Question: In the material world we know how to measure acceleration. But how can we do it in our spiritual progress, with the help of what?

Answer: You measure the acceleration by evaluating your connection with the group. You don’t have anything else. This is why one common soul was broken into many souls – so you would have a means to change, a place to work and make efforts, so you could assess how far or close you are to them – and not simply to people, but to their desires to reveal spirituality, the Creator. You check whether you are among these desires, together with them, so that in the right connection, in the mutual guarantee between you, you will reveal the Creator.

Therefore you can assess your spiritual state only in relation to these desires of your friends – how close are you together with them to the upper world.

Question: But where is the acceleration here? How can it be measured?

Answer: From one day to the next, from one minute to the next, you evaluate this connection. There is a distance between you and others, and you assess whether it is becoming reduced or not, how, with constant speed or with acceleration. Acceleration is speed that increases at every moment.
[48922]
From the 2nd part of the Daily Kabbaalh Lesson 7/22/11, The Zohar

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In the News: (Why You Burn out and How to Revive, by J.Borysenko, The Daily Mail): “This week, a study found that those putting in more than an eight-hour day, five days a week, are six times more likely to suffer burn-out syndrome….

“In fact, it’s an issue that’s becoming increasingly problematic now that redundancies have left the remaining staff to cope with impossible workloads, too afraid to object for fear they’ll be next in the firing line.

Dr. Borysenko, a Harvard-trained scientist and psychologist, believes women suffer so severely because they are more likely than men to be people-pleasers who ignore their own needs….‘Burn-out is a disorder of hope. It sucks the life out of competent, hard-working people. You lose motivation and vitality,’ says Dr Borysenko….

“‘There are several brain changes when we’re overwhelmed. The fear centre in the brain is activated, our frontal lobe works differently and we lose emotional control.’… ‘You can’t behave like that at work, so you hold yourself back. But when you get home, it’s easy to take it out on the person who loves you or your children. The danger is that it poisons relationships and family life.’”

My comment: Parents, if they wish so, need to stay at home with their children. Children (and parents) should study from home through TV and the Internet, getting general education for everyone, and be required to attend only discussions and physical training, chosen by them. We have to work less and produce only the necessities; otherwise, we will burn-out or stop only when, having exhausted the Earth, we will find out that there is nothing else to process.
[48851]

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Opinion: (Giulio Tremonti, Italian Economy and Finance Minister, msnbc.msn.com): “Addressing the Senate shortly before the vote, Economy Minister Giulio Tremonti said Europe needed a political solution to the unraveling debt crisis because no country would be spared dire consequences.

‘No-one should have any illusions of individual salvation. Just like on the Titanic, not even the first class passengers will be saved,’ he said, referring to Europe’s stronger economies.”

My comment: The world is in a predicament todayif you look at its state from a traditional perspective. Or the situation is quite the opposite if you understand that nature has given us a problem to solve: to develop towards integral society, and we have to tackle it now, without being lazy or delaying the decision. Otherwise, we will have to “work on the mistakes,” and it will be even more difficult.

The problem is in a new attitude towards the world: We must learn how to see it as single, closed, and interconnected and to realize that these connections were manifested from within human society which has developed to this level. We have no way back.

There is only one way out: to learn how to live in the new system by changing people in accordance with it. That is, we need universal upbringing and education: to study a new nature of the world.

The world has become integral and unified, and this means that we all are completely dependent on each other. To the degree that we can behave like this, we will win. Otherwise, we will lose.
[48857]

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Only one desire exists; only it had been created and then began to develop. It is not divided into levels or parts: It is divided by the states of awareness of itself. All the time, I reveal the first state more and more.

The spark of Light created the point of darkness, and creation was over. Now, this point of darkness, the point of desire, begins to discover: Who am I, who created me and with what purpose, what should I do, and what do I want from the Light and from myself? It keeps digging into itself and clarifies, learns more about itself and through self-realization, discovers the Light that created it.

There is nothing else in the entire universe except the creature who learns more about the Creator. But the reality does not change. The Light filled the desire, and now the desire perceives this single state more deeply.

All the changes occur only in consciousness, sensation, reaction, but inside the same substance. That is why I feel a little bit in my very first state; I only begin to sense myself existing in it, as if I am waking up. This is called the Light of Nefesh in my desire, existing at the zero level (Shoresh or root).

Now, I start to wake up more and look around. What I see at this degree, next to me, is not familiar to me yet; hence, I perceive this in the Light of Nefesh. But I already realize my previous state from which I woke up; I understand that I was asleep and now I have woken up.

How do I know that I was asleep? I learned about that because I woke up, found out about the next state, and now understand the previous one better. Therefore, the Light of Ruach clothes in the previous state, although I have only the Light of Nefesh in the current state.

I will never have anything more than the Light of Nefesh at the most advanced state. Only all the previous states become more and more clarified. That is why a person who advances correctly will always feel like in a fog, confusion, and misunderstandings; he will face incomprehensible forces and calculations and will always have doubts.

However, he already understands more about the path he has covered, all his history, and looking back on this history, the future perspective as well. That is, on one hand, he is accompanied by confusion, fog, and helplessness, but at the same time, he becomes smarter about the past, by seeing the whole path, its causes and consequences, and thereby revealing the Creator.

This is called the “reverse order” of the Light and desire. Our desire develops more and more and becomes “smarter,” educated, specific, high, and closer to the Creator, but only the Light of Nefesh is felt in it. However, in the previous desires, which we perceive deeper as we advance, we feel the Light of NaRaNHaY (Nefesh-Ruach-Neshama-Haya-Yechida). As it is said: “Wisdom comes only with experience.”
[48708]
From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 7/13/2011, “Preface to the Wisdom of Kabbalah”

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

The Influence of the Environment on a Person

Everyone has his own spiritual root, but its forces are revealed only through the environment one is in. This is similar to the wheat sown in the ground, whose forces become apparent only through its environment. Thus, only in the matter of the choice of environment is man’s reign over himself measured, and for this he should receive either reward or punishment.
– Baal HaSulam, “The Freedom”

The measure of the greatness of the Creator and the goal does not depend on the individual, but on the environment. And even if one is filled with virtues but the environment does not favor their development, one will be unable to develop them.
– Baal HaSulam, “A Speech for the Completion of The Zohar”
[47894]

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Writings of Rabash, Shlavei HaSulam, “On My Bed at Night”
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The Book of Zohar – Selected, Chapter “Truma (Donation) 2,” “Lift Up a Song for Him Who Rides Through the Prairies,” Item 721, Lesson 30
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Kabbalah for the Student, “General Preface,” Item 3, Lesson 4
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“The Teaching of the Kabbalah and Its Essence”
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My Good Environment – Dr. Laitman’s Advice and Principles for the Week

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Shamati #174 “Concealment″: Concerning the concealment, which is a correction, had it not been for that, man would have been unable to attain any perfection, since he would not be worthy of attaining the importance of the matter.

We were created by the Light as the will to enjoy, and therefore we are entirely in its power and do not feel ourselves as existing. Today we don’t feel our existence yet. What we do feel is a deceitful sensation because it’s only possible to feel separated, distanced, and apart on the condition that you stand opposite the one you are apart from.

But we do not feel that we are standing opposite the Creator, against the Light, and therefore we cannot consider ourselves existing. After all, we are obligated to perceive everything on the contrast of opposites: as “me” and something outside of me. Then, in relation to this “outside,” I will be able to determine who I am.

But in the meantime I remain alone, just an object inside myself. I cannot say anything about myself because there is no one in relation to whom I could measure myself.

Therefore, before a person can stop himself and perform a restriction on his ego, meaning “pass the Machsom” (the boundary into the spiritual world) and stand opposite the Creator, he is not called creation yet. This is called the preparation period, when we are entirely governed from above.

Only after we are ready to take upon ourselves the concealment which arises between us and the Creator, we grow distant from Him and receive an independent existence. Concealment makes the higher goal important to me. To the extent I want to attain this quality and am unable to because it is concealed, that is how much I feel its importance.

Eventually I get to a point where I begin to value the concealment because it turns into my vessel for the Light. It is written, “Wisdom (Hochma) is given to the modest.” Because I make my will to enjoy modest, I am able to attain the Light of Hochma that stands opposite to me, accepting it in the Reflected Light, for the sake of bestowal.

Therefore, concealment expands my spiritual vessel by “620” times and gives me a new necessity—instead of pleasure, I want to attain the importance of the Giver. All of the qualities of the spiritual vessel are present in the actual concealment.
[48829]
From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 7/21/11, Shamati

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Usually we make a very common mistake, thinking that we have to reveal the Creator Himself. We wait, “When is He going to be revealed already!?” As if the most important thing is for Him to appear.

But that will never happen. What has to appear is precisely the restriction, our desire to conceal Him from our will to enjoy, from our understanding, so we would have the opportunity to work with Him only on the condition that we give Him pleasure in return.

Then concealment, the aspiration for true bestowal, called “Lishma,” becomes our vessel. Inside of that concealment, we will be able to build the image of the Giver and to understand what bestowal is. Because we will aspire only to bestowal, without any other vestment of pleasure into our desires, we will therefore begin to really attain what spirituality means.

Every person would like to reveal the Creator in the depth of exile. But the issue is how to ask for none other than His concealment while we are in exile, how to preserve this concealment ourselves and elevate it. All the levels of ascent are separated from one another by how much we desire and are able to contain ourselves, to hold us back from revelation, and to reveal ourselves only for the sake of bestowal.

And inside of this attitude to the upper one, our desire to conceal Him, we build His image. The greatness of the Creator that is born inside of us by virtue of this concealment enables us to value him and start feeling His form. That is, the form of the Creator is determined by the form of the importance that we are able to give to Him.

This explanation does not lend itself to being understood easily, but it already directly touches upon the relationship between creation and the Creator in the spiritual world….
[48823]
From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 7/21/11, Shamati

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