Ask Anything

[Gil]

Ask, connect, inspire.

[Verena]

Hi Gianni, just starting with the young group, I have got a practical question… how can I distinguish between a psychological effect of the work versus a spiritual effect? For example, when I read in the Zohar, I can perceive it makes a difference. When I take part in a Workshop, it makes a difference. I can sense it‘s about connection, it’s not always the same sensation, so I perceive something is happening there. Since I am working in mental health, I am used to analysing things, group work, self-reflection, all that, and I dare say there is a profound difference if I compare it to spiritual work. But how can I  distinguish between what is an effect of feeling. welcome, equal, appreciated due to this open-hearted environment versus true spiritual sensations. Or in case of the Zohar, how can I distinguish between maybe just wanting this sensation, like a placebo, versus simple experiencing it?

[Gianni – KabU Instructor]

Everything is psychology, including the whole perception of reality, that you feel things as liquid, solid, and so on. It’s all in one’s perception. So, the fact that all you feel so far are what in ordinary parlance are ‘psychological effects’ is because you’re on the beginning of the path. But, later, in this same direction is the spiritual perception of reality.

The right direction is that in which you’re aiming at connection among friends with the expectation for the Light to work, for the Creator to be revealed in that connection.

[Zorica Kostadinovska]

I guess my follow-up question got lost in the sea of questions 🙂 so here it is again, please Gianni.

Yes, I am sure that everyone perceived it differently. And I am also not referring to infantile giggling all the time, that was never my thing really. I am talking about the joy that one feels inside so intense that it leads to deep gratitude and humbleness. When you feel your heart so open that it can swallow the world. When you don’t think of yourself at all or what will happen to you next or what happened in the past, when past and future disappear. And you’d more get on your knees and cry with joy than giggle.

In that state, you cannot say that you are forcing yourself to do anything, or you feel a burden because there is no you in that kind of joy because all you can feel is love and mercy.

Or maybe the Kabbalists talk about a different kind of joy?

 

[Gianni – KabU Instructor]

Yes, we need to come to that and more. And before this, we need to try everything to be in that state.

[Todd]

Hi Gianni,

My ten reads the Zohar for a half hour every morning, are we accomplishing anything here?  Would it be better to read one of the four introductions to the Zohar?

[Gianni – KabU Instructor]

That’s not for me to say. My ten reads the upcoming lesson’s materials, which is a general recommendation from Dr. Laitman.

[Todd]

What is the Koren Siddur?  Will it help to read that?

[Gianni – KabU Instructor]

You mean will it be better to read that than the Rabash or Baal HaSulam? Do you know better what it is asking of you than Rabash or Baal HaSulam? – meaning does it lead to clearer, more targeted internal efforts on your part?

[Todd]

What doe the holy still mean?  I think I been told it is a name for religion.  Why is it holy if you do not make any advancement?  I don’t understand what it is.

[Gianni – KabU Instructor]

Holy still means you do all you’re told to do but without any addition of your own, no additional internal moves/yearning toward the Upper Light.

[Lyndon]

Dear Instructors,
Re. Baal HaSulam, “Matan Torah” [The Giving of the Torah], Item 7

Each new area of learning is uncharted territory for me, requiring both research and deep reflection before I can make these truths my own.

I find myself struggling with the concept of shame. I understand that it is central to spiritual progress, but if I’m brutally honest, I don’t feel any shame at all. Instead, I feel anger toward the Creator for hurling me down into a place of filth, a place I don’t believe I deserve to be. At the same time, I’m also angry at my ego, recognizing how it has control over me. Yet, I don’t feel shame; rather, I feel pity—pity for myself and for everyone in the world, caught in the slimy grip of the ego and suffering beyond belief.

Adding to this is my lack of understanding about the fall of man and the Tree of Knowledge. I don’t fully grasp how humanity came to this state in the first place, and this feels like a critical missing piece of the puzzle for me. Without understanding the root of this fall, it’s hard to see how shame fits into the broader picture of spiritual development.

As I re-watch the morning lesson, I see so many students asking pertinent and advanced questions about shame. Their clarity and depth only highlight the muddle I find myself in on this topic, leaving me even more uncertain about where I stand.

With so much tragedy and loss in the world, it’s almost unbearable and the thought of being shameful turns my stomach because, as I see it, we’re all trapped in this mess together here on planet Earth.

I hesitated to bring this question to Rav directly, but I feel compelled to seek guidance.

Thank you,
Lyndon S.

• This reply was modified 10 months, 3 weeks ago by Lyndon.
• This reply was modified 10 months, 3 weeks ago by Lyndon.

[Gianni – KabU Instructor]

Shame is actually a good thing here, if one can honestly feel it. That’s not simple. It means, first of all, deeply identifying that all comes from the Creator, the “Good That Does Only Good to the Good and the Bad.” Since that is the reality that we don’t yet see, everyone will come to feel it, soon or later. And then, comes the shame. Then, there’s an appropriate, spiritual response to the Shame, which is why it’s a good thing. The focus though should be None Besides Him, Good that Does Good, and gratitude to Him. The shame is a natural upshot.

[Lyndon]

Hi Gianni and thank you, In reply.

I’m trying to see the world through the idea that “He is the good that does good.” But then I switch on the television or listen to the radio, and the harsh reality of the world hits me. Then I remind myself, “There’s none else beside Him,” but everything seems to implode within me. I end up feeling like I’m caught in an irreconcilable paradox—a tangle of opposing thoughts that leave me in a mess- ‘there’s only the creator and all this mess were in’.

If such a power truly is eternal and sits on the throne of creation, then surely it is by His hand that all this tragedy occurs. And so, I find myself asking, “How can He truly be the good that does good?”

I feel like I’m frozen in a block of ice, unable to move forward. Even getting to the point of truly seeing Him as the good that does good—or feeling the slightest flicker of shame— feels like it would be a huge step forward but i can’t and right now, I’m just stuck, caught in this muddle, unable to reconcile the contradictions.

Thanks, Lyndon S.

[Author]

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