The key difference between Kabbalah and philosophy is that philosophy engages in abstract matter, while the wisdom of Kabbalah deals solely with form clothed in matter. Hence, philosophy is detached from reality, while Kabbalah is tied to it as is any other science.

However, while the regular sciences study reality perceived in the egoistic desire, Kabbalah explores reality sensed in the altruistic desire. Reality is perceived in the very same desire to receive pleasure, yet in the first case, desire “wants” to enjoy for “its own sake,” while in the other it is “for the sake of bestowal.”

This desire has two forms of existence. Science that studies the behavior of the desire which strives to absorb and receive everything into itself is called material, natural science. “Material” means that it acts with the egoistic intention.

Science that studies the actions of the desire to receive pleasure which aspires for bestowal is called Kabbalah. This form of existence of matter is absent in our world; it can only be found in the upper worlds.

Hence, it is clear that the wisdom of Kabbalah is opposite to the material sciences for it explores the opposite behavior of matter, which makes all of their laws and principles cardinally different. Yet, they both use the same scientific approach of relying only on obvious facts.

Accordingly, as the materialistic science studies the levels of egoistic matter, which exist in this world, so does Kabbalah use the same realistic, scientific approach to examine the existence of spiritual matter at the still, vegetative, animate, and human levels of nature, which act in bestowal in the spiritual world.

But the study method can be either scientific or religious, which is based on faith. And if so, it is religion, not science. Accordingly, if this non-scientific approach based on pure faith is applied in our world, it turns into “philosophy.”

To summarize, matter could work either 1) for its own sake, or 2) for the sake of others. In both cases (either in the upper world or in our world) a scientific method can be applied, meaning the method that relies on experience, reason, obvious facts, and the study of form clothed in matter. In addition, another approach can be used in both areas, which studies abstract form: philosophy and religion.
[31534]
From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/2/2011, “The Wisdom of Kabbalah and Philosophy”

Related Material:
Everything Is Relative In This World
Everything Depends On Definitions
The Dawn Of Philosophy

Filed under: Daily Kabbalah Lesson, Religion, Science - No Comments →

Since eons ago, all Kabbalistic books have described spiritual attainment, the spiritual world. However, their content was distorted by the public to fit corporeal definitions. Consequently, the principle of faith turned into blind faith.

“I believe that somewhere ‘in the void, a suitcase (substitute anything, including the Creator) is spinning around.”
“Have you seen it?”
“No, I haven’t; but I believe it.”

This is what the public calls faith: Somebody told me about something I have never seen, and I faithfully repeat after them.

One of the essential parts of our spiritual work is to discard the erroneous ideas of the masses about faith and religion and return to the authentic meanings of these terms: the wisdom of Kabbalah and attainment of the Creator. In his article “The Essence of Religion and Its Purpose,” Baal HaSulam regards the wisdom of Kabbalah as religion, the method to get to know the Creator. Yet, in our world, it has been used to create various confessions and spiritual practices.

When we encounter a false idea, we have to perform a correction within, constantly returning to the correct definitions. “Religion” is the wisdom of Kabbalah, “faith” is knowing the Creator, the property of bestowal, the Light of Hassadim (Mercy). “Absolute faith” is living in full awareness of the Creator, the Light of Hochma (Wisdom), dressed in the Light of Hassadim.

“Faith above reason” is the path of bestowal above reception. I seem to be sailing in the waves of egoistic desires under the sail of bestowal that is cut out precisely for them while being opposite to them at the same time.

“Israel” are those who aspire directly for the Creator. All the rest are regarded as “the nations of the world.” Each of us, until we have completely transformed ourselves, lives in both of these states. “The King of Israel” is when a person is in the state of “Israel” and feels that the Creator rules within them. “The king of the nations” is when the Creator still rules in a person but not by the latter’s consent or with his awareness.

Everything depends on definitions, and we must know them by heart so that while reading the text, the terms automatically pop up in our consciousness.
[31486]
From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/2/2011, “Above Reason in Divine Service”

Related Material:
Rising Above Knowledge
Don’t Get Distracted By The Sharp Turns
Kabbalists On The Torah And Commandments, Part 6

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

Question: If a person doesn’t have an opportunity to check whether his experience of the Creator and love of others is true or not, how can he scrutinize this?

Answer: People who wish to attain authentic scrutiny with the assistance of the Light that Reforms must actualize this method on themselves. But since all souls are mutually connected, everything that has been clarified by them is automatically transferred onto all others. And those individuals who are still satisfied with their fantasies will eventually begin to realize that all of them are groundless.

Everyone has their own fantasies and faith: According to some research, there are about 3800 various religions and spiritual practices. (I have no way to check but am willing to take it on faith :-D.) Only a great, mature egoistic desire that becomes increasingly expressed in humanity does not wish to take things on faith.

Moreover, since we are tightening up our circle and connecting closer together and since opinions travel from one to the other, with a more exalted idea ruling over the lower one, we thereby “circulate” the knowledge of Kabbalah and inject doubt in the hearts of all the others.

However, don’t ever try to convince anyone of anything in the external form. If a book on Kabbalah happened to fall into a person’s hands and they decided to read it, it’s great. We should also take into consideration that everyone reads it from their own perspective and finds resonance with their own opinion.

Therefore, we have to work on ourselves, and as a result, the increasing egoistic desire unfolding in the integral system of souls will be receiving “electrical” impulses. The Light we draw will be reaching all others, and they will start thinking in a new way: They will want to have knowledge in addition to faith.

There is no need to erase religious faith completely. If we add knowledge to it, it will turn into cultural traditions, and that additional knowledge will be the knowledge of the Creator, His revelation to the created beings. In the end, philosophy will perish, religions will become national cultures and customs, whereas the wisdom of Kabbalah will reveal the upper, eternal reality to man.
[31516]
From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/2/2011, “The Wisdom of Kabbalah and Philosophy”

Related Material:
How Bina Works With The Souls
How To Capture The Light Of Correction
One Wisdom For All

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

All of humanity except for Kabbalists is allegedly engaged in attaining spirituality, the Creator. It applies even to the secular who do not have anything to do with spirituality and lead a simple, animalistic way of life.

However, if you look a little deeper, all of their actions tell you that they are searching for it as well. Everyone is searching in his or her own way, through culture, music, and literature. But they treat these things as if they were a kind of deity, something lofty, great, and eternal. They relate to science the same way as well.

The search for scientific answers is also worshiping other gods because people are trying to attain spirituality through science, by discovering what is concealed in nature. They are searching at the level of their small desires.

However, they don’t even know what they are doing. In truth, besides its animalistic life, humanity is searching only for spirituality. People just don’t know about it and continue to roam like cows in a meadow.

Each person feels that he is searching in the right way, according to the Aviut (coarseness) of their desire. But with egoism growing from generation to generation, a person’s search gets closer to the wisdom of Kabbalah. And when he comes to Kabbalah, the questions begin: “What is the meaning of my life? What am I living for? Everything is nonsense, I want to be on another level.  I want to know the Creator, to reveal Him.”

Didn’t he want to reveal spirituality before? Previously, he believed that he could reveal spirituality by discovering a new law of nature, by creating beautiful art or literature, or through prayers and meditation. But after all of these searches, people come to a state where they simply have to attain the Creator in their new organs of perception, which are now being revealed. This is the wisdom of Kabbalah.

Abraham took people like that with him. However, we are not referring to the man who left for the land of Canaan, but to the desire to receive of all of humanity, which is sorting itself according to one’s affiliation with these teachings. That’s precisely what the Torah talks about: a global, universal desire.
[30945]
From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/27/10, “The Wisdom of Kabbalah and Philosophy”

Related Material:
The Upside-Down Pyramid
Progress Based On Stolen Energy
When We Will Finally Have Luck In Everything

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

Until man evolved and became fit for correction, the wisdom of Kabbalah could not be revealed because people wouldn’t have understood, but would have twisted it. We witness what philosophy and religion have done with the knowledge obtained from Kabbalah, distorting and turning it inside out, instead of using the method correctly.

Philosophy deals with abstract matter while religions deal with the “pseudo-spirituality” in order to satisfy their own interests (desires). It completely contradicts what the wisdom of Kabbalah teaches: transformation of one’s own egoism.

Nowadays, the wisdom of Kabbalah may be revealed to the world because philosophy as well as religion and man’s general attitude to life itself has changed so much that mankind is not satisfied with its form of existence anymore. It is pushing it to seek a new form and the reason of its existence, the purpose of life. Without Kabbalah, all of this remains unanswered.

The time has come to restore the power of  the “mistress” over the “handmaid” who has taken over. Incorrect use of the wisdom of Kabbalah “for personal benefit,” as is done in philosophy and religion, is regarded as “a handmaid who is heir to her mistress.” However, it’s correct use is “restoring the mistress to her rightful position.”
[30217]
From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/19/10, “A Handmaid that is Heir to Her Mistress”

Related Material:
Start Small And Reveal Eternity
The Dawn Of Philosophy

Filed under: Daily Kabbalah Lesson, Religion, Science - No Comments →

It’s a problem when a religious, orthodox person becomes stuck on carrying out the physical commandments and doesn’t wonder what is it for, what is the purpose of creation, and what does the Creator want from us? The Creator wants us to reveal and know Him!

By being satisfied with only physical actions, a person causes all of the world’s problems. He doesn’t understand how carrying out these physical commandments can be harmful. However, by doing so, he doesn’t correct anything because all correction takes place within the desire.

This is why we have to reveal all Reshimot (reminiscences, spiritual records), all of our inner breaking, starting with the source. That is, each one of us has to reach his root in the world of Infinity. There can’t be a correction unless the Creator becomes revealed within a person’s inner desires, Kelim (vessels). If he doesn’t study Kabbalah with the purpose of revealing the Creator, he won’t advance.

Everyone is ready for this to some extent since everyone has a desire. He is, after all, a human being, not an animal. This means he must bring his desire to similarity with the Creator. This is all that’s required of him or her. Start studying with your initially small desire, and see what a great and eternal desire will become revealed within you. After all, the root of each soul exists in the world of Infinity.

This is why the wisdom of Kabbalah can’t be hidden from people. On the contrary, people have to be provided with all that is necessary for them to study.

Right now, they are unable to understand it, but we will see how things suddenly will change and everything will become revealed. This wisdom isn’t perceived in the mind, but in the desire, and this desire is infinite in everyone.

A person can be undeveloped, living the most primitive life style in some remote place, but if a path to correction suddenly becomes revealed to him, then he’ll completely change because this is a matter of spiritual sensation. This is why Kabbalah can’t be hidden from anyone.
[29541]
From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/12/10, “A Handmaid that is Heir to Her Mistress”

Related Material:
How To Gain Confidence And Freedom
The Second Force

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

Question: Sages said that Kabbalah cannot be taught to anyone who hasn’t abandoned “idolatry and superstitions.” What do they mean?

Answer: "Superstition" is to think that our life depends on chance rather than the singular upper force of “Good who does good,” beside which there is nothing else. Everything else is regarded as superstition: faith in government, one’s own power, forces of nature, luck, demons and spirits, or whatever that may be, except the one Creator who brings us only good.

Thus, superstition is any condition of man when he doesn’t see himself living in a mutually connected, closed world, one integral system, where the only governing power is the force of love and bestowal. If he doesn’t possess such clear perception, it means that he doesn’t have faith. Any other kind of perception and lack of desire to achieve faith is called superstition or believing in various, alien forces.

Yet, clearly, we set expectations of each person according to his development, just like we expect more and more from the child with each year according to its age. Therefore, don’t blame a layman for not being in the world of Infinity and sensing one Creator. However, everyone has to find a way to somehow envision it at his own level if he is a human being.
[29665]
From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/13/10, “A Handmaid that is Heir to Her Mistress”

Related Material:
Spiritual Development: From Embryo To Person
The World Through Distorted Lenses
How To Gain Confidence And Freedom

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

Question: Ever since I started studying Kabbalah I feel so small, as if I’m a tiny embryo, and I feel less and less confident as time goes by. Where will I suddenly get real confidence in this single force that controls the entire universe, sets up all the problems for me, and is my only source of support?

Answer: Usually a person finds confidence in religion when he believes that there is a Creator who is good, who will take care of him, and whom he can trust. This worldview sets in deep inside a person and supports him, which is why Kabbalists do not speak out against religion.

However, there comes a time when a new desire awakens in a person and he can no longer be calmed by the blind faith of the past. He develops and outgrows it. Traditional actions are no longer enough for him; he wants to know the Creator!

Ideally, we should have ascended from religion (Dat) to knowledge (Daat) and realized what is written, “Know the Creator.” However, in actuality this is not happening.

In actuality it is only possible to achieve this by connecting with a Kabbalistic group. There is no other means. The group must be the place where you can attain the Creator, the quality of bestowal.

The sensation of insecurity comes only from a lack of the quality of bestowal. As soon as you are ready to bestow, you will feel total confidence and will acquire freedom from yourself! That’s because bestowal is Bina.

Then you will live without any fear and your only worry will be, “When will I attain the deeds of the forefathers through my deeds? When will I be able to bestow to the Creator?” Or in other words, when will I ascend even higher than Bina?
[29641]
From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/13/10, “A Handmaid that is Heir to Her Mistress”

Related Material:
The World Through Distorted Lenses
Bring Yourself Back To Life
A Tenured Professor In The World Of Atzilut

Filed under: Daily Kabbalah Lesson, Free Will, Q&A, Religion, Spirituality - No Comments →

Someone once calculated that there are 3,800 different religions and beliefs in the world, but all of them circulate around two notions: body and soul. Indeed, if we did not perceive anything besides the beastly body, we would exist like animals. It seems to us that we have a soul, some kind of life “beyond the body.” A person wants to know what is the purpose of my life? Why do I live?

Even though we are given these aspirations and questions in order to search for answers within the system of laws of nature, we turn them into mysticism, groundless assumptions, and take them as the foundation for our view of the purpose of life, its end “here” and continuation “there.”

The question of whether our life will end bothers us. This is because we perceive time, and we are not attached to one given moment, as are animals. We think about the future, and we want to know what will happen a moment from now. However, the questions of “What do I live for, and what will happen after I die?” are already above nature.

This is why humanity has invented beliefs and religions: It has to compensate the lack of knowledge or facts with faith, meaning assumptions without proof. We are not even aware of it, but this works on all the levels, in the smallest things, every moment, every step of the way, in every direction and level of life.

I complete every lack of facts with faith, and I think that this is exactly how it is going to be. Sometimes, it happens, and sometimes, it does not. This is how our life passes.

In every particle of our existence, in every part of time, movement, space, and existence of reality, there is an enormous unknown share, namely:
1) The cause, which descends from Above,
2) the consequence, determined from Above, and
3) we, determined by cause and consequence in a narrow gap of the perception of life.

This is why we are obligated to compensate all the unknown with faith. People believe that there is an Upper Force, “a spirit,” which turns into everything that exists, gives it life, and determines destiny. That is, the essence of matter is determined by the “soul” which gives it life.

This is because our egoism wants to think that it belongs to eternity. There is no proof of this, but it benefits us to think this way. The organism’s defense mechanism does not allow us to agree that things can be different.

Otherwise, this life would be impossible. If a person did not feel eternal, if he absolutely felt that his life is finite, he would not be able to live. Imagine that you are told the exact date of your death. This puts a cross on your entire life beginning with today. This is because, from then on, you will continue living with the precise comprehension of your imminent death. A person is not capable of living like this.

The most natural sensation given to us by nature is that a soul, which somehow lived before our birth and will continue to live after our death, robes in our body, and the main reward and punishment is in the future world, and not here. We await our reward for all our current work.

A person does not even need to be taught this. He will think this, regardless. We are not able to part with these illusions, the same way as we are unable to part with our egoism until we rise to the world of truth, not after the death of the body, but after the death of egoism.
[27696]
From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 11/25/10, “Body and Soul”

Related Material:
Taste The Spiritual World Today
Life With Many Unknowns
When The Alarm Rings

Filed under: Body and Soul, Daily Kabbalah Lesson, Perception, Religion - 3 Comments →

A person living in this world does not know what will happen to him at the next moment. He does not understand why the things that happened to him yesterday happened and from where his thoughts and desires are now originating. He feels that he is controlled by unpredictable forces, as if he is hung in the air in relation to his past, present, and future. And he tries to find some kind of support, searching for an explanation to the universe with the help of logical reasoning and hypotheses.

His ego grows and asks more and more questions about life, and about what awaits him after death. The more strength we acquire through the development of technology, which opposes nature, the more powerfully nature comes out against us, forcing us to find the answer about how we are governed and what is the meaning of life. As a result, we feel as if we are in empty space.

When man lived in caves and chased mammoths, he thought that he knew everything about his life. He felt and understood the world much more than we do. We, on the other hand, are unsatisfied by any of the existing theories. We need a clear answer because we are unable to properly arrange even our day to day lives. So many questions arise that we are unable to cope with them.

It’s like mathematics: In order to find one unknown, it is sufficient to have one equation. To find out two unknowns, you need two equations. However, in our lives we end up with many unknowns while having less and less data or facts with which to build a formula.

The philosophical and religious explanations of the past no longer work on us; we cannot rely on them. We demand facts and proofs, meaning attainment. If we knew that we do not have any freedom of will, then we would build a completely different society and relationships in it, a different system of punishment and justice. The problem that Kabbalah proposes to solve is not theoretic, but very practical: to determine where and how we can influence and realize this opportunity.

From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 11/28/10, “Body and Soul”

Related Material:
Kabbalists On The Essence Of The Wisdom Of Kabbalah, Part 25
The Question That Demands An Answer

Filed under: Body and Soul, Daily Kabbalah Lesson, Religion, Science - No Comments →