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I’m reading and re-reading Attaining the Worlds Beyond. And it reminds me of those lion dances they do in China, where they are on 20ft poles, and each step must land in the exact right spot. The thing about this book is that every time I take a step that it suggests (and seems clearly to be contradictory and impossible) there is no pole there… no place to step. But a step appears there all the sudden as soon as I commit my weight to the step.
The “screen” is deliberately not seeing the Creator because you have the strength in that moment, from His prior revelation, to proceed under your own effort! That’s what the screen is!
So you reach once when you’re weak, for the Creator’s help. And then you reach again, the opposite way, to apply your effort specifically without help. And you move, with the screen held between you and the Creator so that you’re not blinded by the Light. It’s like a machine.
*Mind blown*Thank God I stumbled across this section of Attaining the Worlds Beyond again today. Last time I read it it seemed interesting but meaningless. Today it is such a relief to see it, and it explains so much:
“if we realize that these states of darkness are necessary for spiritual advancement, and are even desirable, and sent to us by the Creator Himself, then we will welcome them. We will recognize that the Creator has offered us the gift of perceiving shadows, or the incomplete darkness, so that we may seek the source of the Light.”
Remember that all the division and egoism that we can see now in the world has always been there. It’s just that now we see it. And we know it is connected to us. We know we are a part of it.
Seeing it, and understanding the extent of the separation and hatred, is the first step in healing it. We must assess the status first, and then begin the measures to repair it.
So, no matter how terrifying it looks, keep going. This is progress. We have grown in our capacities to perceive reality and to wish the right things for it. Now that we recognize it we have to keep looking, keep wanting it to get better, and keep clinging to the Creator to hold us up in the midst of that spectacle of destruction.
You’re not alone. You can’t see the others, but we are right here.
I have a more mundane question about where we are in this course. I had to take two week-long business trips last month. I didn’t have much internet access or cell service for either of those. And I haven’t been able to attend any of the zoom meetings yet. On top of that, my email was sending invites to spam for a couple weeks before I noticed they were missing.
At this point I am not certain where we are in the course… what week is it?
I have been studying when I am able to. I have completed all the course materials up to week 4.
I’ve read Attaining the Worlds Beyond and Basic Concepts in Kabbalah.
I have listened to Unlocking the Zohar twice on Audible.
And I’ve been reading the Zohar before bed every night. I often have to repeat half of what I read the night before, but I have still gotten about 200 pages.So, in some ways I am behind. But I don’t feel behind. I just want to make sure I am not missing any next steps for the end of this course, in order to move on and continue with group activities. I should have time for group things starting next week.
Thanks for helping me sort that out.
The idea that we gain the strength to use the correct intention by achieving a capacity to sense the spiritual world, and then to make a direct comparison between how it works and how our inner world works, and to adjust our own parts slowly to match it. Being able to see both and adjust makes much more sense than just imagining it based on the descriptions and then trying to desire what we imagined.
That helps a ton. Because I was like “how am I supposed to develop a desire to change and bestow for a target and a recipient I cannot even conceive of?”
So, I get it now.
