Question: You said that the soul is altruism, that is, the property that is available to few people. When we are engaged in correction and raise the world with us, do we share with the world the soul that we have earned or do we grow the world soul with the Light of correction that comes down to us?

Answer: We do not create anything new. We have very small animalistic, selfish desires, and the Light with which we can manipulate if we become like it. We draw the influence of the Light on ourselves, and the Light causes even greater egoistic desires in our egoistic desires, which, each time, we are correcting.

Let’s suppose that the desire to receive is small, like a dot, with a minimum capacity equal to one. The Light, the property of bestowal, exists in it.

The Light enters this desire: The property of bestowal pumps this dot with its desire to bestow, with warmth, love, compassion, and tenderness. This dot swells, and a huge desire emerges in it. And then the power of Malchut is equal to, say, a thousand. Why did it get such a tremendous power of desire to receive? It’s because the Light filled it in that way.

We say that there is Aviut (the thickness of desire) in the Light. What does it mean? I offered you a cake, gave you some candy, handed you a pillow, and suggested something warm to you. I pumped my attitude into you so that you begin to desire all this. My good attitude toward you is turned into a desire, and then if you do not get it from me, you begin to suffer. Thus, I cultivate a desire in you. This is what the Light does to us similar to what we do with a spoiled child. Thus, It builds us during the descent from above downward.

Then during the ascent from the bottom upward, It does the opposite, but almost the same. It affects our egoism, irritating it, as if crushes it. Under the influence of the Light, the ego swells and becomes bigger and bigger. Thus, we grow.

The egoistic and altruistic components grow in parallel, and at every state, in every world, they are opposite and have to complement each other until we reach the level of infinity.

The Light does everything; it increasingly develops negative desires in us. When you start to study, you have small desires. And tomorrow, you begin to hate others, and then something else, etc. And so it is with the Creator: Today you are afraid to say anything against Him, tomorrow you will hate Him, and the day after tomorrow, you will yell at Him. The time will come; you will grow up and will find out that this is so.
[95093]
From the Novosibirsk Convention 12/7/12, Lesson 2

Related Material:
Reins For The Ego
Leading The Desire To The Light
Inseparable Pair: Desire and Intellect

Filed under: Conventions, Group Work, Q&A, Spirituality - 1 Comment →

Question: The general ego is growing during the study of the wisdom of Kabbalah. It turns out that we seem to accelerate the growth of the ego. And as long as we delay the connection between us, humanity is becoming more egoistic.

Answer: The ego is not transferred from us to humanity. It does indeed develop sharply, but it is in us. To the extent that you aspire and yearn for the love of friends, you feel that you hate them and are rejected by them. Those who do not yearn for spirituality don’t feel anything. They have the ordinary corporeal animal egoistic urges, and nothing more than that.

If I strive forward to the “plus” with the friends and attain let’s say “plus one,” I immediately feel “minus one.” But if I am on level zero, on the initial corporeal level, I am just an animal. This means that it is an ordinary corporeal ego.

Spiritual ego is a totally different matter; it appears only in order to push me to an even stronger connection with the friends in the group. First it all seemed okay, fine: “Let’s connect guys!” We rent a place, everyone is burning, everyone is working. Suddenly we feel that we cannot even look at each other. This means that a negative spiritual level has started, and that’s a good thing.

Now is the time to rise above it, to rise to the next level “plus two.” And then again “minus two” appears.” And thus, over and over again. Without this zigzag we would not develop.

Can you imagine what ego people who rise have, like Rabbi Shimon’s students who wrote that they were ready to burn each other?

When you reach such a level, these attributes appear in you. So we have to establish an environment. You will not be able to attain this level without a strong group to support you and direct you. It “shakes” you when it is necessary so that you will wake up and see where you are; it obligates you and the others to perform your duties in the group, pulls you to dissemination, wakes you up at night, etc. It is impossible to advance without it.

At first a small ego appears in the group. But if the friends don’t notice it, if there isn’t someone who can help them, the group falls apart. There are many such groups. I hear about it occasionally.

So, we should actually be happy that serious signs of the spiritual advancement appear. This is already spiritual egoism.
[95020]
From the Novosibirsk Convention 12/7/12, Lesson 1

Related Material:
Get Down To Pure Egoism
The Beneficial Revelation Of Hatred
Am I Righteous Or Am I A Sinner?

Filed under: Conventions, Egoism, Group Work, Q&A - No Comments →

Question: What is the work in the middle line and how can I feel it?

Answer: The middle line doesn’t actually exist. After all, there are two forces active in nature: the force of bestowal (in red) and the force of receiving (in black). A person is neither one of them. The two forces emanate from above. There is the force of bestowal that created the force of receiving that is opposite from it. These two forces, let’s say plus and minus, exist in nature and everything stems from them: the still, vegetative, and animate. Man is of course a “spiritual creation” and exists in the comparison, in the connection of these two parameters inside him. 

The Masach (screen) is the plus, and the ego is the minus. Connecting them inside him correctly is above his ego, and by following faith above reason, a man stabilizes the middle line. This is the whole art.

This means that on one hand, I want to get closer to the friends despite my ego, since we discover the spiritual world only in the connection among us (the yellow part in the drawing).  And our ego (the black circles in the drawing) remains and grows even more.

Sefirot and worlds appear among us, in which everything is revealed. The upper world is external to us, external to our ego and above it, above the connection between us. Therefore, the whole wisdom of Kabbalah is based on the principle of “love thy friend as thyself.” Why? Because when you work on it, exit yourself, and build a kind of a sensor in the external form, you begin to feel the whole filling upper force. You may call it the Creator or the upper force, whatever you wish.

This is our work, and it is fulfilled in the middle line.
[95017]
From the Novosibirsk Convention 12/7/12, Lesson 1

Related Material:
Two Roots From Which A Tree Grows
The Left Line Comes From Above And Raises Us Upwards
The Basics Of Working In Three Lines

Filed under: Conventions, Egoism, Group Work, Inner Work, Q&A - No Comments →

Question: What is a group? Are these physical bodies or my inner attitude?

Answer: It is preferable that I see them as physical bodies. It is desirable that I perceive them in my five senses.

When we enter the next level, and are on a real conscious level of mutual connection, distance will be meaningless. This means that we will reach a level that physicists talk about as existing beyond time and space, where certain forces and worlds operate. And it is actually so! Scientists approach this barrier and admit: “Yes, it is possible that there is something beyond this barrier, but what? We don’t know. There the feeling disappears and it becomes impossible to study things.”

In our case, however, this doesn’t happen. If we enter the same area, distance and feeling don’t matter to us. I don’t need to see anyone, I feel a person’s shape, his bestowal, and how I am connected to him in mutual bestowal: He may be more and I may be less (it makes no difference), but we are already on a different level of connection between us.

Then distances don’t matter to me and I don’t feel whether it is a man or a woman, a grownup or a child; it doesn’t matter if we are connected this way. I feel the previous generations of Kabbalists who are in this system, who developed themselves and remain in it. I already have a different feeling, different glasses.
[95014]
From the Novosibirsk Convention 12/7/12, Lesson 1

Related Material:
What Is A “Group?”
The Group Is the Inner Contact Between Souls
The Way Of The World Group

Filed under: Conventions, Perception, Q&A, Science - No Comments →

Question: What is the difference between spirituality and warm-heartedness? There are some warm people who are very pleasant and there are spiritual people who may be very unpleasant. What’s the difference between them?

Answer: We call warm-hearted people “good souls” in everyday life, nice people, who are ready to give quick support to others. This person understands you, is sympathetic and empathetic, feels compassion, helps you, etc.

A spiritual person is someone who is working hard on himself, “breaking his teeth,” fighting himself under great strain developing something that is totally different from a person in our world, bestowal, which doesn’t exist in our world. And this attribute develops by huge efforts, great intention, and immense concentration of exertion, attention, and constant work, and very strong self-control.

When a person reaches this state, he has a special attitude to others that doesn’t necessarily seem warm, kind, loving, or nice to us, because he thinks about how to turn us into spiritual people, meaning people who have a soul. This involves serious efforts by a person against himself, under pressure, with hard work. So the people are not necessarily pleasant or nice. Their mission forces them to relate to us, the small weak people, purposefully and in a goal oriented manner.

I experienced it myself. My teacher Rabash looked at me as clay from which he had to sculpt and he assessed the extent to which this clay would moan, but would allow itself to be molded. This is how I felt then. On the one hand, it is a great love, an inner participation and understanding, but actually, the external expressions are still very special. A person who can truly value them is a person who understands the goal before him, the attributes of the student and the work of the teacher.
[95038]
From the Novosibirsk Convention 12/7/12, Lesson 2

Related Material:
The Teacher Formats The Student
From The Teacher To The Creator
A Leap Into A New Dimension

Filed under: Conventions, Q&A, Spiritual Teacher, Spirituality - No Comments →

Question: Why is it that the more you give a person what he is supposed to pass on to somebody else, he keeps it to himself and doesn’t wish to pay it forward? Suppose a person asked me for help. For me, it’s not a big deal, and I don’t receive any material benefit from it. I give him a hand because I feel that I am rising spiritually. But I want the person to be better.

Answer: I don’t understand why you would demand this. We don’t do it. We must think that when we help a person, we are approaching the upper force. We become similar to it, meaning that when I bestow to another, I get a chance to be like the Creator, up to the point that I reach a state when I will begin to feel that I’ve reached the first degree of similarity with Him.

To achieve that, I have to exert certain efforts and perform certain actions. They accumulate since this is a cumulative process. And as I do, I start feeling contrasts: I want, I don’t want at the same time increasing all kinds of doubts, criticism, etc. But if I move forth correctly and understand that all of this is done to enhance the quality of my efforts to help, toward bestowal, then I don’t demand anything.

What for? For me, this is already the very realization of my desire. The reward is the revelation of the Creator, revealing myself at a higher rung. In that case, I should thank the person who gives me an opportunity to act this way.

We cultivate it in the group because from it I can get the force to operate so I can get the right response. Even if later I start hating this person or thinking of him critically, it’s also good. Today I feel this way about him, tomorrow, he feels this way about me, and so on. That is, we are being “stewed” in the same emotions: giving – receiving, receiving – giving.

But we shouldn’t be demanding. Why? He did you a favor by being an object thanks to which you became more similar to the Creator, your next degree. The only demand of the friends in the group is for them to follow the group’s code: to come, study, clean the facility, and doing dissemination. That is another matter.

As for the rest, treat him not as a person who is supposed to do what we all decided in order to support our organization, but as a soul I am connecting with in order to reveal the mutual quality of bestowal and reception, in order to discover my upper world. I can’t neglect the friend. We have to understand that everything the Creator is showing us in the friends, is what we see of Him.
[94952]
From the Novosibirsk Convention 12/7/12, Lesson 1

Related Material:
How To Help A Friend
Bestowal Upon A Friend
Turn To Friends With A Smile

Filed under: Conventions, Group Work, Mutual Guarantee Movement, Q&A - No Comments →

Question: Can we discuss the problems that arise between the male and female parts of the group in a mixed workshop?

Answer: I don’t understand, what problems can there be between men and women? Isn’t it clear to us that we have to help one another? Could it be that the men have some outrageous demands?

Question: They demand our support, which they claim that they don’t feel.

Answer: Oh! They are right about that. This is the most important role of the female group, and without it the men won’t be able to advance. Only the women can do it with the special inner part of their soul.

The support is in not going in every direction, but calming things down, directing and supporting the men, just as a mother calms a child. This means that they have to perform the role of a mother. The men’s group needs a mother that will balance and soften it, which means that it will smooth things out. This is the women’s work.
[94945]
From the Novosibirsk Convention 12/7/12, Lesson 1

Related Material:
A Man And A Woman: To Be Or Not To Be Together?
A Man And A Woman As Traits Of Nature
The Unity Of The World Lies In Harmony Between Men And Women

Filed under: Conventions, Q&A, Women, Workshops - 1 Comment →

Question: You said that during the evening of unity in Jerusalem you simply didn’t have words and the strength to speak because you didn’t feel a desire coming from the group. What is required of us here and now? How do we form such a desire and supply it to you so that you have the necessary words to share with us?

Answer: This was indeed a very interesting and touching revelation for me. I usually never have trouble speaking because I live in what I say. And generally, just as any one talking about his family or interesting job, I speak about what is most important to me endlessly and in combination with anything else. But I suddenly discovered that I was unable to speak. And it happened even in advance of the event, for a few minutes before, I simply couldn’t understand what was happening to me.

In Jerusalem, there was a serious meeting with a large audience. About a third of it, 1000 people out of 3000, were people who came just because they were invited. They weren’t our students, our friends. And I really wanted to speak well in my presentation. Because with my students, those who yearn to know and are involved, with them I am in contact.

They are walking by my side: in ascents, descents, better, and worse—all together we experience the path. But in this case, with so many new people attending, I wanted to show them what we are doing, what we offer… and I didn’t have any strength to speak; I kept looking at the clock: one minute, two minutes passed. And I wanted to try to talk for at least half an hour; I didn’t know what to do with myself. And then it became clear to me: I wasn’t prepared well enough to talk with these people. It had to take place on a totally different level, at the level of unity with the group.

Normally, I speak on my own behalf. I mean the students do give me their support and I do feel them, I sense our common, collective union, but I still speak for myself. Here it wasn’t the case. Here, I needed the readiness of the group so that during those minutes when I’m on stage, the friends would really feel like they are right next to me, fully. That is the desire I felt, that need.

In other words, the support has to be not just in sympathy, but in mutual aid: “The friend went and we are supporting him.” No, I am there with him! I am with him now at the same time! I had never felt such a need for oneness.

I absorb the energy of my students in order to supply them with what they want. I sense their desire, all kinds of nuances, fluctuations in their mood, and generally, various spiritual states. And even though it’s not the friends’ fault since I hadn’t prepared them for it, at that very moment all I wanted was for them to be “in me” consciously on their part. That is what I was lacking.

Truly, we have climbed to a totally new degree where we must do everything together. There aren’t “me” and “you” anymore; together we work on creating a power of our unified desires, our aspirations toward revealing the world so that we feel real strength in this unity. If I say something, you are with me; and if you hear it, I am with you.

This is the kind of mutual inclusion we need, and that’s what we learned two days ago in Jerusalem: Our connection is becoming mutual. And I am very pleased with it! This means that a lot of my students are rising closer and closer to my level and we are now able to communicate with each other at this degree.

I hope that we will continue to interact this way with each other and further, representing one integral whole. There is no teacher, lecturer, or students who listen; rather there is one thing in common, the whole desire that wants to reveal the purpose of life! I think we can do it.
[94963]
From the Novosibirsk Convention 12/7/12, Lesson 1

Related Material:
Passing The Wisdom From A Teacher To A Disciple
Make Yourself A Teacher And A Group
“Things That Come From The Heart, Enter The Heart”

Filed under: Conventions, Mutual Guarantee, Q&A, Unity - 1 Comment →

Question: What does seeking balance at the level of “human” mean? How do we build the temple, to which you always come back? What does the term “temple” mean in Kabbalah?

Answer: Seeking harmony is the most important law of nature. On the still, vegetative, and animate levels, nature does it automatically, instinctively, by its own forces. Based on all our research of space, the functioning of living organisms, of all of nature, the ecosphere of the Earth, we see how nature itself tends to equilibrium. Here it is warm, there it is cold; here is pressure, there is a vacuum, etc. A mutual combination of parameters takes place; that is, nature always tends to the average.

Any forces tend to equilibrium. And so do we. What is the law of similarity? This means that if I am similar to you in something, we understand each other through our similarities. If my senses (for example, vision or hearing) are similar to what is happening in a certain range, then I sense it happening. That is, the law of similarity on our part is the basis of communication in our world. And on the side of nature, it is just the basic law of what it tends to: the law of similarity, the law of combination, averaging.

This law applies to all levels except the level of “human.” At this level, nature, on the contrary, leaves us this opportunity. It seems to say: A human being must be engaged in his similarity to nature himself, averaging at the social and other levels. Why? Then he will rise to the level of “human,” instead of remaining an animal. And so we are in our world suffering all the time, although we are the smartest and the strongest.

But considering what we do with each other and with the world, we are the most despicable. Based on the fact of what we do with the land on which we live, how we exhaust everything and each other, we are completely irrational. That is, here nature leaves us the freedom to choose—only to human beings! Thus, we have to learn this law.

That is why Kabbalah teaches us how to realize the law of similarity in an individual and in human society. If we implement it correctly, it raises us and leads to the level of similarity to the upper force. To accomplish this, we, all seven billion people who live on the planet, must unite together, interconnected in such a way as to form one single desire.

After all, all this exists in the program of nature; we will reach it anyway, either by the path of suffering or the path of awareness. In order to come to this by awareness and not just suffering (because this means terrible problems for centuries), the science of Kabbalah is revealed. But it must be implemented by always exiting ourselves to connect with others who are similar to us, who are also interested in this method of the revelation of the upper force.

So, the law of similarity is the fundamental law of existence.
[94959]
From the Novosibirsk Convention 12/7/12, Lesson 1

Related Material:
Introductory Lecture “Balance With Nature” – 12.07.10
The Wonderful Attribute Of Balance
Building The Third Temple

Filed under: Conventions, Q&A, Science, Society, Unity - No Comments →

Novosibirsk Convention, “Prayer of Many,” Day Three, Lesson 5

[media 1]

[media 2]

Novosibirsk Convention, Day Three, Seminar 5

[media 3]

[media 4]

Novosibirsk Convention, “Future State of Humanity,” Day Three, Lesson 6

[media 5]

[media 6]

Novosibirsk Convention, Dissemination Activities: “Questions and Answers,” Day Three

[media 7]

[media 8]

Novosibirsk Convention, “A Discussion with the Groups of Siberia, Ural, Kazakhstan,” Day Three

[media 9]

[media 10]

Filed under: Conventions, Lectures, Workshops - No Comments →