Audio Version Of The Blog – 12.04.11
Posted on December 4th, 2011
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Convention Preparation
The goal of creation – to delight the creatures, lies in bringing creation, which exists in the quality that is opposite to the Creator, to equivalence or identity with Him because this is the best, perfect state. Therefore, the law of equivalence of form lies at the foundation of the whole process. On one hand, by our nature we are the will to receive, the will to enjoy, and we only analyze what we have inside of us – am I sufficiently fulfilled, do I desire anything more, can I enjoy something else and receive it inside of me? Essentially, this is my entire nature: at every moment I check how else I can improve my state. That is how I was created. I cannot free myself of this and I cannot come out of it since otherwise I won’t be creation.
On the other hand, we have to attain the state that is equal to the Creator. And the state that is similar to Him is opposite to us, meaning when I constantly check how I can benefit my neighbor, what I can take out of myself and give to him. The neighbor is everything that is outside of me. Essentially, only the Creator is outside of me. How can I get to the point where I will always think only about Him? I am incapable of that. My nature is initially such that I don’t feel this at all. Each of us understands that we are incapable of thinking about the good of someone else. In order to perform this revolution inside of us, meaning to make us similar to the Creator, He prepared two means.
First of all, the Creator placed the rudiment of the quality of bestowal inside of us, the “point in the heart,” the spiritual spark that is inside of us even though we do not feel it. We feel an unconscious desire, but we do not feel a real desire to bestow to the neighbor, to the friends, to the Creator, to become similar to Him. Yet this spark does exist.
In truth, it exists in all people in the world. But there are some in whom it is already awakening, and there are others in whom it is not awakening yet. People in whom this spark awakens are called “Isra-El” – “Straight to the Creator,” according to this spark which directs them to spirituality.
But this spark, which is inside of our will to enjoy, is not enough yet. Outside of us there is the upper force, which created us in the will to enjoy with a spiritual spark inside of it. This upper force is in the state of expectation: it is waiting for us to demand for it to influence us. This force is not one tiny spark, but one enormous Light, like billions of sparks.
But since we are in a dual state, like a dipole, combining both the will to enjoy and a spark of bestowal inside of us, we have to prepare to attract the Light to us, to obligate it to influence the spark, to increase it so the tiny spark would ignite into one enormous Light. This is our work.
In order to urge the Light to influence this spark, we have to become similar to the Light according to the same law of equivalence of form and attract it to us. How do I attract it? To the extent of our equivalence of form. How can I become similar to it? That is why besides me, there are many others like me, the group. If on one hand, I try to unite our sparks with them, and on the other – to cancel our desires as much as possible, then it turns out that we become more and more similar by that. We lower our egoistic desires down, while wishing to unite and elevate these sparks. Then, according to the law of equivalence of form, the upper Light becomes closer to us and illuminates more. And when it illuminates more, it raises these sparks, uniting them into one big spark. That is how we start growing closer to the Light, until we begin to reveal it. What does it mean to reveal it? It’s when it influences our sparks and we begin to feel it. Our sparks unite with one another and inside of them we begin to feel the Light, the common, mutual bestowal, the quality of Light, the Creator.
Then we begin to feel how besides our will to enjoy and our tiny spark inside of it, above it there is a quality of common, all-enveloping bestowal, the Creator. And in this sensation, we begin to feel the second force that exists in creation. In reality, this is the primary force that created us.
Each one of us and all of us together become included in this force, which becomes revealed to us. And in it, we already exist, or it exists inside of us, which is the same thing. Then we feel it, and that means we feel the upper world, the spiritual world, our life in the spiritual dimension. And our body exists on the side. It is not even connected to the same desire, like some animal existing next to it. That is how we exist.
Therefore, in all of our actions, it is very important for us to understand that “the Shechina dwells only in a perfect place.” That is, we have to unite, to become similar to the Light by our nature, and to that extent the Light influences us, comes closer to us, and becomes revealed inside of us.
That is why we get together, in as big as quantity and quality as possible, and prepare. It’s all to unite our sparks and inside of them to feel that we really do have a place for the Shechina, for the revelation of Light inside of us. The first revelation means that we pass the Machsom and already exist in the revelation of Light. Let us hope that we will have to actualize this and we really will reach this.
[62504]
From the lesson on 11/11/11 on “Joy”
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Convention Preparation
The only thing that will help us is unity. You depend on others and you know it. You know that the mind and the feeling won’t get you anywhere. They will keep changing, inclining in one direction or another, but with no result. You are like a dead body in a society of friends.
This society buries your egoism in the ground and raises your soul upward. So let it do that. Believe us, you really are dead. So give us the chance to take care of you, to bring you back to life.
Here is what Chaim Vital writes in the book, The Gates of Reincarnation: My teacher (the Ari) warned me and all the friends that were with us in the group that we should take upon us the commandment of love for the neighbor as oneself, and to aspire to love for every person from Israel as to oneself. By virtue of this, one’s prayer is accepted, which is gathered from all of Israel and able to perform a correction above. In our love of friends, every person can become included in the friends like an organ in a body. Our teacher warned us about this very much.
If a person understood that he has no other way to go, that he just has to give himself over to society, he would join the friends and would benefit from it. There is no Kabbalist who did not write about this or pass this on to his students. This is the foundation of our Kli.
We are beginning the practical preparation to the Convention. This is an unusual convention. Everyone sees how special it is, what inner and outer preparatory work we have already done. So let us try to spend the last days and hours before the opening in connection, in unity, in understanding that it’s impossible without this.
I advise you to print out all of the excerpts that we used at the Convention in the Arava desert. Let the friends read them and translate them for one another, let them discuss it in their free time so we won’t have a minute free of unity. These words of Kabbalists are wondrous messages of unity and they have great power. So let them be a basis, a foundation of everything we are doing.
I summon you to understand that no one here is exempt from mutual guarantee. Every person is responsible for everyone. Whether he wants it or not, he was brought to the group, he was appointed a messenger and a responsible person. Even if he is out there, in the external world physically, instead of here, this doesn’t matter, he is responsible for everyone.
Therefore, let’s constantly hold on to the unity, in which we attain the Creator. Let’s not leave this goal for a moment. Let’s wait every moment for the upper Light to come, to illuminate our small, flawed desires and unite us. Then it will enter and fill this unity it created, and we will attain the revelation of the Creator to the creation. I am sure that this is exactly where we are headed.
And once I have acquired this above-mentioned clothing, sparks of love promptly begin to shine within me. The heart begins to long to unite with my friends, and it seems to me that my eyes see my friends, my ears hear their voices, my mouth speaks to them, the hands embrace, the feet dance in a circle, in love and joy together with them, and I transcend my corporeal boundaries. I forget the vast distance between my friends and me, and the outstretched land for many miles will not stand between us.
It is as though my friends are standing right within my heart and see all that is happening there, and I become ashamed of my petty acts against my friends. Then, I simply exit the corporeal vessels and it seems to me that there is no reality in the world except my friends and I. After that, even the “I” is cancelled and is immersed, mingled in my friends, until I stand and declare that there is no reality in the world—only the friends. (Rabash, Letter #8)
[62519]
From the lesson on 12/2/11, Shamati
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In the News (from Evolutionary Psychology): “According to the social brain theory, primates have larger brains as it could be expected from their body sizes due to the adaptation to a more complex social life. Regarding humans, there were few studies about the relationship between theory of mind and frontal and temporal brain lobes. We hypothesized that these brain lobes, as well as the whole cerebrum and neocortex are in connection with the Sociability personality dimension that is associated with individuals’ social lives. Our findings support this hypothesis as Sociability correlated positively with the examined brain structures if we control the effects of body size differences and age. These results suggest that the social brain theory can be extended to human interindividual differences and they have some implications to personality psychology too.
“According to this hypothesis, the unusual brain size is due to the adaptation to a more complex social life. However, the exact social skills that resulted in this have not been clarified yet.
Social complexity requires large cognitive capacity. To live in a stable social group and sustain group cohesion members have to coordinate their behavior with others, as well as to manage complex relational information. Individuals have to maintain more relationships and be able to respond appropriately to social interactions. Individuals have different goals and desires that might not conflict with those of others.
“The authors [Barrett, Henzi, and Dunbar, 2003] suggest that ‘the ability to reason causally, the ability to reason analogically, the ability to exert cognitive control to generate and assess alternative options, and the ability to formulate these options into alternative sequences of future actions and to select between them’ are critical to develop high-level sociocognitive abilities.”
My Comment: Namely connection, altruism, rather than individual egoism leads to a greater development at the level of “Homo Sapiens.” An egoistic individualist can reach good results in a competitive society, but during the transition to a global, integrally connected society, his exclusiveness becomes an obstacle that needs to be overcome in the framework of a new society.
[62289]
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Opinion: (Alain de Benoist, a French philosopher and political scientist, from gazeta.au): “A market economy is based on constant growth: more production, consumption, and profit. It cannot stop growing because then it will collapse. This mentality was forced upon people: work harder, consume more, and have a higher profit.
“This is the logic of capitalism: increase capital by any means. Material resources are limited, so the problem of the growth limit arises. This is an ecological limit: Economic growth can lead to an environmental disaster….
“Consequently, the crisis will be global. It will go beyond economics and finance and change the world completely. We must rethink our economic principles and make a clear division between private and state, public, economy. We need more ideas and the decolonization of thoughts as the economy is already deeply ingrained in the very mentality of people.”
[62137]
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Love towards friends is necessary for achieving the similarity with the upper force. To the extent that we connect with each other, we change our state.
All the time, we are in the state of creation and gradually reveal more and more of it, and thus advance. In essence, we return to the understanding and feeling of what it means to be similar to the Creator, and how to come from disparity to similarity. This is our path.
That is why, we never have bad states on the way, they are always in the direction of good. Every action, which we perform for connection, is aimed at the achieving of a good state, toward when we break the barriers that divide us, the walls of egoism, and inside the common circle reveal what happens there in reality.
Concealment, created by partitions, separating us from each other, is disappearing, and we connect more strongly. When these walls fall, which is called the end of correction (Gmar Tikkun), in our unity, we will reveal ourselves as one creature. Through this, we will achieve equivalence of form with the Creator, who is also One.
All the laws of the group and our corrections follow from here. All corrections are intended for the correction of these partitions, which should stop dividing us. And while we are all different, but despite these differences which we do not destroy, we rise above all the barriers, differences, and there reveal the Creator fully.
We are now in the final state, only this infinite spiritual state is concealed from us, and we see only a material group in front of us. But if we begin to connect with the group without any barriers that hinder our unity and connection, then it suddenly turns into a structure similar to the Creator.
The first time we can feel, instead of an average group a single formation, similar to the Creator, we discover His manifestation at least to a small measure. This means to rise above the Machsom to the first spiritual degree.
There are 125 degrees of ascent or the likeness with the upper force, the Creator, due to our connection with each other.
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Question: What does it mean to be inspired by the group?
Answer: To be inspired means to open your eyes, ears, all five of your senses, and most importantly, the inner sense—“the point in the heart” in order to feel the spirit that exists in the group.
When I come up to the roof where you are working now and preparing the equipment for the convention, I feel that there is a certain spirit, some common force that is engaged in preparing for a spiritual ascent.
The fact is that this is joint work, joint aspiration, anticipation of and preparation for a great, powerful gathering, for which there are no analogous equals in the world according to strength, power, and level of ascent. Approximately ten thousand people will go through enormous spiritual ascent over these three days; they will place themselves under the influence of the upper Light. We should try to feel that we are in the group using all the strings of our soul; we should try to be in that spirit, in that common force that is present there.
Actually, independent of us, our group already has its own, common component—an integral that includes us all. However, each of us needs to perform a slight effort and dissove in this. When a person is able to do this, he will feel this state.
For this purpose, a week ago we went to the desert and attempted to carry our our first unification there. As I felt, it was very successful. Many people who have been working on themselves, studying and implementing Kabbalah for many years, for the first time felt that there is some spiriutal component, which we can find among us, in our unity.
It has already been revealed between us, and now we need to try to find it. Now everything depends on how much we will try to constantly be in this state—in the single force of the group. Precisely by delving into it, we will feel the upper force, the Creator, and in unification with Him we will begin to feel the upper world. All this is the next stage, which is very close. In this regard, everything depends on the inner, emotional effort of a person.
[62363]
Fundamentals of Kabbalah Lesson 11/27/11
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We must create an environment that would enable us to go from receiving for our sake to receiving for the sake of the Creator, from loving ourselves to loving Him. What does “Him” mean? Who is He? What does He give me? I do not know anyone or anything. How is this realized? In our world, we are given an opportunity to be in touch with other people and to try to create certain conditions between us. I am able to form a small community together with them called a “group” where all of us exist in mutual bestowal and connection.
We do not owe anything to any of us. We only need our connection to reveal the world of bestowal and love, the higher dimension called the Creator, God, which is just love and bestowal.
If we really want this, then, together with our close friends whose purpose in life is the same as ours, we can reveal the states of the upper world and practice on each other. If we reach this state where we are able to unite, to annul our own interests and direct ourselves toward bestowal to others, if we begin to act this way, then we will gradually begin to climb the mountain where the Creator is.
Rising toward this, we overcome great obstacles. As in Baal HaSulam’s example, there are guards along the way to the castle who brutishly push us away, and, the higher we rise, the more brutish the guards become.
In other words, they evoke very rough relationships between us, such as envy, jealousy, hatred, and rage. This makes it harder and harder for us to connect in a group for the sake of the higher goal, for the sake of the attainment of love, reciprocity, mutual help, and mutual guarantee. I begin to feel that I do not wish to make contact with them in any way. I am ready to neglect everyone.
Many have already fallen off this mountain and rolled down to its foot where all of mankind is. Still, we continue to climb with the remaining friends. How many of us will make it? That is unknown. How many will fall? This is also unknown. Everything depends only on our mutual help and nothing else!
[62029]
From the Fundamentals of Kabbalah 11/6/11
Baal HaSulam, “The Essence of Religion and It’s Purpose”: It turns out that our final aim is to be qualified for adhesion with Him—for Him to reside within us. That aim is a certainty and there is no way to deviate from it, since His guidance supervises us in both paths, which are the path of suffering and the path of Torah.
There is an upper force that has created the desire to receive and has raised it. It gave the desire everything it needs to grow, but when it grew, it suddenly discovered that it feels bad, and that it actually doesn’t get what it desires. In its youth, while it was growing up everything was fine: It got everything that it desired. Then it desired more and received it. But now when it is grown, everything is different; it doesn’t get the filling automatically. On the contrary, the more it wants, the less it receives. So the desire thinks to itself: “Who or what is the cause of this bad feeling?”
Humanity is divided into several categories when it comes to this question. There are those ninety-nine percent who simply go on, attracted from the bad to the good, enjoying life as much as they can. There are those who go out searching for the truth, meaning looking for the reason for what is happening.
Humanity is trying to explain this contrast in the leadership that changes so dramatically when a person grows up. At first everyone treats him nicely until the real change comes and now everyone demands something from him and treats him badly. This contrast and this conflict are very confusing, and so there are those who begin to look for a solution. The upper force that has created the desire to receive and that has raised it to a great egoism can eventually bring it to the right state.
There are two forces that operate in reality and help us reach that state: there is the pulling force and the pushing force. The egoistic desire loves pleasures and hates suffering. In other words, it loves the filling and hates the emptiness. So it can be managed by these two states. When it is emptied, it runs away looking for a filling. When it is filled, it is drawn to it. By using these two reins we can do whatever we want with it.
But what’s the use if the desire totally obeys the Creator’s reins? After all, the inanimate, vegetative, and animate levels develop this way, so what’s the need for creation? After all, in this way there is no uniqueness and man is also led by pleasures and suffering in life. The originality and the uniqueness of creation, of the worlds, among the created beings can only be revealed in unique creatures that can operate between these two “reins.”
This means even if the desire totally obeys the upper guidance and has nowhere to run, as the forces totally surround him even if they are concealed. The main thing is that these creatures want to attain the actions: What are they? What are they for? Which desires do they affect? They want to attain their own system by themselves and according to it they begin to understand who manages their desires. Thus, according to the principle of “we know You by Your actions,” they attain the operating mind, the force that operates in creation.
So when we grow and discover the two forces that operate upon us, the positive force and the negative one, when we see the “reins” that control our running, it’s a good sign. It means that we have moved from the ninety-nine percent to the one unique per cent, for which creation was meant.
When we discover the Creator’s bestowal in the form of suffering and pleasure, good and bad, coldness and heat, hunger and satiation, we should understand that it’s all in order to make us aware that the Creator is the Absolute Good. The wisdom of Kabbalah is the wisdom for the revelation of the Creator, for the revelation of His actions. Therefore, we constantly study ourselves: “Who am I and what am I? All of reality including the group is inside me.” Eventually I discover that deep inside me it’s the Creator, the Absolute Good that operates inside me.
[61976]
From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 11/28/11
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Baal HaSulam, “The Essence of Religion and its Purpose“: He has created the creatures only to bestow upon them. Thus we learn that He has only a desire to bestow goodness, and it is utterly impossible that any harmfulness might be in His domain, which could emit from Him. Hence we have defined Him as “The Absolute Good.”
It is hard to accept this. After all we are living in our egoistic desire which has serious complaints about the source, the Creator, nature, or other things. The world in which I feel myself summons many complaints. Internally I can’t accept the fact that everyone else doesn’t obey me. I can’t accept the fact that infinite pleasure doesn’t constantly fill me. I only encounter problems all the time, so how can I accept the fact that the One who runs the world is good and benevolent?
If I could create the world by myself, I would do it in a totally different way: Everything that is in it would only be to serve me. But the world is the opposite, everyone sees it right to complain about creation. So on what grounds can we speak about the Creator as the Absolute Good? On the basis that He is the first and primordial.
The desire to receive was created and is prompted by abundance, by bestowal. The abundance, the bestowal, doesn’t need any preliminary factor. Therefore the term “first” can be characterized by one world only: wholeness. In other words, the “first” cannot have any deficiencies, no matter what. The wholeness generates only one deficiency: to expand the wholeness. Here there is also a big problem: Where does the Creator get such a desire from? Does He really lack anything? Yes, He lacks bestowal, giving.
Can we see it as a deficiency? Unfortunately we can’t grasp these concepts now. They are perceived as lack of evidence, since we lack the feeling, the understanding, and the acceptance. There is nothing we can do here, since until we enter the spiritual world we will not know how to check and how to measure them, not to mention of how to feel them. It will always be a “lame” explanation, so we can accept it to a certain extent, but not completely. We can’t understand that the Creator is the Absolute Good, and we can’t reach that without the influence of the environment that can provide us with everything that we need including that.
So if we eventually perceive our source as the Absolute Good, we have to see that all the problems and the defects are in us. We still have to reach this conclusion, and then another question will come up, are we all corrupt? Or are all the defects in me while the others are in a state of wholeness like the Creator?
My examination becomes more clarified. When I admit that it is only me who is imperfect, I begin to clarify: Where exactly am I not whole, in which desires, which relationships? And is it only in relation to the world? Or is it in relation to myself as well, with the group, with the Creator? And so I advance and go deeper and deeper and my examination always reveals the imperfection compared to the whole.
The greatest division is that the Creator is whole and we are not. In the second stage, I draw the line between myself and the perfect reality. Then I perform the next examination, according to the revelation of the vessels.
[61859]
From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 11/27/11, “The Essence of Religion and Its Purpose”
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