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google translation of the question:
How can I direct my basic primal instincts (food, sex/reproduction, and seeking shelter) in advance to align them with the nature of the Creator and not have to confront the suffering that comes from being guided by my selfish nature?
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Hi Enrique,
Kabbalah only deals with our desire for spirituality. Regarding the rest of our desires, Kabbalah does not deal with these things. Our corporeal desires don’t have any relation to spirituality, so each person can arrange these desires however is most comfortable for them (of course within the context of the law and without harming others).
In practice, we don’t need to suppress our corporeal desires or live a life of poverty. We only need to work on making the desire for spirituality the most important thing. Then naturally the rest of our desires will fall into place. For example, it’s like with an artist that is so involved in his art, that he fulfills all the rest of his desires out of necessity so he can quickly return to his passion. Same with us, when spirituality is the most important desire, then we will be able to properly relate to all the rest of our corporeal desires in a balanced way.
Albert @ KabU
Hi Helen,
1. You’re right, our initial choice of the spiritual environment is not up to us. This follows the saying that: the Creator puts man’s hand on the good fate and says “choose this for yourself”. Meaning He awakened your point in the heart and brought it to a good spiritual environment in which you can nourish it. Only after that, the rest is up to you.
So what needs to happen for me to start actualizing my free will here? After all, the point in the heart is seemingly forcing me to be here. If so, then this desire needs to be taken away from me little by little, and there I begin to reveal more and more the place of my freedom.
This is similar to how we teach a child to ride a bike. First the parent holds the child completely. Then as the child learns to pedal and balance himself, the parent lets go a little, then a little more and a little more, until the child continue to pedal without the parent holding him at all.
So we too need to learn to continue to do this work even when that initial desire for spirituality begins to disappear or when the ego grows and begins to pull us into many different directions. When that happens, we’ll feel a need for mutual work in the group, the spiritual environment. On one hand when I fall into my ego, they need to pull me out, and on the other hand I need to help pull others out when they fall. This is why Kabbalists have always studied in groups (physical or virtual).
We will learn more about this in the more advanced semesters on KabU, where you’ll receive your own Kabbalah group with whom you can practice these things.
2. The rule is that “one is raised in holiness and never lowered.” So even if we don’t finish our full correction, nothing is lost, it’s an accumulative process.
3. In our current state, we don’t have the tools to measure what happens after the final correction. So instead of philosophizing about it, the science of Kabbalah does not talk about that state at all. We’ll have to reach that state first and then see for ourselves what is the next step of our development.
Check out this blog post from Rav Laitman for more details: https://laitman.com/2013/03/a-door-to-the-unknown/
4. The four factors can be confusing. If it helps, you can say that the fourth factor is the ability to choose to be under the influence of the third factor. But once I place myself under their influence, the rest is already a result.
In any case, if you understand the main takeaway from this lesson, that the road to freedom is in choosing/building a good spiritual environment for ourselves, then I wouldn’t worry about the details of the four factors.
Albert @ KabU
Hi Branden,
The split makes it easier for all of us to reach out common corrected state. It like the difference between one person lifting 1000 pounds or 1000 people lifting 1 pound each. In other words, the bigger the split, the easier correction is for all of us.
As for the numbers themselves, numbers in Kabbalah are not talking about quantity, rather they are measurements of quality. 600,000 for example 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 Renata,
Yes, that’s part of the process.
We learn from the Kabbalists that every single moment comes to us directly from the Creator, this is called “there is none else besides Him”. Furthermore, they also say that He is the “good that does good”. Meaning that every moment He is sending us nothing but goodness. But why then don’t we see this in our world? Why don’t we feel every single moment as good?
It’s because our egoistic nature is opposite to the Creator. This opposite nature inverts the Creator’s goodness into something bad. It’s just like multiplying numbers: a positive times a negative equals negative.
So as long as we remain within this egoistic nature, we will continue to see and feel more bad things in the world. But if we correct our nature to be similar to the Creator’s nature, then we will reveal the true reality in which only goodness exists, and our previous egoistic state would appear as nothing more than a dream.
These scrutinies are part of the process of correction and of asking the Creator to correct our nature.
Check out this blog post from Rav Laitman for more details: https://laitman.com/2011/01/praying-in-order-to-change/
Albert @ KabU
Hi Rigo,
The 5 spiritual worlds are not place like we think, but rather levels of concealment. World (Olam in Hebrew) comes from the word Concealment (ha-alama). So the 5 worlds are 5 levels of concealment between us, the desire to receive, and the Creator the general force of love and bestowal. To the extent that we correct our own opposite, egoistic nature, for it to also operate in the direction of bestowal, to that extent we reveal these worlds, these higher qualities.
Regarding the order and meaning of each world:
First is Adam Kadmon (primordial Man) this is the first form of the desire to receive that became similar to the Creator, but it operates in a different way then the rest of the system, so it’s called primordial.
Atzilut (from the Hebrew words etz lo: at his place, in his possession). This is the place where the Creator exists, meaning the pure desire to bestow.
Beria (creation), comes from the Hebrew word Bar, meaning outside of. Meaning that it’s already a distinct degree of remoteness from the quality of bestowal.
Yetzira (creation), also means creation but this time it stems from the Hebrew word yetzer, inclination. Meaning there is already an inclination of its own to the Creator.
Assiya (action), this completes the action of creating the desire to receive.
Keep in mind that we usually don’t translate these words when we use them in the lessons. A lot of times it’s better to use the Hebrew word instead of being confused by the translation.
Albert @ KabU
Google translation of the question: How and through what practices, precepts and procedures can I turn away from the path of pain and instead move forward on the path of light? What can I use to achieve this change of path?
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Hi Enrique,
The path of light means that instead of moving forward by suffering, we use the light to help us to advance forward. We extract the light primarily through the Kabbalistic studies, where we read about our future states of connection, bestowal, and love and aspire to be in those states. Our aspiration for those future states is what draws the light upon to help us reach those states.
Check out this blog post from Rav Laitman for more details: https://laitman.com/2013/02/sunbathing-in-the-rays-of-the-reforming-light/
Albert @ KabU
