Whether a person is in a state of descent or ascent depends on how he evaluates his condition, either according to the actual spiritual reality or according to his own attitude toward that state. For example, I forget where I am and begin recalling how yesterday I played cards with my friends, drank beer, and felt good and happy. At that moment, I considered that time to have been an ascent.

Then suddenly I “wake up” and ask myself: “What am I thinking about right now? Where am I? What am I immersed in?” At that point, I begin to realize that this is actually a descent. In reality, we can determine whether we are in an ascent or a descent only in relation to the surrounding light. If we truly want to evaluate where we are, this is the only criterion.

A person may be sitting here in a chair, yet inwardly be traveling around the world. As it is rightly said: “A person is where his thoughts are.”

But we are speaking about a situation in which, for example, a person is completely immersed in the study, yet torments himself inwardly, and that is not the right thought. Or he is thinking about matters connected with his activities in the group, and that is not it either. During the study, he should feel himself and the entire group connected to the Creator through the material they are studying. That is truly the state toward which one should aspire.
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From Daily Kabbalah Lesson on 7/7/26, Rabash, Article 28, 1991 “What Are Holiness and Purity, in the Work?”

Related Material:
The Measure of Ascents and Descents
Spiritual Descent or Ascent?
Descent Is Disconnection from the Creator

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