We do not have the slightest idea about the future world order because we have entered a system of forces which has never before manifested in our world. As nature, the Creator, approaches us, it becomes outlined more and more clearly. Thus, we must begin to reveal the upper world, meaning the system of governance by the upper force, the Light.

As this external force approaches us, as it shines on us, our society, and the world more perceptibly, more intensely, we sense our oppositeness to this force. We don’t feel the force itself, but sense our inability to settle down even a little bit.

The world has become unpredictable. People are engaged in fortune telling and even believe in miracles. How can it happen in our enlightened age? How can we suddenly begin to believe in it after the 20th century? Every year and sometimes a few times a year, we have all kinds of doomsday dates and other apocalyptic events.

In addition, we find ourselves in the rigid embrace of nature which unexpectedly generates crises of tsunami, hurricanes, volcanic eruptions, fires, floods, and so on. Gradually, everything is going out of balance, out of that delicate equilibrium in which we were. That’s because we are going through a turning point. We crossed this turning point once before on a smaller social scale in ancient Babylon. The entirety of humankind was concentrated there, and even then, it discovered that it was a small, closed society.

Today, even though there are seven billion of us, we are a closed society. We suddenly “short-circuited” together; we found ourselves dependent on each other. On the other hand, we are like spouses before a divorce. We hate each other although we are still in one apartment. We should move out, we cannot be together, but common ties hold us together. This is the “shared apartment” that we find ourselves in today on Earth.

Once before, this became evident in a small territory, in Mesopotamia 3700 years ago. Then, for the first time, people began to seek out what they could do about it. On one hand, they were in the same place and in complete, total interdependence. On the other, they hated each other and strove to be as far away as possible from each other. Two opposite forces, two of the hardest tendencies were tearing the society apart. Then, in fact, two methods were suggested.

The first method was the correction of their nature. “Let us correct the egoism that separates, distances, and alienates us from each other. Then, we would win. We would become a single entity in mutual support. We would have enormous power, and we really would erect a “tower up to heaven,” the tower of mutual love, cooperation, and unity, the positive force.

Thus, they would become equal to nature because everything in nature is interconnected. All its levels—the inanimate, vegetative, and animate—always act in mutual harmony, and only a human with his egoism feels himself above nature, believing that he can do whatever he pleases. However, if he understands the laws of nature and looks for correspondence with it, for a harmonious relationship, then he would sense all of its capacity and power. He would understand and realize its purpose, its essence.

This is what was suggested by the adepts of human correction, but, unfortunately, humanity (around three million people living between the Tigris and Euphrates) chose a different path. Like spouses after a failed marriage, they decided that it would be better for them to “move out,” divide their shared apartment, and break the contract. Thus, people dispersed around the world.

Many ancient sources narrated this story. From those times we have the book on Kabbalah called The Book of Creation. We have it in our free archive, in the Russian language as well.

The book called The Great Commentary appeared after that. It also describes the events that happened in ancient Babylon and how people could not solve the problem of unity. To do this, they had to work on their egoism, to rise above it by means of a special method, and that required much more internal, moral effort than simply to physically separate from each other and do whatever everybody wanted, each in his own corner.

Josephus Flavius describes where people went, to which places. Later, all the beliefs and religions were originated by them, everything based on egoism, everything that egoism supports.
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From the 1st lesson at the Moscow Convention 6/10/11

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The crisis that has enveloped the world was very obvious at the recent conventions we held, including the one in Italy three weeks ago and especially  the one in Madrid, Spain a week ago. There the crisis is very apparent. The masses are in disarray, and the rate of unemployment among young people is 40%. And things only get worse every day. There are demonstrations and protestors holding sit-ins on the streets, and more.

I deliberately walked around the streets there and talked to people. They don’t know what to do and are holding protests in front of government buildings. But the government also doesn’t know what to do. Everyone is confused and no one is guilty. And it’s all because we are finding ourselves facing nature’s challenge.

Work places cannot be created out of empty space. And what for? By doing that we would only exhaust the remaining natural resources even faster, ruin the soil, and pollute the environment even more. Our water and air resources will dwindle even faster. So why should we stimulate the deteriorating economy? Just to give people work? With these kinds of consequences, it’s better not to give it to them!

In Spain I appeared on the most popular TV channel during prime time. Instead of speaking for just a few minutes, which was planned according to the program, the interview lasted thirteen minutes. Can you imagine—thirteen minutes on the morning news, among reports about the most important current events! They just couldn’t put an end to the interview.

My suggestion was simple and came down to one piece of practical advice: We have to sit people down to study. They should be paid unemployment benefits (which will also be the most effective money-saving strategy) and they should be taught about what kind of world we are living in, what exists in front of us, and what kind of challenge nature is throwing at us.

This is not someone’s whim or the interests of a certain party or government leaders. This is none other than nature, which is challenging us. And the challenge is for us to change. We do not have to change anything besides ourselves.

We have to become integral and global, in conformity to the current crisis. After all, the crisis is the sensation of one’s lack of conformity with the surrounding nature. Therefore, if we correct ourselves this way, everything will become balanced out and will reach harmony. This is what people should be taught.

The interview received a widespread positive response throughout all of Spain, as well as Latin American and North America, and that’s because it really is the only sensible way to come out of the situation that has formed. And Spain is not alone. Greece, Iceland, Italy and others are in a similar situation, and there are many other countries gradually entering this crisis. And in other places the crisis is coming in different ways.

That is how nature places a clear task before us: We have to change. We have to be integral with nature just like everything else it contains—the still, vegetative, and animate levels. Man should not think that he is above nature and that he can do anything he wishes. His most important task is to consciously become an integral part of the whole.

By becoming an integral part of nature, he begins to understand what it is, and suddenly discovers new depths in it: the worlds of Assiya, Beria, Yetzira, Atzilut, Adam Kadmon, and the world of Infinity. He no longer obstructs himself from nature with his egoism, but starts to feel nature as transparent. He finally understands and becomes aware of the forces that control everything, including himself.

This is the task we are facing today. Therefore, if we desire it and use the force of aspiration forward, which exists in many people in the world, then we really will aspire to self-correction, to the world’s revelation, to exiting from the state of dreaming, from unconsciousness. Then we will attain total equality with nature, the Creator’s level.
From the 1st lesson at the Moscow Convention 6/10/11

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Human society is divided into two parts. People whose point in the heart has awakened comprise a small part of humanity; this is us. The rest of the people do not have the point in the heart, yet a powerful egoistic desire is concentrated namely in them.

Two forces, positive and negative, act in us. We move forward by creating a connection between our ego and the desire to attain the spiritual world, which we develop through the study and forces received from the environment. The connection built by combining these two forces is called the middle line.

The rest of the people, as the science of Kabbalah explains, gradually join us, feeling that there is no alternative: Their egoism, demanding fulfillment all the time, will suffer. Over the course of human development man’s egoism was constantly growing and striving to fill itself as much as possible. Today, when the human ego has lost hope to obtain fulfillment, it faces a crisis.

This encourages people to draw closer to us, although they do not know to whom and how. To make their path easier, we have to circulate the wisdom of Kabbalah and explain that there is a method of correcting the crisis. When they join us, together we will start working in the middle line and thus reach the world of Infinity.

What will we win as a result? We will reach eternity and perfection. We will rise above our reality, above the point of the creation of our Universe and our entire world—to the upper reality.

Nowadays, the point in the heart awakens in many people: There are millions of them already. And the people whose point in the heart has not been revealed yet feel the crisis in addition to egoism. They sense that they lack the positive force without which they cannot live. They know that they have to correct the crisis, they feel that the solution is hidden in unity, but do not understand how to realize it.

In a global and integral world, everything has to be unified; nature demonstrates this to us. Today, it shows that we have to reach the world of Infinity, that we are one whole. This is precisely what the crisis covertly points and directs us to.

In people who should lead humanity to this goal, the crisis reveals the point in the heart, a positive force, which they can obtain from the group and studying. With its help, they can move towards the world of Infinity independently. And those whom the crisis does not give the force of unification but who feel that they lack this force will gradually get explanations from those in whom the point in the heart has awakened, will join them, and together with them will aim for the goal.
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From Lesson 2, Convention in Spain, 6/4/2011

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Question: Can you describe in more detail the right direction that is mentioned in the verse, “If the desire is directed correctly, this is the key to success”?

Answer: A person in our world is always in motion. At every moment we desire something, are directed somewhere, and are doing something.

If my direction at every moment of my existence corresponds to the motion of nature, if I don’t digress to the side but move in exactly the same direction, without any angular transgression, then my motion is optimal and I attain the goal to the maximum and in the best possible way.

Therefore, I must constantly control myself by checking: Am I moving correctly in my thoughts, desires, and actions, according to the direction that the upper force, nature, desires for me to move in? This is the key to success.
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From the 2nd lesson at the Moscow Convention, 6/10/11

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We should never perceive the relationship between men and women as antagonistic. On the contrary, we have to see each other as help. If we are talking about the unity of the world, then first of all this is the mutual support of its two parts—male and female.

These parts come from the common root of creation: the Creator or Light, and the desire or the vessel filled with Light. In addition, this vessel goes through all sorts of forms as it changes. And inside of this vessel, both of us— the male and the female parts—have to work together integrally, like in an ideal family.

The common, collective image of the man has to work together with the common, collective image of the woman. They must work together conjointly, mutually, and clearly, each understanding the nature of both of us. A man understands himself and the female nature, while a woman understand herself and the male nature, and together we act sensibly and wisely, as educated, serious adults who aspire toward a common goal.

The goal is attained through the connection between us. It is written, “Man and woman, and the Creator between them.” That is to say, the Creator’s revelation takes place precisely in the right connection between them, on the screen that appears between the Light and the desire. That is how we must complete one another, mutually and constantly. There is no part, no tiny detail, not one phenomenon in nature, in our relationships, in our world and the spiritual worlds, that does not have mutual supplementation, unification, and adhesion of the male and female parts.

In our world this is not apparent at all. We do not even imagine this mutual supplementation, unification, and adhesion. But in the spiritual world this is a necessary condition. And depending on what levels we are on, these levels are determined precisely by the mutual supplementation and unification, until we unite together.

Therefore, the right understanding of our mutual work is the most important condition of our success. I would say that there is no problem that could be solved separately by men or by women. They are always solved one through the other, meaning that women’s problems are solved through men, and men’s problems are solved through women. This lack of understanding, the belief that it is possible to exist separately, “What do I care about them!” (usually, this is how men feel about women), and “We will solve everything on our own and will do everything ourselves!” This attitude that men tend to have is completely incorrect. And naturally, on the part of women it is also incorrect to think that “Men will do something, will solve everything, and everything will be OK, and we will receive something by being next to them.”

Initially, from the very first step, there has to be clear, inner contact. It shouldn’t be external, physical, visual, or even verbal, but precisely inner contact, which occurs through the upper force, through the next level, instead of directly between us. Then this upper degree will be expressed inside of this unity. It’s like a minus and a plus, and some kind of resistor or device between them that starts working precisely in this way, by virtue of the poles that are connected to it.
From the 2nd lesson at the Moscow Convention 6/10/11

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Kabbalah explains that in the beginning only desire was created, and it was filled with pleasure, the Light. Then, to make the foundation for the future human, this desire was broken into pieces. It remained the same desire but was shattered into numerous fragments, not resembling each other at all. These parts are completely different and do not perceive themselves as being together, do not feel each other. What one wants is not understandable to the other.

The first state is called “the world of Infinity” (∞), and the second, “the breaking of the vessels.” As a result, we have seven billion scattered, broken pieces. On the drawing, they are close together, but in reality, they are internally divided, separated by such walls that they cannot tolerate each other. Everyone feels only oneself, thinks only about oneself, and nobody remembers that once they were one single desire. These are us in our world, in division, to which we were intentionally brought.

The vessels that used to be one whole are completely alienated from each other; they do not even touch each other in their sensations. One of them is me, and the other is you. And if we want to form a soul between us (it is built exactly between us), we must create resistance (R) in the middle.

Why is it needed? The fact is that everybody wants to enjoy but just for himself, nobody thinks about others, and rejection reigns between us. But if we begin to extend the threads of unity to each other, if at least we do not wish evil to each other, then we will rise from our egoistic degree to that of Bina, where I will no longer want to hurt you. This is already the neutralization of egoism.

If I also wish to bring you good that you anticipate in accordance to your ego, then I begin to work on your ego in order to fulfill it. This is the degree of Keter, the degree of love.

This is the process we have to go through, rising first from the degree of egoism to the degree of Bina, in order not to bring the other harm, and then onto the degree of love.
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From Lesson 1, Convention in Spain, 6/3/2011

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How can the method of Kabbalah be put into practice and run as a lab experiment? After all, Kabbalah is a purely practical science; it doesn’t philosophize, nor does it tell us how many angels govern the heavens and where a person goes after he or she dies. No, a person receives a chance to reveal his next state of existence here and now.

How do we achieve it? How do we find equilibrium between the forces of reception and bestowal in order to uncover the upper world, spiritual life, our soul? We have an opportunity to put it into practice. Even if I have only one friend, together we can construct a system of mutual connection between us that will allow us to attain the human degree, which is higher than the animate level of development at which I presently exist.

What makes me feel alive today? I was born from a mother of an animate degree as well, and I was raised in the “animate setting.” As a baby, I suckled milk; then I started to walk, grew in size, and stepped into the world. What are the criteria of human, not animate, growth?

When my friend and I, despite our egoism that pushes us apart, rise above it, the level we pass through while doing so is regarded as the Machsom (Hebrew for “barrier”), which enables me to stop thinking about and be free from myself. This is when I stop being a slave to my desires who keep chasing the bait, unable to resist.

This ascent is regarded as “spiritual birth.” It is then followed by the periods of nurturing, childhood, and maturity, all of which are stages of spiritual growth. Today we view ourselves as mature, important, and “right,” but such a view is purely corporeal. If we look through the glasses that filter all but the spiritual picture, it would look blank. Spiritually, we don’t yet exist. We are yet to enter the stage of spiritual conception and be born into the spiritual world.
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From Lesson 1, Convention in Spain, 6/3/2011

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The only thing we need to do is to constantly clear up space inside of our hearts for everyone. My heart is a piece of meat. And I have to find a point inside of it that I could turn into emptiness, that I could create a place from. This is the point from which our universe seems to have developed.

In reality, our universe does not exist and there are no worlds. All of this exists only in our sensation.

Thus, if this emptiness starts expanding inside our heart, that will be the emergence of a new world, similar to how our universe was created in the desire. This is what we have to do.

Let every person feel this point inside of him, inside of his heart, and try to create emptiness around it so everyone would enter there.
From the closing ceremony at the Moscow Convention 6/12/11

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The theme of our Convention is “Unity – the Future of the World.” I am very moved because after many years of studying Kabbalah, the unity of the world and the need for it are finally starting to become apparent.

Over the course of billions of years of our world’s development, as well as in the process of many events before its conception, everything progressed precisely towards this point—the point of realizing the need for unity. It is only now starting to awaken, to be expressed, and to show its necessity. And you and I are at the center of this realization.

Everything began when the single force of nature, the force of bestowal, or the Creator, which is the same thing, began acting, emanating, and creating matter. First it made the spiritual matter, meaning desire: the desire to be filled, the desire to develop, the desire to feel oneself and everything around.

This desire develops under the influence of the initial force, the force of nature. The phases of its development are called “the four phases of the expansion of the Direct Light.”
The entire purpose of developing creation, or desire, lies in making it similar to all of nature, in having it reach wholesome harmony, or in other words, reaching equivalence and adhesion with the Creator because adhesion is attained through equivalence of form. It is necessary for matter, meaning the desire that’s opposite to the Light, opposite to the quality of bestowal, to eventually go through all the phases of its development and to realize that the highest, best state is similarity to the Light, similarity to the perfect nature, harmony with it, and unity with it.

However, in order to achieve this state, it is necessary to first feel that you are totally opposite to it, meaning to experience yourself in a quality that is completely opposite to the Light, to experience egoism, cruelty, the desire to think only about yourself, the sensation of just yourself, the inability to feel someone else or to think about someone else unless it is for your own sake, unless it brings you personal benefit, unless it means using others. That is how qualities that are the most opposite to the Light have to be expressed in creation.

In our world this creation is man, who goes through an enormous number of developmental phases throughout the course of history until he attains the sensation, and most importantly, the realization that he is completely opposite to the force of nature. This is a very difficult and lengthy process. Over hundreds of thousands of years we moved forward, and egoism gradually grew stronger inside of us. Externally we see how man has developed in his social formation until he attained the current state. As a whole, this egoism, this desire, constantly pushed us forward until the present moment.

And now, as of late, we are starting to be convinced that this egoism, this nature we have is actually our enemy, and our only enemy. By separating us from one another, it literally deprives us of the opportunity to exist normally, even on the level of this material world.

We are becoming more and more closed in, cruel, separated, and frightened, and are taking on a defensive stance, thus depriving ourselves of a normal life and losing the meaning of existence. And indeed: Why should we live? Only in order to defend and protect ourselves? Only in order to place ourselves in some kind of boundaries and exist in them for a certain amount of time with a certain level of comfort and safety? And that’s all?

That is how man in this world feels as he becomes crueler and crueler by nature with time. We make him that way. Our egoism pushes us to this.

In the end, all of this is being expressed as a huge crisis. In some countries the crisis is felt more, and in others, less, but it is drawing to a head. No matter how much we conceal it, we cannot do anything about it. It is becoming expressed in the economy, in social structure, in the decrease of the family’s role, and in all of the problems that emerge in our society, such as the crisis of upbringing, drugs, terrorism, and so on.

In all areas of man’s activity he is coming up against numerous crises, but in the end it is all a crisis of our opposition to nature. And naturally, it can only be corrected at this essence.

We cannot correct it in any other way. We see how government leaders are trying, how the authorities are unable to do anything, and even tyrants, who use the money and armies that are at their disposal, are unable to change anything. The world is unrelentlessly moving towards a great rupture. Force and power are still trying to hold the world in the previous boundaries, but are no longer able to do that.
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From the 1st lesson at the Moscow Convention 6/10/11

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Question: In the upcoming conventions, if we wish the Creator to be revealed, what should we be asking for?

Answer: The Creator’s revelation is love and bestowal that unfold between human beings. Within this property, we find its source, the upper force that created us, and feel it inside ourselves.

Hence, the Creator’s name is “Boreh,” meaning “Bo uh Reh” or “come and see,” discover. You discover Him within yourself, in your reformed properties. They serve as a screen, a monitor, where you can find your world.
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From the Virtual Lesson on Fundamentals of Kabbalah 5/29/2011

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