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Thank you for this week’s lesson.
How would one be able to discern where on the level of 125 levels one would be at, or even perhaps worlds?
Are you existing in all of them(the worlds), at the same time, but just consciously aware of one of them at any one time?
Hi Shaun,
We’re not yet on any spiritual degree, we’re still in the preparation period prior to the spiritual ladder. But once we start to do real spiritual work, we can measure our progress in our attitude towards other points in the hearts. That I’ll feel how my attitude towards them changes, from complete indifference, all the way until I feel them as pieces of my soul. We’ll learn more about this in the more advanced lessons.
Albert @ KabU
Hello,
From what I gathered from the videos and reading is that the first Kabbalahistic book was written by Adam, then Abraham, Moses and so on. I am wondering if books like the Books of Enoch, or The Book of Jashur or some of the other apocryphal books were written by kabbalahists? Thanks!
Hi Ed,
I’m not an expert in such things, we can speculate one way or another, but ultimately it would just be speculations.
In any case, we need to keep in mind that there have been many books written by Kabbalists throughout the generations, but we don’t really study them directly in our days. In our days we mainly study from the writings of Baal HaSulam and Rabash. This is because egoism grows from generation to generation, so Kabbalah, the method for its correction, needs to get adapted in each generation for that level of egoism. For example it’s like in medicine, if a person has a headache he can just drink a tylenol and that’s enough to fix him. But if it’s not just a little headache but something cancerous, then that tylenol won’t do anything for him but he needs a completely different regime to heal himself.
This is why Kabbalah gets adapted in each generation to the level of egoism that is currently found in that generation. So although there were many different Kabbalists and Kabbalistic books throughout the generations, nowadays we mainly learn from the writings of Baal HaSulam and Rabash, since their writings contains the light that is most suitable to correct the egoism that is found in our generation.
Check out this blog post from Rav Laitman for more details: https://laitman.com/2015/11/the-great-kabbalists-and-their-works/
Albert @ KabU
My recognition of my nature, created as the will to receive is perhaps a beginner thing for some, but now I see it everywhere in my life, and I don’t like it at all. It’s almost like I am spiritually “hungry” all the time. From my understanding Kabbalah is perhaps a progressive science, and it may take time to develop how to deal with this feeling because I don’t think it’s going to go away anytime soon. How does one cope with this?
As a follow up question, how does one deal with the dichotomies between spiritual growth and practicalities of day-to-day living?
Hi Greg, great questions!
1. If you don’t see your nature as standing in your way, then you have no drive to do anything about it. So it’s good when we reveal such things. It’s only then that we have a true prayer for the Creator to correct us.
Check out this blog post from Rav Laitman for more details: https://laitman.com/2017/03/what-is-prayer/
2. We need to find a good balance between our corporeal lives and our spiritual aspirations. Without a good balance in our corporeal lives, we won’t be able to advance in spirituality either. This is called “no flour, no Torah – no Torah, no flour”.
Meaning a Kabbalist continues to exist on the level of this world throughout the entire spiritual ladder. So I cannot just turn into a monk and disconnect from this life and only focus on spirituality. On the other hand, if I only focus on corporeality, then I’m no different than an animal.
So the important thing is to find the right balance between the two: to take care of all of one’s normal necessities: to work, take care of the family, health, etc (this is called flour) and to set aside some time on a regular basis to focus on spirituality (this is called Torah).
And in the more advanced stages of our development, we will see how our day to day life helps us with our spiritual development.
Albert @ KabU
Thank you, Albert.
Sometimes thoughts come to me seemingly randomly, but a while back I came to the idea that instead of always asking for things and favors from him, that simply asking to be in his presence would be what I want. To commune with him without an agenda.
Trying to be still during these times is difficult because the mind wanders. My thought process is that if we are to continuously ask for things and favors from an earthly person and nothing else, perhaps someone we want a relationship with, it would drive them away so why do we treat him with this kind of disrespect?
Thank you for the link to the Dr’s article, it is my desire to ask only for the correction of my ego and to be part of his universal love.
Thank you for an amazing lesson, there is much to digest and absorb. Would the Kabbalah have been a focus of study for the Essenes of Qumran?
Hi Azhley,
Kabbalah is the method by which we can correct our egoistic nature. As a result of this correction we become similar to the Creator, to the general force of love and bestowal. As a result of becoming similar to Him, we reveal Him in practice in our lives.
Why was it necessary to conceal such a wisdom? Because egoism was still not yet fully developed. For example: if you compare Kabbalah to a medicine that can cure a rare disease, obviously you can’t take the medicine before you’re diagnosed with the disease, but once the disease actually manifests, you can take the medicine and be cured of it.
It’s just like the 5 stages development of a disease within a person. First a person is healthy. Then he is sick, but he does not feel it. Then the disease spreads to the point that he starts to feel pain and symptoms of the disease. This then pushes him to go to a doctor to get diagnosed and find the cure, and etc.
2000 years ago, egoism was still on a very low level, there was no need to correct it. Starting from the days of the Ari, egoism already grew to a certain extent (and technically the prohibition on Kabbalah ended there), but humanity still didn’t feel sick, on the contrary the ego was the main driving force of all of our development. Then from around 1995 egoism peaked and began to show itself as bad, like a cancer that begins to kill the host body. This is the peak at which there was a true need for the cure. Which in essence is what the Kabbalists have been waiting for all these years, for the desire, for egoism to fully ripen.
Albert @ KabU
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