What Is Eternality

Question by a Student: What is that eternality?

Answer by Dr. Michael Laitman: "Eternality" is when I want to be only in this. For me, it is the greatest thing that exists. Our desire must be complete, because "spirituality" is completeness. It turns out that I must be similar at least to this completeness. Not to bestowal, not to anything, but at least to ascribe myself to spirituality, like a baby who is attached to his mother, and this is already enough to feel enlightenment.

Then you feel it like some kind of spiritual breath, like a force that operates on you, some kind of warmth. And this is not a psychological sensation, but something that later on becomes levels, consciousness, understanding, and attainment. To the degree that a person who just began studying is searching for this total devotion -to be cancelled inside the Elyon (Upper One) like an embryo in its mother's womb-he begins to feel it.

A Little Effort And We Are There

"The Creator sentences one where one is. In other words, if one takes upon himself the burden of the Kingdom of Heaven for eternity, there is an immediate, sublime luminescence on that." (Baal HaSulam, Shamati, "Article 58")

With his words, Baal HaSulam opens up for us an entrance to the small spiritual feeling which we can feel in every state. It does not matter if one only started studying Kabbalah, if he does not understand yet and does not know a thing, to the degree that he exerts effort, meaning truly wants to be above his ego, above this world, to feel and belong to an Upper Level, to devote himself to an upper dimension, he can feel spirituality even if he does not have any preparation for it.

If one makes an effort, if he truly wants this in him, if he is willing to rise and is toiling for it and wants to belong to spirituality for eternity, at that very moment, as Baal HaSulam writes, he will feel it. Through this world he will begin to feel the spiritual world.

We must consolidate a desire to disconnect from the state we are in. This does not mean that we need to lose consciousness, but it means to want to use this life in a necessary manner only and that our whole mind and heart will be in an upper dimension. If we make such an emotional effort, we will begin to feel spirituality even if it is for a short period of time.

One cannot hold himself in such a state for too long, but he can stay in it for a few days, a few hours, or a few moments and again return to corporeality, but from those efforts he can definitely feel the spiritual ascent.

Therefore, it is worthwhile for us to accept Baal HaSulam's advice when he says that if one makes an effort and is willing to express his belonging to spirituality in an eternal, final way, to this degree, against this quality, the Light shines upon him.

The illumination to the world does not come from above. The Upper Light fills all of reality in a permanent way. We are the ones who invite Its operation. If we make efforts to enter spirituality, at least somewhat we feel it.

The Correct Annulment Before The Friends

Annulment before the group, before the friends, is not annulment before the friends and the physical group, but before the points in the heart that I see in them, before their yearnings for spirituality. I connect only with those points. The character of each and every one of them-horror-I cannot stand them. I cannot look at their faces. But I must erase all these external things, they do not exist, I do not know them. I know only one thing: the point in the heart which I must connect to me, no more. The rest does not belong. All the rest is brutishness.

In joining their points with my point, in this net among us, I reveal the "soul." The connection above our common ego enables us to reveal the "soul" within us and receive the Light inside of it according to our efforts. This is called "connection," this is called "love thy neighbor as thyself." What is there to love? What is there to know about him? I must only feel his point in the heart. That is all. And there is no distance here and neither are there differences between human beings. The point in the heart is identical in all of us.

Reaching The Correct Plea To The Elyon

It is impossible for me to reach a true plea to the Elyon if I do not reach a state where I necessitate spirituality. I must feel it, must adhere to it, must reveal it, feel that I have no life without it, that without it I am desperate.

In fact, one who comes to the wisdom of Kabbalah is already desperate in his life-feels that it has no purpose. He has everything, but he has nothing. But from the moment he comes to it and begins to invest with energy and desire, thinks that soon he will reach the good, spiritual state; and truly after a number of short weeks or months of work in this direction, the dedication, the desire, and the elevation allow him to come to a feeling called "illumination," or "illumination of the Divinity."

But there can also be states of despair of one's own strengths. Meaning, there can be two options: either one can escape, return to his life, lose hope of being able to reach something through this method-and this occurs solely out of lack of connection with the environment, out of not receiving sufficient strengthening from it in order to stay in it and complete his exertion-or he bursts in a scream, in a demand, and then he is given the intention in order to bestow and he enters spirituality.

This is similar to the state of the sons of Israel in Egypt. They built the beautiful cities Pithom and Raamses, but they built them for Pharaoh, for their ego, and it was revealed to them. On that it is written, "And the sons of Israel groaned because of the servitude and they cried out." In other words, I build, build, build, study, do everything and realize that my ego is only growing. And indeed we speak of the sons of Israel - those who wish to attain the Creator, Yashar-El (straight to the Creator).

Meaning, those people who yearn for the Creator understand that they are working for their ego and they begin to scream: "what is happening to us? If it continues in the same structure we will never leave our ego. Our ego will only grow and we will worship it continuously. And what's next? Where is the point out of which I can rise above it and connect to the Upper World?" And then they discover that the Upper World exists above the ego, that once you raise your "I" above the ego, you begin to feel the Upper Reality.