Freedom From Oneself – Laitman Unplugged
Posted on March 9th, 2014
Baal HaSulam, “Introduction to The Book of Zohar,” Item 17: Therefore, one must not wonder at how it was that the choice had been taken from us, since we must be completed and come to the third state, since it is already present in the first.
The first state and the third state are both wholeness, but we don’t exist in the first state yet, and we have no understanding, no feeling, and no self attainment. There is no human being (Adam) as such created and that stands out in his existence. He is still in theory, in the discernments that we still have yet to acquire.
It’s like a drop of semen that is not a human being yet. So where does he begin? We still don’t know when exactly an embryo in its mother’s womb can be called a human being that has a body and a life of its own. Perhaps it’s from the first division of one cell into two, or perhaps it’s the moment when the embryo begins to feel. But this doesn’t solve all the problems. Humanity is still very far from determining or defining what a free independent human being is. Yet, in the first phases of our existence in the world of Infinity we do not exist independently.
So when do we really begin to feel ourselves and become ourselves? Was it when we climbed down from the trees and evolved into a creature that is a bit more than an ape? Can we call this whole historic evolution the process of becoming a human being? The ego simply pushed us forward and demanded that we benefit at the expense of others. Did anyone really know what he was doing? If everyone is driven by the instincts of the desire to receive, where is the real us? In the meantime, we speak of creatures who are constantly operated by different factors. Yes, we suffer a little, but the pain itself is not a sign of independence yet.
The human being in us actually begins to develop from the point of connection, and even a little in the preparation for it. If we return to the example of the embryo: The father’s drop of semen enters the mother’s womb and adheres to the wall of the womb and begins to multiply due to the connection between mother and father. A common cell begins to develop between the whiteness of the father and the redness of the mother and this is a connection. The whiteness of the father is the Creator and the redness of the mother is the created being, and now there is contact between them.
Thus Bina works with Malchut and we have to accept this form of development. The moment I can annul myself and another can annul himself, we connect, or I can connect to the group, and that moment is the beginning of a human being in me.
Of course, everything is in the first state, in the world of Infinity, and we reach all that in practice in the third state. But the second state is the necessary middle state so we can have freewill, so that we will develop and understand what the secret of our development is. By going through the sequence of these states we learn about the system called the Creator, about His attributes and His actions. We learn about creation which is something we couldn’t do before.
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From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/6/14, Writings of Baal HaSulam
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Baal HaSulam, “The Freedom”: But as we have seen, it is a simple thing, and should be observed by each and every one of us. For although everyone has “his own source,” the forces are revealed openly only through the environment one is in. …
And so our sages warned, “Make for yourself a Rav, and buy for yourself a friend.” And there is also the choice of books, as we have mentioned, for only in that is one rebuked or praised—in his choice of environment. But once he has chosen the environment, he is at its hands as clay in the hands of the potter.
The possibility to choose the right environment is given only to those people who have the point in the heart. Indeed, they now have to develop to the degree of the human being (Adam), similar (Domeh) to the Creator. It is the people in whom this point has been awakened, the root of their soul, that receive the impulse to enter the correct environment. Then they have to decide for themselves whether they will do it or not.
This is the free choice between the desire to receive and the point, the “rudiment” of the desire to bestow, not it itself, but its opposite side. I can choose when I have these two “poles.” How? I strengthen myself in the correct environment. By this, I want to reinforce one factor as opposed to another.
But if I do not have the second point, if I am just the desire to receive, then it does not influence my “choice.” In this case, I pursue self-interest like a dog that sniffs something on the street; that’s all.
Question: But at the same time within the framework of integral education, we suggest that people create a better environment for themselves.
Answer: True, to create a better environment for their desire to receive, but not for the point in the heart. So that a person knows it is possible to improve his life in a common circle, in unity.
However, everyone has the point in the heart; it is inherent in every desire at this or that depth. It is said, “They will all know Me, from the least of them to the greatest.” That is why in organizing, gathering people, and bringing the Light that Reforms to them, we force the awakening of this point so that it begins to “surface.” And once a person, undergoes the integral method, he tells us that he wants to study the wisdom of Kabbalah. Why? He does not know himself; he just suddenly wants to.
Anyway, integral groups are not a Kabbalistic environment because they do not have the left line. We take care of them as one of our dependents, teaching them good relationships, sympathy, and unity but without internal disturbances from the side of egoism that “feels” what is coming. We speak about a more serious work in our environment.
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From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/4/13, Writings of Baal HaSulam
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Question: So when does a person come out of the desert if it is all up to the Creator’s desire?
Answer: Not everything is up to the Creator since if it were so, why should He have had to create all of creation? A person is given an element called freewill and by using it the created being determines that he is independent. This is the reason for all creation, only for this one point, for this discernment. All our work is to develop it and everything else doesn’t count at all, since everything is actually on the Creator’s account. The Creator plays with different conditions around us, but tries to raise the created being by that, so that he will be like Him.
So, on the one hand, the Creator controls each and every state, of course. On the other hand, His domination is up to a point in which we need to choose. The moment we reach that line and go through four phases of development, since every state has its own HaVaYaH, everything depends on our response, on whether we use all the means that we were given to grow stronger by the support of the group, which means, “he who chooses a better environment each time.”
We must grow stronger by the support of the group, to demand that the friends impress me more, and to penetrate them more deeply. If I do that it means that I have fulfilled my freewill and that I am worthy of advancing. So in the connection that is attained between us, I discover the system and understand it, understand myself together with the system as one whole. By the feeling of unity with the system, I actually get closer to the feeling of the Creator.
By bringing closer and connecting two opposites—the whole system and myself into one whole—I prepare myself to feel its discernments, which are all called the Creator. It is because the Creator is always revealed between two opposite points, being above them, the general connector from inside them.
I always have freewill! But if I don’t use it at the right moment, the force of nature, called that natural plan of evolution (in its time) begins to operate and arranges different conditions for me. Then I lose the freewill I had earlier and I already enter different conditions. This means that the Creator has removed a certain letter, an angel that was sent to me, and placed another letter instead, another tougher angel.
Then I advance according to a new pattern, in different frameworks. The Creator illuminates for me in a new pattern, a different letter, and then I am under the domination of a new Providence in which I also have to make my own free choices. This happens time after time.
Eventually, after all the letters, I have to reach the letter Bet which means a blessing. This means that I have to understand that I need the upper force to bring peace among us.
[121431]
From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson, 11/25/13, Writings of Rabash
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Question: How can I be sure that I will eventually succeed? Are there any guarantees?
Answer: This is called “faith in the sages.” But the one thing you can really trust is the Light of confidence that shines for a person to the extent that he reaches the attribute of bestowal. He doesn’t have it yet because the only means to attain it is through the incorporation in the environment.
But if I have already chosen an environment, that is a teacher and friends, a path, and a goal, I have to feel that it is what I want. I shouldn’t force myself. If I have a point in the heart and if I feel that this path is for me, I join the environment.
But after joining it I have to be incorporated in it with all my heart and soul. I cannot be in an environment that is totally plus (+) while I am totally minus (-). I will be thrown out of it. The Light that Reforms will influence me and I will be thrown out after a year, two years, or even five years; it makes no difference. We see how this happens. Then a person begins to hate us because he is not incorporated in the environment, in the group.
But just like you are influenced by the media in our world whether you like it or not, here too, when it comes to our spiritual development, you have to be under the influence of the environment. This is where we are given freewill, and so we have to make constant efforts. It has nothing to do with a person’s character but with the gentleness of the soul. If a person is lucky, he stays, and if he isn’t, he doesn’t stay, and is kicked out…
You are incorporated in the group and you are told: “Did you choose to be with us? Welcome, but you should know that there are certain conditions that you have to fulfill. If you agree you can stay, and if you don’t, then leave.” There are many such groups, parties, and movements; choose whatever you like, these are our conditions. We rely on the writings of Kabbalists and this is what they say. We don’t care what others have chosen and what values they prefer and accept. We accept and follow the advice of Kabbalists that have reached us through a chain of Kabbalists through the ages, starting from Abraham until today.
They implemented these conditions and reached spiritual attainment. According to their books, we see that they reached the inner essence of nature, the upper dimension. We want to attain the same things and so we listen to their advice.
[120655]
From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 11/15/13, Shamati #64 “From Lo Lishma to Lishma”
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All our laws and actions: “Do unto others as you would have others do unto you,” “Love thy neighbor as thyself,” the 613 commandments, are included in the common law of the mutual guarantee. This is because this law is of a complex system which consists of a multitude of details where each detail needs to be its integral part and work for the good of the entire system. This is what its life will be. It only needs to base itself on how it benefits the entire system.
These systems, where the law of the mutual guarantee operates, also exist in our world.
There is not freedom of will in the still, vegetative, and animal nature. Man also does not have this freedom. But once we rise above our egoistic nature and look at these natural systems in a real way, independent from our ego, we will see that they operate according to the law of the mutual guarantee. Otherwise nature does not have the right to exist.
And only people whose point in the heart has been revealed acquire the opportunity to come out of this common and universal law of the mutual guarantee, which they observe unconsciously, and can attain the level where they begin to observe it of their own freewill, with their own efforts. Later, all of mankind will receive this opportunity.
Just like in a human organism, the most important life-supporting systems consciously exist in mutual guarantee while other organs and cells simply nullify themselves and observe the mutual guarantee as a law, agreeing with it; in the same way mankind will gradually begin to implement this law.
The entire creation observes the law of the mutual guarantee to its full extent. Only people gradually awaken individually, according to a specific process and order, in order to realize their participation in this common system, referred to as “the body of Adam,” with their free choice.
So, one should not think that the world lacks some kind of a law. Simply, in relation to us, this becomes revealed as an opportunity to take on the conscious observance of the law of the mutual guarantee.
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From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 10/15/10, “The Arvut (Mutual Guarantee)”
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Question: What does it mean to “see the spiritual world?”
Answer: We cannot see the spiritual world with our regular eyes. The spiritual world is perceived in inner sensations.
And even though in these senses we perceive it as something limitless and infinite, this is not determined by the geometrical measures of our world, but by our properties, our new senses, the inner vision.
And once we acquire these properties, everything becomes simpler and easier. We begin to see the forces that stand behind every action, every object.
Everything is very precise, clear, and specific. We understand that we are all controlled from above and that man only has one free action: to wish to see the spiritual world in order to identify himself with these actions.
He himself does not perform any actions; he only identifies himself with them. But he feels free by doing this because he rises above his egoistic nature, and instead of involuntarily carrying out all the laws as before, he begins to do it at his own will, he feels and sees them. And this is an entirely different case, this gives man a sensation of freedom.
Gradually, he begins to equate himself to the upper force to such extent that he no longer only justifies it, but he demands for it to perform all the actions that essentially are part of its program, even before it was planning on performing them. He is like a child who runs in front of the grown up demanding for him to do something.
And then the complete union of the Creator and the creation takes place.
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From Kab TV’s “Kabbalah for Beginners” 12/01/10
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The entire Torah, in other words, the whole method of correction, is intended to bring the human being to the degree of love, or in the language of Kabbalah, to bring him so that he corrects the breaking, and in social terms: to organize us into an integral society. Thus, we see the realization of the wisdom of Kabbalah in our world.
The purpose of creation is to bring us to an inner unity which also will be accompanied by an external unity between people. We all will become as one. As it is written, “My house shall be called a house of prayer for all peoples,” (Isaiah 56:7), and “I will yet gather others to him, together with his gathered ones” (Isaiah 56:8). Thus, we will come to a complete redemption.
According to the understanding of Kabbalists, we must realize this transition now, and everything that is happening indicates this.
So, the method is designed to accelerate us on the path to this correction. Otherwise, we face the path according to “in its time,” which is very long and full of suffering. On the other hand, by accelerating, we can make our path fast, easy, comfortable, and enjoyable. For this, we were given the wisdom of Kabbalah or the method of integral education as a means of revealing the Creator in this world.
The “Creator” is the essence of the property of the “Good That Does Good,” in other words, the property of love and bestowal that is revealed in a person and between people, in their relationship with each other. Due to this relationship, this love of the created beings, they reach the revelation of the Creator and love for Him. Thus, the method of correction is realized as it is written, “Love thy friend as thyself is the great rule of the Torah.” Starting with love for others, we reach the love for the closest One, for the Creator, and then we are in adhesion with Him, which is the ultimate goal.
As Baal HaSulam writes, everything that we create, striving to achieve adhesion, is built above the desire to receive, above our egoism, and that is why we need to learn to work with it, to learn how to handle it correctly, starting with the full spiritual incapacity at the present moment up to the state where this material of desire is ready to use in order to sculpt out of it the image of the human being (Adam), similar (Domeh) to the Creator, that is, the force of love and bestowal.
How is it done? It is with the help of the Light that Reforms in the group with the friends. It is here in the group that we have the freedom of choice, the only free action that we are capable of. Therefore, it is not worthwhile to make extra efforts in looking for other ways and means. We have power over this action while in everything else our independence is illusory, but in reality we just allow nature to involve us.
If I use my freewill correctly, I move forward by the path of hastening; that is, I set the pace of my advancement myself. Then, my states, consistent with my efforts, will be more effective as well as more convenient and fast. After all, I am preparing myself to adequately, correctly accept changes that always have an anti-egoistic character. I desire them.
However, this requires a well-organized group, studies, participation in dissemination, everything that we identify in our work.
So why do we need the force of the Light, the force of the Torah? What do the words, “I have created the evil inclination; I have created for it the Torah as a spice” mean? The fact is that my advancement depends on the recognition of evil. If I can identify it quickly and as clearly as possible recognize its negative effect on me, then, I am ready to get rid of it.
That is why I must focus all my efforts precisely on the recognition of evil. My egoism, my desire to receive, initially is ready to reject everything that is bad for it, depending on how bad it is in comparison with the possible pleasures and consequently with the right approach, my nature will serve me on the path.
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From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 10/30/13, Writings of Baal HaSulam
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It is easy to work on one line, either the left line or the right line. It is most difficult to be in the middle and to connect these two lines into one authority and to remain there, in the middle, between the shell and Holiness. To be in between means to draw as much as one can from the shell and to add it to Holiness. Thus you constantly remain under one authority and advance; you fulfill your authority and look for a new place where you can be free in order to once again prefer Holiness. Thus a line is created by these points of unity of one’s freewill.
On the one hand, everything is done by the Creator, by private Providence (HaVaYaH), that descends from Above, which means that takes place inside. The private supervision is the most inner supervision (the supervision of HaVaYaH), that is closest to bestowal. On the other hand, a person says: “If I am not for myself, who will be for me,” which means that he compliments the two lines by adding all his efforts to the upper providence and adhering to it internally. The middle line expresses adhesion and mutual bestowal between a person and the Creator.
A person understands that everything comes from Above, but still annuls the domination of the Creator and says that he will do the same according to his freewill. He doesn’t do so because he is under the domination of the upper providence, but of his own free will, by wanting to identify with the Creator. Although it’s clear to him that no one has a chance to avoid the upper providence and to do anything by one’s self, he still tries to fulfill the thought that the Creator has given him, as if of his own freewill, being totally independent. This is how he advances.
It isn’t a game since the Creator agrees with his decision to perform a specific action and provides him with an illusion of life and death. It isn’t a joke but actually a question of life or death, which is a very serious matter for him. But a person receives this freewill and can change his fate from great sufferings along the path of “in its time” to great joy along the path of “I shall hasten it.” This means that he can totally change his whole life from the worst state to the best state.
It’s by creating a space where he can be independent that a person establishes the form of Adam (a human being), since if he doesn’t create a space where he can have freewill and believes that everything is managed from Above and says “thank God” about everything, as orthodox people honestly say, then there is nothing one can add. He places everything under the Creator’s domination.
If a person is not religious, he operates according to his natural instincts and the Creator totally manages him without revealing Himself. But if a person doesn’t accept either of these options and wants to fulfill his freewill, he makes room for his own authority, according to his freewill. Then in this independent authority he discovers both the good and evil sides, and these two authorities clash and struggle with each other. A person’s role is to arrange them on the middle line so that they will complement one another.
The connection between this space of freewill and the forces that operate in it is that a person attains by his clarifications, analysis, and synthesis, and turns into an image of a human being, Adam, which means in Hebrew “resembles the Creator.” This human form is established from the bottom up and is gradually revealed. By attaining this adhesion with the Creator, a person discovers that the middle line was also managed by the upper force, and he calls this revelation “the Angel Raziel.”
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From the Preparation to the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 10/25/13
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Question: How does one recognize that he is at a point of choice?
Answer: If you see clearly what is better, this is not a choice—it’s knowledge. And if you don’t understand what’s better, this too is not a choice; it is lack of knowledge.
A choice is possible when you see two equal components in front of you, but it’s impossible to solve anything with them by preferring one over the other. You see that both the desire to receive and the desire to bestow are equally needed; you cannot get by without either of them. You are situated right in the middle between them and you are confident that you must use both of them.
After all, how can I bestow if I don’t use my egoism? I can carry out some actions only due to my desire to enjoy. Yet how can I bestow if I don’t use the desire to bestow? It is impossible to proceed without either one of these desires. So how do we use them together?
I need to first build the attitude of love toward the one to whom this action is directed. And to the extent of my love, I will feel his desire, accept it and make it my own, and then I will be able to use my two desires, two forces, in order to fill his desire in me, like a mother fills an embryo (Ubar) in her womb. And then I make it more external for me, and this is called “feeding” (Yenika) or a big state (Gadlut).
This is how these states are built due to a third force that elucidates them. Then where is this third force? It is the one to whom I wish to bestow.
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From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 10/19/10, Writings of Baal HaSulam
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