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Dear Kabu,
All this reading, studying, thinking and pleading is preparation so I’m hanging on to what i have learned Rav, Friends and the books.
This crushing feeling is so strong and relentless, in a word, its a state of desperation.
I can’t do this, i don’t know what I’m doing, i want to run away from it all (spirituality) to the point i wish l didn’t have this burden and just had my base desires to worship, end of.
I’m hanging on strong but it’s awful, I’m hard on myself so i have a little time off from it all and try to lighten up because this work is so serious and i need to be thankful for my tiny spark.
I constantly fidget, waste time, doubt and worry i think i cant ever do this in the first place and, this thought is so crushing to me, i mean, if a can’t progress and overcome im done for.
Its awful, I’m sorry to pour it all out here, i know kabu isn’t a support program but, is what i put above familiar as per what students go through.
Thanks so much. Lyndon S.
If im too gushy sorry.
We need to try, in addition to seriousness, to be in joy, gratitude, and so on. One only advances in joy.
It’s normal for students to go through something like that. I’m looking for the result, to know when it will come, and this leads to desperation; while spirituality demands that I abandon all my calculations. Spirituality means only wanting to bestow – not to receive a certain result, or even a clear understanding. Do I accept this? The precondition is built in me as a law that shall not be breached. I have to reach equivalence with this law, which in me, looks at least like complete agreement with whatever the Creator sends, gratitude for it, and joy. This is called Hafetz Hesed (delighted in mercy) and it’s the first condition.
I’m curious about the relevance of Isaac Luria’s (the Ari’s) practices in our times, especially his method of connecting with the holiness of sages, such as when he lay on their graves in Safed. While I’m not planning to literally replicate such practices, it leads me to wonder: does studying our sages enable a similar spiritual transmission or connection?
Additionally, Isaac Luria’s assertion before his passing—that he would continue to teach from the spiritual realm—fascinates me. In the context of “Lurianic Kabbalah – Why Everything Changed After the ARI’s Appearance,” when the Ari was nearing death, his students lamented his imminent passing. The Ari chastised them, suggesting, “you have no business in the concealed, because if you did, you would know that I will continue to teach you from spirituality, where I exist after this ‘fake’ death.” This idea suggests we can still connect with his wisdom, beyond the physical world. Has anyone here felt a direct spiritual influence or guidance when engaging with Kabbalistic teachings, akin to what the Ari described?
I’m seeking to understand if these experiences of spiritual connection or guidance during our studies are manifestations of the mechanisms the Ari referred to, and whether this feeling is real.
The infographic has several mistakes and I’m also not sure about the practice related to graves, in fact it seems as something a Kabbalist would be especially disinclined to do (though they would visit a grave of a special Kabbalist) and I haven’t personally seen that in an authentic source. If there is some kind of documentation like that, we should keep in mind that Baal HaSulam warned in his letters against all of the spurious writings related to the Ari and his writings, in the form of either mistakes by students other than Chaim Vital who was the only one he permitted to continue his tradition, or by writers who wrote false things that were as-if about the Ari and the spiritual world but were falsified and not based on spiritual attainment of those things.
All Kabbalists, more or less, experience the same phenomena, as Baal HaSulam says that one who has been to London can talk to others who have been to London and they know what it is. One of those phenomena is being above spacetime, above the body, such that dying is, as Rabash says, like throwing your shirt in the laundry at the end of the day. The question is whether one’s students can feel the Kabbalist as present just as much (and even more than) as before. That depends on the student’s agreement with, equivalence with, nullification to the teacher, up to the point of having a shared Masach (Screen).
Gianni, that is kind of discouraging and seemingly not constructive. This comes from a place of sincere love for this path. The lines on the earth represent gravity, as in our ego, the force that is constantly pulling us downward. And the world that we are taught to correct that exists inside of us, not outside.
I pasted a below an excerpt from Michael Laitman, who recommends we work with the texts, summarize them, translate them, and implement them in a group…
Certainly to summarize and even draw for oneself. There’s nothing wrong with the fact that for sure I will have some element wrong. To have it all correct would mean some level of contact with the Light (or a prodigious memory, which as you know, we don’t value especially). Also, it’s probably somehow correct from your perspective, but I need to point out the potential flaw in it as I see potential to confuse others – especially as you made it so visually attractive.
Concerning love and connection of friends
Sorry to use this example. Very important at this moment.
In the corporeal world, a man can fall in love with a lady and the reason could be the way the lady dresses or it could be her beauty. It could be many reasons why a man can fall in love with a lady. Their beauty attracts us to them and sooner or later we have some kind of coupling or intimacy together.
. In spirituality, what attract me to the friend? And is intimacy another word for connection?
. Does love precede intimacy?
Hello! Can someone please share some advice for how to attend the virtual retreat? My situation is that the retreat occurs through the night (i live in NZ and the retreat is held in the Netherlands) and the dates coincide with the beginning of my university’s exam period. There are very compelling reasons for why to a) attend and b) to not, and i feel torn. I can imagine a situation where i force a circadian rhythm flip and somehow manage to keep my health in order to do well in the exams AND be present at the retreat, if only for half of it, but it will be extremely difficult. What would you do if you were me?
This is your calculation. I need to attend the retreat and I need to ensure that I ace my exams. Maybe you can attend some.
Sometimes I feel a sensation in my body that is followed by a thought that says “this is the friend”, like it came from outside of me. What is the correct way to interpret this? At what level is there truth in such occurrences? What is the important part to focus on here? How can i know for sure, and how do it test this?
As an aside: If there is any detail that can be described by the study of the worlds and the ten sephirot that is relevant to my question please can you include this or flag terms i can investigate because I want to learn more about this system and how to apply it. Thank you!
That’s not a phenomenon that I recognize. In any event, the best is to always move forward – away from the desire to receive, more toward connection – and not to pay much attention to any phenomenon, even seemingly highly spiritual phenomena.
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