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It’s the most unnatural thing for the ego, but the most natural thing for our point in the heart. It’s a battle just because we’re constantly stuck between two opposing forces. With experience, the “thinking” part, meaning, “what do I do and how” kinds of thoughts have already entered this kind of emotional understanding and you’re no longer needing to go back to the “rule book” of sorts.
On that level, “faith” is “faith in the sages”. This means we don’t have the force of “faith”, yet our point in the heart still yearns for fulfillment. In order to stay on the path and receive the necessary inner changes, we have to bow the head and plow forward according to Kabbalist’s advice and this will keep us under the influence of the environment which gradually changes us to actually want something of bestowal.
~Chris
The Zohar is for drawing the light that reforms – the hidden upper force in nature that acknowledges our desire to return to be one with our Maker and makes the suitable changes in us so we would start working on the next step. It’s either this force that we awaken on ourselves or suffering which forces us to search for a change of state.
~Chris
That’s really what”ascents” and “descents” are all about. The fluctuation of what’s important for a person.
Pleasure and pain is how we are steered through life. We always only want the good, the pleasure, this is our nature. Kabbalists would say, “good, now you know what you’re made of.” As well as, “Good, at least you have some attitude towards the Creator.”
Certainly He only does good, so what “bad” is pain and evil in the world, right? Kabbalists define good and bad a bit differently. “Good” meaning, towards the Creator and “bad” as distance. The only “bad” that exists is a force (also the Creator) which pushes a person away from Him, while a person might feel negative sensations, if they are cleaved onto Him, knowing and feeling that it comes from Him and knowing and feeling what the goal of the torment is for, then the pain is actually received in joy since he feels he’s actually coming closer to the Creator by this.
It’s living in two different worlds at once, but it’s how we can feel the existence of the Creator at all. This gap between our desire to receive pleasure and our desire to be like the Creator. We will always be opposite to him in our nature, however if we learn to use our nature for a different purpose then we can clothe His likeness on us and we can sense His thought and purpose. For us creatures, this brings the ultimate fulfillment and how we feel whether it’s good or bad has much less importance since we’re striving only for adhering to Him.
It’s not easy, but this is the path. Experience brings a person to feel the truth in this and that is what will help them continue forward until they can sense it within themselves completely and at that point their “I” stops serving themselves which actually brings the most relief as this “I”, receiving for myself was the sole cause of all my suffering to begin with.
Best of luck,
Chris
I understand where you’re coming from, many people have that impression. We’re in a different era and while our teacher comes to us as the last link in the chain of Kabbalists, it’s on us, his students to disseminate the wisdom. The dissemination is less of our teacher and more through the students for many reasons and this is one of them. It’s hard to see through our egoistic eyes, prejudices, and preconceived notions about what a Kabbalist teacher should look and act like. It’s also hard to hear the translation. As much as we’ve translated the live lessons, it’s still more “pleasant” to not have to go through it and it can even be distracting. It’s one of the main reasons we don’t send beginner students directly to the daily morning lessons. A student should first settle within themselves a foundation for the material, be able to orient themselves and know what it is they’re looking for and what their work should be – only at that point can you begin to value the gift we have.
His role is to guide us and help us grasp what Kabbalists have written for us while we work to realize it practically between us. After some experience, you’re able to see through the personality and the characteristics of a person and hold onto that point that longs to be with the Creator. The external appearance or qualities of a person has zero importance. The only value is in the inner intention – “for what”. If this is aimed at bringing the entire world into good connections between us and revealing the benevolent for of nature, fulfilling the purpose of our lives – this is what we cherish and strive to mimic.
Imagine eventually, we’ll have to bring the entire world into ourselves, have it enter our hearts and care for it more than we care for ourselves. Think of all the different kinds of people there are and how repulsive and opposite they are to you. They too are parts of you which you’ll need to embrace. It’s why we start, as Kabbalists say, “from the lightest to the heaviest” – those we we can connect to first are those who have that same aspiration, it’s what helps us rise above all the disturbances and differences between us and find that common goal that unites us.
The only goal of our teacher is to bring the entire world to the complete correction. If this becomes our only goal as well, this is what we will value and everything else is as an obstacle from the Creator to remind us that importance of that goal above everything else is the “fuel” we need to continue going. When you can take this fuel and use it, you rise up to a higher level and can see that the teacher He gave us was exactly what we needed.
There’s another aspect here that’s more complicated to explain in words, but if you are a parent or if you’ve ever been a teacher and eyes are always on you, absorbing everything, you have to make sure you’re not leading them astray or making their path longer or more difficult even by one gram or one inch. He has to be very careful not to give us any incorrect impression for what spirituality is and how to attain it. If he were to be a big cuddly teddy bear, we too would want to be the same and in doing that we would think we’re making some progress towards “love your neighbor” – however this is one of the biggest hurdles as we need to basically un-learn what we think is good for others and re-learn that “good” can only come from the Creator and not from within any forces we might have naturally. If we want to do good to others, we have to ask for good from the Creator for them. On the outside, it could even seem the opposite. We’re not really allowed to understand this in our brains just yet, but the “feeling” of this truth can only be sensed when you yourself experience that fact.
I hope this helps. Best of luck.
Chris
