A question I received: How should a person work when he receives a spiritual awakening?

My Answer: He should work on his connection with his environment, provided that it is comprised of people similar to him. You will feel the spiritual world inside your spiritual desire, which is built out of the desires of other people, which you attach to your desire – the point in the heart.

Besides this “point,” you don’t have any other spiritual desire. You are like a cell in the general organism: By itself, the cell cannot feel life or perception. This is why you have to establish a connection with the other cells.

The entire universe is one organism called Adam. Your task is to find your connection with this common organism. The life that you will feel inside this common spiritual body will be the higher, eternal and perfect life (the Light). The source of this life is called the Creator.

All of this is perceived inside the general body, which consists of points or cells – individual aspirations for spirituality. If you don’t unite with them, you will never feel the spiritual life.

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We can see how the system of creation is built in a step by step manner. A person is always connected to a specific level, and then he advances to the next level, and so on. The influence he receives from Above passes through all the levels in order to reach him. One’s path toward the goal is an ascent up the levels from below upwards, and in the process, one gradually becomes similar to the World of Infinity.

Each of us is a result of thousands of years of development by our ancestors. However, a person’s direct connection is to his parents. They give him the qualities and upbringing that the shape him inside and out.

The same thing happens in the science of Kabbalah. It has developed for thousands of years, and each Kabbalist out of thousands of Kabbalists did something unique in order to bring this wisdom to us today, the time when the whole world must awaken.

But nevertheless, our closest connection is to the most recent Kabbalists: Baal HaSulam and Rabash. They are our parents. They are the ones who give us life and the upbringing that shapes us. They connect us to the system leading to Infinity, and we perform this ascent with their direct help and by virtue of their teaching.

This is why it is so important for us to realize the method they have passed on to us – their upbringing. If we have the strength to hold on to these great parents which the Creator has sent us, then we will definitely reach success.

We are yet to see just how much they care for us. We will see that their souls are always connected with us and take care of us. We receive everything “Upper” only through them and only to the degree we carry out their advice.

Let us hope that we will merit and be worthy of what they have attained, and what they pass on to us. All the Light on their level is ready for us to accept It. Through them, we will be able to establish a connection with the Light, the Creator.

Baal HaSulam spoke about how the science of Kabbalah will begin to be revealed starting with the year 1995, and how thousands of people will come to it. He was talking about us. There is no other group that accepts anyone wanting to reveal the Upper World and that disseminates his teaching. Therefore, we have to be proud, and at the same time continue to make efforts in order to be deserving of such a benevolent treatment from Above.

Baal HaSulam writes in “The Future Generation” that a person has to try to:

1. Attain spirituality by himself, and / or
2. Disseminate it and help others attain it.

A person corrects his soul in either case. When we try to pass his teaching on to others, then regardless of how much we ourselves attain it, our actions bring about a correction and that is a great accomplishment that we have to be proud and happy about.

So let us raise a toast to this great soul, which connects us to the Creator. Each of us truly was chosen from Above. Each of us has received the great right and privilege to establish a connection with this soul, to be connected with this teaching and to disseminate it.

So, let us be worthy of being called Bnei Baruch. After all, Baruch – Blessed – is the name of the Creator.
(From my talk at Baal HaSulam’s grave this morning, 09.29.09)

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On the spiritual path, we always advance through states that consist of two opposites simultaneously. This really bothers a person, since he exists in just one quality – egoism, or the intention, “only for my sake.” A person just cannot agree with the fact that two opposites can be together.

However, in the spiritual state, opposites coincide. After all, we are opposite to the Creator and we have to attain adhesion with Him. We are able to attain adhesion with Him while keeping our initial nature; this is called spirituality. We do it by adding the spiritual nature to our nature, by combining the two. We thereby exist in both worlds.

However, right now we only have the desire to enjoy, and therefore we don’t understand how it is possible to have a unity of opposites. In fact, this state cannot be described or conveyed using our earthly language. Our language is an expression of our nature, and therefore it is only able to convey what we understand. But in the spiritual state, even the cause and effect change places: what seemed to be the cause turns out to be the result. This is why spirituality is concealed.

But it’s not because someone is concealing the spiritual state from you. Rather, you simply don’t recognize spirituality because you are built according to the material world, which consists of just one component rather than two opposites together. It’s as if you walk right by the spiritual world, in a different dimension, and you never encounter it. You simply don’t have the sense to perceive it.

Spirituality can only be perceived within two opposites. It’s when the Creator and the creation unite together through creation’s equivalence of form with the Creator. When you create this equivalence between yourself and the Creator, between your intention and His desire to bestow, while your desire to receive remains, then you have two opposites within and are able to perceive spirituality.

You begin to understand it, and you can start researching and measuring it. You are then able to understand how it is possible for there to be something above the speed of light: two opposites together, which don’t contradict one another.

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A question I received: Where does the Upper Light reside?

My Answer: The Kli is filled with the Light of Hassadim (love and mercy), the force of bestowal, which contains the Light of Hochma (wisdom). The Upper Light is the Light of Hochma clothed in the Light of Hassadim. This is the Light that is always working.

We are always turning to Malchut of the World of Infinity, for that is the only existing state. The substance of Malchut of Infinity is the will to receive. The creature imparts to this desire an intention “for the sake of bestowal.” At that point the Creator’s Upper Light clothes in the creature’s intention to bestow.

That is how the Creator’s love and the creature’s love are revealed together, inside of our desire. This state is called the World of Infinity. This state already exists, and we only have to apply our efforts to reveal it! This cannot be done individually, but only through our collective efforts, by uniting all the spiritual sparks (points in the heart).

Our collective effort awakens the Light that fills the World of Infinity, and draws It to us in the form of the Surrounding Light, which shines on us from afar. The Surrounding Light, in turn, makes us similar to Malchut of the World of Infinity.

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There are two forces leading us to our goal. One force is our desires and the desires of the environment, which develop us in this world. But the second force does not pertain to this world; it pulls a person toward the unknown and brings him to a special, spiritual environment – a teacher, a group, and Kabbalah books.

If one connects with them properly, then he builds the spiritual world for himself, which is his future world. One’s body remains in the material world, while one’s soul becomes born in the spiritual world. This is the only realm where a person has freedom of choice.

A person is always inside the field of these two opposite forces, and he has to balance them out. However, he shouldn’t try to replace one with the other; one needs his life and the desire to enjoy in this world also.

On the spiritual path, one always finds oneself between two opposite forces. By balancing them within oneself, a person uses his free choice to build his “self” between these two forces. He does this freely and independently.

A person receives everything else from Above: his desires, mind, strength, and examples, but he builds himself on his own. It turns out that he creates a creature out of himself, becoming equivalent to the Creator!

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A question I received: What is the fundamental difference between humans and other creatures?

My Answer: Unlike animals, we humans have the opportunity to attain a connection higher than our bodies. There are two forces or desires at my disposal: I feel my “self” or my life, and I also feel the need to find the source of my life – the Creator.

In the physiological sense, humans do not differ from animals in any fundamental way. Man originated from the animate level. At some point in the past, we used to be apes, and we later developed into “modern apes.” Everything happened due to the development of the Reshimot in us. For more on this, see Part 3 of Talmud Eser Sefirot.

So, there is no difference between humans and animals, except for the spiritual desire that is instilled in us. This desire is a part of the Creator, and it is above and beyond our lives. If this desire awakens in me, then I become a human being. Meanwhile, in every other respect, I still remain an “ape.”

Granted, it’s an ”ape of the best sort” – one that’s more complex and more adapted to carrying out the human function: to attain the Creator through its desire. Our bodies are smarter and more sensitive than animals’. Yet, whatever a person in this world has that is above and beyond the animate level, he needs it for only one thing: to develop and understand what his soul desires.

You have received a point of spirituality that bears absolutely no relation to the body. It will remain even if you were to replace all parts of the body. It would still want to advance forward!
(From Part 2 of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson, on Baal HaSulam’s “Introduction to the Book, ‘From the Mouth of a Sage’”)

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What are the desires or the souls that were shattered? At one point, there was one screen that united us.  But then the Light came and revealed to everyone how we are all different. Although we all strive towards the Creator, each of us bestows in their own way.

It’s like a bunch of family members all trying to feed one baby. The mom gives him the porridge, the grandma wants to give him milk, while the grandpa insists that only bread will make the baby healthy. Each one wants to give something to the same baby, but in the process they all argue with each other.

The desires become shattered because the connection between them breaks, and due to this breakage, they also lose the chance to bestow to the Creator!

We have to understand exactly what is shattered.  Only then will we know what needs to be corrected. We will find that the only way to build a human being (the middle line) is by reuniting all the pieces of the soul which have lost their connection with each other and it will become clear that the only way to unite the pieces around them is centered around that very same baby that first connected them.

Imagine that the whole family starts hating each other.  The mother, father, grandmother, grandfather and everyone else all wish the baby “well” according to their own criteria, while denying the opinions of the others. So, what will bring us back together? Only the love toward the baby. Each one of us will then be willing to rise above his own egoism and lower his head for the baby’s sake.

This is why unity between us is possible only if we wish to reach the state of bestowal towards the Creator. We will then unite all together with Him into one whole.
(From Part 2 of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson, on “Preface to the Sulam Commentary”)

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A question I received: How can we begin to perceive the true reality?

My Answer: The reality we see only seems objective to us. It appears to be independent of our perception, or of our life and death. We assume that the world we observe is constant, that it exists outside of us and independent of us. We think that it doesn’t get influenced by whether we exist or not.

We reason about it this way: ten billion years before the Earth was formed and man appeared on it, there was the Big Bang – the point that brought our world into existence. That is when time and space emerged. We construct our story upon the axis of time, which we think existed before man sensed it and could talk about it.

We discuss history in the same way.  We say that once upon a time, there was Ancient Babylon, the exodus from Egypt, and all the other events of the past. Today, we can speak about the past and say that some time ago, there lived a man named Baal HaSulam, who wrote books for us which we are reading today.

But in fact, we only reason this way because we are still on the level of the “inanimate spiritual being.” As long as we are on this level, we can’t imagine that everything exists only inside our bodily organs of perception, or senses. As long as a person hasn’t acquired the sensation of spiritual time, he is stuck in the earthly axis of time, and he will think, speak and write accordingly.

However, spiritual time is defined as a sequence of actions, and it begins from the moment one starts to perceive that he is inside a network of forces, the system of Nature (the Creator). There, everything is determined by the measure of your interaction with this network.

Related Material:
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A question I received: What does it mean “that which I do not attain, I do not call by a name?”

My Answer: Contrary to philosophy or our perception of the world, nothing exists on its own in the science of Kabbalah. Everything exists only in my perception and sensation, and this is the only thing I am allowed to speak of.

There is no Creator, no creation, no worlds. There is nothing that can be said to actually exist. I am the only one who senses that it exists, I am the one who thinks, I am the one who sees, and this is the only context in which I can speak of anything I perceive.

I perceive everything through my senses, and everything depends on my relation to it and its relativity to me. This is why we can only speak of that which a person reveals and attains. In Hebrew, the Creator is called “Bo-re” – “Come and See.”  There is no Creator without the creation.

The quality of bestowal is revealed within our Kelim in accordance to the similarity of its attributes with something external which we do not perceive. This we call the Creator, “Come and see what I see!”

I perceive Him in my senses, which have changed due to my evolving qualities, due to the changes taking place within me. I say: “The Creator is within me! Look at the form  I’ve taken!” This form is what I call the Creator.

I don’t point at Him directly; I only speak of His form which is engraved into my matter, and it is this form that I call the Creator. The matter (desire to receive pleasure) has changed its form into the desire to bestow.

This is why we evaluate and determine everything only in relation to our personal attainment and not, in relation to anything outside of us. All the worlds are my Kelim, my vessels of perception, and I only perceive them to be external to me.

I perceive myself inside of my internal desires, but I perceive the world in my external desires since my Kelim are divided into the internal and external. When they merge, I will have ten Sefirot of the soul, the world will disappear and everything will enter me.

At present, I sense everyone surrounding me as external because my Kli isn’t complete, it is shattered. If it was complete, I wouldn’t be able to discern anyone external to me. I would feel everything as the World of Infinity.

Related Material:
Laitman.com Post: The Journey To Infinity Starts With A Point Of The Soul
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Laitman.com Post: For Science To Move Forward, The Observer Has To Change
Booklet: “The Structure of the Soul”

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A question I received: What are the signs that my point in the heart is developing?

My Answer: If your point in the heart is developing, then with each passing day you gain a greater understanding of the fact that your connection with others is the vessel for revealing the Light. And you are always inside this vessel.

When someone says the word “spirituality,” you immediately envision a picture of your connection with the other souls, in which the Creator is revealed. This image of the Creator – a completely giving Kli – is always standing before your eyes. After all, Malchut is called an image of the Creator.
(From Part 3 of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson)

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