Preparation Prompt: What does transitioning from a self-centered perception of reality to one grounded in altruism entail?

[Julian Edwards- KabU Instructor]

Preparation Prompt: What does transitioning from a self-centered perception of reality to one grounded in altruism entail?

[Rosie]

In order to achieve the level of bestowal we cannot take the path of abstinence, or think that making our corporal bodies suffer is going to somehow benefit others, or the Creator. The Creator made us with the desire to receive and without fully understanding this nature, we would have a difficult time understanding how to reach the level of bestowal. From how I see it now, more correction would be needed to put that misunderstanding on the right path to real, reality. And when we can rise above the desire to receive we can begin to develop the level of bestowal. Part of this is realizing the only real rule in reality is the law of nature, that encompasses all creation, still, vegetative, inanimate and speaking.

[Sarah]

HI Gianni & friends,

In the RELATED video with Rav Leitman answering Questions about who am I & Does G_D exist, he says that the body is just meat and not worth bothering about.

I m wondering if this isnt worth questioning.  I agree that, once a person is dead, then the body behaves like meat, & rots (gross ).  But, while we are alive, I know from experience that it has its own subtle, non-verbal intelligence.

We pick up many messages with our 5 senses, some of which give us understandings way beyond the obvious.  Things like tuning in to what is going to happen, sensing in advance what someone else’s motives may be. I can allow my senses to behave as antennae which can pick up messages from outside of myself. Even my sense of the sacred seems to be held by physical sensitivity, in some way .

I m wondering what you can tell me about this, and if our senses can, then, inform us of the Spirit?

[Gianni – KabU Instructor]

Hi Sarah,

You’re right about everything – and… all of that is corporeal, phenomena of the corporeal world. Some of these we know, or think we know well, and some we are unsure whether we know them, and some are totally mysterious to us. And yet all of the above are related only to what Kabbalists call our world. And when I rise to the Upper World, I see this and understand all of these phenomena, too. One sees them all, as looking at the Earth from a plane, that they are down there on the level of this corporeal world beyond a shadow of a doubt. And from these phenomena I have no more hope of reaching the spiritual than one on the ground has hopes of reaching up to touch the plane in the sky.

Try to write any questions in the Q&A forum as I don’t usually look here.

[Sarah]

Thanks, Gianni,

Apologies , it was accidental that my Q got into the wrong box.  You found it anyway – which feels a nice confirmation , how come the connection WAS made?

So my question came from where I am now, entirely in this world. True, thanks!

[Varda kahalany]

to shift from an egoistic perspective to a bestowal perspective means to start looking at our desires in a way that they can benefit others and not only from a selfish point of view. We to develop a feeling of wanting to help, to bring happiness to our surrounding and be aware of our actions and their impact so we could always act in a way that does not harm others but helps and elevates them.

[Esther Benzaquen]

I understand the theory well, and I agree. The world is interconnected, and science confirms it. The problem I encounter is practical.
It doesn’t seem very easy to me to “love others as yourself” when I see people who are opposed and incapable of understanding others. Maybe that interconnection can occur between some people or small groups, I don’t know.

[Sarah]

Well,  I have a really long way to go to understand this. I m full of doubts & questions.  I looked up the word BESTOW in Chamber’s Dictionary, and it means to “give or confer a reward or distinction”, in archaic terms, which leaves it a bit unclear.

Are we being asked to be good & kind to others to please G-d, and to be “like ” Him because of this?
Is this the same as the Mitzvot in Judaism, or is there a subtle Kabbalistic difference?

I m not 100% convinced that I can, or that I ve got the motivation to do it, so am reliant on “science” that will prove it to me, or the light which will affect me because of my efforts.  Its a very big ask if we are being brutally honest, & I m surprised that no-one else seems to mention this problem. Anyone out there ?

[Jack Davidsen]

To shift from an egoistic perception to one based on bestowal is to put your ego to use in a constructive way that opens up a path of connection, the path that is necessary in order to realize the purpose of our whole existence, which of course means to obtain Equivalence of Form and the true experience which is that there is only Him and none else besides.

PS. I know that I sometimes express myself in a way that appears to be convoluted, and difficult to keep track of or understand. I am therefore grateful to be among fellow students who are so great at describing their thoughts very clearly and do so often even with very few words.

[Author]

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