Listen to an Audio Version of the Blog
Download: MP3 Audio
[audio:http://files.kabbalahmedia.info/audio/eng_o_rav_2013-03-29_declamation_blog-rav_full.mp3 title=’29.3.13′]

Filed under: Audio Version of the Blog - No Comments →

Question: How can we unite if within us we are beat and in total darkness? After all, the desire to receive destroys everything. How can we raise a prayer, a request to the Creator, if internally there is only hatred? What can we do about that? I agree that I have to be in a group, but in France it is quite complicated…

Answer: We are at a stage in human evolution where things are only starting. We are the pioneers, the avant-garde, marching before everyone else. It is of course very difficult. We can find people around us who think like us and who understand that we must somehow solve the problems but don’t know how. It takes time.

The question is whether we actually need people who think like us to be physically close to us. I have many students all over the world who work with us and help one another in dissemination. When we work together, it connects us. Thus we build a group, a community.

You may live in France, in a place where there may not be any of our students, and you may still be connected to us. You don’t have to be in direct contact with other people. It is of course important, but it is also possible to manage without it.

There is, for example, a guy in Switzerland who develops successfully without a group. A wonderful student! Ask him to share his experience with you; he is a role model for many.
[103553]
From the European Convention in Germany 3/22/13, Lesson 2

Related Material:
A Real Group
There Is No Harmony Without Integrality
Everything Is Ready, The Last Word Is Ours!

Filed under: Conventions, Group Work, Kabbalah Dissemination, Q&A - No Comments →

Question: The children are our future and the world’s future. They work on connection by playing games, but sometimes they get tired of the connection games and say, “That’s it, enough! We want someone to finally win.” What can we do in situations like this?

Answer: It is a problem when someone in the group wants to win. It means that the game isn’t managed correctly. Of course, both grownups and children always wish to win. It is a psychological urge that exists in each of us to some extent. However, education is about teaching a child gradually to think that it is impossible to win alone but only together, and then a habit becomes a second nature.

This is psychology. This is how many groups around the world are trained, such as divers, athletes, and so on. It is psychological training. When a person understands that, even if he succeeds in something, it is still thanks to the group. So, this is something that must be learned. We can teach this to kids so that they will think, feel, and behave that way.

There is even a tragic example of a submarine that was sinking and half the crew could have saved themselves, but the other half could not. So, the first half refused to leave the submarine, and eventually they all died. They felt that they were so connected that they could not leave their friends!

This example shows to what extent the preparation for connection—for the feeling of “we” without which there is no “I”—is developed in a person.
[103550]
From the European Convention in Germany 3/22/13, Lesson 2

Related Material:
“Children Learn What They Live”
Mutual Responsibility Course: A Post-Crisis Crash Course
Don’t Leave What You Have Started; You Are Responsible Not Only For Yourself

Filed under: Children, Conventions, Education, Integral Upbringing, Q&A, Unity - 1 Comment →

Question: Even Ezra said that the generation that came out of Egypt felt the burden of slavery and lost its spirit. And that is why it could not fight against its master before the new generation of the desert grew up, the generation that did not know exile and thus its spirit was not broken. In what generation are we today?

Answer: We are in Egypt, under the dominance of our egoism, and first of all, we must rise above it. One thing is to become free from a foreign power, and another thing is to fight against it. They flee Egypt, instead of fighting the Egyptians. After all, this whole path through the Red Sea is completely a flight. We have no strength to fight our egoism; we need just to run away from it and rise. Only hatred for our egoism raises and separates us from our ego.

And then, there is a stage when we begin to correct this egoism. We do not return to Egypt to do that; we took the vessels from there and now begin to connect them to ourselves and correct all these desires, which we have risen above.

The first stage of correcting desires is called the generation of the desert when we correct these desires from reception to bestowal. And then there follows the generation of the conquerors of the land of Israel, which is called reception for the sake of bestowal.

Among the people of Israel, there are forces that can go ahead and lead the rest, similar to Moses, who brought the people out of Egypt. There are people with spiritual attainment who have already risen above egoism and have connected with other souls. They understand the entire process, know what to do in the given moment, and have to lead the others.

We are talking about people who study Kabbalah because it is impossible to return to the Source without the Light that Reforms. And this Light can be drawn only by studying Kabbalah, which is designed for this.

There are such people! We are able to move forward and pull a lot of people who are watching our TV programs, studying with us through the television or the Internet, studying in our courses, attending lectures, and thus they advance. That is why they have a real chance to become free with us, to rise above their egoism and feel what is called freedom, what it means to be a Jew, which is to be united with others (Yechud).

They will learn what it means to be in the land of Israel, that is, in the desire for the Creator (Yashar-El), for bestowal and love for others. In this way, we can succeed in all the spheres of our material life and eliminate all the problems around us.

The main thing is the spirit of unity. If we had related to the entire people of Israel with such a feeling of community as to our family members, sitting together with us at the festive table, if we had embraced everyone, this would have been most of the efforts that we need to make to come out of Egypt.
[103598]
From KabTV’s “Kabbalists Write: The Night of Passover Seder” 3/4/13

Related Material:
Everything Starts From The Exodus From Egypt
Introductory Lecture “Who We Are, The People Of Israel” – 11.27.12
Israel Has No Future Without Unity

Filed under: Egoism, Holidays, My Similarity to the Creator, Prayer and Intention, Q&A - No Comments →

Opinion (Robert McChesney, communication professor, author of Digital Disconnect: How Capitalism is Turning the Internet Against Democracy): “‘When capitalism is mentioned, it is usually as the ‘free market,’ which is taken as a benevolent given, almost a synonym for democracy,’ McChesney writes. Yet ‘really existing capitalism’ doesn’t fit with the free-market ‘catechism’ or with democracy, he writes, ‘the crisis of our times is that capitalism undermines democracy.’

“The Internet has been transformed from the noncommercial and public space that many dreamed of in its earlier days to one that ‘has been commercialized, copyrighted, patented, privatized, data-inspected, and monopolized,’ McChesney writes.

“As part of that process, advertising has been transformed online in a way that eliminates previous notions of privacy, and the government has surveillance powers that were once unimaginable. Large telecommunication and entertainment corporations that once appeared to be vulnerable, because of the Internet, have prospered through their influence in a ‘corrupt’ policymaking process.

“The Internet giants that have risen over the last two decades are not the progressive force some think them to be, and have prospered as the result of monopoly privileges, exploited labor, and government policies and subsidies, he says. …

“This book comes now, McChesney writes, because he sees the Internet as having crystallized to a significant degree. ‘We are in a position, in some respects for the first time, to make sense of the Internet experience and highlight the cutting-edge issues it poses for society,’ he writes.

“We also are in a better position to understand what decisions can be made that might determine the future of the Internet and its influence in shaping the society, he says in the book.

“Among his prescriptions: broadband availability to all for free as a basic right, strict regulation of advertising and a sharp reduction or elimination of the tax write-off of advertising as a business expense, heavy regulation of digital “natural monopolies” or conversion of them to nonprofit services, large public investments in journalism, net neutrality, strict privacy regulations that make online activities as private as correspondence in the mail, and strong legal barriers against militarization of the Internet and use of it for warrantless surveillance.”

My Comment: The Internet is an imprint of modern society, and all our vices appear on it in an exaggerated form since admission is free, reaction is instant, and distribution is unlimited. As long as we don’t start changing ourselves, our Internet will not change. So, all the attempts are in vain.
[103346]

Related Material:
The Internet: The Mirror Of Humanity
The Internet As A Power Network
The Internet As Evolution Accelerator

Filed under: Internet, News, Society - No Comments →

Question: How can we remain in a state called “one family” during the convention in Germany? How do we tell the difference between this kind of “family” and the regular family, which is one of our animate needs?

Answer: We named the next European Congress a “family convention.” We think that the time has come and that the knowledge that we have accumulated and the circumstances which we are in allow us to build one unified family that will be comprised of all our groups—one big Kli (vessel.) As Baal HaSulam writes, the entire world is one family, and today we have to become as one family.

In other words, all our groups and our friends who do not have groups, wherever they are, have to make themselves sense the rest of the Kli on a regular basis and totally depend on each other. This kind of connection really exists and we have no other way but to gradually reveal it. It’s our primary task.

Secondly, we have to maintain a good connection, never criticize each other, but rather get closer with others. We have to find a common denominator and mutual grounds: common desires and intentions, feel complete mutual interdependence. It’s as if we are at home with our families and have no doubts that we depend on each other. This is the least we can do now.

At the same time, we don’t have to know all of our friends by names. We simply have to sense that they are inside us and that we are one joined entity. Then, while working on self-correction, we, at the same time, help others and feel everything through ourselves and try to correct, fulfill, and shape others spiritually. Each of us has to act this way in respect to others.

It’s vital. By working so, we will jump ahead and will approach the ultimate level of the universe in which we all exist and which is yet hidden from us by our personal egoistic properties. We have to rise above ourselves at least a little and accept the fact that others are equal to us if not higher, bigger, or more important than us. If we manage to act so, we will break the wall that is called the “Machsom.”
[103162]
From the Virtual Lesson 3/17/13

Related Material:
A Promising Congress
Language Is Not An Obstacle To Unity
A Convention The World Depends Upon

Filed under: Conventions, Group Work, Q&A - No Comments →

Question: What does it mean to address the Creator?

Answer: To address the Creator means to demand from the inner forces of the world that hold and control it to be clearly manifested in us. We have to know this force, be in contact with it, and to act with its help. That is why we ask, demand, it to be revealed.

It does not matter to the Creator how you address Him. You can curse Him, just do not leave!
[103681]
From the European Convention in Germany 3/22/13, Lesson 2

Related Material:
Don’t Pull Yourself Up By The Hair
A Mother Will Come Running When Her Son Cries
Ask Whatever You Please

Filed under: Conventions, Group Work, Inner Work, Prayer and Intention, Q&A - No Comments →

Question: I work in an artistic workshop where I help people with mental and emotional problems, with depression, and all sorts of social problems to come out of their seclusion through art. I don’t understand the difference between integral education and social work. What is the difference between them?

Answer: The difference is that in the case of integral education, you transmit the Light through yourself to others. You organize them so that they will transform into a spiritual Kli (vessel). After all, you have a point in the heart and therefore, you work with them through yourself. You receive their desires and problems and arrange them such that something is added in you and for this addition you can receive the Light.

This is not social work, but spiritual work. This is the difference between them.

You work in order to attract the upper Light to organize all humanity into one whole, into one unified system called “Adam” so that in this system the upper Light, the higher state, will be revealed. This is not some kind of relaxation instead of a pill. Rather, it is specifically the elevation of humanity to the next level of existence.

We are not engaged in relaxing people even though we may say this to them. But we understand that it is impossible to do anything on the level they are at, except raise them to a spiritual level.

All of our attempts to resolve some of the problems in this world, charity, or help for various population strata are to no avail. Nothing is fixed with this, and it only gets worse. There are many investigators of this subject; and it is completely clear that all of the problems are derived only from our not correcting ourselves and instead, becoming involved in this kind of social work.

I am not saying that this work is not required or that it is harmful. If it is possible now to help a person in some concrete manner, it is necessary to help. However, together with this, one must not forget that we don’t attain anything with this. Therefore, it is possible to be involved temporarily with social work as long as we haven’t yet begun the widespread dissemination of integral education.

Question: Do these two types of work conflict with each other, and is it possible to unite them?

Answer: It is possible to unite them but only to the degree that you understand that with this, you are providing only temporary relief to a person’s condition. If your actions are connected to real correction, then this is meaningful.
[103572]
From the European Convention in Germany 3/22/13, Lesson 2

Related Material:
Chasing Our Own Tail
A Message For The Masses
Bringing Integral Methodology To The World

Filed under: Collective Soul, Conventions, Integral Upbringing, Q&A, Society - No Comments →

Question: There are many nations and cultures in Europe that feel separated and divided. How can we build a European continent without any barriers?

Answer: The differences in culture and mentality are irrelevant since we rise above them. We should understand that this is the spiritual distinction that originated in ancient Babel. It is intentional.

Can you imagine what one heart and one mind means? You rise to a different level of communication where there is no need for language or for anything else—you simply feel each other since the information flows from one to another without words. You work according to a single unique plan that is above all differences. This is what we should reach.

So Europe was built that way on purpose, varied and full of contradictions, where for centuries mutual relations between all the nations and the cultures have been very complex. However, there is no need even to understand and to clarify this. The only thing we should do is simply rise above all that together! If you pay attention to the language a person uses, to his character, views, and habits, you will never reach a single opinion! This is the entire problem!

We suggest that we should unite above all the problems, above everything that exists on the ordinary, corporeal level. Then there will be no problems. This is the whole method of integral education.
[103495]
From the European Convention in Germany 3/22/13, Lesson 2

Related Material:
Europe Is The Center Of The World And The Modern Babylon
Language Is Not An Obstacle To Unity
Depicting The Overall Spiritual Image

 

Filed under: Conventions, Crisis, Integral Upbringing, World - No Comments →

Filed under: Holidays, Inner Work, Israel, Spirituality - No Comments →