
And it turns out that I don’t see how I can receive this Light that tantalizes me. Something is calling out to me, but I do not know how to reach it because first, I have to become similar to it, to receive an anti-egoistic screen for this Light.
At this point, a person stops in his tracks and can’t move. All he can do is ask: “What do I need this life for, and what do I do next?” as if getting cornered in a dead end. This period can last a long time because any spiritual development requires many internal efforts from us until a person gets used to and becomes receptive to it.
And finally, he still makes a certain change in his life: He arrives at the place where he hears that it is possible to actualize this new desire, in order to reach fulfillment. He doesn’t yet understand how to accomplish it all, but already starts to move ahead along the degrees of understanding: 0-1-2-3-4 that must be walked to the very end, to the last 4th degree, so he may comprehend something from this segment of his development.
And then, there starts another new cycle: 0-1-2-3-4, and so on. And all of this may take many months. But now, while moving along these preliminary stages: 0-1-2-3-4, a person feels that a secret is hidden in this place, which lures him and doesn’t let him leave.
Thus, one gradually gets ready to hear such terms as the “group” and “correction” that must be performed with its help, as well as about the correction of the entire world. It is a rather lengthy process. But the point is that a person finally gets to know that he lacks a new force: equivalence between the nature of his desire and its fulfillment.
Desire must match its fulfillment! It is the desire to receive pleasure, but it must enjoy bestowal, and then it will be fulfilled. After all, fulfillment that is standing before it is the fulfillment in bestowal. And in order to learn to enjoy bestowal, a person is led to the group where he gradually starts to understand where he’s been brought to and what is going on there.
He suddenly understands what all the articles were talking about, which he used to read and discuss without any idea what he was saying, what kind of group he was in, and without any understanding why he was here and how he ended up in it. But now, he can gradually comprehend that the group is, indeed, the place of actualizing his spiritual fulfillment; he realizes that only with its help will he be able to change the type of his fulfillment from reception to bestowal.
If he does so, he will be able to enjoy the Light that will come and fulfill him as much as he expands his desire to enjoy bestowal.
[38921]
From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/23/2011 Preparation for the WE! Convention
Writings of Rabash, Dargot HaSulam, “The Matter of the Clothing of the Soul”
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The Book of Zohar – Selections, Chapter “Yitro (Jethro),” “You Shall Not Have,” Item 444, Lesson 9
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Explanation of the Article, “Preface to the Wisdom of Kabbalah,” Item 8, Lesson 3
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The Principles of Global Education, Lesson 8
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Daily Audio Version-MP3
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