Question: How can I strengthen my connection with the friends in a virtual group?

Answer: It’s not easy. After all, a person responds to what he perceives in five senses. This is how we are built on the “animate” level: We react to those who are close to us, who are in the field of our vision and hearing, and whom we can reach for and touch.

There is a reason why business people spend so much time travelling. Can’t they reach agreement remotely? All necessary conditions exist for that. Why does it make a difference with whom you maintain business relationships? It could be someone from China, Taiwan, South America, or Europe—most important is nevertheless profit. Yet still, business people need full-fledged meetings, not only virtual contacts and correspondence. Thus, a natural need for real contact roots in man. He has to “feel on skin” whatever is important to him.

It’s not the case with us, but we too have to meet each other and get imbued with sensations, impressions from these meetings. This is why we hold conventions.

It’s like a scientist who can lock himself up in his laboratory and carry out experiments, forgetting about the external world. But once in a few months he has to fly out somewhere to meet other scientists and communicate with them. To have a full picture, he needs a physical sensation, no matter what research he is engaged in.

Similarly, we can be separated by a distance, but on the other hand, having an opportunity, we have to invest efforts into unification. This makes our path a lot easier. And for this reason, if a person hasn’t been at a convention yet, he simply must come. Otherwise he won’t receive the needed impressions for subsequent advancement.

Regarding those who were at conventions already, who have difficulties coming, who for whatever reason have no opportunity, these people, having previous impressions, can stay with a local group and participate in our gathering there.

But if a person cannot come either to the convention or to a local group, then he needs to organize for himself the best possible conditions at home and stay there, imagining to himself that he is wholly with us. This also works.

In any case, regardless of where a person is, it’s desirable to always aim at unity. After the shattering of the vessels we get corrected only through unification. Surely, we don’t really want it, we are not drawn to it at all since by nature we are a result of the shattering of that very property that unites us into one whole. However, if a person wants to reach the purpose of creation and reveal the truth, he needs to rise above his nature. He has to dwell above this life so as to come to the spiritual one.

I repeat, for those who have never attended a convention yet, it’s simply your duty to. I cannot advise you on how to make it happen, however, as it is said, do whatever is in your power to do. It’s necessary to come to a convention at least once, if such an opportunity actually exists.

And besides, it’s very important to prepare for the meeting. Visit our site www.kabbalah.info and press on the convention banner to get familiar with the preparation material.
[75225]
From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/12/2012, Shamati #190

Related Material:
The Success Of A congress Depends On Preparation For It
The Necessary And The Sufficient
Convention Impressions, Part 4

Filed under: Conventions, Daily Kabbalah Lesson, Group Work, Inner Work, Q&A - No Comments →

Question: What are you expecting from your trip to South America and the upcoming convention in Brazil?

Answer: I look forward to this trip with excitement since it gives me an opportunity to achieve some results in the mission to which I have dedicated my life. But on the other hand, this result doesn’t depend on me, which is why I’m simultaneously inspired by this opportunity and cautious in my expectations.

And naturally, the outcome of the convention depends not only on those who’ll come to Brazil, but on all of our friends from around the world—you all understand this very well. And this is why I think that we need to conduct a very serious preparation, which is extremely important to each of us individually and to all of us together.

Let’s really prepare ourselves in a way Rabash describes in his articles “The Need for the Gathering of Friends” and “Preparation for the Gathering of Friends.” Preparation for a gathering includes clarifying why I need these friends, what they give to me and I to them. Even before I come to the meeting, I must clarify the purpose of creation and how it can be attained so that this convention, that is, the unification in which everyone is equal, becomes a means of achieving the desired goal.

I am glad that people understand this better and better, and I believe that through these conventions we will be able to leap to the next degree. All of it depends on our preparation. This is what we lacked before the European convention in Lithuania, where we didn’t have such joint preparation.

There was only participation of the whole world in the convention, the kind that I feel now as well. But it’s only participation; for now I don’t yet sense a real preparation, even though we know that it determines everything. Right now, we need to conduct a massive preparation, which is even more important than whatever will happen later at the convention.

At the time of the convention, all kinds of obstacles could come up, such as interruptions in the Internet broadcast or whatever else. But at that point it’s no longer important because the action itself doesn’t depend on us, we are charged only with its preparation. We should never forget about this!

Your preparation doesn’t depend on anyone other than yourself since it happens as if in concealment. It has not revealed itself yet, hasn’t been realized in action. It is said that the thoughts of a person are not accessible to the impure force, it knows only of his actions. And this is why we can freely prepare together, correspond, and share our plans. And it is very important. The action itself could even appear as entirely unsuccessful, but the result won’t depend on the action itself at all but on the preparation for it.

We are concerned with the way the action itself turns out because we’re still small in spirituality, and we use the impressions we receive to determine the “success” or “failure” of a convention. But in reality, everything is determined by the preparation, and this is why the main emphasis right now should be made specifically on it.
[75026]
From the 2nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/9/2012, “Questions and Answers Regarding the Brazil Congress”

Related Material:
Preparing To Meet The Light
The Foundation Of The Spiritual Ladder
Internal Preparation For The Convention

Filed under: Conventions, Daily Kabbalah Lesson, Group Work, Inner Work, Q&A - No Comments →

The upper Light is at absolute rest, which means that I shouldn’t hope that there’ll be changes on its end and need to change only myself, my desires. And even though it is said that the Lights agitate the desires, there is only just one Light. The Light is divided into five beams in correspondence to the desire being divided into five parts, and thus the desire senses the single Light as if there are five different Lights. The vessel changes and therefore it feels as if the Light agitates it.

And if everything depends on the desire, it means that the entire success is determined by its preparation. Depending on how the desire prepares itself, meaning whether or not it will be ready for the action, for its meeting with the Light, so it will be! This is why preparation determines the entire outcome of an action.

And we don’t know what the action will be. Perhaps it will be an even deeper fall into Egypt or one of the Egyptian plagues?! Or perhaps it will be the crossing of the Red Sea, which is not a very pleasant adventure either, or the escape from the Pharaoh’s army, or even receiving the Torah at Mt. Sinai. All these situations can hardly be called pleasant pastimes—they all pass in trepidation, fear, hate, and great strain. But preparation determines whether or not we will be able to overcome all this.

Therefore, right now we need not think about the way the convention itself will go, but only about how we can prepare ourselves for the action of unification. And the degree that will be revealed to us within this unity will show us where we are: Perhaps we are still in Egypt, or we are about to exit it, or maybe we are already beyond its borders.

Everything depends only on the preparation of our desires (vessels, instruments), while the Light is at constant rest. Depending on how we prepare ourselves to correspond to the Light, we will receive its influence accordingly, that is, we will sense how we are acquiring its form.

You will see that there are no obstacles to preparation; it is always blessed and leads to advancement. While the action itself is a meeting with the Light, and it can lead to completely opposite results from what we were expecting. The result will always be for our benefit, but it can appear to us as a blow, like, for example, the plagues of Egypt, which signified the stages of advancement towards a spiritual birth. And we can go through them in the blink of an eye, one after another, in the duration of a single convention….
[74963]
From the 2nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/9/2012, “Questions and Answers Regarding the Brazil Congress” 

Related Material:
Internal Preparation For The Convention
The Success Of A Congress Depends On The Preparation For It
The Foundation Of The Spiritual Ladder

Filed under: Conventions, Daily Kabbalah Lesson, Group Work, Inner Work - No Comments →

Question: If connection occurs on the spiritual level, why do we need to come to the convention and meet in person?

Answer: You don’t think that it’s possible to disconnect from the Internet entirely and instead of the lesson, to sit with your eyes closed and connect to us through internal channels, do you? Evidently, you’re not yet prepared for such internal connection and will begin to daydream and meditate.

We understand each other better when we meet. It’s necessary to meet at least once in order to feel what that is. We receive impressions from this world, from the five bodily senses of perception, and therefore we need to feel each other through the regular senses. We’re animals, not angels.

Our brain consists largely of cells that perceive smells, and they grow like seaweed covering the ocean floor. Despite all of our modern virtual networks, we act in this world according to our animal instincts. This is why we need the most direct contact; otherwise, on a subconscious level we’ll lack a great amount of data needed for a higher connection.

We are required to meet since we live in this world and from this world we begin our spiritual ascent along the rungs of the ladder! Thus, if we won’t lay the foundation for this ladder, we won’t be able to climb it.
[74961]
From the 2nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/9/2012, “Questions and Answers Regarding the Brazil Congress”

Related Material:
Internal Preparation For The Convention
The Success Of A Congress Depends On The Preparation For It
Preparing To Meet The Light

Filed under: Conventions, Daily Kabbalah Lesson, Group Work, Inner Work - No Comments →

We study the role of men and women based on the system of spiritual worlds because examples can only be drawn from there, and not our world.

There are a million theories in our world, and we see that even today we still do not know the proper role of men and women; therefore, our world is so imperfect.

In the spiritual world, there is the quality of Bina, bestowal, and we must become equal to this quality. To do this, we must unite in such an integral way to be able to connect with Zeir Anpin, and then he will raise us to Bina.

This is a very complicated system with many different elements. It controls us; it emits all the signals to the souls; it launches us, and in our turn, we ascend toward it.

According to this system, there are two forces in the world: feminine and masculine. It is impossible to ascend just through one of them. Only the proper use of both of them creates the necessary conditions sufficient for ascent.

The feminine inclination forms an enormous desire. But this desire cannot be realized independently since it is just a desire, which does not have the power to realize itself.

And next to that is the next force, the masculine force.

A woman provides the need to ascend. It pushes the masculine part. It creates an enormous desire out of itself, inspires, directs, prays, and forms. It pushes men forward, like a mother sends her children to school and her husband to work. She creates the efforts, which enable them to advance, otherwise they would not have moved. Due to these efforts, the masculine part takes the feminine desire, begins to realize it, and ascends forward.

The woman is the lack of fulfillment, an enormous desire, without which nothing can exist. And the man is the force, which already turns this lack into the moving force and attains the Creator. He attains the Creator with the help of the desire he has received from the feminine part; he raises this desire, and together, they realize it.

This is the way things initially were in our world: Once a man went hunting and brought his prey home, and today he goes to work and brings home a salary. This is the way the family exists; this is the way the world is.

In our group we cannot break these natural conditions, otherwise we will not correspond to the higher structure. We must constantly be like the upper Partzuf.

Therefore, we need the women’s desire, their enormous effort, their prayer from the depth of their hearts. Women can influence men with their silent desire in such a way that men will feel like the women are screaming at them, even though in reality, they don’t say a word, but simply want.

Men have the ability to perceive the desire of a woman in such a way that he will want to realize it. He must realize it; this is the way we are made. If we will direct our common desires the right way, we will absolutely reach our goal.

It is impossible to move forward without women. They start this movement; they are the first to react to the changes in the world, to our method. And men must connect between them and realize this method. Why? Because the power that pulls us forward is the power to bestow. Women need to provide the lack and the need, and men, the creation of the power to bestow.

We build our groups based on this principle.
[75174]
From the Vilnius Convention 3/23/12, Lesson 2

Related Material:
It All Starts With A Woman
Women’s Special Kind Of Egoism
Due To Women’s Desire

Filed under: Collective Soul, Conventions, Women - 1 Comment →

Question: How important is women’s practical work? For example, how important is it for women to also take part in seminars on integration instead of doing their own thing?

Answer: Men will not be able to do anything on their own. Absolutely nothing!

They can get together, stand around, and sing as usual, these are good things, but it is just preparation. The real work cannot be without a strong women’s part generating its aspiration towards the same goal at the same time. It cannot be any other way! We see this everywhere, always. There are many examples in history. This comes from the structure of the upper Partzufim, the upper worlds; if we do not raise this desire to Malchut, it does not form, and without it, nothing happens. So women must take this very seriously.

First, I direct my attention towards the women’s part because everything starts with it. I really ask you to understand that here practically everything depends on the woman. Men can be “launched,” they can be manipulated, and women know this very well. The right way of manipulating men is based on seriously directing them towards the goal; a woman can literally do this with her desire alone, with just one word, with anything she does. It is very easy for her, and for men, it is very difficult, basically impossible, to advance on their own.

This is why there has always been a law in Kabbalah that unmarried men are not taken as students. This is because without the desire of a woman near you thinking about your succeeding, you will not be able to advance seriously.
[75171]
From the Vilnius Convention 3/23/12, Lesson 2

Related Material:
The Power Of Women And Men: A Condition For Spiritual Ascent
Women’s Special Kind Of Egoism
Due To Women’s Desire

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

According to our nature, the nature of a created being, connection exists only among men. Women don’t connect among themselves because their egoism is of a special kind. That is neither good nor bad.

It is important to work in our original nature without trying to damage it. It is important to work with the material we have been created with and understand that we’ll reach the goal only by using our nature properly.

By putting men and women into one group, in the process of working together we feel a different connection among men than among women.

It is not felt as much in real life as in our integral methodology lessons. Literally, in a half an hour to an hour of common studies, the men’s part starts feeling that their nature is ready to go forward and be connected with everyone while women’s part feels incapable of working toward getting closer to each other.

The best result is achieved by women supporting men with their intention and efforts while men get closer to each other.
[75180]
From the Vilnius Convention 3/23/12, Lesson 2

Related Material:
The Power Of Women And Men: A Condition For Spiritual Ascent
It All Starts With A Woman
Due To Women’s Desire

Filed under: Conventions, Egoism, Women - No Comments →

Question: What is an internal preparation for the convention?

Answer: Internal preparation is a reverence for the property of bestowal as the force, property, value, that is above everything. On the basis of such preparation, you can then continue and work out various individual states, actions, and goals in order to reach the common goal and realize this property of bestowal within our matter, the desire to enjoy.

I am asking everyone to send their suggestions on how to conduct the convention in Brazil. We will discuss them during the lessons, and in this way we will learn from our common action and prepare our common desire. In other words, the convention will be a realization of what we will prepare together.

Everybody must prepare themselves, wherever in the world they may be. It cannot be that a person returns from work, does all the household chores, and when there is a little free time left, suddenly remembers that there is a convention going on, turns on the broadcast, and begins to watch.

Nothing will come out of it. A person should prepare in advance, anticipate, and plan what he will be doing together with us and how he will advance due to these actions. The action itself is worth nothing; everything depends on the preparation.
[74959] 
From the 2nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/9/2012, “Questions and Answers Regarding the Brazil Congress”  

Related Material:
To Brazil With The Whole World
The Details Are On Me, The Connection Is On The Light
The Call Toward The Creator

Filed under: Conventions, Daily Kabbalah Lesson, Group Work, Inner Work, Q&A - No Comments →

Question: As I see it, people left without a job sink into their problems and this gives them no incentive to find out where the problems are coming from.

Answer: Our ego feels suffering within itself. The suffering is constantly increasing and taking different forms. Why do they push a person to ask about the meaning of life? It is because he is asking: “Why do I need to suffer?” Actually, they may bring him to the point of suicide.

What is the wisdom of Kabbalah doing? It says to a person: You have to replace this suffering with other suffering, the so-called “suffering of love.”

Indeed, when you love someone, yearn for him, but you still are not connected to him yet, or you are being rejected, turned down a little, or distance separates you and for now you can’t see him, then a big desire to come close, to connect, and to embrace appears, but it is impossible.

All of this is also suffering! But they are sweet for us; we do not want to get rid of them.

Personally, I cannot imagine such suffering anymore, but I remember them from when I was young, and they were sweet. So on one hand, you love, yearn, and anticipate that soon you will embrace your beloved one, but at the same time, you suffer because it still hasn’t happened, and this is pleasant suffering.

There is suffering that comes from the ego, and it is called the “shadow of the Sitra Achra,” meaning a bad shadow, darkness, which hides all the good in the world. And there is suffering that pushes you forward, and, on the contrary, you are excited, you are living in the expectation that it will happen soon: In front of you is the Light, the Light of love, the Light of the impending meeting. Light and darkness, this is the whole difference.

 

We need to quickly help the world replace their suffering, great hardships, and problems that will intensify more and more with a yearning for connection, for love, for the Light. Then, we will feel that the sufferings do not disappear. It’s because if you meet your loved one, and all the attraction you felt at the time of separation disappears, then nothing will be left for you except disappointment: You met, and after few minutes you don’t need anything else, and you can leave.

Therefore, it is necessary that this suffering, meaning this attraction, this appetite, this hunger, will stay, and at the same time, you will be able to enjoy it. Usually when you are very hungry and you start to eat, the appetite disappears and you do not enjoy the food. And what if the pleasure would not disappear?

That is, we need to keep our suffering and only transform it. Hence under no circumstances should we ask the Creator for anything except correction. We must not ask Him to take away our suffering, but only to change it so that we will feel the suffering of love instead, eagerness to go forward. Then we will live in excitement.
[74574]
From the Vilnius Convention 3/24/12, Lesson 4

Related Material:
Give A Person What He Is Ready For
If He Beats Me, He Loves Me
That Sweet Feeling Of Love…

Filed under: Conventions, Inner Work, Kabbalah Dissemination, Q&A, Suffering - No Comments →

Question: Disturbances come in order to help us in our progress toward the goal. How is it possible to understand what the upper force is trying to tell me by sending this specific disturbance? What does it want from me by sending it in particular?

Answer: So that above this disturbance, you will not forget the Creator and yearn for Him.

Question: Is there a certain, specific recipe, or does one need to work separately with each disturbance?

Answer: Do not work with the disturbances! You need to rise immediately above it. There is no need to pay attention to the disturbance itself; the main thing is to rise above it.

Treat a disturbance that comes to you as a support, as a springboard that is bouncing you up. Try to look at it in this way and you will see that it was done in this way purposely. It seems to us as a disturbance only psychologically. Actually it is not a disturbance, but rather a means for ascending.

Question: But how to nevertheless hear what it is trying to tell me? What do I have to correct, above what do I have to rise?

Answer: You don’t know it now. But if you work above the disturbances, you will see what is being corrected in you. And from the new, already corrected qualities, you will start learning the language of the Creator.
[74658]
From the Vilnius Convention 3/24/12, Lesson 4

Related Material:
Obstacles Guide Us On The Way
There Is No Advancement Without Obstacles
Why Do We Need All These Obstacles?!
Working With Disturbances

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