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I feel a little confused by this new perception of reality that Kabbalah teaches and which is very different from the world as I imagined it.
Humanity in its evolution has a constantly growing ego in total contradiction with the unreserved gift that is the creator.
My question is how can the ego growing in me bring me closer to the creator, given that there is a total opposition of form?
Thank you
Hi Guy,
You are correct that the growing ego by itself indeed causes further and further disparity of form with the Creator. It’s only by correcting the ego that we come closer to the Creator. And the bigger the ego that we correct, the closer we get to the Creator.
This is why in Kabbalah we don’t work on eradicating the ego, but on correcting it. The more we advance, the more our egoistic desires grow. They turn into a type of mountain that we climb over. The bigger the desires, the higher we can climb, and the higher the spiritual degree that we can attain. On the other hand, if we were to eliminate our egoistic desires, then accordingly, we would only be able to attain a tiny degree of spiritual attainment.
Check out this blog post from Rav Laitman for more details: https://laitman.com/2011/02/the-worse-the-better/
Albert @ KabU
I’m not sure I’d describe our inborn nature as ‘egoistic’. I say this because our inborn nature is vastly greater than our ego at any point in our development. In Jungian terms, the self is far greater than the ego. Our ego is simply what we experience our self as being, and yes, it has ideas of what’s good for itself that never really coincide with our self’s intrinsic self-interest. And even our self-interest doesn’t entirely coincide with what our self is purposed for – procreation for example. Sex is purposed at our species level of existence, for procreation, and our self-interest is subordinated to that. Our sexual desires have nothing to do really with self-interest, but with our species-interest. They capture us so to speak, through their pleasurableness, so that we enjoy them and feel that they’re goods. They are, but not for ourselves as selves, but as selves of our kind which we naturally love. When we love our children, we’re already called upon to include them in our self-interest, and we teach them to do the same, especially if they have siblings. So the principle of self-transcendence is there all the way through, even at the most basic level of socio-biological existence.
I find the idea that the human being’s original state can adequately be described as one equivalent in form with the Creator, experiencing unbounded fulfilment, eternity and perfection, one that doesn’t seem to properly reflect the crucial difference between the creature and the Creator. Creatures are not by their own natures eternal or perfect in the way that the Creator is. Creatures’ natures have to be caused to exist by their Creator’s creativity. They don’t exist intrinsically. The Creator necessarily does naturally exist without having to be caused to. So there seems to be a very big difference between worldly, let’s call it transcendent ecological perfection that naturally emerges in natural worldly conditions, and the state here described as equivalence of form with the Creator, which is described more like having a share in the Creator’s experience of ‘his/her’ Absolutely Perfect Being.
In Kabbalah, there is a lot of focus on the contrast between the Creator and the Creature. Our nature is the opposite of that of the Creator. But isnn’t that an illusion? Because when we transcend this contrast, there is only the Creator. Why so much focus on this split between Creator and Creature ? I think that everything what we experience as opposite, is in Reality One and the same. The Creature is the Creator who took the role of receiver.
…i still want to add something: i think in essence there is no difference between our consciousness and that of the Creator, there is no contrast. What makes us “different” (or what makes us “feel/perceive” that we are different) is the fact that we are identifying ourself with a limited form (the body and its 5 senses). When we realise that we are not the body, when we stop identifying ourself with that form, we become aware of what we really are: the Light itself.
Hi Ilse,
1. We need to keep in mind that Kabbalah is not a philosophy, it’s a science. What we’re learning comes directly from the research of the Kabbalists. They are like the scientists that succeeded to a certain extent in reaching the Creator and they show us their method by which we too can succeed in that.
Check out this blog post from Rav Laitman for more details: https://laitman.com/2012/12/philosophy-a-building-without-a-foundation/
2. Reaching the Creator works according to the law of equivalence of form. Meaning that by becoming similar to Him, we can actually reveal Him in practice and adhere to Him. So it’s not enough to identify with Him, but rather we need to actively become similar to Him. This is why there is a big emphasis on the difference between the Creator and the created being, since our very nature directly separates us from Him. So in order to reach Him, we need to rise above this nature.
Check out this blog post from Rav Laitman for more details: https://laitman.com/2013/04/everything-is-attained-by-the-equivalence-of-form/
3. Even when we rise above our nature and adhere to the Creator we don’t disappear. Baal HaSulam writes about it 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 (plural for 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 in 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 Essence existence from existence. From the perspective of the Thought of Creation in Ein Sof, it is all towards bestowal and there is no trace of will to receive in it. Its opposite is the Kli, the great will to receive that abundance, which 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 thence once. This is so because 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.”
Albert @ KabU
Hi Ilse,
Adam was created in the image of the Creator. Meaning that the common soul of Adam HaRishon, in its initial state, was in full adhesion with the Creator (Baal HaSulam describes this in the article Introduction to the book of Zohar). But this was an unconscious state, like a baby in its mother’s womb, or like the previous example of the candle that is annulled within the torch. 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.
Check out this blog post from Rav Laitman for more details: https://laitman.com/2014/01/from-perfection-to-perfection/
Albert @ KabU
Hi Garry,
We don’t experience suffering on the path of light. But keep in mind that choosing the path of light is not a one time decision, rather it’s a continuous process. It’s similar to driving a car on a winding road, we don’t just drive straight, but as the road winds, we need to make constant adjustments to stay on the road. Likewise with choosing the path of light, it requires constant adjustments or else we fall back into the path of suffering.
Check out this blog post from Rav Laitman for more details: https://laitman.com/2011/01/lets-go-with-the-light/
Albert @ KabU
My question is, if all we feel is the creator. How should i understand these feelings? Let say there was an event for a group of friends and i was not invited. So now i feel this uncomfortable and negative feelings. What does Kabbalah suggest i do with these feeling? How should i understand them? Usually, i suppress them or take revenge to feel the opposite feeling. But they keep coming back. What is the lesson here?
Thanks
Hi Meron,
We learn from the Kabbalists that every single moment comes to us directly from the Creator, this is called “there is none else besides Him”. Furthermore, they also say that He is the “good that does good”. Meaning that every moment He is sending us nothing but goodness. But why then don’t we see this in our world? Why do we see so much suffering and problems in the world?
This is because our world is governed by our egoistic nature. This egoistic nature is opposite to the Creator’s nature. Because of that, it inverts the Creator’s goodness into something bad. It’s just like multiplying numbers: a positive times a negative equals negative.
So as long as we remain within this egoistic nature, we will continue to see and feel more suffering and bad things in the world. But if we correct our nature to be similar to the Creator’s nature, then we will reveal the true reality in which only goodness exists, and our previous egoistic state would appear as nothing more than a dream.
Check out this blog post from Rav Laitman for more details: https://laitman.com/2011/06/how-can-we-justify-the-creator/
Albert @ KabU
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