It’s all about efforts: A person has to believe in the principle of “I labored and I found.” That is why Baal HaSulam writes in Item 17 of “Introduction to The Study of the Ten Sefirot” that “the student pledges, prior to the study, to strengthen himself in faith,” as it is said in “Ethics of the Fathers”: “Faithful is your employer who shall pay you the reward of your labor.” And this reward will be the passing from egoistic intention, Lo Lishma (not for Her Name), into the altruistic one, Lishma (for Her Name).

Before and during the studies, a person must see himself as looking forward to this change in himself. This is where all the efforts lie. In the same “Introduction,” Baal HaSulam explains that one must not display negligence, neither in the quantity nor the quality of efforts.

As we begin to study, we, probably, want to change by way of the study and the Light present in it, but then we forget about it and get distracted, meaning we do not exert enough in the quality of efforts. The quantity may be enough, but the most important is the quality: To what degree I experience pain and, thus, cannot leave the goal, as a sick person who constantly thinks only of healing. Whatever he does, everything is meant to help him get better.

One cannot attain such a need alone. This can only be done with the help of the environment. It will oblige a person through the importance of the goal, and only in this way will he be able to move forward.

Summing up all of the means we have, we see that both the group with its traditions, and I, myself, as well as the Creator, the teacher, the lessons, and the dissemination, all of it is necessary in order to create in a person a strong need for changes, prompted by way of the study. We must arrive at precisely this point; it must be the result of all our efforts.

Then, during the lesson, a true need for the Light will arise in us, and nothing else. It will neither be a need for knowledge, nor for wisdom, nor for distinction in anything—only for inner changes. And the strength of this need will be so great that it will really bring about transformation. This will allow a person to start relating to the Torah as to a “spice” and later, as to the Torah of life, instead of the “deadly poison” which he was using before.

We discover our evil inclination with the help of the Light. This Light is called the “angel of death.” On one hand, it shows a person that he is spiritually dead, and on the other, it then helps to kill his egoistic desire. This is how we advance.
[34702]
From the 1st part part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 2/7/2011, Writings of Rabash

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A person exists in this world and develops within his desire to receive pleasure. In order to direct this desire toward the development that matches its level, a person receives upbringing.

For thousands of years the people of Israel have been developing in exile. According to the growing egoistic desire, they were taught the Torah as the “teaching of exile.” They were taught to live for their own sake and even against the others.

I want to be above and smarter than others; I need to have more respect from others; I examine myself in relation to others. This is the correct upbringing at the stage when our egoistic desire grows and understands only the language of reception, acquisition of everything dictated by its inner development, the awakening Reshimot (informational genes). This is the upbringing of the people during the period of exile.

Then, a point in the heart awakens in a person and he or she switches to a different upbringing: through the group or one’s neighbor.

The difference is crucial. In the past, a person was looking for a greater profit in the desire to receive. The Torah of the exile period was intended to accelerate the development of egoism, to give it a boost. The Torah was used as religion, meaning as the “deadly poison,” in order to comprehend and realize the principle of  “I created the evil inclination” as fast as possible.

In the end, having realized and exhausted our egoistic desire, we begin to ask the question about the purpose of life. With this fundamental question, with the point in the heart, we come to the group.
[34710]
From the 1st part part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 2/7/2011, Writings of Rabash

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As any other science, Kabbalah is based solely on experiment. Look at a little human being, how he grows—this is how we used to develop in the past.

Over the course of millennia, we continuously summarized all of our observations and gradually turned them into the sciences. However, all of them are based solely on experiment, and nothing more. These experiments comprise the foundation of all sciences.

If something is not tested experimentally, it is not a science. It could be a product of your imagination, and another person could come up with something else. Only strictly recurrent data, results of experiments, can be turned into a science.

Suppose today I’m in my lab and I study a certain property or phenomenon. Consequently, I write an article for a scientific journal about the behavior of the phenomenon under question. Later, the results presented in the article are tested in other laboratories and places, and scientists write their feedback. Science is made up of all these elements.

This is how it was over the course of millennia. But today, we do not develop the science of Kabbalah, but rather apply it.

As of today, the wisdom of Kabbalah is already explicated, set out on paper. We have nothing to add, except for the materials that we write to help ourselves and people like us. That is, suppose there is certain upper physics, and then it is written out for students, for schoolchildren, for laymen, or for various practical applications. The same applies to Kabbalah.

Today we read The Book of Zohar, the works of the ARI, which are set forth and commented for us in the books of Baal HaSulam. Essentially, we have nothing to add to this. There are also articles and letters, meaning other material which we received from Baal HaSulam. Practically, this is it.

Beside this, we can only write about what we observe, see, in ourselves so as to assist other people who advance together with us or will follow us. That is, we do not develop the science, but adapt it for those who will come to it.
[34487]
From Lesson 3 Berlin Convention 1/28/2011

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Writings of Rabash, Shlavei HaSulam, “What Is the Ladder Standing on the Ground and Its Head in the Skies”
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The Book of Zohar — Introduction: “The Third Commandment,” Item 207, Lesson 2
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The Book of Zohar — Introduction: “The Fourth Commandment,”  Item 208, Lesson 1
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Talmud Eser Sefirot 3, Part 8, Item 79, Lesson 45
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Writings of Baal HaSulam “The Essence of the Wisdom of Kabbalah,” “Appellations Alien to the Human Spirit,”  Lesson 11
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In its research, science relies on our bodily senses. However, if we change our inner properties and come out of our ordinary five senses, we will be able to see a different world, research it, and discover a new science.

Therefore, the wisdom of Kabbalah is an addition to all sciences of the world because it includes precisely what we will see if we change our properties.

Kabbalah brings the entire creation to a single form. As a science it is based on one simple principle: desire, matter, and the Light, the form clothed in matter.

If you study them you will understand the entire nature and all manifestations, as in the particular so it is in the general, as in our world so it is on all levels of the upper worlds. One principle acts everywhere. Kabbalah is a universal science. If you follow it, you can always determine where you exist and what manifestations and effects you observe.

With its help, you can research the macro and micro worlds where you have only one principle: ten Sefirot. You can delve into them at the level of the finest details, or you can study them in general. The same laws will act everywhere!

In our world all sciences drastically differ from one another: biology, botany, astronomy, etc. We have a hard time drawing a parallel between them. However, if we take a single basis: the vessel and the Light, then only one law remains. The difference is only in the depth of the desire (the level of Aviut).

The same events always happen in it, but they will differ based on the thickness/coarseness of the matter, and as a result they demonstrate the same phenomena in parallel sciences like physics, chemistry, biology, zoology, etc.

The sciences concern matter at different levels (2, 3, 4), biology, zoology, geography, etc. The same forms appear in the inanimate nature, in animals, and in plants. The process is the same everywhere and the Light is imprinted in matter the same way. However, we perceive the same form differently because the matter is different.

Therefore Kabbalah is the most universal science. We have to destroy the stereotypes of ignorance which states that Kabbalah is not a science, but rather mysticism and meditation full of secrets.
[24445]
From the 4^th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 10/21/10, “The Wisdom of Israel in Comparison to Science”

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My Good Environment – Daily Lesson Summary and Dr. Laitman’s Advice for the Week

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Question: How is it that the intelligence which assisted us in growing and advancing over the course of human history only distracts and halts us from it today, at the most vital point when we need to evolve spiritually?

Answer: Intelligence has always serviced your ego, so it was helping you to achieve everything during these thousands of years. However, today, when you have finished evolving on the still, vegetative, and animate levels and must ascend new degrees of evolution at the human level, a completely different approach is required.

The view of life and the world, the whole paradigm have totally changed. Now, you need to relate to all that surrounds you with bestowal that originates from another kind of desire, but your rational mind doesn’t wish to work for bestowal since you don’t have a desire to bestow.

When you receive the desire to bestow, your mind will start working with it, but for now you have only egoistic desire, and your intelligence only serves it. The mind is a device, a computer. It doesn’t care what data it processes, what digits are loaded into it. As long as it receives data from your egoism, the will to receive pleasure, it works accordingly.

What can you do with this? Try to transform your desire rather than your mind. Draw the Light that Reforms into your desire. The Light created this desire, and only it can change it. Then, your mind will start working for the new desire to bestow and advise you as to how to bestow in a better way.

Therefore, intelligence is not the key in studying, as it’s written: “It isn’t the wise one who learns.” Everything is defined by desire. Mind is what you gain while your desire evolves. As to desire, it can be changed only by the upper Light and nothing else, except for the environment that awakes you and inspires to transform your desire, triggering it by “envy, lust, and ambition.” Using such material tools as your earthly desires, it leads you to spiritual aspiration.
[31616]
From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/3/2011, "The Wisdom of Kabbalah and Philosophy"

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