The ones who are given the chance to slip are those who have attained the specific degree and must reveal their evil inclination that can be corrected. But when we are shown a bit of our ego, we immediately want to run away and hide. Your heart is being hardened, your energy and inspiration are taken away, and you accept it. You are no longer in the right kind of spirit; you walk around all beat with a sour expression on your face.

I understand that people experience different states. But the group is able to create an atmosphere, where a person can easily overcome these descents within a blink of an eye—overcome them on the spot and begin to value bestowal over his attitude.

You must be grateful for having your spirit taken away from you, and that your ego is no longer participating in your spiritual action. Indeed, in this case your actions most definitely will be for the purpose of bestowing.

I do not want to do anything, I am not in the right mood, and I don’t feel the importance, but with my mind, I understand that if I were to do this, it would be an action of bestowal. I do not have any energy or desire to do this, but I can ask for it. And when I am not even able to ask for it, I can come to a group that will awaken me and give me a little inspiration.

But I do not ask for fuel, for the right spirit! After all, if I were in the right kind of spirit, my ego would immediately want to do these actions. The thief will run in front of everyone shouting: “Catch the thief.” This is why I want to keep my bad mood! Of course, I do not try to remain in despair, but I do not ask to have it corrected. I want for my egoism to stay distant from what I am doing now.

And then, whenever I do something—it will be an action of bestowal. After all, this bestowal did not happen out of my desire to enjoy, but only because I received strength from Above: the sense of importance and the ability. The Creator did all this through me: He robed in me and carried this action out. This is pure benefit called similarity to Him and adhesion.

And let the feeling remain as bad as it was. I do not ask to have it corrected. This will protect me from adding my egoism to a spiritual action. For this reason, as you continue going forward, the animal inside you will keep feeling worse, but at the same time, the man in you will keep feeling better because you are able to do actions of bestowal over all these unpleasant feelings. So you divide in two parts.
[76523]
From the 3^rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/2/12, The Study of the Ten Sefirot

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Question: What we did in the workshop is actually working against the ego. But as time passes the importance of this work seems to fade. How can we constantly see the importance of this group work?

Answer: All our study is based only on the annulment of our ego, to start feeling ourselves as integral, and in this integrality, to give the opportunity for the Creator to be revealed, to express our desire for that, and to be happy that you give Him this opportunity. The next stage is adhesion. This is how our study session and every workshop should end. We can have the workshop for hours and include many more activities, but in the meantime we will focus on this.

On the whole, this is the basic pattern according to which we should behave. It’s needed only in order to feel that we exit ourselves in some way. Then, after we begin to feel the Light that fills everything, the study becomes practical. We begin to see and to feel it inside us in different changes of form. Then we begin to notice it according to the intensity, the direction, the color, the attributes, and the feelings. At this point we have already started the formation of our vessel. But this is the first stage.

Everything that involves the ego is constantly growing, and if we later see that dealing with it is less important, it’s because we don’t deal with it. We will have such workshops together and make them part of our daily study. The time has come for us to include them.
[76510]
From the Vilnius Convention 3/24/12, Workshop 2

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Question: What is our practical work in attaining the love of friends?

Answer: There are two approaches to everything, the approach of Malchut and the approach of Keter, either from a deficiency or from wholeness.

I can approach the love of friends from blows and deficiencies, from feeling despair of attaining anything by myself, having understood that I need partners. I can’t understand anything by myself and I need the friends to help me understand, to give me power, to spur me. The more I know myself, the more I see clearly that I cannot accomplish anything, that I cannot sustain myself, not in my thoughts and not in the right feelings that are necessary for attaining spirituality. There is nothing spiritual in a person except for this point, and this point cannot provide any filling. So I begin to realize that all my abilities, my whole vessel, my capacity, and my power, are revealed only as a result of connecting with others.

After all, what can a single cell do in a person’s body? A person discovers that no spiritual power, neither the power of reason nor will power can be sustained and have a hold in him, because a power can only exist and have a hold in the connection among foreign desires. This revelation leaves him no choice but to look for a connection with others.

It is a very long way, because this is advancing by the way of suffering. But there is another way, the “way of the Torah.” Following the way of the Torah a person knows in advance that he must connect with others; he is told that connection is for his own good, and he is given different examples, just like a child. Imagine that a small child was allowed to do whatever he wanted to, how much suffering and how many blows would this poor child have to experience in order to find the right way in life. It would be absolutely terrible.

But the world is built so that a child is surrounded by people who love him, protect him, care for him, explain things to him, don’t allow him to do bad things, and push him towards the good. Thus the child advances. This is a quick and safe way to grow as a human being, and this is what we wish for our children.

It is the same when it comes to spiritual advancement, we can learn everything from nature. Therefore, there is one way for spiritual advancement, except for learning from bad experiences and bitter mistakes. Instead we can learn from a teacher and from books, from the advice of Kabbalists. If we really accept this advice as a law, as operating instructions, (“Torah” comes from the Hebrew root “instruction”), we can advance relatively easily. Eventually, however, a person advances somewhere in the middle, in the way called Derech Eretz, (Middle Way). The ideal way is not only in following the advice of Kabbalists, and it isn’t only by suffering, but between these two ways.

The group can set an example for a person as to what he should do and how to advance. It empowers him, supports him, and pulls him forward. Many don’t understand this or understand it theoretically, but are unable to implement, listen to, and accept it. The repulsion from others is so strong that it hides their common sense and obliges them to look for different excuses and come up with theories for their reluctance to connect. Yet all the work is done only in the group.
[76619]
From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/26/12, Writings of Baal HaSulam

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