Who Am I? Does God Exist? | Ask the Kabbalist

Ask the Kabbalist, Episode 4, with Dr. Michael Laitman

In this episode, Dr. Michael Laitman answers the following questions:

• Where is my “I”? Is it outside of me, in some other dimension, where is it?
• Does God exist?
• What is the view of a Kabbalist in regards to quantum leap of particles?
• Is Kabbalah Jewish mysticism?
• After death, is there a tunnel of light and angels waiting for us?

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Image at top: who am i? by paurian

Want to Reveal the Creator?

In this world, we advance physically by using our organs of motion—the legs. Once we have moved forward, we then use our organs of acquisition—the hands.

In contrast, spiritual organs are opposite to ours: we can ascend the stairs only if we have consciously rejected all support of reason. In addition, we can attain the purpose of creation only by opening our hands and giving, rather than taking.

The purpose of creation is to bestow pleasure upon us. Why, then, does the Creator lead us to this goal by such a painful path? Let us try to find the answer.

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Step 1: Acquire Some Faith

Our sense of hearing is called “faith,” because if we wish to accept what we hear as true, we must believe what we have heard. Eyesight is called “knowledge,” for we do not have to take anything on trust, but can see for ourselves. However, until we have received altruistic qualities from Above, we are unable to see, since whatever we see, we perceive with our egoistic senses.

This makes it all the more difficult for us to break away from egoism. Therefore, at first we must walk blindly, while conquering what our egos tell us to do. Then, having acquired faith, we will start acquiring higher knowledge.

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The purpose of our lives is to reach adhesion with God, the Creator, according to the law of equivalence of form, which means that we need to become “human” (“Adam” in Hebrew, from the word “Domeh,” meaning “similar” to the Creator).

Kabbalists have used many terms in their texts to explain God: the Creator, Nature, Lord, Upper Force, Upper Light, King, and more. These all define a quality of giving and love, which is the source of our lives and of everything on the still, vegetative, animate and human levels of existence.

In order to find where God is, or in other words, to reach adhesion with the Creator, we first need to prepare our desire so that it becomes similar to the Creator’s desire.

The nature of our desire – reception, a desire to receive pleasure for our own personal benefit – is opposite to the Creator’s desire – bestowal, a desire to give and love.

Therefore, there is work and a method (Kabbalah) where a person can change their desire to resemble the Creator’s desire. When that transformation takes place, a person finds God, i.e. attains the Creator.

The work involves rising above every characteristic in our desire to receive pleasure; all our hatred, envy, ambition, pride and thirst for power become included within that very desire to receive pleasure, and we need to rise above it all in order to become similar to the Creator, and thereby attain adhesion with Him.

It seems to us as though the Creator is somewhere outside of us, but in fact, He is revealed inside that common desire to give and love that we build. Therefore, to perceive God, the Creator, we need to perceive everything as if existing in one place. We build this space for the revelation of the Creator.

To learn more about God and how to attain God, it is recommended to take the free courses. The reason is that many of the concepts and terms we have a heard a lot about in our upbringing have completely different definitions in Kabbalah, and it takes a while to process them properly. Therefore, if you’re interested in this topic, and related topics like:

• What are the benefits of having a revelation of the Creator? (Topic tackled in lesson 1)
• Why is adhesion with the Creator the purpose of our lives? And if everyone is destined to reach this purpose, then what’s the point of studying Kabbalah, what does it give? (Topic tackled in lesson 2)
• What does it mean to rise above our desire to receive pleasure? How is it different to what many other methods say about suppressing our desire? (Topic in lesson 4)

God is what you discover in your actions. You discover the force of God, which is a force of giving and love, as much as you make actions of giving and love yourself. Then, in your actions, you discover the internal force that is called “God,” or “the Creator” (“Boreh” in Hebrew), which means “Bo” (“Come”) and “Reh” (“See”) – “come and see.”

Spiritual attainment takes place entirely through the principle of “By Your actions, I will know You.” By my actions, where I am in this world, toward God, I attain God’s force of giving and love that fulfills me. In other words, I attain the Creator.

When does a baby start recognizing its mother? It gets an impression from her actions. However, the baby does not discover anything from this impression, but simply feels a caring, loving attitude emanating from her. When the baby begins reacting to its mother, repeating actions she wants rather than doing what the baby wants, the baby then starts attaining her. In essence, the baby’s entire upbringing comes down to this.

In this same way, we attain God, the Creator. I perform actions in accordance with the Reshimot (spiritual genes) that arise within me. This is called “By Your actions,” and thus, “I shall know You.”

Why is it “Your actions?” After all, they are my actions, aren’t they? No, the Creator has given me the Reshimot. He has given me the desire and the environment as well as the strength to perform these actions. That is why, after every action, I say, “These are Your actions.” However, through these actions that have passed through me, albeit with my participation and desire, I come to know You (God, the Creator).

Who is it that comes to know You? There is a certain point of my free will called my own “I.” I have triggered these actions from You, and thus, I come to know You. From Your actions, I come to know You. Inside me, there is an “I” that comes to know You. The actions are His, but the attainment is mine.

To learn more about God and how to attain God, it is recommended to take the free courses. The reason is that many of the concepts and terms we have a heard a lot about in our upbringing have completely different definitions in Kabbalah, and it takes a while to process them properly. Therefore, if you’re interested in this topic, and related topics like:

• The ultimate contradiction about having a God: if there is a God that’s all good and loving, then why is there so much suffering? (The topic tackled in lesson 2)
• Why is God hidden from you? How can you attain the perception & sensation of God? (Topic in lesson 9)
• What does it mean that God is a quality of giving and love? What are the actions of giving and love that we can do in order to reveal God? (Topic tackled in lesson 1).