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In Attaining The Worlds Beyond, Rav Laitman writes of becoming worthy of perceiving the Creator’s greatness and earning the Creator’s special attention. I would like to understand ‘worthy’ and ‘earning’ more clearly. Ultimately, there is only Creator and the will of Creator – but, until we attain that level of lived reality, this is merely intellectualizing, and we must live on our level, where we are responsible for the choices we (seemingly) make. Is this correct so far? And, on this level, we do have the choice to nurture our desire to draw closer to Creator, even though we are actually powerless to actualize this – yes? And, is this choice to prioritize the growth of our desire what makes us worthy of perceiving the Creator’s greatness and earning the Creator’s special attention?
One last question: Am I asking too many questions? Thank you.
Hi Miryam,
Yes, you can say all that. The only thing I would add is in regards to how we grow this desire. Our desire for spirituality is like a seed. If we plant it in fertile ground, then it’ll get all the right nutrients and grow. If we put it in the desert or just keep it on a shelf somewhere, nothing will come out of it at all. So our entire spiritual choice is in finding the best spiritual environment in which to plant that seed. And what will ultimately happen to that seed is a result of that choice. We’ll learn more about this in the next semester when we’ll study in the depth the topic of freedom.
Regarding asking questions, it’s not too much, it’s good. We are here to learn after all. Questions and answers are a big part of this process. So feel free to keep them coming. It’s also recommended not just to read your own questions/answers but to read the other questions that your fellow students are asking here. This is a good way to start growing your desire within this spiritual environment.
Albert @ KabU
Thank you, Albert. Your comments about a seed are very well taken. This has certainly been my experience, having first come across KABU a couple of years back, and only now, after so much suffering, embracing it. I feel like I have discovered the most precious jewel imaginable.
I do read all other questions and answers, as well as other forum entries, which are serving to nurture my own further questioning and understanding exponentially, as well as fostering a sense of greater connection. My deepest gratitude to all.
By knowing kabbalah can we changing our destiny and rising in spiritual life, or we have to change and doing new things in physical life also ?
Hi Mehran, good question!
Knowing Kabbalah is not the same as practicing it. I can load all of the Kabbalistic knowledge onto a computer, but that wont make the computer something spiritual. So it’s not enough to know it. By studying Kabbalah we need to build a desire in which we can reveal spirituality.
See my reply below to Michael for more details.
And even after we build this desire and reveal spirituality in practice, we still continue to exist on the level of this world throughout the ENTIRE spiritual ladder of development. As such, we must continue to take care of ourselves in the normal way: to work, take care of our family, health, etc. We will of course have a completely different attitude to all these things, but they wont disappear.
Albert @ KabU
Hi John, great questions!
1. Kabbalah is the method of correction of our egoistic nature, thereby revealing the Creator, the general force of love and bestowal. 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.
2. Kabbalah defines spirituality as the acquisition of the qualities of love and bestowal. When we acquire these qualities, we become similar to the qualities that reside in spirituality and thereby reveal spirituality in practice. This follows the law of equivalence of form. We’ll learn more about this law in the upcoming lessons, but in the meantime you can check out this blog post from Rav Laitman for more details: http://laitman.com/2013/04/everything-is-attained-by-the-equivalence-of-form/
Regarding science, we say Kabbalah is a science because the Kabbalistic method is not based on blind belief, but rather on the empirical research of the Kabbalists. If we follow this method, try to replicate it, we should reach the same results that they did.
Albert @ KabU
In Attaining the Worlds it says “Developing a hatred toward egoism will eventually lead to our liberation from it.”
Is it ever appropriate to develop hatred? Would it not more be a case of compassionately seeing the ego for what it is, and that way achieve liberation from it?
Hi Marion, great question!
Developing a hatred toward egoism means wanting to be separated from it. Essentially we don’t have the strength to liberate ourselves from our own egoism. Our work is only to develop the desire for this. This desire acts as a type of prayer or request for the Creator to help us accomplish this. And it’s only thanks to His help that we’re able to do this (See pages 35-36 of attaining the worlds beyond for more details).Also keep in mind that that although we sometimes use the words desire to receive and egoism interchangeably, in truth they are two separate things. Our nature is the desire to receive pleasure. It simply means that every calculation we make is to chase pleasure or avoid pain. This is similar to how any other animal functions. By itself, there is nothing wrong with this nature, it’s simply the program by which we function and preserve ourselves.
Egoism is when this program begins to be used in a way that harms others. Not only do I want to receive pleasure, but I want to receive it at the expense of others, at their detriment. This is the corporeal ego.
There is also a spiritual ego. Spiritual egoism is everything that stands in the way of our connection with the Creator. Normal people don’t have a spiritual ego. This is only something that we discover after doing some serious spiritual work. So when we speak about egoism in Kabbalah, we’re specifically referring to the spiritual type of egoism.
Check out this blog post from Rav Laitman for more details: https://laitman.com/2010/10/true-evil/
Albert @ KabU
Hello! Can intellectualizing the study of Kabbalah have a negative effect to practice? I understand that I must study with patience paying attention especially to details but I’m kind of skeptical about intellectualizing it. Thank you.
Hi Michael, good question!
On one hand, in the fundamentals of Kabbalah, we do need to study and acquire a certain basic foundation of this wisdom. On the other hand, there is a rule that “it’s not the wise that learns”. Meaning that reaching spiritual attainment does not depend on our intellect or memorization skills. After all, we can take a computer and load it up with all of the Kabbalistic books as well as all of the knowledge that this entire world has to offer. But this computer will not attain spirituality.
Spiritual attainment depends on one thing and one thing only, the desire. If we build the right desire for it, within that correct desire, we will reveal spiritual sensations. That’s it. And although we spend a lot of time studying, the goal is not to acquire knowledge, but through the study to draw the light, a special force that helps us to build the right desire.
Check out this blog post from Rav Laitman for more details: http://laitman.com/2013/02/sunbathing-in-the-rays-of-the-reforming-light/
Albert @ KabU
In Kabbalah Revealed, Rav Michael Laitman writes, “Unlike minerals, plants, and animals, people constantly evolve.” How does the Wisdom of Kabbalah define evolution? Thank you!
Hi Miryam, great question!
In contrast to the other levels of nature, humans continuously evolve on the level of desires. At first humans were no different than animals, simply aspiring for the animalistic desires of food, sex, and family. Later on the desire evolved and they began to aspire towards money, and then towards honor, and then towards knowledge. And now in the peak of our evolution, a new spiritual type of desire (the point in the heart) is beginning to awaken within masses of people. So unlike minerals, plants, and animals, human desires keep evolving.
We’ll learn more about this in the next lesson.
Albert @ KabU
Thank you, Albert, for your response to my question about evolution (as well as your explanation of the separation of men and women at retreat). I am having further questions now. My understanding is that Kabbalah is a vehicle for bringing humanity to the next level of evolution, equivalence of form with the Creator; yes? Will evolution stop there? In Kabbalah Revealed, Dr. Laitman writes, “In the process of uniting, we will learn why Nature does what it does, and become as wise as the Thought that created it.” This seems to imply that there is something higher than Nature; yes? And if so, would the next evolutionary step be towards reaching attainment of that? And, lastly – when we achieve equivalence of form, and become able to control our destiny, would ‘create’ be a synonym for ‘control’? Am I correct in understanding that we acquire this ability because our intention and will have become synonymous with Nature’s?
Hi Miryam,
Yes, you can say that the goal is to reach equivalence of form with the Creator. That state is called Gmar Tikkun (final correction). What happens after that? Kabbalists hint that there are further degrees of development beyond that point. But it’s still beyond our ability to understand and research such things, so we’ll need to get there and see for ourselves.
Check out this blog post from Rav Laitman for more details: https://laitman.com/2010/10/what-happens-after-the-final-correction/
Albert @ KabU
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