Part 2:
Baal HaSulam. "Study of the Ten Sefirot" (TES). Vol. 1. Part 1. Inner Observation. Chapter 9. #33
Reading #33 (00:21 - 05:57) “Spiritual movement means a new change of form” read three times
1. S. (06:07) “New change of form”, can you go in both directions, what’s the meaning of change form or innovation of form?
R. What is ‘form’?
S. That’s what I'm asking, is it like a desire?
R. Renewing the spiritual form is called ‘motion’, ‘movement’.
S. So you can go in two directions?
R. Yes.
S. How do we make sure that it goes in the direction of the purpose of creation, in the direction of correction.
R. It depends on you what you’re holding onto; what is he saying, “spiritual movement means a new change of form”.
S. I want to hold on to the friends, that's the goal.
R. Okay, try and see.
S. What anchors can I put?
R. See that the more you hold on to them, the more you're closer to them, incorporated in their desires and their goals, and as much as along with them you change, you advance, I would say sanctify.
2. S. (07:37) Is spiritual movement from one movement to another or is the precious form towards the new form already considered corporeal, in order to receive.
R. No, not necessary.
S. Is movement between different degrees or, like, you go for a stroll somewhere where you move from one view to another?
R. I don't know what view means.
S. What spiritual movement because it is all arranged between degrees?
R. Special movement is a change within a person when he gets a new desire, and in it, new feeling.
S. And what is the difference between the place towards which he is advanced compared to the previous place?
R. It is degrees, it depends on his desire, the difference between the desires is the difference between degrees, and that is called ‘movement’.
S. In our move in our world we move from one place to another, we can't characterize, it’s like a different place, but in spirituality it’s a degree, it's like a higher place compared to a lower place?
R. Okay.
S. Is that how spiritual movement is necessarily so?
R. Yes.
3. S. (09:12) Spiritual movement is a new change of form, so form relates to the desire or the intention?
R. The desire.
S. If we want to relate this to our work, connection and separation, is it also the changing of form in the ten?
R. It depends what we're talking about.
S. In our work we want to come to a spiritual form, yes, we can say it like that, in our relations, in time?
R. Let's say so.
S. So can we say that the change in form that we want to come is from connection to separation, is that what we want or not, I want to relate to this practically.
R. I want to belong to a higher desire, that is it, to a higher connection with the Creator, that is what I want.
S. My personal attitude towards, what about the ten?
R. Also from the ten.
S. And what is a higher desire than our ten, I mean closer, how can we depict it, that we have a form, that we want a new form and we do certain action, I don't know?
R. Does someone understand what he's asking?
S. What is the innovation of a new form in a ten.
R. Renewing of their desires usually towards more of a connection, extra connection, in order to come closer to the one Creator.
S. So all together the change of form is the form of our connection?
R. It is also the former the connection, the intensity of the connection.
S. And so what do we need to do to attain this new form, this change our form, what helps us?
R. Our ego, we constantly have to attain a greater desire to bestow, to annul ourselves before the friends.
S. So you said in the first part, we enter, we’re close to the entrance but we're not getting to a new form, we're not entering the spiritual, so we want to receive the new form, yes? Our form of attitude or connection and something is bothering inside, between us. So maybe we’re not scrutinizing quite what we’re needing, what we want, what are we missing?
R. We are lacking a desire to annul ourselves before the friends
4. S. (12:44) Baal HaSulam writes here, “he is wondering from place to place and accordingly he is called a new form in the name of movement”, what is movement in spirituality.
R. A disparity of form.
S. Is everything that is written here is it written about me, meaning that I am person I'm from the beginning of the Torah to its end?
R. Yes.
5. S. (13:29) He describes here the change of form, the new change of form in two two ways: the new states, and the opposite movement is I lose control and replace it with the authority of the Creator?
R. Yes.
Reading item number 34 (14:00 - 15:50)
6. S. (15:59) What is the current moment in the spiritual system, is there such a thing as present?
R. There's past, present and future, and what separates between the past and the future is the present.
S. So there's an actual discernment that this is the current time of a person in spiritual system and there are the future states that are also already defined in advance?
R. Yes.
S. And here it's all talking about the stage of the correction or not necessarily having to do with correction?
R. No, it's corrections, it's also in movement towards the future, from the past to the future.
S. And are all movements relevant to corrections or are there other movements?
R. No, there's no other movements, there's nothing but corrections, everything is corrections, even though it seems like horrible things to us.
7. S. (17:17) He says that movement is actually a changing of form, meaning there's a certain attitude towards the Creator and then that changes and that's already movement. And a certain continuity of movements become “time”, so what is time, a lot of movements, several movements?
R. “Time” is the gap between one state to the next, it gives us a sensation of time.
S. The gap between one state to another?
R. Yes.
S. What is that gap?
R. It's a gap between one state to the other.
S. So what's the difference between “movement” and “time”?
R. “Movement” is movement, so there's movement and moving from state one to state two.
S. So what turns it into time?
R. Man's feeling.
S. When a person feels this movement?
R. Yes and that is accepted in him as time.
8. S. (18:45) About this matter, a person that's trying to come closer to the friends, he's actually bringing the future closer to the present?
R. Yes.
S. That's a revolutionary concept!
R. Right.
S. It's something we can also use in dissemination, that we when we want to come close between us we're actually bringing the future closer to us?
R. Yes.
S. That is what I wanted to know.
R. Yes, in this way you go above time.
9. S. (19:30) Spiritual time is relative to a person, a person feels it?
R. Yes, we cannot talk about towards anything else but the person who is attaining.
S. What's the difference between time we grasp and spiritual time?
R. Maybe you could say that the time that you are perceiving is according to your psychological system, and spiritual time is that you're already speaking about spiritual changes that are in spiritual movements.
S. Why does it say that ‘there's no time in spirituality’?
R. Because time is what a person determines; when you look at something, you supposedly connect to that state or to that object that you grasped, and according to that you can determine your time already.
10. S. (21:07) In chapter nine, there are two concepts here: spiritual movement and spiritual time, can you explain what each is and what the connection between them is?
R. Let's read it.
Rav reading: Spiritual time means a certain number of new changes of form, that's spiritual time, which stem from one another, former and latter means cause and consequence. And the matter of time in its spiritual definition, understand that for us the whole concept of time is only a sensation of movements. Our mind that imagines pictures and devises a certain number of consecutive movements and in the senses, one by one, and then he interprets them as a certain amount of time. That is, if one had been in a state of complete rest with one's environment he wouldn't let him to be able to be aware of the concept of time at all, so it is in spirituality as well. A certain amount of new forms are regarded as spiritual movements which are intermingled in one another by ways of causing consequences, and they are called “time in spirituality”, and also the matter of before and after always means “cause and consequence”, so what are you asking?
S. I am asking those two spiritual concepts of spiritual movement which means renewing of form and spiritual time that is a certain sum of spiritual movements. Can you explain simply what the connection between spiritual movement and spiritual time?
R. Spiritual movement is a certain change that's happening from one state to the other, and spiritual time is a number of these spiritual changes that take place, you can say how many or how much, according to the number of changes.
11. S. (24:05) I remember that you said once that if person has to ask himself ‘what did I do for the ten?’
R. Yes?
S. So if a person asks that question a lot of times in a day, let's say, and how the ten influences him, so by this he creates time, and if he doesn't do this, so actually there is no time, no time has passed?
R. Also correct; you want to connect a bit of psychology to your perception, but okay.
12. S. (24:57) Can we say that exertion is movement and an accumulation of yearning is a new form?
R. The accumulation of exertions gives us new form, that is correct.
S. So yearning is movement, we could say that?
R. The movement is as a result of the exertion.
13. S. (25:37) In change of form is there a feeling between light and darkness?
R. Why else?
S. In every change of form?
R. In what way can a person discern between movements if there will not be a difference between light and darkness?
S. And that gives a feeling of time eventually?
R. Yes.
14. S. (26:10) It turns out that a person can control time if we connect more?
R. Yes, we can manage time that way, yes, he can be above time, it depends on how he accepts those changes.
15. S. (26:43) Is the intention what changes the form?
R. Yes.
S. Is the greatness of the Creator what makes these changes?
R. Yes.
16. S. (27:17) When we overcome ourselves, we discover that the Creator is the one bestowing upon us and conducting us and He is the initial reason, how does that change time?
R. The number of actions a person can grasp that are passing by him, that's his spiritual time, that's how he receives time.
S. It is written about cause and effect, what's the reason, it's in the Creator?
R. Yes.
Reading chapter 10 (28:28 - 29:45) “The entire substance that is attributed to the emanated being is the will to receive...” Item #35 Twice
17. R. (29:36) That desire to receive, yes.
Reading continues
18. R. (29:47) Meaning besides the desire to receive belongs to the emanated, everything else belongs to the Emanator.
Reading item 36 (30:01 - 33:17) The will to receive is the first form of every essence…”
19. S. (33:28) What does he mean that “the initial form is the initial substance”?
R. That's what he means.
S. I can't organize it in our terms.
R. That in its first presentation of form and matter, they were as one.
Rav Reading: And though the desire to receive is a seemingly understood in its essence, and how it is perceived in the substance of essence substance of essence, indeed it is the same with the essences that are near us, we call the first form in the essence by the name “the first substance in the essence”. Since we have no attainment or perception whatsoever in any substance, as all of our five senses are completely unfit for it, sight, hearing, smell, taste and touch, offer they scrutinizing mind mere abstract forms of incidents of the essence, formulating through the collaboration with our senses. For example, if we take the smallest microscopic atoms in the smallest elements of any essence, which are separated through a chemical process, they too are merely abstract forms that appear in that way to the eye. More precisely, we distinguish and discern them by the ways of the will to receive and as to be received that we find in them. Following these operations, we can distinguish and separate these various atoms to the very first matter of the essence, however, even then they would be no more than forces in the essence and not a substance. Thus, you find that even in corporeality we have no other way to understand the first matter except by assuming that the first form is the first matter which carries all other incidents and forms that follow it. It is much more so in the upper worlds where tangible and imaginary do not apply.” What is being asked?
20. S. (37:10) What's the connection between substance and essence?
R. The qualities of the substance and the substance, itself, and the essence of the substance, are different things. The essence of the substance is that upper force that sustains it and establishes it in such a way. It says to the world's ‘that's it that's how you should feel yourself and aim itself that way and that is what you will have’.
S. The question is what's a person's work towards these terms called “essence” and “substance”?
R. To the extent in which we rise in the latter of degrees, the more we understand and feel that the substance is only in our senses. The essence is in the forces of nature and therefore we are the connectors between the substance and the essence.
S. So we can only connect between substance and essence but we can separate between them, we don't have a perception between each one separately, only towards their connection?
R. Yes.
21. S. (39:23) When he says that “it's only hidden perception”, it means that it's an illusion, it's a mistake that we're looking through the senses of this world?
R. Yes, of course, that is towards us.
S. So, on one hand, this perception, the illusion we have it doesn't bear results, we have all kinds of discernments about nature like scientists, we implemented and things happen.
R. Of course, under our framework we operate and we feel and change everything, we ourselves change, yes.
S. And another thing is that the search for this initial substance is the search for the Creator, they just don't know it's the Creator, we're searching for our source, where we come from, what we belong to?
R. Yes correct.
S. So everything that we actually need is to divert our point of view?
R. We have nothing else we can hold on to, that's why we do it this way.
22. S. (40:36) He says we don't have perception in the essence in the upper force but also not in the substance?
R. In the will to receive we have no perception, what we receive in the will to receive, what we feel inside the will to receive, in that, we have some kind of perception, some kind of grasp.
S. And it's also through the senses?
R. Yes.
S. So that's the cause of the concealment?
R. That's the concealment itself.
23. S. (41:18) We have a certain attitude towards the ten, so it's clear everybody can say what the attitude is in every moment, but what is the substance of the ten?
R. The substance of the ten are the desires to receive that are in some connection between them, and they want or hope that through the connection between them they will be able to attain higher and deeper degrees within creation.
S. And we have an ability to connect to the substance of the ten?
R. Yes, actually the question is: What did the Creator do actually, He gave us the possibility and the opportunity, I would say indirectly, to come to the foundations of creation. And thus start to get to know Him, I would say not in direct manner but rather in an indirect manner. There are not too many words for this, there are no words right now.
24. S. (43:09) The relations between substance and essence, it's a constant, meaning they affect one another, that substance wants the essence, the essence wants to change the substance or increase it?
R. That's only in relation to the attaining person.
S. How can we take our yearning to increase the substance and in order to serve the essence or feel the essences, it's not just one, how do we increase the yearning for it in a collective manner, in the ten, in the vessel?
R. It's clear that it's through the connection between us to the extent that we are capable and the connection between us, we discover the collective connection and then the Creator establishes this and stabilizes it.
S. So the prayer is the line connecting between the substance and essence?
R. Yes.
25. S. (44:41) Baal HaSulam writes amazing things here that the corporeal developments gave us an ability to develop and reach equivalence of form with the essence, meaning man, the quality of man. That same man supposedly reached a development and then he causes damage, he uses that environment and that place to develop, he uses it in an opposite way supposedly, meaning we are destructing the environment that was given to us to develop in and attain the essence and we're doing an opposite. Why is it like that because we see that everything we do only makes things worse, it's self-destruction, how's that possible, the same degree?
R. Why don't you ask the Creator?
S. How can I ask the Creator?
R. I don't know, but it might be a foundation for your connection with Him, connect, turn to Him and start asking specifically what you said now.
S. I don't know, I can't alone, how can I.
R. What's the problem, it's your personal question.
26. S. (46:50) Towards the end how do you feel our physical gathering here to the studies?
R. Us sitting together is very beneficial and it's good that we came back here, let's hope that we will be able to continue this way. And it's best that everyone comes here, whoever is still at home.
S. I can say it.
R. okay, nevertheless, there's room for everyone, and according to that we will advance.
S. You said during the lesson that we were in the entrance but not really entering?
R. Yes, there's a certain barrier before us that we need to forcefully enter, to breach it, to break it, I hope that it will happen soon.
S. What is this barrier?
R. In the mind and the heart, we have this kind of blockages that are not letting us connect exactly between us and between us and the Creator at a higher level, I hope that it will be, it seems to me like it is felt.