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This generation must be at a low level, spiritually, when compared to earlier ones. I guess that’s why the restrictions on learning Kabbalah have been loosened.
Hi Stephen,
Spirituality means becoming similar to the Creator, to His qualities of love and bestowal. Opposite to spirituality is egoism. To the extent that the ego grows, it makes us go further and further away from spirituality. Our generation marks the peak growth of egoism. Which on one hand makes us the furthest from spirituality. But on the other hand, it makes us the most suitable for studying Kabbalah, which is the method for correcting egoism. So it’s not just that the restrictions were loosened, but rather, now that egoism has peaked, it’s the perfect time to open up Kabbalah to the world.
It’s just like in medicine: if a person does not feel sick, he should not be drinking any medicine. But once he does feel sick, he can take the medicine and heal himself. Likewise with us, before egoism peaked, Kabbalah was hidden from the world. But now that it’s fully revealed, the Kabbalists opened it up for everyone to use and heal themselves of egoism.
Albert @ KabU
I aam only able to watch until exactly 20:35. It refuses to play after this, and I only see a revolving circle.
The Preparation lesson was prefaced with, “Inner preparation before a lesson amplifies its effect”. I’m not sure it was covered directly in the video, though there were other topics like ones destiny. What is the preparation specifically?
Hi Ilya, great question!
Preparation means that we examine ourselves, our intentions, our reason for connecting to the lesson. We ask ourselves questions like: what do we want to get out of the lesson? How can we extract the maximum amount of light from the lesson? How do we warm up our heart in order to really feel what the Kabbalists are trying to pass to us? And so forth.
Everyone needs to find what works best to prepare themselves for the lesson. Some people read the book Shamati as preparation. Some read the lesson materials that will be covered in that lesson. Some listen to a certain Kabbalah clip that really touches their heart. Sometimes we have workshops before lessons. Everyone needs to find their own way to get ready for the lesson. The more prepared we come to the lesson, the more light we can extract, and the faster we develop spiritually. So everything really depends on the preparation.
Check out this blog post from Rav Laitman for more details: https://laitman.com/2013/02/sunbathing-in-the-rays-of-the-reforming-light/
And also the Intentions from the Heart audio book. It’s a good starting point for finding what works best for your preparation.
Albert @ KabU
After reading the first two chapters of “Attaining the worlds beyond” I got a very unsettling feeling. There are either absolute righteous or the absolute sinners. I am not an absolute righteous of course, which means that I am an absolute sinner. Is my understanding correct? I struggle to accept it. I spent so much time to learn to love and appreciate myself as I am, to understand my fears and work with them, to try and see the positive in everything I see around me. But is my goal now to completely nullify myself because all I am is ego which is evil? What am I missing? Why does it not feel right?
Hi Lana,
It does not feel right because we bring all sorts of previous values and notions of these words into Kabbalah. We think that a sin is something bad, something that makes us feel guilty, something that we can avoid, etc. Kabbalah does not define it in this way. Rather, the Kabbalistic definition of sin is closer to a mistake. And mistakes are not bad, but rather the natural process by which we grow and develop. Similar to how kids have a tendency to break a toy in order to learn how it works.
Likewise in our spiritual work. There is a saying that “there is no righteous man on earth who does good and does not sin” and “a person does not keep a commandment if he has not failed in it first”. Meaning that it’s impossible to advance without first making such mistakes. Just like it’s impossible to walk only on one foot, but rather there is an alternating motion to walking: left, right, left, right, left, right, etc. Likewise in our spiritual work: we reveal the ego, we correct it, we reveal the ego, we correct it. And this process repeats itself until we correct our egoistic nature on all 125 degrees.
We’ll learn how to do this work practically in the more advanced lessons. In the meantime, check out this blog post from Rav Laitman for more details: https://laitman.com/2010/05/there-are-no-sins-in-this-world/
Albert @ KabU
Hi everyone, I belong to a Reform Synagogue and quite often lead services. From a “previous” life I have given many “sermons” although they have really been teachings. Since approaching Kabbalah thorough your many U-Tube videos I have realised, through this lesson that an orderly progression through the teachings is preferable otherwise it can get muddled, or is that just me. The congregation is quite convinced that I am out with the fairies as I expose them to just the basics of Kabbalah. It’s not got the greatest reputation even among progressive Judaism. I’ve a feeling that the essence of understanding and the route to sharing is better served from a position of attainment. Sharing from personal experience rather than an intellectual exercise. What do you think. Great teaching from Tony by the way
Hi Martin,
It depends on the situation. In our days, given that a systematic approach to studying Kabbalah exists, then of course that is the preferable way.
As for being in attainment in order to teach, that also depends. For example, we see in our world that in order to teach kindergarten a person does not need to be a Ph.D professor or a great scientist, etc. Such credentials might even make that person less suitable to teach kindergarten.
It’s the same with teaching beginners, being in attainment might make a person more distant from the audience and thereby less suitable to teach them. We see this from the example of Baal HaSulam, who asked to be lowered from his degree, in order to be able to pass this wisdom to more people.
So for us, in order to teach beginners, it’s more important to be a good instructor, one who knows how to pass the basics in a way that people would want to hear them. In a way that does not reject people from Kabbalah, which can ultimately cause harm to both the person and the instructor. We’ll learn about the proper way to disseminate Kabbalah in the more advanced semesters.
Albert @ KabU
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