Stages of Spiritual Growth: From Below Up

Having just been born spiritually, a person arrives at a spiritual level which is furthermost removed from the Creator, and gradually begins to master the levels of ascent to the Creator. The path from below to above, is known as “personal comprehension and ascent” in stages of spiritual growth in accordance with the laws of the spiritual realms.

This parallels our world, where a newborn develops in accordance with the laws of this world.

The stages of one’s growth from below to above precisely correspond to the stages of the soul’s descent from the Creator into our world, from above to below.

For this reason, Kabbalah focuses on the descent of the soul, whereas the stages of ascent must be learned independently by each person making this ascent, in order to be able to grow spiritually.

Hence, under no circumstances should one interfere with one’s pupil, nor force upon that pupil any spiritual actions. The latter must be dictated by the pupil’s own awareness of the surrounding events in order to explore and correct all qualities in need of correction. This is also the reason why Kabbalists are prohibited from sharing with each other information about their own personal ascensions and descents.

Effort that Leads to Spiritual Growth

Because the two paths—from above to below and from below to above—are absolutely identical, by comprehending the path from below to above, one can comprehend the path from above to below. In this way, in the course of one’s own development, a person arrives at the understanding of one’s prenatal state.

The program of creation descends into our world from above downward; the highest level begets the lower one, all the way to our world, where it is born in an individual of our world at a particular moment during one of the individual’s lives. From that moment the process reverses and forces one to grow spiritually, until one reaches the highest level.

But those who are growing spiritually must include their own efforts while they grow and add their own personal actions into creation for its development and conclusion. These actions consist only of a complete reconstruction of the process of the creation, because a person cannot invent something that is absent from nature, whether it is physical or spiritual. In the same way, everything that we do is nothing more than ideas and patterns taken from nature. Therefore, the entire path of spiritual development consists only of the aspiration to repeat and reconstruct the spiritual realm that has already been implanted into the spiritual nature by the Creator.

The Necessary Revelation of Negative Qualities

As already indicated in the first part of this book, all the creations of this world and all that surrounds them were created in perfect correspondence to the conditions necessary for each and every kind. As in our world, nature has prepared a secure and appropriate place for the development of offspring, and the coming of the newborn stimulates in the parents the need to take care of it.

Similarly, in the spiritual world, until the spiritual birth of an individual, everything happens without the individual’s knowledge and interference.

But as soon as the individual grows up, difficulties and discomfort arise, requiring efforts to continue one’s existence.

As one matures, a greater number of negative qualities appear.

Likewise, in the spiritual world, with gradual spiritual growth a person’s negative qualities become more and more apparent. This structure is specifically created and prepared by the Creator through nature, both in our world and in the spiritual worlds. It brings us to the necessary level of development, so that we will realize through ceaseless privations that only through loving our neighbor as ourselves can we attain happiness. Only then will we discover anew the correspondence between the self and the acts of “nature” from above to below.

Unlimited Pleasure and Goodness through…

Therefore, any time we find “miscalculations” of nature or “incompletions” of the Creator, we can take that opportunity to complete our own natures and correct our attitude to the world around us.

We must love everyone and everything outside us as ourselves, in accordance with their descent from the spiritual levels from above to below.

Then, we will completely concur with the Creator, and thus, will attain the goal of creation—absolute pleasure and good. All this is within our reach, and in no case will the Creator deviate from His own plan, because He designed the plan for us with the Will to impart to us absolute pleasure and good.

“At last, the Trick to Receiving Unlimited Spiritual Pleasure!” is based on the book, Attaining the Worlds Beyond by Dr. Michael Laitman.