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Are the 125 steps linear and need to be taken in a specific order or do we have moments that we may find ourselves at one point on a “higher” step and another day on a “lower.”
Hi Jeff, great question!
The 125 steps represents the difference between us and the Creator. The Creator is a desire to bestow and we are the desire to receive. Adapting our desire to receive to work in order to bestow takes 125 steps. Meaning that to the extent that we correct our nature, make it similar to the Creator’s nature, to that extent we’re “climbing” this ladder.
All of this works according to the law of equivalence of form. Check out this blog post from Rav Laitman for more details: https://laitman.com/2013/04/everything-is-attained-by-the-equivalence-of-form/
As for the order, yes there is an order to these corrections which we cannot skip over. Every step is an important part of our development. If it was possible to skip a step, we would be incapable of reaching that ultimate degree of wholeness and perfection.
As for going backwards, there is a rule that “one is raised in holiness and never lowered.” So we never go backwards. It’s possible that we receive an additional challenge that belongs to a higher degree and that challenge can feel like we’re going backwards, but it’s still a step forward. Similar to how a bodybuilder that masters a 5 lb weights moves on to 10 lbs. That 10 lbs is much more challenging and he cannot do as many reps as before, but this is nonetheless considered progress and advancement.
Albert @ KabU
So everything that happens in our world is a direct result of the levels of consciousness. Why are there people who do not care about reaching such a state and prefer to live in a simpler way?
Hi Jeo, great question!
We learn that all of humanity is part of a single system, like cells within a single body, or jigsaw pieces of a single puzzle. In this system, there is a certain order of corrections that need to take place. For example: when building a large jigsaw puzzle, first you start with all the corner pieces, and only then do you gradually work your way to the center. So those that received awakened points in the hearts are like those corner pieces of the puzzle that need to start the whole process. Without them, it’s extremely difficult, if not impossible for the rest of the world to do this work. Later on, once those with awakened points in the hearts finish their work, this will pave the way for the rest of the world to join this process.
Albert @ KabU
Bom dia
Minha pergunta é sobre a linguagem dos ramos e raÃzes, pelo que entendi ela e uma espécie de linguagem codificada por transmitir uma mensagem compreensÃvel sobre os objetos e fenômenos existentes nos mundos espirituais, para isso os os mestres cabalistas usaram um vocabulário especifico para descreve-los, sendo assim como conseguimos desenvolver esse vocabulário para conseguirmos entender a mensagem que estão sendo transmitidas por eles , principalmente no livro do Zhorar.
Here’s a google translate of the above question:
“My question is about the language of branches and roots, from what I understand it is a kind of coded language for conveying an understandable message about the objects and phenomena existing in the spiritual worlds, for this the Kabbalist masters used a specific vocabulary to describe them , so we managed to develop this vocabulary to be able to understand the message they are conveying, especially in Zhorar’s book.”
Hi Claudio, good question.
Studying definitions is not enough to penetrate this code. This is because the language of root and branches is not something you learn but rather something that comes with spiritual attainment. Without spiritual attainment, we cannot truly understand these things. It’s like a blind person that is trying to study colors. He can learn the wavelengths behind each one, the different feelings they all evoke, but ultimately he will never truly understand colors. But if this blind person was to undergo an operation and gain his sense of sight, how easy and simple it would be to teach him colors. We would simply point to it and say “this is red”.
It’s the same with the language of roots and branches. It’s currently impossible for us to truly grasp these things. But once we gain our “spiritual sight” we would pick these things up very easily and naturally.
Check out this blog post from Rav Laitman for more details: https://laitman.com/2009/09/the-law-of-roots-and-branches-the-most-imporant-law-in-kabbalah/
The Law Of Roots And Branches – The Most Important Law In Kabbalah
Albert @ KabU
Hello!
I have a few questions:1. Would it be accurate so say that the descending of light through the 5 worlds, is a refinement of that light?
2. Do thoughts only exists in the corporeal world? Can thoughts be considered a corporeal sensation?
3. If The Eternal is above time, why do i experience time as a flow? Is this a result of there being a barrier/ machsom? If I were to experience life above the barrier, would time feel different compared to what I feel now?
Hi Ric, great questions!
1. The light does not change. This rule is called “I have not changed my HaVaYaH”. Meaning the light is the same light, it never changes. We change, meaning our desires change, and accordingly we feel the light differently. It’s similar to how electricity is the same electricity but based on what appliance we plug in, we have different uses and results from it. Plug in a heater and you’ll produce warmth, plug in an AC and you’ll get cool air, etc.
So in the descent of the 5 worlds, the desire becomes coarser, more egoistic, as a result it begins to feel the light differently. But the light itself never changes.
2. Thoughts by their very nature are not corporeal, they are not tangible. We feel them inside of ourselves, but we don’t even know where they are coming from. We learn in Kabbalah that our thoughts are the results of our desires. They help us to actualize our desires. Check out the article Shamati 153 for more details: https://kabbalahmedia.info/en/sources/4GW5T0i5?language=en
Furthermore, we feel all of life in our desires. If our desires are still uncorrected, egoistic, then we feel this corporeal world. If our desires are corrected, then within those corrected desires we feel the spiritual world. Check out this blog post from Rav Laitman for more details: https://laitman.com/2017/05/what-is-the-soul-4/
3. Time is a sensation within our desire to receive pleasure. If there are no changes in the desire, we would not feel time passing at all. In spirituality, time is not measured by the passing of seconds but rather by the changes that take place over the desire. So if there are no changes in the desire, then time stands still. This is why the Kabbalists say that “there is no time in spirituality”.
Check out this blog post from Rav Laitman for more details: https://laitman.com/2014/06/what-is-time/
Albert @ KabU
Hello 🙂 Fellow student here (not instructor!)
Regarding question #1:
As I have understood, the descending of light through the 5 worlds is a concealment of that light. Like a filtering of certain aspects of that light. It’s like seeing a plant and feeling its inherent life force and beauty versus only seeing the plant and its colors. Let’s see, what the instructors have to say about that.Regarding question #2:
I know that “corporeal” in kabbalistic terms means “egoistic”. They never actually talk about physicality vs. non-physicality. “spirituality” on the other hand means “altruistic”. From meditation I know that all our verbal thoughts (the story that we constantly hear in our minds about life’s events) is always about “me”. So, I could imagine that in spirituality thoughts become thinner and thinner, until they eventually stop altogether. Let’s see, what the instructors have to say about that.
Regarding question #3:
Have you ever experienced a beautiful sunset or another breath-taking scenery in nature? It is a moment, where all your thoughts stop and even time seems to stop. I believe this experience of reality is meant by “there is no time and space”. Also, when you enter into deep meditational states, the only thing that remains in your awareness is the sensation of your own being, without time and space. I think a beautiful sunset and a deep meditational state is the same thing. However, Kabbalists never talk about meditation and it doesn’t seem that it is necessary on this path. Let’s see, what the instructors have to say about that.
Hi!
In the lecture, Tony told about 125 steps (levels) that are described in specific books. Do these books bear a resemblance to the Old Testament?Tks.
Hi,
Yes, there are a lot of Kabbalistic books that have been written throughout the generations, including what is called the “old testament”. Keep in mind that Kabbalistic books are written in a type of code called the language of roots and branches. Meaning that they use words of our world to describe spiritual phenomena.
Check out this blog post from Rav Laitman for more details:Â https://laitman.com/2016/05/dispelling-myths-about-kabbalah-part-4/
Albert @ KabU
Hello, KabU Team,
There’s a passage on the text book “Kabbalah: Then and Now” that I found unsettling. It says that ‘we developed science and technology to control the Creator and to protect us from Him’, as if they were ‘opposed to Nature’. It suggests that science and technology didn’t bring us wealth, health and safety.
Well, but statistics show otherwise. In fact, people from all over the world are here right now, alive and vaccinated, connected to this amazing Web platform studying Kabbalah (science of the Upper worlds) thanks to science and technology (of this world). It seems contradictory. Maybe you can clarify.
Thank you.
Tiago
P.S. – I’m a computer scientist. Perhaps this is why I found that text passage unsettling.
Hey Tiago,
I can’t recall exactly the context here, but I’m imagining the concept of successful egoistic development is more important than success in rising above the ego. This isn’t to say that exploring this world and learning to “control” it for our own benefit hasn’t seemingly brought us great fortune, but the game isn’t to create and design a world that contributes to our egoistic development. This is merely a stepping stone on the path towards developing man on the speaking degree. It’s a necessary step nonetheless, but to dwell in this stage for longer than we need will turn the fortune into misfortune. We’ve already been lagging behind for a while now. Meaning, all of the abundance and “good life” that science and technology have allowed is only poisoning us, confusing us, separating us etc..
This is all towards good though. Just like humanity always learns from mistakes and improves upon them, here too we’ll soon exhaust this perception of reality and see we’re incapable of functioning within our ego which only brings us to destruction no matter which way you look at it. This is something humanity needs to see and more importantly feel, since without it there will still be hope that some new technology will save us from ruin. It’s this despair which will open the door for for approaching the correction of the human being. Instead of a corrupted human inventing corrupted tools, correcting the root of every problem in existence gives us a chance to see these “problems” were only there for us to discover the root (our ego) and therefore the goal which is adhesion with the Creator – or in simple terms – a good life.
If we’re busy inventing and created, we’re not interested in looking for the Creator. This is our nature. It’s only when things go awry are we able to look for solutions, just when we’ve run out of solutions – for instance now when every problem we have is interconnected and interdependent on other points of collapse that all that remains is a global solution – are we able to look at the chaos from a different perspective.
This is “protection from Him” we saught after before no longer offers us such since the whole world is beginning to look for something greater than wealth and abundance. Of course this excludes those who do not have health and safety, their priorities are for survival which restricts the need for a higher fulfillment on the “spiritual” level, but in general, we’ve had generations of wealth and abundance now and we see from it we mainly get depression.
The internet, medicine, science…all of it needed to develop, it’s not that it was “incorrect”, but it’s when you bring the human element into the equation where you see it’s all headed to collapse. Defense and military drive or corrupt technological development, healthcare is only important when there’s profit, social networks AI breed hate and division and focus on profit. It’s the reason or purpose for these technologies are all wrong. When the ego is in control, the only motivation can be for the ego – for self-benefit. When self-benefit brings us to our knees, we’ll need to have a new motivation, a new force that will balance us and help us work for the common good. That’s when we’ll be needy of the quality of nature, of giving and bestowing that needs nothing in return. When we feel we have exhausted the ego, we’ll be desperate and willing to begin correcting the quality in us that only brings us harm. Baal HaSulam writes of a 3rd world war and even a 4th but also writes that it’s not necessary if we’re able to take the cues from nature before we completely surrender to its blows.
Thanks!
Chris
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