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A 2-part question:
a) Are spiritual shame and the revelation of evil the same thing? Are they each the awareness of my completely egoistic nature in Malchut and the grief it engenders in me because I am completely opposite the Creator, and no matter what I try to do, cannot (by design) bestow?
b) Is faith above reason the goal that allows me to transcend (not eliminate) spiritual shame and/or the revelation of evil? And does this transcendence occur when I surrender to the Light, to the endless pleasures in the Kings’ Palace, to the Creator’s intention for creation? If so, does surrendering mean I want to be like the Creator so much that I am willing to override every bit of my ego by treating my neighbor’s desires as more important than my own? Is this how the Creator’s endless pleasures flow through me to others and give the Creator contentment? Is this how I become a zero?
Again, thank you in advance for your kindness in answering these questions.
That’s a good question, you’re thinking is right, but no on (a). Malchut revealed her nature in the world of Eyn Sof, that it was utter reception without a shred of bestowal. But it’s not that she knows she’s doing wrong and she nevertheless continues. And moreover there is no wrong in this situation. From the Upper Force’s point of view, there’s no need for Tzimzum (Restriction). Seemingly she could go ahead and receive just like that, anything you want granted, no limitations. The Restriction is called “adornment” – that is, something not necessary. But later there will be the process of correction, restrictions, forbidden, and evil.
(b) Even though it seems that here we are discussing states that are so far away from us that they reach up the entire spiritual latter, what’s written in the Preface which we’re discussing in this course is actually very close, in that in it is a remedy that builds our soul on the first spiritual degree. Specifically Shame though is not right next to us. Shame, it’s written, is reserved for the great righteous. You’ll be very happy to reach such a state. And of course you’ll need to be equipped with something called Faith Above Reason to enter any degree that is above the one we’re given from birth because the Upper World is not like anything you understand and you can’t access it any way you know how, but I don’t know what Faith Above Reason is right now because it’s not part of this particular course.
After reading questions/answers, I will ask this question (again?).
Is it possible to recognize the Four Phases of Light, somewhere in one’s progression through these phases?Am I correct to say…
In Bena, the Light of Mercy is created through mercy shown to us by the Creator for our incorrect action of the rejecting the Light, rejecting bestowal?Hi Cheryl,
No, we can’t recognize these stages because we’re not in them. We just can’t imagine what we’re in – an imaginary world, we’re having a dream. And that’s why these teachings sound so strange – they’re about the real world, and we’re not in the real world.
If we got an awakening to the wisdom of Kabbalah it probably means there are a few sparks in this dream, which if I collect them, I will wake up to the true reality. By learning about it though, I strengthen these sparks. There is no other way out of this state. I remain in it, until I do it.
Hello
I have another question:
I don t understand how the Light of Hassadim was formed? If the desire in phase 2 was restricted, no light could be received?
Thank you
Hi Adelina,
In spirituality there isn’t complete emptiness like something we might imagine. If we say Bina stays “empty” what we mean is that she is fulfilled by an opposite fulfillment, the Light of Hassidim, the Light of similarity with the Creator.
Bina is fulfilled by getting to bestow. Who gets more pleasure – the crying baby that gets milk or the mother who, stirred from her peaceful sleep, has to wake up and feed him? The mother. It’s a delight because…of the importance of the one she is serving. Hochma, at the end of that stage, found that there was this sublime property, Bestowal, which the Light has, and that’s Above reception, which is all the Desire has. So, I don’t want to use the desire, let it be empty. However, there are only sublime states, except for our world. And this is what makes our world so important and special, that from it and only it one can build oneself as a bestower, to become like the Light.
But if only I felt spiritual shame! Is it really suffering? I don’t know. I have never been ashamed, I’ve spent my whole life making sure I never get to the feeling of shame. So, how I dress, talk, my profession, even what I eat follows the fancy of society. So that I’ll never feel shame, that I’m less than someone else – and it’s preferable that I’ll come out looking even better than others. But never less. That, I must hide from at all costs. So we never arrived a shame. The ego would first chose death. So, this is just to know that we’re lacking a reference sensation here. It’s enough to know that we live every day to avoid Shame because of its high spiritual root. On the way back to spirituality we correct ourselves so as not to feel the Shame again that we learn about here. The system is made so that we’ll achieve equivalence with the Light, and will have no cause for Shame because we’ll be bestowers like the Light, and not as receivers, the go between the two being the cause for Shame.
I don’t know about hell. We are in the lowest state that can exist in reality. But if I’m found in a state where the gap, the oppositeness between me and the Upper Light is revealed, then it truly burns, it’s intolerable like being in fire. You won’t stay in that state. So, then there is the Tzimzum (Restriction) over the desire; and that’s not bad, then I already need to open up the desire, just a bit, to start bestowing back to the Light. At least to start with something tiny.
But we’re not in such states yet. We have no Upper Light that we can perceive, we don’t perceive this force of bestowal, and so we don’t feel opposite to it. In fact, we don’t even feel ourselves to be so much in a Desire to Receive. We don’t identify our intentions in each moment. We just act, basically unconsciously each and every moment. So, you see, we’re exempt from perceiving any states such as are spoken of here.
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