Question: How can we get out from the depth of our egoism that hangs around our neck like a weight and develop awe?

Answer: There are many different thoughts. I am here so that all the friends pull me out of my egoism. I am here to help the friends get out of their egoism. I am here to make some good action in the eyes of the Creator or to achieve a state where the Creator influences me through the group.

The question is which one of these thoughts is the most effective?

The answer is very simple. The most effective thought is when you constantly wish for all your friends, at least in the group of ten, not to mention the friends around the world, to attain the spiritual world.

And you are here in order to exert yourself and thus help others. Let it be self-sacrifice because in principle, it is the property of bestowal. You want to realize yourself—to give yourself to others.
[144492]
From the Convention In St. Petersburg 9/18/14, Preparatory Lesson 2

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Question: What should our intention be when we yearn for revelation in the desire of the friends, that the Creator’s force of love should be revealed? Should it be in a person, above him, or in the friends?

Answer: It depends on what phase of unity and connection with the group a person is in. First it seems that he is separated from the friends. Then it seems that he is inside them. Afterward it seems that they are inside him and he absorbs and perceives their thoughts and desires. This means that there are different variations and transitions here: Who is in whom; who is adhered to whom; who is connected inside whom?

Question: But how should I want the revelation of the Creator inside them, or should I simply adhere to them and that’s all?

Answer: You help them with your desire in every way. You should worry about your friends just as you wish a person who is closest to you success.
[144490]
From the Convention In St. Petersburg 9/18/14, Preparatory Lesson 2

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Question: What is a consistent order of work with the ego? Suppose that I discover evil within myself. What happens next? How do I work with this?

Answer: The first condition is to relax, for you are not ready to work with your ego. So, don’t think about “taking an axe and hacking the tail off the ego.”

Work with the ego doesn’t begin from trying to annihilate the negative characteristics within us. Instead, we attract positive characteristics to us. So, in general, the wisdom of Kabbalah doesn’t talk about work with the ego. This is the role of the Creator, the Light. Our work is to want the ego to be corrected into an opposite characteristic.

In no manner do we think about the ego. We must yearn for good, for love, for connection and unity, for a connection between us in which each one will stop feeling himself and will feel one homogeneous body (the desire). If we think about this and want this, then the Light will act and influence us according to our yearning for it because this is its characteristic: one, singular, unified, a singular desire, the characteristic of bestowal.

Together with this, I don’t think at all about the ego. I think only about what is positive, and then the Light acts on me and corrects everything necessary in me. I don’t teach it what to correct because, after all, I don’t know that. That is how this works.

Question: Suppose I have discovered that I hate and envy some friend. What must I ask for at this moment?

Answer: Ask for love. Try it, and you will be convinced that there is a difference between asking for correction of evil and the appearance of the characteristic of good. It is not the same thing.

This is because a person is found wherever his thoughts are found. Why should I be within my evil and be stimulated by it, “sucking all around it,” and exploring it? I don’t need this! On the contrary, it is better that I would be connected with the positive future and desirable characteristics that don’t exist in me in the meantime. It is better to think about them, to yearn, to dream, to imagine that I am within them.

Flee from your ego and yearn for bestowal.
[144432]
From the Convention In St. Petersburg 9/18/14, Preparatory Lesson 2

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Question: Will the world begin to think and feel the same as we do, through external dissemination, or must there be a very deep internal unity for this? In what way will this happen?

Answer: I don’t know. You are asking me about forms that have never been clothed in the substance of our world but for which there is free choice.

Malchut de Ein Sof, through all kinds of emanations: Shevirah (breaking), descent, correction, evolves into five worlds and descends to our world. In the physical world, nature forcefully developed this shattered egoistic desire to exist until our time. But nothing in this process ever happened according to the desire of a person.

The development of the creature is realized in three stages: descent from above to below, direct development, and ascent from below to above. We are now beginning to be engaged in correcting the shattered desires, which is done within the “middle line.” Only the third stage provides free choice in which I will develop myself more rapidly than nature would force me to do it.

Through the development of a yearning for correction through group, through friends, through envy, I push myself forward. The friends help me advance by developing in me a cunning and cruel egoistic feeling that they are satisfied and succeeding, and I am not, and this is what helps me advance.

This means that in our ascent from below to above, there exists the possibility of freedom of action where we don’t just hasten the time of our development, but also change its flow, its character, and the manner in which correction will be realized in a better and more rapid form or by a slow path of suffering. This depends solely on our choice. For this we gather in a group.

So when you ask me what will be, how must one act, in what form  can we embody everything in the future, I don’t know. Not even a prophet knows this. They wrote about future states and described them only in the form in which they will be forced to play out by our brutal nature.

But if we include in ourselves in this development and mollify our way, then it will be completely different. So there is nothing to read what the prophets wrote and sit and think about when their prophecy will be materialized, since it is doubtful that it will be as they predicted. We have already made many appropriate corrections.

In what manner this will truly be realized tomorrow, we still don’t know. But since we are going forward by way of bestowal, how this will happen shouldn’t concern us. We want only the one result from our path: that there will be bestowal to the Creator.

But if I ask about the future, this is a sign that I am an egoist.
[141167]
From the Convention In Sochi “Day One” 7/13/14, Lesson 2

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We have to follow one rule in order to advance through life in a good and wonderful way: There is only one force in nature and this is the force of goodness. We have to discover this force. We don’t call this force the one and the good but rather refer to it as “there is none else besides Him.”

Why do we say that there is “none else besides Him” that manages us instead of “there is one force that manages us?”

Because it seems that there are many factors, good and bad, that operate on us and mange us at any given moment. First it seems that I do something to determine something for myself, as does my environment, the world, world leaders, and nature—everything affects me.

This is actually why it says that “there is none else besides Him.” This means that we should pay attention and focus on one thing only despite what seems to be many factors that cause the condition we are in, including our feelings and thoughts in the corporeal world, and also in everything at home, in the family, in our environment, in society, at work, and in our world view. You suddenly think about history, about what is happening today and then you suddenly want certain pleasures, or you have certain thoughts and someone confuses you; you have to see that behind all these effects that come from the outside and what is invoked in you internally, there is none else besides Him. You must also see that there is only one reason, one source, from which the orders are issued to all the parts of creation that have no freewill and are managed by the same upper force that then affect you.

It can be your friends, your boss, your wife, your children, your health, the political situation, different events in the world, the weather, and your inner feelings. It all stems from the same one force that operates on you through all these factors and effects you.

If you focus your heart and your mind and constantly try to see that only He does it and not a thousand other different sources that influence you—like your wife, your kids, your boss, the weather, your inner feeling and everything that affects you on the outside—and that it is He behind all that and that you constantly want to be locked on Him, and connected to Him; you will gradually begin to feel the system that surrounds you that exists between Him and you. This system is called “the world,” and the upper force surrounds the world.

Then you will begin to feel and to understand Him because it is actually all the different factors in the world and the way they affect you which help you understand why He treats you this way. It is because you have to relate to Him as the good that does good no matter what and above doubt in the ideal way.

If a person tries to see only the one positive force through everything that appears in his mind and heart and everything that happens to him, these interferences actually reveal to him the one upper force, the good that does good. Thus he reaches the revelation of the Creator.

On the whole, this is our work. There is nothing but that. The wisdom of Kabbalah tells us about the phases we go through as we reveal this upper force and how we have to organize ourselves so that it will be easier to see Him in every state that is revealed to us and how we can support others and be aware of external support so as not to forget this principle.

I may find myself in a state in which I focus my will and my power on the Creator, but suddenly a stronger influence may come along, which is stronger than my power to be focused on Him, and then I forget that I have to reveal Him, that it comes from Him, that He is only good that does good.

I suddenly begin to relate to all the situations in life as if they are independent and that they come to me by themselves and not according to the general plan that is operated by one upper force and that there is none else besides Him.

On the whole, this is the main principle of our work.
[141028]
From the Convention In Colombia “Day Two” 7/26/14, Lesson 1

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Question: How should I correctly pass through the states of work on my ego so that I will not harm the group? An immense feeling of shame appears that, through my states, I am “drilling a hole in the boat” because it is impossible to overcome them constantly during an ascent.

Answer: The most important thing in life is not to berate yourself, don’t assume that you are to blame.

I am as I am: harmful, callous, lacking understanding, not hearing, an egoist who is insensitive to others. The others can be so thoughtful, so sensitive. When found among a hundred people, they always are paying attention to something about their friends. They respond sharply to everything, and this is all alive in them. As for me, it is as if I am found in the middle of an empty field: closed off, unaffected by people. That is how I was created.

I must understand that this is my role in the general Kli (the spiritual Kli), and I don’t have to have complaints. I don’t need to be like someone else, and the most important thing is that I must not forget to thank the Creator at every moment even though, along with this, I am in very deplorable situations.

He makes me go through these situations. If I am ashamed in them, this is a sign that I have not corrected myself yet. I have not brought myself into adhesion with Him; I have not risen to this level. However, I already am moving toward Him and understand what I must do. The next state will be a little better, more corrected, and that is how it is until I reach the possibility that, with all my soul, I will bless the Creator for what He is doing with me.

But it is necessary to very quickly leave a state of eating oneself. We often blame ourselves, “I am such a nothing! They are so great! So, what about me?” To me, all the friends seem to be perfect and caring. They understand each other, whereas I don’t understand anything. I never think about anyone. Why should I be concerned about someone all of sudden? None of that is me. I am an egoist! I pay attention only to what they have more and I have less.

These are very good states. From them, we learn about our nature, and from our oppositeness, we attain the Creator. However, it is necessary to realize this nature correctly. We learn gradually.

Sometimes physical distance from the group helps, being involved in some kind of unique work that will take all of the previous states from me. It is necessary to do something, for sometimes we fight fire with fire that is exactly the same but its opposite, as the fire extinguishes the fire.
[141058]
From the Convention In Sochi “Day Two” 7/14/14, Lesson 4

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Question: If I see something negative in a friend, is it better not to pay attention to it, to focus on the positive only, so this will be considered as a spiritual ascent?

Answer: Rabash explains in his articles that we don’t need to pay attention to the negative characteristics in a person just like a mother doesn’t pay attention to the negative characteristics in her child as for her he is ideal. I look at this child and don’t find anything special about him, but for her, everything in him is good, pleasant, and beautiful. This is the foundation for our worldview. That is how you should look at your friends.

When rising above the ego, there are conditions that we must carry out to change negative characteristics into positive ones. As a result of these actions, we can distinguish two types: a “hero” and a “hero among heroes,” which is the next level when you change your hater not into a neutral person, but into a friend, someone loved. This is the highest level.

In other words, when we rise above the ego, we are called heroes, and when we change the ego into bestowal and love, we become heroes among heroes, and here we don’t have to be clever. The Light does everything. If we try to carry out the simplest actions of connection and unity among us, then everything else will be Light.
[141065]
From the Convention In Sochi “Day Two” 7/14/14, Lesson 4

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Question: What does it mean to annul yourself with regard to another?

Answer: Annulling yourselves to each other and mutually entering one another according to the principle of love thy neighbor as thyself should bring us to a connection with the Creator. Thus, I not only annul myself and become no one, a zero, but actually perform actions that help me connect to the friend so that he will be able to come in contact with me easily. I do what is good for him by annulling my ego and allowing him to establish contact with me naturally.

It makes no difference whether he is an egoist or not. I don’t judge him and don’t try to understand anything about him, but I simply annul myself so that he will be able to contact me. If he reaches the same state, I am glad that my actions of self-annulment relative to him have brought us close together, and it is the same with the other people.

But when the friend comes in contact with me, I feel a need to mutually cooperate with him, I feel how he nears me, and how he is incorporated, comes in contact with me, and even somehow dresses in me. Now I can begin to cooperate with him more actively. Here I have to switch on my anti-ego, not suppress the ego, but rather operate it in the opposite direction: What would my friend want of me? It isn’t that I simply become easy to contact, but rather easy and convenient to be used, so that he should use me. Then I begin to grow.

In other words, I don’t just operate according to the principle of don’t do unto your friend what is hateful to you anymore, but I work for the other as he would want me to, which means that I use my ego in order to bestow. I come in contact with the friend, work for his desires, and do my very best to fulfill them. These are high acrobatics.
[141052]
From the Convention In Sochi “Day Two” 7/14/14, Lesson 4

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Every future convention becomes the next level after the previous convention. But the present convention in Saint Petersburg is unique.

People are arriving and gathering here who prepared for it intensively during the summer, this is the Sochi group. All the rest joined them, all of those who study with us. Generally, our strongest representatives from all the groups gather here.

So in thinking about the work that was done, I hope that we can gather and attain such a state that our connection will be equal to the first phase of the Light, and then we discover it within us. For essentially there is no Light. What we call Light is a mutual characteristic of bestowal and love that we discover between us on the first most minimal level.

Baal HaSulam uses the example of an electric current. We don’t know what it is, but we see its manifestation in the warmth of the wire in a lamp, or the working of some system, working apparatus, motors and so forth. This means that we are always talking about the result, about the discovery of some force that is working, but that we don’t understand.

That is also how it is here. When we very much want to discover the unique force of nature, then it is discovered. It exists, but it is intangible to us. And in order to feel it, we must make it possible for it to act somewhere, to be discovered in something. This is exactly like an electric current; as long as we don’t apply it to something, we don’t know if it exists or not.

According to the same principle, work is done also with the higher general energy, which includes within it all the rest of the types of energy that we call “Light.” We must make ourselves such a device, which reveals this Light that causes it, summons its movement, and we become a Kli, a means, a mechanism, a basis through which it will be discovered.

To do this we must try to connect among us, to adapt ourselves constantly to the characteristic of the Light. The moment that our state, our efforts, the unity between us, reaches a minimal resemblance to the Light, it will then begin to be discovered.
[144221]
From the Convention In St. Petersburg 9/18/14, Preparatory Lesson 2

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Question: In a workshop we aspire to a state of unity so much that we begin to feel everyone’s agreement to attain this. But if there is no feeling like this, is it worthwhile to continue until we get it?

Answer: It gradually appears in a group of friends who are connected with each other by a great many external conditions. And if they work on themselves regularly, with a shared connection, obligating themselves to speak about and discuss everything, then a measure (indication) appears with them that shows if they have coordinated between them enough that they already feel this unity and how to hold onto it.

And if someone leaves this state even a little, he immediately feels it; an inner feeling appears within him that he has “fallen outside” somewhere, and he must re-enter and communicate with the friends constantly.

The spirit of unity depends upon each one of us. So discuss these states, hold onto the more vulnerable friends among you; try to develop them in some way, to “inject” this spirit in everyone else through your thoughts and behavior. You must do this!

We see that not all of the people during the exodus from Egypt were capable of anything, only the priests (Cohanim) and the Levites, one small part of the people, a group. What does a “people” mean? It is a group in which there are not many who are ready to go forward after the teacher and to show itself as an example of the realization of this idea.

So we work together on all the rest and on the whole world.
[144218]
From the Convention In St. Petersburg 9/18/14, Preparatory Lesson 1

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