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The lesson was excellent. But i did have a question about something you mentioned in one of your responses to a question above.
In your answer you mention:
So if we build for ourselves a strong spiritual environment, then it will influence even stronger than the corporeal environment that we’re in. But this is not a one time choice. Building and strengthening the spiritual environment is our constant work. As we progress, our ego will grow more and more, and the corporeal environment will pull us more and more. This is done purposefully so that this resistance will force us to build an even stronger connection to the spiritual environment, and thereby reach an even higher spiritual level.
My question is: What does a strong spiritual environment look like?
And how do i build one?
Thank you!
Hi RDB,
Let’s say that I need to exercise but I’m feeling lazy today. What will help me get out of my laziness? Maybe if I had a workout buddy with whom I work out, we can encourage each other. Or if I read about the importance of exercising from a magazine or heard about it on TV. Or maybe if I had a coach who would push me to workout. This is a corporeal example of how we use the corporeal environment to push ourselves towards a corporeal goal, but it’s the same with our spiritual goal.
Spirituality consists of acquiring qualities of love and bestowal, qualities that are opposite to our egoistic nature. So we need support to achieve this goal. This support comes from the spiritual environment. The spiritual environment consists of the Kabbalistic books, group, and teacher. For now, our spiritual environment consists mostly of this KabU platform, the Q/A forums, the Kabbalistic books, lessons, sources, videos, etc. In the more advanced semesters on KabU, each one will also receive their own Kabbalah group with whom they can put all these things into practice.
As for building our connection to the spiritual environment, there is a quantitative and qualitative connection. Quantitatively, I can set aside some time to regularly return to the Kabbalistic books, lessons, source, etc. This is an important foundation. Once we have this foundation, we can work on the quality of this connection: to what extent do I value the spiritual environment? To what extent do I allow it to influence me? To what extent do I see these fellow students not just as random people that have similar interests as my own, but as pieces of my soul? We’ll learn about these things more practically in the more advanced semesters.
Albert @ KabU
It was a great lesson.
I have a question about the influence of society on our spiritual development.
Society has become too materialistic and too interested in sex, money and food.. we can’t change this thing I know it’s a phase everyone has to go through, but how can I live with a very materialistic society without being affected, instead can I influence my society?
Could our spiritual development isolate us from society or make us live in isolation?
Thanks
Rawan..Hi Rawan,
At the beginning of the spiritual path, there are a lot of tendencies to isolate ourselves from the world. So what you’re feeling is normal. But the more we advance, the more we’ll begin to see that we don’t need to isolate ourselves. Even Baal HaSulam and Rabash were not living in isolation in some Kabbalistic environment, rather they had normal jobs, families, and lived in a typical neighborhood of their time. How then did they attain such high spiritual levels? By tapping into the strength of the spiritual environment.
So if we build for ourselves a strong spiritual environment, then it will influence even stronger than the corporeal environment that we’re in. But this is not a one time choice. Building and strengthening the spiritual environment is our constant work. As we progress, our ego will grow more and more, and the corporeal environment will pull us more and more. This is done purposefully so that this resistance will force us to build an even stronger connection to the spiritual environment, and thereby reach an even higher spiritual level.
It’s just like with a bodybuilder. If he lifts only a 1 pound weight all the time, he will not get very strong (this is equivalent to us living in isolation). In order to grow, that bodybuilder needs to constantly increase the resistance that he’s lifting. So the more we advance, the more we’ll begin to see how the everyday problems, experiences, work situations, etc we undergo in the regular society are a necessary part of our correction. That we don’t erase these things, but above them we need to stay connected to the spiritual environment. And this will determine the level of our spiritual attainment.
We’ll learn how to do this practically in the more advanced semesters of KabU.
Albert @ KabU
Somehow my response was posted in the preparation. It’s fine. I understand the lesson to a certain point. The concepts are quite not exactly new to me, however some things are a bit more defined as others are very vague. I find myself struggling mostly with the constant repetition; with not always a clear and concise answer. It reminds me of the old hermetic way of the flow of knowledge. The initiate never knew what they were actually learning until they knew. Up to that point most was a mystery and remained as such.  We have definitions but no real answers on how to get definitions to work in our favor. I know there is a screen but I can only develop a screen weeks maybe even months and many courses away.  If this is the way I will walk this path. I just hope the flow of information changes because right now all I’m hearing is that if i become a better person i become more like the creator which i can do without “enlightenment.  I want to be a better person anyway. What happens in Kabbalah that sets it aside from everything else. More than words what makes it the “only” way. I don’t mind supporting an organization that is actually what they claim. I just feel right now its just more literature to read and nothing spiritual is happening that wasn’t already happening. I hope this gets better over time, because I really don’t want to lose out on something that might be important. This is how strong “my ego” is, so to stay in this very class I have to constantly just silence it. I have grown to “hate” my ego. But these are Freudian terms that I’m referring to (selfish desires). If Kabbalah is right I know absolutely nothing about the spiritual, but I find myself really confused on this matter simply because I have been spiritual my whole life trying to form a connection with my creator. So i stayed in misery even with a good intention. I never wanted to sin. I just did
I find the repetition rather annoying too. Also, they talk about “feeling”, and I don’t have that talent. So, my intellect is both in the way and my only tool. I humbly offer it to the Creator to use it for my correction. It sounds like you’re on the border between ‘acquiring knowledge’ and ‘spirituality’, struggling to cross over (see the drawing in the lesson). Richard, I hold you in my heart as one soul: – Creator, shine your light in us please. May we FEEL You. We the brainiacs, we the intellectuals, we, who are addicted to knowledge. Thank You.
Hi Richard,
Kabbalah does not hold the monopoly over spirituality. It’s not claiming to be the one and only method. The Wisdom of Kabbalah is the accumulation of thousands of years of experience from people practically trying to reach spirituality, what worked, what didn’t, etc. It’s not a must to use it, but as you can imagine, it’s a lot faster and easier with it.
As for becoming like the Creator, this is not something we can do with our own strength. This is because the Creator is the pure quality of bestowal, while our nature is the complete opposite, pure reception, or egoism. Just like a PC cannot just reprogram itself to run as a Mac, we too cannot just change our own nature with our own strength, it’s impossible. We need help to make this change.
This help comes to us from the light, a special force that helps us to correct our nature. All of the clarifications, changes, and corrections we undergo is thanks to this light. Our work is only to extract more and more of this light, especially during the Kabbalistic studies, and it does all the rest. And although we spend a lot of time studying, the goal is not to acquire knowledge, but through the study to draw the reforming light.
Check out this blog post from Rav Laitman for more details: http://laitman.com/2013/02/sunbathing-in-the-rays-of-the-reforming-light/
As for the difference between the fundamentals and the advanced courses, in the advanced courses we will be doing the same work of extracting the light, but we will be doing so together in a Kabbalistic group. When we do this work together, the amount of light we can extract from the studies is exponentially greater. We’ll learn more about these things in the future lessons.
Albert @ KabU
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