Question: What does it mean to use the teacher in order to connect with the upper level?

Answer: To use the teacher means to follow the teacher’s recommendations and commandments. The teacher recommends that the student should work on his connection with the friends and engage in the dissemination of this method, of integral education—this includes working on preparing the material and disseminating it—and a person’s incorporation in the group. But he should do all that thinking that by this he brings his teacher contentment.

It’s a very simple system. There is my group of ten and we have to be impressed by one another in order to connect together to a higher level, which is called a teacher, Rav (Rav stands for one who is greater, which means an upper level). We want to overcome and to fulfill the gap between our level and his, which means to ascend.

But how can I ascend if I am repulsed by the upper level? I have to see it as grace, as extremely attractive, and so I have to be impressed by the friends as for the greatness of the upper level. If I can imagine by myself that this level is great and that it contains everything that is good, then I probably don’t think about it correctly, but quite the opposite.

This is called using the teacher’s body, which provides external help which you are sure is his desire. The teacher says what and how we should do it: how to study, how to connect, how to disseminate the method, and according to which criteria we should exist.

Question: How can we check that we are already in contact with the teacher?

Answer: You can only check this when you have the recognition on the level of the teacher.
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From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 6/05/13,  Writings of  Baal HaSulam, “A Speech for the Completion of The  Zohar”

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Question: Is it possible to realize integral unity not just among the workers in the factories, but within companies on the managerial level?

Answer: Yes. We have already tried to institute the integral method among school teachers, factory directors, mayors, and all kinds of political parties who are in an adversarial relationship with each other, not to mention school students, college students, and so forth. And we have always achieved success. Always! Which is to say, the right presentation of questions, the discussion in which incidentally two or three of our representatives take part, wonderfully elevate the person and he becomes completely different.

Therefore it’s necessary to arrange workshops for company managers also, for in spite of it all, they belong to a single collective body, and then we must begin to create an internal, mutual understanding between them. They will see how much easier and more pleasant it will be for them to solve problems after the workshop, for credibility is created among them.

It’s as if we are organizing a single mind, a single heart, a single feeling, that is already operating on the next level. Certainly they will get results and reach decisions that they didn’t even consider before.

They will understand how it’s possible to achieve an optimal variant so that every one of them will also benefit without having to annoy each other. Life becomes simple and easy.
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From KabTV’s “Through Time” 3/17/13

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Preparation to the Lesson

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Writings of Rabash, “Igrot,” Letter 16

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The Book of Zohar — Introduction, “The Vision of Rabbi Chiya,” “You Are Partners with Me,” Item 68, Lesson 29

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Talmud Eser Sefirot, Vol. 3, Part 10, “Histaklut Pnimit,” Item 19, Lesson 56

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Writings of Baal HaSulam “Peace in the World,” Lesson 2

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Listen to an Audio Version of the Blog
Download: MP3 Audio
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Question: In what intention do we need to be to correct the world during the upcoming convention?

Answer: If we are connected with each other well and strongly, with the intention for our goal, in common mutual bestowal, this will definitely reach the world, and it will start to change.

The fact is that we are connected together through the same inner system. What we study in Kabbalah: Sefirot, Partzufim, the worlds—all these are connections between us. They are not somewhere in outer space: This is our real connection.

Revealing it in the groups of ten, we suddenly see that there are the circles of the worlds between us that connect us, how we influence these connections, and they affect us, and the Light is manifested between them—this is the manifestation of the Creator, His revelation.
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From the Virtual Lesson 6/2/13

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Question: It seems to me that we have been working like in a group of ten in our small group for a long time because we have to nullify ourselves before each other. What is the best way to do this?

Answer: I believe that we have to nullify ourselves always—a group has to feel like one whole. Without achieving “one” instead of “ten,” without uniting in one whole, we will not feel even the smallest spiritual Light because it is manifested in unity. The group of ten must unite into “one”—from “we” to “one.”
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From the Virtual Lesson 6/2/13

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In the News (from ChicagoBooth): “For all the progress women have made in the past few decades—in education, work force participation, and earnings—a gender gap remains. Research by Marianne Bertrand, Chris P. Dialynas Distinguished Service Professor of Economics, suggests that this may be due to the societal expectation that a woman make less money than her husband. …

“The notion that a man should earn more than his wife not only impacts marriage rates, the researchers show, but also influences how much a married woman works outside the home and how household chores are divided. Moreover, women who deviate from that norm pay a social price. …

“A woman outearning her husband could even doom the marriage, as the researchers report this ‘increases the likelihood of divorce by 50 percent.’

“When a married woman has a career outside of the home, she may opt for less demanding and lower paying jobs in order to appear less ‘threatening’ to her husband. Or, she may choose to focus entirely on child rearing, and work part-time outside the home or not at all. Such women ‘distort labor market outcomes,’ the economists conclude. …

“Moreover, wives who earn more often end up doing more of the household chores, not less. … “One explanation for this, the researchers suggest, is that a wife making more money is doing more chores to assuage her husband’s unease. But serving as both the primary breadwinner and the primary homemaker may be draining. That, the researchers point out, ‘may be one of the mechanisms behind our results on divorce.’—Emily Lambert.”

My Comment: Once we establish balance with nature, meaning that we will work only to the extent of maintaining a rational lifestyle, the concept of earning will disappear; a career will be the notion that brings benefit to society; everyone will be able to give and receive without causing jealousy; the basis of inequality will disappear.
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Opinion (Yevgeny M. Primakov, Russian politician and diplomat, academician, member of the Russian Academy of Sciences, served as the Russian Foreign Minister, Prime Minister of Russia): “Europe shows that no integration can exist without supranational structures. Now in the EU as a whole, things are bad, but I do not think it will lead to the end of the EU. There is a greater need for supranational structures, in which countries pass some sovereignty.

“These national structures manage the banking environment, the budget process of all the members of this union. If this does not exist, the integration will not deepen. It is important that all the EU countries understand that we need supranational structures. But the EU has expanded too fast – you cannot accept many countries in the integration process at once; they sink the union.”

My Comment: The problem is not in the speed of entering the supranational union but in the readiness of its potential members for integration, and this is possible only after implementing the course of integral education for the masses in these countries. Any union will break without changing relationships between nations.
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Question: How can we acquire the integral approach with regard to the whole world to all of reality?

Answer: Imagine that you tell someone about your work place, about the place where you live, and about the world in general. You are not required to make any special efforts since it’s your life, and you feel that the world is yours. You “breathe” it and so you can wander around in this inner picture mentally and describe it in words.

We should also see the inner picture of the integral world in which we discern all the details and the connection between them. The same rules operate here too. There are states in which I can follow the general connection between certain phenomena, but the details of the mutual cooperation are still unclear since I have not yet entered this area. I see certain parts in general lines and they are relatively understood, but when it comes to individual parts, there are problems and I am not sure about what is going on.

This is the process in which I gradually penetrate more deeply and discover more subtleties. It’s as if I fly in a spaceship towards earth or check the scale of a map on the Internet until I “land” in a certain part.

But there are also exceptions: In our world we see bigger areas but fewer details, and when we get closer, we see more details but a smaller area. In spirituality, however, it’s not so, there both the characteristics of quantity and of quality of the picture of the world gradually increase. I encompass the whole system at the same time including its separate attributes; it’s because in this system every detail includes all the other details.

By this wonderful spiritual “patent” I see the general picture and each of its details as one, exactly the same.

Question: How can I become more integral? How can I increase the sensitivity of this perception in me?

Answer: Ask for it. There is no other means. No matter what you do, add a request to it that is as clear as possible and you will see how it works.
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From the 3^rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 6/05/13, Writings of Baal HaSulam

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From Rabash’s Article “You Stand Today, All of You”: …This is the meaning of what is written, “You stand today, all of you,” meaning everything you went through, all the states you have experienced—states of Gadlut or states of less than Gadlut, which were considered intermediate or so. You take all those details and you do not compare one degree to another because you do not care for any reward, but only for doing the Creator’s will.

…This means that then the Creator makes a covenant with him. In other words, precisely when one accepts His work without any conditions and agrees to do the holy work without any reward, which is called “unconditional surrender,” this is the time when the Creator makes a covenant with him.

…When two people see that they love each other, they make a covenant between them that their love will always stay.

At each level, a person experiences a state of confusion and powerlessness. One goes through these states when one doesn’t realize where exactly one should go and how to advance.

All of a sudden, we feel that we are not capable of making the slightest movement, nor do we understand why our vitality and spirit are gone. We read, but see nothing compared to what we saw yesterday or the day before. Sometimes, we don’t even remember what happened yesterday or the day before. We become disconnected.

In other words, we go through multiple states of closeness and distancing from spirituality. It seems to us that our union with the Creator works better at a distance so we remember good states when bad times come, thus continuing to hope that soon everything will improve and return to normal.

However, it is not so. The union is of a qualitative nature, not quantitative. Actually, it is not about our states at all. At some point, we manage to unite with the Creator not because of a good state we are in or because we want to retain our unity in our memory when we go through lowly states, but rather because our connection made Him happy and made us similar to Him. So, for us it makes no difference what states we go through: good or bad. Good states can be even more confusing for us than bad ones.

At least while we are in bad states our egoism pushes us forward and forces us to look for alternatives, thus compelling us to act. When a good state happens, it calms us down and fulfills us so that we don’t seek any other options. We are unable to change unless some unsatisfied desire wakes us up. At this point, we have to remember the union that we have created and pull this desire from the past into the present in order to carry on our advancement.

So, this “agreement” protects us not only from deficiencies in our liaison, but helps to make the Creator happy above all kinds of bitter and/or sweet sensations. Our union has multiple conditions that apply to each particular state.
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From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/17/13, Writings of Rabash

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