Baal HaSulam, “The Freedom”: But as we have seen, it is a simple thing, and should be observed by each and every one of us. For although everyone has “his own source,” the forces are revealed openly only through the environment one is in. …

And so our sages warned, “Make for yourself a Rav, and buy for yourself a friend.” And there is also the choice of books, as we have mentioned, for only in that is one rebuked or praised—in his choice of environment. But once he has chosen the environment, he is at its hands as clay in the hands of the potter.

The possibility to choose the right environment is given only to those people who have the point in the heart. Indeed, they now have to develop to the degree of the human being (Adam), similar (Domeh) to the Creator. It is the people in whom this point has been awakened, the root of their soul, that receive the impulse to enter the correct environment. Then they have to decide for themselves whether they will do it or not.

This is the free choice between the desire to receive and the point, the “rudiment” of the desire to bestow, not it itself, but its opposite side. I can choose when I have these two “poles.” How? I strengthen myself in the correct environment. By this, I want to reinforce one factor as opposed to another.

But if I do not have the second point, if I am just the desire to receive, then it does not influence my “choice.” In this case, I pursue self-interest like a dog that sniffs something on the street; that’s all.

Question: But at the same time within the framework of integral education, we suggest that people create a better environment for themselves.

Answer: True, to create a better environment for their desire to receive, but not for the point in the heart. So that a person knows it is possible to improve his life in a common circle, in unity.

However, everyone has the point in the heart; it is inherent in every desire at this or that depth. It is said, “They will all know Me, from the least of them to the greatest.” That is why in organizing, gathering people, and bringing the Light that Reforms to them, we force the awakening of this point so that it begins to “surface.” And once a person, undergoes the integral method, he tells us that he wants to study the wisdom of Kabbalah. Why? He does not know himself; he just suddenly wants to.

Anyway, integral groups are not a Kabbalistic environment because they do not have the left line. We take care of them as one of our dependents, teaching them good relationships, sympathy, and unity but without internal disturbances from the side of egoism that “feels” what is coming. We speak about a more serious work in our environment.
[122183]
From the 4^th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/4/13, Writings of Baal HaSulam

Related Material:
Choosing What I Like
Us And The Rest Of The World
The Environment Makes A Human From An Ape

Filed under: Daily Kabbalah Lesson, Dissemination, Free Will, Spiritual Work | Add Comment →