Baal HaSulam/Shamati: 72. Confidence Is the Clothing for the Light

72. Confidence Is the Clothing for the Light

 

Confidence is the clothing for the light, called “life.” There is a rule that there is no light without a Kli [vessel]. It follows that the light, called “light of life,” cannot clothe but must dress in some Kli. The Kli where the light of life is clothed is usually called “confidence.” It means that he sees that he can do every difficult thing.

Thus, the light is felt and recognized in the Kli of confi­dence. Because of this, one’s life is measured by the measure of confidence that appears there. One can measure the magnitude of vitality in oneself according to the confidence in himself.

For this reason, one can see in oneself that as long as his level of vitality is high, the confidence shines on every single thing, and he sees nothing that can obstruct him with what he wants. This is because the light of life, which is a force from above, shines for him and he can work with superhuman powers since the upper light is not limited like corporeal forces.

However, when the light of life departs from him, which is considered that he has descended from his previous level of vitality, then he becomes clever and inquisitive. He begins to calculate the profitability of everything, is it worthwhile to do it or not. He becomes temperate and not lively and sizzling as before he began to decline in his level of vitality.

However, one does not have the wisdom to say that all this cleverness and wit, that now he has been rewarded with thinking about everything, are because he’d lost the spirit of life he had then. Instead, he thinks that now he has become smart, not as before he’d lost the light of life. Rather, then he was reckless and careless.

However, he should know that all the wisdom he has now acquired came to him because he has lost the spirit of life that he had had before. Before, he measured all the acts with the light of life that the Creator gave him. But now that he is in decline, the evil inclination has the power to come to him with all their “just arguments.”

The advice for this is that one should say that now he cannot speak to his body and argue with it. Rather, he should say, “Now I am dead and I am awaiting the revival of the dead.” Then he must begin to work above reason, meaning say to his body, “Everything you say is true, and I have nothing rational to answer you. However, I hope that I will begin to work anew. Now I am taking upon myself Torah and Mitzvot [commandments], and now I am becoming a proselyte, and our sages said, ‘a proselyte who has converted is like a newborn baby.’ Now I await the salvation of the Creator; He will certainly help me and I will come once more into the path of holiness. When I have power in holiness, I will have what to answer you. But in the meantime, I must go above reason for I am still without the mind of holiness. Hence, you can win with your intellect, and there is nothing I can do but believe in our sages who said that I should keep Torah and Mitzvot with faith above reason. I must certainly believe that by the power of faith we will be helped from above, as our sages said, ‘He who comes to purify is aided.’”

The Duke of Edinburgh

 Reading an article that mentioned the Duke of Edinburgh we looked at each other and wondered how that was. Surely he was dead. The husband of Queen Elizabeth was no longer living and we hadn’t heard anything about another person with the title.

It turns out that the current Duke of Edinburgh is Prince Edward, the youngest brother of King Charles III.

As a result of the title change, Prince Edward’s wife, Sophie, became the Duchess of Edinburgh, and their son James became the Earl of Wessex, the title previously held by his father.

Gussied Up

The origin of "gussied up" is unclear, but it probably stems from the American and Australian slang term "gussie," a nickname for an effeminate or weak man, or someone overly focused on appearance.

And from there to the the adjective "Gussy" meaning overly dressed, which later became the verb "gussy up" (to dress or decorate elaborately) around 1906 in Canada and 1952 in the US.

Rubbish

 "If an opinion contrary to your own makes you angry, that is a sign that you are subconsciously aware of having no good reason for thinking as you do. If some one maintains that two and two are five, or that Iceland is on the equator, you should feel pity rather than anger, unless you know so little of arithmetic or geography that his opinion shakes your own contrary conviction. The most savage controversies are those about matters as to which there is no good evidence either way.

Persecution is used in theology, not in arithmetic, because in arithmetic there is knowledge, but in theology there is only opinion. So whenever you find yourself getting angry about a difference of opinion, be on your guard; you will probably find, on examination, that your belief is going beyond what the evidence warrants!"

~Bertrand Russell, An Outline of Intellectual Rubbish (1943)

Yet does not believe it dogmatically

 "The fact is you cannot be intelligent merely by choosing your opinions. The intelligent man is not the man who holds such-and-such views but the man who has sound reasons for what he believes and yet does not believe it dogmatically. And opinions held for sound reasons have less emotional unity than the opinions of dogmatists because reason is non-party, favouring now one side and now another.

That is what people find so unpleasant about it."

- Bertrand Russell, Mortals and Others, Volume Il: American Essays 1931-1935, On Orthodoxies (1933) p. 58. Image: Bertrand Russell, 1935.

Comment

Sounds like Eric Hoffer's description of The True Believer

I Blame The Editors

I blame the editors, I have for many years -- the ones who edit out our failings, our embarrassments, the faltering in the portrayal of our perfection. The result is that we don't want to look.

Looking at the arc of history, we have become (at least in our own minds) individuals without community, relying on our own judgement in a sea of competing narratives. At the same time, we are filling up the world, beguiled by comfort, and rather than venturing off somewhere when we can't stand one another, we have nowhere to go except to bump into one another on the path to cooperation or destruction. 

Shamati 206

 One will never ask about pleasure, "What is the purpose of this pleasure?" If even the smallest thought about its purpose appears in one's mind, it is a sign that this is not true pleasure, since pleasure fills all the empty places, and then of course there is no vacant place in the mind to ask about its purpose. If one does ask about its purpose, it is a sign that the pleasure is incomplete, since it has not filled all he places.

So it is with faith. Faith should fill all the places of knowing. Hence, we should imagine what it would be like if we had knowledge, and to that very extent there should be faith.