Thoughts And Desires

Baal HaSulam, Shamati, 153: However, there is a special role to the thought: it intensifies the desire. The desire remains in its place; it does not have the strength to expand and perform its action. Yet, because one thinks and contemplates on a matter, and the desire asks of the thought to provide some counsel and advice to carry out the desire, the desire thus grows, expands and performs its actual work…

Our thoughts can expand or diminish our desire according to what we think about and what we engage in. If I keep thinking about something, my desires regarding that object grow and develop and I already live in them and begin to operate them.

Question: If I have a desire to fill myself and all my thoughts are automatically aimed at that, I cannot think about anything that doesn’t fill my desires. But the desires are under the Creator’s control. He created them so everything is under His control and domination. So where is my freedom?

Answer: Only in hastening your development. If you are in the right society and it influences you correctly, you hasten the development of your desires. The Creator can impact you more intensively; your desires will change more quickly, and thus you will begin to advance increasingly faster in the right direction toward the desired goal. Everything is predetermined, but the speed of the motion and style of movement will be optimal.

Comment: The whole correction is in the fact that you have to think about others, but I can’t think about others because I don’t have this desire and so I have no such thoughts.

Answer: If by being in the right society you evoke unto yourself the Surrounding Light, the desire and thoughts that determine that it is vital to be in contact with the friends will emerge in you.

Question: This means that it is impossible to change your thoughts and desires without the Creator’s force, without His help.

Answer: No. Without the Creator’s help, a person remains a beast.
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From the Kabbalah Lesson in Russian 1/15/17