Good Environment – 02.17.11
Posted on February 17th, 2011
Question: Where does a person get the energy to do inner work while he isn’t corrected yet?
Answer: Even the smallest possible step made in desire, thought, or action is possible only by virtue of the importance of the goal. Only the importance of the goal gives us energy.
There is no other “energy source” that’s able to motivate us to make even the smallest movement in action, thought, or desire. Only the importance does it. There is nothing besides it.
Initially I have the importance of the egoistic desire, and I must continually acquire greater importance of the spiritual goal, the Creator, making Him higher in my eyes. The only way to work on this is by means of the environment. Who’s more important—me or the Creator? The environment is built in a way that if I desire it, it will help me place the Creator above myself.
Why is that? It’s because the environment is able to oblige me to do things I would never want on my own. Since I have received a point in the heart, the environment can do everything else, as long as I contribute my share.
Therefore, our entire work amounts to just this: Who’s more important? Me or Him? I must always check this and turn to the group in order to elevate the Creator, meaning the quality of bestowal and love, above myself, meaning above the quality of reception and repulsion from others. If I work correctly, then the environment is able to gradually provide me with the fuel for advancement so the important thing would become revealed to me as the Creator, the goal, the efforts, and the attainment of connection and adhesion.
Only the group is able to do this. If a person builds himself correctly, then he always has the fuel and has no problems advancing forward. But it happens only on the condition that he checks himself at every second: Who is more important to him?
We should look at everything in life from this perspective. First of all, arrange your priorities so the important thing is the goal, the Creator, adhesion, and bestowal. Then you can look at anything else—your children, work, family, friends, the world, and anything else. In that case you are on the right track in order to attain the goal through them.
[35580]
From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 2/17/11, Writings of Rabash
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The Zohar, “Ki Tissa [When You Take],” Item 31: “As a lily among thorns, so is my love among the daughters.” The Creator wished to make Israel similar to what is above, so there would be one lily in the earth [in Israel] that is like the lily above, Malchut. And the fragrant lily, better than all the lilies in the world is only one who has grown among the thorns. This one smells as it should.
Thorns become revealed to a person to the degree he is able to overcome them. If he correctly prepares all of the inclinations, all the forces present and operating between him and the environment, if he can continually awaken and raise the importance of the Creator, unity, and love for the neighbor as himself above everything that surfaces in his thoughts and desires, then he makes the right analysis and “blunts the teeth” of the evil inclination.
Rabash writes, “When you answer egoism, ‘blunt its teeth.’” This means that you shouldn’t argue with it, but should use force and overcome it. I reveal the environment, which lies between myself and others, egoistically, looking for a chance to use my connection with it, to get as much as I can out of them.
Looking at reality from a material perspective, I see everything outside of me, instead of inside myself. I do not think that I am the one responsible for the distance, the hatred, and the repulsion that become revealed. All of this appears external to me and not my own. I don’t think that these are my Kelim, my perception of realty, my vision, or the revelation of the upper reality inside of me.
Therefore, I must give myself “a blow to the teeth” over and over again in order to correct my attitude to the picture that is depicted before my eyes. In this picture I am separated from the neighbor by a distance that does not seem like my own corrupted desires (Kelim) to me. Instead if seems like something foreign, something I have to reject.
But I act on the contrary: I blunt the force of this illusion with my analysis since I understand that everything becoming revealed to me is myself. And I do not correct my soul unless I attribute to myself the whole world, all of reality, all of the people, all of the souls, and all the levels in general—the still, vegetative, animate, and speaking degrees. I have to treat them all as an inseparable part of me.
Then I see that the perception of reality, love for the creatures, and the revelation of the Creator lie in the same thoughts and desires that determine my attitude to the neighbor, to that which is outside. In reality there is nothing beyond desire. And when I feel that this desire comes out of me toward others, I have to “strike it in the teeth” the right way. That is how I turn it into a connecting link between myself and the other part of me. The neighbor will become a part of me and the Creator will become mine. That is how I will include all of reality inside of me, and thereby the breaking will be corrected.
Then, in that same place, in the same desires and thoughts that stood between myself and the neighbor, I will begin to feel the Light’s presence, the quality of bestowal and love.
[35497]
From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 2/16/11, Writings of Rabash
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The question that just won’t be silenced and has to be answered with a “blow to the jaw” is the question of who’s more important: me or the Creator? Me or the neighbor? The force of bestowal or the force of reception?
If this question stands clearly before me and I understand that whether I will progress or get into a fiasco depends on my getting a clear answer, then the need for the constant support of the environment becomes obvious to me. But on the other hand, what is that environment? And what kind of support does it give me? In essence I receive my own Kelim, desires, to the degree I want to bring them closer to me. After all, all of reality is me.
By working with the environment, I raise it in my eyes and in it I find the importance of the Creator. In essence I have been given the force of the breaking so it would help me work on myself in this way.
My “I,” which includes all of reality, divides into two parts:
1. the part that I experience as myself
2. the part that I experience as the world, other people, and everything that is outside of me.
Why did the creator break me in two? It was in order to make it easier for me to correct the part that is outside. I raise its importance in my eyes by awakening the importance of the friends and motivating them to work on me as if they have freedom of choice or more independence than I attribute to them.
We have to understand that the force of the breaking acts for our own good. The part called “the neighbor,” meaning everything that is outside of me, will be corrected by me if I treat it precisely as the neighbor. I correct these desires which seem foreign to me by placing myself in front of them and wishing to unite with them.
My “self” is just the point in the heart, while “the neighbor” is my entire Kli, the entire vessel of the soul. If I weren’t divided into these two parts, then I would not have the opportunity to correct the “external” desires. I would never be able to analyze, check, and sort them, or to demand the forces to work with them.
However, I am located outside of them and correct my attitude to them. This is the illusion I get—as if I correct my attitude to the neighbor by the principle of “love your neighbor as yourself.” And I do not yet perceive, understand, or feel that in essence, this is my soul. I was given the force of the breaking, which depicts a deceptive picture of “others” in my eyes. But that is exactly how I can start correcting my Kelim, working against the force of repulsion by striking it, blow by blow.
Thus, it is possible to imagine our work this way: A person initially receives all of creation in the capacity of his soul and understands that all the forces of disunity are a fantasy intended to confuse him. In actuality, reality is not cut off from him at all. That is why a person strikes and “blunts the teeth” of this force of the breaking, this illusion. He should see this as the entire work that he has to carry out.
And he keeps going until he knocks out all the teeth, plucks out all the weeds so the rose growing among them, so Malchut would bloom in its real form, full force. This is the Shechina, the common soul.
It is in this light that I have to see the environment, the friends, and the Creator. Everything that seems external to me is an inseparable part of me. The force separating me from the only thought and desire, from the Only One, is the force of disunity that I must break.
[35489]
From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 2/16/11, Writings of Rabash
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Question: You touch upon very high matters when you speak about working with the environment.
Answer: I do not speak about any high matters at all. I speak about immediate realization, about what needs to happen between us. It’s not above us, but on our eye level, on the level of our hearts.
Question: But don’t I work with myself artificially?
Answer: Of course, artificially. We acknowledge and admit our hypocrisy. Yes, we play; we openly “lie.”
For example, right now, my grandson is occupied with a toy garbage truck. He looks for garbage around the house to put it in his truck. Is this a game? If he were able to explain it to you, you would understand that this is life. However, you, grownups, are playing with your toys. He sees it this way; we see it the opposite way. These are two levels, and there is nothing that you can do about it.
So, I know that I am submerged in egoistic desire, that I hate my neighbor, and I only think about myself. Nothing else interests me, and I came to the group to receive even more because I no longer receive satisfaction from any of the things I previously had.
My neighbors are satisfied with their position, and they look at me as if I were mad: “What does he want in life?” However, it is not enough for me, and this is why I am here.
Day after day, I keep discovering hatred of and disdain for everyone. I do not need anyone, and no one matters to me but my darling me. I am aware of all this, but at the same time, I know that rising to a higher degree means to come out from within myself, my desire, my thoughts, toward something completely different. I want to be born anew.
So, I play on my level in my egoism as if I were already on a higher degree. Naturally, all of this is pretend play. It is all a lie, but it is a useful lie. I do not have another possibility to develop, unless I play a game of something I want to attain.
This is what children, plants, and animals do. This is the condition that operates in all of nature. Every element that wants to develop in the consumption and emission of certain matter turns itself into a certain image, a model of whatever it is aspiring to. It must strive toward its future form.
Then, the upper Light comes. When the development is caused by nature, it passes automatically. Plants and animals do not know how they develop, and yet the Light also operates on the still, vegetative, and animate levels.
There is no other force, but we must evoke this Light with our strengths, our comprehension, our analysis, our estimations, our understanding, and our thoroughness. Not only do we need to be present in this creation, we must control it.
This really is a game. It is written that the Creator plays with the leviathan. He actually plays. Any changes that occur when something or someone goes from one degree to another are a game. After all, we evoke them by playing a game of something that we have not yet attained or acquired, something we have not yet turned into. This is a very serious thing.
[35395]
From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 2/15/2011, Writings of Rabash
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Question: I make efforts to make a connection with the friends in the group, but I see that they reject my efforts. If all of reality is me, then who rejects whom in reality?
Answer: You’re rejecting yourself. In the words of Baal HaSulam, however you see the group, that is how you see the Creator. That is because besides you, He is the only thing that exists. However, He is concealed and you cannot work in relation to Him. That is why you have been made to see your reflection—the environment. To the degree of your own corruption, you see others around you as corrupted, not united, and not wishing to connect to you.
Obviously, a person himself is expressed through everything. But at the same time, since a person exists inside of the forces of disunity, he has to work with the environment in a sophisticated manner in order to use it as a means to build himself.
That is exactly how I really can work on myself. That is why I have to find the right environment, “form” it correctly, relate to it properly, and from it receive the right influence. This will enable me to advance.
[35486]
From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 2/16/11, Writings of Rabash
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A person starts with the point in the heart, the drop of spiritual semen. He does not have anything else from the upper world.
He is placed in an environment while at the same time, he is separated and distanced from it by the feeling of repulsion and later, hatred. All the possible feelings that come down to the fact that “there is me and the environment” essentially comprise the place of the breaking.
All of the opposition, repulsion, collisions, friction, and disturbances are elicited by the revelation of the distance between the person and others, the revelation of the broken place between him and the environment. By correctly identifying this place, inside of it a person discovers the Creator, the Light that fills his corrected attitude to the neighbor.
This way, my corrupted desire lies between me and the environment. As soon as I correct it, inside of it I reveal the Creator. My “self” is just a point of ascent, the point of aspiration that I received in the midst of my life which is the start of my spiritual count off or spiritual development.
Everything becomes expressed on the condition that I correctly imagine the picture of reality in which I exist. Where is the environment that can support me? After all, I continually reveal a lack of acceptance of others, of the goal, and the Creator. At every moment I have to check myself: Is the upper force, the force of bestowal, the Creator important to me? Does it tower above everything?
Ascent, awakening, and care about making this constant analysis can come only under the influence of the right environment.
[35500]
From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 2/16/11, Writings of Rabash
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