5 Minutes Of Light From The Daily Lesson: Elevate Your Point In The Heart
Posted on September 22nd, 2009
It seems to us that egoism always defeats us and erases all the results of our efforts, forcing us to always start everything from the beginning, from the darkness, as it is written, “There was evening and there was morning…” However, we have to prepare for the night, in order to take from it everything that is useful for our advancement.
A person cannot go to sleep without reading a page from an article. If you don’t do this, then you will definitely see empty dreams and will wake up with the same thoughts in the morning. This will happen to anyone, regardless of one’s spiritual attainment and level.
This is why it is a must to read an excerpt before going to sleep in order to wake up with the right thoughts for the lesson. What you read will circle around in your head all night, together with your dreams. This has to become a habit.
I learned this from my teacher, Rabash. He always used to read an excerpt from Shamati before going to bed.
(From Part 1 of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson)
There is no such thing as a descent in spirituality. You always keep everything you have attained. However, you do receive additional, new egoistic desires, and this makes you feel as if you are in a descent.
Yet, you shouldn’t think that the force of bestowal has abandoned you. Rather, this force has helped you to attain a greater revelation of egoism, and you should be happy that you have received the opportunity to see yourself as more deformed, to reveal more desires you can correct, and thus to ascend higher than ever before.
You should see yourself as a trail breaker who makes his way deep inside the egoistic desire, taking little pieces from there that can be attached to bestowal. You should use all your natural qualities, such as a thief and a liar, to steal from and lie to your own egoism.
After all, our egoism is but an animal, and it cannot find out about a man’s intentions. It only understands straightforward, direct gain. We are living inside this egoism and we do everything for its sake. Meanwhile, we don’t realize that we are dealing with our inner animal, which always demands us to serve it.
On the upside, it does not understand the human mind and guile, and this is why the right relation to it enables us to make it do anything we – humans – need.
(From Part 3 of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson)
In the News (translated from KP.RU): Both the movie and the book The Secret explain to us that our thoughts are material and all our wishes come true if we think of them correctly. You just need to imagine in your thoughts whatever you want. You may erase the undesirable and everything will be as you wish.
However, there is one flaw, which is that the cause of unrealized desires is in the Universe or in G-d. Sometimes, the scientists gave advice much like an exorcist, “Think positive and everything will be positive!” Then the authors became confused themselves and while trying to figure it out, they shot four more movies.
Their conclusion: There is no reality. Everyone sees only what he knows and wants to see.
Therefore, before any action, it is important to understand what kind of feelings I wish to experience – and then everything will come true!
My Comment: The authors showed how a correctly structured thought becomes realized in life. They realistically imagined the goal and the desirable feelings and that’s why they reached their goal at the box office. (Both, the movie and the book are long time bestsellers). Even Kozma Prutkov wrote, “If you want to be happy – be happy,” as did Dale Carnegie and others. The movie was a result of talented production, but it is empty and incites self-delusion.
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A question I received: How are things measured in Kabbalah?
My Answer: In the science of Kabbalah, we learn that there is no such thing as an absolute, true system of measurement. Rather, everything is perceived depending on a person’s senses. This is why everything is measured in relation to the person who attains reality. There is a Kabbalistic verse that says, “There is no Creator without a creation.”
This is why it’s important for us to understand that everything that is said by the authors of The Book of Zohar, by King David in the book of Psalms and other sources about the Creator is referring to the quality and depth of the reader’s attainment.
A person is judged in accordance to his position on the ladder, and he perceives the Creator according to where he is positioned on that ladder. It appears to a person that the Creator changes, but this is only because a person evaluates everything according to his own desires and qualities.
The Creator does not change; He is good that does good and He is at absolute rest. In a person however, many Reshimot are awakened at every moment and according to this, he judges the Creator as great or small, good or evil.
This is why we are only able to understand Kabbalistic texts once we have risen to the level of their authors.
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A question I received: What is the difference between faith above reason, which is necessary for studying Kabbalah, and the religious faith?
My Answer: If a person has a point in the heart, it lets him feel who can be his teacher. He can tell who really has spiritual attainment and the understanding of life’s inner meaning. He senses who really knows the meaning of life, as well as the purpose for which this world is developing, the goal it has to reach; and who simply memorized a lot of quotes. A person begins to differentiate who is in the spiritual world and who isn’t. He feels this with his point in the heart, which looks for a place where it can receive fulfillment.
A person may also get confused for a time and end up in the wrong place. However, he will quickly realize this and run away. It is also possible that a person will begin to study Kabbalah, but after a while he’ll begin to shy away from it. This is similar to a charge in a magnetic field that occupies a position of equilibrium between different forces. That is how people draw closer to Kabbalah or further away.
Everything is determined by the state of balance between the forces of the point in the heart and the place of study, as though by the center of a force field of bestowal. And in fact, everything is determined by a person’s free choice: a person decides everything himself.
This is why I never try to convince anyone of anything. I don’t persuade anyone or try to prove that I am right. Rather, to the extent that one’s point in the heart is revealed, to the extent that a person aspires toward bestowal (even if this aspiration is hidden from him), that is the extent of the person’s readiness to draw closer and put in effort. A person has to make his own decision about whose advice he should listen to: Kabbalists or the people on the street.
(From Part 3 of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson, on Rabash’s article, “A person is like a tree in the field”)
It is written, “A person is like a tree in the field.” A tree can be planted in a field that is blessed by the Creator, where it will be watered by rain and warmed by the sun whenever it needs. Or the tree – the person – can be planted in infertile, dry land, where the person will not be able to grow. Or, even if he grows, he is like a wild tree that does not bear fruit.
When it comes to spiritual development, a person determines his own place. His attitude to the books, the teacher, and the friends is able to change the soil and the sun, the moisture conditions, and all the other conditions needed for his growth.
A person starts by receiving a “point in the heart” – a spiritual seed, and he must then decide where to plant it and how to absorb the force from the environment needed to grow his seed into a tree. If he chooses the right environment, he will be able to demand from it the force of bestowal – “rain.” This force will allow him to grow from the material world upward. His intentions of bestowal will sprout“from the soil up.”
We have to care for our “tree,” which means that we must choose desires that can be corrected, and then organize them properly so they will grow and shape us into the right form – one that’s similar to the Creator. This is all of our work.
So, on one hand, it appears as if the tree grows on its own. However, starting from the time it is a seed, there are many actions that depend on us. The tree cannot grow independent of us, but only in virtue of our desire.
(From Part 3 of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson)
A regular person sees himself and this world, comprised of inanimate matter, vegetation, animals, and people. However, Kabbalists see a transparent reality. Through our world, they see the Upper World and the entire thickness of the desire, where the Thought of Creation becomes realized. They then describe what is happening there to us, revealing a certain part of it.
This is why we find it so difficult to grasp their language and the examples they use, which seem so removed from our lives, and to figure out what their hints are saying. We’d prefer to hear a clear, brief explanation.
However, the reason they write this way is because what we need isn’t clear instructions, but the Light of Correction that is concealed in their books. Therefore, we should just accept what they write with complete trust, and believe that this is precisely the best way for us to receive the Light of Correction. It’s true that if they wanted to, they could have summed up the meaning of the whole article in one sentence or a paragraph. But then it would lack the force of correction.
Therefore, while reading these articles, which are full of complicated quotes and long-winded discourse (as it seems to us), we should focus only on how the Light of Correction is affecting us at that moment.
It doesn’t matter whether I understand what I am reading or not, or whether I feel it or not. No matter what, I am anticipating the Light! The most important thing is for the “medicine” to work.
(From Part 1 of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson, on Rabash’s article, “A person is like a tree in a field”)
In the News (from AlertNet): “From Polar ice rim, Ban issues call for urgent action on climate change” – Standing on rapidly melting polar ice, Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has appealed to the world for urgent measures to be taken to combat climate change to protect the planet for future generations.
Witnessing the impacts of climate change on icebergs and glaciers first-hand, he said that he was informed by scientists that global warming is altering the Arctic faster than any other area. “We must stop this from further happening, “the Secretary-General stressed. “Unless we fight climate change, unless we stop this trend, we’ll have devastating consequences for humanity.” “We do not have any time to lose, “Mr. Ban underscored.
My Comment: Countries will not be able to come to any agreement. The Creator won’t allow it, since it might calm them down. By giving us blows, He forces us to recognize the cause of the crises – interpersonal egoism, and He will force us to accept the method of correction – Kabbalah.
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