The Seed of Life
ARI Films
Bold and italics: Quotations
Capitalized Italics: transliteration from Hebrew
The source Kabbalah comes from knowing oneself. Through one’s own being, a man can attain the Upper Worlds. Such a method is employed in other science, where a man observes our world with his sense organs or is assisted by additional devices. We record and accumulate all that data. Kabbalah is no different. Throughout the centuries, people who have attained more and more, penetrating deeper and deeper into the Upper World, have recorded this knowledge and this is how it was developed to this day.
The Forces that descend from the Upper World into this world, determine everything that takes place on earth. Every geographical location is found to be governed by a specific force. It is said, therefore that a person who relocates, changes his luck. The territory of Galilee, Safed, and Miron in particular were under the influence of strong Upper Forces over a vast period of time, up until the 17th century. These forces positively influence man, causing him to grow spiritually. People flocked there instinctively, feeling a true presence of the Spiritual Source there, which could fulfill them. That is why it was written that ancient Galilee was so densely populated that one couldn’t find an empty square foot there.
One generation goes, and another generation comes;
But the earth remains forever.
The sun also rises, and the sun goes down,
And hurries to its place where it rises.
The wind comes toward the south,
And turns around to the north.
It turns around continually as it goes,
And the wind returns again to its courses.
All the rivers flow into the sea, yet the sea is not full.
To the place where the rivers flow, they flow again.
Ecclesiastes
Tzfat is the ancient city that was home to many Kabbalists. It was a special city, particularly at those times when it was permeated by spirituality. The influence of the Upper Force was unique and specific to each region of the city. A Kabbalist could sit in his place and write, and you could tell by his writings, which part of the city it originated in, for such was the profound effect of the Upper Force that differed from one district to another. Such was the source from where he drew his knowledge from, being unlike his neighbors. Their writings were similar in essence, but they were articulated differently. It is a very interesting phenomenon to observe, because it allows us to scan the surface of the earth, its Kabbalistic geography in accordance with the spiritual forces that act on it.
A man stands perplexed, among everything that happens around him and does not understand, how everything that occurs connects into one integrated picture of nature; how each minuscule detail is vital, fulfilling its purpose for the entire creation. Gradually, however, as he studies Kabbalah, everything becomes clear.
Nachman from Breslov
This specific segment of Kabbalah studies the evolution of this Force. We can see for ourselves that countries rise, nations decline, disappear or are born; they thrive or they relocate, they merge, and so on. Why does this happen? This is the result of the effects of the Upper Force, which causes these changes and developments.
Avdat—it was a city that stood on the caravan road leading from ancient Persia into Egypt. Suddenly it disappears, completely destroyed, whereas other cities, such as Jericho, Jerusalem, and Cairo remain. There are many cities on this caravan road that disappeared.
To everything there is a season,
And a time to every purpose under heaven:
A time to be born and a time to die;
A time to break down and a time to build up;
A time to weep, and a time to laugh;
A time to cast away stones,
And a time to gather stones together;
A time to love, and a time to hate;
A time for war, and a time for peace
Ecclesiastes
The spiritual Force that governed over them, that incorporated them in itself, sustained them, changed. We can, in practice, foresee what changes will occur on the face of the earth as a consequence of changes in the Upper Forces.
The Upper Spiritual Force that greatly contributed to spiritual renaissance in Galilee disappeared around the 2nd or 3rd century C.E. As written in the Talmud long ago, the Galilee would suffer complete spiritual ruin. On the other hand, it was written, that a Force that would show all of the humanity the way out, from the depths, from the humiliated, fallen state we exist in, would come precisely from Galilee, a devastated place devoid of any spirituality that it once possessed. And that is the way continued throughout centuries up until the 15-th century, when the great Kabbalist ARI came to Safed.
From one generation to the next, the same souls descend to this world; they just keep developing, becoming more and more advanced. Thus, each time they reincarnate, they need a new method of attainment of the Upper World. As souls develop, there is a need for a more advanced method.
The ARI transformed and broadened this method so that it became suitable for anyone. It was suitable for any group of people, wherever they were, and wherever they studied.
From the 16th to the 18th century, large groups of Kabbalists emerged in Eastern Europe and other countries. In the 19th century this method slowly began to disappear; it was not sufficient anymore. It didn’t suit the souls that descended to this world at that time. This gradual degradation continued into the 20th century.
The Kabbalist Ashlag, my teacher, appeared at that time. Two great Kabbalists, Rav Ashlag and his son, took the method of the book of Zohar and wrote a commentary on it called Ha Sulam, the ladder. The name means that anyone can use this method as they ascend up the ladder, into the spiritual world. Additionally, they wrote a commentary called the Teachings of the Ten Sefirot, utilizing ARI’s method from his books of the 15th century.
These ten Sefirot which are ineffable,
Of boundless origin and end,
An abyss of good and one of evil,
Of boundless height and depth;
They have their end even as their beginning, conjoined,
Even as is a flame to a burning coal:
Their Master is One
Sefer Yetzira (Book of Creation)
The graves of my two great teachers are here. I have been connected to my teachers for many years. All that I receive, even today, I receive through the soul. It is because Kabbalah allows one to connect to the soul of one's teacher, during his lifetime. Through such connections, one can attain a link to the souls of all the other Kabbalists, for the name spiritual implies an interconnectedness of all souls, where all souls on the most sublime level, ultimately unite into one.
As the corporal body dies, the soul ascends, and immediately vests itself into a new body, to live another lifetime. The soul accumulates new information in each reincarnation.
The corporal body, however, is always that of a human being. Moreover, it is always masculine for a man and feminine for a woman.
These lifecycles can be compared to us changing our clothes: just as I change my shirt, so the soul changes its body.
Souls are not distinguished by their external attributes. A soul does not heed the importance of such things as a person's appearance, abilities, nationality and other special qualities, all of which are but an indication of the spiritual root of the soul. In the end, however, the souls ascend back to their root where they unite into one.
Souls of all men unite into one soul, representing man. The souls of all women unite to become one soul, representing a woman and these two parts join together to become one soul. Such is the union between Adam and Eve, which the Creator intended from the beginning. We are not talking about a man and woman in this world, but about two parts of a structure in a spiritual whole, two parts of one soul, which unite to form the perfect spiritual object, a vessel that is completely filled with all the Upper Light and good, which the Creator intended.
It means that the difference between people on the corporal level is only in their uncorrected state in this world.
Thus, when a Kabbalists ascends, neutralizing his body—his egotistical attributes—he unites with all the other souls. It goes without saying that he does not need to visit graves for that and perform any rituals. It is absolutely unnecessary and Kabbalah does not deal with that. Kabbalists are not obligated to perform any physical actions in this world; all of their actions are internal.
The one who does not know the wisdom of Kabbalah
Is able to perceive only the external, seeming, corporeal…
The essence, however, is within and can be attained
By way of inner governance.
Ramchal
I am surrounded by an immense sea of information and I am a receiving device within it, but I have a very small range: sight, hearing, taste, smell and tactical sensations—the five organs of sense. If we could increase the sensitivity of these sense organs, beyond their limitations, then would perceive the true world. Kabbalah develops a new organ of sense, a screen, with which we can perceive not only the bodies but also the souls, the Upper Forces, and how these Forces influence our world in their gradual descent from the Upper Worlds by the way of the Upper Governance.
…the miracle truth will radiate,
And the mouth will utter only the truth,
And all that will be revealed in confidence—
Only you will see, but none other!
Baal HaSulam
You know, there are stereoscopic images created in such a way that it consists of layers; if one learns to de-focus the concentration of one's eye, then the hidden layers will come forth and they reveal the life inside the picture.
It is similar with Kabbalah. It allows one to develop the sixth sense organ and to tune it to such a frequency that allows you to see the world in its entirety as the universe of souls, of existence before and after death. It allows you to answer the question about the meaning of life—before it begins and after it ends. It helps you to act correctly so that this life would be spent most effectively. And it helps you to see your mission in all of your lifecycles up to the present and after this life. You enter a level of existence where you experience eternity and perfection.
Kabbalah is based on developing only the sixth sense organ, while the other five should be developed as usual, meaning that a person should by no means isolate himself or limit oneself in anything. A person needs to work, have a family and live among other people like him, and to be an absolutely normal person, giving and receiving from the society that he lives in. That is precisely the state that is necessary to develop the sixth organ of sense inside of him.
If a person begins to use the Kabbalistic method to advance on his own to the Upper World, by that he improves the quality of the events that will happen to him, in the way that he senses them. To the measure that he willingly approaches the Upper World, he changes the governance of the Upper Force over him, from negative to positive.
The illumination surrounding one who engages in the study of Kabbalah
Imparts one with the sensation of yearning for the Upper Bestowing One,
With an abundance of purity,
Which brings one much closer to reaching perfection.
Baal HaSulam
In principle, the entire process of humanity's development ensures that every person, regardless of who he is or where he is, achieves that ultimate level of existence.
Man is the one and only creature that was made
To cleave to the Upper
Man is placed between perfection and deficiencies
And he is able to attain perfection.
Ramchal