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Concerning the 4 factors of emergence, specifically 3&4; the nutrients of my current environment is in form of conservative Christianity, self supporting individualism, individual freedom. Somehow I was able to receive something outside of this environment that allowed me to choose an internal opposite, seeking true spiritual life. To keep this change in isolation, even with correct books, guides, courses is going to be either a very slow painful swimming against the current or a resegnation to the forces of this environment where I currently live. Since I cannot afford to move this is a fixed environment with forces I choose to no longer adhere to but this has led to a long journey of on and off spiritual seeking. My question, if I choose to continue in these studies and enter a group of ten, will choosing this environment bring the strength I currently lack now? Will this choice transform the current environmental internal battle so that I may see and feel the peace of there is none else besides Him no matter the situation? I can understand the concepts being taught, understand direction that needs to be chosen, but need more than this, I need a practical form of application, is this what comes from the group work? I really want to change my internal world but factor 3 of emergence is stronger than my isolated desire to connect with the Creator. I need help!
Hi Joseph,
At the beginning of the spiritual path, there are a lot of tendencies to isolate ourselves from the world. So what you’re feeling is normal. But the more we advance, the more we’ll begin to see that we don’t need to isolate ourselves. Even Baal HaSulam and Rabash were not living in isolation in some Kabbalistic environment, rather they had normal jobs, families, and lived in a typical religious neighborhood of their time. How then did they attain such high spiritual levels? By tapping into the strength of the spiritual environment.
So if we build for ourselves a strong spiritual environment, then it will become much stronger than the corporeal environment that we’re in. But this is not a one time choice. Building and strengthening the spiritual environment is our constant work. As we progress, our ego will grow more and more, and the corporeal environment will pull us more and more. This is done purposefully so that this resistance will force us to build an even stronger connection to the spiritual environment, and thereby reach an even higher spiritual level.
It’s just like with a bodybuilder. If he lifts only a 1 pound weight all the time, he will not get very strong (this is equivalent to us living in isolation). In order to grow, that bodybuilder needs to constantly increase the resistance that he’s lifting. So the more we advance, the more we’ll begin to see how the everyday problems, experiences, work situations, etc we undergo in the regular society are a necessary part of our correction. That we don’t erase these things, but above them we need to stay connected to the spiritual environment. And this will determine the level of our spiritual attainment.
We’ll learn how to do this practically in the more advanced semesters of KabU.
Albert @ KabU
Hi Joseph,
That’s a normal part of the path. It’s written that “there is no greater pleasure than the resolution of doubts”. This is because spirituality is built on the combination of two polar opposites: bestowal and reception. In every new degree, we discover new challenges and new doubts on how to go about doing this. When we succeed in that, we feel an outburst of joy and pleasure. Afterwards we grow and discover greater challenges and doubts, and so forth throughout the entire spiritual ladder of development.
It’s just like with the puzzles that we give kids to help them grow and develop. In 1st grade, we give them easy puzzles. They solve them and grow. Then in the 2nd grade we give them more challenging puzzles, etc.
Likewise with us, once we resolve one set of doubts, we grow and reveal a new degree with a whole new set of doubts. And we shouldn’t despair from this, but understand that it’s thanks to this process that we grow and develop spiritually.
Check out this blog post from Rav Laitman for more details: https://laitman.com/2011/06/the-benefit-of-the-doubt/
Albert @ KabU
Hello Tony, thanks for your devotion and teaching. I have a question. I understand the Zohar is written in the language of roots and branches. It is not easy to read. I am better off waiting to read the Zohar until I develop more spiritually? I don’t want to mislead myself by assuming the meaning of what I’m reading.
Hi Don,
You’re right, more important than reading the Zohar, is knowing how to extract the maximum light, the maximum benefit from reading it. Otherwise the benefit of reading the Zohar is relatively small. If you’re interested in learning how to do that, you can check out the Zohar self study course or the book Unlocking the Zohar.
Zohar Self study Course: https://kabuconnect.com/courses/enter-the-zohar/
Unlocking the Zohar book: https://www.kabbalahbooks.info/products/unlocking-the-zohar?_pos=1&_sid=2b32d7354&_ss=r&variant=34618001817733
Albert @ KabU
Hello,
Based on what’s being taught so far, would it be accurate to state that everything is “external” to the soul? Meaning, is it accurate to consider that all corporeal experiences are happening at levels in an outward direction beyond the point of soul consciousness? More specifically, is the soul’s point of reference considered to be the actual/true “I,” as opposed to a false sense of “me” generated by ego consciousness?
Appreciatively,
Dyrk
Hi Dyrk,
You can say that, but in practice we need to follow the rule that “a judge has only what his eyes can see”. Meaning that our “truth”, our reality is what we feel. And what we feel is relative to our level of development.For example, the reality for an embryo is the womb inside the mother. This is its entire world. Once the embryo is born, reality turns into that baby’s room. A little older the child’s entire reality is the borders of his house, and etc.
It’s the same with us. Our reality right now is what we experience within the desire to receive pleasure. What about the soul? The soul is the state when we correct the desire to receive to operate in the direction of bestowal. That corrected desire is called the soul. Since we don’t yet have this corrected desire, we don’t yet have this thing called a soul. And so we don’t experience that reality yet. In other words, until we correct ourselves, our truth is what we experience within the egoistic desire. And only once we correct ourselves, will we reveal a different truth.
Check out this blog post from Rav Laitman for more details: https://laitman.com/2015/06/what-happens-to-the-soul-after-death/
Albert @ KabU
Hello Albert,
Thank you for your response to my question, including the link. It seems that many answers (not just yours in this instance) offered to our questions refer to states that none of us have experienced yet. Perhaps it would be better for us to not ask questions and simply follow the process. It’s sort of like going on a trip and being told, “You’ll see what it’s like when we get there.” : )
Many smiles…
Dyrk
Hi Dyrk,
There is something to that, but these are 2 separate things. On the one hand, we do need to place ourselves under the influence of the spiritual environment and allow it to guide us. On the other hand, a very big and important part of our development are questions and answers. Researching and trying to resolve our own questions as well as hearing the questions of our fellow students is an important part of our development. So don’t be shy, if you have a question, ask it.
Alternatively, you can also try to find the answer to your questions by yourself first, by looking it up on Rav Laitman’s blog (https://laitman.com/blog). And if you don’t find it, you can ask us on the forums.
Albert @ KabU
Does predetermination extend to things like what family you’re born into and if you’re born with disabilities.? How can someone with mental illness overcome delusional obsessive thoughts,? Are we born with certain conditions in order to learn specific corrections?
Also, isn’t a spiritual community that helps each other and functions with “love your neighbor” as its main principle similar to a ‘ten” group in Kabbalah? Isn’t the attainment of love the most important aspect, and not whether you walk the Kabbalist path or another way. I’m thinking of ML King and Ghandi
Thank you
Hi Esther,
1 / 3. What we experience in life is dictated by the root of our soul. Meaning our place in the common system of Adam HaRishon. That place determines everything each one of us needs to go through in order to reach their correction.
Check out this blog post from Rav Laitman for more details: https://laitman.com/2010/10/the-root-of-the-soul/
2. Kabbalah does not deal with this. If a person has a mental illness, he needs to go to a doctor and take care of it in the normal way that people take care of such things in our world.
4. The spiritual work we do in the Kabbalistic group is the foundation. It’s like we’re building here a certain nucleus. Once we build that nucleus, we will be able to add to it wider and wider circles of the world, until we’ll come to include the whole world in that connection. But this is gradual work. Until we build that nucleus, we have nothing with which to do any spiritual work towards the rest of the world. We’ll learn more about this in the more advanced lessons.
Albert @ KabU
Thank you for your answer. I’m still not sure about the extent our lives are predetermined. The root of the soul is a purely spiritual quality. Am I right to think of it as the “source?” And if so, how specific is your life predetermined. Is someone born into a particular family with certain histories, is someone born with a disability or other particular traits to provide what is needed to make a correction? Or is one’s birth and circumstances irrelevant?
Thank you.
It’s not irrelevant. Everything we experience, down to the tiniest detail, to the smallest blade of grass is not incidental, but all is arranged from above in the most optimal way for the correction of our soul.
So yes, you can say that at the level of our egoistic world everything is predetermined. True freedom begins when we try to rise above the ego through the help of the spiritual environment.
Check out this blog post from Rav Laitman for more details: https://laitman.com/2010/10/what-no-fortune-teller-knows/
Albert @ KabU
Do I understand correctly, that we must each build a vessel that can contain the upper light, and as we progress to higher spiritual levels, this vessel will be more and more purified until it can contain all the upper light. Here we will be truly like the creator and free?
Another thought-Does everyone have the free will to choose what it is they desire? For example, if someone has obsessive compulsive thinking, is there a place for free will to desire something outside of those thoughts, like desiring connection with others and the Creator, or is it possible they have no control over what it is they desire. If so, how does that align with each individual’s spiritual growth?
Hi Esther,
We don’t choose our thoughts and desires. These things come to us from the Creator. Baal Hasulam writes about it in “Pri Chacham Sichot. The Secret of His Name”. Here’s an excerpt:
“All the thoughts that enter a person’s mind are the act of the Creator. That is to say, it is not what a person feels, that he draws them from some place or that they originated from him. This is false, the biggest lie. Rather each thought, the smallest of the smallest, the Creator sent it to the mind of man, and that is the motivating force of man and of beast and of every living thing.”
__________
So we can’t change our thoughts and desires directly, but we can do so indirectly, as we learned this week, through our choice of the environment. Baal HaSulam writes about it in the article “The Freedom” (https://kabbalahmedia.info/sources/4AtF9tGS?language=en) . Here’s an excerpt:
“However, there is freedom for the will to initially choose such an environment, such books, and such guides that impart upon him good concepts. If one does not do this but is willing to enter any environment that appears before him and read any book that falls into his hands, he is bound to fall into a bad environment or waste his time on worthless books, which are abundant and more accessible. In consequence, he will be forced into foul concepts that make him sin and condemn. He will certainly be punished, not because of his evil thoughts or deeds, in which he has no choice, but because he did not choose to be in a good environment, for in this there is definitely a choice.
Therefore, he who strives to continually choose a better environment is worthy of praise and reward. But here, too, it is not because of his good thoughts or deeds, which come to him without his choice, but because of his effort to acquire a good environment, which brings him these good thoughts and actions.”
Albert @ KabU
Hi Etienne,
Yes, you can say that. Keep in mind that freedom means rising above our egoistic nature. Which as we learned in this week’s lesson is by building for ourselves a strong spiritual environment. Baal HaSulam talks about this in the article, the Freedom. He writes: “Harut (carved) on the tables”; do not pronounce it Harut (carved), but rather Herut (freedom), to show that they are liberated from the angel of death.
Throughout the article he explains how our current egoistic nature is that angel of death. Meaning although we are technically alive and surviving, relative to spirituality, our life is considered death. True life is within a completely different nature, that of bestowal. In order to reach freedom from our current nature, we need to choose and build a spiritual environment for ourselves which will influence us with the importance of acquiring the quality of bestowal.
For this reason, the Kabbalists equate our main freedom in life in choosing to be influenced by a spiritual environment. Not just any environment, but specifically a spiritual environment, since only through the spiritual environment can we get the importance of coming out of our egoistic nature and only through that environment can we draw the light that can help us to actualize this.
Check out this blog post from Rav Laitman for more details: https://laitman.com/2012/10/bestowal-should-become-fashionable/
Albert @ KabU
Hi Yvon,
The spiritual environment consists of the Kabbalistic books, group, and teacher. Choosing the spiritual environment means making these three things as great and important in our eyes and placing ourselves under their influence. In other words, this is not a physical choice but rather an internal one. So there is always room to make such a choice.
Albert @ KabU
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