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Hello Seth and Tony, my question is about the topic of my prayers.
I feel very strong desires in my heart that I pray for. How do I know which one of the desires were placed in my heart by the creator versus the corporeal world?
Attila,
All of reality is only the Creator. Just as we learned about the 4 phases of direct light, the Creator is dressed in these 4 degrees in our world: Inanimate (still), Vegetative, Animate, Speaking (human).
We are asking the Creator to feel that everything comes from Him and we want first to feel that and how can we also come to be bestowing like He is.
Seth@KabU
Hello Seth, or Tony? (Who will respond?)
Thank you , Seth, for all the answers you give. They are written with nice realistic examples f.e: About the question how spiritualism could be described. ‘ with the father and the the sun who are eating a pizza’. I can understand that.
My questions:
1.I wonder why the light had to be shattered in the first place?  “And what is called the sin is that the created being could not hold the endless light which caused the shattering.”
2. About ‘Lishma ‘ : Â It seems difficult being aware of consciousness of detachment. It feels like becoming indifferent or unconcerned, when something serious is happening. (In case of illness)? Not my intention.
Bonnie,
All we need is a creature who can feel endless fulfillment.
That is called the thought of creation, to create a creature and fill it with endless fulfillement.
So how can we get there?
The kabbalists tell us that we are in a field of endless light, everything is contained in that wholeness.
But of course we don’t feel that at all.
It’s not a problem at all to be one with the Creator, that’s not where the problem is.
For example, the sun is so big that over a million Earth’s can fit in the sun.
Now imagine that you are a spark of that sun, you are made up of all the stuff of the sun, you are in there in the sun, but you are completely one with the sun, you don’t feel yourself at all, even though you are one with the sun, there is no sense of you, no sense of the power of the sun, nothing.
So in order to come to feel exactly where we are, which is contained completely in the Upper Light of the Creator (of which there is no comparison to the sun or anything else we can imagine, it is something beyond “boundaries”, called Ein Sof (without end)…in order to feel that, we were created opposite that, from that extends many operations and processes, one of them is called the shattering.As for Lishma, what you are saying is clear, but that has nothing to do with Lishma. You are talking about imagining something about the spiritual sensation with the corporeal mind. Lishma is attainment of the spiritual reality, it is something very active, it means to perceive and feel emotions beyond the material world.
Seth@KabUHi Seth,
In your response to Bonnie’s post concerning Lishma, you state, “it means to perceive and feel emotions beyond the material world.” In your use of the word “emotions,” how do you mean?
It is my understanding and experience that emotions are corporeal events that occur in the physical body in response to physical or mental stimuli due to mechanisms involving the brain’s limbic system and a multitude of bodily chemicals (neurotransmitters, hormones, etc.).
Do you mean that when we achieve Lishma that we will experience emotional states that are familiar to us in this world but prompted by stimulus that is not of this world? If so, what names can be ascribed to the emotions (ie. happiness, sadness, etc.)? If this is not the case, then are there spiritual experiences called “emotions” that are NOT the same as corporeal emotions?
I long to understand this, given that emotional states are commonly referred to in this phase of study. It is said that any unpleasant emotional states can be considered as a good sign to the one seeking Truth through Kabbalah. It is also said that some “pleasures” take people away from spirituality. (Personally, I’ve had far more emotional suffering since first encountering Kabbalah.)
It is important to me at this juncture (or more accurately, I guess I should say it’s important to my ego) to understand how the word “emotion” is intended to be used in the study of Kabbalah. This is because the crux of Kabbalistic teachings involve choices between pleasure and pain.
When it comes to “emotions” in corporeal terms, they (emotions) seem to be “effects” in response to perceptions of events as being pleasurable or painful. At the same time, we can say that we “perceive” certain emotions themselves as pleasurable (joy, happiness, anticipation, excitement, etc.) or painful (sorrow, anger, dread, fright, etc.). It’s kinda like the chicken and the egg dilemma….?!?!?
ANYWAY, I trust I’ve made some sense in presenting my query. Your added input around the topic of Lishma and how it relates to emotional experiences is deeply valued.
Openly,
Dyrk
Dyrk,
What a lovely heartfelt question.
If you are a father, you remember when you taught your children to walk, you move away from them in order for them to take their steps.
But imagine if at that time they had the mind of a teenager and they could respond in languge, “Dad!!! Come back!!! Dad, what are you doing? Don’t you care about me? Why are you going away from me?!”
You of course know that in a few seconds your beloved child will take a step and you are stepping away out of love. And it’s the sorrow of being a parent that we feel our children going through these states, but imagine the alternative, we carry our child around their whole life…well that would be worse, he or she would never develop.
So you and I now have some special wisdom in our hands and you said that since you’ve come to the wisdom of kabbalah you feel more suffering. So try and exercise. Imagine that you (and me and all of us), as you are studying, are drawing surrounding lights on your soul and it is like the parent who is drawing his child forward.
We feel a lot. Let’s try to recognize what is going on.
So there are two things here and you need to be careful with them.
1. This world. Do what you have to do in this world. Work, family, health, etc. If you feel bad because you aren’t dealing with your responsibilities in this world, so, like all other animals we have to live in this world. Don’t confuse the two worlds. Exercise, work, family.
2. Our new spiritual perception. OK, regardless of the details in 1, I also am cultivating a new perception. If I felt calm and everything was fine, then I would not search I would not take a step into a new spiritual realm. So now I feel uncomfortable and it doesn’t matter to me if the feeling comes from my relationships or from the IRS or from the police or from the neighbor. I feel uncomfortable and I start to recognize ahh, someone (the Creator) is sending this to me. Ahhh, I see You! You are doing this, you want me to pay attention to You. Yesterday I felt this as suffering, today I deal with it, it still does not feel good, but I’m starting to recognize that You are directing me to take a step to develop, to understand You.As far as describing the emotions of the spiritual worlds, it’s impossible. Baal HaSulam writes, how did the sages write, Abraham said to so and so, etc..
How did the sages know what Abraham said, saw, etc.
He explains that if one has been to London, one can describe the buildings the smells, etc and anyone who has been to London can recognize that.
Similarly, anyone who attains the degree called Abraham sees and feels everything that is on the degree called Abraham.
Seth@KabUHi Seth,
I appreciate your time and guidance in response to my question.
I’ve heard the parental analogy of teaching a child to walk several times and I can understand that in some fashion as relating to spiritual development. I have also heard Rav Laitman use a similar analogy of a parent seeming not to care for their crying child and being judged by others as harsh; except, what witnesses did not know was that the parent had prevented the child from using a needle to scratch his eye that was itching. (Perhaps you know of that story, too?)
Where I struggle with these analogies is that a toddler learning to walk is not experiencing pain and suffering in that process. They have the presence of their parent who is lovingly encouraging them in a safe environment. The parent does not yell at the child nor expect them to walk barefoot across hot pavement or broken glass. In the case of the child wanting to scratch their itching eye with a sewing needle, anyone can understand removing the needle from the child’s hand; however, no good parent would allow their child to continue suffering with an itching eye. They would want to sooth the child’s eye, especially if due to allergies or poison ivy.
Please understand, my intention is not to oppose these anecdotes as useful in explaining why we endure hardships in life. Rather, I’m wondering why the Creator must prod us with pain rather than draw us with Love?
Perhaps my questioning is mere indication of where I am in my own spiritual development. I can say that I am weary at this point. I’ve been through a lot. I know others who have been through a lot. I can also say that I am forging onward with this study because I am determined to know the Truth or die while striving.
Many kind blessings…
Dyrk
I do not think there is any level of “understanding” for evils perpetrated by Hitler and associates including those who deliberately aided or turned a blind eye to the horrendous acts!
To even suggest that at some level of spirituality there is “understanding” belittles my humanity and the greatness of the ONE.
everything that happens to each of us is from the creator. our free will is only whether to follow the path of light or the path of suffering. in context i do understand this. so nobody knows what will happen to us, what we will do? for example, Hitler or Napoleon, what they did was because the Creator wanted them to do it. in this life are we all just puppets? like if i cause pain to another person, i am just the Creator’s puppet to do that to this person? but how too does tikkun and reincarnation have a role in this? how are we “chosen” to do this or do that? will we understand these things more when we slowly have adhesion to the creator?
Beth,
To understand what Hitler did or Stalin who killed 100 million, these things take a mind and heart that is much more advanced than where we are now. Not corporeally, but we need to enter a spiritual understanding, above this world where everything that happens in this world takes on a new form based on our new perception, this world becomes very different, like if you saw a war and then you zoom out and it is a war between your immune system and a bacteria in your body. If you are zoomed in it looks like a war, if you zoom out you see a healthy and beautiful person.
So let us first start to acclimate ourselves to the spiritual system and then we will be able to feel and understand how and why everything happens as it does.
Seth@KabU
I understand that the creator does everything, especially the things I think I do from free will.
Are we saying that all that is needed is an intense enough desire to gain closeness to the creator?
thanks, Felix
Felix,
You can say that, but the words are not sufficient because it is not from might and will that we can have this desire. We don’t have and can’t have this desire since it is not in us. We need to acquire it slowly like a baby who is born in this world and doesn’t know anything about anyone else and slowly we raise the child to think of others, etc. We are exactly like that towards bestowal.
We don’t even have a clue what it is yet.
Seth@KabU
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