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Week 4 is different for me. In Week 3 I felt how big my vessels are and how the “reforming Light” simply filled those vessels. At times, I felt tremendous joy, while my vessels were being filled. The more saturated they got, the less pleasure I felt, until it vanished altogether. In week 4, however, my vessels do not seem to be anywhere close to being able to absorb the “reforming Light”.
In fact, paying attention to the lectures is rather difficult. I have to fight not to fall asleep (not because I am bored, but because my mind rejects the information so hard that it wants me to go to sleep). I opt to practice “force him, until he says I want”.
So, my question is, is it important to stay with a lesson until I feel that I have understood a significant portion of it or is it O.K. to simply keep studying with a proper intention, even though I feel like most concepts have completely went over my head? I would find it very relieving, if I knew that all the concepts will be discussed again and again in later lessons, until, eventually, it finally clicks and I am like “Ohhhhh” (now I have attained it).
Also, currently, while studying, I always hold a mixture of the intentions “in order to merge with the Creator” and “in order to transform my qualities into the altruistic qualities of the Creator”. Is this the correct intention? Is it the same, if I study the texts with the intention “in order to give joy to the Creator?”. Are all three intentions the same or do you recommend a specific intention while studying?
I am a little confused because on one hand I am told that I should hold the intention of “attaining the same level of the teachers” while studying. At the same time, however, I am also told that I should build a screen over each of my desires. An intention that cloths the reception of pleasure with the intention “in order to bestow”, so that the pleasure I receive is simultaneously an act of giving.
Niklas,
I’m very happy for you.
Seth@KabU
This is what RABASH wrote about that state:
However, now that he sees that in the work of bestowal, the body has nothing to receive, the person stands before a dilemma: He can say that now he is in a state of descent, called “transgression.” At that time, he falls into despair and says that now he sees that the most important is to bestow, but he cannot work in order to bestow, therefore he must escape the campaign and return to at least enjoy the corporeal life. Or, he can say that when he began this work, all the actions were with the aim Lo Lishma. At that time the work was not against the will to receive, so the body did not object. But now that he has been rewarded with knowing about the existence of Lishma, called “working for the sake of the Creator,” the body should certainly object because it is against nature. So, how can we work for the sake of the Creator? The answer is that it is inherent in nature that the small can serve the great without any reward, since it feels great pleasure in serving it.
hello Sir. since we as the vessel are totally a being of reception, does this mean that in everything that we do, even if our intention is bestowal, there is always an element of reception? for example, i truly want to help another person, but deep within me, i feel good about myself – this is still reception? so does this mean we can never ever find that 100% satisfaction while we are in this corporeal world?
Beth,
You are correct. Every thing we do in this world is reception.
This is similar to an animal. It is not called good or bad. It is all instinct, all the program of nature running. It is not possible to reach satisfaction in this world because in order to enjoy anything, we first have to have a lack for that thing.
Kabbalah means “receiving”. The wisdom of kabbalah is the wisdom of how to receive endlessly, to be truly satisfied.
Seth@KabU
I really don’t have an actual question but rather a comment. I believe that this journey is a very interesting one. The concept of Spirituality is a little different than I have known or seen and so for me I am listening, reading and en-grafting new and relevant information which makes sense to me. The pieces of the puzzle also are now coming together and fit better than they did before. Thank you for being great teachers.
What was the exact discernment made that separates Behina Aleph from Behina Dalet? Since this is happening outside of time and space, I would assume that it is the appearance of the Tzimtzum, and only the appearance of the Tzimtzum, that prevents these two phases from being the exact same thing.
Am I then right in assuming that the appearance of the Tzimtzum is actually the birth of the spiritual desire? This seems like the actual beginning of the Will to Bestow rather than the Creature’s quest for more pleasure, as I assume Aleph, Bet, and Gimmel are supposed to represent. In which case, the fourth phase is where the two things that are completely opposite from each other (and the only two forces in existence) actually begin to become the same thing. That must be the most powerful single force that exists in Creation, unless I am mistaken – my mind actually equates it with the beginning of Creation as it “appears,” itself.
That would also explain why Aleph, Bet, and Gimmel are “Actions of the Creator” instead of “Actions of the Creature,” as the only action a Creature can really take in a world of pure Bestowal is to seek to become like that Bestowal. Everything else is predetermined and non-existential, and thus the work of the Creator alone.
Are the Tzimtzum and Masach the same thing? If not, what is the difference between them?
I know I asked a lot but I’ve needed clarification on this topic for a long time as I still do not quite grasp it. I intuit that this is unfathomably deep wisdom so I am almost hesitant to ask, but I want to understand what I am being taught without skipping anything. Thank you!
Jonathan,
Everything was one, everything was OK, in Godly harmony.
What was missing there?
Only for the created beings to understand where they are, in the Creator.
How is it possible to reach a state where we can feel that we are in the Creator?
Only “as far as light excelleth from darkness”.
That is why we have these phases and all that happens after that.The created being…and we didn’t reach the created being yet.., the created being comes after this sequence of operations that we are learning here. We still need to go through the building of the partzufim, the sefirot and the worlds.
After the four phases of direct light, Behinat Aleph, Bet, Gimmel and Dalet comes the Tzimtzum Aleph.
You are correct that malchut cannot bestow. What does she have that she can bestow? Nothing that she has is hers. She didn’t make herself and the light she is filled with comes from Him.
So she stops receiving, that is called Tzimtzum Aleph. After that she goes through a process of admitting light bit by bit only as much as she can receive it with the correct intention to bestow back to the Creator. To the extent of her rejection, that builds the masach.
Through this process of purification of the desire performed by the masach by which it allows to enter called Inner Light, the masach rejects the rest of the light called Surrounding Light, by this she purifies herself until after many operations there is a shattering and then finally finally we get to the creature.
Seth@KabU
First, the will to bestow and will to receive remind me very much of yin and yang and the symbol for it as one circle, like the light filling the first kli.
Also, I see people acting with the intention of the will to bestow everywhere. Being a mother, I know my intention is to nurture my child over my own desires. People often make sacrifices for others, first responders, health care workers dealing with covid, firemen rushing into buildings to save people, etc.
Doesnt this show that the will to bestow is also inherently part of the creature?
Esther,
If I refer to the musical note E. It means something to me, but it doesn’t mean that much to me.
But if I was a trained musician who practiced for 8 hours a day, I have a relation with E. I can hear that note in my head even without an instrument. I know how to approach the E note to make is sound powerful or subtle. If I play an F# after it it, called a 2nd, it sounds foreboding like in Jaws. If I play a B note after it, called a 5th, it sounds epic like in Star Wars. There are a lot of qualities, maybe endless qualities to the note E.
And so it is with definitions in the wisdom of kabbalah. We are using words that everyone uses, but we are pointing to spiritual operations. So although E is E, E is not always E :))
In other words there is a lot of information packed in the world bestowal.
When a kabbalist writes about bestowal, he is pointing to a spiritual quality.
Certainly in our world the love of a mother is an expression of bestowal and this stems from the root of the mother and the child in Bina and her relation to Malchut. But in our world this is not the bestowal that the kabbalists are writing about.
All of the system of nature is built on reception and bestowal, on – & +.
When we refer to bestowal we are speaking of spiritual + which is something that is on a degree above the animal degree which is where our bodies are.
Seth@KabU
Good morning, Thank you all for Teaching us this amazing Wisdom.
Could I say, the Creator is 100% giver of the light and the creature “should’ be 100% receiver of the light but in this process the receiver can be a “glass”, receiving the light to shine brightly as for itself. The receiver can also be corrected to be a “mirror” receiving the light but now reflecting it back so that the giver can shine brightly?
Etienne,
It’s mostly correct. It’s a very good understanding.
The receiver will remain a receiver. This receiver is the only thing that the Creator created.
Upon her will to receive she will build a screen. According to her intention/attitude to want to be like the Creator, that determines how much she bestows back to the Creator.
Seth@KabU
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