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I think helping others in the group means gradually learning to shift my attention away from myself and toward the others. Instead of always asking what I can receive from the group, I begin asking what I can give to it.
I suppose it starts with something quite simple: being considerate, being present, and genuinely being able to say, “I’m here for you.”
Maybe it’s also about becoming more aware of one another, recognizing that we’re all here because we share this desire for spirituality, and helping each other strengthen that desire.
As for how this attracts the reforming Light, I’m not entirely sure I understand the mechanism yet. But I think that by trying to care about the spiritual advancement of others, rather than focusing only on my own, I’m already beginning to work toward the intention of bestowal????
I guess the somewhat boring answer is to stick to the three main tools: the teacher, the authentic books, and the group, and keep placing yourself in that environment. If the point in the heart is already there as a desire for spirituality, then being in an environment that constantly increases the importance of that goal should strengthen that desire and the influence of the Light.
I have to use an animal analogy again, but I think of it a bit like a trout. A trout is not going to thrive in the middle of a desert. Put it in the river, though, and suddenly it has the environment in which it can actually do what a trout does. I guess I see the point in the heart similarly: you put it in the right environment and give it the conditions to develop.
I think transitioning from a self-centered perception of reality to one grounded in altruism entails gradually recognizing the limitations of our egoistic perception and reaching the desire to correct our intention. Instead of perceiving everything only through my own desire to receive, I begin learning to rise above my ego and perceive the desires of others as my own.
What I hope to get out of this course is, I guess, more input, more Light, so to speak, that I can take with me and then see what it does inside me over the following days and weeks. I tend to take these courses quite slowly. Apparently life usually has other plans for me, so sometimes one “week” of the course takes me a month. But I actually kind of like that, because the material stays with me for a while.
That was also my experience with the previous course. I would take in a lot of things, and then they would somehow sit inside me and bring up questions, or I would notice new desires and thoughts appearing in my corporeal life. I don’t always know immediately what to make of them, and sometimes it gets a little messy in there, but somehow I feel like I need that.
I don’t really know whether to call it my brain or my intuition, but there is something in me that keeps saying, “This is right. Put this inside your head and then go out into the world and see what happens.” 😅
I think of it a little like a plant getting sunlight. I don’t necessarily know beforehand exactly what the sunlight is going to do to the plant, but I’m also not stupid enough to say no to it. So I suppose that’s my expectation for this course: to keep taking in the material, give it time, and then later look back and see what actually changed in me, including the things I didn’t expect.
I think my best experience from the previous course was all the questions it awakened in me. I received a lot of new input, but what stayed with me most was how it made me question and examine things internally, sometimes long after the lesson itself. For this course, I honestly don’t have one big expectation. It just feels right to continue, learn more, and see where the material takes me.
Hi Seth, thank you again for your previous answers. They’ve helped me clarify a lot, and I have one more question that I think is underneath many of the others I’ve been asking.
If the Creator is described in Kabbalah as the absolute quality of bestowal and as “the good who does good,” how should we understand the radically unequal suffering of individual people, especially suffering that begins before a person has any conscious ability to do spiritual work?
For example, one child may grow up with protection, belonging and emotional support, while another may spend many years in an abusive or psychologically confusing environment, feeling ashamed, isolated and unsupported, and may need years simply to become stable enough to participate normally in life.
I understand that we should not interpret this as punishment or karma from a previous incarnation. But does Kabbalah teach that such specific corporeal circumstances are individually arranged according to a soul’s root or Reshimot, or would that already be an interpretation that we are not able to make from our present level?
I also struggle with what kind of relationship the Creator has with the individual. In some Jewish and Hasidic teachings, God is spoken about very intimately, almost as if He has a particular concern and need for each person. In the Kabbalistic language I am learning, the Creator often sounds more like the general law or quality of bestowal in nature. How should I understand the difference? Is there, in Kabbalah, an intimate relationship between the Creator and an individual created being, or is that way of speaking primarily a corporeal metaphor?
And one related question: I have heard instructors say that if someone has trauma or psychological problems, these should be treated on the corporeal level, just as one would go to a doctor for a broken leg. That makes sense to me. But then KabU also teaches about marriage and relationships from a Kabbalistic perspective. How should I understand the boundary? When is Kabbalah speaking about spiritual correction, and when is it simply offering guidance for living more healthily in the corporeal world?
I think what I am really trying to understand is this: if a person has a point in the heart but also carries very difficult human circumstances, what does Kabbalah actually say about the meaning of that person’s individual life, rather than only about the general system of Adam HaRishon?
