Did You Know There Are 125 Degrees of Spiritual Attainment?
Our task is to attain the highest degree in our advancement toward the Creator. That is the purpose of creation. The ladder between the Creator and us consists of 125 degrees or steps, also called desires. Each desire constitutes a complete and separate degree and is different in each stage of development. However, our own world does not constitute a degree of spiritual desire and is therefore excluded from the count of the 125 degrees. The 125 degrees begin only one step above our world, starting with the first degree of the spiritual world, and so on until the end of the 125th degree. What characterizes a higher degree is a greater desire to give and be altruistic.
The range of spiritual degrees is also divided into five worlds: the worlds of
- Adam Kadmon,
- Atzilut,
- Beria,
- Yetzira, and
- Assiya.
Each of these worlds is also comprised of five Partzufim, and each Partzuf is divided into five Sefirot. Thus, the entire structure consists of 125 degrees (5 by 5 by 5). The worlds, the Partzufim, and the Sefirot define desires, their power, and spiritual degrees in ascending order.
Advancing Towards the Barrier that Is Between Corporeality and Spirituality
In our world there are events that occur to each of us as individuals and events that occur to entire collectives, but the sole purpose of those events is to motivate us toward the barrier in our spiritual development, to cross it and start advancing in spirituality.
Each spiritual degree defines all our thoughts and desires, our entire spiritual being. When a person moves from one degree to the next, everything inside him or her changes as well. Each new degree controls us, and we are under its absolute control. It is impossible to go from one degree to another before the first one is attained completely.
At this point it is worthwhile to examine the purpose for which the light works on us. Aside from the desire itself, there is only the Creator, the light. The light is the sensation of the Creator, the sensation of life, both in our world and in the spiritual world. That light also has a power that can raise one to a higher degree. Therefore, certain operations were set up that we must perform, and through them, we draw this elevating light to us.
Why Everyone Must Enter the Spiritual Reality
To summarize, the soul is the only creature that the Creator created, and that exists outside Him. It was created with an egoistic attribute, completely opposite from the Creator. Its necessitated end is to acquire the same nature as the Creator, meaning total altruism, and it is to do so over many life cycles of clothing human bodies.
The corrupted (egoistic) state is called “this world,” and the corrected (altruistic) state is called “the world Ein Sof” (endless world). All the souls must reach the state of Dvekut (adhesion, unity) with the Creator. The souls of Israel are called “chosen” because they have the task of correcting themselves first, before the souls of the other nations of the world, thus becoming “a light to the nations.”
“Who Else Wants to Discover the Spiritual Reality?” is based on the book, Awakening to Kabbalah: The Guiding Light of Spiritual Fulfillment by Dr. Michael Laitman.
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