Question: What should we focus on in order to reveal the connection in our common desire?

Answer: Everybody must strive to visualize the group (the world and/or their own) to the best of one’s ability and enter it: the place with no physical bodies but only desires aimed at the Creator. A person sees how these desires are mutually connected into one system, wishes to be with them, but still feels separated. They are all bonded, while he still is not.

And then, in the degree of his ability to bestow to them, he begs and demands from them to influence him in response and include, take him in. Thus, dancing in a circle, you let another person enter it from the outside: You free room for him and he joins in. This is what it means to receive support from the group.

Depending on how strongly he asks for it and desires to be included into the group so as to get the strength, desire, and thoughts from it, and how willing he is to replace his own thoughts and desires with those of the group, leaving nothing of his own, in this extent he annuls himself. And if instead of having his own thoughts and desires, he receives something from the group, we say that he has gained spirituality.

Then, in the group he has entered, he yearns to reveal the collective force that fulfills and connects them. This force lives among them: mutual love and connection. A person desires to plunge into the forces that tie all the parts of the common desire together. This is regarded as his engagement in adhesion with the Creator, when he receives the mind and sensation of the upper degree.

But by doing so, he does not annul himself; rather, he begins to experience himself as new, born thanks to the fact that he nullified himself, received thoughts and desires from the group, reached a connection, and within it felt a vital force, the Light. This means that now, his vessel (Kli) and the Light are new, spiritual.

These are the steps you need to take first.
[43030]
From Lesson 8, WE! Convention 4/3/2011

Related Material:
The Inner Group, Not External
The Creator’s Formula
I Suggest You “Join The Good”!

Filed under: Conventions, Group Work, Inner Work, Q&A - No Comments →

Question: When I read your books, I feel the revelation of a new world. However, as soon as I shut them, I remember only myself. How can I keep the sensation which I had while reading the books?

Answer: You don’t need to remember anything, but rather to forget, and it’s wonderful that you do! After all, if you do not forget, you act according to what I wrote in the books, according to my mind and feeling. If you read a lot, repeat what you already read, and still forget, you accumulate your inner sensations. You need to do that, and this is your accomplishment.

The more you forget the better. A person has to come out of the lesson and remember nothing because the wisdom of Kabbalah is not like other sciences of our world that require memorizing. When I study at a university, I have to remember some knowledge and then demonstrate it at the exam. In Kabbalah, the exam tests what I have built within myself as a result of what I read and heard.

Therefore, I strongly recommend that everyone has a full set of our books. Read them at home, while commuting on a bus or train, during a lunch break, every time when you have an opportunity to open a book. Through it you connect with the spiritual root.
[43033]
From Lesson 8, WE! Convention 4/3/2011

Filed under: Conventions, Inner Work, Kabbalah Study, Q&A - No Comments →

Filed under: Laitman Unplugged, Spiritual Teacher - No Comments →

Question: What forces prevent my prayer from being raised to the Gate of Tears?

Answer: First of all, we have no place to turn to except for the collective force of the group since that is where the Creator is. The “Gate of Tears” means that we break our egoism and unify as one.

This state is regarded as the “Gate of Tears” because when we come to it, we feel neither desire, nor strength, nor ability to unite. And that is when (if we really achieved such a state) we receive the power to plea and cry since we are unified as one vessel with one desire. Our weakness and hopelessness lead to a cry called “tears,” and then the “Gate” finally opens.

This occurs only when unity is achieved, and unification begins at the center of the group. Hence, it doesn’t matter where you are, in Detroit or any other place. The state when you wish to bond together in order to come to love but cannot is regarded as the “Gate of Tears.”
[43036]
From Lesson 8, WE! Convention 4/3/2011

Filed under: Conventions, Group Work, Inner Work, Prayer and Intention, Q&A - No Comments →

Writings of Rabash, Shlavei HaSulam (Steps of the Ladder), Article “What Is the Foundation on which Kedusha [Holiness] Is Built”: When building a building in corporeality, we see that anyone who wants to build a building must first dig the foundations, and on the foundation he builds the building. In digging the foundation, we see that we should discern between having to build a one-story building—that is, only the ground floor—or a multi-story building. Thus, the digging of the foundation into the ground should be according to the height of the building. The foundation is not dug at once. Rather, each day the foundation is built so that it will be deeper, and then one can build a higher building.

The same order applies in spirituality.… And what is digging in spirituality? It is a deficiency, when a deficiency is dug in the heart, since the heart is called “desire,” a heart is called Malchut, and a heart is called “earth” or “ground.”…In other words, before we go and build a building, we must first dig in the ground, that is, take out whatever there is in the digging site.

For the creature to learn the conditions that would allow it to become similar to the Creator and to realize the purpose of creation, it has to include in itself all the properties of the Creator, one by one. That is why all the properties of the Creator and all the properties of the creature are included into each other and intertwined in such a way that the creature is left with a “record” (impression) of what it means to be similar to the Creator. This is achieved by the breaking that extends from above down to the depth of desire, from the zero to the fourth level.

This is how a complete mutual inclusion of the properties of the Creator and those of the creature in the form opposite to the goal occurs. This form contains all the details that are absolutely opposite to the final, fully corrected state. Here, the real creature, “man,” appears, and he is called to become similar to the Creator in the future. From this state, he begins to ascend by himself and to attain the Creator, the true property of bestowal. In this way, man advances from the beginning of creation to its completion, the end of correction.

Everything is built on the desire to enjoy, on the matter of creation. The more we use it, the more we can build, meaning that primarily, we have to delve into the desire to enjoy and feel how much it’s opposite to the Creator. This means that we dig into it at a great depth and aren’t afraid to reveal its oppositeness. This is an unpleasant feeling and usually brings suffering. After all, we reveal the property opposite to goodness.

Next, we come to the necessity of correction and begin to ask the Light, the property of the Creator, to correct the property of the creature. This is called “to build a building.” However, people are not capable of building it themselves—the Light builds. We have to provide the vessel, the desire, and express our request precisely. If we understand and ask precisely for what is necessary in order to ascend one more step, one more “story,” the Light comes and builds it. Thus, we advance further.

The foundation which is used for building the spiritual structure is the desire to enjoy, the sensation of its oppositeness to the Creator. The deeper we dig, the higher we can ascend.
[42996]
From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/13/2011, Writings of Rabash

Related Material:
Don’t Skip The Steps, You Will Need Them Later
Life Is Change
The Law Of Adhesion With The Creator: 1 + 1 = 1

Filed under: Daily Kabbalah Lesson, Group Work, Inner Work - No Comments →

When we begin to study the wisdom of Kabbalah, we think that it will be easy and will continue to provide extraordinary inspiration one usually feels in the beginning. But with time, we have to start digging deeper, inside our own egoism, and then the experience becomes unpleasant.

The body doesn’t really want to get up for the morning lesson, go study, neglect rest, think and feel that I’m distant from spirituality and unwilling to connect with others, or worry about bestowal and knowing only how to receive.

Thus we begin to experience the “foundation pit” being dug in our hearts. And later on everything is determined by how far we can reach into our ego. It can be done with the help of the environment since a person cannot do it alone. No matter how unpleasant it is and how much egoism hurts, the person will be willing to find out how opposite he or she is to bestowal, having none of its properties. And from one’s despair, from all the descents and lack of inspiration, he will advance.

This means that the foundation upon which we build the spiritual structure is not that pleasant. It is an empty “abyss” dug in the heart; it is our digging into the “earth,” our own desire, the darkness, the realization of our egoism and opposition to bestowal. And only someone who is able to bear it and is willing to work so methodically, by having built the supportive environment around oneself, will have the required strength and won’t fear digging deeper into himself and moving forth.

Thereby, he will establish a foundation upon which he will be able to erect his building, meaning that through the group, he will demand the Light that Reforms that will construct it for him. The deeper he will be digging within, the taller the house he will be able to erect. After all, it is written that “the Creator made one against the other.”

We start with the state regarded as “zero” and first, we take one step down, in order to later rise one step up. We take two steps down and ascend them again. Thus, we go through them all: 0-1-2-3-4, until, finally, we arrive at the end of correction having undergone four “exiles” and four “redemptions.”

We have reached the last state of exile now; therefore, what lies ahead of us is the last, total redemption.

[42993]
From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/13/2011, Writings of Rabash

Related Material:
We Learn How To Change
A Strong Foundation Is The Basis Of The Entire Building
The Main Commandment

Filed under: Daily Kabbalah Lesson, Group Work, Inner Work - No Comments →

Writings of Rabash, “What Is the Help in Work Which He Asks From the Creator”
Download: WMV Video|MP3 Audio

The Book of Zohar – Selected, Chapter, “Mishpatim,” Lesson 18
Download: WMV Video|MP3 Audio

Talmud Eser Sefirot Vol. 1, Part 1 “Histaklut Pnimit,” Lesson 16
Download: WMV Video|MP3 Audio

Rav Yehuda Ashlag “Peace in the World,” “Using the Nature of Singularity as a Subject of Evolution in the Collective and in the Individual”
Download: WMV Video|MP3 Audio

Filed under: Daily Kabbalah Lesson, Zohar - No Comments →