Two questions I received on Kabbalists’ attitude to the world:

Question: Our Kabbalah study group in Seattle was asked to give a presentation on Kabbalah to a club that meets to learn about different spiritual traditions. The talk went very well and after it was over, one of the participants asked: “What do Kabbalists say we should do with desires when they rise within us?” How would you have answered such a question?

My Answer: We will fulfill them with the understanding of the Creator.

Question: If the Kabbalists do and have always known all, in my opinion, they are responsible for explaining to all of humanity and even individuals, why the Creator seemingly treats them so poorly.

My Answer: It’s you, not Kabbalists, who perceive the Creator’s attitude in this way. You will understand the rest on your own once your impressions of the world start changing.

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Laitman.com Post: The Right Approach To Every Problem In Life
The Path of Kabbalah: “The Beginning of a Kabbalist’s Way”
Baal HaSulam Article: “The Future Generation”- Talk 2

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The Zohar, Chapter “Tazria (When A Woman Delivers),” Item 70: “…pangs of love are hidden from people.” Pangs of love is the state also known as “I am lovesick.” It means that I don’t need anything; I only want to give, to bestow. My only wish is to fulfill your desire.

This is an intermediate state where I very much want to give but I am unable. Since I haven’t yet acquired a screen, I am unable to receive the Light in order to fulfill your desire. Love is a state where I feel the desire of the other more than my own.

The Zohar, Chapter “Tazria (When A Woman Delivers),” Item 72: It is written, “Better is open rebuke than love that is hidden,” which means that open rebuke is better. And if the rebuke is out of love, it is hidden from people. Similarly, one who rebukes one’s friend with love must hide his words from people so his friend will not be shamed by them. And if his words are open before people, they are not with love.”

In our world we naturally desire to hide our relationships and the love between us because love requires discretion. We want to protect it from everything that might potentially hurt it. But what does it mean “to be ashamed” or “to reveal love in front of others” in spirituality? Who are those others? They are my desires.

If I attain connection with the Creator in one desire, then the other desires in which I cannot connect with Him are called “the others.” Therefore, I need to pay attention to them so that they don’t hurt my love, as well as keep in mind that everything is happening internally.

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I have this false perception that there is somebody existing outside of me, that there are people close and far whom I can push away, cheat, or exploit. But all of this is nothing but an illusion. It is an intricate game, an exercise that lets me scrutinize and invert my desire until I begin to love others more than myself. Then I will give others my last chair and my last pillow, because I will come to view their desire, which has been so abhorrent to me before, as more important than the one I used to regard as my own.

There are desires that exist in me from the beginning and which I perceive as my “self.” These are actually the weakest desires, pertaining to Aviut zero. The first level of Aviut appears as being separate from my “self,” such as my family and relatives. The second level is even further away, such as the people who provide me with all kinds of benefits and on whom my wellbeing depends on in some way – for example, doctors, scientists, and so on.

The third level is further still – these are people I want to exploit, but I’m willing to let them live. The farthest level is the fourth; these are my mortal enemies.

It follows that the further away the desire I perceive, the greater its power compared to my own desire. Therefore, when I attach these “external” desires to myself, I experience them as much stronger than those which previously appeared as my own. This is why I am so willing later on to give my “last pillow” to these desires.

I prefer them to my initial desire of Aviut zero because it is so weak. Indeed, what is really the extent of my current desires for food, water, family, money, and knowledge? They are truly insignificant when compared to my other desires, the desires of my “friends.” These are the desires that enable me to acquire the spiritual worlds and higher states.

If I manage to attach the desires of my friends to myself on the first degree by making them my own, this is called reaching the World of Assiya. What follows is the Worlds of Yetzira, Beria, and Atzilut. These worlds represent the distance between me and my friends.

Therefore, “love your friend as yourself” is not a slogan for this world, appealing for world peace. It’s talking about the correction of the soul, where I attach the entire universe to myself, correct my vision and perception of all reality, and attain eternity.

All the worlds are me; I am Malchut of the World of Infinity – the whole of reality created by the Creator.

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A question I received: How can I tune into the Light that Reforms while studying The Zohar?

My Answer: The Light that Reforms is the force of bestowal that comes from Above and builds qualities of bestowal above our will to receive. But how can we attract this force if we are just egoistically thinking about wanting to bestow? This will not help. Instead, we have to tune into the system that influences us.

Our soul has to receive the influence of the Surrounding Light. This is why we were given The Book of Zohar, which tells us all kinds of stories about a donkey and a snake, different nations, three lines, Zeir Anpin, Malchut, the Temple, and many other things. I don’t know what desire I am working on now and whether I have the right intention, but while I am reading The Zohar with the right mindset, it operates as a connecting system between my soul and the Upper System.

There exists an Upper System wherein my soul is already included in a fully corrected state; meanwhile, my uncorrected soul is below. These two systems have an identical structures. The only difference between them is the use of the desire, meaning the intention, which determines how the desire is used. As I correct my desire, my soul will expand, starting from a point, and new, concealed desires will surface. But I need a mechanism to connect me and these two states:

The Book of Zohar functions as this connecting link. When I read it correctly, I reveal this connection. All I have to do is try to imagine myself in the corrected form. I have to tune into the text and start living inside it. I have to desire for it to “clothe” me so I will become the protagonist of everything being described there. It is talking only about me and my inner battle with my corrupted self, where I am fighting for a chance to be similar to the Creator. All the qualities and characters are me; it is all inside of me.

If this is how I prepare for reading The Zohar, then I will proactively attract the Surrounding Light to myself.

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If I look at myself from the side, as an unbiased psychologist, I begin to see how the Creator controls me. From this perspective I can respond to things more correctly, assume control over myself, set a goal, and make use of all my resources to achieve it.

I must always try to see what is controlling me and how I am being controlled. Sometimes I am dominated by overwhelming desires, and I simply lose my head and surrender. I forget that these desires have taken over me and that they are not me.

Still, I must remain my own judge and struggle for an opportunity to continue to push spiritually. But if I am to succeed, I must find an additional force, one that lies beyond the plane of corporeal desires; this force can only be received from the right environment.

Here is me with my physical desires, and there’s the environment with human desires for money, fame, power and knowledge. In order to advance spiritually I have to get out of this circle and connect to another kind of force – one of spiritual origin.

I have a point in the heart, but that is not enough. I need the group, the study, the books, and the teacher because they will give me that great force that I need in order to lift me out of all these corporeal desires and push me into the spiritual world.

It is not my plan to neglect these desires. I have to use them as a basis, and then, together with the help coming from this new force, I will be able to set the right course. This is how my point in the heart, which awakened within the rest of my desires, helps me to find a new environment – a new world. Therefore, without this environment, I would be left with nothing.

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The Zohar: “Who is that rising from the desert like pillars of smoke?” (Song of Songs), at the time when Israel walked across the desert.

A person on the spiritual path goes through states of darkness, emptiness and various problems, and he must constantly rise above all of this by acquiring the quality of bestowal.

The Shechina walked ahead of them, and they followed it.

If a person asks for help so he will have something to follow, and if he chooses to follow the Creator instead of his egoistic nature, then he sees a “pillar of fire” and “clouds of greatness” – signs that help him ascend up the spiritual ladder.

“The Shechina walked ahead of them” means that their only thought was about how to unite together into one gathering of souls, called Schechina.

The Schechina walked accompanied by all the clouds of greatness. And when the Shechina ascended, so did Israel, as it is written, “When the cloud rose above Sinai.”

When the Shechina ascended, the cloud rose to the highest peak. And all those inhabiting the world saw and wondered, “Who is that rising from the desert, like pillars of smoke?”

The desires that are able to follow the Shechina do so. And those that aren’t yet able to follow her are called “the nations of the world.” However, they also receive a revelation, and when everyone ascends, these desires also advance with them.

This is how a person advances by clarifying which desires within him are called “Israel” (straight to the Creator), “the nations of the world” (the desires that he is unable to correct for now), “Klipot” (desires that are completely unfit for correction until the end of all corrections). A person continuously sorts his desires and sacrifices them, causing the sacrificial smoke to rise, which means that he changes their use from “for my own sake” to “for the Creator’s sake.” Smoke (“Ashan” in Hebrew, also translates as “world, year, soul”) is the Reflected Light.

If a person works on himself in this manner, sorting his desires and attaching them to the Creator, then He attains similarity to Him. Thus, he raises the Reflected Light and opens the way to his next degree. In other words, he constantly reveals a new world, a new year, and a new soul.

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It is impossible to use the forces given to us by the Creator to correct the desire He created – Malchut of the World of Infinity. Suppose that we received everything that is humanly possible with the intention “for the sake of bestowal”; all that would result from this is a thin ray of Light (Kav Dak) in the center of infinite emptiness. All the other desires except the ray would still remain empty.

Let’s say we received just 1% and we cannot give it back to the Host. His attitude to us is 100% good. Even if we didn’t receive anything for ourselves, we still wouldn’t perform any correction by this. However, if the Host gives us the power to receive all 100% for the sake of bestowal, then what is the sense in this? After all, it will come from Him!

Therefore, it is necessary for a point of freedom to be created, a point that is independent of the Creator and the human being. Then a new creature could develop, one that is equivalent to the Creator rather than just a mechanical being. To the Creator, the worst thing is for everything to happen according to His desire. This means that there is no creation. If the Creator creates something that just blindly carries out His desires, this belittles Him. He has to create someone with the freedom of will.

This is why He creates a human being whose desires are completely opposite to His, who neglects the Creator and is opposed to Him in every way. These are the most necessary qualities of the created being. Only from this point, the point where a human being is opposite in all aspects to the Creator, from the point of total hatred and global opposition, can there emerge someone capable of attaining Him.

People say that the greatest hero is one who turns his enemy into a friend. The Creator does not force man to come to him; He does not make any compromises and He does not play an unfair game with us. Even though it is written, “There is None Else Beside Him” and the Creator governs completely over creation, He governs particularly in order to make sure that the created being will not reject its freedom!

This is His primary concern, since otherwise there is no creation; there is only a controlled element. It would be a blow to the Creator’s dignity if He allowed creation to blindly follow Nature, regardless of whether it is good or bad. For the Creator, both of these options are no good.

He wants only one thing: for the created being to be separate and independent of Him, and to act while being in this independent position. Only a creature like this can be called a “human being.”

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A question I received: There are different materials in nature: metal, wood, stone, and others, and they are all completely passive. As I see it, they are all inanimate. However, desire is something more active. Why then do you call them desires?

My Answer: A pencil is made of wood, and wood desires to maintain its form or structure – the connection between the atoms. If you try to do something to it, you will see that it does not wish to give in to your changes; it tries to maintain its form and resists. You need to put in lots of effort in order to break it, meaning, to break its desire to stand guard over itself and to self-preserve.

This material is a force. By measuring certain parameters of this material, you measure its force of resistance to external influences. You will need to apply additional force in order to change its qualities and state. This is called desire or matter.

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Our desires exist outside of our bodies. In the past, however, people used to think that one’s qualities are contained in one’s heart, which meant that if you could change a person’s heart, then the person would change as well. But the first heart transplant proved all these conjectures false, showing that the heart is simply a pump. The same is true of the brain; in fact, it can’t even be called a computer.

As for the body, it is but an image that we imagine as being our existence. However, our true I – the spiritual I – is beyond this image.

This entire world is depicted exclusively within our sensations, within us. The three-dimensional screen we are watching is not really depicting the world around us, but the picture of the forces inside us. We don’t see anything else outside of that, which is why it seems to us that we are surrounded by a live world.

What surrounds us is a panoramic screen. We only know what we perceive, and we perceive only what is being shown to us at this moment. It is only when the spiritual picture appears to us that we realize that we’ve been watching a movie all this time.

The science of Kabbalah is a method that helps us transition to a new perception. And that is exactly what we should expect from it. We shouldn’t desire empty, theoretical knowledge from Kabbalah books, but a vision of another, higher world – a clear vision of ourselves and the Creator.

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A question I received: What should I do if I feel that I am controlled from Above in every possible way?

My Answer: If you feel that everything is 100% controlled from Above, this is wonderful! What makes you think that you have to do anything about it? It’s very good if you feel that the Creator leads you and you are walking together with Him. The two of you are together in every movement, “body and soul” (with the body being your desires, and the soul – the place where you perceive His commands).

You feel His desires and immediately change your desires. You feel that you unite with Him, repeating all His steps after Him. You move together, until reaching the full correction, where it will no longer be possible to differentiate His desires from yours, to tell who is first and who is second. You will move together with Him without any delay. This state is called Gmar Tikkun – the End of Correction. It is when there is no difference between you and Him!

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