Talks about the Steps of the Ladder, Part 86

How Can We Subjugate Ourselves to the Group’s Decision?

Unlike other groups in society, in Kabbalah, subjugating to the group is not achieved through self-limitation, which leads to foolishness. In a regular society, the more a person complies with society’s demands, the more they are considered a good citizen or a pious individual. Nothing beyond that is required.

People who wish to live their lives quietly, without any excess turmoil, need to diminish and hide their inner intensity. They should pretend to be slightly less than they truly are. By doing so, they accept society’s influence and rules, and in return, receive its support. This is how people grind on in life peacefully, finishing it as if they had never been born.

In a group engaged in Kabbalah, the opposite is true. We need to harness the full extent of our desire, personality, and everything within us to work on uniting the group, not to stand out against everyone, but to bring everyone together. How is this different from regular society? In the external society, i.e., outside of the group that advances to the spiritual goal, we do not achieve unity through strengthening our desire, but rather through diminishing and concealing ourselves.

In Kabbalah, the more we work on social cohesion, then the stronger our sense of self-worth and the greater our abilities, and the more we contribute to uniting the group. The two kinds of societies use opposite approaches. In Kabbalah, we form a group where each member dedicates their full strength and power to unify the collective. Accordingly, unity is a result of effort, not of prior submission, self-concealment, or dissolving into the collective.

In Kabbalah, everyone stands out and connects together. The unity we achieve in such a setting is on a very high level.

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Preparation to the Lesson

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1st part of the Lesson — Lesson on the Topic “Continuing the Convention with an Ascent”

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Selected Highlights

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Question: How did Kabbalists of the past keep up the importance of the goal
and support each other?

Answer: Just as we are doing today. I need the support of the group because otherwise I cannot attain desire for spirituality. I advance only with the desire I receive from my environment, from society. Therefore, I need a suitable environment.

I must pressure them, flatter them, love them, literally dust them off, all in order to obtain from them—in a positive or a negative way—the enthusiasm and importance of the goal.

It is with this enthusiasm that I can turn to the Creator. Therefore, I need an environment that is on the same level with me as a source of desire with which I turn to the Creator. And from there, I receive the force that corrects and elevates me.

Question: But there were times when Kabbalists laughed at each other and at themselves, for example, stuffing crumbs into their beards. What for?

Answer: They laughed at themselves. This was all special self-irony about the state they were in. Yes, that happened.

In general, humor, satire, and self-mockery are inherent in the nature of the Jewish people. Actually, all the jokes about themselves they create themselves. This is a necessary condition for self-control and analysis, which helps them move forward.

Question: You say that the group as if intentionally pressures a person, creates numerous obstacles for them. Yet at the same time, it gives him the importance of the goal. Why is such a path necessary? Why get on each other’s nerves?

Answer: The thing is that we initially consist of two parts. I consist of one part that is egoistic and wants to use everything for itself, and the second part, the point in the heart that desires to aspire toward altruism, bestowal, adhesion with the Creator, that is, toward equivalence with the properties of the absolute in bestowal and love.

In accordance with these two parts, I perceive the surrounding world in a dual manner. Therefore, I always experience this imbalance, difference, dipole, both plus and minus within me. Moreover, I see plus and minus in everything around me: there is no good without evil and vice versa.
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From KabTV’s “I Got A Call. Support in the Group” 6/13/10

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Any person in our world executes the program of the Creator. There is not a single one who is free from it. We all work for Him.

The only difference is whether it is conscious or not. Whether you wish to go along with this program, justify it, comprehend it, and try to implement it, or whether you are disconnected from it and exist automatically; you are still executing it anyway, even without realizing it.

But the difference between these states is that when you comprehend the program, you reveal its Creator, you become like Him in greatness, in understanding, in perception, in His very status!

You begin to flow in the same stream of immense information, feelings, and decisions. You are alive! Instead of merely existing like a little kitten, you exist like God!
[340818]
From KabTV’s “I Got A Call. There is no Absoluteness” 6/26/10

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Question: What is the difference in the perception of life by a Kabbalist and by an ordinary person?

Answer: The difference is in the point called “death.” For any person on this earth, everything is perceived below the level of death: he lives, and lives, and dies.

If he could imagine himself living in his body and at the same time living outside his deceased body, then he would roughly grasp that two layers of existence are simultaneously revealed to a Kabbalist: our world and the upper one, the next dimension, which exists end-to-end in our world on a different frequency.

And then naturally, the entire philosophy of life changes, the attitude toward oneself, toward others, toward the purpose of creation, toward human ideals, and toward his plans.

In principle, we do not understand that the most important thing that subconsciously exists in us and determines everything is the fear of death. It constantly drives us toward something. We create culture and science in order to forget ourselves and find some kind of salvation from fear.

We are constantly trying to escape from this question because if it arises in us, then life loses its meaning. Why give birth to children if everything ends, if everyone dies, because a birthday is also an approach toward death.

The most important question for humanity about its life and death is solved by Kabbalah, which reveals to a person the eternal, perfect existence during this animalistic life.

When he ascends to the next level and exists on both levels at the same time, that is when he can do magnificent things! He can truly exist correctly also on the earthly level, rationally, and relating to others in the right way because nothing restrains him anymore. The sensation of eternity completely covers all problems! Absolutely all of them!

That is, you begin to understand why everything exists. It is so that you could delve deeper and deeper into this eternity, into the sensation of the Creator, into the sensation of this unified, eternal, perfect, harmonious nature, to be able to merge with Him even more, to come to know Him, to become like Him. Then you begin to perceive your earthly existence as the realization of some higher possibility given to you.

There is no afterlife. If you have attained the spiritual world during this lifetime, you have attained it. And if not, you must return to the same state you are in now and continue your path.
[340729]
From KabTV’s “I Got A Call. Life or Death” 4/10/10

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Talks about the Steps of the Ladder, Part 85

How Can We Subjugate Ourselves to a Different Opinion?

There are concepts of “following the majority” and “following the individual.” In spirituality, it is stated that we must “follow the individual.” This means following an individual who is truly unique, singular, and exceptional among humanity, or within a large group of people, someone whose opinion and knowledge we respect. In such a case, we disregard the majority and only regard that individual. We become indifferent to millions of other people and what they might say or think, and focus solely on what this unique and exceptional person says.

For example, millions of people once believed in certain laws that were once widely accepted. Then someone like Albert Einstein came along and said, “No, the laws are different.” Those millions of people could not comprehend the strange things he was saying about the warping, stretching, or even resetting of time, and the distortion of space. The familiar foundation beneath their feet was swept away, leaving them suspended in midair. While the masses could not understand, this unique and exceptional individual stood firm in his perspective, a perspective that was indeed innovative, solid, and advanced, although not yet widely accepted, even if it was true. Then, I choose to follow him. How? Above reason, because I too am part of the crowd. If I were like that unique and exceptional individual, the question of whom to follow would not even arise. I would not need to follow anyone. But if I am pursuing a spiritual path, I must follow the unique and exceptional individual, even though he stands alone, because he is great.

We can understand this idea intellectually. However, we need to find the strength to translate this understanding from the intellect into action. We might know that a certain singular and exceptional individual who stands firm in his perspective is correct. Where, then, can we draw the strength to join him? After all, the masses, driven by their reasoning, oppose him. How can we join him against public opinion? It is said that this is possible by the principle of “One who adheres to the great becomes great.” However, we still wonder how to achieve this and begin, step by step, to seek the way to adhere to that great one.

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The very first step in attaining love and bestowal is to attain awe.

It is similar to a mother who is constantly in fear, worrying about her infant and everything that happens to him. This natural, innate fear constantly vibrates within her and does not give her peace.

We must attain the same attitude and care toward the Creator. We need to have constant worry and awe. I need to check myself if i am thinking about Him or if I can add anything more to my care?

If I want to attain the quality of Bina, then the one to whom I want to give is like my child to me. It does not matter that I call Him the Creator! I worry and care for Him as for an infant because I want to be a bestower!

This is where a person’s connection with the Creator begins. But before that, we must attain the same awe-filled connection with humanity or at least with a small part of it, with our group. I must learn to care for it as for a very beloved and dear person.

We are given similar examples in our world in caring for our children or parents, that is, for someone outside ourselves but bound to us with unbreakable ties.

An inner fear, awe must live within me: will I be able to help them and bring them good? This is the quality of Bina from which everything begins, and upon it, we start to build bestowal and love.

The Creator gives us such exercises inside our egoism so that we can gradually attain another reality, an altruistic one, so that we have examples and a foundation from which we build within ourselves the quality of Bina, of bestowal.
[17905]
From Daily Kabbalah Lesson 7/22/10, Writings of Rabash “You Stand Today, All of You”

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Question: You say Rabash was the first to outline the rules for working in a group. Didn’t Baal HaSulam describe them?

Answer: Kabbalists did not talk much about it; they hid such things, considering them very personal.

They simply described the structure of the upper worlds so that by reading their works you could attract the upper light. But prior to that, how you should shape yourself, you and the group, the desire to move forward, and the ascent to greater bestowal for which you need the upper light was practically not discussed. This is each person’s inner work, his work in the heart.

Therefore, before Rabash, humanity did not need a massive explanation and the implementation of group work. Rabash described the rules of interacting in the group very clearly, but did not disclose his writings because the time had not yet come.

We see that his method of working in a group is the most important thing he has done for the world. In fact, he has done a lot, but this is the most important and most necessary thing for us. Right now, this technique can be implemented in our organization and in us.

There is a reason we are called by his name: Bnei Baruch. Indeed, apart from that, we do not need anything else. As Baal HaSulam said, love of friends covers absolutely all our problems.
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From KabTV’s “I Got A Call. Virtual Community, Part 4” 5/17/10

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