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Hi Gianni, I have got a question on how Bina works on Malchut (refering to „the Zohar Annotations to the Ashlag comentary, 49. Vision of RabbiChiya). I understood that Malchut by itself, consisting only of the will to receive, cannot correct itself. But then there is this „infusion“ of Bina into Malchut, over the 6000 degrees or years of correction, which gradually transforms Malchutś intention (not its essence). Ia mtrying to understand how Bina works in Malchut, how the Bina energy effects as in our will to receive, as it gradually helps us transform out intention. Is it like a constant flow of that unconditional will to bestow (Bina) into that darkness of Malchut (will to receive), which slowly, degree by the degree permeates Malchut (changing Malchuts intention, not itsessence, into „wanting to receive in order to bestow“)? Or is it that the part of Malchut de Malchut (will to receive) becomes smaller and smaller as the Zivugim are performed on the properties of Bina in Malchut (creating places for the will to receive to change its intention into bestowal)?
In the first case I would understand the will to bestow permeates the will to receive through changing its intention gradually, bit by bit, like blending white into black, and bit by bit the dark colour becomes lighter and turns from black to anthrazite to dark grey, to lighter grey… In the second case I would understand that the will to receive makes space to the will to bestow but remains as dark as it was before… like adding blots of white to a black-coloured place, thus creating ore or less strong contrasts of white next to black. I feel this is something different, in terms of how it affects the work, how it may effect the resistance one feels in the work. Therefore I am asking. Because in the first case I would suppose it is a gradual process, maybe not even tangible, in the second, I would suppose the more Bina is infused into Malchut, the more resistance will grow, … I dońt have other words to describe it better… :)) Thank you
The quality of Malchut stays as it is. It was created as an absolute Will to Receive. But there are parts of Malchut that, through the Reforming Light, can agree to be under the control of Bina – essentially to be under the Masach [screen]. Because all the Sefirot are incorporated, there are parts of Malchut that nevertheless belong to higher qualities. For example, Keter of Malchut; Hochma of Malchut; Bina of Malchut. The parts whose only correction is their sorting and being left alone are the Lev HaEven [stony heart], Malchut de Malchut. They also don’t change but get left until the Gmar Tikun [final correction] when a special force – rav paalim makabtzil – does an operation upon them that corrects them. I can’t imagine it, but this is what Kabbalists write.
In the “Spiritual States with Kabbalist Dr.Michael Laitman” playlist on YouTube there’s an episode on the Ten Commandments, and one on Prophecies. My interpretation of the two is conflicting.
In the Ten Commandments one the Rav says describes 5th Commandment – Honor thy Father and thy Mother. I think he’s saying we must maintain an attitude of receptivity. If we are trying to control or dictate the world, we’ll create it in our own likeness which is egoistic, and it will only harm us. We must allow Hochma and Bina (our father and mother, and their 6 derivative forces) to create our reality. Our role is to work on our internality so that we can accurately perceive its qualities. He goes on later in the Commandment about the sabbath to say that it works specifically by not interfering.
But in the Prophecies episode, in the section about why a person shouldn’t know about their future, he says that we have difficult corrections coming up that might look harrowing to us, but that we will be better prepared and able to make the final corrections. And he goes on in the next section to say we need to create our own future. We need to be convinced we’re making our present as well. And that everything appears in relation to the perceiver. It sounds like there is an expectation for a proactive attitude.
So I think I’m trying to reconcile the idea of being receptive with the idea of applying effort. How do I know when I’m interfering? How do I know when I’m expected to be active or passive?
Hi Logynn,
If you take something from here and from there, of course you can find a contradiction. How can there be a proton but also an electron? We have to build something that consists of many opposing parts. We can say, though, that we always apply efforts. It doesn’t matter if they seem ‘egoistic’ as long as they’re in the direction of the spiritual goal, closer to connection, and so on. From not with an intention of for the Creator’ we come to the intention of for the Creator.
. . . speaking of contradictions… I know I keep pestering you with this question about “graven images” in different ways. But it’s really an idea my mind chews on and turns over and over constantly. I was watching the video about the days of creation and the Rav Ravsays that after the initial stages our work is to write the Torah on our own heart. The context was about a person implementing the Torah in their own life.
I am an artist and writer, and I can understand how it’s impossible to depict these concepts we are learning as pictures. If a client came to me with an assignment for that at first I’d be excited, and then once I understood the concepts, I’d have to decline. As you say, it is impossible.
But when the Rav was talking about the person creating the Torah in their life it occurred to me that you created a curriculum, or individual classes where the story took the person on a path where they depicted the concepts to themselves in their feelings. And the world itself seems like that. The corporeal objects and situations take us on a path where we learn the laws by interacting with them and we depict the true reality inside our feelings. Since this is the case, would it not be possible to make games in this way? The obvious example would be an RPG game with a campaign of ordered scenarios, structurally like Gloomhaven. The maps, the materials, the currency, the characters… they wouldn’t really matter. But if you made the mechanics of the gameplay work in a way that rewarded cooperation, generosity, balancing . . . like, let’s say you modeled all the rewards, buffs, boosters, timers, unlocks, etc on the Rav’s description of the Ten Commandments… but never depicted them as commandments at all. And you arranged the scenario conditions and order in a path kind of like your course syllabus might take a student to encounter a series of metaphors in order to build an internal understanding.
I feel I might have already played a game called Journey that might have been designed to do this.
Would this kind of project be a more appropriate way to work through my notes and studies when I have this constant urge to “do something,” “apply effort,” (MAKE SOMETHING, ANYTHING) and “write the Torah on my own heart,” when I can’t draw it as pictures or tell it as stories to people who don’t study?
I know I am being led on a very long path that I have not gone very far on. It’s clear to me that I’m being shown each increment of it. I have no desire to become a teacher or try to lead other people on it. But would this be an appropriate format that I could work with it myself without it being a “graven image?”
Thanks for you patience with the questions… as always.
Maybe you want to jump the gun a bit, so it seems as though you’re lacking what to do to advance. I think soon you’ll have more than enough. I don’t think various artistic expressions are going to help. You’re right that there could be a game that is more oriented toward the goal of life. However, it’s not that it would work as swimmingly as you imagine. First, I’d need to know how to build it – not technically but internally. Then, though, the user ultimately would, after some superficial external play, need to learn the wisdom of Kabbalah and discover an inner game. There is the real game, and it can’t be externalized. We don’t have any kind of technology like it.
Hi Gianni,
I have been working on Shamati 1. I am not familiar with the expression “It is lighter than my head,” can you help me out with this?
Thanks!
Greg
It originates in the sayings of ancient Kabbalists: קלני מראשי (kalani mi-roshi), an idiomatic expression, which here means, “I suffer more” than you, the person, because I, the Shichina, include everyone in me – while your suffering is only a part of the suffering of the whole. Not to mention that it’s one’s choice to suffer instead of complete the correction, while the Creator has to wait for us to exercise our free choice in this.
Hi Gianni,
I was in the morning lesson, second part, and it really shifted some of my perception. I cannot so much describe this, because it is more of how it felt to be there. It was like there was this attentiveness and glow, in the assembly, and this effort, like everyone was moving to get a bit closer to that law of ein od milvado. …
I am wondering how I can form my intention for the day? How can I be aware of the creator in the day, and at the same time act as a part of this judgemental machine world full of people who dońt have this intention? How am I acknowledging that everything comes from above while I am in the play? How can I really live up to the sentence to think that everything depends on me in the morning, and ascribe everything to the creator in the evening? How do I play correctly and then let go of all these impressions I collected during the day at night?
Hi, Gianni,
My question is about annulment. Is it useful at all to annul before each other or should we just annul towards the bigger goal outside of us? An interesting point was brought up in our ten at the noon lesson, that if I annul towards the friends, I can take on their desires, but that would require that at least one friend is not annulled so that there can remain someone to actually want something, otherwise, if we all annul, on what point are we connecting? But if we all annul together, not towards each other’s desires bit towards our big goal, that makes more sense to me because then we have a point outside the individual to connect around. So in light of this, what is the benefit to the work in annulling to the individual friends?
Thank you ❤️
It’s like a conversation, a seesaw, or breathing. First, I cancel myself, leaving all the room so the friend fills the whole of reality; second, I return all the forces back to them. Who does the giving and who does the receiving, doesn’t matter – since both are according to the ten’s desire and not mine – thus, both turn out to be acts of nullification. If everyone does so, each reaches the center of the ten, according to their Equivalence of Form with that center point, and in it, through our Equivalence we connect.
Hello dear friends
In the state of preparation in which we are, how does the surrounding light acts on us? Is it by the light of Néfesh that need no screen?
Thank you
Adelina.
Hi Adelina,
It’s not yet the Light of Nefesh. We call it the Ohr Makif in general because we don’t attain it. We can get smart and say it’s Ner Dakik, or the Light of AB-SAG, but what matters is that there’s a force outside of us that responds to our every inner request. If that request is what the Light wants to give, our correction goes faster because both we and the Light want the same to happen.
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