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In the News (from abovetopsecret): “There is a growing discontent in the nation. And it’s getting worse. The shootings, the bombings, they are not independent random events. They are a symptom of a much larger epidemic that is at play.
“We are a nation where many of our citizens are overworked, exhausted, financially strapped, alienated, and disconnected. We clock in day in and day out, and very often are left feeling unappreciated and uninspired. Of course we would be upset, agitated, and angry.
“Some are describing this as ‘America’s anger epidemic.’ And there are a few reasons: uncertainty in the job market and the economy, working long hours — on average about one month more now than they did in the 1970s and with less vacation.
“A recent study from the USA Today found 60 percent of Americans report feeling angry or irritable. That is up from 50 percent when a similar poll was taken in 2011.”
My Comment: They are not aware of the need to change the human being (in fact, there is nothing else to change) in the evil, stupid way or good, smart way.
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Writings of Rabash, “And The Children Racketed Within Her”: The beginning of the work is called Ibur (conception) when a person begins to work following the path of the truth. When he passes by the openings of the Torah, the phase of Jacob in a person awakens and wants to follow the path of the Torah, and when he passes the openings of idol worship, the phase of Esau awakens to come out.
And we should explain this that since a person is incorporated of vessel of receiving on the part of nature, which is called self-love, which is the evil inclination, and, at the same time, he is incorporated of the point in the heart, which is his good inclination, when he enters the work of in order to bestow. This is the phase of Ibur, stemming from the Hebrew word transgression (Avera), and so he experiences ascents and descents and is not stable and is affected by the environment and has no power to overcome it.
As a result, when he passes by an environment which engages in idol worship, which means self-love, and the phase of self-love in him awakens to come out from concealment to revelation and to dominate the body, then he has no power to do anything but what concerns his desire to receive.
When he passes by an environment that engages in actions of in order to bestow, the phase of Jacob in him awakens to come out from concealment to revelation and the actions of in order to bestow dominate the body.
And, thus, over and over again, and this continues day after day in the work, and whoever works more diligently may experience these states every hour, and feel that the states change.
All the ascents and descents that we go through are given to us so that we will recognize that we totally depend on the Creator’s work which affects us. Therefore, our work is called God’s work. He is the only one who operates, and that is the main revelation that we attain from the beginning of our spiritual path to the end.
As we ascend up to the world of Infinity, we are convinced that there is one force and that there is nothing but that, and that He is good and benevolent. Only this force operates in all of creation, which means in all our desires that depict our reality.
We must be prepared to discover that there is only the one upper force of love that dominates everything around us, and that it isn’t me or any other factors. My attempts to clarify this means that I raise a prayer, MAN. Thus, I discover that I am really under His total domination. There is only one force which operates inside me or on the outside, and which fills my whole world. Discovering this for the first time means reaching the first spiritual level called Ibur.
At first, I discover this passively in the state of Ibur, but later when I grow and I am born in the spiritual world, I become active. This doesn’t just mean to be under the influence of the environment, but to attribute everything to one force in order to discover the attribute of Jacob inside me, the attribute of bestowal, and to escape the influence of the egoistic environment which is the attribute of Esau. After I am born, I actually begin to work with the desires that are revealed in me and use them in order to reveal the Creator, the one force that operates in all of reality.
It turns out that it is the Creator who prepares every state for me and who involves me in it. Then, it turns out that not only does He arrange all the states for me, but He also Him determines my reaction to them. This means that He manages not only my externality, but also my internality, “Thou hast hemmed me in behind and before.” Thus, I discover that the Creator is in all my desires, thoughts, decisions, and my responses.
Eventually, it turns out that I have nothing but the one point of perspective from which I previously attributed everything only to my domination, and now I attribute everything to the Creator, as a result of my deep clarification, in all my feelings in the good states and in the bad ones, in my decisions, in establishing the middle line in my internal work. Thus, we attain the shattering from the bottom up and by that, learn about the Creator’s work on us, which has prepared every detail for it.
Thus, we study the HaVaYaH that the Creator created from the bottom up. Thus, we rise to the world of Infinity in order to see, know, and feel the plan of creation that is incorporated in this initial HaVaYaH, and thus are incorporated in it. Inside this HaVaYaH we add our work called Elokim – Malchut, working toether with Bina, and then we are incorporated in the coupling of HaVaYaH Elokim, the Creator and the creation.
All our work is to discover the Creator as the operating force in everything: in preparing all the forces, the connections, in planning how we go through the states, where we must go wrong in order to attain the full depth of creation, the depth of the Creator’s original plan called the plan of creation.
The levels of a person’s spiritual growth – Ibur, Yenika (sucking) and Mochin (mind) are all made only by the attainment of the one upper force and its essence.
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From the Preparation to the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 2/20/14
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The most important thing is for us to strive for the Light, but here we face a few disturbances:
First – We do not realize that everything that happens to us is for our benefit.
Second – We do not realize that everything comes from the Creator.
Third – We do not realize that our reaction is also determined by the Creator.
Fourth – We do not understand that the only thing that we need in our current state is to strive for the Light to change us and that this change can only be in the direction of bestowal.
That is, we must correctly interpret what the Light that Reforms is, what “good” means. If this aspiration is correct and constant, then we will merit drawing the Surrounding Light and will change slightly, reaching a certain similarity to the Creator.
It turns out that we need to meet many conditions so that the Light that Reforms changes us. We go through preparation and thus study the nature of the desire to bestow, revealing how it differs from the desire to receive. Due to this inner work, we clarify our desires and become similar to the Light.
When the Surrounding Light comes, combining all these pre-conditions, the so-called “disturbances,” it gives us the correct form of the vessel in which we become similar to the Creator. Thus, we advance step by step. In the next step, “disturbances” arise again. But since they are repeated each time in the same style, only with new desires, new work and discernments, a person continuously experiences changes.
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From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 2/24/14, Questions and Answers with Dr. Laitman
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The advice from Kabbalists is meant to remind us of the “advantage of Light from the darkness,” that we have the power for this despite the fact that I feel bad in my heart on every level of my advancement, and only during withdrawal will I feel good inside my ego.
So I need to be equipped with the support of the environment. In a bad state when I fall to the domination of the broken desires, the evil inclination, the egoistic intention, I cannot do anything and it is only the environment that operates on me.
This is another outcome of the shattering of the vessels: the division of one vessel into many parts. Now the work can be done in many vessels, in a certain order of one following the other. Thanks to that, I can support others, provide support for myself, and thus advance.
If a person is equipped with the support of the environment, the environment operates on him, especially when he loses his strength. If a person doesn’t prepare the support of the environment, he has nothing to rely or count on. Nothing will help him to awaken, to put the right data into his mind and heart together with the feeling of the shattering. Then he will have nothing but the feeling of the shattering, he will simply fall, cry, or even leave the group and the spiritual path.
In easier states the Creator sends a person a state of double concealment. Then when a person feels bad, he doesn’t remember that it all stems from the Creator, that he should overcome this concealment, and that he totally drowns in the bad feeling. Then he is irritated by everyone and wants to leave everything. But he doesn’t leave yet since he understands that he has no choice and there is nowhere he can escape to. This is called double concealment, but not complete detachment from the Creator yet, since in detachment, a person becomes totally “free” from spirituality.
After the double concealment, a person is somehow brought back if he has invested his strength in the group. Then he is somehow reminded that there is a purpose to life, that it is still worthwhile to work since everything else passes and disappears but this goal, which is eternal, and a person must attain it no matter what, so he returns.
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From the Preparation to the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 2/23/14
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The whole idea is: With what does a person identify himself? Is it with the desire to receive or with what he finds above the desire to receive? This is the difference between the right and left lines. Either I am within the desires or I control them; I am above them, become a “clarifier,” like an expert in this area.
I can be immersed within the desire to receive and can be above the desire to receive in order to use it in an even better way, and this is called Klipa. If I just want to enjoy and even want to swallow the whole world, this is still not Klipa, for these desires don’t come from myself. Rather, they come from Above, whereas a Klipa is a unique part of desire, a unique relationship with the desire to receive, where I myself want to open, expand, and strengthen it.
So it follows that hatred toward someone is just egoism,which is natural for the desire to receive. It isn’t anything unique in itself and was simply given to me by the Creator. However, it is already another matter when I want to develop my own initiative, to perfect this egoistic drive. This is Klipa. I want to use the Creator so that He will help me to get out from the desire to receive which is the substance of creation, something more than what was revealed from the start. So, I turn with a request, raise MAN for my desire to receive, and say, “Give me even more to enjoy,” and this is called “idolatry.”
Klipa is true egoism placed opposite Kedusha, bestowal. These are two systems that were created and stand facing each other.
If I am found on the side of Klipa; I work within the desire to receive in order to get the maximum possible use of it, to exploit the entire world to the end and even the Creator. I rise above my nature and want to use it “in order to receive,” and I see my spiritual work in this. I exploit all of nature in order to fulfill myself.
The opposite is purification of a desire, which I transform into bestowal, and accordingly, I control it altruistically.
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From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/20/14, Writings of Baal HaSulam
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Question: What does it mean that the Masach (screen) broke? How can that be?
Answer: All states refer only to a person. Reality exists only with regard to the person who apprehend it.
Suppose that I were in a state of holiness now, in the intention of “in order to bestow,” and that I have arranged all my intentions, desires, and everything that is revealed in me according to the restriction, Masach, and the Returning Light. Suddenly, I have new, thicker desires, which are greater and stronger, so the old state seems to be destroyed and the new, greater desires dominate me, and I feel that I am in a ruined world.
This is another question: Is it destroyed? Because the moment it actually undergoes a change, I don’t think that it is destroyed. I think that I follow the Klipa (shell) and that I will enjoy it, and that I must incorporate in the shell, to feel it, to be in contact with it, and to be connected to it.
It says that the contact with the Klipa should only be momentary. This depends on my preparation, but I must feel it. So, the moment I feel that my life is good and that the desire to receive delights me and that everything is fine, it is because I actually am being thrown into the depths of the Klipa, and, what is more, I don’t even realize that it is a Klipa. I discern that it is something good.
Then, if I continue, if I have mutual guarantee, the forces of the group operate on me and I come out of the domination of the Klipa. If I don’t, I cannot come out.
This means that, every time a new desire appears, the old state is destroyed.
Thus, I ascend the levels, and in every state I attain a state of holiness and build the temple out of my vessel. Then, it is destroyed, and I begin to build another temple, and then another and another. We go through such states, and eventually, we attain what is called the Temple of Holiness and, in contrast to it, the shattering and the destruction that we go through in the process of preparation. It is impossible to reveal the Creator, wholeness, and to attain the thought of creation without going through these states.
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From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 2/20/14, Writings of Baal HaSulam
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The entire system of creation is experiencing negative shocks because its parts are not functioning together in harmony. There is a part that is called Aba (father) and a part called Ima (mother).
Ima is the characteristic of complete bestowal, Hafetz Hesed (absolute mercy). The characteristic of Aba is the higher intelligence, Ohr Hochma, the source of life. These two parts must exist in harmony between them.
There is also Keter or the Creator, the thought, idea, program, prior to some kind of realization below.
Ima must make the infrastructure, a place for receiving the Light of the Creator. But this is only possible to the degree that we, the souls, ask her for this since she is found in a state of absolute Hafetz Hesed and doesn’t want anything for herself.
Both Aba and Ima suffer with overflowing love for the children, but they are unable to do anything because the children are not asking for this. Instead they ask for something else entirely opposite to the parents, something against them.
Just as in our world, if children asked to taste alcoholic beverages, drugs, and cigarettes, a mother and father, by not allowing them to do this, would suffer both because they cannot give a child something good and also because he is asking for something bad.
In order not to cause such double suffering to AVI (Aba ve Ima) in our spiritual advancement, we must specifically ask for what we really need: love and bestowal.
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From the World Zohar Week “Integral Education Convention” Day Three 2/4/14, Workshop 5
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Baal HaSulam, Shamati #8, “What Is the Difference between a Shade of Kedusha and a Shade of the Sitra Achra”: We must observe two discernments in this shade, meaning in this concealment:
1. When one still has the ability to overcome the darkness and the concealments that one feels, justify the Creator, and pray to the Creator that the Creator will open his eyes to see that all the concealments that one feels come from the Creator, meaning that the Creator does all that to a person so that one may find one’s prayer and yearn to cleave unto Him…. In that state, one still believes in His Providence.
2. When one comes to a state where he can no longer prevail and say that all the suffering and pain one feels is because the Creator sent it to him so as to have a reason to ascend in degree, one comes to a state of heresy. This is because one cannot believe in His Providence, and naturally one cannot pray.
Everything works according to the same principle: “There is none else besides Him, the Good and Benevolent.” All of our work is to attain this principle in each and every state that we go through. We need to evaluate our entire lives according to this principle, and this is impossible without the support of the environment. Otherwise a person cannot hold on.
All of the states are sent to us by the Creator, meaning that they are determined by the influence of the upper Light on the Reshimot (the informational genes) and their common state in regard to each other. But between the Light and the Reshimo an empty space remains for our free choice and effort. And a person must fill this space.
There is a lack of contact with each other which is called concealment. A person must make effort in this in order to remove this concealment and to complete this contact between himself and the Creator, between the Reshimo and the Light, and to bring fulfillment between them. The Reshimo gets revealed as shattered, and therefore it is always discovered as a discomfort, deficiency, rejection, and concealment. After all, this is a testimony to the breaking, and I need to accept this as a call for contact in all the conditions that are created.
This is called work above reason. It could be that there is an unpleasant feeling in my heart and mind, that I cannot integrate all of my problems with the Good and Benevolent, but in spite of it all, my work in mind and heart shouldn’t depend on my inner state. This is called that I am skipping over the Reshimo that is revealed, rising above the shattered Reshimo, as if this Reshimo were corrected. That is, I feel as if I have reached the revelation of the absolutely benevolent, single force and stand face to face with the Creator.
And then I thank the Creator for my shattered desires because I can only attain spirituality, the advantage of Light over darkness, this way. It is specifically in the contradiction between the Reshimo and the Light that I discover what the Light is every time.
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From the Preparation to the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 2/23/14
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Question: What is the spiritual root of indifference?
Answer: The spiritual root of indifference stems from the state of rest that our ego is attracted to. It is the lowest egoistic state. I lie, doing nothing, filling my sight with interesting pictures, my hearing with pleasant sounds, my mouth with tasty food, and my nose with pleasant odors. If I totally fill myself, I have no deficiencies left, and there is no motion. I can enjoy the quiet!
Question: So how can we overcome the indifference, especially during the workshop when I suddenly feel bored and indifferent?
Answer: I don’t understand how someone can be bored during the workshop if it provides a great opportunity to work. I listen to the friends and I feel that I am burning. First I have to be incorporated in each one. One of the friends speaks nonsense, but I annul myself and try to fathom his words, accepting them as if he were Elijah the prophet. I penetrate the friend and want to live in his words, which are the only reason to be incorporated in him.
Then another friend speaks and begins to philosophize, and I can hardly restrain myself, but I let him finish. Here I have another type of work: I am incorporated in him, suffer, and see to what extent what he says is right or wrong. It is not in order to criticize what he says, but in order to help me be incorporated in him even more. The more my ego criticizes the friends, the more deeply it helps me penetrate them.
When we end a round of debate, I am incorporated in each one and practically burst as a result of the experiences that fill me. I am not full of their words since I don’t even remember what they said, but I am full of my efforts to be incorporated in them.
We have to see the workshop as an opportunity to be incorporated in the friends, despite our criticism. First it seems that one friend speaks nonsense, another friend speaks too much, another didn’t hear the question at all, and another one doesn’t even understand how low he fell. But all this doesn’t matter! Even if I went to some other place to participate in a roundtable discussion, I would also be incorporated in my partners and would do the same work with them. I wouldn’t receive less from them than I receive here.
How can I feel bored if I constantly work? No matter what the friend says, I try to delve deeper into him and to feel his inner space. Each one is like a womb for me, and by the connection between the friends, I form the womb, enter it, and feel that I am inside some kind of space, inside a human being.
Every friend is my environment. When we complete a full round, I form a bubble of all the friends, a sack of amniotic fluid inside the womb. I feel like a baby. I penetrate the friend, discover an inner space, and try to get used to him, and by my thoughts, feelings of repulsion, I begin to identify with what is inside him.
Start working! This inner work is called a friends’ meeting and not debates on foreign affairs.
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From the 2nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 2/14/14, Writings of Rabash
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