Question: How can one not fall for the pride of the friend to whom I nullify myself? And, how do I myself need to relate to this when they praise me so that the praise doesn’t stop spiritual work?

Answer: It is truly possible to destroy a person through praise. For the most part, I relate to my students with a little mockingly, a little derision, and sometimes rudeness. Sometimes, I push some individuals away, holding them at somewhat of a distance, not allowing myself to get close to them, and they to me. There are people who also behave this way toward me or toward other friends.

The entire idea is in the intention: why we do it.

If, in this way, friends begin to be arrogant, then you must solve this problem among you by discussing it in the workshop circles. I very much recommend behaving specifically this way. Everything that accumulates in you that you cannot resolve personally must be introduced in workshops.

You arrange an anonymous discussion there without relating to a specific friend, but you pose the question in such a form that the problem will be clear to everyone. If, after that, the behavior of the friend doesn’t change, return to this in a workshop in another few weeks, and gradually the person will understand what is happening to him.

I don’t see another way to influence a person and explain to him what is impossible to explain directly. We don’t have the right to do this, except through the workshop. This is an amazing opportunity that is given to us in a group. This is why we exist in this world where while we are still in an egoistic state, “for my own sake,” we can negotiate some altruistic interaction, and in such a manner, go forward.
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From the Moscow Virtual Convention “Unity Without Boundaries” Day One – 12/13/13, Lesson 1

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Question: Do I have to hug the friends as is customary here?

Answer: There was a time when I also very much rejected hugging men. In general I don’t relate to people who express their feelings outwardly. This was very difficult for me. For a long time I didn’t know what to do.

But after that, I pulled myself together and began to think: “Why is this necessary? Where is this leading? Why is there such a huge inner struggle appearing inside me? What if I were really to feel that these were my children or very close relatives?”

If you want to hug a girl, then this is understandable, innate; natural desires attract you to her. But with the friends, you don’t have desires like this because you don’t feel them as being close to you.

But if you were to find a man who is truly very close to you from an internal aspect, then you would be drawn to him in an absolutely natural way without overcoming any rejections. Therefore everything depends on this: how much is this person close to you.

With a girl, relationships like this come and go; this is our nature. But with a friend, this is different. When you begin to feel that without him  you cannot attain the greatest goal in life for which we have descended into this world and that only he can help you, like with a team who is climbing a mountain, he holds you and pulls you upward, then you relate to him in another way.
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From the Moscow Virtual Convention “Unity Without Boundaries” Day One12/13/13, Lesson1

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Question: We are going to have an international convention soon in which we will celebrate the publication of The Book of Zohar adapted to the new generation. What does this mean?

Answer: By working with this book we are aware, understand, and feel that we have a source of power that belongs to the upper nature, to the force that manages everything to the smallest detail, to the smallest cell, to the last atom. The Book of Zohar has a special quality that allows us to connect to this force and to be inspired by it. Thus we will be able to understand and feel it and work according to it.

We have no other key or connecting channel, other than The Book of Zohar. All the other Kabbalah books were actually written so that we would approach the main book and use it correctly. So we celebrate the publication of Zohar For All.

We have to understand that we are on the verge of a new era, moving on to a level of a new development. We have to disseminate this book all over the world, and produce many other supplementary materials that will serve to bring people closer to it.
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From the 4^th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/17/13, Writings of Baal HaSulam

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Question: It is said a thousand enter a room and only some are honored with the discovery of the Creator. Therefore I am overcome by fear, do I have the potential to discover the Reshimot?

On the one hand, I understand that spiritual work is a great benefit and at the same time I cannot be released from the fear. How must one work with this?

Answer: We know that hundreds of millions of people want to be rich, famous, and in control. How many of them attain that goal?

The spiritual goal is compulsory for all. The expression that a thousand enter a room and only one attains the goal belongs to the Kabbalists from the previous generations. In those times it wasn’t required that everyone attain the spiritual worlds and those individuals who merited this acted according to very complex laws. They had to maintain very rigid and difficult conditions in order to enter the upper world.

In our day, every housewife, every simple guy from South America, from Siberia, from Israel, from the United States, and from other regions can attain this without any preparation; the desire simply ignites within them and this is everything. We are entering a state like this where everyone without exception must advance to the goal.

We even turn to those who don’t have this desire, in order to awaken it in them and prevent forward advancement under the influence of suffering because the world is already in a threatening state; we see where everything is advancing. Therefore the condition in which, “a thousand enter and one goes out” is not relevant for us. Today everyone must go out into the spiritual world even those who have not yet entered, not to mention those who are like us.

Today this condition doesn’t work, forget it. The Kabbalists simply reminded us of that to spur us on a little bit, for in spite of it all, one must relate to this very seriously. This is within our power.

The Kabbalists are apparently telling us, act in those frameworks in which you can and then you will succeed. This is saying that you must dedicate all of your spare time to inner work. At least it’s necessary to try to direct our intention to this all the time.
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From the Moscow Virtual Convention “Unity Without Boundaries” Day One 12/13/13, Lesson 1

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Question: If in my daily life a small desire to direct my intention to bestow to the Creator appears and then quickly disappears, what can I do in order to focus on it? How can I help myself, should I draw something on my hand, or do something else?

Answer: You remind me of those years when I was learning with Rabash. I also drew a symbol on my hand so that I would not forget the intention. When I was sitting behind the steering wheel in the car, the symbol on my hand was constantly flashing before my eyes, as if to remind me that I must think about the intention in order to bestow. This is so unnatural for us such that it cannot appear in a person’s head without some kind of external reminder.

So do everything possible: draw something on your hand, set an alarm clock, and activate some signal on the cell phone so that every five minutes it will remind you about the intention. It’s not important which actions you do, they could be very different. The main thing is not to interrupt them; rather, just simply go back to control the intention.

The moment that you prefer it you will feel a difference between our world and the spiritual world, because only the intention differentiates us from the spiritual world. The moment that some inclination appears within you, you will immediately feel that you are entering into a completely different matrix of sensations; you will begin to feel the world differently. It will suddenly begin to be like in a movie and then an absolutely different picture will appear.
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From the Moscow Virtual Convention “Unity Without Boundaries” Day One 12.13.13, Lesson 1

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Question: If the external world is a reflection of my inner world, is this saying that the Kabbalistic group is also a part of the reflection of the soul, of the inner state? If so, why exactly is it important to work in a group? And what is the importance of the external world in all of this?

Answer: The importance of the external world is secondary compared to the group. Because you have a group, your reflections appear, mutual work is done with you. You work with people, you influence them reciprocally, and you feel how the Creator puts them opposite you. It could be that you don’t know exactly why He put you in such an opposite way to them, and they against you. But at least this is the result of your interaction with the Creator.

In what is the uniqueness, the specificity of our world? Let’s depict this in a sketch. There is the Creator; there is this world, within it is a group, and there is me. In principle, I must find the Creator. I must connect with Him; I must be like Him, to be equivalent to Him. Therefore I am called Adam, from the word “Domeh” (similar). I must reach the Creator.

And therefore this world was created such that through an immense amount of people, the group, I can find the Creator. Today I don’t see Him and don’t discover Him because I am opposite to Him: I have “minus” and with Him there is “plus.” We don’t understand and don’t feel each other. He indeed feels and understands me; you see He created all this, whereas I don’t understand and don’t feel Him.

So how can I find Him? In what convoluted way can I pass from “minus” to “plus”?

For this I was given interesting “information” called “this world” and the “group.” If I direct myself in adapting to them, then by going outside of myself to them, with this I direct my desires, oversee them, specifically oversee my intentions regarding them, I approach the Creator in this manner.

I only need to be sure that I am going outside of myself and entering this world, that I devote myself to the friends, am concerned about them.

But how is it possible to attain this? How to oversee my departure from the intention “for my own sake” to the intention “for the sake of the Creator”?

Therefore it is said: Do everything not for the sake of the Creator but for the sake of this world. So specifically to that degree, I approach the Creator. But essentially He is concealed behind the friends, and the moment that I position myself correctly regarding this world, I will immediately discover Him.

My integration into this world in 125 levels is absolutely identical to approaching the Creator with 125 levels. The moment that I rise to the first level of connection with this world, I immediately will begin to discover the Creator. He will be revealed to me in our world! He cannot be revealed in anywhere by itself.

Therefore, it is said: “From the love of the Creations to the love of the Creator.” This is not some kind of charitable condition. This is because the Creator is situated behind this world and is linked with it specifically with a link like this. It follows that through work in a group, I erase the boundaries that existed between the Creator and this world.

Why was this given to me? It is so that I will find Him independently and will advance independently, I will “adhere” to Him. Only for this was I given the external envelope of the Creator, which is called “this world” and the “group.”

From here, the words are understood, that the friend must be as important to me as the Creator. The group must be important in my eyes to the same degree as He is. In other words, everything that is outside of me, I must attribute to the Creator.
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From the Moscow Virtual Convention “Unity Without Boundaries” Day Two 12/14/13, Lesson 2

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Question: I feel that I am overwhelmed by internal sensations that are incomprehensible to me: great enthusiasm from which I could explode. What must I do with this, set up some kind of a barrier and say to myself that I don’t want this?

Answer: I think that this is only the beginning stage of your familiarity with the wisdom of Kabbalah, with the group, with those forces that act in this society. As a rule, a state like this typifies new students. They are found in some kind of overexcitement, overdrive, in a unique kind of transitional phase.

In general, when we connect a device to an electrical or electronic network a first surge passes through it, so at first sudden transient processes happen and after that everything calms down and enters into a normal state. I think that it could be that you are still in a state like this, and so it’s necessary to wait until this passes. If the study influences you in this way, then as a rule, in this state it’s very important to talk with the friends more, to try to balance emotion with action.

I would advise you to dedicate more time to studying “The Preface to the Wisdom of Kabbalah” or The Study of the Ten Sefirot, where dry, scientific Kabbalistic language explains what happens with the desires, with their shattering into five stages, into five worlds; in other words, go into the science more. It really relaxes a person because it has a very deep and positive influence not on the emotions but on the mind. Try to balance the heart and the intellect.

You will find some friends with whom you can learn the wisdom of Kabbalah together, and not be involved in all kinds of psychological activities within the group. They are compulsory, but it’s necessary to balance them. I know this from my great experience and from learning with Rabash.

When I brought 40 students to him and we began to work with them, there were also similar abnormalities among them. Part of them were involved only with “dry” learning, others felt an emotional overload like this` such that they could not do anything with themselves. There was a problem with these and with those. In cases like these, Rabash always gave an order: add one thing, subtract a second thing, and so forth, like a good cook who knows precisely how many grams of spices or other additives are necessary to provide the dish with the final taste. If you will learn in a group with friends and balance your emotions through serious study, you will see what a leap you will make.
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From the Moscow Virtual Convention “Unity Without Boundaries” Day One 12.13.13, Lesson 1

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The world will come to its prearranged final good state anyway, but according to the nature’s program of management it is possible to come to this state not forced by suffering but by motivating ourselves independently, consciously. However, in this case, we must precede our nature, egoism, intention for oneself in all our actions, and act against egoism, towards the intention to aim for the benefit of others, bestowal in all our actions.

This is impossible because our nature is only egoism, the desire to act only for oneself in everything. But we were given this world to correct our nature, and even being in this world we can act, deceiving our egoism.

We can give to friends, although our intention will be to bestow for the sake of ourselves. We can unite with them, although our intention, our goal, would be to benefit only ourselves. But if we act like this while studying the state of “bestowal, love, for the benefit of others,” which is described in Kabbalistic sources, then we attract and awaken in ourselves the property of bestowal and love, which is called the Upper Light.

Therefore, we need friends aspiring to the same goal and we have to appreciate them to the extent of how much this goal is important for us because we cannot achieve it without them. Thus, our main task is to form such an environment that will pull us to good aspirations, instead of pushing us from behind by suffering, painfully, unconsciously, as is happening to the whole of humanity as it moves toward the same goal.
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Virtual Convention in Moscow, Day 3, Lesson 5

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Virtual Convention in Moscow, Day 2, Workshop 4

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Virtual Convention in Moscow, Day 2, Workshop 5

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Virtual Convention in Moscow, Day 2, Workshop 6

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Virtual Convention in Moscow, Day 2, Lesson 2

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Virtual Convention in Moscow, Day 2, Workshop 2

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Virtual Convention in Moscow, Day 2, Lesson 3

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Virtual Convention in Moscow, Day 2, Workshop 3

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Virtual Convention in Moscow, Day 2, Lesson 4

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