🔔 TUESDAY PRAYER – MENTORSHIP POST: PHASES OF GROWTH OF MIND AND HEART
PHASES OF GROWTH OF MIND AND HEART
-by Rabbi Michael Laitman
LET`S WALK WITH THE RABBI
READING: between afternoon and sunset of Tuesday
HaVaYaH: The Phases of Growth of The Mind And Heart
All of the differences and all of the parts of the creation in general are contained in the division into the four levels: still, vegetative, animate, and human. Such a division is derived from the four phases of the expansion of the Direct Light, HaVaYaH, the tip of the letter “Yod” and “Yod-Hey-Vav-Hey,” the phases of development of the desire, called Keter, Hochma, Bina, Zeir Anpin, and Malchut.
When the development reaches the last step, Malchut, she begins to react to all of the stages, located before her; she performs various actions; she accepts them or she does not accept them; she agrees with them or does not agree with them. Everything that happens further is unfolded inside of Malchut; she cannot change what happened before her, the first stages, called the first nine Sefirot.
The whole of the science of Kabbalah is dedicated to the reaction of Malchut (the creation), to what happens to her. If Malchut does not feel anything and does not realize anything, then what is happening is called the zero stage. When she only receives and begins to perceive that she fully consists of the desire to receive, it is the first stage, the still level.
If she feels that she is in the desire to receive, but she does not agree with this, then this is already the vegetative level. A plant already has its own opinion; it is overcoming something; it wants to live its life. But it cannot perform its own movements yet, and it does not understand its internal urges.
When it starts to make movements relative to the environment, trying not to depend on it and to develop in the direction according to its individual character, this is already called the animate level. And such a person differs very much from his environment.
The next level is when he begins to actively use his desire to enjoy. And then he wants to be individualistic, as if the vegetative level does not agree to simply obey the orders of its nature, it searches for something more from life. He wants to come out from the rule of the environment and to become free from it, like the animate level. And if he also wants to come out from under the Creator’s control and become similar to Him, then it means that he has reached the human level.
However, it is also possible to look at the development of these phases of HaVaYaH from another point of view, from the way the upper governance is being revealed to the person above him.
If a person is under the full control of the Creator, it means that he is completely bestowing, just not realizing it. Every person in the world is working 100% for bestowal and is working for the Creator. He is not opposed to anything and he does not even know that he can resist. He is acting according to how the Creator is controlling him, meaning he is in complete bestowal.
Then, his egoism grows and he starts to realize it. And then he understands that he is opposite to the Creator. And the more a person develops, the more his egoism grows, it is as if he is coming out from the Creator’s control and begins to disagree with Him. Of course, he is still carrying out all of the orders from above, but the question is about how much of this he understands, realizes, and agrees with.
It turns out that the whole of our game is not in the actions themselves, and not in how we dispose of our lives, but about how much we agree or disagree with the actions of the Host above us.
The more disagreement is awakened in a person, the more claims he has towards the Creator about His rule, the larger is the growth of the egoism. And simultaneously, with this oppositeness being revealed to him, he needs to want to correct himself in order to agree with Him again.
That is why, “the higher the person, the bigger his egoism.” On the other hand, he is already carrying out the actions of a mature person and comes to be similar to the Creator and towards agreement with Him, completely giving himself up under the control of the Creator, regardless of all of the resistance of his egoism.
Such phases of development can be seen in our desire to enjoy and the desire to bestow: the direct and the opposite HaVaYaH, meaning in the desire and the intention, the mind and the heart. This is how the levels of development are developed in a person.
-by Rabbi Michael Laitman
