Question: How can I exactly recognize the point of my free choice?

Answer: First of all, we discover that we are absolutely, one-hundred percent not free. This is the realization of evil.

However, on the other hand, what is so bad about that? If I am entirely under the power of the Creator, or Nature, then there is nothing to ask of me. I am neither good nor bad. What is there to demand of me? No matter what I do, it is not me doing it, as it is written: “Go to the craftsman who made me.”

Religion is based on this. I am a small person. I do everything that He wants. If He says do, I do. In this way, all my charges are removed, any questions are canceled, and I rid myself of problems.

However, on this path, you lose independence and freedom. Just by following the Creator’s decrees, even if unwillingly, you will always find a reward for yourself and ease your task—at the cost of your real “I.” This is why religion is good for the masses. When everything comes from Above, it adds a feeling of comfort to life and provides psychological support to flow together with everyone.

On the other hand, in Kabbalah, I demand independence, instead of self-cancellation. I want to find the beginning of my “I.” In this search, in this rational and logical evaluation, I discover that in reality, I do not exist. I did not make the decision about being born in this world, I did not chose my qualities, my genetics, my parents, my country, or my environment. I was reared and educated by already formed systems and institutions such as kindergarten, school, mass media, and so forth. Who am I after all this? I am a piece of dough baked in a common oven into a regular loaf of bread.

When I see this, a question arises in me: Is this what life is? What does it give me besides never-ending concerns, a constant flight from suffering, and brief moments of pleasure? This is the realization of evil: I begin to think about the essence of what is happening, about my journey and its end, and I understand that I do not exist. There is only a machine that I neither launch nor control. When there is an algorithm conflict in the computer, it gives an error message. I too respond to problems, albeit in a sensory way. The pressure jumps somewhere, and I feel pain. That’s all it is to it.

In this case, I simply have no reason to live. Many people come to this conclusion. The only thing that holds them back is an instinctive fear of death, and even that does not always work.

This is where I begin the search for true freedom, my true essence. The path to it lies through becoming like the Creator, not in worshiping and canceling yourself before Him, but actually becoming like Him. I must grow and become more like Him. Absolute independence and freedom is inherent of the Creator. There is none else besides Him in all of nature. I can grow according to the same principle when there is no one else besides me in all of nature.

This is the Kabbalistic method. We search for freedom and independence. The most painful thing is the fact that I do not exist. Where can I find my “I?”  This pursuit of my own “I” is my entire life. I want greater self-expression. I want to rule over everyone and receive. What is all this for? It is for my “I” to form and grow. Here, Kabbalah explains that to acquire your “I” means to acquire the qualities of the Creator, in other words, to acquire freedom.

Question: So how can I find my “I” without free will?

Answer: The initial point of my “I” manifests itself through questions about the meaning and essence of life. A person who comes to Kabbalah already has this point of choice, a point in the heart, a spark, the other side of the middle line, the reverse side of freedom, the feeling of emptiness and lack.

I have no freedom, and this is why I ask questions about the meaning of life. This is exactly what I lack. I do not care about life itself; I need to find my “I.”
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From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/13/2011, “The Freedom”

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

In articles like “The Essence of Religion and its Purpose,” Baal HaSulam refers to more sublime things than a certain religion. “Religion” in this case is one’s attitude to life, the perception and the feeling of reality. How is reality depicted to me: externally or internally? Can I see the difference between the two?

Can I be certain about what I feel? Can I rely on my mind and emotions? Do I perceive the situation correctly, or am I trapped in blurred feelings? Could it be that everything isn’t really as I see and feel it? How can I check the credibility of my image of reality? How can I understand the phenomena I perceive in this picture? How can I use them correctly? Where do I find these criteria? How can I look at myself from the side, objectively? All these questions and many more are part of the concept called “religion.”

In our ordinary life, religion is our attitude towards a certain concept that we have created for ourselves by ourselves. Almost every person in the world wants to believe in something that he doesn’t know or feel, something that he cannot test logically.

It’s convenient from the egoistic point of view to make up theories that will help one sweeten his life a bit. The answers cannot be tested, no one knows whether they are true, and each one has a theory of his own. At the same time, a person feels good with it, he suffers less and feels that what will be will be. After all, we cannot ascend above our realty and actually check and analyze it.

We need another science, another concept that comes from Above, from outside our nature. I don’t know what it means to be really objective because no matter how you look at it, I am always in my own desire, in my mind and my emotions. How objective can you be? If we take all the options into account, all the desires and the thoughts, all the sciences in the world, we will still not reach objectivity.

So in our present situation we will never be able to determine the right approach, the right outlook of life. This is why we cannot answer questions about the meaning and purpose of our lives. We shouldn’t be ashamed of these questions, but we cannot answer them because we are in a very limited position.

We don’t know how the universe was created and what preceded it. We don’t know how it develops and what drives the natural evolution of the still, vegetative, animate, and speaking nature on earth. We don’t know anything about the process we are going through and how it will end. So, no matter how much we discuss it and the assumptions we make, it’s all worthless. No one can prove that it’s the truth. People can say that, but no one actually has any facts.

This means that we don’t need another system, but a true revelation of the upper force that operates reality. Until we discover it, we should not rely on anything.
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From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 11/27/2011, “The Essence of Religion and Its Purpose”

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Baal HaSulam, “The Peace”: They found it difficult to accept the assumption of Nature’s supervision…. In consequence, they came to a second assumption that there are two supervisors here: One creates and sustains the good, and the other creates and sustains the bad. And they have greatly elaborated that method with evidence and proof along their way.

The theory of duality is a natural stage of development. Nature affects us in different ways, and we feel positive and negative things in it. We feel good and bad, and we naturally divide reality into two parts. After all, we do not have another sensor but the desire to receive.

The five senses are types of mechanical sensors whose readings do not mean anything on their own. The desire to enjoy stands behind vision, hearing, taste, smell, and touch. It displays the positive (+) and negative (-) features of the data that I perceive. This is the only thing that is important to me, and the only thing my desire recognizes is what is good and bad for me.

Consequently, I divide reality into the two parts: positive and negative. This is strongly manifested in little children who avoid certain places and things but like others. Man also has this stage of development where he distributes everything between two forces. Nature itself brings us to this because we live through sensations.

This theory is very simple, but it is important to understand here that it is not limited by individual good and bad sensations, but transfers them to nature. It attributes corresponding intentions to it on our account. In this way, we attribute to nature a certain power, attitude, and intention to either help or harm us. Without this, no one could believe that nature had an intention, a design, or a plan, but it is seen as something inanimate, no more than that.

However, when nature has power, it is no longer without personality. It no longer is a set of firm, impersonal laws determined by the interaction of elementary particles. No, the power of nature is something else. It can be single or dual.

In general, duality is a very logical theory because everything in the world is based on two opposites, a plus and a minus, beginning with electrons and protons in the atomic structure. At first glance, the two powers really oppose one another, and everything depends on the balance of forces between them.

This drove man to create mythology. We have endowed nature with a desire, a program, and a purpose, and this has become an important milestone on the way.
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From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/2/2011, “The Peace”

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Many Baal HaSulam articles are dedicated to one topic: man’s attitude towards the world, how we reveal the true reality. This also raises the question of who we are. We are a certain type of energy that assumes a form in our sensations that we are accustomed to, and this form is comprised of hard, live, and warm bodies that assume a place and this is known as space. This is how we perceive ourselves.

Is this the proper sensation? And is there an objective criterion? Maybe everything is relative, and everyone sees his own picture, depending on his senses? Rabash gives the following example: Whatever we see as a table is something else in an angel’s eyes. Everyone discovers the world according to his or her instruments of perception.

In general, thanks to Baal HaSulam’s articles, we are approaching a certain objective perception. With this purpose we rise over our desire to receive and acquire the desire to bestow. In other words, we form the desire to bestow out of the desire to receive in us, and then we reveal the reality that created us.

A special force created me in the form of the desire to enjoy. When in return I turn it into the desire to please another, then it’s as if I assumed the form of the One who created me. It’s in this way that a person assumes the form of “Man,” meaning similar to the Creator.

I reveal a greater desire to enjoy in me and can turn myself into my opposite, until I work out everything that exists in me. In this way I will fully reveal my Maker according to the principle of “we will now You by Your actions.” This is because I am His action. And when I turn myself into my opposite, I reveal Him. Moreover, as it is written, I reveal everything within me, as it is said, “come and see” (Bo and Reh). This is the Creator (Boreh).

This is our course, this is how we come to His revelation and the revelation of reality in general. In other words, in reality the entire enormous multitude of its parts is the creature, or I myself. And I must turn myself into the intention for the sake of bestowal.

Some of my parts I perceive as my own body, and other parts I perceive as the others. However, they also are my desires. I perceive that other desires are further from me, and in the end, they form my image of the world. All of this I must turn into bestowal. The final fruit of this work will become my Creator. He created me, and I create, formulate Him, reconstructing the seal by the imprint.

At first it seems to us that a multitude of unconnected forces operate in the world. Then we discover that this is not really the way it is—there nevertheless is a connection. Rain and wind, heat and cold, myself and my family, friends and enemies… There are many forces, and I am indifferent to some of them, while others have a greater or a lesser meaning to me.

Then I divide them into generally good and bad, and then all the good ones I relate to one good force, and all the bad ones, to one bad force. In this way mythology and a host of gods appeared, which with time have been cut down to three, two, or one….

And today the entire world is uniting into one whole before our eyes. An integrated nature, undivided into fragments, similar to sciences, is being revealed to me. Human society, ecology, everything is becoming one. We are changing our perception of reality.
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From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/2/2011, “The Peace”

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Question: Out of all the material published by you and Anthony Kosinec, it was  easy for me to synchronize all your teachings with the Holy Quran. This made it clear for me that both the Torah and the Quran came from the same source. However, I don’t see you talking at all about the devil or how he can affect our desires. Could you please explain from your teachings where you can position him or his effects? (Saudi Arabia)

Answer: All positive (giving) and negative (egoistic) forces exist only in a person himself. There is nothing outside a person but the concealed correcting force (the Light, the Creator), which manifests to the extent of our aspiration to become similar to it in our relations.

That is why “love thy neighbor as yourself” is the general rule of the Torah (the method of correction). There is no doubt that the Holy Quran is also a consequence of the same laws of nature (the Creator) that the Torah (Kabbalah) speaks of.
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Question (from the Hebrew blog): Last year, while studying Rabbi Nachman of Breslov, I was granted the revelation of the Creator in my heart. His teachings continue to illuminate my path and fill my heart. I turned to faith, began to put on tefillin (phylacteries), and try to fulfill the commandments, as I understand them.

Once, I came to your class in Haifa before Yom Kippur (the Day of Atonement) and was very surprised by the fact that before such an important day as the Day of Atonement, you completed the lesson without saying a single word about keeping the commandments.

I was hoping that at least at the end of the lesson they would read a prayer. But even this did not happen. Don’t your lessons and the method of transmitting our holy Torah include prayers and performing the commandments? It is important to note that I really enjoyed the lesson. I would like to know whether it is possible to talk about such exalted matters without including the direct interpretation of the Torah and the fulfillment of commandments.

Answer: I address all the citizens of the country and the world, and that is why I do not present my explanations in the framework of customs so as not to scare people away, but to attract them towards the main commandment: “Love thy neighbor as thyself.”
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Question: Time and time again I hear you correcting false perceptions of your students during lessons, and I also hear how in my local group the inner meaning of the terms “Creator,” “faith,” “prayer,” and so on gets revealed as opposed to their idolatrous meaning. I understand that Kabbalists hid this wisdom in this language for a reason centuries ago, but why must we continue in this way now?

We have all spent years being shaped by our religions and society to the point that these terms have become inextricably linked to false images. If we are behind in our work towards the public, and the speed of our correction is essential, wouldn’t it be better if we finally dropped this double-speak and only talked with people using the right language? It seems that we are wasting precious time with the confusion and misunderstanding.

Answer: You are right, and lately our language is changing, especially because of the need to talk about the crisis and its causes to people who are not interested in Kabbalah. I hope that we will switch to a more understandable language and get away from the confusion in definitions.

Question: I work in the religious sector. It is difficult because people with whom I work every day do not want to develop by studying the wisdom of Kabbalah. They believe that it is forbidden. How can I influence them?

Answer: Keep quiet about your studies!
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Question: Someone asked where is Jesus in Kabbalah, and the answer came back: “He is absent.” How can Jesus be absent? Kabbalah says that it deals with physical energy, so how can you separate it from the One who generates it? It’s like separating the gas from the car. How can it run without it?

God is the source of all things. In Genesis God spoke: “Let there be light, and there was light.” But isn’t light energy? Then why would God separate Himself from what He created? How can Kabbalah have no relation to religion? Regardless what religion it is, God is the source of all energy, all things in Heaven, on Earth, and beneath it.

Answer: Are you talking about the Creator or man, about what is revealed or what people believe in? I think this is a question of faith, which has nothing to do with science. Do you ask a physicist: “Where is the divine force in your particle accelerator?” Kabbalah talks only about what is revealed to us, people, as we develop within the force of bestowal and love.
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Question: I googled this question: “Why do married Orthodox Jewish women cover their hair?” This is what I found:

“According to The Zohar and Kabbalah, Jewish mysticism, the woman is considered Malchut, or the “vessel.” The man is considered Zeir Unpin, or the “drawer of Light and energy.” When a Jewish man and woman marry, their Neshamot (souls) become one and they create a complete system. Universally speaking, the man draws the light down from the universe, and the woman is the vessel in which this Light goes—for her, her husband, and any children they have together.

How does she manage this energy? Through her hair. A woman’s hair on her head (and a man’s hair on his beard and certain parts of his head) act as conduits for this Light and energy. By covering the hair on her head a woman is managing this energy, containing it, and essentially “saving” it for her family. When she does not cover her hair, this energy can escape or become unmanageable bringing challenges to her and her family.”

Is this something that exists in authentic Kabbalah, and if it does, can you please explain what it actually means? Does a woman need to cover her hair? And if so, where can I read about this in the texts?

I thought that we shouldn’t associate our true self with our body because it was just matter? So what’s the reason for these “weird” rules about dead skin cells?

Answer: Unfortunately, the books are written by people uneducated in Kabbalah, and that is why they understand Kabbalistic texts literary, as if they talk about people in our world, and not the souls. It refers only to the desire, the only thing that was created, and its correction by way of the screen or intention.
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Question: Many of us belong to a religious group in addition to Bnei Baruch and attend church services regularly; and some of us even teach Sunday School or Bible Studies at the church we go to. Perhaps it’s being generous to say so, but it seems the vast majority of the people who associate themselves with a religion are indeed searching for answers to life’s questions.

Is it a worthy task to introduce the Kabbalistic method of Baal HaSulam into the Bible study curriculum of the Western religious institutions? And if so, what is the correct approach?

Answer: Religion exists due to the concealment of the Creator, while Kabbalah is the method of His revelation in the corrected desires of man. Therefore, religion and Kabbalah have opposite purposes. As soon as the Creator becomes revealed, there is no place for religion.
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