Ask anything about week 2 lesson and materials and get an answer from a senior Kabbalah instructor.

[Tony Kosinec- KabU Instructor]

Ask anything about week 2 lesson and materials and get an answer from a senior Kabbalah instructor.

[Mo]

Can I say if my partner raises concern about the amount of time I spend studying Kabbalah , I am not in the right environment?

[Albert – KabU Instructor]

Hi Mo,

Not necessarily. It could be that you are indeed spending too much time studying Kabbalah.

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

[Renata Klem]

I am very happy and grateful for the teachings of the course, but I have some questions:

1) When will we have the group of 10?

2) With how much time of study and participation in the group of 10 will I be able to gain some drop of perception of the higher reality?

[Albert – KabU Instructor]

Hi Renata,

1. In the advanced semester we will go in depth about the spiritual work in the ten. It is at that point that everyone will receive their own group of ten with whom they can put those things into practice.

2. We learn that “there is no time in spirituality”. Reaching it does not depend on time, but only on the right desire. If we build the right desire, within it, we will right away reveal spirituality. If not, then even if a few thousand more years were to pass by, we would still not reveal anything. It all depends on us, on our efforts to build that desire.

Albert @ KabU

[Renata Klem]

Albert, Thanks for the reply!

[Jonathan]

Thank you for the awesome lesson! This is one of the most important in Kabbalah Revealed, although they are all important and compliment each other.

[Deborah Joplin]

I have been waiting for this learning environment and opportunity all of my life. I am moved to tears by this message. I have always felt that I was present somehow in previous generations. Grasping that this fragment of the soul has a lifetime of thousands of years. When I have visited Europe and Great Britain–I felt so connected to the places that I cried upon return to the U.S. I couldn’t understand why, now I know. I have had a huge response to the injustices of the past, now I know why. I am grateful that the Creator has placed me in this learning environment at the appearance of my Point in the Heart. I am ready–studying and pleading with Ein Sof to continue with my spiritual development and soul transformation. Thank you Tony, for being our guide. The Creator placed me in the Seventh-day Adventist Church when I was 20, made me a teacher in its schools where I still work. I’ve been searching for the next step for a long time; but I know G-d has a reason for taking me where I’ve been and where I am going. His will is perfect–enhancing the soul.

[Helen]

is it fair to say that since we are locked within this calculation of pleasure and pain, our only free will lies in choosing what triggers our pleasures? turn “will to receive” to “will to bestow” . At first we may not find pleasure in bestowing because we are wired to pursue receiving but we can “fake it until make it”?

[Albert – KabU Instructor]

Hi Helen,

As we learn in this week’s lesson, our freedom is in choosing to be influenced by the spiritual environment (meaning the Kabbalistic books, group, and teacher). Everything else is a result of that choice.

Baal HaSulam writes about it in the article “The Freedom”. Here’s an excerpt:

“However, there is freedom for the will to initially choose such an environment, such books, and such guides that impart to him good concepts. If one does not do that, but is willing to enter any environment that appears to 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 easier to come by. 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 that 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 and 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 deeds.”

Albert @ KabU

[Helen]

do we really have freedom in choosing environment? sometimes it feels the environment were created and chosen for us by invisible hands.

for those who didn’t get corrected in a life time, upon return will they start from scratch? I remember reading 125 steps of correction.

when we are all corrected, will we become one soul again and only live in the spiritual world with no individuality and no more physical world?

[Albert – KabU Instructor]

Hi Helen,

1. You’re right, our initial choice of the spiritual environment is not up to us. This follows the 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. Only after that, the rest is up to you.

So what needs to happen for me to start actualizing my free will here? After all, the point in the heart is seemingly forcing me to be here. If so, then this desire 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. When that happens, we’ll feel 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.

2. The rule is that “one is raised in holiness and never lowered.” So even if we don’t finish our full correction, nothing is lost, it’s an accumulative process.

3. In our current state, we don’t have the tools to measure what happens after the final correction. So instead of philosophizing about it, the science of Kabbalah does not talk about that state at all. We’ll have to reach that state first and then see for ourselves what is the next step of our development.

Check out this blog post from Rav Laitman for more details: https://laitman.com/2013/03/a-door-to-the-unknown/

4. The four factors can be confusing. If it helps, you can say that the fourth factor is the ability to choose to be under the influence of the third factor. But once I place myself under their influence, the rest is already a result.

In any case, if you understand the main takeaway from this lesson, that the road to freedom is in choosing/building a good spiritual environment for ourselves, then I wouldn’t worry about the details of the four factors.

Albert @ KabU

[Helen]

in addition. from the video and also some books I read that only the 4th factor we have some room of freedom. but in the interactive material, 2nd image, it seems to state factor #3 as Rav/group/books etc. is it possible the designed of the graphic put the description at the wrong factor? please check, otherwise it’s very confusing.

 

thanks

Helen

[Author]

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