- This topic has 1,109 replies, 431 voices, and was last updated hace 34 minutes by
.
- Respuestas
After reading the first two chapters of “Attaining the worlds beyond” I got a very unsettling feeling. There are either absolute righteous or the absolute sinners. I am not an absolute righteous of course, which means that I am an absolute sinner. Is my understanding correct? I struggle to accept it. I spent so much time to learn to love and appreciate myself as I am, to understand my fears and work with them, to try and see the positive in everything I see around me. But is my goal now to completely nullify myself because all I am is ego which is evil? What am I missing? Why does it not feel right?
Hi Lana,
It does not feel right because we bring all sorts of previous values and notions of these words into Kabbalah. We think that a sin is something bad, something that makes us feel guilty, something that we can avoid, etc. Kabbalah does not define it in this way. Rather, the Kabbalistic definition of sin is closer to a mistake. And mistakes are not bad, but rather the natural process by which we grow and develop. Similar to how kids have a tendency to break a toy in order to learn how it works.
Likewise in our spiritual work. There is a saying that “there is no righteous man on earth who does good and does not sin” and “a person does not keep a commandment if he has not failed in it first”. Meaning that it’s impossible to advance without first making such mistakes. Just like it’s impossible to walk only on one foot, but rather there is an alternating motion to walking: left, right, left, right, left, right, etc. Likewise in our spiritual work: we reveal the ego, we correct it, we reveal the ego, we correct it. And this process repeats itself until we correct our egoistic nature on all 125 degrees.
We’ll learn how to do this work practically in the more advanced lessons. In the meantime, check out this blog post from Rav Laitman for more details: https://laitman.com/2010/05/there-are-no-sins-in-this-world/
Albert @ KabU
Hi everyone, I belong to a Reform Synagogue and quite often lead services. From a “previous” life I have given many “sermons” although they have really been teachings. Since approaching Kabbalah thorough your many U-Tube videos I have realised, through this lesson that an orderly progression through the teachings is preferable otherwise it can get muddled, or is that just me. The congregation is quite convinced that I am out with the fairies as I expose them to just the basics of Kabbalah. It’s not got the greatest reputation even among progressive Judaism. I’ve a feeling that the essence of understanding and the route to sharing is better served from a position of attainment. Sharing from personal experience rather than an intellectual exercise. What do you think. Great teaching from Tony by the way
Hi Martin,
It depends on the situation. In our days, given that a systematic approach to studying Kabbalah exists, then of course that is the preferable way.
As for being in attainment in order to teach, that also depends. For example, we see in our world that in order to teach kindergarten a person does not need to be a Ph.D professor or a great scientist, etc. Such credentials might even make that person less suitable to teach kindergarten.
It’s the same with teaching beginners, being in attainment might make a person more distant from the audience and thereby less suitable to teach them. We see this from the example of Baal HaSulam, who asked to be lowered from his degree, in order to be able to pass this wisdom to more people.
So for us, in order to teach beginners, it’s more important to be a good instructor, one who knows how to pass the basics in a way that people would want to hear them. In a way that does not reject people from Kabbalah, which can ultimately cause harm to both the person and the instructor. We’ll learn about the proper way to disseminate Kabbalah in the more advanced semesters.
Albert @ KabU
Hello, and thank you for offering this course. I was so excited by the information provided by you that my mind got really restless and overexcited. The material triggered an enormous amount of associations to works of art I love, cultural history or autobiographical moments that are significant to me. I feel a bit weary of this excitement which makes it difficult to hear the message exactly as you conveyed it. Please apologize if I take the course at a more leisurely pace. I want to make sure I get the foundation right and not mix everything up fancyful, egotistic projections … I hope the course will help me in the long run to become more sober minded, practical and able to listen more carefully.
I would like to know what the levels of ego are. I heard them explained somewhere in a video but can’t find them. It goes something like: sex/food/procreation > money > power > knowledge > kabbalah?
Hi Kyle,
Yes. The top desire is not necessarily for Kabbalah itself, but rather it’s the point in the heart, the desire for spirituality, to desire to attain the meaning of life.
Check out this blog post from Rav Laitman for more details: https://laitman.com/2015/08/on-the-threshold-of-discovering-the-goal-of-evolution/
Albert @ KabU
- You must be logged in to reply to this topic.