Question: We have to turn to the Creator in order to ascend and to attain connection. Does this happen through the group, through the collective desire, or through a dialogue with the Creator? What should I spend my time and my exertion on?

Answer: You are a particle in a giant system, and through it you receive everything from the force that is revealed in all the system. You don’t discover anything inside you, no matter what touches you. Nothing from you is passed on to the Creator, but only to the extent that you are incorporated in the whole system.

According to your level of development, like a child, you are given a small corner—a bed, or a whole room, or you may even run around the house or even go out and play in the sand box, meaning that the range is gradually expanding.

But you are actually “protected” by the Creator, and you turn to Him through the same world that you feel, just like a kid who feels his world.

You should understand that everything that happens to you is a result of the whole world and its condition. You are a man of your generation.
[95263]
From the Novosibirsk Convention 12/8/12, Lesson 3

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We need to understand that the eternal particle of the soul exists in its potential in every one of us if we unite with the others. It is one for all of us and is initially created as such. If, however, we don’t feel that we exist in one collective whole, this means that none of us has this soul and all we have is just our animalistic nature.

The soul is also called “Adam”—from the Hebrew word “adame”—similar to the Creator.

The desire to receive is totally opposite to the desire to bestow; it wishes to receive, not give, but at the same time, if it realizes itself against its own nature, it becomes similar to the Creator. Its similarity lies in the core of its action, not according to its nature, but according to how it transformed itself. This is its inverse, corrected state and is called the soul or Adam.

It is also called “Shechina.” This is a special word, from the Hebrew word “Shochen,” meaning a place of dwelling, settlement, residence. It is the place where the Light descends to and fills it up.

Thus, there are various names for the soul depending on which of its aspects are being discussed. But generally, no matter what is being discussed, it is the only subject matter: this collective soul, the only one that exists, besides the upper force. And we are its corrupted part and don’t understand where we are. We are in this soul but in a broken state, and that’s why we can’t say that we have it in us. Respectively, all our work is aimed at one goal: only to correct and find ourselves in this reformed state.

There are many people in the world whose parts in the collective soul have been corrected. These parts are called “particular souls”, and they are assisting us.

There is circulation of souls: Every instant a person passes through certain states even if he hasn’t yet entered the spiritual world, meaning that he hasn’t found his part in the common soul and hasn’t become Adam in general, hasn’t linked with this whole system; that is, he is not yet its active part.

This is an enormous egoistic system containing all the egoism of the universe and working on bestowal, in sync with the upper force, with the Creator. They connect, receive from each other and bestow to each other, and between them, a complete contact occurs, a so-called adhesion. One way or the other, we are in this common soul in everything and always, although we are moving toward our goal either willingly or unwillingly; that’s the difference.

People who live in our world without any understanding of it, move around unaware of and yet according to the program of creation. There is nothing that could break the confines of the law of the collective creation. This program is concealed from man, but he doesn’t understand where he is going and what he is doing at any particular moment in time. Suddenly something pushes him, and he acts, instinctively or seemingly conscious. None of us can see what strings we are being pulled by.

Why did one suddenly wish to act this way, think this way, or got into this trouble—we don’t understand. Only having risen over our state of existence and observing ourselves from aside, like a mother watches her child, will we be able to work on ourselves, on our egoism. Then, we will feel when we are being pulled by the strings, and maybe we will be able to pull them ourselves.

This is our development; I come to a state where before I am pulled, I will pull myself. Thereby, I engage the Light to affect me instead of the Light coming to play with me. This is a crucial turning point in a person’s work on his transformation, when he begins controlling his own development.

This, essentially, is what we are striving for: to be handed the governing force and to govern with it on our own. When the Surrounding Light is in my hands, I can engage it and make it affect me as necessary. In that case, I govern my soul; I am equal with it. This is the aim of our development in the group. Because essentially, the group represents the soul for me in a “material” form. If I connect to the friends, I connect with the collective desire, which, actually, is the soul.
[95247]
From the Novosibirsk Convention 12/7/12, Lesson 2

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Question: How is it possible after the convention to continue feeling that I have no individual abilities, but only the abilities of the group?

Answer: Before you didn’t have any individual abilities either, and you were part of the group, but now it is clearer, and accordingly more is demanded of you. The more that is revealed to you, the more you are demanded to participate, mentally, emotionally, and actively in overcoming.

It is very clear that by very small efforts, we have already discovered that within our collective vessel an illumination is emerging. The problem is that we attained this by physical connection between us and not by spiritual connection. In the meantime it is a very big deficiency.

In addition, it happens thanks to the fact that I am incorporated in the group using the force to connect with them. This means that there is still al lot of work that has to be done on the part of our group in order to reach a true inner connection among the friends. Then the Light that is equal to this connection will arrive.

In the meantime it is lacking within the group and among the groups. We have to connect more strongly with one another. I think that this convention has shown everyone that we are closer to one another than we thought. All the groups felt close and people understood that we have no choice but either to advance toward an even greater connection or leave.

We will soon see how this happens: There will be people who will come gladly and there will be those who will leave cursing. This is how the clarification is done.

We now have to fulfill what we felt in the convention. In order to fulfill that, a person needs constant self-control with regard to his attitude towards the world that is managed by the Creator. Am I aware of the fact that I am in a world that is managed by the Creator? Do I perceive the world as a place where by focusing on the fact that everything is done by the Creator I will eventually find the Creator in this world?

World (Olam – also means concealment in Hebrew) is concealment on the one hand and the revelation of the Creator on the other hand. The world is concealed because I don’t reveal the Creator. But because I intend to reveal Him, to identify with Him, and to receive everything that happens as the absolute good and benevolent and there is none else besides Him, then by that I accept this concealment, and then the concealment of the world becomes a revelation.

This is all I have to say about this. Don’t expect anything beyond this and don’t think that as we advance I will have new words. But the same words will be clearer to you. If someone else begins to read, it would mean nothing to him, just like people who read the Torah and understand it literally. These are ordinary words, since in spirituality there are no words.
Besides, it is forbidden to reveal more than is allowed. We have to understand that the teacher is an educator who has to do his job.
[95274]
From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/11/12, “Questions and Answers Regarding Novosibirsk Convention”

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Question: After the congress in Novosibirsk, we feel a very strong responsibility. It is as if a new system of relations between us was born, when our whole life should be in mutual care for each other. How do we start our work anew, with a clean slate; how do we take the first step onto this new platform?

Answer: Indeed, a new sensation was born. But the connection itself is not new; it already exists and only becomes revealed to us more and more. I see that you feel the new stage and discovered a new experience. And respectively, your mind that works in sync with the feelings was renewed. Now the question is how will we accept this as a fact that binds us to connect even more—all of us together, and me with you as well. This was the qualitative change—I am much more engaged in the group since you have come to a more advanced state. And our further advancement is in that each of us now should maintain the unity we achieved.

We should at least try to maintain the same feeling that arose during our uniting at the congress. This is despite the fact that totally opposite states will be coming: totally opposite feelings and calculations will wash over. And they will not even contradict the former unity, but will just distract and sway you off to the side, forcing you to strive for the philistine values that you used to have in the past. And this is where you should try to view your condition with the Creator’s eyes. This means to look at it not only from “below upward” but also from “above downward”. In other words, you should see yourself as a child who is imagining being a grownup.

He doesn’t just look upward at adults from his place, but he imagines being big and what he would do then, how he would arrange his life, himself. That is, we should visualize how we would apply an “adult” spiritual state to our life if we were already in it.

To be an adult means to be like the Creator. And I need to envision I am next to the Creator and my spiritual vessel creates a complete connection of all desires, thanks to our self-annulment and the mutual inclusion of everyone into everyone infinitely, so that each of us feels all the common desire and the Creator being revealed in it. This cannot be described with words because all our words derive from the broken world and not from oneness.

With these eyes we should look upon life, the friends, the teacher, and on your entire work, and regard them accordingly. In normal life, “outside the temple walls,” we act as all others, not separating from them. But inside your group, you should see the corrected state. Everyone should view the group and his or her life this way. Then, a person can fit into this corrected picture. Likewise, as during studying, so with the teacher and the group, one can act in sync with the upper state being envisioned. After all, who is the Creator? It is the upper state. And this is all we need.

Most importantly, stay in “There is none else besides Him, the good who does good” every moment. I envision the Creator, who resides within me, as such, and what He demands of me in this case. What would be required of me if I were in such a state? How would I see everything if I were exactly the one, besides whom there is nobody else, someone good who does good?

I need to see that all my actions come from the Creator, and my attitude to the friends, and to the world—and all of it is good and only for their benefit. Everyone will eventually feel this way, and gradually, we are beginning to feel it. This is described as “penny by penny builds to a large sum.” We exerted efforts that accumulate and ultimately result in a leap: one passes level 0, 1, 2, 3, 4 and finally makes a leap. And then again stages 0, 1, 2, 3, 4 and a new leap. That is how we finally reach our first spiritual state.
[95181]
From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/11/12, “Questions and Answers Regarding Novosibirsk Convention”

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Question: When we participate in the morning lessons and workshops should we appeal to the Creator through the group?

Answer: Only through the group! There cannot be any personal appeal to the Creator. All the Shamati articles were written for a person who is engaged in the spiritual work within a group. By the way, there is nothing mentioned in these articles that one has to direct oneself to the Creator through the group because it is a natural and obvious thing.

If I say that I look at the Creator, it means that there is a group in front of me. Otherwise, I do not see Him.
[95266]
From the Novosibirsk Convention 12/8/12, Lesson 3

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We constantly need to focus on the fact that “There is none else besides Him—only on this topic as there is nothing else except it. All the other topics are needed to support it to identify different individual states.

Moreover, I delve into this topic because the Creator produces all my feelings in me. Now, He is talking to me through my teacher, who is His conduit, and nothing more. Everything around me is a manifestation of the Creator in me; I myself am His derivative and have to respond to what happens according to this.

The more a person understands and knows the uniqueness of this, not disconnecting from the friends, from the world, or from anything, then the more he will try to feel it in reality.

This is the only force of nature that is manifested to us like that. Every day, we increasingly reveal its integrality, interconnection. Nature is integral, and we should not interfere with it. On the contrary, we must adapt ourselves to it. That is why Kabbalah says that we have to act in the external world: to provide everyone with normal, reasonable consumption, in general, to care about that. Everything else is just seeking unity, and through unity to the One.

Thus, any changes that you would like to see, you can only come to through this topic of the uniqueness of the Creator. It determines everything: why we should be united, why we should react to something in this way and not otherwise, etc. You will always come to the correct answer through it.
[95260]
From the Novosibirsk Convention 12/8/12, Lesson 3

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Question: Let’s say, someone has wronged me. I turn to the Creator, ask for love, and through the prism of love, I try to look at the offender: He is great and this is the manifestation of my uncorrected properties. Should I talk about this with the offender?

Answer: The offender has nothing to do with it. Here is the Creator who manifested Himself in this way. But this is not about forgiveness.

If you decided to respond to this action of the Creator, based on the fact that you desire to unite with Him, you can protect yourself and strike back at your attacker. But first of all, try to see contact with the Creator, to see a manifestation of the Creator in the offender and any other object or situation. However, this does not mean that you have to forgive him. No! In the end, you have to build the same relationship with him as he is with you against your egoism and against him.
[95257]
From the Novosibirsk Convention 12/8/12, Lesson 3

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Question: The article, “There Is None Else Besides Him,” speaks about the need for making our own efforts in the spiritual work, but all the states come from the Creator. When can we become independent?

Answer: Our independence is expressed in becoming similar to the Creator from within our egoism, thus including in us two opposing forces. If you take away the force of the ego, there will be nothing left of you. You will exist in Him like the starting point that He created as something from nothing, and will have no personal feeling of anything.

Initially, the Creator’s question was how to create an independent created being that is similar and equal to Him. This is what He does in all of creation.

We are committed to constantly try to attain a state of full adhesion with Him with the feelings and the mind that He summons in us.

Adhesion with Him means that both my feelings and my mind come from Him so that, through them, I will ascend above my ego and begin to actually feel His bestowal in me.

It is hard to express. There are no such words in our language.

On the whole, we have to yearn for connection with this only root, with this source—every moment, in every parameter, in every section, in the heart and the mind, in our desires and our thoughts.

Then, a new heart and mind will be created in us that work in order to bestow in a different coordinate system, in another dimension.

Only then will we begin to understand from what space this force operates. We will already enter this space, but only through systematic work on ourselves that brings about the recognition that everything in me and around me, everything, comes from Him at any second, at every moment.
[95168]
From the Novosibirsk Convention 12/8/12, Lesson 3

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Question: How do I check the efforts in the group, and whether they should be checked at all? It turns out that my own sensations deceive me, don’t they?

Answer: It does not matter. We still have to take these feelings, take our minds, and work with them, and again in duality! This is our problem.

On the one hand, friends appear in my eyes so that I would have each of them altered or replaced, myself too.

And, on the other hand, everything comes from the Creator; He deliberately gives us the state from which we would come to the conclusion that this is perfect because it stems from Him. And from the state of duality, confusion, not understanding, and conflict, we suddenly begin to identify Him.

We get a substrate, the basis on which we can feel it. The foundation should be different, strewn with all sorts of thorns. It is then, when we have plenty of feelings, properties, various opposite definitions. And then He is felt. Otherwise, we cannot feel the Light.

Despite the fact that we are in it, we still have no contrast between the “I” and He. That is what we are building, a new sense organ.

Question: That is, I check everything both individually and from the state of the group?

Answer: Yes. We must constantly be in two states and analyze what is happening from two points of the observer.
[95162]
From the Novosibirsk Convention 12/8/12, Lesson 3

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Question: If relative to the Creator, we are already in the third, corrected state, then what does it mean that we have to give pleasure to the Creator?

Answer: We have never gone out of the third and the first states; relative to the Creator, there are no changes. Everything that was created by Him was created at once and instantly, and there is not even question of time. We will begin to feel this soon.

Ari wrote in his poem: Behold, that before the emanations were emanated and the creatures created, the upper simple light had filled the whole existence. What do it was before and then mean? Baal HaSulam explains this in his writings.

The state of time is a causal relationship. But we do not understand that either. Cause and effect are always related to time for us.

The picture that we attain in spirituality is beyond our limitations of time, space, and motion. We feel them only at our lowest earthly level. Once we start to feel the upper world, we will see that there is no time, no death, no birth—nothing! There is only a constant ascent in the property of bestowal.
[95159]
From the Novosibirsk Convention 12/8/12, Lesson 3

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