Morning Lesson June 1, 2023
Transcription is made from simultaneous translation, which leaves a possibility for differences in the audio.
Part 2:
Baal HaSulam. The Freedom
1. R. (00:25) This article is one of the important ones by Baal HaSulam. As you know all in all we don't have too many articles by him, he wanted to write about all forms of advancements towards the Creator but he didn't get a chance to so the article The Freedom.
Reading The Freedom
2. R. (03:57) It's clear what he's asking, he's asking is a person in this world have the person have the quality of freedom that he can aim himself to whatever action, to whatever desire, to whatever action he wants in a free way not aimed by the forces of nature or some external forces, some foreign forces, but acts on his own free will, this is the question o this is what he's going to clarify. The main thing for us is are we free and how can it be that we are free and nothing is acting upon us. Who feels that he is in such a way Within the natural forces that obligate us to eat and drink to obligate our life within society to get married to bring kids to care for them, meaning that we hear in many aspects in many forces that act upon us in all sorts of ways and without even asking us, that act upon us and we're being activated. Where is the line? Where is the line that these forces can let us go, leave us and give us freedom? I don't understand even this question I cannot digest and attain. What do you think?
3. S. (06:10) Maybe from a different direction. What is the death that he's talking about?
R. Freedom from the angel of death?
S. Yes, what is the angel of death or what is death and why is the freedom specifically from this?
R. If we delve deep into the actions of a person we will get to a decision that everything he is doing is to escape death because at the end it's clear that this is what is before us before each and everyone, and this is why freedom from the angel of death will appear or should appear that it opens endless possibilities, life etc.
S. Can you explain? We always say that nothing disappears and everything exists in the system so what is this death, what is this feeling that we are running away from? The fact that it's not known in this world that's clear but with respect to our work with respect to spirituality what is this death?
R. We will see. Probably he is going to clarify that because without it the article itself will be missing.
S. He's speaking specifically, he’s giving an example of how animals that we capture they die in captivity so there is an external element here not just an element of hurting the physical body there's something deeper here so, what is this thing, this quality?
R. We will read I don't know, I am for studying everything from the beginning anew.
4. S. (08:41) Baal HaSulam takes the scrutiny to a much deeper level here of what is freedom. It's clear that a person is placed under the laws of nature and his own nature and the circumstances of life etc., it's all clear but it's as if he's coming and lifting it to a level where if we're like this then we actually have no freedom no one doubts that we are under the laws of nature.
R. So what is the freedom?
S. Within those laws of nature it's a fact that each person feels like an individual that has freedom otherwise he would die.
R. Maybe it is a false sensation.
S. For sure it's a false feeling it's as if we disconnect the discussion. It's as if we came and told us live as if there is none else besides Him, let's say he would come to us and say live according to the law that there's nothing else besides Him and if there is nothing else besides Him of course there's no freedom but we don't live according to there’s none else besides Him, Kabbalists told us to live according to what I perceive so why is lifting me to a perception of reality that doesn't exist, that I don't have freedom, while a person even after he reads this article 100 times, still as long as he's within his ego he does feel as though he is free
R. A lie.
S. On the one hand of course it's a lie on the other hand we do have to live according to…
R. We are researching as scientists in regards with our life and we want to decide, do we have freedom or don't we have freedom, or is the freedom that we have is a very limited and false freedom and that's how we live.
Practically speaking, what can I do with it as long as I'm not in this perception of reality?
R. I don't know but first let's determine am I in free will or no.
S. According to the perception of reality or according to the intellect? What I understand what Baal HaSulam is writing. Intellectually I understand what he's writing that I have no freedom and after I read the article I'll agree with him I have no freedom.
R. Yes.
S. In my feeling and my personal perception of reality of course I have freedom.
R. It's like a young child who's left alone. The parents went to a different room and he's running around in the living room or the kitchen and feels that he's free and he does whatever he wants and in the meantime the mom is looking at him from her hiding and then the father and the grandmother and to him he appears as if he's free.
S. Fine, but Kabbalist they tell us, it’s as if they tell us live in the reality of the end of correction, there’s none else besides Him but they don't tell us to live in this reality, they tell us to live in a reality where you’re an egoist and aspire to achieve correction between you, connection between you, and discover that there is not else besides Him.
R. The Kabbalists recommend to us to reveal that there is none else besides Him, that all of reality there is only the Creator and for us to be able to attain it and live within it.
S. Can I relate to this article as if a recommendation? As if Baal HaSulam’s telling me try to reveal that you have no freedom, try to find where you do have freedom, is this his recommendation?
R. Yes, his recommendation is for us to find out that we are not in freedom and that our only freedom is to awaken above the angel of death and advance in such a way.
S. In the meantime as long as a person is not in this perception what should he do?
R. Attain it. From now on from this moment onwards we can attain more and more and more that we are in a will to receive and that he is our angel of death.
S. Should he also take into account the element, we always say let’s work in the connection between us and choose the environment as he says here in the article as well, but it’s as if I don’t. Now he’s also telling me to work on feeling that you have no freedom. Is this another parameter I have to take into account in my work?
R. Yes.
5. S. (14:15) If we really didn't have any freedom then there would be no point in writing what he writes but a person certainly has certain freedom because he has to do something.
R. He is supposed to bring closer to himself a solution, a solution for the revelation of freedom.
S. Does he have freedom in this?
R. In this he has freedom.
S. The feeling that a person has, that he's free, first of all it's the Creator's will and we have to use it so we can make choices and not remain as if we are on the animate level.
R. This is why we are in a ten that in the ten you have freedom to advance in the direction of the connection with the friends that you are coming to a state where you advance in yourself towards the revelation towards truth.
S. I'm talking about the fundamental feeling that a person has that he's free it has to be there. If he doesn't feel like he's free he will not be able to act he will not be able to ask to go into a ten and he won't be able to search for something, he has to feel that he is free, that his actions determine what happens to him.
R. Then he needs to feel that he is entirely, entirely, not free, rather bound by shackles of the will to receive for himself and he has no way to escape it and only one option he has, to attract the light that reforms to release him, to release him from in order to receive.
S. Until then he has to feel that he is free. A person determines his state that he is not free.
R. To the degree that he determines to himself that he is not free to that degree he can lift himself above the sensation of slavery to a sensation of freedom.
S. Another thing that we feel from this beginning or understanding what we’re learning is that every person in relation to the degree above him he is truly not free but is there really any real freedom at some point because when I feel the upper degree I feel like I'm not free but when I rise I feel free again so does the created being actually have any freedom?
R. True freedom is only at the end of correction that your desires will be entirely, entirely, aimed at the upper force. It's not a simple thing because it has to be revealed only in feeling and until then we have a constant problem with it.
6. S. (18:40) Without revealing the control of the angel of death can we not perceive the reforming light?
R. Yes, is it possible to reveal the light that reforms? Beautiful question, to the degree that we feel the angel of death to that degree we are able to reveal the light that reforms and to be free.
S. Revealing the angel of death is it great mercy on the part of the upper one?
R. Yes, correct.
7. S. (19:38) It seems like there's another parameter that should be added. First of all, a person feels free as long as he acts according to desires that appear in him. If there are foreign desires he doesn't feel free anymore but the question is, is the desire that activates him because we are desires to enjoy, so the question is does the desire that operate me make me feel good as long as the desire makes me feel good I feel free and I follow it. The minute this desire doesn't make me feel good then I'm not free anymore so my whole point is to lead him to a desire that makes him feel good and it takes a long time for a person to understand that his desire, the natural desire that he was born with leads him to a dead end road.
R. In that way, without escape, he can rise above reason to in order to bestow and then he exits these shackles.
S. In this whole discussion we should add the element of enjoying or not enjoying good or bad when we're talking about freedom. This I think is missing here and maybe that's confusing us
R. Okay.
8. S. (21:35) I think it's simpler. There's no freedom. There's the will to receive and we act according to the will to receive, when I'm hungry I search for food.
R. You're saying like this, let's go home.
S. No.
R. Why not if there’s no freedom?
S. I come here in order to become free from the will to receive and the real freedom is when there's the filling in the will to receive. When I'm full in my will to receive and I'm free and I feel good and happy but in order to receive the filling I need the light, I need the screen, I need to receive the filling in order to bestow. This is the real freedom.
R. Okay we're going to finish now.
9. S. (22:39) The illusion of freedom that a person has is one of the most powerful forces in life, he constantly aspires also to push it away. When we study Kabbalah we also understand that there is no freedom, we're under a certain system of laws in the will to receive. What is the purpose of the illusion of freedom? How should we use it correctly, that we feel that we are choosing and we are making decisions?
R. If we are taking away the freedom from the person we don't have any claims towards a person, like with an animal. If you're taking it down lower than the degree of a man, that he can't rise to the Creator you lower him to the degree of an animal, meaning living on instincts, that he was inserted with the certain tape according to which it acts and it has no judgment. Is this how we should relate to a person?
S. That's exactly the question. On the one hand he doesn't do anything so he's not at fault, you can't blame there's no consequences to his actions. On the other hand he doesn't get beat up.
R. How should we relate to a person? Does he have freedom or does he not have any freedom? Give him at least one parameter according to what he can choose and change.
S. I don't know.
R. You don't know.
10. S. (24:54) You said that we need to study like on a clean slate. I want to ask that it's with good reason that over the past several centuries people have struggled until they attained a certain measure of freedom so what freedom did they obtain did they achieve? What is he writing about?
R. That we're not slaves as we were before, that humanity fought for freedom, that we don't live in a society of slaves.
S. What is the connection between the real freedom we went to scrutinize?
R. That it's something else but he saying that even according to our framework the corporeal framework humanity does not agree to slavery. Everywhere you see Africa you see all sorts of everyone is getting rid of slavery, from generation to generation everyone is becoming more independent more free and so on.
S. I don't understand why is this not good?
R. He's not saying that it's not good, he's saying that this is the correct direction but we are speaking about a different level, a different degree of freedom, freedom from the upper governance.
S. Can there be freedom from the upper governance?
R. If not I remain a beast because there is still an upper governance, not that to my own I am making a beast out of me or the upper force is making a beast out of me but in a different way
S. Freedom from the upper governance he's either controlled by the will to receive or if he has a screen he's controlled by the laws of the will to bestow and the light and that too is slavery.
R. I'm sorry to say that you don't understand it yet. We'll talk in a few lessons, write it down, it's not the same.
11. S. (27:42) Should we disseminate this article to people who feel they have freedom?
R. They don't have a deficiency to freedom in the way that you want to explain it to them. Freedom of the angel of death. What is the angel of death? We're not going to die, we're going to die, what can happen, what life do you bring to them? They have no passion towards it
S. How can we explain to people on the outside that they are not free?
R. We will read and we will understand. Remain with that question and we will try to answer it.
12. S. (28:49) Freedom you mentioned so many things about this subject it makes me feel as though we don't really have any freedom because it's like we have a string that is connected to the Creator and we just have the solution that we have freedom. Well the only freedom is towards the Creator which makes me wonder what is freedom?
R. We will see it we have barely started we just read a few initial phrases sentences. Wait a little, after all you are a woman who has studied a lot and you understand that you first need to go over the article once or maybe twice and then we will know how to speak on the freedom, but likely you can attain it because otherwise why else would he write, and he's saying to you that the freedom from the angel of death, if I tell it to a person on the street that I have the cure against death, then certainly he will agree. We'll talk about it another time which will be tomorrow.