Forgetfulness Is Redemptive
Question: It
often happens that I understand a lot during the lesson, but later I forget
everything I thought about and understood. Is this the right way to advance?
Dr.
Laitman's Answer: Forgetfulness is actually the best quality
a person has. Otherwise he would not be able to change his states. If one's
desire changes, then the mind serving the desire changes as well.
Memory
acts mechanically and belongs only to the desire corresponding to it. Since our
task is to change our desire from reception to bestowal, our memory must be
cleansed in order to start serving the new qualities and desires.
Therefore,
don't worry about remembering the material you study! You should only worry
about feeling it and increasing your desire to bestow. Is your desire becoming
more sensitive and uniting with others? Do you understand that you do not want
to unite with others? You should care only about the sensations!
Don't
worry, the mind will always develop alongside the sensation. The mind forms in
order to serve the feelings. That is how we are built by nature. That is why it
is written that "people do not study with the mind." Kabbalah is not attained
through the mind or by having more knowledge. There are no exams that will test
who remembered or understood the most. It is the heart that understands.
If
a person forgets what he heard at the lesson, does not understand it, and feels
that the material disappears to the extent he advances ("I studied so much and
heard about it a thousand times, and I still don't understand it!"), then this
is a sign that he is advancing correctly. It means he is demanding a change and
correction of his desire, rather than trying to fulfill himself with knowledge
in a purely mechanical fashion.
That
is why a person must be very careful about what he demands from the study and
which changes he wants to see happening within him. Perhaps he wants to become
smarter and understand more, which is called "reasoning more than doing". In
that case he acquires more knowledge than correction (because action is
correction), and that would be a grave mistake.
-from the 2nd part of the Daily
Kabbalah Lesson 8/03/10
Prepare A Place For The Light To Work
Question: It is written that a person who
studies Kabbalah must free up a place in his heart. What is this referring to,
a method of inner work?
Dr. Laitman's Answer: While studying The Zohar we
must be concerned with freeing up a place in our heart where the Light that
Reforms will begin to work. I have to prepare the material on which the Light
will do its work. What is inside me that is bad right now, and needs to be
returned to the source, to goodness?
I have to prepare an empty place for
the Light, the area of the breaking, evil, so the Light will turn all of this
to goodness. Therefore, I must first discern: "Where is this area of evil
inside me and what does it mean?" And what does it mean that it will be
turned to goodness? This state has to correspond to the action of the Light
since otherwise the Light will not do it.
If my desires, intentions, and
expectations do not correspond to what the Light does, then it will not
influence me. It will only influence me in response to my true desire, the
correct plea. Therefore, I have to feel in what regard I am bad (in my opinion)
and change my notion of evil in order to make it the same as the Creator's (the
Light's). To the Creator, evil is an egoistic action where you think at the
expense of your neighbor and hate others. You have to desire for the Light to
correct you and make you bestow, feel love for your neighbor, and a connection
with others.
If I define my current state as bad and
discern which state I consider good, and the transition from one to the other
precisely corresponds to whatever the Light has to do, then the Light will do
it. However, if I still don't have a very good understanding of what is evil
and what is good, and what kind of change the Light has to perform in me, then
it won't do anything!
I have to obligate the Light to do
this! I have to desire this transition so much that I will enact the verse, "My
sons have defeated me!" I have to force Him to correct me. I have to tell Him,
"You have to do this! You promised it to me!" My desire must hit the target
exactly.
This is the clarification we must be
making during the study and before it, during the preparation. Then the correction
will happen very quickly.
-from the 2nd part of the Daily
Kabbalah Lesson 8/03/10
Kabbalah International
