Practical Kabbalah #27

Practical Kabbalah #27Wednesday, April 21, 2010With Shalom SharabiDuring the Omer• In the first week of the Omer we are still in the merciful energy of Passover• It is never easy in the Omer, it doesn’t matter how you call it; Gevurah, Netzach…• These energies are not easy during the Omer• During the Omer, these energies are in your face and showing you what you needto change• We are coming close to the death anniversary of Rav Shimon bar Yochai• Even though it is a very powerful day, it is a time to allow us to breath a little bitand then get back into the Omer• Rav Shimon passed away to give us time to breath a little bit, to connect to theZohar and then to continue doing the work• A lot of righteous souls passed away during the time of the Omer• They knew with us as human beings that we are going to have some difficulties,issues and we will need their energy• Tonight we are going to talk about how to deal with this ambiguity of this kind ofcurtain that the Omer is presenting to us, how to use it in the best way and how tobecome the best version of ourselves with the help of the OmerFacing your Tikun• During the Omer is the best time to do your tikun• Any other time during the year you don’t know if what you are seeing aboutyourself is true or false, but during the Omer you know that it is true because it isso hard to accept• What is really our ego, is when it is in our face and we don’t know what to do withit• During the Omer, whoever has the merit will see what he needs to change• I see a lot of people walking around during the Omer sad and don’t really knowwhat is going on; not taking the full benefit of the Omer• If you are struggling in your consciousness, if you are not accepting it fully it isgoing to be very hard to change the things you need to during the OmerTopic of Class Tonight:How to do the work from Love and not from Fear• Examples of doing from fear; fear of loosing something, fear something bad willhappen, fear of going the wrong way, fear of not manifesting my destiny, fear thatif I am not going to be spiritual then I will not be better, consequences,judgment…1. Who thought during the last week that if he would not make a certainconnection or not scan the Zohar, or not come to a certain class orPage 1 PDF created 2010-05-05© 2010 Kabbalah Centre International. All rights in all media reserved

anything having to do with the Kabbalah Centre that he would not have agood week, life or finish his tikun at least once this week2. Who was accepting everything that happened to him this week withexcitement, love and that everything is from God• All of you that didn’t raise your hand with second question you are probablymotivate by fear and you are just in denial ☺• If you are not eager to find your tikun and accepting what happens to you fullyand with excitement and knowing the Creator is escorting you on the path, thenyou are motivated by fear• That is how it works• There is nothing in the middle or gray areas with consciousness• It is very hard to do the work from love• Only few people can get to that level• If you are not shifting bit by bit to get on that path of doing the work from love;eventually you will resent the spiritual path• It means that one day you will find yourself getting upset at all the things thathappen to you and you will not understand them• Some of the fears that we have1. Being sick, not being healthy2. Not being successful3. Being left alone4. Not finding my soul mate5. Not being unique• All of those fears are the fears between me and the light from doing the workfrom loveConnecting to Higher Version of Ourselves• Sharing with things that are easy for me is what gets me stuck in that level of fear• The first rule of breaking that fear is to share with the people you do not like toshare with, or doing the things you don’t like to do• Its not just about doing things that are uncomfortable but about doing the thingsthat will connect me to the higher version of me• Those are the parts I need to work on• Taurus is not about comfort, it is about liking what I already know and notmoving on to the things I don’t know• Taurus has a specific gift in the middle of the Omer• This month will show you things that you don’t like• Now when you know what you don’t like, your shift is to start doing those thingsthat you don’t like to do• You know what you need to change, what you need to do, people you need tochange your connection with, how many times you need to make moremeditations or helping others• The problem is we don’t like to do it, that is why we are suffering during theOmerPage 2 PDF created 2010-05-05© 2010 Kabbalah Centre International. All rights in all media reserved

• There are 2 types of students1. Still trying to avoid, they see it but decide to work on the things that arecomfortable to work on2. More elevated student sees what they need to do and going against theirnature and doing it but are not happy about it. They have the sour face, it’stikun, the Omer, counting the Omer like getting out of jailDoing the Work from Fear• If you are going through the day on your checklist then you are coming from aplace of fear• Everything has a few dimensions• If there is an obstacle in life and you are going to break your nature and tacklethat obstacle … if you are going in unhappy and not really wanting to do it youwill only reveal one dimension… the dimension of helping you survive foranother day• The light you reveal out of fear will be enough to survive one more day• If you feel exhausted in your spiritual work it is because you are doing thingsfrom fear or from “I have to do it” and you are revealing enough light to surviveone more day• When we have the consciousness of1. G-d please let me survive the month2. Please let me get this check, this for this month• When you ask these things, that is what you ask when you are dragging your feetin the spiritual work• If we are doing from “I have to do” the payment is 1 dimensional paymentDoing the Work from Love• Loving the work reveals a few dimensions• Love your tikun, love to go against your nature• When you are injecting love into doing those things something will be revealedPage 3 PDF created 2010-05-05© 2010 Kabbalah Centre International. All rights in all media reserved

The Power of the MitzvotBy Rav Isaac Luria (The Ari)Sha’ar HaMitzvot (Gate of The Precepts)Kitve HaAri, Volume 9Pages 1-2Also know, that he who does a mitzvah (positive spiritualaction), it is not enough for him by just doing it. As wefind in the words of the sages “he who does one mitzvah isreceiving benefit, and he gain length of life” and also it hasbeen said “he who does a certain mitzvah gains so and so”and we have seen people do many mitzvot and the words ofthe sages did not come true god forbid, in the issue of theamount of their benefit, even in this world.But the root that everything relies on, is that when doingthe mitzvah, we should not feel it is a burden and be quickto get it done.Instead we should think as if by doing that mitzvah, we gain tenth of thousands of goldencoins, and we should be happy while doing the mitzvah, with a joy that has no boundariesfrom our heart and soul and with a great desire, as if in fact we are receiving tenth ofthousands of golden coins, if we do that mitzvah.This will indicate on our belief and trust in the Creator, even more then if the payment waspresented before us physically. By the amount of our true joy and the goodness of ourinternal heart, that is how we will merit to receive supernal light.And if we will commit to this, there is no doubt that we will receive divine inspiration.This issue applies for the doing of all the mitzvot, also when we deal with the Torah, we needto have a great desire and tremendous excitement, as if we are standing before the king andwe serve him with a great desire to be loved by him, and to receive from him a greatadditional benefit.Page 4 PDF created 2010-05-05© 2010 Kabbalah Centre International. All rights in all media reserved

Handout• The first page of The Gate of Precepts• The Ari 500 years ago was teaching his student Rav Chaim Vital how to overcomehis nature by doing the 613 precepts• What to do, what not to do, restrictions and things to do proactively to receivemore light in your life• The first few pages he dedicated to explain to his student how you should do it• It’s not just about doing it; what do you need to think about when you are doingthings you don’t like to do or things that are suppose to reveal light• Mitzvah is either doing a type of restriction or doing good action like sharingInjecting Happiness / Expectations• If you are doing anything with spirituality and you are dragging your feet you willonly reveal enough light for 1 day• If you are wanting to reveal all the light that is available, when you are doing itand you know that you are only going to receive enough light for one more day,that is not motivating• Energy of death comes into your vessel and is not allowing you to see what youneed to do• If you want to have divine inspiration you cannot have it without creatingexcitement when doing the spiritual work• Everything you want to see in your life exists within this divine inspiration• The light talks to you every day, what you need to do and how you should do it• The only way you can listen to what the light is telling you is by creatingexcitement when you know you are not excited• This is a tricky thing• What do you do when you are not excited?• Sometimes the opponent tells us; yeah you were excited yesterday but nothinghappened• 3 days ago… for a month you were excited and nothing happened• What do you do? You are really trying to be spiritual• After 3 months you want to appreciate the things that you have and you are notappreciating, you still don’t have what you want• What do you do?• How many people want to get to a higher level in their career, relationship, familyor even their next level with sharing• We are not all complete• The Rav said something very powerful, “A person who has expectations, it doesn’tmatter how many times he is going to be happy. If he is doing according to whathe thinks he should have, eventually he will be disappointed.”• It doesn’t matter how many times you have injected energy if you feel that youare going to be happy from receiving that certain thing; you will never be happybecause all your work is based on that one thing that you want to receivePage 5 PDF created 2010-05-05© 2010 Kabbalah Centre International. All rights in all media reserved

Pushing Away Your Goals• We said to write goals 20 something classes ago; writing your 5 year plan, 1 yearplan and a plan for your day• How do you balance these two things1. Write your goals2. Be happy about who you are• Every time you have a bad day and your are not excited; you are standing in frontof your gift, “your reward,” the obsession that you have for the gift for yourselfkeeps it away for just another day• The more obsession you have about your goals and the more you are chasing afterit the more you are pushing that light out of your system• This is with everything• Ex: You work with a person and you have expectations from them, the moreexpectations you have the more judgment you have, the more you are pushingthem away and the more uncomfortable they will be around you• Ex: You are in a relationship, the more expectations you have, the morejudgment and rejection the other person feels because somehow you are in themode of wanting something from them that is not connected to the light• The more obsessed you are about anything the more it runs away from you• The Rav had an amazing business, was one of the best in his area doing what hewas doing. He came to his brother in law and gave him the business and didn’twant to have anything to do with it• You don’t have to give it up, but he had a goal and that goal was for the sake ofhumanity• The Rav knew that he cannot pursue one thing (still being a successful businessman) and still doing what he needed to do• Needed to be open for whatever the universe had to offer• What this created for The Rav was years and years of not having and feelingempty; not having the right students, not having the right buildings• The Rav knew that the more he would be upset about what was happening tohimself that the more it would push away Kabbalah from being revealed to all ofus• We would never be sitting here if The Rav and Karen had expectations• The Rav and Karen had goals, they had an ambition but every few years the goalsare changing• The big goal of removing pain and suffering from the world is not changing• But the way we are doing things is always changing because there is noattachment to anything and there is nothing so important that you are not goingto move onChanging Goals• There are people on the path that do not like changes; if there is someone thatstarted studying Kabbalah 10 years ago and the person joined with an agenda…Page 6 PDF created 2010-05-05© 2010 Kabbalah Centre International. All rights in all media reserved

likes a cozy Shabbat, no 300 people, feels the warmth of 20 people sitting in theroom…• The Centre is changing, but my personal agenda is not allowing me to change• The Centre is moving on, the old goals are changing• Ex: Or to say, I don’t study Kabbalah because Madonna studies; who cares thatMadonna studies Kabbalah• We have our own idea of what our soul mate should look like, what our businessshould look like, what our life should look like• Even if the Creator is trying to give you everything with all the dimensions, youcan’t receive it because you blocked it• Ex: The Creator is coming to you with a pile of books and you told him you onlywant to have this one page• We are telling the Creator we only want to receive this much (limited amount)and the Creator is telling us, because you limit me I can’t give you anything so Iam going to give you enough energy to survive just for another day; maybe youwill change tomorrow• This is how it works• Light and Vessel; simple• The light wants to give everything to the vessel• The vessel creates a curtain “because the vessel thinks that he knows what he isdoing”• The light wants to give it all to you and you say no• The vessel says ok, I’ll wait till tomorrow and times go on• You have to have a direction but you also have to be willing to let go of your planto receive something biggerJust Enough for One More Day• Every time you are complaining about what the light is giving you, you getenough energy to survive just another day• You are just around the corner, the edge of the corner to revealing the light youare needing to reveal• During the Omer you see all the negativity you have, all your tikun• The natural tendency, the opponent tries to take advantage• The job of the opponent is to make sure you get just enough energy to surviveanother day• Why does the opponent have an agenda; the opponent is an angel that wascreated to challenge us to reveal more light• What is the job of the opponent; to get you to choose the 1% reality over the 99%reality; to make you go for the things that are instant gratification, to plant chaosaround the world• If you, with limited consciousness, revealing energy to survive another day youare effecting others to have limited consciousness as well• The job of the opponent is not that you are going to die and go to the next lifewith opportunitiesPage 7 PDF created 2010-05-05© 2010 Kabbalah Centre International. All rights in all media reserved

• His job is that you will stay here for many years complaining; about your job,about your back, about not finding your soul mate• When you are revealing 1 dimension the others around you are revealing 1dimension• Every time people around you are depressed, it means you are depressed• Somehow you are cutting the cord by revealing only 1% dimensionConsciousness of the Reality of the Tree of Life• How many worlds exist according to 10 luminous emanations; 41. Atzilut2. Briya3. Yetzirah4. Assiya• The last one is the world of action, our physical reality and the other 3 worlds areabove it but are still levels of consciousness• The highest is most connected to the light, purer level means there is moreharmony• The highest level; simple relationship between the light and the vessel• What is the desire of the light; to give• What is the desire of the vessel; to receive• We are in the world of action; Assiya• If we want to go up, what do we do?• To reveal that light, to have the relationship with the light you have to go againstyour nature. You have to do this to activate the “giver” nature• Did they Creator change in this relationship; No• Who changed; Us• How are we different than what we use to be, what changed; our desire, ourlimited vessel• How are we limiting ourselves; dragging our feet, doing things because we havetoLight & Vessel• Everyday the Light is with you when you wake up and wants to hand youeverything that exists but because you are not simple and because you are beatingyourself up from every thing that happened in the past you can’t receive all thatthe light wants to give you• Me believing that I am not worthy, feeling shamed, not being simple is notallowing me to go up to the upper worlds• Last Shabbat Michael Berg talked about when you fall and you are loosing yourconsciousness, now you can actually take care of it.• When you are higher you are not seeing what it is you need to change• Falling allows you to see what you need to change; but when we stop believing;when we believe that we are not that pure vessel again if we want to be … in asecond, that is what makes me not receiving that light in a secondPage 8 PDF created 2010-05-05© 2010 Kabbalah Centre International. All rights in all media reserved

• If you are not simple, if you wake up in the morning and you do not believe youare the son of the Creator, if you wake up and are listening to the opponent whotells you, you are not the son of the Creator…• If you forget that; right away you are going into a process of going backwards• Right then you are receiving just enough energy to survive another day• In Michael’s lecture he explained one of the 4 types of people that are consideredto be dead are the poor people; pour people meaning people that feel that theyhave nothing to give• An empty vessel; a vessel that is ashamed, a vessel that feels that he is a nobodyand the most negative person on earth he will believe he will only change whenthe light gives him what he needs to change• Have you ever seen a negative rich person holding a lot of money• He has the money because he believes he should receive it; simple• But we are “so spiritual,” we believe we don’t deserve because we have done allthese negative things• All this negotiation in our heads prevents the light from giving to you• Just take; the light is giving; this is yours• Of course we are not going to take it even if it is right in front of us; as long as thevessel feels ashamed and un-pure, the vessel will not be able to draw energy• If you wake up in the morning and you feel, “Oh my god, it’s another day, it’s theOmer” if you feel that energy, “just to survive another day,” run away from it.• What is the difference, the vessel is still the vessel and the light is still the light• It is a simple concept• G-d doesn’t change, He doesn’t dislike you somehow• The light is the source of all giving; He is not this emotional being• We are here to fulfill the lights desire to give• If we are not opening our hands after doing something “bad,” evening openingour hands for change… the light of redemption depends on if we believe we cango out of it today or if we believe we need a process of 7 years to purify the vesselfrom something negative we didWaiting to be Pure• Looking at the room none of us are righteous, including myself• We have done so many things• Because I am not pure; what if I waited 20 years before I come to teach you andyou do not come to class because you are not pure• We will have a class with no teacher, no students and we will just wait for thatday that we are going to be righteous• That is what the opponent wants from you every day, especially during the Omer• The light is your business; what you get out of your business depends on howhappy you are• If you go to that place that, “I do not deserve, I should be unhappy and emptybecause of that mistake,” then you are preventing the light from giving you theenergy to do everything you need to doPage 9 PDF created 2010-05-05© 2010 Kabbalah Centre International. All rights in all media reserved

• This is a promise I made myself, knowing I am negative, knowing I am selfishand that I have all of these issues… “I am not going to give up helping peoplebecause I am not perfect.”• If you really want to stay on this path; the Centre is not perfect, we are notperfect; don’t expect• What you should expect from yourself is that another day might be better• I never saw the Rav, Karen, Yehuda, Michael giving up but I have heard them saymany times how they are making mistakes• Still they are not giving up and they are still here every Shabbat, still teaching usand still giving love and still helping us• Why? Because they promised one thing; we are not going to stop until we die;simple• We are a vessel that came here to carry the light that we receive and give toeveryone around the world• SimpleStay Simple• Keep yourself simple during the Omer, try to inject excitement in all the thingsthat you are doing and remind yourself you are just a vessel that came to receive• If you see that you are stuck and something is not working you need to examineon a 1% level• If you are doing everything you can, be open to new directions• You don’t stop everything that you are doing but opening yourself up to maybethere is something else that you should do• Remind yourself that it is not the end of the world if it is not working and openyourself to other things• That letting go is not something tangible• You keep working toward that goal knowing that you do not have expectations• Ex: I believe that my soul mate should be one way. When they are not that way Iget upset at them or do not like them; that means that I have expectations. But ifI stay there and am working on myself and letting go of the fact that they are notperfect then I am revealing the most amount of light in that relationshipObsession• Obsession is the key for loosing everything that you have or postponing that goalfrom manifesting• What people usually do after studying Kabbalah for a while…• I prayed every day, meditate every day and I still didn’t win the “Oscar”• Listen, you come here every day to reveal the best part of yourself, maybe the“Oscar” is not part of your goals but you should still try to become the best actorthat you are… or whatever you are doing in your life• But expecting that 1 reward is limiting the light in your lifePage 10 PDF created 2010-05-05© 2010 Kabbalah Centre International. All rights in all media reserved

Summery• Humble is; I will except whatever you want to give me, the Light. I want it all, butyou will decide how much and when• As a vessel the more you have the more you can share• If your consciousness is I really want to have it so that I can share it, that isKabbalah• If you don’t want anything, you will have nothing• I want you to remember this week• When you are doing what you have to do and you are going against your natureinject excitement happiness and if you don’t feel it, fake it• Try not to drag your feet• And don’t make excuses because it is the Omer or the month of Taurus• That is not the purpose of the Omer or the month of Taurus• Remind yourself when you wake up, doesn’t matter how many short circuits youdid... I want to become that vessel that wants to receive whatever the light has togive me; open yourself• In the midst of the process of becoming the best version of yourself you can stillhave family, career… it doesn’t matter that you did the short circuit• You can still have all of those things while you are becoming better• We all fall and we are all doing mistakesPage 11 PDF created 2010-05-05© 2010 Kabbalah Centre International. All rights in all media reserved