Question: Can I learn to discover the Creator through physical pleasures?

Answer: It depends on what is meant by physical pleasures: pleasure for oneself or those pleasures clothed in the physical actions of our world.

If the pleasure is clothed in a physical action of this world, it is possible to discover the Creator in it, but if it is intended for oneself, then it is impossible. Every action “for oneself” is called physical, and “from myself” is called spiritual.

When we connect between us to complete adhesion, then we really feel in substance this state in which the Creator is discovered. But this is only on condition that we use it for our unification above personal yearning and desire. The Light does all the rest, it is not necessary to be involved with this in particular; it only confuses a person.

It is necessary to study the articles by Rabash and Baal HaSulam, which are interspersed with little information about the conditions for spiritual work, and try not to leave them. They must become the fundamental conditions that one must maintain all the time, and when you run across them, check yourself according to them.

Then the Light will create the appropriate characteristics within you, and you will begin to feel that the entire physical world is not essentially physical, but only seems that way. In fact, that is how the spiritual forces portray our sensations for us. When the one power of nature begins to be discovered through this, we finally begin to understand the secrets and characteristics of our perception.
[141511]
From the Convention In Sochi “Day Two” 7/14/14, Lesson 6

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Question: If, during a workshop, we are trying to come to a common state, enter into it, disconnect, connect, and suddenly a latecomer joins us, we immediately feel imbalance.

Answer: There should be no imbalance! We immediately need to “swallow” the friend who came. Suppose we have nine people, and suddenly there is the tenth, but he is not a disturbance to us, because we are working on him so much with our intention, our desire, that he immediately feels the framework that we give him and is included with us.

And if not, then during a round, no matter what he said or where he went, he must feel the framework of the group, and then occupy his place.

But in order for us not to fall out of this state, we need to specifically drive ourselves into it. Through our desire, our efforts, our constant example, including external efforts, we need to make other people feel that they exist so in a special ideological framework in which they cannot allow themselves even to speak about something external. This total pressure on each of us needs to be very strong.
[144153]
From Preparatory lesson 1 of the Congress in St. Petersburg 9/18/14

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Question: You said that we need to learn to take pleasure from making efforts in our progress and in the same way to take care of our friends.

If we combine these two sentences, it turns out that we need to work hard to help a friend get pleasure from making efforts?

Answer: Yes. As a result, the more you work, the more enjoyment you get, not from the results of the labor, but from the work, from the effort itself. When you are correcting egoism, efforts turn into pleasure.

It does not exist in our world. Here we work in order to earn, and earn to buy something or to enjoy something.

Why is the spiritual world infinite and there is no concept of time? Because the very effort includes both effort and its fulfillment, the Kli (vessel). The effort itself is fulfillment.

Start thinking about it, and you will see what a spiritual state is. There is no cause and consequence development of events, so a spiritual state is permanent.
[144157]
From Preparatory lesson 1 of the Congress in St. Petersburg 9/18/14

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Raising a prayer to the Creator means raising our best, most intense and vivid desires and aspirations, aiming them upward as we lift our hands upward.

In this case, we connect them so that everyone finds himself immersed in others, feels himself only in others and, in this state, chooses the deepest and most important thing.

A “prayer” means our only desire from which other desires are revealed. We strive to unite the desire to reveal the unified force that governs the entire universe in the whole of nature: the forces of harmony, balance, and interconnection.

We wish the same state for ourselves, the group, the country, the world, and all of humanity. This is our intention and our effort. Constant intention is the prayer of want we want eventually to receive.

In the future, we will transform this in the following stages. We will see how our desires for unity become realized in the desire itself. Usually, when a person strives for a goal, he thinks that he wants to achieve it, but in our case, it turns out that, being in intention, we suddenly will reveal that this is the goal, and nothing else is needed. This aspiration creates the condition with which the upper becomes fulfilled. That is what is happening in us and within us.

In order to become more concentrated with each other, we will have to go back to this demand and strongly wish to formulate everything more deeply and sharply. It is formed in us in this way.

This constant aspiration itself is the goal. At the beginning, we think that this is only a condition for achieving something, and then we will see that it, itself, is the goal.
[144082]
From Preparatory lesson 1 of the Congress in St. Petersburg 9/18/14

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Come, let’s imagine a technical component, a trigger, like in a computer, a “0” or “1”, or a small faucet that opens and closes something.

It is the same thing with us.  When we connect, we open a valve and something moves inside. And when we are detached, the valve is closed. That is how we work and that is how the whole system works. Light from one part enters into another part or it doesn’t. Everything works only on the basis of this single activity of connection or detachment, and nothing else.

This means that when we connect, we can influence the entire system of creation, all the worlds, our world, the nature of the still, vegetative. and the animate, our health, everything possible. We move or trigger the Light. There is nothing else in the world, only this energy. Either it moves and animates everything, or it has no access because of some wrinkles in the system.

How can we somehow create a system like this between us where the Light will flow in circuits within us, will increase and grow all the time so that we will constantly work on the discovery of more and more new valves?

Actually, these are called Sefirot. As we know, there is a Masach (screen), Ohr Hozer (returning Light), and a Zivug de Haka’a (striking interaction) on the Light and its extension from a second Partzuf to a third and so forth.

In this manner, we regulate the direction to which the Light will be extended and to which systems. And likewise, we regulate its intensity. We can activate parallel currents, all kinds of Partzufim and so forth. We can study its essence, its intensity, its characteristics, and the quality, according to what we switch on and block.

This is creative work, as you are involved in the study of the Creator, in that system which He made and gave to you so that you would begin to study it from your encounters: His thoughts and ideas, and of course, the purpose.

From me to we, from evil to good, from detachment to the development of good and Light. This is how we evolve.

And we always need to evaluate our actions and influences from above only according to the qualitative approaches and connections. This is the only way. Otherwise, we are mistaken and don’t understand the Creator. But if we specifically look from this point of view, then generally we begin to see His thoughts and ideas, His actions, and we begin to work together with Him. He summons all kinds of states, we react to them correctly and go in coordination with Him.
[143981]
From the Convention In St. Petersburg “Day Two” 9/20/14, Workshop 4

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Question: It says in the articles “Mutual Guarantee” (Arvut) and “The Giving of the Torah” (Matan Torah) that we have to fulfill all the needs of the nation. How should we go about caring for everyone’s needs?

Answer: Start by worrying about the circle of people you are with in this convention, with whom you work and connect. Try to think about what else they need and what is best for them.

Don’t think about any spiritual matters, but rather about how you can help them and what you can provide them with, like washing the floor for example, or something like that, but, through it, in order to please the Creator.
[141537]
From the Convention In Sochi “Day Two” 7/14/14, Lesson 6

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Question: How can we pass through those situations that are expected for the world in the near future without suffering?

Answer: The only method is through attracting the Upper Light. You cannot do anything else. So we are going on the way of “I will hasten it,” meaning in the way of the Light. Otherwise there will be continuous suffering or an imbalance in a ratio of 90% suffering and 10% Light.

Look at what is happening with us in Israel, which is a case in point of too little Light and much suffering. Everyone endures suffering, both Israelis and Arabs. In such a manner, we are bringing the nation into a state that is not good.

Question: The most important part of correction is the people of Israel living in the territory of this nation. All of Bnei Baruch is working for the sake of its unity. And what is our role? What must we be involved with here if the correction begins from there? What should our efforts be?

Answer: All of the groups in the world, including the groups in Israel, are connected into one system. The attraction of the Light into our world depends on our common efforts. First of all, the Light works through us downward, and after that, through the people of Israel. The whole problem is that we must consolidate it, but this is a very complicated task. After that, through the people of Israel, the Light will pass to the rest of the world.

We must try to work with these three levels, connecting together as much as possible. There are many resources here that have not been utilized, and if we realize them correctly, there won’t be suffering in the world.
[141542]
From the Convention In Sochi “Day Two” 7/14/14, lesson 6

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We started preparing for the convention a long time ago, a few months ago. Now, we need to try to make it so that the goal of the convention is primarily right before our eyes.

The goal is simple. There is nothing in the world except the assembly of desires into one whole. This is what we need to see before us: We do this or compel the Upper Light to do this.

If we seek to experience this state so that it is truly realized between us, then it will really happen. It depends on our desire, and only on it. Then, in the whole world, there will be a feeling, spreading like waves from us.

Everyone already knows that everything depends only on him. We repeatedly studied during the lessons that our perception of the world, the feeling of the world, is the result of our internal view of the world. Baal HaSulam calls it “inner reflection.”

So, we need to direct our inner contemplation, aspiration, so as to see one whole from all of us, and it depends on everyone.

After all, each of us is a separate universe. If we imagine ourselves in this way and support each other, then, naturally, there will be a correct superimposition of one on the other, and, together, we will gather that necessary power of aspiration that will produce a clear manifestation of this state. This is what I want to wish you.

Many of our friends from different countries and regions have gathered here. It is very good because this makes a diverse Kli. This gives power to our mutual aspirations.

To be lost in this society is the real happiness. If a person aspires to this, he feels that he loses himself and that he begins to dance in the joy of connection with friends as Rabash writes in his letter. He disappeared so much that he felt nothing, but them. If we lose ourselves in this our common society, we will begin to feel, through it, the state that we wish to feel: this unity, this Malchut.

I think we can do this. I do not see any obstacles. We just must connect what exists in us.
[143950]
From the Congress in St. Petersburg, Preparatory Lesson 1

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The perception of reality is a unique subject because we don’t understand it at all. If we were allowed to have several forms of perceiving reality, we could understand it by comparing them. But we live in one reality so it is difficult for us to evaluate it. What we see and feel is our only reality.

How can we discover where we truly are? Fish in an aquarium also don’t know what exists outside of it; they swim in some kind of limited space and don’t know anything more. This is how all animals and humans live in this world; how are we different from them?

But humans very much want to know where they are. Also of importance is can we change reality if we know more about it? Of course not, humanity has produced a multitude of theories about the nature of our reality, but nobody knows how correct they are. We need an objective scientific approach.

After all, no matter how much we are talking about a perception of reality; it is based only on our feelings and sensations. And who knows what exists outside of them? If I change the range of my vision, hearing, tasting, smelling and touching, then reality would be different.

It is known that even a dog that lives with a person perceives the world completely differently, through scents. Other animals perceive through warmth or cold, or by hearing. It follows that reality is our impressions of the world that surrounds us. Our senses perceive some kind of information about it and convey this through a multitude of filters. They convey it to us after many restrictions and changes. That is how we perceive the world in which we live.

The wisdom of Kabbalah says that essentially we are found in an ocean of the Upper Light; outside of it there is nothing. But in each one of us there is a desire to receive, a desire to enjoy, that imprints its impressions on a background of the white Light. And this impression is what we feel.

The desire to receive has a particular range of absorption, limited to five areas— seeing, hearing, tasting, smelling, and touching—in which it absorbs the Light and conveys impressions to us. So we feel the world just like that.

But it is possible to change this perception. It is not about just extending the range of perception for every sense: wearing glasses, putting on absorptive plates, sharpening smells or tastes through some chemical or physical influences. The wisdom of Kabbalah is not involved with the development of our physical senses; rather, it brings us closer to the true form of the perception of reality.

It is possible to approach the truth if we receive impressions not through the five corporeal senses, but through constructing senses from our desire to receive that are similar to the Light. This means that they have the characteristics of Light, the characteristics of bestowal, love, that are beyond us, beyond our ego. If we can rise above the ego that is given to us, then we can create characteristics that are like the Light from ourselves.

It follows that the ego was given to us so that we would build characteristics above it that are adapted to the Light. And then we will begin to feel a reality in which the Light is in control. We will feel it in those new characteristics that are created within us.

Kabbalah is involved with developing such characteristics within a person, helping him to build a new perception of reality. And when a person acquires it, he begins to feel how much his previous perception of reality was limited, temporary, and distorted.

To the degree that he changes his perception of reality, the person is himself changed. In fact the perception of reality is what defines the person.
[143694]
From the Convention In Chile “Day One” 7/30/14, Lesson 2

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Question: Sometimes an uncontrollable hatred against outsiders pops up in me, especially doctors. You teach that we need to look at everyone through the prism of the Creator, especially regular people. 

But the thought that the Creator is standing behind them is really erased by my ego that wants to “kill” them. How must one work with this?

Answer: This is a childish view; it is an immature, incomplete, and narrow view of the world.

When you say that “the Creator is standing behind them,” you imagine some kind of omnipotent person. You don’t perceive this in the form of a natural law, the accommodation of two natural forces.

In fact, the Creator doesn’t exist. There are two forces of nature that portray all of creation for us. We must find such a form in mutual relationships, a formula within us in which we feel mutually connected and in absolutely harmony with others. This state is called the “Creator.”

If we don’t attain the characteristic of these two forces, don’t connect them, and don’t accept harmony between them, we don’t know what the Creator is. In this case He doesn’t exist.

So it is necessary to look at the world as something that the two forces portray for us. Then the hatred will not appear within you.

Do I have hatred for our neighbors around Israel who are bombing us? On the contrary, I say that we are guilty since we have not taken advantage of the possibilities that have been given to us. But I don’t have hatred towards them. Well, who are they anyway? In principle they are performers and have no other function.

This is how it is necessary to look at doctors who deliberately destroy their patients. That is how the egoistic force is revealed in them and they have no freedom here at all here. I have seen doctors who sacrificed patients who still could have been saved, only because it was profitable to do so. It’s all egoistic manifestations.

So, you simply need to grow up a bit.
[141601]
From the Convention In Sochi “Day Two” 7/14/14, lesson 6

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