Until The Shadow Clears Away

Shamati #8: “What Is the Difference Between A Shade of Kedusha and A Shade of Sitra Achra”: It is written (Song of Songs, 2), “Until the day breathes, and the shadows flee away.” We must understand what are shadows in the work. The thing is that when one does not feel His Providence, that He leads the world in a manner of “Good that doeth good”…

The Creator’s governance is absolutely good. This is the attainment we have to reach. The Creator is unchanging and we are not waiting for Him to change in any way. It is written, “I did not change Myself.” One who is eternally good and does good cannot become different. He is absolute and His bestowal is constant. The upper Light is at absolute rest and fills everything.

However, we reveal the One who is good and does good by changing our perception so that we go from negative infinity, from a reality that appears worse than death, to positive infinity, the greatest good, and then regardless of our own sensations, above them, to feel that everything is good. That is the kind of screen (Masach) and perception that we must acquire.

In the egoistic desire we will feel the worst possible states, which we cannot even imagine, and still, above our desires we will correct ourselves so as to understand and to feel that this is the best possible thing. That is the kind of difference that must open up between our sensations within the desire and what we will reveal consciously.

The Creator does not change. He just constantly sends us states that become more difficult and unpleasant, both for the animate body and for the soul, so that above them we would form the opposite perception, permeated with bestowal and love. By carrying out bestowal, precisely above all of the heaviness I reveal the Creator’s good will and come to identify myself with Him.

Thus, a person reveals spiritual life only on the background of difficult and bad circumstances. Otherwise he can’t tear away from our world and enter spirituality.

Today this process is taking on global proportions. That’s because until now we developed in regular egoism – first linearly, and over the last 200 years, exponentially. However, egoism still did not connect us with one another into a global, integral whole. But today the whole world is a group – one that is disconnected, broken, and in need of correction.

This group divides into two parts:
- The “99 percent,” which becomes more and more interconnected and interdependent with each passing day, and more constrained in their lives. This is expressed differently everywhere, and the tendency itself emerged only recently, yet it is developing at a high rate.
- The group within this society, being the “one percent.” The inner group is differentiated by its desire to attain the secret of development: why does it occur and for what purpose? What is happening to us? What is the reason for the current process? How can we control it, or at least go along with it?

That is where we come to the notion of a “shadow,” which makes a person’s life difficult and hurls upon him as a burden that becomes more and more heavy, depriving him of interest in the usual pleasures. Likewise, a person wishing to advance spiritually feels heaviness in his understanding and consciousness and has a difficult time remembering the importance of the path and the goal. All of this happens so we would understand that we have to take the reins into our own hands, and that all the difficulties are evoked by the evil inclination, which the Creator made. The upper Light constantly brings us new problems and greater heaviness so we would see the “shadow” in this and ascend above it.

The thing is that when one does not feel His Providence, that He leads the world in a manner of “Good that doeth good,” it is regarded as a shadow that hides the sun. In other words, as the corporeal shadow that hides the sun does not change the sun in any way, and the sun shines in its fullest power, so one who does not feel the existence of His Providence does not induce any change Above.

The Creator’s attitude to us remains the same, absolutely kind, and it is only our sensation that undergoes a change so we would rise above doubts and questions, continually accepting the Creator’s governance as 100% goodness. When we complete one ascent, we are sent a greater shadow, meaning greater heaviness, confusion, doubts, and thorns among friends. But no matter what the Creator arranges between us, we must collect ourselves and understand that everything comes from Him. There is no one besides Him. And therefore, at every moment we have to realize His goodness.

If we do not complete the current moment with the sensation of the One who is good and does good, then we do not advance since we did not overcome the current degree yet. Therefore, in every state we must first experience bad sensations, confusion, and lack of energy to come to the lesson, a loss of interest in the path and in unifying in the group. This happens constantly, and if we do not concentrate at every moment, then the focus immediately disappears. That’s because our egoistic desire works non-stop, like a counter with wheels that are always moving. It constantly “thickens” our desire so we sink deeper into the life of our world.

As a result, if we do not support the connection, if we do not help one another, if we do not “cling on with our nails,” then we disperse in every direction. The groups falls apart and suddenly we cannot find anything from its foundations. That is the meaning of “shadow” – freedom from past obligations, lack of sensitivity, which suddenly seeps through between us like a thick fog, immersing everything into darkness. This shadow conceals the goal from us, the importance of unification and the spiritual path.

In the end, all shadows – external and internal, private and general, come in order for us to make efforts, to work in spite of them and above them to reveal involvement, unification, connection, and eventually – the Creator, the One who is good and does good. Even if we do not clearly see the Creator and His governance, yet by means of an analysis with our feelings and mind we will nevertheless reach this sensation. This is the completion of the current level where we correct the evil inclination, which the Creator gave to us.

The evil inclination surfaces only between people who want to unite, who intend to correct the breaking. It does not become revealed to the masses, the “99 percent.” They do not have the evil inclination. They are not planning to unite with one another in order to correct the spiritual breaking. Only we go through this correction, attaching them to us.
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From the lesson in Brazil on 5/3/12, Shamati #8

The Perfection of Misperception

Have you ever played the telephone game? You know, person A whispers something into the ear of person B, who whispers the very same thing (hopefully) into the ear of person C, who whispers that same message (theoretically) into the ear of person D, and on and on until they reach the end of the line.

Now what invariably happens to the original message? That’s right. It gets distorted and warped into something entirely new altogether. Look at Creation re-create itself! (Note: “Distorted” doesn’t imply it’s bad, just different and altered.)

Subjective Reality
Why does this distortion happen? It happens because what people perceive is different from what was “actually” being said. In a way, we can say that your personal experience itself is entirely subjective.

“Hold on,” one might say, “it can’t all be entirely subjective. You and I can stand in a field and both look up at the moon at night together and we’ll see the very same moon.”

Well, it’s almost the same. First of all, we’ll have a sliiiiightly different angle we’d view the moon from so we wouldn’t see exactly the same view of it. Second, we wouldn’t actually looking at the moon as it is now! We’d be looking at a the moon as it existed about 1.5 seconds ago. No matter what we looked at, we’d always be looking at the past because it takes time for light to travel from any object to our eyes. We can never actually perceive the objective reality as it exists in this very moment! Creation is always a step ahead of us! Given that you and I will also be sliiiiightly different distances from the moon, we’ll both perceive the moon in slightly different points in its existence.

A Rose-colored Reality
You don’t directly experience a distinct objective reality around you, but rather the version of it that gets filtered through your mind, beliefs, concepts, perception, and even location.

Experiencing your personal view of the world is a lot like wearing rose-colored sunglasses. The filtered world you perceive is rose-colored, but that doesn’t mean that the world itself is actually rose-colored.

Now, because everyone experiences their own rose-colored world, 100 people could all hear the exact same speech and all get something different out of it. In fact, someone can listen to a message and get out of it exactly the opposite of what the original speaker intended! It’s quite fascinating to see this happen! (and this too, fascinating, is just an interpretation I’m choosing to give it… )

The ego doesn’t hear what other people say. It only hears what it thinks other people are saying.

The Fundamental Difference Of Today’s Reality

Posted on May 29th, 2010

A question I received: Many people in the world now suffer from depression; they don’t leave their homes for months, and require psychological help. What can help them?
My Answer: Depression is the most common illness in the world today. Only one remedy can be advised for it: the Light that Reforms. No psychologist can help in this regard for it is due to the Creator being revealed to us in the opposite form that is prompting rampant depression.
Once each of us felt that he or she was one little person around which the world was revealed in different layers of our egoism: 1, 2, 3. As our ego grew bigger and bigger, we developed in accordance with it by creating a new environment: a world of new technology and social relations. This is how we developed over the course of our entire history, stage by stage, 1 – 2 – 3, toward wealth, honor, and knowledge.
However, today we have come to the fourth level, which is a special one. At this level, what is becoming revealed is the Creator, the quality of “bestowal,” and not our developing ego, our property of “receiving.” This is the fundamental difference of our epoch, which is the epoch of revealing the Creator.
Previously, nature (the Creator) forced us to develop, that is, to grow and become smarter, more knowledgeable, understanding, and powerful. But now human beings have completed their development at the level of this world. People are recognizing the pointlessness of new discoveries, and everything gradually fades, the development of science, space research, and so on. We have completely depleted ourselves.
Today, in contrast to this, the Creator – a new nature – is revealed. And here we need to proceed in a different manner. We cannot enter a new stage with our egoism; we will only harm ourselves. We need to realize that a completely new approach has begun, and neither our strength, nor advanced technologies and scientific discoveries can help us.
Suddenly we will discover that all the systems that we built in this world have stopped working. All the former goals (money, power, knowledge, family, education, and culture) have lost their value. Darkness and despair are coming into the world, but this is because the Creator, the Force of bestowal is being revealed in it. We don’t want it, since it cancels out our egoism, our nature, and all our desires!
It is like a child who ran around wanting to play, and suddenly he is told “That’s enough. Now you have to give and to love. Go play with your little sister.” This is contrary to his nature, and hence his life becomes dark; he immediately loses all his energy.
Therefore, we can understand why people are sitting around depressed, unable to leave their homes for months at a time. Antidepressants are the most popular medicine today. However, I can advise that the Surrounding Light is the only medicine.

From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/28/10, Shamati #16

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