The Light that returns to the source is the only means, the only tool, by which I correct desire. All I have is desire and light, which is called “the light that returns to the source,” because that’s exactly what I demand from it.

We give this light various names: “inner,” “surrounding,” “NRNHY,” and so on. But fundamentally, I demand that it return me to the source, to goodness. That is the only way I can address it.

My appeal can be only like this. I cannot demand the light of Nefesh or the light of Ruach; this will be the result of my state. But in order to change that state, I must address the Light, invoke its action, and it is this light, the one that returns to the source, that acts upon me.

I have instructions that explain how to act, how to work in a group, to study, to disseminate. These instructions are generally called “Torah,” i.e., the teaching (Oraa), a guide for action. According to the Torah’s program, I go through all the stages of the path that it describes.

So this is a simple matter. I have an egoistic desire and light that can transform it. And I myself stand in the middle, in the middle third of Tifferet, and decide to change or not. This choice is not made in isolation but in an environment, in a group.

In the end, I depend on rather “superficial,” “mechanical” actions. I join a group and lower my head before it. I do everything the friends want, and from them I receive the desire to be corrected thanks to envy, lust, and honor. With this desire, received from the group, I appeal to the light so that it will correct me. Then it comes and does just that. And in the new state—it all starts again.

From this it is clear that I receive both the desire and the correction (the screen) from the outside, from the group and the Light. I am that single, base point called: “something from nothing.”
[47814]
From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 7/11/11, Writings of Baal HaSulam “Matan Torah [The Giving of the Torah]”

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