“What Is The First Step In Terms Of Enlightenment?” (Quora)

Dr. Michael LaitmanMichael Laitman, On Quora: What is the first step in terms of enlightenment?

As a background, the study of the wisdom of Kabbalah is a research of our spiritual enlightenment all the way to full spiritual attainment. It explores our thoughts, desires and the reality we attain in our senses. Below spiritual attainment, we also undergo degrees of attainment in our world. During our spiritual preparation period in this world, we start learning and understanding the connections between spiritual objects, however such understanding is incomparable to the sensation of spiritual attainment.

Kabbalists name spiritual degrees after having attained them. If we only partially attain a degree, it is considered that we are its “son,” which is why we are called “Bnei Adam” (“the sons of Adam,” which in Hebrew is the term for “human beings”), since we are all parts of the degree called “Adam,” and our goal is to fully attain that degree—the root of our soul.

When we rise to a spiritual degree, we feel what transpires in it, attain its qualities, and perceive and sense the Creator according to that degree. With further spiritual ascent, what we perceived in the previous degrees will also change.

It is important to understand that only our perception and sensation changes in this entire process. It is not that each of the 125 spiritual degrees are each playing a different film. However, there is a simple upper light that fills reality, and by attaining certain spiritual qualities, we feel part of that light, which we call a “world.” We can also feel a tiny part of that light in our inborn egoistic qualities, and we call it “this world” or “our world.”

From the level of our world, our spiritual awakening takes place when we receive, as is written, the “posterior of the holy soul,” meaning the final and lowest degree of the soul, referred to as a “point.” This point becomes inserted into our hearts, i.e., into our desire to receive, or in other words, amid the human ego.

Without the point in the heart, we would remain as animals, i.e., our desires would not aspire outside our world. The point in the heart, i.e., the beginning of spirituality, is the initial spiritual awakening we get to potentially elevate us above the animate degree into spirituality.

The process of growing the point in the heart through which we attain spirituality is called the process of building what Kabbalah calls a spiritual Partzuf. All of our spiritual attainments take place in this Partzuf. We can identify whether we have a point in the heart if we find ourselves asking about the meaning and purpose of life, why is there suffering in the world, what is reality, where are we from, where are we now, and where are we headed, who are we, and other related existential questions. The wisdom of Kabbalah was made in order to answer these questions by providing us with a method for spiritual attainment, where we receive the answers as a clear perception and sensation of the spiritual reality in a series of stages.

Written/edited by students of Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman.

The Influence Of Kabbalistic Books

260.02Question: What influence do Kabbalistic books have on us?

Answer: A positive influence. First, they tell a person what one lives in, what is happening in it, why this world is spinning around us, and what influence we can have on it.

We begin to understand how we can change the world and our existence in it with the help of certain actions, how much the laws of nature are adapted for us to use them, and to what extent  people can adapt themselves to the correct application of these laws.

In general, Kabbalah is the science of the correct connection of man with nature.

Question: Does a person feel this influence on himself?

Answer: Kabbalah leads one precisely to a sensory and rational perception so that with the help of both mind and feelings a person would correctly direct the influence on changing his nature.

Is it possible to feel this through a book?

Answer: Not just to feel. The book guides him, explains how to do it. The correct application of Kabbalah should change a person’s entire destiny.

Question: If he knew that, he would probably only read these books, right?

Answer: Yes. However, here everything depends on the strength of the desire. It is not like you pick up a book, open it, and suddenly, like in Harry Potter, everything changes and lights up. No.

Yet, if a person desires, then by changing himself, he changes the influence of the surrounding world on himself.
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From KabTV’s “Questions about Kabbalistic Books” 10/22/19

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The Path To Absolute Freedom

537Question: Does man remain free by acquiring the nature of the Creator? It is written that he becomes a slave of the Creator.

Answer: This is written to show us to what extent we enter a different state. By acquiring the property of bestowal and love, the property of mutual connection with each other, through this property of absolute mutual support, connection, and obligations, we sign a completely different social contract: “Love your neighbor as yourself.”

Everyone must achieve this state. By doing it, we begin to feel absolute freedom. It seems a paradox, by choosing the principle of not being free, man enters absolute freedom.

Our egoism is purposely created in such a way that it pushes us to the necessity to reach connection with others so that we in practice “love our neighbor.”

Man is not free, and the evil inclination is his nature. The only free choice that he has from the point of view of Kabbalah is to grasp this and to want to rise above his nature, which is identical to the attainment of the Creator.
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From KabTV’s “Spiritual States” 4/29/19

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Daily Kabbalah Lesson – 2/18/21

Preparation to the Lesson

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Lesson on the Topic of “Prayer” 

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Selected Highlights

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