Question: When big problems and heavy states come to me, should I be grateful for them as well?

Answer: If you want to be above fulfillment, with the screen and the Reflected Light, you don’t care about the present sensation in your desire, whether it’s good or bad. You realize that all the states that you go through, whatever they may be, no matter how bad, are all necessary in order to develop your desire.

This may be difficult to accomplish if some misfortune or serious illness befalls you. But if you achieve the right correction, you will never feel any state as bad or harmful as long as in this state you merge with the Creator.

In your sensation you may feel terrible, but instead of identifying yourself with your sensation, you will identify yourself with the goal. In other words, you will understand why the Creator who up until now has been giving you good sensations and even more (five dollars instead of the usual one!) suddenly gave you zero and even less than zero….

Evidently, it was done so that in spite of everything, you could achieve correction in these desires, which is the feeling of gratitude. This is not simple, but that’s the way it works. That is how desires are revealed.

It’s hard for us to understand and justify this since we depend on our egoistic, corporeal, sensation, but it is what it is. It is written: “Even with a sharp knife pressed against your throat, do not lose hope in His mercy.”
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From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 7/15/2011, Writings of Rabash

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Opinion: (Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero, Prime Minister of the Kingdom Of Spain, International Economic Forum 2011): “If at various times one or another country faces challenges, the other countries support it. It’s a cooperative project; it’s just like living in the same country. This won’t lead to a universal system ruled by competition between countries….

“To be united and supportive. And the past teaches us that we must definitely change the future together….

“History teaches that as long as we are united, we can find better solutions to our problems, can maintain proper levels of prosperity, and can guarantee greater security for our future generations. These are the current conditions in Europe.”

Opinion: (Tarja Halonen, President of the Republic Of Finland, International Economic Forum 2011): “Every country has to do their own homework but together, Europeans are strong. And that is very important.

And that is why I said that I am very, very sure – I am convinced – that we will have the view and we will have the resources to do that. Because we know that in the future, European countries need each other. Only together can we be a global actor.”

Opinion: (Reuters, George Soros, billionaire investor): “The chances of positively resolving Europe’s serious debt problems are decreasing from day to day as authorities focus on ‘buying more time,’ not solving problems, billionaire Investor George Soros said in Tuesday.

‘You have a very serious problem in Europe, the over-indebtedness of some countries: Greece, Portugal and Ireland,’ Soros told an economic conference.

‘The authorities are not providing a solution but basically buying time.’”

My comment: Of course, the development of egoism in us will reveal a general system crisis: the discrepancy between our egoistic relationships and the integral system of nature that we are involuntary “driving into.” But to drive into it in a carriage instead of a hearse, we have to transform ourselves from egoists to altruists, from individualists to brethren. We hope that people will understand: We must unite, and only our egoism prevents us from doing this.

That is, the solution to the crisis is not on the economic level, but in education and the correction of human nature. However, even if they suspect this, still, they will not be able to find the solution to how to correct our egoism in each person so that we unite into a single system. This is realized through Kabbalah. Therefore, it is waiting for its application.
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In the News (from the Daily Mail): “The [University of California at] Berkeley study found that the more popular the individual the more a similarly popular individual would be attracted to them….

“In their report, the researchers claimed the results proved that opposites do not attract at all – and that like is drawn towards like.

They said: ‘Individuals on the dating market will assess their own self-worth and select partners whose social desirability approximately equals their own.’”

My comment: The main law of creation is the “law of equivalence of form,” according to which those who are similar in properties attract each other to the extent of their equivalence, until they merge in their complete similarity. This is a law, hence it is in effect both in our and in the upper worlds.
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Question: I have a question regarding my husband. We are both very serious about our work, and my husband occasionally reaches a point of complete frustration, great sorrow, worry, and even “anger” about the world’s condition, about everything he feels within and without, as if he feels the weight of all the worlds on his shoulders and he needs to find a solution to all the “chaos.”

Is there anything that I can do as a wife to ease the work, to help him feel balanced or more at peace, and to possibly attain the understanding of his responsibility?

Answer: A wife can calm and stabilize her husband better than anyone else. He has to more deeply examine the perception of the world and the governance of the single force. We perceive the world only within ourselves, in our qualities. In other words, to the extent of our corruption, we perceive the world instead of the Creator. If you correct yourself, you will feel the world of Infinity in the Creator’s appearance before you.

Question: If someone crosses the barrier, is there a point where he must move to be physically close to a group, and if he is not, will he do harm to himself?

Answer: The barrier is the boundary between you and your friends.

Question: I know that facing the evil inclination inside of me is part of the way of the truth, on the way of correction. I also know that by facing the evil inclination, the Creator wants to show me that I am opposite to Him and that I am still far away from the quality of bestowal.

But isn’t it enough to see that I am evil? Why does the evil grow to such a monster that it seems to control everything? I feel like I am evil as never before in my life, and I am hurting a lot of people around me.

Answer: These are your desires that are being revealed to you to the extent that you have strength to manage and correct them.
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The giving of the Torah, the method of correction, is impossible without the mutual guarantee, which represents a model, the implementation of this method. You reveal the Torah, work with it, and realize this teaching only in the mutual guarantee.

Today, reading Baal HaSulam’s article “The Mutual Guarantee,” we try to find more and more ways to realize the goal of creation. We are in the egoistic desire and must convert it into the form of bestowal. Instead of remaining in egoism which assumes the form of the augmented desire to receive, we have to realize the evil of this form.

The realization of evil can come through troubles or through the mind. A combined variation is also possible. This depends on how much we can engage our mind to increase the awareness of evil without waiting for troubles. Trouble simply extends time and brings us to wars and casualties by the path of suffering, through really tragic conditions.

One way or the other, we must realize evil in full, meaning to become aware that we are in egoism, the receiving desire, and that everyone only seeks his own advantage to the detriment of fellow men. If we do not realize this now, imagine how much more we will have to work on the realization of evil alone.

How many additional blows do I have to experience to see and realize that all my desires are egoistic? They are egoistic to such an extent that I consider no one, including my relatives, close ones, and children.

This is an awful state. It is written in the Scriptures: “The hands of compassionate women have boiled their own children.” That is what the recognition of evil comes to. We do not know what it is.

In order not to go to extremes, to save time, and be saved from great suffering, we can use the science of Kabbalah, the Light that Reforms, and the work in the group. That is why this tool was given to us. And then, in a combination of suffering and the Light that Reforms, we will realize evil sooner.

We need nothing except this awareness. Baal HaSulam writes about this in his article “The Essence of Kabbalah and Its Purpose.” Why did we receive it? We received it to accelerate our realization of evil. If I use its power correctly at every given opportunity, I will be able to conduct this analysis and draw conclusions, even if I have to go through some sufferings to advance to the state of analysis.

Baal HaSulam writes that we live at the time of the Messiah and therefore, considering opportunities available to us, we need to go ahead, start acting. Everything depends on us, on the degree in which we draw the Light that Reforms.

However, first it has to bring us the recognition of evil. And getting acquainted with our own ego is unpleasant. We need the support of the environment and studying; we have to become stronger internally to bear this ego being revealed to us. The key is that it is being revealed, and through this, I will without doubt move towards the goal. If I reject the revelation of ego because it is unpleasant to me, it will come to me through “the back door” and bring me really tragic conditions.

Humanity can advance along a beautiful path, experiencing very little evil. From a drop of poison, from a tiny bit of evil, I will build a huge structure of analysis. I see how this evil prevents me from connecting with friends in the group. If I fully use a small portion of evil, I need nothing else. One black point is enough, and I already understand what it means.

We achieve all this only by the force of mutual guarantee, when we want to build a system of mutual bestowal together, to unite as one man with one heart, and thus help each other. In this case, we recognize evil.

Now, imagine that the world recognizes a bit of evil today. Look at the developments: revolutions, demonstrations, and riots. Day by day, the situation is getting worse and drawing closer to Israel. No other country is under such external pressure. Yet, the internal pressure will soon be apparent as well.

Therefore, we must understand that the mutual guarantee, unity, and analysis leading to the realization of evil are a matter of life and death for us. We need nothing else but the recognition of evil because to the extent of your awareness of it, you want to rid yourself of it and no longer forget about the Light that Reforms. You are like a seriously ill person thinks about a remedy that can save him. The realization of evil prevents you from using it and pushes you to find the correct application.

If today countries and all kind of organizations recognized evil, they would turn the world into the Garden of Eden right away. Why would they create the silly things that they do today? The current world events make it clear that we are approaching critical states.
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From the 5th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 7/13/2011, “The Arvut (Mutual Guarantee)”

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

Does a Person Have Freedom of Choice?

We are all like machines, operating and creating through external forces, pleasure and pain, which push and pull us to their will, to where it sees fit. It turns out that no one here is free or stands on his own two feet.
– Baal HaSulam, “The Freedom”

When we examine the acts of an individual, we find them compulsory. He is compelled to do them and has no freedom of choice. It’s because the upper governance has placed him between pleasure and pain. And there is no difference here between man and animal. And if that is the case, there is no free choice whatsoever, but rather the upper governance leads everyone wherever it wants, without asking their opinion in the matter.

Moreover, even the type of pleasure (what to eat and how to dress) is entirely out of one’s own free choice, but follows the will of society. Furthermore, in most cases, I do all of it against my will, which is to behave simply and dress comfortably. So you tell me, where is my freedom of will?
– Baal HaSulam, “The Freedom”
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Shamati #122 “What Is Will Give Wisdom Specifically to the Wise″
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The Book of Zohar – Selected, Chapter “Truma (Donation) 2,” “The Letters,” Item 622, Lesson 26
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Talmud Eser Sefirot Part 1 “Table of Answers for Topics,” Item 88, Lesson 41
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Preface to the Wisdom of Kabbalah, Item 28, Lesson 20
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“The Arvut (Mutual Guarantee),” Item 19, Lesson 4
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My Good Environment – Dr. Laitman’s Advice and Principles for the Week

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Question: What should I do if I am able to cancel myself in my thoughts, but it’s very difficult for me to do this in practice?

Answer: That’s impossible! If I really cancel myself in my thoughts, then I also do it in the actions. The action reflects the intention.

But if I still haven’t reached the final decision to cancel myself, then I am unable to carry out this action and am only lying to myself by thinking that I am cancelling myself in the thoughts.

If we see that after an argument a group does not come to unity, until the next quarrel, this is a sign that its members do not cancel each other before one another and don’t have any chance of attaining spirituality.

By conducting an inner self-analysis and trying to cancel our egoism before the friends, internally and externally, we already carry out the spiritual work. The spiritual world can become revealed to us practically only on the condition that we entirely cancel our egoism according to the level of our current degree.

If you now attain the true self-annulment in relation to any person, you will be convinced that you feel yourself in the spiritual reality, in the quality of bestowal, united with the Creator to a certain extent!
From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 7/17/11, Writings of Rabash

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Opinion (Robert Skidelsky, a member of the British House of Lords, Professor Emeritus of Political Economy at Warwick University, english.aljazeera.net): “Western civilization is increasingly unsatisfying, saddled with a system of incentives that are essential for accumulating wealth, but that undermine our capacity to enjoy it. Capitalism may be close to exhausting its potential to create a better life – at least in the world’s rich countries….

“Material gains may continue, though evidence shows that they no longer make people happier….

“This is not to denigrate capitalism. It was, and is, a superb system for overcoming scarcity. By organizing production efficiently, and directing it to the pursuit of welfare rather than power, it has lifted a large part of the world out of poverty.

Yet what happens to such a system when scarcity has been turned to plenty? Does it just go on producing more of the same, stimulating jaded appetites with new gadgets, thrills, and excitements? How much longer can this continue?…

“This inspired the American way of life, where money always talks. The end of capitalism means simply the end of the urge to listen to it. People would start to enjoy what they have, instead of always wanting more….

“Financial services would shrink, because the rich would not always want to become richer….

“The dishonoring of greed is likely only in those countries whose citizens already have more than they need. And even there, many people still have less than they need. The evidence suggests that economies would be more stable and citizens happier if wealth and income were more evenly distributed.”

My comment: No one predicted that our nature, egoism, would not develop forever, and suddenly, for the first time in history, it would begin to change and turn from individual egoism into egoism that is general, integral, and globally dependent, and people would feel emptiness in past individual egoistic fulfillment. Those who still rush for “money = happiness” quickly realize that the previous methods of achieving this “happiness” do not work because the world has become integral and global.
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