Question: What are spiritual sight and hearing?

Answer: The first stage of attainment is called “I heard,” and the second stage is “I saw,” but it is not the ears and eyes, but the level, the depth, of spiritual attainment. When a person reaches the state, “do not do evil to others,” then he is in the state, “I heard,” and when in addition, he reaches the level, “love thy neighbor as thyself,” then he reaches the level of “I saw.”
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From the Georgia Convention 11/5/12, Lesson 1

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Question: You have mentioned several times that Kabbalah is a science. Do such concepts as “individual or personal aspect of God” and “the way through Kabbalah, through devotion” have a place in it?

Answer: The higher power in Kabbalah is called “Nature” or the “Creator.” You can call it “God.” But this higher force is not at all what believers mean. This is a clear physical, absolute, good influence on everything that exists, permanent and unchanging. That is why if believers, no matter what faith, ask God to change, in principle their prayers are aimed at this; the people who study Kabbalah strive to change themselves because in their understanding God is absolute.

If He is absolutely good, if He is absolutely loving, then I cannot ask Him to change because He is already absolutely good and loving. The concept of absolute already means that I have no one to ask. For example, how can you ask, for example, your mother who loves you absolutely already to be kinder towards you?

Therefore, all the aspirations, the entire work, of a person is to change himself, to pull himself, to become like God. That is why a human being is called “Adam” from the word “Domeh – similar.” He has to reach this level, to attain it.

Thus, Kabbalah is not related to any religion in its relation to the world and is called science.
[92247]
From the Georgia Convention 11/05/12, Lesson 1 

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Question: Can any person, including me, rise to the upper level, appealing to His nature? Can I consciously rise to that level or is it only based on my feelings? If we talk about consciousness, does Kabbalah distinguish between reason and mind?

Answer: Kabbalah says that the human essence is composed of desires and thoughts. The desire is the main thing because it is the real matter of the world. The desire spins electrons and molecules, causing connection and disconnection of elements; the desire is everything.

But on the still, vegetative, and animate levels, the desire is carried out instinctively, compulsively. Everything acts like this, including the people who also belong to the animal level.

A person who begins to study Kabbalah tries to rise to the next level of desire, that is, to change from the property of reception to the property of bestowal. Then he begins to use reason, but not the one that exists next to our egoism in order to gain more in every movement, in every case. Animals also have such reason, as does any plant or stone that all the time tries to take the best position relative to the force of gravity or to preserve its structure. We are speaking about the free mind.

Freewill appears only when a person has two opposing forces—to receive and bestow. And new real reason appears between them. It is not the one that is attached to the desire and helps it gain more, calculating its actions, but the reason that arises on the oppositeness of two desires and causes the creation of a middle structure, consisting of both forces, reception and bestowal, the so-called the middle line. A person who has these two forces and builds himself out of them, is actually free and reasonable.
[92244]
From the Georgia Convention 11/05/12, Lesson 1

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Question: We are now undergoing a period of increased internal work in the group, and some of our friends had the impression that in this connection we can significantly reduce our dissemination activity to dedicate ourselves more fully to internal work.

Answer: All our work consists of two opposites. Rabash wrote in his articles that the problem is that we are seemingly cut inside ourselves, divided into internal and external. And the world around us seems divided into internal and external. That is why it is necessary to understand how to be in contact with it.

In this regard, we often devote more time to our internal unity, and then let it go a little and become engaged in dissemination. It all depends on the condition of our surroundings.

Now we are preparing for a big convention in Russia. We hope that hundreds of our friends will participate in it, those who had not even had a direct visual connection with us.

I see this convention as a very important one and that is why the unity that we have to reach there naturally holds all our attention. Thus, while external dissemination is important for us, the internal one is more important.

Thus, we are moving. Like the throbbing of the heart, all our work moves through inhaling-exhaling, and the entire world is in this motion. Compression and expansion alternating with each other, and thus we advance: along the right and left lines. Everything is arranged alternately.

So, do not completely close either of these lines. Sometimes, we just have to move the focus from one part to another, from internal to external and vice versa. So, in any case you shouldn’t panic that we stop external dissemination, and most importantly inner dissemination.

Still, on the eve of the convention, we have to try to prepare for it more, that is, to unite, and try to bring to the convention all those who study with us in various places, especially in the region of Siberia, the Far East, the southern parts of Russia, and adjacent countries.

Taking this opportunity, I would like to stress once again the importance of this congress and to invite all the individuals, all the doubters, and those who communicate in the virtual space in different parts of the endless expanses of Siberia and that region. I hope that they all will find strength, means, and time to meet with us.

There is still a huge mass of people who are somewhere alone, far away from each other, and it is desirable that they attend our conventions at least once. I hope that they have this opportunity. Let them connect, at least with the convention organizers, and even if they are not going to attend, they should write to us so we know where they are. And if suddenly they decide to come after all, we can help them.
[92163]
From a Virtual Lesson 10/28/12

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Georgia Convention, Lesson 1

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Georgia Convention, Workshop 1

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Georgia Convention, Lesson 2

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Georgia Convention, Workshop 2

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Georgia Convention, Lesson 3

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Question: There are so many beautiful bright people and forces in this world. And in spirituality, it is said, “There is none else besides Him,” dryly and simply. How can I feel attraction to the spiritual world and taste and pleasure from it so that I will want to rush there?

Answer: How can you feel an attraction to the upper world? If you felt more attraction than you do now, you would be driven by your egoism, you would never be able to rise above it to overcome it, and you would hasten there. So it is concealed in order to give us as the opportunity to make efforts that are above our ego, not for our self-benefit.

If we moved to the upper world through our egoism, we would forever stay within our selfishness, we would have no chance to get out of our egoistic shell, and we would be buried in it, buried alive. We would never go beyond the egoistic sphere.

If the upper world were revealed to you right now, you would immediately understand that this material realm is worth nothing at all! We would clearly see that people are animals that live only to feed themselves. I feel sorry for this life; at this point, nothing is worth our efforts, there is no sense to have children and continue suffering…nothing really matters! Is it clear? Then what?

Ah, there is the upper world! First and foremost, it’s eternity that is beyond any limitations. Time, movement, information, everything becomes completely open to us. Time ceases to exist; it only exists in this world, as physicists say, only below the speed of light. Information becomes completely available there. One begins sensing oneself as existing in infinite space. One acquires absolute knowledge about everything that is going on in the entire system of the worlds, in the whole universe, since this system is analog. There is not a system clock, it does not work on pulses; it is always in continuous motion and at the same time rests in calmness. You feel that you are inside of it and at the same time you know that It somehow exists within you, meaning that you are everything there is!

If you happen to see even the smallest piece of that picture, even one gram of it, you’d become a slave to this sensation. Baal HaSulam writes that if the revelation of the upper worlds to us would happen before the contraction of our desires (at which point a man becomes able to keep his egoism to himself and even rise above it), then even one drop of revelation of this enormous pleasure would force one to chop off his hands and feet seven times a day just to experience this sensation once in his lifetime.

Do you understand? You would be a slave and couldn’t do anything at all except to pursue this pleasure. You would make huge efforts in the group and everywhere else only to receive this sort of pleasure. In other words, you would aspire to it egoistically, and thus you would distance yourself away from it even more.

Question: How can we possibly want to achieve that state if we don’t have powers of our own?

Answer: Ask your friends. Only they can ensure your future. If they go for it, you’ll have it, if not, you won’t.
[85914]
From the Kharkov Convention “Uniting to Ascend” 8/17/12, Lesson 1

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Presently, I am in a fragmented reality that is divided into two parts: my “I” and the external world. This separation explains exactly what Kabbalists wanted to tell us: “You have a chance to connect these two parts, internal and external, together into one entity. You have to do it; this is the program of creation. If you participate in reconnecting them, you’ll perceive the internal reality in which you were before the shattering occurred.”

Kabbalists tell us about the group, dissemination, and the significance of bowing our heads before our friends. The group is nothing but “externality” to us, but it’s already at the human (Adam) level. Those who have a point in the heart, the urge to become similar to the Creator, belong to this level. So, the Kabbalists tell us: “In your reality, there are people who are similar to you and who also strive to unite. They are special selected parts of your soul. One way or the other, everything is a part of your soul. So, you should use these parts, since they are designed to help you; they come to meet you.”

From there, I begin to understand what’s written in the articles that speak of the group, unity, the need to bow one’s head before the group, and of the relationships among friends. All of the above describes the auxiliary force, which stands out from this world, the one that is detached from our other parts that are spread throughout the Universe. The whole Universe is just me; it’s my current sensation. Even things that I can’t feel at this time are still me. It simply means that I haven’t collected the whole range of sensations within myself yet and that my perception of reality is not deep enough as of now.

So, at the highest (speaking) level, there are certain parts that really are helping me, since they encompass the same aspiration as I do. As a result if I happen to unite with them, I correct all other parts of my soul.

Where do I start? I begin with the most sensitive and developed part that is next to me, humankind. It’s still about one’s integrated soul, which we lead towards correction. If one regards everything from this angle, looks deeper, and realizes what Kabbalists write about, then one begins to better understand their texts, their world outlook, and the way they perceived reality and the whole process.

The main thing is to break the “ice” and “dissolve” the common routine self-perception as well as the way we regard the world. We should keep in mind that everything that exists is only our “I”, and that any externality in fact is still inside us. Everything is a picture that we imagine at a certain point in time. Although, we are also given a chance to realize and sense that another approach to this issue is also possible. In his  “Preface to The Book of Zohar” (Item 34), Baal HaSulam writes: …Even though we see everything as actually being in front of us, every reasonable person knows for certain that all that we see is only within our own brains. So are the souls: Although they see all the images in the Giver, they still have no doubt that all these are only in their own interior, and not at all in the Giver.

Another question is what level of “common sense” do we need for that? Of course, it’s not that easy and is not available to everybody. However, if we get ourselves acquainted with psychologists’ and quantum physicists’ opinion, we would discover that their understanding of reality is very similar. Baal HaSulam very much respected materialistic psychology since it’s built on common empiric sense: “A person can be governed only by what one sees.” Psychologists are still partially confused with their hypothesis, whereas physicists talk about these things very seriously: everything is within a person.

So, we have to overcome a gap in our perception. If we constantly apply effort, not physically but rather internally, in order to connect these two parts, internal and external, together, we’ll elicit the Reforming Light and correct our corrupt vessels. The vessel is damaged only inside of our perception, nowhere else. It splits the entire picture and shows some of my vessels as being outside, and the other part as inside. All this is only in our perception.

In order get a correct understanding of the above, we read the articles and letters written by Kabbalists. If we try to understand them from this point of view, they are not what they appear to us in the ordinary psychological approach. They open up much greater depth and clarity, and we’ll feel what Kabbalists had in mind. Because they see the world as a complete entity, united, for them it is concentrated in the point of unity that a person has to attain. They have no question about the need to unite into one group, nor why the “drop of unity” has to be everybody’s goal.

So, together with us now in selected parts of humanity are those who aspire to unite together. If we all think about it and wish to reveal unity, it will happen. In principle, it is sufficient for it to be ten people, and we are much more.

And again, our unity has to be built on the basis of equality. It’s said: “Love thy neighbor as thyself.” Equality will allow us to form a center of unity, the central point of Malchut.
[89163]
From the North Convention of Unity 9/20/12, Lesson 2

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Every time we want to transition to the next state we have to build it. After all, it doesn’t exist: There is no spiritual world, no Creator—nothing. I build everything within me, and everything there depends solely on me, on my “construction.” It means that when I ascend to higher levels, I have to form and visualize them in front of me: “What will my next step of advancement look like?”

My next step is as follows: There is no “us,” only “I”; everything is inside of me and a part of me. Each time I rise to a new step, I see the whole world inside of me, in my perception and sensations.

Then again, the world seems to me as a place that is alienated, separated, and shattered into various conflicting states. So, I have to assemble all its parts back together again—within me, and to relate to everything with love and unity, without any exceptions.

This is the way I ascend all 125 steps, each time increasing the range, the resolution of the picture of perception. With each step, I take a deeper look into the shattering and correct it to the corresponding degree. It’s my perception and my sensation that was broken. It fractures our unity into small splinters, partly distant, opposite, and hateful to me.

In his “Preface to The Book of Zohar” Baal HaSulam writes: …we should be so grateful to His Providence for having created that polished mirror in our brains, enabling us to see and perceive everything outside of us. This is because by that He has given us the power to perceive everything with clear knowledge and attainment, and measure everything from within and from without. Without it, we would lose most of our perception.

In other words, we would never attain the only authentic state that exists. We simply would not get any closer to it, nor would we understand or sense its depth if we didn’t go through the shattering. This is why our authentic state is deliberately broken into pieces and each of them opposes, contradicts the others. What once used to be one whole now is split; the parts that were similar now are antagonistic. It’s beyond our imagination.

We are trying to reconnect them through our own efforts by bowing our heads and consenting with our friends. I want to fill the gaps between them; I would do everything I can to reconnect them together inside of myself due to my love and correct attitude. By persuading myself in this way, I come to a profound understanding of the essence of Malchut of the world of Infinity, which in fact is my unified soul.

The depth of our realization depends on the revelation of the shattering and the understanding of its opposite, the wholeness. The gap between them is so huge that it requires special tools, the vessels. So, it’s said that we have to enlarge our vessels “620” times, meaning to reach a depth that is comparable to Infinity. Besides, in the gap between both states (broken and complete) we reveal the Lights of NRNHY.

Actually, everything we feel in this world is built upon contrasts: bitter and sweet, dark and light, hatred and love, etc. It even applies to music and perception of colors. We perceive everything as the difference between its corrupt and corrected forms; one is always opposite the other.

So, Infinity has always been perfect. We are now talking about our attainment: When we sense something that doesn’t have its opposite, we can only feel the tiny Light of Nefesh–de–Nefesh. In our world, no single particle of any substance lacks two poles, a plus and as a minus. Even an electron (charged negatively) or a positron (charged positively) both still hide opposites within them, which are yet to be discovered. After the shattering occurred, there is not even the tiniest particle that doesn’t contain its opposite, even though it presents itself to us only in one aspect, through one borderline, without revealing the other.

Initially, while the creature was in the world of Infinity, it was in a totally unconscious, mindless state. It had nothing to make comparisons with; there was no space between the two poles—a place for thoughts and perception.

Then, the Infinity split into the parts of the world of Nekudim. Now, we can understand and sense its depth. This is the perception of reality, to which we aspire. It’s our life, an unprecedented harmony, a symphony of minuses and pluses that encompass the entire attainment, the whole understanding between the two states: corrupted and whole.
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From the North Convention of Unity 9/20/12, Lesson 2

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Our main force is the ego. Except for the ego there is only one small point in everyone’s heart and we have to connect these points. If we connect them into one big point, we’ll feel the spiritual world inside. Then everything will come together: me, the group, and the upper force.

On the other hand, the ego wants to push all our points away from one another. It’s actually meant to push us in the opposite direction from connection, and this is why it’s called a “help against.”

How should we build an environment that will help us fulfill the points in the heart and our egoistic forces so that together we’ll connect into one big wonderful point? Despite the interruptions of the ego, by using it, we want to connect our points in the heart into one point. How can we use the power of the ego to achieve this goal?

The point is that I don’t know the way to the spiritual world. For me it’s a question mark hidden from me. How can I reveal it? How can I focus myself correctly? With the help of the group, I use my ego in the opposite way; it becomes a “helpmate” (Ezer Ke Negdo) and helps me focus myself accurately on spirituality, on the Creator. This is only possible in the group when I work with the point in the heart in order to turn the ego in the opposite direction, (the broken green line in the drawing). Then instead of pulling me downwards, the ego will direct me correctly, so that I can enter the spiritual world.

So there is only an ego and a point in the heart in a person, and with the help of the group, we change the ego and find the way to advance in the opposite direction each time.

Actually, it isn’t only about the egoistic desire to receive different things in our world. It’s a special ego aimed only against connection, against the collective point in which I discover the spiritual world. This is why I disregard and ignore all the desires and the thoughts that are not related to connection. Instead I work in the group trying to connect with others, and I discover how opposite I am from that: I don’t want anything of the kind, I hate the friends and I can’t even think about connecting with them. It’s this repulsion that’s the real ego opposite connection. Everything else doesn’t matter.

The group has a key role here: It increases the importance of unity in my eyes and constantly spurs me and obligates me to keep it. Only the environment (Sviva) leads me to the unknown, serving as a model that helps me subdue myself and still connect internally. The environment actually brings me to connection.

Thus we actually ascend to the first level (step 1) above the Machsom (barrier) when we turn our entire ego, all the rejection and the resistance to connection and unity to the opposite direction—to the force of connection and unity. This is the meaning of “help against.”

Then we move on to the second level. Here the ego is revealed again, but this time bigger than before, since it already belongs to the next level (step 2). Here I have the choice of unity with the help of the group, where the ego begins to show itself again. If I am not attracted to unity, I don’t discover it.

This is why strangers don’t understand what ego we are talking about. The point is that it isn’t just human relations; it isn’t about good deeds and intrigues. People believe that treating others badly is egoism and treating others well is altruism. We judge only by the point of unity. Therefore, after I discover the first level, I want to go on and connect to the group. I discover the ego on the second level (Ego2), and I work against it and ascend to the second level. On the whole there are 125 such levels on the way.

Eventually I reach perfect unity, with all of humanity; we are all together in one point called the “drop of unity.”

What kind of environment should it be in order to allow me to discover the right ego, to separate it from the animal ego of this world, and to turn it into a driving force? How should the environment influence me so that I will reach the goal?

Furthermore, how should we use our conventions, when we mutually influence one another, so that this powerful connection will allow each of us to discover the point of unity: “Where is it? What should I do in order to attain it? How do I enter the upper world? How do I discover it?”

How should we worry about everyone in order to allow them to reach this inner point (the center of the group), our “womb” (Rechem)? After all, we enter the group as if we enter a mother’s womb, and we develop like an embryo. How can we prepare such a “wrapping” for each of us, in which each one will develop like from a drop of semen?

[89247]
From the Convention in Italy Day One, 9/28/12, Workshop 1

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Question: How should a new student who joins the group be awakened to do the right kind of work?

Answer: The group leads him to certain actions and gives him a chance. It isn’t by chance that we live here and not in a different reality. In the world of actions we can exist even on the “animal” level, detached from spirituality, which we build above us. Above my current attributes, I gradually create the image of a human being. I build it by the connection with the friends and by creating the force of the Creator among us. These are all internal spiritual actions that are above our current selves.

In the meantime we connect on the corporeal level without spiritual intentions, and thus we build the environment. We have the necessary infrastructure to do that, which is “this world” from which we begin our spiritual advancement. We have a rare opportunity here: On the one hand, this basis is adaptable in a way to the spiritual world, and on the other hand, it allows us to exist without any adaptation to it. The reality that I see and feel in my five corporeal senses is actually a precious gift: I am on the verge of a spiritual action here, a spiritual ascent, and at the same time I can influence spirituality.

Question: And what can I do if I am the opposite and I am inclined to detachment? For example, a convention is approaching, and I don’t want to go. Is this the shattering?

Answer: Of course. What is more, the lack of desire to go to the convention is not the strongest interruption yet.

If you were invited to a party that you liked, you would gladly join it, since the flavors that you like and the performances and everything that “blows up” your ego is waiting for you there, so you would run when you got the first call.

Here, however, you advance spiritually, and so you feel that the convention is a place to exert yourself. This is where the rejection stems from: Suddenly you become lazy, and you feel disrespect, and “something more important” comes up and there are other calculations…this is all a result of the Light that illuminates for you, so it is a good thing, but use it where you see a place to work.

The more we advance, the more we feel this way. Accordingly you will see that there are fewer and fewer people among us. Now we assume that the more we advance the more of us there will be, but in fact it isn’t so.

In 2007 I was on a tour in ten cities in America and there were about 600 people in every lecture that I gave, and 2,000 people in New York. Today, however, there are about 50-100 people.

Why is that so? Because we have advanced and so has the public. People are not that attracted to the word “Kabbalah” itself. They understand more and they know that it is about internal work. Thanks to the Lights that are closer now, people understand something new and on the whole they don’t want to come to the lectures or go to the conventions.

There is a small minority left and these are the people who will fulfill the correction. All the rest will join the “pioneers” in some way but only by the way of sufferings. Very few move forward by the Light while the rest move by sufferings…
[89505]
From the 4^th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 10/4/12, Writings of Baal HaSulam

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