Question: It turns out that it is possible for a person to expend effort without any gaining any benefit. But then, how do I check that my efforts are directed correctly?

Answer: In other words, you are ready to make efforts, understanding that it is impossible to achieve anything without them, and you want to verify that your efforts are headed in the right direction.

Efforts must be directed toward building a spiritual desire, a vessel, for the revelation of light. Light has the quality of bestowal; therefore, I also need to work on my egoism in order to overcome it and bring myself to the action of bestowal, to the quality of bestowal, to somehow get closer to it.

When I try to approach bestowal, I reveal resistance both from myself and from others. I see that I forget about it, I do not really strive for it, it is not my natural, innate desire.

Then my efforts take on a specific character so that I do not forget about the spiritual goal and constantly, within the right environment, imagine it before me. I try to influence my friends externally; I resort to all kinds of tricks in order to remain within the common desire, to feel it, to inspire others from the outside and from the inside with my thought, with my desire.

And if I make such efforts and see that I have no strength and nothing helps, then I involuntarily begin to think about the Creator. Just like that, on its own, this does not occur to me. But if I have made enough efforts, then in the end, I will remember that I need help from above. I am ready to ask: let Him help me and come with me!

This is called: “Come unto Pharaoh!” I agree that He should join me or I should join Him. And then we go together to shatter my ego, the ego that prevents me from connecting with others.

This is how a person begins to work, and inside the work, one already reveals what needs to be done next. But the correctness of efforts is always verified by whether they are directed inside the group.
[43381]
From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/18/11, Baal HaSulam, Letter 56, 1931

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