Distinguishing ego from true self

(Quotations from Yehuda Ashlag)

Ego: a vessel characterized by its unrealized will to receive

The will to impart and to bestow, residing within the Upper Light, is the essential cause for the manifestation of the will to receive in the emanated being {i.e. the creature}.
(p. 116)

The emanated being {i.e. the creature} consists solely of the will to receive. Because of its will, it abandoned the boundaries of the Emanator {i.e. the Creator} and came into existence as a separate being. It was identified as a severed being through the will to receive, since there is no trace of such a will in the Emanator. How could a will to receive function in the Emanator, for from whom could He receive?
(p. 61)

True self: a vessel which realizes its capacity to receive

Because of its inversion from the Light, the vessel (now synonymous with the root of darkness) is obliged to undergo a gradual evolutionary development limited by the inevitable law of cause and effect...

Hence it is not enough to possess the will to receive (which resides in the Light and is caused by the Creator Himself) but the emanated being must, by its own active efforts, reveal in itself the will to receive. It must draw abundance by its own arousal of will and endeavor to a greater degree than in the originally extended Light bestowed by the Emanator Himself. Only after this utmost exertion of effort is it possible for the vessel to permanently envelop the Light.

... If it were not for that individual exertion of will to draw Light, the Light would never... acquire its individual name: the "Endless Light".
(p. 93)

Editor's note: A vessel cannot fully realize its capacity to receive Light until it's sole motivation for receiving is to give pleasure to the One who gives (God). This transformation is described in more detail elsewhere.

©1999 by Deb Platt


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