- This topic has 69 replies, 32 voices, and was last updated 4 weeks, 1 day ago by
.
- Replies
Hi Gianni
When I heard that this work needs to be done in groups of ten, some part of me was immediately resistant. So resistant that it has taken me several weeks to ask about it. Right now as I type this I have tears on my face and high anxiety level just from asking you about this. I feel like I’m about to fall off a cliff. I’m introverted by nature but don’t usually have problems with meeting or talking to people, but I feel anxiety about this group. I know I have to do this work and can’t walk away.
Have you any thoughts or experience of what might be happening here? Any insight you can give is appreciated.
Tracey
Of course I understand, Tracey. I can barely stand the presence of my own blood relatives, let alone anyone else, not to mention anyone across the internet with whom I have no apparent reason to connect. I practically don’t value any human interactions, and don’t even get me started on small talk. For me, to have lunch with someone else requires serious preparation to imitate the kinds of expressions and actions that make people think you like being in their company. In truth, if you put me in a private jail cell, but with books, I’d be ok for the rest of my life. I don’t think you’re that antisocial.
Needless to say, when I came to the wisdom of Kabbalah I did not come to connect. In fact, I disregarded any mention of it as some sort of extraneous relic of some, perhaps, Jewish moral code that was irrelevant to the core of the wisdom. In short, it’s nearly impossible for anyone to be as introverted, anitsocial, arrogant and dense as I was.
It is natural, by the way, for a person with great spiritual potential to be anti-connection. It doesn’t matter if it manifests in arrogance or shyness or angst. The Will To Receive, the more pronounced it’s opposite will turn out to be – that is, the more potential it has for the quality of the Creator, bestowal – the more aimed inward it will be. Meaning, it’s a heavier will to receive. If I have a small will to receive, I can flutter about like a butterfly, I can go out to others easily and practically without even a clear reason to. But if I have a big desire to receive for self, I will be decisively aimed inward, not out towards others. And that’s why, in a (seeming contradiction) spiritual work can be – I don’t want to say easier but…it will be sharper. Because my ego doesn’t allow me to go towards others without a clear purpose. Nothing short of the goal of Creation, that through this action I’ll reveal the Upper Worlds, will suffice. This also means that before I do an action of connection, I will have to line up all the reasons I’m doing so and what I want from this action. This is very important.
All that said, you’ll find that the group work is not like any interaction you’ve had with others. It’s purposeful, very directed. We know exactly what we’re doing – it’s a kind of a game that we all know we’re playing. I or another instructor will be there with you. There’s really nothing to fear.
Thank you Gianni. This was very helpful. I’ve been making excuses as to why I can’t participate, like the lack of technology to take part in zoom sessions, and, like you, I initially attributed the method itself to some old tradition that wasn’t that relevant. I understand, at least on the surface, why the group is necessary and why I have been “pushed” here. There is nothing more important than doing this work.
I have a ton of other questions but I will ask them later. Thank you again, Gianni.
Gianni, I am confused and have 2 questions based on the Related Materials pdf, “The Teaching of the Kabbalah and Its Essence.” Both questions come from the first two paragraphs under the section “Root and Branch in the Worlds.”
- In Paragraph 1 (below), what do “form, substance, and quality” mean ?
- In Paragraph 2 (below), what do “… relation between matter and form,” and “… quality of form” mean?
Paragraph 1: “Now it is easy to understand the matter of root and branch in the worlds. Each of the manifold still, vegetative, animate, and speaking in this world has its corresponding part in the world above it, without any difference in its form but only in its substance. Thus, an animal or a rock in this world is a corporeal matter, and its corresponding animal or rock in the higher world is a spiritual matter, occupying no space or time. However, their quality is completely the same.”
Paragrah 2: “And here we should certainly add the matter of relation between matter and form, which is naturally conditioned on the quality of form, too. Similarly, with the majority of the still, vegetative, animate, and speaking in the upper world, you will find their similitude and likeness in the world above the upper. This continues through the first world where all the elements are completed, as it is written, “And God saw everything that He had made, and behold, it was very good.”
Thank you in advance for your kindness in helping me with my confusion.
Joy S.
Sorry I missed this, Joy.
Substance refers to the matter, and the matter is always the Desire, which is all that was created. Form refers to the form that the substance is in. Either it’s in a form of reception or bestowal. But either way, it’s still the desire.
The desire, as it descends through the worlds, acquires more Aviut (coarseness) and that is the Quality of the desire that changes, and gives it the different forms. Say you have on the animate level a lion, and on the vegetative level a dandelion (“coincidentally” named), and something else on the Still and Human levels. But it’s the same desire, only with more, or less Aviut.
- You must be logged in to reply to this topic.