Good Environment – 05.17.11
Posted on May 17th, 2011
Question: Even if my intention is egoistic, if I start thinking about the benefit of others and the well-being of the world, can this already be considered an action?
Answer: Of course. Do you really think that giving out bread to the poor is a real action? This will only cause more poor people to exist in the world.
Your action is to attract Light. It, and nothing else, returns you to the Source. So what else is there to think about? Especially at a time when the whole world is in trouble and in danger. We only need the Light. The lack of Light is the reason for all the wars, crises, catastrophes, and other problems.
Precisely the lack of good actions by the Light evokes troubles at the four phases of development—still, vegetative, animate, and human. The evil we encounter is a projection of the lack of Light.
Punishment does not come from above. If I have to reach a specific reward, the revelation of the Creator, similarity and adhesion with Him, and I don’t do that, then I experience the gap that this creates as punishment or lack of goodness. And vice versa, by attaining this, I will feel a reward.
Thus, I feel reward and punishment in the same desires. If I have corrected and filled my desire, this is the reward, but if I cannot correct and fulfill it, this is punishment. There are no penalties from above. I do not receive a speck beyond what I inflict upon myself. I create my own punishment.
Therefore, we have just one task—to attract the Light. Especially today, considering everything that is happening and accumulating in the world. There are no other means.
I am constantly in touch with people who are “in the know,” and I read all kinds of articles, visit websites, and follow the newspapers, but I don’t see a solution offered anywhere. They cannot offer anything and they don’t even want to think about this because they don’t have the slightest connection with correction.
Just yesterday I was talking about this with a famous writer and he did not say anything—he avoided answering. This indicates a lack of sensitivity, a lack of understanding the corrections.
“The world is round and we have to unite,” I say to people. “That’s right, we’re also acting in that direction,” they respond. People don’t even realize that in reality they are going in the opposite direction. After all, in the end every person is just strengthening his own party or movement. There is no one to talk to.
Therefore, we have to create conditions in our midst for a positive force to emerge. Only then will its waves ripple through the whole world. Nothing else will help. We do not depend on others, but we have to help them so that later on people will quickly catch these waves, understand their message, and feel that they are coming from us.
The materials have to be disseminated ahead of time, but in essence the source of these waves is us. And therefore, the most important thing is to unite, to merge with one another more and more.
I place great hopes on the upcoming conventions. They are the means by which we have to bring to life unity, consolidation, and mutual care for the world and for our correction, which will help the world.
The time has come for the Creator to become revealed in the creatures. The means is simple and it is in our hands. All we have to do is use it. We ask the world to wake up, but are we awakening ourselves?
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From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/17/11, “Peace in the World”
Each of us feels that he is special and unique, as if he were the only one existing in the world and the whole world is intended for him. As generations develop, every person stands out more and more, egoism grows and requires a person to become more self-sufficient and to feel that he is the center of the world. Envy, fear, and conceit force us to act in a way so others will think we are higher than they. We are only willing to give this up if we have no choice or are too lazy because in order to achieve anything we have to lead an endless battle. However, the desire and urge to affirm oneself above everything still burns in a person.
We see that only the sensation of one’s own exclusivity invites people to “climb on top one another,” to step on each other, building up the human pyramid from the rulers on top to the smallest ones down below. Everything depends on how much a person stands out with his exclusivity, as well as the conditions and qualities he was born with and which he received from the environment in the process of his development.
One way or another, eventually people attain something in human society only by using the quality of their own exclusivity. This quality comes from the Creator: He is One, and therefore every one of us, who has separated from the common desire that was created by the Creator, also feels singular.
We are like a holographic picture where each part contains the whole. We used to be one soul, similar to the Creator, but then it broke into parts and now each of its pieces contains the single form of the common soul, but in the opposite form due to the breaking. There is an integral form of the initial soul concealed inside of me, and therefore, pressured by the force of the breaking, I feel whole and demand the whole world and the Creator to be at my disposal. Who or what can have any importance besides me?
As a result, our self-expression in this world is built only on the quality of exclusivity which operates in every person. Where do I aim all of my desires, thoughts, and abilities? At becoming even more unique and exclusive. Every person advances down this path according to his own forces, qualities, and speed, and also to the extent that the environment spurs him on.
The most important thing is: For whose benefit do I use my “I,” all of my qualities, and in general—my exclusivity? If I am unique in the world, then whom am I acting for? Eventually a person makes the decision that correctly using himself means serving the world just like the Creator. That is when he becomes human, similar to the Creator, and the world turns into a meeting place of the Creator and creation. There they unite and merge with one another, serving all the souls.
From this we see that the quality of exclusivity can play a dual role: at first a person strives to conquer the whole world like Napoleon and to use it as he sees fit, in opposition to the Creator, but in the end he reveals the need to change and acquire similarity to the Creator. Exclusivity can be used either for one’s self or for the sake of the neighbor. This is what determines a person’s place on the spiritual ladder.
From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/17/11, “Peace in the World”
Writings of Rabash, Letter 25: One should always walk along two paths that negate one another, feeling deficiency and perfection, that is, prayer and gratitude.
The key is to gain a correct desire. We start with a small spark, without any idea of what we really want. We are brought to a place where they study Kabbalah without any understanding of what is being studied and why we should try to belong.
However, gradually, while doing all the sorts of things that we do and do not comprehend, we eventually start getting an idea, a feeling, and knowledge. We clarify our attitude to all this and realize who we are, what we are expected to do, where we are, and what process we are going through.
Thus, from a state of total ignorance, lack of knowledge and understanding, from an unconscious, instinctive yearning, we make a gradual transition to a state where we gain more clarity and see more details, what caused them, and why they are necessary.
At this point, we begin sorting out what is more and less important for us and while reading the books, search for what we’ve read within ourselves. We assess whether we have the notions of bestowal, reception, and the desire to bestow to the Creator, which seems totally artificial and unreal to us. We don’t comprehend the notions of love and connection to the friends that are being discussed.
The only thing we can still hope for is the Light that Reforms. All transformations on the spiritual path, from the state zero, the point in the heart, and further on, occur solely by virtue of the Light. If a person thinks that he can do something else and advance in some other manner, he is making a big mistake that could halt him on the path or even sway from it completely.
Therefore, he must do his best to learn about his connection with the group: to what extent he is unable to maintain it or doesn’t feel the need for and remember it since he doesn’t like thinking about and is appalled by it in the first place. One must assess all these negative things for himself without sinking in them.
Rather, every time something like this is revealed to you, keep rising above it. Even if you are unable yet to overcome this resentment naturally and employ it to do the work, that is alright. The key is to feel it for a mere instant and, without holding yourself back, keep moving forth.
In these efforts toward advancement that you make despite your feeling disdain, resentment, and rejection, there is now a certain plea, a prayer that draws to you the Surrounding Light. Under the impact of the Light, your hatred shows as more concrete and defined, and you begin to better understand what and why you resent and loathe so much. In other words, you come to know your true nature.
Essentially, we always study only ourselves relative to a certain force regarded as the upper Light. It isn’t the Light itself that we study, but ourselves against it as the background. It’s not the Light that we feel, but our being opposite to it. In doing so, we become ready to pray, to beg. After all, we must get these internal flaws corrected, rise above them, and move forward despite them. This way, our plea for the Light becomes more concise and precisely aimed.
Thus, the Light carries out its task and reveals the egoistic desire in us, the “evil inclination.” All of this is illuminated in us by the Light that cultivates our desire both quantitatively and qualitatively, thereby advancing us toward the goal.
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From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/15/2011, Writings of Rabash
Since all changes are made solely by the Light, every time we act, our actions must show us how inadequate we are compared to it. In other words, I must act as He does to be able to see how different I am from Him at my present degree.
It is similar to a little child who is trying to copy adult behavior. After having done so, he realizes how correct or incorrect his actions really are. It’s as if he is doing exercises by assembling tiny little toy structures from construction blocks or by doing his homework for school.
All of this is done so as to test ourselves and compare our results with the correct ones. Our advancement is based on the differences revealed between the “desired and actual,” between what I am capable of and what I am supposed to be by now.
This means that we constantly must try to perform acts of bestowal and use them to examine and assess what I haven’t achieved yet. I should not despair every time I fail, but love this state of illumination. After all, that’s what is teaching us how to move forward.
It doesn’t really signify that I did something wrong and now should feel guilty. To the contrary, I succeeded, and hence I am being shown what else I can advance in. The Light keeps showing me changes to take the next step. If I were unable to do it, the Light wouldn’t reveal it to me, and I would step into some kind of fog, an unconscious state. I would be numb, and I would feel good. The Light wouldn’t illuminate my flaws to me and wouldn’t show me what to do.
I won’t have anyone to talk to if I haven’t prepared myself by working in the group, serious studying, and doing other things. Therefore, the Light couldn’t allow me to take further action which had no foundation underlying it. In that case, it would look like I were alright and nothing needed to be done. I would enter a sort of illusion that might last a very long time, even years.
In fact, everything depends on preparation, while preparation depends on the environment. Thus, we are supposed to perform a few material acts, such as arrange the studies, the group, connection with the friends, and all discernments which we strive to do together.
If I am eager to unite with the others and reveal the property of bestowal there, I will have to eventually form my attitude toward the inner concept of the “group” or the “place” of the spiritual space, the integral desire where the property of mutual bestowal among all is revealed.
It is the Light that reveals bestowal to us, and when this revelation reaches a certain, full measure at the minimal level, it will fulfill us. We will experience bestowal itself and its very origin, meaning the presence of the upper force which sustains this property. We will reveal not only the Light, but its very source.
Rabash concludes his letter: “May the Creator help us accept the upper governance above time and space and cleave to Him always.”
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From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/15/2011, Writings of Rabash
Question: How should one perform his clarifications in relation to the group: talk to them, act together, or be in one place physically?
Answer: “Everything is clarified in the thought,” and nothing can be seen from the outside. A person can appear indifferent, even rude, impatient, not expressing his good attitude towards others. Perhaps, he has such a character, or he pretends on purpose, so not to weaken his great internal efforts.
One has to look for the inner image of the group, the place where all our desires, thoughts, goals, common hopes exist, and to cling to it. Judging by its external manifestation, it may be difficult for you to accept the group. It will come later, when you stop paying attention to externality because “love covers all sins.”
You came to this place because the people who gathered there have the points in the heart, so get closer to these inner points.
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From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/15/2011, Writings of Rabash
Question: What is the meaning of “necessity” which we must always care about?
Answer: A necessity for me is to always feel my connection with the Light which guides me like an adult guides a child by the hand. This is the way I wish to be connected with the Light in order to constantly feel it guiding me forward.
Do you remember being dragged by the hand by your mother? Let the Light lead us in the same manner!
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From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/15/2011, Writings of Rabash
Dear Friends, please ask questions about these passages from the great Kabbalists. The commentaries in brackets are mine.
Workers of the Creator Who Make the Torah Arid
But if a person from Israel degrades the virtue of Kabbalah, which deals with the correction of our souls, relative to the mechanical fulfillment of religious rituals, …he humiliates and disgraces the Children of Israel and strengthens the destructors of the world in the nations of the world, who will regard Israel as superfluous, as though the world has no need for them, God forbid.
– Baal HaSulam, “Introduction to The Book of Zohar,” Item 69
I met with the most renowned Kabbalists of Jerusalem, people who have already worn out their years delving in the writings of the Ari and The Zohar and knew them virtually by heart…. I asked them if they had studied with a Teacher who attained the inner essence of the texts. They answered: “Heavens, no! There is no internality here whatsoever, but accurate texts, given to us, and nothing more than that.”… “The Ari received the composition of these matters from Elijah, and he knew the internality, since he is an angel.” Here my wrath poured out on them, for my patience to be with them had ended.
– Baal HaSulam, “Introduction to the Book, From the Mouth of a Sage”
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