My Spiritual Simulator – 10.05.10
Posted on October 5th, 2010
Spiritual Simulator: Questions of the Day
Spiritual Simulator: Questions of the Day
The group is my copy, my shadow, just as I am the Creator’s shadow. I receive much more from my friends than what I put into them. It doesn’t depend on them or their behavior, but only on my attitude to them. This environment is also the Creator. It is the opportunity He gave me to work with Him, having created an illusion for me as if something exists outside of me while, in fact, only the Creator exists outside of me.
That is why we must always awaken the environment until we attain the state where the environment influences me so I desire to unite with it in order to unite with the Creator through it. I cannot attain the Creator without the environment because the environment is an external means through which I will see the image of the Creator.
If I don’t desire to unite with the group, then I am not aiming at the goal, the Creator at all. After all, who is my neighbor? The force of the breaking that took place in spirituality divided me into two parts: me and my neighbor. What for? It was in order for me to discern what I lack in order to unite with the Creator.
As soon as I can bring this environment closer to me even though it seems foreign to me, the more I am able to come closer to the Creator. I was deliberately endowed with a dual perception so I would see a part of me as alien and hateful.
That is why “love your neighbor as yourself” is the main rule of the Torah. This is the only thing the Light corrects, and there is nothing to correct but this. If you don’t ask for this correction, then all your efforts are wasted. Everything else is useless cries into the wilderness.
[22633]
From the 2nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 10/5/10, The Zohar
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Question: I live in Ecuador. How, during the lesson, can I connect with the prayer for the correction of the group?
Answer: A person has to try feeling as if he were here with us. There is no distance on the spiritual path. If one of us is sitting at the computer screen a few miles away from our center, another is somewhere in Ecuador, and still another is in our auditorium, it makes no difference.
It all depends on where a person’s heart is. All you have to do is try to remain connected with us. A person is where his desire is. That’s because there is nothing else except the desire; the outer “clothing” doesn’t count.
[22526]
From the 2nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 10/4/10, The Zohar
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Question: How does one attain the inner plea? Can one advance without it?
Answer: Naturally, there is no advancement without a cry for help. It can be attained solely with the help of the environment. Alone, a person cannot attain such desire. The plea has to be aimed at bestowal, I have to rise above my egoism, and this ascent is possible only through envy of the friends. Otherwise, what will I ascend over? How and to where will I jump out of my ego? I can’t pull myself out of the mud by the hair, or as Kabbalists said, “A prisoner cannot free himself from imprisonment.”
Only by working on unity do I lead my point in the heart from egoism in my desire to connect it with the others. I constantly increase efforts, motivated by the growing enthusiasm of the group through which I receive the Light that Reforms.
The Light expands through the spiritual system from Arich Anpin (AA) through Aba ve-Ima (AVI) and Zeir Anpin (ZA) down to Malchut (M). Malchut is the Shechina, the oneness of all souls. Since below the Parsa the souls dwell in the broken condition, there is no chance for them to receive the Light. Hence, we ascend to Shechina, the assembly of souls that yearn for unity and bestowal, and there, we receive the influence of the Upper Light. There is the place of our gathering.
Question cont.: Is the cry a group action as well?
Answer: A cry is the result of the accumulation of collective efforts of the group. A person needs external influence to reach an individual plea. A combination of both is required.
In addition, a person feels that he is crying out from unity. In fact, he is not demanding anything but unification; he is not praying to be spared from problems, but for the property of bestowal. His cry is personal, but it is aimed at unity, connection with the others and the Creator.
Such are the laws of the spiritual world, the place where we connect above egoism.
[22347]
From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 10/1/10, Shamati #38
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Question: For what should we ask the Creator?
Answer: There can only be one request: for the Light that Reforms, the force. I cannot change myself. The entire humanity is gradually becoming desperate trying to do it. It is becoming clear that in the end, we only get more confused even in the systems that we have built ourselves.
It is true that we must reach despair in our work. It is not easy. Baal HaSulam writes that there is no happier moment in a person’s life than the moment when he becomes completely disillusioned in his strength. And then, when he sees that he has no other choice, he turns to the Creator, and the Creator responds because his appeal is absolute.
The Light does not work before there is desire. There are 125 degrees on the way towards it. If I rise to the first degree, if I lack Light even to the smallest extent, then the Light influences me. Thus I enter the zone of Light. On the fifth degree, my need increases, and the Light works accordingly because I became closer to it. Such are the laws in the zone of Light.
So far we exist at the level of this world, we lack demand. As soon as a demand appears, the Light will immediately begin to work since it created the desire and maintains it. Desire can never do anything on its own.
In this case, how can the desire have a need (Hissaron) for the Light? There is a spark of Light in the desire, which was left in it after the breaking of the souls; it awakens you, and draws you towards the Light even though the desire pulls you down.
Nothing is expected of a person before the spark becomes manifested, he is simply being developed egoistically. But once the spark ignites, the Light stops working and gives you the opportunity to ask for it. At this stage you are brought to a place where you can magnify your spark until you begin to desire the Light’s influence.
[22348]
From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 10/1/10, Shamati #38
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Baal HaSulam, Shamati #38, “The Fear of God Is His Treasure”: In His treasury, the Creator has only the treasure of fear of God.
There are four levels of development:
1. This material world where we all exist;
2. The level (degree) of “preparation,” people who have the point in the heart and raise its importance above this world, above egoism, exist at this level;
3. Repentance (correction) from fear, the level of Bina, Hafetz Hesed at which a person turns into a righteous man. At this stage all 613 desires of the soul are being corrected to “bestow in order to bestow.”
4. Repentance (correction) from love, a degree of the complete righteous, a level at which all 613 desires are corrected into “receive in order to bestow,” similarity to the Creator.
The degree of fear is extremely important; it is a stepping stone on the way to becoming similar to the Creator. The Light gradually, little by little, increases egoistic desires in a person who rises above them and chooses to associate himself with the point in the heart. Later on, at the level of love, he starts using his desires “to receive in order to bestow.”
Thus, the degree of fear represents a vessel through which a person reveals the Creator (the Light of Infinity) when he reaches the next level, that of love. Developmental stages change each other at the pace of their own, and fear is the only thing that we have to worry about constantly since fear is diligent work on the screen and Reflected Light to keep us above our desires at all times.
Of course, all the work is done by the Light, but we have to ask for it ourselves. The group’s task is to carry out the goal and elevate its significance by maintaining unity and connection within which a general vessel emerges: the intention for the sake of bestowal, rising above one’s egoism.
This is how we help each other, unite our points in the hearts, and shape from them the vessel into which we receive the treasure. When our unity will manifest itself, the Light will immediately reveal itself in it too.
[22352]
From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 10/1/10, Shamati #38
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Spiritual Simulator: Questions of the Day
As we advance spiritually, we egoistically begin to value the property of bestowal. It gives freedom and fulfillment; it allows one to be independent. This attitude towards the property of bestowal is called “Lo Lishma.” But later, under the influence of the Light, the property of bestowal itself becomes valuable to us. This attitude toward it is called “Lishma.”
All we need to do in order to attain this state is to follow the advice of the Kabbalists. The point in the heart brings us to a new environment, to a group, and we begin to unite with others regardless of whether we want it or not. These actions immediately help us to attract the Surrounding Light (Ohr Makif) on us. It is always around us, but this time we attract it intentionally.
The more effort I put into uniting with others, the stronger the influence of the Light is on me, and I begin to receive new impressions. Eventually, I assess bestowal as something good and regard it as something high and special. This is the influence of the environment.
The environment is not people. Our efforts, our common desires, enable us to evoke the Light the Reforms. All of us exist in an ocean of Light and we can attract it. This is what the proper environment is: an environment that helps me attract the Light and also the actual Light.
It influences us even when we do not do anything, but in this case, the process flows slowly with the natural speed of the development of Reshimot (spiritual genes). But when we begin to evoke the Light through studying, circulation, and unity of friends, we awaken the influence of the Light’s environment on us.
[22215]
From the Hoshana Rabbah Night Lesson 9/29/10, Shamati #8
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Question: On the night of Hoshana Rabbah ("Great Supplication," the seventh day of the Holiday of Sukkot) it is customary to check the “shadow,” meaning the screen with which one can then receive the Light. How is this screen formed?
Answer: Each of us is an egoistic desire. When we wish to reach spirituality, we unite into a group. Naturally, none of us desires to engage in exercises of “bestowal,” but each has a “spark” on top of his egoistic desires which pulls us into the unknown.
Kabbalists explain that we exist in a field of “Light.” This field encompasses all of reality and influences us in such a way that the “sparks” awaken in every person. To the extent that they are roused, they interact with the field of Light which orients them, and people gather in one physical and/or virtual place, consequently wishing to unite. This is called a group, a connection of people through their spiritual desires. Egoism is left behind by everyone and they unite through their mutual aspirations for spirituality.
If we begin to aspire to mutual bestowal, we rouse the influence of the Light in the common efforts and begin to change. Gradually, we feel continuously greater egoistic desires, but at the same time, their value drops in our eyes. And we raise the spiritual desire on the scale of values.
The construction of the Sukkah (hut) indicates raising the quality of bestowal (the roof) over the desire to receive. We wish to separate bestowal and reception so that the Light does not enter the egoistic desire through the covering of the Sukkah.
The Light corrects us in such a way that all of our spiritual desires make their way over the roof of the Sukkah, and the egoistic desire remains inside. In other words, we hide the egoistic desire in the shadow. We build a covering on each desire for we do not wish to use these desires egoistically. By creating such a “shade,” we acquire a spiritual sensation in which we feel spiritual reality: the world that we perceive in the quality of bestowal.
[22205]
From the Hoshana Rabbah Night Lesson 9/29/10, Shamati #8
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Question: Do we draw more Surrounding Light (Ohr Makif) if we study in a group, and does everyone receive it equally or to the extent of his individual aspiration?
Answer: All of our efforts get accumulated in the group. When many people unite into a group, we create a special “space” between us where everyone exists in mutual bestowal. It is in this space that the Surrounding Light is revealed. It was there before also, but in a concealed and passive form, and now even if it still remains hidden, it already actively influences our aspirations to unite.
Initially, we are all situated in a field of Light, but we don’t feel it. We rouse the Light’s influence to the extent that we exert effort in the place where we can build a connection between us and become similar to the Light. It corrects us, and when the quality of bestowal emerges between us, it becomes clearly revealed.
Striving for mutual bestowal all together, we reveal the presence of the force of bestowal. However, each person reveals this force or the Light according to his individual qualities and to the extent that he exerts effort in the unification of the group.
For this reason, joint work is required. Alone a person will never be able to reveal the Surrounding Light. His efforts to bestow and to create the place where the Light can be revealed have to be applied in relation to someone.
[22209]
From the Hoshana Rabbah Night Lesson 9/29/10, Shamati #8
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