Question: A convention is always a great test for us. How can we make sure that we are in the right direction between the conventions, even when we experience negative feelings?

Answer: I cannot tell you when you experience negative feelings and when you don’t. If you are connected to us, you advance and the geographic distance is meaningless.

I will say it again, you advance only when you are with us in all our collective actions because by missing a couple of lessons, you miss much more and then you will not understand what is said in the next lesson. You will not understand things internally! You will not have the necessary filling and satiation.

My lessons are always inclined upwards, constantly upwards. You may think that it’s a repetition or that it has nothing to do with the previous material, but it’s not so! I always move forward! It may be presented differently, in a different manner or style, but it’s always on an increasingly higher level.

So you mustn’t miss any lessons! If you haven’t had a chance to listen to the lessons for a couple of days for different reasons, then you should still watch them later. The problem is that many of our friends don’t take the daily participation in the lessons seriously while I base my study precisely on that. A student is a person who follows me step by step.
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There are no readymade forms and no idols in the spiritual world. A person forms spirituality by himself. The good and benevolent upper force that fills all of reality is infinite. It has one attribute and that is being the good and the benevolent, love and bestowal.

But only a person who reveals this force can feel the good and the benevolent, the love and bestowal. So it’s impossible to speak about the Creator without a created being who reveals Him. Everything is clarified only with regard to the created being, only with regard to a person who attains spirituality.

We always develop by two forces: the force of receiving and the force of bestowal. There is nothing but that in reality. There is only the desire of the upper to bestow unto us, which means to bring us all the goodness according to the goal and the definitions of the upper, according to which He has determined the creation, and also the force of the lower, which is a desire to receive. This force is in contrast to the upper force, but it is by the combination of these two opposing forces, for and against, that these two forces stabilize one another in the eyes of the one who receives.

Therefore, our reality is divided into internality, which means to me, myself, and to externality, which means the world that surrounds me, the pulling force and the rejecting force, plus and minus, black and white. Every attribute has an opposite attribute and if we want to develop, we should establish these forms: both the “for” and the “against.” There is no Creator without a created being and there is no created being without the Creator. Only when they are two can they hold on to one another.

So we have to establish our first form of development called Ubar (embryo) and also the womb where it can develop. This means that we have to establish both the form of the created being and of the Creator. These two forces, these two attributes, have to constantly be stabilized by us. We fulfill this mission in the group, just like a person with regard to the group, the individual with regard to the general, or an embryo with regard to the mother’s womb. The group has to stabilize itself as an embryo with regard to humanity, like internality with regard to externality.
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From the preparation to the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 2/14/14

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We work facing the simple Upper Light that fills all of reality, being good and benevolent to everyone without exception, to the evil and to the good. This is to say, it has no form or distinction. In the Upper Light there are no colors.

And we want to stabilize ourselves like this Upper Light, only so our form will be based upon the desire to receive, meaning the opposite of the Light. But it must be similar in every manner of its external behavior.

It follows that both the Kli and its fulfillment and the behavior of the Kli should all be situated within the desire to receive. This is our substance in which we situate everything. Even the Light of NRNHY that we discover symbolized in letters: The letter “Yod” is called Light of Hochma, the letter “Hey” is called Light of Bina because the form of bestowal from the side of the Kli is called Light.

And that is how this is in everything, for the Light of Infinity itself is not felt, it disappears after the first restriction (Tzimtzum Aleph). We can attain the Light behind this curtain, after the first restriction, only by giving to our desires, to our Kli, created from our metal or material form similar to the Light that is found wherever it is behind the curtain.

The desire of each one of us includes within it five levels: 0,1,2,3,4. And all the forms that we receive in our yearning to resemble the permanent Upper Light we determine through the changes that take place within our desire to receive. The Upper Light itself is permanent and simple, filling all of reality, and there is no change in it. It acts permanently as absolute love, a sea of Light.

All changes are realized only within the Kli through the discovery of our Reshimot, through the communications between us. In each one of us, at every moment, new Reshimot are discovered, sometimes in one and sometimes in another, and all of our links with each change their form. And from this come all of the various forms of the Adam, the one similar to the Creator.

Therefore, the spiritual Kli is letters, its fulfillment is also letters, and our work is the letters of work. Everything is derived from the desire to receive. And the difference is only in how we handle it and use it for the Creator who is good and benevolent, working in “faith above reason.”

If all of the many changes that take place within us are matched to the good and benevolent like the mother who asks her children to be good, then they give us understanding, feeling, and attainment of the Creator, which is born within us and doesn’t descend from some place above. This is a very important point because it directs us towards practical work in that it obliges us to relate correctly to everything that happens within us and in the connection between us. It is worthwhile to pay attention to all of this because specifically here we discover the Creator. And this symbolizes that the Creator is revealed between us.
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From the Unity Workshop 2/13/14

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Baal HaSulam, “Introduction to The Book of Zohar,” Item 46: But the Kelim, called KHBTM in each of the lower worlds—Beria, Yetzira, Assiya—are not considered Godliness, but are rather covers that conceal the Light of Infinity within them and ration a certain amount of Light to the receivers. Each of them will receive only according to the level of its purity.

It is as if I am next to some pipe that passes and receives the Light through it only according to the level of my purity, according to my equivalence of form. Suppose I am in the world of Assiya. On the whole, the whole ladder of the worlds is filled with the Light of Infinity, but every time the system stabilizes itself with regard to the one who receives and gives him Light according to the attribute of bestowal.

Thus, I receive my private Light that matches my desire and according to the level of my correction, my Masach (screen). I receive according to my equivalence of form with the Light.

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From the 4^th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 2/12/14, Writings of Baal HaSulam

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The Torah, “Exodus” (Ki Tissa), 32:28-32:29: The sons of Levi did according to Moses‘ word, on that day some three thousand men fell from among the people. And Moses said: “Initiate yourselves today for the Lord for each man with his son and with his brother so that He may bestow a blessing upon you this day.”

It is said about the annulment of one’s egoistic desires that no matter how much one cherishes them, one remains with absolutely nothing. It’s also about following Moses who acts solely for the sake of bestowal. The property named “Moses” raises us above our regular reality and teaches us how to change it because everything there has to work for the sake of spirituality, bestowal, and caring for others.

We should devote our lives to others. We must constantly struggle and engage in self-analysis in order to find egoistic grains that have to be corrected. It’s immense and tireless work that grinds us like a mill, thus altering us. It’s extremely complicated to be constantly squeezed between heavy millstones that cut us alive; moreover, it’s us who should be spinning the millstones with our own hands and yet admire doing this work.

However, these exertions are necessary to tune ourselves to bestowal and love. As soon as we manage to correctly self-adjust to bestowal and love, it turns out to be the uppermost pleasure, whereas when we deviate even a little bit, it turns into a terrible affliction. By detaching from ourselves, we begin sensing the upper state; if we fail, we immediately fall back to our egoism.

By all means, having a clear indicator of a spiritual work is extremely beneficial, but it’s not an easy thing to achieve because our sensations, perception, and ability to analyze our past, present, and future levels are “glossed over.” We constantly live in a state of blurred vision: “Where are we? Are we in the property ‘for our own sake’ or in the state ‘for the sake of others’?” We continually make internal clarifications.
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From KabTV’s “Secrets of the Eternal Book” 9/11/13

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Question: How can we constantly focus on love and bestowal?

Answer: We can focus on love and bestowal only in the right environment, which is our salvation. We cannot even imagine how effective and unique this help is, it is like a tuning fork in which we can tune every attribute, every string of the soul.

On one hand, there are attributes of bestowal buried deep inside all the particles of the general soul thanks to the shattering. On the other hand, there are those who receive an awakening of this attribute of bestowal and are ready to start working with it and to connect to one another. The readiness to connect and unite turns their society into a spiritual mechanism in which anyone who wants to purify and strengthen himself in the right direction can do so.

But this society has to constantly clarify and look for what else can be improved. This is what continuous group work is; everyone works on the connection with others.

The whole egoistic collective is replaced by one unified society and then this one united attribute of love and bestowal, which everyone is dissolved into, a giant unit that is made of many, becomes a purifying force because the Upper Light goes through it. It resembles the Creator and is in equivalence of form with Him, with His force, with His unclear presence, and later with His clear presence that goes precisely through this system called a group.

Now its representatives who are the carriers of the force of the whole group can go out to the public and work with everyone on connection.
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From KabTV’s “Secrets of the Eternal Book” 9/11/13

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Preparation to the Lesson

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Workshop

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The Book of Zohar — Selected Excerpts

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Talmud Eser Sefirot, Vol. 3, Part 9, “Histaklut Pnimit,” Item 2

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Writings of Baal HaSulam, “Introduction to The Book of Zohar,” Item 52 

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Listen to an Audio Version of the Blog
Download: MP3 Audio
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Question: Do I rob the group of the opportunity to unite around my problem and solve it if I have a certain problem and I feel ashamed to bring it to the group?

Answer: Shame is pride, ego, and perhaps even narcissism, but there is nothing we can do about it. It passes gradually.

Animals don’t feel shame. A cow standing in the field eating grass is not ashamed of anything. So why should a person feel ashamed of being a donkey standing in the field and doing what his body demands?

It isn’t by chance that it says: “Go to the craftsman who made me.” He gave me the desire to receive and I have to be ashamed that I had an opportunity to correct it and didn’t do so.

I am ashamed of the unfulfilled corrections, but I don’t need to be ashamed of the corrected and the corrupt natural forms since both belong to the Creator, while the human being in me is the middle part, the shell of Noga, the third middle part of Tifferet. This is the place where my freewill is. It’s there that I need to feel ashamed and to worry as to whether I have fulfilled myself correctly.

So I don’t understand people who cannot or who will not tell the friends in the group about what happens to them, especially when it can damage the whole group. We should be very careful here, since by delaying the advancement of the friends, by “saving” on their account, I delay myself much more.

It isn’t worth it. What have we got to hide? After all, everything comes from Above and we are not responsible for it. There is none else besides Him. We only have to unite more and to find the opportunity to correct the situation. There will be many more such states and they will end only at the end of correction.
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From the 4^th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 2/14/14, Writings of Baal HaSulam

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Rabash, “The Matter of Suckling and Conception”: Therefore the first phase of God’s work is the phase of conception, Ibur, which means that a person annuls his self and enters the mother’s womb in a state of conception.

This means that he annuls the self love called Malchut, which is originally called the desire to receive in order to receive, and enters the phase of the vessels of bestowal that is called the phase of Bina.

A person restricts himself by the Light that Reforms and begins to work from a state of an embryo. All the fillings come as a result of our work against our ego. It is the effort of overcoming the troubles, the problems, and the confusions that we go through that is actually the filling of our spiritual vessel.

The Creator is good and benevolent. We have to work in order to become a human being, Adam, which means the one who resembles (Domeh – from the same root in Hebrew) the Creator. But we have to follow the Creator’s example in order to resemble Him, like a mother who tells her children: “You should be nice to one another; why do you keep quarrelling and fighting all the time?” This means that we have to follow mother and father’s example according to the way they treat us.

There is no one else we can take an example from but them. There are no good children to begin with and we can only follow the example of the grownups, of the parents. We have to treat one another in the same loving way they treat us. Then each of us will be called Adam, he who resembles the Creator. It’s very simple, and this is all we have to do.

If the Creator is good and benevolent to the wicked and to the good and treats everyone with absolute love, we should also reach the state in which we treat all the created beings with love. What about the attainment of the Creator, the attainment of the spiritual levels, the attainment of the upper worlds? All this is revealed among us.

We begin to work with the world, with people, starting from those who are close to us to those most distant, since the corrections is from the easiest to the most difficult. Then, the more we expand this circle, which means our vessel, and the more deeply we engage in these relations by overcoming an increasingly greater and crueler ego, we discover an increasingly more sublime work. Thus we advance through the phases of Aviut (thickness) of the root phase, phase one, two, three, and four and discover the Light of NRNHY.
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From the preparation to the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 2/13/14

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