In order to receive the Light that reforms, the force that will make us similar to the upper force, the Creator, and that will return us to the source of goodness and abundance so we would become just as good, bestowing, and loving, we have to place ourselves in the right conditions.

How can I prove to myself and prepare myself to make the right request from the upper Light so it would influence me? Only through the environment. I don’t have any opportunity in our world to prove that I want to become bestowing and good unless I organize the right connection with the environment to the best of my ability.

That is why before and during the lesson, especially while reading The Book of Zohar, every one of us must constantly feel that he has an unceasing connection with others, that he is in a net of connection where he loses himself and only feels everyone together. He must try to feel with all his might that he does not have his own “I,” but there is only “WE.” This is called the assembly of the souls of Israel (Knesset Israel)—the unification of all those who aspire to reveal the Creator.

If they unite together in order to reveal Him, that means the broken souls desire to unite together and ascend through their request for unification to Malchut of the world of Atzilut. Malchut of the world of Atzilut takes these desires, which aspire to unite and make mutual efforts to unite, and raises this request to Zeir Anpin. He, in turn, works on this request, corrects them, and then all who participate in it acquire the force of mutual bestowal and begin to feel closer, more connected together. Thus, gradually, step by step, very slowly they reveal the net of connection between them. When this net attains its first realization, we begin to feel that we are on the first degree of the spiritual ladder.

Therefore, while reading The Book of Zohar we must constantly aspire only toward unity among us so inside of it we would reveal the form of our connection called “the Creator.” After all, the Creator is the form of connection among us.
From the 2nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/17/11, The Zohar

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Question: What should my attitude to corporeal problems be?

Answer: Both corporeal and spiritual problems originate from the same source since “there is none else besides Him.” We have to view everything as parts of a single whole.

However, the corporeal world has its own additional laws. If we still see corporeality, we have to overcome these obstacles and battle them according to the laws accepted in this world and in human society. After all, these laws are also a result of our corruptness, and therefore, we are obliged to follow them.

If I live in a human society, regardless of what a great Kabbalist I may be, I have to behave in this society according to its laws. We all have to abide by these laws and cannot ignore them even though they do not have any relation to spirituality. For example, if someone is going to kill me, I have to protect myself and fight him down.
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From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/16/2011, Shamati #8

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In our work, there are four stages of HaVaYaH, just like in everything else. At first, a person wants to take advantage of the Creator, even though he has no idea of what it is, and selfishly to use the group in all kinds of ways.

Later on, he starts wanting at least a little bit of bestowal. This sort of desire gives him the upper Light by constantly affecting a person and leading him through the four stages of evolution, along the steps of sensing and understanding. Even though he doesn’t reveal what state he is in relative to the Light just yet, the sensations he feels still change.

Thus, he comes to a point when he begins to demand correction. Obviously, it is still an egoistic notion since he is the one who wants to feel good and thinks that he’ll get all the benefit from being able to bestow. In other words, it’s still all about “me, me, me, and me,” but the shadow concealing the Creator from him is being altered in depth and quality.

Previously, he thought this shadow was simply covering the Creator. Now, he comes to realize that it is a kind of game like a grown-up with a child, where the former allows the latter to do something on his own so that he may grow. Then, a person starts to like the concealment.

It doesn’t mean that he wants to remain in it; rather, he is willing to use it correctly. He views it as an expression of the love that the Light, the Creator, nature, feels for him. Thus, he increases his conscious participation in the group and begins to pay attention to every moment.

He starts to see that this entire system “breathes” all the time. One instant it pulls away, another, it draws near, depending on the “attitude” of the upper Light, the greater or smaller concealment. A person gets involved in all kinds of interactions with it, by working with these concealments, the upper Light, the desire, all sorts of “accidental” events, so to speak, that he becomes subject to. He starts tying everything to one root: “There is none else besides Him.”

The shadow that used to conceal the Light and felt like a shadow of the impure force transforms into a holy shadow. Now, he wants to use this shadow so that it won’t disappear, but will remain a shadow covering his will to receive pleasure. As regards himself, he desires to work above it.

This shadow becomes vital for him and turns into an anti-egoistic screen that holds back his egoistic desire. Now, a person controls this shadow autonomously and uses it solely to bestow.

Herein lies another four stages of development, the complete HaVaYaH: bestowal in order to bestow followed by reception in order to bestow. And at all the previous stages he has already passed through, he was learning from the upper Light: It revealed to him who he is, his attitude to the Light as the nine Sefirot of the Direct Light (from the Creator down to him) so that he may come to reveal the nine Sefirot of the Reflected Light (from himself up to the Creator).

Conversely, he is learning from these concealments how to conceal himself, his coarse, egoistic desire, and turn it into one that bestows and is filled with the Light! Thus, a person gradually accepts the entire concealment onto himself by transforming it from a covering over his egoistic desire into the screen and the Reflected Light, into the intention to bestow. He transforms the entire depth of desire that was previously concealed into the force of bestowal, the power of love of others.

Thereby, he begins to feel that there are no others. Miraculously, by beginning to see in the Reflected Light expanding from him, he discovers that the others who used to seem alien, foreign, and terrible to him are exactly the opposite: someone dear and loved.

A person accumulates all these transformations by passing through the degrees of concealment (of the worlds) and builds from them new relationships of love and bestowal. Thus, the impure shadow of egoistic desires turns into the holy one, and all the concealments become a revelation of love.
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From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/16/2011, Shamati #8

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The upper Light remains at absolute rest, and nothing prevents the created being from feeling that it is controlled by one unique and unified force that fills the entire creation. It’s only the properties of the creature itself that won’t allow it to experience that force due to their being opposite to the Creator, the Light.

In fact, according to the condition of the First Restriction (Tzimtzum Aleph), the creature’s properties have to correspond to the properties of the Light, bestowal. This condition is laid down by the Creator who wishes to bring the created being to the most comfortable state, just the same as His own.

Thus, the desire of the created being which doesn’t possess the intention to bestow is the one that fences it off from the Creator, not letting it feel Him, the Light, fulfillment. The correction that we must undergo in order to feel ourselves being inside the upper Light is regarded as the “screen” (Masach) or the intention to bestow.

Therefore, there is a concealment system, the concealment of the worlds that screens the Light away from the created being (a “world” in Hebrew is Olam and “concealment” is Alama), behind which it cultivates its egoistic desire. Then, a spark of the screen and the Reflected Light awakens in it, and it is the “point in the heart.”

If the creature fosters it, it is in a process where it’s constantly shown a new depth of desire by the system of worlds, to a greater and greater degree, beginning at zero. The former responds by showing a willingness to acquire the intention to bestow for this very desire.

In that case, the concealment system will grant correction to it, an anti-egoistic screen, the intention to bestow. The created being demands that the entire thickness (Aviut) of desire that the system of the worlds reveals to it from the left side be corrected by the screen, the intention to bestow from the right side. By tying these two forces together, desire and intention, the creature assembles itself in likeness to the upper Light.

As it grows, the creature experiences different feelings under the impact of the upper Light. It may think it’s free to do as it pleases. Moreover, it may ponder or not about it. It may strive to be free to a greater or lesser extent, or it may be clueless about this issue altogether, meaning it may be closer or further away from the animate or human degrees.

When the point in the heart, the spark of the broken screen and the Reflected Light, starts unfolding in a person, he or she gets an opportunity to expand it and demand the Light that Reforms for it. Previously, this spark, the broken screen, compelled him to want spirituality egoistically and to enjoy the Creator and the spiritual world selfishly. Whereas now he wants to turn it all into bestowal.

Thus, a person enters a Kabbalistic group and starts practicing bestowal in it. Whether it is successful or not, these are all necessary components of reaching a prayer, a plea. If the right type of need ripens in a person, the upper Light, which today brings him a feeling of being distant, will give him a feeling of being close.
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From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/16/2011, Shamati #8

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My Good Environment – Dr. Laitman’s Advice and Principles for the Week

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The essence of the global crisis is that humanity has “gotten stuck” or “bogged down” in nature and does not know what to do. Nature has turned its harsh side to us, threatening us with crises in various areas, and we don’t have an answer to that challenge.

On one hand, we developed inside of our nature and have reached a completely lawful result. If we had a chance to turn back time a few centuries and do it all again, we would still take the same path.

That is because this is our very nature—the growing egoistic desire with all of its derivatives. Scientific and technological progress, industry, culture, education, and human society are all natural results of egoism, and nothing can be done about them.

Until now we have developed the way our nature ordered us to. So how can we now influence it and correct it in any way to change the direction? Has anything like this ever happened in history? Never. In the best case scenario we can recognize the results of our development—whether they are good or bad, depending on the observer’s point of view. Meanwhile the train moves farther and farther along, and maybe we really don’t have another way out?

Scientific research of the manifestations of the crisis is a useful thing, but what does it give us? We are looking out of the window of a train, watching the view that is flying past us: At first it glitters with different colors, the sky is clear, and the green fields are filled with sunlight. But then, the colors start to wither, the grass becomes replaced by sand more often, and there are increasingly more glimpses of garbage dumps, dirt, and waste drains, and the sun becomes obstructed by smoke and smog. Can we do anything or will the train ride down this track until the end? Should we put a veil over the window and come what may?

There are many uncertainties here, but the science of Kabbalah does not even discuss this route and where it will lead us. It deals with the root of the problem: We are riding down the train of our egoism, which is constantly growing.

Development is necessary, but will we direct it in a different vein? Let’s reject the egoistic path in which we are unable to agree on anything and inflict so much harm to ourselves and nature. After all, every person thinks only of himself, and that is why we inevitably destroy our lives and the surrounding environment.

What if, instead of that, we will unite in love? Would we then treat nature and the environment differently? Would we still exhaust the earth’s abundant resources? Would we burn such inconceivable amounts of fuel? Would we throw out food when there are a billion people suffering from hunger? Would we give birth to one child here and to ten in another place? Would we then be able to reach balance?

Or maybe we wouldn’t have to look for balance between us? Maybe people’s attitude to each other and to the world as a whole would correct this world? And then the train itself would change and would ride forward differently? By correcting our attitude, maybe we would ensure an abundance of natural resources and crop yields so there would be more than enough for everyone?

Baal HaSulam wrote the following in the newspaper “The Nation”: Our planet is sufficiently rich to feed all of us. So why do we need this tragic war for survival, which complicates our lives from one generation to the next? If only we would achieve unity, compassion for one another, and love, then everyone would have enough of everything. That is because then the upper Light would fill all of our necessities. Nature itself would change from the inside.
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From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/18/11, The World’s Problems, Overpopulation

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Question: At the beginning of the lesson on The Book of Zohar, I understand and get inspired by your words about intention. But the moment we start reading The Zohar, I’m beset by a multitude of foreign thoughts, and I fail to re-establish the right intention. What should I do?

Answer: Regret it! A person gradually develops a need to sense the material. Indeed, we are talking about an opportunity to perceive spirituality. Our desires (vessels) are our sensations, yearnings.

If a person doesn’t yet have a desire to discover the upper one, the force of bestowal, on the basis of the lower one, the force of reception, by way of the lower one becoming similar to the upper one in its properties, he or she doesn’t yet get inspired by a constant spiritual quest.

You can’t help it, just regret it as much as you can. And the group has to stimulate the unwavering, right intention during the study.

Only those moments during which a person remembers about the intention are regarded as the study of the Torah (Kabbalah), the Light of which reforms. If one sums up all these moments, he can count how many minutes during his life he studied the Torah…. But whatever reason doesn’t do, time will. Gradually, it will come.
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From the 2nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/17/2011, The Zohar

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We must properly assess our current state of affairs on the earth. The defects are intended for us to correct them, to use them as a means for ascending into the upper world. Otherwise, what am I living here for? Why am I experiencing all of these troubles and attempting to resist them? I want to overcome them. I am aware of the situation and grateful for the crisis because by correcting it, I will enter the upper world. If not for this crisis, where would I work, where would I change myself in order to rise to a higher level?

We are talking about a means that enables us to improve and correct ourselves. We are revealing the illness, but now, by working on the treatment, we will attain our nature and understand what we lack in order to acquire the Creator’s nature.

Obviously, the crisis is not a reason to get enthusiastic, but the revelation of evil. However, we should have a practical attitude to it. Suddenly I am discovering that I am cruel, greedy, and love to rule over others, that I don’t have a care in the world for anyone else—and I evaluate these revelations as a means on the path. I am happy about the flaws that become revealed because I realize what they are intended for.

That is why we shouldn’t silence or conceal the world’s problems from ourselves. On the contrary, we have to expose them to people, and not in order to scare them, but to cure the illness. We have to show everyone that we have just one way out: to treat the crisis practically, to use it for making qualitative changes.

Then we will suddenly feel that we are doing wonderful work on correction, whose result will be eternal, perfect life. What can be better? We won’t want to remain on the animate level, being born and dying over and over again. Besides, that’s impossible because through our development we have already reached the need to ascend to the next level, into a higher dimension.

We are not just explaining the nature of the crisis to people, but are pointing to its higher goal. The issue here is not that it is educating us and bringing us closer, forcing us to unite. All of these are just means, a ladder by which we will ascend to a new level of being.
From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/18/11, The World’s Problems, Overpopulation

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