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I have a question on prayer. I get that true prayer is self-examination and self-judgment…that the goal should be to change me…not make bargains with the creator. I shared this with my wife; she asked a good question. What about when we pray for others? For instance, if I have a best friend whose daughter is in the hospital. My religious background says I should pray for her. Pray for her doctors that they will correctly diagnose and treat her and that she will be returned to good health. Is that okay for me to do because it’s for someone else and not for me? Or is it still egoistic, in that it’s my friend’s daughter, and I would like my friend to be provided relief so he can return to being my friend without the worry about his daughter? Is my asking for a good outcome in this situation just another example of bargaining with the Creator? Should I not be praying for others?
David,
Pray for everything. Speak to the Creator about everything and also tell Him that you want to pray more and more for Him, for the others and not just for the sake of my own ego. But anyway, ask for everything.
You see how it is with our own kids, when they are young they ask for toys, when they get older they ask for a car, the desires develop naturally. Same with us. The main thing is that we are connected to the Creator as much as we can. And then we try more and more to ask not for the sake of our egos, but this takes time and is nuanced and in fact is impossible since He Himself created us as egoistic.
So when we pray, we examine why am I praying and then we see that at the end we can’t escape from self interest and this leads to the true prayer that He will give us a second nature.
Keep going David. Pray for her, pray for your family, pray for everyone and ask Him to make our prayers true.
Seth@KabU
Are there clear indicators or milestones that I can use to measure that I am progressing towards the goal of attaining Lishma?
Edward,
Sure.
When we drive in a car, we can see the trees going by and if we pass them quickly we feel we are going faster and if we pass them slower, we can feel we are going slowly.
When we are in an airplane, there are no trees, it is more difficult to determine our speed.
When we move towards Lishma, it means that our ego receives no reward.
We can’t move unless the ego receives reward, so it requires an upper force to make the move.
But in the preparation phases we can feel more and more that we are working with our ego, we feel the ego growing, which comes from the Creator and we add love on top of it each time.
If you are working like this in the group, you can be sure you are advancing.
Seth@KabU
Do all of the lessons in this course and the previous course have essential take away points that can revise, correct or clarify my previous ideas about each subject? Do I need to really make sure the ideas I have are correct and completely match what each subject is teaching me?
Thanks
Robert,
This is in your hands.
We are are studying from the books of the kabbalists who attained the spiritual degrees that we are striving to attain. This is how it is with any craft or trade that one becomes a master in. First he must study it, learn what it is, what it is made of, how it works, to eventually feel it in his bones.
So it’s up to you how much you want to invest to go with the author on his degree.
There is no coercion in this.
Seth@KabU
when you have a strong negative emotional reaction to something that happens in your life does this represent an aspect of egoism that needs correction? If so how should you approach this?
Robert,
After you complete these courses and go to the graduate environment, you’ll have the opportunity to work with other kabbalists and work directly with your ego like that.
Now, there are two things. First, arrange your corporeal life. If you have something that gives a negative emotional reaction, is it a beehive in your kitchen? So get rid of it already! Is it a difficult situation with a family member, so learn how to communicate better and how to connect with different kinds of people.
Secondly, study well. You are now in a very important phase of your study where you are learning the fundamentals that everything else will be built on. You don’t yet understand how these fundamental building blocks will appear over and over again throughout the whole study.
Good luck,
Seth@KabU
I’m very confused about something and am hoping to gain clarity around it. If I am not wrong about hearing the instruction for us to maintain faith above reason why then in the week 3 lesson reading from the Shamati it says this:
“This is considered that the judgment is just, that only in this manner can we come to the ultimate goal, to understand within reason, with complete and absolute understanding of which there is no higher, that only by way of faith and bestowal can we achieve the purpose.”
It says this again in the first part of the reading. This seems like a contradiction to me. Please help me to understand. Thank you.
Juule,
Many things in the wisdom of kabbalah will seem like contradictions.
In spirituality two things can exist at once. In corporeality two things can only exist at two different times.
This concept of faith above reason will clarify over time.In order for there to be faith above reason, there has to be reason. These things will go hand in hand as a spiritual process.
Seth@KabU
If we are practicing Kabbalah, what would be the need for a religion given that Bible/Tanakh is referred as a book of source of Kabbalah.
Hai Mag,
During this part of our study, we are learning many new definitions.
For example when something is great, we say that it is “cool”, but to our grandparents, “cool” means that something is actually cold.
Similarly when the kabbalists write about religion it means attainment.
Obviously for us in our world, religion has nothing to do with attaining Godliness.
Regarding Judaism, Christianity, Islam, etc. these give people important cultural structure in their lives and there is no reason to throw them away, in fact, a person can keep what his family keeps but a kabbalist distinguishes these customs from the work of his soul in attaining Godliness.
Seth@KabUThanks Seth, but if religion has nothing to do with attaining Godliness, then between belonging and believing, what you mean is religion is more about belonging and a cultural heritage. But it’s a side effect of religion where faith below reason and hope and love is the foundation of religion. I asked what would be the need of religion if faith below reason is direct conflict with faith above reason.
You can obviously keep it as a cultural heritage but the essence will be empty. Having said that most of the Kabbalist articles refer to Tanakh so there is a reference it’s shared, although the meaning of the text is interpreted differently.
Any thoughts?
Hai Mag,
When you say “religion”, you are not referring to attaining the Creator.
You are referring to the religions that we see in the world.
The Tanakh is written only by kabbalists, by those who have attainment of the spiritual degrees that they write about.
There is no words in any of those books about philosophy or theory.Here are some excerpts from our teacher, the kabbalist Rav Laitman,
” Kabbalah was born before Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. The Torah speaks of Abraham “bestowing gifts” to the sons of his concubines and sending them East, thus laying the foundation for Eastern teachings. Everything stems from one source.The collective desire is divided into many parts, and each part has its own individual path of correction. Certain parts can commence with correction immediately. They constitute the group that Abraham had taken out of Babylon. The other parts have scattered around the world, with each part developing individually in accordance with its unique set of qualities.
Their means of advancement are the various religions, faiths, and cultures. A person can easily remain in his faith and follow the spiritual path at the same time. Baal HaSulam writes about this in his Writings of The Last Generation:
“The religious formation of all the nations should first and foremost obligate its members to bestow upon their fellow man the concept of another person’s life coming before one’s own, a formation of ‘Love thy neighbour as thyself’… But otherwise, each nation may pursue its own religion and traditions, and one must not interfere with the other.”
That is, we must not meddle in the affairs of other nations and cultures. Let them have these things; people need them. This whole “territory” has nothing to do with the spiritual world. As a person advances, it turns into a cultural platform for him, a set of traditions, and does not get in the way.
If I want to rise above my nature so as to unite with everybody, even the relationships between religions appear to me in a new light. As a Muslim, I suddenly understand that I can advance toward the goal alongside a Christian, and, truly, what can stop us?
Everyone is used to their own home cooking, and nobody is taking that away from you. As Baal HaSulam writes, everyone can remain in their religion, and nobody has the right to meddle in your affairs precisely because this has nothing to do with the spiritual path. Ultimately, in our world, religions constitute culture, tradition that corresponds from the beginning to the nature of the various parts of Malchut and conforms to the root of the soul.”
Seth@KabU
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