Everything depends on a person’s attributes, on the state he is in. It is said: “A student who was exiled, his teacher is exiled with him.” Everything is measured only with regard to the receiver: “It takes one to know one” and “love will cover all the sins.”

This is what makes a Kabbalist’s perception different from an ordinary person’s. A Kabbalist understands that he receives the upper Providence and sees one picture out of endless pictures that are revealed to him. All this is revealed according to the upper plan and the efforts that he makes below.

Accordingly, the point where the plan of a person’s development and a person’s exertion meet is the picture of the phenomena he sees and feels.

The perception can be internal and external. Externally a person receives everything that is revealed to him as facts, the laws of this world. He understands that everything comes from the Creator, and that this is how the Creator shows him the world. This is the “landlord’s'” perspective.

The perspective of the Torah is the understanding that the Creator is showing me the whole picture that I see, but it is revealed in my desire to receive according to my attributes. Two different behaviors and perceptions stem from this, as it says, “the opinion of the Torah is opposite from the opinion of the landlords.”

So in the group we have to treat the friends, the Rav, the environment, and the books with respect, despite the disrespect that we feel towards them internally. If a person wants to advance, he is constantly in this struggle because his ego constantly grows, showing him the baseness of everything that is not part of his self-interest.

We have to preserve the internal feeling of the greatness of the Creator and the faith in the Rav, to treat the friends as the greatest in our generation, and to appreciate the quality of the group more than the quantity. We have to do all that in order to calibrate our vessel correctly.

If everything is revealed inside me according to my present attributes, I have to relate accordingly to the reality that shows me how I should change my attributes, so that I will constantly be able to advance by that.
[75510]
From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/17/12, Writings of Baal HaSulam

Related Material:
Environment In Place Of The Creator
The Choice Is Yours
The Path To A Perfect Reality

Filed under: Daily Kabbalah Lesson, Inner Work, Perception - No Comments →

Although the method of uniting into the group and attaining the upper reality through it has existed for more than 5000 years, it has never been described in any of the sources. People just had no need for this since our ego hadn’t developed enough for us to demand change within us and in the world. Egoism had to discover its insolvency by itself; it had to realize that it has reached the dead end in its development, when we together, globally, on the entire planet, began to feel that it’s impossible to continue this life.

Despite the fact that a lot of people and societies believe that we still have a future to aspire towards and something to attain in our development, no one thinks about this seriously. In the meantime, the movement continues by inertia. The governments and economists are helpless but continue to maintain that everything will be over soon and life will be normal again. But actually, everyone knows that there is no way out.

We need to find this way out, to realize it, and become an example for everyone. Since nowadays there is such a need, the method is being revealed as well, which in the past was transferred only from teacher to student, through a chain of separate individuals in each generation up until our times. Therefore, my teacher was the first in history to write about the group in his articles. No one ever wrote about the work in the group before him. It’s possible to find only a few phrases and sections in the ancient sources of 300 to 500 or even 1000 years ago, but they are only small commentaries and nothing more.

My teacher Rabash was the person who first described the systemic work in the group, clarifying how to connect between us in order to create a sensory organ for feeling the upper state. Everything began from that famous piece of silver foil from the cigarette pack on which he wrote the first article that begins with the words: “We have gathered here to establish a society for all who wish to follow the path and method of Baal HaSulam, the way by which to climb the degrees of man, and not remain as a beast….” And this is what we do.
[75091]
From the Vilnius Convention 3/23/12, Lesson 2

Related Material:
Dissolving In The Group
The Goal Of The Group
Tuning In The Group

Filed under: Daily Kabbalah Lesson, Group Work, Inner Work - No Comments →

Question: How should we work so that an action will be above our desire to receive?

Answer: It is hard to imagine this at the moment because for us even an action of bestowal is because of the desire to receive. But this is also good and it is called “Lo Lishma,” (not for His sake).

If I bestow in order to gain more, then it is a big and developed ego in our world. An undeveloped egoist simply takes for himself, like a robber who threatens you with a gun and takes everything for himself like the simplest naïve egoist operates.

If the bank steals from you by seemingly helping you by giving you a loan, you later see that they made a big profit at your expense, but this is already a higher more developed ego. Even throughout human history there were many wars and stealing at first and people had to hide behind city walls.

But later people got wiser and learned to lie to one another and to steal cleverly, legally. People already calculate things and see that there is no point using weapons and shedding so much blood if it can be done differently by making deals that will bring greater and safer profits. However, all these calculations stem from the same desire to receive.

But when I attain a desire to bestow, my actions are called “Lo Lishma,” because although I do them egoistically, for myself, I try to do it not for myself. I simply have no choice because I am in exile, enslaved to my ego, and so I have to listen to it and to think about myself.

Sometimes I want to bestow so much, to connect with others, but later I see that I did everything for myself. If it weren’t in my interest to do so, I couldn’t do anything, not even think about it. But I already disagree with that and try to do at least something in order to bestow, this is why it is called “Lo Lishma.” It is 100% spiritual work because it isn’t a person’s fault that he is in exile, under the domination of his desire to receive.

He has no choice, and he must go through this process, by building up a high enough speed in order to attain a full deficiency, a whole vessel for bestowal. We still have to operate in “Lo Lishma” by trying to imagine all the states in which bestowal itself is fulfilled “Lishma,” (for His sake), to actually try physically, mentally, internally, with all our heart (desire) to take part in this action, by forcing ourselves to be included in it.

Even if I succeed to some extent to think about bestowal and everything else is egoistic, I still tried. Therefore, it is called “spiritual work,” because even if I know that I am working for myself, at least externally, I do everything in my power to act in order to bestow. This is why it is called “Lo Lishma.” It is already spiritual work and not just false altruism as we see in our world.
[75389]
From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/15/12, Writings of Rabash

Related Material:
Let The Light Do Its Work
The Force Of Birthright
Refuse To Pay The Debts of Egoism

Filed under: Daily Kabbalah Lesson, Egoism, Q&A - 1 Comment →

This coming Saturday, April 21, 2012 in front of the Lithuanian Parliament, a rally dedicated to justice and fairness in Lithuanian society will take place. The organizers of the rally are respected politicians. Our Lithuanian team is also participating in the meeting and has prepared printed materials for dissemination.

[Show slideshow]

In addition, the team is expecting to obtain approval for conducting round table discussions as a solution to the problem of fairness, justice, and unity.
[75397]

Related Material:
Integral Upbringing In Chicago
Viva Espana!
Second Lecture In Beijing

Filed under: News - No Comments →

Question: Why was the last convention in Israel held in the desert? Is symbolism really that important to Kabbalists?

Answer: We saw that it does matter and make a difference. The first time we went there because we have a big, serious group of 40-50 people there, who are scattered throughout a number of smaller spots in the desert. They live in their small houses in the middle of the desert and farm for a living, growing tomatoes, cucumbers, peppers, figs, bananas, and so on.

It virtually never rains in the desert, you have a few drops once a year at the most. Therefore, what we have witnessed was a supernatural phenomenon. Even the people who were born in that area and have lived there for 40+ years have never seen anything like it. Let alone the fact that the rain was accompanied by thunder and lightning, which is entirely unnatural for the desert. We view this as a good omen.

Why the desert? It’s not the desert in the traditional sense. There were mountains there. Essentially, it’s empty land, but not sand.

Interestingly enough, there are huge reserves of water underground: from saltwater, like in the Dead Sea, to water with salt concentrations, like in a regular sea or ocean, to plain, so-called sweet water. Depending on where you drill the earth’s crust, you can produce a different type of water. And while there’s an ocean of water underneath, above ground is the desert.

This is why the locals grow special fruits and vegetables there. Depending on the concentration of salt in the water they use to irrigate their crops, they get a particular flavor. For instance, figs are very sweet by nature, but if you irrigate them with saltwater, they grow to be several times larger and several times sweeter because they need to as if fight the saltwater.

There is also a nature reserve where special horned animals are bred. Many international organizations fund the reserve because special genetic experiments are conducted there.

In short, it’s a very interesting place. In the desert you can truly isolate yourself from outside distractions. We’ve already gone there several times, and we liked it. But this time, obviously, the convention surpassed all expectations.

I think that the convention site and the timing were chosen well. We should all be happy with what we’ve attained. We felt ourselves as a single whole, and through that we can continue to develop within us the rudiments of viewing the world in an integrated way. And from there we can reveal the Creator, as per the law of equivalence of form.
[75493]
From KabTV’s “Foundations of the Integral Society” 2/26/12

Related Material:
Common Trophies From The Military Operation In The Desert
The Desire That Will Turn The Desert Green
Desert Flowing With Milk And Honey

Filed under: Conventions, Group Work, Inner Work, Q&A - No Comments →

Question: You have said that we have to look at the world through the prism of the group. In other words, anything that happens to us in the corporeal life has to remind us that we must return to the thought about our friends and the degree of unity between us. Have I understood correctly that everything that happens is just a reminder? Is this the prism of the group?

Answer: There is no reminder here. You exist in an enormous integral infinite world. The Creator did not create anything but the world of Infinity. Everything that exists in our understanding and sensations, besides for the world of Infinity, is a partial perception of the same world of Infinity.

We receive the great Surrounding Light (Ohr Makif), the Light of correction, to the extent of our ability to pull ourselves towards the perception of the integral world. In other words, we have to try to be closer to it, try to sense it as a general, eternal, perfect Light, the way it actually is, and not the way we imagine it to be. We evoke the illumination from the upper degree upon us to the extent of our efforts, and thus we grow.

We have now reached a state when we are able to look at the world and begin to perceive it as a single whole, and perceive ourselves as those revealing it. This is necessary.

Why do we need a group? Our common Kli (desire) broke only in order for us to begin to put it together with our own efforts. These efforts evoke the Surrounding Light. On one hand, the Surrounding Light increases the sensation of our individuality, meaning our egoism grows (the left side, the left line). But on the other hand, the Light gives us the sensation of unity, the revelation of the quality of bestowal (the right side, the right line).

When we are not in the world of Infinity, but 125 degrees beneath it, by pulling ourselves towards it, by force, like on a high bar, to the extent of our aspiration, we attract upon ourselves the upper Light from that same world of Infinity. This Light increases both our egoism and the quality of bestowal—two opposite qualities.

This way you reveal the world of Infinity to be 620 times greater in its power than before. If before you were on the lowest, zero, level, then by attaining the 125th degree you increase yourself 620 times. You attain all the Lights of Nefesh, Ruach, Neshama, Haya, and Yechida, you rise from Malchut through Zeir Anpin, Bina, and Hochma towards Keter, and thus arrive at the state of Infinity from our world.

All these sensations are not physical; they are inside of you. It is as if you were inflating a sensory organ inside of you, which initially is only a point, and this is why it is called the point in the heart, where you are unable to feel anything. You gradually inflate it by using two opposite lines: a line of reception and a line of bestowal, the desires to enjoy and the intentions to bestow.

You grow as you ascend these degrees to the extent of your intention to bestow and your desire. Thus, everything depends on our pressure, on your aspiration towards the next and always greater degree.
[75484]
From KabTV’s “Foundations of the Integral Society” 2/26/12

Related Material:
To Understand And To Feel
The Only Thing Missing In The World Of Infinity
Driven By Suffering, Curiosity, Or The Point In The Heart

Filed under: Group Work, Inner Work, Q&A - No Comments →

Question: I have understood more than I have felt at this convention. Is this normal or did I miss something?

Answer: Understanding without feeling is also good. At least you have seen the unity of people, you have seen their aspiration, you have understood that our attainment of reality is based on this specific aspiration.

Without uniting, we cannot create the sensor where we will be able to feel the upper world, the Creator. This is exactly why we are broken and exist at the very bottom: to start putting the pieces of the upper world together. And as we put it together, we will discover and feel new elements of the true, real, spiritual, world.

And we will see our world the other way around, as getting further from us, because essentially, it has nothing—it is smaller than a point. It is under the point of the straight line, under the “feet” of the Partzuf of Galgalta. There is Sium, or the end of all the Partzufim, and the point of our world is even lower, under it, meaning it is as if it doesn’t exist. And we exist in it, but it is like we are “nonexistent.”
[75481]
From KabTV’s “Foundations of the Integral Society” 2/26/12

Related Material:
Why Are We Going To The Convention?
“We” Is A New Sensor
The Scattered Caviar Of Souls

Filed under: Conventions, Group Work, Inner Work, Perception, Q&A - No Comments →

Question: Are there people who have already reached the fourth level of development, the level of Man? Could it be that these are certain leaders in the world?

Answer: Unfortunately, the leaders are very far from that because only the greatest egoist can be a leader in our world. This is because our world is egoistic, and so in order to climb to the top, you need to be the greatest egoist with a very big desire.

There are nearly two million people around the world who study the method of the integral upbringing in the framework of the ARI Institute. Many other different organizations and circles are engaged in that as well.

I hope that the year 2012 will be a special year because many changes are about to take place now, and we see that the speed of these changes is increasing, particularly in terms of understanding and adapting the integral system to humanity. So we will see great changes, and I hope they will be for the better.
[74955]
From the Vilnius Convention 3/22/12, Preliminary Lesson

Related Material:
A Fight For Leadership?
Reeducating Leaders
The Special Role Of Zealous Egoists

Filed under: Conventions, Education, Egoism, Integral Upbringing, Q&A - 1 Comment →

The Book of Zohar is the main tool that enables us to exit this world into the upper world. We should expect and hope that this will happen any moment.

The Zohar operates like a special mechanism. We can be ready to enter spirituality, but unable to draw the Light upon ourselves. Or we may seemingly draw the Light, but not be ready for it. This book is a system that creates the correspondence between the group, in which we first hate one another and then connect. But this also takes place only under the influence of the Light. Even to feel hatred, we need to sit together in front of the book.

If the Light didn’t influence us, we wouldn’t feel such hate towards one another. But when the Light is first revealed, we suddenly understand how deeply we hate one another. And as a result of working on ourselves and using the Light correctly, we turn the hate into love and connection, and then we discover what is written in the book.

To study the Torah means to discover all this hate and our inability to connect, our helplessness, and, in the beginning, even a lack of desire. We should discover all the stages, all the attributes, and then change them and find out for what we should yearn. All this is done only with the help of the book.

It doesn’t mean that we have to learn the text by heart and to know what is written there. The degrees should connect correctly into one ladder so that AHP of the upper one will sink into GE of the lower one, and the connection between them will open up the route for the requests that rise upward and for the filling that descends from Above, which is the route to the upper force. All this is done by a system called “a book”: with the help of a book, a writer, and a story.

Those who read the book together and want to attain something must feel that they are equal. The sages of the Talmud made the study easier for us, and now in order to succeed we don’t need any corporeal restrictions, as it says: “Live on bread and water, sleep on the ground, and feel lucky.” Instead, they prepared this study for us by which we draw the Light that Reforms.

They have inserted into their books an influence upon us that brings us closer to the “pillar” by which it is customary to pray. This is the special, middle line that connects and balances the forces of receiving in us and the forces of bestowal that we want to acquire, by connecting all this to our request.

They managed to make things easier for us by building the system by their souls, to complete the initial spiritual system of the forefathers. And now we can connect to them through our teachers: Rabash, Baal HaSulam, and all the other Kabbalists throughout the ages, until we attain the sages of the Talmud and then the forefathers. Thus we will connect to the spiritual “pillar.”

The Book of Zohar enables us to connect to the space organized into a line (Kav). But in order to receive from this line, we have to build a circle. Part 2 of The Study of the Ten Sefirot is dedicated to this topic and tells us how the upper Providence passes from the circles to the line, and from the line it is possible to connect to the circles.

If we want to join the line of the great Kabbalists of the past, there is no other way but to form circles. It’s just like a baby who is in his mother’s arms. A mother treats him like a line: carefully and thoughtfully, by knowing exactly what happens to him. While the baby totally annuls himself and exists “in circles,” unable to appreciate her actions or differentiate that something is coming from above or from below. And this allows them to connect.

We have to act in the same way. This is possible only if we mutually annul ourselves in the group and organize the group correctly, as per instructions of Rabash. Then through the book, the system of the line that was formed by the great Kabbalists who pass the spiritual energy on to us, we will be able to receive this force, even if we don’t know how it operates. Let the upper Light do its job, and we will see the result.

We’ll see it in the same way a growing child feels the result of his development, not knowing where it comes from and how he develops. All that is required from him is the desire to grow up. We too have to demand only the right desire, meaning to constantly yearn for greater connection. This will indicate that we have annulled ourselves before the upper one and that we’ve connected to the line.
[74875]
From the 2nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/8/2012, The Zohar

Related Material:
Conditions For Receiving The Upper Knowledge
In A Circle Of Great Kabbalists
The Flame Of Love Above Seething Hatred

Filed under: Daily Kabbalah Lesson, Group Work, Inner Work, Kabbalah Study, Zohar - No Comments →

We exist as parts of a system, similar to elements of an electronic system. Therefore, everything that happens to us conforms only to the way the entire system reaches the end of correction.

It says: “The outcast will not be turned back from Me” and “Everything will return to its root.” Everyone returns to their root, and together we all return to our general root. But we want to shorten the way, to reach the goal by hastening time (Achishena), here and now, quickly, to understand and to feel what we are doing as much as it is possible, in order to perform these actions of bestowal consciously, with understanding, and not to advance by the way of suffering (Beito, or in its time).

There are two problems. On one hand, I have to agree to perform actions of bestowal. On the other, I have to understand that I should calculate and prepare these altruistic actions. These two types of work are called “the work in the mind” and “the work in the heart,” and they are both opposite to nature.

Therefore, we do our best to organize the right system among us, as if we are connected, as if we love one another, as if we complement one another, as if we are cogwheels in a general system, and as if we connect with the Creator, in order to bring Him contentment, and with all of humanity, in order to correct them and bring them to the same action.

All this is “as if.” We do everything as if jokingly, like a little child who, having put the constructor pieces together, suddenly discovers that it is still a toy. He thought that he would build a tractor, he did his best, he assembled it, and then he discovers that it isn’t real, but made of plastic and doesn’t move at all.

But in our spiritual work, the moment we build this “demo,” this “counterfeit,” knowing that it is a game but building it correctly, according to the demands of Kabbalists, the Light that Reforms influences us immediately and makes it real.

This is the whole trick. We only need to understand that this is how it works. We try to put the parts together, in love, bestowal, unity, connection, by faith above reason—it makes no difference how we call it on our level. Clearly, everything is fake. But we try to put this construction set together, and according to our efforts the Light acts and turns it into the real picture.
[72135]
From the Arava Convention 2/25/12, Lesson 7

Related Material:
To Receive The Payment, Move To Spirituality
Through Contradictions: Truth
Lie, But Honestly

Filed under: Collective Soul, Conventions, Group Work, Inner Work - 2 Comments →