A Scale To Measure The Spiritual

Our work consists of rising above the assessment by the principle of "sweet or bitter" to the assessment by the principle of "truth or false." After all, the Creator is called Truth.

The word "truth" (Emet) consists of the letters: Alef-Mem-Tav. Alef and Tav (the first and the last letters of the alphabet) are desires on two different ends of the spectrum. And Mem, in the middle, is the quality of Bina, which we can use to connect these two ends and reach correction i.e., Truth.

It is possible to find out what is true and what is false only in relation to a group of Kabbalists - the environment. I, myself, inside me, don't have any conditions for this, since I possess only one parameter - my ego. In order to perform a measurement, I absolutely need another parameter, which is outside of me.

After studying for a long time and performing many clarifications in the group, a beginner Kabbalist begins to feel that he is in a general (global) system of desires, among other "points in the heart." In relation to this particular environment, I am given an opportunity to acquire new sensory concepts: drawing closer to or further away from it, a feeling of its global system, my inclusion in it, the need for its support, a realization that it is the place where I will reveal the Upper World and the Creator for myself. 

However, in the mean time, the interaction of two forces - I and the environment, is formed in me. The environment will receive weight to counteract my "I" - ego. Another governance will arise, which will be outside of me and which I will begin to consider and see as the salvation, the lever that can pull me out of my state - this world.

I measure "I and the environment" and as a result of my measurements, I receive quantitative and qualitative degrees of measuring spiritual relationships and forces. I build the linear scale: I am on one end, and the group is on the other. Using this scale, I can already examine, measure, and depict the Upper World.  

From the relationship of "I and the group" a spiritual cell forms in me and I can measure all of reality above me through that cell. This is how I build a soul in me. 

-from a  daily Kabbalah lesson on one of Baal HaSulam's Letters

Giving Birth To The Creator Inside Of Us

If according to your soul your time has come to be scrutinized, to become clear, to become corrected, and to rise, you begin to feel that you are brought to an environment. But this is not enough. They tell you, "Take it," and "to take" means to connect with them correctly - not to the celebrations that they make, but to their internality, to their desire. You must clarify what their desire is, which desire you should take from them and which ones you should not, and so on. This is the work.

Where do I scrutinize the Creator, this category, this discernment, this quality called "Creator" or pure bestowal? I make an effort to scrutinize it in the environment. I have no other vessel in which I can scrutinize it.

Everything is scrutinized from our vessel. The connection between me and the group is the true "I," the one that is not broken. This is my vessel and to the degree that I reveal it, I will feel the Creator inside of it. Because "Boreh" (the Creator) is "Bo and Reh" (Come and See) - the impression inside my vessel. In other words, in the mutual relation between me and the friends we build the Creator's image, giving birth to it inside our vessel.

Right now our impression is zero. We must attain the form of bestowal among us, and accordingly we will feel the Creator, we will create this quality inside of us.

Continuously Holding On To The Correct Picture

Question by a Student: What is the advice for beginner and advanced students to penetrate the correct image of the friends and the group - the desires and the points in the heart - without falling to externality?

Answer by Dr. Michael Laitman: First of all, I am glad to hear that you are sorry that the correct attitude, the correct stabilization of the corporeal and the spiritual reality, has disappeared from you, has been erased by the ego which places all the details in a design that is good for it, and brings you back to the egoistic form every time. You arrange, arrange, arrange and boom - again you lose the correct picture. Arrange again and lose again. This is how our ego works - it does not want to let us arrange everything in the "correct form," in the form of bestowal. You see, you arrange all the items according to the importance of bestowal or reception in your eyes. 

You are now in a lesson, with the teacher, with the friends, with the book, and are constantly making efforts to build the reality for yourself in the connection of bestowal that is among them. But the moment you leave it, everything gets mixed up like a tower of playing cards, and the reality seems different to you again - according to your ego, in the form of reception.

But the regret, the effort, the help from the friends who also want to do the same thing and hold on to it - all these things slowly operate. Your inner work operates and advances you toward it.