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Is there an advisable, recognisable order of development within a group? Say, first recognition of our egoistic desires and sensing that we lack unity and after that an increasing desire for intention to bestow? To put it differently: is there an order, a sequence in correction?
Hello Paul. Yes, there is an order to our corrections. We correct the lightest desires first and continue to the heaviest desires – changing our desires from in order to receive to in order to bestow. It has to be this way because most of our ego is hidden, so we have to start with the superficial parts we perceive.
There’s an order. There’s an exact order to the development of a fetus in the womb but we don’t really detect it: a bit of the lung, a bit of the heart, a bit of the foot… everything has order, it only depends on our ability to perceive it. A baby doesn’t realize it’s developing, it just develops, and obviously lacks the metadata to perceive this development as taking place according to an order. We’re the same in the many early stages of our spiritual growth.
Everything in this world, “every blade of grass has a force above that strikes it and tells it, “Grow!.””
We need a Kabbalist really of the stature of the ARI to talk about that. This is what he writes:
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Behold that before the emanations were emanated and the creatures were created,
The Upper Simple Light had filled the whole existence.
And there was no vacancy, such as an empty air, a hollow,
But all was filled with that Simple, Boundless Light.
And there was no such part as head, or end,
But everything was One, Simple Light, balanced evenly and equally,
And it was called “the Light of Ein Sof (Infinity).”
And when upon His simple will, came the desire to create the worlds and emanate the emanations,
To bring to light the perfection of His deeds, His names, His appellations,
Which was the cause of the creation of the worlds,
Then the Ein Sof restricted Himself, in His middle point, precisely at the center,
And He restricted that Light, and drew far off to the sides around that middle point.
And there remained an empty space, an empty air, a vacuum
Precisely from the middle point.
And that restriction was equally around that empty, middle point,
So that the space was evenly circled around it.
And after the restriction, when the vacant space remained empty
Precisely in the middle of the Light of Ein Sof,
A place was formed, where the Emanations, Creations, Formations, and Actions might reside.
Then from the Light of Ein Sof, a single line hung down from Above, lowered into that space.
And through that line, He emanated, created, formed, and made all the worlds.
Prior to these four worlds, there was one Light of Ein Sof, whose Name is One, in wondrous, hidden unity,
And even in the angels closest to Him
There is no force and no attainment in The Ein Sof,
As there is no mind of a created that could attain Him,
For He has no place, no boundary, no name.
–The Ari, The Tree of Life, Part One, Gate One
Beautiful. And so what are we to make of this in our work? Do we experience each other as separate in the corporeal world because we are spiritually disconnected or is it merely our flawed perception of the unity of spiritual reality, revealing to us our need for correction? I find this scrutiny very important because it highlights whether our work changes spiritual reality or simply results in a change in our perception of corporeal existence.
Against the perfected World of Eyn Sof stand several degrees of correction, which are only degrees of correction of my shattered attitude to reality. Only due to this inner depiction I feel I’m in a world full of crime, war, divorces, famine, and what not. It is written, “I the Lord do not change.” It only appears so because I change, thus it is also written, “Every day I have a new Creator.”
If the point in the heart is a sensation of the creator (the real ” I”, as i understand it), what are the 613 desires needed for? Is this my playing field, to overcome the desires to receive and raise a screen above it. And if the screen is my intention to bestow, how does the point in the heart relate to that intention?
Related to this week’s lessons of “Standing between Heaven and Earth”: How is “between Heaven and Earth” related to the middle line? Is the middle line the absence of the left and right line? Or the combination of the left and right lines?
Hi Aaron,
Heaven (shamaiim) and Earth (Aretz) are Keter and Malchut. Between heaven and Earth is Bina. Or, we can simply say, Heaven is the level of bestowal that is higher than the degree I’m on. It’s not precisely the Middle Line.
The Middle Line is above the Left and Right but does not exist without them. It has to be built above them.
Meaning: we are not ready yet, because we have n’ t build the screen yet? Our point in the heart has to grow more above our opposite tendencies (good and bad inclinations, left and right line) to merge in balance between them? The ligt being at rest, us by nature the will to receive, why with the efforts we undertake ( 3 pillars) are we not in the system?
Dear KabU,
I watched Rav’s class this morning, he explained about the desire for bestowal which first requires going above reason. He also said that it is necessary for the student to accept that there is none else besides him also above reason as well.
A students asked ‘how do we sense bestowal is it in the mind or in the feelings’. And, Rav said it is felt in both mind and heart.
My question is: I already have a notion that there is none else besides him but only in the intellectual capacity. I mean, my mental faculty/ mind is happy to accept that there is a single force which stands behind the corporeal world and I can accept that and my mind is happy with that. the problem is that I do not ‘feel’ this yet I mean I do not recognise in any way shape or form that there is none else besides him nor feel this way, how can I overcome this anomaly [the accepting mind and the non-feeling heart? Thanks, Lyndon S.
It’s good, Lyndon. Let’s continue. We have to take the concepts as axioms. That’s called “faith in the sages”. If a scientist has claimed he discovered something, and I want to check his work, I have to believe in him don’t I? Otherwise it’s not worth my time to carry out the work. We can prove in every way that all is interconnected, one system, and yet each one will have to correct himself to feel it. Because not feeling it comes from the fact that I am shattered. That’s why I see things and feel them as shattered. That’s why I need to work on love of friends. Because I don’t have a non-shattered attitude towards anything. I need to start with the group, then; to build an interconnected system there. I can start feeling it there and extend it later to the whole world.
There is a Women’s world event coming up next week that I only hear about at the grad lessons but no link to subscribe. Please help, how to subscribe and attend. Or is it only invitation based?
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