Question: What can I do if the fear of losing my individuality doesn’t allow me to connect and unite with the friends?

Answer: Individuality is a natural state of the ego. All of its existence, all of its power, is in this.

However, when I am involved with spiritual work, I don’t lose my individuality. On the contrary, I multiply it by the intensity of the group with which I am connected. This is because I discover myself by way of the group. I take from the group, dissolving into it.

The idea is that the desire to receive doesn’t disappear anywhere. It is elevated all the time, and I only correct it for the right usage. It grows and grows all the time, as it is written, “Everyone who is greater than his friend, his inclination is greater” (Talmud Babyli, Sukkah 52a).

So, the wisdom of Kabbalah is called the method of reception. I work with the same ego only this time it is a naked desire that is not designed for egoistic usage. So, I don’t nullify myself but only the ego, the intention to receive for myself, and the desire itself remains. I begin to use it correctly. I understand that I could not use it at all before this.

Think about how much can we use our ego in regard to the world? Suppose that I want people to disappear and the world to exist only for me. I want the sun to shine only from six until seven in the morning, and after that it would be evening all the time because I love the evening, it’s quiet and tranquil. What an ego.

So, to what degree can I fully use the ego in my life? A tiny fraction, one billionth of a percent. I don’t know how much and what I can change egoistically. In fact, it is nothing.

However, here, I have been given an unlimited possibility of using those desires, not in an egoistic style, but in an altruistic style with its full intensity plus the intensity of all of humanity, something that multiplies my desire many times, and so I become equal to the Creator because, in relation to me, all of humanity is the intensity of the Creator.
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From the Convention In Sochi 8/25/14, Lesson 2

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