The soul is the one and only vessel (Kli) in which we feel ourselves as a single whole. In the spiritual world nobody feels himself separately because we all feel the unity, feel the sum result of the connection.

In that we lose ourselves individually, each one of us finds himself specifically in total unity, and this is an indescribable feeling. There is no need to fear losing yourself, for we acquire an eternal and perfect existence here and not a miserable, egoistic, temporal, and wasted existence.

And besides this, from the eternal, glorious and infinite world, we see our cocoon and those people who still exist within it, as in a dream, like blind people trying to exploit everyone to their own detriment and not understanding it. Each one wants to pull the blanket over himself and thinks that with this he will get something good, but in the end all of his attempts only bring suffering.

So how is it possible to come out from this cocoon? We do so only by way of the group. In what way is it possible to begin to do something within it? For this a very interesting state is given to us, existence in bodies. Therefore our inner feeling can be both within the cocoon, in our egoistic body, and outside of the cocoon, outside of our body, in an altruistic state.

People who already exist with their feelings outside of the egoistic cocoon still can live physically in our world because our body has no connection to the spiritual world. This is simply some physiological entity, an imaginary component that is portrayed for us as existing, but essentially this entity is completely imaginary and doesn’t exist. Physicists have also already spoken about this, not just Kabbalists; science is gradually approaching this fact.

In other words, the Kabbalists can exist simultaneously in the upper world in a spiritual form and in the material world within the physical body, returning to the material image that appears in our world to leave their impressions for us, to teach their sensations, perceptions, and experience that they received by going out from our world to the upper world. They tell us how they worked in a group, united with it, learned the fundamentals of the states of the group and with its help gradually passed to the upper world.

We must use their advice, recommendations, and instructions to follow after them as after guides that show the way. So we also call them revolutionaries, pioneers, and we go after them. If not for them, we would not know how to organize in a group in a precise form in our world. But even if the group is organized in the right form, this is still not enough.

Besides this, we must be involved in learning about the upper world and about those laws of reciprocal cooperation of bestowal and absolute love that exist there with bestowal above reception with constant overcoming of our evil inclination. On the other hand, we also must be involved in external dissemination in order to bring all the rest of the parts of the one collective soul after us until we attain complete adherence, coming together, connection, until we attain a state like this that will be completely similar to the Creator in all characteristics.
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From the Moscow Virtual Convention “Unity Without Boundaries” Day Two 12/14/13, Lesson 4

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Question: If there are stages in the development of the human ego, are there stages in the development of the group ego?

Answer: The movement is only forward. There is no other movement, not in nature and not with the person.

So don’t think about the ego and you don’t have to think about the group ego. It’s necessary to yearn only to advance towards group unity. Then in a natural way you will pass this group egoism. Very big problems will appear among you in unifying, in understanding, in general, in how to endure the friend who is next to me, and so forth.

But in any case, the yearning must only be forward. You don’t need to think about “how will we discover our ego as quickly as possible.” You should only think about positive discoveries, not the negative ones.

The fact is that all of Malchut is latent within us, the entire immense ego, the enormous intention for the sake of my beloved self. But we begin to yearn for unity and not in any way for anything else!

When I yearn for the right side all the time, then my ego grows on the left side in a different form parallel to it. And in a manner like this it follows that at the moment I rise to a particular level, immediately a negative intention “for my own sake” appears simultaneously. In the end, I include the negative component within the positive component and thus I create my Kli.

From the positive component I have a “screen” (Masach), and from the negative I have an inner desire that I transform into positive, and in this way I grow all the time.

It’s said: “Everyone who is greater than his friend, his desire is greater.” Therefore my main foundation (1) must be yearning for unity that grows (Σ) all the time. And the ego, that is the intention for myself, will always be secondary (2), and it will not disappear; don’t be concerned about it.

You ask, “How in a group can we discover its entire ego?” You will discover the entire ego of the group when you reach the higher line, the completion of correction. But in spite of it all, you will advance towards this upper line only with the “middle line” in that you always yearn for the right first, only for unity. And the “left line” will inevitably appear in you.

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From the Moscow Virtual Convention “Unity Without Boundaries” Day Two 12/14/13, Lesson 2

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Opinion (Chris Hedges, American journalist specializing in American politics and society, best-selling author of several books, senior fellow at The Nation Institute in New York City): “As long as most citizens believe in the ideas that justify global capitalism, the private and state institutions that serve our corporate masters are unassailable. When these ideas are shattered, the institutions that buttress the ruling class deflate and collapse. The battle of ideas is percolating below the surface. It is a battle the corporate state is steadily losing. An increasing number of Americans are getting it. They know that we have been stripped of political power. They recognize that we have been shorn of our most basic and cherished civil liberties, and live under the gaze of the most intrusive security and surveillance apparatus in human history. Half the country lives in poverty. Many of the rest of us, if the corporate state is not overthrown, will join them. These truths are no longer hidden. …

“Popular revulsion for the ruling elite, however, is nearly universal. It is a question of which ideas will capture the public’s imagination.

“Revolution usually erupts over events that would, in normal circumstances, be considered meaningless or minor acts of injustice by the state. But once the tinder of revolt has piled up, as it has in the United States, an insignificant spark easily ignites popular rebellion. No person or movement can ignite this tinder. No one knows where or when the eruption will take place. No one knows the form it will take. But it is certain now that a popular revolt is coming. The refusal by the corporate state to address even the minimal grievances of the citizenry, along with the abject failure to remedy the mounting state repression, the chronic unemployment and underemployment, the massive debt peonage that is crippling more than half of Americans, and the loss of hope and widespread despair, means that blowback is inevitable.”

My Comment: Indeed, even with all the sophistication of the police apparatus of the authorities, no one can predict the course of events when the masses are not provided with the basic necessities. To satisfy their necessities of life, it is necessary to educate people in the spirit of integral education and upbringing, reciprocity and to replace material values with the spiritual ones, fulfillment from unity, mutual support—and further from the revelation of the higher existence.
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Question: Why is the Surrounding Light attracted when I give friends gifts?

Answer: Because I give a present to a friend not because I want to deceive him, entice him, and obtain some simple earthly benefit from him, but only for the sake of the spiritual goal.

The point in the heart is important to me, and I work from that point on his desire to receive to fulfill his desire to receive; that is, I give him a gift. But I do it because it is important for me to attain the Creator; He is the root cause of everything (No. 1).  For this, I operate my ego (No. 2) and give a present to my friend’s ego (No. 3).

I can influence his ego with a gift, but I influence his point in the heart by the Light that Reforms (No. 4). I cannot influence his point in the heart; it is a spark from above, a part of divinity from above. But the Surrounding Light does influence it because starting with my first action I made this calculation that attaining the Creator is more important to me than pleasing my egoism. That’s why I do all these steps even though I would gladly remain lying on the couch and doing nothing.

My friend begins to wonder: Why am I doing this for him? If we study together, I could tell him directly that the intention of the gift is for our spiritual advancement, that I bring him the gift to buy a friend, and with his help to reveal the Creator. And when the friend is awakened by my words, my gifts, and the Surrounding Light, he will also make the calculation that it is most important to attain the Creator (No. 5).

After many such gifts (one is not enough), I “buy” the friend. In ordinary life, without the addition of the importance of the Creator, we just “bribe” a person and his egoism through giving him presents. As a result, he begins to show me favor too, to help me, as usual: “You give to me, I’ll give to you.” Or we have common interests and we help each other realize our egoistic desires: go fishing or play soccer together.

However, this scheme is very special because I, through the Creator, begin to start influencing the friend, his point in the heart. From this, his point in the heart is awakened and he is compelled to do the same actions toward me. He must do so! From his point in the heart, his egoism is influenced (No. 6), and, with it, he gives me gifts (No. 7). It turns out that he performs the same cycle of actions toward me.

Since we both work in such “cycles,” we bring our points in the heart closer together. They begin to work on the same wavelength so closely that they are as if under one blanket (No. 8). And then, due to the Surrounding Light, the “blanket” turns into a screen (Masach) (No. 9).

It is an inexorable law. A man can cry for a thousand years, but until he has fulfilled the laws, it will not work. If the requirements of the law are fulfilled, then success is guaranteed. It is called: “The law is fixed and cannot be violated.”

We need to understand that we exist within nature in its system of laws. We only need to learn these laws thoroughly and find out where we have made omissions until we obtain the desired result.
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From the Preparation for the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/11/13

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Come and see the words of the sage Rabbi Even Ezra in his book, Yesod Mora, (The Foundation for Fear) p. 8b: “And now note and know that all the Mitzvot that are written in the Torah or the conventions that the fathers have established, although they are mostly in action or in speech, they are all in order to correct the heart…”
Baal HaSulam, “Introduction to the Book, Panim Meirot uMasbirot”

Those who engage solely in the dresses of the Torah are gravely mistaken. And when the Creator’s demand is abandoned and the majority of the multitude of the sages of the Torah do not know its purpose, and they consider the wisdom of the Torah with its purpose as mere addition of some quip to Talmudic debates—which, though truly sacred and precious—they will not illuminate our souls.
Rav Kook, Igrot (Letters), Part 2, No. 153
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The work of the spiritual teacher is called a “mantle” (robe of the high priest). Baal HaSulam says in letter 26: This is why this work is generally called “a mantle,” as it is an overcoat, “beyond” human conception,” since the teacher dresses his pupil in it. “And in which there is a combination, as in the edges of the Kli, which is the place where the filth is collected. This means the ego.

During the training period, he is in a state of “to and fro,” as are all those who seek the opening. This means the exit to the next level. And in the last moment of the march when he is close to the opening, but he doesn’t know that, since the opening suddenly opens up at the last moment. When a person completes the left and the right lines and the only thing left for him to do is to create the middle line, this opening opens up.

But if he hasn’t done so yet, then when he approaches the opening, then, of all times, he grows weary and turns back. This is called Zahav (the golden), from the words Ze Hav (give me this), which means from the doubts: What for? Why? This vessel of gold is the most precious of all the other vessels, but it’s built out of the disappointments and the disrespect of everything that we go through. For the movement is done through the craving and the longing for Dvekut (adhesion) with Him, which is built gradually by such maneuvers, when a person almost reaches the opening itself, but doesn’t see it. And it is this place that he is repulsed by since there is the greatest filth, and so a person turns back.

He is also called “a bell” (Paamon) because he doesn’t have the strength to open and he turns back, thus spending his time going to and fro (Paama) again,  time and time again, looking for the opening.

Also, he is called Rimon (pomegranate) because the Romemut (sublime, exaltedness) of above the intellect surrounds him from all sides. This is the place where the greatest filth has been accumulated and a person cannot overcome it or leap above it if he doesn’t work in exaltedness, above the intellect. Hence, again he is called Rimon for otherwise he would fall entirely. The only way to go through this is with our eyes closed, in exaltedness, above reason, by the power that one receives from the teacher, from the friends, and from the books.
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From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/13/13, Writings of Baal HaSulam

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Preparation to the Lesson

Writings of Rabash, “Shlavei HaSulam,” Article 44

The Book of Zohar — Selected Excerpts, Parashat, “Beresheet,” Item 855  

Talmud Eser Sefirot, Vol. 1, Part 2, Chapter 6, Item 69

Writings of Baal HaSulam, “A Speech for the Completion of The Zohar“

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Question: How can we defeat the Klipa of Canaan?

Answer: The Klipa of Canaan is the disrespect one feels towards the means for his spiritual advancement. It is revealed after a person decides to start the spiritual work and to come out of Babylon, which means of the general ego. This ego is revealed in the meantime as a person’s personal ego.

The ego is defined as the force of repulsion one feels towards the friends in the group that yearns for unity and mutual guarantee. When we begin to work on unity, the repulsion that I feel towards every friend is called my ego. This is already the ego of a person who works on himself.

But the first ego that was revealed in Babylon is a personal, individual ego that I feel I must exit. I feel bad and uncomfortable. I am not sure that it is the ego yet, but I simply want to exit the shattering, the shattered life in which nothing works out. I feel confused. The tower of Babel symbolizes the initial clarifications when we realize that if we connect we will feel good, just like in integral education.

The Klipa of Canaan is the egoistic force that appears in a person in the form of disrespect towards the spiritual work, the teacher, and the group. He is ready to connect to the Creator only: This is his goal. He wants to continue working individually, by himself, and doesn’t need the group. He even sees the teacher as a mere source of information.

This is all our work. Everything starts from Joseph who is the most important figure, which means the attribute that collects (Osef) everyone to this point. Neither the friends, the group, or the teacher demand respect or need any special treatment. It is only needed in order to focus us correctly on the attainment of the Creator like an elite military unit that operates according to this principle, according to these values.

Everyone should understand that no matter how much he lies to himself, the greatness of the Creator and the goal cannot be greater than the means, which are the teacher, the group, and the study.
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From the Preparation to the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/16/13

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Question: I have no desire to simplify the wisdom of Kabbalah for the framework of distribution to the masses. I want to be involved with a dry methodical science and to pass it on in a form like this. This concerns me very much. With what could this be connected?

Answer: This is due to the fact that you don’t understand how much the wisdom of Kabbalah is a practical science. All of the calculations and sketches are good only when you see clear and precise actions behind them: How humanity will ascend to the level of the Creator, reveal himself to the next world, to the next dimension, for itself.

When this truly will begin to be shown to you practically, and the wisdom of Kabbalah is an absolutely practical science, then you won’t have any contradictions and opposition between it and the work with the masses. This is work, just like taking care of a newborn, when you feed it and clean up after it, feed it and clean up after it all the time. And you do so for many months, until it becomes a small person.

Initially this work seems to you to be miserable, unpleasant, repulsive, and even unnecessary. But this will pass.

To the degree that you yourself enter into the science of Kabbalah, you will feel more and more how much it is impossible to advance forward without attainment, and all this calculation will be empty, it will not replace discovery of the upper world. The upper world can be discovered only when you act in mutual participation with the friends and through them with the Creator, and simultaneously descend with this down to the masses of society.
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From the Moscow Virtual Convention “Unity Without Boundaries” Day One 12/13/13, Lesson 1

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