October 21, 2024
October 22, 2014 at 5:30 pm · Filed under Articles, Books
How the Study of Kabbalah Works On You in a Gradual Way
In truth our present perception of reality is very limited, undeveloped. Our sensors are very unrefined. We cannot feel much of what happens inside our own bodies, such as molecular collisions or the birth of new cells. Therefore, there are many changes that need to take place for us to start feeling anything. Before any feeling is created in us, millions of wheels must revolve inside, entire mechanisms have to perform many corrections before those corrections are felt by us.
The study of the Kabbalah works on various levels of our soul, in attributes of the will to receive what we cannot feel just yet. A person reads but understands nothing, and so feels no reason to continue to study. The person feels this way because the text is working on attributes below the threshold of his or her feelings. It is like a person filling a glass of water and wondering why the bottom part of the glass has to be filled first before he or she can drink off the top. There seems to be no reason to be concerned with the other parts.
For Kabbalah to be Effective a Special Intention Is Needed from You
Our will to receive is corrected through the study of the Kabbalah. The study deals with the different levels of the soul, the vessel and the desire, which are at the bottom of the glass. We don’t touch them, do not drink them, and do not feel their actual taste until they reach the top, where we actually begin to feel them.
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September 16, 2014 at 7:30 pm · Filed under Articles, Books, Perception of Reality
How to Influence Reality to Get the Best Result
Kabbalah explains which attributes we must acquire to research reality correctly and helps us acquire the spiritual attributes with which we can influence the world. Kabbalah exposes us to the entire reality and explains its laws; it teaches us how we can influence the system of creation positively and get the best result in return. The method of our bestowal upon the surroundings is called the “Kavana” (intention).
The further humanity evolves without fitting into the ultimate reality meant for it, the further the world submerges into a state of suffering and uncertainty. Therefore, in our current situation, Kabbalah is becoming a practical must.
The wisdom of Kabbalah is the discovery of the laws and the collective mechanism of reality. To a person living in our world, this is called the revelation of the Creator to His crea- tures. The revelation gives us the ability to approach the useful and stay away from the harmful and to know the reason for the good and as well as the bad.
The purpose of the study of Kabbalah and its implementation is to attain the best possible results for humanity. The goal is simple: to attain happiness and peace both in the body and outside it, to attain eternity and wholeness.
Gaining the Ability to Research the Depths of Reality
The wisdom of Kabbalah also teaches us to manage the collective mechanism of creation in which our universe is but a tiny particle. Just as scientists study the phenomena and the laws of this world perceived by and apparent to all, so the Kabbalist scientists research the reality that is not perceived by our five senses and its laws.
We badly need this research because we are the only active beings in the whole of creation. Using the ordinary means at our disposal, we can only expose a tiny fraction of the surrounding reality, whereas the science of Kabbalah gives us the opportunity to study the entire reality, the entire system of creation, and to operate it.
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July 11, 2014 at 7:30 pm · Filed under Articles, Books, Perception of Reality
How Changing One’s Intention Expands Perception
The only difference between the vessels that perceive the corporeal reality and those that perceive the spiritual reality is in the intention. The corporeal vessels are egoistic and the spiritual vessels are altruistic. Intention is related to one’s attitude towards the use one makes of one’s desires.
The only state that really exists is the state of Ein Sof (Infinity). In that state, the Light is present within the Kli. However, that state is concealed, and the concealment prevents us from experiencing the state of Ein Sof. The altruistic intention gradually removes this concealment and exposes the Light that permanently fills the Kli.
If we keep this depiction in mind, we will remember that we never reveal any Lights outside the vessels. When Kabbalists say that Lights enter or exit the vessels, they wish to emphasize how one draws nearer to the attainment of the constant state. In Kabbalistic terms, Ein Sof is a state of “complete rest,” meaning it is unchanging. Our work is to gradually prepare our tools of perception to perceive that state. Thus, the only change is in our abilities to perceive.
If Nature Is Perfect and Eternal, Why Don’t We Perceive It?
When Light “clothes” a person and one feels how it gradually enters, the constant state becomes gradually clearer as one awakens to feeling it. The Light never actually enters and never actually exits. It only becomes clearer and more evident, meaning more revealed and less concealed.
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June 30, 2014 at 7:30 pm · Filed under Articles, Books, Perception of Reality
How Can the Spiritual Reality be Perceived?
The gist of our work is the making of the Kli. If we know how to build our tool of perception correctly, we will understand where we truly are. Our substance consists of a desire to receive delight and pleasure.
If we can make this substance sensitive to insights concerning reception and bestowal, we will be able to use it to perceive the spiritual world. It is similar to the way a block of crude iron is melted to create engine parts. When assembled correctly, they yield a working engine.
Similarly, we must work with ourselves to perceive spirituality. Building the spiritual Kli is a lot like sculpting—you must carve the raw material and file it until the desired shape appears. The raw material, in this case, consists of our desires, our thoughts, and intentions.
How a Change of Intention Enables a Person to Feel Nature
The Creator formed Creation with the intention of doing good to His creatures. To realize His goal, He created a Kli—a will to receive—that would receive His benefit. At first, this will is shapeless. Shaping the will to receive is the work of us all until it is robed in its final form—bestowal, the form of the Creator.
The substance itself remains as it was first made—a will to receive pleasure—but changing the intention to bestowal likens its modus operandi to that of the Creator. Thus, the intention is the form.
Kabbalah books depict the forms that one should create in the will to receive, degree-by-degree, to finally sense the benefits that come from the Creator. The general will to receive consists of 613 desires, and each of these is topped either by an aim to receive, or an aim to give. These forms of reception or bestowal that “cover” each desire determine one’s degree of spiritual attainment.
A degree is a certain level of strength of the Form of bestowal. This enables the benefits of the Creator to manifest within the will to receive. The diverse fillings within the will to receive are the origin of the many names of the Creator. It is the perceiving individual who names the Creator according to the flavors he or she feels within the Creator’s bestowal.
What Kabbalah Researches
Once the Kabbalists attained the nature of reality and studied it, they divided the manner of recognition of reality into four levels: Matter, Form in Matter, Abstract Form, and Essence. Kabbalah is a practical study method that leads researchers thoroughly and systematically along the evolutionary trail. As in any other scientific method, Kabbalah teaches the researcher what to do, which results are to be expected, and expounds on the reasons for them. Kabbalah does not engage in depicting theoretical states that one cannot carry out independently and with full awareness.
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November 19, 2007 at 12:01 pm · Filed under Meditation
Question: For several years now, I have been practicing Kabbalistic meditation. I took some courses on the subject and I’m using a book by Rabbi Chaim Vital for this purpose. But lately, I’ve been reading in your paper that there is no such term as “Kabbalistic meditation.” How is this possible if Rabbi Vital writes specifically about that term?
Rav Michael Laitman, PhD: First, note that no such term as “meditation” or anything like it appears in even a single authentic Kabbalah book. Additionally, the fact that all kinds of courses and study groups say that they practice “Kabbalistic meditation” doesn’t mean that this actually exists in Kabbalah. All the writings of Kabbalah, including those of the Ari—which were written by Rabbi Chaim Vital—explain one simple thing: the whole of Creation is made of a desire to enjoy. That desire can only be in one of two states: corrupted—with an intention to receive for itself, or corrected—with an intention to give, to love others.
Question: What does this have to do with Kabbalistic meditation?
Rav Michael Laitman, PhD: In the process of the correction of the soul, a Kabbalist uses a method called “three lines.” This method is built on a simple procedure: first, the Kabbalist “takes” part of the corrupted (egoistic) desire, called “the left line” and subsequently corrects it, using the force of the spiritual Light, called “the right line.” In doing so, the Kabbalist builds a “middle line” within the soul, and thus advances in spirituality.
Because this work concerns changing one’s intention from reception to bestowal, it is called “work in intention” or “intention work.” One who is not proficient in the wisdom of Kabbalah misinterprets the term “work in intention” and attaches it to terms that are completely foreign to Kabbalah, such as meditation.
Taken from the article “Ask the Kabbalist” in Kabbalah Today Issue 9. Read the Full Article
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