125 Spiritual Degrees – Laitman Unplugged
Posted on April 10th, 2011
Rabash, Writings of Rabash, Shlavei HaSulam (Steps of the Ladder), Article “What to Look For in the Assembly of Friends“: The answer is that love of friends that is built on the basis of love of others, by which they can achieve the love of the Creator, is the opposite of what is normally considered love of friends. In other words, love of others does not mean that the friends will love me. Rather, it is I who must love the friends.
As a rule, we approach love of friends in a naturally egoistic way: “Let them love me first, and in return I will love them.” I expect them to demonstrate an example for me, and only then am I willing to follow it. It is similar to setting demands on the Creator: “First you show yourself, and then I will do as You please.”
If I second the group or the Creator on what they have started, after they have already revealed themselves, it means that I am working egoistically. From the group, I must ask only for the greatness of the goal. Nobody becomes aware of the greatness on his own; we only speak of it in order to artificially elevate ourselves to this degree. And that is what makes us grow independently.
If love of friends’ gets revealed to me beforehand, my reaction will be based on purely mercantile considerations. I will respond to the friends as to any well-wisher. After all, it is pleasant for me to deal with him. Therefore, I shouldn’t seek any signs of the group’s favorite attitude toward me.
The Book of Zohar tells about the disciples of Rabbi Shimon: Whenever they got together, they would feel mutual hatred at first, and then they would start studying and overcoming it. So do we start convincing ourselves: “Whatever I see, I see it in the mirror of my ego.” Everyone judges according to their own flaws. Only later do we come to the authentic love that lies above hatred.
Therefore, the key is not to trust one’s own eyes or heart. I simply don’t focus on the others; let them do whatever they want. As to my own behavior though, I must act as my teachers instruct. If I start expecting something from the others, I will never see them do anything good. The Creator intentionally makes it so that I always see flaws in the group since I see them through the prism of my egoism.
I feel resentment and disdain toward the friends; I have no slightest desire to unify, sit down, and talk with them, and I have thousands of excuses to refuse to do it. And yet, I must move all obstacles to the side and understand that it is a game that is played with me on purpose.
If I came to the circle of people who have a spiritual desire, it means that the Creator selected them. And since He chose them, I must “cleave” to them. It is my “womb” where I will grow. I don’t have a choice: I must connect with the friends, indeed believing that they are the greatest of the generation, the best representatives of humanity, who came to lift me up. The group is the elevator that takes me up into the spiritual world.
[39930]
From Lesson 5, WE! Convention 4/2/2011
Why do they say “manna from heaven” if it is found in the morning in the place of dew? It doesn’t fall from the sky; it appears on the ground. Thanks to MAN, which is Bina and Malchut connected, we exalt our desires and demand correction by the property of bestowal.
Evoking our desires to ascend, pleading with the Creator to be equal to Him in love and bestowal, is regarded as MAN. This is exactly how a person fulfills himself after he tears away from his egoism. I revive my soul by the fact that I enjoy bestowal and desire to be filled with Bina, the Creator.
Therefore, I examine: Do I want it or not? Am I able to fulfill myself? Does egoistic fulfillment fill me as it did in the past, which is described as “pots filled with the meat I ate in Egypt?”
Sometimes it does, and sometimes it doesn’t. All states that a person undergoes in the process of spiritual evolution are mandatory. Kabbalah tells us about the smallest detail that every one of us must experience. Hence, the sages said: “Write the Torah on the tablets of your heart.” The heart is our desire, and each desire must undergo all these transformations that Kabbalah describes.
When we realize that we don’t want “manna from heaven” and would rather return to the meat we ate in Egypt, these are the states we disclose within during spiritual work. It is at the time when you exert enormous effort toward advancement that you discover desires that haven’t yet been corrected or clarified. Thanks to the fact that a desire unfolds, you examine it, grab it like a snake that sticks its head out, pull it out from within, transform it, and get rid of it.
[39978]
From the Lesson on Weekly Torah Portion 1/13/2011
It’s hard to even imagine to what extent the initial volume of The Book of Zohar superseded that which is left available to us today. It is about 20 times smaller. The majority of the Book is gone. But Kabbalists write that we don’t need more. The remainder of the Book is designated specifically for us, in order to provide us with the necessary assistance.
It is very difficult to discuss The Book of Zohar since it is supremely exalted. Besides, it is written in a very unique manner. Baal HaSulam explains that there are two types of souls: some root in the Inner Light and the others in the Surrounding one.
We reside in the integral system of souls, and the connection between us runs both in the internal stream between the souls and also in the surrounding field. Any electrical system is designed this way, having resistors (resistance circuits), capacitors, and inductor coils. All of this works together, both electromagnetic fields and the resistors between them. Some parts of this system accumulate energy within them, while the others turn the electrical current into a magnetic field and vice versa, the field into electrical current that runs inside it.
The system of souls works in a similar manner. The authors of The Book of Zohar also had to have these two types of souls. This is why they studied in a very specific fashion. They sat in a circle. Rabbi Shimon would talk about what he was attaining, while all his disciples were listening, discussing what he would reveal, asking him questions, and receiving answers. Rabbi Aba would hear what they were saying and write it down.
All of this was occurring during the conversation. Naturally, the conversation essentially lay in the transmission of the forces and Lights between these souls that originated in both Inner and Surrounding Lights. Rabbi Shimon had a soul coming from the Inner Light, and Rabbi Aba from the Surrounding one. Hence, Rabbi Aba was able to record everything Rabbi Shimon said in a concealed form so that today any person can buy The Book of Zohar, read it, and understand nothing.
To attain this Book, a person must undergo a certain preparation in connection with the friends. They have to form the same exact model of relationships between them as the authors of The Zohar did. Organizing such a group (it is not mandatory to have only ten people in it; there could even be 10,000) and striving to unify and wishing to discover what the Book is talking about in their mutual connection, they become similar to Rabbi Shimon’s group. And then they receive the influence of Light from it.
Since some of us belong in the Inner Light and some in the Surrounding one, we begin receiving the impact like a radio receiving waves. Then we start hearing what the Book is saying, at the rung of Bina (hearing is the level of Bina) and even seeing (at the level of Hochma), depending upon our spiritual degree. And if we haven’t reached mutual connection at the level of Bina, then we are still preparing for it.
Therefore, a sign of spiritual advancement is when we, as a group, while reading The Zohar, start sensing this text as the same forces and properties The Zohar is describing. This is the essence of the Book itself. This book is an instructor, a working manual. When penetrating it, a person feels how he rises with this book and discovers spiritual degrees, as if he is ascending a ladder indeed.
I very much hope that during our lessons when we start reading The Book of Zohar, you all together will keep the right intention in order to gain as much as possible from this source.
[39994]
From Lesson 4, WE! Convention 4/2/2011
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The higher the frequency at which we make our choice, again and again, in favor of the point in the heart, in favor of unity, the faster is our path. When we get together at large conventions and become included in one another with our desires, then I perform one action and all the others perform a multitude of other actions which join mine. If I remained alone, I would never complete this work!
However, the Creator helps us. He divided the huge desire He created into many parts. When each part carries out its work, it adds that work to everyone else.
It turns out that if there are say 800 of us, and over the course of several days at a convention each of us makes 100 actions, then it will turn out that each one made 80,000 actions. That’s because we are all connected together! And besides the people present in the convention hall, there are many more friends all over the world who join our broadcasts.
Before coming to teach this lesson, I received letters and greetings from Moscow, St. Petersburg, Israel, Germany, and many other places. Look at how many people have gathered at our centers worldwide. Right now on the screen we see Tel Aviv, the Galilee, Rehovot, Minsk, Columbia, Donetsk, Tbilisi, Chile, Odessa, Beer Sheba, Haifa, Ashkelon, Hadera, and many more.
There are many of us and if we use the days of the convention correctly, then we will leap onto the next level and will possibly realize the law that is called, “He made efforts and found!” This can happen. It all depends on us.
If a large amount of people join us and each person includes everyone, then each person receives a sufficient force. We have worked on our unity very well and have thus acquired knowledge. We studied and prepared for the whole year, constantly discussing that there is only “we,” that we are together, and that the spiritual world becomes revealed only in the connection among us. So let us hope that we will be able to implement that unity.
From the 1st lesson at the WE! Convention on 4/1/11
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One of the laws of working in the group is very peculiar and seemingly extremely egoistic: We must cultivate envy within ourselves. It is said: “Counters envy, increases wisdom.”
I should envy all my friends but with a “good” kind of envy. I wish to see them all as great and to be like them. I am not “green with envy” as I don’t wish for them to lose their advantages. On the contrary, I wish to become their equal.
Such envy is quite positive and necessary. It is worth cultivating it within. Essentially, a similar approach is acceptable to our egoism—just don’t overstep the boundary between the good and the bad envy. How do I know the difference?
If I envy someone negatively, I don’t love that person. And the other way around: When I have a positive envy, I love them. Envying another in a good way helps me to ascend and advance since I perceive his influence correctly.
In Writings of Rabash, Shlavey HaSulam (Steps of the Ladder), article “Concerning Above Reason,” Rabash writes:
"Envy that he feels toward the friends when he sees that they have better qualities than his own. It motivates him to acquire their good qualities, which he doesn’t have and of which he is jealous.
Thus, through the society, he gains new qualities that he adopts by seeing that they are at a higher degree than his, and he is envious of them. This is the reason why now he can be greater than when he didn’t have a society since he acquires new powers through the society."
Looking at the friends, one should try to see the good qualities in them that one is lacking. It is a very good test. Obviously, we don’t look at what is on the outside. One is good at singing, another at cooking, another at programming, but we don’t take such things into account. The key is to see how much heart the friend puts into the goal and environment. He wants to attain spirituality, and that is what I should feel envy for.
If I see it in all of the friends, I advance toward entering the spiritual world. Start testing yourselves: How do you feel about the environment? Do you envy the friends in a positive way? Do you value them? If yes, you are moving forth.
If, however, you haven’t yet lost your despise for them and still think that these are not the friends to unify with, you are quite far from the goal. Everyone denies according to one’s own flaw. Rabash writes about it in another article in Shlavey HaSulam, “Concerning the Importance of the Friends”:
"Hence, if one sees some fault in one’s friend, it is not a sign that his friend is at fault, but that the fault is in him, meaning that because he flawed the love of friends, he sees faults in his friend. It follows from all the above that he should not care for the correction of his friend’s faults which he sees in his friend, but he himself needs to correct the flaw he has created in the love of friends. And when he corrects himself, he will see only his friend’s merits and not his faults."
[40005]
From Lesson 5, WE! Convention 4/2/2011
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The Book of Zohar – Selections, Chapter “Yitro (Jethro),” Item 544, Lesson 13
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Topic: Preparation to Going Out From Egypt, Lesson 1
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There are books written by regular people about sensations in this world. And there are books written by Kabbalists, people who attain the upper world and write about their sensations in spirituality.
These books are called special, sacred books. Sacred (Kadosh) literally translates “separate.” The spiritual world is completely separated from our egoism; therefore, a person who is describing it from his sensations is writing a sacred book: special or separated.
There is one special book out of all the books written throughout history by people with spiritual attainment. In Kabalistic sources it is simply referred to as The Book, with no mention of its name “The Zohar.” This book is so unique that in relation to it other books aren’t even considered a book. This is because it was written by a special group of people who attained all ten of the highest Sefirot in Malchut of the world of Infinity.
The special meeting of these ten individuals occurred approximately 2000 years ago. Nine students along with their teacher Rabbi Shimon retired to a cave in the North of Israel. They stayed there and studied.
This cave is a very special place. When my teacher Rabash and I would go to Tiberias, we often visited this cave. Rabash really loved to be there. He would stand for a few minutes, and it looked like he was somewhere else, as if he left his body. That’s the extent to which he connected to the spiritual force of the ten Sefirot, the ten souls that sat in this cave while revealing the world of Infinity.
By connecting together they attained all 125 spiritual levels, from our world to the world of Infinity. Baal HaSulam writes in the “Introduction to The Book of Zohar” that such a high level of attainment by a group of people occurred only once in the entire history because they united and studied together.
Only in the final correction (Gmar Tikkun) will we be able to attain the same level that was attained by this group, and we’ll be able to do so thanks to their unification. They wrote in The Book of Zohar how they were able to unite, what happened as a result, and what was revealed in the connection between them. Therein lies the whole power of The Book of Zohar.
And clearly this Book can give us the greatest force of correction for our souls. That’s why this Book is so important.
[39874]
From Lesson 2, WE! Convention 4/2/2011
Question: Can women disseminate Kabbalah through music and singing like the men do?
Answer: As the world continues to advance toward spirituality, there will be less difference between men and women. We see that greater equality in spirituality is founded in nature—after all, we’re now approaching unity.
Why was the aspiration to the equality of men and women suddenly revealed in the 20th century? This is because nature is leading us toward unity, and in unity we’re equal. For now it’s happening on the material level, until we begin rising to the spiritual level.
We have to preserve the male and female qualities, which is something we are unable to do in our world. We shouldn’t get confused in thinking that our qualities are equal, but instead see their uniqueness. If we fail to see this difference, we won’t be able to create a correct connection.
Nature is distinctly divided into two sexes and we can’t obscure or overlook this fact. We should only find the correct connection, as the wisdom of Kabbalah explains.
In our everyday life we don’t know how to do this. Therefore, we make so many foolish mistakes that cause families to fall apart, and each person goes where ever they want. But with time, we begin to draw conclusions from these mistakes.
In spirituality we have a precise methodology: The women’s desire has to push the men. The women take part in studying and dissemination. Moreover, a woman’s part in dissemination is greater than that of a man because dissemination resembles birth, meaning that it is inherent specifically to a woman.
Possibly the men execute more, whereas the women do more preparation work. The woman prepares while the man goes out hunting or to discover new continents, and so on. He does this so that he could bring it back to the woman and create a new life.
This is why both men and women must participate in the circulation of Kabbalah. I can’t even imagine how we could exist and present ourselves today without the women. There are many women helping me with work and their help is more significant than that of men. I depend on women much more than on men. This is a force that’s more dedicated, consistent, and irreplaceable.
If I see that women are involved in something, I’m confident in the result. But if only men are involved, it’s questionable! However, this isn’t anyone’s fault or merit; these are simply parts that need to complement one another. A man is always in search of something new; therefore, he isn’t consistent. A woman is more stable, which hinders her personal development. But by uniting together we make it work.
[39747]
From Lesson 2, WE! Convention 4/2/2011
Question: How can I be sure in each given moment that I’m advancing correctly in my Kabbalah study and that I didn’t fall off the path?
Answer: Each moment I have to choose between egoism and the point in the heart, as if I’m on a balanced scale. And each time I have to tip the scale toward the point in the heart and unity. There is no other action besides uniting.
Usually we want to study and carry out various actions. By doing so we’re subconsciously running away from uniting. I experienced this myself. It took a long time for me to start hearing this.
I loved to study, organize the material, and convert it into a methodical system. I did everything imaginable accept for working on unity. The sooner we begin to feel that uniting is our duty and become used to delving into this perception, the sooner this habit will become second nature.
We must constantly train ourselves to want to feel the inner world of our friends, their aspiration toward unity and the Creator. If my aim is within them, I stop noticing what they look like on the outside.
After all, in our own families we don’t pay close attention to the faces of our loved ones. We feel their souls, character, and mood. Similarly, I have to constantly try to feel the friend’s desires aimed at the same goal that I aspire towards. This is the desire I wish to connect with.
It really doesn’t matter what the friends look like and what their personalities are like. I only care about one thing: What is their aspiration? This is most difficult for men, and precisely here lies the essence of their work. For women it is easier to switch to this perception because they pay less attention to the external appearance.
[39776]
From Lesson 2, WE! Convention 4/2/2011
Daily Audio Version-MP3
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