On the Desire-Sequence

There is a rule in Kabbalah: “He who is greater than his friend, his desire is greater than him.” It means that if Jack, for instance, has a greater desire than James, Jack’s desire is greater than Jack himself. In other words, in the correction process, we’re always one step behind our own desires.

This is a deliberate process. It isn’t that our desires grow. They only appear one by one, from lighter to heavier. When I finish correcting one desire, the next desire in line appears.

Remember the Reshimot? They form the desire-sequence that leads up the spiritual ladder. This is why Jack, who corrected his previous desire, is greater than James, who hasn’t corrected this level of desire. But Jack’s desire is greater than Jack himself because it is leading him to the next degree. More on that in just a bit.

Desires Running Rampant

We’ve already said that desires grow from generation to generation. Our generation has the worst and strongest desire in the history of humankind. Kabbalists graphically demonstrate what they think of this generation with the words, “The face of the generation is as the face of a dog.” Desire is running rampant to the point that people simply cannot find satisfaction anywhere—hence the soaring depression and violence rates in today’s society.

But people in this generation aren’t merely greedier than their parents were. Today, for the first time, there is a desire to know how things really work, to control Creation—to equalize with the Creator! This is a desire of millions of people, too, not just of a select few. More people are not settling for the answers provided by traditional means. They want to find out for themselves, and find out for certain. Taking someone else’s word for it just doesn’t do it for them any longer. These people need a method to reveal the overall design, and that method is Kabbalah.

Technology Broke Its Promise

As long as we are not using the method that can satisfy our deepest desire, to know the designer of the world and to learn from Him why He did it and how, we will not be happy. But as we’ve said before, the more we want, the more we develop our brains to provide us what we want.

Technology isn’t going to stop just because we have a new desire. But as long as our technology is not accompanied by the study of the Upper Worlds, it will only make us feel worse. There isn’t anything wrong with technology itself. It’s just that it has become imbued with hopes that don’t belong there. We think it can make us happier by making our lives faster, easier, more exciting. But all it can really do is show us more easily and more quickly that we are empty inside.

For knowledge to make us happy, it needs to be used for spiritual purposes. When we do that, what we know will open up new sides of itself that will make us see our world in a light we never dreamed existed. The Upper World isn’t a different place; it’s a different perspective.