Question: Can you please explain what the right way to work with the Light is?

Answer: The right way to work with the Light is very simple. The difference between Kabbalah and religion (and all other methods) is that religion asks the Creator for Him to change and to become better, while Kabbalah says, “The Creator is absolute and only you can change.”

The Creator is Light, meaning the only force in the universe inside of which we exist. This force is unchanging and absolute. Therefore, the only way to work with the Creator is very simple: The more similar you are to this force, the more it influences you, and the less similar you are to it, the less it influences you.

This works by a very simple formula. If you studied physics in school then you have to know it: The influence of any source upon an object that is placed in the field of its influence is inversely proportional to the distance between them squared. When I come twice as close to the object that influences me, then its impact on me is four times greater. That is how things work in the physical world and it is the same in the spiritual world.

Therefore, if you come at least a little bit closer, you will see that the Light’s influence on you is squared. That is how we work with the upper Light.
From the 3rd lesson of the Berlin Convention on 1/28/11

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Question: We undergo thousands of various states. How important is it to keep track of or record them in order to pass through each stage consciously?

Answer: It’s a very good question. In the very beginning of my path I asked my teacher this question as well: Should I keep track of all my states? “Today, I feel this way and view others that way.” Will it help if I write down each state I am in: my view of myself and the others, how well I understand, my awareness of myself in this world and of the world itself. Should I establish, let’s say, ten facets and try to review them once a day or possibly once every few days (depending on how my states change)?

My teacher said that it’s worth doing so at the beginning stage. It helps a person. For instance, I look back and see that I had already gone through something similar, and nothing terrible happened: I came out of it. Or I use records for future reference.

How much does this help in advancement per se? It is impossible to relive all the details of the past no matter what. After all, you are now living the next state and cannot feel as being in the past. You don’t comprehend it, as it were; it is a completely different person.

We descend from Above downward along the 125 spiritual degrees, and we get inhabited with hundreds of thousands of Reshimot (informational records). Each Reshimo is a spiritual state that contains all of the worlds, universes, and all there is as a whole.

So, when this Reshimo is working in me, I can feel and think only as it dictates. A Reshimo is gone, and I, like after pushing the button “delete,” don’t know or understand anything. A new Reshimo appears, and I act according to it.

We are a system that constantly experiences a Reshimo, an informational gene which unfolds in it. We are living through this gene. A sequence of such genes gives us a sensation of life, flow, and motion.

Therefore, being in some state today and reading about the states you were in a week or two weeks ago, may not aid your understanding of them at all since you are not living them right now. Try and see for yourself. But it is still useful, at least so that you may understand that you don’t even understand yourself.
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From the 2nd lesson at the Berlin Convention on 1/28/11

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Question: Why is the process of asking a question so difficult? Why is it difficult to clothe the inner processes into a verbal casing?

Answer: It’s because when a person feels pain, he screams. But he does not know exactly what is hurting him. That’s why we invite a doctor to make a diagnosis. Similarly, when a baby feels pain, he cannot say exactly where he feels the pain.

It takes a very long time to go from the inner pain, problem, or disturbance to the sensation, “What are these disturbances? Why are they happening? What is their purpose? What are they about? Where are they taking me? What should I do with them?” All of this is part of the process of one’s inner maturation.

We learn in the science of Kabbalah that the Light has to go through four phases before it builds the right desire for itself. The first thing I feel is something unfamiliar to me. Then I suddenly feel the state opposite to it—that I felt something, but now I don’t feel it. After that I go on to feeling and not feeling at the same time, and that is how an inner comparison begins. Only by comparing these two opposite sensations do I start to reach an opinion regarding what this is. After that, from the understanding of “What is this?” I start to attain the primary cause—from where did this emerge inside of me?

This is an entire succession or sequence of a person’s inner maturation where he can already come and say, “Yet, this is what is hurting me. This is why I feel bad. This is my question. This is what I demand to solve by receiving an answer.” It isn’t simple.

On our part we have to try to help him, like a baby. It doesn’t matter that he’s screaming. That means we have to go to him, pay attention, and try to figure out why he feels bad, even though he can’t even ask for this. Let’s find this common contact.

This problem exists on all the levels. If you ask me, then I go through the same thing. When we move forward, we continuously encounter something that isn’t clear: “What? Why? How? From where? Where is it connected and with what? What are the reasons and the consequences?” As this entire chain starts gradually being born, the question starts to come through. And then, from the right question follows the answer.

After that things become unclear again. I ask, “Why? What is bothering me?” Once again there’s a question and an answer.

Therefore, we have to work on the questions.
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From the 1st lesson of the Berlin Convention on 1/28/11

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Question: What role does asceticism play in human development?

Answer: Kabbalah has a very negative opinion of various restrictions. It does not demand anything from a person with regard to his earthly life. In principle, you can do anything you want.

It’s a different matter when you become engrossed in all sorts of fetishes in this earthly life by introducing some kind of special customs, habits, and exercises to it. Live normally. If you like doing yoga, then do it. If you like running in the morning, then run. If there’s a certain diet that is healthier for you and another that’s less healthy, then eat accordingly. None of this matters. The most important thing is not to turn anything into a cult.

Kabbalah treats every person absolutely normally. It doesn’t care about how a person lives, what habits he has, and what his customs, religious convictions, and inclinations are. Who he is in the earthly life doesn’t matter one bit.

We are once again returning to the essence: Egoism rises in us in order for us to compensate for it above ourselves. That is why it doesn’t matter one bit what I am like. Limiting yourself in food or applying any kind of methods—none of this will help. Nothing will help.

On the contrary, a person who does some kind of physical exercises or keeps some kind of strict boundaries thinks that he has already advanced forward, has achieved some kind of level, that he is righteous and so on.

This can only confuse people. Therefore, live normally, calmly, eat well, and think about your health and profession. Take part in all the things that your surrounding society does.

And together with this, study Kabbalah. This balance or normal state is the most preferable one. Fate has placed you in this environment so go with its flow. Then you will see that in reality, everything around you is in the ideal state, besides yourself.

A minus is compensated by the right plus.
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From the 2nd lesson at the Berlin Convention on 1/28/11

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Question: We see that man is a predator. The entire meaning of his existence is to devour his neighbor and reach his own goal. If we attain mutual guarantee and the earth’s population will increase to 20 or 25 billion, how will all of this actually take place?

Answer: What’s the problem with having twenty billion people? Imagine that they are all your relatives and you feel like one whole with them. It completely doesn’t bother you that they are together with you. On the contrary, you change your attitude to them: You feel good when all of them are as close to you as possible.

Question cont’d: But what will happen if there are no limits?

Answer: Every person makes a limit on himself. Imagine a mother who has twenty billion children. Does this number bother her if she has everything they need? She exists in the world of Infinity, meaning in the world of absolute Light, satisfaction, fulfillment, and abundance.

Of course, it’s difficult to imagine how a person changes. But if you are next to your beloved and you really love him without any calculation, then you want to be with him all the time. You always want to be next to him and as close as possible.

Then what would be the problem with having twenty billion beloved? You won’t feel that there are twenty billion people. You will feel that they are all together with you. This state is the most desirable and comfortable one.

In reality you do not split them up into twenty billion, but there is just one you. This is called inclusion.

Our obstacle is a psychological problem. We cannot imagine how this will happen. We imagine that we exist in bodies, but when we reach mutual guarantee, then instead of the bodies, we will feel every person’s inner potential.
From the 2nd lesson of the Berlin Convention on 1/28/11

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Rabash, Shlavey HaSulam (Steps of the Ladder), Article “A Prayer of Many”: It is written in the holy Zohar (Beshalach (When Pharaoh Let) and in the Sulam Commentary, Item 11), “And she said, ‘I dwell among my own people.’ He asks, ‘What does that mean?’ He replies, ‘When Din is present in the world, one should not part from the collective and be alone because when the Din is present in the world, those who are noticed and are noted alone are caught first, even if they are righteous.

We tune into the upper force through The Zohar. We are told how to tune ourselves to comprehending this force, which leads to its perception, its revelation. “Din” is one of its manifestations in the form of justice. A transgression of one or all evokes a corresponding reciprocal action. Under no circumstances should man separate from the society around him.

How does this happen? Different actions and sensations are evoked in us. This gives me the opportunity to keep myself in the society above and in spite these difficulties and sensations, even if by separating from this society I would immediately feel comfortable and avoid problems. Everyone is getting punished, but I can step aside. They even tell me: “You can step aside, this does not concern you.”

And still, even though the righteous did not sin together with the rest, they are judged first when they separate from them. In other words, man is being tested this way on whether he wants to enter the egoism of this world and remain in his comfortable “bourgeois” state, or if he is willing to remain together with everyone in one bundle, even if  this makes him uncomfortable, for the sake of attaining the upper world.

Hence, one should never retire from the people because the mercy of the Creator is always on the whole people together. This is why she said, ‘I dwell among my own people, and I do not wish to part from them.’

The attitude of the upper force always manifests towards everyone together and never towards private individuals. “Among my people” means among those who want to come together.

We need to take this into consideration. When we are in the group, and we begin to feel different frictions, egoistic actions, we need to understand that we are being “played” on purpose. If we still were to join together regardless of these "games" (every time, every moment), we would be raised upward.

But if we were to yield and step away from the problems, refusing to solve them instead of rising above them in unity, naturally we would once again become submerged in our daily life and stop understanding what Kabbalah tells us.
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From Lesson 2 in Moscow 1/16/2011, “A Prayer of Many”

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Question: What is going on with the European Union? A month ago, a collapse seemed inevitable, but now everything looks all right?

Answer: It is indeed so, and it is going to repeat many more times. There will be an impression that a collapse is imminent, and then it will seem that everything is going to be okay. Only through such gradual, step-by-step development do we become aware that we must change.

Generally, it is necessary to understand that nature’s goal is not to annihilate us. The collapse must be internal. It has to occur in our consciousness, in our awareness of how wrongly we treat ourselves and the world. It’s not in the fact that I was hit by a hurricane, tsunami, an earthquake, a volcanic eruption, or freezing weather.

All of this is necessary solely in order to pull us out of our own swamp, elevate us, and force us to start thinking. As a matter of fact, these particularly consistent acts—a sudden blow and its retreat until the next blow hits, then another blow and retreat—gradually pull a person out of himself.

With each new step, we think it is all the same, but in fact, it is not so. Each new time, we process another type of egoism, its greater part. One blow to the ego, the second, and the third one, but we don’t feel the difference and don’t realize that each time, our egoism processes completely new degrees.

Egoism is diverse, and until it reaches its very last state, nothing will change. This is why we need to pass through so many small blows.

We experienced many of them already while descending from the world of Infinity into our world along the 125 spiritual rungs. These rungs contain billions of various actions and events that we must live through in our world. And we have to work them out during our incarnations, in these lifetimes.

There is nothing accidental; nothing can happen out of the blue, by leaping over the spiritual rungs, or by skipping spiritual states. We have to swallow every pill, which is the only way to learn. There is no other option.
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From Lesson 2 Berlin Convention 1/28/2011

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There is a very clear, sequential, and gradual movement in the spiritual world. If I don’t have the feeling of hunger, a desire for the next level, then I don’t have a Kli (vessel or quality) in order to feel it, and so I don’t feel it.

A threshold is required. I have to ascend from my present state, from desire #1, to the following state, desire #2. If I have ascended to the next level, desire #2, then I feel the source of Light that is there.

But if I still haven’t attained that desire and am somewhere in the middle, on one of the 10 intermediate levels (called 10 Sefirot), then I do not feel the next state. I have to reach the very last level, and only after passing it do I begin to feel the next state. This is a precise corpuscular method where everything is graduated by degrees just like quantum particles in an atom. And we cannot do anything about this.

Therefore, there is an intermediate state between my initial desire (in which I felt a certain kind of fulfillment and it seemed like the sun was shining) and my second desire. This intermediate state is practically felt as emptiness, hunger, and suffering. But if I know that I am advancing, that this is a cumulative process that will end and that I will reach happiness and fulfillment, then even this process is necessary in order for me to attain a new desire, and therefore it directs me forward correctly.

The sensations of the bad states, confusion, obscurity, and emptiness, drive me forward, helping me to advance faster. If I felt some kind of pleasure and fulfillment in these states, then they would push me away against my will and it would be very difficult for me to advance. I wouldn’t aspire forward out of goodness and all the things that are nice because my egoism would immediately force me to sit and relax.

Therefore, we should relate to suffering the right way, understand its goal-oriented nature, and know how to use it correctly. As soon as I connect it to the right goal, this suffering turns into anticipation of the wonderful fulfillment that is to come.

If we master this method, life will seem wonderful.
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From Lesson 1 Berlin Convention on 1/28/11

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Question: How can a person tell that he is acting from the point in the heart, rather than avoiding the suffering of the outside world?

Answer: Does a person act in the group based on the point in the heart rather than his or her egoism? Does he direct himself toward a group instead of the outside world? He does if he puts the desires, goals, means, and efforts of his friends above his own.

What if the friends are wrong? They are always right. Actually, even if they are wrong, what difference does it make to me? What’s most important is that I am part of them. That’s the only choice I’ve got.

Suppose all of them are against my opinion. I’m one hundred percent right, but they are united as one. It means I have to annul myself and go along with them. However, they are wrong, aren’t they? It does not matter. In the spiritual world, the collective, the connection, always prevails.

Approximately two and a half thousand years ago there lived a great sage, Rabbi Yossi ben Kisma. He had, let’s say, a dozen students. Once, he was asked to move to another place, but he replied, “I can’t leave them because then I will lose everything there is within me.” This was despite the fact that he was a great sage of that generation. Who were they compared to him? “They are nobodies,” he said, “but when they are together, I connect to them and receive everything through them. On my own, directly, I cannot receive anything.”

After all, the receiving vessel, the detector, the locator, is the group. Let the group consist of nobodies, beginners; it doesn’t matter whom. If they unite with one another, that’s it; it’s enough. A sage who connects to them adds sensitivity to them and, thus, perceives everything.

On their own, they don’t understand or sense a thing. They’ve just huddled together like calves. However, having united with them, he receives the Light that he wouldn’t have received without them. By gradually conducting their unity through him, they, too, begin to grow. That is what is happening in the world. Therefore, only unity brings the right result.

There are a lot of “smart” people in the group, really clever, serious, very intelligent individualists, and their achievements are worth nothing! When I consider the result that we have to achieve as a group, I know for certain: Even if a person is smart, generates great ideas, performs any assignment brilliantly, and achieves amazing results, all that eventually leads nowhere. If he lacks spiritual direction, he won’t grow as a result of his or her efforts, although on the outside, everything may seem perfect.

All things spiritual are achieved only through unity. If beginners gather together, even though they may be small, by uniting, they achieve greater results than individuals who are great, wise, and perhaps Kabbalists already. Rabbi Yossi wouldn’t have achieved anything without his group. That’s why he didn’t leave it.
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From Lesson 2 in Moscow 1/16/2011, “A Prayer of Many”

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Question: Is it necessary for us to get married?

Answer: On one hand, it is unnecessary to get married. On the other, we must understand that our world is created in similarity to the upper world.

Today, humanity is going through the process of the breaking of family units. In the near five to ten years, we will see that people will not be able to find one another whatsoever. Why get married? What is it all for? People do not feel the need for it. The very foundation of society has disappeared. We see the world changing so much that it seems to have come to its end.

Does a person need to be married to advance in the spiritual world? No, he does not. There is no need for this. However, to take on a greater similarity to the spiritual image, one needs to have a family, children, work, and live a so-called normal life which existed throughout the entire history. But this condition is not essential. This is why, today, Kabbalists do not insist on it.

It is more necessary for men than for women because men must have resistance. However, women, unlike men, do not need to resist; they do not need to overcome their egoism. A woman does work in the group, helps out, studies, and edits materials, and in this way she corrects herself through her desire to help and participate. She correctly includes herself in the common desire, the common Kli (vessel). It is not necessary for her to be married.

On the other hand, in order for a man to attain the spiritual world, he must make a lot of effort which is not comparable to the effort required of a woman. This is why he must get married, take care of his family, and work with friends. His spiritual work is special, difficult, and real.

It is not the same with a woman. It is enough for a woman to help out, participate, and be connected to a group. This way, she completely fulfills her role. It is not harder or easier. These simply are different methods of correction, different types of souls.

Previously in our world, a wife did not have to take care of earning money. A woman is made in a way to take care of the home. The wife is everything that concerns the home and the family, and the husband is everything that concerns earning and not the home.

This is the way things need to be in accordance with the upper roots, the relationship of Malchut and Zeir Anpin in the world of Atzilut. Essentially, our family unit needs to be organized the same way in this world as well. However, we already see the forms it has taken on in the current stage of development. There is nothing we can do; it is a mutation.
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From Lesson 2 in Moscow 1/16/2011, “A Prayer of Many”

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