Question: There are common laws of development in nature: birth, maturation, maximum efficiency, and dying away. Does the group develop according to the same laws?

Answer: Undoubtedly, we go through these states in our personal and group development. But the group still develops in a little different manner. On one hand, it constantly expands, but on the other, it begins to unite with the Creator once it transitions into the spiritual phase. Once its corporeal part, the desires to receive, dies away, it enters the Creator with the intentions to bestow and exists infinitely there in its root.

Certainly, the notion of the “group” eventually disappears because it becomes replaced with the notion of “Adam,” a single soul. The group (Kvutza) is still something limited; it represents a union (Kibbutz), an alliance of souls united under pressure. Once it merges with the Creator, the souls begin to exist in one another without dying away, the unity between them does not disappear, and at the same time everything becomes one whole.
[22190]
From the Talk On Unity in the Group 9/24/10

Related Material:
Laitman.com Post: Unification With The Group Leads Us To The Creator
Laitman.com Post: The Kabbalistic Group Is A Spiritual Booster
Laitman.com Post: Bruce Lipton, “We Are One Whole”

Filed under: Collective Soul, Daily Kabbalah Lesson, Group Work, Inner Work, Q&A - No Comments →

Every person has the right to examine whether the place he chooses to study is good for him. However, after a short test, he should make up his mind and enter the study process at the selected place without any further doubts. Otherwise, he won’t be able to reveal the Creator and His world.

There are groups who claim that they study according to their own method. But how can there be a method that was not passed down through the chain of Kabbalists from master to disciple?

It is impossible to receive such a method on one’s own. Only Adam HaRishon received this method “from Heaven,” as it were, and discovered it on “his own.” However, all the others, including Abraham, obtained it through the chain of Kabbalists. At first, Abraham was “an idol worshiper,” meaning that he was engaged in a special spiritual work, only in its reverse form, after which he realized its inadequacy. Twenty generations past Adam HaRishon, Kabbalah was passed on to Abraham.

The method of attainment can be acquired solely through clinging to a teacher. This is the way it expands from Above downward through the chain of souls, from soul to soul. Can you really connect to the root if you are not Adam HaRishon himself? Only Adam HaRishon is tied to the Creator directly. All the other souls must receive from him through the chain of Kabbalists, depending on the soul’s place in it. Everybody receives from the one who stands before him, and is connected by a linked chain with one root.

It is a hierarchic system similar to a tree. I am positioned in it at a specific place and can receive only from the person nearest to me and above me. For this, I need to annul myself before him in the same way a lower Partzuf annuls itself before the Upper One in the spiritual world.

Therefore, when people claim that they receive “Light or enlightenment” from Above or while in sleep, they are not being serious. A spiritual contact can be attained solely by staying close to a Kabbalist while he is alive. If you manage to reach at least one such point of contact, from that point on, you can develop everything else.

However, without this initial point, you won’t have anything from which to advance further: You are cut away from the whole tree, from the entire system of souls. This is why people always ask, “Who was your teacher? Where did you come from?”

For this reason, out of all diplomas, the most precious piece of paper that I possess is a tiny newspaper article where I am named as a loyal student and the right hand of Rabash. It testifies, to the very least, how connected I was with my teacher.

From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 9/12/10, “Letter 38”

Related Material:
Laitman.com Post: Learning “From Mouth To Mouth”
Laitman.com Post: Kabbalists On Kabbalists, Part 11
Laitman.com Post: Growing Up In Spirituality

Filed under: Collective Soul, Daily Kabbalah Lesson, Inner Work, Spiritual Teacher, Spirituality - 1 Comment →

Question: If a person doesn’t exist apart from others, then why do each of us have a sensation that reality is created for him and that the Creator relates to him personally?

Answer: This is a degree of exclusiveness that each of us possesses. It comes to us from the Creator and constitutes our roots that make us different from each other. It obligates each of us to implement our uniqueness, as it is true that “the world is created for me.” This is what every person has to enunciate and validate to himself. However, it should not be done at the “expense” of others, but rather for the sake of others.

I am the one who corrects this world; other people are only parts of me. This fact obligates me to treat others as though they depend on me. I have to unite with them through the power of my love, and I am the one who defines it.

When my point connects with their points, I become their “head,” meaning the head of a body that is called the “common soul.” It is me who is making decisions, creating connections, and filling them with the Creator’s Light because for them I represent the source or the Creator. There is somebody else, and it’s you. You are the one who does the same thing in connecting other people (including me) to you. You, too, become a head of our universal body, but it’s a different body because, in your case, it is identified by your proper attitude to others.

Thus, each of us is a unique personality and doesn’t encumber others, but rather complements them. You sense the Creator’s personal attitude, but He can relate to you only through the group. Similarly, you relate to Him only through the group.

The Creator is that which is revealed in the connection between us. The Upper Light settles specifically within the desires of bestowal and the connection between all souls. When all properties of bestowal unite, the vessel for the revelation of the Creator (a network of bestowal) divulges itself.

The desire itself underwent the First Restriction (Tzimtzum Aleph) and stopped receiving. Receiving is possible only through the bonds that connect all desires at a place where a screen and the Reflected Light are present.

From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 9/5/10, “What is the Matter of My Making A Pact in the Work”

Related Material:
Laitman.com Post: Raising The Whole World
Laitman.com Post: Revealing The Light Of Infinity Between Us
Laitman.com Post: Stem Cells Of The Soul

Filed under: Collective Soul, Daily Kabbalah Lesson, Group Work, Inner Work, Q&A - No Comments →

During a Kabbalah Convention we bring together all our forces of bestowal to create one common, collective force. Afterwards, because of this force, a new egoistic desire becomes revealed. We then begin to work on it by ascending with “faith above reason” despite our unwillingness. At that point we find that new people join us, and that’s because we have acquired the strength to take care of them. We affect the common soul, the only creation, with our actions. We gather the forces of bestowal from each person and thereby form one small soul which is equivalent to the single soul of Adam in the state of the World of Infinity. As a result, we awaken all of the souls through our efforts, and they begin to “vibrate” together! This is the dissemination of Kabbalah. We don’t need a lot of materials about the goal and correction. People will simply feel that the source of the Upper Force is here. However, it will only happen if we will create a common soul, a collective force. From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 8/19/10, “Introduction to the Book, Panim Meirot uMasbirot”
Related Material:
Laitman.com Post: The Beginning Of Practical Ascension
Laitman.com Post: How Will You Color Your World?
Laitman.com Post: You Have A Part Of The World To Come

Filed under: Collective Soul, Conventions, Daily Kabbalah Lesson - No Comments →

Light comes to us from Above and awakens specific parts of the common soul in order to advance them according to its program. This program is very complex and assumes that the souls will awaken in a specific order and combination among them like parts of one body. This is invisible to the eye, but according to the inner structure of the soul they are all connected with each other. The Light connects them together so they will perform the mutual work of searching for the quality of bestowal.

These are people who are complete strangers, very different from one another, and have completely contrasting material qualities. Yet, we have to believe that this is all arranged from Above. We have to leave behind everything that prevents us from uniting and search for a means that can help us accomplish this. The search will enable us to understand that the only basis for unification is bestowal, which is above reception. Nothing but this can unite people.

This path is very inconsistent, as if we are traveling across a very uneven road and our car is constantly thrown up and down by all the potholes and bumps. Yet, despite everything it has to keep going and advancing forward. The more we advance, the greater is the frequency of bumps and the more sensitive we are to them. In other words, the changes taking place in us are more drastic and significant. The truth is that they were the same before, but we did not notice or feel them very much.

It is impossible to advance down this road unless you even it out. Then our car will roll along quickly and easily! The only way we can smooth out every pit and bump on this path is to have a common opinion in the group and unity among us. This is the only thing that will fill in all the pits and unite us together, making our path smooth and even.

There is no possibility to advance spirituality without evening out the road. The disturbances and problems that arise before a person who desires to advance individually, or worse yet, a group of individualists, are so great that it is impossible to overcome them. The car will inevitably get stuck and it will be impossible to get it out. A person will remain in the same place; his life will be over, and he still won’t complete the path or attain the goal.

Therefore, our work must be aimed at unity. Then we will reveal that we can attain all the results precisely through unity! Our spiritual advancement on this path depends only on this. All the efforts and revelations happen only in one direction inside this connection that unites us all.

Everything depends on how much a person values the connection among the friends above all the problems that become revealed, and he understands just one thing: “There is none else besides Him.” All the disturbances come from the Creator. He gives rise to these inner pits and bumps inside us, confusing us in a thousand different ways. We have to imagine that all the problems come from Him and their only purpose is for us to unite.

Therein lies the secret to success! This is the basis upon which everything begins and all the rest is built.

From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 8/15/10, “Concerning the Importance of Friends”

Related Material:
Laitman.com Post: Don’t Let Your Ego Consume You!
Laitman.com Post: Rising Above The Mountain Of Doubts Together
Laitman.com Post: Spiritual Development May Feel Like A Turbulent Ride

Filed under: Collective Soul, Daily Kabbalah Lesson, Unity - 1 Comment →

Question: What are the signs that we have made the first step onto the spiritual ladder?

Answer: When we arrive at the first spiritual degree, we feel a pressing need to unite because a common integrated system of souls becomes revealed to us there. This system is a tight network of forces of mutual love and bestowal, filled with the upper, unifying force, the Creator.

The more willing we are to become equivalent to the Light, the tighter our souls draw together under its effect, and we feel how it passes through us. The souls align with the Light more and more, removing obstacles (resistance) out of its way, and the Light travels through them without restriction, shifting from one soul to the other. The Light becomes whole and complete like in the World of Infinity. It doesn’t need to perform any actions or movements in order to shift from place to place; it simply and absolutely fills the entirety of the network evenly.

This network exists at every level of the spiritual ladder, from the first to the last. However, as we advance to a higher spiritual degree, we perceive a more integrated network filled with more Light. We perceive this because there is less and less difference between the souls and the Light in which they reside. This means that the Creator, who fills space between the souls, is revealed to them more and more.

We see the Light at the very first degree of the spiritual ladder, similar to how a newborn baby begins to perceive our world with his five corporeal senses: sight, hearing, taste, touch, and smell. A newborn doesn’t know how to use his sensory organs yet, but is able to acclimate himself somewhat.

The same occurs when we attain the first spiritual degree. After having made it to the first spiritual degree, we exist in this world in our physical body and also within our soul in the spiritual world. The spiritual world is eternal, and while in it, we don’t feel the need for the physical body. We can exist without it, solely in the sensation of the Upper World.

From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 7/16/10, Article, “The Wisdom of Kabbalah and Its Essence”

Related Materials:
Laitman.com Post: The Matrix Of Our Reality
Laitman.com Post: Infinity Is Boundless Unification
5 Minutes of Light: “How to Measure Spiritual Advancement”

Filed under: Collective Soul, Daily Kabbalah Lesson, Inner Work, Perception - No Comments →

Every soul while correcting itself improves the condition of the collective soul, and by doing so, it helps all the others to correct themselves; they, in turn, also contribute their corrections to the common soul. First, everyone must realize the root of his soul by bringing his spiritual gene (Reshimo) to its individual, final correction (Gmar Tikkun Prati). Our individually corrected state is then our complete engagement in the collective soul of Adam HaRishon.

So, what is the common soul of Adam HaRishon after all? Is it all me, or am I a part of it? The common soul is all me, and all the others are perfect already. It is from them that I draw the desires which I must fulfill. I’m like one small organ in the body which has to provide for the entire body in all its parts with my share and my work. Hence, the whole body is revealed in relation to me, but only to the measure in which I fill it.

Suppose that I’m related to the vascular, lymphatic, or nervous system; I am uncovering only the parts that are related to that system. In this way, I disclose the entire system of Adam HaRishon in relation to me. I adjoin this tremendous desire of the common soul to myself. In relation to the others, I become like a mother, ZAT de Bina, or in other words, like “the cow that desires to feed its calf.” In fact, I must fill them with the fruits of my labor.

So, I begin to pull all their desires into myself. These unfilled desires have empty spaces that require my filling. They are unfulfilled because I haven’t accomplished my work. When I do, I begin to feel the entire system of Adam HaRishon.

In fact, this is my spiritual vessel or my will. It seems to be located in others, but it is mine. It turns out that I’m working like the Creator who wishes to fill the creatures. I act as bestowal in relation to this foreign desire, and they are, for me, the receiving ones. So, I unite with them and treat them with love like the Creator treats the entire collective soul.

However, I connect only with that section of the soul which is related to me or to the system that I am to fill. In this way, I attain the state where I feel myself as the whole Adam HaRishon and, through it, I discover the whole Creator. As I identify myself with the collective system of Adam HaRishon with which I am able to unite, and as I contribute my work to each part, I unite with all these parts in the corrected form.

In fact, everyone is corrected but me. It turns out that I disclose Adam HaRishon for what he is, and I acquire the life of this common soul which is the Malchut of the World of Infinity. This is the manner in which every person must realize themselves. They must correct their individual attitude, their personal egoism, and absorb the desires of all others, feel that they are his, fill them, and, through them, attain the entire system of Adam HaRishon. In this, they discover the whole Creator.

From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 6/2/10, Article “Which Degree Should One Achieve?”

Related Material:
Laitman.com Post: Meeting The Creator On The Bridge Of Love
Laitman.com Post: Imagine That We Are All One Person
Laitman.com Post: Infinity Times 613

Filed under: Collective Soul, Daily Kabbalah Lesson, Inner Work, My Similarity to the Creator - 2 Comments →

A question I received: How can I direct myself correctly toward the goal?

My Answer: The Creator gave me binoculars through which I can see my destination in the distance and walk toward it. These binoculars are a handful of souls, which I join and through them recognize the goal. I start moving toward the goal with their help.

From all the souls, the Creator selected a group of souls for me. This group of souls is an organ of the collective soul, the organ to which I belong. The Creator not only selected the group of souls, He also led me to connecting with them so that the group of souls could become the unity of the souls that are intended for me. This unity of souls helps me advance. I attain it by connecting into it, and through it, I attain the general system of the single soul.

I am not yet connected with these souls and don’t recognize them. The entire connection is as if under water. Above the water, I see physical bodies like my own since the Creator brought me to a physical group. The Creator gave me an opportunity to begin entering the inner network of souls through my organizing the physical connection with friends, assuming various responsibilities, chores, duties, and the group statute.

In my intrinsic unity with them, “submerging under the water,” I discover that this group is already fully corrected while I am not. I see that through the group, I am given an opportunity to join the corrected system. Through this group, I am given the opportunity to enter a part of the entire system of Adam, of Malchut of Infinity.

I have to reach the attitude of “love thy neighbor as thyself” regarding my friends, while my attitude regarding all the other people in the world should be to “condone every man.” “To love the other” means to unite with the opinion and the will of this group the Creator has led me to.

I can either choose to accept the group that the Creator has brought me to or remain seemingly “free” (but which in reality is precisely following His orders). Herein lies my free will: to move consciously with the group or by force (seemingly free) like all others.

From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/28/10, Baal HaSulam, Letter 1 – 1920

Related Material:
Laitman.com Post: Ascend To A Higher Dimension
Laitman.com Post: My Choice: A Higher Dimension
ARIfilms: "Our Environment: The Collective Soul"

Filed under: Collective Soul, Daily Kabbalah Lesson, Group Work, Inner Work - No Comments →

Kabbalists who lived before the author of The Book of Zohar Rabbi Shimon Bar Yochai (Rashbi) performed corrections in the common system of souls on a higher level. Rashbi’s system is connected to us directly, and for this reason we treat The Book of Zohar as our primary source. By carrying out corrections in the system of broken souls, Kabbalists created special connections in it, preparations for a general correction. They revive this system, bringing Light to it through the channels of connection that they have established within.

Therefore, we can now rise and correct ourselves within this system. By correcting itself, a soul not only changes itself; it also brings about its corrections into all the other souls. Yet, there are certain souls, like the soul of Rashbi, which play a principal role in correction: They complete a specific stage and prepare the foundation for all the corrections that follow.

It seems to us that a corrected soul is some isolated part of the system. However, this is incorrect. The whole system of souls is integral, like a holographic picture, each part contains the whole picture. On the other hand, every part is present in the whole picture as well as in each of its parts. I am part of the system of souls, the whole system is within me, and I am also included in each part of the system.

The soul is not a unit of the whole – it is “dispersed” into the whole system of creation. It penetrates the entire Malchut of the World of Infinity, with its qualities. This holds true for every one of us. When each person supplements everyone else, we get one large sphere of souls, where the system of Rashbi acts in providing correction for it. It is through this system that we receive the Light that corrects and fulfills us.

Filed under: Collective Soul, Daily Kabbalah Lesson, Zohar - No Comments →

Before his sin, Adam HaRishon had attained the world only in one form, without its imaginary reflection in this world. His entire attainment was inside of Bina. He was born already circumcised, which means disconnected (cut off) from Malchut. This is why he saw only the true form of bestowal which was in Bina. However, all other forms of attainment of the Creator take place inside the connection between Malchut and Bina.

The reflection of Bina in Malchut is called an imaginary image while Bina, itself, is the true and authentic form. Malchut is called Bina’s mirror. Bina and Malchut, the true and the imaginary realities, are connected together up until the very End of Correction. We can’t even say that truth is really truth because we always attain the limited Malchut within Bina; ouBina and Malchutr perception is based on a reflection of Bina we receive inside of Malchut. However, the imaginary reality is not a mirage, but rather, a reflection which has true existence.

Filed under: Collective Soul, Daily Kabbalah Lesson, Perception - No Comments →