Humanity is facing serious questions about the meaning of life and the essence of the governance of reality: Who are we, in what kind of world do we live, what is prepared for us, and can we influence our destiny?
Those who ask these questions fall into two categories: those who ask it from suffering and various troubles because they wish to escape them, and that is enough for them; and those in whom the question of the meaning of life remains and gnaws at them even after the suffering has subsided.
This question is called “a point in the heart” of the animate level from which grows what is later called “human.” The longing to attain the meaning of existence begins to be realized in people when they come to study the wisdom of Kabbalah.
But those who ask about the meaning of life only to satisfy their earthly needs, they eventually leave.
And those whose point in the heart, an informational hunger that demands to understand, to feel, to enter this system of governance, to know why, for what purpose, and how the entire reality exists, they remain because this point stems from the upper world, from the higher degree. They can no longer leave it and simply continue to exist in this world; no worldly pleasures can suppress it.
People see that studying Kabbalah elevates a person to the next level and requires one’s personal involvement in the governance of creation. It is not about miracles that allow one to spin the world or rule society, but about how to govern oneself, to bring oneself to a state in which one corresponds to all the categories and conditions of the upper world.
The system of governance, the upper world, is built on the quality of bestowal and love. These are not just words, because the system of all nature, all of creation, is one and completely closed; it exists in absolute integral interconnection of everything with everything. Every particle is strictly bound to all others, both the smallest and the greatest. The structure of this system is astonishing.
In our world, we cannot build such systems. Even in biology, living organisms resemble it in some aspects, but overall, they are very far from the perfection revealed in the governing system of the upper world at its highest degree.
Therefore, with our qualities called heart and mind, we must rise to this degree; that is, we must transform ourselves and absorb the integral qualities of the upper degree: the qualities of universal unity that are built precisely above our egoism, above that which separates, repels, and opposes us to one another. And first of all, we must study our egoistic nature, because we do not understand it at all.
It is revealed to us only slightly, on the small earthly level, while before us lies the revelation of what is called “49 impure gates,” 49 degrees of egoism.
In other words, now we reveal only the weakest, most superficial layer of egoism that we exist in. All the rest, the deeper, heavier egoistic qualities, lie beneath and will gradually be revealed over the course of study, but only to the extent that we advance toward integral unity.
If we try to resemble the upper degree, we will see how different we are from it. And then we will attempt to rise above this discrepancy, above the newly revealed layer of egoism toward similarity to the upper degree, toward mutual connection, unity, and mutual help. This is done in a group, so that the connection can be realized in practice and not merely declared verbally.
Using the method of connection within a group, we begin to feel how impossible it is to realize it not only in society at large, or within a nation, or all the more within the world, but even within a group. I increasingly feel how many calculations I have toward my friends, how I am annoyed by them, how I see various flaws in them, and how I try to keep my distance.
The closer we draw to each other, the more we reveal our true nature, and each time we feel ourselves as small, flawed beings unable to rise above ourselves and come closer together.
Even for such a reward as revealing the upper governance system, the upper world, understanding everything that happens to us, and sensing reality beyond earthly limitations beyond time, space, and movement, we still cannot do anything. No matter how much we persuade ourselves, we feel how our egoism does its dirty work and constantly throws us into petty calculations.
Nevertheless, being in a group gives us what a single person does not have: mutual help, which we must provide each other. We are obligated to do this even against our own desire.
Being in a state called “this world,” we are able to perform actions absolutely opposite to our inner desire. A person may be unpleasant to me, yet I smile at him. I may have no feelings toward a friend, yet I still make efforts to draw closer, to perform if not an inner emotional action, then at least some shared mechanical action, and so on.
That is, our world is wonderful because in it we can perform mechanical actions without feelings or intentions, and these actions will influence the upper system. This is our salvation!
Therefore, our world is separated from the system of the upper worlds and allows us to govern the upper world through physical actions. I may serve someone and thereby earn spiritual merits even if I have no particular inner feeling toward that person, toward a friend, for example.
But I want to attain such a feeling, and so I perform various gestures of attention, work in the group, prepare meals, participate in different activities without applying any internal effort.
I may not have strength or desire for inner work, but I can force myself to perform physical actions even though that too is difficult, and in this way, I advance.
The group is the only tool in our world that allows one, while working within it, to perform purely mechanical actions that are considered spiritual. Therefore, our ascent begins with joining the work of the group.
Kabbalists who attained the upper system discovered that it is structured as tens that further subdivide into tens, and so on to infinity. These tens are included in one another. Thus, the upper system is broken down into ten fundamental Sefirot (Sefira, from the word “Sapir”—radiating), ten sources of radiance of the upper light, the emanation of goodness in its various forms.
The first ten Sefirot are called “the Names of the Creator,” because this is how we reveal the general upper force that fills all of creation in Its first, highest revelation to us.
We do not feel the force itself; we can detect it only through the ten Sefirot, just as we detect electricity or a magnetic field or any physical force only by its effect on some physical object. Without such manifestation, we do not know whether it exists or not. We need an indicator that can perceive it.
All the Sefirot are so interconnected that we cannot imagine this perfectly complete integral picture. We cannot grasp it in our current state. Only if we change our inner qualities will we be able to enter the sensation of the integral idea, the integral influence, the integral phenomenon. This is the system of the upper degree—the spiritual world.
[183437]
From the World Kabbalah Convention in Moscow 5/2/16, Lesson 1
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At first, when a person begins to be taught, while still on the spiritual level referred to as “a woman, a slave, or a child,” they are told that it is worthwhile to work for the Creator out of fear (Rabash, Article 12 (1987), What Is Half a Shekel in the Work? – 1).
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