Cabbala-Blog

The first step for getting material rich is to forsake the love of money. Once we have no material attachment anymore, we're free to receive. We can only receive when we have at the same time the strength and restriction to let go. When we are walking the path to unity with God, we must be willing to go through a desert. A spiritual and physical desert. This means there will be times when we have pretty much nothing. No great possessions to be proud of, no titles, no respect, and even worse, probably we will not even have spiritual light in our vessels. This process is deemed a great correction. Because when we immediately received everything that we long for as soon as we began our spiritual work, our will to receive for the self alone would find joy in it. But we are here to bring the desire to receive for the self alone to death. This means that our body must rot in the ground until it can be resurrected to become clothed with a new flesh and skin. We're speaking here about the spiritual process. When we're ready to leave this selfish world behind us, we must be willing to undertake a Tzimtzum—a restriction. This restriction was not just an act in the world of the endless; also, the very first spiritual step must be accomplished through a Tzimtzum. But all we are is the desire to receive, and so I have nothing to give without the use of my desire to receive. So my desires, after the ego death, will resurrect with their flaws, meaning their negativity, so that they can gradually become corrected. I start with, let's say, 1% until I have corrected all 100%. This is then called the end of correction, or the ending of the 6000 years (or spiritual degrees of one's inner transformation). Please note that when I speak of the body here, I speak of the desire to receive, not necessarily of the physical body. Because there's much confusion about the topic of the physical body, I intend to make my own topic here about it. In the Kabbalah, which I study, the physical body plays a major role, and it will finally become healed and refined so that it will become an immortal vessel in this world. I know that there's a prominent school out there that rejects that idea, but I will soon show here that this form of Kabbalah is anything but authentic. In this article I want to emphasize the importance of the spiritual process. Here we describe the desire to receive as the body and the desire to give as the soul. We have to reestablish the divine image of Adam through our process of correction. This image encompasses all the worlds. In our way of Kabbalah (or Cabbala on this blog) we don't see physicality as something that has to be ignored. Rather, the physical world is the only place where we possess free will. Light can be revealed only through the physical dimension, and so concepts like Tzedakah or Maaser (charity and tithing) play as well a major role in the process of Kabbalah. When we follow the New Testament, we could ask if we're really obliged to give the tenth of everything, but also on this I want to make my own article.Physical desires are often seen as some of the most powerful, and so we saw on the way of Tikkun and restriction many ascetic forms—both in Judaism and Christianity. But even Jesus in the gospels says that someone who is giving up everything for his sake will receive it back multiplied. And here he speaks about physical things. The message is, that I have to give up first very much or even everything, when I want to approach the spiritual path, but in the end I will even inherit manifold in the material world. Only a few people have accomplished this. Joseph, for example, could manage the prosperity of whole Egypt without even forgetting his divine mission for a single moment. In our lives it is regularly the other way around. Maybe we strive for material things on our spiritual pathway, but as soon as we receive too many of them, we have already forgotten God or our spiritual intention. That's why someone who can run a million-dollar business for the sake of God is regarded as a great man. When we go onto this path, we have to prepare for a decades-long correction process. It is not so that we can become millionaires in two years through some courses, and even when this functions for some, they are mostly off from the spiritual path as soon as they have received their intended amount of money. So, we should not make the accumulation of wealth as a target of our spiritual pathway, rather, we should learn how to manage it. In the end we're only a channel to give. And when we attain wholeness—this means the end of the correction—we are ready to receive even physically in an endless manner—but only at the end of the correction and not before.

One who absorbs the suffering of the whole world will inherit the whole world. One, who purified his own body from filth, which means, that he has cleansed his body consciousness from the selfish love for himself, from now on will begin to absorb the bodily pains of others. Kabbalists were often full of sicknesses. We might ask how this may have come about when they were on such high degrees of loftiness. The truth is that a Kabbalist will start to absorb pain and suffering from the outside world like a sponge. That is also why he often has to guard himself to a certain degree, which means that he often has to spend much time in isolation from the world.We live in a field of information. Like in homeopathy, everything in this world carries information. Today through the Internet and the smartphones, we literally opened all doors to our homes and individual energy fields. In the past homes were guarded through spiritual technologies like a Mezuzah in the Bible, but today this technology often does not provide help anymore because we literally opened our energetic doors through the social media. The energies of others can make us rich or poor, healthy or sick. We must all confront the world in one way or another to a certain degree. But are we really aware of how the energies of others influence our daily experience of the world? Have we ever experienced that we have left certain surroundings of people in utter paleness and tiredness? The most important thing is the environment that we choose for us. This is especially important in seeking for places to live. Everything and everyone around us has an influence on us. For people with telepathic or empathic abilities, highly populated cities are like a nightmare. But we can create for us places with a strong energetic guardian shield. Every prayer that you recite, every meditation that you practice, has an influence on the energy of your home. The prayers from the Siddur (the kabbalistic prayer book) are especially designed for neutralizing such negative energies that we all have to confront. Deactivating the Internet on days like Shabbath has the purpose of not making it possible for negative energies to come in. Often a Kabbalist is absorbing the sufferings of others voluntarily. Confronting the pain of others enhances our own inner vessel. Negativity must be transformed into positivity. The Kabbalist will feel those sufferings in his own body, because he has developed his astral body in so far, that he immediately absorbs such energies. Then they must be canalized upwards, and what the Kabbalist receives through that is Zechuth (merit). This is Tikkun (correction) of the world. And even when the Kabbalist has won over his own negativity, he from now on begins to participate in fighting the negativity of the collective consciousness. The purpose of the Kabbalist in this world is solely to lead the world to the Gmar Tikkun—the state of the final correction. 

The less someone is spiritually evolved, the more he falls under the illusion of having a thousand opportunities in every moment. As we've learned, much in our lives is determined by chemical processes of our brain. Today, science confirms that our brains often have already chosen between A or B before this decision comes to our conscious minds. In this case, man is just like a play ball of a seemingly blind destiny. He's forced to suffer from decisions where he never can have absolute certainty about the outcome. A sage, on the contrary, is able to see all the outcomes of a decision, but there's the element of free will on a soul level. The only choice in any given moment essentially is only if we want to be connected with the all-permeating light force or not. When we come into touch with the three upper Sefiroth, time ceases to exist, while in the lower seven Sefiroth, our view is very limited. Often destiny is giving us the choice of deciding between our rational mind or our immortal soul. The Canaanite in the Bible is the one who is calculating everything, but the Hebrew comes from the other world. He does not fit into the rational scheme of this world. We must constantly battle to go beyond the mind in order to become able to listen to our divine soul. Different universes or films of our lives are available to choose. These can be compared to quantum worlds. They exist on the level of potentiality. Dreams are often a means to come in touch with those. Not every dream must be true or become true—this depends on how much we have done our inner work. When we ascend, we become able to see our future, either in dreams or visions. The curtain is a filter that is not letting us see the big picture. When we don't adopt the properties of the curtain through the practice of restricting our selfish impulses and fears, we remain under the curtain, and thus, all we perceive is just this dark physical reality with no certainty, no plan of a higher purpose. We can compare the Sefiroth to different realities, from the worst to the absolute best version of our own life. The choice is ours. For reaching the top level, we have to practice enormous restrictions, as the book of Revelation states: “Be faithful even to the point of death, and I will give you the crown of life.” Faith above reason links the lower seven Sefiroth with the domain of the upper three. There, time and space collapse, and we will experience true immortality—where life and death are one.

In our group studies, there are many questions. When studying the fundamentals of Cabbala, we might come to the false conclusion that God wouldn't need anything from us, or that we couldn't give anything to God. Well, God is a state that is complete. It does not lack anything concerning its bounty. But imagine a rich man who has everything but has no one to share. So this rich man created a partner, or a playmate. God is the attribute of pure bestowal, while his creation, or his partner, is the pure force of reception. So the only way we can bring contentment upon God is through our way of receiving.In the state of our world, we normally don't perceive that a Creator of everything would be existent. We only receive, receive, and receive until our body is fed up with this animal existence, and then it will die. Aging is the expression of an unfulfilled desire to receive. In our world, we experience a constant feeling of short circuits of energy. This means that as soon as I have received a great amount of pleasure, I fall into a space of emptiness. This emptiness we could call 'darkness.' The work of Torah was given to us to correct our desire to receive so that we will be able to receive in order to bestow. Thus we create a circuit of energy, where we will come to a state in life where we are feeling constantly fulfilled. And not just fulfilled to a certain degree, but where we are fulfilled completely. This feeling is an endless blissfulness in every given moment. To reach that, we must become like God in our properties.In Kabbalah, there have been many volumes just to describe these processes of correction, but for now we should know that only through our receiving of pleasure can we bring delight upon the Creator. The first goal of the spiritual process is to develop a constant feeling of the existence of the host. There's a host in the universe, and we are his guests. Instead of robbing the host of everything like we usually do, we should ask him what we're allowed to receive in order to please him. Remember, the host doesn't need anything from us, except that he wants to see us enjoying the things that he has created for us. Even the term 'created' here is not entirely correct; that's why the Kabbalists prefer to speak about emanations rather than creations. The only thing that was actually created was our desire to receive. Every bounty in the universe has existed prior in the state of the endless. No matter if it's wisdom, material things, or whatever that brings us joy—these are emanations from the world of infinite light. This world of infinity has no beginning or end. The only thing that had a beginning was the created being, or the vessel, that should become able to enjoy this infinite pleasure. In the next articles, we will elaborate on how we will receive a constant awareness of God.

Man is the only being in creation that possesses free will. While everything else follows cause and effect, man at certain key points of his life has the power to change his destiny drastically. Free will does not mean that we have the choice between coffee or tea. Most things in our lives are governed by our hormones, chemistries, influences of our surroundings, etc. In this realm we couldn't state that man has a choice. Even when we see addicted people who fight as hard as they can against drinking, smoking, or whatever, we often see that the temptation in the end prevails. We might develop a certain resistant force in physicality, but when temptation pulls stronger than our resistance, also here we cannot say that man really has a free will.

In the misery of life, we see people always trying to change their surroundings to get a better life. They may end up on the other end of the world, while then facing the absolute same problems again, just in different clothing. Have we often heard of such cases?Criticism is the most important tool for overcoming our own Tikkun. When the individual and the community as a whole want to be able to advance, they must be able to face criticism. It needs a lot of restriction when we face hate postings, for example, that we will still be able to ask ourselves if not even in responses of our greatest haters, there might be contained a spark of truth. Someone who wants to become a leader must constantly ask himself, according to the reactions he receives, what he's able to change. Often our closest surroundings are a direct answer to our own flaws and Tikkunim. The constant mistakes we face in others are the facets of our own persona that need to be corrected.Does this mean now that we should constantly walk through the world as Mr. or Mrs. Nice? By no means! Tikkun could also mean that we establish borders again. That we don't let exploit ourselves. A perfected central column restriction in Kabbalah means always to know intuitively when to say yes and when to say no. The Bible encourages us to develop a sense of discernment between good and evil. We could further state that the Tree of Knowledge is the gate to the Tree of Life. This might sound bizarre because we normally want to be connected to the Tree of Life reality, while we were taught that the Tree of Knowledge would be something very negative and sinful. In Kabbalah, we must develop a paradoxical thinking of living in two realities at the same time. In the Tree of Life reality, everything serves its purpose; in the big picture everything is good in such sense – everything stems from God – while in the reality of the Tree of Knowledge Evil is very, very real.What does this mean in practice? In the Tree of Light reality, everything is already existing in a perfect state. When we look with those eyes unto the world, we see only the divine nature of everything and everyone. In the world of timelessness and of eternity, everyone has already achieved complete perfection. Thus, sometimes, in certain situations, we need to be blind to the mistakes of others. We have to exercise mercy over judgment. We must recognize that the sweeter the fruit at the end of its development will be, the more bitter it will be in the process of becoming. In this way we turn a blind eye on others and see only the good in them.On the other hand, we live in the World of Tikkun—in the reality of the Tree of Knowledge—where we have to elevate the sparks of light from places of darkness. Here we often need to be judgmental as well. Judgment in today's political correctness has become a very negative term. In today's society, we see how fast certain people are getting sued because they've chosen the wrong words. The fact is that there was a period of time when Kabbalists treated their students as the last piece of dirt in the world. This changed with the modern Kabbalah under Rav Yehuda Ashlag, who meant that for him it would be sufficient that his students develop an authentic fear of God. They don't need to fear him as a teacher as well. Rav Yehuda Ashlag, in this aspect, was a very untypical, merciful Kabbalist of his time. When Jesus took the whip into his hands for driving out the money changers in the Holy Temple, it was an act of love clothed in judgment. As a parent needs to raise up its children, so a true leader must find the true balance between judgment and mercy, while the first will always be for the sake of the latter. In the end, the path of mercy will always prevail. A parent needs only to be strict because they want the best for their child.While we should treat ourselves most of the time with mercy, we should be aware that we have to undergo as well a process of Tikkun. Many people are just busy attaching themselves to some inspirational readings or spiritual lectures, but only a few have the discipline to sit every day in silence with themselves asking, What can I improve on myself? And as stated, the answer mostly lies in the flaws we're always observing in others. Maybe there are some family members and friends who always need to know everything better. Some always get angry, and so these are our own private examples, where we have to start working on ourselves. The world outside of us is a reflection. The most powerful light lies in the things that trigger us the most. A teacher will always recognize that the flaws and mistakes of his students are, in the end, a mirror of his own Tikkun. And so while we often must express opinions or even criticism to others, in the end the root of them lies in ourselves. This is the paradox of living in a conditional world, where everyone has his own free will, and where conflicts need to be solved on a human level, while on the other hand, becoming like God means to become the ultimate root of everything. And this means to overtake complete responsibility over the whole world, because the whole world, as we've already learned, is just a mirror of our own.

When everything is of divine nature, we could ask ourselves why a spiritual pathway at all is necessary when everything literally happens in the background of God. Every thought of mine, every action, is of divine nature. When everything is God, why do we have to undergo a correction process?

In all spiritual traditions of the world, we can observe a polar development of thesis and antithesis. The answer to often very extreme, ascetic methods is methods of the complete opposite. We can call these pathways male and female approaches. One side is being dominated by the male willpower—the desire to dominate over oneself or others—and the other side is the complete opposite—the female path of surrender, of passive receiving—real devotion to God.

The kabbalistic worlds are a spiritual map of how to approach God. Each subsequent world dims the light further. We can see our world as the worst state, where the light of God is completely concealed. In Assiyah the light is concealed for 80%, in Yetzirah for 60%, in Briyah for 40%, Atzilut for 20% and at the top of Adam Kadmon we come to the full disclosure of the light.In practice this means that in the state of our world – the Olam Hazeh (literally 'this world'), man cannot justify the behavior of God towards him. This means that in this state our life is full of suffering and tragedy. When man advances on his path of correction (Tikkun), he unveils the different curtains that dim the light of the divine. The more he advances the more blissfulness and divine inspiration he's feeling in this life. The worlds are nothing less than expanded states of consciousness. Today we see a wide spectrum of an academic Kabbalah, which concentrates on the right intellectual understanding of certain terms, but we see only a few schools that actually go into practice. With practice I don't mean a dry observation of the Torah and its rituals, but with practice I mean delving into actual kabbalistic meditation methods to enter these worlds. In modern terms we could describe such states as astral travels. The most powerful spiritual tool for unlocking the astral gates into heaven or the spiritual realm is the book of Zohar – in English 'the book of splendor.' The Zohar is written in a language, which opens up the sensory organ for spiritual vision. That's why it's always opening up with 'Come and see' and not 'Come and hear'. Seeing is Chochmah, hearing is Binah. That's why the book of Zohar is not really meant to be understood, but has to be felt by a sixth sense, that we could call the 'Massach' (screen). This screen prevents the light from being received in an egoistic sense. Egoism is death in Kabbalah. That's why it's said that the sinners of this world are like the dead because the suffering and the pain, that they have to endure during their lifetime by far exceeds the little pleasure, they're able to feel. In the Zoharic Kabbalah we mainly speak about the correction of desires. The more I can use my desires in order to bestow, the more I climb the astral latter into heaven. In this other world I attain spiritual organs like seeing, hearing, smelling, tasting, and touching, expressed in terms of the ten Sefirot, or five, if we count Tiferet or the dimension called 'Zeir Anpin' as one.The most difficult step probably is the one of becoming born spiritually. That's why we should enter a kabbalistic study group with which we can attract the light, that is reforming our vessels of receiving. The bigger the vessel, the more light is to be received. In order to expand the vessel, we always need good deeds in this physical world. This physical world, although being very dark and coarse compared to the most sublime realms, becomes the root of every spiritual development, because every word and deed, that is expressed by us, ascends upwards, and will get accordingly a response in the world of time and space. Time is the delay between the work and our reward. Someone who has attained the highest spiritual degree, called the 'Gmar Tikkun' (the final correction), will be always in a state of joy, because he can justify his maker in everything. But before, we must undergo the tests that are prepared for us. And only when we pass them, we attain the merit to dwell forever in the kingly palace.

We must learn to understand that the spirituality of the Bible is based upon a sacrificial system. Without the sacrifice, there is no Kabbalah and no Cabbala. The main difference between Kabbalah and Cabbala is that in Cabbala we believe that Jesus has sacrificed himself as the lamb, which has replaced all other offerings from the temple service. While Judaism is awaiting a third temple with animal sacrifices, in Christianity we believe that there will not necessarily be a third temple. There are some theories that there could actually be a physical third temple, but the common view is, as the book of Revelation states, that the lamb is the temple. 

The spiritual world is the energetic field that connects everything and everyone with each other. We can get access to this domain through immersing ourselves in the holy books. When we read the Hebrew or Aramaic terms that describe spiritual phenomena, we draw upon ourselves the Or Makif - the surrounding light. This surrounding light will correct our inner vessels so that we can elevate our soul to the world that lies beyond time and motion.

According to Sigmund Freud, happiness was a very rare phenomenon. It seems that man, because of his inherent conflicts, cannot become happy. What is when true happiness and freedom could become like a second nature of ourselves? And what if I told you that it's just one step away?Man is the only schizophrenic being in this world. Everyone is happy—the animals, the plants, even the stones are happy that they have a right to exist according to Cabbala. Everyone is included in the divine name YHWH. Just man is not yet part of this cosmic feast. Man, through his free will, is the bridge between animal and man. On the one hand, he has a divine soul; on the other hand, his body is part of the animal kingdom. The conflict between his sex drive and the drive to survive, and the higher capabilities of his divine soul, create suffering. Man often feels that he would be imprisoned between two worlds.Nearly everyone is very much part of this world. The person who seeks constant physical pleasure is very much of this world, and the spiritual seeker who always runs after a spiritual goal like Nirvana or Gmar Tikkun is also very much of this world. His emphasis just shifted from the material to the spiritual, but the process is still completely the same. Everyone is running after something, and that's why tragedy exists. Quite no one truly lives in the now. How can we attain something that already exists? The enlightened state called Gmar Tikkun in Cabbala is, in fact, the only thing that exists. But when we think we can attain it, we approach it in an asymptotic curve, which will never attain its destination. Imagine you have 125 degrees before you that lead down to the divine Merkavah. Often in Cabbala the mystical process was described as a descent rather than an ascent because it describes the descent deep into the processes of our subconscious. Now you can, with much effort, make one step after another, very safely, as your teachers have told you. Or you have the courage to jump like Pierce Brosnan in the opening scene of GoldenEye. To die with the Messiah means to immediately cancel the processes of ego and the processes of seeking. It means to awaken to a new life of freedom and happiness. True life will only happen for someone who has become a zero.