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Greetings,
I have a few random questions. In no particular order …1. While I am openminded and drawn to much of what studied so far, I am suspicious of some claims, and reject a couple others (if I am understanding them correctly). I find some of the historical claims questionable, for example. And I reject outright what seem to be claims of exclusivity (“This is the only way to attainment” etc.). So my question is, if I undertake this study and process, but can’t accept or believe in all the claims made, will that affect my progress? Is it an all or nothing deal in terms of belief? Or is practice–whatever that entails–the thing that really matters?
2. The idea that we are all one and that our individual souls must reunite into a single soul or self etc. sounds similar to (but not precisely the same as) the nondualist thread in my faith tradition (hinduism). I’ve always struggled with that–it seems unjust and hardly better than annihilation. As in, “Heck, I feel like me, think like me, experience life as me. I am unique consciousness and self. Any enlightenment, or attainment, or salvation, or whatever that insists I relinquish my very selfhood to merge into a larger Something …I resist.” So …
My question is: In Kabbalah’s version of this evolutionary process where we all reunite into a single self/being/soul … is our individual selfness lost? (Or–if anyone there is a star trek ds9 fan–is it maybe something more like “the great link”?) I know one of the KabU videos uses the metaphor of a cell in a body, which isn’t particularly comforting to me since a cell has no real agency or self-consciousness. So I’m hoping for a clearer understanding of that.
3. One of the videos in this lesson said that the texts of Kabbalah say nothing about this world, but only the spiritual word. Does that mean these courses–if I choose to sign up–have no practical side either? People want to be spiritual, but also have rich and fulfilling lives. To overcome compulsive behaviors, for example. Or to develop greater self-discipline and so on. Does Kabbalah have anything to offer there?
Thank you in advance for any feedback or clarifications you may offer. I’m enjoying the course and KabU quite a lot.
=)
KeithHi Keith, great questions!
1. Kabbalah is a science. You don’t need to take anything on blind faith. If something does not make sense, ask and we’ll clarify it. Like with the exclusivity for example. Kabbalah does not hold the monopoly over spirituality. It’s not claiming to be the one and only method. The Wisdom of Kabbalah is the accumulation of thousands of years of experience from people practically trying to reach spirituality, what worked, what didn’t, etc. It’s not a must to use it, but as you can imagine, it’s a lot faster and easier with it.
2. We don’t lose our selves. If anything, the whole process that we’re undergoing is the process by which we clarify further and further who we are. We learn this from the 3 phases that Baal HaSulam describes in the article Introduction to the book of Zohar. That we were created in the state of perfection but this was an unconscious state, like a baby in its mother’s womb. So we necessarily had to come to the complete opposite state, to lose that state of perfection, in order to once again reach it, but this time consciously.
So even though we return to that initial state of being in complete adhesion with the Creator, thanks to the process we underwent, we remain as two separate things. Baal HaSulam describes this with the candle and torch analogy in the Preface to the Wisdom of Kabbalah. Here’s an excerpt:
The reason why the will to receive must cascade by the four above-mentioned discernments in ABYA [Atzilut, Beria, Yetzira, Assiya] is that there is a great rule concerning the Kelim [pl. of Kli]: The expansion of the light and its departure make the Kli fit for its task. This means that as long as the Kli has not been separated from its light, it is included in the light and is annulled within it like a candle before a torch.
This annulment is because they are completely opposite from one another, on opposite ends. This is so because the light extends from His self, existence from existence. From the perspective of the thought of creation in Ein Sof [infinity], it is all toward bestowal and there is no trace of a will to receive in it. Its opposite is the Kli, the great will to receive that abundance, and is the root of the initiated creature, in which there is no bestowal whatsoever.
Hence, when they are bound together, the will to receive is annulled in the light within it, and can determine its form only once the light has departed from it once. Following the departure of the light from it, it begins to crave it, and this craving properly determines and sets the shape of the will to receive. Subsequently, when the light dresses in it once more, it is regarded as two separate matters: Kli and light, or Guf and life. Observe closely, for this is most profound.
3. Kabbalah is meant to be very practical. It is the method by which we correct our egoistic nature and as a result reveal in our lives the Creator, the general force of love and bestowal. Everything we’re learning now is the foundation for that practice. And even the study itself, it’s not meant to just fill us up with knowledge, rather the study is the means by which we extract a special force, the light, by which we can perform all these changes on us.
Check out this blog post from Rav Laitman for more details: http://laitman.com/2013/02/sunbathing-in-the-rays-of-the-reforming-light/
Furthermore, even though we’re learning about spirituality, it does not mean that Kabbalists are like monks that disconnect themselves from the corporeal world. A Kabbalist remains on the level of this world throughout the entire spiritual ladder of development. As such we need to maintain a normal balance on this level as well: to continue to work, take care of our health, families, etc. And in the more advanced phases of our spiritual development, we’ll begin to see how everything we do in our corporeal lives is also part of our spiritual development.
Albert @ KabU
In Kabbalah Revealed Reading, it talks about how Nature is synonymous with the creator and then goes on to say “The term “Creator” does not signify a supernatural, distinct entity, but the next degree that a human being should reach when pursuing higher knowledge…..Thus, the word, “Creator” is a personal invitation to experience the spiritual world.” Does this mean that Kabbalist don’t believe that a G-d exist in the normal Judo-Christian sense? That there isn’t a higher-all knowing power? Do they believe that the creator is essentially a higher state of Spiritual being, like a higher level of conscience? If so, then when the Torah is saying that G-d is talking and telling them Mitzvah and the laws of the Torah, who/what is that communicating with them?
I’ve always believed in a higher power of sorts so this paragraph has rocked me a bit.
Hi Nicole, great questions!
1. Kabbalah is a science. As such, there is no blind belief here. Everything that the Kabbalists explain is based on their research and attainment.
2. Kabbalah differentiate two parts to the Creator.
The first is His essence (atzmuto in Hebrew). This is He Himself, His point of view, the Creator as an entity separate from the Created beings. We’re incapable of researching this part of the Creator simply because our research tools are not built in such a way that we can grasp such things. Perhaps after we finish the process of correction, we’ll discover additional research tools through which we’ll be able to research these things, but until then we limit ourselves and don’t talk about this part of the Creator because we cannot properly research it.
The other part of the Creator is called Bo-Re (Hebrew for Come (Bo) and See (Re)). This is the part of the Creator that we can research and reveal. How do we research this? Through the desire. When we take a part of our desire to receive and correct it in the direction of bestowal, in that corrected desire, we reveal a certain phenomenon, we call this phenomenon the Creator. This is why there are many names for the Creator (in Hebrew), since every time we correct a different part of the desire, we reveal a different aspect of this thing called the Creator.
So all of our understanding of this thing called the Creator (and any spiritual phenomena) is based on what we reveal within the corrected desire. But whatever exists outside of the corrected desire, whatever we don’t grasp, perceive or attain within the desire, whatever is beyond our tools of research, we don’t talk about. We need to keep these limits in mind in order to stay within the realm of science and not venture off into religion or philosophy.
Check out this blog post from Rav Laitman for more details: https://laitman.com/2017/11/the-concept-of-god-in-kabbalah/
3. As for the stories in the Torah, these are written in a type of code called the language of roots and branches. Meaning that it uses words of our world to describe spiritual phenomena. As such, these stories are not literal; not a single word in the Torah is speaking about history or our world.
Check out this blog post from Rav Laitman for more details: https://laitman.com/2016/05/dispelling-myths-about-kabbalah-part-4/
Albert @ KabU
Good day to you all, my question is in our world of outcome, where we exists in the flesh, and seem to either good or evil judge other people”s actions as well as other people judge our actions, What happens when we die. And All the people of that generation passed. What is the outcome than?
Hi Michael, good question!
It depends on whether or not a person has acquired a soul. Kabbalah defines the soul as a type of a desire. Our nature is the desire to receive. When we correct this nature, for it to operate in the direction of bestowal, that corrected desire is called the soul. So right now we don’t have this corrected desire, so we don’t have this thing called a soul. We only have a soul in potential which is called the point in the heart. If we realize this potential, then with it we build the soul. If not, this same potential will continue to reincarnate again and again until it gets realized.
Check out this blog post from Rav Laitman for more details: https://laitman.com/2015/06/what-happens-to-the-soul-after-death/
Albert @ KabU
What of Sin and Forgiveness, Is it attainable or does the creative force not reconcile that, and Could Jesus have been a Kabbalahist, he says alot of things that Line up with Kabbalah. I’m trying to learn more, just trying to find the place to lay my head.
Hi Mark, good questions!
We’ll learn in the upcoming lessons the concept of “there is none else besides Him”. This means that there is a single force behind ALL of reality. All of our thoughts, desires, all of the external events of the world come from this singular force. If so, then there is really no room for sin in the traditional sense of the word.
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. They are a vital part of our development.
Check out this blog post from Rav Laitman for more details: https://laitman.com/2010/05/there-are-no-sins-in-this-world/
As for Jesus, we could speculate one way or another, but in general, we should keep in mind that Kabbalah is a science. Kabbalah only deals with the correction of our egoistic nature and the revelation of the Creator. It has no connection to faith, religion, or religious leaders.
But ultimately these things are not so opposed. Both talk about the importance of loving others as yourself. Kabbalah goes even further and gives us a method to actualize loving others to such an extent that we can reveal in our lives the Creator, the general force of love and bestowal.
Albert @ KabU
Hola kabu. Quisiera preguntar si es posible desde la kabbalah trabajar para eliminar toda la corrupción y opresión de algunos gobiernos sobre sus ciudadanos?
google translation of Henry’s question:
Hi kabu. I would like to ask if it is possible from the kabbalah to work to eliminate all the corruption and oppression of some governments on their citizens?
Hi Henry, good question!
We’ll learn in the upcoming lesson on the perception of reality that the entire world is nothing more than a reflection of my own uncorrected egoistic state. As long as I’m not corrected, I will see in front of me a bad world, full of suffering, corruption, etc.
It’s like I have these dirty glasses through which I see the whole world as dirty. But the moment I clean my own glasses, I’ll look at the same world, but now it’s clean and perfect.
In other words, we don’t need to become humanitarians or make any corrections in the external world, we only need to correct ourselves, and we’ll see this correction reflected in the world.
Check out this blog post from Rav Laitman for more details: http://laitman.com/2014/04/in-neutral-gear/
Albert @ KabU
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