Kabbalah Insights – Pinocchio
Posted on April 30th, 2011
Our perception of the whole reality is very shaky since we don’t know how to relate to ourselves or the world in which we exist. Where do we exist and what do we feel now? Is it a dream or the truth? Is this world an objective reality or merely our temporary perception in distorted organs of perception? Possibly, when we correct our qualities from reception to bestowal, we will perceive a completely different world.
And this does not mean simply understanding it or feeling it better with the same senses that are more developed. Instead, I can completely change my sensations and perceptions that are attuned to reception and stop accepting reality egoistically; I can begin to perceive it in bestowal, an aspiration to my neighbor.
It turns out that instead of my own desire, I acquire the desires of others, and I begin to truly feel through them. And then I will sense a completely different world, another reality!
Who depicts this reality to us? Kabbalists say that it is the upper force, one, unique, and unified, besides which there is nothing else, which is good and does good to all, the wicked and the righteous alike. It is the upper Light that exists at absolute rest, and we can reveal it only by becoming equal to it in our qualities.
There are 125 degrees which correspond to the Light, and I will feel the upper Light in me to the extent that I receive the quality of bestowal, depending on the extent that I can correct myself and make myself similar to the upper Light which bestows kindness and all that is good. If I acquire the same qualities, I simply will exist in this quality of bestowal, thereby feeling it.
In other words, there is a force of bestowal called the “upper Light,” and a force of reception called “the creature.” If the creature acquires the force of bestowal over the force of reception, this force that begins to govern over it is perceived as fulfillment: a screen and the Reflected Light, the degree of bestowal that gives the creature a sensation of fulfillment.
How do we relate to this upper force? Will we ever be able to feel it, or do we just imagine it somehow according to the qualities in which we perceive it and the sensations, thoughts, and desires that are awakened in us? Kabbalists say that the upper force itself is Atzmuto, the essence of the Creator, which is not felt or attained by us. He has no form that we can perceive. However, to the extent that you try to draw closer to Him and become like Him, you will be able to understand various qualities that pertain to bestowal.
He is like a “giver” to you, but He himself has neither the quality of bestowal nor reception; He is above all this. Only His attitude towards the created beings is called “bestowal,” “love,” “giving.”
However, if it is written that He is “good and does good,” “there is none else besides Him,” “I did not change my name (HaVaYaH),” “the law is given and cannot be contravened,” which means that He is invariable, good, and perfect, then how can we ask Him for something? How can we ask Him to change and have pity on us?
This pertains only to the creature’s attitude which perceives the Creator in this manner and tells us about it, as it is written: “The Torah spoke in the language of the people.” Therefore, all our prayers and our attitude towards the Creator are essentially our attitude to ourselves, the way that I judge myself and desire to change in the direction of bestowal. However, all changes occur only in the created beings who, due to their own changes, feel that the picture of the Creator changes.
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From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/27/2011, Shamati No.1
The soul’s reaction to the states it passes through is reflected in the words written by Kabbalists. That reaction is collected in the prayer book entitled Siddur (the “order” of undergone states). We don’t understand what the prayers describe, nor the soul’s impressions that are recorded in the appellations, letters, their combinations, or the arrangement of the words in the sentences.
The entire prayer book is organized so that for any soul that experiences transformations in a specific state this process is expressed in the same words of the prayer. It is not necessary to articulate the words out loud. The soul will feel them within; the prayer will become its internal construction.
Every letter is a certain order, a sequence of the forces that receive and bestow. Additionally, within the letters, there are “vowel marks,” the fillings, a complete TANTA (Ta’amim, Nekudot, Tagin, Otiot or lights, points, crowns above letters, and letters), the states we are going through.
Our internal desires alter and assume all kinds of forms that instill various feelings in us. In turn, when transferred to paper these sensations receive a specific form of spiritual elements in letters, words, and sentences.
In other words, a prayer is an external expression of internal spiritual sensations. A person doesn’t really need a prayer book. If he is experiencing such internal states, they will become his prayer.
A prayer book is needed in order to look at the shape of the letters and visualize (if we are already able to do so) what states we need to undergo, to imagine what awaits us ahead. If I am already in the spiritual world, then based on what I am reading in the prayer book, I can somewhat perceive what is going to happen to me, what states I am going to enter.
In this world, I am familiar with various human emotions. Hence, while reading a novel for example, I can feel and experience the events being described internally. The same goes for the spiritual world.
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From the 3rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/21/2011, Beit Shaar HaKavanot
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Baal HaSulam, Beit Shaar HaKavanot (The Gate of Intentions), Chapter “Concerning Passover Exodus”: On the Passover night, Zeir Anpin grows to the greatest state, and hence, on this night, such enormous Light is revealed that it is greater than the Light of Sabbath.
All that there is in Zeir Anpin of the world of Atzilut is passed down to the souls. If we here, below, don’t ask and don’t evoke ZA, it remains in its constant small state, VAK, whereas Malchut is just a point. When there is only the Light of VAK in ZA, Hassadim (Mercy), Malchut has nothing since she has receiving desires and cannot be filled with only the Light of Hassadim.
Therefore, this is a preparatory state that has nothing to do with any spiritual action yet. All the other states are defined by how high ZA can rise (upon our request) over the small state.
The process we undergo during the exodus from Egypt, from being enslaved by the desires located below the Parsa, is not simple and doesn’t correspond to the usual work order: six “weekdays” followed by the seventh “day,” Saturday. Saturday is arranged “in likeness to the future world,” and, according to the spiritual work performed during the six “business days,” brings us the “awakening from Above” and its result: corrected desires.
However, the exodus from Egypt is a “night,” not a day as Saturday is. It’s a sign that a very big Light of Hochma (Wisdom) is revealed that is not covered by the Light of Hassadim. Hence, it feels not as Light, but as “Egyptian night,” the enormous Light of Hochma that cannot emanate to us.
We are constantly present within an ocean of Light, and we are either unable to establish any relationship with it (and then we simply don’t feel it, as right now), or we can approach the Light and obtain exactly the same property as it has. Then, according to the law of equivalence of form, we will be able to feel it. If I am in the same bestowal as the Light, then between us, a common sensation appears that is regarded as the revelation of the Light, the Creator, to the created beings.
Alternatively, there can be an opposite state where I don’t feel that I am approaching the Light, bestowal, but on the contrary, I feel coming closer to reception, my opposition to unification. This doesn’t pertain to mere material gain, but specifically to the lack of unity of the souls that makes me feel darkness. This has a spiritual meaning.
We always deal with what lies above the animate level, meaning with the internal work that bears a “positive” or “negative” fruit, and a person senses transformations as either an unfolding Light or darkness. However, in the worst case, a person feels nothing whatsoever, which means he is not working at all. The essence of the Passover story is an unusual order (Seder) of receiving the Lights that wake us up and lead out of Egypt.
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From the 3rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/21/2011, Beit Shaar HaKavanot
Let’s Show Our Desire To Exit Our Egypt!
Question: If the Creator is unchangeable, why do each one of us perceive Him differently?
Answer: Each one of us perceives the Creator differently to the extent of the development of his or her soul, according to his or her desires and qualities. This is because the Creator Himself cannot be perceived. I never feel Him; I perceive myself in relation to the “simple upper Light.” And in relation to this simple upper Light, I discover myself.
So, where am I? You are the entire world. Do you feel it? Yes. Do you exist together with those around you? Yes. Well, then you are this entire world. It is your desire where you perceive everything.
Do you feel as if it were happening on the outside? You are wrong. All of it is inside you. The entire world is inside you. You simply perceive your reality this way, against the upper Light. You do not perceive this upper Light, but it exists, and also not on the outside, but inside of you.
Anything you could ever imagine is inside you, the upper Light as well. But what is the upper Light? You can only speak about it based on your experience. Where is it? It is inside your desires. Everything is inside man.
This goes on until we actually reveal the upper force.
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From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/26/2011, Shamati No.1
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The entire difference between Kabbalists (people with the point in the heart who follow the path of spiritual development) and the religious masses is in their attitude toward the Creator. Kabbalists say: “Everything depends on me. I must change, while the Creator is absolute and hence unchangeable.”
The only ones who can change are those who can be better or worse, but the Creator is just “good, who does good.” How could I ask Him to change and improve himself? Would this not make Him “bad” now?
A Kabbalist believes that he is the only one who needs to change, and nobody else is subject to correction: neither the world, nor friends, nor the group, not a single person. Right now, I exist within the good who does good, the Creator, the single force of nature “there is none else besides Him.” How I perceive Him depends on my qualities.
When I work with a group, I am the one working; I am the one changing. This is why it seems to me that there is the group that goes through different states, but in reality, I work with my shadow, my qualities.
It is the same in regards to the Creator. It seems to me that He treats me in different ways. Sometimes He comes closer to me, and sometimes He distances Himself, but it is me working with myself against the absolute, the good who does good, and there is none else besides Him. I am within Him.
Thus, “everyone judges according to their own flaws.” I see my shadow against the Creator. This is me seeing myself on the outside, the reflection of my own qualities.
This way, the entire world, except for the Kabbalists, is asking the Creator to change, and they are ready to do anything only so that the Creator would be kind to them. They do not think that they need to change their nature, correct their “evil inclination,” their ego, but they are asking the Creator to be kind to them as they are.
Kabbalists say the opposite: The Creator is “good who does good,” and “there is none else besides Him,” the universal, single force of nature. Nothing else exists besides the Creator. Besides Him, there is only a point of the desire to receive pleasure, “existence from absence.” Various actions take place within this point, and these are changes in its consciousness, its existence in the upper Light.
Suddenly, this point feels that it is expanding to the scale of Malchut of Infinity, the worlds form, and some changes happen. However, it is the same point experiencing all of this. Nothing has changed. All the changes are only happening in its sensations.
This goes on until it reaches a constant state, a sensation that it is like a black point that exists within “the good who does good,” the only One who exists. This entire circle, which we pass within creation until its complete correction (Gmar Tikkun), is only intended for determining our actual place, revealing the Creator.
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From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/26/2011, Shamati No.1
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Only a person who, in sync with the root of his or her soul, desires to find one, unified, upper force that governs reality, is “helped” from Above and sent obstacles. The Creator keeps revealing new desires in him or her, which lure them in various directions. So, one forgets that there is none else besides the Creator and gets entangled again and is unable to assemble the image of the unique upper force within to which one should be turning.
All these difficulties are the help from Above sent in the form of obstacles to someone who possesses an aspiration toward finding the Creator. And a person thinks that the others succeed in keeping this one picture, one sensation that there is none else but the Creator. But for him, this image constantly fades away and gets lost.
It is easy for the world to say it, but he is the only one for whom it’s hard, and he constantly struggles through it as if in a fog and doesn’t understand who acts: himself, the Creator, or both of them together, and what relationship should be formed with Him. Nothing is clear.
It seems unfair that he gets only hardships from the Creator instead of help. Is that how a loving and kind Creator would act? Why then does He use such cunning devices and set man up for such problems in life and from which we don’t know how to escape?
A person thinks that even the most ruthless person wouldn’t do this. After all, where does all the cruelty in the world come from if not from the very same upper force? All of the most brutal and horrible things come from only one force, and moreover, we have to decide that this force is good, endlessly loving, and working solely for the good, is that it?
If we take a look at the world, it’s impossible to acknowledge this. We only get convinced of how easy it is to confuse us and it makes us doubt the uniqueness of the upper force, when we see the world before us, filled with pain, problems, violence, terror, and hate.
Is it not the same upper force that causes it? Surely so, since there is none else but Him, and we don’t do anything ourselves. I see with my own eyes that the world is ruled by the force of evil not the force of good. And try as I may to hold myself to the thought that there is none else besides the good Creator, I balance as if on the point of needle and am about to fall. After all, from every direction I receive proof of the very opposite, and it seems quite real to me.
I can’t even close my eyes to what is happening and lie to myself. I see that I simply must get to know the Creator! And then, a true need emerges in me. I am not willing to view Him as an evil force! But for me to experience Him as the good force, I require His help.
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From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/26/2011, Shamati No.1
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Egyptian bondage starts with Joseph’s desire to unite with his brothers, but instead hatred unfolds among them. That is the point when they enter Egypt and sell him to it.
Joseph (the righteous man, the foundation of the world) is what is called the ground, Sefira, which connects all Sefirot preceding it, or “Jacob’s sons.” He wanted to unify them all, but they didn’t comply; each of them wished to be alone. And Joseph says: “You have to unify in me” since Sefira Yesod binds within itself all the other Sefirot; it has nothing of its own.
However, all the other properties in man opposed it, and that is why they started to experience the Egyptian exile. In other words, our entire work pertains solely to unification for which you have the world group as well as the local one. And each of us has opportunities to advance both in the physical and in the virtual groups. Additionally, everyone has already done some preparation for unity, but we haven’t been able to make a final decision yet.
And it could be that we will have to make a final decision every instant that nothing will help us unless we unify, above everyone’s personal egoism. There, in the point of our oneness, spirituality lies. This miniscule dark point suddenly unfolds and we find the entrance to the spiritual world in it. It is such a narrow and tight passage that it would have been hard to believe something could actually open there.
It is similar to giving birth. First, the exit is closed, the embryo remains inside the womb regarded as “Mem Stuma” (letter “Mem” is the property of Bina, closed on every side). And only later on, when the enormous desire to be born is present, this letter “Mem” splits into two doors (the letters “Dalet,” from the word “door” or “Delet”) on two hinges (“Tzirim” or “hinges,” the word that also means natal contractions), and that’s how a baby is born.
But the moment before, a newborn has no chance to know, predict, or sense that the state it is in can open up. Therefore, a strong environment is necessary. It will constantly pressure every one of us and ensure us with a guarantee: the power of support, the force of awakening that will always bring me back to the intention for unity.
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From the 3rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/21/2011, Beit Shaar HaKavanot
Question: What can I do if I have a great desire to unify with the friends, but no matter how hard I am trying to do so, I am unable to stay in it for more than five minutes and get carried away by all kinds of irrelevant thoughts?
Answer: You need to transfer yourself from one thought to the other, over and over again. What can you do if our work is done in small steps, like children who grow little by little, day by day. But a child does work, all day long, in order to advance. It constantly tests the environment and itself: How well it can fit into and employ it, how to develop in order to take the most advantage of the environment.
But we don’t do the same. Each second we don’t examine how we should use our environment, what the best way is to connect to it. We don’t wish to unify and test ourselves: Do we bestow to the environment? Can you really do it each moment like a child does? And that’s where our problem lies; it is the reason why our progress is so slow.
Nothing is halting us. We received all the instruments; everything is written down for us; everything is explained; and all we need to do is jump on it altogether and just do it! And then anyone, even if he is in the farthest corner of the Earth, will also feel he can’t do otherwise.
Only the common inner effort of the entire world group will awaken every heart. No one has any other chances to keep on the path, to immediately wake up and keep moving forth. This is regarded as the mutual guarantee, when all guarantee to everyone that he will quickly wake up and reach the good state.
Egypt isn’t that necessary if we are passing through it together. The Creator arranges everything so that we can bear this turmoil which is regarded as the “pain of love” when I dream about meeting with someone I love, and yearn for Him, for this anticipated encounter that lies ahead.
And I naturally suffer since I haven’t yet come to that meeting and we haven’t reunited, but I already live looking forward to it, in the illuminated anticipation of the future. The only difficulty on this path is lack of unity between us. Beyond it, there is nothing else.
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From the 3rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/21/2011, Beit Shaar HaKavanot
Question: What is the connection between disseminating the wisdom of Kabbalah and spiritual attainment?
Answer: Spiritual attainment comes solely through dissemination. We know from the wisdom of Kabbalah that a soul consists of two parts: GE (Galgalta ve Eynaim) and AHP (Awzen, Hotem, Peh), which are my properties (Kelim) by way of which I remain in bestowal to others. GE obeys the law of Restriction, where only the Light of Hassadim (Mercy) is present. It isn’t attainment but only the correction of the Kli (vessel).
However, if I wish to attain the Light of Hochma (Wisdom), I need to involve my AHP, my receiving Kelim (desires). In other words, I must bestow to the others; otherwise, I won’t be able to engage my AHP. I must receive MAN from them which will result in my being able to channel the Light of Hochma to them.
Therefore, it is said: “I have learnt a great deal from my teachers, more from the friends, and much more from the students.” After all, the students bring to me their unfulfilled desires, and I lift them up to Infinity, draw from there and channel through myself the Light of Hochma that they are asking for, and thereby attain.
A person never attains spirituality in his Kelim, but only by adjoining the others’ desires to his own. He can engage his AHP only if within him, there is the GE of another. And the AHP of the latter, in turn, has to be tied to someone else, and so on. None of us is free.
Thus all spiritual Partzufim are formed up to the world of Infinity. Let’s take the Partzuf of my soul, for example (see the diagram below). Its lower part resides within the lower Partzuf, totally controlled by it. And in the second part of my soul resides the upper one. In other words, with the upper part of my soul I belong with the upper one and with lower part, to the lower one. Where is my Self then?
Well, I don’t exist. I cannot exist for myself. My life (and we will very soon start observing it in our global world) is tied either to the upper one or to the lower one, to both of them, but it surely doesn’t belong to me. If in my upper part I completely hand myself to the upper one, along with him, I attain in my GE and his AHP in me the complete ten Sefirot. And below, in my AHP and GE of the lower one, I also attain the full ten Sefirot. Thereby, I receive life.
But I never have my own Kli except in connection with the upper or lower ones. I don’t possess my own ten Sefirot or, to be even more precise, I don’t have any one Sefira of my own. My one, upper, part is always totally tied to the upper one, while the other, lower, one is fully tied to the lower one. And only in the middle can I make a decision to split myself into these two parts.
This is precisely what we will be revealing now as a result of a global world crisis. There is no other connection between people, nations, countries, and all parts of nature. We are all linked like cells of one single organism. And if we make an effort to fulfill this condition, we will find a good life. And if not, we will suffer.
This is the spiritual law that defines how the Partzufim are connected. We learn about it in The Study of the Ten Sefirot.
Question: How much time should we dedicate to inner analysis and how much time to external dissemination?
Answer: Dedicate 100% to inner unity with 100% dissemination to the world on top of it!
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From Lesson 7, WE! Convention 4/3/2011
Daily Audio Version-MP3
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