Are There Random Thoughts?

Question: Is the collection of our feelings and emotions predetermined or can they be developed? And if so, who develops them: the individual or society?

Answer: During the course of one’s life, a person does not choose anything; he does not have freewill. He gradually moves through various experiences that are given to him so that he will eventually acquire a certain quantity and quality of experiences and arrive at their correct differentiation and realization.

This can go on for many lifetimes until he accumulates the necessary quantity of experiences. And then he comes to Kabbalah.

The set of all the person’s collection feelings and reactions to different events is determined in advance. There is nothing random on any level of nature, not even the smallest detail. But for the individual, it is confusing: it seems like he does something, influences something, then suddenly something accidentally happens. There are no accidents; everything is completely predetermined!

Question: So, a thought is a product of a desire within me. Am I only able to think about what I want?

Answer: Yes. Thoughts always steer you toward new fulfillment. What you want is what you think about.

Question: Sometimes some strange thoughts come into my head, over which I have no control. Let’s say, I am sitting in a lesson and suddenly I remember how six years ago I sailed on a ship or drove somewhere in a car. It is not clear where these thoughts come from?

Answer: There is a continuous rearrangement, classification, connection, and ordering of our thoughts that goes on within us—there is nothing random in this process. It is possible that it seems completely incomprehensible or unnecessary to you, but it just seems that way. In reality, it is not “the ship” or the “six years ago,” but rather those data that are recorded in specific compartments of the sensory and mental memory so as to ultimately lead you to some spiritual sensation.

Question: How do you work with this?

Answer: You don’t. You must continue to move forward only with what is presented to you in the given moment. And these are not disturbances, these are what there is in this moment. Do not pay attention and against the background of all this, continue to focus only on one thing: sorting out your thoughts, your feelings, and aiming them toward the goal to connect with others in order to reveal the general force of unity called the Creator.

Then you will enter a level where everything will open to you and you will understand all the details, all the connections, everything that exists.
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From the Kabbalah Lesson in Russian 8/13/17