Morning Lesson August 16, 2021, Transcription
Baal HaSulam. Article "The Essence of Religion and Its Purpose"
1. R. (00:27) This is a very important article, of course. It is short and maybe he is not going to tell us all of the questions, doubts, and debates that have risen in the topic of religion and the purpose or the essence of religion. This is something that humanity has been involved in for thousands of years. When do we begin to count where religion started to man? There were wild men thousands of years ago and what do we have today with religion? Does a person need religion to develop? Whatever may be that he can't leave or disconnect from it. Why do we need religion so much in our lives? Is it not enough for us that we live here in this world and make an effort to exist, more or less? What are we missing or lacking? Let's see what Baal HaSulam writes and surely there will be a lot more questions after. In any case we will have material to think about more and we will better understand our times and the history that we are going through how much these things continue to be very important. We see that religion awakens in man and doesn't leave him. A person develops and it seems to him that he is free and it's not important to him anymore, but we see that it's not really true. Religion is standing next to us, it walks next to us, progresses and it doesn't leave. Please let's learn it. “The Essence of Religion and Its Purpose.”
Beginning: (02:57) In this article, I would like to resolve three issues
2. S. (06:03) Baal HaSulam writes that it is clear that in religion the reward is expected in the next world, but also that religion offers something for people in this world?
R. It is the way each explains it to himself or to others. There are religions that are more aimed towards the next world after a person dies. That is how they explain the next world. There are those who say, ‘no,’ religion also helps us in this world that we receive some mental or emotional compensation so it will be good for us in the next world and also in this world. That's why it is easier for us and we can justify our lives that we have here, and there are those where everyone says, ‘no,’ it is specifically with an emphasis in this world and not the next believing we are investing as much as possible in our world, in our daily life, in our correction and are functioning with our children, families, and society. This helps us in this life of this world. Everyone interprets it one way or another. Every single religion, country, and society interprets it according to who this religion benefits. The main thing is it benefits a person either in this world or the next but it is for the benefit of a person.
3. S. (08:26) What do we need to take from this article?
R. We will see this along the way. I don't know anything right now. I'm just learning what his approach to religion is and as much as he is explaining to us what it is.
4. S. (08:50) Does this role of religion apply to us in this society as well?
R. Our society of Bnei Baruch does not receive all of these things but rather it learns from it how it needs to relate to the concept of religion altogether. It is religion that is written here and accepted by people we call ‘people on the street,’ outside of the walls of Bnei Baruch. We need to establish the concept of religion in a different manner and build religion in a different way. Here is the problem of our contradictions to the concepts of religion that is accepted in all the nations, as the concepts of our religion are the opposite. We need to attain this religion in this world through the work of nullification of our will to receive and that religion is really to benefit the one who works, the one who implements, the religion. The one who does actions in order to know the religion. We will see this soon.
5. S. (11:20) It is written, he says here that there's nothing more to add?
R. There is nothing to add to those questions that regular people ask because they are asking all of the questions that can be observed from within the ego of a person, in the nature of man. What do I need to do now when I am alive, when I die, with my relatives and the world and so on. Whereas the wisdom of Kabbalah says you need to work with not what you have outside of you but what you are within. You need to change your quality, your internal qualities and then you will reach a state of understanding and feeling of what religion is. Religion is a means to reveal the Creator.
6. S. (12:37) Can we understand the next world as our next state, the overcoming of a descent?
R. The next world is a feeling like this world is a feeling, a sensation that we are under the control and revelation of the Creator in the Creator. That is the whole difference between religion and Kabbalah. Religion gives a person the belief that if you do these and those actions you will receive reward, a compensation. It is good in the eyes of the upper force. The wisdom of Kabbalah tells us that only on the condition that you will change your nature and reach a state of resemblance of coming closer to the upper force, to that extent you will reach the payment, the reward, which is that you will be like Him. This is actually the goal.
7. S. (14:18) How does religion benefit us in the next world?
R. I don't know what the next world is. It is written in the wisdom of Kabbalah that you will see your world in your lifetime. That you must reveal here and now your spiritual world which is concealed from you not because you are alive or dead but rather is canceled because of your ego. Nullify your ego. To the extent to which you nullify it, accordingly you will be able to feel the next world. Here and now on this planet.
S. Is this considered the purpose of religion?
R. The purpose of religion is to reach the revelation of the Creator to the created being in this world, according to the definition of Baal HaSulam. We will soon read that here.
8. S. (15:53) Why does Baal HaSulam write that a child 12 or 13 can't understand all the laws of nature?
R. We think that if he reaches a certain age, he already knows what is good and what is bad, what is the Creator and what is the created being, etc., but to truly come to the spiritual attainment, to the true religion, for that we need great work and to reveal it in a very special way. It is not given at a young age.
9. S. (17:02) What are these conclusions that he is talking about, the second generation that was almost destroyed?
R. We will have to clarify and scrutinize this in the future. You can understand that there is a big problem here because we are in a world with thousands of different religions and faiths. There are many more besides the three major religions, Judaism, Islam, and Christianity. I don't want to go into detail about these matters. We don't need them because we need to understand what belongs to us. You can attain and understand these things on your own. The wisdom of Kabbalah doesn't really like to talk for or against something that is outside of it. It's not important for us. It is enough to know what we engage in.
10. S. (18:40) Baal HaSulam writes in one place that every religion can stay with their religion and then he writes a whole article here.
R. We need to also scrutinize that if a person desires to ‘love your friend as yourself ' if he can also remain in his religion. This is how he writes it and it is true, He is trying to say that one does not bother the other. All of the religions and faith that humanity has are social guidance, of how to build the correct relationships between people and between people and the upper force that would help a person. By no means does it have anything to do with a relationship between a person and the Creator. The Creator is the quality of bestowing and you can connect to Him only to the extent in which a person from within his heart, meaning from his desires, operates towards the Creator and asks Him for the correction of the heart. All together the wisdom of Kabbalah comes to correct our hearts so it will be aimed towards love of others and to the Creator. You can check as much as all of the religions and faiths engage in that. I have yet to find that.
11. S. (20:41) We see those who prefer Islam because it talks about the next world. Kabbalah talks about receiving the reward in this world, yet people prefer the engagement in the next world.
R. People think that this world is not so important, that they are living here and everyone dies. Surely after I die a great reward awaits me and therefore it attracts people. That at any given moment no matter what happens to me I will certainly receive what has been prepared for me after my death. We will learn beyond this and it will be a little clearer.
Subtitle (21:59) The Absolute Good: “To avoid tiring the readers with long discussions,”
12. S. (24:55) What habit of harming others for my own benefit is he talking about?
R. What exactly is not clear? Every single creature operates either for the benefit of itself or for itself. If along the way it harms others, it is not from the fact that it wants to harm another, but rather that it wants to benefit itself.
S. He continues afterwards that if he doesn't find pleasure from harming others, he acts out of habit, rather than any reason.
R. Where do you see that? Sometimes we find a certain creature that harms another without any desire to receive pleasure itself and it does this only because of an old habit that originated in the will to receive. She delighted from holding on to someone at one point and enjoyed it even though now she doesn't have that reason to hold someone but the instinct guides her and she does it. This is what he is saying. We see relations everywhere between all kinds of creatures whether it's still, vegetative, animal, or people, and if they relate to each other they relate from what it is good for them. If it is not good for them but once was good, they are continuing in doing this out of habit. Habit becomes second nature. To observe and keep this habit also gives them pleasure. This is why they do this.
13. S. (27:46) What is evil?
R. Anything that is not guided or aimed towards the development of the human being, meaning the development of the desire to receive towards the goal to be adhered to the Creator is called bad or evil. Everything that does drive or push the desire to receive towards the Creator, maybe through many actions, is called good.
S. What are the bad feelings that rise in a person?
R. A bad feeling awakens in a person only according to the measure of correction or corruption that exists in him where he still doesn't agree, feel, or understand the action of the Creator on him.
Reader continues (29:26): Because it is clear to us the Creator is complete….”
14. S. (30:48) Regarding a bad feeling, can you say this is the gap between the intention I have and the intention I'm supposed to have?
R. We will wait a little, read, and you will hold back a little and it will work out good. Otherwise it's starting to be intolerable. Think, concentrate your thoughts, your questions into a clearer fashion and then we will scrutinize. I respect them but not in this way that you immediately shoot.
Reader continues (31:38): “Furthermore, it makes perfect sense to us, as….”
15. R. (33:01) This is the assumption. We can say it differently. Why is the Creator bad and not the force of good? Just like we say the other way around. He is the force of good and where do we get the force of bad from?
Reader continues (33:24): “Thus, we learn that He has only a desire ….”
16. R. (34:11) That is the assumption that Baal HaSulam writes to us and he writes it to later shatter it. He will show us through Providence how when we feel bad and we don't look at the correct goal then we have no possibility of justifying the actions of the Creator on us.
17. S. (34:46) How does Baal HaSulam define the Creator as the absolute good in and of itself?
R. I don't know, we didn't learn that yet. We're still learning. Maybe later along the way he will explain.
Subtitle: (35:34) His Guidance is Purposeful Guidance
18. R. (41:02) We see several things from this. First of all, from all of the examples in nature we see that the entire development is gradual in order to lead each and every part in its development to becoming developed towards carrying out its purpose and existing in the final form of all of nature in the best possible way. The second thing is that along the way as we are developing, we can see specifically opposite states and completely ones that don't point to the final height of the thing that is being developed. He says that a person is born and after a month or two, or three, he is not ready for anything. Yet after a day or two after an animal is born, they already know how to walk, eat, and drink on their own, and so on. They are like the mature animals after three or four months. Yet, we see that this development is slow and gradual in man. This points out to us that exalted matters are growing in this creature although he appears weak and small. This small one will probably be great and big as this is what we usually see in nature. This points out to us that we cannot look at it with our eyes the way we see it now, like now in a short sudden way, but rather see everything from the perspective of its development from beginning to end. We will be able, at this point, to discuss this correctly how each portion of creation is good or bad, or large or small.
19. S. (43:45) I didn’t understand his conclusion that the Creator bestows only goodness all the time, everyone suffers in the middle?
R. They develop through their suffering. You can't reach the filling, the fulfillment, unless it is through a feeling of suffering. This is why they suffer, but even their suffering comes from the good from the Creator. This suffering is for their benefit.
S. That is understood but the will to receive can't agree to this. If the Creator is good, why is there suffering that the desire can't comprehend?
R. If the Creator is good why is there suffering? So that a person will be able to gather this suffering, this collective suffering, and use it for the sake of development because without a certain charge of suffering he won't be able to have the foundation with which to reach the good. He must have that. Every system that we build, even artificially, you must have a plus relative to the negative. Only in such a way does it exist.
S. This explanation is very understandable, but it is not felt. The desire to receive doesn't agree as it wants better and better. If the Creator is good and he created everything, then it is His business and He should make it like this without suffering. Why is it not possible?
R. The creator doesn't feel this suffering, for the Creator the end of the act is in its initial thought. He does not take into consideration the suffering that we go through and does not look at it as suffering. He looks at the extent of suffering that we may feel in certain moments of our existence and how it brings us to perfection.
S. How can we live in this perception that the end of the act is in its initial thought?
R. Ask a woman who wants to get pregnant. It's so difficult, it hurts so much and it is such a problem to go through all of those months and then to give birth. What will she tell you? Does she want this or not? Yes, she does want this. Is she afraid of this or not? She is not afraid. You don't understand that because you are a man, but she is not afraid. She's not afraid and no woman stops herself because of it, why? Because it is nature that operates and the force to attain the goal to be a mother is more important, more powerful than all that comes along the way. Usually, she doesn't even take that into consideration.
S. How can we live today as if we are already in adhesion with the Creator?
R. That depends on the importance. To the extent you now develop the importance of the Creator within you relative to the importance of your ego, you then come to a state where you don't feel that you are suffering, but rather all of this suffering becomes pleasure.
20. S. (48:05) Is a good balanced life on earth a prerequisite for humanity to reach spirituality?
R. No. All of nature comes into balance as a result of humanity coming into balance and not beforehand. If we will arrange the relations between us a little better, then nature, including the viruses that we have and all kinds of other things, we will start to calm down. If we don't do that the earth will start to show more and more contradictory forces that lead to hurricanes, heat waves, cold waves, and more and more. This is because we, on our level, are not balanced. The moment we become balanced, to that extent we will also calm down all of the degrees below us.
S. And all of this happens before spirituality reaches humanity?
R. Yes. Everyone, all of humanity reaches spirituality the moment we have a trend or an inclination then we will feel the extent to which nature calms down. Otherwise, we will have a very difficult future.
21. S. (50:52) What does it mean that there's none wiser than the experience?
R. Because one that has been through the whole process already understands what needs to be and therefore, he looks at the whole process as being for the good.
S. We always need to go above reason?
R. You have people that have already gone through this and that they are teaching you.
22. S. (51:42) On one side we have the world and on the other side we have the ten and we have to justify both, how are they interconnected?
R. To the extent that we understand more and more that everything is in the hands of the Creator and only as we are inclined towards Him in equivalence of form and by that we can bestow upon all the forms of nature. The main thing is to change man and from man and down it is already going to change.
23. S. (53:00) Is there some objective observation in reality without any connection to my state as an observer?
R. There is no objectiveness whatsoever that's why your question is not clear, where do you see something objective?
S. It is written when we look at an object in reality everything's in a certain stage of development and it is hard to judge a state, as if he is looking at it from the side and he is saying an object is like this and that and without any connection to himself, is there such a thing?
R. I don’t understand you. I don’t understand the question. Sorry.
24. S. (54:00) What point of the initial state has to be opposite to the final state like the example about the baby, does this point to some rule?
R. The first state and the final state in our case must be opposite because along the way they receive correction from above and therefore invert. What I'm asking is please go over this part of Providence is Purposeful and prepare questions also about the absolute good from the beginning of the article. Whatever you ask we will talk about and scrutinize.
25. S. (55:35) Now you gave us this example of a woman who wants to get pregnant despite its seemingly killing her body but because of the awakening in her from the side of nature she wants and invests all of her energy and effort into it. In order to feel spirituality, we have no desire, on the other hand all of our nature is opposite to this so where can we take such a desire that is so great like that thing?
R. This is only from above from the Creator of but it comes by the chance that we prepare for this new desire the infrastructure which is our connection in the group. We need to understand that in the connection between us we are building the same place where we can enter into impregnation, we ourselves build this. Imagine to yourself that you are hugging your friends together in a circle and you hold on to this circle and more and more truly establish and stabilize it correctly that a spiritual force will be born there, your spiritual force the result of your connection. It is as if you are giving birth to the Creator as it says, you have made Me. That is all in our hands.