There are several types of depression. There is personal depression and there is general, collective depression.

Personal depression is passive. Collective depression is active and is characterized, for example, by people all climbing a barricade together. They don’t lie around quietly hoping for better times, rather they go out to demonstrate, destroying and shattering everything around them, just to be together.

Their power and support for each other is based upon this. This is a terrible phenomenon, for depression like this can cultivate fascism and nationalism.

So, it is very important to change their direction by using the method of the wisdom of connection.
[133263]
From KabTV’s “Secrets of the Eternal Book” 11/20/13

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Question: How can a teacher gain respect from children?

Answer: Usually, educators gain credibility in cases where they show the children that they can fully understand them, can be equal with them,  who defends them, and is necessary for them to arrange better contact between them and the world.

Here, it would be nice to stage an “unpleasant incident,” which was prepared in advance, in order for the teacher to settle it, to defend the children, and to show, let’s say to a police officer or the authorities, how children are dear to him and how he is prepared to give up anything for them.

A respected person is the one who leads, sacrificing himself, accepting all kinds of unpleasantness, although he himself is not guilty of them and should not be held responsible for them.

It’s known that the youth has a particularly sharp feeling of self-esteem; they are ready for any action, even suicide, just not to harm their “self.” And when the teacher shows that he is willing to stand by them and defend them, they immediately accept him not only as one of them, but also as a higher one.
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From KabTV’s “Conversations with Michael Laitman,” 12/12/14

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Preparation for the Lesson

Writings of Rabash, “Article 14”

Writings of Baal HaSulam “This Is for Judah”

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Song of Songs 3: By night on my bed I sought him whom my soul loveth; I sought him, but I found him not.

“I will rise now, and go about the city, in the streets and in the broad ways, I will seek him whom my soul loveth.” I sought him, but I found him not.

The watchmen that go about the city found me: “Saw ye him whom my soul loveth?” Scarce had I passed from them, when I found him whom my soul loveth: I held him, and would not let him go, until I had brought him into my mother’s house, and into the chamber of her that conceived me.

We search in the darkness and encounter the watchmen and thanks to him, the darkness, and our exertion, we can find!

We have repeatedly been in the state where we cannot do anything by ourselves. We reach a descent, a fall, despair and neglect, a feeling of helplessness and weakness bursts from inside, which we can do nothing about.

It is actually in these states that a person is examined as to what extent he has prepared himself with guards and policemen, if he has a mutual guarantee with others, and whether he has managed to prepare support and safeguarding. Safeguarding is necessary so that he will not escape, and the support helps him gather more internally towards the center of the group.

We need external forces for that, since a person himself is empty. He needs to have both guards and policemen, which are two opposite forces. A person must have both.

If a person learns something from this state, the next time he will worry about the mutual support of the friends, the building of a “safety belt.” Thus he prepares himself to attain the next level, turns the darkness into Light, and advances.

In our world, we say that someone who doesn’t learn from his mistakes is a fool. It is the same when it comes to spiritual advancement. At first a person is allowed to learn and it doesn’t matter if he makes mistakes.

But if he sees that he is thrown down a second time and cannot rise by external support, because he certainly has no powers of his own, then it is considered a transgression and disrespectful of the means given to him.
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From the preparation for the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/23/14

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We need to build a system that constantly reminds us that “there is none else besides Him.” This system must include at least ten people that have special relationship between them.

And so in this network of connection, in this mutual force field, the Upper Light begins to shine, and the upper power is found, which constantly reminds us that each and every moment comes from the foundation, from a higher power.

But if there is no network of connection like this between us, then we cannot remember. Situations will change, but we cannot connect them with the higher power, for this system isn’t working between us.

Only when a binding force field appears between us, like electricity or magnetism, then through our efforts to connect together, we feel that within it is a power that stabilizes this condition.

We go back to this work all the time. The system always reminds us that there is none else besides Him, stabilizing this condition for us, specifically when we are in concealment so that we will demand His revelation, give Him contentment with this and equivalence of form, like the guest and the host.

Question: Is this talking about states in the spiritual world?

Answer: We are in the spiritual world, but in concealment! We need to dispel this concealment from our state, to turn on the Light as if we were found together in a dark room without our knowing it. I enter the room, but I don’t see or feel that there is anyone there because of the darkness. I need to turn on the Light, and then I will see and understand that I am found together with everyone. We don’t fly to the spiritual world. We are already found within it, but it is concealed.

Question: But a person forgets that he is in concealment!

Answer: He doesn’t forget, but it is the Creator who intentionally obliges him to forget, and makes him confused! He not only forgets, but doesn’t want to be involved with spirituality at all because he is completely involved in other business. All this is arranged for him intentionally so precisely in spite of all this, he will come back to awareness.

Question: But if a friend does not remind me, I will never remember this!

Answer: Right, so we need Arvut (mutual guarantee). Without Arvut there is no need to give us the Torah, the method. Only if we are ready to create a system of Arvut in which a sufficient number of friends participate, a complete number of 600,000 souls, who can be mutually connected with each other and understand that the goal is to become like one man with one heart, and if they agree to go towards this, then it is worthwhile to give us the method of connection.

Essentially this is not a method of connection, but a method of discovery. It is a method through which we turn on the Light and dispel the concealment.
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From the preparation for the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/20/14

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We don’t have to imagine that spirituality is somewhere far away. It is said that we rise gradually through the first, second, third levels, etc. But these are potential levels, stages of our feelings and understanding.

The spiritual world is really here, but I see it according to the glasses I wear, according to my sensitivity. Suppose that I come to a lesson half asleep, but I begin to wake up. I can already hear a little of what they are talking about, so I open my eyes, and after this begin to wake up and become even more and more lively in all of my senses.

These are the spiritual levels: We awaken, become more sensitive, use all the tools more, and involve more perception of desires (Kelim). But in the Kelim (desires) nothing changes, so we need to appreciate the state we are in now. We need to sharpen our senses only slightly, and then we will feel the spiritual world.

We are in concealment and must dispel it. That is all! The problem is only in that it is against our ego, because it compels us to connect with others and work against our personal instinctive desires. If we grasp this principle, then it will become clear that this is very simple, concise, and specific.
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From the preparation for the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/20/14

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Zeir Anpin de Atzilut is the Creator according to us. The world of Infinity illuminates the unique Partzuf designed to work with us. This Partzuf is called Zeir Anpin and its origin is in the four phases of Direct Light.

Bina that wanted to bestow to Keter in order to be like it, refused to receive the Light, but after that she thought, what could she give Him in this case? How could she reach equivalence of form with Him? And so she received the Light in order to bestow; this is called Zeir Anpin.

Zeir Anpin is the child of Bina, she expresses her yearning for bestowal in him. But her inclination to bestow to Keter was very small because Bina took a desire that she found in the first phase, in Hochma, and with its help she performed the action. Keter performs an action for Hochma, conveys Light to her, and Hochma enjoys that Light. Bina didn’t want to get anything, but to bestow pleasure, she takes the desire of the first phase and fills it in order to bestow.

With this action she makes herself similar to the action that Keter performs for Hochma, and through this she gives contentment to Keter. But this is not a true desire, rather it’s the original desire that the Creator created. In order to reach a true desire, we must discover shame, the split, the entire gap between Creator and creature.

So after this action, Malchut feels that she has her own desire. She wants to have enjoyment, which is not from the pleasure that comes from Keter to Hochma and not the pleasure that Bina conveys to Zeir Anpin; rather, Malchut wants to have pleasure from contact with the Creator. She is not interested in enjoying the delicacies found on the table, for these are beastly pleasures. Rather she wants to enjoy the fact that the host is serving her. These are human pleasures, on the level of Adam (Man) and not on the level of the animate!

This development brings Malchut to a desire to enjoy her relationship to the Creator, to receive His love in order to receive, she enjoys love. She doesn’t enjoy the fulfillments that are found within the Light, rather she enjoys the Light itself. This is like Pharaoh who says, “Who is the Creator that I should listen to his voice? He must serve me! That is exactly what I need!”

This is the difference between Malchut and the regular desire to receive. Her desire to receive wants to dominate and rule so that the Creator will serve her as if she were found above Him. It is precisely this characteristic that we must correct and not the desire to receive on the levels of the still, vegetative, and animate.

You can eat all the delicacies from the table that the host offers you; there is no problem. He created you so that you would eat it. But how do you build your relationship with Him, the level of human stage and not the level of the animate of the relationship between you? This is the question. This is the role of Zeir Anpin towards Malchut.
[132148]
From the 3^rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/26/14, Talmud Eser Sefirot

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