[Paul]

Thank you Seth for your answer.

I think what you’re saying, and also what I’ve realized is that we need to recognize the futility of our own (egoistic) ways. But also (and profoundly), at the same same time, we cannot come to the Creator by any sense of need or compulsion. By that I mean our desire to connect with the Creator must be out of pure love, which is unconditional reception, just as the Creator is unconditional provision. If I want to come to the Creator in order to end my suffering, the desire for spirituality is there and can certainly bring me a level of peace if I imitate altruism for my own sake, but that will only bring about complacency in this world. I think we have to treat all of our egoistic experience as a learning experience. Therefore, we must value all life experiences equally, and not keep believing that we are not yet ready to receive the Creator, otherwise we never will. Basically, the act act of delaying satisfaction causes our suffering, yet we can never be fully satisfied without complete, unadulterated connection with the Creator.

To check my understanding, would the goal of exploring the upper spiritual levels be to see no matter how real appearances of altruism may seem, the actual intention is “in order to receive”? Meaning, we are not fully satisfied by our present condition because we aim to receive greater fulfilment at a later time in everything we do (i.e. our actions our conditioned upon a “will to receive” later, rather than a pure “will to receive” from the Creator without condition or with complete acceptance and trust, right now). Do we need to see that it is by our own actions we cause our suffering, and thus it is by our own actions (corrected) that we end our suffering?

I first came across some of the Kabbalah material over 10 years and miraculously it came full circle when I realized that the “faith” talked about in the Bible does not mean “mere belief” (actions have to completely align with understanding or “faith without works is dead”).

Kind regards,

Paul

 

[Paul]

Hi there,

I get a sense that our suffering lies with the conditionality of our acceptance (reception) of the Creator’s bestowal. If the Creator’s intention/will is to please us by His bestowal, and our intention/will is to receive and experience (that) pleasure personally, then perhaps our pleasure is limited by an incomplete acceptance of the Creator’s bestowal. If our will is literally the receiving/grasping of the Light of the Creator, then what causes our suffering would involve our “reflection”/rejection of that Light, which can only occur if our acceptance of the Light is partial. As an analogy, a red surface partially “accepts” visible light, as it absorbs all colors except red (reflects red).

Now, if the Creator’s will is to please us, then our pleasure is a measure of His pleasure. Therefore, if we allow the the Light of the Creator to fill us out of our love for Him, we delight in what we receive in order to please Him. Otherwise, we wouldn’t feel deserving of such pure pleasure if it were conditioned by our self-directed love (egoism). In other words, we are pleased by the gifts we receive from the Creator ONLY on the condition that it pleases Him, which it always does.

My question is, unless my understanding is incorrect, why does it take a lengthy process to reach this mutually beneficial state of affairs, despite its logical rationale? What’s missing?

 

[Author]

Replies