This year – 2024 – is the year of Ascension and The Great Awakening. Sure, that’s my opinion, however this opinion is based on years of study, inquiry and practice in several areas and modalities, i.e., yoga, meditation, spiritual/metaphysical maps, healing practices, etc….
The next few posts I will focus our inquiry on the concept of “The Soul.”
This specific inquiry is based on the Kabbalistic perspective.
REMEMBER: The way which we conduct this type of inquiry is by keeping an open mind. Nothing put forth here is done so for you to “believe” in a particular view or follow a particular path. Try to empty your mind as you do the inquiry. The process of inquiry is a 5 step process. It can be described in many ways. In our yoga practice we sometimes use the Kripalu method called BRFWA: 1. Breathe 2. Relax 3. Feel 4. Witness 4. Allow. The Growth process is: 1. Confront 2. Explore 3. Incubate 4. Illuminate 5. Celebrate.
In this post I will introduce the conditions for the soul’s development and the first stage in the process……..
Conditions for the Soul’s Development1
A person in our world cannot exist without having some basic knowledge about the structure of this world. The more a person comprehends the world around him, the easier and safer it is for him to exist in it.
If we placed a primitive man among us who did not know the laws of our society, its problems, the thoughts of the surrounding people and their relationships with each other, would he be able to exist?
Just as a person in our world cannot exist without knowledge of our world, a person’s soul cannot exist in the spiritual world, having not acquired certain knowledge of its laws and nature.
The knowledge the soul must possess in order to exist and survive include understanding of the structure and functioning of the spiritual worlds, Partzufim2 and Sefirot,3 as well as their interactions called “Zivugim”4 and their consequences and actions.
However, in order to gain knowledge of the spiritual world, one is required to have a soul. Only then does it become important to him to understand the nature of the spiritual world, for this is what gives one’s soul the ability to exist in it.
What Does It Mean To Have a Soul?
The soul is a spiritual organ that is gradually born in a person who exists in our world.
The birth of the soul signifies a gradual emergence of sensation of the spiritual forces that affect him, new altruistic desires, and the emergence of a minimal sensation of the Creator.
This way, along with the person’s physiological body that leads a physiological life, emerges a spiritual body that lives in the spiritual world.
Just as without knowing the laws of nature and society we would not be able to physically exist in this world, our soul or spiritual body cannot exist in the spiritual world without the comprehension of the nature of the spiritual world.
A person who does not posses the spiritual knowledge will not acquire a soul. It is because he would instantly harm it. Therefore, the Upper governance limits his perception.
Only a person who is able to act spiritually being fully aware and familiar with the functioning of the spiritual environment revealed to him, will acquire the perception of the spiritual world.
A person who has not acquired spiritual knowledge will not acquire a soul.
He who has acquired a soul develops in the spiritual world like a newborn.
Birth and emergence into the world.
The soul = our spiritual body(our egoistic desire to receive pleasure).
The original or starting state is the one-hundred percent egoistic desire to receive pleasure, meaning the state when we want to receive that which we perceive to be pleasure.
At this stage, we lack knowledge and strength, and a person receives everything necessary for his existence from his father and mother, and he exists due to their strength and care.
Correspondingly, the spiritual birth (or entrance into the spiritual world) occurs after a person has realized that egoism is evil, meaning that he has rejected his own egoism and has acquired the initial desire to give himself over to the will of the Upper, in order for Him to correct and create a creature equivalent to Himself.
The realization of evil is the full understanding of the fact that you lack any desires for the spiritual, or for that which is beyond the bounds of the body’s benefit; One awakens to the realization that all of his desires are for the flesh; what will benefit him; also called “The desire to receive for the self alone.”
Once this realization has occurred, birth takes place. The Upper light gives a person strength or the forces to completely reconstruct his nature, to suppress it and not to use his own desires. That is, to create a screen over them, or to accept the conditions of the First Restriction.
This state is called “conception” and “birth of the spiritual desire – Kli”: despite the fact that increasingly greater desires are emerging in a person as a result of his revelation of immense spiritual pleasures, nevertheless, the person prefers to remain in the state of an embryo.
This corrected desire is called “the first small state” (Katnut Alef).
A soul that has been acquired by an adult living in our world is called “newborn.”
During the soul’s birth and at the beginning of his perception of it, a person does not yet have any spiritual knowledge and he is not aware of what is happening in the spiritual world. This is equivalent to the way a newborn baby does not realize where he is. The reason for this is that the person has only “Aviut Alef,” or the screen to withstand only the tiniest part of his egoism.
On his own, he is unable to move or to perform any spiritual actions, in the same way that a baby cannot perform any conscious physical actions.
After a person has been spiritually born and he is in this state, how can he exist in the spiritual? Only on account of his parents – the same way as in our world.
What does this mean?
A person receives various obstacles, thoughts and temptations that oppose his spiritual advancement. He falls down many times (in the spiritual sense), makes mistakes and falls into animal pleasures, as if he is the weakest-willed person in the world.
The reason for this is that the Upper is showing him who he really is, how insignificant and weak his spiritual desires are and how strong his egoistic nature is.
If a person “glues” himself to the Upper Partzuf despite all of this, then he grows, because he overcomes the obstacles that are in his way.
The Upper force purposefully sends these obstacles to him, and He does it in such a way that the lower does not feel the purposefulness.
The Upper sends the lower various obstacles to his spiritual advancement in order for the lower to become convinced in his own inability to do anything and to cry to Him for help.
When this happens the Upper helps him. He does not need abasement and pleas. Simply, when the lower has realized his own weakness, he creates within himself the condition for receiving help or light from the Upper.
If a person does not realize that on his own he is unable to overcome the conquering egoism, the urge for pleasures and the desire to understand everything rather than to act in spite of knowledge – this means that he does not have a Kli or the ability to receive help.
This is equivalent to the condition necessary for a person to receive knowledge from another person: a person is able to receive knowledge from another person only if he is convinced that the other person knows more than he does.
Therefore, the Upper needs to show the lower that he is nothing. This necessity stems from the necessity to develop His newborn baby – the soul – from the egoistic desire.
However, when a person perceives his own total insignificance and weakness, he wants to leave the spiritual path, because his inner voice convinces him that he does not have the strength for it. And how can he possibly attain such a high goal without strength?
Only the strength or force of the Upper Partzuf is able to help a person remain in this state. That is, his “AVI” or “father and mother,” meaning the strength/force of the parents who are above him.
This state – the baby’s growth under the influence of the Upper – is called “Katnut Alef” or “the first small state.”
In the next blog post I will discuss the next “stage” in the development of the soul.
- Reference Credit for the next few posts. on the structure of the soul goes to Dr. Michael Laitman and Kabbalah info. ↩︎
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Partzufim ↩︎
- https://www.myjewishlearning.com/article/sefirot/ ↩︎
- I had a hard time finding the definition but it has something to do with a “match” or soul mate or partner or something… ↩︎