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Is belief a prerequisite in order to experience the truth of Kabbalah? I am a very experience-oriented person but will this skepticism serve as an obstacle for me? Generally speaking when it comes to science, one begins with a hypothesis or a theory and experiments are conducted to either validate or debunk that theory. In mundane sciences A scientist’s belief isn’t a deciding factor in the successful outcome of his/her experiment. Regardless of what they believe the truth makes itself known. In Kabbalah it is being suggested that there is no one besides him and on some deep level I believe this but this very superficial belief of mine is strongly outnumbered by the overwhelming amount of sensory data that tells me otherwise. To believe that there is one singular force responsible for everything that occurs runs contrary to the apparent multiplicity that a human being experiences on a day to day basis and the only thing that would encourage someone to take such a radically different stance is the suggestion of another view by someone else. I don’t doubt the claim that the creator is the sole force behind everything on an intellectual level but I have a hard time putting faith into concepts that are not based in my own direct experience because it resembles the blind-faith approach of many religions. The choice of words being that a person “should” believe that there is no one besides him and that a belief in an opposing force is a heresy may be true but to an individual with no personal experience to back that claim, on what grounds should they adopt it as a belief? I hope that I am not coming off as disrespectful in any way, I am just looking for some advice on how to make the science of Kabbalah work for me with my skeptical mind. Any guidance you can provide would be greatly appreciated!
Cinco,
These are excellent questions.
You are correct in your approach. You are not required to make some jump of blind faith.
The kabbalists say one should believe there is only the Creator. But this is only if we want to feel what they feel.
They are not holding anyone’s hand in the fire and saying, do this or do that.
The are saying, I climbed the mountain and from where I am standing, this is what I see.
It is a like a person who goes to the doctor and the doctor gives him a cure and the person says, I will wait until I go to medical school and acquire all of this experience before I will accept what the doctor says.
This is a great benefit of man over beast, that we can learn from each other like this and also from generation to generation, we don’t start over like a cow or a bear or a lion who every generation, there is not much change, but with us, we can develop much more and quickly.
You can and should test what you are learning.
I learned that all of creation is a will to receive.
So, I need to test that. I examine myself and I examine the plants and the animals and the other people around me and I see, are they operated by the desires that arise in them?
If I feel that this wisdom is explaining my life to me, then I continue.
Later, later we will learn about a degree of spiritual perception which is above our mind, but this is after we acquire additional vessels of perception that are above the mind.
Seth@KabU
The point in the heart, even the teaching of the point in the heart seems to immense for our physical being. How is it contained in us?
For people who do not believe that god exists it seems like Kabbalah is saying there is a creator which is basically the same as a god.
Dory,
Hindu’s have a blue god called Krishna. Christians have a god who is depicted with long flowing hair nailed to a cross. Jews say their god is invisible. So first of all no one agrees on what god is anyway. The wisdom of kabbalah does not require any belief in anything, only that you discover the forces that are operating on us that develop us, that created us and to what end all of this is happening. When you discover this integral, bestowing, harmonious system, this system the kabbalists call God, Creator, etc. don’t be confused with what every other of the 1000s of religions and groups call god.
Seth@KabU
What is Kedusha? Is it the Kli that we have to develop to receive His goodness while bestowing to Him? Would it be correct to put it this way?
My question stemmed from reading Shamati #54 – “The Purpose of the Work,” Pages 157-159. There it is written that Kedusha is the Kli, from which I concluded that it is somehow related to reception (probably to some specific way of reception). Could you please clarify then what Kedusha is, because this confuses me a lot.
Julia,
This is not complicated.
First we need to remember that all of reality is only filled with endless light.
We however only perceive a tiny fraction of a fraction of a fraction of reality.
Do you know what is going on on the bottom of the Indian Ocean? Do you know what is going on on some side street of Jerusalem, do you know what is happening in the kitchen of the apartment next door?
No.
We don’t know any of this because what we can perceive enters us through our 5 senses and a we only admit into ourselves a tiny sliver of reality. 99.99999999% (approximatly 🙂 of reality exists outside of us. We only experience a tiny bit.
And also we need to remember as the kabbalists say that there is a rule that there is no light without a kli.
It means that yes, all of reality is filled with light, but we only feel that light, or any light, to the extent that we have a vessel for it.
This is the meaning of the kli of kedusha it means that the creation has a true desire for holiness, a kli and in that kli, that certain light of sanctity dwells.
Seth@KabU
Julia,
We don’t leave our children alone next to a big motor.
Even more so, if we were before the power of Creator, and this is why there is a shell that protects us until we are prepared. This is the klipot.To the degree that one advances and attempts to become similar to the Creator, then his properties light up. They are called Sefirot.
Seth@KabU
So, it is a sin to even think that “i did this” rather, its HaShem that hurled me to the dirty pit. Its HaShem that pushes me away or brings me close. Nothing of my doing.
in the video Tony says its not the actions but the intention …so, is the intention the only thing that is done by me? Or is that HaShem too?
Brad,
Baal HaSulam is writing about a very exalted degree that person achieves, where he feels that everything is coming from the Creator. It takes time for a person to stabilize this perception while still living in this world, engaged in work, family, study, etc with all of the “disturbances” sent to direct him.
It is as if everything in in the hands of the Creator except as it’s written, “fear of the Creator”, meaning my intention, that I don’t want to be separate from Him. As if being separate from my Beloved. No matter what the actions are, in my heart, in my intention I want to be connected to Him in everything.
Later we’ll discover that even this is Him doing it, but from our side, we went through all of the efforts in order to acquire this intention, even though He gives it, we went through all the actions to build it and by these efforts we learn how to relate to Him, to value Him and to be like Him.
Seth@KabU
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