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Hi, it seems to me that although the two paths are called the path of suffering and the path of light, there is no easy path. If you take the path of suffering I think you should be able to work out what to expect by the name! The path of light however is a path where we correct any egoistic desires we have not been able to correct or not known about or for whatever reason not attended to them.
Hi J,
If by “easy” path you mean for there to be an opportunity to bypass the process of development, then you’re right, there is no such thing. Either way we need to go through the entire process of development.
Furthermore, although we say that there are these two paths (suffering or light), in truth we don’t really advance on the path of suffering. It’s like a child that needs to go to school. Pressuring and punishing him is not the same as educating him. So after all of the pressures and punishments we put on him, he will still have to go to school and get his education. In other words, the path of suffering is only there to pressure us to return to the path of light.
Check out this blog post from Rav Laitman for more details: https://laitman.com/2015/05/we-wont-follow-the-path-of-suffering-forever/
Albert @ KabU
Thank you very much for the bonus lesson: The Language of Roots and Branches. It was very helpful indeed. My question is: You teach that there are 125 worlds, and hence 125 rungs on the ladder to adhesion to the Creator. Each branch’s root may be found in the world above it. However, each world below has the imprint of the world above. By extension of this observation (made by Kabbalists who obtained these worlds), are there branches hanging down from worlds higher than one rung above? Can one skip rungs on the way up? Many thanks.
Hi Craig,
Every spiritual root must reach the material branch.
As for skipping rungs, no we cannot skip any of the rungs. Each rung is a necessary step, a necessary part of the process of our development towards reaching the state of wholeness and perfection. If it was possible to skip something, then we would be incapable of reaching the state of wholeness. It’s like putting together a billion piece jigsaw puzzle. If even one piece is missing, the whole puzzle is incomplete.
If we cannot skip any part of our development, what can we do? We can accelerate the rate at which we go through all these states. So instead of taking years and lifetimes to go through all these degrees, we can condense all this work within a relatively short period of time.
Check out this blog post from Rav Laitman for more details: http://laitman.com/2011/01/lets-go-with-the-light/
Albert @ KabU
hello i am destined to follow the path of the light which is the original state of the creator..
my question is though how about if a person has been attacked by dark evil spiritual forces which causes pain of suffering ,,how does one get to the place of the path of light and positivity if he is still been under attack by demons and unclean spirits , and how does one rid themselves of such darkness through the wisdom of kabbalah.
Hi Elvis,
We learn in Kabbalah that there is nothing evil in the world except for our own egoistic nature. This is why Kabbalah only deals with the correction of our egoistic nature. As a result of correcting ourselves, instead of seeing evil in the world, we will see how the world is full of love and bestowal.
Check out these blog posts from Rav Laitman for more details: https://laitman.com/2015/07/a-devil-with-horns-or-our-own-egoism/
https://laitman.com/2022/06/how-to-see-good-instead-of-evil/
Albert @ KabU
I am interested in learning further how to maintain my intention to choose the path of light. I find that my intention feels very strong and already seems to guide me quite well in my life, but there are times that I realize that my egoistic desire to excel at choosing the path of light sometimes guides me back to the path of pain. For example, I try to live by the golden rule and yet there are times that I feel that I give so much of myself up to others that I then become irritable and short-tempered with people that I love. After realizing how I have become irritable and unreliable to those around me, I feel demoralized and may feel tempted to wallow in the pain rather than continue my work on the path of light.
Hi Steven,
We learn in Kabbalah that “there is no coercion in spirituality”. Meaning that we cannot force someone to do spiritual work. For this reason, we don’t do any spiritual work towards the world, but rather we focus all of our spiritual work on others that want to do this work together with us, meaning in the Kabbalistic group. The Kabbalistic group is like our spiritual laboratory. It’s a safe place in which we can practice everything we learn in Kabbalah.
Furthermore, the spiritual work we do in the Kabbalistic group is the foundation of all of our work. 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. And until we build that nucleus, we have nothing with which to do any spiritual work towards the world.
So until then, how do we behave towards the rest of the world? We behave normally there, just like everyone else. Meaning don’t make a saint of yourself and at the same time don’t cause harm to others, but just act there the way normal people act.
We’ll learn more about these things in the more advanced lessons.
Albert @ KabU
<p style=”text-align: right;”>Please can you explain further about the equivalence of form and this is related to the soul and the creator?</p>
Hi Comfort,
According to the law of equivalence of form, in order to come closer to something in spirituality, we need to become similar to that thing. The Creator has the nature of pure love and bestowal while our nature is the opposite: pure reception. So to come closer to the Creator, to reveal Him in practice, we need to correct our opposite nature, for it to become similar to his nature of pure love and bestowal.
It’s similar to how a radio works. That we just need to tune the inner frequency of the radio to match the external wave. Once we tune in to the wave that we want, we right away hear the music that is on that wave. Likewise with us, once we tune ourselves in the direction of bestowal, we will become similar to the Creator and thereby reveal Him.
Check out this blog post from Rav Laitman: http://laitman.com/2013/04/everything-is-attained-by-the-equivalence-of-form/
The corrected form of our desire to receive is called a soul. Meaning that it’s not something that we’re born with but rather something that we develop and attain. Check out this blog post from Rav Laitman for more details: https://laitman.com/2017/05/what-is-the-soul-4/
Albert @ KabU
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