Twelfth Talk: Feeling Good or Bad
What we are going through is similar to the experience of when one is engaged in study that includes practical training. Sometimes, the surrounding world looks so gloomy that we see the situation as if it was the end of the world and there is no way out. But later, through training and study, we realize that this is not the case. These events are very precise and correct exercises given to us from above. We are only able to comprehend this later. Only after the events can we acknowledge how necessary they were at the phase we were in preceding the correction.
For this reason, we must endure our path, continuously retain the goal of our progress, and not lose our heads. If a person is put through a situation in which he sees that he is about to jump into a fire, yet is not able to do anything about it, this occurs to show a person that he has no rule over anything.
These states cannot be circumvented or avoided. However, they can be shortened so that they pass faster and less painfully. One has to immediately connect to the group, friends, and to common work. One can also study more, read more, and do everything possible to shorten these states.
A person is engaged in inner work. How does he react to his surroundings? Do others understand him? Occasionally, things that happen at work or at home make us feel hostile towards what we perceive as the source of fights and troubles. We blame a boss, colleagues at work, a spouse, children for everything that happens. We get nervous or angry; we think that everything is over. Afterwards, we realize that everything comes from above so we can experience a series of sensations and pass through them. We see that it is we who exaggerated everything and perceived whatever happened as the most terrible thing in our life. Now, everything is over. However, as time passes, this happens again and again. The sooner we escape from these situations and turn to a book or the group, the better it is for us. The worst thing that can happen is to stay in this condition, to linger in it, and experience it over and over again.
When a person feels good, he has to remember that he had some bad moments in his life, and to relate this as to cause and effect: good – bad or bad-good. This draws a person closer toward eternity and perfection. In everything that happens you see two sides of the coin, realizing that one cannot happen without the other. And you have to accept what happens the way it is. When a person does this, evil will be perceived as good. Then evil will have no less ground to be regarded as good, because it is perceived as darkness only in our uncorrected sensations (Kelim). In the corrected sensations (intention "for the sake of the Creator"), we would perceive both good (light) and evil (darkness) as light.
Until a person begins to suffer because of his natural properties (pride, passion for money, power, bodily pleasures), until he feels ashamed because of them, until he sees them as an obstacle on his spiritual path, these properties cannot be perceived as good. We have to suffer our way through these feelings and realize that until we receive the strength from above to master our desires, we will not feel good. We cannot get rid of desires; we have to use them correctly. Without our desires, it is impossible to reach adhesion with the Creator. The most important thing is to channel our desires properly. A person does not have a single negative property; he can only use the properties he has in a negative way.
The moment we face some life situation, we first of all have to say: "Look, what the Creator is doing with me," so that we do not lose the connection with the One, Who is doing this. If a person holds this thought, then this connection with the Creator prevents his descent and the lowering of his degree. On the contrary, if the Creator completely disappears from one's sensations, this is a descent. At such times a person has to cling to a book, work, or a group, and after some time he will feel a positive change. However, any state has to be interpreted as elevation to the next spiritual degree.
If the time has come for the soul to be corrected, it cannot run away from the correction. Each attempt to escape increases the time of suffering. Until a person crosses the Machsom, only animalistic desires are revealed to him. Right before the Machsom, on the Machsom, and while crossing it, the Creator's desires get revealed. Man is not present in any of them. The only desire, where man has a right to choose is to agree with the governance of the Creator.
The soul of Adam broke into six hundred thousand pieces. These pieces are interconnected, however, they differ in terms of their Aviut: from Shoresh to Dalet. Six thousand degrees (years) separate us from the Creator. The souls of Aviut de Shoresh are corrected in the first millennium. They just have to live in this world and suffer a little bit (contend with animals, enemies, famine, and the like). A person escapes from suffering and this is enough in order to correct Aviut de Shoresh. The second millennium corrects Aviut Alef in the souls; then Bet, later Gimel. Finally, in the sixth millennium Aviut de Dalet gets corrected. All of this is very conditional!
Presently, at the end of the fourth exile, the return to the Eretz Israel is taking place. We are entering the period of spiritual redemption, the period of the Messiah.