Happiness is the fulfillment of a person’s deepest desires. As a rule, it arises in contrast to a sense of dissatisfaction.

For example: hunger brings pleasure from food, separation leads to joy of reunion with a loved one, and so on. In other words, we are built in such a way that we can only experience the positive through the negative.

This raises the question: “Should we even strive for happiness if we must first go through suffering to later feel happy?”

The fact is that the Kabbalistic method allows a person to experience happiness simultaneously with the feeling of lack. That is, at the moment I taste something, I feel both longing for that taste and its fulfillment.

I do not have to separate this in time, first suffering and then receiving. This is why for people engaged in spiritual practice, there is no question of time. They exist beyond it, simultaneously experiencing states of suffering and fulfillment, hunger and satiation.

This is what the wisdom of Kabbalah is: the wisdom of receiving! It teaches a person to receive what is desired, not in a month or a year, but at the very moment of desire. At the same time, two seemingly opposite states, minus and plus, coexist in harmony.

In our world, this does not exist. Here, there is one big minus, and we almost never receive the plus. But according to the Kabbalistic method, the very act of receiving pleasure awakens in us both the desire for it and its fulfillment.

Question: But how can we achieve this? How can we truly become happy in this world?

Answer: This is possible only when I am fulfilled, not independently, but through others. This is the patent for happiness, because I can never truly fulfill myself. However, if I feel and absorb the desires of others, then by fulfilling them, I fulfill myself, since their desires become mine. It turns out that I fulfill myself by existing in others.

The secret is that I step outside of myself, discover desires beyond me, accept them as my own, and fulfill them. That is, both the desire and its fulfillment exist outside of me, but this is precisely what constitutes my soul.

Question: Does this mean we also fulfill a person’s corporeal desires?

Answer: We satisfy all of a person’s desires but only to a certain extent. Corporeal desires are fulfilled only to the degree necessary for existence and no more. But spiritual desires are fulfilled to the extent that we strive to rise together, since my ascent and his ascent are interconnected and complement each other.

Thus, fulfilling the desires of others gives us a sense of happiness.
[147499]
From KabTV’s “Short Stories” 10/22/14, Part 2

Related Material:
What Is Happiness?
Find The Formula For Happiness
A Never-Ending Flow Of Pleasure

Filed under: Body and Soul, Children, Education, Kabbalah Study | Add Comment →