- This topic has 298 replies, 121 voices, and was last updated 1 week, 3 days ago by
.
- Replies
I’m enjoying trying to understand the authors, and artists full message. The intelligence it takes to craft layered works like these few is amazing. How do you feel about the AA sources? Is that considered outside Kabbalah learning
I’m not an expert in other methods, so I cannot comment on that.
In general, in Kabbalah we use the group in order to extract the reforming light. This light then corrects our egoistic nature which makes us similar to the Creator. As a result of this correction, we reveal the Creator in practice, in our lives. This follows the law of equivalence of form.
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
I have three questions regarding the reading assignment: “A Speech for the Completion of The Zohar”,
Quoting from that document:
“And because of the great difficulty in the matter, our sages advised us: “Make for yourself a rav [2] and buy for yourself a friend.” This means that one should choose for oneself an important and renowned person to be one’s rav, from whom one will be able to come to engaging in Torah and Mitzvot in order to bring contentment to one’s Maker. This is so because there are two facilitations to one’s rav:
Since he is an important person, the student can bestow contentment upon him, based on the sublimity of one’s rav, since bestowal becomes as reception for him. This is a natural fuel, so one can always increase one’s acts of bestowal. And once a person grows accustomed to engage in bestowal upon the rav, one can transfer it to engaging in Torah and Mitzvot Lishma towards the Creator, too, since habit becomes a second nature.
Equivalence of form with the Creator does not help if it is not forever, that is, “until He who knows all mysteries will testify that he will not turn back to folly.” This is not so with equivalence of form with one’s rav. Since the rav is in this world, within time, equivalence of form with him helps even if it is only temporary and he later turns sour again.”And the following paragraphs say we should engage in coming to equivalence of form with our rav.
My first question then is should we consider Dr. Michael Laitman our rav? Or should we choose Baal HaSulam, the Rashbi, or the Ari? Or some other Kabbalist, perhaps even Tony Kosinec? How to proceed?
And my second question: if we do engage in this practice, how is this different from idol worship?
And my third question: there is also this issue: From another Spiritual Path there is a kind of warning – pick your Teacher very carefully because you will not be able to rise any higher in your Spiritual development than he/she has achieved. We are told that the Rashbi did ascend to all of the 125 degrees of attainment and came into perfect adhesion with the Creator. And we can assume that the Ari and Baal HaSulam also came into perfect adhesion with the Creator. But is this a Fact? How do we know? And what of rav Laitman? If I practice this program of aligning all of my inversion of desires, from receiving only for myself to receiving to give pleasure to my rav, and if my chosen rav has not attained the complete transformation, will this not be limitation, perhaps even a negative energy on my desire to come into perfect adhesion with the Creator?
Blessings to all.
Hi John,
1. Tony, myself, and all the instructors here are students of Rav Laitman. When you finish the graduate courses on KabU, you’ll have a strong enough foundation to join his lessons as well, if that is what you want. Ideally the teacher we choose is still alive in this world. Like Baal HaSulam writes above “Since the rav is in this world, within time…”. But whether you will see Rav Laitman as your Rav or not, I cannot answer that for you. It’s up to you. Ultimately “there is no coercion in spirituality”.
2. In practice, bestowing upon the Rav means sharing his goal to bring the world closer to the Creator. So it’s not like we’re idolizing the person, but rather we are working on disseminating the wisdom of Kabbalah to the world.
3. I cannot comment on what they teach in other spiritual paths. You can see from this very question that there is something incomplete in their explanation. After all, how did Rashbi, Ari, or Baal HaSulam reach all 125 degrees of attainment if their teachers did not?
In general, if we want to succeed in Kabbalah (or in any spiritual practice really) we should practice it without mixing other things into it. Otherwise it’s like following two different GPS systems. One leads you to the goal through the west highway, while the other through the east highway. If you follow both, you’ll just wind up going in circles.
Albert @ KabU
Hi Janika,
Baal HaSulam writes about this in the article The Peace:
“To avoid having to use both tongues from now on—nature and a supervisor—between which, as I have shown, there is no difference regarding the following of the laws, it is best for us to meet halfway and accept the words of the Kabbalists that HaTeva (the nature) has the same numerical value (in Hebrew) as Elokim (God)—eighty-six. Then, I will be able to call the laws of God “nature’s commandments,” or vice-versa, for they are one and the same.”
Here’s a breakdown of the numerical value of the letters
the nature = הטבע
ה = 5
ט = 9
ב = 2
ע = 70
God = אלהים
א = 1
ל = 30
ה = 5
י = 10
ם = 40
Check out this blog post from Rav Laitman for more details: https://laitman.com/2017/09/elokim-is-nature-in-gematria/
Albert @ KabU
Hi Vania,
Equivalence of form means that I become similar to the Creator, to His qualities of love and bestowal. In order to love and bestow like Him, I need to have someone I can love and to whom I can bestow. But there is a condition that “there is no coercion in spirituality”. So we cannot do spiritual work with just anyone. We need to find those with active points in the hearts that are interested in doing spiritual work together with us. Given that these types of people are rare, less than 1% of the world, chances are you won’t find someone like that among your corporeal acquaintances or family members.
So where do we find such people? In the Kabbalistic group. The Kabbalistic group is made up of many people around the world that are interested in using the Kabbalistic method to reach spirituality. And in the more advanced phases of KabU, everyone will receive their own Kabbalah group (a ten) with whom they can put all these things into practice.
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
- You must be logged in to reply to this topic.