Audio Version Of The Blog – 12/14/24
Posted on December 14th, 2024 at 10:55 pm
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Talks about the Steps of the Ladder, Part 26
When Do the Middle and Outer Desires Reveal Themselves?
The relationship between the middle and outer desires, and how we relate to these two desires, is key. Sometimes the middle desire is revealed, and then we clearly see who we are. This happens, say, during a descent, at a moment when we suddenly look at ourselves and what we see shocks us. At that point, the middle desires surface. The outer desires are exposed during an ascent when the upper light acts upon us and we see who we would like to be, seemingly detached from the middle desire.
If we can evaluate both desires together, we can reflect on them and consider where they stand in relation to these two types of desires or assess their attitude toward them from a detached state.
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Question: If the intention is hidden from me and I am always inclined to justify myself, how can I delve deeper into my intention?
Answer: If you always want to justify yourself, you will not be able to delve deeper into the intention. To achieve this, a great power from above is needed that would tear you away from your egoism, and then in a neutral state you will be able to understand what the Creator requires of you.
Question: How can we do it? After all, if the intention is hidden from me, I do not know what I am delving into. Maybe I am going in the wrong direction.
Answer: This can only be done by the power of prayer.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 11/28/24, Writings of Baal HaSulam A Speech for the Completion of The Zohar
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We live in a transitional period, from a state of hibernation of humanity to the aspiration to the Creator, that is, to the revelation of the meaning of life.
The revelation of the meaning of life is also just a transitional process where we must rise to the next new state. The transition begins when we start questioning what the meaning of life is: “Why do we need all this? For what?”
The nature of our life, no matter how hard we try, and we really do try very hard, shows us that it is useless and meaningless. As a result, people get detached from the surrounding world; people replace their pleasures with drugs, the most universal means of calming oneself and turning oneself into a plant. After all, this is better than suffering: switch off and that is it.
But since the plan of nature surrounds us and embraces us on all sides, we are inside the system, and escaping from life by using drugs will not help us at all. That is why humanity is trying many ways to somehow calm itself down.
Look at what is happening in the world, what transformations are taking place everywhere, entire nations are moving from one place to another, Europe is filled with refugees.
And this is not the same migration that happened a thousand years ago when the peoples of Asia began to move to Europe. Now this is a very serious process, a process of intermixing; people still must answer the question about the sense of life and admit that there is no meaning to existence at our level.
What can we do? We need to reveal Kabbalah and explain to them that there is a meaning to life; it is in the transition of a person to the next level. Man, “Adam” in Hebrew, is from the word “domeh,” which means “like the Creator.”
They must know that there is a method that is specifically created for us; our progress and development should raise us to the next level. After all, the next level must manifest in us, if not in this lifetime, then in the next. Our next life cycles will still force us to reach the level of similarity to the Creator.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 9/2/19, “Questions and Answers”
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The wicked are wiped out of Dumah’s book because he takes into the calculation only from the middle line, where the wicked are not included. And who will desire them at the revival of the dead? During the revival of the dead, the angel Matat will receive the account in writing from the graveyards from Dumah. But who will desire those wicked ones that are not counted by Dumah for the revival of the dead? (Rashbi, Zohar for All, Vol. 3, Chayei Sara, And Dumah Rises and Calculates, p.12)
Question: This text can confuse a person because how will a person perceive such words as “dead” or “cemeteries”? It is just scary.
Answer: You must understand that The Zohar is written in the “language of branches,” like most Kabbalistic books.
This is a method of transmitting knowledge and, most importantly, impressions to us in order to attract the light of correction from the spiritual world, that is, from our corrected state.
We are not talking about physical bodies or our material world—we do not need to correct our arms and legs (a regular doctor should treat them).
The Zohar speaks about the correction of the soul. Therefore, although it uses the words of this world, they all point to spiritual concepts, that is, to our inner forces and qualities.
It is these properties that I want to explore now to understand what is uncorrected in me, what needs to be changed, and what I should wish to correct. This is the purpose of the book.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/8/10, Zohar for All, “Chayei Sara [The Life of Sarah]”
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Question: What does it mean in practice to ask the Creator to make the right choice for us every time? How can we hear the response of the Creator?
Answer: Ask, it does not matter how—cry out, sing; the main thing is to address Him. Then He will surely fulfill your request, and quickly.
Question: What inner state allows a person to recognize what the good inclination is?
Answer: We can recognize it only if we rise to the degree of bestowal.
Question: How can one become a person capable of making the right choice?
Answer: This happens when we unite and ask the Creator to make the right choice for us.
Question: How can we sense the inner struggle of the two inclinations, good and evil, in our friends, and how can we help them direct it correctly?
Answer: You must feel this yourselves, both within yourself and within the group.
Question: What is the difference between the revelation of egoism and attainment?
Answer: The revelation of egoism creates the conditions for attainment. Everything we attain, we attain through the revealed egoism.
Question: How can we ensure that the seed of the good inclination grows stronger than the evil inclination?
Answer: Develop it and nurture it with good deeds.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 11/28/24, Writings of Rabash “And Isaac Was Forty Years Old”
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Talks about the Steps of the Ladder, Part 25
What Layer of the Heart Is the “Self” of a Person In?
The “self” does not reside on the external level, as on this level we only guess what we want to become. By looking inward, deep into our heart, we see what we genuinely want to become. Therefore, the external desire stems from engaging with books and authors. The books tell us that we have a very deep inner desire, a desire that we do not feel. In this inner desire is the “stony heart” or “there is none else besides Him”—the front and back of the same hidden aspect that is beyond our reach. In this inner desire lies the true “self,” which is present at both the beginning and end of correction. However, we cannot access it, neither in feeling nor knowledge. We can only reach the middle and outer desires.
Thus, what determines our level is our approach to the gap between the middle desire, which is the real desire at the level we are on, and the outer desire, the level we aspire to reach. The outer desire constantly changes as we imagine a different level to which we aspire each time. Eventually, however, the outer desire should yearn to be a copy of the Creator, so that we wish to resemble Him. This desire comes from books and authors.
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There is no blessing greater than if one’s deficiencies are taken from him (Rabash, Assorted Notes, 820, “The Discernment of ‘In Everything’”).
Question: Why is it a blessing when there is no Hisaron?
Answer: The absence of Hisaron may not be because it does not manifest, but simply because the Creator does not require anything from a person.
“Requires nothing” can be a positive property and can be a negative one. Therefore we are always faced with the need to find out what condition a person is in.
To make the presence of Hisaron a blessing, you need to combine the desire to receive with the ability to give.
Then you can direct yourself as you like, and your actions will always be similar to the Creator.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 11/19/24, Writings of Rabash “The Discernment of ‘In Everything’”
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Question: If the main thing is to attract the light, why do we analyze the structure of the worlds described in TES in such detail in the lesson?
Answer: We do not aim to analyze the detailed structure of the worlds; we only try to gather some details to participate in what Kabbalists tell us.
But when studying TES, like all else, we first have to think about the soul, where all the elements I read about exist and all phenomena occur.
Kabbalists, who have discovered the quality of bestowal within themselves, analyze what actions can be performed in it and write about it. Apart from this, there is nothing, either we are in an imaginary reality of this world, which does not exist and then disappears, that we live in as in a dream, or we reach the genuine reality of bestowal, the reality of the Creator.
After all, there is “None else besides Him,” and if something exists, it is only there. TES tells us how this true reality is revealed to us within our desires.
To the extent I enter into this reality and discover it acting in me, to the extent I join and identify myself with it, I can write about it as a Kabbalist. And other Kabbalists do the same. That is, we all write about the same connection with the eternal upper light and what we reveal in it from our black point of creation, a point out of nothing.
When I reach contact with the light, similarity with it, I feel different phenomena beginning to occur in me, manifesting in me from top to bottom (the light of Hochma) or in width (the light of Hasadim). These phenomena give rise to all sorts of feelings in me; I describe them since I have the opportunity to express them in words and sounds.
But all our impressions come from that black point that encounters the light and becomes like the light. This is the whole science of Kabbalah—the revelation of light inside the black point of creation.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/12/11, TES, Vol. 6, Part 15, p.40
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