Shamati #61 “Round About Him It Stormeth Mightily”
Download: WMV Video|MP3 Audio
The Book of Zohar – Selected, Chapter “Truma (Donation) 2,” “The Stars,” Item 831, Lesson 36
Download: WMV Video|MP3 Audio
Kabbalah for the Student, “General Preface” “(start with: “From the above-mentioned…”), Item 3, Lesson 5
Download: WMV Video|MP3 Audio
Writings of Baal HaSulam, “One Commandment”
Download: WMV Video|MP3 Audio
Thanks to our Kabbalah studies, we finally understand that the Creator performed, performs, and will perform all actions. And all that is asked of us is a request that constitutes our freedom of choice. That is, we have to want the Creator to correct us.
Everything that the Creator did with us before did not require our consent; we obeyed the direct order of our nature, and thus we had nothing to ask. We simply followed our natural instinct, satisfying our growing desire in all its manifestations. However, in order to give us an opportunity to develop on our own, to acquire self-knowledge, and to reveal the Creator and His actions, at a certain moment, the Creator begins to act against our nature.
This turning point occurs in our generation. The Creator does not follow us, pushing us forward, but stands in front of us and demands that we get closer to Him by our own will. In fact, this is our job: to mobilize within ourselves forces, desires, and the understanding that we must come closer to Him. And we cannot do that ourselves; we can only request, demand from Him that He brings us closer.
To do this, we need to come and work together to discover within ourselves the desire for mutual bestowal. We must recreate within ourselves the desired form of the Creator, the perfect property of bestowal. We have to aspire within our group to achieve such relationships between us that the force, existing there in concealment, becomes revealed. This means to reveal the Creator, to know Him, in order to cleave to Him.
Then, we will advance and govern ourselves. But just as before we unquestionably obeyed our egoistic desire without even thinking about it, so now we want to obey the Creator with the same devotion. After all the issues, challenges, and scrutiny, in spite of our objections and resistance, we want to be fully managed by Him and become His faithful workers, as it is said: “Love covers all sins.”
And the key in this process is to find the point of addressing the Creator, the request to change and correct ourselves each time. We shouldn’t look within ourselves for the forces and means of becoming “righteous,” doing “good deeds.”
Clearly, it is impossible to reach true prayer at once, and we have to go through much scrutiny on the way to it. But the main obstacle is a person’s thoughts that he is the master of his actions and should correct himself and his environment by his own forces. He forgets that he is merely clay in the Master’s hands, and that “there is none else besides Him,” the only One who performed, performs, and will perform all actions. And our freedom of choice, given to us to get closer to perfect bestowal, is only to ask it from that property, that force, which will reign between us.
[49425]
From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 7/27/2011, Shamati #50
Related Material:
I Don’t Know What I Want, But I Want It!
If There Is No Answer, The Request Was False
Your Efforts Do Not Vanish Into Thin Air
We need to reach the revelation of the Creator, and this is why we were given the method of Kabbalah to come to this revelation through our various actions, exercises, and work, which is all of our efforts. The Creator is revealed to us as the property of bestowal and love, which is manifested within us, meaning in our desire to enjoy, our essence.
Because our egoistic material in its nature is completely opposite to the Creator, His bestowal, it is exactly the place to apply efforts so as to wish to receive the property opposite to your nature. There is no coercion in spirituality! As long as you do not wish for the property of bestowal to clothe in your desire, in your substance, and as long as you do not care for that substance, you work as the property that has clothed in it, according to the saying: “And darkness will shine as the light,” it will not happen.
So, we have to develop a true desire to bestow within us. And if we ignore this, missing the available moments and opportunities, then the states in which we were supposed to reveal the need for bestowal become disclosed as its absence, but in the opposite form showed in our egoism.
And if in my current state, I can not succeed and by my own free will yearn for bestowal, that is, I haven’t switched from the egoistic desire to the need to reach bestowal, to reveal the Creator, then the desire, which I had to turn into the request to the Creator, is revealed to me as sufferings. I did not realize this desire correctly, did not work on it, and did not turn it into a prayer by my efforts. This happens to us at our every step.
It turns out that our only work is to replace our egoistic needs with the aspiration for bestowal. The main thing is to obtain this desire and all the remaining corrections will come from Above. Each time this desire is disclosed, it should be scrutinized at all four phases. When through my efforts, I reach the fourth phase, I then realize this desire and understand what it means, what I want from it, and how I can implement it. I connect in it with the Creator and make a request for Him to perform this work on my desire.
That is, when I come to the fourth phase of my work on my desire, I become able to raise the “Reflected Light” (MAN) out of it up to Keter. And if I reach such a request, this means that my desire was correct, it was scrutinized.
And all the prior requests were deceitful and false because the need for bestowal and a true desire for it were not revealed to their full depth in them. The connection with the upper force did not appear there to request only one thing: the revelation of the property of bestowal within me. Namely, it is called the revelation of the Creator by the creatures, and not various fantasies in which people imagine the Creator as a force existing outside of us.
[49318]
From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 7/26/2011, Shamati #213
Related Material:
I don’t Know What I want, But I Want It!
Use Your Mind To Bestow
Give My Desires Back To Me
Baal HaSulam, The Study of the Ten Sefirot, Part 1, “Table of Questions and Answers for Topics”: Question 102: What are Sefirot de Igulim? When there is no differentiation of above and below among the four Behinot (phases) in the Ratzon (desire), they are regarded as four Igulim (spheres, circles), one within the other, like onion skins.
In the very beginning, in the Light of Infinity, there were no differences between above and below, due to the absolute authority of the upper force which ruled over the desire to receive completely equally. But having made the restriction and the screen and having gone through the expansion of the worlds from Above downward and the return of the souls from below upward, the desire arrives at the state when it has multiple properties, differences, and peculiarities, all of which become enclosed in an integral system. And hence, no difference between them remains.
This means that in the very beginning, in the world of Infinity in State 1, desire was “round” (Igulim), as it is in the very end, in State 3. But in the beginning, desire didn’t have distinctions since they were invisible and everything looked the same.
In the very end, at the final correction (Gmar Tikkun), there are no differences either. Having revealed in this desire enormous number of properties, varieties, and details, we bind them all together into one integral system where every element is as vital as the entire system. And hence, there are no differences between them!
This is another type of “circles” (Igulim) which contain great number of “straight” ties (Yosher). But these straight connections reach a state when they lock into a circle.
[49223]
From the 3rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 7/25/2011, Talmud Eser Serifot
Related Material:
A Line That Leads To The Light
At The Center Of All Circles And At The End Of The Line
The Spinning Wheel Of Fortune
People still don’t understand that our salvation lies in unity. Unity is a real force, our shield and sword. We have to go forward with it.
Today, when protestors demonstrate, they are trying to break the government’s egoism with their egoism. I am not saying that the people are wrong to advance demands, but in the modern world this approach is no longer effective. Today the world is driven by a “round” force of a closed, integral system. When you enter this circle together with others, you become similar to the integral nature, and then you achieve success. If, however, you are not in the common circle, you bring destruction to yourself and others until everything falls apart completely.
Look at what is happening in the USA. The whole world is looking at Americans, but like little children, they are unable to reach an agreement about the national debt ceiling. The ceiling has already been raised several times, but suddenly it’s as if they are stuck, like something is blocking them. Everyone is pleading, “Raise it! Keep printing dollars, we need them. We will stockpile them like pickles in a barrel. After all, without them we simply don’t know how to live. Don’t deprive us of this green current since otherwise we will be left with nothing!”
But the Americans are unable to reach a decision because they have not taken on a “round” form. And the same problem will be expressed in every sphere. A country that was healthy and successful just yesterday is suddenly finding itself in a meltdown. Like a sand castle, once it reaches a certain height, it comes crumbling down, buried beneath its own weight.
From the 5th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 7/28/11, “The Peace”
[49560]
Related Material:
The Wind Of Change
The Urge To Unite
What Will It Take To Make The Simplest Person Realize That We’re All Interdependent?
Baal HaSulam, “The Peace”: I have come here to speak only through critique of empirical reason, beginning from the simple recognition no one disagrees with, through proving analytically, until we come to determining the uppermost topic. And it will be tested synthetically, how His work [bestowal] is confirmed and reaffirmed by simple recognition from the practical aspect.
Thus, based on our research, we have to realize that the only thing we need in life is bestowal to the neighbor. Everything that Kabbalah calls “the work of the Creator” and “love for the Creator and the creatures,” is expressed and realized by way of bestowal to the neighbor.
How can we make this clear? Where can we find the proof that this is exactly how we should live? Where can we take the strength to realize this principle? Why are we opposite to it by our nature? Why is this work hateful to us? And how can we nevertheless carry it out? After all, Baal HaSulam writes that it is necessary and obligatory. This means that experimental data has to show us facts that will obligate us to act accordingly.
In principle, this is what always happens. For example, a person is shown what kind of harm he causes himself by smoking. Specialists present this message to him so clearly and convincingly that he quits smoking even though he really wants to do it. That’s because he sees the harm with his own eyes and everyone supports him. Humanity really is fighting smoking, and if the producers weren’t pushing cigarettes “through the backdoor,” people would already have gotten rid of this habit by now, as well as anything else that causes real harm.
It’s even easier to achieve the necessary effect by using a positive influence, through something that brings benefit. If society publicly and demonstratively praises something, I will automatically aspire in the same direction. Children grow up with this value: It is the only thing of importance and we live for its sake.
It is possible to make us adopt the most diverse values, which is what in fact is happening to humanity. We are all different. Every person has his own religion, his own ideas and preferences, his own mentality, his own habits….
Therefore, with the help of research, we have to find a proof that won’t leave us any other possibility besides bestowal to the neighbor.
From the 5th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 7/28/11, “The Peace”
[49576]
Related Material:
Integrality, Penetrating To The Bones
In The Name Of Saving Lives
The Exactly Opposite Calculation
Question: What sentence can I write in front of me in capital letters so that every time I get distracted and my thoughts wander, I could come back to it and refocus again?
Answer: Imagine a state that is worth constantly aspiring to, and describe it so this sentence would immediately remind you that you perceive reality as divided and broken up into different parts only because you are inside of egoism.
As soon as you discard this view through your ego, everything becomes a single whole. It’s like you are looking at reality through a curtain that has small holes in it and what you see seems to be made up of separate parts. But then you remove this curtain from your eyes and all of reality turns out to be one.
From the 2dn part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 7/28/11, The Zohar
[49518]
Related Material:
The Inner Vision And The World Of Forces
The Point From Which One Enters The Spiritual World
Study With Happiness
Question: Why is it so important that there is no connection between my actions and the reward?
Answer: It’s because otherwise you won’t be able to achieve bestowal and exit your nature! You must demand the reward above your nature, beyond it, and build yourself in bestowal for the sake of bestowal (Hafetz Hesed), without demanding any compensation for your ego.
It is necessary to be in selfless bestowal, in pure Bina, above all the actions, even if within those actions and the matter in which you execute them, you still expect a reward. Indeed, it is completely impossible to carry out certain actions and not expect any reward for them, remaining above the egoistic calculation.
And this is why, due to the environment and by utilizing all the conditions, we reach a state when we demand of the Creator to give us this ability: to not demand the reward for ourselves. I don’t know how He will do it or what it is; I have no idea how I will execute these actions of bestowal, but I want to!
We are always developing this request within: from degree zero to the final, fourth one, at every phase, with every examination. This is how we advance until we reach the true demand which finally reveals this quality within us. And from that moment on we begin to understand what it’s like to be in bestowal—what a true miracle is like….
[49417]
From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 7/27/2011, Shamati #50
Related Material:
The Contours Of Inner Beauty
Where To Look For The Reward Of Bestowal
Make Us Desire
Shamati #218 “The Torah and the Creator Are One″
Download: WMV Video|MP3 Audio
The Book of Zohar – Selected, Chapter “Truma (Donation) 2,” “Man’s Nourishments Are as Hard as the Tearing of the Red,” Lesson 35
Download: WMV Video|MP3 Audio
Talmud Eser Sefirot Part 2, Item 2, Lesson 3
Download: WMV Video|MP3 Audio
Preface to the Wisdom of Kabbalah, Item 44, Lesson 28
Download: WMV Video|MP3 Audio
Rav Yehuda Ashlag “The Peace,” Lesson 2
Download: WMV Video|MP3 Audio
Question: What do we mean by “unity” when we speak to the world?
Answer: To unite according to the condition of mutual guarantee means to be as one man with one heart. In order to unite hearts into one, to unite all desires into one desire the way it was before the breaking of the vessels, we go through two stages.
In the first stage we neutralize the will to receive for the sake of reception and thereby carry out the condition of Hafetz Hesed, “Do not do to another what is hateful to yourself.” By virtue of this I no longer harm my neighbor. I no longer judge a person by how good or bad he is, how much I can use him, control him, and deceive him.
I no longer look for profit from the world. I simply don’t want anything. Once I attain the entire magnitude and guile of my evil, which pushes me to harm others at every second, I yearn to maximally minimize the use of my desires. I only ask for the things I cannot do without, the bare necessities, hoping that then I will attain the quality of bestowal.
I want to become a point, like Malchut that becomes included in Bina. Just one point. It’s as if I don’t exist. My “I” is included in Bina and devoted to it,like a drop of semen in a womb. For now I am just a drop that does not exist by virtue of itself, but on account of the upper one.
This is the first stage where our hearts are not united yet, but they also aren’t repelled from one another.
At the next stage they start coming closer, as it is written, “Love your neighbor as yourself.” With all of my heart (because I don’t have other instruments), I check the heart of the neighbor and see the extent to which I can fulfill him and receive from him. My heart works entirely to serve and fulfill his heart, and he treats me the same way. This is the unity of hearts that we attain by carrying out the principle of love for the neighbor as for ourselves, thereby becoming as one man with one heart.
[49468]
From the 5th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 7/27/11, “The Peace”
Related Material:
Escaping At Any Cost
Wake Up The Friends Inside Of You
Without Possibilities, But With A Choice
Daily Audio Version-MP3
Get the Weekly eNewsletter
Follow on Twitter
