Question: Women have many different desires. How can I identify and distinguish the desire for spirituality so it is above all other desires?

Answer: In principle, it is a general question, not only a woman’s but a man’s as well. Everybody has numerous desires. How can we distinguish the desire for spirituality so it becomes the most prevalent? This is possible only when I am in the right environment that inspires me, that builds the correct value system in me. I become inspired by others and envy them. Envy is a good quality; there are no bad qualities, you only need to use them properly.

If I use envy correctly, if I do my best to perceive what the general women’s group thinks, join them, absorb their enthusiasm for the goal, and recognize with their help the value of spirituality above everything else, my desire increases as a result.
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From the 2nd lesson at the Moscow Convention 6/10/11

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Question: What does it mean for the force of the receiver to submit to the force of the giver? Does this mean that I must raise men above myself?

Answer: Every one of us must raise the others above himself or herself. I do the same in relation to the group, the environment: I lower myself as much as possible and become lower than them (-), but on the other hand, I try to receive from them as much greatness of the goal, the group, and the Creator (+) as I can.

I will not be able to receive from the group without lowering myself. Only a small one can receive from the big one. Thus, I lower myself in order to take in their desires, thoughts, aspirations, and the greatness of the ultimate goal. Thus I enrich myself. To the extent of my ability to receive the entire plus from them and make it mine, it will determine my aspiration to advance. But if I do not receive this plus from the group, I have nothing to advance with.

I always receive the desire to aspire forward only from the environment. This is because I am but a preset point, and there is nothing else in it; it is only given to me in order to work with the environment. My entire spiritual vessel (Kli), my entire soul, is what I receive from the environment; it does not exist in me.

And if I do not receive anything from the environment, if I walk around with my nose up and have no desire to hear anything from them, these additional desires cannot appear in me, and I will not have a soul, a place to reveal the Creator. This is very important.

The same pertains to the feminine and masculine parts. The masculine and feminine parts must be tuned to one another. We must lower ourselves in relation to the other part in order to hear and perceive their desires, and then we will receive their aspiration from them. In other words, we must listen to one another and lower ourselves in order to receive the greatness of the goal and the desire from the opposite group.

How do you raise the men above yourself? You simply need to show the men’s group that you exalt them, that you look forward to their achievements, that you believe that they will be able to pick a star from the sky, that you believe in them. Inspire them, and then they will be capable of anything! Be just like a mother who always tells her little child how big, strong, capable, and smart he is and thereby boosts his positive growth. This is necessary for the men because they really depend on women’s approval.
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From the 2nd lesson at the Moscow Convention 6/10/11

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Kabbalists of all times have studied humanity’s problems and analyzed what separates us from the global, locked, cosmic, harmonious picture: “What makes the human nature so unique? What specific properties does it have? How can these qualities be reformed? What motivates such transformation?”

Kabbalah explains how we should go through these cyclical changes internally, assisting one another according to a certain principle, a particular algorithm, in order to gradually come to greater equivalence with nature, to dive deeper within to discern the qualities that oppose it, and to correct them by following a specific sequence.

Moreover, a person isn’t supposed to make any corrections in himself or herself. We need to correct the connection between us, and only then will we achieve harmony.

At this point, another peculiar detail arises: Basically, I must accept myself exactly the way I am. A great number of people spend time psychoanalyzing themselves: “I’m good for nothing, lazy, greedy, jealous, and so on.” Leave your specifics alone; it doesn’t bother us. All of it will fall into place if you begin aiming at good connection with others: inter-relations, mutual understanding, and interdependence.

If I start analyzing, experiencing, and building our relationships correctly, I will suddenly discover (which is truly remarkable) that all qualities exist within me: the most disgusting and terrifying, such that I am ashamed to admit them even to myself. And I’ll suddenly see that I need them, require them, in order to receive from and give to the others and in this way to be an integral part in this enormous, closed organism.

It turns out that all our desires, such as theft, deceit, envy, hatred, rejection, and taking advantage of others, all these internal impulses we were born with are absolutely necessary to us. Therefore, don’t even think about undertaking such self-correction! It is a big mistake I see our world group making more often than not.

All you need to work on is our interconnection. Don’t criticize a person’s flaws: He or she has none! The flaw lies solely in the connection between us and nowhere else!

This is what we call “guarantee,” a property that the wisdom of Kabbalah so strongly focuses on. When we start studying, we begin to establish a connection between us, and this intention has to precede every endeavor: mutual contact, mutual responsibility to be connected with each other, and the need to discover this inner connection among us.

Parallel to this, we study Kabbalistic texts. We don’t know what is happening to us while we are studying them, and neither do we know what they describe. We simply read about our future corrected states described by Kabbalists. In a similar manner, a little child instinctively picks up a toy because nature pushes him to play and grow. So do we play with each other in the group, as if in this way we are building a correct model.

But as a result, while we are reading about it, we as though draw the higher state upon ourselves, like a child who is playing with a toy car, construction set, or a puzzle. We intentionally give him all kinds of tasks in the form of a game, while he earnestly strives to solve them as his nature dictates him.

So should we motivate ourselves and inspire each other, by being each other’s example and talking about how important it is. In the end, everybody should get stimulated by the others, by their enthusiasm, by their intention to draw closer, unite, and be in internal, well-coordinated harmony.
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From the 5th lesson at the Moscow Convention, 6/11/2011

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Nature instinctively, firmly, and automatically supports the system of reciprocity, interconnection, assistance, harmony, globalization, and integration, sustaining life thereby. Thus we say that the upper force is the force of love. Yet, the still, vegetative, and animate levels of nature have one “little” additional element: man, human society, that doesn’t wish to follow this law. It is intentionally created so as to evolve randomly, pushed by its egoism.

Imagine a gigantic system where one part, which is the most advanced, efficient, and fragile, doesn’t work in sync, in harmony, with the rest of it. Therefore, this entire system gradually reaches a state of complete imbalance. This is what we are beginning to finally realize. Humanity has become a cancerous tumor consuming everything outside itself, breaking the equilibrium, and naturally causing a corresponding feedback.

How then do we achieve harmony? After all, otherwise we will destroy the whole organism. This is becoming obvious. It doesn’t take a prophet to see where the things are headed.

That is exactly what the wisdom of Kabbalah describes: how we must reform ourselves by studying the laws of integral nature. Don’t get into mysticism and start studying astral phenomena; all we have to do is learn the laws of the closed, global, integral systems which are also called analog networks known to us from engineering. There is an enormous amount of scientific, mathematically accurate material which informs us how closed systems support their internal balance.

We have to study ourselves as the elements inadequate to this system in our actions, desires, and thoughts. And if we honestly wish to achieve some kind of normal existence, even at the level of the corporeal world (not to mention what else we unveil when we enter homeostasis with nature), then we bring ourselves to overall harmony.

Today, it may seem a bit unnecessary and unpleasant, but nevertheless, nature is already pushing, forcing, and demanding from us the internal efforts and actions aimed at transforming ourselves. After all, to be aligned with surrounding nature means to consider it and not to simply consume and drain it. How and in what sense can we change ourselves? The section where Kabbalah discusses this is entitled “Mutual Guarantee.”

Guarantee is our mutual agreement (not only pertaining to ourselves but to all of nature) to reach absolutely complete mutual understanding and total balance. In terms of Kabbalah, it is Malchut of the world of Infinity or, in other words, a common, mutual property of love and bestowal.

To obtain the “property of love” means to take into consideration the needs of another as my own. This is exactly how all parts of our organism interact at the biological level. And nature pushes us to reach the same degree in our social interactions by way of social unification with one another. It can force us to do so by causing suffering. If, however, we start moving in that direction, we will be transformed quickly, comfortably, and easily. And this is what the wisdom of Kabbalah is offering to us to learn.
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From the 5th lesson at the Moscow Convention, 6/11/2011

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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

Egoism is embedded in the nature of every person, as in any animal [but in man it is also directed at using and demeaning the other and in addition, it constantly develops].
– Baal HaSulam, “The Solution”

One cannot make a single movement without any benefit for oneself.
– Baal HaSulam, “A Speech for the Completion of The Zohar”

“A wild ass shall be turned into man” (Job 11:12) because when one emerges out of the bosom of Creation, one is in utter filth and lowliness, meaning a multitude of self-love that is imprinted in him [and he is not capable of considering the interests of another], whose every movement revolves solely around himself, without a shred of bestowal upon others [and what’s more, by demeaning another. Man always evaluates his success not in and by itself, but relative to another. Meanwhile, an animal is content with natural needs and virtually does not compare itself with others].
– Baal HaSulam, Matan Torah (The Giving of the Torah), Item 12
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Question: Many friends exerted themselves a lot before the Moscow convention. The importance of the goal was high. What did we lack? What should we, as a group, realize now at the new level?

Answer: In other words, you would like to say that the convention was not successful because we did not reveal in ourselves the property of bestowal. However, we could not achieve it in one go. It is impossible. A child cannot skip a few years of his growth.

Development is a sequential, step-by-step process. Not having realized a certain Reshimo (informational record), you cannot start realizing the next one. You simply will not have the tools in the mind and feelings to develop further.

We have done a great job; we advanced in our perception powerfully and intensively. And now, after the convention, we will go through the process of realizing it—perhaps not altogether pleasantly, but necessary.

Practically, the work that such a convention performs in you is equivalent to half a year of intensive studies. How many people who attended the convention study normally so intensely? We “propelled” them and those who were with us around the world at least six months forward. Such gatherings are very effective, and I am in favor of organizing them as often as possible. I am ready to give all I have got for it.

Naturally, after the convention, the stage of realization comes: “What have we achieved?” Here, a person should proceed to analyze the entire method with the help of articles and studies. He has to re-evaluate it again.

After the convention, many people begin to analyze the method of Kabbalah in general: “What for? Why? How? Is it correct or not? Is it a tale or a real method of my transformation in accordance with general Nature?” These are very useful, necessary, and essential processes that must occur in each of us.

Kabbalah makes you a human, not a robot, not a “half-believer” or mystic, but a researcher. Exploring yourself, you perceive the world and the Creator because all of it is within you. The entire process in based on self-knowledge because a person exists and nothing more.

Each of us has a sense of his “Self” and his world. Now, I feel you, the hall where we are, the planet, the Universe, and all of it happens within me; this picture has been created within me. How can it be changed? How can it be investigated? Is it truly like this? Or is this world presented to us as ethereal, transient, and changing? I perceive everything through the changes of my own properties.

That is why it is impossible to skip developmental stages. I must form them within myself. I have to be my own judge, researcher, and analyst. Essentially, I have to become the Creator of myself. Kabbalah develops in you the need to understand absolutely everything, who and what you are, and to create out of yourself an absolute, perfect form that will be called “the Creator.”

This is long and hard work, but namely it is intended for every human being. Do not think that someone living in a jungle is incapable of such work. He will be included in it because he will have a Kli, desire, shared with others, common thoughts and feelings. Whatever he lacks he will obtain from others.

Had we not evolved under the influence of our environment, we would have remained little “animals.” It is namely the environment that develops us and gives us the missing qualities, desires, intentions. Thus, there is no person in the world whose environment would not include the entire humanity. Anyone can reach the level of anyone of us, no matter how primitive he is.

The entire process of self-knowledge and creating in oneself the highest property should proceed in this manner, step by step. On one hand, this process is individual because a person raises himself, and on the other, it is seemingly a group process. However, in reality, there is neither group nor humanity, but only your immediate part rejected by your egoism and perceived by you as alien.

When you work on yourself, wishing to gradually bring this part closer to you, to accept it as your own, you work against your innate egoism. And you turn it into the force of connection instead of the force of rejection of the seemingly “external” part, of humanity.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson from Moscow 6/16/2011, Writings of Rabash

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Question: What does it mean to be transparent for the Light and to let it pass through me?

Answer: It means to be similar to the Light. Then it passes through you without any interference. That is, you become its conductor. You are not just something transparent so it can pass through you without obstacles, but you participate in its passage through you.

We remain in our egoism that became so much lighter that it let the Light pass through us. This Light passes and comes out of you even stronger by being transmitted to others. Suppose at the entrance, the power of the Light was “P1,” and the power of your egoism “E.” Then, “P1” multiplied by “E” is the power of the Light “P2” that exits you.

You are an intensifier of the Light on its way.

[45591]
From the 2nd lesson at the Moscow Convention 6/10/11

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The wisdom of Kabbalah explains the entire system of the universe, it describes for us the world of Infinity and the four phases of the expansion of the Direct Light, meaning the formation of the desires “from absence.”

Kabbalah clarifies what “from absence” means, which is to exist in a spiritual dimension outside of our world, and it explains the descent to it and the ascent from it, which means to “exist beyond time, space, and motion,” which are states as they are realized: according to Einstein or some other higher way?

Kabbalah also discusses the descent of desire. It talks about desire and the influence of a single parameter, the Light, upon it. There is nothing else in the universe except for the Light and desire. They beget everything we see in us and between us. All these things are different manifestations of desire, which were formed by the Light one way or another.

Kabbalah tells us about the gradual descent from Above downward and the creation of blocks of the spiritual state: Partzufim, Sefirot, and the worlds (concealments). This refers to a causal process, a strict and precise one, which we study using a scientific approach.

There is an enormous amount of purely scientific and complicated materials on this topic: graphs, equations, conditions that precisely describe the cause and effect development of desire under the influence of Light, screens, informational records (Reshimot), stages of development, and so on. All of this is pure science that has nothing to do either with religion or poetry; it’s nothing but pure physics.

Furthermore, Kabbalah talks about our world, about its creation. As early as 3,700 years ago Kabbalists described how a spark of Light created the volume of our world because previously, this space did not exist either. Then the Big Bang happened in this space, and this tiny spark gave rise to all matter of our world.

Everything was born from absence in the world of Infinity. Since we do not comprehend this, we ask ourselves: “What does everything out of nothing mean?” However, physicists say that the same thing happened also in our world: There was a certain spark, a point, which suddenly exploded and produced the entire Universe. In other words, modern science follows the same principles and tells us exactly what Kabbalah tells us, including the four consecutive stages of development: still, vegetative, animate, and human.

Kabbalah also tells us about the creation of the Universe over billions of years, and then our planet from a cloud of gases. This is described in Kabbalah books that are hundreds and thousands of years old. Today physics, geology, and astronomy say the same.

Kabbalists described the periods of warming and cooling of Earth, which took tens of millions of years, until a solid crust appeared together with the opportunity for protein matter to exist due to the appropriate distribution between all the components. Why specifically protein matter? Why specifically this kind of foundation instead of silicone or methane, or some other matter? Kabbalah explains all of this.

And finally, Kabbalah tells us about the creation of a human being who was the result of the gradual development of the still, vegetative, and animate nature. Kabbalah describes the intermediate stages: corals which are between the still and the vegetative levels; a special species which represents the intermediate state between the vegetative and the animate levels; and a primate which is the intermediate form between the highest animal state and man.

Kabbalah describes all these stages and shows why evolution happened the way it did. The only difference from Darwin’s theory is that Kabbalah tells of informational data that exists from the very beginning, informational genes that exist in matter, which develop according to a preset program instead of an accidental evolution or evolution that depends on circumstances.

All the species are realized based on their inner parameters, which existed from the beginning on the world of Infinity and have simply descended and realized themselves here in order to once again aim upward. This entire chain is determined beforehand; it is calculated ahead of time from beginning to end.
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From the 1st lesson at the Moscow Convention 6/10/11

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All the articles from the book of Shamati are intended to attune one to the right attitude towards himself (his inner abilities, aptitudes, forces, and qualities) and towards everything outside of him (people, society, the group, the teacher, the Creator, and nature) so that one understands how he changes, through what, and how he should act to bring himself to the perfect state. Our problem is that on one hand, there is nothing we can do ourselves because we are just the desire to be fulfilled, the will to enjoy.

On the other hand, if we cannot do anything ourselves and represent only one desire created opposite to the Creator, to the Light, then how can we ask to change ourselves, to request to be changed, and to demand action on their own or through or through other systems?

In other words, we are in dual position. On one hand, I cannot do anything myself. On the other, I must bring myself to the point where my request, my desire, will cause such an influence on me that I will be changed. This particular point is very difficult for us. There, a person does not correctly understand his interaction with the upper force that created him.

That is, I have to reach a state where I feel my complete inability to correct myself, where I realize and understand that my correction can be done only under the influence of the external force. Conversely, this external force that exists outside of me is constant, and I cannot affect it any way. It is absolute. Rather, I can affect myself by bringing myself under its influence namely by my request.

My request is my action when I change my attitude towards this upper force and thereby change its influence on me, and it corrects me. Hence, essentially, the work happens inside a person and depends on his desires, on his intention, and its force and direction. A person exists in an absolute, perfect, unchanging field. But the work is done precisely by this field acting on a person. And he brings himself under the influence of this field.

From the point of view of the desire to be corrected, a person is an active element. And from the point of view of the correction of a person himself, he is passive: He is corrected by the Light that exists outside him, surrounds him, and is invariable. It is possible to talk about this state a great deal, but it has to be gradually formed in us as a defined, precise, internal state of me and the Light, the Creator.

Baal HaSulam’s article “Lishma Is an Awakening from Above, and Why Do We Need an Awakening from Below” is one of those articles that talks about the correct alignment of a person with the Creator, with the upper Light. A person means our desire: how it can be changed if it places itself correctly under the influence of the Light.

The property of bestowal that we can reach and to which we are gradually getting closer under the influence of the Light is called “Lishma” or “for His sake.”  And its opposite property is called “Lo Lishma” or “not for His sake,” meaning for oneself.

Desires appear in us independently from us; we cannot regulate them, but we can regulate our intention: What we want in every moment of time, what we aspire to.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson from Moscow 6/15/11, Shamati #5

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Bina grows and gains strength due to its desire to bestow, to resemble the Creator, Keter, whereas Malchut grows, due to its desire to receive even more Light of Hochma than expands to it from the Creator. After all, it desires to bestow to Him, which means it is supposed to receive from Him more as well! This is what determines how much it bestows.

The fulfillment the Creator initially gives to Malchut, which remains in it in the world of Infinity before it begins to work, is a very basic, “still” level, Nefesh de Nefesh. This was Malchut of Infinity before any restrictions since the creature was unable to experience more. But further on, the creature begins to think about how to restrict itself, how to cover itself with an anti-egoistic screen, and how to come to the Host with it and say: “Give me more Light for I wish to give more to You!”

In fact, the Host only wishes for the creature to receive from Him since it brings Him contentment. And the creature brings forth even stronger desire. “He created me a tiny insect, but I wish to offer Him desires of Infinite magnitude and let Him fulfill them because I wish to delight Him.”

Hence, I bring new desire to Him. In Malchut of Infinity before the restriction, I had only one gram of desire, a still, barely glimmering desire in the Light of Nefesh de Nefesh. In comparison to it, in the end of correction I can bring desire that is 620 (Tarach) times greater and that has the Light of NRNHY (Nefesh, Ruach, Neshama, Haya, Yechida). We have no means to even measure how much more powerful this Light is.

But why am I doing this all? I wish to bring enormous vessels (desires) to the Host so that He may fill them up and rejoice. I delight when He is pleased, while He enjoys when He fulfills and delights me. We fulfill each other. And I needn’t be embarrassed now that I have such gigantic desires, which I am asking Him to fulfill. I am certain that I am doing so solely in order to delight Him, and “He is the joy of my heart.”
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From the 3rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/30/2011, Talmud Eser Sefirot

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