Audio Version Of The Blog – 04.17.13
Posted on April 17th, 2013
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The Book of Zohar, Weekly Torah Portion, “Ha Shavua” Selected Excerpts
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Question: Not too long ago the Israeli President Shimon Peres expressed ideas that are similar to the ones we have been speaking about for years: about limiting the workday, replacing the hours of work with studying, about education via the Internet, about education that is based on the connection between a teacher and the students…
Answer: We determine what the world will think about. The problem is that we are behind in correcting ourselves so that our good thoughts will penetrate the minds of the elite. They permeate slowly and people begin to speak to the point, but not enough, we have to hurry.
In any case, this is how things happen: Our thoughts, desires, and actions are revealed in others internally, and people begin to think in the same manner, not even knowing why.
When the nations of the world blame the Jewish people for bringing evil to the world and even for secretly managing the world, the claims that begin subconsciously are partly justified and partly not. The nations are wrong about thinking that Jews are evil, but they are right about thinking that reality is indeed arranged as a pyramid: It is from the level of GE that the Lights come to AHP and determine all its actions.
Freewill is only on the final level of the last phase, and only those who have attained it and whom the future of the world depends on have it. Accordingly, they are responsible for it and receive more blows than others. This is the form of creation.
The “exchanging of ideas” will gradually become more common and prominent, and so we have to try and establish our thoughts so that even the “greatest villains” will receive the good and correct “inner content” from us.
It is because we are responsible for them and what happens to them is also up to us. If someone expresses wrong ideas or harms the world, it is an indication of my flaws that I have not corrected yet although I had the chance.
We could have prevented all the evil in the world. The Creator is good and benevolent and He enables us to establish things correctly and to manage things. If we don’t, then unfortunately very undesirable things happen. So we have to be more responsible.
[104940]
From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/14/13, “The Introduction to The Book of Zohar”
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Baal HaSulam, “Introduction to The Book of Zohar,” Item 42: As we have clarified with the corporeal still, vegetative, animate, and speaking in this world (Items 35-38): the three categories—still, vegetative, and animate—did not extend for themselves, but only so the fourth category, which is man, might develop and rise by them. Therefore, their role is only to serve man and be useful to him.
So it is in all the spiritual worlds. The three categories—still, vegetative, and animate—appeared there only to serve and be useful to the speaking category there, which is man’s soul. Therefore, it is considered that they all clothe over man’s soul, meaning to serve him.
Therefore we are at the center of all of reality. Everything is designated for the development of man’s soul, in order to bring him good, which means to bring him to wholeness by the most efficient means. This is why all of reality was created and this is what its software is for, and accordingly we have advance in the best possible inner way to the best state.
There is a problem, however, when it comes to our participation in the process, and so each of us and all of us together see ourselves in an imperfect bad state in all the phases of our development. In the whole state we could feel ourselves in the world of Ein Sof (Infinity) every step of the way if we used the means we were given correctly. We could implement the current phase we are on and wouldn’t feel any limitations, just like in Ein Sof when the Creator is revealed in the whole desire. Later, additional layers are revealed, at the moment the desire is perfectly corrected by the whole Masach (screen) and the whole Light.
Thus, we don’t need to suffer the “whole way” by waiting for the end of the road, for the end of correction. If we fulfill ourselves correctly right now, then we will feel that no one can harm us and that there is no cruel one in the King’s palace but only the Creator who fills the whole world. That’s the way it is on each and every level. What is more, we will also perceive the descents as ascents then, about which it is said, “Darkness will illuminate like Light.”
However in reality, we do not reach maximum acceleration and we advance, as a rule, in the “middle” line getting some relatively weak blows and trying to get aligned with the middle line…
[104936]
From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/14/13, “The Introduction to The Book of Zohar”
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In the News (from the United Nations): “On 20 March, the first ever International Day of Happiness will be celebrated worldwide. The day was proclaimed by the UN General Assembly to promote happiness as a universal goal and aspiration in the lives of people around the globe.
“The initiative to declare a day of happiness came from the Kingdom of Bhutan – a country whose Gross National Happiness Index takes the view that sustainable development should take a holistic approach towards progress and give equal importance to non-economic aspects of well-being.
“The International Day of Happiness recognizes the efforts of other nations and groups who work to measure prosperity that go beyond material wealth. By designating a special day for happiness, the UN aims to focus world attention on the idea that economic growth must be inclusive, equitable, and balanced, such that it promotes sustainable development and alleviates poverty. …
“In addition, a special event arranged at UN Headquarters on 19 March at 6 pm, will also mark this occasion. There will be a launch of the audio book by Sri Chinmoy, Founder of the Peace Meditation at the United Nations. …
“Ban Ki-moon affirms that, ‘On this first International Day of Happiness, let us reinforce our commitment to inclusive and sustainable human development and renew our pledge to help others. When we contribute to the common good, we ourselves are enriched. Compassion promotes happiness and will help build the future we want.’”
My Comment: Like everything that humanity creates, the UN is a representation of our egoism…
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“Israel are not saved unless they are all one bundle, and Zion was saved.”
The reflection of the goal of creation, of the shattering, is reflected throughout the history of the Israeli nation that conquers the land of Israel, and only afterward does it have the privilege to be called a “created being.” The desire to receive itself cannot be bad since everything is managed by the intention and it is the only thing that determines what happens with the creation.
The created being grows only by its intention and it can feel, understand, and expand the perception of its “vessels,” thus becoming an independent entity. The desire to receive and the Light are given to him infinitely.
When the created being begins to work and understand that it is part of the intention and not the desire, it is the beginning of Adam (a human being). This is the critical turning point in the development of all of creation. At that moment when a person begins to tie himself to the intention, he becomes a human being, which means that he transcends his desire and determines everything according to the intention: to whom and to what he wants to belong.
People who determine everything according to their intention, who develop it and ignore their desire are called Yashar -El (those who yearn for the Creator), Israel. By that they differ from people who want to develop and to determine the course of their life according to their desire and the size of its filling.
Desire (Ratzon) means earth, land, (Eretz), earthliness, which means connecting to the low corporeal desires. The loyalty to the intention, however, is considered upper. According to this criterion, the world is called upper or lower, apertures above and below.
If we develop according to our desire, it is a natural development according to the Reshimot (informational genes). The desire to develop is what forces us to change, which is called the natural development, but if we develop by the intention, then it is already up to us. It doesn’t happen naturally, in its time, as time goes by, according to nature’s plan. It is a development by the path of “I shall hasten it,” according to the pace that we determine ourselves.
Developing according to the desire is the usual animal development on the levels of the still nature, the vegetative, and the animate in which a person first develops in a state of unconsciousness. However, developing according to the intention is the real human development, and so he is called Adam since he corrects his intention and by that becomes similar (Domeh) to the Creator.
The intention that is aimed at the Creator is called Israel or the nation of Israel. The desire that is under the domination of this intention is called the land of Israel. The correction that we have to make is to bring our desire under the domination of the intention of in order to bestow. This means to conquer the “whole world” (the whole desire) of which the nations of the world are accusing Israel. It means placing all of the desire of the world of Ein Sof (Infinity) under the domination of the intention of bringing contentment to the Creator. This would mean that the land of Israel has spread all over the earth.
So, it is clear now that the land of Israel cannot be a ready made piece of land, like a geographic zone on the map, but everything depends on a person’s readiness to correct himself and accordingly to also conquer a place that is called the land of Israel, on the levels of the still, vegetative, and animate nature, which means to receive it, to inherit it in the corporeal sense.
[105072]
From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/15/13, Writings of Baal HaSulam “Inheritance of the Land”
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The location of the land of Israel is initially a desire that belongs to the nations of the world. As a corporeal result of the spiritual root, a group called the nation of Israel comes to this land and conquers it, freeing it from the peoples who are living in it so that it can be called the land of Israel.
This happens thanks to the connection of the corporeal branches with the spiritual root, since otherwise we would have no right to exist on this land and no right to inherit the land. Only if we are adapted to this land in the spiritual sense and are worthy of it according to our correction can we live on it.
Thus, Baal HaSulam says that in our world we have received the state of Israel as an opportunity from Above. First we come to the land of Israel totally unprepared and not united as the real Israeli nation. By constantly going through the correction on the account of a person’s work, the correction of the intention, through this, he could come and conquer the desire called the land of Israel.
This is what happened with the group of Abraham who left Babylon and who later returned to this land after the exodus from Egypt. Before that there was the gathering before Mt. Sinai and the forty years of exile in the desert, and then the wars of conquering this land, the land of Israel and the areas around it that were part of the conquests of King David.
But it was all on the condition that they first corrected the human level in them and then the rest of the lower levels. It is because the intention precedes the desire: First the desire should be corrected and then it conquers the intention and dominates it.
It is the desire that is called human or the nation of Israel. When the desire is corrected after the intention in all its levels of the still, vegetative, and animate nature, it is called the land of Israel.
So in the past we came prepared for the corporeal actions on this land and then after having conquered it we called it the land of Israel. But this time we return totally unprepared internally. Therefore, these wars are not in order to conquer the Holy Land, not in order to free it from the ego, but rather an opportunity to discover the need for the correction of man. To the extent that we correct ourselves, we will really receive our land of Israel.
Otherwise, it will never be ours. If we are late in our correction, we will hear more and more complaints from the nations of the world, from those who are next to us and those who are far from us, claiming that this land doesn’t belong to us. It will be very difficult to stand against that, and no one will listen to our excuses since they are really very weak. We will not be able to convince anyone with excuses about events that took place two thousand years ago, and if the nations of the world start to blame us, it will make a big noise all over the world.
There is a feeling that this place doesn’t really belong to us, among the nations of the world and also among the Jews themselves. It is because the corporeal branch should reflect the spiritual root, and so far, we have not been awarded with a connection to the root. Therefore, the nations of the world don’t feel our connection to the land.
We were given such a chance from Above once, and we were hopeful and so were the nations of the world; there was a kind of an illumination. But unfortunately during the last decades of the existence of the state of Israel this illumination has disappeared. I have not heard anyone, except for the Bnei Baruch group, crying out for the spiritual correction of the Israeli nation and for the corporeal correction.
[105069]
From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/15/13, Writings of Baal Hasulam “Inheritance of the Land”
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Baal HaSulam, Article, “The Concept of Still, Vegetative, Animate, Speaking,” Shamati #115: Still is something that does not have an authority of its own. Rather, it is under the authority of its Landlord and must satisfy every wish and desire of its Landlord.
Without criticism and analysis, he carries out the instructions of the forces that direct him. That is how the whole world works on the still, vegetative, and animate levels as well as all of humanity under the influence of internal and external forces. And if it seems to a person that he is living according to his own free choice, this is because those forces that direct him are concealed from him. And therefore he thinks that he is directed by his own decisions. Yet what compels him to accept specifically these decisions and not others—this he doesn’t know yet, this is still concealed from his field of vision.
For an animal it also seems that he establishes by himself where to go and what to do. Yet to the degree that wisdom is developed, it becomes more apparent that everything works according to the laws of nature and genetic inheritance that are embedded in our program. From the start, the egoistic nature, according to which we act, is implanted within us; therefore, there is no reason to search for other intentions in a person.
Vegetative is that which already has its own authority to some extent. It can already do something that is contrary to the opinion of the Landlord. This means that it can already do things not for itself but to bestow.
The hidden Landlord is like a mother that hides from her small child to give him the opportunity to do something by himself. It follows that the Landlord seemingly doesn’t exist; here in this empty void, we need to complete what the Landlord didn’t finish when He granted us freedom.
In a place where no policeman is standing, I need to behave as if he were found there. The idea is to learn the laws and to raise ourselves to a level of consciousness that makes it possible for us to maintain them willingly.
Yet, as we can see in corporeal flora, even though they are mobile and expand in width and length, still, all the plants have a single property. In other words, there is not a single plant that can go against the method of all the plants. Rather, they must adhere to the rules of the flora and are incapable of doing anything against the mind of their contemporaries.
This says that he is limited; he must take an example from the surroundings and behave like them. Nobody is forcing him or standing over him with a stick, compelling him to act like this. Instead he must rise to a level that from his inner corrections he takes an example from the others and behaves like them. The surroundings dictate to him his form of conduct, yet independently he must raise himself to this kind of state: to awareness, understanding, respect, and identification with them.
It follows that on the vegetative level there is a particular level of independence so as to take an example from others and behave according to what society dictates.
Thus, they have no life of their own, but are parts of the life of all flora.
Yet the person needs to be happy about this and not feel that they are coercing him, pressuring him, or holding him in servitude. He needs to feel himself whole and happy that they allow him to rise to the level of the vegetative. He very much appreciates his identification with and his dependence on the environment; he wants to see others as perfect and to be like them. The vegetative doesn’t feel that this limits him or that he cannot rise above this level, and he is happy about his being like the environment.
This means that all the plants have a single form of life for all the plants. All the plants are like a single creature and the individual plants are specific organs of that animal.
Similarly, in spirituality there are people who have already acquired the force to overcome their will to receive to some degree, but are confined to the environment. They cannot do the opposite of the environment they live in….
Yet he doesn’t feel his limitations, is happy about this state, and accepts it. Otherwise, he would not be able to nullify himself in regard to the environment.
…yet they do the opposite of what their will to receive wants. This means that they already work with the will to bestow.
Animate: We see that each animal has its own characteristic; they are not confined to the environment but each of them has its own sensation and characteristic. They can certainly operate against the will of the Landlord, meaning they can work in bestowal and are also not confined to the environment. Rather, they have their own lives, and their vitality does not depend on their friends’ life. Yet, they cannot feel more than their own being. In other words, they have no sensation of the other. And naturally cannot care for the other.
The animate level means absolute bestowal with an intention to bestow. A person found on a level like this cannot activate more power in the meantime, yet he is already freed from what the environment dictates to him. This is to say, he can be independent to the degree that he doesn’t harm anyone and carries out actions opposed to his desire for pleasure. And in the name of this, he has no need for an example from others.
If on the vegetative level he submitted to the environment, so on the animate level he becomes free from it. He receives additional power that gives him inner and outer freedom, meaning he becomes “Hafetz Hesed” (only wanting to bestow).
But he still cannot work with his desire for pleasure and transform it into bestowal. This would already be the level of human, where the person willingly transforms into a servant of society, according to his free will.
[104900]
From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/11/13, Shamati #115
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Writings of Rabash, “What to Look For in the Assembly of Friends”: It makes no difference if the friend is slandering him and must certainly hate him. Instead, a person who wishes to acquire love of others, that person needs the correction of loving the other.
Therefore, when a person makes the effort and judges him to a scale of merit, it is a Segula [remedy/power/virtue], where by the toil that a person makes, which is called “an awakening from below,” he is given strength from above to be able to love all the friends without exception.
Question: In our reality we always need to cooperate, to help each other. Say, if I want to buy a car from someone, that person needs to agree to this. But here it turns out that if a friend hates me, I don’t need his participation, his work—I can nevertheless reach love of the other if I myself want it….
Answer: That is all correct since my shattered vessel is entirely in the hands of the Creator. In our world we close the deal between us. But if I want to change myself regarding the Creator, then I am having my business with Him and not the world. So for me the world is an indicator, a criterion, of the situation and nothing beyond that. I depend on the Creator who gives me a particular picture by allowing me to understand and feel that the world changes if I change myself and that everything depends on the “observer.” Therefore, it’s up to me to turn to the Creator: He helps me by pouring a bit more of the upper Light, and then I change.
It may be that I ask for something from the friends, but only if I understand that they are also under the control of the Creator. In this case, when I turn to them, I am also turning to Him.
After all, turning directly to the Creator is still an abstraction to me, which I cannot hold on to, even though when working with the friends I need to hold Him within, inside my heart, as well. On the other hand, within the group I am overwhelmed with thoughts, desires, and emotions. Here I pass through an infinite chain of states; I feel anger, hatred, jealousy, craving, honor, control, and ecstasy…. Relative to this diversity, the relationship with the Creator seems pointless, pale, and colorless, and still evokes no sensations.
It’s logical that thanks to the group I acquire the possibility of working on the corporeal level of this world, that I have a multitude of sensations and hues of perception, which assemble into different forms and images. The “physical world” is just a concept, while essentially, we are talking about the same spiritual forces, it’s just that here they acquire volume and intensity in my eyes, being arranged on the scale from the monstrous to the beautiful.
All of it influences me instead of the direct spiritual influence, and for this reason I am able to work with the friends mutually, understanding that these are actually the Creator’s powers. Kabbalists teach us to see Him behind each friend and also behind the entire world. As a result of the cooperation I calibrate and correct myself, turning for help. There is someone whom I love and someone else whom I hate, someone whom I see this way or another. Why? Is this because it’s good for my ego? Or that by changing my relationship to the friends I can bestow to them and through them to the Creator, since truly there is none else besides Him.
Therefore here, in the framework of this picture, I have the possibility of utilizing myself correctly—so as to be in the process of correction all the time. While doing so, I correct myself, and for the others I can only provide explanations as a teacher or recommendations as a friend, no more than this. Our main work is self-correction.
[104791]
From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/7/13, Writings of Rabash
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Question: During the integral workshops, people feel new sensations, especially those who are used to clarifying and analyzing processes. They begin to ask, where does this come from, what is this phenomenon, and so forth. How can we explain the sensations they are feeling to them?
Answer: These are sensations of the one collective integral nature, which really exists. We are found within it, but are, meanwhile, only a cancerous part that eats itself. As we rise above our ego, we begin to feel the integrality, the unification, and the mutual dependence. We feel how prolific and good this is, and how much this can influence health, our emotions, and our mutual relationships in the family, at work, everywhere!
We, humans, have become a unique creation in nature. Whereas all the rest of nature—the still, the vegetative, and the animate—are linked in an integrated scheme and participate naturally, instinctively, involuntarily; we were given free choice.
We cannot be like the others. We develop with an ego, in order to transform it, rise above it, and enter into integral understanding and feeling by cooperating with it independently and even to control it.
Simultaneously, we don’t enter into conflict with nature. On the one hand, we say a human is the crown of the creation of nature, and therefore we must obey it. On the other hand, the human can rise above his nature. He can be the master of nature and feel himself as its crown.
This is to say that all the questions that humanity has faced and must answer have arrived for we have risen to a level of integral connection that is to be found in balance with the whole of nature. We begin to feel this balance within us as serenity, relaxation, the expansion of consciousness, the expansion of emotion.
[104887]
From a Talk on Integral Education 4/2/13
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