October 22, 2024
April 25, 2014 at 7:30 pm · Filed under Kabbalistic Sources
Firstly, what is a soul? This is a completely separate question. People say that it exists in the body. But what if we change the body, begin changing and replacing all of its organs?
You know that this is already possible today, and if it impossible then we will be able to replace absolutely everything in 50-100 years. We can already transplant the heart; therefore it’s clear that the soul does not relate to the heart. Neither does it relate to the arms, legs or anything else. Well, perhaps it relates to our head? Let’s suppose that in a few dozen years we will be able to replace the head. What then? Will our memory disappear somewhere? It’s probably recorded here, in the head, so if we change the head, will the memory disappear? Maybe they will put a girl’s memory in me and I will have her memory? Or does this not matter?
Maybe memory is also not stored in the head. It only seems to us that it is stored there just as it seems to us that our feelings are located in the heart. The heart simply restricts and reacts to changes in pressure, and it seems to me, “Oh! I feel it in my heart.” But in reality this feeling is not in the heart. All feelings are completely not in the heart. An engine can work instead of the heart, and I will feel all the same. The same thing is true for memory.
What about the soul? Where is it located? Is it in the body?
Let us change the body, change everything, transplant all the organs; will it change then or not? Where is it, this soul? Maybe if I cut a piece of flesh out of me then I will simultaneously remove the soul? I will take another organ from someone else and transplant someone else’s soul, and then will we be able to implant souls? This already becomes interesting. Maybe if I put a couple of souls into myself then I will live longer?
In other words, in principle, if we delve into these questions, we find that we completely do not understand anything about them.
In Baal HaSulam’s article “Introduction to the Book of Zohar,” he tries to slightly explain it to us. Baal HaSulam says that the soul is a part of the Creator in man. What does “a part of the Creator in man” mean? This means that I somehow chop off a piece from the Creator (the quality of love and bestowal) and take it for me, and the same for every one of us, right?
As a result each one of us has a piece of the Creator. Where is this piece located? For some reason I don’t see this piece in any of you. You all don’t look anything like people who contain a piece of the Creator. And the same goes for me. We do not have anything eternal and perfect. Something that’s chopped off from Him is located inside of me? A piece means that it was torn off or somehow separated from Him? And so, the question we have to clarify is: what does “a part” mean, where is it placed in me, why do I need it, where can I discover it, what should I do with it, and so on.
These questions are quite complicated. Baal HaSulam answers them in “Introduction to the Book of Zohar,” and they are also dealt with in an easier, step-by-step manner in the Free Kabbalah Course.
The Free Kabbalah Course is based on the articles of Baal HaSulam and provides step-by-step guided learning from experienced Kabbalah instructors of Kabbalah’s basic concepts based in Baal HaSulam’s articles. Baal HaSulam was the first Kabbalist in history who wrote articles not only for Kabbalists, but for the broad public, in order to explain Kabbalah’s fundamentals, because he understood the need that would emerge in humanity to answer deeper questions about life’s meaning and purpose. Therefore, if you’re interested in such topics, we recommend taking the free course and start learning about the world around you and inside you anew. Click the banner below to sign up for the free course …
October 17, 2013 at 7:00 pm · Filed under Articles, Books
Spirituality. The very word causes a cavalcade of descriptions, ranging from what we find at the bottom of a bottle of tequila, to religion, to cults, to ghosts and goblins. Yet what is this thing we call “spirituality”? Is it a place such as heaven? Is it a religion such as Christianity, Judaism or Islam? Is it a condition? Is it a state of mind? Or is it a combination of all of the above?
If we consider the lack from which we suffer, we can narrow it down a bit. Whatever spirituality is, it is definitely not here, not in this world where we live, eat, sleep, breathe, and fulfill a generous amount of our desires.
Having been examined from a variety of directions, almost everyone agrees on one point: spirituality is where the “soul” resides. In other words, it is the soul’s environment. That is all well and good, but it also defines nothing until we know what a soul is.
In general, there are four common attitudes regarding the soul, as well as our existence here in the physical and the spiritual. Those four attitudes are religious, secular, scientific, and philosophical.
Read the rest of this entry »
September 1, 2009 at 8:03 am · Filed under Daily Lessons
Notes from the third lesson at the
South American Kabbalah Congress
We have all been created as parts in one system, connected to one collective soul.
Gradually, we started feeling isolated from each other until we reached the state of lacking the sensation of unity between us.
That state is called “this world.”
The return to the sensation of true connection between us is called “the system of worlds.”
In other words, in the measure that we reveal the unity between us, we rise in the system of worlds – starting from the world of Assiya – the smallest degree of connection between the souls, through the world of Yetzira, Beria, Atzilut, Adam Kadmon and the world of Ein Sof (Infinity) – the final degree of connection between the souls, as in one body.
My will to connect to others = my soul.
The wisdom of Kabbalah was given to us as a tool for discovering the true connection between us, which is the condition for the revelation of the Upper World.
In order to speed up our development toward the revelation of the connection between us, one is dependent on one’s surroundings.
By nature, the ego is against our interconnection, so we need to create surroundings that value the importance of the true connection among ourselves.
The goal of all problems that befall us are not for us to connect through troubles and pressures, but to help us find that positive part within us, the internal connection between people, by ourselves.
Therefore, the fact that an intensifying connection is revealing among all parts of reality, in ecology, economy, and in the connections between us – this is a good sign.
Everything that seems bad or evil to us in our world is made that way in order to force us to connect with each other.
Therefore, it won’t help us to solve the world’s problems in an external way.
The change that will better our lives is the change of inclination from “correcting the world” to “correcting ourselves.”
Considering the above mentioned, it becomes clear that the sole free choice a person has is in his inclination toward connecting with others.
Today we are all, as if, covered by the external shell of the ego that differentiates between us and others.
Throughout history, we have developed within this external shell, until the fruit within it ripened.
And now, the time has come for us to crack this external shell and connect among ourselves.
Only in that way will the world’s problems be solved.
3 Lessons from the South American Kabbalah Congress in Argentina (Video & Audio)
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