Chapter 4

Chapter 4

 

The Force of Development and the

Meaning of Suffering 

This purpose of Creation, which is to create perfect sons and to fill these sons with limitless delight, is the only reason that anything ever occurs, and everything that we experience in our life is as a result of this; it either comes to us as what we perceive as good or bad, and it is all design to help us on the way to spiritual fulfillment, whether we can perceive that condition or not.

This is the problem that humanity faces every day, and the deepest question that we have about our life, and our incapability to know why we are Created, where we are and where we’re going, comes from the fact that we have been eating of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and evil. We therefore, see every life situation as good or bad for us, when nothing that everything happen in our lives for a reason. Every experience in our lives is design to expose, produce, change or strengthen certain desire. In our present stage of development we often ask, “If the CREATOR is completely good, and only does good, then why is it that we see evil? Why am I experiencing these dreadful, appalling events in my lives?”

In order to investigate this question, the Kabbalists set for us a boundary of how we should go about our investigations, in order to get a real answer and not get confused. Baal HaSulam tells us that there is a rule in Kabbalah and that is “what cannot be attained, cannot be named.” What does that mean?

The objective or purpose of Creation and what we want to achieve is a direct sensation of the CREATOR, it is not a concept or theory, not some kind of an intellectualization, because there is no real answer in a theories. You can’t feel confident about a concept. You must be able to feel it within you in the same way that you feel where your feet stand, or as you look at anything that is before you. It must be tangible, only then can there be a real change in our perception, not in philosophy or abstraction. This is what we call unwavering faith.

Man cannot really understand the events in his life because man rejects half of all reality. Half of everything that occurs that is considered by him to be horrific, man rejects. That is because of an inner programming that we have, which is “the will to receive.” That will to receive functions as a guidance system, that is, we are completely controlled by it, and all that it is doing is either attracting us to something that we find delightful, that we find as pleasure, and that we consider to be good, or we are running away from something that does not give us pleasure, something bad, or unpleasant, that gives us emptiness, so we run away from it. In the original plan of Creation man was not made with this attribute, it was something he developed when he eats from the Tree of the Knowledge of good and evil.

As humans we are constantly looking only for those things that are considered to be good. So, our perception of what the purpose of all of these events is, is faulty and flawed, because our attention is never on the whole of the picture. It is always only on a small part of the experience because we are looking at it from within the level of the problem itself. This is a massive problem for us, because all perception, as we can see just in simple nature, comes only as a result of contrast.

We only recognize cold by its opposite characteristic of heat. We only differentiate up when we relate it to down. If we look at the quality of heat in itself, if there was nothing opposite it, if it had no opposite quality, it would be a quintessence; we wouldn’t be able to feel anything in it. If there was no movement, no way to measure anything, what could we know about heat? There would be nothing there; there would simply be no awareness. So this resemblance between what we consider to be good and why we consider it to be positive, and what we experience as negative and why we consider it so, these are the thing that needs to be think about.

We need to have something that is not a sliding scale. It may not appear so to us, because we’re blinded by this failure to integrate the greater opportunity of reality, but all of our evaluation of good and evil from within the will to receive selfishly, is completely one-sided; it is a totally sliding scale. That is, we can say that certain events that we see are considered to be evil. But if you really look at it deeply, if you look at what your true responses are (and here, this is what is meant by “only what can be attained can be named”), you have to look at the actual experience.

Take, for example, the Tsunami disaster in Asia. There were 400,000 people killed in that disaster, if you should ask anyone they will say “this is horrible.” The loss of life was terrible; the suffering of others was terrible. It is almost inconceivable the scope of this biblical scope of destruction, evil. But what happens if you happen to be one of the owners of the companies that get to rebuild the devastated area? It is the most excellent thing that has happened to you in years. So, what did you really experience? Can you say according to your idea, that “oh, I should not feel this way about it,” and therefore the idea of what is good is positive for all, and an idea of what’s bad is that which is negative. No, you must go by what you actually experience. If you measure something else, you’re measuring something imaginary. Now, sometimes we can see this fact that something that we wouldn't first take as a bad experience, we can understand as a good experience when we look at the plant levels of life below us.

Take for example a forest fire and we can see a tremendous amount of carnage done to the forest, we can look at that situation and we can say, “well, you know, it was bad for the trees, but in the larger extent of things, what’s going to happen is that there was a purpose to this; there is going to be a thicker growth; we’re going to have, a more diverse forest, a thicker forest, and the things that were preventing its successful growth are now changed. The only reason that we can see a disaster as a good thing, is because we look at it as a process; we see the larger curve of development on the levels of life below us.

Take for example our electrical grid, it oscillate at 60 cycle per minute, meaning it goes from + to – 60 time every second, the light goes on and off so rapidly that we do not even see it. We only see the light as always on, but that is not so. It is constantly turning itself on and off.

Below the spiritual and the Animal level there are an inanimate, vegetative level. There is the animal level and there is the human level that we live on. Unfortunately our level we are just a complex animal. In order to be able to see what is happening to us, and the programming and the instinctive level, and the larger scope of what is happening to us in our lives. Not to see just a single cross-section where we don’t understand the propose + - or the vector, the way in which things are progressing towards the goal. When we look at this on the human level, we can’t understand; we can’t pull ourselves up by our own hair to some higher level. We have to be able to view it on a higher level, which the Kabbalists call “the speaking level.”

The speaking level of man is where he begins to become part of the Upper System and view the whole system of guidance provided by the CREATOR, that One Force that moves us through two prongs, through the will to receive, that attracts us toward something good, and repels us from something bad. If we can see it from this level above, we will stop seeing the events in our lives as isolated chunks and try to name them at a place in time and space where we really have no perception of the reason for anything.

So what do we do to be able to get ourselves into this Higher State? How do we get to see from this higher point of view? Well, we can’t do it ourselves. We can only do it with the aid of the Holy Spirit. We have to be able to sense what is there, and then we can become like it.

Remember that the force of progression also known as the days of Creation is just the development of desires and this system of Upper Light has arranged that we would be moved along through these desires until we came to desire precisely the right thing. But because we are equal partners in our development in an unconscious way, that is, “not by our will alone are we brought into this, and not by our will alone do we proceed in this,” until we come to the point where the awakening occurs in a person.

The awakening is arranged by these events that we call “good and bad.” In other words, our desires continue to be developed and change so that our question becomes greater. Each of these experiences, what we consider to be blows make us ask the question on a deeper and deeper level: What is the real cause of suffering? Why am I suffering and how can I stop suffering? This force of development moves us along unconsciously like a grain of sand in a river, until we will not settle for anything else but the answer to this question because the answer to the question can only come from the Higher Level that guides the system, that makes us feel as if there are good and bad events.

So now that this conscious tangible experience has happened inside the sensation of the person that no other desire can replace, only the answer to this question, this conscious tangible need, now the answer has a place to go, a person can receive it. But in order to know why we’re suffering, we have to know what is good and what is bad and we know that we can’t feel that or measure it against a sliding scale. It can’t be from within the will to receive. It has to be against something that doesn't change. This we know is the quality of the CREATOR, which always and only gives. It is unconditional bestowal, and the quality of the creature is to receive the will to receive for the self alone. It is the measurement of the contrast between these two qualities that begin to give us a sense of where we are, because the only thing there is to feel and to sense is the CREATOR. The question is how do I sense it? What do I sense it as?

We live in a ocean of Light. That means we are always receiving delight into our vessel, our Kli. This is our will to receive, the Upper Light is constantly wanting to fill us with delight, that is, with a sensation which is actually a sensation of the Light itself. It is always the CREATOR, except that it depends on what we say it is; it depends on what the dressing is, what we call this thing that is happening to us.

All events of our life are sent to us in a way that we sense them directly, as Direct Light. But if we feel them that way, that means that we feel them through the selfish will to receive, and we don’t know why they’re being given. What we must all seek to do is to feel the thought inside of it, that is: What is this quality here? What is the quality of bestowal that is the CREATOR’S intention behind giving to us in this event? How is this connected to the force of development that is bringing us to fulfillment?

If we can understand and get a sensation of the will of the Creator, then we understand the event and we also rise to that level. All that we seek to do in the events of life is to justify the CREATOR, this is what a righteous man is, what a Tzadik is. It is one who, regardless of the events of life, feels the thought behind the experiencing of every event, the benevolent force of the CREATOR’s guidance. Only the difference between what we feel in our Kli, and what the CREATOR’s Thought is, what our thought is compared to the CREATOR’S Thought is, this is the source of suffering.

This contrast between my nature, my intention of reception of the Light, and the CREATOR’S intention of the bestowing of the Light, this discrepancy causes humanity discomfort, suffering, and so on. This quality of bestowal, the quality of giving of the Upper Light is the general law of the universe, and everything in the universe follows from that desire. All laws, inner and outer laws of nature all follow from that. It is incumbent on all life to find a equilibrium, a similarity between what is outside and what is inside. So the degree to which we don’t keep this law of life, that is to become like it, our world and all aspects of it suffer; not just the man, but his surroundings, his world, his family, his country, all of reality.

One of the ways of attracting the Upper Light that will allow us to raise to a higher level, the level where we can begin to understand and sense the CREATOR, is by believing in the Messiyah Yahushua, where we gain access to the Holy Spirit and the study of Kabbalistic texts through the Spirit of Understanding. The only reason to study a Kabbalistic text is to attract the Light that reforms; not for any intellectual knowledge, but for a transformation that happens within.

The Messiyah Himself spoke to His Disciples in Kabbalah “Parables,” He told them that He spoke to them this way, for it was given for them only to understand. It is not for everyone, it is for those who have the Spirit of Understanding.

As we begin to read the Torah, bring your question, the thing you most need to know, remember it and bring it into the reading, it doesn't matter what you understand intellectually, it only matters what you need and what you feel.

There is an article called “There is None Else Beside Him” and it was spoken by Baal HaSulam and was recorded by his son, Rabash. “It is written that “there is none else beside Him,” meaning that there is no other power in the world with the ability to do anything against YAHVEH EL ELYON. What man sees, namely, that there are things in the world, which deny the household of above, is because He wills it so”.

In other words, it is purposely created that we see a system that we feel that there are good and bad events. We feel that there is an opposing force to our good; that there is something that prevents us from feeling good. The reason that this occurs is because the Upper Force itself wants this to happen; there is a purpose, HE wills it so, because there is no other force that can actually make this occur.

It is deemed a correction, called “the left rejects and the right adducts,” meaning that that which the left rejects is considered correction. This means that there are things in the world, which from the beginning, aim to divert a person from the right way, and prevent them from achieving holiness.

He is saying here that this experience of not being able to sense the CREATOR directly, is the feeling of this Force pushing us away, this is called “the correction.” This is a Force by which something occurs that allows us to transform; it is part of this system of guidance, and it is called that “the left rejects [that is, pushes away] and the right adducts” [draws closer to the CREATOR].

We’re speaking here about a person who wishes to feel the CREATOR, not just the normal events of life, even though they’re structured the same way, because all of the levels of nature work by exactly the same principle.

But “this means that there are things in the world, which from the beginning aim to divert a person from the right way, and they reject him from holiness.” That means, when a person desires to feel a sensation of the CREATOR, to know the laws that govern their life, to taste holiness, which is Kedusha, which means to be separated, to be apart; that quality of Kedusha is the quality of the will to bestow. It is completely separated from this world; it is completely above it. So there are things that are purposely in this system that cause a person to be unable to sense this holiness. These sensations come from the Holy Spirit.

The benefit from these rejections, the rejection of sin, is that through them a person receives a need and a complete desire for YAHVEH to help him. This pushing away, once there is a desire, once there is an intention to know the CREATOR, this pushing away does what we have seen in the whole system of nature: it causes a need. It means that there is a specific need that is being created. Not a need for cars, for wealth, for food, for sex, for knowledge, for power, no: it is creating a particular need, a desire for holiness. The benefit from these rejections is that through them a person receives a need and a complete desire for YAHVEH to help him achieved.

The desire that is being built is the desire directly for YAHVEH, directly to his children (in Hebrew, Yashar Kel) the desire directly for what is above. Since he sees that otherwise he is lost. In other words, they need a connection with the Higher Force that guides everything. Not only does he not progress in his work, but he sees that he regresses. That is, the more one needs this, the more the Light exposes the difference between his inner condition and the state of the Light. This is called “the revelation of evil.” What do we need this for? We need this because this is our means of measurement. It is by the contrast that we increase in knowledge.

We measure the scope of love, the completeness of the Thought of Creation, against the barrier in which we begin to reject our own selfish nature. So not only is the nature of the CREATOR and the Upper World revealed to us through this process of contrast, our own nature is revealed. The greater the desire to receive grows, specifically with this desire to receive contact with the CREATOR, the greater the amount of the sensation of the CREATOR can fill it. The manifestation of the fruit of the flesh is such a program, without cold one cannot know hot. Without the manifestation of the fruit of the flesh, one cannot appreciate the fruit of the Spirit which is unbounded love.

Not only does he not progress in his work, but he sees that he regresses. In other words, he sees the difference between him and the CREATOR and he lacks the strength to observe Torah and Mitzvot if it was not for the Name of MessiYAH. That is, a person feels that not only can they not sense the CREATOR directly, but they can’t even fool themselves that they’re doing it for any reason in order to reach the CREATOR. They feel the greatest degree of difference, but this is a blessing, because it is by the expansion of the will to receive and its correction that we actually progress.

That only by genuinely overcoming all the obstacles, above reason, he can observe Torah and Mitzvot. That is, not by his strength, not by his knowledge, not by any kind of ideas or theories, but only by the tangible reception of the Light of the Holy Spirit, which has got to be above his reason; this connection is above the will to receive and all the thoughts connected in how to get those things that we want. 

This force, that we experience as good and bad events, are the left and right hand of the CREATOR, that guide us by means of ups and downs through the normal events of our lives, if properly understood once we have this desire to go directly to ABBA YAHVEH. No matter what it is that occurs in our life with this desire, then this one particular need grows until it can eventually encompass and swallow the entire imaginary world and bring us into a complete contact with physical reality.