Baal HaSulam, “Matan Torah (The Giving of the Torah)”: Thus, that creature develops and marches upward in degrees of the above spoken exaltedness, until he loses all remnants of self-love and all the commandments in his body rise, and he performs all his actions only to bestow, so even the necessity that he receives flows in the direction of bestowal, so he can bestow. This is why our sages said, “The commandments were given only to refine people with.”

Through the principle of “love thy friend as yourself,” we come to the end of the path: to adhesion. Whether we like it or not, we must achieve it. Our free choice is to move quickly, which we can do if we take advantage of the environment. Otherwise, nature will push us until it forces us into it—and we will want to move faster than nature anyway.

How do we advance? We advance due to internal development. How does it happen? It takes place because of “the Torah and commandments,” meaning the method of correction by which we have to refine ourselves. Of course, we are not talking about the external actions of this world. Baal HaSulam mentions an excerpt from the Gemara to make this clear to us: We are required to perform namely the internal correction of our qualities. This means that our interrelationships should be aimed exclusively at bestowal of the same height as that of the Creator.

How can it be achieved? It is done in stages. First, a person knows nothing, like a child who just started to grow. Then, he is gradually given explanations, and he understands more and more. Ultimately, everything depends on the environment, on explanations, on the efforts that are applied during his education, and on his own efforts when he practices the assigned tasks.

In essence, a person is taught to be in the environment and to use it correctly, according to the principle: “I created the evil inclination, and I created the Torah as a spice.” The evil inclination is revealed namely in the environment; there is no other possibility.

Besides that, it requires the Torah as “a spice,” meaning the Light that Reforms. A person feels evil relative to the Light. The Light exposes my vessels, and I demand for it to correct them. Then, the Light fills them.

Thus, step by step, a person comes to correction.
[46610]
From the 5th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 6/27/2011, “Matan Torah (The Giving of the Torah)”

Filed under: Daily Kabbalah Lesson, Group Work, Inner Work - 4 Comments →

According to our nature, the character of our actions, we are receivers. However, the more you receive for the sake of bestowal, the higher you are as a giver. The action itself does not change, only your intention does. That is what turns you into a giver instead of a receiver.

Does the Creator feel it? It is possible to say that nothing changes for the Giver, but only for a human being. There is nothing to be added to perfection. All His responses and impressions are actually manifested in you, in the image of the Creator that you have formed.

Thanks to this, you can bring yourself to equivalence with Him: It seems to you that changes take place in Him, that you give Him more or less pleasure. You suffer or enjoy because of Him, relative to how much He suffers of enjoys because of you, and so on.

All these relationships unfold in the creature only to elevate it to the degree of the Creator, meaning to supplement the creature with perfection that comes from the property of bestowal. It turns out that the Creator plays with the creature just to educate it.

Similarly, we show children various faces: We laugh with them, become serious, and express anger. Everything is for the sake of education, in order to show a child as many nuances as possible and thereby teach him how to work correctly with himself and the environment. And in fact, nothing but love motivates us.

In his “Preface to The Book of Zohar,” Item 33, Baal HaSulam writes about this: “The truth is that there is a Godly will here that these similitudes, which operate only in the souls of the receivers, will appear to the souls as He Himself participates in them to greatly increase the attainment of the souls.

It is like a father who constrains himself to show his little darling child a face of sadness and a face of contentment, although there is neither sadness nor contentment in him. He only does this to impress his darling child and expand his understanding so as to play with him.”
[46515]
From the 5th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 6/26/2011, “Matan Torah (The Giving of the Torah)”

Filed under: Daily Kabbalah Lesson, Inner Work, Spirituality - 1 Comment →

Question: Is it true that we can become aware of evil only after the Machsom (barrier to spirituality)? What can I do until then?

Answer: Every degree has its measurement, its standards, and its criteria. Identically, I had different views of myself at the age of four, five, six, or seven.

Even now, I have a possibility to recognize evil. Physically, I am present in the group, but am I there with my soul? No, I am not. What will this state lead me to? What will happen to me? I cannot reach spirituality like this. It’s too bad. I feel sorry for lost time, a wasted life, from which I did not gain anything.

Then, I start hating what prevents me from connecting with the friends: my difference from them. Of course, all this occurs in egoism, in the receiving desire that wants to obtain spirituality so as to not miss anything in life. However, this puts me in the correct egoistic condition of Lo Lishma (for oneself), and then the influence of the Light turns it into the altruistic state of Lishma (for the sake of the Creator).

Anyway, shame is present here as well. First, I am ashamed of the possibility of being caught for theft, then I notice that it is not worthwhile stealing, at least not always. As a result, I change internally so that I do not want anything from anybody. All I want is to bestow. This is my aspiration, and I am happy with it.

Wonderfully, this is Lo Lishma, and the will to bestow, the act of bestowal, is already embedded in it. Although, there is compensation: a good feeling. In this way, we connect with good and do not demand anything for the time being.

At the next stage, the Light Reforms a person even without his awareness, and he really connects with to the Good Who does Good. Thus first, I connect with good that makes me feel good, and then, I switch to real bestowal to the Creator.
[46506]
From the 5th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 6/26/2011, “Matan Torah (The Giving of the Torah)”

Filed under: Daily Kabbalah Lesson, Group Work, Inner Work, Q&A - 1 Comment →

If the Creator, in line with His Thought of Creation, wasn’t supposed to elevate us to the highest degree of evolution, He wouldn’t have created in us the sensation of being different from Him. The point is not in the difference between the Giver and the receiver. It is clear that the Creator is in the lead. He is good that does good. He is the Absolute, and, being the Giver, He created us as receivers “by default.” We certainly won’t feel ashamed while we receive from Him. What would be the problem with receiving from the One who Gives? After all, that is the way He made us.

Shame, however, derives solely from the sensation of being different that was designed by the Creator, the feeling of separation between Him and us, which leads to our beginning to sense reception as flawed. This rule is projected onto our world as well, where we feel uncomfortable when we receive pleasure from someone with whom we have a special relationship in which the other has a higher status.

There is an additional problem here. Compared to spirituality, it takes opposite forms pertaining to us and poses a question: Can I stop feeling ashamed? In spirituality, however, my question is how can I enhance shame because it becomes an instrument to analyze myself, a vehicle to raise my awareness of my evil.

As we know, besides the awareness of evil, we don’t need anything else. All the rest is done by the upper Light. What is this evil after all? It is not about my being a receiver by nature. I realize how evil I am when I discover how truly great the differences are between my qualities and those of the Creator.

I desire greatly to enhance this sensation, this awareness, since this is what leads me to ask for correction. We regard such a plea as “the gate of tears.” The necessary details of perception are gathered within me until the awareness of my evil finally makes me scream because I cannot bear this discrepancy between the Creator and myself.

Thus, evil is not a mere distinction between the receiver and the Giver. Clearly, the Creator gives, while I receive. Such an arrangement remains at all the spiritual degrees, in the end of correction and after it. The problem lies in becoming conscious of the inner, qualitative distinction between my properties and His. That is what causes me to feel shame.
[46518]
From the 5th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 6/26/2011, “Matan Torah (The Giving of the Torah)”

Related Material:
Shame As The Means Of Correction
All Of Creation Is The Creator’s Game
Trust Your Friends, Not Yourself

Filed under: Daily Kabbalah Lesson, Inner Work - 1 Comment →

Baal HaSulam, “General Introduction to the Book, Panim Meirot uMasbirot”: …as corporeal things are separated from one another by an axe and a hammer, the spirituals are separated from one another by the disparity of form between them. And when the disparity of form increases to the point of oppositeness, from one extreme to the other, complete separation is created between them.

From the perspective of the Creator, who created the will to enjoy, there is no opposition between this desire and the desire of bestowal. It’s like a baby who receives from a mother—there is no division between them. They are inseparably connected and enjoy one another.

We see how in nature, a foreign organism consisting of someone else’s flesh receives the opportunity to grow inside the mother’s body and is not perceived by her as foreign! How is this phenomenon, a fetus inside a mother’s womb, even possible considering that when we get a tiny splinter, the body immediately begins to reject the alien object? An infection immediately forms around it and the body tries to push it out and separate it.

It’s known how during an organ transplant it is very difficult to overcome this barrier, the body’s incompatibility with and rejection of an alien body. But here the opposite happens: One body grows inside of the other, and the big body is always taking care of the small body, doing everything only for its benefit!

This is an example of the will to enjoy (the fetus) and the will to bestow (the mother) not being in conflict with one another. And the same thing happens in relation to the Creator, who created the will to enjoy. This desire does not contradict or oppose bestowal.

However, if the goal is to bring this will to enjoy to the form of bestowal, then they do become opposite to one another according to their intentions. In the initial state there is a bestowing desire and a receiving one: the Creator and the creation. But there is no discrepancy between them and they are united together. But then, creation develops and acquires an egoistic intention, and now according to their intentions, they become opposite: The intention of bestowal is opposite to the intention for oneself from beginning to the end, from zero until infinity.

What we have to correct is the egoistic intention and not the desire! The desire remains in us. We always keep the will to enjoy. But the intention has to be “for the sake of bestowal.”

However, we usually get confused about this, thinking that we have to fight with our desires. Religions and different spiritual practices try to destroy the desire or decrease it. But Kabbalah says the opposite: “Increase your desire and the intention of bestowal together with it!” Then you will be able to bestow more with your actions.
From the 3rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 6/24/11, “General Introduction to the Book, Panim Meirot uMasbirot”

Related Material:
The Faces of The Beloved
Ahead Of Nature
Rising High In Order To Justify It All

Filed under: Daily Kabbalah Lesson, Egoism, Health, Inner Work, My Similarity to the Creator, Prayer and Intention, Religion, Spirituality - No Comments →

Time in spirituality is a number of actions applied to the creature. Indeed, even in our world where we live by the clock on the wall and navigate by the sun, the moon, and the globe, we still have a personal sensation of time dictated by the intensity of actions.

Sometimes, time freezes and doesn’t move in our eyes. On another occasion, it flies with supersonic speed. Time is our personal impression that depends on the number of transformations occurring in us. Therefore, time per se doesn’t exist.

The number of changes we are supposed to experience within us from this moment to the end of correction is regarded as 6,000 spiritual degrees or years, 2000 + 2000 + 2000. Alternatively, it can be viewed as the three worlds of BYA (Beria, Yetzira, and Assiya), which we must raise to the world of Atzilut.

Ascending to the world of Atzilut is what we call the flow of time, step by step, from one year to the next. A “year” (Shana) is a transformation (Shinuy), the same circle, a revolution, only at a higher degree.
[46403]
From the 3rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 6/19/2011, Talmud Eser Sefirot

Filed under: Daily Kabbalah Lesson, Inner Work, Perception - No Comments →

Question: Is it possible to go back in time? Can I return to the states where I have already been?

Answer: Certainly! After all, time is defined as a chain of the informational genes (Reshimot). You can travel along this chain from the beginning to the end and go wherever you want. If you possess the anti-egoistic screen, meaning the ability to exist in any state, you can choose any Reshimo and realize it.

Obviously, no one would want to descend back from an advanced state. This wouldn’t make any sense unless you had to descend for some period of time in order to help others, that is, to go back in order to establish a connection with them.

However, I would perform this “reversing” through the special Partzuf called “hair” (Searot). I myself stay in the advanced state, but I make a “smaller” copy of myself through which I communicate with those who are below me.

However, one cannot descend for no reason because it contradicts the purpose of creation. How is it possible for a spiritual individual to do such a thing?
[46406]
From the 3rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 6/20/2011, Talmud Eser Sefirot

Filed under: Daily Kabbalah Lesson, Inner Work, Q&A, Spiritual Teacher - 1 Comment →

Baal HaSulam, The Study of the Ten Sefirot, Part 1, “Table of Questions and Answers for the Meaning of the Words”: Question 16: What is Time? It is a certain sum of Behinot (phases) that derive from one another and are mingled with one another by an order of cause and consequence, such as days, months, and years.

There is no time. There is only a sensation of changes that cause us to experience the flow of time. In spirituality, it is evident, whereas in corporeality, it is camouflaged. This is why many phenomena, effects, and transformations get intermixed in the corporeal world and seem not to be directly connected with spirituality, meaning not dependent on our effort and advancement.

Hence, in the corporeal world, time is not alive and flows “mechanically,” separate from our inner transformations. However, in the spiritual world, time is an internal sensation of the changes that a person is going through.

Therefore, corporeal and spiritual time have completely different meanings. Spiritual time can flow faster or slower, contract or expand, depending on the number of changes occurring within a person. In the material world, time depends on the point where we are. If we moved to another dimension, we would experience a different time there.
[46409]
From the 3rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 6/20/2011, Talmud Eser Sefirot

Filed under: Daily Kabbalah Lesson, Inner Work, Perception - No Comments →

Question: The thoughts about spirituality cause sadness and suffering in me because I do not feel the Creator. What can I do?

Answer: If a person feels real sufferings in his life, this pain hides the Creator from him. This is done purposefully so that we do not damage our relationship with the Creator and yet remain connected with Him rather than starting to hate and reject Him.

There are various states, but to the extent that a person feels bad, to that extent the Creator is hidden, we have to attain mutual support and guarantee from the environment. In this case, even at the time of greater troubles, the environment will help us rise above a bad feeling to its cause.

Then I will understand that the feeling of evil comes not from the Creator, not from the upper force, but from the force of my own egoism. I will start to divide my feelings in two parts: 1) my desires that are not corrected and make me feel bad in them, and 2) the Creator, the upper Light, that radiates good upon me.

Precisely because the Creator emanates good upon me, while I am opposite to Him, I sense good as evil; that is, for me His good turns into its opposite. Therefore, the Creator cannot be revealed to me more because I will feel so bad that I will not be able to stand it.

As long as we remain uncorrected and feel the Creator in His opposite form because our ego turns Light into darkness, the Creator is revealed to us to the extent that we can bear this. And to the extent that we cannot tolerate, He hides.

He reveals Himself only slightly to disclose just a bit of evil to us, so that we do not disconnect from our mind and can analyze our feelings. Then, I begin to check where this evil comes from and what causes it. Consequently, I come to the group, the books, and the teacher who explain to me that I evoke evil myself because of my oppositeness to the Creator.
[46330]
From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 6/24/2011, Shamati #241

Filed under: Daily Kabbalah Lesson, Group Work, Inner Work, Q&A - No Comments →

The wisdom of Kabbalah is the means that allows us to rise from the animate to the human level. If we do not use this means for transforming our egoistic nature, we remain animals, as it is said: “All are like animals.”

Indeed, in that case, we develop only within our ego; we have nothing to correct it with and nothing with which to rise above it from the receiving desires to the giving desires. Then, we sense only this world; we live and die like animals.

While at the human degree, I become similar to the Creator (“man” or “Adam” comes from the word “Edome” or “similar” in Hebrew). With the help of the tool called “the Light that Reforms.” which I attract to myself by reading Kabbalistic texts and especially The Book of Zohar, the strongest source of the hidden upper Light, I can correct myself and ascend from the egoistic nature to the altruistic one, to bestowal and love for a fellow human being.

Then, instead of the desire to use the other, I bestow to him, and instead of hatred, I feel love towards him. To the degree that I attain this nature, I begin to discover the upper force in my altruistic desires, in my properties of bestowal and love. I sense what fills my new qualities, and this is called “the upper Light” or “the Creator.”

However, all this is attained in the force of bestowal. How can we achieve it? For this purpose, before the lowest level of the world of Assiya, “this world,” was made, the creature created by the Creator, called the common soul Adam (Man), was shattered into many pieces. Now, in order to attract the Light, these pieces must unite with each other in the previous state before the shattering when the Upper Light filled them.

Although we cannot unite with each other ourselves, by desiring this, yearning and striving with all our power, by our efforts, we draw the Light from that state of unity. This Light does not come to us and doesn’t clothe in us because we have not united yet. But it shines to us from afar, to the extent of our aspiration for it—for the Light of bestowal and love for the other.

But do I really aspire for this?…I imagine that I yearn for this Light, for something very nice for my ego. But if I interpret this correctly—as the Light of bestowal and love in which I enjoy by bestowing to a fellow human being and acting solely for the sake of bestowal—then I do not particularly want it.

Hence, first of all, in order to strive for the Light, for correction, in order to become a giver and love the other, I must acquire the importance of this. I can obtain the importance of correction from the following two sources:

1. If I suffer and feel pain, I strive to change my condition. I am even willing to give just not to feel bad. This is called advancement by the path of suffering.
2. I can receive the importance of bestowal and love for a fellow human being from the environment that will begin “to brainwash me,” convincing me of how important it is to bestow, how much we can win, how good it is, and what pleasures bestowal brings.

One seems to contradict the other: “Bestow and you will receive pleasure! Bestow and you will feel the upper World!” This is called “Lo Lishma (for oneself),” but anyway, this is an intermediary phase of advancement. In this case, I strive to advance by the path of “Lo Lishma,” the path of Light. We all are egoists and have to imagine an understandable self-gain ahead of us; otherwise, we will not be able to do anything.

Therefore, I am in the group, together with people who also want to attain spirituality. It is not important that all of us envision the spiritual world as a good prize: We want to be above others, to earn more, to rise above this short life filled with sufferings, to reach something worthwhile and great.

Even if we promote the importance of this goal to each other, then something exalted, great, eternal, perfect, and worthwhile will be revealed in the connection between us, and we will have strength to advance towards the inner connection between us at least slightly. If in the connection between us, we discover the common internal force called the spiritual vessel, the will to bestow, then in this vessel, to the extent of this will to bestow, we will reveal the Light: the Light of bestowal, the upper Light, or the Creator.

So, before we start reading The Book of Zohar and thus draw the Light, we have to imagine that we aspire to be in the inner connection between us when each nullifies himself and feels only others: everyone together, the whole inner group, where we are connected with each other in our souls. And in this connection between the souls, we reveal the Light, the common force of bestowal and love—and the Creator within it. If this is our line of thinking during the reading of The Zohar, it influences us in the most effective way.

It does not matter how much we understand the text and know the words. It is important to think about one thing only all the time: “Now, I am taking medicine. I want to connect with others, and then, in the unity between us, I will get everything: the entire spiritual, upper world. I am looking forward to this!”
[46323]
From the 3rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 6/24/2011, The Zohar

Filed under: Daily Kabbalah Lesson, Group Work, Inner Work, Zohar - No Comments →