Question: How do I free my heart of egoism so that the Creator reigns there?

Answer: We can’t do anything on our own—this should be clear to everyone. Of this it is written: “Turn to the Master that has made me!” Our work isn’t about correcting ourselves, but about studying the process of correction, realizing its necessity and our own corruption, and then asking for correction.

The “doctor for all the broken hearts” is the Creator, not us. Therefore, we need only to reveal our breaking, either via the study and unification or via the path of suffering. The latter would include the kind of bombardment that hit the south of Israel in recent days, the financial crisis throughout the world, and waves of unrest that have befallen many countries.

Any problems related to health, whether general or particular, down to the smallest one, all stem from a lack of correction. There is no other cause but this. And if we awaken from the lightest sting from Above and can advance thanks to it, we thank the Creator for such an awakening and don’t require stronger blows.

It is written that “the Creator carps at the righteous at a hair’s width.” This means that they take the tiniest problem, connect it to the root, and realize that it comes from Above. This sensitive approach to all incoming sensations is enough for them to begin the correction and advance.

But if we don’t pay attention to the small hints that get sent from Above, the scenario is like a mother that gently wants to teach something to her little child, but he doesn’t pay attention to her. She is forced to pressure him harder and harder, and sometimes even spank him, to get the right reaction out of him.

Indeed, the ego needs to be cautioned somehow so that it would hurt. And we need to add even a tiny bit of heartache from ourselves to compel us to be careful since we are working against our egoistic desire.
[52154]
From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 8/21/2011, Shamati #9

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Question: You are a Russian native and don’t speak out on why your countrymen do not take part in the protests which, in fact, you show great interest in?

Answer: “Russians” are smart and do not want to participate in the clearly aimless actions. After all, the right and the left-wing parties have long become the same, and all of them oppose solving social problems. “Russians” are right, saying that everything should begin with eliminating the “Hock Esderim” (a budget law in Israel). But they are right only at our “corporeal” level.

Our movement “Arvut” (Mutual Guarantee) offers (along with the Parliament) continuous discussion of issues by all members of the society, together with experts, with decision-making at the “round table,” but on the condition that decision making will be done peacefully, “like a family.” In this case, we will see reciprocity, understanding, and flexibility, that is, social justice (Tzedek Hevrati).

Otherwise, a tight budget cannot be divided. And most importantly, by “mutual guarantee,” we will gradually teach society to unite, which will bring the people to the rebirth of the “nation” from the fragments of exile (Kibbutz Galuyot) and will draw the manifestation of positive forces, which will neutralize the hatred of our enemies around the world. (See “Introduction to the Book of Zohar,” Item 80)
[51954]

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“Round vessels” are of great importance to us because they contain all the Light of the final correction. All the Light that we are still unable to accept, up to the very end of correction, exists in round spheres and pressures us from there. It takes care of us, reaches us as Light that Reforms, and serves as the Surrounding as well as Inner Lights.

We receive everything from round spheres. Our whole development occurs due to them because while I still lack a spiritual vessel (and we never have a vessel for the next degree), I am situated under the pressure of round spheres. The vessel is cleansed by the Surrounding Light, and this Light exists in round spheres.

For this reason, I experience discomfort; I am thrown from one place to another like in a magnetic field that attracts and pushes me away. After all, I am still unable to control myself and be filled with the help of the screen, the “line” (Kav). Therefore, the spheres affect me.

General governance of the world also occurs through round spheres. Hence, our world is called “round”: global or integral. The circle as if is closed here: The upper governance is revealed. And until we begin to perceive it through a screen, like “direct” influence, it is revealed from Above as a “round sphere” (Igulim), which saves us from doing foolish things and blowing up the world instead of reaching the goal that is assigned to us.

Round spheres control us until we are able to take control into our own hands by accepting it from the Creator. And then it will not be called “direct” from our side. To the extent that we accept governance and control of all creation from the Creator and begin to work, we will begin to build a straight line.

But today we are 100% controlled by the round spheres. There is just one tiny spark in each of us that is illuminated by the direct ray of Light (Kav Yashar).

A straight ray of Light comes through to us from Above through all the spheres and rouses a spark in us that summons us to begin working in this direct channel upward. And everything else remains under the control of round spheres. Therefore, the whole world, where we don’t feel this awakening in the point in the heart due to the direct ray of Light, exists in round spheres.

With the awakening of the point in the heart we receive an opportunity to unite “Israel, Torah, and the Creator” as one whole in that same direct line that comes to us through all the spheres. In this case, the round spheres also become different because as the line comes through them, it fills them and creates differences. Thus I begin to feel discomfort: I ask about the meaning of life and the essence of what is happening. I already feel some excitement from within and without.
[51792]
From the 3rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 8/18/2011, Talmud Eser Sefirot

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Spiritual desire develops in such a way that its every previous stage continues to exist, and the next one is built on top of it. It does not happen like in our world where we can experience hunger in the same desires, receiving little or nothing at all in them and then becoming filled. Such fulfillment occurs on the same place that was empty previously.

However, in the spiritual world, we constantly develop desires for bestowal. Therefore, previous states of the desire to receive remain, and above them, even more unfulfilled desires in terms of receiving pleasure, the desires that are worse and more distant from the Creator, are built and revealed. We discover continuously greater uncertainty, fear, and lack of fulfillment.

And if a person can rise above all this and wish to bestow above it, this is called one’s spiritual growth. One is fulfilled by the Light of Hassadim (Mercy), bestowal. He experiences perfection in the desires in which he previously experienced complete lack of everything. And this perfection comes from the fact that precisely in these circumstances rather than comforting himself with fulfillment, he was able to aspire above them only to bestowal to the neighbor.

Therefore, we begin our path from the smallest possible state—from a point. And if we are able to conquer this point and not desire it anymore, we begin to receive various opportunities to fill it.

This point begins to widen, and continuously greater Light is revealed around it. And instead of striving to reach confidence, fulfillment, or comfort in these developing egoistic desires, we need to seek pleasure from adhering to the neighbor and bestowing to him above all these negative sensations that are revealed in our egoism.

We still don’t really understand how this is possible. However, when we realize that it is precisely what needs to be done, we begin to aspire to the Light that Reforms. We don’t do this in order to achieve rest, peacefulness, a sense of fulfillment, safety, or attainment. We only fill one vessel: the desire of the neighbor instead of our own.

I don’t wish to receive any benefit from fulfilling another human being to such an extent that I even reveal my hatred and rejection of him. He appears to me as a hated enemy that threatens me. And I make sure that this feeling and my attitude to him don’t fade. Instead, I reveal above it that I judge according to my own corruptness and see him this way with my spoiled eyes, while in reality he is not the problem since the Creator acts through him.

I see others this way because the problem is in me. Therefore, I even begin to treat a hated enemy as a close person. In this manner I work with faith above reason, revealing the Creator’s acts in all these occurrences, and due to this I grow from a point into a spiritual embryo and through all the further degrees.

Every next degree is revealed above the unpleasant sensations in my egoistic desires. And the key on this path is to limit oneself so that one does not demand pleasant consequences along the way for his desire to receive and seeks all pleasure above it—only in the neighbor’s sensations.

And the neighbor could be any person: from the kindest and dearest to the most horrible and hostile in regard to me. Regardless of all this, I constantly use this opportunity to limit my egoism.
[51785]
From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 8/18/2011, Shamati #53

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“The experiment was conducted by a team of researchers led by Psychology professor Philip Zimbardo at Stanford University. Twenty-four students were selected out of 75 to play the prisoners and live in a mock prison in the basement of the Stanford psychology building.”… 12 students we asked to play the prisoners, 12 students were to play the guards.

“The participants adapted to their roles well beyond what even Zimbardo himself expected, leading the “officers” to display authoritarian measures and ultimately to subject some of the prisoners to torture. In turn, many of the prisoners developed passive attitudes and accepted physical abuse, and, at the request of the guards, readily inflicted punishment on other prisoners who attempted to stop it.

The experiment even affected Zimbardo himself, who, in his capacity as “Prison Superintendent,” lost sight of his role as psychologist and permitted the abuse to continue as though it were a real prison. Five of the prisoners were upset enough by the process to quit the experiment early, and the entire experiment was abruptly stopped after only six days… instead of the originally scheduled fourteen.”

Conclusion: Most of the evil in the world happens not due to bad motivation, but because one is told: “Be part of our team, do as everyone else does.” Then, a person feels that he himself is not responsible, but this is his role, he was told so, and so he lets himself do things that he would have never done under normal circumstances.

Two months after the experiment, one of the guards said that he really could never believe that he was capable of such behavior. He was shocked that he became such a person, and when he was doing that, he felt neither remorse nor guilt. Only later, when he started thinking about that, he realized that it was some part of him that he had never noticed before.

Even when one detainee was given a chance to get out of prison and explained that the experiment was over, he was so deeply immersed in his role that he could not accept that. He worried more about his reputation in the prison, wanting to return and prove to other prisoners that he was not a traitor.

My Comment: As the science of Kabbalah explains, the environment defines and molds a person, and apart from the environment, there is no other force that affects us and determines what we are and what we become. Therefore, it is very important to create a suitable environment, in accordance with the purpose that you wish to achieve. And this is the core principle of Kabbalistic education: to be in the group that studies the laws of nature (the Creator) and wishes to achieve balance and unity with it (the Creator).
[51105]

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

Writers’ Envy Increases Wisdom

A person has qualities that his parents bequeathed to their children, and he has qualities that he acquired from the society, which come to him only through bonding with the society and the envy that he feels toward the friends when he sees that they have better qualities than his own….

Thus, through the society, he gains new qualities that he adopts by seeing that they are at a higher degree than his, and he is envious of them.
– Rabash, Rabash—the Social Writings, “Concerning Above Reason”

“Counters’ envy increases wisdom” because when one looks at the friends as being at a high level, both in thoughts and in actions, it is natural that one must raise his degree to a higher level. …Thus, now he has new qualities that society has procreated in him.
– Rabash, Rabash—the Social Writings, “Concerning Above Reason”
[50630]

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Shamati #43 “The Matter of Truth and Faith”
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The Book of Zohar – Selected Chapter “VaYakhel (And Moses Assembled),” “A Book Above and A Book Below,” Item 105, Lesson 6
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Talmud Eser Sefirot Part 2, Chapter 2, “Histaklut Pnimit,” Chapter 1, Item 6, Lesson 15
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Preface to the Wisdom of Kabbalah, Item 81, Lesson 40
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“Arvut,” Lesson 2
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My Good Environment – Dr. Laitman’s Advice for the Week

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Our world has become global. In other words, the principal law unfolding in the universe is the law of a circle. Global means round, as is the globe of Earth.

We have become interconnected and interdependent. And if so, you cannot get into confrontations; instead, you must reach such an order where people will have warm, cordial relationships and become considerate of one another. In fact, what is mutual guarantee exactly? It is when I sign for you, you’re for me, and everyone is for everybody else. And so it will be all around the Earth.

We are moving toward it very rapidly. The speed with which the world is changing confirms it, and the pace of the changes will keep increasing. Very soon we will reveal that ours is not the only country that can solve the problems by way of mutual guarantee. Moreover, if you resolve them while sitting at the “round table” together with all the others, you feel internal, emotional satisfaction thereby.

They look at you with respect because you have compromised in some small degree because you start to consider the interests of others. A wave of warmth washes over you from within, and you feel safe; you are together with others. This way you begin to reveal the inner power present in this oneness, similar to the upper force.

Very soon, the whole world will see it since in truth, all people involved in protests need only one thing: love. It’s just that they cannot express it.
[51987]
From the Lesson on Weekly Torah Portion 8/19/2011

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Today we are living in special times: The world has reached the state when all of mankind feels as if we’re all in one boat. It provides excellent opportunities for everyone to finally start living the common law of nature—the law of mutual guarantee.

A global, integral crisis has overtaken the world. This means that we  are all in the same “boat,” one “ship,” at the bottom of which everyone is “drilling a hole” and doesn’t care about anyone else. And indeed, nobody will get ahold of themselves unless we all get together now and start supporting each other.

This is what we call mutual guarantee. I become everybody’s guarantor, meaning that they will not break this law. And every one of them, in turn, signs for everybody else, including me. And then, I find within myself the courage not to hurt another, not to “drill a hole in the boat.”

If in this way, we come to this common law of nature, we’ll definitely feel that we lack nothing. After all, you are equivalent to nature, so what can be better than that? You will feel happy and healthy and completely secure. No one will dare to approach your country’s borders and claim the right to it.

And all of this is thanks to the fact that you are equivalent to the laws that are dictated to us from Above. And all these laws come down to one, “love your neighbor as you love yourself,” the law of mutual guarantee that helps us reach such a relationship.
[51991]
From the Lesson on Weekly Torah Portion 8/19/2011

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