Education and Attainment in Kabbalah
When we begin to study the wisdom of Kabbalah, at first, we do not understand the inner meaning of each word, nor do we reveal the upper force that stands behind it. But gradually, we begin to uncover deeper meaning.
That is, I am no longer simply reading a word, but I start to feel and reveal the spiritual object that stands behind it, gradually emerging as if from a fog.
This is how we slowly reach spiritual attainment. It turns out that there are two stages: education and attainment. Education means that we are studying, but have not yet attained, we are only approaching the meaning. And later, we begin to truly attain it.
The point is that attainment does not depend on how well a person has studied or how thoroughly they know everything written in the book. That is not important at all. What matters most is that one corrects one’s egoistic quality and transforms it from reception to bestowal, to love for others.
It may even happen that one is not very knowledgeable about the material, not particularly clever. But if they have corrected their attitude toward others, then within this corrected relationship they will sense spiritual concepts and attain them.
Question: How can I study if I cannot rely on my own mind, do not understand the meaning of what is written, and have never experienced spiritual attainment? For example, if I were learning Chinese, I would learn new words every day and gradually begin to understand what is written.
Answer: That is because, in the case of Chinese, you are dealing with a reality that you perceive. But Kabbalah speaks of a reality that you do not yet feel. Therefore, you can read these books for a thousand years and still not understand what they are talking about.
The whole question is: How can one attain the sensation of what one is reading about?
And this sensation is possible only on the condition that we acquire the quality of bestowal in addition to the quality of reception we were born with. We spend our entire lives developing these inborn receiving qualities, learning more and more about how to receive. All our thoughts in this world are only about how to obtain as much benefit as possible and avoid harm.
But now we need to unite with other people and start working for them, caring about giving them what benefits them and protecting them from harm, as if they were our own babies. However, when it comes to our own babies, we are driven by instinctive, natural love, the kind that parents in this world naturally possess. But regarding other people, we must develop such an attitude in opposition to our egoism and against its resistance. And this is not simple at all.
Yet, if we succeed in doing this, we will build a connection on a new level, above rejection. Below remains egoism, aversion to others, separation, but above all that, I build a connection with them.
Then between the minus below and the plus above, we create various forms of connection within which circulation begins and a new force emerges, a force called the upper force.
[180870]
From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/14/16, Writings of Baal HaSulam
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