Two questions I received on being confused at the beginning of the spiritual path

Question: Where should I start? I don’t mean what to start studying or other actions, but rather – what point of reference and what question should I start with?

My Answer: This is something you have to find inside yourself. Usually it’s the question, “Why do I live? What is the meaning of my life and the meaning of suffering? I don’t see any point or reason to live,” and so on. It’s best to start with my book Attaining the Worlds Beyond.

Question: I study every day, but sometimes I’m overcome by the feeling of disappointment, because I have no idea how to do the things I’m reading about. Sometimes I can understand a little bit of what I’m reading, and even feel it , but moments later I forget all of it, and I’m again left with no idea what I was learning, what I was thinking, and how I can do something. Do you have any advice for me?

My Answer: You will forget everything you learn until you absorb the material inside you, make it your own, and feel that it’s speaking about you and what’s inside you. However, this is a stage and it will pass, because you’re being influenced by the Surrounding Light (Ohr Makif) – and then you’ll find what the Kabbalists are talking about inside you.And after that, “a person’s soul will teach him.” Incidentally, the sensation that everything is forgotten quickly indicates that you are going through different states quickly, and you should be happy about this!

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A question I received: This question has been posted on the forums of Kabbalah Education Center, yet the answer I received was somewhat not satisfying. I felt that the matter had been just passed over as any general situation, and not read with Love.

(What follows is a long, detailed description of drug induced “trips” experienced by a 21 year old psychology student from Mexico, who has been taking LSD for a long period of time. He describes how this gives him the opportunity to perceive the Upper Force, the higher reality, and his connection with Kabbalah. At one point he reaches the feeling that his mission in life is to comprehend the connection between spirituality and LSD.)

My Answer: There is no connection between drug induced experiences and the attainment of the Upper World, the Creator. You are completely disconnected from spiritual sensations and are controlled by your perceptions of chemical reactions. I recommend that you stop searching for ways to justify your behavior, leave drugs behind and begin correcting your soul. Good luck!

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A question I received: I have been watching your lessons over the Internet for about six months now. My brother, who is in the process of becoming religious, has also been studying your books a little, but in addition he studies the Mishnah by Rabbi Nachman, and a Jewish interpretation of yoga taught at Ohr Aganuz once a week. We have interesting and deep conversations, but it’s difficult for me to accept some things he says which aren’t related to what you teach. Would you advise me to be more open to the teachings of Likutei Mocharan, Breslov pamphlets, and the materials studied at Ohr Aganuz? And what advice can I give to my brother?

My Answer: My advice to you is: Don’t study at Ohr Aganuz, don’t teach your brother, and don’t talk to him about your studies, as if you don’t study Kabbalah at all. The two of you are on absolutely opposite paths – he’s on the path of Chassidut, and you’re on the path of Kabbalah. Don’t get in each other’s way.

You should let him mature on his own. Soon he will feel that yoga doesn’t supplement the attainment of the Creator, and that the only thing worth studying are the works of Baal HaSulam (provided they are interpreted correctly, according to my lessons).

What’s important isn’t the books you study, but how you study them. All the great sages wrote from their spiritual attainment. They all lived in the attainment of the Upper World, the Creator, and wrote only about this. So you’re both reading holy books. But they are holy because they speak of holiness – the property of bestowal and love that’s beyond one’s self. The purpose of studying these books is to reveal these properties within you, or in other words, to reveal the Creator.

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Questions I received on whether being married is necessary for spiritual advancement

Question: Can an unmarried man study Kabbalah? Someone told me that he can’t.

My Answer: He can, but it’s harder for him to advance.

Question: Is it necessary to get married in order to cross the Machsom and to advance spiritually?

My Answer: It’s not necessary, but it’s preferable. A person must advance into spirituality from this world, that is to say, he has to be present in the world by having a family, a job, and so on, rather than be a hermit.

Question: If a man with a point in the heart wants to get married but can’t find a wife, will the Creator respond to this kind of prayer?

My Answer: There is nothing but the Light and the desire It created. And there is only one prayer (or one desire that’s perceived by the Light and impels It to act) – to become similar to the Creator.

Question: Is the requirement to get married obligatory?

My Answer: No, but it is extremely recommended for spiritual advancement. The Torah says that a woman was created to be “help against you” (against your egoism).

Question: If a 21 year old man desires spirituality in life, will this be denied to him if he’s not married?

My Answer: No, a bachelor can attain spirituality as well – everything depends on his efforts. He will have to try harder, and then he will understand that it’s more natural to do this in a family. This is how nature has arranged things, and a Kabbalist involuntarily follows its conditions. After all, Nature is the Creator.

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Two questions I received on virtual groups

Question: I’m starting to feel kind of a pull towards “groups,” though I don’t know what groups or why. I’ve always been an outsider and an “independent” loner. I just want information about virtual groups: What do they do? How can I join one?

The understanding of the group’s importance comes from the influence of the Upper Light (Ohr Makif) on you. In the beginning a person doesn’t understand that the only way to enter the common soul is by connecting with others. He doesn’t understand that there is no other path to the spiritual world, to his soul. So without the influence of the Light, you wouldn’t have begun feeling a desire for the group. And the fact that you feel it is an enormous achievement! However, mostly it didn’t come from you, but from above. As Baal HaSulam writes, the Creator brings a person to the group and thus makes the choice for him, and the person’s choice lies in reinforcing himself in the group – in that which the Creator put his hand upon. Now you have to use it and develop it – it won’t happen by itself.

Later the Creator will push you away from the group and you will suddenly start scorning it, yet you will think that this feeling is coming from you rather than being sent to you by the Creator on purpose, and so on. And you will need to fight this feeling by increasing the importance of the group, of unity, of Shechina (the place of the Creator’s revelation).

Question: Recently you mentioned that groups outside of Bnei Baruch lack the presence of a Rav who would represent the Creator, the force of bestowal. In this case, how will a virtual group work, since it also lacks leadership by a Rav?

My Answer: I am fully present in the virtual group. I am their teacher and every person is my student, if he desires to be and learns what I pass to him. Everything depends only on one’s desire.

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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.

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A question I received: I don’t know and don’t remember anything from my previous life or my future existence, and this world exists because I exist now. So what will happen if I die?

My Answer: If you attain the revelation of the soul – the smallest spiritual property, the smallest development of the soul from a point, its real existence – then when your body dies, you will continue perceiving your soul. This is because your soul will then have acquired volume and Light inside it. And then it will once again dress in another body, born by a woman, in order to attain all 125 steps of its development while existing in this body, since this can only be done while being physically present in our world.

However, if you don’t attain the revelation of the soul from the point, then you will once again appear in this world, just like you did this time, and you will have another opportunity (a point in the heart) to reveal and develop it.

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Four questions I received on supernatural phenomena

Question: Why do we always see the same side of the moon?

My Answer: Because this is how Malchut is positioned relative Zeir Anpin in the World of Atzilut. Forces descend to us from the World of Atzilut and this is how they manifest in the matter of our world. After all, everything taking place in our world is determined by the Upper Force, which originates from ZO”N of the World of Atzilut. A micro-dose of this force begot our entire universe, by breaking through to our material level from the Upper Level. It gradually became coarser and decreased its speed of operation, and hence produced energy and then matter. So matter exists only because of the Upper Energy present in it, or in other words – “by the word of G-d.” And it exists only in order to realize the “word of G-d” in matter – this is what man must do, since he combines both types of energy, the spiritual and the material. And after this will happen, the universe will cease its current existence, which is an egoistic co-existence (or opposition) of these energies. Incidentally, science now confirms that the universe isn’t infinite or eternal (although when I was in school, we learned that it is infinite and eternal).

Question: Does the notion of Satan exist in Kabbalah?

My Answer: Satan is one of the egoistic forces residing within a person. All forces exist only within the person, and they are all egoistic.

Question: As a Kabbalist, can you tell whether time travel is possible?

My Answer: It’s not possible in the physical sense. However, it is a normal phenomenon in the spiritual space, which is entirely above time, space and motion – as Einstein said, because it is higher than our light, and exists in the spiritual Light.

Question: Does Kabbalah agree that man has an aura?

My Answer: Yes. An aura is a field of energy that surrounds every creature, whether still, vegetative or animate. But it bears no relation to spirituality. Moreover, it’s impossible for a person who hasn’t attained the quality of bestowal by studying Kabbalah, to see spirituality, the quality of bestowal, but any person or camera can see and photograph the aura.

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A question I received: I understand that corporeal acts have nothing to do with spirituality, but until a screen is acquired our acts are of the ego and take place in the corporeal world. If I desire a milkshake although I just ate and have no nutritional need for one, then do I resist this desire altogether and deny myself this treat? Do I have the milkshake because it is just a corporeal act and does not matter anyway? Or do I drink the milkshake and pretend that I am receiving for the sake of the Creator? I am seeking guidance on how to deal with the desires of the ego that come up in the corporeal world. Do we pretend? Do we fake it until we make it?

My Answer: Religion and upbringing teach you to pretend, but Kabbalah only tells you to do one thing: attract the Upper Light by studying authentic Kabbalistic sources. After all, the Light created you, along with your desires and thoughts (your mind and heart), and hence only It can correct you. In order for your life to have results, the most important thing is to constantly be concerned with just one thing – the importance of the goal, and don’t bother trying to figure out how to handle thoughts that are remote from the goal. Then everything else will turn into temporary means that help you. So drink your milkshake and study Kabbalah!

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Eleven questions I received on the future of Kabbalah, the birth of the last generation, and spiritual leaders of the future

Question: Based on item 12 of Talmud Eser Sefirot, which describes the process of the soul’s conception, can we say and imagine that the current state of humanity – the approaching global crises, are like labor pains during the birth of the last generation?

My Answer: The forces pressuring us are the labor pains that are forcing us to leave our previous state.

Question: Is there a connection between the process of the fetus turning from the state of “head up” to the state of “head down,” the union of Keter and Malchut, and the efforts of Kabbalists?

My Answer: Absolutely, because humanity must change its approach to the world, its purpose and values, and start preferring bestowal to reception, love for one’s neighbor over love for oneself.

Question: Are Kabbalists responsible for making sure that the last generation will be born normal?

My Answer: Yes, because people won’t change without the dissemination of Kabbalah. [Read more →]

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