There is a very clear, sequential, and gradual movement in the spiritual world. If I don’t have the feeling of hunger, a desire for the next level, then I don’t have a Kli (vessel or quality) in order to feel it, and so I don’t feel it.

A threshold is required. I have to ascend from my present state, from desire #1, to the following state, desire #2. If I have ascended to the next level, desire #2, then I feel the source of Light that is there.

But if I still haven’t attained that desire and am somewhere in the middle, on one of the 10 intermediate levels (called 10 Sefirot), then I do not feel the next state. I have to reach the very last level, and only after passing it do I begin to feel the next state. This is a precise corpuscular method where everything is graduated by degrees just like quantum particles in an atom. And we cannot do anything about this.

Therefore, there is an intermediate state between my initial desire (in which I felt a certain kind of fulfillment and it seemed like the sun was shining) and my second desire. This intermediate state is practically felt as emptiness, hunger, and suffering. But if I know that I am advancing, that this is a cumulative process that will end and that I will reach happiness and fulfillment, then even this process is necessary in order for me to attain a new desire, and therefore it directs me forward correctly.

The sensations of the bad states, confusion, obscurity, and emptiness, drive me forward, helping me to advance faster. If I felt some kind of pleasure and fulfillment in these states, then they would push me away against my will and it would be very difficult for me to advance. I wouldn’t aspire forward out of goodness and all the things that are nice because my egoism would immediately force me to sit and relax.

Therefore, we should relate to suffering the right way, understand its goal-oriented nature, and know how to use it correctly. As soon as I connect it to the right goal, this suffering turns into anticipation of the wonderful fulfillment that is to come.

If we master this method, life will seem wonderful.
[34140]
From Lesson 1 Berlin Convention on 1/28/11

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Question: Although the Internet facilitates connection between people, we still use this infrastructure in our egoistic interests. How can we change this and employ the same system for the sake of bestowal?

Answer: This can be done only by getting to know one’s evil. But in the meantime, we use the Internet as our egoism dictates. And it pushes us into real filth: Look how much sex, pornography, violence, and lies the Internet is filled with. Yet, on the other hand, there is just as much infantilism and rosy fantasies. This opens to a young person the world of adults and generally demonstrates to each of us the whole dark side of life.

I think it serves as a huge and powerful accelerator of human evolution.
[34106]
From a TV Program “Ask the Kabbalist” 1/20/2011

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We are trying to make Kabbalah closer to people and to clarify that it is a wisdom which explains our life to us and helps solve the problems concerning education, health, and everything else. But all of this is only externality.

Actually, Kabbalah speaks solely about the spiritual world and stops at the level of Bina de-Malchut de Malchut of the world of Assiya. Between this Bina and our state of existence in this world, Malchut de-Malchut de-Malchut of the world of Assiya, there is a gap.

We cannot step across this abyss, make it narrower, or fill it in with something. Until you leap above this gap, Kabbalah will always seem an abstract science to you, a philosophy or mysticism, meaning something unreal. After all, you perceive as real only that which you can see and hold in your hands right now. And what can we give you if we don’t sell red strings and “holy water”?

This gap between our state today and the closest Bina is overcome only by intense work within one’s own matter: an egoistic will to receive. I try to accomplish this with the help of environment, albeit also egoistic so far, and the studies that are for my own sake. Like a little child, I make efforts to grow and rise above myself as much as I can.

Kabbalah will never be able to garb itself directly in the matter of our corporeal world; you will always have to keep leaping up with it! You won’t be able to fix this very last AHP (the lowest part of the upper spiritual object, Partzuf) since you don’t have Galgalta ve Eynaim (GE, the upper part of the spiritual object) that you could use to clothe the AHP with.

This is the structure of all the worlds, the entire spiritual ladder; GE of the lower Partzuf is clothed into AHP of the upper Partzuf and as a result can receive from it. Although it is completely dark in the upper’s AHP, I am willing to accept this darkness with my GE and comply with it, in order to hold on to the upper one. I am prepared to choose this dark over the light that I have in my GE at present.

But I don’t have the GE for this very last AHP between Bina and Malchut de-Malchut de-Malchut de-Assiya! In fact, I reside below this AHP with my egoism; I don’t have anything I could clothe into the upper one with. There is nothing I can do. Hence, Kabbalah remains an abstract knowledge for me so far.

Spirituality ends in the last Bina, (at this red mark  in the diagram). The upper one’s AHP is total darkness for me. But if I bring into this interval “the group, the book, and the teacher” and start working with them, then I have an opportunity to connect to this Bina.

In fact, this doesn’t mean that the group itself has to be in spirituality. But these instruments (the group, Kabbalistic texts, and the teacher) are endowed with such miraculous property (Segula) that if I imagine them to be above me and wish to partake in them by lowering my ego before them, then I extract from them a spiritual component. Through them, the Light descends on me from GE of the upper one.

I, on my part, contribute desire (an egoistic one!). In response, the Light comes to me, and we meet in this area regarded as “the teacher, the books, and the group.” It is a qualitative definition rather than corporeal people and books: the very place where I reveal the AHP of the upper one, the spiritual world.

Therefore, I must keep visualizing that they are exalted and great, and that the Creator lives within them. Only in such form can I envision the upper’s AHP, a higher spiritual degree, and cling to it. Since I don’t have the GE, there is no other chance to do so.
[34131]
From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/26/2011, “The Essence of the Wisdom of Kabbalah”

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Question: If we are egoists, it means that any desire to bestow is an illusion, doesn’t it?

Answer: It’s a total illusion, an absolute lie. If I think about someone, I think about myself, adding to it a pseudo-connection with another person. In truth, it doesn’t exist; there is nobody else. All my perceptions and impressions remain in my desire, and this is the only premise upon which I can make a calculation.

Question: Why, then, do we sit here and hope that we will wish to bestow? How could such a desire emerge in us?

Answer: This occurs because our desire is able to experience itself as such deep within, while on the outside, it can feel as if it isn’t itself, but somebody else. Nothing was broken but the thought, the intention, the idea that we are all fragmented and disconnected. Desire itself cannot break; it was the intention that broke, the awareness of oneness.

Therefore, we fall into the illusion that the one desire created by the Creator is split, fractured, and broken into multiple pieces. This illusion appears within the desire itself.

We have internal Kelim (vessels, desires), the “root,” “soul,” “body,” in which I experience my “self.” In addition, I have external Kelim, a “garment” and a “chamber,” which I perceive as not my “self.” If I tear my clothes, I won’t scream with pain. I don’t feel the surroundings, despite the fact that it is my desire as well. Simply such peculiarities, the lack of sensitivity, appeared in it.

Imagine, if you will, that you could feel all the Kelim in their authentic form. Then, all of reality would be your own “flesh” for you. More than that, somebody would scratch a wall with a nail, and you would scream with pain.

Our difficulty is the lack of intention. The intention became corrupted, and now we don’t see the desires of “others” as relevant to us. It all depends on what is revealed to a person. Our sole job is to integrate desires within. While they remain unchanged, it is the intention that matters: whether it is to receive or to bestow.
[33734]
From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/26/2011, Writings of Rabash

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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?

We should understand what our sages said, “One does not find himself in debt” (Shabbat, 119). Accordingly, one cannot correct his actions, for he will never see that his actions are corrupt and require correction. Thus, one must always remain corrupt.

The thing is that it is known that man was created with a nature of wanting only to delight himself. Therefore, in everything he learns, he wishes to learn how he can enjoy. Thus, if a person wishes to enjoy, he will naturally avoid learning things other than what his heart desires, for this is his nature.

For this reason, one who wishes to draw near to the Creator and to learn things that show ways by which to bestow upon the Creator, must pray to the Creator to give him a different heart, as it is written, “Create for me a pure heart, O God.” This means that when he has another heart, when the desire in the heart is a desire to bestow, then in everything he learns, he will naturally see ways that show only how to bestow upon the Creator.

However, he will never see against the heart. It is said about that, “And I will remove the stony heart from within you, and I will give you a heart of flesh.”
– Rabash, Steps of the Ladder, “One Learns Only where One’s Heart Desires”

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Question: You are saying that our desire to give is make-believe.

Answer: Of course, it’s make-believe now. Why would I want something so “otherworldly?” What would I get in return?

For instance, being hungry myself, would I be able to feel another person’s hunger? No, I wouldn’t if such a calculation is not “in sync” with my Kelim (vessels). A person always acts based on desire. How can I want something beyond the reach of my desire? It’s impossible; it’s not instilled in nature.

A tree is a tree, a stone is a stone, and a desire is a desire. The mind is next to it, assisting it to be filled with the desired. There’s nothing else.

Ultimately, we are talking about the very simple “building blocks” of the universe which operate on a binary principle: yes or no. There is no multiplicity nor complication. All that is complex is a sum of these binary components that represent existence or absence. There is no in-between, only total darkness or total light. Then, the very same binary elements generate and build a whole system of nuanced relationships between them.

So, if I want something, I am thinking only about what I want. If I really want something specific, such as a carrot, it means I don’t feel any lack for a banana. The banana doesn’t exist for me at that moment; I am fixated on what I want. This can be seen clearly with children. Computer memory-elements function according to the same principle as do our neurons: yes or no, a “click” or its absence.

Therefore, it simply can’t be that being a receiving desire, I would feel in it a desire to give. I neither understand nor feel what others want. I can feel inside of me only a form called “the other,” but it manifests itself inside my desire.
[33737]
From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/26/2011, Writings of Rabash

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Question: How can a person tell that he is acting from the point in the heart, rather than avoiding the suffering of the outside world?

Answer: Does a person act in the group based on the point in the heart rather than his or her egoism? Does he direct himself toward a group instead of the outside world? He does if he puts the desires, goals, means, and efforts of his friends above his own.

What if the friends are wrong? They are always right. Actually, even if they are wrong, what difference does it make to me? What’s most important is that I am part of them. That’s the only choice I’ve got.

Suppose all of them are against my opinion. I’m one hundred percent right, but they are united as one. It means I have to annul myself and go along with them. However, they are wrong, aren’t they? It does not matter. In the spiritual world, the collective, the connection, always prevails.

Approximately two and a half thousand years ago there lived a great sage, Rabbi Yossi ben Kisma. He had, let’s say, a dozen students. Once, he was asked to move to another place, but he replied, “I can’t leave them because then I will lose everything there is within me.” This was despite the fact that he was a great sage of that generation. Who were they compared to him? “They are nobodies,” he said, “but when they are together, I connect to them and receive everything through them. On my own, directly, I cannot receive anything.”

After all, the receiving vessel, the detector, the locator, is the group. Let the group consist of nobodies, beginners; it doesn’t matter whom. If they unite with one another, that’s it; it’s enough. A sage who connects to them adds sensitivity to them and, thus, perceives everything.

On their own, they don’t understand or sense a thing. They’ve just huddled together like calves. However, having united with them, he receives the Light that he wouldn’t have received without them. By gradually conducting their unity through him, they, too, begin to grow. That is what is happening in the world. Therefore, only unity brings the right result.

There are a lot of “smart” people in the group, really clever, serious, very intelligent individualists, and their achievements are worth nothing! When I consider the result that we have to achieve as a group, I know for certain: Even if a person is smart, generates great ideas, performs any assignment brilliantly, and achieves amazing results, all that eventually leads nowhere. If he lacks spiritual direction, he won’t grow as a result of his or her efforts, although on the outside, everything may seem perfect.

All things spiritual are achieved only through unity. If beginners gather together, even though they may be small, by uniting, they achieve greater results than individuals who are great, wise, and perhaps Kabbalists already. Rabbi Yossi wouldn’t have achieved anything without his group. That’s why he didn’t leave it.
[33991]
From Lesson 2 in Moscow 1/16/2011, “A Prayer of Many”

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We have a very unusual group: It is not on land, but on water. It’s composed of our sailor friends from the Ukraine who are contracted to work on the "Gulf Service" floating ship near the shores of Angola.

The group was formed by Maxim. In January 2010 he attended his first mega convention in Odessa, and he was so inspired by it that he gathered a group on the ship. Now they watch the daily Kabbalah lessons, the gatherings of friends, and all the conventions together with us.

They download all their lessons and events once every six months when they are on leave. Our friends from different countries around the world keep in touch with them.

Every letter we receive from our friends is filled with warmth and love and emanates the greatness of the goal and the group. No distance exists for them; they are always completely informed and at the center of all our events.

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We need to understand that the solution to the modern problems is not to tame our egoism, but to rise above it. That is why the wisdom of Kabbalah isn’t so simple; it is above the level of the methods that teach how to gradually take control of and reduce one’s evil inclination.

Kabbalah says: No, you absolutely don’t need to fight your egoism. And you won’t win that war anyway because your egoism will only keep growing. Moreover, it is smarter than you and will always get away and take everything with it.

You must only learn how to turn it away from you, outward. The wisdom of Kabbalah is the science that teaches us how to work with egoism. It is a very complex science since it includes practically everything there is. It allows us to employ our egoism correctly, and because our egoism keeps growing to gain ever greater opportunities to step outside ourselves and attain what surrounds us.

It isn’t easy to explain to people that transformation does not lie in reducing one’s egoism, but rather, in applying it correctly. The more egoistic you are, the better. People don’t comprehend it, wondering, “How is this better? The more harmful I am to others, the more envious, greedy, frugal, and cunning I am, the better?” That’s right!

Yet, you find yourself asking, “How can that be good? You are wrong: We need to eliminate all these vices. A good person is someone who doesn’t have any of them.” But that’s not so! A good person is someone who has tremendous egoistic miasms, but he transforms them into a connection with others. His aspiration is not to use all his dreadful attributes in some way, but rather to recycle them into good ones. We have to recycle them, but never annihilate them.

It is even very difficult to explain this to people who are intelligent and deep-thinking. Today we are witnessing an imbalance with nature and discord in society, our personal lives, and everywhere else. Is this for the better or for the worse? It is certainly for the better! The worse, the better!

It is hard for people to understand this. This understanding can’t get through all at once. But have patience; little by little, everything will fall into place.
[34154]
From the 2nd lesson at the Berlin Convention on 1/28/11

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