We have to accept that the spiritual path is continuous work. However, today, you must overcome the indifference, and tomorrow, you will have to overcome hatred, such strong hatred that you will be ready to do everything but that, the state in which it is beyond your powers to even think about the friends since it is worse than death for you. The friends will evoke such a terrible aversion in you. You will not be able to come in contact with them, to look at them, to think about them. However, at the same time, it is the same type of work, the recognition of the importance of the goal, the importance of the Creator, the importance of the friends, and the importance of the group.

We constantly must “stick” to the same line from morning to night, and, only thus, prepare ourselves for every lesson. Then, to the extent that we attain a certain level of connection and unity, we will discover the spiritual world in it. The level of the connection is the spiritual level that we have attained. Our collective feeling is called the “Creator,” stemming from the words “Come” and “See” (Bo – Reh). Where you can come and see it in the collective feeling. So, if we don’t work on it, there is nothing we can speak about. We must prepare ourselves to constantly be focused only on that.

If you don’t want that, you are wasting your time, and you’d better go and enjoy the worldly pleasures. If you don’t only make efforts in what’s important, then your entire spiritual path is a lie. It is better to enjoy life like “everyone else,” to understand more quickly that we finally should do something. Otherwise, it is as it is written: “A fool sits with folded hands and eats his own flesh.”

Rabash often used to say, “At least go and enjoy life,” since, when a person enjoys life, he thanks the Creator in his heart for having given him this life. You, however, torture yourself, eating yourself up and cursing the Creator. So, go have some fun, drink a beer with friends in the pub, take a walk, start making money, and enjoy life. Well, what’s the matter with you?

If not, we must be decisive in our work. If we have taken it upon ourselves to do something, then we must do what we have taken upon ourselves and not succumb to weakness. The main thing here is the feeling of responsibility. Mutual guarantee is actually mutual responsibility. I am responsible for everyone. If it were only about me, then I would have thrown everything away a long time ago. However, I am responsible for everyone. My conscience shouldn’t let me rest and relax.

So, I shouldn’t wait for special opportunities. I must start worrying now. How will I come to the lesson tomorrow morning? Am I ready to connect with the friends and demand the Light that Reforms? Do I want to create a “place” for adhesion with the Creator?

We need the greatness of the goal, the Creator’s greatness, to burn in us more and more strongly.
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From the 4^th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/19/12, “The Wisdom of Kabbalah and Philosophy”

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In the News (from CeBIT): “‘Shareconomy’ describes the societal shift from owning to sharing. According to Pörschmann, this is evident in several dimensions: ‘First, Shareconomy is profoundly influencing enterprise processes, because social media tools will become more and more popular. Second, the Internet is the place for teamwork, both in and outside the company. Partners, consultants, suppliers and customers will be more closely integrated as part of a networked process. The borders separating companies and organizations will become ever more transparent. Therefore, employees and managers must rethink and be prepared to share know-how, contacts and assets.’

“Modern tools that enable fast and comprehensive sharing are already reality in successful companies. …

“This is already apparent in the use of everyday products, where the strong trend is towards using instead of owning or renting instead of buying. ‘Car-sharing is becoming an increasingly popular form of mobility. Music portals based not on ownership but rather on time-defined usage are very popular,’ said Pörschmann.”

My Comment: In general, this is a socialistic principle. The decline in living standards forces us to be prepared to share what we have. Thus we will compensate for what is needed at an affordable price. So soon, we will come to the public (socialist) property. Nature pushes us to unite.
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Baal HaSulam, “The Wisdom of Kabbalah and Philosophy”: …for we do not define by name or word that which we do not attain. That is because a word designates some degree of attainment.

The root of everything is the unattainable and imperceptible essence of the Creator (Atzmuto). We never speak about it because something can be described something only on the basis of their attainment through our bodily senses when we analyze our sensations with our brain.

A person consists of two parts: mind and emotion. The emotional part is a desire. The part that measures and explores is the mind, which develops next to the desire. If we don’t experience any “feedback” from either of these two parts, it means that we are deprived of the ability to perceive. The “insight” happens in the desire that lies underneath a dry, mental analysis.

As it is said in the “Introduction to The Book of Zohar,” besides Atzmuto, there also exists an abstract form that we are unable to attain. As opposed to abstract form, both materialized form and matter are attainable. Thus, in Kabbalah, attainment occurs from bottom to top to the extent it is actually possible.

On the other hand, philosophers do not contemplate the steps of ascent; they talk about some “force” that is outside us and scholastically deliberate on it as if this kind of “research” is legitimate. This kind of approach has actually ruined philosophy. Today nobody takes it seriously. When it comes to abstract conversations, everybody hypothesizes as much as they want to. Moreover, this principle lies at the very foundation of philosophy; a person can build their own picture of the world based on speculation; it is “legal.” This “pluralism” has resulted in a fountain of fantasies and nothing is left of the serious real foundation.

The wisdom of Kabbalah, on the other hand, declares a very simple thing: Reality can be explored only by the observer, meaning, it can be researched only in conjunction with the explorer. Everything is evaluated through the observer and the picture that is created in the observer’s bodily sensors is in accordance with the law of similarity of properties. A person is comprised of both matter and form.

Matter is the desire to receive.

Form is the intention either for the sake of receiving or for the sake of bestowal.

We perceive reality through ourselves in accordance with the level of our ability to change. What is outside us, we just don’t know. Discoveries of Kabbalists can’t be applied to our personal research until we achieve the same level they did.

So, we use the wisdom of Kabbalah to attract powers from these steps, trying to reach them, like little children who strive to grow. In other words, we still use the wisdom of Kabbalah as a “special remedy” that is not clear to us yet, but it works. Then, when we attain revelation, we will research and apprehend the same phenomena inside our own vessels. At that time, Kabbalah books will help us examine ourselves and will direct our advancement.

But still, we never know what actually is outside us. Kabbalists who advanced further due to their internal changes tell us about some 125 steps of attainment and describe what they have perceived at each of these steps. They outline specific remedies that will allow us to widen our limits of perception. Their desires are vessels of the soul; they perceive something called “Divinity,” the power of bestowal that emerged in them to the degree of their similarity of properties with Divinity. When receiving desires shape themselves as bestowing ones, they feel that “something” is fulfilling them. This “something” is called the “upper force” or the “Light.” But again, that, too, is perceived only by the person.

So, the “Light” is a reaction that happens in our sensations, in our receiving desires, as it is being filled. In other words, the “Light” is a phenomenon in the vessel. Even the Light that in Kabbalah is called “external” is, in fact, located inside the vessels, only more distant from clear perception. One way or the other, it’s always about what is happening inside our sensations and desires. This is the way we advance.

Regarding Atzmuto: according to our logic, we say that there is a higher root. We never sense it, nor will we ever attain it; however, by of course, there must be the source of our existence, of our sensations, and all the changes in us. And yet, no matter what we feel, we feel it only in accordance with our own properties. That’s why the “Creator” (Boreh) means “Come and See” (Bo-Reh). This phenomenon I also perceive internally and Atzmuto is outside us.

The entire reality is divided into three parts:

A man

The fact that he feels

The source of his feelings, which is imperceptible

The approach of the science of Kabbalah calls upon everyone to study reality. After all,  there is the commandment, “Know your Creator and serve Him.” How? According to the principle “From Your actions we will know You.” Man changes himself and is constantly trying to come into agreement with the upper force and become similar to it. Then he feels the changes made in him, and according to these changes, begins sensing new phenomena. It is the upper force to which he aspired.

So the “Creator” is a new modified form clothed in  the changes that happen to us, the property of bestowal that is revealing itself within us. Subsequently, the wisdom of Kabbalah is very strict about its major rule: Never detach reality from the person comprehending it. Otherwise, we’ll end up being philosophers.
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From the 4^th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/5/12, “The Wisdom of Kabbalah and Philosophy”

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Question: In the popular book The Secret, author Rhonda Byrne outlined the methodology: The universe is joy and bliss, and in order to be acceptable to it, we have to be joyful and happy. We have to ask the universe to give us everything we want and behave “as if” we have already have it and are very happy about it.

Answer: It’s good comforting advice. Kozma Prutkov used to say: “If you want to be happy—be happy.” By the way, it’s very true.

As children, we imagine ourselves playing in our next developmental step; if we do so, then we are being pulled up to it. The question is: How do we envision our next phase? Is it a step of bestowal, love, and connection with the rest of the world? Is it about liaisons with everybody who are a part of one indivisible, integral whole? Or it is a stage of receiving overall energy, universal love, and mutual understanding? If we visualize our next step for the sake of uniting with and bestowing to others, then imagining this state is very beneficial for us.

Comment: The authors of The Secret do not explain this. They know nothing about it. So the people who try to live up to the advice given in the book complain that they constantly forget that they are happy, and they frequently become upset about minor things.

Answer: This happens because they don’t have a methodology, and they do not participate in group trainings.

If they had the correct group training, then they would naturally move in the right direction, not because of the guidance that is detailed in the book, but due to the correct training. Visualizing ourselves as happy through bestowal and love, by building a system of mutual connection among everybody is actually the correction of egoism.

Even if the authors of the book created groups that I just described, they wouldn’t be able to provide pertinent guidance to them since they have never experienced the sensation of the upper space, the next dimension, the level that is called “Man.” They simply won’t be able to direct these groups; they don’t know how to work with them. All they would do is provide them with a psychological practicum, nothing more.

Comment: They are trying to talk about absolute, unselfish love without having any idea of what that is.

Answer: They can copy us as much as they want. They are only helping us by gradually preparing people and setting up various types of analyses that will eventually facilitate people’s understanding of our methodology.

I wish them luck. Why not? They somehow “evoke” people to search for a way out of their animate state; at least they lead them somewhere. I don’t think that anything that occurs in the world is wrong. All that exists is a necessary step for something else…
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From KabTV’s “Conversations with Michael Laitman” 11/3/12

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Preparation to the Lesson

“Introduction to the Study of the Ten Sefirot,” Item 104, Lesson 27

The Book of Zohar – Selected Excerpt, Parashat “Naso,” Item 171, Lesson 10

Talmud Eser Sefirot, Vol. 3, Part 9, Item 6, Lesson 5

Writings of Baal HaSulam “The Wisdom of Kabbalah and Philosophy“

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Baal HaSulam, “Introduction to the Study of the Ten Sefirot,” item 98: Now you can see that the question the interpreters asked about the Mitzva of love, saying that this Mitzva is out of our hands, since love does not come by coercion and compulsion, is not at all a question. This is because it is entirely in our hands. Every person can labor in the Torah until he finds the attainment of His open Providence, as it is written, “I labored and found, believe.”

When one attains open Providence, the love extends to him by itself through the natural channels. And one who does not believe that he can attain through his efforts, for whatever reason, is necessarily in disbelief of the words of our sages. Instead, he imagines that the labor is not sufficient for each person, which is the opposite of the verse, “I labored and did not find, do not believe.” It is also against the words, “those that seek Me shall find Me”; specifically, those that “seek,” whoever they are, great or small. However, he certainly needs to labor.

It is because exertion is the “vessel.” It isn’t just a prerequisite like in our world, when I can borrow from the bank or steal if I don’t have money to buy something. In attaining spirituality I have no choice, the money has to be mine! This is my “covering” (Kisufa, from the same Hebrew root as money) over the desire to receive, the Masach (screen). It has to be mine, since otherwise, I won’t be able to feel the filling.

We can “borrow” from the Creator and then repay Him by our exertion, as it says: “The store is open and the hand is writing.” But I can only borrow as help for my development and not for the revelation. In order to attain revelation, I must have my own vessel.

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From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/20/12, “The Introduction to the Study of the Ten Sefirot”

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Question: How can we increase the feeling of mutual dependence in the group?

Answer: This also depends on the environment. If the environment convinces me that I depend on it, then I will be convinced. If it doesn’t convince me, I will not be convinced. There has to a massive impact upon a person in order to convince him that by himself he means nothing and will not be able to do anything, that the spiritual path is possible only by incorporating in others, only through connection.

We have to think about this daily, for many hours—that the spiritual feeling is only possible in a whole vessel. We know that there was the shattering of the worlds. The same matter that we feel now doesn’t actually exist; it is imaginary. Even modern physics has already reached this conclusion. There is only a desire, which means a force, and we have to discover this force as one as it was created by the Creator.

We have to aspire to discover it as one whole, by imagining it not in the form of corporeal bodies, but in the form of desires, forces, one collective general desire to enjoy. It doesn’t matter that this force is revealed to us in different manners and that they are constantly changing. These are all desires to enjoy that must be connected. The moment we connect them, we immediately receive a filling.

The connection is only possible through concessions, by “the first restriction (Tzimtzum Aleph)” of our ego, and after our self-annulment there should be a connection, which is already incorporating in others, an action that is opposite to the shattering, bestowal.

I have to receive from someone in order to bestow upon him.

We use words from this world to describe the connection, but in fact these are Kabbalistic terms that refer to the correction of the desires. Don’t look at people, at the corporeal bodies around you. It is space that is full of separate forces that have to find a way to connect. The connection between them already exists; they only need to reveal it!

By discovering this connection, they discover their inclination, which is considered their exertion: “I labored and I found.” But if you don’t discover this connection, it remains concealed from you. Everything that the Creator has created is concealed from us. He is waiting for us to discover this reality by ourselves, by our exertion, which means willingly.

The Creator created the initial desire and developed it to a whole reality. But then He concealed this reality and left you only a point. Now you need to develop a desire inside you by working with the group and to discover the reality that was created by the Creator. It turns out that it is as if you are creating it yourself, by the desire that you receive from the environment.
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From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/20/12, “The Introduction to the Study of the Ten Sefirot”

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The Book of Zohar, “Neso,” Item 99: “…and they shall stand at the foot of the mountain.” This is how they will be in the last redemption, under the sages of the Torah, as a slave who walks by the feet of his master’s horse.

Question: How can we bring the slave to walk by the feet of his master’s horse and not the other way around?

Answer: It is up to us. Baal HaSulam talks about it at the end of the “Introduction to The Book of Zohar“,saying that if we divide our internality and externality correctly in the work, then accordingly things will be divided in our world. If, on the other hand, we don’t divide things correctly internally, then the world will not be divided correctly.

So all the attacks on the world indicate that you are not divided correctly internally; your inner spiritual concepts such as bestowal, love, Creator, group, are not above the corporeal ones. As a result, you turn the world “on its head” by lowering the internality and raising the externality as something that is important.

If you divide everything inside you correctly, no one in the world will be able to resist it. So let’s raise spirituality in our eyes, let’s raise it above us. Bestowal, love of others, connection—should all be placed above everything, and then there will be no resistance on the outside, since you are aiming according to the upper force.

Today you are denounced and rejected from every direction, only in order to evoke you to do this work so that you will raise the internality above the externality.

Question: How can I let “Israel” rule inside me?

Answer: It means placing bestowal above receiving, “faith above reason,” the group above myself. In fact it is actually the group above me, but in constant thought, in the daily care. The main struggle is here inside, in order to constantly raise bestowal above receiving, the Creator’s greatness above the created being’s greatness, the greatness of the group over my own greatness.

Question: How can we fight this war together?

Answer: By mutual help. This is all our work.

Yesterday, for example, you didn’t manage to hold on to an intention, and today? Are you holding on to one intention throughout the day? Are you filled with the Creator’s greatness, so that by the evening it will be your only concern? Does everyone worry about others, about the fact that you should all think about the same thing? The Creator’s greatness is the deepest, innermost point of our connection. It is there in that point that we meet Him.

In one word, if you don’t advance, you will not hear anything new…
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From the 2^nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/20/12, The Zohar

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Opinion (Angela Merkel, German Chancellor): “German Chancellor Angela Merkel rejected suggestions on Friday that the worst was over for the euro zone, saying the currency bloc faced years of painful reforms, slow growth and high unemployment.

“’One reason I am careful with my forecasts is the adjustment process, the changes that we are going through are very difficult and painful, Merkel said.

She said the bloc would not see the fruits of labor market and other structural reforms for several years, with 2013 shaping up as another challenge.

“‘Next year, and the ECB president said this, we will have very low growth rates, we will see negative growth in some countries, and we can expect very high unemployment levels to continue,’ Merkel said.”

My Comment: No matter how gut-wrenching, they must move from propagandists to realists. Gradually, we will all get accustomed to the fact that we do not rule the world, but it is controlled by Nature, according to a strict program. Get to know it, and understand how to adapt to it; it is possible by  studying Kabbalah.
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