Audio Version Of The Blog – 07.15.12
Posted on July 15th, 2012
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A Virtual Lesson on Fundamentals of Kabbalah: “Kharkiv” Preparation
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Question: Why is it that when I get stronger and invest in the group, I encounter greater difficulties?
Answer: In order to help you advance, greater obstacles are placed in your way. Thus, you reach a state when the obstacles become huge, but your desire to overcome them is also very big. However, if you quit and fail to overcome a certain obstacle, your desire will not grow, and then the same obstacles will be placed in your way, and you will feel as if your car is stuck and only the wheels are spinning.
This means that you are not saving time, but that you actually are wasting it in vain. So, instead of advancing in a few years’ time and entering spirituality, you will crawl until you get there in thirty or forty years, or you may not get there at all. It will seem that you have dedicated your entire life for that, that you have worked for the Creator and yearned to attain Him, but, in fact, you did not yearn for anything.
So, before a convention of connection, we set external conditions so that, at least externally, a person will be able to check himself and see whether he is investing in his advancement or not. Does he attend the daily lesson? Does he take part in dissemination every day? Does he pay Maaser, a tithe?
He will have to fill out a form every week about what he does for the group in order to assess himself critically. How will you advance if you don’t make constant efforts to create a new vessel inside you, by preparing it for the revelation of the Creator?
You are in a system, like a spider in a web, and all your thoughts and desires that are connected to the internal work, to the spiritual goal, are under the influence of the Light. The Light influences you and helps you advance through all the hardships, problems, and rejections since “the Torah will come out of Zion” (the Hebrew root of exit).
However, you will not be able to do it by yourself. If you don’t attend the daily lesson, don’t think about dissemination, don’t work together with the friends, don’t fill out a questionnaire about “what I have done for the group,” then you won’t advance. It isn’t just a demand of you; it is because we want to help you advance at least mechanically since if your car is stuck, we want to move you and oblige you to advance.
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From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 7/12/12, Writings of Rabash
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Question: Do we get any pleasure on the level of “to bestow in order to bestow,” Hafetz Hesed, since we are not using our desire on this level?
Answer: Hafetz Hesed, pure Bina, doesn’t mean a monk’s life in a monastery. Here, it is important for whom and for what I am in the state of Hafetz Hesed, which means that I want Hassadim, only bestowal. A person gets pleasure since his fulfillment comes from the Creator.
It seems that something is lacking in the state of Hafetz Hesed since you don’t receive, so what can you give? Nothing! However, you are giving the feeling of adhesion. You say that you want to adhere to the Creator every way that you can.
He isn’t a hermit who lives in the woods where nothing worries him because his desires are not developed and he is satisfied living a very simple life, like an animal. There are beggars who live on the street who also don’t want a different life.
If you offered to make such a beggar a rich, successful businessman, he would refuse. He would ask, “What do I need this for?” You would answer, “You will make lots of money and then you will be able to rest and do nothing!” He would reply, “But now, too, I rest and do nothing.” He doesn’t understand the difference between Hafetz Hesed that has nothing and lives on the street and someone who only wants bestowal after he already has received everything.
However, this is the entire difference that people don’t get. Hafetz Hesed in the spiritual work is a person who has risen above his very big desires, and it isn’t about such small desires like the desires of a beggar on the street. Above all the very big desires, he has the power to stay adhered to the Creator in a form called “smallness.” Then, he is like a child who adheres to his father, the Creator. He annuls all the other vessels. This is called Hafetz Hesed.
A person reaches this level with big, cruel vessels, but is ready to annul them and to give them up only in order to adhere to the Creator since this is the only way he can be in bestowal and adhesion with the Creator. He is ready for everything, but he has nothing to bestow.
He asks the Creator, “At least give me a chance to be beside you, just to adhere to some point so that I won’t escape you.” At that moment, he cannot express his loyalty in a more powerful way.
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From the 3rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 7/11/12, The Study of the Ten Sefirot
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Baal HaSulam, “Talmud Eser Sefirot, Part 2 “Histaklut Pnimit,” Item 96: It is a wonderful law in the Upper Worlds that in every Sefira that we choose to examine, we will find ten inner Sefirot. If we take a single Sefira from those Eser inner Sefirot, we find another ten inner Sefirot inside the first Sefira. Also, if we take one Sefira of the inner, inner Sefirot, we once more find Eser Sefirot in it, which are inside the previous inner inner, and so on and so forth incessantly.
Our mind can’t grasp these spiritual principles, the incorporation of the Sefirot in each other until Ein Sof, incessantly, since in each of the Sefirot there are another ten and in each of the ten there are ten more, etc. How can we understand what Ein Sof means? Where does it begin and where does it end? We can’t understand that because our mind isn’t built on qualitative assessment but on quantitative assessment. It seems that here too it’s about quantity: ten, ten and once again ten, like in a discrete, numerical system. But this is the wrong impression. All the changes and the divisions are based on quality in separate qualitative circles.
This is why it’s currently so difficult for us to grasp this principle and the concept of infinity. In our life the strongest and the most clever people, the greatest egoists, want to use this world for their own benefit, to bend it and to extract as much money as possible from it, to win the race, to gain control and knowledge, to show off before others, and to feel good about themselves, feeling secure in the present and about the future.
But today they see that they can’t manage anything and they don’t know what to do. The leaders feel helpless. They are trying to calculate how they can overcome this loss of control, which is the main problem of the current crisis. The problem is not the crisis itself, meaning the percentages shown by economic indicators. First, they worried only about these percentages and sums, but now they see that this isn’t the cause, but rather the lack of control of the situation.
It isn’t about the results that we wanted to achieve but didn’t; rather, it’s about the reason for our failures. They don’t know this reason! First, they were the cause of all the successes and the failures, by holding the reins of egoistic management. The world bent before them and obeyed their egoistic rules. But today we can’t cram the world into the egoistic system we’ve created and we can’t manage it. It doesn’t listen anymore; it’s as if it’s arranged differently, leaving us totally perplexed.
Thus the difference between the two systems is gradually revealed: the numerical and the analog; the system that operates on a quantitative basis and the system based on quality. Nature from its part reveals to us some of the systems that operate according to quality, an analog system, that tie everything together in order to achieve collective work. This is how the force of the Creator is revealed.
We, on the other hand, have always worked differently, using the egoistic force of the created being, which was the result of the shattering, each one on his own. This is why we’ve always acted on a quantitative basis, according to numbers. Our whole perception is based on this principle. This is why we feel so helpless when the spiritual world is revealed to us and is getting closer to us. It’s the revelation of the spiritual system, of the Creator, and this is what brings about the current crisis.
While in the spiritual world, the Sefirot are each divided into ten and so forth until Ein Sof, this world is based on the numerical principle. But since we are talking about infinity, it destroys the quantitative basis and turns it into a qualitative one. It’s like an integral and so the crisis is called integral and the modern world is integral.
An integral isn’t just a simple sum. In a sum there are a number of components. And the integral includes Ein Sof, infinity: It includes such components that can’t be included in a quantitative calculation. It’s like the problem of making a circle into a square, where it’s required to build a square that is identical in its area to a circle. This problem has no solution on our level.
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From the 3rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 7/10/12, The Study of the Ten Sefirot
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Opinion (Fritjof Capra, Ph.D., physicist and systems theorist, is a founding director of the Center for Ecoliteracy in Berkeley, California, the author of five international bestsellers): “Symbiosis is so widespread throughout the living world that it has to be considered a central aspect of life. … Similar patterns of coordination exist in tightly knit animal societies of higher complexity. Extreme examples are the social insects – bees, wasps, ants, termites, and others – that form colonies whose members are interdependent and in such close contact that the whole system resembles a large, multicreatured organism.
“Bees and ants are unable to survive in isolation, but in great numbers they act almost like the cells of a complex organism with a collective intelligence and capabilities for adaptation far superior to those of its individual members. This phenomenon of animals joining up to form larger organismic systems is not limited to insects but can also be observed in several other species, including, of course, the human species.
“Close coordination of activities exists not only among individuals of the same species but also among different species, and again the resulting living systems have the characteristics of single organisms. Many types of organisms that were thought to represent well-defined biological species have turned out, upon close examination, to consist of two or more different species in intimate biological association.
“This phenomenon, known as symbiosis, is so widespread throughout the living world that it has to be considered a central aspect of life. Symbiotic relationships are mutually advantageous to the associated partners, and they involve animals, plants, and microorganisms in almost every imaginable combination. Many of these may have formed their union in the distant past and evolved toward ever more interdependence and exquisite adaptation to one another.”
My Comment: A human being broke away from nature and that is why he does not follow its laws instinctively, but has to learn them consciously and follow them. In this case, following the laws of nature takes him to the next level of knowledge—above it, to its source, its root, the Creator, according to the principle: “By Your actions I will know You.”
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In the News (from Daily Disruption): “Worldwide, 2011 was the coolest year on record since 2008, yet temperatures remained above the 30 year average, according to the 2011 State of the Climate report released online today by NOAA. The peer-reviewed report, issued in coordination with the American Meteorological Society (AMS), was compiled by 378 scientists from 48 countries around the world. It provides a detailed update on global climate indicators, notable weather events and other data collected by environmental monitoring stations and instruments on land, sea, ice and sky.
“‘2011 will be remembered as a year of extreme events, both in the United States and around the world,” said Deputy NOAA Administrator Kathryn D. Sullivan, Ph.D. ‘Every weather event that happens now takes place in the context of a changing global environment. This annual report provides scientists and citizens alike with an analysis of what has happened so we can all prepare for what is to come.’ …
“The report also provides details on a number of extreme events experienced all over the globe, including the worst flooding in Thailand in almost 70 years, drought and deadly tornado outbreaks in the United States, devastating flooding in Brazil and the worst summer heat wave in central and southern Europe since 2003.”
My Comment: Kabbalah says (Baal HaSulam “Preface to the Wisdom of Kabbalah,” p. 12) that among all the still, vegetative and animal inhabitants of the planet, only a human being, by his egoistic behavior, affects what happens on the Earth, including its climate, determines all the events, and all the other components of nature depend on his behavior. So, change your behavior, and you will stop suffering!
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Question: Today people speak a lot about women being downtrodden, oppressed, etc., but no one speaks about the fact that men also are a pitiful sight.
On one hand, he is essentially oppressed in his family; he has no role. On the other hand, he must provide for the family and bring everything the family needs. But the needs have reached a point where not too many men are able to satisfy this need. Moreover, the crisis is making it so that even the things that a man was able to do before, he is no longer capable of doing. As a consequence, he wants to be rude, violent, beat his wife, etc.
Answer: We are in a state that can explode. This is why this problem needs to be solved as a group, integrally: open courses at universities, on television, through housing boards, community centers, night schools, etc.
In other words, we must educate! First of all, we must educate women, because they will take the education further. Second, the same problem must be solved with men in a group who must be “forced” to attend a course.
We must lift people from the animate level to the “Human” level, because today they are a pitiful sight.
Women are better adapted, more capable and ready for changes, because they have a maternal instinct, a strong drive to live, and to survive no matter what. Overall, the woman is a strong element, and the man is a weak element, and he simply needs to be well organized.
There should be no parasites or loafers. If a person does not work, he needs to study. And a working person still needs to study, in the workplace, for example.
All of us need to complete a course of integral education and upbringing. Nothing can happen without it. This must become a government program. Even if it requires financial investment (I do not think it will need much), the immediate economic effect it will produce in every aspect of society will be many times more beneficial than any expenses.
The main thing is to obligate and require people to come and learn, and to not waste time. But this absolutely must be accompanied by a vast mass media campaign, advertising the method of integral learning as a national government program.
I think that this is very possible in Russia, which has such a high demand for a national idea. In general, this does not threaten the government in any way; they can continue to govern, because we are only speaking about the education of the society.
[82715]
From a “Talk on Integral Upbringing” 5/28/12
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Question: How should we build integral relations in the family? Which attributes and features are typical of man’s behavior and woman’s behavior from the integral perspective? Or perhaps there are no such discernments according to the integral method?
Answer: We have what we were given by nature. No matter how hard I try, I cannot be a woman, not in cleaning, washing, ironing, cooking, or in tidying up the whole house in ten minutes. It would take me five hours, and it would still be untidy. Nature hasn’t given man the same skills, the same attitude, the same movement towards what is called a “home.”
This is a woman’s issue, the female part, the female fate, the female area. A woman should manage the home. She should feel that she is the manager of the home and that it is hers.
A lack of education has created a totally different attitude towards the home and towards the family, but as a whole the concern for the home was given to women by nature. You can observe animals: each male mates and leaves, while the female gives birth to the offspring, takes care of them, licks and feeds them, teaches them how to hunt, how to be grown-ups, and sends them out into the world. We can see that in every species. That’s the way it is determined by nature, except perhaps for certain periods of time like when birds sit on eggs together until they hatch.
When we look at people, everything is organized this way, the man goes hunting while the woman guards the home, and you cannot escape this. The closer we are to nature, the more comfortable and pleasant we will feel and the stronger the agreement between us will be. In any case these attributes are part of us and we cannot suppress them in any way. Even if there are mutations, we still have our instincts, Hollywood, unisex, and other fashionable trends do not change a thing.
Therefore, we should arrange a place for everyone to talk about relative rights and duties, and the relationships between men and women. If we don’t have the right relationship, then there will be no family or anything except a negative population growth. So we have to put an end to this once and for all and not dance to the tune of different political parties that want to reach the government, trying to be so original by demanding rights for different groups.
I am not for limiting rights or for the oppression of any group in favor of the other. I am for learning from nature and being similar to it as much as we can; that’s all.
Second, our deck is arranged so that the man has to be the chief provider, and the woman has to take care of the family and educate the children. There is no way we can escape this! We see that if a woman doesn’t do that, then no one does. The result is that the next generation will be even worse than this generation. This means that we have to make sure that the woman will be free, not busy but actually free.
It isn’t that we lock her up in some domestic monastery or behind a locked door. On the contrary, she should study, go to the university at whatever age, and even all of her life. She should take different courses and constantly enrich her knowledge so that she will be an educational role model for her children and her husband. This means that a mother that feels as the real owner of the home should also feel that she is the backbone of the family from whom the whole family will learn about the world, about the right attitude towards life, about education, and everything else.
After all, a man is always under the influence of a woman. Who doesn’t listen to his wife and is secretly afraid of her? It is because everything comes from the mother; after all, we understand our psychology.
So it is very important that we constantly elevate the woman, educate her, and fill her. Through her, this fulfillment passes on to the rest of society. This means that she should take an active part in her own development and education, and also in the education and teaching of all the members of the family.
If we don’t have this revolution, then we will lose the family, the children, our population, society, etc. We can do all this through the woman. In order to do this, the media has to make a little effort. It should not be a government plan but a global one.
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From a “Talk on Integral Upbringing” 5/28/12
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