The intellect and emotion of the person constitute his “self,” and what is found above his intellect and emotion is the spiritual level, the spiritual Adam (man).
Humanity developed egoistically throughout history, during which our intellect and emotion grew, and we already have gotten used to this and accept it as correct. To us, this is evolution. We get more and more discernments within our emotions and intellect, more and more details about our world, and it seems to us that this is the way we advance.
Really, what else could there be? The better that our telescopes and microscopes are, the deeper we see. The more intense our radar becomes, the farther away we hear. Ultimately, we expand the range of our five senses and our intellect supports this process.
However, there is an evolution of an absolutely different kind about which the wisdom of Kabbalah speaks—development within other senses, with other characteristics that, to date, we don’t have—and we call these the force of bestowal. It seems to us that there is a force of bestowal even in our world, but here we would say that this is talking about intention. This is because, after we go deeper into every action, a person seemingly may go against his ego. We discover that altruism cannot be perceived, and ultimately everyone is acting only for self-benefit.
The characteristic of bestowal that is found above our reality cannot be attained through the usual means. Therefore, I don’t understand and don’t know what spirituality is at all, and in order to resolve this problem, I have a precise and very unique science that is conveyed to me through a hole that is “like a pinprick,” through a very small opening into the spiritual world. This is a small opening because I can’t take anything with me, except for my essential impression, the spiritual spark that is “a part of the divine above.” It is latent in me so I can pass through the crack (that we see with difficulty) between the two worlds.
There is a wall in front of me through which only the spark can pass, and all the rest is left behind. Furthermore, to communicate with the other people who meanwhile were left on the other side of the wall, I am forced to be “clothed” in the previous clothing, but I, myself, already have passed to the new world, and there is no connection between the worlds since they behave according to different methods, different principles. Here, the characteristic of reception dominates and there, the characteristic of bestowal.
For now, we have no possibility of understanding or discerning the principle of bestowal or its characteristics. In no way or manner are we prepared to approach it or imagine something close to its truth. All of our worldly efforts are designed only to confuse us, to calm or to dazzle the ear, and that’s all. In fact, the world of bestowal is a “reverse world” and its reversal is reflected in the essences of things and not in their form as in our world.
Indeed, we don’t acquire the spiritual world with the help of the intellect or the wisdoms. Rather, it’s the opposite. The wisdoms are very likely to hinder this matter, and in general all the efforts that the person produces for himself from an egoistic standpoint in this world—all the beliefs, methods, religions, means, coachings, and so forth—are useless. Throughout history, a multitude of efforts have been employed that haven’t helped anyone. On the contrary, we see that religions and faiths support the egoistic nature of our world more and more. Therefore, for a person found here, there is no chance of making a proper assessment and judgment in regard to the spiritual world. Even through chance or accident, no one is ready to reach the truth because our understanding and emotions are not found in contact with spirituality.
Therefore, we must make a clear distinction.
On the one hand, there are scientists who investigate nature within the five senses and reveal the results of their work to everyone, and, then, other scientists who are no less egoistic seriously examine these results through experiment to negate their colleagues, and while they debate each other, the truth is discovered within the five senses, about which, as it is written, “A judge has only what his eyes see.” We have no doubt regarding scientific facts. We rely on them one hundred percent. In the area of the five senses belonging to our world, science is unassailable. It establishes clear levels of reality: axioms, theorems, theories, estimates, approximations, predictions, assumptions, and more. It establishes clearly what is fact, proof, estimation, and result, and all these concepts are integrated into the various sciences of nature that investigate that nature in which we live.
However, due to our weakness, we cannot encompass the entirety of creation, all of nature. Therefore, we divide it into various fields: physics, chemistry, biology, zoology, and so forth. In the last centuries, a number of areas have intersected, integrated, and formed interdisciplinary sciences that recently have had a leading role and have brought significant results. The entire world has become integral and obligates us, specifically, to learn the connection between phenomena and not parts of the overall picture.
It is also up to us to understand that even studies like these are biased because we are investigating with the help of our senses as the means, our tools, and our intellect. Science is aware of this and acknowledges this as a limitation since the picture of our world depends on the level of our development, and on the next level, this will change. Absolute knowledge of nature in the framework of these methods is unattainable. The more that we penetrate into the atom, an entire universe is discovered and infinite layers of knowledge.
Lately, science is passing through many crises, encountering uncertainty and many contradictions. It is distressing to watch modern scientists because they are found in a forlorn state at the end of this present stage. Nature has become more and more “circular,” integral, and they still retain a natural, individualistic approach that typifies an egoistic person. Ultimately, they lose connection with nature and exhaust the linear study that fit with their egoistic linearity. As of today, a new, circular, global nature is revealed in our world, saturated with collective linkages, and they have no possibility of digesting this. That is, we cannot investigate this new nature because from the start, our senses are egoistic.
On the other hand, the spiritual world and the wisdom of Kabbalah are something else. If the Kabbalists hadn’t told us about their investigations, these would have remained outside of our interests. Humanity would not even have risen to the level of religions. There would not have been an elevation above the primitive properties of the winds, trees, stones, and so forth. Humans would have bowed down to the various parts of nature because they saw that nature is great, and this greatness obligated them as if they had to bribe it in order to be worthy of a good relationship, to drive off thunder and lightning, volcanic eruptions, earthquakes, floods and so forth. We would have related to everything that is liable to be a source of threat exactly like this. However, humanity wouldn’t have advanced more and would not have even thought about concepts like “souls” and “the next world” that already belong to a completely different level of speculation.
Among the other areas of human involvement, there is an area called “philosophy.” This is not a science because it has no basis for investigation that makes possible experimental evaluation and the attainment of results that other people can check again in all their details, and, relying on these examinations, establish truths that will be accepted by everyone. Philosophy has no mechanism like this. It is the result of human intellect that thinks about various things, including science, life, and so forth. We have no possibility of checking their conclusions because they belong to something that is not clothed in substance. No laboratory will check a thesis formed in the human imagination based upon abstract speculations.
For a long time, philosophy was considered to be dealing with a high human level. Until the beginning of scientific development, it was much respected, so much so that until today, other scientific degrees all are linked to this. Everyone recognizes the PhD degree in many fields, which is to say, the Doctor of Philosophy. People thought that philosophy included all scientific studies and all of human wisdom.
However, in the last three or four hundred years, from the days of the Ari, from the beginning of the development of science, philosophy lost its status and descended from the stage. Science made it possible for us to examine the data and be sure of our success, whereas philosophy ultimately always is mistaken. It has just about nothing to say about the future, therefore, it is impossible to rely on it. Together with this, the ego of philosophers grew, as it did for all the rest of humanity, and they contradicted each other all the time, immersed in a big lie.
Philosophers always loved to investigate the wisdom of Kabbalah to the degree that they heard about it. Some of them even learned Hebrew and Aramaic in order to read the sources, and in spite of all this, the philosophers didn’t understand that in Kabbalah there is a principle of attainment. Without entering into the spiritual dimension with the appropriate senses—which is to say, with true tools of attainment like the scientists do in our world—we are not ready to investigate anything. This is because we simply don’t exist in the area that we are studying.
Rather, the philosophers look at the wisdom of Kabbalah according to their worldly intellect while they are on the other side of a wall, without passing to its second side through the “pinhole,” and it doesn’t bother them at all to discuss and argue about what is found beyond the wall and bring to light new speculative creations. This situation reached such a state that philosophers discussed Kabbalah without taking the trouble to learn from the books of the Kabbalists. They simply picked sections that they liked from various books.
The famous philosopher, Gershom Scholem—who, fifty years ago, was considered to be one of the fathers of modern philosophy in Israel and a great investigator of Kabbalah—in fact, never mentioned even a word about Baal HaSulam who lived and worked precisely during that period.
I understand this because this is speaking about investigation of a great deal of material in the wisdom of Kabbalah that is so deep that philosophy cannot match it. Therefore, he simply ignored this as if it didn’t exist.
How can a scientist relate to a subject that he studies like this? A true scientist is openly ready to erase all of his previous achievements if he sees that they are erroneous. The Rabash would erase what he recorded before from his writings, and write, “Incorrect.” After that, there would be a new version that eventually also would be erased and so on for a number of times. This is science, a scientific approach. This is respectable, for during development, there are no absolutes. The absolute is the completion of correction and the infinite world in which everything is connected together, and until then, there are always doubts.
It is said that what is garbage for the higher is food for the lower. This is to say that, when I rise, I erase the previous level, and it becomes “garbage” for me. It is no longer correct. It is forbidden to use it. Whoever is caught up in yesterday doesn’t reach tomorrow. Our advancement is through our ability to be detached from what seemed to us to be correct a moment ago. Otherwise, it is impossible. You see, we are passing through absolute changes of all of our ten Sefirot all the time. Our intellect and emotions are renewed all the time; they pass through an “upgrade.” Instead of the old that is erased, the new appears, and if the person guards himself from the upgrade and cannot rise “above reason,” he doesn’t advance.
So, as of today, we see that philosophy still exists, even though it certainly is found in a graveyard. The positions of the philosophers are very powerful and have been resistant to innovations for generations. Besides that, philosophy has adopted the wisdom of Kabbalah, and they teach it in Faculties of Philosophy. We must understand that philosophy steals everything that is in Kabbalah, and it is not even successful in this.
Inwardly, we are also philosophers, but we must ultimately bury the philosopher in us. In fact, no one has a moral right to discuss Kabbalah if he is not himself found in spiritual attainment. What can he say about an area with which he is completely unfamiliar? However, in spite of it all, people express their opinions and assessments without rising to the level about which they speak.
Therefore, in our world, we basically are required to understand that the spiritual level is found above us, and we have no contact with it. Therefore, we cannot say anything about it. First of all, it is up to us to be detached from the animate level and rise to the level of Adam, the spiritual level that is acquired only with the help of the Light that Reforms, through work in a group with the help of the method of Kabbalah. We must be detached all the time from the previous state and rise more and more. Otherwise, we also will be those philosophers.
[111302]
From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 7/01/13, Writings of Baal HaSulam
Related Material:
Philosophy: A Building Without A Foundation
The Wisdom Of Kabbalah And Philosophy: Who Has The Last Word?
Kabbalah And Other Sciences, Philosophy, and Religion
Filed under: Daily Kabbalah Lesson, Kabbalah Study, Science - 1 Comment →
Opinion (Nicholas A. Christakis, physician and sociologist at Yale University, co-director of the Yale Institute for Network Science): “The natural sciences are evolving with the times. The perfection of cloning techniques gave rise to stem-cell biology; advances in computer science contributed to systems biology.
