Question: How can I become more sensitive to the fact that I am a component of the integral system?

Answer: This sensitivity develops when a person tries to devote more and more attention to his connection to the group. He checks himself whether he sees the friends as his beloved children, whether he has sweet thoughts about them, and whether he wants to feel their suffering as if it were his actual, physical pain.

A person must try to increase his sensitivity and his attitude and decipher the concept “as yourself.” It isn’t easy since a person manages to do that for a moment and then, the next moment, he falls and is detached from this feeling since our ego doesn’t want to suffer for the whole world. However, a person still advances time after time.

The Masach (screen) he acquires helps him to share everyone’s suffering and at the same time, justify the Creator and rejoice. The spiritual Masach works that way, giving a person the endurance without lowering his sensitivity to suffering. Thanks to that, he can experience very deep feelings that can be both good and bad.

In our work, we either sweeten or cover up our suffering through the mind, through the thought that many suffer from the same things that we do and that it isn’t our personal pain. In a time of war, for example, when many are killed, it is easier to bear the loss. It isn’t by chance that it is said, “Misery loves company.”

That’s the way it is in our world, but in spirituality, it is impossible to reduce your worries this way since you feel everyone as yourself. However, the Masach brings you closer to the Creator. It is absolutely impossible to advance if you don’t identify with the Creator since your perception becomes very sensitive. The depth of the good and bad feelings in your soul is unbearable, and they overflow beyond the boundaries of this world.

Although there is also such terrible suffering in our world that can drive a person mad, our sense organs cannot bear that. So, only in the connection with the Creator, in the Light of bestowal, can you be so greatly impressed that it exceeds the boundaries of the corporeal world. Thus, the connection is an essential precondition for the spiritual revelation.
[104956]
From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/8/13, Writings of Baal HaSulam

Related Material:
Sensitivity to the Creator
The Soul is The Tool For The Revelation of the Creator
It All Starts With Gratitude

Filed under: Daily Kabbalah Lesson, Group Work, Inner Work, Q&A, Suffering - No Comments →

When we begin to investigate our nature, the major breakthrough in discovering the truth is to stop focusing on our animal degree with which we usually identify ourselves: with our body and all its desires, thoughts, and longings. This is a primitive egoism, inherent in the whole human race, and every inhabitant of this world feels its manifestations to a higher or smaller degree, in various forms—everyone according to his nature.

We need to consider the history of humanity not as a life of animal bodies, but as the development of desire on the speaking degree. When we look at the world, we see how difficult people’s life is, how much they need to fight for it and apply efforts. Everyone is fighting for his existence. But why is it arranged so? It is all so that we understand the futility of our desire.

It’s no accident that we complain about life and suffering so much. This life intentionally forces us to suffer so that we decide that our egoism—our desire to enjoy—is killing us, and we then want to rise out of it to the next degree. If we don’t pay attention to bodies but look at the common desire, we will see that it grows from epoch to epoch and as it grows, it suffers more and more, more qualitatively.

Although a person has all the material things, his desire has grown to a more human level, and he doesn’t feel the satisfaction of a well-fed life. If once people were fighting for a piece of bread, today they don’t die of hunger but suffer from other causes.

In this way the common desire of which we are part develops and advances and, as a result brings us to the need to solve this problem. It’s impossible to continue living inside of this egoism that is born only to suffer. There is nothing else to do but to decide that we desire to rise above it, to grow in a different direction.

We don’t want to increase this desire further so that instead of a hundred we will want two hundred, and according to this, will double our suffering, then will want four hundred and will suffer even more. We need to use our desire differently, not to try to fulfill the animal body, but our true body that is outside of this animal: to rise above the animal—above the horse—to the level of the rider. This task should be the goal of our life.

Humanity reveals this and is now at a crossroads. It gradually begins to realize that it will bring itself to total destruction if it doesn’t change its nature. And we have the knowledge and understanding as to what needs to be done. We have the method that we try to realize for ourselves and to use as an example for the entire world, becoming a light to all the nations.

We want to break away from egoism that states “I will reign!” and forces us to serve our animal body; we want to rise from its degree and connect to the human within us. This human being within us does not exist; there is only a point from which we must develop it. This spark, called the “point in the heart,” exists in every person. But there are people in whom it burns and requires its realization. That’s why, around us around throughout the whole world, there are people who are able to realize this opportunity and build from this point the rider, the human, meanwhile hidden within it like in a drop of semen.

It’s necessary to implant this drop in the womb, which is the group. And when we adhere to the group, like a drop of semen to the uterus, then from this adhesion we start to get the upper force, the revelation of the Creator. There are three components: my drop, my group, and the Creator, who is revealed in it. Then I start receiving nourishment nourishment and strength through this group, and thus I grow.

In reality, I grow due to the fact that through the group I receive the force of the Creator; my desire to enjoy is also growing and seemingly wants to intercept me. But due to the fact that I draw the Light that Reforms to it, this raw, formless material begins to acquire the form of man, Adam, similar (Domeh) to the Creator.

I don’t know what it means to be like the Creator, and I feel various disturbances. But these very disturbances show me the form in which I should resist them, to ask adherence to the group and demand the influence of the Creator. Due to this, my desire begins to take a human shape. It’s just as the embryo passes through the different stages of its growth, undergoes all kinds of changes and takes different forms until it finally looks like a human being. Thus, we reach a state of readiness to be born in the spiritual world. And the very first stage is to adhere to the uterus, that is, the group, and to try to get nourishment through it from Above, the Light that Reforms.
[106245]
From the Men’s Convention “The Next Step” 4/26/13, Lesson 1

Related Material:
Growing In The Group
Finding The Force That Balances The Ego
Voluntary Slavery: Performing The Laws Of Nature

Filed under: Conventions, Egoism, Evolution, Group Work, Inner Work - 1 Comment →

As we ascend 125 spiritual degrees, we return to an “embryonic” state again and again, at deeper and higher levels. This is the special ladder in which every level of self-annulment takes its own form, with its unique characteristics.

And this is why the embryo submits to constant changes throughout its growth until it becomes similar to the upper one in its self-annulment, thereby completing the first stage. In this stage, the lower one is carrying out only its first self-annulment: It accepts everything that the upper one does, sends, or says to it as something perfect, even though it may seem to the lower one that it’s against it, that it’s repulsive to its mind and feeling.

Then when it completes the stage of conception, it actually begins to nullify itself by constructing the head of its Partzuf. It is born with its head turned downwards, that is, in self-annulment, and it begins to raise it, that is, to accept the mind of the upper one instead of its own. In other words, now it works actively against its own mind and feeling, and not only nullifies itself, but checks with the upper one at every step.

And even if it doesn’t agree with the upper one, whose words seem to him absolutely illogical, contradictory, and inadequate, it still it accepts them; this is already actual self-annulment. Before, in the stage of conception, it acted without examination, and now it accepts the mind and feeling of the upper one in defiance of its own.

This way, gradually, it constructs the head of the Partzuf and becomes similar to the upper one in terms of its inner program, its vessels (desires). Eventually, on a certain stage it is able to replace the upper one in all acts of the latter.

This is the order of the degrees, and we rise in them through the power of resistance. Baal HaSulam tells a parable about a servant and the ministers, when the king wanted to place the servant as head of the ministers. In order to do this, he told one of them who was skilled in buffoonery to pretend that he was the leader of the enemies and the bandits so that, through fighting with them the person could examine himself as to what degree he could “protect the king,” meaning to adhere to the mind of the upper one. After all, when the king’s assistant dresses like a criminal, it is not easy to recognize this. On the contrary, a person always thinks that he is right, and he needs a strong power of overcoming to rise above reason, not like it was on the first stage.

And this is the state that we call the “second conception.” After all, even though the person matured, came out of the embryonic stage and infancy, the conception continues even here: the actions are the same but on a new level. Now he actually nullifies himself in order to be similar to the upper one in practice.
[106266]
From the Men’s Convention “The Next Step” 4/26/13, Lesson 2

Related Material:
The Embryo’s Worries
Learn To Work With The Spiritual Head
The Decimal System Is In The Basis Of The World

Filed under: Conventions, Inner Work - No Comments →

Convention in New Jersey, Day 2, Lesson 3 

Convention in New Jersey, Day 2, Workshop 2

Convention in New Jersey, Day 2, Lesson 4

Convention in New Jersey, Day 2, Workshop 3

Convention in New Jersey, Day 2, Lesson 5

Filed under: Conventions, Workshops - No Comments →

Listen to an Audio Version of the Blog
Download: MP3 Audio
[audio:http://files.kabbalahmedia.info/audio/eng_o_rav_2013-05-11_declamation_blog-rav_full.mp3 title=’11.5.13′]

Filed under: Audio Version of the Blog - No Comments →

Suppose I hurt someone. Can he love me in return instead of feeling resentment and hate towards me? For what? Maybe I am bigger and smarter. Or maybe he loves me since by the blows I want to bring him to the good, to something special and sublime?

For example, I pressure my little son to study so that he will grow smarter and become a “great man.” He may not like that now since he may want to play, but I oblige him to study.

In response he doesn’t love me, but hates me. However, later as a result of my blows he grows smarter and thanks to the study develops internally. I force him to develop, and with time he understands that I do it for his own good. Yes, I pressure him and force him to follow the hard way, but it doesn’t mean that I don’t love him, as he previously thought. No, I do it this way because I want what is best for him and I suffer even more than he does because of my toughness, but I simply have no other choice.

So, the Creator has no other choice either: This is the only way He can create the created being. Only then, as he develops, he will turn to the Creator not because of the blows or the pleasures that come from Him, but in a different purposeful manner, understanding that the Creator awakens him to exert and to ascend, to reach eternal, perfect life, to come to eternal understanding, and to reach a new, special level.

When he reaches that he already has two types of nature:

1. The feelings of pleasure and suffering that come from the Creator.
2. And above them, a new love that he feels for the Creator, instead of the hate he felt before.

This is how the created being becomes independent of his initial nature and receives a second nature.

In this world I sometimes also want people to love me, not because I am nice and good, but that they will love me just as I am, even if I treat them badly. I want you to love me and to appreciate me, although I treat you toughly and I cause you pain. I want to you to love me not because of how I treat you and others, but because of who I am.

It’s somewhat like the game that the Creator plays with us when He establishes direct relations with us and at the same time allows us to focus on another “direct line.” It’s like the relationship we see between parents and children, when the parents love the children although they cause them great troubles and worries. It says: “Love will cover all the sins.”

Thus we can understand the game that the Creator plays with us. All our work involves transcending the body that feels only pleasure or pain, establishing the right attitude towards our Teacher, who teaches us to transcend our “animal,” and appreciating His essence: Why does He do that and for whom? He does it only for our sake.

It says that He suffers more than we do since He has to conceal Himself and to put our “animal” part through different sufferings. He does that so that we will transcend this level and become human beings, sublime, eminent, mature, and developed. He wants us to appreciate His attitude according to its essence and not according to how He evokes us to transcend the “animal,” ignoring the pleasures and the sufferings that He intentionally sends us, and see everything with regards to the goal.

In Kabbalistic terms it means that we perform a restriction (Tzimtzum) on the “animal” feeling of pleasure or pain and aim only at the goal, that is, we perform Zivug de Hakaa (coupling by striking) above all the corporeal pleasures in order to be only in mutual bestowal with the Creator, regardless of all my “animal” pleasures and sufferings. This is already a different, higher level, in which I establish my connection with the Creator according to how much we both think about this connection, about the unique goal, about the special state.

Coming back to the example of the father and son: When the son already understands why the father treats him toughly and forces him to study, he transcends the sufferings and rises to a new level of relationship with his father, as they both worry about his success. Thanks to this they are in unity, in adhesion, and in a common intention; they are connected and understand one another. This is already a spiritual level, the unity of spirit, despite the pain and the limitations that the son has experienced by his father on the corporeal level.

These two levels are essential since otherwise the father and son will not be able to establish a real, personal, inner connection between them. Without the spiritual connection they will be connected only by what they receive from one another, which is on the “animal level,” where the created being is undoubtedly operated by the Creator and remains dependent forever. This example clearly explains the basis of our connection with the Creator.
[107093]
From a Talk On Preparation for the Congress in New Jersey, 5/10/2013

Related Material:
Roadmap To The Creator
Unnecessary Sufferings
The Creator’s Game

Filed under: Conventions, Education, Inner Work, Spirituality - No Comments →

Question: In integral education, we assign couples to systematically do unity exercises. A little later, when they come together, we discover that all couples understand the assignment differently.

Answer: Very well! Let them discuss it and complement one another. This will be very interesting because now every one of them will be able to understand other people on the street and anywhere else. They will become top psychologists.

Comment: But this is where it stops, people restrain themselves, for we teach them that it is forbidden to share personal experiences.

Answer: There is nothing personal here. A person rises above himself.

What is personal in going to the doctor and telling him that my stomach hurts and that my stool is loose, excuse me for saying this. And here I say: “I am incredibly irritated and I hate him.” It’s the same thing, but on a different level. What is unnatural and personal, human about this?

A person has received all of this from nature. Only when it comes to the corporeal level, he received problems with food intolerance, and here he also has received the same problems with “food intolerance,” but on the spiritual level, and is unable to tolerate another person. Here it’s not a piece of meat that he is unable to tolerate, but his partner. It’s the same thing! And we must very naturally turn ourselves inside out in every case.

This is why we rise above ourselves and learn about us, this is the real self analysis. This is exactly what we need to reach, otherwise we will not know how to connect between ourselves. All of us need to be this kind of psychologist, and even more than a regular psychologist.

We begin to discover that we and the society are a single organized system: how to enter it, how to build it, and how to be interconnected. We must feel where nature has allocated a niche for every one of us, how we have to communicate with one another.

Here we cannot do without at least gradually beginning to open up to other people.
[106996]
From a Talk on Integral Upbringing, 04/04/2013

Related Material:
Homework For Two
We Are So Close That Words Are Not Necessary
Talks About A New Life, Episode 1

Filed under: Education, Family, Integral Upbringing, Q&A - No Comments →

Question: What should my prayer, MAN, in the group of ten be?

Answer: A prayer, MAN, depends upon the state that you are in. You may be asking something from them and they may be asking something from you, and you operate mutually in relation to one another. Or you may be already connected and together ask from the upper one who is in the group of ten.

You say: “The Creator is in the connection between us.” This connection between us is the mother’s womb, it’s ZAT (the lower seven) of Bina, our upper one. There is no other upper one but our connected group. But we are not connected yet, and so we turn to our future, connected, and corrected form that is our next, higher level. We turn to it and to the Creator who is concealed in it. This means that the prayer, MAN, can be aimed from each of you to others, or from all of you towards your future upper form.
[107009]
From the 3rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/6/13, TES

Related Material:
Equality Is A Gift From Above
A Whole Group Of Ten
A Common Prayer To Heal The Sick Soul

Filed under: Daily Kabbalah Lesson, Group Work, Inner Work, Prayer and Intention, Q&A, The Tens - No Comments →

Listen to an Audio Version of the Blog
Download: MP3 Audio
[audio:http://files.kabbalahmedia.info/audio/eng_o_rav_2013-05-10_declamation_blog-rav_full.mp3 title=’10.5.13′]

Filed under: Audio Version of the Blog - No Comments →

Convention in New Jersey, Day 1 “Importance of the Gathering” 

Convention in New Jersey, Day 1, Lesson 1

Convention in New Jersey, Day 1, Workshop 1

Convention in New Jersey, Day 1, Lesson 2

Filed under: Conventions, Workshops - No Comments →