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Hi Bonnie, good question!
But I cannot comment directly on your personal experience, since this has to do with your personal perception of reality. And our perception of reality is not something constant, rather every time we change, every time our desires evolve, our perception of reality will change as well. We’ll learn more about this in the upcoming lessons.
So we can talk about these things only in general. Why are there some people in life that already seem altruistic? Baal HaSulam writes in the writings of the last generation that there is up to 10% of the world that has a natural drive towards bestowal and altruism. Just like we’re built to enjoy reception, they’re built to enjoy bestowal. Why is there a need for such a thing, for altruistic egoists? It’s because pure egoism on its own would just destroy the world, so nature implanted a few altruists to balance out the system.
Check out this blog post from Rav Laitman for more details:Â http://laitman.com/2012/07/altruism-no-more-than-10-or-all-100/
Albert @ KabU
Hi Grant,
By definition, Kabbalah is the method by which we can correct our egoistic nature and as a result, become similar to and reveal in our lives the Creator, the general force of love and bestowal.
If something confused you in the videos, feel free to ask it in the questions forum and we can clarify it for you.
Albert @ KabU
Hi Asher,
Yes, you can say that serving our egoism is a form of idolatry. See my reply 53942 to Rune below for more details (if the link does not work for you, then you can find it manually on the 2nd page of this forum).
As for Kabbalists, a Kabbalist is not simply a student of Kabbalah, but rather one that has already succeeded in correcting his egoistic nature, at least to some extent, at least 1 out of 125 degrees, and as a result has revealed the Creator.
Check out this blog post from Rav Laitman for more details:Â https://laitman.com/2014/12/practicing-kabbalist/
Albert @ KabU
Hi Rachel, great questions!
The Creator has many names. But they are not naming the Creator Himself, which we don’t attain, but rather how WE experience this thing called the Creator. In other words, we are naming OUR perceptions of Him, we’re not naming Him Himself.
For example, why do we call Him Creator? Because we come to feel that this is the force that created us.
For more details, see my reply 54291 to Chris below, as well as this blog post from Rav Laitman: https://laitman.com/2017/11/the-concept-of-god-in-kabbalah/
Albert @ KabU
Hi David,
You are correct that it’s not enough to intellectualize it, it needs to be felt.
Regarding our egoistic desires, first of all, what are egoistic desires? The fact that I like to eat and drink, this is not considered egoism. In Kabbalah, egoism is a spiritual quality which stands in the way of our connection with the Creator. By default, no one has such a quality. It’s only after we start to do some serious spiritual work, do we reveal this quality within us called egoism.
Check out this blog post from Rav Laitman for more details:Â https://laitman.com/2010/10/true-evil/
As for correcting egoism, we don’t do this with our own strength, but only through the force of the light. Essentially, our entire work boils down to extracting more and more of this force, especially during the Kabbalistic studies, and it performs all of the corrections upon us.
Check out this blog post from Rav Laitman for more details:Â http://laitman.com/2013/02/sunbathing-in-the-rays-of-the-reforming-light/
Albert @ KabU
Hi Craig,
Kabbalists typically don’t attribute much importance to dreams or the state of dreaming. They see it simply as a state where the brain summarizes/organizes the daily experiences. Similar to how some computers go through the process of defragmentation.
Check out this blog post from Rav Laitman for more details:Â https://laitman.com/2016/02/new-life-496-where-do-dreams-come-from/
Albert @ KabU
