[Ben]

I’ve been a student of spirituality for decades and have studied both Eastern and Middle Eastern philosophies and faiths. Kabbalah has brought all of them together and given me a clearer understanding of the meaning of life and our Creator’s plan.

Jewish, Christian, Muslim, Hindu, and Buddhist faiths all talk about a “Golden Age” or a “Messianic Age” where evil will be defeated and a time of peace, prosperity, and righteousness will come. All of them speak of a divine figure who will make this happen.

What I’ve felt most uncomfortable about in relation to other theologies and what I love most about Kabbalah is that this “redemption” or “enlightenment” is related to humanity as a whole as opposed to each of us as individuals.

And I feel humbled that the Universe finds me worthy of and believe me to be capable of being part of this transformation of humanity.

I am so grateful for this opportunity.

[Ben]

I don’t have any questions, but I am totally stoked about becoming part of a group of 10 and beginning the real work!

How long before we’ll be assigned to a group of 10?

How will we be notified?

[Ben]

Hi Julian,

Love the goatee…I think you should try growing a full beard.

Been thinking a lot about the aspects of love and fear of the Creator we discussed at yesterday’s Q&A.

And that connects directly with your question…

Love and fear can coexist.

Today when I was reading “Attaining the Worlds Beyond” it was mentioning how different expressions of love can evoke anything from longing to hatred (very interesting). Which is why the Creator conceals his love for us until we are of a level of spiritual maturity to accept unconditional love.

Spiritual love differs from egoist love in that it is unconditional and is intertwined with faith.

Faith is the opposite of fear: faith and fear cannot coexist.

In a sense if people of a society possessed spiritual/unconditional love they would have transcended egoistic love, embodied faith, and social dilemmas would no longer exist.

So long as the people in a society are still entangled in egoistic love there will be social dilemmas.

The only difference is that when a significant percentage of people in a society possess spiritual/unconditional love then these dilemmas would be resolved in a more positive and timely manner.

[Ben]

Hello everyone.

Spiritual study has been my passion for most of my life.

I’ve been a serious student of both the Eastern and Middle Eastern faiths as well as dabbled in some of the more obscure philosophies.

I even spent quite a few years as a Buddhist teacher.

When I discovered Kabbalah it brought all of these other spiritual practices into perspective and confirmed many of the things I found hard to accept in these other practices as being false.

I’m explaining all this to give you an idea of both my passion for spirituality and that I accept the potential that I may be more corrupted just as easily as I may be more advanced than your average student with my limited experience in Kabbalah.

This week I just completed the 20 weeks of introductory courses and have entered into the Graduate Environment.

For decades, most days I wake up around 3am and read spiritual books for an hour or three before I start my day.

These days I read Kabbalist books.

I’ve read the “Shamati” from cover to cover…granted I only understood about 25% of it.

Currently I’m about 2/3 through “Attaining the Worlds Beyond”…love it! That one I believe I understood about 80%.

Considering that often I have to re-read the same paragraph a few times to let it sink in, I think that’s quite a bit of reading that I’ve done over the past 20 weeks.

One of the major things that I find disturbing and somewhat contradictory in Kabbalah is how our egoistic nature is often labeled as evil.

Aside from what I’ve been reading about how we only advance through our bouncing between the right line of faith and the left line of intellect, it makes no sense that anything in all of creation could be evil.

To me it would seem that our egoist nature is no more evil than an electron.

Both protons and electrons, both egoist and altruist, both faith and intellect, are all part of our Creator’s perfect plan.

Balance is the nature of nature.

We can only appreciate a thing by observing its opposite.

Caterpillar to butterfly…tadpole to frog…our egoistic nature is a necessary phase in our development.

Am I seeing things clearly or am I getting hung up on some other spiritual philosophy from my past studies?

[Ben]

Do you want my honest response?

Over the decades I’ve been part of all sorts of self-help and spiritual groups that held large group events. And in every case the responses people had were pretty much IDENTICAL to what everyone has been saying about the Kabbalah Congress.

There is a “group dynamic” that some would call a “collective unconscious” that can be observed when groups of people with similar attitudes get together. You feel the added passion and excitement at sporting events or in theaters or at comedy clubs. Everything is more intense. Everything is more vibrant. Emotions run high.

I’m sure at Nazi and KKK “hate” events people have a similar response.

This response has less to do with spirituality or the Creator and more to do with human nature.

My point is three things:

1. That what is being described happens whenever a group of people with similar attitudes gets together.

2. This universal human response is proof that we are all connected.

3. Anyone who has completed all of the previous weeks of KabU lessons is likely already sold on Kabbalah.

Would I go to a Kabbalah Congress?

Most certainly.

I would relish the opportunity to get together with other Kabbalists and to meet and learn from more advanced students of Kabbalah.

At the same time I felt as if this section in the entry-level 20 weeks of KabU training was the first one where I felt like it was “fluff” as opposed to the foundational “meat and potatoes” lessons that filled the previous weeks.

I am very impressed with KabU and I am grateful for the opportunity to study Kabbalah in this way.

My recommendation would be to edit this section of the KabU program to include more substance.

Possibly add some excerpts from lectures given at a Congress.

Possibly have the lecture playing in the background and zoom in on the faces of the people to show their unsolicited responses.

If someone has gone this far with the KabU online courses I would suspect that they are already quite excited about Kabbalah and already quite impressed with KabU.

I don’t think you need to sell them on a Congress.

I believe a better time and way to promote the importance of attending a Congress would be when a Congress is coming up and to do that promotion with emails, social media, and links.

I hope that my constructive criticisms were accepted as heartfelt and supportive.

[Ben]

As we ascend and realize that we are all pieces of the whole of humanity we connect with others on a spiritual level. The more we connect the more our combined spiritual “power” becomes accessible uplifting both ourselves and all of humanity.

[Author]

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