A Guide to Spiritual Discovery
Attaining the Worlds Beyond is a first step toward discovering the ultimate fulfillment of spiritual ascent in our lifetime. This book reaches out to all those who are searching for answers, who are seeking a logical and reliable way to understand the world’s phenomena. This magnificent introduction to the wisdom of Kabbalah provides a new kind of awareness that enlightens the mind, invigorates the heart, and moves the reader to the depths of their soul.
Introduction
It is beyond human comprehension to understand the essence of such spiritual qualities as total altruism and love. Even the existence of such feelings is beyond our comprehension; we seem to require an incentive to perform any act that does not promise us some form of personal gain. That is …
How to read the text
The need for this text became apparent to me from the questions that I received from my students, and from the questions that were asked me during various lectures and radio programs, as well as from the letters that continue to flood in from all over the world. The difficulty …
1. Perceiving the Creator
2. The Spiritual Path
3. The Dining Table
Act One In a brightly lit house with spacious rooms, a pleasant-looking man is busy in the kitchen. He is preparing a meal for his long-awaited guest. While hovering over the pots and pans, he reminds himself of the delicacies his guest so enjoys. The host’s joyous anticipation is very …
4. Nullifying our Personal Interest
5. The Purpose of Studying Kabbalah
The Light that emanates from the writings of the great Kabbalists will help us overcome two challenges: our stubbornness and our tendency to forget the suffering caused by our willfulness. Prayer is the pathway to all correction, which the Creator will see in our hearts. When we engage fully in …
6. Spiritual PRogress
7. Our Perceptions
When someone performs a particular kind of work, that person gradually develops a special insight concerning the objects and language surrounding that work. Therefore, there is nothing in the world that we cannot begin to experience as a result of habit, even without prior understanding of the particular object. We …
8. Structure of Reality
10. Counteracting the Desire for Self-Gratification
Our sense of hearing is called “faith,” because if we wish to accept what we hear as true, we must believe what we have heard. Eyesight is called “knowledge,” for we do not have to take anything on trust, but can see for ourselves. However, until we have received altruistic …
9, A Plea for Help
11. Inner Motion and Development
12. Eradicating Egoism
13. The Way of Kabbalah
14. Revelation and Concealment
15. Gradual Spiritual Connection
Faith above reason allows us to perceive our greatest enemy (the one who stands in our way of attaining goodness) precisely by reason. We can sense and perceive evil only to the degree that we believe in spiritual pleasure above reason. Objectively, there is nothing else but the Creator, but …
16. Inner Qualities and Outer Aspects
17. Merging with the Creator
18. The Omnipotent Magician Who Could Not Be Alone
Do you know why only old folk tell stories and legends? Because legends are the cleverest thing in the world! Everything in the world changes, and only real legends remain. Legends are wisdom and in order to tell them, one needs to have great knowledge, and to see things others …
19. Spiritual Levels
The entire creation can be described as a function of four parameters: time, soul, world, and source of existence. These are regulated from the inside by the Will and the Wishes of the Creator. Time: a cause-and-effect progression of events that takes place with every single soul and with all …
20. The Return to the Creator
21. Correction Egoism
22. Spiritual Development
All that we desire to know about our world can be defined as the result of creation and His Providence, or as scientists refer to it, as “the laws of nature.” Humankind in its inventions attempts to replicate some details of the creation and utilize its knowledge of the laws …
23. Spiritual Work
The fact that we ask the Creator for spiritual perceptions, but do not ask Him to solve the various problems in our daily lives, indicates how weak is our faith in the omnipotence and omnipresence of the Creator. It also signifies our lack of understanding that all of our problems …
24. Faith
It is told in the Bible that Abraham declared that Sarah was his sister, and not his wife, because he feared that he would be killed so that she could become available to others. Since Kabbalah equates the entire world to one person, because the soul was divided into 600,000 …
25. The Process of Conforming to the Creator
Creation, an altruistic action, is the departure from egoism. It consists of setting a limit or a screen (masach) to the pleasure coming in the form of a spiritual Light. This screen in turn reflects pleasure back to the source. By doing this, we voluntarily limit our potential for pleasure, and thus …
26. Cognition of the Spiritual World
27. The Stages of Correction
28. Not For One's Self
29. Transformation of Our Nature
Every feeling we have emanates from Above. If we experience a striving, a love, and a pull towards the Creator, it is a sure indication that the Creator is experiencing the same feelings towards us (in accordance with the rule that "Man is a shadow of the Creator"). Thus, whatever …
30. Fear of the Creator
The Light of the Creator fills all of creation. Although we swim inside this Light, we cannot perceive it. The pleasures that we feel are but tiny rays, which, with the Creator’s mercy, reach us; since without any pleasure we would end our existence. We feel these rays as forces …
31. A Seed of Altruism
How can a human being – who was created with the qualities of absolute egoism; who feels no desires save those dictated by the body; who cannot even imagine anything outside of one’s own perceptions – how can a human being proceed beyond the desires of the body and grasp …
32. Battling for the Perception of the Creator's Oneness
In Kabbalah, the masses are known as the "homeowners" (ba’al bait), because they aspire to build their own house (an egoistic vessel, kli) and fill it with pleasure. The desires of one who is ascending spiritually stem from the Light of the Creator, and focus on the task of building a home for …
33. Receiving for the Sake of Giving
A correct (effective) way to address the Creator is composed of two stages. First, one must understand that the Creator is absolutely kind to all beings, without exception, and all His actions are benevolent, irrespective of how unpleasant they may appear. Therefore, the Creator sends us only what is best …
34. Suffering Sent as an Absolute Kindness
Free will is the personal, independent decision of human beings to choose that the Creator should rule over us rather than Pharaoh. The power of Pharaoh consists of demonstrating to us the rewards we can receive. We clearly perceive the rewards that can be gained from our egoistic actions; we …
35. The Evil Inclination
According to Kabbalah, our bodies are only a temporary casing for an eternal soul that descends from Above, and that the cycle of life and death can be compared to the change of clothing by a person in our world. The soul changes one body for another just as easily …
36. The Work Along the Three Lines
In the left line, which brings about suffering as a result of the absence of the desired, is awakened a need for the help of the Creator, which comes in the form of light of the soul. In the right line, in a state when a person desires nothing for …
37. Understanding Our True Nature
In order to attain the goal of creation, we need to feel a "hunger," without which we cannot taste the whole depth of the pleasures that are sent by the Creator, and without which we cannot bring gratification to the Almighty. Therefore, it is crucial to correct egoism. This would …
38. Kabbalistic Quotes
The most important aspect of the process of self-improvement is the cultivation of one’s sense of humility before the Creator. This, however, should not be an artificial undertaking, but a goal of one’s efforts. If, as a result of working on the self, an individual gradually starts to develop this …
39. Dr. Laitman's Search for Kabbalah
There is a question that is commonly addressed to me at various lectures and interviews with regard to how I came to the Kabbalah. Probably, if I was engaged in something different and far removed from Kabbalah I could understand the validity of this question. But Kabbalah is the teaching …