Don’t Guess, Control Destiny!

A person does not know

what will happen to him in a moment.

It is difficult to accept this situation.

But I want more than to know the future,

I want to govern it.

I don’t need fortune tellers

but a higher spiritual instrument

to indicate my future form to me.

The Desire that Switches On the Light

Darkness is lack of connection with others.

Like an electrical circuit,

whose elements are disconnected,

preventing conduction of current.

If we truly desire to connect,

that desire will switch on the light.

Shame—the Engine of Development

To avoid feeling ashamed, we must constantly adapt to codes of behavior.

Everything we do in our world, other than providing for essentials, is driven only by our need to avoid embarrassment.

Why is it so? This stems from an ancient root, from the beginning of Creation, long preceding the formation of our world and everything in it.

The Creator (the desire to bestow) created the creature (the desire to receive) and filled it with light (pleasure). After the creature enjoyed the light, it realized that there was a higher element filling it with this light, and that caused it to feel shame. Shame is the first reaction of the creature to its sensation of the Creator; hence, it is the only thing that we must complement in order to equalize with the Creator.

That is also the reason why in our world, which is an outcome of the Upper World, the sensation of shame in all its forms governs our every action.

Why Do We Feel Lonely

(even when we are surrounded by many people)?

Loneliness exists

so we may feel the need

for true connection and bonding

with all other people

and with the Creator

who will then fill us with Light.

Thoughts about Pain

Pain is the body’s reaction to various bodily disruptions. Pain warns of danger, forces us to take action—to move closer or farther, to find the cause of the pain, to draw conclusions and to move on to new states.

Pain is a force that affects our ego.

There is pain because I feel bad, because others feel bad, or because others feel good.

Pain “pushes” from behind and forces us to evolve.

Pain that stems from feeling empty pulls us forward to fulfillment.

All feelings stem from conflict, contact, and pressure—from pain.

Pleasure can be felt only after feeling pain, suffering or anticipation.

We overcome pain only when we rise above the ego. All of a sudden, we realize that we can exist without lack, but with complete fulfillment, which is not based on pain. It is fulfillment that does not stem from a need, but from completeness, from love.

The Light that Will Never Go Out

When we reach the middle of our lives, we start to dwindle, to gradually die out.

But it is not our body that is dying; it is our desire fading and losing its strength to push forward.

However, if we begin to develop spiritually, we receive vigor and desire to advance, like children—always wanting, constantly revitalizing.

Towards True Fear

Whoever opens The Book of Zohar finds that the first correction we must carry out is to obtain true fear.

People usually experience two types of fear: of this world (health, wealth, children, etc.) or of the next world (preparing themselves for heaven rather than hell).

The process of spiritual development introduces us to a third type of fear—the true fear—whether or not we will succeed in resembling the Creator and attain the quality of love and bestowal toward others and toward Him.

The study of Kabbalah develops within us the perception of the unity of everything and shifts the corporeal fears to true fear.

Pride

Question: What do we do when couples turn their backs to each other and neither is able to reconcile?

Pride is the greatest and the ultimate state of the ego. We cannot swallow our pride because we feel that it eliminates us, revokes our uniqueness

However, this can change if we instill a third element into the dual configuration. The third element is the Creator. In that regard, it has been said, “A man and a woman: if they merit, Divinity is between them. If they did not merit, fire consumes them.”

How is that done? We need not eliminate pride, ego, disagreements, and differences. Also, we need not try to understand each other and make peace. If we settle for these, it will merely be psychology, which will explode in our faces the next time around.

Instead, we create a triangle: You are different, in disagreement, and each carries his or her pride. But you have a mutualhighergoal—the revelation of the Creator. And in that goal you can bond.

The Thought Is the Servant of Desire

The Creator created a desire to receive, to enjoy, and nothing else. The greater desire to enjoy rules the smaller desire to enjoy.

If so, what are thoughts, intellect? Thoughts help us shift from one desire to another, from one state to another, from a specific form of desire to a different form of desire.

The desire is the substance of creation, and the thought is the means that helps us use these desires, to integrate them in us, to move in the force field of these desires from greater desire to a smaller one or vice versa, like moving toward a magnet or away from it.

But whatever my desire is at the moment, it always controls me.

This is why I must use the power of thought to help me understand and convince myself that my desire, my state, my current circumstances are bad, and that better circumstances exist.

In the wisdom of Kabbalah, analyzing my current desire using the thought is called “recognition of evil,” and the thought develops in me by the action of the upper light.

Mind and heart alternate dominance within us, but we always move by the same flow pattern: desire-thought-desire.

Forever Young

Kabbalah deals with the soul.

This is the only organ that does not age.

The more you engage in it,

the younger you become!

It is so much so,

that at times you even feel uncomfortable with others.

You look and behave inquisitively

when everyone around is so serious,

so full of themselves, conservative,

and you—an eternal child, forever young.