The First Spiritual Degree
Q: How does a person cross the barrier for the first time?
A: When we change our aim from “for me” to “for the Creator,” we begin to feel within (or around) us that which was previously hidden from us due to our nature of reception for ourselves alone. That new sensation is called the Upper World, or the Creator.
One feels the Creator according to how much of that aim is at one’s disposal. That amount is one’s first spiritual degree. In fact, anything lower than that degree does not exist. One can only rise from that basic step.
After the first degree, we get an additional desire aimed “for ourselves.” This makes us think we have fallen from the previous degree. However, that feeling comes because we have been given a new, corrupted will.
The “fall” is the sensation of the next degree in its corrupted state. Thus, each time a person corrects the corporeal aim from “for myself” to the spiritual aim of “for the Creator,” the fall is mended and one ascends to the next degree. (In fact, a person must crave this correction, but the Creator is the one who actually fixes it.)
Q: If a person has already felt the Creator, can that feeling disappear forever?
A: When we have moved on to the Upper World, we carry on upwards. Everything develops according to our efforts, where the degree of our efforts determines the rate of our development. But if we have not yet moved into the Upper World, and can only feel the surrounding Light, then this feeling stems from our will to receive for ourselves. Therefore, it cannot be guaranteed that future sensations will necessarily be spiritual.
Q: Can a person make such a terrible mistake and do something so wrong when “touching” the Upper One, as to make that door close and never open again?
A: It is impossible to think of anything that does not belong to one’s current degree. When a person reaches a certain level, it determines one’s every wish, thought, plan and mistake. It works like internal software.
It is said, “Sanctity only increases, never decreases.” Generally speaking, nature moves ever forward. The drop should be accepted as a situation where one receives a new vessel, a new desire.