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Are there people who have worked to live without ego? Is that even a goal? Or is just acknowledging our own when it rises and circumventing it the way? I’m getting better at recognizing my egotistical ways and I stop myself and reflect and sometimes I act better !
Hi Sherry,
In Kabbalah, we don’t work on eradicating egoism, but only on rising above it. This is because we cannot attain high levels of spirituality without the ego. In fact the more we advance, the more our egoistic desires grow. They turn into a type of mountain that we climb over. The bigger the desires, the higher we can climb, and the higher the spiritual degree that we can attain. On the other hand, if we were to eliminate our egoistic desires, then accordingly, we would only be able to attain a tiny degree of spiritual attainment.
Check out this blog post from Rav Laitman for more details: https://laitman.com/2011/02/the-worse-the-better/
Albert @ KabU
Dear KabU team.
Many thanks for answering our questions as we grow. However I’m still struggling with the ff.
1. what do Kabbalists refer to when they talk of the Torah vs The Light of the Torah. Is the Light different from the Creator as other spiritual groups refer to the upper Force as the Light. Even Jesus is at times referee to as the Light by Christians.
2. what is meant by the Force of Development, is this refering to the Ego, the Desire to receive.
3. In a practical setting how Do Kabbalists control the Ego in everyday living, do they not have sex,go out on a date, drink a glass of wine. Considering that we are told not to kill or suppress the ego but to work with it.
4.
Hi Frank, good questions!
1. The light has multiple connotations. When we use the word light, we’re not referring to colors or waves but rather that this is the force that is opposite the desire. All that was created was the desire to receive pleasure. The force that created this desire and fulfills it is the light. So the light is the Creator, the pure quality of bestowal. We can also say that light = pleasure, since this is what fulfills that desire.
Check out this blog post from Rav Laitman for more details: http://laitman.com/2014/12/what-is-the-light/
2. It depends on the context. In the past we did develop thanks to the ego. But in order to really speed up our development, we need to place ourselves under the reforming light that we extract especially from the Kabbalistic studies.
Check out this blog post from Rav Laitman for more details: https://laitman.com/2013/02/sunbathing-in-the-rays-of-the-reforming-light/
3. We need to keep in mind that “necessities are neither praised nor condemned”. Meaning that the normal necessities that we need in order to maintain a normal life are not considered egoistic.
As for dealing with the ego, in practice we don’t suppress the ego, but we only work on making the desire for spirituality the most important thing. Then naturally the rest of our desires will fall into place. For example, it’s like with an artist that is so involved in his art, that he fulfills all the rest of his desires out of necessity so he can quickly return to his passion. Same with us, when spirituality is the most important desire, then we will be able to properly relate to all the rest of our corporeal desires in a balanced way.
Albert @ KabU
What Kabbalah think ” self- sacrifice”
It is a kind of love ( I think ) but also it hurt.
You are devoting something for good but you do not feel pressure from it, just feel sacrifice and pain.
Is it something wrong ?
Hi Miho,
You can say that bestowal is a type of self-sacrifice. Whether it hurts or not, whether we find it pleasurable or not, that depends.
For example, when a mother gives birth and takes care of her baby, is it painful or not? It could be, but usually the mother feels her role as being so important and feels so much love towards the baby, that it more than compensates for her self sacrifice.
Or another example, when a bodybuilder lifts a huge weight in the gym, is that painful or not? It could be, but it could also be that the bodybuilder enjoys the whole process, especially when the gym environment encourages him and respects him.
In other words, all these things are relative. Kabbalists tell us that the main thing is the importance of the goal which we get from the environment around us. So if we build for ourselves a strong spiritual environment, then we wont feel the process of spiritual development as something painful, but on the contrary, we’ll gladly run towards it and enjoy the entire process.
We’ll learn more about this in the next semester, in the meantime, check out this blog post from Rav Laitman for more details: https://laitman.com/2012/10/bestowal-should-become-fashionable/
Albert @ KabU
Hi Kabu Instructors,
To move closer to the creator are we required to follow , as Jews do, the ” The 613 ways of the Torah” ( 613 Mitvah and 7 Mitzot De Rabanan = 620 ) ?? rules /commandments ?
These are mentioned as a sort of precursor to gaining spirituality ?
The text ( Kabbalah for the Student – Pg 228 & 229) goes on to talk about the 620 names of god ” the whole of the Torah are the names of God ” ….are these the same ?
A wee bit confused as they seem to be very different …one is a thing and one is a concept ??? or is this the Kabbalists not actually talking about physical objects but spiritual concepts?ie there was a statement ?? about Kabbalists never referring to events or objects in the corporeal world.
(apologies unsure exactly where …i think in one of the many video lectures Ive watched)
thank you
MollyHi Molly,
Moving closer to the Creator works according to the law of equivalence of form. Meaning that in order to come closer to Him, we need to become similar to Him. He is the pure quality of love and bestowal, while our nature is the complete opposite, pure reception or egoism. The process of correcting our nature to make it resemble Him is called Torah & Mitzvot.
Torah comes from the Hebrew word Ohr (Hebrew for “light”). So when Kabbalists use the word Torah, they are not referring to the physical book, but rather to the light. This is a special force that we can extract, especially through the Kabbalistic studies, in order to correct our egoistic nature.
As for the Mitzvot, when Kabbalists use the word Mitzvot (plural of Mitzvah) they are not referring to the corporeal commandments that a religious person performs with his hands and feet. But rather the Mitzvot are the internal processes by which we draw the light and correct the egoistic desires.
Check out this blog post from Rav Laitman for more details: https://laitman.com/2010/11/spice-up-your-desire/
As for the 620 names of the Creator, our egoistic desire can be broken down into 620 parts, every time we correct a part of the desire, 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.
Check out this blog post from Rav Laitman for more details: https://laitman.com/2011/12/the-holy-names-of-bestowal/
Albert @ KabU
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