The First Restriction (Tzimtzum Aleph) brought about the shattering of the worlds. Without the prohibition, there would have been nothing to break and no sin. When there is an opening, everyone can come and take whatever they want to. But if I install a door and say that the place belongs to someone, from now on, you need permission to get in there.

You need to follow certain rules according to which you can receive something from that place. Pay and you will get something. If you have a screen, the Reflected Light, and the equivalence of form, you can go ahead and receive.

So until the Light reaches phase four in every Sefira of the world of Nekudim, nothing is shattered. Only when phase four begins to receive from the upper Light does it bring about the shattering. And now the problem is that these vessels are corrupt and distorted. They distorted the goal, and from now on they no longer feel that altruism is an exalted, great property. They don’t see any point in bestowal. On the contrary, all their aspirations, their search for pleasure, and inner genes are aimed at receiving for their own sake.

If the genes, not corrupt by the shattering, were active in us, things would be totally different! Then we would yearn for bestowal having no other choice, like beasts. All our internal genes, all our desires, everything stems from the shattering.

I “carry” all the world of Infinity that tried to receive egoistically after me. You can imagine what a “bag” of ego I am carrying. New egoistic desires keep popping out from this bag, revealing my big ego to some extent.

This is all a problem that was created after the shattering, when I felt some taste in receiving for myself, and how this taste attracts and lures me. I know that it is the “potion of death,” but this can’t stop me either. I am ready to die, just to enjoy! This is what happens in our life, and we feel it very clearly.

Rabash says in one of his articles that a person can reach such love of friends that he is ready to die for that love, to give his life for the society. It isn’t some accidental urge, but a sober calculation because the upper Light operates in a way that a person begins to appreciate bestowal more than himself. But in our egoistic state everything is the opposite: I appreciate the pleasure I receive more than I appreciate my life.

That is, we see from these two examples that pleasure is the foundation of the entire creation. Man is not afraid to die—if he experiences pleasure before that.
[72767]
From the 3rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/11/2012, TES

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Rabash, Shlavei HaSulam (Steps of the Ladder), “Concerning the Importance of Society”: Therefore, when it comes to the work on the path of truth, a person should seclude himself from other people. This is because the path of truth always requires strengthening as it is against the world. This means that a person should be absorbed only in thoughts about “single authority,” called “bestowal,” and not “public authority,” which is self-love. This is called “two authorities”—the Creator’s authority and one’s own authority.

This is all clear, but the problem is in implementing it. Each of us is under their own authority, and we don’t understand what it means to be under someone else’s authority: “So do I have to become a slave? For if there is an authority, there is also a master?”

Actually we should be under the authority of the altruistic desire instead of under the authority of the egoistic one. It is very hard to understand these things. We simply don’t see where and how all this takes place.

But eventually, thanks to the study and the participation in the life of the group, a person summons a slight illumination upon himself, and he begins to gradually wake up. Then he is ready to hear about “public authority” and “single authority,” about the authority of the Creator and the authority of the creature, about the attribute of bestowal and that of reception…. It  is very hard to clarify these details but when a person identifies them, he begins to understand what is happening to him.

The sages said that it is a long path, but we can shorten it if we listen to their advice. The advice is simple: Do you want to feel that you are on the higher degree, in the next dimension? Build it and form it. Connect with those who want the same thing, and then together summon the upper force so that it will build the network that will become your next degree.

Everything takes place in a person’s perception. The Creator Himself is inconceivable. We perceive Him only in the mutual relationship between all parts of reality, which we are able to perceive. If you change your attitude towards reality, this attitude will become your Creator (Boreh), from the words “come” (Bo) and “see” (Reh).

Now the “Creator” for you is the egoistic force that dwells in the entire reality you perceive. This is how you perceive and feel it. So change it by the Light that Reforms. There is this force that you can evoke, and it is your next level.

All the degrees already exist in that dimension, in that “channel” of information and power, from which you can receive everything. Join it and you will receive everything. Do you want to know what tomorrow will bring? You will know what tomorrow will bring. Do you want to know how to change things? You will know how to do that. Just connect. This, in fact, is the Light that Reforms.

On the whole, our approach is to connect to one another and to summon the Light that will perform this connection correctly. We should show our readiness according to the state we are in and ask for correction.

It is very easy to do that. Therefore, Rabash’s articles about the society are so simple and clear. They are not many, and all these materials can be printed on a few dozen pages. The whole method is in them. Everything else is additions that help us draw the Light, while in order to describe how to organize a group to which we draw it, ten pages will be enough.

As for today, our work is first of all to organize ourselves correctly and then to ask for correction.
[71523]
From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/15/2012

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If we are guarantors for one another, we are guarantors in everything, in happiness and sadness. This is because mutual guarantee is not just signing a document. We bind ourselves so that all the states come to us as to a single whole. This is the way a guarantee works in a bank: If a person doesn’t pay, then you pay, without any arguments.

And for us it is even more than that: You must love your friend more than yourself. After all, the commandment of loving thy neighbor demands that you put another in place of your precious self. That is mutual guarantee: a pledge that is impossible to withdraw from.

The upper Light knows how to arrange unity, but we must pave the way for ourselves. In the beginning we become partners and connect to each other. But all of that is still “we”: many and not one. And afterwards our desire will merge into one, and this complete whole will be above us, like a baby whom everyone worries about.

It is written: “The eye of the Creator is on those who fear Him, on those who hope for His loving kindness” (Psalm 33). We constantly look at this baby and constantly support him with all our heart, hoping that he just grows up, that he is sound and healthy, that he is happy and feels good.

This is the way we look at our baby that is above us and belongs to all of us. We all, in our mind and soul, are there, in that one desire. We want to discover within him the spirit of life: the Creator.
[72761]
From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/14/2012

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Question: What is the criterion for evaluating the effectiveness of a teacher’s work in the integral upbringing courses, or are his qualifications not subject to doubt?

Answer: In our system, the teachers are classified in the process of work. Suppose twenty people are admitted to teaching. In the process of their work with the group, we see that one of them is suited for this work, another is suited for a different kind of work, and so on. This is how they switch over. In the course of a few months, each one finds their place, their forte, and their hobby, and the groups under their supervision begin to work correctly.

Simultaneously, the teacher works on the development of the methodology, writes various abstracts, and participates in the creation of additional educational and accessory material. Then we see that he has found his place.

However, among such people, there can be those who have no internal expression, lack enthusiasm and energy. In these cases, it is still necessary to try to attain the auxiliary state so that work in a group won’t be just a job for a person. After all, you are creating a new society here, you are creating! It’s as if you were on the level of the Creator, and out of an animal, you are creating a human. You summon special forces, which harbor within our unity and create the collective image of Adam out of us.

That is why it is necessary for us to see the teachers as inspired and inspiring. Otherwise, this will be a lifeless structure, a group that will gradually wilt. We are watching out for this. By switching the teachers, it is possible to come to this.

Besides this, the teachers keep changing within the group since this resembles the teaching in colleges and universities. Everything goes according to the specializations there, and that is why each teacher has his place, meaning that different teachers teach different disciplines in the group.
[72553]
From a “Talk on Integral Education” #12, 12/16/11

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Question: A person tends to compensate his shortcomings. For example, every other radio host has some speech defect; people with an ordinary appearance land a career in TV, and so on. Will this also apply to people working within the system of integral education? Will they try to make compensations, or perhaps, will integrality bring everything into balance?

Answer: No, first of all, we see that appearance does not make any difference. Among our instructors, quite often we see people who are unattractive, not pleasant and not good-looking. I would even say that their manners are far too simple.

However, when a man is engaged in inner work, this does not repel him. He begins if not to love them, then at least to accept them in a gentle way as if this is someone close to him. He even sees in it a kind of charm. This is what happens.

The same thing applies to women. If sincerity emerges, everything else goes by the wayside.
[72551]
From a “Talk on Integral Education” #12, 12/16/11 

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Question: There is a concept called the contact cycle in Gestalt Therapy. This includes the phases that any person goes through. The basis of human activity in a group consists of four phases. Where does this number come from? How many phases should there be according to the laws of nature?

Answer: According to the laws of nature, there are four phases that result from the fifth, higher one, zero. Zero is the very first level which is nature itself. The four phases of the development of a desire result from it. The fourth phase is the final form of the development of a desire.

So, there are actually five phases, but we don’t take the first phase into account because it is beyond us and relates to higher nature. Thus, we consider only the four phases of the development of a desire. Only the last phase of the four do we feel as ours, as our “I.” We no longer consider it as something that came from outside, but as something that emerged within us.

Question: What are these phases in the context of the course of the evolution of egoism?

Answer: These are the inanimate, vegetative, and animate nature. We find ourselves in the fourth phase today, the phase of human development.

We still are treated as at the animate level today because we care about our animal body and everything surrounding it. We are refined animals, but still animals because all our problems and concerns are inside of our animate life, meaning our physical bodies are important to us.

However, a human is a collective image, Adam, where we gather all our hopes, thoughts, and desires, and, by uniting, we rise above our physical nature. That is something nature awakens and leads us toward. If we properly respond to nature’s call and follow in this correct direction, we come to an integral state of “human” where all our desires and thoughts unite.

Together, we feel this desire and new consciousness that is above the animate level by adapting among ourselves almost to the extent of not feeling our animate existence. We care about our body as if taking care of an animal, only to the extent required for its existence. We give food, sex, and family to the body to the extent of its physical needs. The rest of our needs we raise to the level of unification, integrality, and mutual responsibility.

That is the fourth phase we have to reach. The current cornerstone of the extremely critical crisis is just the point of bifurcation through which we must pass. I hope we pass through it more or less smoothly by realizing that we must rise to the next level.
[72548]
From a “Talk on Integral Education” #12, 12/16/11 

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Question: When we are talking about the four stages of development, how can we explain at which stage we are?

Answer: Today, all of humanity is in transition from the third to the fourth stage. Within each stage, there are sub-stages. For example, if we take the stages of human development without regard to the still, vegetative, and animate natures and the level of “human” because we have existed for dozens and even hundreds of thousands of years, then we can view development along the historical axis as the first, second, third and fourth stages.

Suppose that the 16th century, the late Middle Ages, marks the beginning of the technological revolution with development of cultures, sciences, and so forth. This was the third stage; that is, humanity became intensely concerned about its life, about itself as an animal. This is the bourgeois revolution and, ultimately, capitalism. Before that, humanity was in the vegetative stage. In the Middle Ages, antiquity, we find the signs of the vegetative type, the vegetative character of development. Before that, we were at the so-called still level when people used small forces with low labor efficiency, and only could take care of their food.
[72546]
From a “Talk on Integral Education” #12, 12/16/11 

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Preparation to the Lesson
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Shamati #8 “What Is the Difference Between a Shade of Kedusha and a Shade of Sitra Achra”
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The Book of Zohar – Selected Chapter “Beresheet (Genesis),” “The Correction of the Lower World from the Upper World,” Item 302, Lesson 84
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Talmud Eser Sefirot, Part 7, Item 20, Lesson 7
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“Introduction to the Study of the Ten Sefirot,” Item 104, Lesson 50
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Let us shed light on several questions related to the notion of “love of friends”:

1. What ground is there for the need to attain love of friends?
2. Should I choose the friends, and should they choose me?
3. Should each friend openly express his feelings toward the other group members, or is it enough for him to feel love for them in his heart, without expressing this feeling externally? Should he remain modest and not boast about his achievement?

Certainly, every person should openly express the love of friends that is in his heart because open expression of this feeling can awaken the friends’ hearts to the same. As a result, the friends’ feelings will unite into a common feeling, which will be much greater than their arithmetic sum.

Thus, every member of the group will receive a strong feeling of love of friends and will also sense a need to expand this feeling. On the other hand, if the group members do not express their feelings openly, they cannot be imbued with the common, collective force and overcome their personal egoism.

In this case, it is very difficult to view the friend in a positive light. Every person thinks that he is the only righteous one and that only he loves his friends, while they do not reciprocate his feelings.

It turns out that a person’s forces are too weak to be able to attain love for his friend and to express his feelings explicitly instead of hiding them.

One must constantly remind oneself of the purpose of the group’s existence since otherwise, one’s egoism will try to blur this goal because its sole concern at all times is its own benefit.

A person needs the group in order to attain the quality of being engrossed in the thought of delighting his friends without requiring anything in return, and not in order for the group to help fulfill his egoistic desires. After all, if every group member expects only to receive help from others, the group is founded on egoism and works only to increase it. In this case, a person sees the group only as a means to satisfy his egoistic needs.

Therefore, we must keep in mind that the group must be built upon love for the neighbor. What every group member must receive from the group is love for the neighbor and hatred for his own egoism. When a person sees that his friend tries to suppress his egoism, this gives him additional forces to fight his own egoism. Then all of the friends’ intentions merge into one whole. Thus, if the group consists of ten members, each of them will receive the forces of all ten friends who suppress their egoism and aspire toward love for the neighbor.

But if the group members do not express their feelings toward one another due to their feigned modesty, then their feelings do not grow stronger and each of them gradually loses the desire to progress towards love for the neighbor and regresses back to self-love.
(Based on Rabash’s article “Love of Friends (2))
[72489] 

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