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Let me rephrase that last question in my series of questions below. I wrote, “Any by exerting my effort to choose here, I am exercising my freedom of choice at the point of freedom?”
I meant to ask, this… by exerting my effort to choose here, am I exercising my freedom of choice at the point of freedom, or is this the Creator’s force at work, and my exercise of choice was when I created an environment in which I read the article?
Hi Scott,
True freedom is actually a very high degree. We’re still in preparation for it. After all, we did not even choose to be here. This follows the saying that “the Creator puts man’s hand on the good fate and says “choose this for yourself””. Meaning He awakened our point in the heart and that desire started to push and pull us to a place where we can actualize it.
But if the point in the heart is forcing me to be here, what needs to happen for me to start actualizing my free will? This desire then needs to be taken away from me little by little, and then I begin to reveal more and more the place of my freedom.
This is similar to how we teach a child to ride a bike. First the parent holds the child completely. Then as the child learns to pedal and balance himself, the parent lets go a little, then a little more and a little more, until the child continue to pedal without the parent holding him at all.
So we too need to learn to continue to do this work even when that initial desire for spirituality begins to disappear or when the ego grows and begins to pull us into many different directions. Here there is already a need for mutual work in the Kabbalistic group, the spiritual environment. On one hand when I fall into my ego, they need to pull me out, and on the other hand I need to help pull others out when they fall. This is why Kabbalists have always studied in groups (physical or virtual).
We will learn more about this in the more advanced semesters on KabU, where you’ll receive your own Kabbalah group with whom you can practice these things.
Albert @ KabU
Another question about understanding the lesson…
I am thinking about “There is None Else Besides Him.” I have experienced life with no need or awareness to consider the Creator, only myself, in fulfilling my desires. I have made choices to harm others in order to avoid pain or experience pleasure. I have experienced pain from being mistreated. I have experienced painful consequences of my selfish actions. I have sought to live a productive life. At times I have succeeded; at times I have failed. I have sought to walk with God. Sometimes if felt as if I had a genuine experience with God; other times I felt distant from Him. I could go on and on. But, the takeaway is that my choices along with successes and failures were the result of one force – the force of Nature/Creator. And that any perception otherwise is false. Correct?
Now, when I experience sorrow and anxiety from feeling separated from the Creator and the Shechina, it is because the force of the Creator has willed it so. When I experience it, receive that sorrow and anxiety if you will, may I choose an intention to feel sorrow for the Shechina, rather than for myself. For the Shechina feels it more completely and intensely than I. As I am learning, I am merely feeling the effect of that which is being experienced by the Shechina above.
So, whose force is behind my intention to feel concern for the Shechina rather than myself? Would that also be the force of the Creator and not my force?
Likewise, when I experience peace and joy for feeling connected to the Creator and the Shechina, may I make it my intention to I rejoice that the Shechina above is experiencing this, rather than receiving the peace and joy for myself? After all, my experience is a result of what is happening above in the causal plane, right?
So, my desire is to experience life through the Shechina, receiving the joy and the sorrow of what is happening above at any given moment, and correcting my intentions to bestow my joy upon Her because of her joyful state and sorrow for Her because of her sorrowful state in any given moment. Any by exerting my effort to choose here, I am exercising my freedom of choice at the point of freedom?
Please give me some guidance here. Thank you.
Hi Scott,
1) I can’t really comment on your personal states and feelings. In general, our feelings can never be false. Whatever we experience and feel is our truth. But the more we grow and develop, the more our feelings become calibrated and fine tuned so we begin to sense a higher truth, a higher and higher level of reality.
Just like the truth of a newborn is not the same truth of a teenager and it’s not the same truth of an adult. As they grow and develop, their values change, their attitude to life matures, and what was normal on one level is not on another. It does not mean that what we sensed in the past was false, it just means that we grew up and now feel reality through higher values.
2) In general, the healthiest attitude towards the past is to say “there is none else besides Him” and that we went through exactly what we needed to go through. Beyond that, we should be very happy that through everything we went through, we merited an awakened point in the heart. After all, less than 1% of the world has this desire and we were as if handpicked by the Creator to be among such people.
So don’t go digging into the past, don’t despair or feel guilty, but rather focus on the present, on the opportunity that is presented before us and be happy for the priceless gift that we received!
Albert @ KabU
P.S. It’s best to keep your questions concise. One or two sentences max is enough to formulate any question.
I have been thinking a lot about altruism and there seems to be different levels of altruism. There is an altruism that involves sacrifice and loss and a lot of pain. It is more sacrifice then altruism. My nephew decided to give his baby bottles to the little boy next-door this went well until he returned home and felt the pain of what he had lost and changed his mind. I was patting myself on the back for an altruistic action when I too changed my mind. What a struggle to do the right thing when it leaves you with pain.
Hi Jill,
True altruism does not exist on the level of our world. Bestowal is the Creator’s nature. While our nature is that of pure reception. So it’s impossible for us to truly bestow. At best we can perform more and more covert actions of reception. For example, I go to the store and I give them my money, but obviously I want something in return. It’s the same with all of our actions of bestowal in corporeality. Either I do it to receive pleasure directly or indirectly from fame, honor, money, or even the pride of knowing that no one knows about this action, or even avoiding pain or guilt is also part of this same calculation.
So real bestowal, above any calculations for receiving for oneself, does not exist in our world. Real bestowal is purely the Creator’s quality. If we want to acquire such a quality, we first need to correct our nature. This is done by the force of the light we evoke through the Kabbalistic studies. This light begins to work on us, even if we don’t have the true desire to bestow. Even if we’re just like little kids, pretending to be spiritual grown ups. It takes this aspiration of ours and corrects it little by little, building in us a true desire for spirituality, for the spiritual qualities of love and bestowal.
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
Hi. These beginner’s courses are perfect for me. Thank you for creating and offering them. Three questions…
1. If the Creator only wants to give to me, and as I receive, I will only want to be like the Creator and give back to Him, what is it that I can give to Him? After all, is He not the will to bestow? How can He receive anything from me if He is not a will to receive? Could it be that giving back to the Creator is to bestow upon the object of His bestowal – the Creature?
2. As we make corrections, i.e., the more we progress, am I to understand the more the ego grows? If so, this seems like a very painful process, because egoistic intentions have resulted in much pain in this corporeal world (as I have experienced it). Can you address the pain and suffering aspect of progressing in spiritual development?
3. Is this an infinite exercise or does attainment of a final degree become realized and our work of correction ends? I believe the answer is that we will come to an end of correction. However, I bet that is not the end of spiritual development. Or is it?
Hi Scott, great questions!
1. Yes, you can say that by loving others, we bestow to the Creator. It’s like a mother who loves her children dearly. If you relate nicely to her children, by that you make her happy.
2. We learned in this lesson the importance of the spiritual environment. This is our source of fuel to continue on the spiritual path. If we’re experiencing any pain or difficulty on the path, it’s a sign that we are not properly connected to the spiritual environment. It’s like with the example of going to the gym and lifting weights. Lifting weights is naturally extremely painful and unpleasant. But when we’re under the influence of a good gym environment, have friends that value such things, read lots of articles about staying healthy etc, we begin to enjoy these things. And what was previously a painful activity turns into something pleasurable. It all depends on the influence of the environment.
Here too you need to build for yourself a strong spiritual environment that will give you the support you need. And when you place yourself under the influence of the spiritual environment, you wont feel the path as painful, but as a fun challenge.
Check out this blog post from Rav Laitman for more details: https://laitman.com/2012/10/bestowal-should-become-fashionable/
3. There is an end point, the final correction (gmar tikkun). We’re currently unable to properly measure what happens afterwards, but Kabbalists do hint that there are further degrees of development.
Check out this blog post from Rav Laitman for more details: https://laitman.com/2010/10/what-happens-after-the-final-correction/
Albert @ KabU
Every day I have this chore that I have to do and I don’t do it, but today I comply. I find more pleasure in avoiding the job than fulfilling it. Is there a difference between free choice and conscious choice?
Hi Namron,
Freedom of choice is not between choosing between a chore and rest. Freedom of choice means that we are free from our egoistic nature.
See my reply 302804 to Luis below for more details:
Albert @ KabU
For those of us who are stuck at the fourth factor by showing great resistance to choose the environment that they sense it is the right soil but hit a wall (meaning joining the ten); Is this a problem with the seed (the individual not having Equivalence of Form) or the environment being too strict (requiring to join a ten on order to find the purpose of life)?
I find it a lot easier to join the whole Bina Baruch group, but feel choked to connect to just 10 people in it. What is the source of this tremendous resistance? Is the Creator asking me to let go as I do not fit? Or is He asking me to stay and develop this way? Honestly, I do not expect an answer to this part, I am just airing frustration with the Creator to answer my prayers to either fish or cut bait.
Hi Jack,
We learn that “there is no coercion in spirituality”. Meaning that we cannot force anyone to do spiritual work. So no one will force you to join a ten if you’re not ready for it.
But if you do go through the KabU courses, you will be gradually taught these things, about the shattering in the system of Adam HaRishon and how our entire work is to repair that shattered connection. Meaning that eventually we’ll come to connect with the whole world. But we don’t go directly to working with the whole world.
It’s just like a bodybuilder that wants to lift 1000 pounds. The bodybuilder does not start lifting 1000 pounds right away, rather he starts with something smaller and builds his strength gradually until he can handle the 1000 pounds. So working in a ten is like starting with a small weight. When we master that, we can expand that connection to include more and more tens until we include the whole world in that connection.
Keep in mind that we’re still in the fundamentals of Kabbalah, so the work in the ten is not so important for us at this stage. At this stage, it’s more important for us to properly absorb the fundamentals. The most important thing you can do for your spiritual advancement now, is to set aside some time to regularly return to the Kabbalistic sources, weekly lessons, videos, books, etc. Such a habit of regularly returning to the source of the light will help you throughout your entire spiritual development.
Check out this blog post from Rav Laitman for more details: https://laitman.com/2013/02/sunbathing-in-the-rays-of-the-reforming-light/
Albert @ KabU
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