There are 2 Forms of Spiritual Development
The Creator creates the desire, which is a given constant. It rises from below, within us, and surfaces in various intensities. The aim, however, is to change the desire from a corrupted wish to receive for the self alone to a corrected desire to receive for the sake of the Creator. Even an ordinary person, one who is not a Kabbalist, can raise MAN through thoughts, desires, and aims, because there is always a desire in his or her mind to receive from the Creator, though he or she may not even recognize the Creator’s existence.
We must turn to the upper force and approach Him. The very nearness is enough. The Creator’s light, which draws us all toward Him, is, to the creatures, the one and only law of creation. This gravitating force first affects the Jews, and then the rest of the nations. The force awakens us, through pain, to make us approach Him. When a person fails to want the Creator independently, he or she is pushed to it by pain. We will be at ease only if we avoid this force before it acts on us, by drawing ourselves toward the Creator of our own accord. This is called progress in the “path of light,” as opposed to progress in the “path of pain.”
How a Person Attains Adhesion with the Properties of the Concealed Spiritual Reality
Our situation depends solely on how we relate to the upper force that pulls us toward it. It is not a question of politics, and attempts to please our enemies will not do us any good either. Our situation depends not on our willingness to practice the regular Mitzvot (precepts), because the Creator wants the heart, not a mechanical act. We must attain the spiritual degrees of the precepts, meaning to keep the law of creation in the spirit. It is impossible to keep a spiritual law as though it were a mechanical law, because to truly keep a spiritual law means to equalize with it, to be inside it, and to be identical with it. The Creator and the entire spiritual world are a single giving force. Humans must come to resemble it, meaning correct all their desires to be used only for bestowal upon the Creator, just as all the Creator’s desire is to bestow goodness upon humans.
The human soul consists of 613 desires. In the beginning they are egoistic desires, but if one corrects them to be used to bestow contentment upon the Creator, this act of correction is called a Mitzva. The Light enters the corrected desire, and this is called “the revelation of the Creator,” or “the Light of the Torah.” When all the desires are corrected in order to bestow pleasure upon the Creator, it is a state known as Dvekut (adhesion) with Him, and the Creator fills the creature, or appears before the creature. That state of unification is called “Israel, the Torah, and the Creator, are one.”
Why Spiritual Development Requires Constant Acceleration
If your desire for the Creator is stronger than the force with which He pulls you to Him, then you are in spirituality and possess your own spiritual screen, your own spiritual power. That means that there is a screen over your egoism, and your attraction to the Creator is through your desire to give to Him, rather than to take for yourself.
To remain in this state of spirituality a person must strain to act against his or her own nature every second. There is no such concept in spirituality as resting or pausing or doing nothing. A person must constantly strive to increase his or her efforts, a need that stems from the need to give, to bestow.
If, however, a person’s desire does not grow, he or she falls into the hands of the Sitra Achra (Aramaic for the “other side”), the system of the dark forces, impurity. It is here, and only here, that we have freedom of choice, and that is given to us from above. The moment we can no longer make an effort, our freedom is denied, and the attitude toward us from above immediately becomes utterly negative. The Creator becomes concealed, and individuals begin to feel that their environment—nature, society, and their enemies—are placing obstacles in their way. But nature and society and enemies are only costumes of the Creator. The more a person deviates from his or her desire to focus on the center, the law that brings the whole of creation to the center acts on one more forcefully.
The Method to Correct the World
In the beginning of the 20th century, humanity thought good times had come, and that we would be able to enjoy our many discoveries. But at the close of the century, we saw how much torment humanity had experienced. In addition, environmental catastrophes, disintegration of the family unit, escape to drugs, and worldwide terrorism have all escalated. All this is a result of the human ego that grows without any correc- tion. The upper force must bring us to a point where we will find it necessary to correct our nature.
The way to correct the world is by using the method of Kabbalah. This is why it is appearing in our time, and this is why now there is a desire for it in the world. The people of Israel have an obligation to keep their task as chosen people and to be a light to the nations by bringing correction to the world through the wisdom of Kabbalah.
It takes nothing more than a desire to be in that kind of contact with the Creator to reach the top of the pyramid with the Kabbalists. Today, everyone must know about this work. We have already come so far that each person will discover how the Creator is clothed in each of us.
“Why Today Everyone Must Reveal the Concealed Spiritual Reality” is based on the book, Awakening to Kabbalah: The Guiding Light of Spiritual Fulfillment by Dr. Michael Laitman.
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