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Opinion (Anton Nevzlin): “Adopting the EU presidency from Greece, which was marked by a complete failure and lack of coordination in the international arena, Italy attempts to give back Europeans the faith in the power of the Old Continent.
“Italy intends to show Europe a new perspective of more intensive unification, which should result in a pan-European state, with uniform bodies of supreme power – “only a strong and united Europe is a solution in the light of the challenges of our time.”
“We need a lighter Europe – with simple rules that everyone will recognize, according to the principle of ancient Rome “E Pluribus Unum” (“One out of many” is also a phrase on the Seal of the United States).
“The idea of a powerful new Europe will remain at the level of rhetoric, but this is what all the Europeans need now. Sociological studies show that in connection with the events in Ukraine, the residents of united Europe were somewhat demoralized. As it turned out, an economically powerful association with a population of over 500 million people had nothing to counter Russia. Many fear that in the event of a more serious conflict, Europe would be powerless.”
My Comment: This is, of course, an egoistic intention to gain an advantage over the other, possibly at their expense, and also against other countries, because the unification of the EU is not for the sake of further unity around the world. So, this unification might give the EU some temporary advantage, but in the longer term, it will return like a boomerang and destroy the EU.
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The whole world is arranged so as to help us to reach spirituality. We pass through incarnations from generation to generation in order to reach the time of realization and spirituality.
The entire purpose of our world, everything that happens in it, the nature we receive and develop through time, is also directed only towards this. All the personal and collective troubles and problems that appear at every moment are designed to push us towards spirituality.
But how do we reach this? It is impossible to reach this through troubles only. First of all, it is necessary to define precisely what corporeality is and what spirituality is, because people are mistaken about this. Corporeality is called yearning for personal benefit, and spirituality is called yearning for the benefit of others, including the Creator. This definition must always be in front of me in a simple, clear and concrete form.
We are not ready to act for the good of others, and this is done intentionally so that we will yearn for help. This means that we want to go out of our desire of in order to receive, and we want to reach in order to bestow. This is not because in order to receive is bad and in order to bestow is good. Otherwise we would simply be exchanging one egoistic goal for another, and both would be corporeal.
We need to want spirituality because it is a great, unique, and higher characteristic with which we feel a special reverent attitude. We want spirituality because in and of itself it suddenly became important to us. There is some kind of grace in this called the “grace of the sacred.”
We don’t look for spirituality for benefit and profit, since this profit gradually disappears. Through some kind of action from Above we begin to be changed and to feel that spirituality is important to us and that there is some kind of attractive force within it. We want to be found in bestowal, not in order to be released from problems, but out of respect for this characteristic.
So why is this way so difficult? Why don’t we attain bestowal? Why isn’t this characteristic given immediately and completely, rather than it being necessary to go towards this for a long time and receiving only a little each time? Why do we get squeezed and scraped so much? All this is so that at every stage of the way, we always require help and must turn to communicate with the Creator.
Just as in the beginning we exchange corporeality for spirituality, so afterward, we exchange spirituality for the Creator. This is because attaining spirituality is so important to me, but contact with the Creator is so important to us. And this is truly the reason for the long path and the reality in which we are found.
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From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/13/14, Writings of Baal HaSulam
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Every person must reach a life of bestowal. The force then enables us to do this is called the Torah or the Light. The Light operates on our desire, that doesn’t want to change, especially qualitatively, not quantitatively. After all, the most important thing is to constantly improve the quality, penetrating more and more deeply, focusing ourselves more and more on the benefit of others, and then instead of others, on the benefit of the Creator.
The changes have to be qualitative, and they take place by the Light that Reforms, which is called the Torah. The Light operates on the desire that realizes it doesn’t want bestowal. But I take a special position by ascending above the desire, and I see that it constantly pulls me downward.
I, on the other hand, ask the Upper Light, the Torah, the Light that Reforms, the upper force, to help me not drown in my own ego, which constantly tries to get a hold of me and pull me in different directions. One time it pulls me towards one external engagement and another time towards another, constantly distracting me so that I forget about the Creator.
I have to find out who is sending me these impediments, who is the enemy that constantly confuses me, the pest, the adversary that hides in the flood water and tries to drown me. But suddenly I discover that this adversary is the Creator. He is the one hiding under this mask playing with me so that I will ask and demand His help. He causes me harm by His posterior so that I will want to see His face.
This is the only way I work, and then I begin to realize that there is only one force, the Creator, who turns either with His face or His posterior to me, and it is with Him that I actually communicate. If I detach myself from the Creator, I engage with His posterior, and if I connect to Him, I am in contact with His face.
There is nothing other than that. The group, humanity, everything that happens, is the mechanism of my connection with the Creator.
The main thing is to feel our connection with the Creator and the way His presence, the Light of His face, helps us reconnect to Him. After all, this is the only thing we should work on. The next moment, He will harden our heart some more with His posterior and we will have to clarify this state again. Ultimately, thanks to our mutual guarantee and these reminders, we will remember that we have to turn to the Creator and to hold on to Him since only in Him will our hearts rejoice.
This is how we advance and this path is called the path of the Light, the path of the Torah. Learning from our experience as we advance along this path is called studying the Torah. We learn how the Light, called the Torah, comes to us and how, according to our request, it pulls us out of our state time after time.
Thus we learn by our ascents and descents, like it says: “The Torah will come from Zion (stemming from the root word ‘Yetsi’ah’ – ‘exit’ in Hebrew).” It is actually from the exits, from the descents, that the Torah comes, since thanks to them we can rediscover the strongest Light and go through all the books of the Torah.
The method of attaining bestowal, the attribute of the Creator, and merging with Him is the fulfillment of loving others like yourself. It is enough to keep away all the problems in the connection with the Creator. After all, initially there was one vessel that was filled with one Light.
The Light and the vessel were united, but this state was shattered. If we put all the parts of the shattered vessel together again with the help of the Light, we will attain the Light that filled us and which kept us together once again. Then we will become one vessel again in which the one Light, the one Creator, will reside. So our correction is about loving others like ourselves, and thanks to this, we reach the end of correction (Gmar Tikkun).
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From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/13/14, Writings of Baal HaSulam
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Humanity must first get to know itself on the level of the still, the vegetative, and then the animate level of nature. Therefore, we have to exist as animals first, and then as people in this world, we began to develop industry, commerce, technology, and science, so that eventually we would understand that all this doesn’t work and that we will not decipher the meaning of life this way.
We engage in something down here on this earth: adults, children, and animals. That’s the way we live, but what is this life for? Is there anything beyond this life? This is what we begin to ask when we grow and go through several phases and ages of evolution and we find no answer.
Eventually we reach a crisis that pressures us through troubles and problems. It doesn’t only affect people and human society but also the still level, the environment, plants, and animals. All the problems reach us through them.
We reach a state in which we ask about the meaning of life, not out of curiosity, or a desire to discover our upper source—where we came from and why—but simply out of despair and the desire to receive pleasure in this empty life that brings us no joy.
Humanity advances and reaches a general crisis that pressures us and obliges us to ask questions: What is this life about? Why do we live this way? We all know that when life goes by without any troubles or worries, we don’t ask many questions. But the moment we encounter problems, we immediately begin to ask.
Thus we realize that we have no choice and that we have to connect in order to know the meaning of life, just as the wisdom of Kabbalah tells us. If we put the pieces of the puzzle together, we will understand what is going on in and behind the picture itself, who manages and supports it, and why He does all that.
Kabbalists penetrate this picture and ascend above time. They tell us that everything depends on the attainment of the Creator. The only problem in this life is attaining the Creator, looking for Him, making contact with Him, discovering Him, understanding Him, and being in direct dialogue with Him. I turn to the Creator, He answers, turns to me, and I understand what He wants from me.
If we attain this state, all our problems will be solved. We will understand what is going on and how to manage everything. The main thing is that we will know how to ascend above this life to an upper level. But in order to do that, we have to reveal the Creator. So the current crisis is only meant to bring us to that.
We think that it is a crisis, but the word “crisis” in Greek means rebirth. So we shouldn’t take this crisis so dramatically, but rather expect it to bring us to a new beginning, as long as we understand and know how to relate to it.
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From the Convention In France “One For All And All For One,” Day Two 5/10/14, Lesson 3
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The Kabbalists say that it is not worthwhile to wait and tolerate the crisis; instead it is necessary to hasten time. It is not necessary to wait until nature itself will evolve for tens or hundreds of years and our life will end without anything, again to be replaced generation after generation. If we have already entered a state of crisis, we can hasten the time through efforts we invest in our development.
Instead of life forcing us to develop, learn, and change ourselves, we can change ourselves voluntarily by our own efforts. Everything depends upon the society I am in.
I must enter into a group that will nourish me energetically, push me forward, and hasten the process. I will take an example from a society that is developing in the right way to attain the goal and the discovery of the Creator, which gives awakening and stimulation and supplies great support.
Then I won’t have any difficulties, as I will also want to develop together with it, and so I will develop. The main thing is to enter into the right environment. So the Kabbalists determined rules for us according to which it is necessary to build this right environment and to exist in it in order to hasten the time.
We must develop from state to state all the time. This ladder has 125 levels. I stand below the bottom and want to rise to the first level, to the second, third, and every level above, growing more and more. For this, I must resemble a higher level, and this is possible by connecting with others more and more.
Ultimately I must return to a linked and unified picture in which all of us are connected as if assembling a puzzle together. Needless to say, connections like these are a pipe dream in the distant future. We can already take some fragment of this ideal dream and begin to work with it, building within it a corrected mini-world.
This world is called a mini-group. If we take ten people and build one complete connection between us, then this will be called a group. If we can connect as one, then we rise to the first spiritual level.
But to rise to the second level is more difficult. For this we need either to increase our quantity a hundredfold (x 100) or among those ten people, we need to attain a connection ten times more intense than the previous connection.
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From the Convention In France “One For All And All For One,” Day Two 5/10/14, Lesson 3
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The practical ascent on the spiritual ladder from level to level is realized in this way. Suppose we gather ten people and a mutual rejection force of one kilo operates. If we overcome this rejection, then we rise to the first level.
On the first level we are ten people, as before, but the hatred between us has grown to minus ten kilograms instead of minus one kilogram. This means that it could be that with continued ascent, we will need to work with greater numbers of people. This could be in relation to quality and it could be both in quantity and quality.
A group is some quantity of people who take an obligation upon themselves to be connected as one person with one heart. If we are ready for this, then according to this goal, which we may not have yet achieved, we are already called a Kabbalistic group. The moment we reach the first degree of connection as one, immediately the upper Light is discovered and the Creator is revealed within our connection.
We have worked hard on our ego and have attained this first level, the weakest Light of Nefesh (Ohr Ha Nefesh) (Light of Soul). After that an even greater egoistic desire is revealed to us that we must work on. Suddenly between us there is a blazing hatred and differences of opinion that we must overcome through even more difficult work. And when we connect, the Ohr Ha Ruach (Light of Spirit) is revealed.
After this an even greater ego is awakened in us, which in order to overcome and connect, it is necessary to give even greater effort. That is how we discover the Ohr Ha Neshama (Light of Soul), and after this also Haya (the last correction of Malchut) and then Yechida.
The ego grows all the time and we overcome it by connecting more closely and we attain greater and greater revelation of the Creator. These levels are called: Nefesh, Ruach, Neshama, Haya, Yechida—NRNHY.
As the ego continues to grow, the work becomes more and more difficult, we are more and more detached from each other, and then we are able to connect to an even greater degree. This is what work in a group is like.
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From the Convention In France “One For All And All For One,” Day Two 5/10/14, Lesson 3
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Question: How can I make sure that we are acting as one person in our shared dissemination?
Answer: We go out to disseminate, each one turning in his own direction, but with the same mission, the same goal, as if we are scattered all over a forest in order to gather mushrooms or berries and don’t see each other behind the trees. But afterward we gather and each one throws what he found into one great common pot and we use it to prepare a feast for ourselves.
Each one knows that now, somewhere, his friends have also scattered to all kinds of places and are doing the same work. And in truth, this work that you are carrying out in all the groups is beautiful, and the result that will be revealed from it will also be beautiful.
Question: How can I support the friends, knowing that they are also gathering mushrooms in the forest now? What should I think about?
Answer: I simply feel that they are doing the same work. Even though I don’t even see them, they go out together with me for the same work. We bring and gather all that we did, and from this we make a shared feast, fill ourselves, build our common Kli (vessel), and continue to go forward together. There are works in which we are scattered, and there are works in which we gather and connect together.
If we think about each other, about all of us dispersing in the evening for general dissemination, this will give us the strength to achieve success. I need to feel connected with everyone and see myself as their representative who must bring my share to the maximum of my ability for the collective pot.
By thinking about the overall success, I am already helping everyone. I don’t have to know exactly who is doing what at any given moment and ask about him. The main thing is our collective success, for the world is deteriorating more and more downward. The Creator shows us with this His higher oversight, the demands that the world advance as rapidly as possible towards correction.
And advancement of the world towards correction depends upon us alone, for only we have free choice, and therefore we need to realize it as much as possible. We realize it through consolidation, and now we are working specifically towards consolidation.
This activity will go in the right direction and you will see how, according to this, the Creator will forgive us and will help in everything. The Creator will fight for me, but the main thing is to always check the correctness of the direction. With this we open a place for the Light, and it acts.
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From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/02/14, Writings of Rabash
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Question: How can we deal with pain that keeps us on the animal level?
Answer: The Surrounding Light, the Light that Reforms, operates on me, penetrates, and goes through the levels of Aviut (thickness) of my desire: the root phase, phases one, two, three, and four. If the Light reaches only the levels of the root phase, phase one, two, and three, then I am unable to feel any source of Light.
In the four phases of Direct Light, the feeling of shame awakened and there was a Tzimtzum (restriction) only on the fourth level of the fourth phase. So the Light has to penetrate all the way to the fourth phase of the desire. If it spreads only through three phases, then I feel pain, but in fourth phase, I feel the source of the pain.
I still feel the pain, but I understand where it comes from. Thus I begin to compare the pain with its source, with the reason. Why did the Creator cause me this pain? For what purpose?
Then I realize that it isn’t pain at all. It isn’t the Creator who causes my pain. I feel pain because I am not corrected; the Creator actually sends me wonderful presents, wanting to embrace and kiss me with love. The Light of love comes to me, but instead I feel pain.
It is like loving a parent who pressures his child and may even slap him, but who does it out of love. I have to change my perception and calculate this delta, the gap between the pain that I feel and its real essence.
I can only do that through the group; there I make this calculation as well as in its relation to the friends. All our relationships with people and especially with the group help us learn how to calculate our relationship with the Creator.
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From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/2/14, Writings of Rabash
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| [media 1] | [media 2] |
Writings of Rabash “Igrot,” Letter 22
| [media 3] | [media 4] |
Writings of Baal HaSulam “Preface to the Wisdom of Kabbalah,” Item 47
| [media 5] | [media 6] |
Writings of Baal HaSulam “The Giving of the Torah,” Item 6
| [media 7] | [media 8] |
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