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Hello friends, on Sunday, half an hour before the YG meeting there is a special event on the upcoming retreat. Should we there on that one or is it ok to skip it? Thanks!
1) What did I take from the lesson?
It is wonderful to feel nourished and cared for by the environment. There is no obstacle that cannot be overcome if we surrender to the environment! We should never trust any of our emotions and states, rather, we should always keep our focus on the goal
2) How do we make sure that we draw the reforming light with every action of ours?
I yearn for us to be connected. We need to give importance that this is the only thing we have to engage in.
3) Leave in the forum a message that will help build between us a demand so that none of us will be able to differentiate themselves from the others, and we will feel as one.
We must be dedicated to work only for our friends to achieve their goal.
So you are telling me to start being jealous to friends in the group (the other two, lust and honor, I understand :)), but how does envy feel like? What thoughts should it yield? How to “provoke” such thoughts? I see a friend in the group that are more diligent than me, better, more, and I am happy, glad, I want even more for them because they are trying so hard… so what thoughts should I have instead?
Envy? Seriously?? Now I have to pray for that too?
I never felt jealousy or envy for anything or anyone in my life!, simply because I know that’s a waste of time and space, and because everyone is different, so how can an apple be jealous of a plum, for example? I do not understand the concept of envy! I have friends that were jealous in certain situations, I see that it is tormenting them, I am compassionate because they are in pain, but I don’t understand it!
Everyone is different and they all have different set of desires and needs and that has nothing to do with me. So, if someone has attained more than me or have more than me, I am happy, great for them! I want everyone to have more than me and attain more than me, because they will be content and happy people and I would get to live in an environment of happy, content people. Happy, content people don’t think how to harm other people or how to protect themselves… then I don’t have to be wary all the time, that’s hard work!… you get the point… What a joy would be to go to work or the market or just for a walk and see happy, content people…
My motivation is me, I always only compete with myself. I try to do my best, and that’s it, there is nothing more I can do. If the Lord provides…
So, now, you are telling me that I have to start being envy of some other person?? That’s not going to work for me I’m afraid…
Rabash – Social Writings
According to what is explained concerning “Love thy friend as thyself”
… Yet, even once he acquires that strength and can keep the love of others in actual fact, and feels his own gratification as bad for him, still, do not believe in yourself. There must be fear of falling into self-love in the middle of the work. In other words, should one be given a greater pleasure than he is used to receiving, although he can already work in order to bestow with small pleasures and is willing to relinquish them, he lives in fear of great pleasures…
Shamati – 19. What Is “The Creator Hates the Bodies,” in the Work?
…This is the meaning of the verse, “And you shall take for you.” It specifies “for you,” since everything is in the hands of heaven but the fear of heaven. In other words, the Creator can give abundance of light because He has it. But the darkness, the place of lack, this is not in His domain.
Since there is a rule that there is fear of heaven only from a place of lack, and a place of lack is called “the will to receive,” it means that only then is there a place for labor. In what? In that it resists…
Why I chose this and what I felt from the text:
I chose this because I needed to understand fear more deeply, and these verses spoke to me, explained what I needed to hear.
I find these 2 complementary, in the first excerpt, Rabash is warning us not to get swept away with the little pleasures that we would eventually start receiving and feeling, and drift away in the middle of the work thinking that we accomplished all and be satisfied with those accomplishments. Because our nature is to dwell in a place where we feel comfortable, somewhat happy, at least not unhappy, so here we don’t feel lack. The most difficult thing for each man is to start and stay on the path of self-discovery. Because it is completely unknown, one never knows what can find there, on the other side, and the evil inclination inside us always assumes the worst, uncompelling things for us, thus diminishing the importance of the Creator and our spirituality.
So, the most frightening state should actually be the one when we feel satisfied and happy on the path, as then we don’t feel lack, which might slow us down, if not completely divert us from the path. And exactly at that moment, we need to force ourselves, to labor, to leave that feeling and continue with the work, but then a resistance appears in us, as the evil inclination is happy in that state, and does not want to give up this satisfaction and continue to work, it would disrupt its comfort zone.
“And you shall take for you”, meaning, we must be vigilant and detect these states and labor, as fear of Heaven is the only thing we have as a tool to achieve equivalence of form with the Creator. And that is exactly the resistance that Baal HaSulam mentions in Shamati no. 19. So, we must keep the fear alive, fear that we might not recognize the state, that we might become lazy, not do enough, that we might not detect the lack that we need to work on… I can talk about this forever 😊
I picture this as a black, empty bubble, Kli, unaware of the Light, so the inability to see that it is empty, that it lacks something, is maintaining the hard shell around it that prevents the Light to enter. With labor, it becomes more and more aware of the lack and that frightens it, and that fear starts to puncture small holes allowing the Light to enter bit by bit, until one day the shell cracks and fills the whole Kli with Light. Happy End 😊
