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Is preparing for a virtual lesson vs a lesson in person the same ? or is there extra or different preparation to meeting and seeing the ten and the friends in person ? for example we have the NA congress coming . If we are going in person do we prepare the same way?
In person you have a much greater preparation, because across all the physical preparations, internally it prepares you. On top of that, you need to prepare your intention consciously: “Why am I coming?” In a virtual connection, you don’t get that automatic preparation, so to do it seriously requires a lot more conscious inner preparation.
Besides adhering to everything we’re doing until then, because in that you’re always doing the most relevant thing, when the convention materials become available, prepare for all the lessons by going over that material. Write questions for the teacher, for yourself, that you have about the materials. But the main thing is to prepare the intention: what is it that I’m coming for? With what do I want to come out of this convention?
I’ve heard the recurring guidance from the teachers that for worldly ailments, we apply worldly remedies—that if one has a broken leg, or a psychological disorder like OCD or depression, they should seek professional help outside the wisdom. I completely understand and respect this boundary, and it seems like a healthy distinction to maintain.
That said, I want to ask about something more complex and internal.
Take for instance someone who is paralyzed. Yes, it’s a physical condition, and yes, it’s something a doctor treats—but that person doesn’t simply “have” paralysis; they exist within it. It’s not just a diagnosis, it’s an inseparable part of how they move through the world. It becomes woven into the fabric of their experience.
In a similar way, many of us carry certain mental or emotional tendencies—not always severe enough to warrant a diagnosis, but persistent and shaping. Things like obsessive thought loops, depressive coloring of perception, or self-critical inner voices. We don’t just “have” these thoughts—we exist within them. They inform our inner world, moment by moment.
So my question is:
How should we relate to these more subtle but ever-present mental states? Should we be actively scrutinizing them as material for our spiritual work, or should we view them as noise—something external to the wisdom and best left untouched within this context?
And more broadly: Why does this question always seem to receive the same general answer? Is it because, from the perspective of spiritual attainment, these inner experiences truly hold no individual significance? Or is it that we don’t yet fully grasp how to bring these layers of inner experience into alignment with the work?
It’s because beginners don’t understand what it means that Kabbalah is a science, and that’s why it doesn’t touch those things. Like in a physics class, there are things that are not up for discussion because physics deals with more fundamental levers, talking about emotional states that are within the ego would be like computer programmers talking about what’s on the computer screen rather than the code. They’d consider doing so as ludicrous. It’s actually, like you said, noise, relative to the job at hand – though to the layperson, the images on the screen are the MAIN thing.
How does a person overcome the feeling that the friends don’t know what they are talking about sometimes?
Hi Gianni, since you mentioned that analogy with the “meat suit” I kept wondering and wondering, how I can integrate that picture, while looking at all the pain people go through, I am wondering if truly nothing in this pain people experience has a purpose. And then, why it nontheless has to be. I get why it is called the path of suffering. But I don’t understand why it has to be like that, if it does not even have any relevance for our development… or maybe just a minimum , for even the path of suffering still is a path of development. I suppose this question has been asked a million times before… but how can I be true with that? I could pretend not to feel any pain or become negligent towards the struggles people tell me about, thinking, this is just the meat suits going through it, and once I am dead, I won’t remember anyways… my brain will be gone and so will the pain. But it doesn’t work like that… this illusion we are caught in, seems too real to pretend, it seems. I have tried to just split it… two different things… corporeal versus spiritual… but the question remains … how to deal with the pains of the meat suits, physically and emotionally, correctly?
We feel pain, are supposed to feel it as real, because otherwise we don’t realize our spiritual destiny. We don’t want to run for it, which is a kind of suffering, to exert toward it to a greater extent than I feel like it. So to ensure I don’t start thinking I’m already in the garden of Eden or I’m willing to settle for little, awakenings are sent. If I want different, I need to awaken myself through the friends, so I’ll run toward the goal.
This is a bit off the usual question, but I’m wondering how Kabbalah regards gay and transgender people. I’m guessing those are regarded as corporeal aspects that are not relevant in the spiritual world? How would Bnei Baruch welcome someone with a different gender identity than male or female?
Anything one does with their biological body has nothing to do with spirituality. I can replace my heart with a pig heart. It’s not eternal, it’s playing with the elements of the complete imagination that I’m having and think is real. It has no effect except the time and attention I’m spending on imaginary things.
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