Question: Why is it that when I discover at least some love for the friends, I don’t find a place for effort?

Answer: Such a thing cannot be. Specifically with effort above your ego, in yearning to connect with the friends, love is revealed in the Ohr Hozer (Returning Light) above the Masach (screen), above the Tzimtzum (restriction). That is how the conditions for feeling love are discovered.

And this doesn’t relax a person like physical love does; on the contrary, he constantly holds onto the tension. He enters into or goes out of love, adjusting it qualitatively and quantitatively, in order to be in it all the time above his ego, in opposition to it. These complex aggressive actions don’t relax a person. It is necessary to activate them all the time.
[141508]
From the Convention In Sochi “Day Two” 7/14/14, Lesson 6

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Question: How do you summarize the results of your trip to the American continent?

Answer: This was a good trip. We met with our groups, with our good and faithful friends in Colombia, Ecuador, Chile, Mexico, the United States, and Canada.

The groups have grown and have advanced very, very much. We see and feel this about them. They have become more faithful, sensitive, understanding; they study together with us and connect to us in all of our activities, thanks to the virtual connection. The Internet is truly correcting the world tremendously on the level of the still.

In Mexico we organized a very important and big convention. All the local groups and individuals came to it and created an unprecedented warm and friendly atmosphere. A strong and united group was created and I hope that they will continue to work in that direction with our help.

At the convention in the United States there also was an unprecedented surge of connection, unity, and sense of understanding. This was truly something really special, something I didn’t even expect. All of our friends there are closer to each other. This was a very great correction and I am full of hope that now they will continue on together.

Now there is a convention in St. Petersburg ahead of us, on the way to which we must consolidate internally among us for worldwide dissemination. There is no convention that is dedicated only to connection and unification among the friends and with the Creator; every event must integrate its entire height in the process in that we activate three levels: the lower, the higher, and the level above the higher. And we who are found in the middle must work on our mutual relationships with the two adjacent levels.

I very much hope that we are hastening our development and will succeed.
[141366]
From the Lesson about the Importance of Dissemination, 8/12/14

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Question: In one of our meetings six or seven years ago, you said that if we continued to study the wisdom of Kabbalah and accelerated our efforts, it would eventually bring us to a meeting with the Creator, to the end of correction. Has anything changed since then?

Answer: During this time, we have been through innumerable changes which you cannot even dream about. Don’t you see how the world is changing? Five years ago, we said, “Look at what will happen in a year.” In fact, it has not been one year but five years, but it has happened. If it were sooner, it would have been better, of course, but the world cannot do anything.

The point is not the world, but us. We are the only ones who can hasten our development. The world is simply matter, and there is nothing in it. People will grow and change according to how we “feed” them, but we go through all the changes consciously.

Here, the concern and our inner perception and recognition of what is happening to us is essential, but it takes time because we are wasting our resources on actions that are totally irrelevant and inefficient.

If we clarify what is happening among us correctly only in the perception of our getting closer or drawing apart, in our right inclination aiming at creating the spiritual basis for the perception of the Creator and for uniting to Him, we will begin to advance much faster. We must try to look for the internal hearing and the internal sight, the internal senses. However, they are not in each of us, but between us since they are not corporeal senses but actually integral senses that appear in the connection between us.

If there is no such connection, it means that there are no such senses, but, the moment that there is a connection, new spiritual bodies begin to appear among us just as matter began to develop in the past. Our spiritual, corporeal senses gradually are developed in these spiritual bodies so that the general entity called “the soul” can appear.

This is what we must develop, and we already are approaching that at least in our recognition and our feeling. Previously, I couldn’t convey any feelings and thoughts in words, but now I can because you already are experiencing the correlating states. You already can understand that and experience it.

Now, we can understand one another better and justify one another no matter what state the other is in since we have been through the same states ourselves: descent, detachment, weakness, humility, and so forth.

Unless we can justify every state the other goes through, we will not be ready for the connection with the Creator since, on the whole, it is the Creator who summons all these states in us, and we must justify all His actions and, thus, all of our actions too. This isn’t easy.

I saw how my teacher Rabash went through these states. He seemed holy! However, in fact, to me, he seemed totally different, and I couldn’t do anything against it until I understood that it is the Creator who is doing all that to him for me, and it doesn’t even happen to him but in my consciousness since the whole world is inside me.

However, we already have come close to understanding, to recognizing, and to justifying these states. We are ready for them, and can experience them and agree with them. This is very important.
[141244]
From the Talk at a Meal at the Toronto Congress, 4/8/14

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Question: Every day we bring our desire to the morning lesson and especially during the study of The Zohar. How can we gather and raise our demand, our request to the Creator, during the lesson so as not to concentrate on the picture described but to see above it?

Answer: Of course, we shouldn’t concentrate on the pictures that are described, but  should come to the lesson with the impressions that we accumulated during the day:

• To what extent have I managed to overcome my clinging to my rigid perception by thinking that I bestow unto people and that they bestow unto me;
• To what extent have I tried to feel the Creator in all that, and that everything stems from Him;
• To what extent have I tried to see only the positive side in everything so that I can advance spiritually, despite different negative feelings, impatience, disruptions, and anger;
• To what extent have I tried to direct everything to the importance of the connection with the group in order to find the connection with the Creator.

I have to bring all the impressions and the experiences that I accumulate to the meeting with the group and during the lesson try to focus all my efforts on the unity with the Creator through the friends, which means to feel the spiritual body that is among us between me and the friends.

If I have not accumulated negative potential, I have nothing to bring to the lesson. I need to come to the lesson like to a special event in which I correct what I couldn’t do by myself without the connection with the friends without opening The Book of Zohar with them and receive through it the Light that glues and welds us together.

It is because I have tried to do it without the physical connection with the friends, without reading The Zohar together with them, but I did not succeed! Or I might have succeeded a little, but only to learn that I still lack their participation and so I have to come to the lessons. I come not because I am forced to and am obliged to, but because I yearn to do so. I have prepared myself for it.

It may seem that I speak about some ideal state, but we have to aspire to that. Of course if I come to the lesson like that, I will expect a lot from it; I will tremble and be afraid to miss this opportunity. This is what we have to attain and we can do that only in the form of a virus, by infecting one another by it. If this is the spirit among the friends, a person will see how everything works out for him and he how succeeds in everything he does.
[141352]
From the Talk at a Meal at the Toronto Congress, 4/8/14

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Question: We have done great external and internal work in dissemination. What do we lack in the group in order to reach greater unity between us so that we will be able to reveal the Creator?

Answer: There is one word that replaces absolutely everything: prayer. I rarely speak about it because prayer should burst out by itself.

It is the feeling that you are totally dependent on the Creator and that He is the only one who manages you: whatever you think and feel, whatever you ask for and receive, everything except for the one point of turning to Him, although that also comes from Him—when you thus connect to Him and still want to do something external to Him in accordance to what He does for you—this is called a prayer.

This should be our common state because then it will focus on Him. But it comes from each of us separately and it is focused on the opposite direction. This is the point of recognition that you cannot go out of your way and with that you turn to the Creator so that He will unite all our points together, melt them and connect them into one drop.

I hope that we will recognize and understand that we need this prayer.

The force that destroyed us on purpose and has created all the conditions for the recognition of the oppositeness from the Creator is also the force that will correct this state of oppositeness and will give us a sense of the Creator.
[141363]
From the talk at a meal at the Toronto Congress, 8/4/14

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Question: The Creator gives everyone his or her own obstacles. I am forced to work 12 hours per day. How can I invest myself in the group most qualitatively in my remaining free time?

Answer: My teacher Rabash also worked 12 hours per day paving roads. This was

very hard physical work: hauling, pulling, pushing, moving from place to place, and digging. In those times, except for a shovel and a crowbar, there was no technology. Workers paved the highway from Jerusalem to Hebron from five in the morning until seven in the evening.

Certainly, on the one hand, you could try to find an easier job where you could improve your situation. On the other hand, if you invest not just effort but the right effort in the group, then everything will be changed: The Creator will give you more options. It could be that now the Creator is giving this to you so that you will transgress less.

No one knows. Here we want to see the big picture: Why is this given to a person in this way. We cannot interfere with this. But in principle, a person is able to choose lighter work for himself, but on condition that he will invest all of his free time and energy in serious spiritual effort.
[141361]
From the talk at a meal at the Toronto Congress, 4/08/14

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Question: What is to be done if we feel that we don’t have the strength to advance and the group seems dead?

Answer: I have heard this question from all the groups not just once. Today most of our friends feel exhausted and ask themselves: “What is there to do?”

This is a very good state. (Ecclesiastes 7:20) “For there is not a righteous man upon earth that doeth good and sinneth not.” And the more that he descends and ascends, the more he becomes a greater Tzadik (righteous man), meaning that he justifies the Creator after he descends.

If we wouldn’t have a great and serious descent, then we couldn’t go on, and when we begin to leave the descent, only after that do we understand that this was the Creator; He did this with us. So a state of weakness, stupidity, blurring, disappearance of mental and emotional sharpness, this is a compulsory transitory process from one level to another. You will feel how you are completely detached from the world and what is left of you is only some kind of amorphous mass like a jellyfish.

The idea is that the spiritual transition from one state to another takes place according to all four phases of development. So when a person passes through them, it is as if he died and was reborn.

The same thing happens with individual groups and the entire world group. Once there it is realized in waves: here more, there less, and this mutual compensation smooths these states. So, ultimately, mutual connection brings permanence.

We must get used to this. First of all, you must use the fact that those other parts of our spiritual Kli, the other groups, are in ascent, in sharp sensations and impressions.

Try to connect to them, as the weak connects with the strong in spirit and knowledge. I rely on them even though I don’t know anything, don’t understand anything, but they attract me, I get something from them at least, and a feeling is created with me that I have at least warmed up a little.

You can’t imagine what else will be. We must learn to survive, and you will learn this. Incidentally, the prophets talked about this  a lot. They described all the problems that appeared during the forty years of wandering in the wilderness. We must pass through all of this.

So the state when the group is weak, detached, conscious of his own impotence, the inability to do anything, this is a state of spiritual transition. This transitional point is given to us intentionally so that even in a state of “death” we will try to connect ourselves to something spiritual.

Together with this, it is necessary to try to do everything possible, do anything, disseminate, do mechanical work: wash the floors or dishes in the center. What it is doesn’t matter. This will take you forward.

And the main thing is to try to find a connection with other groups. This is most useful.

The more you succeed in carrying out more spiritual actions with the help of the others, the better it is, for this has been given intentionally in order for connection. A little child always grows thanks to his connection to his mother or family.
[141338]
From the Talk at a meal at the Toronto Convention, 4/8/14

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Question: When we conduct workshops in the community we feel that something is happening here. But our efforts don’t depend on us; the Creator is doing absolutely everything. What is happening? Why does it descend to us like a gift?

Answer: I cannot tell you what is happening. Later on you will understand yourself how it works.

Of course the upper force is doing all of this. It manages, determines, and governs us, especially when we desire to be in some unison with it.

If I become similar to it even by a tiny bit, I generate some small wave that becomes empowered by huge upper force and it creates big amplitude. Thus we advance and become surprised when suddenly everything happens. In reality, a resonance is created according to the effect of the similarity of properties.
[141233]
From Lesson 5 of the Convention In Sochi “Day Two” 7/14/14

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Question: Can friends who have acquired experience in conducting integral circles in Sochi create an “aquarium” in their places?

Answer: If they are a few people and they truly perceive what is happening here correctly and not what they imagine, then maybe they can. There is a big difference between what there is to be understood and what everyone perceives.

So, if they perceive everything correctly and can take the image of conveying integral circles with them and correctly creating it anew in their areas—creating a similar situation, a Kli—then, certainly, this would be wonderful.

I would recommend thinking about the future, but not about the big, international conventions where thousands of people are present, but rather about small “aquarium” in which people with the same language, the same culture, the same mentality gather who can connect quickly and correctly between them, and create a spiritual Kli.

So, suppose that one Kli is created here, another Kli there, and so forth—a third Kli, a fourth—and all of them share mutually between them, but each one, in spite of it all, is different with regard to its mentality. We see that this is the way it happens: Eastern Europe is not Western Europe. Russia, Kazakhstan, Belorussia, Ukraine, this is not Israel and South America, and this is certainly not the United States and Canada.

Ultimately, regional “aquariums” will be created, groups who very seriously will begin to work on unification and internal consolidation, and this will be a true convention. In addition, when people gather for three days, but without serious depth, then it is necessary to acknowledge that this doesn’t provide the desired effect.
[141203]
From lesson 5 of the Convention In Sochi “Day Two” 7/14/14

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Question: When we sat in circles, the question about the love of friends came up. Since it was a mixed circle, a number of friends said that the issue of the love of friends is very important, but they don’t understand how to do it in a mixed circle.

Answer: Do you think that the meaning of love is sex? What does it have to do with love for a woman or a man? It has nothing to do with it!

In our world, everything is distorted, and the concept of love means taking advantage of one’s partner just like eating fish, which means that we use it in order to eat it. So, when I say that I love a woman, it means that I use her and enjoy her just like I enjoy fish. Is this the kind of love that you mean?

Love is a feeling that awakens in the mutual spiritual adhesion where the feeling of the Creator is revealed. We have no such feeling! The Creator is the upper force that is revealed in us, and it is called love.

In corporeality, the contact between a man and a woman is nothing more than hormones, genes, and habit. What does that have to do with love? After all, we are adults and we understand it. Everything that happens on the still, vegetative, and animate levels of nature is only a habit, especially if there are common children. This isn’t love!

Throughout human history, people never married for love. It is only in our days that everything became distorted. In the past, no one even spoke about whether he loves her and she loves him. The parents would find the right match according to their social status, mentality, and education, and then they would send the matchmakers. This is how people used to marry, and it was the same in every culture and every people!

Royalty usually used to marry for political reasons. It wasn’t about physical attraction at all. Couples were matched from the same village, or the same status, the same circle. Therefore, what we call love today is a modern distortion.

Love is the feeling of the Creator! This special attribute occurs at the connection of our souls, the mutual incorporation, and they complement each other, helping each other.

Love is made of three components: “I,” the egoistic created being that is opposite from me (whether a man or a woman), and the Creator that is revealed between us. As it is written, “Love thy neighbor as thyself,” and, if it says in the Torah that Jacob loved her, for example, it refers to the connection between Zeir Anpin and Malchut.

Therefore, we should distinguish between physical attraction and true love. Then, everything would be much simpler.
[141199]
From lesson 5 of the Convention In Sochi “Day Two” 7/14/14

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