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Hi Shaun, great questions!
1. Spiritual work is something that we do with other points in the heart in this safe environment that we call the Kabbalistic group. If you practice this anywhere else, in the best case scenario you’ll build some good relationships, in the worst case, people will think you’re weird or try to take advantage of you. But either way it will not lead to goal of our spiritual work, which is the revelation of the Creator. So generally with the rest of the world it’s best to just act normal, like everyone else. Meaning don’t make a saint of yourself and at the same time don’t cause harm to others, but just act there the way normal people act.
2. We were all created as egoists on purpose. It’s precisely thanks to the ego that we can rise to high spiritual degrees. In Kabbalah, the ego is not a bad force but rather a partner that helps us to advance. Meaning we don’t eliminate our ego, we rise above it. It turns into a type of hill or mountain that we rise above. In other words, the greater the ego, the further up we can climb, and the greater the spiritual level we can achieve. On the other hand if we eliminate the ego, then the spiritual level we can achieve is relatively tiny.
Check out this blog post from Rav Laitman for more details: https://laitman.com/2011/02/the-worse-the-better/
Albert @ KabU
Hi Vyacheslav,
The study materials here are mostly in English. You might be better of on the Russian version of our site: https://www.kabbalah.info/rus/
After you finish the basic course, they will also be able to get you in contact with the local study group in Odessa.
Albert @ KabU
Hi Mark,
We’re not yet on any spiritual degree, we’re still in the preparation period prior to the spiritual ladder. But once we start to do real spiritual work, we can measure our progress in our attitude towards other points in the hearts. That I’ll feel how my attitude towards them changes from complete indifference, all the way until I feel them as pieces of my soul. We’ll learn more about this in the more advanced lessons.
Albert @ KabU
Hi Marc,
Yes, you can say that it’s the same thing just described in a different style/language in the Torah. Keep in mind that when Kabbalists talk about the Torah and Mitzvot, they are not referring to physical actions that we carry out with our hands and feet in a religious manner, but rather they describe the inner corrections that take place over our desires.
Check out this blog post from Rav Laitman for more details: https://laitman.com/2016/02/mitzvot-commandments-the-correction-of-desires/
As well as my 221960 below for more details: https://kabuconnect.com/forums/topic/ask-anything-about-week-5-lesson-and-materials-and-get-an-answer-from-a-senior-kabbalah-instructor/#post-221960
Albert @ KabU
Hi Francisco,
Losing interest in corporeal life is a temporary state. It’s a present from the Creator to give us the opportunity to plant our point in the heart in a good spiritual environment. But after that, in order to actually develop spiritually, we need resistance. Just like a bodybuilder needs resistance to grow his muscles, we need resistance in order to grow spiritually. This resistance comes to us from corporeality, from leading a normal life, working, taking care of our family, health, etc. It’s thanks to this resistance that we can reach higher levels of spiritual attainment.
In other words, there is no spirituality in corporeality itself. Spirituality is when we rise above corporeality. But if we’re not immersed in corporeality, then we have nothing over which to rise above and thereby no spirituality to achieve.
See my reply 222713 to Joseph in the Week 2 questions forum for more details: https://kabuconnect.com/forums/topic/ask-anything-about-week-2-lesson-and-materials-and-get-an-answer-from-a-senior-kabbalah-instructor-2/#post-222713
Albert @ KabU
Hi Ludumo,
Spirituality means acquiring the Creator’s qualities of love and bestowal. These are qualities that are unnatural for us, completely above our egoistic nature. How then do we acquire such qualities? Through the reforming light. The light is called such because it gradually reforms us, corrects us. Although naturally we don’t have such qualities, if we just aspire to them, then this is enough to draw this light.
Where can we read and learn about these higher spiritual degrees so we can aspire to them? If I open up just any book, the vast majority of them are not talking about spiritual degrees above our egoistic nature, rather the vast majority of them are talking about states we undergo within our ego. So I won’t find the reforming light there. I will only find the reforming light in the authentic Kabbalistic books which talk about these higher spiritual degrees.
Furthermore, although everything does come from the Creator, since “there is none else besides Him”. But at the same time, there are things that on purpose divert us from Him. This too comes from Him. It’s a type of game that He made for us in order to help us build a true desire for Him. Check out this excerpt from Baal HaSulam’s article Shamati 1: “there is none else besides Him”:
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It is written, “There is none else besides Him.” This means that there is no other force in the world that has the ability to do anything against Him. And what one sees, that there are things in the world that deny the upper household, the reason is that this is His will.
This is deemed a correction called “the left rejects and the right pulls closer,” meaning that what the left rejects is considered a correction. This means that there are things in the world that, to begin with, aim to divert a person from the right way, and by which he is rejected from Kedusha [holiness].
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We’ll learn about this concept in depth in the next semester, in the meantime, check out this blog post from Rav Laitman for more details: http://laitman.com/2017/12/there-is-none-else-besides-him/
Albert @ KabU
