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Hello
For a long time I have had three desires in me:
The first, is to become one of the greatest filmmakers in existence.
The second is to invent technologies which will be to the benefit of mankind and all of nature.
The third is to see a world where all people from all different backgrounds live in harmony with each other. A world where Humanity has developed mentally and spiritually to the point that wars, starvation, and evil acts are a thing of the past.
My question is….if connection with the Creator is the only Worthy goal, does that mean that I must now forget all these other desires I have had. In as much as I want to live in harmony with the Creator, in as much as I want to reach equivalence of form with him, does that mean I must let go of my dreams and focus only on this particular goal?
Hi Ludumo, great question!
No, we don’t need to forget our dreams or fight with our desires. We only need to work on making the desire for spirituality the most important thing. Then naturally the rest of our desires will fall into place. For example, it’s like with an artist that is so involved in his art, that he fulfills all the rest of his desires out of necessity so he can quickly return to his passion. Same with us, when spirituality is the most important desire, then we will be able to properly relate to all the rest of our corporeal desires in a balanced way.
Regarding the first two desires you mentioned, keep in mind that Kabbalists are not monks, they don’t eliminate their desire or disconnect themselves from the corporeal life to live on some mountain top. Rather, Kabbalists continue to live on the level of this world throughout the entire spiritual ladder. So they continue to live in the normal way: to work in their profession, to take care of their family, health, etc.
As for the 3rd desire, this is actually directly connected to a person’s spiritual work. We’ll learn in the upcoming lesson on the perception of reality that everything outside of me 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, wars, suffering, starvation, etc. And when I correct myself, the external world will appear corrected as well. It’s like I have these dirty glasses through which I see the whole world as dirty. 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 then 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
In Kabbalah For The Student, Rav Laitman writes, “…attainments or degrees of prophecy and Holy Spirit.” What is the Holy Spirit he is referring to?
Hi Miryam,
I think you’re referring to the article “The Essence of the Wisdom of Kabbalah” which was written by Baal HaSulam.
Regarding the holy spirit (Ruach ha Kodesh, in Hebrew) that he mentions there, Kodesh (holy) is referring to the quality of bestowal. Our nature is the opposite, the desire to receive pleasure. We correct this nature to operate in the direction of bestowal thanks to the light. The light is both the force that corrects this nature and it’s also the spiritual fulfillment we feel within the corrected desire to bestow. There are 5 levels of desire that we need to correct. Corresponding to each level is a certain light that corrects it and fulfills it (Nefesh, Ruach, Neshama, Haya, Yechida). The light that we receive from the 2nd level of bestowal is called Ruach ha Kodesh.
In other words, it’s one of the illuminations of light that we receive in order to correct ourselves. Or if we already corrected ourselves, then it’s the fulfillment that we receive in order to bestow.
It’s good that you asked and it’s good to redefine these things from the typical connotations of these words to their proper Kabbalistic definitions so we don’t start picturing all sorts of “spirits” and other such things when hearing these words.
Albert @ KabU
Kabblah is considered as a Science.Is it possible to attain spirituality through Science? How we practice Kabblah to attain spirituality?
Hi Suresh, good questions!
Spirituality operates according to very precise laws. We attain spirituality by becoming similar to it. This follows the law of equivalence of form.
For more details, check out this blog post from Rav Laitman:Â https://laitman.com/2011/06/a-science-about-the-world/
And see my replies below to Binux as well as to John.
Albert @ KabU
In Attaining The Worlds Beyond, Rav Laitman writes of becoming worthy of perceiving the Creator’s greatness and earning the Creator’s special attention. I would like to understand ‘worthy’ and ‘earning’ more clearly. Ultimately, there is only Creator and the will of Creator – but, until we attain that level of lived reality, this is merely intellectualizing, and we must live on our level, where we are responsible for the choices we (seemingly) make. Is this correct so far? And, on this level, we do have the choice to nurture our desire to draw closer to Creator, even though we are actually powerless to actualize this – yes? And, is this choice to prioritize the growth of our desire what makes us worthy of perceiving the Creator’s greatness and earning the Creator’s special attention?
One last question: Am I asking too many questions? Thank you.
Hi Miryam,
Yes, you can say all that. The only thing I would add is in regards to how we grow this desire. Our desire for spirituality is like a seed. If we plant it in fertile ground, then it’ll get all the right nutrients and grow. If we put it in the desert or just keep it on a shelf somewhere, nothing will come out of it at all. So our entire spiritual choice is in finding the best spiritual environment in which to plant that seed. And what will ultimately happen to that seed is a result of that choice. We’ll learn more about this in the next semester when we’ll study in the depth the topic of freedom.
Regarding asking questions, it’s not too much, it’s good. We are here to learn after all. Questions and answers are a big part of this process. So feel free to keep them coming. It’s also recommended not just to read your own questions/answers but to read the other questions that your fellow students are asking here. This is a good way to start growing your desire within this spiritual environment.
Albert @ KabU
Thank you, Albert. Your comments about a seed are very well taken. This has certainly been my experience, having first come across KABU a couple of years back, and only now, after so much suffering, embracing it. I feel like I have discovered the most precious jewel imaginable.
I do read all other questions and answers, as well as other forum entries, which are serving to nurture my own further questioning and understanding exponentially, as well as fostering a sense of greater connection. My deepest gratitude to all.
By knowing kabbalah can we changing our destiny and rising in spiritual life, or we have to change and doing new things in physical life also ?
Hi Mehran, good question!
Knowing Kabbalah is not the same as practicing it. I can load all of the Kabbalistic knowledge onto a computer, but that wont make the computer something spiritual. So it’s not enough to know it. By studying Kabbalah we need to build a desire in which we can reveal spirituality.
See my reply below to Michael for more details.
And even after we build this desire and reveal spirituality in practice, we still continue to exist on the level of this world throughout the ENTIRE spiritual ladder of development. As such, we must continue to take care of ourselves in the normal way: to work, take care of our family, health, etc. We will of course have a completely different attitude to all these things, but they wont disappear.
Albert @ KabU
Hi John, great questions!
1. Kabbalah is the method of correction of our egoistic nature, thereby revealing the Creator, the general force of love and bestowal. Why was it necessary to conceal such a wisdom? Because egoism was still not yet fully developed. For example: if you compare Kabbalah to a medicine that can cure a rare disease, obviously you can’t take the medicine before you’re diagnosed with the disease, but once the disease actually manifests, you can take the medicine and be cured of it.
It’s just like the 5 stages development of a disease within a person. First a person is healthy. Then he is sick, but he does not feel it. Then the disease spreads to the point that he starts to feel pain and symptoms of the disease. This then pushes him to go to a doctor to get diagnosed and find the cure, and etc.
2000 years ago, egoism was still on a very low level, there was no need to correct it. Starting from the days of the Ari, egoism already grew to a certain extent (and technically the prohibition on Kabbalah ended there), but humanity still didn’t feel sick, on the contrary the ego was the main driving force of all of our development. Then from around 1995 egoism peaked and began to show itself as bad, like a cancer that begins to kill the host body. This is the peak at which there was a true need for the cure. Which in essence is what the Kabbalists have been waiting for all these years, for the desire, for egoism to fully ripen.
2. Kabbalah defines spirituality as the acquisition of the qualities of love and bestowal. When we acquire these qualities, we become similar to the qualities that reside in spirituality and thereby reveal spirituality in practice. This follows the law of equivalence of form. We’ll learn more about this law in the upcoming lessons, but in the meantime you can check out this blog post from Rav Laitman for more details: http://laitman.com/2013/04/everything-is-attained-by-the-equivalence-of-form/
Regarding science, we say Kabbalah is a science because the Kabbalistic method is not based on blind belief, but rather on the empirical research of the Kabbalists. If we follow this method, try to replicate it, we should reach the same results that they did.
Albert @ KabU
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