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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
To be honest, I don’t really see the freedom in factor 4. Where should that suddenly come from?
I understand that a proper environment “hastens time”, as Kabbalists say. However, Tony Kosinec himself says in the video “Free Will – Part 2” that “as soon as the point in the heart awakens (which I have no control over) the Creator places that person in the proper environment to develop all of its potential (so, there is no choice here as well)”.
I am fine with not having free will. If “There is None Else Besides Him”, as Kabbalists say, and the Creator is all good and benevolent AND the goal is eternal fulfillment, I am happy to be lead by Him.
I do feel that the intention “in order to bestow” “hastens time” and that the choice between “in order to receive” and “in order to bestow” is made freely, although it is not really a difficult choice (coerced by suffering), since nobody would consciously choose suffering over the Path of Light.
If somebody comes up to me and tells me: “Hey man. Putting yourself in a spiritual environment is the best thing you can do to hasten the time of your development and all you need to do to find such an environment is to set the intention of finding it”, then it is all fine for me. But I still don’t see a point of freedom in this anywhere. After all, I would not set the intention to find a proper environement if it wasn’t either suggested to me by a friend or it came from inside me (from the point in my heart which the Creator created for me). I can’t control any of that. And since I am run by the egoistic program, I cannot even decide what my response to my friend’s suggestion will be. Will I look for a spiritual environment? That’s pre-determined.
Am I confused somewhere? Can you help?
Hi Niklas,
You’re right, the actual point of free choice is still ahead of us. There is a saying that the Creator puts man’s hand on the good fate and says “choose this for yourself”. Meaning He awakened your point in the heart and brought it to a good spiritual environment in which you can nourish it, but after that the rest is up to you.
But if the point in the heart is forcing me to be here, what needs to happen for me to start actualizing my free will? This desire then needs to be taken away from me little by little, and there I begin to reveal more and more the place of my freedom.
This is similar to how we teach a child to ride a bike. First the parent holds the child completely. Then as the child learns to pedal and balance himself, the parent lets go a little, then a little more and a little more, until the child continue to pedal without the parent holding him at all.
So we too need to learn to continue to do this work even when that initial desire for spirituality begins to disappear or when the ego grows and begins to pull us into many different directions. Here there is already a need for mutual work in the group, the spiritual environment. On one hand when I fall into my ego, they need to pull me out, and on the other hand I need to help pull others out when they fall. This is why Kabbalists have always studied in groups (physical or virtual).
We will learn more about this in the more advanced semesters on KabU, where you’ll receive your own Kabbalah group with whom you can practice these things.
Albert @ KabU
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