[Albert – KabU Instructor]

Hi Judy,

Spiritual advancement happens specifically from the ups AND downs. It’s just like the EKG chart that measures the heart. If there are ups and downs, the heart is beating, the body is alive. If it flatlines, the body dies.

Likewise in our spiritual work, our advancement is composed of many ups and downs. But if we’re in the same state for a long period of time, then we stop advancing and are spiritually dead.

So what you are experiencing is normal. We go through many states on the spiritual path. Many ups, downs, and everything in between. The main thing is to just keep going, to keep placing yourself under the influence of the light, especially during the Kabbalistic lessons, and it will balance everything out.

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

[Albert – KabU Instructor]

Hi Jay, great questions!

1. For now, our main contact with the friends (those with active points in the heart on the path with us) is through the weekly lessons and Q/A forums. So if you want to nurture the desire to connect with them, you can spend more time on these forums, incorporating in their responses, in their questions and answers.

In the more advanced semesters, everyone will be grouped into virtual groups of ten where you can work on building the connection in a much more practical way.

2. Our nature is egoistic. As such, it does not allow us to have a clean intention for bestowal. In the best case scenario, we can ASPIRE towards the intention of bestowal. We can play pretend AS IF we want bestowal. This is as much as our nature allows and actually this is enough. Such a game, especially when played with other points in the hearts in the Kabbalistic group, is how we extract the reforming light. It’s ultimately the light that corrects our nature and gives us the intention to bestow. Our work is to extract more and more of it, until it begins to work on us and makes this aspiration a reality.

Check out this blog post from Rav Laitman for more details: https://laitman.com/2012/03/building-blocks-of-the-first-spiritual-degree/

Albert @ KabU

[Albert – KabU Instructor]

Hi Justin,

I’ve heard Rav Laitman describe it once that “to learn to walk, one needs to learn to fall”. In other words, falling is part of the process. But if we don’t understand this, every time we fall, we’ll disconnect from the process completely and stop progressing. So we do need to learn how to fall and get back into it.

For this reason, Kabbalists have always studied in groups. So that if one person falls, the group will give him the strength to get back up. It’s like with mountain climbers that tie themselves together. So if one falls, the others catch them.

We’ll learn how to apply these things practically in the more advanced semesters.

Albert @ KabU

[Albert – KabU Instructor]

Hi Jason,

Based on the research of the Kabbalists, we can say that reality exists within our desires. We experience the current reality in our desire to receive pleasure. When we correct that desire, direct it towards love and bestowal, we will experience a different reality: spirituality.

But one way or another, everything that Kabbalists ever talk about is the reality that is experienced within our desires. Even when they talk about an upper force, the Creator, etc. These are all phenomena experienced within our desires. This is why there are so many different names for the Creator (in Hebrew), since every time we correct a different desire, we reveal a different aspect of this thing called the Creator, and thereby give it a different name.

As for reality itself, how it exists outside of our desires, such a thing is not scientifically attainable, so Kabbalists don’t talk about it. Kabbalists are after all scientists, not philosophers.

Check out these articles for more details:

https://laitman.com/2012/12/philosophy-a-building-without-a-foundation/

https://laitman.com/2011/12/the-holy-names-of-bestowal/

Shamati 3. The Matter of Spiritual Attainment

As for the topic of free will or freedom, this week’s lesson videos centered around that. You should watch the two videos on the topic if you have not done so yet.

Albert @ KabU

• This reply was modified 2 years ago by Albert - KabU Instructor.

[Albert – KabU Instructor]

Hi Shaun,

Our desire for spirituality is like a seed. If we plant it in fertile ground, then it’ll get all the right nutrients and grow. If we put it in the desert or just keep it on a shelf somewhere, nothing will come out of it at all. So all of our work boils down to finding the best spiritual environment in which to plant that seed. And what will ultimately happen to that seed is a result of the environment we put it into. We’ll learn more about this in the next semester, when we study the topic of freedom.

Albert @ KabU

[Albert – KabU Instructor]

Hi Robin,

Thanks for sharing your concerns, hopefully this will clarify them:

1. Kabbalah does not hold the monopoly over spirituality. It’s not claiming to be the one and only method. The Wisdom of Kabbalah is the accumulation of thousands of years of experience from people practically trying to reach spirituality, what worked, what didn’t, etc. It’s not a must to use it, but as you can imagine, it’s a lot faster and easier with it.

2. Furthermore, I’m not an expert in other methods, so I cannot comment on what they do or teach there. Ultimately, there is no coercion in spirituality, so it’s up to each person to choose the path that best suits them.

3. And regardless of which path a person chooses for himself, whether here or in another place, it’s highly discouraged to mix methods. If we want to succeed in Kabbalah (or in any spiritual practice really) we should practice it without mixing other things into it. Otherwise it’s like following two different GPS systems. One leads you to the goal through the west highway, while the other through the east highway. If we follow both, we’ll just wind up going in circles.

4. As for the teachers and books, there have been many Kabbalists and Kabbalistic books written throughout the generations, but we don’t really study them directly in our days. In our days we mainly study from the writings of Baal HaSulam and Rabash. This is because egoism grows from generation to generation, so Kabbalah, the method for its correction, needs to get adapted in each generation for that level of egoism. For example it’s like in medicine, if a person has a headache he can just drink a tylenol and that’s enough to fix him. But if it’s not just a little headache but something cancerous, then that tylenol won’t do anything for him but he needs a completely different regime to heal himself.

This is why Kabbalah gets adapted in each generation to the level of egoism that is currently found in that generation. So although there were many different Kabbalists and Kabbalistic books throughout the generations, nowadays we mainly learn from the writings of Baal HaSulam and Rabash, since their writings contains the light that is most suitable to correct the egoism that is found in our generation.

Check out this blog post from Rav Laitman for more details: https://laitman.com/2015/11/the-great-kabbalists-and-their-works/

Albert @ KabU

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