The intellect and emotion of the person constitute his “self,” and what is found above his intellect and emotion is the spiritual level, the spiritual Adam (man).

Humanity developed egoistically throughout history, during which our intellect and emotion grew, and we already have gotten used to this and accept it as correct. To us, this is evolution. We get more and more discernments within our emotions and intellect, more and more details about our world, and it seems to us that this is the way we advance.

Really, what else could there be? The better that our telescopes and microscopes are, the deeper we see. The more intense our radar becomes, the farther away we hear. Ultimately, we expand the range of our five senses and our intellect supports this process.

However, there is an evolution of an absolutely different kind about which the wisdom of Kabbalah speaks—development within other senses, with other characteristics that, to date, we don’t have—and we call these the force of bestowal. It seems to us that there is a force of bestowal even in our world, but here we would say that this is talking about intention. This is because, after we go deeper into every action, a person seemingly may go against his ego. We discover that altruism cannot be perceived, and ultimately everyone is acting only for self-benefit.

The characteristic of bestowal that is found above our reality cannot be attained through the usual means. Therefore, I don’t understand and don’t know what spirituality is at all, and in order to resolve this problem, I have a precise and very unique science that is conveyed to me through a hole that is “like a pinprick,” through a very small opening into the spiritual world. This is a small opening because I can’t take anything with me, except for my essential impression, the spiritual spark that is “a part of the divine above.” It is latent in me so I can pass through the crack (that we see with difficulty) between the two worlds.

There is a wall in front of me through which only the spark can pass, and all the rest is left behind. Furthermore, to communicate with the other people who meanwhile were left on the other side of the wall, I am forced to be “clothed” in the previous clothing, but I, myself, already have passed to the new world, and there is no connection between the worlds since they behave according to different methods, different principles. Here, the characteristic of reception dominates and there, the characteristic of bestowal.

For now, we have no possibility of understanding or discerning the principle of bestowal or its characteristics. In no way or manner are we prepared to approach it or imagine something close to its truth. All of our worldly efforts are designed only to confuse us, to calm or to dazzle the ear, and that’s all. In fact, the world of bestowal is a “reverse world” and its reversal is reflected in the essences of things and not in their form as in our world.

Indeed, we don’t acquire the spiritual world with the help of the intellect or the wisdoms. Rather, it’s the opposite. The wisdoms are very likely to hinder this matter, and in general all the efforts that the person produces for himself from an egoistic standpoint in this world—all the beliefs, methods, religions, means, coachings, and so forth—are useless. Throughout history, a multitude of efforts have been employed that haven’t helped anyone. On the contrary, we see that religions and faiths support the egoistic nature of our world more and more. Therefore, for a person found here, there is no chance of making a proper assessment and judgment in regard to the spiritual world. Even through chance or accident, no one is ready to reach the truth because our understanding and emotions are not found in contact with spirituality.

Therefore, we must make a clear distinction.

On the one hand, there are scientists who investigate nature within the five senses and reveal the results of their work to everyone, and, then, other scientists who are no less egoistic seriously examine these results through experiment to negate their colleagues, and while they debate each other, the truth is discovered within the five senses, about which, as it is written, “A judge has only what his eyes see.” We have no doubt regarding scientific facts. We rely on them one hundred percent. In the area of the five senses belonging to our world, science is unassailable. It establishes clear levels of reality: axioms, theorems, theories, estimates, approximations, predictions, assumptions, and more. It establishes clearly what is fact, proof, estimation, and result, and all these concepts are integrated into the various sciences of nature that investigate that nature in which we live.

However, due to our weakness, we cannot encompass the entirety of creation, all of nature. Therefore, we divide it into various fields: physics, chemistry, biology, zoology, and so forth. In the last centuries, a number of areas have intersected, integrated, and formed interdisciplinary sciences that recently have had a leading role and have brought significant results. The entire world has become integral and obligates us, specifically, to learn the connection between phenomena and not parts of the overall picture.

It is also up to us to understand that even studies like these are biased because we are investigating with the help of our senses as the means, our tools, and our intellect. Science is aware of this and acknowledges this as a limitation since the picture of our world depends on the level of our development, and on the next level, this will change. Absolute knowledge of nature in the framework of these methods is unattainable. The more that we penetrate into the atom, an entire universe is discovered and infinite layers of knowledge.

Lately, science is passing through many crises, encountering uncertainty and many contradictions. It is distressing to watch modern scientists because they are found in a forlorn state at the end of this present stage. Nature has become more and more “circular,” integral, and they still retain a natural, individualistic approach that typifies an egoistic person. Ultimately, they lose connection with nature and exhaust the linear study that fit with their egoistic linearity. As of today, a new, circular, global nature is revealed in our world, saturated with collective linkages, and they have no possibility of digesting this. That is, we cannot investigate this new nature because from the start, our senses are egoistic.

On the other hand, the spiritual world and the wisdom of Kabbalah are something else. If the Kabbalists hadn’t told us about their investigations, these would have remained outside of our interests. Humanity would not even have risen to the level of religions. There would not have been an elevation above the primitive properties of the winds, trees, stones, and so forth. Humans would have bowed down to the various parts of nature because they saw that nature is great, and this greatness obligated them as if they had to bribe it in order to be worthy of a good relationship, to drive off thunder and lightning, volcanic eruptions, earthquakes, floods and so forth. We would have related to everything that is liable to be a source of threat exactly like this. However, humanity wouldn’t have advanced more and would not have even thought about concepts like “souls” and “the next world” that already belong to a completely different level of speculation.

Among the other areas of human involvement, there is an area called “philosophy.” This is not a science because it has no basis for investigation that makes possible experimental evaluation and the attainment of results that other people can check again in all their details, and, relying on these examinations, establish truths that will be accepted by everyone. Philosophy has no mechanism like this. It is the result of human intellect that thinks about various things, including science, life, and so forth. We have no possibility of checking their conclusions because they belong to something that is not clothed in substance. No laboratory will check a thesis formed in the human imagination based upon abstract speculations.

For a long time, philosophy was considered to be dealing with a high human level. Until the beginning of scientific development, it was much respected, so much so that until today, other scientific degrees all are linked to this. Everyone recognizes the PhD degree in many fields, which is to say, the Doctor of Philosophy. People thought that philosophy included all scientific studies and all of human wisdom.

However, in the last three or four hundred years, from the days of the Ari, from the beginning of the development of science, philosophy lost its status and descended from the stage. Science made it possible for us to examine the data and be sure of our success, whereas philosophy ultimately always is mistaken. It has just about nothing to say about the future, therefore, it is impossible to rely on it. Together with this, the ego of philosophers grew, as it did for all the rest of humanity, and they contradicted each other all the time, immersed in a big lie.

Philosophers always loved to investigate the wisdom of Kabbalah to the degree that they heard about it. Some of them even learned Hebrew and Aramaic in order to read the sources, and in spite of all this, the philosophers didn’t understand that in Kabbalah there is a principle of attainment. Without entering into the spiritual dimension with the appropriate senses—which is to say, with true tools of attainment like the scientists do in our world—we are not ready to investigate anything. This is because we simply don’t exist in the area that we are studying.

Rather, the philosophers look at the wisdom of Kabbalah according to their worldly intellect while they are on the other side of a wall, without passing to its second side through the “pinhole,” and it doesn’t bother them at all to discuss and argue about what is found beyond the wall and bring to light new speculative creations. This situation reached such a state that philosophers discussed Kabbalah without taking the trouble to learn from the books of the Kabbalists. They simply picked sections that they liked from various books.

The famous philosopher, Gershom Scholem—who, fifty years ago, was considered to be one of the fathers of modern philosophy in Israel and a great investigator of Kabbalah—in fact, never mentioned even a word about Baal HaSulam who lived and worked precisely during that period.

I understand this because this is speaking about investigation of a great deal of material in the wisdom of Kabbalah that is so deep that philosophy cannot match it. Therefore, he simply ignored this as if it didn’t exist.

How can a scientist relate to a subject that he studies like this? A true scientist is openly ready to erase all of his previous achievements if he sees that they are erroneous. The Rabash would erase what he recorded before from his writings, and write, “Incorrect.” After that, there would be a new version that eventually also would be erased and so on for a number of times. This is science, a scientific approach. This is respectable, for during development, there are no absolutes. The absolute is the completion of correction and the infinite world in which everything is connected together, and until then, there are always doubts.

It is said that what is garbage for the higher is food for the lower. This is to say that, when I rise, I erase the previous level, and it becomes “garbage” for me. It is no longer correct. It is forbidden to use it. Whoever is caught up in yesterday doesn’t reach tomorrow. Our advancement is through our ability to be detached from what seemed to us to be correct a moment ago. Otherwise, it is impossible. You see, we are passing through absolute changes of all of our ten Sefirot all the time. Our intellect and emotions are renewed all the time; they pass through an “upgrade.” Instead of the old that is erased, the new appears, and if the person guards himself from the upgrade and cannot rise “above reason,” he doesn’t advance.

So, as of today, we see that philosophy still exists, even though it certainly is found in a graveyard. The positions of the philosophers are very powerful and have been resistant to innovations for generations. Besides that, philosophy has adopted the wisdom of Kabbalah, and they teach it in Faculties of Philosophy. We must understand that philosophy steals everything that is in Kabbalah, and it is not even successful in this.

Inwardly, we are also philosophers, but we must ultimately bury the philosopher in us. In fact, no one has a moral right to discuss Kabbalah if he is not himself found in spiritual attainment. What can he say about an area with which he is completely unfamiliar? However, in spite of it all, people express their opinions and assessments without rising to the level about which they speak.

Therefore, in our world, we basically are required to understand that the spiritual level is found above us, and we have no contact with it. Therefore, we cannot say anything about it. First of all, it is up to us to be detached from the animate level and rise to the level of Adam, the spiritual level that is acquired only with the help of the Light that Reforms, through work in a group with the help of the method of Kabbalah. We must be detached all the time from the previous state and rise more and more. Otherwise, we also will be those philosophers.
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From the 4^th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 7/01/13, Writings of Baal HaSulam

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There is the path of suffering and the path of Torah (the Light). The entire world is moving by the path of suffering, and we are moving by the path of Torah. However, in its turn, the path of Torah is also divided into the path of suffering and the path of Torah. If a person is not able to awaken the dawn himself and the dawn is compelled to awaken him, then he advances by the path of suffering. That is, he descends into the darkness of the night, exposing himself to blows, earthly and spiritual, and remains in this descent until he climbs out from there. In this case, this also is called the path of suffering, but nevertheless, it is suffering on the path of spiritual development rather than the usual earthly development.

In contrast, there is the path of Torah when a person moves due to taking the desires from the environment. On this path, there is also a division on the path of suffering and the path of Torah. Entering the path of Torah, a person needs to pass the four stages of internal HaVaYaH, after which he enters the clear, true path of the Light. There, we already are ascending straight up by the beam of the Light.

Until then, you need to go through many clarifications of what the path of Light is. It is said about this, that if you are worthy, your work will be done at the expense of others. This does not mean that you take advantage of them as is done in our world, but you really use the ready vessels that the Creator prepared for His revelation and placed them in your friends.

Now, on the eve of the convention in St. Petersburg or any other convention in the future, we need to understand that our spiritual tools are in others. Preparation determines everything because we want to advance by the path of Light (Achishena), ahead of blows that approach us from behind: earthly and spiritual problems, various descents and detachment, and loss of interest.

It is said about this path in the Torah—about the people who did not listen to Moses—that, all the time, there were disagreements, frictions, disputes, and clashes between them to such an extent that Moses tells the Creator, “Leave me alone. I’m tongue-tied and cannot talk to them. They don’t understand me! They will not believe me!”

Already, after coming out of Egypt, in the wilderness, they constantly had problems and arguments. Moses would be glad to be free of his mission, but, on the other hand, he constantly protects the people, that is, the friends. Moses is an example for every one of us, showing what one should be in relation to others: Take care, and tell them everything that you have in your heart to awaken others and to straighten their path.

This is the way everyone should behave in relation to others. On the one hand, you must be great relative to the group, the giver, giving them everything that you have—inspiration, joy, the greatness of the goal—like Moses, the leader of the people. On the other hand, there is no more modest a man than Moses. That is, you become the smallest from the highest. This is the example of the attitude toward the group that the Torah gives us.

If you have found yourself in this state, do not believe that it is possible to labor and not find. You must find the desire suitable for the revelation of the Creator. The desire is your duty and revelation will happen immediately. The Creator, the upper Light, is just waiting for your smallest equivalence of form with Him to become revealed in your vessel at once.

He is already within you. As it is said, “I am the Creator, I dwell in you and in all your sins.” He is already here. Just reveal His first manifestation, the first HaVaYaH!
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From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 6/28/13, Shamati #117

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Question: How does the mechanism of the collective group intellect work? It seems that, in corrected integral connections, collective emotions appear, and their output is the collective intellect. What place do the individual feelings of a person have within this?

Answer: I think that, at the level of the general network, according to how analog integral systems operate, everything is interconnected, the feeling of individuality disappears, and each one feels a collective shared network. It is found on a higher order of magnitude. It is not just the sum of all the individual parts, but rather the revelation of the integral, when people rise above themselves so as to exist together within this shared collective network. Ultimately, each person inserts himself into everyone and all are included in all. However, this is not the main thing. The main thing is the next level where people specifically begin to feel this integrality. They live within it.

There is something in common: a higher integral association, where there is no single individual, but all create a cohesive whole, and it is a single image of a group or society. It is felt by all who were once individual and rose above the other so as to unite with everyone. In this state, people experience an entirely different reality.

This is something we can assume and this already has been talked about in quantum physics, that is, events that are felt outside of the human body, outside of one’s limitations, events that are outside of time, movement, and location. This is our next level.

This is because when we speak about our world we are simply speaking about the the still, vegetative, and animate nature. We don’t include the Adam (human being) in this because we suppose that he is found above all the other levels. However, in what way is the Adam higher? Is it that he has the ability to act above his instincts? No, he exists within his instincts and desires.

The more that we develop egoistically, the more we discover how much our instincts, egoistic pressures, and internal genes manage us.

Therefore, to date, we cannot exclude the person from the animate world. On the contrary, we see that no matter how much we would like to regard the human being as higher, nevertheless, he returns to this world. Only from a level where it is possible to perceive by means of unity will we rise to the level of the next new and more qualitative existence, and as far as it seems, the thought of creation is designed specifically to take a person to this.

Lately, in the border areas of science we have discovered the limitations of our feelings, our research capabilities, and even our understanding of processes, and this limitation is very serious. We cannot advance forward. We encounter something, and we are not prepared to discover anything further. We can talk about something only speculatively. Later, nature closes before us because we feel it only as individuals.

However, if we go out to an integral level, then we can see it directly in the form in which it exists, and not in the form that the individual, the researcher, feels it, for when I go outside of myself in mutual integral cooperation with others, I exit “from myself,” from my limitations of time, movement, and place, from all that is found within my body, within my five senses. It is as if I enter a new integral sense. I exist within it, and then all of my psychology already is found above my limitations. There, we finally will be able to understand the new physics of the world.
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From KabTV’s “The Wisdom of the Crowd” 5/6/13

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In the News (from The Atlantic): “’Improbably enough, people who are better able to resist impulses report being more satisfied with their lives.

“Among humankind’s most valuable assets’ is self-control, according to Wilhelm Hofmann and his team of researchers at the University of Chicago. They define it as ‘the ability to override or change one’s inner responses’ and to refrain from acting on impulses. …

“The more self-control people reported having, the more satisfied they reported being with their lives. And contrary to what the researchers were expecting, people with more self-control were also more likely to be happy in the short-term. In fact, when they further analyzed the data, they found that such people’s increased happiness to a large extent accounted for the increased life satisfaction.

“As they go about their daily lives, people with a lot of self-control appear to generally be in higher spirits; in the long run, they’re happier with their lives. To explain why this would be so, the researchers conducted another online survey. What they figured out is that instead of constantly denying themselves, people high in self-control are simply less likely to find themselves in situations where that’s even an issue. They don’t waste time fighting inner battles over whether or not to eat a second piece of cake. They’re above such petty temptations.”

My Comment: Precisely, restriction (Tzimzum Aleph) and receiving after certain calculation with a specific intention (the screen and the Returning Light) makes reception acute (the Light of NRNHY), up to the point that a person can feel its source, the Creator, in any pleasure! That is the way the wisdom of Kabbalah teaches us to reveal the Creator, through receiving pleasure from Him.
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What will the future society be?

There is not much written about this. We will discover it gradually, on our own, in the process of building and shaping it. The principles described by Baal HaSulam make it clear that it will be a society of equal people, according to the same principle, which operates in the group, all are equal, all are friends.

Friend (chaver – חבר) derives from the word “connection” (chibur – חיבור). It literally means “entering” into each other, complementing one another by contributing our desires and thoughts. In this condition, we are united. That’s why the only concern of ours should be the way of “replenishing” others.

When we gather together in “tens” for workshops, we try to implement this principle. We should only supplement each other, never argue, and by no means “act smart.” The only thing that we need to do is fulfill our friends and provide mutual support. There is no room for anything else.

This clarifies the principles of a community life that Rabash talks about. This is a principle that has to be put into the core of the group we are building. It is not acceptable when a friend hurts or harms others. In order to build the future society, we should first build it among us so that it becomes an illustration for others. It should be based solely on mutual assistance; there cannot be any “dirty tricks” played on each other whatsoever. The group charter should reflect this.

However, Baal HaSulam writes that the future society—not a group, but society as a whole—can be built only after people rise to this developmental level, become ready to give up their egoism, and create a new type of social relationships. We need to bring them to this condition. So first of all, it is very important for us to act extensively and broadly open courses on integral education wherever possible.

By doing so, we’ll create a society of equals, a society in which everyone will get as much as one needs and will work for the good of all. Each will receive as much as he or she needs for normal existence and the rest will be redirected to create the same conditions for everyone in the world.

Nothing beyond basic necessities will be produced. However, it is not about contracting or reducing manufacturing of consumer goods to a minimum! No, we are talking about normal, human living conditions that we should not exceed. It’s no secret: If we get out of balance with nature, we begin to destroy it and eventually, in practice, we destroy the house we all live in.

The principles of building the future society are very simple. We physically feel and sense them when we are with our groups. Gradually, to the extent of the advancement of the groups and their “satellites” (non-Kabbalistic groups of people engaged in integral education), new extended communities will emerge. Gradually, they will expand their “territories,” establish rules of their own, start schools and other establishments. Gradually, they will become more connected.

On the other hand, this process can also be directed from above. We make attempts from the top, since any crisis begins from the top and goes to the bottom; everything is rotting from the head. We see that many countries are in totally desperate situations and we believe that sooner or later their governments will understand that there is a system of knowledge that can correct people, thus, allowing us to correct our civilization.

Let’s hope that it will be clear before too much blood is shed.

To sum up: If we want to advance personally, it’s possible only if we expand. If a group stops expanding, if it doesn’t “widen,” it stops advancing. And this is not because there won’t be new people joining it; we just have to work with the rest of the population to the best of our capacity. For that, before anything else, we have to organize and prepare ourselves. That’s why it is so important to engage in the methodology of integral education.

Some of you regard it as a burden, useful or useless, or even harmful. But this is not a burden; it is the same Kabbalah, the same kind of organization of society, or rather fragments of the soul, into a single soul according to the principle “love thy neighbor.” There is nothing new here; it’s just an explanation of all the laws of connection that exist betewen us. These laws are clarified in a plain, normal, human language and are obvious to everybody, not just to Kabbalists. That’s it, nothing more.

Even our groups are seriously engaged in studying and concentrating on the parts of the wisdom of Kabbalah that are the easiest to implement. Similarly, we teach others the rules that are the easiest for them to apply to reality.
[110302]
From the Convention in Krasnoyarsk 6/14/13, Lesson 4

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Preparation to the Lesson

Writings of Rabash “Shlavei HaSulam,”  “Article 28”

Talmud Eser Sefirot, Vol. 6, Part 15

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

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Listen to an Audio Version of the Blog
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The Book of Zohar, Weekly Torah Portion, “Va’ Etchanan,” Selected Excerpts

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Question: Love means friendship and friendship, love. Why is there love between parents and children, but there is no friendship?

Answer: Basically, today, neither exists. We are in such a state of heightened egoism when children and parents no longer feel love for each other. We are not to blame; it is just what it is.

Today, many things are changing in humanity. People do not want to have children, do not want to create a family. There are those who agree to have a family but do not want children, and to the contrary, they want to have children but do not want to have a family. In general, everything is not right.

In my youth, everything was a bit different, and now I look at young people and do not understand them. They have a completely different nature. It is a sharp change of generation, hastening of time, and even greater changes are ahead of us.

The fact is that there is a rise of desires that are not yet expressed in us clearly, but are detached from the previous degree; that is, we are moving more and more away from the animate world. In other words, human nature, human egoism, is increasingly manifested in us. Therefore, we become detached from the previous animate level, and we lose the natural instincts aimed at creating a family and raising children. They acquire a nominal character.

All this leads us to correction. Meanwhile, people are moving under the influence of the new desires that are awakened in them, and then they will begin to recognize them, moreover, recognize them as harmful. How can we correct this? It is only by correcting our intention, working on mistakes.
[112152]
From the Convention in St. Petersburg, “Preparatory Lesson”

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Question: What exactly must we come to as a result of this convention? Is it perhaps to some common feeling of love between friends?

Answer: There are no common feelings. We need absolutely complete correction. We do not go for less. We are going to become a single image of a unified human, to gather everyone in a unified system. That is all and nothing else!

This is the first convention for which we were preparing in advance with the awareness that we are coming here in order to work seriously. This is not the convention where I go on the stage and everyone listens to me, expecting some interesting stories and then dances and sings. This is the convention where we are working within ourselves all together.

The most important action takes place between us, within us! I only correct you a bit and remember it should be between everyone, and I am there with you.

We are preparing for the first time since the convention, and all our subsequent conventions will be organized in this manner. Maybe in time they will take a different form and become practically virtual, but they all will be aimed at concentration, on compressing our intentions to merge them.
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From the Convention in St. Petersburg, “Preparatory Lesson”

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