Kabbalah And Beliefs, Part 8

Turn to the Creator

Baal HaSulam, Shamati, Article 209: There are three conditions in prayer:

1. Believing that He can save him. Although he has the worst conditions of all his contemporaries, still, “Will the Lord’s hand be too short to save him?” If it is not so, then “the Landlord cannot save His vessels.
2. He no longer has any choice for he has already done all that he could but saw no cure to his plight.
3. If He does not help him, he will be better off dead than alive. 

These are three correct attitudes to life. Everything is determined by the Creator. There is not a single thought or feeling that comes from me, only from the Creator.

Therefore, I have to always be in a heightened state of readiness, analyzing everything happening in my mind and feelings, realizing that the Creator presents it to me, and ask Him immediately for correction, to direct me properly to have good thoughts of love and bestowal toward others, that is, accompanied with good feelings that are above oneself of bestowing to others.

The Creator reveals only evil in me, as it is said: “I created evil.” However, I catch this evil mid-way and immediately ask Him to change it to good.

I then begin to enter into an interesting relationship with the Creator called “a dance,” like a tango: He leads me, and I lead Him. He influences me, and I give back to Him. Thus, we complete each other.

Acknowledging the evil is primary here. Once you understand that it came from the Creator and that “There is none else besides Him,” there is only one thing left to do: ask Him to change the evil to good. This is what our whole life is about, our entire spiritual work.

Question: Can I turn to the Creator without acknowledging my egoistic qualities and their destructiveness?

Answer: No. It is like you are the goalkeeper and the Creator constantly shoots at the goal, and you have to constantly deflect His shots.

Question: Do Kabbalists engage in self-reproach?

Answer: If you constantly cry, dissatisfied with your life, reproach anyone and everything, then you are dissatisfied with what the Creator has given you.

Question: Does Kabbalah view the cause of human depravity positively?

Answer: The Creator specifically did this so a person would need His help, and thus could ascend to His level.
[251948]
From KabTV’s “Fundamentals of Kabbalah,” 12/17/18