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So, from the video, it sounds like feeling the future and past are more aligned with being closer to the Creator’s level. Is this correct?
And yet…, it has always seemed to me that when I dwell on the past or future (which I do far more often than I would like), I am most distant from any sense of connection to my Creator. In fact, that tends to make me feel like I am on the dark side of the moon rather than basking in the sunlight of the spirit. By contrast, when I am truly in the flow of the present moment, I feel most peaceful and connected to life. And other spiritual sources, like meditative/mindfulness books, tend to echo this. They emphasize that the spirit of peace is best found in the present moment.
So, can you please explain, which way should I understand this part of the message? My experience tells me one thing but the video suggested another… Thank you.
Hi Sharon,
By becoming similar to the Creator, we rise above the feeling of time, of past, present, and future. But in order to do that, we need to focus on the present, on becoming similar to Him in His qualities of bestowal here and now.
As for dwelling on the past, 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
Please help me understand why does the Creator needs to push back when we first decide to turn to him? Did i misunderstood something?
Hi Yana,
This is done to help us to grow and develop. It’s just like when we teach our kids to walk. We place them on their feet and wait for them to take a step towards us. When they do, we move back a little to give them space to take another step and another. From the process of us going further and further from them, they develop and learn how to walk.
It’s the same with us and the Creator. When we start to aspire for Him, we begin to feel Him get more distant. Like with the above walking example, this too is for our development. It’s thanks to this process that we build a true desire for Him, for spirituality.
Check out the article Shamati 1: There is none else besides Him, for more details: https://kabbalahmedia.info/sources/hFeGidcS?language=en
Albert @ KabU
Is it true that by living in spiritual perception one will feel the desires of others as one’s own and that one can ONLY ever fulfill one’s own desires inside others?
Meaning, if I have the opportunity for my dream job, I would actually pray for others to get this dream job instead of me?
And even further, I would aim to fulfill my own desires, but only because then others can feel my fulfillment as their own?
Meaning, I would make sure that getting my dream job would bring fulfillment to others and I would only accept this dream job on the condition that others are actually happy for me?
Hi Niklas,
We learn that “necessities are neither praised nor condemned”. Meaning that taking care of our necessities to live a normal life is not considered egoistic. It’s perfectly fine to do that.
As for feeling and fulfilling the desire of others, this is something that we practice only within the Kabbalistic group. In the Kabbalistic group, the only desire that we are concerned about is the desire for spirituality. This is the desire that we want to feel and fulfill in others. Fulling that desire in others means that we build a warm and supportive environment which constantly provides everyone in it a good mood and the importance of bestowal. We’ll work on this practically in the more advanced semesters. Check out this article from Rabash in the meantime: https://kabbalahmedia.info/sources/gzm3fAe8?language=en
Albert @ KabU
I just want to study spirituality now, but I still need to engage with things and the people around me. Please, could someone share some tips for having a balanced life?
Hi Helen,
The first tip is to know that it’s important to stay balanced. Without a good balance in our corporeal lives, we won’t be able to advance in spirituality either. This is called “no flour, no Torah – no Torah, no flour”. Meaning a Kabbalist continues to exist on the level of this world throughout the entire spiritual ladder. So I cannot just turn into a monk and disconnect from this life and only focus on spirituality. On the other hand, if I only focus on corporeality, then I’m no different than an animal. So the important thing is to find the right balance between the two: to take care of all of one’s normal necessities: to work, take care of the family, health, etc (this is called flour) and to set aside some time to focus on spirituality (this is called Torah).
See my reply 190475 to Niklas below for more details: https://kabuconnect.com/forums/topic/ask-anything-about-week-4-lesson-and-materials-and-get-an-answer-from-a-senior-kabbalah-instructor-2/#post-190475
The second tip is to create some kind of framework for yourself. Like a routine or a daily schedule which includes time for all of your corporeal necessities as well as some time for spirituality. Try to stick to this routine no matter how you feel. So even when all you want is spirituality or the opposite when you don’t want it at all (which will happen once you advance a little), you will still stick to your routine.
The third tip is to tap into the strength of the spiritual environment, the Kabbalistic group. This will be very important especially after that initial honeymoon phase of spirituality is over and other desires will begin to grow and overshadow our desire for spirituality. See my reply 187619 to Niklas in the KR2 week 2 question forum for more details.
Albert @ KabU
Hi Helen!
I love reading your little posts and questions. It feels nice. It softens my heart a little bit. You seem like a very joyful person.
Thank you 🙂
Hi Niklas,
Thanks for the message friend!I love the environment and all friends’ posts as well, it makes me feel warm cozy here. However, I can’t deny that I am missing human connection too. I lost many people because I did not know to nurture them. I believe learning the importance of friends may be part of the process.
Sending you love, and thanks for teaching me how to connect.🙂
I have a couple of questions.
First, in the past week, I have undertaken a small side-journey by conversing a little bit with Melody from Support. This side-journey has lead me right back here, to the forums. I think there are a couple of reasons why I sought answers to my questions from Support instead of the forums:
1. Some of my questions were not answered (or even replied to). I also noticed that some of the questions of other students remain unanswered. Why do you not reply to every single question?
In the beginning, I was very enthusiastic about reading the posts of fellow students, connecting with them etc. Often, I then had the urge to reply to their questions myself. However, then, I always felt like I am overstepping. For example, if I have learned quite a lot in Christian Mysticism about resurfacing old memories, a purification process etc. and a fellow student asks about this kind of thing, and I see that the instructors do not reply with something that seems to help him (at least as far as I can comprehend) or even nothing at all, naturally, I want to give my own opinion. At the same time, however, I do not want to overstep. Also, in the previous weeks I have learned how many of my opinions stem from egoism and how they are not really useful or sometimes even downright harmful.
So, here is my second question:
2. In the courses “Kabbalah Revealed Part 1 & 2”, “Kabbalah in Action” and “Kabbalah Experience” do you actually want students to reply to each others questions and insights or would you rather prefer that we stay silent so as to not confuse each other? Would it change something, if I only reply with quotes that I remember from authentic Kabbalah books that come to mind when reading the question from a fellow student?
In Kabbalah Revealed Part 1 I already asked about the reason behind the weekly time limitations of the course. Why it is built like that etc. This is a question that went unanswered by the instructors. So, I set out to find my answers elsewhere. After a while, I was lead back to Kabbalah again and now the same thing happened. I got frustrated because of the weekly time limits. So, I channeled all my energy into reading Kabbalistic books such as “A Guide to the Hidden Wisdom of Kabbalah”, “Kabbalah for the Student” etc. Today, I reached out to Melody and asked, if the time limits can somehow be skipped, so I can finally join a working TEN and begin my study in earnest.
She replied that it is set up like this, so that the study group stays together more or less, and that by engaging with the questions of my fellow students and the instructor’s replies as much as possible and caring about them or even trying to care about them (above reason), this will advance me equally much or even more than any lesson. (Hopefully, this also affects my fellow students equally).
Now I have experienced that my focus and intention can influence other people’s focus and intention even non-verbally and beyond the limits of time and space. I believe that this was my experience because it was tremendously hard to keep my focus during Michael Laitman’s lecture in the Related section of Week 2 titled „Dr. Laitman’s Public Lecture, World Kabbalah Convention 2016“. The people there were incredibly unfocused for whatever reason and I felt this during the video. Still, I kept my own focus and intention as stable and intense as possible and at the end of the video I felt like to some small extent I had actually helped all the people at the convention keep their own focus a little bit better.
I also came across the statement in „A Guide to the Hidden Wisdom of Kabbalah“ that traditionally Kabbalists study in the „wee hours of the morning“ because „in a sense, in those hours the local thought-field is quieter and filled with less distractions“.
Also, during the past two years I have built up incredible fire within me and I have already grown my spiritual desire tremendously. Since I did not know what I was doing, I thought it necessary to sacrifice a lot in my life for walking this path. In the end, Christian Mysticism, as all Religions, tell you that this is necessary.
Now, I have realized that whenever I open my heart towards other people even a little bit, if I show myself or if I phrase a philosophical question that burns in my heart, it seems to hurt them tremendously. They withdraw, explode or implode emotionally, get the sudden urge to go for a run or just fall asleep physically in the middle of my sentence. It doesn’t matter whether it’s parents, friends or strangers on the street.
Now, of course I want to engage with fellow students. I want to use every drop of intensity and fire that I have built up inside to „break open the crusts surrounding their hearts“, as I called it before hearing about Kabbalah. If I have the opportunity now to engage with fellow students in the Kabbalistic context, I want even more to use all my intensity, focus and intention to care for them, and to somehow transfer my own huge desire for spirituality to them.
All in all, however, I am afraid that again I will be „overstepping“ and maybe even hurt them because I do not have the sensitivity to feel whether a fellow student only came here for lukewarm exploration or with the strong intention of entering the study. The last thing I would want is to hurt them somehow by increasing their spiritual desires to a point at which it causes them as much suffering as it did cause me.
So, here is my fourth question:
4. If I read through the various questions, answers and insights from fellow students, and I do my best to connect with them, care for them, transfer my own spiritual desire to them, will it hurt them or help them? Also, is it better to implement temperance in these things or is it better to give it all I got and attempt to „break the crusts“ with all the desire I have?
Since I got frustrated with the time limits and there is only one week missing in „Kababalah Revealed Part 2“ I already subscribed to the next course „Kabbalah in Action“. Then I got an e-mail of a scheduled live Q&A session with Julian for tomorrow. Since Melody said that the time limits are designed to keep the study group together as well as possible, I suddenly do not feel welcome anymore in the Q&A session with Julian. It feels like it is designed for the students that already approach the end of „Kabbalah in Action“. So, it would be a different group, right? And if I decide to „abandon“ this group in favor of another group it would certainly hurt both of them, and of course, that is the last thing I want.
So, here is my fifth question:
5. Would it be more beneficial to others and to me to stay away from the Q&A session or to engage with it? I do not expect to understand much, but at least I want to be a part of it.
Please reply to these questions. If I do not get an answer, I will continue reading „Kabbalah for the Student“ on my own, so as to not hurt anyone around me by accident.
Hi Niklas,
1. We had some recent site upgrades which caused some notifications to stop working. So it’s possible that few questions slipped through the radar. But in general, the instructors are very meticulous about answering every question. If something was not answered, it’s good to bring it to our attention, through Melody and the support team, so we can take care of it.
2. Regarding forum participation, it’s good to read other students questions. This is a good way to connect to them, to their desire. As for answering their questions, it’s better to leave that to the instructors. But it does not mean you have to be completely silent, there are other forms of interactions, besides answering questions, that are beneficial. Like showing warmth to each other and supporting each other throughout the path.
3/4. It’s good that you have this sensitivity that your actions might harm your fellow students. In general, we shouldn’t make any impulsive actions towards other students. This will usually cause harm. But if we measure our actions and make them out of love, then generally this will minimize or even completely eliminate any harm from our ego. And doing things out of love means that we don’t take our desire into consideration, but the other person’s desire.
It’s just like how we relate to our children. For example, let’s say that I love steak. I want to share my steak with everyone, even my 3 month old baby. But I know that the baby is not yet ready for this. So if I feed it the steak, I’ll ultimately be harming it. Likewise with our interaction with other students. If we act towards them not out of our own desire, but out of their desire, out of what they are ready for, then our actions won’t cause them any harm.
Regarding the Q/A with Julian, we’re still not doing practical work in a group. We’re in the preliminary stages where most of our work is on absorbing the materials. Similar to when a baby is born, the first few months it’s mostly passively just observing the world. And then when it gets older, it begins to react more and interact more with the world. So it’s perfectly fine for you to join the Q/A session with Julian.
5. Hearing other student’s questions is an important part of our spiritual work. Even in our lessons with Rav Laitman, he dedicates a lot of each lesson to the student’s Q/A. Through this process we integrate into one another, feel closer to each other, and also grow our own desire for spirituality. So I would recommend to read the Q/A forums regularly.
As for reading Kabbalah for the Student, that’s also good. Keep in mind that it can be very confusing if you misinterpret the basic terms. So if you have any questions from what you read there, feel free to post them in the general forums and we’ll clarify them.
Albert @ KabU
Thank you especially for the advice on not feeding a 3-month-old baby (or even a fellow vegetarian) a steak because I love steak. This is a true gem and I have saved this quote in my Kabbalah notebook where I write down things that jump out at me as especially important.
Also, thank you for the heads up that many terms in the book “Kabbalah for the Student” can be easily misunderstood and especially for the offer to clarify any potential confusion.
My frustration has subsided a little bit now. So, let me add a couple of questions.
I feel like I want to give spirituality my all. With all the intense desire I can muster. At the same time, I feel like I am being “blocked” by the time constraints of this course. Also, right now I have every day all day to study, but soon I will have to return to a day job again, so I want to use my time in the best way possible.
Where is this frustration coming from? What is its purpose? What do you recommend?
Hi Niklas,
Where is it coming from? We learned in the first lesson Kabbalah Revealed 2 that “there is none else besides Him”. Meaning that everything we experience we need to see it as coming from Him.
Regarding the constraints, KabU (in one form or another) has been around for close to 15 years. From all this experience, we saw that if we don’t set clear limits for the students, they either burn out or don’t properly absorb the fundamental materials. So it’s good that we have these limits in place.
It’s also good that you find a normal balance in life, to work, take care of your family, health, etc. The more we progress, the more we’ll see that the corporeal world was not created redundantly. But rather it’s a very important extension of our spiritual work. It’s specifically thanks to the corporeal life, which seemingly pulls us away from spirituality, that we will get an even stronger desire for spirituality.
It’s just like when lifting weights. If you just lift a 1 pound weight all the time, your muscles wont grow much. So you need to add some resistance, some more weight to get more results. Same with us. Our initial desire for spirituality is like that 1 pound weight. It wont get us very far into spirituality. So in order to grow our desire, the Creator adds some weight and resistance to it by giving us this corporeal world. This is why in addition to the spiritual work that we do here, it’s important that we also arrange our lives in the normal way: work, family, health, etc. All these things will help us to build a stronger desire for spirituality.
Albert @ KabU
My frustration has now subsided even more. Now, for the most part, I just enjoy watching Kabbalistic videos, reading a little bit, engaging with the posts of fellow students etc.
What happened here? What is the purpose of my frustration?
Also, previously I have worked under the assumption that more pain = more progress. However, I heard Laitman say in an interview “Don’t progress through pain. That’s not the right approach.”
If my frustration grows weaker, does it mean that my desire for spirituality grew weaker as well?
Also, it is quite clear to me now, how I am completely boxed in by my ego. Now I am writing a more friendly message, but it is still just my ego trying to figure out what kind of message will give me the most pleasure.
I also feel bad about being so angry before and hope that this didn’t cause someone suffering, but that’s just another facet of my ego talking.
Hi Niklas,
I cannot comment on your personal states, but in general the states that we go through are part of an accumulative process by which we build a true desire for spirituality. In this process we gradually begin to see that the ego is in charge of us and completely ruling us. Afterwards we begin to form a desire to come out of this ego. When we try to do that, we realize that we’re incapable of coming out of it. This then builds in us a true desire, a true prayer for the Creator to help us to come out of our ego.
Check out this blog post from Rav Laitman for more details: https://laitman.com/2011/01/praying-in-order-to-change/
Albert @ KabU
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