Letters, symbols, and speech serve for conveying spiritual knowledge, and attainment. Every letter of every alphabet contains its spiritual meaning because people convey their sensations through books. Any sensation, not only human but animal as well, represents an unconscious perception of the Creator. Nobody understands this, but in reality when a poet for example, composes a verse portraying his love for a woman, children, the sun, light, or even in describing his suffering, he is expressing his impressions of the light that acts upon him, whether he wants it or not.
Nothing is created without a purpose; the physical world is governed by precise laws of motion, transformation, and circulation. However, the main question—“Why does it all exist (not only us, but the entire universe)?”—remains unanswered. Is there anyone in this world who has not been touched by this question at least once?
According to Kabbalah, there exists a spiritual world that is imperceptible to our sense organs. At its center is one tiny part—our universe and our planet–the heart of this universe. This sphere of information, thoughts, and emotions affects us through the laws of the material nature and its incidents. It also places us under certain conditions upon which we must act. To receive absolute fulfillment, we must acknowledge the need for spiritual elevation above matter. There are two paths in our world to reach that goal: the path of the spiritual ascent (Kabbalah), and the path of suffering.
If we refer to the non-believing public, it is very difficult to discuss the meaning of our lives. Because if a person is really aware that all his actions are predetermined and that everything is in the hands of nature, both internal and external, then the whole meaning of his life is gone. In that case he is nothing but something that exists somewhere between the internal and external natures.
In order for us to understand that, we must understand that our whole nature focuses on a single desire – to enjoy. That desire for pleasure is created by the Creator “existence from absence”. It is created because the Creator wants to delight us, because His nature is about absolute wholeness, His nature compels Him to give and for that He had to create man, the desire to receive pleasure.
We sense ourselves as the body because we do not perceive our soul. But as a person begins to perceive the soul, the sense of the physical body, of its desires and of its pains, diminishes, because the soul asserts itself more and more. A person that is further advanced on the spiritual path does not sense the desires of the body altogether, because he pays attention only to the soul – the part of the Creator in a person. Thus, the “body” begins to represent the spiritual desires, rather than the desires of the flesh and bone, which one practically does not sense any longer.
If we knew the internal and the external systems of the universe, we would realize that there can’t be any unpredictable actions. All of them are absolutely predictable. It is the same as looking at some small mechanisms, like molecules, or atoms, we can predict what will happen to them. So man, being a huge conglomerate of such small sub-systems, we’re still unable to calculate all his reactions, but in principle, it can be modeled quite accurately. So it’s just our ignorance of interconnections within this closed system of the entire universe that allows us to say that there is freedom of will in our behavior.
Our freedom of will is just a lack of knowledge. The true freedom of will consists in realization of all essential levels, actions, of thoughts, voluntarily seeing they are the most appropriate, natural, and wonderful things to do.
Today nature is pushing us, but we can’t move further. Suddenly a desire which was pushing us, starts fading away, that is, the aspiration to attain the Upper World starts declining. This is also done to enable a person to start evolving himself.
Where can a person get this desire for the new dimension, for the new state, even if it’s described to us as free, perfect, eternal, and fulfilled? When a person feels no sufferings, no needs and no lack in our present perception? When he is above it, out of it, exists above it? How can we progress, longing for such states? Here a group, an environment helps a person. It acts upon him and supplies him with new desires, including those he never had. Under the influence of the environment a person suddenly becomes inspired by such ideas, goals, which would never occur to him or emerge in his heart naturally. Herein lays a principle of aspiring forward.
