Morning Lesson September 22, 2021, Transcription
Part 1:
Baal HaSulam - The Matter of Spiritual Attainment (The upper light consists of two discernments)
1.Rav’s Introduction: We are beginning as we said a few days ago that we have to go over all of the Shamati Articles together so we are in the third article, and let's continue in it, let's finish it.
Shamati 3…” From this we learn that when we pray to the Creator to send us salvation…”
2. S. (07:19) Towards the end it says the light is simple and all the changes are only in the receivers?
R. Yes, how else can it be?
S. What changes should we yearn for exactly?
R. That we try to clothe our will to receive with the intention to bestow. Then according to those dresses of in order to bestow which we attain, then the upper light accordingly can clothe in us gradually until we attain it, attain our equivalence of form to it and in this way, we come closer to the concept of the Creator. Which is the complete upper light that shines on the will to receive that it created.
S. How should it be expressed in our work to one another?
R. We need to search what we are supposed to do because for sure the Creator was not going to do the work instead of us but only if we will invite those changes that do not depend on us but depend on Him. This is why on the one hand the work is not upon you to finish, and you're not free to be rid of it. Everything is in the hands of heaven except for the fear of heaven, that is we need to do our part to sort and scrutinize what is it exactly and how we can actualize it quickly effectively. The Creator, as Kabbalists tell us he is the upper light that is in an absolute rest, meaning the moment that we prepare the vessels from below the upper light already imparts on them and corrects them and changes them and this is why all of our work is with the vessels.
The vessels are the desire, our desire, how can we change it? To the extent that we will try through our physical actions, from that we climb the ladder. As much as we in our physical actions will try to adapt ourselves to the Creator like little children who play with all kinds of toys. And with all of these toys there is something from the world of the grown-ups but they're playing as though they are in this big world and in this way, they're preparing themselves for greater states being grownups. It's the same with us, we need to understand what it means to be in the spiritual world, it means to be as one man with one heart. Be in mutual bestowal that being in such a connection that we will be able to bestow to the Creator and the Creator is called Bo Reh, come and see if He is revealed inside of us according to our preparation. Out of that we need to put together all kinds of exercises and Kabbalists have done this already before us. They, like parents or like teachers, prepare for us these games through which we can truly in the most correct and smooth manner we can enter being grownups adults, meaning working with the Creator with the attainment of the Creator in this after we finish our kindergarten. Then we will understand what our role is and how we carry it out. Instead of playing between us in some sand box or something with puppets or with building blocks, we will start to correct ourselves in a way that we will demand a correction from above.
The correction between us, this is the most important, all of our work, all the work the Creator does is a response for our request which is called a prayer raising MAN. When we ask of Him to connect us because we are praying for the correction of the soul of the broken soul of Adam HaRishon this is what is up to us to do. We need to restore the system to correction. It's correction is that we will come closer to one another and we will want to connect, we will want it out of our efforts. Then according to these efforts when we turn to the Creator, the Creator will help us in that he will give us the power of connection, the force of bestowal which to begin with we have none of it. Through this force of bestowal, we will already be able to connect between us, so that the egoistic parts that are repelled from one another will want to be connected above this rejection this repulsion. Then these two forces the force of repulsion and the forces of connection, when they operate on each other, out of that we will provide the conditions from the force of separation and the force of connection we will provide the conditions for the Creator so in between these two forces he can come in and be revealed to us. The force of rejection and coarseness and the force of connection, the refinement, they are both operating just like in anything in our physical life. When you have two contrasting forces that create between them a condition for the revelation of a third force which is the Creator. The cause for these two forces, this is how we need to work.
Therefore, what he told us here is that our work is just not to forget about the fact that we are correcting the vessel of Adam HaRishon. This is especially important for us because we are in the last generation as it is called in the general correction of the general soul and the Creator is already operating on the whole of humanity together, however on each and every part according to its place in the system of Adam HaRishon. Therefore, you hardly feel that there are any changes in the world and there are those who feel very much those changes. They feel a change in their lives, a change in their role. We need in addition to them to understand and feel what is happening in general. Everything that humanity will feel, those changes that it is undergoing, it will feel changes that are passing through us. We are in the uppermost top layer of the broken souls and we need to come into contact with the Creator and become a passageway for the rest of the souls for the whole of humanity. This is actually our duty and therefore the more we connect the more we will find the connection and demand from the Creator that we will have this connection so that through us he will be able to bestow to the whole of humanity. Because we need to operate out of the general love for everyone. Then we will keep our role our duty and we will feel how much by this we are giving contentment to the Creator.
3. S. (17:39) How does a receiver attain spiritual discernments?
R. In each and every one of us there are qualities that remained for us from the shattering of Adam HaRishon and in those qualities, we get all kinds of responses and out of that we start to work. Each one of us, in his broken vessel and to the extent that we hear what the Kabbalists are saying, and out of us keeping actions that they recommend for us to do, by this we change the influence of the Upper light on us and this is how we advance.
4. S. (18:58) You said we have to come to a state where we work against the repulsion and rejection. Is this anticipation of a greater pleasure? Where is it simply a result of the light?
R. Well usually what we say is that a person doesn't do anything and he has no idea what he is doing however there are two forces in him. One force, the beastly force that exists in any animal in the still, vegetative and animate and besides that in this animate desire that only cares for its own benefit. Besides that, we also have the point in the heart which we call a Godly part from above and we call it a spark from the will to bestow and out of the shattering of the vessel that the Creator created and later on He broke it deliberately He created the will to receive. He put inside of it a little bit of the will to bestow, that is considered that Adam HaRishon was in the Garden of Eden on the degree of Bina and later on he broke it and then this vessel fell into in order to receive. However, a spark remained in it and that inclination, this drive to attain the spark and in it to attain a higher superior development, via yearning from the spark and we operate from it and in order to correctly arrange our attitude to the spark this spiritual Reshimot, record we need to perform all kinds of action so that they will help us. These actions are connection in the 10 and all kinds of such things that Kabbalists tell us that those things will help us and this is what we do.
S. The action is clear, the more we don't have a desire for a connection as you say?
R. This is already done by the upper light the reforming light when we perform all kinds of actions according to what the Kabbalists recommend for us to do, and as a result of that, we begin out of lack of choice forcefully, to get closer between us and accordingly we see how our actions in our connection, bring us changes. And following many efforts in coming closer between us, not in our bodies but in our inclinations towards the Creator towards the upper force towards bestowal, towards connection through bestowal and as much as we try to clothe these inclinations into actions that resemble spirituality more and more, according to that we are drawing and inviting the upper light and it influences us and we already begin to feel that I exist in two states. Either I'm by myself alone or I am connected with the friends, in the desire of course not in the body. Especially during the pandemic, it was done especially so we would advance more towards an internal connection so as much as possible it is advancing people and promoting them towards inner connection, this is what we are all going through right now the whole of humanity. As much as we nevertheless, we try to get back to the physical body of connection, is only in order for us to seemingly succeed and again it will break, we will succeed and again it will break. Eventually we will not be able to be in a connection with one another but only according to our inner changes as much as we will want to be together. According to that we will be able to be together. So, to bring our world closer to the spiritual world in spirituality that proximity between two spirituals is according to the equivalence of form as much as they are close and drawn to one another then also incorporeality we are getting closer and closer to spirituality. In our world more and more forces that are spiritual, are operating, our world is ascending to spirituality and therefore we can see here, states that are so acute and sharp contrasting and this is how we will advance.
5. S. (25:46) About the excerpt according to the article Baal HaSulam writes that the spiritual attainment and the attainee are connecting together?
R. What does it mean that I attain, it means that I'm in contact with whatever I am attaining and what is depicted within me, in my senses and I attain this form that is depicted in my senses and this is called attainment. Now what is it that I attain? I cannot say because it is something that is outside of me. But within me when it's depicted in a certain way and different forms within me that is called attained.
S. What does it mean that the one who attains and the thing that is being attained are together?
R. I attain something with whatever is influencing me, by me wanting to connect with it, I build inside of me such a form a template, so that I depict to myself precisely such a form of attainment. That is, I change my desires according to these external qualities of the thing that I wish to attain, then it is considered that this external thing clothes within me. I change myself according to this external thing so it turns out that within me exists a form which is an imprint of the upper one inside my will to receive. How do I obtain the upper one? In my will to receive, I have no other possibility however to what extent do I attain the upper one, to the extent my will to receive is capable of taking on the form of the upper the form of bestowal and this is considered that the Creator is clothed in the created being.
S. Here, it becomes a bit complex because we say that we pass everything through the 10, there is a third party here?
R. No it's incorrect we cannot attain the Creator unless we prepare our vessel and our vessel is only when we connect. There is no chance to attain the Creator if I do not come out of my will to receive, so where will I come out to? I'm coming to connection with the others and according to the extent and form in which I connect with the other, to that extent I can depict and portray and feel the other, the Creator.
S. The question is inside this picture, the 10 the Creator, what is the 10, is it what I attained or the attainment is that from which I attain?
R. Both this and that. As much as I personally connect to the 10, as much as I build myself inside of the 10 that we are together. To the extent that I annul before the friends that there's nothing else in the world besides the friends, to that extent I am ready for a connection with the Creator.
6. S. (30:20) How can it be that we sit together for 20 years and don't shout? How can it be that for 20 years we sit in front of one another and we don't receive it?
R. You can sit on your ass for a hundred years and it's not going to help but the question is, what were you doing for all those years, read what Kabbalists say and check if you do what they are saying and you can say that 20 years went by or maybe just a second went by or maybe not even that.
S. I didn't ask about myself.
R. It's not about physical time it's about the changes you tried to perform in your will to receive, this is how spiritual time works and your complaints check them according to what you were told to do and if you're doing it.
7. S. (31:58) You said we are like children playing with toys in the sandbox. What do we do with kids that grew tired of playing with toys in their sandbox and they want the real thing, how do we continue from there?
R. The Creator doesn't place a barrier before anyone. He just aims the person towards the spiritual action and of course as we read and we learned the first spiritual degrees the hardest. Later on, it is already a development from that first degree onward if we conquer it. And the ladder is already clear and however the transition from physicality to spirituality building the spiritual form on top of the physical form, that is difficult. And again, do we have a choice? Either we accept the method and we want to implement it or we descend to beastliness and we are just stuck there. It all depends on if I'm working above the will to receive and I try to work above the will to receive or I just keep whatever I hear that needs to be done so I have built for myself some religion. This is how each and every one builds for himself a certain place where he is hiding and he thinks that by this he is performing spiritual actions. Spiritual actions ultimately, the way all Kabbalists tell us about our only actions towards connection only towards that and if I check myself that I can say that by that I advance. We have no possibility to measure, to check and build ourselves spiritually from the physical form.
S. How is that difficulty to the first degree, where is that difficulty?
R. This difficulty exists in that being that first spiritual degree I need to be in the quality of bestowal above my quality of reception. The quality of bestowal comes to me from the reforming light and the reforming light shines on me to the extent that I try forcefully to perform a certain action of connection, an action of bestowal. As much as I try to do that, and the upper light works on me and this is how it advances me.
S. Our 10 meets, we are all vaccinated, we meet physically as animals as beasts we connect fantastically. We remind each other of the Creator and turn to Him and we understand that with our own strength we won't be able to make it. How do we take all of that and we convince the Creator, this is it, only you can do this work we cannot connect by ourselves?
R. That does not depend on your desire but to the extent that this desire will be uniform. As much as you will want nevertheless, to connect and feel yourselves together in bestowal to the Creator, in annulment towards the Creator. As much as each one of you wants to annul himself before the friends to that extent and no more, he also annuls himself before the Creator. That point of annulment, it needs to be depicted in the center of the society that you are all working on it, how to annul each and every one before the group. And when you all together, reach a certain such intensity, then you will feel in that, your rendezvous with the Creator. You will feel in that the first degree of the ladder.
S. As a 10, as a group, as the world vessel, is the Shechina already there?
R. Yes.
8. S. (37:38) How do we depict that feeling that the Creator is not mine or somebody else's? How does the 10 attain the Creator as something that is common?
R. The Creator cannot be revealed towards one individual. Because there's no vessel there the Creator needs the smallest collective the smallest group is two at least. If a person builds his vessel above his ego and the ego is revealed only in the rejection or repulsion from the other. A person overcomes the gap between himself and the other and is capable of being connected from the internality of his heart to the internality of his friends heart and that point of the connection of the hearts this is where the Creator is revealed. He is revealed as a force that belongs to everyone and that's why only in connection that's why the Creator shattered the vessel into pieces to give us an opportunity to locate Him, to find Him. This is our work to connect so in that connection between us we will reveal the Creator, the Creator does not appear inside our desires but on the seam between our desires. As much as we wish to put them together, we can't do it because it is the coarseness that is revealed the ego revealed each time greater but if we wish to do it then the Creator gives us the force of bestowal. Then with this force of bestowal we cover the separation in that is how we reveal Him, it's like in a vessel we see the coarseness, the screen and the reflected light and then the connection with the Creator.
S. What should we agree on that this is more important than each one of us for himself, that this agreement is more important?
R. Each one forgets about himself. Just as Rabash writes, each one forgets about himself he places all the zeros in the right place and he connects with everyone as much as possible. This is what he sees before his eyes all the time. To perform actions above the will to receive and not inside of it.