In the news (from rusoch.fr): “Social inequality in France is growing incessantly, and the difference between the wealthy and the poor has become extreme.

“The French National Institute for Statistics and Economic Studies (INSEE) reports that 10% of the wealthiest Frenchmen own 550,000 Euro per person, and the 10% of the poorest Frenchmen 2,700 Euro per person, which is 205 times less.

“A high level professional is worth 35 times more than a regular employee.

“Joint ownership of all the French, which apart from bank savings includes real estate, art, and so on, is 10,000 million Euro. ‘The problem is not in wealth accumulated in the country, but in its distribution’…

“Another questions is not less interesting: Why do people … continue to accumulate their wealth? Why don’t they stop, catch a breath, take advantage of this transient life, and think about other – eternal – values?”
[62928]

Related Material:
A Time Of Change
Is Sodom That Bad For The Will To Receive?
How To Reach Social Justice

Filed under: Crisis, World - No Comments →

Question: Could you give an example of a relationship between people that would be considered integral?

Answer: An integral relationship is when a person receives and bestows in a balanced manner. If the relationship between people works in this way, that means they are integrally connected.

I don’t want to keep repeating myself or sound like a socialist or a communist because that’s the last thing I am, but an integral society is one where everyone receives according to his necessities and bestows to society according to its needs. That constitutes an integral, global interconnection.

Under these circumstances a person enjoys and is fulfilled by his sensations, by what he discovers in this integral connection. It turns out that the more he bestows to others and the more he connects to an integral society, the more he is fulfilled by it. He begins to discover this system, enters it, and belongs to it.

He becomes an inseparable part of this system, like an electronic element, a resistor or a condenser, installed in the circuit, whereby the system begins to work with him in general harmony, and he feels it pass through him. The person begins to understand that he profits from being fully plugged into this system. And he doesn’t lose his individuality for he contributes himself, his qualities. If you’re a condenser, that’s what your role is, the same with a resistor, and so on. Essentially, you remain who you are.

Nature deliberately created us a certain way, precisely to allow everyone to be integrally connected to the general system via their maximum actualization in it. Your personal, individual, and unique participation does not contradict the integrality of the whole system; on the contrary, it allows you absolute self-expression.
[64002]
Talk on Integral Education 12/11/11

Related Material:
Don’t Bother Me In My Comfortable Dungeon!
Disturbing Disturbances
Everyone Needs Integral Upbringing

Filed under: Education, Integral Upbringing, Q&A, Society - No Comments →

Question: Why does our analysis eventually become increasingly blurred and vague?

Answer: The point is that you are shattered. It says that the Creator created man simply, but people have made many calculations. After all, the shattering preceded us.

Fundamental questions become “blurred” in your eyes because you don’t pass them through the group. After all, you can clarify things only in the group, in the commonality that you want to solder into a single whole.

There is no other place you can look for answers. You are looking for them in your mind, but your mind is “flat,” superficial. Our job is to connect all the shattered parts into one vessel. This is why I come to the group. For me it is a picture of many parts, and I have to collect them into one.

In other words, the group is the “model” of the Creator. It seems that He is “shooting” at me from every direction, but I have to identify Him as one. Through the whole world, through all the confusion both inside and outside, I only want to see one source. So how can I do that?

I have been given a big world and in it, the group. It seems that there are friends and that we have to make great efforts. But in truth, by developing my attitude towards them, I connect to my personal parts. From total strangers we become one. Thus I correct and build my vessel, and then I understand what “unity” is.

In the convention we somewhat attained this feeling of unity, and this is our great achievement. We felt that above us there is mutual bestowal and love, a reciprocal, single sensation, when we are all connected. This is already the beginning of the spiritual world. After all, spirituality is the dimension in which the level of my equivalence to the Creator is revealed.

So I have to find the answers to the questions that seem so vague in the right place—only in the group.
[63983]
From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/22/2011, “The Freedom”

Related Material:
A Quiet Attack
Back To Unity
The Path To Goodness: Step by Step

Filed under: Conventions, Daily Kabbalah Lesson, Group Work, Inner Work, Q&A - No Comments →

A person is born with predetermined properties. He is not held responsible for them, whether they are good or bad—if there is anything good among them at all, apart from the point in the heart that is waiting to be awakened. It is said in the Torah: “Awakening of one’s heart is bad from the time of one’s youth.”

But in any event all the properties of a person are combined together and designed for his or her spiritual ascent. A person has only one thing to accomplish in this world: to rise from the animate degree to the speaking one. And thus, everything there is in him, including his internal spiritual point, as well as his external material qualities, all his parameters, everything that forms him is surely built this way to make him aspire toward the goal. Everything descends here from this goal, from this final point of the end of correction, and from this place everything rises back to the end of correction.

There definitely are no accidents. Everything is designed only for this lofty task. And for this reason, we should treat the evil the same way we treat the good, accepting all the things as the necessary components that connect together to form a perfect, internal state for us.

We inherit part of our properties from our father and mother, and we get another part of them through our upbringing. Then we add to all this the properties received from our environment, the habits that become our second nature, and so on. All these properties settle within us as if we were actually born with them.

Here we should realize that nothing happens by chance, as people in our world think. On the contrary, everything gets to us through the system that influences us gradually, according to the program that works in tune with the general scheme of systemic interactions.

Thus, it is not really important what particular factors formed me, whether they are my parents, fellow kindergarten and school students, my neighbors, radio and television, books, or something else. Essentially, the following thing happens to us: From the Creator we receive the point of desire created as existence from absence. Further on, this point is exposed to various influences of the Light, which Baal HaSulam divides by level into inherited properties, intrauterine factors, influence of the closest environment, the society’s influence, habits, and so on. All in all, they all come from the Creator, and this is how we should treat them.

This gives rise to a question: What has been placed upon me? I start understanding that everything in my life originates from a single and unique Source that clothes into various garments. In truth, these are not garments, I just see them as such. In reality, it is the same upper Light that has passed through various filters and is now drawing various images in my imagination. These images form the picture of the world for me, which includes the still, vegetative, and animate nature, as well as people. By means of this the Creator constantly “shakes” me, gives me no peace, pushing me further and further ahead.

So, when one gathers all these kinds of influences into one whole, while connecting them to the correct goal, then one deals with the Creator.
[63989]
From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/22/2011, “The Freedom”

Related Material:
Fine Tuning To The Right Frequency
Only The Group Helps You Focus On What’s Important
Thoughts Of Freedom Are Lies Over Lies

Filed under: Daily Kabbalah Lesson, Free Will, Inner Work, Spirituality - No Comments →

The Creator puts one’s hand on the good fate and says: “Take it!” He gives a person desire, awakens in him the question about the meaning of life and impressions, and arranges everything for him, bringing him to the place where he can realize himself, that is, to receive answers to his questions.

But the question is: Where is the person himself here? After all, everything is already predetermined by how I am structured, what kind of education I received, and how I was directed until this very moment. If I take a look back on my life, I will see that it was always turning somehow, like some kind of taut spring. And even though I don’t see clearly Who was turning it, nevertheless someone was arranging everything for me: gave me the question about the meaning of life, organized the group that I found, the books.

Everything is already organized from Above, and it’s as if they took me by the ear and brought me to the correct place. So where is my free choice here?

It turns out that free choice begins long after this. After you are brought to the group that is studying the wisdom of Kabbalah, you begin to study, receive impressions, and become overwhelmed with sensations, and it then seems to you that you finally found your place. But actually, you still don’t understand anything, and all of this is not yet what you need to reach.

The place of your free choice is that empty area, that white spot that you need to fill. It is ahead of you, and you still haven’t discovered it. In the meantime, you study and are thrown from state to state without any choice. When a bad state comes, you fall into depression, and when a good state comes, you are happy.

Sometimes you receive understanding because the desire to know everything appears in you; sometimes your feelings arise as the desire to feel awakens in you. And in this way you are taken through all kinds of states together with the group, with the environment. But in the meantime, the current carries you, without any free action of your own.

And thus it continues, until you reach the empty place that you need to recognize and on which you need to concentrate all your attention. This is so since it is specifically in it that you realize yourself. And if you don’t realize your free choice there, nothing will happen.

All that is in the hands of the Creator will definitely come true. But no one can do anything with that empty place without your correct cooperation. And this is what the wisdom of Kabbalah talks about!
[64694]
From the 3rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/20/2011, “Introduction to TES”

Related Material:
The Last Violin In The Orchestra
A Ray Of Light Through The Clouds
The Drifting Button

Filed under: Daily Kabbalah Lesson, Free Will, Group Work, Inner Work - No Comments →

All of history and the former, private part of my life make up 99.9% done by the Creator, and 0.1% is what is left for me to do. However, for me this 0.1% of my life is, in essence, 100%. It is because it depends on me by 100%, and I need to worry only about this and nothing else. After all, everything else is not under my control.

I need to clarify particularly this tiny area, where I need to do something on my own. It’s like a big orchestra with the greatest musicians in the world performing all the pieces perfectly, with immense feeling, and without a single mistake or falling behind for even a second.

I just need to twiddle a few notes of my own in this whole great symphony. However, if I don’t play them on time, it will spoil all the music. But if I do what is assigned to me, I will complete an absolutely perfect symphony. This is how my life is arranged. Therefore, a person needs to concentrate all his attention and effort on adding these few points, playing these few notes, but he should do that properly.

Thus the wisdom of Kabbalah does not talk about anything else but this. There is an infinite multitude of everything in the spiritual world; it’s a huge reality, like a symphonic orchestra with plenty of different instruments and the most complex musical score. However, we do not study all this, and we don’t understand or feel anything there.

Kabbalists don’t tell us about that although having reached their correct realization, they already feel this whole common harmony. They explain only how we can play our tiny portion, our few notes.
[63691]
From the 3rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/20/2011, “Introduction to TES”

Related Material:
Who Gives Me No Peace?
The Drifting Button
Only The Group Helps You Focus On What’s Important

Filed under: Daily Kabbalah Lesson, Free Will, Inner Work - No Comments →

Question: What is the Egyptian exile in relation to the friends?

Answer: The exile means that I cannot establish the right kind of connection with the friends because Pharaoh stands between us and rules over us. It turns out that I am forced to work for Pharaoh instead of working for the sake of friends. This means that I am in the Egyptian exile, in slavery.

At first, I feel good in this exile. I don’t care about the friends, I only care about Pharaoh, the king, who lets me live well and brings me egoistic fulfillment, fulfilling my jealousy, lust, ambition, and the urge for strength and power. I unite with Pharaoh and I am ready to work for him.

Yet gradually, I begin to reveal that this is not good and I can’t live like that. Since I do not advance this way and do not clarify the goal of creation, I begin to feel that I am in exile. As it is said: “And the sons of Israel cried out from the work,” when they revealed that the splendid cities of Pithom and Ramses that they are building for Pharaoh are becoming poor and unfortunate cities for them.

All of this building does not bring any benefit to them. On the contrary, there is a danger (“danger” or “Sakana” in Hebrew is also related to the word “poor” or “Misken”) that they may forever remain in Egypt, in this state of opposition to each other, in an unfortunate life that has no purpose. And then we begin to try to turn this state into a state leading us to salvation.

From the moment when this starts to be revealed for us, Moses is being revealed (the point in the heart), who runs from Egyptian slavery to another place. That is, this quality of Moses inside of a person separates one from Pharaoh, from the ego, and begins to grow on his own, wanting to take the rest out from the Egyptian exile. This is how a person comes to be at war with Pharaoh.

Pharaoh and Moses fight each other while between them is the Creator. On one hand, He hardens Pharaoh’s heart, and on the other, He strengthens Moses and tells him: “Do not be afraid, come unto Pharaoh together!” This is how the Creator teaches Moses to keep to the middle line.

Pharaoh stands on the one hand, on the other hand there is the power of the Creator, and Moses grows between them, through the ten Egyptian plagues. Thanks to them, he obtains the ten main qualities with which he can now run away. And when he runs, all of his other qualities join him, which also agree to come out of Egypt as well.

This is how we come to the state when the fact that we ran away from Pharaoh, from our egoistic desire from which we have separated, is not enough for us anymore. Now we need to obtain the quality of bestowal, and that is why we come to receive the Torah. That is, the Light that Reforms has to begun to work practically here, and we attract it towards ourselves. Our unity with each other must become stronger. We are constantly moving forward towards an ever stronger connection.

We enter Egypt due to the fact that we all hate each other, especially the point of Joseph, the beginning of the middle line, meaning that we separate. However, the Egyptian exile already begins from “how wonderful and pleasant it is to sit together as brothers,” but only Joseph knows and understands this.

Now he wants to join all of his brothers, all of the “first nine Sefirot” (Tet Rishonot) to himself since he himself is the last Sefira Yesod. For this reason he says: “How wonderful and pleasant it is to sit together as brothers,” when he unites all of them, and a spiritual vessel is formed.

Afterwards, an even greater unity is being reached in Egypt, when the seven years of famine arrive, and they begin to reveal that they have one common hated enemy, Pharaoh. And when they run from their ego, the desire to enjoy, all together and are ready to unite, when they agree to be as one man with one heart, in mutual guarantee, meaning to fulfill the conditions of receiving the Torah, this is already the next level of unity.

Each time unity becomes ever greater. All of the transgressions they commit and then correct in the desert are directed against unity and afterwards—towards unity. There is nothing else besides the realization of the principle of loving thy friend as thyself, the great rule of the Torah.

All of the commandments, meaning the actions of correction, are included in it, until we reach the correct connection and enter the Land (Eretz) of Israel (Yashar-El, “straight to the Creator”), meaning the desire (Ratzon) that is similar to and united with the Creator. Such is the path.

That is why this is not simply the love of friends, but the means to reach and realize the goal of creation.
[63380]
From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/14/2011, Writings of Rabash

Related Material:
Looking For My Brothers….
The Inner Work Of A Kabbalist: “Love Of Friends” – 5.24.10
Between The Creator And Pharaoh

Filed under: Daily Kabbalah Lesson, Group Work, Inner Work - No Comments →

We don’t change reality, but only our relation to it, its perception. We need to worry about our inner feelings so that each time we transform each situation to joy.

And this isn’t because it causes me to feel good—I can also feel bad. Rather, I feel good because this situation comes from the Creator and thus I cause Him happiness. In my every correction makes me feel good, I feel good from the fact that I bring contentment to Him.

And the first correction is to rise above good and evil so that it is not important how I feel. This means that I rise above my desire to receive. Try to eat something with the intention to bestow and see that the tastiest food loses its taste. Thus, I now rise above my good or bad sensation, and it becomes tasteless to me, like grass.

Afterwards I begin to feel the taste of importance of the Giver, and as a result of this, I cause Him delight. And having felt the importance of the Giver, I return to myself and enjoy in all of my desires. However, it is already a different pleasure: I enjoy because I delight the Creator.

This means that I do not change reality, but I change my relation to it. The main factor in all of these actions is the greatness of the Creator, which for me changes everything. I work on a higher level than the one where I felt good or bad in my beastly body. I need this beast, but I work above it.

Thus this is considered my free choice. Indeed, I receive a free plane in which I can do whatever I want. I don’t go into this low area where the Creator directs me through different situations. And my free choice is consequently expressed when above all these states, I build a relation called the intention to bestow.
[63716]
From the 3rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/20/2011, “Introduction to TES”

Related Material:
A Ray Of Light Through The Clouds
The World Of Our Intentions
An Intermediate Form Between A Person And The Creator

Filed under: Daily Kabbalah Lesson, Free Will, Inner Work, Prayer and Intention - No Comments →

If we need to rise above this life to the intention for the sake of bestowal, then regardless of how bad life on this plane is, we can create the most favorable relations with the Creator above it. This condition already shows the initial point of the ascent from the physical, beastly, level of sensations to the level of spiritual intentions.

There are two levels: the level of sensation and the level of intention, which is also a sensory level but is connected with the Giver. In sensation, in desire, I can feel good or bad. Whereas, with the intention, it can be for my own sake or for the sake of the Creator.

If I want to reach free choice, I need to work on the level of intention. It doesn’t matter what will happen on the level of my desire—I need only to worry about the intention. Below can be a very bad life, and above, on the level of intention, I attain goodness and give thanks to the Creator. If I can do this, it is a sign that I attained the intention to bestow, “Lishma.”

I rose above my desire, detached myself from it, restricted it, and stopped relating to me all that is good and bad. I look at myself from the side and see how this machine feels itself, its parameters and conditions. And then I understand how it needs to work for the sake of something else. This means that I am disconnected from myself.
[63713]
From the 3rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/20/2011, “Introduction to TES”

Related Material:
A Free Plane For The Intention
A Ray Of Light Through The Clouds
An Intermediate Form Between A Person And The Creator

Filed under: Daily Kabbalah Lesson, Free Will, Inner Work, Prayer and Intention - No Comments →

Writings of Rabash “Letter 43”
Download: WMV Video|MP3 Audio

The Book of Zohar – Selected Chapter “Beresheet (Genesis),” “Let There Be Light,” Item 44, Lesson 18
Download: WMV Video|MP3 Audio

“Introduction to the Study of the Ten Sefirot,” Item 9, Lesson 6
Download: WMV Video|MP3 Audio

Writings of Baal HaSulam “The Freedom,” “The Environment As A Factor,” Lesson 9
Download: WMV Video|MP3 Audio

Filed under: Daily Kabbalah Lesson, Zohar - No Comments →