If I don’t think about the reward I will receive from my action but only worry about the benefit of others, it is bestowal. It is a special action that doesn’t exist in our world and is not familiar to us.
We think that a mother who takes care of her baby is an example of bestowal in our world: She doesn’t think about herself and does whatever is necessary.
But a mother acts from her natural instinct and there is no ascent above nature here. She simply feels that her baby is dearer to her than herself. She doesn’t see him as a foreign body, but actually feels that he is inside her like before he was born.
But we are establishing a special connection between us that unites us all into oneintegral system and changes us so that we will be able to operate in order to bestow. Thus, our actions are divided into an intention and the actual action. The intention is altruistic, which means for the benefit of others, and it determines the action.
If the intention is not for the sake of others but for my own sake, then even if you bestow to others, you expect something in return: at least to be in a good mood, have self-respect, or receive praise. If I cannot calculate things only in order to bestow unto others, this actions is called a transgression and the breaking of the Mitzva (commandment) since I use an egoistic intention.
It is according to such signs that I can check whether my intention is clean and whether it is really for the sake of others or not. After all, I may be acting for the sake of others but expecting to receive something for myself as well. These are the accounts that determine my place on the spiritual ladder along spiritual correction. Accordingly, if my action is for the sake of others without any self benefit, as if I don’t exist at all, my action is more sublime in the spiritual sense.
Therefore, I should totally restrict my ego before every action so as not to expect any reward for myself, as if I don’t exist at all. Baal HaSulam says that we simply have to be a pipe, a channel, that conveys everything through it, and which passes everything onwards. Thus we build ourselves by restricting our ego.
But after the restriction, I can already plan what I can do for the sake of others, for the sake of bestowal. If I can come up with such a plan with the help of the Light that Reforms, it means that I build the head of the spiritual Partzuf. With this head I can already use my desire to receive by ascending above it.
Although the ego wants everything only for its own sake, I act above it with the intention only for the sake of others, without any account for my own sake. This action is called receiving in order to bestow, which is spiritual work.
The ability to perform spiritual work comes only from the Light that Reforms. This is the reason that very few people in this world can understand and fulfill this work, and in fact there is no need for many such people.
Our group will never be big. Most people will simply go through it: They will come and go. Therefore we will keep on consolidating as a group that leads humanity along the right path of our evolution. Our power is in quality, not in quantity.
[139601]
From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 7/13/14, Shamati #60
[139601]
From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 7/13/14, Shamati #60
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