Entries in the 'Religion' Category

“Spiritual” Practices: The Final Revision

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: Egoism shrewdly and inventively depicts various pictures before me. How can I discriminate the lie in them, which appears like love for others? After all, all kinds of religions and methods also talk about love.

Answer: In our world “love for the neighbor” is a simple, primitive game of small egoists. Can you really find real, exalted love for the neighbor anywhere, which is really practiced on an ongoing basis?

True, people create separate settlements in order to live in love with one another: There is a village like that in Italy, one in India, and an entire city in Asia. But if you look a bit closer, you will see that they are still the same egoists who just decided to introduce more comfortable social customs. This is more comfortable and pleasant for them, and therefore, they have united in order to make their lives nicer.

Once upon a time kibbutzes flourished in Israel—agricultural settlements with collective property similar to a collective farm. People decided that it was worthwhile for them to live together because this brought them more benefit. “Let’s give up some of our egoism and then we will feel good.” Everything’s clear about this, but is this really altruism?

Humanity supposes that conceding to the neighbor makes a person an altruist. However, people who are slightly more informed about human nature or who study the science of Kabbalah know that any concession has to come with a profit. No matter what a person is giving up, you can find what he is gaining by that. Even if the profit is concealed, it is definitely present.

For example, I am willing to live in a kibbutz because this removes my worries about how to arrange my life. Is that not a profit? I have no worries. I simply do what I am told. But development follows its course and with time kibbutzes became outdated. As a whole, these kinds of communities have no future.

We already see that all forms of interconnection between people have to change due to the egoism that grows in them. Changes continue to take place, and this inner dynamic has to be realized in some way as there will be an explosion otherwise.

This happened over the course of history to various religions, faiths, and methods. Today they are undergoing a worldwide outburst because man has set out on a search once again. He is conducting the final revision: Can these methods offer anything real?

After this analysis these practices will fall for the last time. After all, today we are checking them in relation to the integral mechanism that nature places before us. We have never had this criterion yet. People are once again turning over the pages of all sorts of practices, confessions, and mystical teachings, trying to understand: Can they help us in the new, integral world?

This process will take a short time and will quickly come to an end with all the expectations crashing down. Everyone will see that it is pointless to wait for help from them. Any subject that is checked will persist for a few years at most after which it will reveal its inadequacy.

After all, if you don’t change man’s nature so he becomes just as integral inside of him as nature itself, then no recipes will help him. The only method that makes man global, integral, and united with others is the method of attracting the Light that reforms, the science of Kabbalah. Every person just needs to be given the opportunity to realize his evil. Then all the means and their combinations will turn out powerless, and this entire business of “spiritual” tricks will end up non-existent.

Man will not be able to calm himself down because the world has changed and the problem is no longer how to calm down, but a “conflict of interests.” No one will be able to survive in the integral system without becoming fit for it.
From the 5th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 7/7/11, Matan Torah

Related Material:
Finishing Abraham’s Business
The Revelation Of Kabbalah To The World: For Evil Or Good?
Dressing Into Someone Else

Finishing Abraham’s Business

Dr. Michael LaitmanToday we are completing what Abraham had started when he taught the sons of his concubines different spiritual practices which precede the actual spiritual work for the sake of bestowal. He instilled in them the foundations of belief systems and sent them off to eastern lands. Later, the same work of Abraham has materialized through the people of Israel who, after the destruction of the Temple, fell from the spiritual level and gave rise to religions thereby.

Thus the beliefs, which originated in the times of Abraham, and religions, which came about in the times of the destruction of the Temple, essentially represent stages of the inclusion of the method of Israel into the nations of the world. Judaism, Christianity, and Islam among others have been advancing humanity towards the understanding of Godliness. People would have remained complete barbarians without them.

In our time, after thousands of years of evolution, it is hard for us to imagine a person who does not ponder at all about this and the future worlds, the Creator, or good and evil. If there were no religions, we would not have culture, education, and a human society in its modern understanding.

We simply are not aware of the role that religions have played in advancing humanity. Universities have appeared due to religions. In the desire to spread religions, people have discovered new continents, settled new lands, and aspired towards something in the future.

This way, the spiritual message became part of the egoism of our world and it has reached people who had no connection with the Creator and no desire for Him for the lack of the point in the heart. However, now they have a certain impulse, belonging, and fear before the future world, a possible punishment, and something above this life.

They have a feeling of something greater and foresee certain things. And even though corporeal images appear in their imagination, even though this is idolatry, still, something close to a human is beginning to grow out of a “higher animal.” They already think about things that animals do not care for.

Previously, people did not think beyond a closed cycle of income, food, reproduction, and death. We simply are not aware of the contribution of religion into human culture and art.

However, today our development is coming to an end, and the global crisis, grasping the entire humanity, is the sign of it. Religion is not the problem: We simply can no longer keep sustaining an egoistic society that lives according to the laws of self-love.

Our egoism has brought us to its spiritual component. Money has become a “spiritual value” for people and forced them to blow unthinkable bubbles in the economy by selling air to one another in the form of virtual businesses.

This has brought us to the need for a change. We are facing real spiritual work for the sake of bestowal.
[47011]
From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/13/2011, Ramchal’s “The Wisdom Article”

Related Material:
Religious Resistance To Kabbalah
Making Mistakes Before Finding The Truth
The Light Revolution

The Revelation Of Kabbalah To The World: For Evil Or Good?

Dr. Michael LaitmanIn Kabbalistic books people see the upper system that controls the world. However, by using the wisdom of Kabbalah as well as religions, people  have “sculpted” all sorts of misconceptions according to their personal taste: mystical teachings, philosophies, and other theories studied in universities. Papers on demonology and wizardry are submitted in philosophy courses.

By borrowing Kabbalistic names and terms but not the essence, people only confused themselves, thinking that they understand what was being discussed. This includes anti-Semites who formed an entire structure using an unsound foundation. People from Hitler’s faction studied these questions closely, trying to prove that by destroying Jews they can destroy all evil in the world. This is why Baal HaSulam writes in his article “Messiah’s Horn” that premature disclosure of Kabbalah caused disasters for Israel.

Let’s look at the bigger picture. All culture in the world is based on religion. Some 200 years ago there were no “regular” books, music, or art; everything revolved around faith. If the wisdom of Kabbalah hadn’t revealed itself to the world in different forms, humanity would still be at that stage. And really, where else can development come from? Man can’t develop by himself.

But leaking Kabbalistic knowledge caused humanity to “flourish” and develop a rash of faulty beliefs. This brought a lot of disaster to Israel.

Question: But Baal HaSulam also writes that Kabbalah was revealed according to the Creator’s will. So how does one combine these things?

Answer: Certainly, everything happens according to His will. He established an absolute law to which you have to conform or else you are heading down a bad path. And the difference between these two paths is in you, not the Creator. There are no changes on His part whatsoever. You feel His attitude as bad only because you are bad.

The revelation of Kabbalah to the world did a lot of damage to the nation of Israel. But if they had acted differently, better, Kabbalah wouldn’t have been revealed to the nations of the world, and they wouldn’t be treating Israel this way. After all, the hearts of the rulers are in the hands of the Creator.

Everything in the world happens in relation to those who have a point of choice. But if a person doesn’t have this point, he cannot do anything, and he is pushed forward by collective suffering.
[46875]
From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 6/17/2011, “Messiah’s Horn”

Related Material:
A Rhetorical Question: “Whose Fault Is It”?
Hatred Against Jews
Lever For The Ascent Into The Upper World

A Splinter In The Universe Or A Beloved Child?

Dr. Michael LaitmanBaal 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

Is Russia Part Of Europe?

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: You are about to travel to Russia. What is your attitude to this country? Do you see it the same as America, Europe, or Asia?

Answer: Without a doubt, Russia has a special spirit, one of Byzantium. It is by no means a European civilization. This is also evident from Europe’s attitude to Russia as to something different to it by essence. Even though this Russia seems like a Christian nation, it is nevertheless orthodox, meaning it has an element of competition with Europe over who has the Christian truth. And in addition, it has a great Asian influence as well.

Russia loves European culture. It loves France as one loves a mistress, but France’s principles of liberalism and freedom are alien to Russia. These are the principles of Europe – the principles of a new, technocratic civilization. But for Russia the slogans, “freedom, equality, and brotherhood” are vain attempts to create naked modernization. True, it does resemble it, as if smart machines were placed next to slaves….

But maybe this is exactly why Russia, the place where the commandments of the French Revolution did not catch on, in spite of all of Europe, is the place where the question about life’s meaning is apparent in every person: What are we living for!? That is why I am going there with the hope that I will be understood!
[45159]

Related Material:
Russia And Europe: On The Path To Spirituality
On Russia’s Spiritual Rebirth
Feudalistic Mentality In Russia – Laitman Unplugged

The Physics Of A Wider World

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: Is it possible to acquire the soul, reveal the spiritual world and the Creator without the wisdom of Kabbalah?

Answer: A person begins to explore nature and discovers in it a certain law, a particular connection between phenomena. For example, I throw an object on the floor, calculate the acceleration of its fall, and draw a law from this experiment. At the same time, other people don’t study natural phenomena but learn about them in a prepared form.

There are people who discover the laws of nature, and there are those who learn them and thereby make a revelation, always personal and individual.

Phenomena that are being discovered by scientists existed in nature before. Hadn’t apples fallen on heads before Newton discovered the law of gravity? In this way, there is nothing new; we reveal what already exists, already happens. However, there are pioneers and those who learn from them and try to use the acquired knowledge correctly.

The same can be applied to the wisdom of Kabbalah, the physics of a wider world, not perceived by our sense organs. To feel it, we have to develop an additional sense organ called “the property of bestowal,” in which we will reveal the spiritual phenomena: Sefirot, the worlds, and Partzufim. Nonetheless, we continue to work as scientists.

It is said: “By Your actions we will know You.” It’s clear that everything stems from an action, from research. “A person judges only by what his eyes can see.” “Faith” is the force of bestowal that you attain. You don’t close your eyes to accept blindly as fact someone else’s opinion; this does not exist in any science, including the science of Kabbalah. On the contrary, it is said: “Know the Creator and serve Him.” Knowledge, analysis, and revelation are the foundation of everything.

There are people who have already made this discovery and have seen certain patterns; they convey to you knowledge about these laws, the method of research to ease your way. These laws apply to everyone because we are in one world.

So, don’t look at Kabbalah as at an unknown animal. It’s the root of all the other sciences of our world because it reveals the roots of creation, and it should be treated as a science. Kabbalah is not related to religion. When we fell from the degree of love of friends into self-love and mutual hatred, we lost Kabbalah and stopped perceiving the upper, spiritual world. Then, religion was born.

Thus, “religion” is the science of Kabbalah remaining in exile, in separation from the Creator, in isolation from the upper world, apart from the object of studying. Outside of real perception, without knowledge and understanding, the interpretation of spiritual actions and the relationship with the true reality, with the upper force, turned into Judaism. It exists in the period between the destruction of the Temple and redemption, after which we return to the wisdom of Kabbalah. That’s why it’s said: “Everyone will know Me, from the smallest to the greatest.”

Of course, we should not despise anything. We advance with the help of available means, but each of them has its own application.
[44126]
From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/27/2011, “The Freedom”

Related Material:
The Soul’s Correction Comes First
The Exit From The Labyrinth Of Suffering
The Mosaic Of The Universe Where You Are Missing

Washing One’s “Hands” With The Light

Dr. Michael LaitmanAll traditional customs in Judaism are an imprint from spiritual, Kabbalistic actions, but only in corporeal, egoistic desire. True spiritual actions are performed in two spheres: reception and bestowal.

After we lost the connection with love of others, with bestowal and the upper world, what we have left within the framework of this world is called Judaism. This is the form in which Kabbalah exists for a person during the period of exile. However, for select few, it reveals itself in two spheres: spiritual and corporeal.

That’s why in religion there are certain customs carried out according to tradition. Instead of performing these actions inside oneself, as spiritual actions, they are performed on the outside.

The Shulchan Aruch (Set Table), the book of religious laws, describes spiritual actions, but in material form. When it says “wash your hands,” this means you have to take your spiritual vessel of reception (“hands”) and clean it by dipping or washing it in the Light of Hassadim (Mercy). It explains how to make the wedding canopy, Huppah, for connection with the Creator, how to separate the pure desire (Kosher) from the impure one, or how to slaughter an “animal,” meaning one’s own egoism, the right way.

Any action performed throughout the day is a reflection of spiritual processes. That’s why the Shulchan Aruch describes a person’s life in detail from the moment he wakes up and thanks the Creator: which foot has to come off the bed first when waking up, how to put on shoes, and how to dress, by first putting  through the right hand, a symbol of the desire to bestow, and then the left one, a symbol of the desire to receive.

Everything is described down to the last detail because this follows the correction of the soul. “Body” is the soul, and the book explains how to correct it, how to clothe it, wash it, how to feed it (meaning how to fill it and with which Light, Hochma or Hassadim, and in which order), and how to bless different types of food, types of satisfaction for the desire to receive. This is what the Shulchan Aruch talks about.

Before the destruction of the Temple, the whole nation had been carrying out these actions, each one at his own level and working on his soul. Everyone knew what this meant in relation to his soul and the Light.

However, the moment we lost a connection with the spiritual world and fell down into egoistic reception, we did not have a soul anymore, so there was nothing to correct by performing all these actions. That’s why people started performing the same actions on their bodies, with this corporeal flesh, in the material world, and at the material table where they eat, instead of filling the soul with the Light.

If we open the Talmud, we will see a set of rules that we have to follow in relation to others (for example, how to pay your neighbor if your animal has harmed his), but this implies a spiritual level. The entire Talmud is talking about the actions of a person who is working on the correction of his soul, but they are described through animals or work in the field, using the language of allegory.

If you are in the spiritual world, it’s clear to you that it relates to the spiritual world, the soul. For you, it’s as though this world doesn’t exist. You understand that it’s impossible to correct anything by alternately pouring water on one hand and then on the other, and that these actions are performed only as a token of the material world’s similarity with the spiritual world.

If one exists in the spiritual world, he or she acts the same way in the corporeal world as well. However, a material action does not correct the soul. It is merely a cultural tradition, a nation’s history, a mode of life to which one is accustomed from childhood.

In reality, we perform these actions in our inner correction. In other words, we take parts of our desire and with actions such as these, we lift them from the egoistic level, filling them to the level of bestowal toward others and the Creator. This is exactly what the Shulchan Aruch and the entire Torah talk about, which teaches us how to do it.

However, when we lost our spiritual connection, we started treating this as material actions. Right hand, left hand, bull, or donkey, a person understood and studied them as if they were corporeal laws.
[44242]
From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/29/2011, Shamati #40

Related Material:
Learning About The Upper World From The Lower World
The Uniqueness Of Passover Is The Light Of Faith
The Source Of Passover

To Change The Upper One Or To Transform Oneself?

Dr. Michael LaitmanA prayer is a person’s connection with the upper force that reflects only his or her perception of it. There are people who pray asking for a better life in this world, there are folks who pray for the future world, and there are those who don’t pray and don’t believe in the upper force.

Still, they do think about their future, and every such thought is regarded as a prayer. But whom I am asking, however, is a whole other matter. Is it nature, fate, something unknown, my future state, or an upper force that can be bad today and good tomorrow depending on my request?

A prayer is the action I take in regard to the subsequent moment in hopes to achieve a specific state, meaning that this notion includes various states, but all of them divide into two parts depending on to whom I pray: Is it someone that changes and whom I can force to change?

That is when people start looking for hidden ways to gain control of the upper force so that it would become more kind and change present reality and the world. This hope to bribe the upper one is the basis for all mystical and religious quests. A person of this world who lives in his or her egoism thinks it’s possible.

However, there is another, very rare approach that says that the upper force can’t be changed; rather, you need to know how to alter yourself by using the forces nature programmed within you. It is the method of Kabbalah which opposes all other methods.

It doesn’t matter whether a person thinks there is one God or many, imagines himself facing nature or any other upper force. What matters is his attitude toward it.

Does he seek to employ the forces of nature and transform himself in order to reach the chosen destination, meaning that everything depends solely on him and his connection with this force? Or, does he look outside himself, seeking to alter the upper force, meaning does he approach the upper force, trying to use it for personal benefit so that it rewards him, which relates to his desire to change the whole world and take advantage of everything there is?
[42598]
From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/9/2011, Shamati No. 113

Related Material:
Going Towards Each Other
Standing Before The Absolute
A Prayer Book Is The Saga Of Spiritual Life

"He Hangs The Earth Upon Nothing"

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: What does “There is none else besides Him” mean? And how do people with the point in the heart, without the point in the heart, and the religious masses attain Him?

Answer: People existing in our world can relate to the whole of reality just as to the environment in which they live, similar to all living beings. Besides that, people can have an additional relationship to their life that animals do not have. If a person was taught to believe in the upper force, this relationship can be either good or evil. If you are good, the upper force will be good to you, and if you are bad, it will be evil to you. This force wants you to be good and thus sends challenges to you. It treats you with kindness if you behave well. So, it is worth being good.

What does it mean to be “good” in the eyes of the upper force? Here, people have invented various systems to the point of sacrificing their own children and annihilating infidels in religious wars. Coming from their ego, people created for themselves all kinds of relations to this upper force.

Baal HaSulam explains the origin of religions and beliefs in his article “The Peace.” In essence, religions are a system for the development of humans, advancing them to spirituality. Those layers of desires to enjoy which are not able to aspire to the Creator move ahead with the help of religions. People know one thing only: There is the upper force, and we are in a certain system of relationship with it: If I am good, it is kind; if I am bad, it is evil.

Then, the sole problem is to define the desires of this upper force. Every religion has its own view on this matter, and each considers itself the right one. And here is all the difference between the religions: how to worship this upper force, how to fulfill its desires so we can live comfortably in this world and in the future world. They seem to work in front of this upper force like in front of the lord, the king: “How can we fulfill Him so He is pleased with us?”

Thus, there are three types of people:

  1. Entirely secular with an animal’s attitude towards reality
  2. Religious who worship the upper force, trying to find the ways to please it
  3. Kabbalists

Kabbalists say that this upper force, the Creator, has no relations with you personally. Even if you say that there is none else besides Him, the good who does good, it is an all-embracing power.

Everything depends on me, and He has no personal relationship with me. Everything is determined by the measure of my transformation in simple, constant, unchangeable existing Light, as it is said: “I did not change my HaVaYaH,” “the Law was given and cannot be transgressed.”

This means that the Creator has no personal relationship with me, has no calculations with respect to me, nothing! I simply feel that He does. But I perceive a computer just the same way. Let’s say, I was working on the computer yesterday and got angry with it in earnest, was ready to smash it with a hammer. Was it its fault? It is a gadget made of steel and plastic.

However, since I work with it, I transfer my personal qualities onto it, think of its behavior as good or bad, and fume at it: “Look what it has done to me!” Similarly, I get angry with a car if something happens to it.

These are fundamental things inherent in our nature. This is not funny at all. Our belief in the power of nature, which treats me kindly or unkindly, stems from here. What do we tell a child when he hits himself on a table? “Hit it back; it has hurt you!” And if it is not a table, but something more abstract, large and all-encompassing, we speak in a different way: “Treat Him well, and He will do you good.” Faith starts from here.

We don’t understand yet that if we are not at the point of truth, we don’t work with anything. We merely work against the law of nature, as “the law was given and cannot be transgressed.” The Creator doesn’t change. Thus, whether I am good or bad, it affects only me. I don’t do to the Creator either good or bad; I don’t touch Him.

When I say that He is happy for me or I make Him sad, it is I who says this. I just perceive this in my senses. If so, what or who makes me change? My ego? It means that I do this only with the purpose of feeling good. Nothing else obliges me! Or maybe the environment, threatening me with punishment, forces me to change?

If this is our attitude towards the entire, perfect reality, no one can force me to change. It can happen only by faith above reason! Why do I exist in this broken, false reality? I want to build from it an independent attitude towards this force, “the good who does good,” the only existing one. What does “an independent attitude” mean? It means that I relate to this force without any personal goal, and it doesn’t know, understand, or sense anything from me. What do I base my work on? “He hangs the Earth upon nothing,” which is called “ten Sefirot Blima (concealing).”

Gradually, I come to such perception of reality that I don’t make any personal calculations, like I make today. I just want to learn from this force its property, become similar to Him. This is my reward. I need no result, neither for the force, nor for myself; I desire only to become like Him, as it is said: “The reward for a commandment is to know the One who commands.”

These are very subtle concepts that are impossible to explain. A person who has no point in the heart will never be impressed by this or understand what is hidden behind. “For whom do I work then? If there is nobody but me who would receive my work and, as a result, treat me differently, it means that I work against the wall, against the void. Then, what do these words mean: “The book is open, and the hand is writing,” “sentences himself and the world to a scale of merit?”

All these words are intended to bring us closer to the ideal, which is called “faith above reason.” There, you don’t have any calculations that you can imagine. You have no one to address. You can make calculations only with the one who has desire, strength, and action. “There is none else besides Him” and “the good who does good” implies that He doesn’t act from the other side. We talk about our actions: changes of states, reactions, but He doesn’t have anything. If so, it’s as if He doesn’t act. He doesn’t seem live if He doesn’t change. This is how it appears to us.
[42107]
From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/26/2011, Shamati No. 1

Related Material:
A Black Point In An Ocean Of Goodness
My Beloved Is Hiding From Me
125 Degrees Of Drawing Closer To The Light

A Black Point In An Ocean Of Goodness

Dr. Michael LaitmanThe 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.
[41552]
From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/26/2011, Shamati No.1

Related Material:
In The Reflection Of The Upper Light
The First Article, Which Is The Beginning Of Everything
Evil Is Our Inability To Feel Love