Until the completion of correction (Gmar Tikkun) itself, all of our spiritual work is realized through the environment until this environment and I become one whole. All of these levels are like concentric circles surrounding one central point.

From the outermost circle, from myself, the complete egoist, I first enter into the first circle, into the group, and begin to move into 125 circles deeper and deeper within.

The more that I am included in the group, I come closer to the Creator who is found in its center. The central point is the point of this world, the central point of the world of Infinity. Everything returns to one point, the “black point” of Malchut.

All the states we are studying speak of how much we have connected, circling within the connection, more and more strongly becoming one both qualitatively and quantitatively. In this way the spiritual levels are measured. It is possible to say that I begin from the largest circle and after that I in more and more contracting circles, centering them more and more from the point of view of clarification, connection, and unity, that is, qualitatively.

But it is possible to say that with this I can expand to more external people, to integral education, because the Creator has given me the AHP to work with, which is required for me to advance. And so I do the opposite; I go from the central point into wider and wider circles. It is possible to say this also: accordingly, I go out to wider and wider circles, to the masses, in other words, transforming into a “quantitative increase,” simultaneously with the work with this greater quantity, I contract myself with my knowledge and emotion further and further towards the center, meaning, more qualitatively, closer and closer to a single whole.

Likewise it is possible to say that in this one place I grew upwards in that I become more and more like the Creator. There, in the central point, I find the Creator and transform into being like Him, beginning from one point and growing higher and higher.

It is possible to express this process in different forms, but essentially there is no other work; there are no other realizations and means besides the environment. The environment is the group, the Rav, the books, and the Creator who is hidden within them and becomes our final goal. Otherwise we cannot aim towards Him.

We can never turn towards the Creator if we don’t stabilize Him in the center of the group connection. Everything else will simply be false. And besides this, work with the wider external public is imperative.
[123917]
From the 2^nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/23/13, The Zohar

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Question: What are the lines of similarity between the wisdom of Kabbalah and Sufism and where do they diverge?

Answer: Sufism is not contrary to the wisdom of Kabbalah. They speak about the same thing. But Sufism doesn’t explain the technique of the construction of creation, the system of creation, and its conduct. It’s more adapted to the masses since it speaks about the solution to human and spiritual problems but on the level of our world.

Sufism doesn’t explain the structure of the upper world in the precise form as is recorded in the wisdom of Kabbalah:  Sefirot, Partzufim, Olamot, Ohr, NRNHY, KHB ZON, Tzimtzum, Masach, Ohr Hozer, and all the rest of the concepts. Only in the wisdom of Kabbalah is a description given of the “celestial mechanics.”

In principle, you could say that you have no need for it. Yet in fact this is not so. When you begin to attain the upper world, then these mechanics becomes necessary. You cannot make order and clarification within you, relying only on your emotions or the guide. For you the guide has already transformed from being a person into an internal characteristic. You don’t see faces, rather you feel the Creator. Then you require deeper definitions and emotions, you must work with more subtle and more measured states.

I am not a big expert on Sufism, but it seems to me that it is a part of Kabbalah. And if we penetrate more deeply into true Sufism, then it’s possible to discover where that divider is found beyond which the wisdom of Kabbalah is imperative. According to its foundation, Sufism is the right study for leading the person precisely towards the goal, but up to a particular limit.

The idea is that with all of us there are different levels of ego. Sufism stops at a deep level of ego. And for people with a big ego, Sufism is not enough; they require a greater weapon against themselves. Therefore they require the wisdom of Kabbalah.

Unfortunately, Sufism has stopped its development for some time. Today in the Muslim world it’s not wanted at all. This is a great shame because once there was a connection between Jews and Muslims through Sufism.

Question: I have friends among the Sufis. Can I try to explain to them how the level of their development could be changed in this way?

Answer: I think that it’s not worthwhile to attract those who are involved with Sufism to the wisdom of Kabbalah. We are against coercion. We have free entry and exit. They can come, listen, and go; there is no obligation here. But I would give them some popular book on Kabbalah so that they will see where there are similar lines and where there is a difference.

In principle, the wisdom of Kabbalah is the inner part of the Torah and most parts of the Koran are based upon the Torah. The Torah constitutes the basis for all the religions. Therefore there are no contradictions here.
[124414]
From the Moscow Virtual Convention “Unity Without Boundaries” Day Three 12/15/13, Lesson 5

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Question: Suppose a person studying the integral method suddenly and painlessly experiences a change in direction of his flow of negative energy. When he encounters people he formerly hated, will he no longer feel this quality towards them? Will it be directed only towards his ego now?

Answer: The idea is that we can change all of our negative, egoistic characteristics into their opposites. If we create the appropriate atmosphere around a person, this will happen rapidly and easily. A small community of the like-minded surrounding him will always encourage him. With his new world view, there will not be any reason for him to see people as enemies; now he will look at them as fragments of his own soul; he feels himself and them as a single whole.

But if he disregards the integral method, then nature will strike him with hard sufferings, disasters ,and extreme situations, and still will oblige him to change, but this is the way of very great suffering. Not much time will pass until a person begins to think: “Why did sufferings like this fall upon me? Where did they come from? What is to be done? Where is there to turn?! It would be better for me to die than to live!”

But he will not be allowed to die until he understands that all the disasters, the epidemics, famine, floods, volcanic eruptions, and the disastrous civil wars, come from his egoism. He will not know how to fend off everything that has befallen, where to hide from it.

Therefore we propose people learn the integral method as long as nature doesn’t begin to take care of them, as long as they don’t aggravate its two forces (the positive and the negative), since it will not be very easy for humanity to balance the two forces in their natural appearance, in fact it could be totally eradicated. In this case, a small handful of people will survive on the face of the globe and under the influence of the forces of nature, they will include within them all of humanity with all of their suffering, they will understand that they must change themselves. What we suggest to people cannot be compared to this possibility.
[124407]
From Kab TV’s “An Integral World” 10/26/13

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Lesson on the Topic: “Preparation for the Convention”

Writings of Baal HaSulam “Introduction to The Book of Zohar,” Item 16

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We are just trying to figure out all the components of the concept of mutual guarantee. The guarantor of this guarantee is the Creator, the Upper Force. And this force should be manifested in every action: at its beginning, in the middle, and at the end. The Creator is very “jealous,” and if we forget Him, He immediately abandons us, and we fall right away since all our progress occurs only because of Him.

What is the difference? After all, the Creator supports all of nature: the still, vegetative, and animate levels. But there we do not have to participate in our relationship with Him consciously. But on our human degree of development, we have to be  directed to the Creator all the time. Otherwise, what kind of man is Adam if he does not dream to become like (Domeh) the Creator?

Thus, we need to worry about the missing component in our advancement: about the Creator! We may not immediately succeed and at first we will have the feeling that we lack something to maintain our unity. Indeed, we always start with the revelation of our breaking. But the Creator must be at the beginning and at the end of any action, and in its every moment.

He should connect us like the force of guarantee, the correcting force, the example that we want to see before us, the reference system. I see Him in all the friends and inside the raspberry ball: the point of our unity. I understand that it is He who realizes our connection and unity. I see only Him-Him-Him!

In essence, what do we work with friends for? We work together on the revelation of the Creator between us! He is the most important, honorable guest, we wait for Him, getting ready for His arrival! We prepare such a connection between ourselves, such expectation and hopes so He will come!
[124660]
From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/2/14, Lesson on the Topic: “9 Steps”

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We need patience and time in order to understand the concept of integral education. We began to talk about it three years ago and during that time some people have left us, others still don’t understand it, and there are those who don’t want to hear or know anything about it. We hardly hear what it is about. I hope that at least during the month we have left before the convention I will be able to break this resistance.

It is the “iron wall” that Baal HaSulam speaks of! The wisdom of Kabbalah is integral education, but we don’t want to accept that. People express their objection to the idea of integral education and leave the groups and cannot understand our work with the public. This is natural, since we are fighting against the main egoistic principle of the whole world.

So give us time to advance a little. Let’s hope that there will be a breakthrough in a month and the idea that the change depends only on mutual guarantee will be imprinted in everyone. This is what we are discussing now: The means for spiritual change is mutual guarantee. Do you want this change? Go ahead. But I warn you that if this is what you are coming for, bring money—a banknote of mutual guarantee. If your banknote is valuable in terms of mutual guarantee, you will receive everything.
[124329]
From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/30/13, Lesson on the Topic: Preparation for the Convention

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Question: People who come to a group not only possess different potentials, but they also have problems with a different type of desire: Someone is still not finished with his work on desires of a physical nature and for someone else the most essential task is a struggle, for example, with his lust for power.

Answer: Nobody is struggling with anything. For a person who is learning the integral method there is no struggle with himself, with eating himself up, with self-flagellation, and even with self-examination. There is nothing in him to clarify, for this is absolute ego. It’s preferable to not open this “can of worms” and not examine it.

The only thing that is required is to go out of yourself into all the others, to create the center of the group so that it will exist by itself without dependence on others. I call this a “raspberry ball” that begins to shine among everyone as a result of our altruistic drives.
[124488]
From Kab TV’s “An Integral World” 10/26/13

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Question: Is there any importance to the level of development of the ego that is found in the person who learns the Integral Method?

Answer: When we create an altruistic channel within the person, when he is included in the collective, then it is not important to us who he is at all! One could be an academic and another could be a homeless bum. There is no significance in it. In the integral circle they are absolutely equal in value. There is no preference or advanced rights for anyone.

In integral development there is no difference between a scientist, a psychologist, a politician, or a simple person off the street. Regarding our method they are all equal. Only one thing is important to us: Before us sits a concentration of egoistic energy and we need to give these ten people their method of correction.

Suppose that I am a doctor and people come from a variety of professions for treatment, I don’t treat the musician by teaching him how to play correctly, or the mathematician, I treat the illness! Here it is the same thing!

We don’t check the science degrees, the certification of assets, or the education. Regarding the integral method they are nothing! Ten people sit in a circle, everything that is in them is reduced to zero and we start from this point.
[124477]
From Kab TV’s “An Integral World” 10/26/13

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Opinion (Gordon Brown, former British Prime Minister and Leader of the Labor Party from 2007 to 2010): “In the patterns of borrowing today, we can already detect parallels with the pre-crisis credit boom. We’re seeing the same over-reliance on short-term capital markets that ultimately brought down Northern Rock, Iceland’s banks and Lehman Brothers. …

“International rules are needed for international banks. Without them, as the International Monetary Fund has warned, global banks will evade regulation ‘by moving operations, changing corporate structures, and redesigning products.’ …

“Political expediency, a failure to think and act globally, and a lack of courage to take on vested interests are pushing us inexorably toward the next crash. We will have another crash soon … because absolutely nothing has been fixed. Indeed, things have only gotten worse since the last crash.

My Comment: As long as we have not defined our own restructuring as a necessary and sufficient condition for the solution to all our problems, we will inexorably approach new problems.
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