The question “What do I live for” is the inception of the desire to reveal the Creator. I want to know Who had begotten me, where my root lies, and Who governs me. Who created all this, and why did He create me “wrapped up” within this huge world? What does He want from me at every moment, giving me not a moment’s rest and pushing me toward some unknown?

When these questions come to me, they poison my entire life, and I can no longer live without revealing the Creator. This is how I am structured for I am created by the Light which had imprinted itself in me, in all my desires.

All my desires are like a cast, the Light’s reverse imprint, and until I draw the Light and fill myself with it, I will not rest, to the point where this life will feel worse than death. I will be ready to do anything for even a drop of this fulfillment.

Therefore, my task is to clarify how to reveal the Creator, the Light, and the form in which I can fill myself with it. Indeed, this is no simple task which is why the wisdom of Kabbalah is called “Hochmat HaKabbalah (wisdom of reception).”

It is not like in our world where I need only to open my mouth to slake my thirst. A spiritual desire cannot be quenched directly. Rather, it must be clarified first since the Creator does not give me a ready desire suited for the Light. He wants me to verify what is it that I desire, what is the Light, and to realize that it is the greatest of any possible fulfillments. He wants me to try all the desires and all the fulfillments, to verify myself, and to say, “No, I want only this!”

The Creator is extremely jealous and captious. He wants me to love only Him and nothing else, and He verifies this by revealing in me every possible thing. I am supposed to reply, “No, You are still the greatest of all fulfillments, of all pleasures! You are the tastiest!” It is written, “Taste and see that the Lord is good” because this type of fulfillment is called taste.
[26423]
From Lesson 7, World Kabbalah Congress 2010, 11/11/10

Related Material:
A One Man Show

Filed under: Conventions, Inner Work, Spirituality - No Comments →

Question: What is the principle of attaining Light from darkness?

Answer: The attainment of the Light occurs from the darkness that arises. The Light is the quality of bestowal and darkness is realization of our egoistic nature. (Itron Ohr Mi Toch Hosheh - the Light is evaluated in relation to darkness.)

You know, there’s a joke about a modern Russian man, who shows his friend a lighter that he bought at a specialty shop for three thousand dollars. The other exclaims, “That’s nothing! I bought the same lighter around the corner for six thousand dollars!”

Pleasure is not evaluated according to the object, but according to the way you evaluate it. When you buy something at a special store or obtain it with great difficulty, you receive more pleasure. The more parents invest in their child, the more they love him. We know that the more difficult it was to achieve something in the past, the more pleasant it is to reminisce about it and the more valuable it is.

This is because we feel the desire (Kli – Vessel), rather than the Light, and we make assessments about the fulfillment based on the desire. The greater the desire and the suffering, the stronger we feel the fulfillment. Therefore, we should understand that, when enough suffering has been accumulated through our efforts, we will become worthy of feeling redemption from evil.
[21863]

Related Material:
Laitman.com Post: The Spiritual Meaning Of Light And Darkness
Laitman.com Post: The Path Of Light Verses The Path Of Suffering
Laitman.com Post: Everything Is Relative, Even Exile And Redemption

Filed under: Q&A, Suffering - 1 Comment →

Question: It is written that we have to be joyous on Sukkot. What does that mean?

Answer: Joy is an effect of attainment and unification; it is joy from bringing contentment to the Creator. There is the World of Infinity, the vessel of the Creator, which is empty. I fill the Creator through the group, and this act of fulfilling Him causes me to feel joy.

At first, I felt empty and demanded fulfillment from the Creator. However, thanks to studying with the group, I realized that fulfillment comes solely from fulfilling the Creator. I am filled with bestowal to the Creator in the same way as a mother is filled with joy when her child is fulfilled.

Ultimately, it makes no difference to me whether I give or receive. The goal is to be fulfilled which I can achieve solely by way of fulfilling Him. When I fulfill Him, I fulfill myself. However, if I fulfill Him for self gratification, it is egoism (Klipa, shell); it’s similar to working for a reward.

However, if I fulfill myself in order to fulfill Him, it is bestowal (holiness). If I fulfill Him in order to fulfill myself, it is reception (impurity).

Diagram: Impurity: 1-2) I fill Him, 3-4) in order to get filled myself. Holiness: I) I raise MAN to Him, II) to make Him fill me, III) so that by filling myself, IV) I could fulfill Him.

In either case, we are both fulfilled. Still, everything is determined by the intention: For whom do I perform these actions? If there is love between us, the more I get filled, the more I fill Him. In our world, there are no other models for this than a mother and her child. [21803]
From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 9/22/10, “The Agenda of the Assembly”

Related Material:
Laitman.com Post: Like A Loving Mother Giving To Her Child
Laitman.com Post: The Middle Line
Laitman.com Post: Fulfillment Is The Screen And The Reflected Light

Filed under: Daily Kabbalah Lesson, Holidays, Inner Work, Q&A - No Comments →

The Upper One exposes to us its lower part, Malchut, as a black void, promising nothing good. The “Upper World” (the spiritual world) is presented to us so unattractive on purpose. Meanwhile, in “this world” that we feel in the Keter of the lower one, we find at least some pleasure.

I exist in such state that even this world doesn’t attract me, and the state of the Upper One seems to be even worse. Actually, I am not even filled in my egoistic, receiving desires, but the Upper One loads some more on me by suggesting: “You wanted to be in bestowal!” I don’t have anything, and yet the Upper One is telling me: “Come on, share what you have with the others!”

Hence, I can accept what the Upper One suggests solely without thinking, without any conditions, and not through my own efforts. I can do it only by the force of the Light, without making any plans and having hopes to fill my egoism and receive some benefit in “this world.”

Most important for a person is to reach the state of bestowal. And then, he will have everything, but only after he rejects it! He will receive fulfillment (satisfaction), yet not through reception, but through bestowal.

This is how we should view the month of Elul before the beginning of the New Year, the start of one’s spiritual journey. ELUL, as an acronym, means “I am for my Beloved, and my Beloved is for me.” The Upper One hands down these hopeless conditions to me so that with their help I may break free from my egoistic state. In fact, if He promised me something good, I would never be able to tear away from my egoism, as I am chained to it by pleasure.

It is written: “The Creator places man’s hand on a good fate” by submerging his life into darkness and void but, on the other hand, reveals to man a tiny beam of Light to show the way out of the dark. This beam of Light is not an egoistic, material gain. The Creator provides me with the help on my spiritual path: He brings me to a Kabbalistic group, where I can exercise my free will and choose the correct environment.

The Light “illuminates” a bit, meaning that it gives me a sensation that bestowal in particular is the Light. It makes me feel that the Light is ascent above my egoism when it doesn’t matter whether it’s filled or empty since what counts is Whom I’m connected with.

The Creator lets me know the following: You suffer in the corporeal state, so don’t seek material fulfillment. Rather, being in this state, look upward: Think about what other life may exist, in other values, in bestowal, in another dimension (of happiness).

This means that a beam of Light is shining onto me through the cracks in the wall that separates me from the Upper World, the world of peace (rest from my egoism and worry about filling it) and perfection (aspiration to bestowal and love).

From the 2nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 9/6/10, Shamati #42

Related Material:
Laitman.com Post: How To Acquire The Upper Mind
Laitman.com Post: It’s Not For You To Complete The Work: Look For The Creator
Laitman.com Post: Explorers Of The New Land

Filed under: Daily Kabbalah Lesson, Inner Work - 2 Comments →

Had we been corrected in the World of Infinity, all the influences from Above (from the worst to the best of them as felt in our desire to receive pleasure or our matter) would not change our attitude toward the Creator in the least. This is because our desire would be under the First Restriction (Tzimtzum Aleph), under the screen, in bestowal, or the Reflected Light.

Then, we would use all the states that we go through, from enormous fulfillment up to total emptiness, with the sole purpose of justifying the Creator, of glorifying, honoring, and thanking Him. This is because in these various states ranging from emptiness to fulfillment, He gives us an opportunity to determine our attitude toward Him as something that is independent from what we receive from Him, without any connection with our desire to receive pleasure or our sensation in it.

As a result, we would only thank Him for the opportunity to rise above our desire, our nature, in faith (bestowal) above reason (fulfillment), in “bestowing in order to bestow” (Galgalta ve Eynaim or GE) and in “receiving in order to bestow” (GE plus AHP – Awzen, Hotem, Peh). This way, we would accept all states for a single purpose: to use them in order to feel Infinity in each state.

That is, we would have a completely corrected intention regardless of the measure of fulfillment and sensation in the desire, from absolute void and tremendous suffering to complete fulfillment which shifts one’s entire attention from the Creator to one’s self. If we corrected ourselves to such a degree, we would be in the World of Infinity.

We determine our rung on the spiritual ladder in relation to complete correction, the World of Infinity. We do so according to our ability to justify the states He gives us, to exist above the sensation that we feel in our desire, to hold the intention, and be in connection with Him, the Giver, in order to become similar to Him based on any sensations.

The Creator gave us a point of adhesion with Him. However, to counterbalance it, He also created in us the desire to receive pleasure, and He is constantly increasing it. This desire annuls the point of adhesion. Yet, we have to use the desire that pushes us away from adhesion and to increase the connection with the Creator precisely with its help. This is how we advance.

From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 9/6/10, “And Jacob Went Out”

Related Material:
Laitman.com Post: Raising The Whole World
Laitman.com Post: A Clear Definition Of The Goal
Laitman.com Post: Justifying The Creator

Filed under: Daily Kabbalah Lesson, Inner Work - 1 Comment →

The modern person has all the comforts of this world, but we are still unsatisfied – in fact, more so than before. In the past, if a person had a loaf of bread a day, he could not dream of anything more. Compared to that, look at all the things a modern person needs. Yet, is he satisfied? No! And everyone is asking: Why?

Satisfaction is not to be found on the regular, human level, and none of the new toys we get will help. We want to dope ourselves with “stuff,” but the emptiness that surfaces in us comes from a completely different place: our lack of similarity to the Creator. That is why we cannot fulfill it with anything other than the sensation of the Creator!

This emptiness gradually forms inside us and accumulates to a specific measure in order to “explode.” That is when a person comes to understand that he can no longer suppress that emptiness. He has to fulfill it since otherwise his life will seem worse than death. It is impossible to find fulfillment for this desire in this world because it is a need to reveal the Upper World, the Creator!

Yet the body’s protective forces compel us to search for ways to confuse ourselves. People take drugs, alcohol, or fill their lives with empty, fashionable things or trips. Thus, like ostriches, we hide our heads in the sand to escape the problems.

That is how the protective force of our ego operates, wishing to prove to itself that it is fulfilled and to conceal the emptiness that never can be filled. Why think about the things we could never attain anyway and spoil our lives?

But this cannot go on for long! For now we still manage to confuse ourselves on the “animate” level in order to avoid feeling the unfulfilled need on the “human” level. But the cover up will unavoidably blow up.

In different periods throughout history similar states brought about revolutions, wars, and dramatic, tragic solutions. Let us hope that in our case the solution will not be so cruel. In our case, we have to rise from the level of our world, the “animate” degree, to the level of the Upper World, the level of Adam or the Creator. This is not in our power and humanity is starting to go crazy from its own futility.

On our egoistic level it was possible to ascend from one degree to the next by way of revolutions, wars, new regimes or religions, and new technologies such as book printing, the steam engine, the Internet, and so on. All of this provided fulfillment for a certain segment of time, but now egoism has exhausted itself and the need to reveal the Creator demands precisely the spiritual fulfillment. We are revealing a new inner desire: to reveal the One who controls us.

From the 4^th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 9/2/10, “Introduction to the Book, Panim Meirot uMasbirot”

Related Material:
Laitman.com Post: The Fundamental Difference Of Today’s Reality
Laitman.com Post: Rely On The Upper Force Instead Of Drugs
Laitman.com Post: Why Americans Are Hooked On Antidepressants

Filed under: Daily Kabbalah Lesson, Depression, Egoism, Evolution, World - No Comments →

Receiving pleasure in our desires of bestowal is completely different than receiving it egoistically. First, we need to acquire an anti-egoistic screen, then draw pleasure, reject it for the sake of the Host, and finally gain the capacity to receive pleasure in order to delight Him. In this way we receive doubly. We receive the very sensation of pleasure within us and, most importantly, the sensation of greatness of the Host. His greatness is infinite and depends only on what value it has in our eyes.

The ratio between the pleasure received from direct fulfillment and the pleasure received from knowing the value of the Giver is such that we agree to receive from Him “symbolically”; it is just a tiny seed, a drop that merely defines the point of contact. However, His greatness lies in our eyes, meaning that we expand this point to infinite value.

Therefore, “sinners” lose double, and “righteous” win double by receiving the entire World of Infinity solely because they possess a screen. If we have a source of energy, that is, two opposing forces of “plus” and “minus,” then we can run a device that produces useful work. Meanwhile, trying to connect these two opposing forces without this device will cause a short circuit between them.

If we desire fulfillment, then we have to find the correct way to connect ourselves with the Creator, which is called a screen, the ”device” that brings benefit to the others. In that case, all of the Light will pass through us down to the others, and we will feel as the source, as the Creator.

If we use the vessels of bestowal, we feel the following: 1) pleasures within ourselves, 2) pleasures in Him, and 3) pleasures coming from Him, meaning we simultaneously reside in the past, present, and future, enveloped in all of the existing pleasure, all of the Light of the World of Infinity. This erases the sensation of time, motion, and space.

From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 8/6/10, “The Teaching of the Kabbalah and Its Essence”

Related Material:
Laitman.com Post: The Stages Of Spiritual Work
Laitman.com Post: How To Receive In Order To Bestow
Laitman.com Post: Life Beyond Time

Filed under: Daily Kabbalah Lesson, Inner Work - No Comments →

Question: What is spiritual pleasure? Is it simply very intense enjoyment or something completely different?

Answer: The only difference between corporeal and spiritual pleasure lies in which desires I experience it: egoistic or altruistic. My egoistic desires of reception are limited. They gradually reveal their own emptiness, and I am forced to seek greater pleasure. As a result, I am never satisfied.

I have tried to fill myself with pleasure but failed since pleasure is a “plus” and I am a “minus.” When I attempt to receive pleasure, I only gain temporary satisfaction which resembles a “short-circuit” as it quickly dissolves leaving me empty again, and then the feeling of emptiness is twice as great. It has doubled because the pleasure I so eagerly sought has gone, forming the sensation of emptiness in addition to the emptiness I had felt before. So it follows that I’m always at a double loss. As a result, we evolve in our world from generation to generation, augmenting our empty egoism.

Yet nowadays a new problem arises. The ego that once grew, bringing me a sensation of emptiness, stopped growing. Logically this should have made me content, but I feel that I have nothing to gain pleasure from now. This new problem is worse than the previous one since there is no hope for fulfillment. Beside that, I feel that egoism is integral, representing the sum of all seven billion individual, egoistic desires. I discover that I depend on everyone, and everyone depends on me. For this reason, I find that I don’t know what to do with it, which drives me to extreme desperation.

During this period, a person might find solace in drugs, which only postpones the realization of the total crisis for some time. Yet, even this “solution” expires for it makes a person aware that this path is false, and that to disconnect from life means to agree with death. But nature does not allow it! We are faced with the question, “What to do next?” And the answer lies in transitioning from “pleasure from reception” to “pleasure from bestowal.”

From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 8/6/10, “The Teaching of the Kabbalah and Its Essence”

Related Material:
Laitman. com Post: What Is Spiritual Fulfillment?
Laitman. com Post: Spiritual Advertisement
Laitman. com Post: Fulfillment Is The Screen And The Reflected Light

Filed under: Crisis, Daily Kabbalah Lesson, Q&A - No Comments →

When a person comes to study Kabbalah with the question, “What am I living for and why?” it is necessary to explain to him the following:
1. What this desire is that has emerged in him and what kind of fulfillment it demands;
2. What is human nature (the ego, the source of evil), how to correct it, and that this is our only free action (freedom of will).

To accomplish this it is necessary to study Baal HaSulam’s articles with him, especially “The Freedom” and “The Essence of the Wisdom of Kabbalah,” which explain that the revelation of the Creator to the created beings is the means to attain the goal of creation. Other articles by Baal HaSulam help a beginning student form an integral picture of existence: the worlds, the beginning, the development, the goal of every element of creation, evil and suffering as the force of movement, and so on.

When a person has the general picture, he goes on to discern: How does advancement and correction take place? He learns that the soul is the main creation which was broken by the Creator and then becomes corrected by us. To accomplish this one already needs the articles of Rabash. Their purpose is to put a person into his place inside the society in order to discern the breaking and what needs to be corrected. How do you correct the breaking of the souls?

That is why we are studying together using Kabbalah books, in particular, the books of Baal HaSulam because they are able to give our generation the force, the Light that Reforms and corrects us until we reach the level of the Source.

It is not necessary to go through this material in order because a person goes through different states. A beginner finds himself in the middle of the study process, but that doesn’t matter. What counts is that he is working together with everyone because we are all inter-included and intertwined in our souls and desires.

Therefore, it is not so important which article you begin studying, but it is best to have a clear order of study which is directly aimed at the goal.

From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 8/9/10, “Introduction to the Book, Panim Meirot uMasbirot”

Related Material:
Laitman.com Post: Between The Two Great Lights
Laitman.com Post: Which Books Contain The Most Light?
Laitman.com Post: Correction Comes Only From Studying In Order To Evoke the Light

Filed under: Daily Kabbalah Lesson - No Comments →

Baal HaSulam, “Introduction to the Book, Panim Meirot uMasbirot,” Item 20: Because of the sin with the Tree of Knowledge, the impure forces were given control over man. This is why the order of the universe is very confused. Sinners beget evil, decreasing the Light’s abundance for the people. This naturally leads to destruction and suffering. But if they increase the abundance, then the separation for the receivers increases even more, as the sages said, "If a person has one hundred coins, he wants two hundred, and if he has two hundred, then he wants four hundred."

It is man’s nature to always chase pleasure, but by doing so he only increases his desire to receive. All of life is an endless pursuit of pleasures which you can never attain. And the small bits of fulfillment that we do receive are given to us so we would keep pursuing and increasing our desires.

It seems to us that we run after pleasure, but we are running after even greater desire! We barely touch our object of desire, and the next moment we feel that we need twice as much! When we experience pleasure for a moment, we increase our desire two-fold, and thus the pleasure itself turns into desire. This continues on and on until we grow disillusioned.

From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 7/19/10, “Introduction to the Book, Panim Meirot uMasbirot”

Related Material:
Laitman.com Post: The Method Of Infinite Fulfillment
The Kabbalah Experience: "The Desire for Pleasure: Discovery and Correction"
ARIfilms: “Why Am I Never Satisfied?”

Filed under: Daily Kabbalah Lesson, Egoism - No Comments →