The Creator created the desire to enjoy, and nothing was created besides this desire. A greater desire for pleasure dominates over a smaller desire. Thought or the mind helps us go from one desire to another, from one state to another, from a particular type of desire to another type.

Desires are the matter of nature. Meanwhile, a thought is the means, the instrument that helps us use the desires, to shift around within the force field of these desires – from a greater force of desire to a smaller one, or the other way around, as though coming closer to a magnet or drawing further away from it. A thought is the force of movement between desires. It enables me to change my placement among different desires, shifting between them. However, no matter what desire I am in, it still dominates me.

Therefore, I need to use the power of thought to help me understand and convince myself that my desire, my state, and the circumstances I am in are bad. There are better circumstances, but to get there I have to change my desire with the help of the thoughts. I have to transfer myself from one wave of the force field of these desires (the intensity of the field) to another wave (intensity), like a charge in a magnetic field.

In the science of Kabbalah, the thought’s analysis of the desire, which I am in, is called a realization of evil. The development of the thought in me occurs under the influence of the environment or under the influence of the Upper Light. In this manner, we can “flow” through the field of desires, shifting between them, from a lower desire to a higher desire. The thought (realization of evil) helps us go from one state or desire to another.

Hence, the mind and the feelings work in us interchangeably. However, we always move according to one scheme: desire – thought – desire.

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The best means of spiritual advancement is to disseminate Kabbalistic knowledge. By doing so, we are sure to realize the Creator’s desire.

The Creator wants all his creations to unite as one in order to come into adhesion with Him. A common desire, which has been split, broken, scattered, and crushed into billions of parts needs to join together above this separation, once more become whole, and unite with the Creator. This constitutes the goal of creation and the Creator’s desire.

If our actions are aimed in the direction of connection, and if we disseminate the science of Kabbalah as the only means that leads to this goal, we thereby draw the Surrounding Light upon ourselves.  This Light which we receive when we move towards connection is several times more powerful than that which we would have received on our own.

Knowing about this wonderful opportunity, we summon people to disseminate. If every person participates in this action, the force of the Light that we draw will be multiplied by many times and will benefit us all.

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A question I received: How can a person ask for bestowal if he does not know what it is?

My Answer: Spiritual growth is like the development of a child, for whom it is not enough to be just a passive participant in the process. This is natural development where a child reveals the world for himself in a natural way. He needs to taste it, hold it in his hands, recognize it, put it together, and break everything. He himself doesn’t know what he is doing since he is operated by nature. Later, having experienced everything, a child begins to think about and build connections between things; he begins to understand and demand.

This is very much like we act in regards to our spiritual development. No matter how smart we think we are, and no matter how many serious subjects we discuss, this is not what causes us to develop. Just like little children, we bring the force of development onto ourselves, which is the same force that develops a child.

Therefore, a person needs to reach a demand for bestowal on his own. There is no button you can press and immediately be allowed into the Upper World. If a demand, an aspiration is burning in you, you express it involuntarily within yourself. A “prayer” is work in the heart and is the innermost desire of the heart, which you may not even suspect exists.

After all, is it possible to compel yourself to pray? You can’t oblige the heart. Therefore, we need this force which develops in the material and the spiritual worlds and which constantly changes our desires. The Light created these desires, and it also reveals and transforms them through its influence. Therefore, our goal is to draw the Light onto ourselves with the help of books and our studies.

It is in our power to evoke a response, to turn to the source of Light in order for It to cause a faster development. This is the only means by which we can speed up this process. Nature develops us according to a designated program, in planned time frames; however, starting from this particular stage in human history, it has become possible to speed up the process.

Today we are able to activate the force of correction so that it influences us even more intensely. The science of Kabbalah is in fact that tool, that vehicle that allows us to achieve a shortened period of development.

The point is not in gaining more understanding. It is enough to “wave your arms and legs,” like a restless child, within the bounds of the Kabbalistic method – in lessons and dissemination. In other words, we must become animated and engaged in the process of our development. We intensify the Light by trying to aspire to It, rather than through our business-like manner and thoughtfulness.

Questions, answers, lessons, and discussions – all of this is here just for us to “play” with. A child is the same in this regard. When you play with him, something awakens in him and causes him to develop. This is called “the Light that returns to the Source.”

Whether a person is smart, phlegmatic, or sensitive is irrelevant. In the long run, whoever behaves in a more active, engaging manner will advance more rapidly.

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The study of The Book of Zohar requires general efforts in the desire and the thought (the heart and the mind) in order to unite everything we studied before in the science of Kabbalah about creation, the group and the world, the Creator, the perception of reality, the direct and indirect influence and governance from Above, the singularity of the governing force and its goal, and many other components.

Obviously, when a person starts to study this book, he cannot unite all of these things into one right away. Yet he has to try to do it. The descriptions in The Book of Zohar facilitate this and compel us to do it. By focusing all the possible descriptions of the only forces in nature – the desire and the Light – it’s as if we pass through a needle’s eye, through our point in the heart, the point of our efforts, and after passing this pressure we enter the boundless, Light-filled world of the Creator.

Therefore, it is impossible to start reading The Zohar immediately. A preparation is necessary in order for a person’s heart and soul to absorb everything the science of Kabbalah speaks of, all of its demands, opinions, and outlook on life and the world. All of this must form one’s heart and come together into a specific feeling that Kabbalah has toward the world. Then one will be able to correctly perceive everything that The Zohar tells him.

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A question I received: Will the receiving force disappear when we come to final correction?

My Answer: If it disappeared, then creation would disappear as well. Is receiving really a bad thing? Kabbalah (receiving in Hebrew) is the science of how to properly use the force of reception.

Everything began from the Light that is the quality of bestowal or the giving force that created creation, the will to receive, or receiving force. In reality there are only these two forces, and this is why creation always has to receive or strive to receive. The will to receive is a necessary and enduring force. Otherwise, how can I possibly give? It is possible only if I learn how to properly receive; then I will be able to acquire the force of bestowal.

The One that purely gives is the Creator. I am the one who receives. The receiver can thoughtlessly swallow up everything that is  given to him, in which case he will find himself in an intolerable situation. In this case, anything a person receives will only leave him feeling more and more drained. It is  because delight is opposite to one’s desire and it neutralizes the desire. The next moment after I have filled myself, I feel empty. Why is this so? It is because delight is felt only during its brief encounter with the desire, which vanishes once it’s full. For example, I was hungry and anticipated a treat, but now that I am full, I can’t even look at food.

It follows that egoism kills itself and gives way to despair. Whatever I do, nothing remains. What else can I think of in this world to delight myself? How many different foods, movies, cars, or jets do I need? At some point, it all stops satiating me.

This is why the world has come to a crisis. The crisis is due to all of us having forgotten how to use our desire to enjoy, and therefore not being able to employ it as before. The world is at a dead end. So what should we do?  This is when a new desire called the “point in the heart” emerges in man. It says, “It is possible to enter a different dimension of pleasure. Let’s try it.”

This is how one comes to the science of Kabbalah. It teaches a person to give by means of the desire to be delighted. How does this happen? Only through love for others. Love towards others will be revealed in everyone, and people will suddenly feel that this love gives them fulfillment that does not vanish, is always there, and always increases.

When you begin to wish to give, you will sense that you are being fulfilled, and this never-ending fulfillment will be a sensation of eternal life.

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Questions I received on paranormal activities, the solar eclipse and if Kabbalists can choose to die:

Question: I was wondering, are there any ghosts? I have witnessed many paranormal activities and I wanted to know if this is all imaginary or if it has something to do with the spiritual world. Do these activities demonstrate that some people are closer to the spiritual world than others?

My Answer: These activities are all imaginary. Kabbalah is the method to realistically attain the Upper World by means of obtaining senses and qualities that match it.

Question: Superstition aside, why were so many people interested in the July 22 solar eclipse? What does this phenomenon reveal (if anything) about our perception of reality, and does it have any significance in Kabbalah?

My Answer: It’s not just superstition. It is a reflection of people’s fear of losing their life and entering the darkness in every way. This is because at the animate level, we perceive the sun as the source of everything!

Question: Could a Kabbalist die if he wanted to?

My Answer: He can’t and he wouldn’t want to, because this would take him away from his life’s mission.

Related Material:
Laitman.com Post: Demons, Spirits, Angels, Devils- Do They Exist?
Laitman.com Post: Black Cats And Physics
Laitman.com Post: Why Do We Die?
Shamati #34: “Profit of the Land”- Lesson
The Kabbalah Experience: Chapter 7. “Beliefs, Mysticism and The Supernatural”
Baal HaSulam Article: “Though Hast Hemmed Me In Behind and Before”- Talk 4

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The science of Kabbalah reveals an enormous new world to us, the spiritual world, which includes our entire world of today like a tiny grain of sand in the entire universe. But how can we attain a sensation of the spiritual world? It’s like a baby who has no knowledge or sensations that he can relate to the world around him. But gradually, he accumulates impressions of this world, hears and recognizes sounds, sees images, discerns colors, and feels the difference between cold and hot. He has to learn all of this from the impressions he receives.

At first, for example, he simply develops his senses and learns to discern the presence or absence of sound. Later he begins to discern various sensations in each sense. What makes a developed person different from others is that his senses are able to perceive finer things. To a musician, sounds awaken an entire world of sensations. An artist lives in the world of colors. A writer feels the shade of every word.

But all of this comes to a person gradually. We exist in some kind of reality, which gradually becomes revealed to us. It influences us, makes us progress and forms in us a capability of perceiving it. This is how the material reality, this world, is arranged; and we develop and reveal the spiritual world along the same exact stages and by the same laws.

There is a special book that consistently develops our sensation of the spiritual world in addition to this world. In essence, we are living in one, common world, but relative to us it divides into a part we can perceive and a part that is concealed from us. In order to reveal the concealed part of the world, we must start to feel it in a direct fashion, like babies. This is what the unique book, The Book of Zohar, does for us.

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The Zohar is a revelation of our true state. This revelation occurs to the extent that we are similar to what is concealed, to the degree that we acquire the quality that is similar to the concealed, spiritual world. The Book of Zohar becomes revealed to us to the extent that we acquire the intention to bestow, and if we don’t acquire it, the book will forever remain a mystery.

Kabbalah advises us to check: do we desire to bestow? We should check whether we have the aspiration to unite all the desires for bestowal of all of our friends. Their unified desire will be the revelation of the Upper Degree – the Creator.

Each of us, regardless of where he is, should rule out everything else and desire only to rise above our world, to unite and feel that we are all “one man with one heart.” This is the only way we can achieve unification and a mutual guarantee, and thus reveal the Upper World inside this quality.

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A question I received: When reading Baal HaSulam’s books, you can feel real a cry for spiritual ascent, but we don’t have this cry. Why is that?

My Answer: He cries for it because he knows and sees the real situation. When a mother knows that her child is sick, she cries within, but the child may not feel any pain yet and keep on playing in his crib. He has a fever but has no idea that it may be caused by pneumonia or a virus. The mother knows, but the child doesn’t.

Looking at us, Baal HaSulam cries indeed, but we aren’t terribly concerned. We’re kind of like a person that’s falling off a ten-story building but remains calm. “How’s it going?” Someone asks him as he passes the eight floor. “So far so good,” he answers.

And he’s right – so far so good. Therefore, we must regard the words of Baal HaSulam as seriously as we would a doctor’s opinion; however, not so they would scare us, but to prompt us to correct ourselves. Correction is the only remedy to our illness. And even though the remedy is not simple, it will not only restore our health, it will also help us attain perfection.

The science of Kabbalah is not intended to improve our situation in this world; on the contrary, we will never have peace here. The situations ahead will only get more dangerous until we understand that we must make the necessary corrections. We have entered a new age, one where all of mankind will ascend to a higher level. But there is a force prepared for us called “Mashiach,” which pulls (Moshech) us from the egoistic desire into the desire for bestowal. We must utilize this force.

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When we study The Book of Zohar, we have to remember that it was written by a group of Kabbalists and therefore, it can only be understood within a group as well. In order to understand this book, we have to first unite, find the connections among us and try to reveal those connections with the help of this book. We will be able to reveal this book only inside the connection between us.

Everything that The Book of Zohar talks about is between the souls, between us. If we desire to bestow to one another, these desires will become our souls, and inside them, inside the connection among the souls, we will reveal the Creator, the Light that connects us together.

The Book of Zohar talks about how we can reveal the Upper Light: It is revealed inside the intention of bestowal and love. That is why preparing for the study and engagement in The Book of Zohar is the same as preparing to acquire the quality of bestowal and love, the thought of unity, mutual guarantee, and “love for your neighbor as yourself.” We are preparing to attain this state in order to reveal the Light of bestowal and love. This is what The Zohar will help us to accomplish.

This is exactly the reason why Kabbalah is being revealed in our time: in order to help humanity attain this quality. But it will only happen to the degree we realize that it is necessary.

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