Question: You have said that we shouldn’t suppress the ego, but rather increase the positive. What do you mean by that?

Answer: This refers to a person walking the path of spirituality and engaged in a Kabbalistic group. How then can one increase the positive when he falls?

When I feel sick I take a pill, and when I’m in a bad mood I go dancing. But by doing these things, I don’t suppress or negate my ego in the slightest degree. If you feel ill, acknowledge it as a fact, but don’t beat yourself up. It isn’t you! It is just a little more of your egoism being shown to you. Don’t take it personally.

The negative constantly evolves in a person in order to develop the positive. What is this positive then? It isn’t the annihilation of egoism or balancing it on the corporeal level. In no way should I compensate a minus with some earthly plus. No matter how dreadful my sensation may be, I wish to compensate the minus solely with a spiritual plus. Otherwise, I will be similar to the “reformers” of the world.

Whatever the case may be, I don’t compensate for the negative by reducing it. After all, it is deliberately given to me since nothing is accidental in life. So what should I do? I need to increase my positive relations with the group, the right environment. Why? It is because my entire future depends on our mutual inclusion in one integral system.

If egoism is evolving in me, then this is the only correct decision. My plus lies on my path to the group. If in my entire emerging egoism, I increase my positive connection with the environment, then it is really an altruistic force with which I balance the egoistic force. And it turns out that I rise to the next level through compensating the minus.

Then, needless to say, a new minus emerges in me, and I must become rooted in the group again. But at that point the group seems to even worse to me: “Idiots, hard-hearted dummies. I don’t want any of this anyway, let me go chill out.”

And thus, gradually a person lowers his head, over and over again, and turns to the environment until he reaches a complete connection. Nature encourages us to do the same so that we are together as one integral whole. Hence, the global crisis and complete dependence on one another shows us in what direction we need to correct ourselves.

So, we have agreed not to work against egoism, but to work in order to use it properly. As a result of the minus, we transform it into a plus. Otherwise, we would never have it.

My “I” is a resistor, like the resistance necessary for producing current from a power source. Minus and plus create the tension that draws and forms my reality. Therefore, having reached a certain potential between minus and plus, I begin to see the picture of the upper world on my “screen.”
[34205]
From the 2nd lesson at the Berlin Convention on 1/28/11

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A letter I received:

Hello Dear Group! This letter is from the “Gulf Service” sailors. We want to share our common joy: Our small group consisting of three people was together with you during the Berlin convention. We watched lessons (we downloaded them as we were unable to watch them live) and tried to connect our desires to the one common desire “Yashar-El.”

After the end of every lesson, we discussed the lesson, asked questions of one another, shared our opinions, feelings, expectations. The convention had a great effect on a friend who has recently joined us: He showered us with questions and shared how impressed he was with such an enormous gathering of friends.

We conducted the same seminars that the groups had; we discussed the same questions. And, of course, we arrived at the same conclusion that European and world unity can only be attained from the current state of lack of connectivity through the circulation of Kabbalah. To do this, we need to use all the means that exist, all the connections, all the media, and “infect” with it as many people around the world as possible.

We were together with you throughout the entire convention; we sang and raised L’Chaims with you. And we have received an enormous inner fulfillment and joy, just like the entire World Kli.

Wishing you all the best,
Sergey, Yura, Maxim,
“Gulf Service,” the Atlantic Ocean, the Angola shore
[34098]

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Dear Friends, please ask questions about these passages from the great Kabbalists. The commentaries in brackets are mine.

What Is a Prayer?

Everything, great or small, is obtained only by the power of faith. And the reason why we must toil and labor is only to discover our lack of power and our lowliness—that we are unfit for anything by our own strength. And then we are ready to pour out a whole prayer before Him. [That is, our entire work comes down to the realization of our hopelessness and our desire to reach the goal by the Creator’s mercy.]

We could argue about that, “If this is so, then I will decide in advance that I am good for nothing, and why all the trouble and effort?” However, there is a law in nature that none is as wise as the experienced. Before a person actively tries to do all that is within his power, he is completely unfit to arrive at true lowliness, in the true measure mentioned above.

Hence, we must toil [in any way we can] in Kedusha (holiness) and purity, as it is written, “Whatsoever you find that you can do by your own strength, do,” and understand that for it is deep and true.

Even though you do not see a thing, since even when the required measure of labor has been made, this is the time for prayer, until then, believe in our sages, “I did not labor and found, do not believe.” When the required measure is reached, your prayer will be whole and the Creator will respond generously, as our sages instructed us, “I labored and found, believe,” for prior to that, you are unfit for prayer, and the Creator hears a prayer.

[In other words, one has to reach a sufficient desire for the goal: bestowal and love of the created beings and the Creator. He has to realize that he will not reach that goal by himself, by his own strength, and the desire for the entire result must be for the Creator’s sake. All of this together constitutes the intention “for the sake of the Creator.”]
– Baal HaSulam, Letter No. 57
[33572]

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Shamati #1, “There is none else beside Him” Not only does he not progress in his [spiritual] work [and does not see any clearance ahead], but [it seems to him that] he regresses, that is, he lacks the strength to observe [the Creator’s will] even “for his own sake,” [while it is the Creator who pushes him forward].

We don’t create a real egoistic desire that is able to overcome anything. Instead, we start experiencing weakness, indifference, and our operation by automatic pilot. “Let happen whatever will.” We just go with the flow. Sometimes things are a bit better and sometimes a bit worse.

That only by genuinely overcoming all the obstacles, above reason, can he [advance forward]. What does “genuinely overcoming above reason” mean? It’s when in spite of one’s desire and thoughts, without having any predisposition to do so, a person begins to connect to the teacher, the group, and the books. Altogether this is all called “the environment” or the surroundings.

But even in this case, when he begins to connect to them, he is still thrown about, up and down and in relation to the teacher, the group, and the sources or books. Sometimes he wants to and sometimes he doesn’t. Sometimes he believes it and sometimes he doesn’t. Sometimes he’s sick and tired of it, and sometimes he strives forward, and so on.

As the difficulties mount, a person starts to feel that there is nothing attractive or special on this path, and nothing motivates him to advance. There is no spark, nothing really worth giving up his life, career, and success for.

As a result, a person falls. His fall is serious, real, deep, and pretty lengthy. Thus, he reaches the final decision that not the group, nor the teacher, nor the books, nor exertion—nothing will help him in the world besides the only governing force, the Creator.

All the times that a person fell and rose, all the states that passed over him were all in order for him to feel total and absolute dependence on no one but the Creator. Imagine how much a person has to be beaten from all sides, shaken up, pushed away and attracted, and shown the existence of a great number of forces and various causes for his states so that in the end he would become convinced that there is nothing besides the one, single Force. If it doesn’t help me, then no one will. Only it will come to my rescue if I demand it.

That is when the following need arises in a person: for the Creator to definitely help him. The formation of this demand is also very not simple. It does not happen in one moment, but it gradually surges up in a person, becoming vividly expressed, fierce, and persistent. Like a child who demands what he wants no matter what—just give him what he wants, and you can’t convince him any other way. That is the kind of state we must reach. And in this state the Creator really does help us.

Only those people who truly want to draw near the Creator, so they will not settle for little, meaning remain as senseless children, they are therefore given help from Above, so they will not be able to say that I have everything and what else do I need?
From the 4th lesson at the Berlin Convention on 1/29/11

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Question: You have said on numerous occasions that the ideas of Kabbalah should be brought into psychology and to scientific minds. I teach psychology in a university and I noticed that like all other scientists, even psychologists have very narrow opinions. So how can we approach psychologists? How can we bring elements of Kabbalah into psychology?

Answer: In principle, I myself came from the scientific world. But I left it. Yet, I respect people who nevertheless try to find something out about nature, themselves, and the surroundings. Of course, they are driven by egoistic qualities, but that’s how man is and you cannot do anything about it.

Psychologists, philosophers, and other people who study what seems like man’s inner world and the theory of knowledge, as well as scientists in the field of various closed systems—all of their research is based on our nature and the previous developments in all of science. Science develops in our five senses and is built out of these sensations.

Naturally, this entire science is absolutely egoistic because it comes from the sensation inside egoism, our main quality. And naturally, psychologists, psychiatrists, and philosophers are unable to understand Kabbalah because it works with opposite qualities. These people are no closer to attaining Kabbalah than all others.

That’s because in order to attain Kabbalah, one must have a point in the heart. If it is present, if a person has a need to know “Why do I exist?” that is not coming from smart philosophic reckoning, but from his personal, inner necessity, then he reaches the sensation and understanding of what Kabbalah talks about. This does not happen immediately, but over the course of a great amount of serious study.

At first he does not understand what it is talking about at all. He sits at the lessons for many months, listening and nodding his head, but he still does not have the inner sensations that emerge under the influence of the Light, which are adequate to the realm that the science of Kabbalah talks about. However, gradually this happens. We have to wait.

That is how children grow. Over the course of 20 years a person is brought up and grows, and only later does he become suitable for living in our world. Even though he was born in this world and his entire environment is also in this world, it still takes him 20 years to become more or less independent. And even then he is next to his mom all the time…. Still, suppose this is so. However, in our case we are talking about the spiritual world, a completely unexplored territory. How can I prepare for it if I am not in it? How can I adapt to it if I don’t feel it? I am told about this in these books and I don’t understand what they are talking about. So everything comes down only to the influence of the Surrounding Light.

We simply have to take these people and place them under the influence of the Surrounding Light if they agree to it. Meaning, we have to place them in the right environment, evoke the Surrounding Light through the study, and over the course of several months or years, we will see the result. This is the only thing we can do. If a person agrees to it, this will happen to him, and if he doesn’t agree to it, it won’t happen.

How much knowledge he has acquired in this world does not have any relation to Kabbalah because the knowledge he has acquired is about our world, this realm, “inside the aquarium.” So how will this help him find out what is outside? After all, everything is structured in a completely different way over there.

Even if he is a great scientist in our world, even if he is Einstein himself, he will suddenly find himself completely imperceptive to what is being said here. It is written that it is not the smart person who will master the spiritual world. That is never a criterion! It can only be done by a person with a point in the heart, who properly places himself under the external influence of the group and the inner influence of the Light. From inside the point in the heart is influenced by the Light, and from outside it is influenced by the group.

Under the influence of these two sides, this point swells up and a person begins to feel the first ten Sefirot inside of it as he rises from one degree to the next. And suddenly—Kabang! This sensation becomes revealed inside of him. Then he begins to understand what he heard about, what he read, and what others talked about. “Oh, now I get it!”
[34257]
From the 1st lesson at the Berlin Convention on 1/28/11

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The Internet has been around only for only about 15-20 years. It hasn’t even taken one generation to grow, but there’s definitely a generation raised on the Internet.

And if we wait till the next generation arrives, another 15 years, we will see a very different humanity. It will all live on the Internet, constantly plugged into the common communication network that connects everybody by means of some portable devices such as an iPod, for instance. And we will maintain acquaintances with one another only through this virtual network.

That will be the time when all our good and evil will come to light since this system has an internal force that we are not aware of at the moment. It is yet to emerge and unfold.

In the place where people are connected with one another, a “third component” emerges as well: an effect, a “derivative” of this connection. Suppose we are a group of 10 participants who are interconnected. It means that there also is a cumulative force of the group consisting of ten people.

But this isn’t all! When we bond, an additional force comes to life, an extra component produced by our oneness, its result, a “generalization” which includes all particular forces. And if we get connected in one network, despite the fact that it is completely egoistic and false and has absorbed all the worst samples of our nature, it nevertheless is a system that brings us together. And hence, the force supplying this connection will be revealed in this place.

It exposes a new necessity to us. This network itself has such a unique nature, character, and legitimacy that it will pull us toward integration, unification, and correct development, to a truly unified humanity.

If we get connected, no matter how, by good or bad ties, this bond will bring us to the correct type of unity in the end. It may bring some blows on the way if we are egoists and don’t understand what the right form of evolution is. But by the same token, it can go smoothly and well. At any rate, one way or another, within this network, there works a special force that is one degree above us.

The integral egoism which has connected and is forcing us to be together, which has arranged this whole network and us in it, seems to be a negative force, but inside it, there is a positive one that gradually draws us to becoming as one. I am certain, based on how fast we are developing now, that we will reveal it in the very near future.

It is a natural phenomenon: When people unite, within such unification and as a result of it, there is an additional force present. This is how nature is designed. It could be a gathering of some clowns or the most evil criminals, and still, their unity will produce a powerful result (albeit possibly bad). It is because bonding itself is endowed with spiritual force. After all, spirituality is a connection.

So, our connection may be good or bad for the time being, but it will still advance us as a result.
[34249]
From a TV Program “Ask the Kabbalist” 1/20/2011

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Question: How can we balance our feelings with our mind?

Answer: But why do that? Being balanced is not a good thing. Even though this is our purpose, to reach balance and harmony, nevertheless as long as we are on the path, we don’t need this to stop us.

We learn that the Creator created the will to receive which is the creation, matter, and the only thing that exists. This desire develops with the help of the Light that created it. Stated differently, there exists a special force called “Light,” “the force of bestowal,” or “the root” that created the will to receive, the force of reception.

When the will to receive begins developing with the help of the Light, it goes through four phases, each of which gives rise to the following stage and fills it, and then that phase continues its development. When this desire reaches the fourth phase of development, it begins asking questions: Who am I? What am I living for? Where did I come from?

In essence these questions are asking about “the root.” And because the desire asks about this, a mind begins developing within it. The Light influences our will to receive in such a way that the need for fulfillment makes the desire begin searching for a way to attain what it desires.

We see this based on how we are structured. What do we include inside of us? Positive particles and negative ones: positrons and electrons, atoms that make us up and unite into molecules. These, in turn, connect together according to their valency. So after all is said and done, there are two forces: the force of reception and the force of bestowal.

But when they begin to unite, they form cells of thought. That is why every atom and every molecule begins to feel the need to perceive itself. And when they try to unite together, they are looking for a way to complete themselves according to the number of free electrons. Then it turns out that by virtue of these processes, a mind forms.

After that the particles begin to unite in a way that seems mechanical. Our brain is also mechanical and contains nothing from Above. But it looks for the most rational, short, and best way to reach what it desires. This is called the birth of the mind inside the desire. A great desire gives birth to a great mind according to the fact that it has to attain great things, while a small desire produces a small mind.

This is similar to a child’s development. A small child has small desires and a small mind, but the more we develop his desires in order for him to know how to take something apart and put it back together, the more his mind develops. The same happens on the still, vegetative, and animate levels.

However, the will to bestow has a completely different brain. There we come out of ourselves to the common memory that is outside of us. I begin to acquire an external feeling, the feeling of bestowal, with the help of my desire to attain “the root” and by beginning to connect to the desire that is outside of me.

External desires are located between people and they are the common desire that each of them acquires. In the same way a person also acquires the external mind outside of each one of us. In that case, our desires and our mind are unlimited. Then, I do not limit the mind by the boundaries of my personality, but on the contrary, I come out into a dimension where there are no limitations. This state is called the world of Infinity.
From the lecture in “Kabbalah L’Am” Hall on 1/25/11

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Question: What opportunities does an unlimited mind open up for us?

Answer: I begin to perceive creation to the depth of my matter. If I look at matter without my brain’s participation, then I only see how it appears externally. But with the help of the mind I can penetrate inside matter and see increasingly deeper roots of it until I attain the plan of creation.

I go through matter until the very root that gave rise to it, until the Creator, until the plan of creation. I attain: Why was it born and what is its function from the beginning of creation until the present moment? And when I come back, I attain the end of creation because the beginning and end are in one place.

It turns out that the process I go through is the acquisition of a mind. Therefore, when acquiring 125 spiritual levels, I acquire my mind. That is why this acquisition is 620 times greater than acquiring a mind inside the will to receive.
From the lecture in “Kabbalah L’Am” Hall on 1/25/11

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