Where Am I: Below or Above?

A person's advancement depends on his ability to ascend above the sensation and his previous mind by separating from them and always holding on to the Light, the Creator. However, this is impossible during a descent since the Creator disappears from one's sensation and awareness. Then only the group can help a person by holding him on the level where he keeps the right attitude or the right perspective on what is happening to him.

That is why it is so important to be connected with the group, with its mindset and approach. The group never loses understanding, willingness, and a connection with the Upper One. It always knows that there is no one besides Him, who is Good and Does Good.

If a person absorbs the spirit of the group, then he quickly goes through all the states and always benefits from them. As he checks his sensations in his egoistic desire, he adds to them what he feels and thinks higher, above the desire. And that is something that comes from the group.

As a person advances along the path, he starts to understand that there are two fundamental elements inherent in his perception:

1. Inside the egoistic desire his thoughts correspond to the sensations; his mind and heart are unanimous.
2. When he shifts to the desires and thoughts of his friends in the group, he analyzes himself and builds faith above reason.

Everything depends on what a person identifies himself with and where his point in the heart is: below or above. That is one's free choice.

From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 10/25/10, "Show Me Your Honor"

Wake Up and Look at Yourself

In the beginning of the spiritual path people aren't yet able to distinguish what is happening to them. The current sensation is the truth for them. They are unable to look at themselves from aside and discern the external influence that comes from the Creator. They don't yet see the walls of the "laboratory" they are in.

When a person is on the side of the will to enjoy, he automatically reacts to what is happening: He jumps from joy or vice versa, falls into melancholy. He is buried under the states of his egoism.

However, as he works on himself inside unity with the group, he grows estranged from his own desires and acquires the opportunity to analyze: What are the causes of his states, and how does he relate to the group, the study, and the Creator? Instead of feeling like a test animal, he shifts to the side of the Creator who shows him what He is doing to him.

This enables a person to become human, to rise above the animate degree of his desire to the human degree. Now he understands that the purpose of the unpleasant states where he is devoid of energy, Light, and inspiration is to attract his attention to the Source, the Creator.

Why does the Creator send him these states? It's in order for him to draw closer to the Creator with a request. That is the only way He can awaken me. The pleasant sensations force me to forget about Him, while emptiness does the contrary: gives rise to questions. When I am treated badly, I want to know why, but when I am treated well I have no care in the world about why it is so.

That is why I am awakened through troubles, and at that time I have to understand that these are appeals from the Creator. It is His way of showing me that I depend on Him; He calls me to Him in order for us to come forward against Pharaoh together.

That is when I begin to realize that there is no evil and I am grateful for the "evil" just as for the good and even more so because precisely it helps me to advance, to come closer to the Upper One and to demand corrections from Him. If a person takes the right position for evaluating his state, if he uses the sensation as an object for analysis, then he acquires faith above reason, which always enables him to move forward.

From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 10/25/10, "Show Me Your Honor"