"for I have heard in the name of my Master, his memory eternal, concerning what is explained in the writings of the Ari, his memory eternal, to "sweeten the judgments in their roots," {the Besht explained} that by finding in judgment a root of Chesed, it all gets transformed to being all Chesed- and the judgment got sweetened by this root of Chesed that he found in {the Judgment}"
Toldos, Noach, 12b
As we have touched upon in the last post, the Besht personalized Kabbala. The four worlds {ABY"A} and the Ten Sephires were now located within each and every one of us. We can think of their simultaneous existence as frequencies. We can be tuned into "Malchus Sh'bMalchus, which most of us do {we all start our spiritual journey here}. However, as we know life on this plane could get tough and it could get quite unpleasant at times. Or we can tune into the "Bineh" frequency where all is good and tranquil all times, etc etc.
Travel to these Sephiros is at the speed of thought:
"when one wants to understand something... then he it {the process of trying to understand} brings him up to the world of thought and he channels to himself from the Upper Wisdom"
Maggid, MDL, 43
"when one thinks of bad things, which are from "the side of judgment," so he {thereby} focuses his mind within these things and he strays from the expansion of Upper Chesed of the infinite, and there dwell upon him judgments... for in every place that one thinks one channels to himself to there for thought is a complete Koma {thereby containing all worlds}".
Maggid, MDL, 45
Our conscious experience, -what ever images, thoughts, and feelings that are in our minds at any given moment- is the entire reality, i.e. God {in a very strong sense of the Beshtian idea}. More mildly put, one should only focus on ones own thoughts- because ultimately god dwells within us, experiencing the world through us. When we are in tune to our highr self we allow for god to dwell in a pleasant place. When we tune into the lower worlds, we cause god to dwell there. Hence, “zaar gules ha’Shechine.”
When we are {in our thoughts} in darkness of ego for instance, we are clouding god’s consciousness with our ego- which has consequences. The world of darkness is full of pain and before long we are faced by trouble. Going to better places now wouldn’t solve it, as the trouble already materialized on account of yesterdays darkness. So here, we need some special technique- the Ariz”l’s “Hamtokas H’Dinim b”Shorshon.” That is not to go forward to good place, but rather to retract- to go back in time and spiritual evolution to a pre-problem era.
The Besht suggests that we do that by focusing on our problem, long enough to find some positive aspect within the problem facing us {as the Besht believed, and we can all experience ourselves, there always is something positive to be found}. When we do this, what we are essentially doing is to back in the chain of events {of this trouble and its cause} to its true and full expression- Chesed. Now, our problem no longer has life to sustain itself, as it had been sweetened at its source. It now continuous to exist, but as a positive force in our lives- it has successfully been transformed.
The final result- the good within the problem reveals itself in actual way- it disappears.
In order to work on our spiritual self- we need language to communicate ideas to ourselves and others- while Kabbala did provide us with such a language, it is important to remember that we cannot grasp their meaning unless we experience. It is a language of experience. Without experience we are the blind man listening to descriptions of color.
So here is an actual more practical application of this technique {to be used in actual need and times of trouble}. It is given over by non other than our favorite Nisnaged, Reb Chaim of Vilozhin:
“In truth this is a great concept and amazing Seguleh {that works} to take off and to disable from ones self all the judgments {troubles} and the will of others, that they should not be able to have power over one and have no effect at all. When one establishes in their heart saying: {ha’loy} Havaye {the supreme divine} is truly {one and the same as} Elokim {expressed in nature} and {that} besides Him there is no energy in the world and in all worlds at all, and {that} everything is full of only His Simple Unity Blessed Be His Name. And one annuls in their heart with complete annulment, and {one} does not pay attention to any power or will in this world, and one forces and attaches the purity of their thought to solely {focus} to the only Master, Blessed Be- so too He Blessed Be will enable in his hand that automatically they will be annulled, all the powers and wills in the world, that they will be unable to cause him anything at all”
Nefesh Ha’Chaim, III, 12 where he adds in a note “and this is the truth of the concept {of} Sweetening Judgments in their root, and it is understood to the one who understands.”
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