Text of conversation
In the article The Essence of the Wisdom of Kabbalah, Baal HaSulam writes the following:
This wisdom is the order of the roots, which evolve by way of cause and effect according to absolute and predetermined laws, connecting and aiming towards one very prominent goal, which is named, ‘The revelation of His Divinity, Blessed Be He, to His creatures in this world.
It means that we are here in this world, and there are Upper roots that evolve down to this world, to us.
We in this world can reveal this root that reaches us and from it we can begin to elevate in order to attain Divinity. It means that this wisdom is not merely a theoretical or abstract wisdom, but it is a means, it is a tool, by which it is possible to climb up the ladder, up steps of attainments, until reaching the revelation of Divinity.
When is Divinity Revealed?
It is revealed to His created beings in this world. This means that we are here living our lives as we live today and at the same time we elevate in our internality, in our attainment, and reveal Divinity.
He puts it as follows: the influence of Divinity on this world is permanent and according to absolute laws. In our world these laws are the laws of nature. As we begin to go up the levels, we simply include all of these laws in our nature and we begin to reveal what is hidden beyond nature. You start to see the world as transparent. You pass with your vision and your sensation through everything that you see here and you begin to see what is happening beyond it—the connections between occurrences; what is affecting what; why I do what I do and what are the consequences of what I do; what feedback I receive from my action, from my thought.
They say that thought is the greatest power that man possesses, but we do not realize it and we don’t feel it. In short, I will know how I can affect the entire system here—the system of management and supervision—and I will know how it affects me in return. This teaches me how to live correctly, because if I know that anything in my life will cause me harm, then I won’t do it.
My desire to receive, my ego, my bodily force, won’t let me do anything that would damage me or hurt me; and there’s no other way to educate people. Thus, through all of this development, a person reaches a state of despair, just as the one humanity is in now. This is just the beginning; it will become worse. The only way is to open this management and supervision that exists here in the Upper Force.
When a person reveals and sees, that person definitely won’t fail. Once the person possesses it, once he or she knows the entire system that will give him or her all of the external wisdom, and he or she will already know how to use them for the benefit of the world. Our problem is that in our world we see only a fraction of the whole of reality, thus, the wisdom of Kabbalah is ultimately not some mysticism, but rather the most practical and essential thing for human beings. If we do not reveal it, we will suffer more and more.
Why? The Kabbalists explain for us that the whole of evolution that we went through was in order for us to eventually see, after all of our development, the extent to which our nature does not grant us the solution. We can’t live a peaceful life; we can’t just live a safe and normal life. We already realize it; we feel it. Meaning that we begin to seemingly reject this world; we want to elevate out of it, we want to rise above it. Then it is considered that we have a real need in us and that’s called “the point in the heart." We already possess this unique sixth sense that enables us to reveal the Upper System, the Upper World, and through it reach a peaceful life.
So what is this life?
This life is simple. It can be explained in a simple way.
Whatever we reveal in this world, we reveal through our five senses. We have five such inputs and what comes in through these five senses forms our sensation of the world—vision, hearing, smell, taste, touch—that is overall what we have. All of these stimuli simultaneously give us such an inner sensation that we call This World. What I see, hear, perceive with my senses, accumulates in me and gives me a sensation of the world.
The wisdom of Kabbalah enables us to develop in us an additional sense which is called “soul." With this sense, I reveal what exists above this world, above the barrier. In this sense I reveal all that is beyond this world.
Beyond this world there is a feeling and a knowing of how I exist; how I am in the state that precedes my birth, here in my body, and what happens to me after I leave this world and I leave my body. All of this becomes revealed to me and not only revealed but I actually feel it in a much more intense, powerful way than the way I sense this world. Then I start to identify with this large, spiritual world; I virtually live in it.
In this world, I just continue living in these small senses, but my sensation is that I am living in eternity, in wholeness, in a flow of life and energies beyond time and space. Thus, a person, as he or she reveals the wisdom—the revelation of His Divinity to His created beings in this world—this revelation of Divinity, of this Upper World, gives to a person the sensation of eternity. The person feels him or herself to be flowing without limits, without time, without difference between life and death. Between all of the events that may occur to the person, the person simply elevates above this world.
If it is such an important wisdom that everyone needs; if it is such an important wisdom that we eventually arrive to it and begin to live according to it and through it, then why was this wisdom revealed only now?
We have already learned that since we have still not given up on this world we have still not received a desire for this wisdom. Also today, it is still not understood what the desire for the Kabbalah is, the desire is very faint and small. Still only very few people are drawn to it.
But there is another question: Why then was the wisdom of Kabbalah revealed only to the nation of Israel? If it is something that belongs to everyone - everyone suffers, we are all created beings. Besides us, 99.9% of the world’s population, are the nations of the world, so why wasn’t the Torah given to them?
This is also explained by the wisdom of Kabbalah.
It explains that the universal soul which the Creator created is called “Adam ha Rishon" (the first Man). In Kabbalah we usually draw it not as a circle but as a Partzuf. It includes within it two parts - a part that is called Galgalta ve Eynaim and a part called AHP. GE are the vessels of bestowal and AHP are the vessels of reception.
Why does the soul include these two components?
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