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Why has the Creator arranged things in this way, that we the Creatures would be separated and need to find our way back to the Creator? I’ve heard a number of theories on this, ranging from the Fall of Man (we started out as perfect and in harmony with the Creator but then fell from grace, now existing in this separated state of limited physicality), to the notion that the Creator is fun-loving and simply playing a grand, cosmic game of hide-and-seek with Itself, having iterated itself (blown itself?) into trillions of pieces which It then must find Itself through each piece as each piece comes back to together.
What do Kabbalists believe? Thank you SO MUCH!!Kim,
We limit the books that we study from to only books written by kabbalists who have reached the spiritual degrees that they are writing about.
We have major works like the Study of the Ten Sefirot by Baal HaSulam, which itself expands on the Tree of Life by the ARI. These texts describe how the light of Ein sof emanates from above to below and cascades down through the worlds, partzufim and sefirot.
Additionally we have texts that deal with our inner work from the opposite direction, from below to above. Where we study all of the degrees that we go up as we retrace the steps that the light took as it was concealed and came down until our world.
But your question is clear, and demands and answer, why all of this system in the first place?!
And here we have a simple answer, however it takes time and effort to understand.
The kabbalists explain that we are still in the field of endless light, love and bestowal. However we don’t feel it, we feel the opposite, that we are always deficient, empty and far from the Creator.
They explain that in the state where we are totally absorbed and one with the Creator, with the endless fulfillment, there in that place we don’t feel ourself at all. The Light is so great, the pleasure so great that we lose all sense of self and are totally absorbed. To give you a much smaller example, image if your biggest role model of all time were to come to you and ask to spend the day with you. Could be the person you admire and hold the highest in your eyes and this person wants to spend the day with you. So you would be happy to carry his or her bag, to eat where she wants to eat, to talk about what she wants to talk about, you wouldn’t care about your own needs because you just want to be with this other person. Now image that it’s not another person, but the source of all life, in this case, our identity is like a spark absorbed in the sun.
So how do we solve this problem? How can we feel all of the abundance and love?
For this we were created 100% opposite from the Creator. He is 100% to give and we are 100% to receive.
But, this also leads to another problem. Due to this situation, we our qualities are opposite from His and we are as far as east is from west.
And so through many garments called worlds, the Creator clothes Himself more and more until all that remains is a tiny spark of light that shines through. This is what we grab onto and slowly by working, dancing, playing with Him, we reveal more and more light until we do reach again that state of complete unity with Him, but now it will be after all of our efforts to reach it, so instead of being a spark absorbed in the sun, we will be fully conscious and have attained all of these sensations and feel that we are together with Him in everything, eternally.
Seth@KabIThis is the clearest and most perfect answer I’ve ever gotten. Thank you so much. Is it fair to say, then, that from a kabbalistic point of view, there is no such thing as true sin? For example, suppose we are thought to be living “a sinful life” from a mainstream religious point of view. Is it correct to say that a kabbalist would disagree, believing instead that we are simply exploring and learning as we make our way through “deep and dark” places that are very different from spiritual Light, on our journey back home to the place of spiritual perfection? Or, put another way, perhaps we’re playing out a role in a grand, cosmic drama that requires certain things to happen in order for other things to come into being as part of the unraveling of time and space–here in ordinary 3-D–of the perfection that already Exists? I’ve heard it said that God doesn’t care a whit about what cosmic games we like to play, or what kind of roles we like to enact throughout our various lives. Being raised with some heavy Catholic guilt, however, I find the idea of a Creator who is 100% loving and giving both an incredibly hopeful, yet hard to trust, notion. I want to believe it, though, and I also realize that some things just have to be experienced–which is why I’m here! 🙂 Thank you again!
Kim,
The most perfect answer ever!
I’ll try to keep up the quality of work here.
Regarding all of the baggage that you are bringing from previous places… first of all, have some gratitude for all that prepared you for where you are now and the path you are on.  Second, you will have to work with this and if you want to advance, you will need to get past it.
A person who still speaks like he did in 5th grade will not succeed as a lawyer.
Similarly, all of the definitions and concepts that you grew up will not help you in a new place with new definitions.
What is a sin?
What is love?
Who are Adam and Eve?
What is day and night?
What is the exodus from Egypt?
For a kabbalist, all of these things are inner states that each person will go through.Instead of answering, what is a sin in kabbalah? first you need to know what is this wisdom you found and how does it depict reality, what words do the kabbalists use and if they say sin, what do they mean? When they say Israel & the 70 nations of the world, they are talking only about the different desires in each and every person.
So, follow the lessons and try to grasp what we are learning. If things are not clear, write down notes in your notebook.
And importantly, do not apply definitions from another place to what you hear in the wisdom of kabbalah.
It will confuse you a lot and you will not be able to move forward naturally.
Seth@KabUThank you so much, Seth! I’m so grateful for your replies. Please tell me if I’m on the right track. I’m now understanding this as akin to enlightenment, where we finally realize that these dichotomies of “good and evil” are merely illusions of living in our “will to receive” state. As we draw closer and in greater alignment with the “will to bestow” state of the Creator, such dichotomies will disappear. In its place, it will become self-evident what the true unifying Thought is behind everything. (Is that right?)
This is such an amazing and comforting thought, that nothing “bad” really ever happens to us, that there’s no devil or evil adversary out there. Events in life are just all part of the corrective process to get us back Home! Behind everything is our Creator’s intense love and desire for us. Mind blown!
Why does Kabbalah follow the tradition of the Abrahamic religions in referring to the Creator as masculine? Isn’t it true that any creation requires both male and female “attributes”?
Would the world not have been a less oppressive place if we had referred to God/Creator as “It” instead of
“He “/ “Him” / “His”?
Schalk,
It takes some time to calibrate to the language of the kabbalists.
The books of the kabbalists only speak of natural forces. What are the forces operating on us, who are we, or what are we and what can we do in the situation we are in…why is it happening like this and where is it leading.
I hiked in the desert this summer. By mid day, the sun was aggressive, burning our skin and drying us out.
The sun is the sun. We were caught in the mid day sun, in the desert.
As a kid I went skiing in a small town in Vermont, where the snow was great and the landscape was gorgeous. This week I saw a story online that the entire village was flooded…underwater…homes and businesses ruined.
Water is water.
So now back to our topic. In the wisdom of kabbalah, a force of bestowal is called male and a force of reception is called female.
On the largest scale, of light and vessel, to our personal relationship as all of creation as female towards the Creator who is male.
Seth@KabU
I have a lived a life. This life has been filled with everything possible that this world can give or show me and I have partook of most of it, even most of which would be against Torah. In this life I have lived 5 lives and have caused much pain and broken relationships. Even after 12 years of finding Torah, I continued to be the cause and receptor of pain. In fact I am undergoing the most severe painful circumstance in my entire life at this moment where I could lose everything. A few days ago I was undergoing tremendous stress and anxiety, and when I started this course 2 weeks ago, my stress level has decreased substantially as I am learning to let go of any control I pretend I may have in my situation. I’m letting go, trusting H” is giving me what I need and will give me what I need, even if I perceive it as losing everything I currently have: family, job, etc. Currently I am questioning: Why did H’ have me travel around the world and do things nobody can do in one lifetime, to see all the wonders of the world, to see pain and suffering and also be the cause of it? I feel like I have done or allowed to do everything against His will. Is this possible for me? And what if I die tomorrow and I have not finished the goal of Kabbalah, what happens to me?
Alejandro,
Each one’s point in the heart awakens when it awakens.
Some it takes more lifetimes and some it takes less.
Some pass many states over many miles and others never leave their town.
All of that is under the authority of heaven.
What is in our hand? According to the praise and gratitude that is given to the Creator, to that extent one ascends. It does not matter what he has. What matters is how much he is impressed by the nearing to the Creator. To the extent of the gratitude that a person gives, to that extent he ascends in degree.
Good luck in everything,
Seth@KabU
From the lessons so far, I’ve learned that I’m the will to receive and the Creator is the will to bestow. Further, that we become like the Creator by placing the intention to give to Him over our will to receive. In other words, to receive for His sake rather than our own. Then, on p. 43 of Attaining the Worlds Beyond, I read,
if we were to nullify all our personal interests in everything, we would immediately break the chains of our bodies and would experience our world free of pain and distress
So, I’m confused, are we to nullify egoism or to correct it with intention or are these talking about the same thing and I’m simply confused?
Ilya,
We have no ability to know or feel what is spiritual bestowal. We can approximate by looking at the love of a parent towards a child, but this too, if we examine it is also egoistic.
In order to come to have an intention to bestow, first we reach the nullificaiton of our own personal interests.
However, be cautioned, not to go out into your day and start acting like you don’t need anything and eating stone soup for dinner and sleeping on the floor.
Absolutely not.
Nullifying your own personal interests comes naturally as a result of being more and more influenced by positive spiritual example.
There is a rule in nature that the small one naturally annuls before the big one. For example if you are child soccer player and you saw Lionel Messi,you would be immediately nullified by the greatest soccer player alive, you’d be in awe, wanting to watch how he moves, how he speaks, you’d be happy to carry his bags and stay up talking as long as he wants.
Similarly, we don’t fight with our ego, we invest more in the spiritual environment until it becomes bigger in our eyes than our corporeal desires and the nullification happens naturally and in this process we draw light upon us that raises us to a spiritual embryo and our spiritual birth begins.
Seth@KabU
merci pour tous ces éclaicis, tout me semble claire et simple. je veux juse savoir si en réalisant l’amour du Père pour moi et en m’alignant sur la même intention de donner sans reserve de manière inconditionner. j’aboutirai à la réalité spirituelle comme celle des prophète qui parlent des choses à venir ou qui voient les créatures spirituelles?
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