Question: How can we reach the innermost point from which we can rise above the ego? What is that point?

Answer: This point is my “Self.” What can be more precious to me in all of reality than my “Self”? We are still not aware of how extreme our selfishness, the egoistic tyranny, is. Nothing can compare to it.

Our mistake is that we usually compare and measure everything according to the physical, beastly, corporeal concepts of life and death. This drastically lowers our “expectations,” and often under the pressure of troubles a person is even ready to give up life, which seems worthless to him compared to his suffering. Many are ready to put an end to their lives because of the wrong standard, because of a “beastly” perspective on life.…

But if you measure your life with respect to eternity and wholeness, you cannot give it up. You cannot give it up since your true “Self” is hiding here, the most precious thing that you have, although you have not yet revealed it and have not compared it with the real standard, with eternal life, with the eternity and the power of the real creation and not with the corporeal life on the level of our world.

Question: Do I need a strong and secure environment into which I can “dive in” in order to give up my egoistic self?

Answer: We must understand that generally speaking, only the Light that comes from Above can help us here. In the meantime, we have not actually realized this and live in a lie, measuring everything with respect to corporeal life. When we begin to measure everything according to the spiritual standard, we will discover terrible depths, in which self-abnegation is utterly impossible.

Then you will see that the intervention of the upper force that is above you is necessary. You will finally understand that there is room for the upper authority.You will have such sensation for the first time, and this is already a new step along the way.
[105528]
From the 4^th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/18/13, “Introduction to The Book of Zohar”

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Baal HaSulam, “The Peace”: He believes that this world is not like an open store without an owner, but that there is an owner present, a shopkeeper, who stands in his store and demands of each customer the right price for the merchandise he is taking from the store…

Such a person is regarded as one who wishes to borrow. Thus, even before he stretches his hand to take from this world, which is the store, he takes it as a loan, to pay its price. 

Question: What is this loan?

Answer: The loan is a collection of forces, thoughts, and actions, correctly arranged in order to bestow. This “individual order” is exactly what you have to do in your state. You are given all that is required, a complete package deal.

However, the trouble is that you already have left this state. You already want to “debit,” to steal part of this loan. Well, this happens in general. Some organization demands a budget for lofty purposes, and afterward they do business “on the side” instead.

I don’t accuse anyone; we only have to draw a conclusion from this. This is how a person is built. This is our nature, and this happens everywhere in the world, in every nation. It happens even when someone speaks enthusiastically, he’s sure that he is truly and simply handling the means at his disposal. However, a different desire comes along with a different usage. It is natural that when a person receives millions, his desires heat up.

Generally, theft and corruption are natural things; they always have existed. In the past, leaders didn’t need to take anyone into account and did what they wanted, but today some things emerge on the surface. This is even though we still don’t understand where to find the correction.

The problem is only a lack of an environment that will support and hold you in the right state. If the environment were strong enough, you would correctly use a loan, which comes in response to a request that has been approved. You are not guilty; you simply are not connected to the right environment, which would be the one thing that would maintain the right approach for you.

Therefore, it is first necessary to build the right environment. Without this, there is no chance. This is so even if a person submits a truly justified request and receives the means correctly. A number of years go by, and they discover that he has accounts abroad or secret real estate investments or something else. And we ourselves are to blame. We didn’t investigate all the conditions, not at the time the loan was approved, but at the time it was received.

On the other hand, in spirituality, there are no mistakes like these. If you don’t prepare the environment, then your request simply is not accepted. You can knock on the door all you want, but no one will open it for you.

Question: Which is to say, without friends who are guarantors for me, I cannot receive any loan?

Answer: Right, this is because you intend to realize it from the start with unsuitable conditions.

Question: Which is to say, my request for receiving a loan needs to pass through the group?

Answer: Yes. I want to help the friends so much, to unite them, to see them as one body that I must do something, and then, with this, I raise pain through the group. This is not talking merely about a “transition,” rather it is about absolute despair that rips me apart. I am like a mother who suffers because she cannot feed her children. I turn for help with this and then receive the loan.

However, this is not a loan on our terms. The Creator wants to help the friends himself. Therefore, this is speaking here about the Torah. I receive the Light that Reforms and the Light that fills the Kelim. I receive this on condition that I truly have a desire, an urge to bestow. I’m boiling up, but I don’t know what to do. And then everything will be arranged for me: I will be given the understanding, the Kelim, the means, and all that is required.

Question: So, how do I ask ? To whom do I turn?

Answer: This is my internal appeal. Not everyone is prepared to express the burning, inner love. Sometimes, it is the opposite. From the outside, it seems that it is contempt.

Love doesn’t burst out like lava from a volcano. It is the opposite. In accord with the spiritual source, it always comes with limitation, concealment, with covers and with modesty. Don’t expect hugs and kisses from the friends. The love burns within, and outside of us is a screen and the Reflected Light, which is to say, something completely opposite. After all, the screen with the Reflected Light are built above the egoistic desire, dark and gloomy to death. Therefore, love always is covered with modesty. The screen itself is concealment.

So, we return to the loan from the Creator. I receive the power to bestow to the group from Him. I help the friends, unite them so that they will join together wholeheartedly, and I feel that the Creator becomes revealed in the connection between them, with a laughing, happy face.

This is all the realization of the action. His powers act on me inside and out. By constructing the vessel, I see these forces when He is revealed. So, what did I do by myself? In sum, I prepared a place for this revelation.
[105545]
From the 4^th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/19/13, “The Peace”

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Question: Why does it say that the picture of this world is fictitious and not real?

Answer: The picture of the world that appears before us is fictitious and not real because the Creator is always good and benevolent to us. Eventually, the created being will reveal the Creator’s love in everything. But in the meantime, having no choice, He must hasten us to develop and even threaten, pressure, and confuse us.

We do the same thing with children since otherwise, they will not develop. This is why the Creator treats us in the same way. The problem is that we don’t see who is taking care of us and we don’t know the plan of creation.

A baby also doesn’t understand what is going on, either. He doesn’t realize that his parents are giving him exercises; for him, it is simply a game. It is only when his mother or father begin to pressure him does he pay attention to them and begin to shout that Mommy is bad!

I never have heard a child shouting that Mom is good. He takes this for granted since it is obvious that she must serve him. But when she suddenly does something against his will, he resents it.

So, we must understand that the only way to advance is by exercises that are not very pleasant and will only get more complicated. Everything depends on our preparation and on our ability to recognize them. In fact, we are given a certain exercise every moment, and we can be constantly in the process of clarification. However, a person doesn’t make the right effort, and so the Creator’s stimuli accumulate and are felt eventually as a hard blow.

It is as if you have complaints about someone, but restrain yourself and suffer. You accumulate anger and frustration inside of you, instead of easily and immediately clarifying things the moment they come up. Eventually, however, you lose patience and explode, and this happens suddenly and unexpectedly and those around you don’t understand what is going on.

So, it is better not to come to such an outburst, but to be aware of what is going on all the time. This is possible only through mutual guarantee when everyone thinks about this and deals with it, when everyone wants to support one another. In fact, we are building the one, general vessel of the soul. A person has nothing that is private in spirituality.

The solution is only in connection, and it has to do with what I think about the friends and about the connection between us. This is the only thing we have to correct since this is how our soul is built.
[104963]
From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/8/13, Writings of Baal HaSulam

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Writings of Rabash, Volume 2, “What is the Prohibition to Greet Another Before Greeting the Creator, in the Work”: The most difficult part in the work is the order of the work that consists of two things that contradict one another, and it is hard to understand how they can both be true, when we attribute the work to the Creator, believing that the Creator accepts our work no matter how we see it.

This means that it doesn’t matter whether a person works for the greatness of reason and understanding, whether a person attributes the work to the Creator, which means that he works with the intention of in order to bestow; the Creator accepts his work willingly. This means that a person has to follow the right line that is considered wholeness, to pray to the Creator, and to thank Him, even if he doesn’t find any desire for spirituality in him. Otherwise, how can he thank the Creator and say that the Creator hears what he says to Him?

If he can thank the Creator, he feels joy and from “Lo Lishma (not for Her sake) he arrives at Lishma (for Her sake),” and thus he rises from his state of wholeness. Since the gratitude that he feels towards the Creator makes a person feel that he is whole, and to the extent  the joy he feels he continues, he is able to rise to the next level.

The state itself doesn’t change, it is constant. Only a person’s attitude towards it changes, his perception of it, and it happens to the extent that he clarifies and correctly interprets this state, his reaction to the constant state in which he exists all the time.

New Reshimot (spiritual records) are revealed in him each time, and he judges the upper Light, the level of bestowal that is revealed to him. So he is constantly going through inner changes, which means that his evaluation of the attributes such as bestowal, connection, and love, all the attributes that belong to spirituality, to the idea of the Creator, change as well.

This is revealed in a person’s shattered or partly corrected desires (vessels),and hence all the changes take place only internally. Therefore, everything depends on how he corrects his vessels and brings them closer to the Light. Everything depends on the equivalence of form, to the extent that the Reshimot that are constantly revealed match the Light. The only way to make them equivalent to the Light is by the environment that serves as an adapter between the Reshimot that are revealed and the Light.

If a person uses the environment and his Reshimot correctly, he can reach adhesion with the Light very quickly in every state. Then he can feel that his state is good. Of course, he does that not in order to feel good, but in order to resemble the Light and to detach himself from the egoistic accounts, to truly become the one who bestows. Here one ascends the levels of consciousness, of understanding, and of the appreciation of the Light.

We must tie these two sensations together, the two factors that contradict each other, the contradiction that we discover, and it’s only possible when a person transcends himself. On one hand, everything is “against” bestowal, and on the other, everything is “for” it, and a person doesn’t know what to do. This is the world; this is the way a person is internally, so how can we tie these two opposites? It’s impossible unless the third factor comes and decides between them. This requires studying and lots of experience so that a person will understand that this is the only way to advance.

On one hand, he feels absolute helplessness, tension and doesn’t understand how he can come out of this state and be saved from the threat of Pharaoh.”On the other, he understands that there is no room for such states in love and bestowal, where everything has to be nice, good, and perfect!

The world is divided into two armies: The forces of evil, conflict, hate, and separation are confronting the positive, good forces of connection and love, and there is nothing in between. All this is so that the third Participant will come and decide between them. Only the Creator can make peace between the two hostile parties, which is called “My sons have defeated me.” It says: “He who makes peace in Heaven will bring peace unto us.” This is already work in three lines.
[105552]
From the Preparation to the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/19/13

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Preparation to the Lesson

Writings of Rabash “Shlavei HaSulam,” “Concerning Love of Friends“

The Book of Zohar – Selected Excerpt, “Bereshit,” Lesson 4

Talmud Eser Sefirot, Vol. 3, Part 10, “Histaklut Pnimit,” Item 15, Lesson 35

Writings of Baal HaSulam “The Mutual Guarantee,” Lesson 2

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Question: How can the group practically bestow upon every member so that he will be able to accept every state as the good and benevolent?

Answer: It is possible only if the group thinks about everyone unequivocally, and there is no separation in any way. We have to be very careful of that and aspire for an equal attitude towards everyone.

I am not talking about a division according to professional occupations, or about some work meetings since this has nothing to do with the group work. But there has to be total equality as to what belongs to the group. It is a very important condition: Advancing towards equality is advancing upwards.

Suppose, you want to organize an event that will help you connect, and you invite 15 people. Of course you choose them according to your ego. Why don’t you invite other people? Because you value them less and feel that they are more distant from you. So, it turns out that instead of connection you bring about separation.

There are people in the group who are quiet and not dominant, and so we tend to forget them since our ego doesn’t recognize them. If you organize a special meeting especially for your work group that assembles according to their occupation, then it is normal. But if you just choose people you want to be together with, then you should be very careful so as not to harm the connection. Be careful of that since your future depends on that.
[105441]
From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/17/13, Writing of Rabash 

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Question: How should we look at personal problems through the group?

Answer: I have never come across any problem that doesn’t concern anyone but only the person himself. Try to give me such an example. You have a backache, for example. How can it relate only to you if you are a member in the group and now, because your back aches, you lie in bed instead of participating in some activity with us: the studies or the intention?

You have made us weaker, and we are all affected by your illness. What should we do if we are all in a boat and your job is to turn a certain handle, but you don’t do that? Everyone else is in their place, and there is no one to replace you. Without your participation, the boat will not be able to float properly.

Where have you seen any personal problems in an integral system in which everyone is totally connected to one another? It would be very interesting if you could give me such an example. It would mean that the Creator not only created the general soul, but something else in addition to it.

Even if you came in sick, but overcame your backache and turned the handle, but you didn’t feel that the Creator is good and benevolent, it also means that you are not with us, albeit in a different way. You cannot participate in our revelation of the Creator as the good and benevolent. So, what should we do with you?

From this it follows that there simply cannot be any personal problems in the integral system. Nothing is private! Every individual influences everyone and judges himself and the entire world to the scale of merit,

If someone’s back aches, it is exactly as if your own back aches. After all, you have to love your friend as yourself. In the integral system, it makes no difference where the ache or the flaw is—they belong to the whole system. It doesn’t matter where the illness is at all since because of that illness, the system cannot be perfect anymore. It makes no difference which screw is responsible for the general malfunction; the whole system doesn’t function properly now.
[104960]
From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/8/13, Writings of Baal HaSulam

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Question: Our task today is to think how we can help a person understand what he needs to change to feel better. How can we do this?

Answer: People should be treated by means of education. Their brain is affected, their system of perception, the system of analysis, conclusions, the system of realization—all this is affected by the terrible malignancy called “egoism” that eats on them from the inside.

First of all, we need to identify what kind of  terrible new growth this is, which we didn’t observe within ourselves before, or if we did, it wasn’t to such an extent it could be defined as fatal.

We need to understand the depth and breadth of the problem. After all, this is not a private issue of a certain country: Doctors are bad, patients are bad, or medical services are poor. This is a problem with a general health care system that follows the same principle as the rest of the world.

The same thing is within the economy, trade, and industry. For example, in a supermarket we are sold what spoils quickly because it’s advantageous for producers that we shop as often as possible and they want us to stay attached to the system. We are trained to use certain products. The same thing occurs at work, on vacation; everything is managed.
[105635]
From KabTV’s “The Medicine of the Future” 4/7/13

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Baal HaSulam, “Introduction to The Book of Zohar,” Item 44: When he begins to delve in Torah and commandments, even without any intention, meaning without any love and fear, as is fitting when serving the king, even in Lo Lishma, the point in one’s heart begins to grow and disclose its action.

When the point in the heart awakens in a person, he comes to an environment in which he is provided with all the conditions for his inner spiritual development. It is said that “the Creator puts a person’s hand on the good fate and tells him: Choose it.” This is exactly where his free will is: to advance to the center of the group and through the group to the Creator.

Then a person begins to understand the system, the “kitchen” where everything is “cooking.” From that point on, if he looks for how to focus correctly on the goal by using the influence of the environment, subduing himself to the environment, and yearning for the Creator through it, then his point in the heart expands and grows.

Here his basic participation with the intention that is not yet aimed at pure bestowal is enough. Even if a person doesn’t feel sorry about that yet and can’t think about that seriously, it’s still a start. If he already has a “point in the heart” and, most importantly, is already incorporated in the right environment that influences him, that’s development.

Even acts without an aim can purify one’s will to receive, but only in the first degree called “still.”

A person doesn’t have the right intentions yet and he can’t see himself as one who bestows yet, but he can at least choose to “lower his head” with all his might, to annul himself, and thus advance. The greatness of the still level is its ability to subdue itself before the group and the study. This level ends when a person totally annuls himself before what has been revealed to him on the current level. This is the climax of the still level.

Afterwards, on the vegetative level everything changes: If before he only had to restrain himself while rising above his ego, now he has to open up as much as he can. Such a change is typical in each transition from one level to another.

Question: So, it turns out that the still level is not as “coarse” as one may think?

Answer: I may not understand or feel anything and may not be able to participate in real bestowal, but I need to acknowledge the lack of feeling, mind, and the right attitude, the lack of anything spiritual. I am 100% outside the dimension of bestowal. So how can I enter it?

To do that, I have to annul everything that awakens within me. I don’t delete and don’t cover up my attributes, but I know that I can’t enter spirituality with them. So, I cling to the dominion of the environment. They tell me to join something, and I do that without understanding what it means. They tell me to read, to study, and so I read and study. They tell me to do something, so I do it. I do it specifically because I am told to do so. In other words, I subdue myself before the group and the study with all my might. I accept this dominion as I relinquish myself thus advancing to the correction of my still level.

After all, my still level can’t move by itself, and so the only way to do that is to have the friends move me from the outside. In order to do that, I have to be in their hands.

In this nobody has any obstacles. Everyone is capable to perform these actions upon himself. A person just annuls himself before others and depends only on this. Self-annulment automatically puts him into their hands. Later he will be asked to perform actions that are based on interdependence and cooperation, but on the still level he only has to renounce himself. The desire grows, the interruptions increase, there is greater confusion along with disagreement, and the answer to all that is self-annulment. One needs to lower his head time and time again and thus advance. This is the first phase on our way.
[105267]
From the 4^th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/17/13, “The Introduction to The Book of Zohar”

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