Morning Lesson June 22, 2022, Transcription
Transcription is made from simultaneous translation which leaves a possibility for differences in the audio
Part 2:
Baal HaSulam. The Freedom (Two Discernments: A) Potential, B) Actual)
Reading “Two Discernments” (0:15): “First we must…”
1. S. (07:55) This example where there is appetite and there's also desire for a certain food what is this tendency?
R. Tenancy for a thing in practice and in potential. These things are not connected. I can have a desire, a potential but in practice, in actuality I cannot realize it and it is possible that I am already with an active desire, a revealed desire. You can say that the desire that is concealed is called in potential and when it is revealed and is active then it is actual. So to the matter at hand what we read now you can read a few more times. It is full of philosophy as well, but the question is what are we doing with it? how do I get as correctly as possible in a correct form from potential to actual? That is what we need or from the concealed, what is in us, how do we reveal those desires that are concealed in us, and we have all these desires from here until the end of correction each one in the form of their individual development. How we reveal them and realize them in actuality is what is important. Each one of us is like a baby that has many concealed forces. We need to reveal these forces by studying, connecting, demanding so on and so forth. We do all kind of actions to bring out from potential to actuality from concealment to revelation all of those forces that are in each and every one of us. The important thing of course is what you can do in the work in the group because that is where they come from. Where do we get all those things and concealments? It is from when we were in the system of Adam HaRishon, the system was shattered and we each and every one of us, each of us lost a tremendous treasure, a treasure trove of forces and discernment and knowledge and feeling and everything that was in the system of Adam, a complete system, and now I'm left with something where by I exist as a single lonely cell and in it I feel only my own personal existence for the time being disconnected from others and this existence is called man in this world and what do I get out of it? I have to get back to that system of Adam HaRishon and to sustain myself there as best I can. You need to connect with others and the fact that I am now given an opportunity to start connecting with a ten and go back to functioning in this group, this is the first stage in connecting to this entire system of Adam HaRishon.
S. So here Baal HaSulam when he talks about this force in potential he means this desire to return to its root?
R. Yes, of course. In each of us there are records, these Reshimot, records, that we do have to realize, and all of the records go from here until the final correction until the final revelation of the complete system of Adam HaRishon. That is in each and every one and the upper light continues to reveal our system how more and more deeply it is shattered and if we do not manage to correct it at the same pace as the upper light reveals the system, we see a more broken system. That means that we undergo tougher states of shattering in this world and on the other hand, the more we try to connect between us then we find that there are better states and that returning to the corrected state is our whole process, our whole evolution.
2. S. (13:30) In the text that we just read, what is the revelation of the Creator?
R. The revelation of the Creator is the revelation of a state where the vessels are connected to some extent relatively and the force of the bestowal and love fulfills them and that is what they feel. They feel the match there is between the vessels that are connected between them even though each one is in an egoistic state of shattering but above the shattering love covers all crimes, they connect between them, and the upper light fills them accordingly and then the state they are in, whatever state of connection they are in, that is how it appears in them.
S. Meaning I simply have to look at all the different states that are happening in the ten and the world all together, that is the Creator when they are connected correctly?
R. No you do not need to imagine all those things, what do you have with your imagination? You need to long to realize, to implement, to realize it, to make it happen, your connection in the ten. As much as you can.
S. We read here that there is no yearning if I do not have in the head the image of this state that I'm looking at.
R. So describe these states to yourself, yes. What is called bestowal, what is connection, what all of the books of Kabbalah write about.
3. S. (15:39) You said something that is not clear at all, it will never happen that in a person a force of an appetite will be revealed and without the imagination of what he is about to eat in a manner that they are two halves of a whole. It is as if he is saying there's no chance that you can imagine such a thing, Baal HaSulam, so how could you come to that appetite without you even seeing the food? How do we do that? How does that happen?
R. Do what is before you, this way, because you cannot imagine things that will be revealed to you in a meal if you have not yet gotten the ticket to enter a place where it will happen. You must first prepare the vessel, connection with your friends, out of that you will understand what fulfillment is awaiting you.
S. So what do I need to imagine something that I don't even know what it is?
R. Work on the connection and then as a result of that you will start discovering what you have inside in the connection. Do you understand? First you build a vessel. The upper light is in complete rest.
S. So how do you see the vessel in the ten if you can come to it? let's say to come to this food to get this appetite for it.
R. That is why this world is given to you and the group of people you have to connect to and out of this connection you will start understanding what are these emotions, these states that should be revealed and that work.
S. They say that everything will be clarified in the thought so why do we need these actions all together?
R. You cannot come to anything without actions because we have to reach things, emotions, thoughts, all kinds of internal manners that occurred to us only from the externality, only from externality. We start from scratch. The shattering was up until we were made as humans in the bodies and in the special reality of this world so imagine to yourselves we used to be in the garden of Eden connected as one body, suddenly some explosion occurred. We feel that we live in some jungle, millions of people rather than one person, Adam, each one opposite the other, wants to kill each other. Imagine to yourself how these primitive people want to kill each other, all of the parts of Adam HaRishon, that is how it is being revealed and what we should do bit by bit is connect them together again by connection, by love, by recognition of evil, of their nature, to connect again to one body.
S. This means that the thought, this desire for this reality creates this reality? That is what causes the action?
R. Yes. Later you will see that there is nothing besides thought. Basically everything is inside of our thoughts as the verse goes that everything is discerned in the thought. Our whole world is only thought, the whole universe is only thought, everything is only thought.
4. S. (19:46) To continue the question we do different actions. There are those that are much more disclosed like coming to the lesson and then there are those like prayer. So in context of the article what is an action?
R. Basically an action is the effort to connect between us and as much as we understand that, it does not matter. About this there is a verse that it is not the wise who learns. He learns as a result of the effort he makes towards connection, that is what is happening. The more you exert to bring the friends to connection, by that you will feel how much you become wiser. Wisdom comes by the identification with the upper system.
5. S. (21:04) He says that it is impossible to have a desire without the depiction of this matter, this object that we want. That it cannot be revealed as an appetite in a person without depicting in his mind the imagination of that thing that is being eaten, is that correct also with the desire for spirituality?
R. It does not matter. As much as we can depict spirituality or we can't, we can never imagine to ourselves our future spiritual state that is about to be revealed, no.
S. So is this like a different mechanism? The desire works in a different way than usual?
R. I do not know. It is better for us to do and then to discover rather than to start depicting in our brain, intellect, to start building them intellectually. Let's do it the way we should. The desire is the force that acts rather than the wisdom or thoughts.
6. S. (22:25) We learned that thought serves the desire. How can the thought come before the desire?
R. You receive thoughts and desires from above and our work, that is called in the mind and the heart, that means we need to focus then on connection and then it turns out that every thought and desire, thought in our brain and the emotion in our heart, we have to aim them at our connection, at what will be the result of our connection. The connection is not a part of the thought or the desire, the connection is a result of our effort that builds in us new states.
7. S. (23:32) Can we discover the desire when it is in potential or only when it is in actuality?
R. The potential desire is something that we cannot discover. We discover it when it is actual, when it is clothed in the actions and then this desire is clear and understood.
8. S. (24:05) An elder and a youth are two states that change within us or are we only in one state either an elder or a youth?
R. When a person advances on the path he usually feels as if he is a young boy with respect to his advancement because every time, as it is written, they shall be new before you. On the other hand he is willing to relate to everything as an old man that has patience and has the ability to hold on, to make an effort, and that is how he feels himself; meaning, a younger boy or an older man it depends on what discernments we are talking about.
S. It is written about the elder that they are accustomed to the law of the Creator but during the lesson you said that we should aspire to be youths in the work. How should we bring together these two contradictions?
R. There is no contradiction here. When a person advances he always feels like he is new, and they shall be new to you, and with respect to things that separate us he relates to them as an old man. He understands that all these things that come to divert him off the road, he understands that they will also strengthen him on the path.
9. S. (25:50) How to use the clash in order to build the building?
R. If we are not going through all of these clashes in the right way this building will not hold because all of these clashes and ruins, they show us the problem that can later be revealed. That's why I have to see this clash as going against the ruin of this building. Let's say now I discover in this wall of the building that there is a crack. There is a flaw, so I'm going to correct it. Instead of finishing this whole building and because of that problem in this wall the whole building will fall. So all these things that appear on the path for us are in order to strengthen us and to build us correctly and we cannot take steps forward if we are not correcting ourselves every step.
10. S. (26:58) If the Creator is what we build between us, does that mean that we need to be impressed by the connection between us like the fear of the Creator himself?
R. Yes. The Creator is what appears in that building that we are building. It is what fills our building. When we build a connection between us as KHB ZON, the five parts, in our whole structure, it also connects to five more and five more. When we build the building accordingly we gradually discover the Creator filling the building. So it turns out here that we build by the right connection between us a building and the Creator, when he is revealed, in this way we seemingly build the Creator because we build the vessel to reveal the Creator, but he is revealed here. That is why it is written; you have made me. Okay?