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Hi Lana,
Our freedom of choice is in choosing to be influenced by the spiritual environment (meaning the Kabbalistic books, group, and teacher). Everything else, including our intentions, is a result of that choice.
Baal HaSulam writes about it in the article “The Freedom”. Here’s an excerpt:
“However, there is freedom for the will to initially choose such an environment, such books, and such guides that impart to him good concepts. If one does not do that, but is willing to enter any environment that appears to him and read any book that falls into his hands, he is bound to fall into a bad environment or waste his time on worthless books, which are abundant and easier to come by. In consequence, he will be forced into foul concepts that make him sin and condemn. He will certainly be punished, not because of his evil thoughts or deeds, in which he has no choice, but because he did not choose to be in a good environment, for in that there is definitely a choice.
Therefore, he who strives to continually choose a better environment is worthy of praise and reward. But here, too, it is not because of his good thoughts and deeds, which come to him without his choice, but because of his effort to acquire a good environment, which brings him these good thoughts and deeds.”
Albert @ KabU
Hi Allen,
Yes, you can say that. We are in a lawful system, where nothing happens by chance.
Check out this blog post from Rav Laitman for more details: https://laitman.com/2014/12/coincidence-is-simply-ignorance/
Albert @ KabU
Hi Kima,
#2.
Check out this blog post from Rav Laitman for more details: https://laitman.com/2012/02/constructing-the-lego-of-the-souls-shards/
Albert @ KabU
Hi Kima,
1. Spirituality is the extent to which we become similar to the Creator, to His qualities of love and bestowal.
2. At the root of everything is the desire. Thoughts are generated by the desire to help it to reach what it wants. Intentions are how we aim those desires, whether we use the desires in order to receive or in order to bestow.
3. Bestowal and love means being able to fulfill the desire of someone else.
You can say that everything on the human level is spiritual. But we’re not yet on the human level. There are 4 levels in nature. Still, vegetative, animate, and speaking (or human degree). Within each level, there are 4 sub levels: the still of the still, the vegetative of the still, the animate of the still, the speaking of the still, etc. Humanity as a whole is currently found on the speaking sub-degree of the animate level. Meaning we have not yet reached the true speaking degree, which is a spiritual degree. We reach the speaking degree when we become similar to the Creator, meaning when we rise above our egoistic nature into the nature of love and bestowal.
Check out these readings for more details:
https://laitman.com/2015/09/where-is-the-upper-world/
Shamati 153: A Thought Is a Result of the Desire
Guest & Host Analogy from Chapter 3 of Attaining the Worlds Beyond
Albert @ KabU
Hi Mel,
600,000 is less of a quantitative number and more of a qualitative number. It represents the strength of the spiritual desire after it’s been fully corrected. So essentially all of humanity is included in this number.
Check out this blog post to see how this number is derived: https://laitman.com/2010/09/love-and-hatred-of-600000-souls/
Albert @ KabU
Hi Flavio,
1. All that was created was a desire to receive pleasure. We perceive reality through that desire. If our desires are egoistic, we perceive this corporeal world. If we correct our desire to operate in the direction of love and bestowal, then accordingly we will perceive the spiritual reality. All of this follows the law of equivalence of form.
Check out this blog post from Rav Laitman for more details: http://laitman.com/2013/04/everything-is-attained-by-the-equivalence-of-form/
2. Kabbalah is a science with clear limits of what we can and cannot measure. One of those limits is that we can only measure things from the thought of creation. We have no way to measure anything before creation, so we cannot talk about it.
Check out this blog post from Rav Laitman for more details: https://laitman.com/2017/01/why-did-the-creator-create-people/
As for the souls, keep in mind that by definition, the soul is the corrected form of the desire to receive, which is aimed fully at bestowal. Given that we’re not yet corrected, none of us have this thing called a soul. Only a soul in potential, which we call the point in the heart. If we develop that point, we can turn it into a soul. If not, this point continues to reincarnate again and again until it gets fully developed.
Check out this blog post from Rav Laitman for more details: https://laitman.com/2015/06/what-happens-to-the-soul-after-death/
Albert @ KabU
