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In Attaining the Worlds it says “Developing a hatred toward egoism will eventually lead to our liberation from it.”
Is it ever appropriate to develop hatred? Would it not more be a case of compassionately seeing the ego for what it is, and that way achieve liberation from it?
Hi Marion, great question!
Developing a hatred toward egoism means wanting to be separated from it. Essentially we don’t have the strength to liberate ourselves from our own egoism. Our work is only to develop the desire for this. This desire acts as a type of prayer or request for the Creator to help us accomplish this. And it’s only thanks to His help that we’re able to do this (See pages 35-36 of attaining the worlds beyond for more details).Also keep in mind that that although we sometimes use the words desire to receive and egoism interchangeably, in truth they are two separate things. Our nature is the desire to receive pleasure. It simply means that every calculation we make is to chase pleasure or avoid pain. This is similar to how any other animal functions. By itself, there is nothing wrong with this nature, it’s simply the program by which we function and preserve ourselves.
Egoism is when this program begins to be used in a way that harms others. Not only do I want to receive pleasure, but I want to receive it at the expense of others, at their detriment. This is the corporeal ego.
There is also a spiritual ego. Spiritual egoism is everything that stands in the way of our connection with the Creator. Normal people don’t have a spiritual ego. This is only something that we discover after doing some serious spiritual work. So when we speak about egoism in Kabbalah, we’re specifically referring to the spiritual type of egoism.
Check out this blog post from Rav Laitman for more details: https://laitman.com/2010/10/true-evil/
Albert @ KabU
Hello! Can intellectualizing the study of Kabbalah have a negative effect to practice? I understand that I must study with patience paying attention especially to details but I’m kind of skeptical about intellectualizing it. Thank you.
Hi Michael, good question!
On one hand, in the fundamentals of Kabbalah, we do need to study and acquire a certain basic foundation of this wisdom. On the other hand, there is a rule that “it’s not the wise that learns”. Meaning that reaching spiritual attainment does not depend on our intellect or memorization skills. After all, we can take a computer and load it up with all of the Kabbalistic books as well as all of the knowledge that this entire world has to offer. But this computer will not attain spirituality.
Spiritual attainment depends on one thing and one thing only, the desire. If we build the right desire for it, within that correct desire, we will reveal spiritual sensations. That’s it. And although we spend a lot of time studying, the goal is not to acquire knowledge, but through the study to draw the light, a special force that helps us to build the right desire.
Check out this blog post from Rav Laitman for more details: http://laitman.com/2013/02/sunbathing-in-the-rays-of-the-reforming-light/
Albert @ KabU
In Kabbalah Revealed, Rav Michael Laitman writes, “Unlike minerals, plants, and animals, people constantly evolve.” How does the Wisdom of Kabbalah define evolution? Thank you!
Hi Miryam, great question!
In contrast to the other levels of nature, humans continuously evolve on the level of desires. At first humans were no different than animals, simply aspiring for the animalistic desires of food, sex, and family. Later on the desire evolved and they began to aspire towards money, and then towards honor, and then towards knowledge. And now in the peak of our evolution, a new spiritual type of desire (the point in the heart) is beginning to awaken within masses of people. So unlike minerals, plants, and animals, human desires keep evolving.
We’ll learn more about this in the next lesson.
Albert @ KabU
Thank you, Albert, for your response to my question about evolution (as well as your explanation of the separation of men and women at retreat). I am having further questions now. My understanding is that Kabbalah is a vehicle for bringing humanity to the next level of evolution, equivalence of form with the Creator; yes? Will evolution stop there? In Kabbalah Revealed, Dr. Laitman writes, “In the process of uniting, we will learn why Nature does what it does, and become as wise as the Thought that created it.” This seems to imply that there is something higher than Nature; yes? And if so, would the next evolutionary step be towards reaching attainment of that? And, lastly – when we achieve equivalence of form, and become able to control our destiny, would ‘create’ be a synonym for ‘control’? Am I correct in understanding that we acquire this ability because our intention and will have become synonymous with Nature’s?
Hi Miryam,
Yes, you can say that the goal is to reach equivalence of form with the Creator. That state is called Gmar Tikkun (final correction). What happens after that? Kabbalists hint that there are further degrees of development beyond that point. But it’s still beyond our ability to understand and research such things, so we’ll need to get there and see for ourselves.
Check out this blog post from Rav Laitman for more details: https://laitman.com/2010/10/what-happens-after-the-final-correction/
Albert @ KabU
In the preparation materials, video: Seven Basic Principles of Kabbalah. In the last few minutes, there’s some footage of a KABU Retreat, and if I’m not mistaken, the men and the women are sitting on opposite sides of the room. Why is this?
Hi Miryam, good question!
You are correct. Both men and women attend the lessons, but they study in separate rooms (this was more relevant prior to the covid-19 days, nowadays everything is virtual, so they study in separate virtual rooms). This is because men are hardwired in such a way that they receive pleasure by looking at women (there is actually a spiritual root to this phenomena). This is a natural inclination for men that quite easily distracts them. But we didn’t gather in groups in order to fulfill our animalistic desires, rather we gather in order to attain spirituality. And attaining spirituality requires a strong inner concentration, a strong aspiration to attain the qualities of bestowal. So to help the men achieve the goal for which we gather, it’s better for them to study in separate groups. This will be more relevant for us in the more advanced semesters.
Albert @ KabU
Why are you so confident that this lineage of revealing of the wisdom of kabbalah is unique?
There must be more authentic kabbalists around?
Hi Paul, good questions!
There were of course many Kabbalists throughout the generations, but we only highlighted the ones that made major changes in the method. Furthermore, since the method gets adapted in each generation, we usually don’t study much from past Kabbalists.
Let’s put this into perspective:Â Kabbalah is the method by which we correct our egoistic nature and as a result, we become similar to and reveal the Creator, the general force of love and bestowal. Since egoism grows from generation to generation, so the method for its correction needs to get adapted in each generation for that level of egoism.
For example it’s like in medicine, if a person has a headache he can just drink a tylenol and that’s enough to fix him. But if it’s not just a little headache but something cancerous, then that tylenol won’t do anything for him but he needs a completely different regime to heal himself.
This is why Kabbalah gets adapted in each generation to the level of egoism that is currently found in that generation. So although there were many different Kabbalists and Kabbalistic books throughout the generations, nowadays it’s impossible to correct our level of egoism through the methods of the past generations. This is why nowadays we mainly learn from the writings of Baal HaSulam and Rabash, since their writings contains the light that is most suitable to correct the egoism that is found in our generation.
Check out this blog post from Rav Laitman for more details on Baal HaSulam and Rabash: https://laitman.com/2015/11/the-great-kabbalists-and-their-works/
Albert @ KabU
how kabbalist know there are 5 spiritual World above the world the world of branches ? How they know there names ? What is the function of each spiritual world ?
Hi,
Great Questions!
1. Kabbalah is a science. The Kabbalists are the scientists and researchers in Kabbalah. Everything they attained in this wisdom comes from their research. How is it possible to research spirituality? By working according to the law of equivalence of form. In other words, in order to perceive some spiritual phenomenon, we need to become similar to it.
Spirituality operates according to the qualities of love and bestowal. Our world is the opposite, it operates according to our egoistic nature. So if we want to reveal spirituality and then research it (just like the Kabbalists did), we need to become similar to it, to the qualities of love and bestowal that operate there.
It’s just like how a radio works. That we just need to tune the inner frequency of the radio to match the external wave. Once we tune in to the wave that we want, we right away hear the music that is on that wave.
Likewise with us, once we tune ourselves in the direction of bestowal, we will reveal the spiritual world in practice and will be able to research it like the Kabbalists did.
We’ll learn about this law in detail in the upcoming lessons. In the meantime, check out this blog post from Rav Laitman for more details:Â Â https://laitman.com/2013/04/everything-is-attained-by-the-equivalence-of-form/
2. Names in Kabbalah are not simply abstract names, but they are precise measurements of a certain spiritual state: how much desire the Kabbalist was working with and accordingly how much light (fulfillment) he was able to reveal. Kabbalists are able to precisely measured these things and express them in the gematria, in the individual letters that make up all these names.
It’s similar to how you can take a picture on a computer and convert it into a binary code of 0’s and 1’s, where each number in that code meticulously expresses every single aspect of that picture. Likewise with all the names the Kabbalists use, in those names is encoded the exact spiritual state the Kabbalist experienced at that time.
3. Regarding the spiritual worlds, keep in mind that the worlds are not place like we think, but rather levels of concealment. World (Olam in Hebrew) comes from the word Concealment (ha-alama). So the 5 worlds are 5 levels of concealment between us, the desire to receive, and the Creator the general force of love and bestowal. To the extent that we correct our own opposite, egoistic nature, for it to also operate in the direction of bestowal, to that extent we reveal these worlds, these higher qualities.
Regarding the names and functions of the worlds:
First is Adam Kadmon (primordial Man) this is the first form of the desire to receive that became similar to the Creator, but it operates in a different way then the rest of the system, so it’s called primordial.
Atzilut (from the words etz lo: at his place, in his possession). This is the place where the Creator exists, meaning the pure desire to bestow.
Beria (creation), comes from the word Bar, meaning outside of. Meaning that it’s already a distinct degree of remoteness from the quality of bestowal.
Yetzira (creation), also means creation but this time stems from the word yetzer, inclination. Meaning there is already an inclination of its own to the Creator.
Assiya (action), this completes the action of creating the desire to receive.
Keep in mind that we usually don’t translate these words when we use them in the lessons. A lot of times it’s better to use the Hebrew word instead of being confused by the translation.
Albert @ KabU
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