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I am probably completely off key but I find it all overwhelmingly sad – the death of someone in tragic circumstances, the suffering physically and emotionally, that of humans, animals and the planet – it falls upon us to see it differently and internalise it with acceptance. It feels to me as a momentous task as we are merely human. (fallen). Yet after a lifetime of searching (probably lifetimes), I deeply believe that one has to bask in the ‘ Thy will is my will’. My experience is that breathing it in deeply fills me and enables me to celebrate tiny gifts but the process of living it feels like a scalding forge.
Hi Charlene,
We’ll learn in the lesson on the perception of reality that the external world is a reflection of my own internal world. If I’m not corrected, I will see in front of me an uncorrected world full of suffering. If I correct myself, I’ll look at the same world and the same people, but now they will appear the opposite.
It’s like I have these dirty glasses through which I see the whole world as dirty. The moment I clean my own glasses, I’ll look at the same world, but now it’s clean and perfect.
So when we correct ourselves, we’ll reveal the true reality in which only goodness exists, and that our previous egoistic perception was nothing more than a dream.
Check out this blog post from Rav Laitman for more details: https://laitman.com/2014/04/in-neutral-gear/
Likewise with life and death, as we develop spiritually and begin to reveal the reality outside of our ego, our attitude to life and death will change.
Check out this blog post from Rav Laitman for more details: https://laitman.com/2013/06/life-and-death-in-the-eyes-of-a-kabbalist/
Albert @ KabU
Hi Tiiu,
Our very nature is egoistic. Just like a PC cannot just reprogram itself to run as a Mac, we too cannot just change our own nature or correct our own desires. We need outside help for this.
This help comes to us from the light. It’s a special force that has the ability to correct us. Our work boils down to extracting more and more of this light, especially through the Kabbalistic studies, and it does all the rest.
Check out this blog post from Rav Laitman for more details: https://laitman.com/2013/02/sunbathing-in-the-rays-of-the-reforming-light/
Albert @ KabU
Would it be possible, or is it anything wrong, with studying Kabbalah for personal leisure and to merely speculate about our own existence until I’ll find some proof that Kabbalah is truly a science?
I am more than willing to entertain a different perspective in order to gain an alternative level of understanding of human reality. However, I am having a hard time in passively believing the concepts I am being taught and imparted in this course thus far. I studied philosophy in high school and the more I am engaging with studying Kabbalah, the more it resembles to philosophy to me. We can all speculate about the meaning of life and suffering but I could argue that that could be a very personal and subjective matter to deal with.
I am a firm believer in science as to me it represents true reality, which is firmly backed up with numerous studies and with evidence consequently, coming up with the conclusions we already know or we may be familiar with.
I am looking forward to know what your thoughts are about Kabbalah not being a type of philosophical speculation about life and, if you happen to have a background in science, what made you come to the conclusion that Kabbalah is a science in itself?
Thank you very much!
Hi Claudio,
It’s good to have a certain healthy level of skepticism. Nobody wants to succumb to some dogma, nor to waste any of the precious time that we have in our lives. And of course you can continue to study Kabbalah here and see if it’s something that suits you or not. Regarding your other questions/concerns:
1. Kabbalah is a science. Here’s a link to my previous answer to you on this topic.
And here’s another post from Rav Laitman on the topic: https://laitman.com/2011/06/a-science-about-the-world/
2. Kabbalah is not a religion, you don’t need to believe that something will happen to you after you die. On the contrary, the results of your studying Kabbalah is something you discover in your life.
3. Kabbalah is not a philosophy. It’s not based on someone’s speculations, but only on what was attained by the Kabbalists. And to avoid philosophical speculations, there are clear limits as to what we can and cannot discuss in Kabbalah. So if something is unattainable, we do not talk about it.
For example, Kabbalah gives us a method for how we can attain the Creator in our lives. But what is the Creator? Kabbalah divides our research of the Creator into two parts:
The first is His essence (atzmuto in Hebrew). This is He Himself, His point of view, the Creator as an entity separate from the Created beings. We’re incapable of researching this part of the Creator because our research tools are not built in such a way that we can grasp such things. Perhaps after we finish the process of correction, we’ll discover additional research tools through which we’ll be able to research these things, but until then we limit ourselves and don’t talk about this part of the Creator because we cannot properly research it.
The other part of the Creator is called Bo-Re (Hebrew for Come (Bo) and See (Re)). This is the part of the Creator that we can research and reveal. How do we research this? Through the desire. When we take a part of our desire to receive and correct it in the direction of bestowal, in that corrected desire, we reveal a certain phenomenon, we call this phenomenon the Creator. This is why there are many names for the Creator (in Hebrew), since every time we correct a different part of the desire, we reveal a different aspect of this thing called the Creator.
So all of our understanding of this thing called the Creator is based on what we reveal within the corrected desire. But whatever exists outside of the corrected desire, whatever we don’t grasp, perceive or attain within the desire, whatever is beyond our tools of research, we don’t talk about. We need to keep these limits in mind in order to stay within the realm of science and not venture off into religion or philosophy.
Check out this blog post from Rav Laitman for more details: https://laitman.com/2017/11/the-concept-of-god-in-kabbalah/
4. As to whether Kabbalah is for you or not, I cannot answer that for you. It’s not my job to convince you that it’s for you. We learn that “there is no coercion in spirituality” and that “one studies only where his heart desires”. So if after a certain period of time, you see that the materials you’re learning here still don’t click with you, you should consider searching elsewhere to find exactly what you’re looking for.
Albert @ KabU
So, do I understand it correctly, to reach enlightenment, we need to start seeing the bigger picture? To see what is good in every so-called bad experience? It is a key to joy and happiness, regardless of external situations, people and circumstances. This is easy to understand intellectually, but the work is to embody and truly KNOW this.
Hi Tiiu,
Aspiring to see the big picture is part of it, but to truly reach and feel spirituality, we need to become similar to it, to the qualities of pure love and bestowal that are found there. This is just like how a radio can pick up an external wave, when we tune the internal frequency of the radio to that wave.
Check out this blog post from Rav Laitman for more details: https://laitman.com/2013/04/everything-is-attained-by-the-equivalence-of-form/
Albert @ KabU
Hi Bella,
The numbers all have their own significance. When a person attains spirituality, he begins to research it, and discovers all these numbers from his research. But what exactly is he researching, what is spirituality?
Essentially we’re always talking about a desire. Our current reality is based on our current nature, the desire to receive. Spirituality on the other hand operates according to a different desire, that of pure bestowal. The different numbers are just a different way to divide up that spiritual desire. This desire can be divided into 613 parts, or 620 parts, or 600,000 pieces, or 125 degrees, or even 10 sefirot.
It’s just like how we can study a person based on his behavior, or based on his anatomy, or based on his external appearance, or his internal chemistry. Ultimately we’re studying the same person, but from different angles. Same with these different divisions, they are all talking about the same spiritual desire but from different angles or a different scale.
So if we are describing the desire as 620 parts, then we’re talking about the number of corrections that need to be placed over the desire. This number is further divided into 248 desires of bestowing in order to bestow, 365 desires that operate on receiving in order to bestow, and 7 additional desires that are corrected only in the final correction. We’ll learn about this in detail in the more advanced lessons on KabU that deal with the structure of the upper worlds.
Regarding the 125 steps, the number 125 comes from the structure of the upper worlds. This structure is just a division of the spiritual desire that we need to correct into sefirot, partzufim, and worlds.
The most basic division of the desire is 1 Sefira. 5 Sefirot compose 1 partzuf. 5 Partzufim compose 1 world. There are 5 worlds in total. So 5 worlds each with 5 partzufim each with 5 sefirot equals 125 (5x5x5) steps on the spiritual ladder. This number symbolizes the gap, the delta, between our nature and the Creator’s nature.
Check out this blog post from Rav Laitman for more details: https://laitman.com/2010/11/numbers-indicate-quality-not-quantity/
Regarding 600,000, this is less of a quantitative number and more of a qualitative number. It represents the strength of the spiritual desire after it’s been fully corrected.
Check out this blog post from Rav Laitman to see how this number is derived: https://laitman.com/2010/09/love-and-hatred-of-600000-souls/
Albert @ KabU
I am truly fascinated by this wisdom. Thank you. Yet I have very important question and it is why is our creator called he or him?
Hi Fawnette,
Male and female in spirituality symbolize the force of bestowal (male) and the force of reception (female). This is why we call the Creator “Him” and the created being “her”. But these are just technical terms, similar to how in electronics we call the plug the male part while the socket is the female part.
Interestingly enough, because our nature is the desire to receive, all of humanity is considered a female in relation to the Creator who is the bestower.
Check out this blog post from Rav Laitman for more details: https://laitman.com/2018/06/man-and-woman-in-kabbalistic-terms/
Albert @ KabU
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