Question: Why do we exert ourselves in one place and find the result in another place?

Answer: I exert myself everyway I can, I work with what I have: myself, the group, the teacher, and the books. I do all that egotistically.

I exert myself for myself, for Lo Lishma, (not for its sake) because of my desire to profit: to discover the upper world, the Creator, so that everything will be in my favor! Of course, there is no other way. I only think about myself, whether I realize that or not, that’s the way it is.

Although I demand: “Give me!” and want to fill myself, still because I deal with something that is so special, it does the opposite, it inverts and I receive something that I didn’t ask for!

After all I didn’t ask for true bestowal. I can’t ask for it, but I receive it. That’s the whole trick: It is as if we are cheated! But we don’t know that, and follow this lie.

This is how the Creator has created us, but you have to follow the conditions accurately, like in a recipe: Take 10 grams from here, 10 gram from there, mix it up and drink it—and this will be your medicine.

This is what Kabbalists say: You have a group, a teacher, and books. You have to organize all that in your work, with a special intention. Deal with it and eventually you will receive something!

But what will you receive? Even if you cannot ask for bestowal (after all, we know who you are and what you are), if you fill all these conditions accurately, it will work and you will receive it.

This is how it works, and this is why it is called Segula (a miraculous remedy)! Even the angels complained to the Creator that he gave people something that they didn’t ask for. But this is the way this system works.
[64413]
From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/27/11, Writings of Rabash

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We are born and develop in a human society with our inborn qualities and the qualities engrained in us by society: parents, kindergarten, school, the neighborhood, and so on. All the qualities we acquire over the course of our lives and all our actions determined by the initial, inner program—is not who we are.

There is nothing private or independent in it, nothing cultivated and determined by the actual person experiencing the situation. In the end, this refers to a combination of the inborn qualities developing in a person and external influences.

Everything rolls along as it should, with the exception of one moment, which we cannot fully understand. Man learns that he can choose an environment, which will develop him in a specific direction.

The first question to appear is: Why is this unusual? Why is this called free choice?

For example, if I want to learn music, I surround myself with musicians. Is my “I” present in this? Is this my free choice?

I make new acquaintances in my musical environment and advance through them. Do I realize my freedom of will this way?

I am told “no,” that I am being driven by a desire that originated in me. There is nothing “yours” here. Simply the first impulse has directed you to this environment, and that is it. This happens to everyone.

Where is the freedom of will then? It is clear that I become inspired by the desires of the environment; they ignite me; I fall under the environment’s influence and wish to grow as a musician. But none of this speaks of freedom.

True freedom manifests when I resist the environment, oppose what it represents, refuse to realize my desire in it—yet in desperation, I understand that it is the only place to realize it. I must connect to my friends to attain the goal, but I hate them at the same time; I am repulsed by them, and I do not wish to act through them. In the presence of these two poles my choice is born—in the free space between these two opposite extremes.

Possibly this only happens when I have a point in the heart, when the Creator is before me, and the evil inclination is against me. In this case the group is the area where I must realize myself.

If everything was to be put in place, then my free choice, the middle third of Tifferet, really lies in the group, the unity of friends, which help me rise to the Creator. But when a person simply lives in our world, he has no freedom of choice.

Beginning with this point and realizing our free choice every time, we ascend the steps of the spiritual ladder and acquire the structure called “Man” (Adam) until we build it in its full volume on the degree of Malchut of the world of Infinity at the end of correction.

All this is realized through choosing the best environment: Every time we submerge deeper into the group, become better connected to it—and thus we grow.
[64432]
From the 4^th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/27/11, Baal HaSulam, The Freedom”

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Question: What will be the system of bestowal between us that we will see once it becomes revealed to us?

Answer: We should see this system between us now, after the convention. Every person must see the points in the heart and understand that although he is distant from others, the network that connects our hearts exists.

There is a more internal network, that of all our friends (and inside it, the higher system of all Kabbalists of the past). Around it, there is a more external network: all of humanity. The systems are interconnected, and this connection doesn’t change, it is constant. Only our correct attitude was shattered.

As we say in our world, relationships break-up, meaning that they were good and have become bad. The relationships exist, but they are broken.

We have to discover the system in which we are all connected. It is impossible to tear apart these connections or to change them. Only the relationships within the connections can be changed. And now it is up to us how we will discover life within this system.

It relates to the entire world. For us, it is an inner action, our internal dissemination. Relative to the world, it is external dissemination. Thus, these two systems will begin to interact.

A person should feel internally that it is so. Then he will gradually begin to see that our world is imaginary. The more a person sees himself as part of this system and feels that he depends on it, the more he will see that everything in his life, even in his external, corporeal life, at work for example, depends on the intensity of his effort in this system.

Then, all the corporeal actions, the corporeal forms, and all the world you see around you will gradually turn into some kind of inflated external form, like a puppet that moves because the puppet maker’s hand is playing with it as if it were alive.

Instead of just people, you will see their connection with the general system. You will understand what motivates them, what signals they receive from the system, and their reactions to them. You will see that in each one, it is his connection with the rest of the system that operates, and nothing more than that. You will realize that the body that dresses this connection is like a halo, a cloud, that has no independent essence.

As long as we do not see this system, we are shown all these bodies and this world to demonstrate to us that something does exist and to give us the free will to penetrate it, to start living in the real world. This is what we have to enter now.

The convention gave us the point of connection with this system, and we have to hold on to it so that we can begin to see the system from it. This is our obligation.
[64213]
From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/25/2011, Writings of Rabash

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Question: Will the world leaders begin worrying about the basic needs of the world’s population?

Answer: They will have to worry about it. After all, they have brought the world to this situation, and they will not be forgiven. Almost all the great riches that we have accumulated by our common efforts belong only to one percent of the population. Who allowed that to happen other than governments?

In every country, it is the government that has created this situation that one percent of the population now controls what it has taken and continues to take from others. In the meantime, the government has given the masses pennies and promises: “Do not worry; we are taking care of everything. We will raise your pension. We will add something to your social security. We are very good. We will take care of you.”

They don’t mention the “cakes” that go to the table of the one percent, but make a big deal out of every crumb, out of every bone, that they throw the people. That’s the entire game, but it will soon come to an end.

The national debt has grown. Once, it was the banks’ debt, but the banks aren’t stupid. They passed their deficits on to the state. Now, the national debt is greater than the gross national product. From whom can they take money in order to cover the debts? It will be either from the rich or from the poor.

The rich tell the politicians: “If you dare move, we will ‘eat you up’ using the media and other means. After all, we have the money, and money is power. We do what we want.” In fact, the state leaders are like puppets in their hands.

On the other hand, what more can you take from the poor? The middle class, too, is falling apart, and unemployment is growing. Students graduating today cannot find a job, and in the meantime, the debt of American students who have to pay their tuition is enormous. This money simply cannot be repaid if a person doesn’t have a steady job.

So, the conflict between the rich and the poor is growing, and there is no solution. Eventually, millions of hungry people will come out to the streets and riot. What will the government do then? What will the tycoons do?

Eventually, the crisis will not be about “just distribution,” but about providing everyone with the basic necessities. Everyone will have to worry about that.
[64224]
From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/25/2011, “The Freedom”

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Question: There is no punishment in the system of integral upbringing of children. We unite with the child and speak to his “human” part: “Let’s see what egoism has done with you, with us.” In other words, we accentuate the division between man and egoism. Can this also be done with adults?

Answer: I would say that it needs to be done in a more intense form. Intense is the keyword here that stresses the importance of it.

We play with a child because we need to be gentle with him since he is not yet developed and is unable to see himself from the side. For now, he only perceive his “I” and nothing else. He does not notice the rest.

At a certain age, he becomes able to distinguish the categories of the “internal I” and the “external I,” other people and our relationships. There are leaps, transitional periods, such as at two years, three years, five to six years, nine years, twelve years, and so forth. Processes accumulate in the person, and his view of the world changes at the next stage. He begins to see and understand the world in a somewhat different way.

With adults, this happens as they adapt to the perception of the new system. This includes integral knowledge, understanding that everything around them is interconnected, and the inclusion into this system, the group, when you must gradually begin to perceive yourself and others as one common whole, a team from which you cannot run away. It is as if you were in a small boat in a rough sea, and your safety depends on your interaction. If you worry, the sea will surge; if you stay calm, the sea will be calm.

It turns out that nature plays with us this way. When it wishes to move us toward the next state, it causes a storm. Then, we gradually change against our will. We will not save ourselves any other way.

We need to learn to understand this language of nature, to begin to perceive it, and to speak with it, in other words, to see it. Then, we really will be able to control it.

Once we become able to control the degree of the integral connection between us, we will see how it influences nature: the number of hurricanes, earthquakes, tsunamis, different natural conditions, revolutions and uprisings, and anything that could ever happen between us and in our private lives. There will be a direct and immediate interaction between all of it, a direct connection with the quality of our relationships. It is very important for man to find and feel this interaction. Then, he will begin to see how he speaks with and influences nature.

Today, we already have ideas about this. There are many theories (and just theories) about interconnection, nature’s influence on man, and, to a lesser extent, man’s influence on nature.

The result of our integral system of upbringing has to be groups of people who really feel nature’s corresponding reaction as a consequence of their more or less correct behavior. This two-sided flirtation with nature, “you for me, I for you,” when you are “we” in relation to it, raises man to the next level of perception of the world, where one actually exists. He begins to perceive the inner forces of nature, the engine of evolution, where it is leading us, and what nature wants.

We suddenly reveal things inside it that we never suspected. It is not an expression of special abilities like those of Wolf Messing, Baba Vanga, or other prophets. This really is a level of inner contemplation when man begins to attain the plan of nature and understand that nothing was created and evolves without a reason. Everything has a specific and very precise program. We develop according to this program and are able to actively participate in it.

This lifts us to the next level of existence where we are no longer blind and helpless parts of nature that realize their inner instincts. We become rational and all-powerful beings.

If we manage to influence nature in a variety of ways with our mutual interaction to a greater or lesser connection between us, we will be able to do anything! With a greater interaction between us, we can rise higher than the speed of light. There are no limits. We can go practically beyond the boundaries of the laws of nature that we now observe and rise to the level of nature itself.
[64239]
Talk on Integral Education 12/12/11

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Question: When we plan the studies in the courses of integral upbringing, do we need to determine the topics in advance? Should we cover these topics in specific courses?

Answer: No. We need to play with all kinds of study topics in the process of discussions. The majority of them will be in the form of a “courthouse” with a jury, a judge, defense counsels, witnesses, accused, and victims. Actually, this collection of characters is suitable in any situation. Even in our regular life, these situations often arise between couples or neighbors, when each person takes a certain position. Two sides stand one against the other: a group on one side and a group on the other, an independent judge, his assistants, and so on. Also a few instructors would participate to help approach the problem correctly and to be as objective as possible.

In the process of clarifying various situations in life, the questions should be directed at achieving maximum integrity by exposing absolutely all oppositions. One must understand that each person is different, and each one may stay with his opinion, but by rising above this, he must reach agreement with the others. Specifically this general agreement is the result of the trial, and not the punishment that we choose for the person.

The trial continues until all the participants, including the independent judge, reach a full agreement between them. That is, they understand that inside, they may still have conflicting views (all of this is clarified during the trial), but the agreement is above all contradictions.
[64242]
Talk on Integral Education 12/12/11

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Question: Suppose one person has been studying in the system of integral upbringing for six months or a year, and someone else is just starting. Should these people study together, in the same space? Or should this work by a principle whereby the more experienced person educates the beginner?

Answer: An experienced person and a beginner cannot be equal in the same group. In our world we bring up children up to the age of twenty years or slightly less, and then set them free into the world. Until we prepare them for life, we treat them as children. We cultivate our level in them, the level of security, support, gradual inclusion into the world, and the feeling of responsibility for their actions, deeds, and behavior.

We should relate to beginners the same way: support them, treat them as children, and not expect correct behavior immediately. In practice, all people on earth will be classified according to the results they will display in integral upbringing.
[64248]
Talk on Integral Education 12/12/11

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Question: There are different stages in educating children according to age: until the age of three, from the age of three to six, from six to nine. Are there such stages in educating adults?

Answer: There are stages, but they are independent of age. When a person reaches adulthood at the age of 18-20, the rest of his development is independent of age; it only depends on internalizing the material both theoretically and practically.

We see this in our courses in which 20-25 year old men, women, and people who are old enough to be not only their parents but their grandparents take part. They have such lively discussions that the generation gap among them becomes absolutely irrelevant because they discuss totally new and even unexpected to them personal, family, and social relationships.

It’s very interesting to see how irrelevant age is from the questions people ask during the lessons or in lectures, and by the way they take part in the discussion. But seniority does matter because experience is acquired gradually over years.

During that time a person should be led. More and more new people come to the groups. Then these groups connect. The separate groups of men and women will also connect, and as a unified group, they’ll connect with the children’s groups and then split up again.

We have to “mix” the students’ society so that they’ll be ready to understand the different states in life correctly and how to deal with them: the mutual relations at work, with managers, with subordinates, with neighbors, with people whom you may find unpleasant or whom you like, as well as with relatives to whom you are somewhat obliged. Thus, a certain transformation will begin in the relationships between people.

We have to talk about all of this and to discuss these matters. A person should experience it, live it, as if “dress” in other people, comparing himself to them, and as a result, connect with them into a single whole.

Thus many scenes will be played inside a person. And video films and discussions are very helpful in this process.
[64113]
Talk on Integral Education 12/12/11

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Question: Habits of egoistic behavior have formed in society. People are exploiting each other. How do you imagine overcoming them? At what expense will old habits be broken and new ones formed? Where is that force?

Answer: I have no doubt that only upbringing—direct, gradual, through examples and various role play exercises—will bring about change in the consciousness of man. Obviously, it should be conducted without any pressure, but on the contrary, precisely by realizing the need for it and the benefit it brings.

As a final consequence, this large portion of humanity that will begin to act in this manner will influence the whole system, the entire planet. When lots of people begin to think about the same thing, their thoughts affect everyone else. It is a tremendous force.

Let’s imagine that in your education system you manage to unite 100,000 people (there is no organization on Earth, where 100,000 people would actively engage in something new or special). In this manner, you will begin to pour in a huge integral force into this inner system, into the subconscious connection that exists between all the inhabitants of the planet Earth. And this force will work according to a particular goal, with predetermined assigned forms.

People suddenly will begin to express some interest and relation in regard to it. They will search for it, turn to it. They won’t know where it comes from because it emerges in us in the same manner as various thoughts and desires. All of a sudden everyone, young and old, begins to feel that it’s close to them, that they need it because the inner interconnection exists between absolutely everyone.

I am completely open to the development and implementation of this integral knowledge and upbringing. The most important thing is to start.
[64073]
Talk on Integral Education 12/11/11

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After the breaking in the world of Nekudim, the Light left from the broken desires. Now it affects them from Above as the surrounding Light—to the extent that they awake and ask for their correction.

Suddenly we begin to lack bestowal! We constantly strove only for material goods: money, power, knowledge, food, sex, and family. However, we do not wish to desire that any longer—only as much as we need for survival since we are living in this world. The most important thing, however, is to achieve the state that we desired in the world of Nekudim before we broke. That is, the key for us is complete correction. And in order for that to occur, we need the same Light to correct us.

If this request emerges in the same desires and they are able to raise it upward, then in response they receive the Light that was present in them and vanished. In fact, it is called the Light that Reforms.

So why didn’t it reform us before? It is because before we had not discovered yet that we need correction. And now we are saying that first and foremost we wish to be corrected, and we do not wish to receive the Light for our own gratification. We wish to enjoy giving!

Then too we desired bestowal, but now we realized what we truly lack: to attain the essence of bestowal, the screen, and the connection with the One who bestows. You think that you are just spending time with friends, eating and dancing together with them. However, by so doing you are activating a broken system, and it begins to work on and affect you while you are eating, dancing, and jumping around.

It doesn’t even matter what you do. It can happen so that while you dance, you activate the system more effectively than while you study. Everything depends on whether a need for the Light arises in you, influences you, becomes the inner Light for you, and does something to you.

And after this Light affects you time after time in accordance with how much you rouse it, your broken desires begin to slowly absorb this Light and gradually reach a level where they can receive an intention to bestow from the Light. The Light can already establish contact with them because there comes a moment when they suddenly stop opposing it. Childbirth, whereby an infant comes out of the mother, is the moment that it begins to correspond to the world that exists outside of the mother.

The Light continues to affect us, cleansing and correcting us until we become capable to come into the first contact with it. There comes a moment when we no longer run away from bestowal; we stop hating and are able to tolerate it.

It is suffering; after all, a child also screams as it is born. He feels poorly, the situation is tragic for him, but he is able to tolerate it already.

For a child it happens due to nature. But in our case, the Light gives us such forces that in spite of feeling bad (since bestowal is directed against our egoism), we are able to tolerate it. Thus we enter the next stage: With our point in the heart, we rise from the material to the spiritual world. Now comes the time of correction.
[64109]
From the 3rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/22/2011, “Introduction to TES”

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