Baal HaSulam, “The Teaching of Kabbalah and Its Essence”: Whereas in the first discernment everyone receives equally without adding or subtracting, like Adam, in understanding the reality of this world. In viewing it, all are equal, but this is not so in understanding it—some evolve from generation to generation and some regress.

Question: What is the difference between a descent and regression?

Answer: We can describe our advancement like a electrocardiogram (EKG) with many ups and downs. It doesn’t matter if I am up or down as long as I advance.

Descents are part of our way since they are also aimed at the goal. My heart beats and it draws this curved line and it is normal. This is our life, a continuum of ups and downs where one cannot exist without the other. As long as I hold on to the intention to advance, both the ascents and descents are in a general flow forward.

It is just like a spinning wheel where each part reaches a maximal height and then begins to descend. What is more, at a certain moment it seems to be moving backward instead of advancing towards the goal.

The moment a person discovers that, he cries out for help. He sees that he is moving backward and that he is not advancing, and so he needs the greater support of the group.

On the whole society’s movement is forward, and accordingly, I am in the back part of the ring and my friends are advancing by moving forward. So when I am connected to them in my heart and soul, I feel that I am part of the whole that continues and advances forward.

But if I am disconnected from the friends, I am not the lower part of the general wheel and I am not in a state of descent, but am actually on the outside in regression. I am not part of the general process of the advancement forward anymore.

This means that the main thing is to be adhered to the friends. Then we all advance forward and I understand that even the descents are beneficial and that they are in order to ascend. When I descend, the others ascend, and thus we constantly change places.

We are like a valve, like a piston, and all these movements change alternately. There cannot be a change if it doesn’t include the two movements, backward and forward, backward and forward. There cannot be only a movement forward, there has to be a contrast, and it is only a matter of amplitude.

Therefore my connection with the environment is so important. If I am incorporated in everyone, then the common vector is clear to me.

Question: It says that there is no lacking in spirituality and that nothing disappears. But in a state of regression everything that you had is taken away from you…

Answer: This isn’t true. Regression refers to the revelation of a new level of the shattering. We don’t regress but rather discover a new vessel that isn’t corrected at the moment.
[122732]
From the 4^th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/10/13, Writings of Baal HaSulam

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Question: How can I appreciate the friend’s efforts?

Answer: The only way I can appreciate the friend is in faith above reason. It is because I don’t see the friend before me but actually myself and my attributes. It is written: “One judges by his own flaws.” I see only what I want to see in my ego, so I will always see that one is more stupid than I am and that another is lazy, another is absentminded and another is occupied by his own thoughts and doesn’t know what is going on at all, etc.

When I look at the friends, I see my inner state. We don’t see the world but our inner replica reflected on it. So I have to accept the fact that I am in the world of Ein Sof (Infinity), that everything is corrected, and that everyone is at the end of correction (Gmar Tikkun). All the corrections that are left are those that I have to go through, as it says: “And I shall eat that which is ancient,” and I will see that the world is changing because I am actually changing.

It is the same when it comes to the friends and the group. It isn’t they that have to change but I. It is hard to perceive this but it is the truth. So in order to explain it simply Kabbalists don’t tell us about it as if it happens inside a person but as the world is used to, saying that the world is changing, that it is in a crisis, and that it goes through different states and processes.

Kabbalists explain this artificially although they don’t feel comfortable doing so. A Kabbalist prefers to see things as he sees them internally. He sees the world of Infinity, himself, and the corruption between them. This is called help against him, as his ego comes between him and the world and because of which he sees the world of Infinity in the form of this world or in the form of some temporary spiritual level, which is one of the 125 levels he is on now

But a Kabbalist cannot explain it this way to others since it would mean that he would constantly be talking about himself, about his corruptions, and would be discussing the corruptions in his internal systems. He would speak from the side of the corruption and not from the side of the correction, and so they don’t speak that way. It is better to explain things as is accepted in this world, by speaking about the fact that the world is corrupt and that we have to connect in order to correct ourselves and the world. It is a special style of conveying a message in which one moves from the internality to the externality.

There is no other choice. Otherwise the explanations will not be understood. But in fact when a person thinks about this himself, he has to see himself in the Light of the Infinite that fills all of reality and only because of his corrupted vessels and attributes does he see the level of concealment and the level of revelation, and this is what determines the height of his level.
[122716]
From the 2^nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/10/13, Writings of Rabash

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Question: What does choosing the friends mean?

Answer: Choosing the friends means that I have to do whatever I can to get close to them at any given moment. Choosing doesn’t mean that I decide who I like best and that’s it. It is said: “He who chooses a better environment each time,” in order to keep on advancing.

We don’t look at the physical bodies in the spiritual work but only at the internality and so a person changes every day and everyday he is a new person. It turns out that I seem to be choosing a new friend each day, a new society, because it changes from one moment to the next.

A day refers to a change, so I constantly advance by working with the friends as I tighten the connection between us, which means that I choose stronger friends and a better environment each time. Nothing changes physically, and I see the same faces around me, but their internality is constantly renewed, and I grow stronger by all the changes that we both go through.

It may seem that there are positive or negative changes each time. Mostly I feel disrespect since my evil inclination keeps on working and is constantly renewed. So each time I feel another denial which is stronger than before and it seems that the friends are not worthy and that they have many deficiencies. I disrespect them automatically and so I have to spur myself to love them anew each time.
[122674]
From the 2^nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/10/13, Writings of Rabash

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In the News (from Nauka (Science): “Qubit (Q – bit) is a quantum bit, an information unit, 0 or 1. By receiving information in one bit, we reduce our ignorance about anything (uncertainty) to half.

“The dimensions of computer brain reached the borders of the quantum world, where not the classical, but quantum probability laws govern.

“Unlike classical bits that can take only the values of 0 or 1, a qubit takes an infinite number of states, a combination (superposition) of the two fundamental 0 and 1. Superposition characterizes the probability of finding a qubit in one of the two main states.

“Each number like this consists of a real number of an imaginary number, indicating rotation in quantum space. Imaginary numbers help determine the probability of finding a qubit in one or another corner of the quantum world.

“If electronic gadgets function on quantum chips, they will become invisible and elusive. There will be no secrets for quantum computers, they will easily crack any code; any competent hacker will be able to command nuclear missiles to take off or cause a nuclear reactor to explode.

“No one will be able to stop research in this area. The same situation occurred during the atomic race. Another arms race has begun, this time it is quantum.”

My Comment: The evolution of egoism drives us to the need to be re-educated by the method of integral education, from egoistic desires to altruistic, by force—through suffering or in awareness—in advance, before suffering will force us.
[122843]

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Question: How can we advance so that our fuel consumption is optimal? How can we cut down the consumption to minimum?

Answer: In other words, how can we shorten time? How can we maximize the effect of our exertion so that we will do it in the best way and in the right place?

This approach is very good and correct, but the question is does it stem from laziness. But still it is a good thing since one way or another we start our work from the desire to receive.

When we exert ourselves and acquire knowledge in our world, we learn how to preserve our rational efforts so that we will spend the exact amount of energy and not one gram more, at the exact place it is needed and not one millimeter away.

This is exactly what Kabbalists tell us. They tell us that we have to work only in the center of the group and to be as one man in one heart in mutual guarantee. If you reach this, the Creator is revealed.

The moment you attain this, the current level will disappear and instead Mt. Sinai will reappear, which means the mountain of hatred between you. Then you have to try to connect around it again so that each one’s point in the heart is connected to the points in the heart of the others, and after this connection, they rise above the mountain of hatred to connection and mutual bestowal. When your efforts succeed, you will rise to the second floor and so on.

Thus, you are given the exact place for concentrated effort during your work, during the study, during the assembly of friends, everywhere. You should constantly aim at this kind of unity in your thoughts.

How? By the support of the environment. Otherwise you will not be able to think about it. You should feel general concern here: You should be immersed and live in it, and it should affect you so strongly that you begin to shake with worry.

Imagine a situation in life when you have trouble with the police, a trial, when someone threatens to beat you or that you are shamed. A person who experiences this in life is miserable. So this is exactly the same level of concern you have to feel about being focused on the center of the group. This way you will save both time and efforts.

If you don’t worry about that, then you should worry about why you don’t worry. This is called “a prayer before a prayer.”

The yearning in the heart is immediately felt in the upper level. You don’t know it yet, but your heart is already on an upper level. The moment your heart matches the upper level they will be connected like a plug and a socket and you will begin to reveal it.

So you must pay close attention to what you feel in your heart. If your heart fidgets, then you should regret it. But it shouldn’t be false or pretend regret. On the contrary, you should place yourself in the environment so that it will influence you and you will really feel sorry. Only the environment can change your values and your standards.
[122517]
From the 4^th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/6/13, Writings of Baal HaSulam

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Question: Suppose that we go out to senior executives with the integral method. They have a particular understanding about the company and they are used to coming into contact with successful people like them. Must I demonstrate my success to them? For example, they have Rolex watches, so do I also need to have a watch like this? Or is there no importance to this?

Answer: The outer covering is important to them. And for us in the integral world this doesn’t exist. We have an absolutely different system of values.

So I don’t drag them down from their height, rather I simply talk about my system which I propose to realize in a very narrow way in their company.

I am a person who relates to life, to a comprehension of nature and the world, in an integral manner; I act in a form like this. And it is not because I don’t have money for a Rolex but because I don’t feel a need for this.

Among people who respect me, I merit respect not for the Rolex, which in their environment becomes the calling card in order to reach some agreement, to say “hello,” and to connect with each other. Whereas in our circles, first and foremost, what is most valued is how efficiently and rapidly it is possible to create mutual integral relationships between people.

In no way do I blame them, for you see I am in a completely different uniqueness, in a completely different environment, and would not call them to come there. From there I want to acquire some elements of integral relationships for them, so that they can use them for success in their projects in their businesses.
[122720]
From Kab TV’s “Through Time” 9/24/13

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Question: How is it possible to be directed correctly before going out for dissemination?

Answer: A person is an egoist. Every time the ego in him flares up, he must somehow rein it in.

It is possible to do this only in the presence of the group. If a person goes out to some events without preparation, meaning, without reading our material, not approaching friends, then nothing will work out for him. For he is not himself accommodated to conveying an integral line to a group. He can do everything according to the method in the best way, but in the end, this won’t work.

Therefore, before going out to the public we gather and do the same thing as in the gathering of friends. The difference can only be in intensity, in depth, in language, and in vocabulary, yet no more than this! In any case we are trying, in our way, to bring the whole world to the integral form.

For example, it is possible to take a well processed Rabash article about the group without any additions of cleverness and other lessons, to read and discuss it, and with this we make some intentions as a critique: “I am the smallest of all,” “I am the greatest of all,” “I am equal to all,” “I am included with them into one general whole,” and “I am already ready to go out to the crowd.”

First, I accept everything that the friends say about integrality, about the link between us, completely serious, as absolute truth, in that I want to feel myself as a child in relation to them, who hears with an open mouth. After that I speak about integrality, about the link between us and then others hear me and I am seemingly on top. After that all of us are connected and create a unified field, until we feel ourselves as one collective whole. The moment I have felt this state, I can go to work.

That is how we tune ourselves like a musical instrument, and when we go out to the world in order to teach the masses we have a feeling as if we are going to ask for them. In other words, the best intention is the understanding that giving satisfaction to the Creator is possible only through the right intention of the people for integral unity. Then He can bestow on this unity and gradually prepare them for His revelation, which is the best that we do for Him and the best that we do for the masses from our side.

We must know: “I am going out to the wider public because this is the same place where the Creator is revealed to the world.”

I take the Creator with me in order to create a place for His discovery. With this I can give Him satisfaction in being revealed to the creatures and give pleasure to the creatures in discovering their Creator. In summation, I am a transitional link, the organizer of this action.
[122713]
From Kab TV’s “Through Time” 9/24/13

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Question: While working with a group of entrepreneurs and businessmen, I told them about the integral method and found they are not interested in a bright future and success. They don’t want anything better because it is a mental and energetic investment…

Answer: It seems they want to work with the least amount of effort: Hand out tasks to everyone without paying attention and you are free. Therefore you always need to turn to their ego: “If you activate the collective correctly, you can rest.”

If they are not interested in increasing productivity of labor and wages, then surely they will be interested in reducing their efforts and having more spare time. A person is always looking for their own benefit.

You must show them the advantages of the method both in one direction and in the other direction, on the one hand, increasing the productivity of labor, reducing problems in the collective and so forth. However you look at this, in spite of it all, this is important to them. For if everything operates well and in addition to this there are also profits, then everyone feels more secure in his place.

On the other hand, the small personal efforts of the entrepreneur or businessman will be easier for him to manage because now he is surrounded by flexible workers who have self-control. This is to say, in any case there is a gain on all sides. This is the first step.

The second step is a friendly staff that adopts many of the instructions of management for itself, even those that he doesn’t give and also doesn’t know how to give. In the collective, a personal change is made in the direction towards winning, success, and benefit. In this manner, the manager is released from problems, he is freer and less tense.

Besides this, you explain to them that the integral view of the world gives a person another philosophy of life. You begin to see how the world really turns: egoists turn it in one direction, and the world turns it in another direction, in the direction of its integral rapprochement. And this gap creates the crisis, which is becoming deeper and wider all the time.

When the person sees this entire system, he understands the world more, acts better in reciprocity in the family, in society, everywhere. He is less tense, the pressure, the sugar and all the physiological indices are balanced in his body. He becomes calm, sure of himself, friendly, hospitable, people are drawn to him. He begins to feel the world in which he lives in a much more clear form than before.
[122727]
From Kab TV’s “Through Time” 9/24/13

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Virtual Convention in Moscow, Day 3, Lesson 5

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Virtual Convention in Moscow, Day 2, Workshop 4

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Virtual Convention in Moscow, Day 2, Workshop 5

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Virtual Convention in Moscow, Day 2, Workshop 6

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