Morning Lesson August 20, 2021 Transcription
Part
2
Baal HaSulam. Article "The Essence of Religion and Its Purpose"
Subtitle: (00:30) “Conscious Development ….”
1. R. (02:23) As we recognize the evil in our life more and more, we have questions. We can get closer to understanding nature out of the lack of choice because we suffer. The entire world suffers now from all sorts of troubles that are occurring all at once, truly before us and above us. This is what develops us so there is no choice here. Rather people are only one quality, which is the will to receive, meaning a desire to enjoy. There is only one opportunity to educate them, to give them a bit of a sensation of suffering inside a sensation of pleasure. This will cause people to desire to develop, meaning to know how to run away from the suffering. This is how they will advance.
Reader continues: (03:34)”The Second Force …”
2. R. (03:45) Meaning not that the force from nature that the Creator does it on his own and He arranges around us all sorts of suffering and we are then forced then to develop, to understand, yes, no, why, and how to escape from these troubles, rather we ourselves want to develop.
Reader continues (04:12)
3. R. (06:44) There are two paths for attaining the goal, which of course, everyone attains, there's no way to escape from it. We were all born with the same will to receive in the system of Adam HaRishon. We need to connect between us and return to that same system in the corrected form. There is no opportunity to escape this. We do not even understand where we are, or how we are activated and operated. We can do this if we can add our own yearning for that same goal, meaning a yearning for connection. ‘Love thy neighbor as thyself’ is the big rule of the Torah. We will gradually realize that we want to connect together in one system, either we want to connect or we don’t want to. The wisdom of Kabbalah is revealed and it explains to us that it is worthwhile for us to do as he writes and not wait for the bitter obstacles of life as we are beginning to discover. Now it is only the beginning. Rather that we ourselves will run forward. Not only because we want to run away from the suffering and want to escape them although initially this is what pushes us but rather that we want to bestow contentment to all the creatures and to the Creator. We will make an effort to understand it, to realize it, and we will see how much it shortens our path and all this suffering.
4. S. (08:45) But doesn’t humanity learn from history?
R. Humanity cannot learn from history because it cannot learn only from the will to receive. It seems to you that the will to receive is wise. We see that there are wise people, scientists, and psychologists that cannot do anything with human beings. Human beings do not learn from the past. Again and again they enter wars. You see that what is happening now is just another way in the ways of the world to us. Baal HaSulam says that we may reach the third world war, and if that is not enough, even a fourth world war. Nonetheless, ultimately all of these forces will obligate us to reach connection between us. We will reach the recognition of the evil of our nature through the path of suffering. We have no choice. We will be willing to do anything to just not hear anymore what we have in our mind and heart because both of these sources are corrupted. I cannot hear them. I need a different heart and mind. My heart will be connected to all the hearts and my mind will only work on how to connect together. Only if our thoughts and our feelings will be for the common good can they bring us to correct actions, to the good life. Otherwise, no.
We are in the last generation. We will see how this is realized before our eyes. There is no one to explain this to, no one wants to hear, but we must nonetheless explain this out of our connection, out of love for everyone because it is commanded that we must love our neighbor as ourselves. We must explain to the whole world that this is specifically the time for connection. We must begin our work, not from our will to receive, but from our will to bestow. Ultimately we will need to pass the force of bestowal to everyone and for everyone to realize it among themselves. Otherwise we will reach a state where the entire world is going to get destroyed.
S. Why doesn’t humanity learn from history?
R. We have nowhere to learn from. It learns from what is before us. What can we do in our awareness sensation in this world? Everyone agrees that there is nothing better than to love one another, then to connect with one another, and to be good. But how? How is it possible? How can our thoughts be nice from our egoistic nature which is stronger than all our thoughts? You don't have a person in the world who will say he doesn't want connection. He wants it but how? There is no opportunity to do this with the forces we have here in this world, in our reality. If the upper force does not take care of us, tie us together, and fill us with His force of bestowal, we are lost.
S. No one deals with the main problem of our egoistic desire and the need to go through some change in our nature.
R .There will be a few more blows. We still haven't reached the true layers in the general will to receive in the general vessel of Adam HaRishon, to be able to tie it all together and understand these matters. Humanity is arranged this way and we also see it among ourselves. We advance in small portions gradually, slowly, but nonetheless we advance. What can we do? We don't determine that. We, Bnei Baruch, need to make an effort on our own to advance to corrections. Accordingly, we give the entire world a push to advance towards corrections after us. That's how we will advance everything.
5. S. (15:01) How to nullify that thing that nullifies the Creator?
R. You mean our ego? On one hand, our ego nullifies the Creator, and on the other hand this is called assistance against oneself. It doesn't annul the Creator, it plays with us, it points to the Creator, and shows us that this is the only force that can take us out of the troubles that can save you from me. The will to receive is the upper force and it is obedient and loyal to the Creator. It takes us through all sorts of horrible states in order that ultimately we will hate the will to receive and request of the Creator to annul our will to receive. Meaning it is ready to erase itself. The will to receive is truly a loyal servant. It is called an angel. Look at the work that it does.
6. S. (16:48) Can you explain the differences between the path of suffering, the path of Torah, and the path of the earth?
R. A person who is currently not on the path of Torah is on the path of suffering. Being on the path of Torah means that he understands he is on the path of Torah. The path of the earth, as he says here, is not this way or that way. We will get into that more. We have only one more part left and I want to finish the article so we can go on to study TES. Go over this at home and learn it well. We will answer questions onward.
Subtitle (18:06) “Religion is not for the sake of people….”
7. R. (25:35) When do we feel that we need to move from the benefit of society to the benefit of the Creator in the 10?
R. We need to talk, to think, and convince ourselves that the benefit of man, of the 10, of the world, and the Creator is the same thing, they are all one system. We divided them into two, three or four parts. It doesn't matter how much, this is all out of our lack of our correction reception. If we would see all of reality, we would see that you cannot divide it into parts. It is all one system. It just belongs, this part to desire and this part to correction that it fills it, and so on. It’s all one mixture you can't divide. Maybe you can divide them according to their initial source that the desire comes as a result of the light, the light is first and the desire is second. In our work our goal is entirely round and includes everything. We will be less mistaken because whatever is in the source above should be in the same state as below.
8. S. (27:45) How is this religious tendency going to take place?
R. What he means as the ‘tendency to religion’ is Kabbalah. He is not speaking about religions as we see in our world. He usually uses the word 'religion' as the wisdom of Kabbalah. That is what he means.
9. S. (28:47) If the benefit of society and the benefit of the Creator are the same, what is the difference between ethics and religion?
R. Ethics, or morals, tell you that if you behave in a nice and good way in this world, you will have good. This works in some small areas for a small height of the will to receive, but the will to receive is constantly growing. Your morals don't cover the will to receive that grows. A hundred and fifty or a hundred years ago you had different schools of morals and ethics that helped people in a relatively nice manner one towards the other. The behavior between parents and children was not like today and the families didn't break down like today. We are in a state that our will to receive is constantly growing and it corrupts the good relations that were before. It can't hold on to them and you can't maintain the same morals that we took upon ourselves. We seemingly want to behave but that is not enough, it doesn’t give us force or power. You see what is happening in the world; from day to day it is getting worse. Everyone looks down on one another. We are reaching states different than it was before because morals can give us rules and a force of correct behavior only on a small layer of the will to receive. Once the will to receive grows more to a layer of animal and speaking, not just inanimate and vegetative, rather more to the animate and speaking levels, the morals stop working there and then you have chaos.
You see what has happened in the past 100 or 150 years in families, parents, and children. I’m not even talking about any countries or anything like that. Nobody is embarrassed of one another. Things are going forward this way and we have to bring them the wisdom of Kabbalah. We have no choice, because specifically in Kabbalah there are forces. This is called ‘better two than one’. There should be morals but there should also be the wisdom of Kabbalah. One will strengthen the other and will help the human beings to bring them to correction. Not that we don’t need morals and education, we need them, but the upper spiritual force must be within these methods then it will work. Otherwise in our times, it can't influence human beings.
S. Can we use the will to receive? ‘If you do good deeds for society we will give you respect’ as their ego wants respect?
R. It exists but so what? Who wants it? Once people were willing to work a lot and be proud to get some medal, but today everybody laughs at this. Try it and you will see that it doesn't work. You can say whatever you want, but there are rules of nature. It is better for us to learn what are nature’s rules. To see what stopped working, why it stopped working, and what still can work. Then we will see. The connecting morals and Kabbalah also won't work, only the wisdom of Kabbalah. Everyone needs to reach the Creator, ‘they shall all know Me from the smallest to the greatest and my house’ meaning the system of Adam HaRishon will be called a house of prayer for all nations, for everyone, to the very last person. So we need to slowly and gradually reveal the truth otherwise people will advance only by strong suffering.
10. S. (35:05) We are not learning from our history, we are not behaving properly. What is going on with us?
R. You are at the entrance of the last generation. Through the wisdom of Kabbalah we need to connect with the Creator and receive forces for the correction of our nature and the nature of those under us. We will provide for those who still don't have the tendency yet for Creator and this correction as much as possible. We will advance through this. Our world is going to fall.
S. We think about doing things right now for the future, where do we stand with regards to the past and the future?
R. We work only with the future, not the present and not the past. We look to the future where everyone needs to reach correction. We operate and act through this.
11. S. (36:38) He writes about the equivalence of form that Kabbalah adds to ethics.
R. The force of bestowal is the main thing. This is what we want to attain and by this we need to be connected with one another and thus advance.
S. So this is an addition in thought or action?
R. It is an addition of the soul.