Questions I received on accelerating one’s spiritual path and realizing one’s Reshimo

Question: What’s the purpose of us participating in acceleration?

My Answer: By accelerating, we change ourselves, and this is the result we need, rather than the acceleration itself. And we can only attain this result by accelerating our movement through applying our personal, free desire, which we acquired through interacting with others.

Question: How can there be freedom of will in acceleration?

My Answer: It exists due to the freedom of will one has in interacting with others and in receiving additional desires and aspirations toward the goal from them. One’s freedom of will lies in using the environment.

Question: There is no time, but even if time did exist, the Creator and the goal of creation wouldn’t be limited by the parameters of time, right?

My Answer: Yes, and we have to enter this timeless space of sensations precisely by using our freedom of will.

Question: It’s a blessing to go through 1,000 states in two minutes. But what about going through 1,000 states in a day – is this worse? I know that there are Reshimot, which are predetermined, but does the speed of their unraveling depend on the power of the Surrounding Light’s (Ohr Makif‘s) influence?

My Answer: Yes, it only depends on this. Of course, even without it we would still be forced to develop our aspiration for the goal through the group, but by means of suffering and a lengthy path. But we can also go through this development quickly and with pleasure, by realizing that it’s necessary, with the help of the forces that we receive from the environment instead of the compulsory forces, as Baal HaSulam writes in the article “The Freedom.”

Question: Does the way a person realize his Reshimo depend on the environment he’s in?

My Answer: It depends on how he uses his environment. If a person finds out about the opportunity to advance through freedom of will, this means that the proper environment for doing so has been prepared for him as well: a teacher, books, and the group.

Related Material:
Laitman.com Post: Conscious Acceleration Toward Life’s Purpose
Laitman.com Post: Klipot and Reshimot (Advanced)
Laitman.com Post: Kabbalah on Evolution
Laitman.com Post: Kabbalah Teaches Us How to Be Free

Filed under: Spirituality - No Comments →

A question I received: Sometimes you can’t hear the lesson! That is, you’re listening to it, but you don’t hear it! Sometimes you sleep through it… And sometimes it seems that you understand every word, and it’s simply a revelation!

What determines one’s sensations at the lesson? Is it the lesson itself, the people who are present at the lesson, the person, the material being studied, or something else?

What can I do to hear the lesson like I did the first time, when I couldn’t hold back the tears?

My Answer: I understand you. This happens to everyone. It’s because the Creator only gives a person the initial desire for the spiritual goal: He awakens one’s point in the heart. And He brings a person to the source (a book, a teacher, a group, the Internet), and no more than this. And it’s up to a person to continue developing this desire he received from above, to develop it to the size of the World of Infinity.

This is impossible to do unless you study Kabbalah in the correct environment. (See item 155 of Baal HaSulam’s “Introduction to Talmud Eser Sefirot,” and also his article “The Freedom.”) Otherwise you will spend many years eating yourself up.

In addition, it’s very important to prepare for the lesson. The preparation begins before going to sleep. You should fall asleep with a Kabbalistic book in your hand. Wake up half an hour before the lesson and attune yourself to the lesson. If you don’t attune yourself, the lesson will be ineffective.

You should go through this period more energetically: from the point to the Machsom. Good luck!

Related Material:

Preparing for the Lesson

Filed under: Spirituality - No Comments →

Two questions I received about the Creator

Question: I don’t get it. We are trying to connect with a spiritual being we can’t perceive, called the creator, who in fact is in charge of everybody’s fate and wants us to strive for him and only him, by studying books, and you tell me there is nothing magical or mystic about it?

My Answer: The Creator is the corrected you, because you were created ideally opposite to Him. We write “Him” with a capital letter only as a sign of respect for this property of “selfless love and bestowal.” That is to say, you are researching yourself in order to change yourself to the reverse. That’s what Kabbalah is – the discovery of the property of bestowal within you.

Question: How can the connection with the Creator, who’s good and does good, be expressed through negative feelings?

My Answer: As long as a person hasn’t corrected his desires, he can experience negative sensations in them, but at the same time he can rejoice at the fact that he is having these sensations as part of the process of correcting these desires. And once they become corrected, he rises over them, and despite any sensations he feels in them (even lack of fulfillment!), he will be able to feel only the happiness and goodness that fill the world! It’s because he acquires faith above reason – he is filled by the property of bestowal, even though his desires to be filled are empty.

Filed under: Spirituality - No Comments →

Questions I received on life in the Upper Worlds

Question: What is “heaven” from Kabbalah’s point of view?

My Answer: Heaven is the Light of Hochma. The “Garden” is Malchut. Malchut filled with the Light of Hochma is called the Garden of Eden. In this state Malchut is the Malchut of the World of Atzilut for the souls.

In other words, the Garden of Eden refers to a place (or a state) where the souls are filled with the Light of Hochma. Stated simply, the Garden of Eden is Malchut of the World of Atzilut. The Upper Garden of Eden is Bina of the World of Beria, and the Lower Garden of Eden is Yesod de Malchut of the World of Assiya. Of course, this bears no relation to people’s regular notions about heaven and its inhabitants. In spirituality there is no space, images, sounds and etc., but only forces unclothed by matter. The soul is a desire. To the degree that it’s equivalent to the Creator, to the quality of bestowal and love, it becomes filled with the sensation of the Creator, the sensation of this quality within itself. This sensation is called “heaven,” and there’s no heaven besides it.

Question: Does a person use the system of ABYA de Kedusha even before the Machsom?

My Answer: This system only starts after the Machsom. See the “Introduction to the Book of Zohar” where it speaks about the attainment of Malchut de Assiya.

Question: After the breaking of the vessels (Shevirat ha Kelim) in the World of Nekudim, how did the Parsa reinforce itself to avoid breaking again?

My Answer: In order to receive the Light, it’s necessary to ascend from BYA to Atzilut – this is one of the Parsa’s reinforcements.

Question: Why is Ein Sof (Infinity) surrounded by Igulim (circles)?

My Answer: Because everyone is equal and there are no limitations.

Question: In Kabbalah, are there things like the devil and other evil forces, or are these just metaphors for egoism?

My Answer: The only thing that was created is desire. Its different, particular forms have different names. My sensations of myself and of my surroundings are also desires or forces, but we perceive them as vectors on a TV screen, as pictures. In reality, the only things that exist are the force of reception (creation) and the force of bestowal (the Creator). They depict the entire picture we see. When we attain these forces, we are immediately freed from the illusion of the visible picture of the world, and therefore, Kabbalah describes our world as being imaginary and dreamlike.

Related Material:
Laitman.com Post: Demons, Spirits, Angels, Devils – Do They Exist?
Kabbalah Today Article: Living the Spiritual Dream World
Lesson: The General Structure of the Worlds [03-10-2004]
Lesson: The General Structure of the Worlds [03-10-2004]
Lesson: The General Structure of the Worlds [03-10-2004] – Transcript

Filed under: Spirituality - 2 Comments →

Questions I received on descents in the spiritual path

Question: “There isn’t a righteous man who hasn’t sinned.” What happens between the levels, when one is in a descent and everything one had attained – the Light and the Creator – falls into the Klipot? How can one live with this difficult feeling?

My Answer: As Baal HaSulam writes in the book Pri Hacham (Letters), one needs to be happy about a descent, because it is the revelation of your uncorrected properties.
And if the evil is being revealed in you, this means that you already have the strength, the understanding, and the ability to correct such properties and rise above them to the next degree. Therefore, there’s no reason to feel down even during the greatest descent! The greatest punishment is for you to become disconnected from the Creator in your thoughts and sensations.

Question: On the spiritual path, how can I overcome the state when I feel lack of energy? You know what your purpose in the world is, and you try to connect what’s happening to the Creator, but you still don’t have energy to do anything, you can’t cope with the corporeal world and you simply can’t do anything at all, like you’re trying to disappear and not feel anything…

My Answer: There are many states like this and they are very diverse. It’s in our power to accelerate the speed at which we go through them, but it is impossible to cancel them, and you shouldn’t ever think that they are unnecessary. They are all inside you and have to manifest, and you must justify their manifestation and rise above them. How? You should realize that everything you perceive comes from the Creator, because “there is none else besides Him.” And everything is done for your own good, because “The Creator is good and does good.” The best way to practically, correctly and quickly incorporate this within you is to participate in the group and disseminate.

Question: I have different problems, and I don’t know whether they are psychological or a consequence of studying Kabbalah. What would you advise me to do?

My Answer: If people have psychological problems (mental illnesses), then usually they aren’t allowed to study Kabbalah, or they may study under a doctor’s supervision and a special attitude from us. But if you are mentally healthy, then the only thing that can help you is to increase your studies. It’s because every ascent is preceded by a descent, and you shouldn’t miss the descent, but ascend through it, with an effort, elevating the greatness of the goal and the certainty that the Light of studying will elevate you.

Related Material:
Laitman.com Post: Problems in the Beginning
Laitman.com Post: It’s Impossible for a Kabbalist to be Dull and Somber
Laitman.com Post: Why Does a Person Get Beaten?
Shamati Article #1: There Is None Else Beside Him
Shamati Article #50: Two States
Shamati Article #196: A Grip for the Externals
eBook: Shamati (I Heard)
Purchase the Book: Shamati (I Heard)

Filed under: Spirituality - 1 Comment →

A question I received: Lately there’s been a dramatic rise in domestic violence in my country. Every day women are murdered by their husbands or boyfriends, and it seems that men hate women. My colleague’s daughter was murdered by a man whom she dated for just two months. This happened after she decided to break up with him. In comparison, it’s very rare for women to murder men. Why is this violence toward women happening?

My Answer: From the beginning, a man feels that a woman is inferior to him. This feeling is enrooted in him by nature. Allegorically speaking, we can understand this from the story about the downfall of sin: from the spiritual root, the woman’s correction depends on the male part of the Kli, and this is reflected in our world as our sensations and the woman’s dependence and need for help to give birth and raise her children – even though this is accredited to the husband. The only thing that can correct this relationship in our world is the realization that in order to advance toward the Creator, they have to be partners, and moreover, the woman’s help and desire have an enormous role, which makes the women necessary, valuable, and indispensable for men who desire to reveal the Light.

Related Material:
Laitman.com Post: More Severe Punishments Won’t Make Things Better
Laitman.com Post: Violence in Schools – On the Rise
Laitman.com Post: Comments about Depression, Seeming Egoistic to Others and Parenting
Laitman.com Post: The Spiritual Jerusalem

Filed under: Women - No Comments →

A question I received: I have been reading and watching different Kabbalistic materials over the course of this past year. Sometimes I’m very interested in Kabbalah, and other times I get too busy doing daily things and searching for pleasure. Over this period of time I gradually started feeling that something is happening inside of me. I became sadder and less satisfied. But some time ago, my life and my previous sensations have completed the changes they were going through. I have experienced a loss, and suddenly my heart started hurting so bad that I didn’t know where to hide from this pain. I realized that there is nothing else in this world that could satisfy me. For the first time in my life I started to desire studying Kabbalah with passion. I started watching the beginners’ course over the internet. The first lesson was like heaven to me. I don’t know why I was feeling so incredibly well while watching it. My heart still hurts every time I don’t watch lessons.

My Answer: There is one path for everybody, and nobody can choose another path. There’s an opportunity to take the path toward the goal of creation consciously, while others go against their will, and with a much slower speed. A person following the conscious path also experiences plenty of sadness and stress, but everything depends on the environment. One needs to close one’s eyes and give himself fully to the environment. Everyday there are more unhappy and devastated people in the world. Just imagine that you’re going to the same place that they are, and that the only difference is that they are walking, while you’re flying past them in parallel on an escalator. The fast changes in your mood, thoughts, and inner life happen because of the increase in your speed relative to others.

Related Material:
Chapter 6 from the Book Basic Concepts in Kabbalah: The Essence and Purpose of Kabbalah
Article: Attainment of Unity of the Universe
Article: Kabbalah as a Root of All Sciences
Article: Matter and Form in the Science of Kabbalah

Filed under: Spirituality - No Comments →

A question I received: I’ve heard you say something like no civilizations of the past are seen in the “revealed.” Does it mean that everything scientists are now finding (in support of a theory of the earlier civilizations) appears in our senses as a reality that we ourselves are demanding? In other words, the external forces react to our demands by creating more new “decorations.”

My Answer: You’re absolutely right! As a result of the descent from spirituality, when the desire created by the Creator reached its lowest level, it perceived within itself what we feel as “me” and the world surrounding us (as external to “me”). The processes and the internal changes started being perceived as time, space and movement (again, external to “me”). This is how a person perceives that something had already existed before he appeared. But who actually sensed it? Without senses, nothing exists. Everything exists in our imagination, in our senses. Read the article “Preface to the Book of Zohar,” item 34.

Related Material:
eBook: Kabbalah, Science and the Meaning of Life
Purchase the Print Version of the Book: Kabbalah, Science and the Meaning of Life

Filed under: Perception - 2 Comments →

An Attack: How does the Upper Light become a fabric of our world? Do you know it for a fact? — No, you don’t! So here’s my proposal to correct this flaw in Kabbalah. If the singularity of substance and the Upper Light, Partzufim and Sefirot, was to be shown scientifically, then the Kabbalah teaching would conquer the world! But unless physics becomes part of Kabbalah, then it’s never going to happen.

An Attempt to Justify Myself: Who’s being categorical today? The singularity of substance and the Upper Light — No! It’s not that you don’t perceive the Upper Light because it’s hidden – the Upper Light simply doesn’t exist at all until you create it within yourself. Moreover, you lack the corresponding senses needed to create the Upper Light within yourself, and thus, you need to develop these senses. Kabbalah is the method of developing these senses. It reveals the Upper World to you, helping you develop the properties within which you create the Upper World for yourself.

Our world is something that our natural senses, given to us from birth, create within us. That what we perceive (picture) within these senses is referred to as “matter” – our world.

The Upper World is something that is created (pictured, depicted) within us by the spiritual senses that we acquire through Kabbalah. What we perceive through the spiritual senses is referred to as “the Light.”

The science of Kabbalah will never defeat the science of our world, because we perceive science and Kabbalah through two totally different systems: the corporeal and the spiritual.

So how is it going to happen? People will simply come to realize that their sensations, received through their natural senses (the corporeal life, our world), are unfulfilled, and that corporeal science, which is supposed to improve these sensations, is futile. People will reject both science and their sensations, and will hold onto them only to the extent needed for survival until they create the necessary properties, and accordingly, the sensations of the Upper World within themselves. They will then turn to the science of Kabbalah, which is the creation of an eternal and perfect world (sensation) within themselves.

You can try it out for yourself. Many people have already achieved this sensation.

Related Material:
Article: The Science of Kabbalah
Article: The Science of Kabbalah – A Method of Researching Man and the World
Article: Kabbalah as a Modern Teaching
Article: Kabbalah as Compared with Other Sciences
Article: Kabbalah as a Root of All Sciences

Filed under: Science - 1 Comment →

A question I received: You wrote: “Someday I will tell you about how the Creator humiliates a Kabbalist in the eyes of society and his students. This is done to make sure that he won’t be proud, grow close to the incorrect environment, so people won’t bother him, and so on.” In this case, I don’t understand: What criteria can one use to assess whether one is working correctly or not? After all, when you act correctly, you receive beatings to make sure that you won’t be proud, and when you act incorrectly you receive beatings for acting incorrectly. Either way, you’re being beaten! Moreover, you’re told that if you take the path of Torah, you’ll then avoid blows. Also, what concerns me even more than always getting beatings, is: How can one understand what the Creator desires and what He doesn’t?

My Answer: In principle, all actions we make are incorrect, or in other words, they are egoistically driven. The difference is whether or not our actions are aimed at the goal of creation. If you’re moving correctly, you’ll then receive a descent into egoism in order to understand what is controlling you and how to get rid of it, similar to the Egyptian exile and the bitterness in Pharaoh’s heart.

Since one studying Kabbalah is under the influence of the teacher, books, and group, he then assesses his descents in comparison to movement toward the goal. In such a way, he understands that the sensations of descent and pain are signs of his deviation from the path toward the goal, in order to make him aim more accurately. After all, if he will deviate without being corrected to aim closer to the goal, then the more he will progress, the (exponentially) greater inaccuracy he will accumulate and the more he will deviate from the goal, to the point that he will stop understanding what Kabbalah is explaining. Thus, spiritual progress is impossible without beatings.

You also, however, get beaten in your ordinary, “non-spiritual” life. The difference with these beatings is that they don’t lead you anywhere, and you don’t know why they’re happening and where they’re coming from! A Kabbalist, on the other hand, doesn’t receive blows – he receives greater sharpness on the spiritual path. Nevertheless, people who come to Kabbalah are only those who already understand that there is no other way, and they are willing to face the difficulties to reach creation’s goal.

Related Material:
Baal HaSulam Article: There Is None Else Beside Him

Filed under: Spirituality - 1 Comment →