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

Egoism Is Embedded in the Nature of Every Person

While man’s very essence is only to receive for oneself. By nature, we are unable to do even the smallest thing to benefit others. Instead, when we give to others, we are compelled to expect that in the end, we will receive a worthwhile reward [otherwise, we are incapable of performing that act].
– Baal HaSulam, “A Speech for the Completion of The Zohar”

The equal side in all the people of the world is that each of us stands ready to abuse and exploit all the people for his own private benefit with every means possible, without taking into any consideration that he is going to build himself on the ruin of his friend [or doing it consciously, by ruining his friend, which makes his own fulfillment look and feel even greater].
– Baal HaSulam, “Peace in the World”
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Question: What should we focus on: external circulation of Kabbalah or inner connection?

Answer: Firstly, disseminate outwards to let people know that the crisis can be overcome, that in reality this is not a crisis. In the same way, Rabbi Shimon’s descent before the decisive ascent turned out to be the nicest and most desirable state.

The crisis is intended for our good. Using it correctly, we can arrive at the best state easily, freely, and without problems.

Recently, I was asked: “What can replace the human desire for something greater than the necessities of normal life?” That is basically what we have to explain to people.

The crisis is really for our good. One way or the other, we will reach balance between ourselves, balance with nature. We have nowhere to escape: Either the matrix of nature, getting closer to us, cuts us into pieces by force and re-connects us into one “mixture,” one collective “dough,” or we come to this voluntarily in order to change ourselves and unite. The difference is huge.

If we understand this movement correctly, then of course, the crisis is for our good. We can transform a tragic life that threatens us and our children into a beautiful ascent. We have to explain this to the greatest possible number of people.

While Kabbalah was spreading through a small stream from teacher to disciple, it sufficed for a few people with high knowledge to pass it maximally, accurately, and clearly. However, this stream has become a wide river that involves the entire humanity. A global, integral crisis is coming, and we are not talking about the height of the teaching, about the details, but about the breadth and accessibility.

With this purpose, Baal HaSulam wrote such articles as “The Revelation of Godliness,” “The Mutual Guarantee,” and “The Freedom.” They provide initial information, properly described and addressed to the widest possible audience.

In our time, the overall force of correction exists namely in the masses, in the huge masses of people. Through us, they understand what the matter is, we make their life easier with love towards them. In response, they will give a little push forward, and it will affect us as well. It is said in this regard that the nations of the world carry us to the Temple of the Creator, that is, raise us. They raise us specifically because we give them the method.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson from Moscow 6/14/2011, Shamati #4

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The crisis is coming over the world, and people feel it, they feel that things are getting worse for them. And indeed, it will not get better unless we begin to correct it through harmony with the Creator or the surrounding Nature, which is the same thing.

This is why we need to look for people who will respond to our call; we need to disseminate, “throw information around,” and to better utilize the Internet as a medium. The Internet is practically our only opportunity to be everywhere for free. First, we need to bring ourselves in order, but on the other hand, when you start organizing others, you also organize yourself.

The first thing we need for our work is inner unity, and of course the most important aspect of our work is circulation. The crisis clearly shows us that we need to care more for others than ourselves. We will reach the goal faster going down the most reliable avenue if we disseminate Kabbalah. Through the nearing crisis, the Creator is showing us that we do not have time for ourselves. We only have time for the world: By organizing it, we will organize and correct ourselves.

The global crisis became obvious only a few years ago. For a long time, ecologists have been screaming that we are in trouble, but it was specifically the economic crisis that put us into a panic. Why the economic crisis? Because it reflects the egoistic connections between people: When these connections become global and integrated, it becomes a problem.

What is economics? It is a display, an expression of our egoistic connection: the amount each one of us wants but is unable to make and only does with what economic, egoistic bonds and relations according to the principle of “I for you and you for me” permit. Economics is pure egoism in its clear, harsh, real form. And when it suddenly enters a global and integrated state, we discover that this state is completely opposite to it.

We can negotiate anything, even atomic weapons—out of fear. But we are basically incapable of negotiating economics: Everyone is pulling the blanket over to their side. How else can it be?

This is our main problem. The economy is already manifesting in the world as a global, integrated, interconnected, mutually binding system, and people are not yet ready for it.

This is the greatest discord that can exist in our world, the greatest, acute demonstration of our nonconformity with the system which is now manifesting before us. We got caught in a net, an analog matrix, where all the parts depend on each other. We are incorporated in it against our will; we are bound inside it by the old ties of egoistic economy as before, and we have no way to escape. This is nature challenging us and clearly showing us: “Guys, time’s up.”

We need to move forward on our own and alleviate this state and bring humanity into complete accordance with this matrix through explanations, education, and so on. If we do not move in this direction even in the slightest way to the extent of our abilities, then the crisis draws closer.

The matrix has its own program of getting closer to us, and as a result, even greater contradictions happen in the world to the point of revolutions, wars, different cataclysms, and so on. The awakening of one volcano causes serious consequences on a global scale. What if  20-30 volcanoes erupt? We are hostages of the unknown, we are sitting on a keg of gunpowder—our Earth with titanic forces bubbling inside. We need to understand this and not provoke Nature’s harsh attitude towards us. Yet on the contrary, we disturb its balance and not just in ecological sense.

This is why all our groups, everyone studying with us must disseminate. Nature itself obligates us towards it. This is the only way for us to break ahead and approach the global matrix.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson from Moscow 6/14/2011, Shamati #4

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Question: What does the revelation of the collective women’s desire depend on?

Answer: It depends on the correct organization of the women’s groups around the world. They should be in contact with each other; they should have a women’s virtual magazine or website; they have to communicate, to help other women understand what Kabbalah is, what it leads to, what our common goal is, and what the role of women in this process is.

Your collective women’s desire depends on how much you will be able to become organized together, apart from the men’s group, so that there is a separate large international women’s part. In the spiritual world, in principle, we are presented like two collective parts: men’s and women’s.
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From the 2nd lesson at the Moscow Convention 6/10/11

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Writings of Baal HaSulam, Letter 33
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The Book of Zohar – Selected, Chapter, “Truma (Donation), ‘The Soul of Every Living Thing,'” Item 217, Lesson 9
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Talmud Eser Sefirot Part 1 “Table of Questions and Answers for the Meaning of the Words,” Item 18, Lesson 28
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Preface to the Wisdom of Kabbalah, Item 11, Lesson 7
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“Matan Torah (The Giving of the Torah),” Item 5, Lesson 3
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My Good Environment – Dr. Laitman’s Advice and Principles for the Week

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Question: How can we not retreat from demanding the truth so we would finally reveal that we are lying to ourselves?

Answer: If a person is able to hold on to the truth, then he is very lucky. We see that there are many people in the world who don’t need the truth and who don’t ask what they are living for.

In others this question already arises, but from the point of view of, “What am I suffering for?” That is, this is not a question about the meaning of life, but about how to find the taste in life now that you feel a bitter taste instead of sweet.

And there are other people who don’t ask about a good life, but about finding the truth in it. And there are people who don’t ask about the truth in life, but about who gave us this life, about the Creator. And this question is no longer about myself, because I no longer care who I am and what will happen with my life, one way or another. I want to come to know Him, to attain the Creator, and exist in Him—in the very source, the root.

There are many levels in this attitude depending on a person’s demand, his sensation and attainment. Here everything depends on the root of one’s soul and the current life cycle, meaning, at what stage of development he is on.

But even if in our current state we are still not granted the chance to ask about the truth, then we can develop these desires inside of us by means of the environment, the “teacher, group, and books,” and advance that way. However, this is not easy and it requires you to reveal what lies at the very depth of yourself, inside of your informational genes, Reshimot.
From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 6/20/11, Writings of Rabash

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Question: How can we explain to people why love is necessary?

Answer: You can love to eat fish for lunch, you can love your little son, or you can love your neighbor or the Creator. The same words designate completely different notions.

Is it worthwhile to praise love for the neighbor to a person who loves fish? How can you describe to him the pleasure from bestowal? What will he understand? That he has to give his fish to someone else? Is this love?

What does it mean to love the neighbor? It has a completely different meaning. Loving the neighbor means attaching his desire to yourself and working with your desire in order to fulfill his desire. Then we both meld together into one whole, where I fulfill him and he becomes fulfilled. In what does he become fulfilled? In his desire. His desire in relation to mine is like Malchut in relation to Zeir Anpin. I am like the Creator, and he—the creation. That is what my work is.

Thus, “love” is the relationship between the Creator and creation. Only this is love—the creation’s attitude to the Creator. If I can build this kind of attitude to others, or in other words, if I acquire the quality of the Creator, the quality of bestowal, and by means of it I relate to the neighbor’s desire just like the Creator does, it turns out that the Creator is inside of me, and I make the necessary action in relation to the neighbor. This means that I love the neighbor.

We don’t have the right to use the word “love” in any other sense, context, or case. Otherwise we will confuse it with our “love of fish.”

We are talking about the extent to which the Creator, the quality of bestowal, dresses into me. First of all we have to carry out the principle, “Do not do to another what you yourself hate.” That is how I become neutral. After that, I have to acquire his desire instead of my own. Another person’s desire becomes more important for me and therefore he becomes higher than me. I am ready to do everything for him, just like I would for my sick child in our world. I am entirely “short-circuited” on his desire; it is what makes me act.

That is exactly why I am similar to the Creator, like Zeir Anpin who receives a request from Malchut. The more another person’s desire is able to activate me to bestow, the higher I am than him. This is love. Do you see how different this is from our current notions?

The more I can bestow to another person, the more I provide him with the Light of correction. After all, there is mutual guarantee between us. I do not fill his egoistic desire, but I reveal inside of him the desire to be in one system with me so the Shechina would reign between us. So what should I provide for him? I give him my support of the mutual guarantee, which he also provides for me by revealing it in his desire. This is love.

No one is indulging the other’s egoism. I don’t reveal the egoistic desire in the other person, but the desire for mutual support in order to reveal the Creator in the relationship between us. The Creator cannot be revealed in any individual or just in my attitude to another person, unless it’s fortified by the same attitude from him. Love does not work in one direction. It is a two way street. It requires a connecting net through which impulses of bestowal are flowing, a net permeated by feelings of love, relationships of mutual guarantee and mutuality by which we strengthen one another.

In the meantime, egoism remains below, without making any calculations to fulfill it. After all, we rise above it, connected by our mutual intention for the sake of bestowal. And when it reaches a specific level of unity, creating a net above us, then we reveal the Creator, the mutual quality of bestowal and love between us.
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From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 6/20/11, “Matan Torah (The Giving of the Torah)”

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Lo Lishma means that I’m aware of the fact that I exist in egoism rather than bestowal. I strive to achieve bestowal, Lishma, with all my might, but I’m yet unable to do it and must make a calculation in my own interest. The difference I see between my actual and desired states is called my Lo Lishma.

Suppose you hand me an envelope, returning a loan of one thousand dollars. If I take the envelope without checking what’s inside, this is called “below reason.” That is, I take you at your word from the outset and don’t involve any reason. If I check it, see exactly one thousand dollars, and accept the repayment, this is called “within reason.”

However, if I open the envelope, count the money, and see that it’s short by a certain amount, but nonetheless accept it as full repayment of the loan, to the measure of the missing sum, I work in faith above reason.
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From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 6/19/2011, Writings of Rabash

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