The Difference Between Prayer in Kabbalah and Religion

We're all familiar with the concept of praying: "Dear Lord, please let me get a good grade on my Chemistry exam and help my little brother get out of the hospital soon. And do forgive me for all my sins. In return, I promise to be a good boy for ever and ever."

But in Kabbalah, prayer does not mean asking the Creator for "goodies." Rather, it is an act of self-analysis, a process of inner change. A person sees himself as facing the unchanging quality of absolute love that enlivens the whole of Nature, and only the person's ability to feel it undergoes gradual change and improvement.

So a Kabbalist wouldn't try asking the Creator to stop treating him harshly or to give him better things in life. He knows that the Creator is invariant, so the only thing to ask for is personal change. This kind of prayer means judging, analyzing, and comparing oneself to the unchanging quality of complete, unconditional bestowal that generates life. It is much like how a scientist discovers a law of Nature, and performs experiments to measure its effects. The Kabbalist's research, however, takes place within himself: He measures the difference between him and the Creator, and what it takes to become similar to the Creator.

Adherents of major religions are convinced that people should ask the Creator for things during prayer, and entreat the Creator to change toward them. Kabbalah explains that this sort or prayer may be effective as a form of psychological support, since a person truly believes that positive changes will happen in his life. But the fact remains that the Creator already treats everyone with absolute love and bestowal, since his only quality is "goodness" that doesn't change.

Kabbalists are people who have changed their inner qualities in a way that unifies them with the Creator. In practical terms, this means that they have transformed their perception, and are able to sense a wider spectrum of reality, beyond the boundaries of the physical world. From that high point of vision and perception, they see that the Creator always treats us with absolute good and never changes.

They advise us to do the same: To remember that the Creator is invariant and not to waste our time and efforts on asking Him to change. Only by changing ourselves will we suddenly see that the world is good and that the Creator always treats us with absolute kindness.

Yet, religious people also say that you have to change, don't they? The difference is that they are talking about changing one's external "good deeds," and performing certain rituals. This kind of change has nothing to do with transforming your inner qualities and perception, and hence religion fundamentally differs from Kabbalah.

Thousands of years of "praying" show us that it's futile to ask the Creator to change. We don't try to change gravity or any other force of Nature, and in the same way we should relate to the Creator as the all-inclusive force of Nature, a permanent force of love and bestowal.