Bold and in quotes: Original text of Baal HaSulam
Regular: Commentaries of Rav Laitman
Capitalized italics: transliteration from Hebrew
I congratulate everyone with our next virtual lesson.
Today we are going to start with short articles from the book Shamati where Baal HaSulam explains all possible spiritual states that one usually goes through on one's path towards the Purpose of Creation, the Purpose of one's life.
We know that our path consists of descents and ascents. Baal HaSulam writes, "When one feels oneself in a state of ascent, that he is high-spirited, and that he has no desires but for spirituality, it is then good to delve in the secrets of the Torah in order to attain its internality. Even if one sees that although one exerts oneself to understand anything and still does not know anything, it is still worthwhile to delve in the secrets of the Torah, even a hundred times in one thing."
What does the inner part mean? And what do the secrets of the Torah mean? Secrets of the Torah are the secrets of the spiritual universe. Secrets of science and secrets of our world are the secrets of our scope of the universe. That which we do not know is called a secret. But we can discover it in an instant, in our next state. Then, as the secret becomes evident, the hidden becomes revealed.
Therefore Baal HaSulam teaches us if one is in the state of the spiritual ascent then he is closer to the light. It is necessary to study those aspects that earlier one could not understand, seemingly secret. Why? Baal HaSulam continues:
"One should not despair, meaning say that it is useless since he does not understand anything," [in hidden and intricate places] "and this is for two reasons: A) When one studies some issue and yearns to understand it, that yearning is called a prayer, because a prayer is a lack. It means that one craves the thing that one does not have."
The prayer is called raising MAN, which is the raising of the desire that one lacks. A prayer simply denotes a feeling in the heart, something that one wants right now at the moment, desiring it unconsciously and subconsciously without analysis.
If one's desire is not spiritual, meaning not for the sake of getting closer to the Creator, to attain Him, and if it does not originate from the feeling of the greatness of the Creator with realization of necessity to reach the Purpose of Creation, then this desire is not purposeful. The Upper Partzuf catches this and by various afflictions attunes us, helping our desires become more purposeful. Gradually, by the means of many such "Puelot" (lit. actions) upon us, the Upper Partzuf ultimately adjust us correctly.
Moreover, the prayer that comes from the heart directly connects with AHP of the Upper. That is why one should attend to possible changes in his heart. One has no power over the heart, rather for this, only his environment empowers. The group can exert direct influence upon one's heart. Therefore, one should choose the group that affects his heart, for otherwise he has no power over it.
Thus, Baal HaSulam says that,
"...yearning is called a prayer, because a prayer is a lack. It means that one craves the thing that one does not have, that the Creator will fulfill his desire.
The prayer is measured according to the desire. The thing that one needs most, the desire for it is greater. According to the measure of the need, so is the measure of the yearning."
In other words, our prayer must be turned towards to the Purpose of Creation. It has to be strong and charged with strongest yearning.
"There is a rule that in the thing that one makes the most effort, the exertion increases the desire and one wants to receive fulfillment for the desire."
The law is very simple: invested efforts cause the object to be very important and dear to us. We simply cannot give it up, because by investing ourselves completely into something, we realize the importance of it. Thus, exerted efforts evoke the demand within us to fill these important desires. That is, the more we work on the prayer, the more we start to demand that the prayer is fullfilled from above.
It follows that one is capable of true prayer only when in prayer he or she demands that the Creator answers it. When one studies Kabbalah, the heart must be free from other desires, empowering the mind to absorb the material.
In other words, when we study, we ususally employ our reason.
"If there is no desire in the heart, the mind cannot scrutinize, as our sages said, "One always learns where one's heart desires."
Therefore, if we notice a person sleeping during the lesson, it is felt how we slowly start losing our interest in the study material. It indicates that there is a need of importance that we must cultivate among ourselves.
"In order for one's prayer to be accepted, there must be a whole prayer."
This means the Upper Partzuf - AHP of the Upper, responds to the prayer provided it is completely congruent with what He expects of us, both qualitatively and quantitatively. Only complete dedication to the study yields in us a perfect prayer in which the Upper Partzuf can then accept.
"...the Creator" [the Upper Partzuf is always called the Creator] "hears a prayer. However, there is a condition: the prayer must be a whole prayer, and not have other things mixed in the middle of it."
Accordingly, the prayer should be pure: we must desire only the spiritual in its particular and needed minimal measure. If it is a lesser measure, then the Upper Partzuf does not respond. This is one of the reasons why ascending spiritually, one should constantly return and study things that he does not understand.
"The second reason is that at that time, since one is separated from corporeality and is somewhat closer to the attribute of bestowal, the time is better suited to connect with the interior of the Torah. It appears to those who have equivalence with the Creator, since the Torah, the Creator, and Israel, are one. However, when one is in a state of self-reception he belongs to externality, and not to internality."
Meaning, we should take advantage of the states of inspiration in which we cling to the Upper and crave the spiritual. And as soon as such sensations and aspirations appear in us, even if for an instant, we should turn to a book in which all the passages that attracted us before as secret, but could not yet understand, should be marked in advance. In such an elevated spiritual state we must read these passages, for each time around, we will find in them something new. Furthermore, even if nothing new is found, and we will feel a greater more profound lack of understanding, this is also an advancement. Therefore, we should try to take maximum advantage of the spiritual elevation to extract the hidden meaning of Kabbalah (hidden from us) and make it evident.
Question: How to build a correct and perfect prayer?
The correct and perfect prayer is built very simply. As I said before, there is no desire in our hearts to the Upper or it is very weak. We must create a desire in the heart directed precisely towards the spiritual - by a vector and a magnitude. We cannot rule over our heart, and this we have known for a long time already.
What can we do? We can only act through the group. If we bring our desires for the Upper into the group, inspire the group in which there are others who also contribute their share to the group, this ultimately gives rise to one big collective desire. This desire burns in a person. Every one of us, who was here during Passover felt it. The first day, one could barely sense it. However on the second day, closer to the evening, there was already a special feeling. We set ourselves to talk to each other, to unite, share our desires, various news and states. We started feeling collective inspiration on the second day of our stay together, beginning to feel that we are all together and wanting to elevate to one common Goal. Everyone shared this feeling, making the feeling indivisible. If this feeling exists in the group, if there is a spiritual force and everyone is connected to it, then one can perceive the spiritual force completely; not in a small portion - all of it. Furthermore, anyone can take all of it at every moment.
It resembles a burning candle that can light a million others, without any loss to itself. There is a law in the spiritual: receiving from a Partzuf does not diminish it at all. On the contrary, receiving from a Partzuf makes it bigger, because by wanting to receive from it, one imparts it with the additional desire and to this measure makes it greater.
Thus, the moment we deposit into the group (our common stock) our shared desire and aspiration towards the Upper, this state can instantly permeate each of us. Thus, we can instantly feel the ascent. The minute we remember that we are in the group, and feel its influence upon us, we must simply feel that we have instantly elevated. And the minute we do, we must use this elevation to open the Kabbalistic books; by studying them - specifically with the help of this elevation - evoke the surrounding light upon ourselves. This surrounding light corrects and cleanses us, elevating us towards it. This is it. The method is very simple, though our egoism may try to convince us otherwise. In reality, all operations are very simple.