Memorize the Pivotal Pattern in the Map to Avoid Being Lost at Sea

The Zohar was concealed from the uninitiated from the day of its creation. Now, the conditions have ripened for its disclosure to the public. To make The Zohar accessible to every reader, we must precede it with some explanations.

First, it should be noted that everything described in The Zohar is an order of ten Sefirot: Keter,Hochma, Bina, Hesed, Gevura, Tifferet, Netzah, Hod, Yesod, Malchut, and their combinations. In the same way that languageexpresses any thought with a limited number of letters in the alphabet, so are the combinations of the ten Sefirot sufficient to describe every spiritual action or object.

Know Three Boundaries That Serve as Landmarks for the Spiritual Sailor

There are four levels of perception (or attainment) in our world:

1) Matter,
2) Form in Matter,
3) Abstract Form, and
4) Essence.

These four levels of attainment also exist in each of the ten Sefirot.  However, there are three clear boundaries one should always keep in mind, connected to the four levels of perception (or attainment) in our world.  Understanding what these boundaries, or limitations, are will help you appreciate just what it is that The Zohar researches, and what it does not.

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The Supreme Gift and the Stigma Attached

In the beginning of Creation there was one common soul: the Light (pleasure) and the corresponding body (desire), Adam. These were merged in adhesion with the Creator, and therefore received maximum delight. The soul’s nature is merely the will to receive pleasure, and the soul was filled with pleasure in accordance with its desire.

However, once having received pleasure, the soul sensed shame. In our world, everyone who receives a gift or favor feels the same way. Once it had felt a burning shame, corresponding to the received pleasure, the soul discovered that the only way to be rid of it was to stop enjoying the pleasure.

How Reception Distances Spirituality and Keeps Us on the Run

The soul that receives for its own sake is opposite from the Giver in its intention and spiritual action. The greater the pleasure it selfishly receives, the greater its opposition to the Creator. The extent of the sense of shame depends on the person’s spiritual development. Only this feeling keeps us constantly within limits and compels us to observe the laws of the society. The same sensation underlies our aspirations for knowledge, wealth, recognition by society, and honor.

The Day Reception Overpowered Bestowal & the Explosive Result

However, since the Creator’s desire was to delight the soul, the soul agreed to accept this delight—not for its own sake, but only for the sake of the Creator. However, since the common soul could not instantly overcome its natural desire to enjoy for its own sake (that is how great it was!), it was shattered into myriad fragments (souls). These fragments were easier to work on, to neutralize the selfish will to enjoy.

How to Get it Together for Good

What separates spiritual objects is not space, but their spiritual incongruence and dissimilarity of properties. Therefore, the number of souls, meaning separate spiritual objects, determines the number of people in the physical world.

Closeness is determined by how much pleasure the soul receives for the sake of the Creator. The will to receive instinctively acts within us, but our desire to rid ourselves of shame and to enjoy for the Creator’s sake originates within us. Therefore, the desire to rid oneself of shame and to enjoy for the Creator’s sake requires special and continuous effort.
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According to Your Soul’s Desire

In the beginning of Creation there was one common soul:  the Light (pleasure) and the corresponding body (desire), Adam.  These were merged in adhesion with the Creator, and therefore received maximum delight.  The soul’s nature is merely the will to receive pleasure, and the soul was filled with pleasure in accordance with its desire.

How to Calculate Your Address in the Spiritual Worlds

Since the difference in desires leads one away from the Creator, different worlds were formed at different levels of remoteness down to our world.  What separates spiritual objects is not space, but their spiritual incongruence and dissimilarity of properties.  Therefore, the number of souls, meaning separate spiritual objects, determines the number of people in the physical world.  Here, every part of the common soul is given a certain period of time (life span) and repeated opportunities (life cycles) for correction.

How to Move Up in the Spiritual Worlds

A person is born only with the will to receive pleasure for self.  All our “personal” desires originate from the system of impure forces.  In other words, we are infinitely remote from the Creator, we cannot feel Him, and are therefore considered “spiritually dead.”

However, if, while struggling with oneself, a person acquires the desire to live, think, and act only for the sake of others and the Creator, such soul purification allows one to gradually approach the Creator until completely merging with Him.  And as one comes closer to the Creator, one feels increasing delight.

It is for this soul transformation that our world and all the spiritual worlds (the steps on the path to the Creator) were created.  Merging with the Creator is a task that everyone must accomplish while still living in our world.  Our world is the most opposite point from the Creator—opposite from His properties.

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You Must Desire to be on the Wavelength of Spirituality

When we want to be impressed by something, whether emotionally, intellectually, or otherwise, we must be on the same “wavelength” with it and thus possess the same quality. For example, to detect radio waves, the receiver must produce the same wavelength, and only then can we detect the wave on the outside.

Your Senses Are Currently Opposite to Spirituality

Nature’s overall force is a “desire to give,” to bestow, to impart abundance. conversely, our nature is one of “desire to receive delight and pleasure,” a desire to enjoy for ourselves alone. Our nature is self-centered; it is how we were made, as Kabbalah tells us. In other words, we are in contrast with the upper force, opposite from it, and hence we cannot sense it.

Is there anything we can do to sense it? We cannot destroy our nature and our will to receive, nor do we need to. We should continue with our lives as usual, and at the same time acquire new tools of perception.

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The Purpose of Your Existence

The Book of Zohar explains that we exist in a single, vast system, called “Nature” or Elokim [God], yet we sense only a fraction of that system, a fraction called “this world.”

The purpose of our existence is to rise above the boundaries of this world and feel the entirety of the system known as “Nature,” the upper force. When we achieve this degree, we will be filled with abundance, infinite pleasure and light, with sublime perception and understanding, a sense of balance, wholeness, and harmony as they exist in the overall Nature.

To understand what we must do to arrive at all this bounty, The Zohar recommends that we examine Nature’s conduct from a slightly broader angle than usual.

How You Can Consciously Evolve in a Healthy Way

Our world is a closed world. We exist in a single, general system whose every part is interconnected. We cannot consider ourselves above Nature and omnipotent; it is a sure way of destroying ourselves. We also cannot escape Nature because we are an integral part of it. Hence, we must study the general law of Nature and go hand in hand with it.

Our urge to evolve is wonderful, but we must do it in the right way, towards a healthy connection between us and the rest of creation in a way that does not violate the harmony and the overall balance of Nature. This, in fact, is the basis of the wisdom of Kabbalah.

Observing Nature teaches us that all living organisms are built on the basis of caring for others. Cells in an organism connect to each other by mutual giving for the purpose of sustaining the whole organism. Each cell in the body receives what it needs for its existence and spends the rest of its efforts caring for the entirety of the organism. An inconsiderate cell that does not take its environment into consideration and harnesses it for its own good is a cancerous cell. Such a selfish act eventually leads to the death of the entire organism.

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