The great dark depths of my desire that are still unknown are called the “heart of stone,” which is revealed only as a result of my efforts. The system of Adam HaRishon (first man) committed the sin of the “Tree of Knowledge” because of the concealment of the stoney heart. It reveals itself if we advance towards adhesion. When I yearn for adhesion, I suddenly discover that I cannot do it and that it simply isn’t for me.

When I turn a reasonable amount of desires into “in order to bestow,” I discover an addition, a giant rock inside laughing at me: “You have no chance, this doesn’t affect me; you will never be able to correct me.” I cannot reach adhesion as a result. I resemble the Creator in some way, but the stoney heart doesn’t let me get near it.

This is the reason for Adam’s sin, he discovered the stoney heart, the snake, but couldn’t keep the intention of to receive in order to bestow. Therefore, we also have to clarify this state gradually in order to ultimately decide that there is no other choice and that we have to correct it. Eve also felt that this was all their work, which means that without the revelation of the sin, of the fruit, life is tasteless. She found a special force in the tree of knowledge that doesn’t exist in any of the trees in the garden.

Question: It turns out that the stoney heart is kind of a Pandora’s box. Do we discover it gradually on every level or do we discover it all at once at the end of correction?

Answer: A bit of it is revealed on every level. After all, the lowest level also includes everything in it. Infinity is revealed in it, but you perceive it according to the resolution of your screen. So you should constantly work on the sensitivity of your vessel of perception.
[125596]
From the 4^th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/15/14, Writings of Baal HaSulam

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Question: During the Arava convention, how can we feel as responsible for the friends as a submarine crew who won’t leave their friends and would rather drown with them if only half the crew can be saved?

Answer: They don’t feel that they are about to die since true death for them is being detached from their friends. They are brought to the feeling of an upper level of life and death, although it is a shell (Klipa), it is still in regards to the spiritual connection with friends.

You can reach such a state only with the Creator’s help. You need the Upper Light for that since otherwise you cannot even come close to such a state. If you organized a commando unit in a submarine, you would succeed. If you are going to organize a commando unit of mutual guarantee, you cannot do anything since you are given problems, descents, and interferences on purpose so that you will need the Creator.

Ultimately, we need to deal with Him. The general soul was shattered so that from this shattering you will get to know Him. We look at the broken shards and understand that we have to glue them together, but how can we put this puzzle together?

We try to connect these pieces in different ways, but nothing works and nothing will work! We don’t even know how to connect two parts: 1+1, since the Creator must be inside for these things to connect. This happens only when we reach an equivalence of form with Him in certain attributes.

But we don’t have these attributes. We don’t have the attribute of bestowal! This is why we cannot advance by even one step. We see that in the outside world people do organize commando units in which everyone is ready to sacrifice himself for the well-being of his friends. We cannot even think about this. After all, we need the Creator with us in every thought in this direction. This is the whole difference.

This is why the shell (Klipa) is so proud before holiness: “See what I can do! Everything is fine with me, everyone is happy, everything is nice, and what do you have?” After all, the egoistic connection is based on the mind, on confidence, while bestowal requires faith above reason. So a person who wants to reach true bestowal encounters great problems.

We can reach unity like in a submarine, but in order to do so, we need to reach a real demand for the Creator. This means that connecting is not the goal; the goal is to adhere to the Creator, and this final action must be in the initial thought. This is why we act and connect.

We need to check whether all our actions and connections between us are necessary for the revelation of the Creator, which should be the goal in every request, in every action. We can’t be confused and think that we need Him in order to connect. We actually need to connect in order to reveal Him and to delight Him.

We must properly build this formula each time, not forgetting that everything is for the sake of the Creator, and not for the sake of connection itself, neither is the raspberry ball, or the correction of humanity. We must constantly focus on the Creator.

So during the Arava convention we must constantly aim at the Creator, since this is the head of the Partzuf. We must constantly hold on to the same one thought, to the same intention, to the same plan that is aimed at the Creator.

Every question in the workshop is like a riddle that can be solved only when you build the sentence correctly, when the Creator is the goal, when everything that is aimed at the revelation of the Creator will reside among us. We need the Creator not so that he should glue us together; we want Him to glue us this way so that we will reveal Him and thus delight Him.

Everything should end with Him, in delighting Him, since the guest wants to delight the host. The Arava convention is the connection between us for His sake. Next there will be the integral education convention: The connection between us for the development of integral education. Then we will fulfill the integral connection in practice with the help of The Book of Zohar in the final great convention: The World Zohar Convention.
[125343]
From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/7/14, Lesson on the Topic: “Preparation for the Convention”

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Preparation to the Lesson

Workshop 

“Introduction to The Book of Zohar,“ “Torah and Prayer,” Item 184

Talmud Eser Sefirot, Vol. 1, Part 3, Chapter 1, Item 4

Writings of Baal HaSulam “Introduction to The Book of Zohar,”  Item 34

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Baal HaSulam “Introduction to The Book of Zohar,” Item 32: The third period is in Torah and Commandments Lishma, that is, for the sake of bestowal and not for receiving a reward. This work purifies man’s desire to receive for himself and turns it into the desire to bestow.

Everything depends on the awareness of importance. I can develop this awareness in me relative to anything. If I constantly think and take care about something, the object of my care becomes so important to me that I cannot forget about it. I am attached to it physically, emotionally, or intellectually, no matter how. The main thing is how much effort I give it.

We know how it happens: A person learns a profession or begins a fine meticulous project, and he gives it not just time but his entire heart, he invests in it so much that it becomes extremely important to him.

The same thing happens in the spiritual work: The awareness of the importance of the goal is the key to everything. I become included in the group, participate with the friends in workshops and other events, and if I exert myself fully, then suddenly, without knowing why, I begin to appreciate the property of bestowal, the ability to give. This feeling, this aspiration, is awakened in me and gains importance, in some “supernatural,” inexplicable way.

I, myself, am amazed by this inner change. Indeed, in the past, always and in everything I thought about myself and how to use others, how to arrange them so I would feel nice and comfortable, so everyone serves me. It is a natural approach.

But suddenly, I begin to care for others around me; they gain importance in my eyes, become as the people closest to me. I look for opportunities to bestow upon them, to benefit them, just as I want to bring happiness to those I love, I enjoy that they enjoy.

Then, I wonder: Why do I bring them good? For the sake of this pleasure? Or is bestowal itself so important that it motivates me to act? How can I distinguish one from the other?

In short, I suddenly embrace new phenomenon that possess me and I do not know where they come from.

This is accomplished through the incessant connection between friends. Another workshop, another lesson, another festive meal, one more effort with a bit of intention, which we are able to connect—even artificially, it does not matter—nonetheless, we thereby awaken the Light that Reforms and its influence produces in us these “supernatural” changes that lie below our nature.

I can recognize in myself only the results of this process when I discover that something strange happens to me. Then I understand how the Light that Reforms acts. Today, we have entered such stages when everyone has to “delve into himself” to detect the changes that occur in him.

Thus, we move forward through the process of “purification,” cleaning ourselves from the egoistic intention to the level of bestowal for the sake of bestowal. Then, we enter into the process of “sanctity,” purity, in reception for the sake of bestowal.
[125823]
From the 4^th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/19/14, Writings of Baal HaSulam

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The development in the group is surprising and beautiful because during a very short time I pass such states and details of perception that without friends would have required a few reincarnations in the physical life—long transformations of Reshimot. Among the wonderful friends we accelerate development.

Nothing on this path can be “passed,” “walked over,” “removed from the list.” The process of realizating Reshimot is set initially and I must go through this entire spiral. But the pace of progress depends on me and is determined by how much I integrate into the group.

Even if I sit in class emotionless “like a log,” devoid of understanding, it does not matter. Everyone goes through this.

The group is a wonderful system in which we complement, add, to each other. Some reveal new “thicknesses” of desire, others are imbued with spiritual impulse, and we interact as a whole.

The main thing is to live in the group as deeply as possible, and bow down before it with all, to bow down in any state: both when I am full of life, unity, and when I am “dead.”

Talents and abilities will not help here; it’s not the one who is wise that learns spirituality. First and foremost, I am required to surrender.
[125644]
From the 4^th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/16/14, Writings of Baal HaSulam

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When I listen to a friend who speaks during the workshop I am incorporated in his words without any doubts or criticism. I perceive what he says as the most important opinion and want to be incorporated in it, to connect so that it actually becomes my opinion. I want his words to touch my heart and to play on it like on strings.

This is how I relate to everyone who speaks. I don’t criticize what he says in any way but simply want to be incorporated in the same thought. We open up to one another and are totally candid as we speak from heart to heart. Everyone tries to totally annul his criticism so that there will be no barrier that blocks the friends’ words and so they will directly enter my heart as if I said them myself, fully confident that it is correct.
[125487]
From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/14/14, Workshop

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Question: If what we need to reveal is concealed, how should we do it?

Answer: This is a good question because the feeling of the concealed comes to a man as he looks for this concealed force. This concealed force is called bestowal. If a person looks for it, he feels how distant it is and how it evades him and remains concealed. Then he begins to work in order to attain it.

If this force becomes the most important, greatest, and most respected thing for him it means that he has already acquired the greatness of the Creator. Then a person begins to feel that he doesn’t even need that the Creator be revealed to him and doesn’t even expect the concealed to become revealed. He only wants to bestow back in order to delight the concealed.

Even if he doesn’t know that it bestows, and doesn’t even know that he bestows, and the concealed doesn’t know that he bestows, it is enough for him. Thus a person also becomes concealed from himself, like the force that he wants to reveal.

Then he reaches an equivalence of form with this force and becomes internally familiar with the force called the concealed. It is not revealed, but a person knows it since he has reached the same state. This means “from Your actions we will know You.”
[125505]
From the 2^nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/13/14, Writings of Baal HaSulam

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Preparation to the Lesson

Workshop 

The Book of Zohar— Selected Excerpts

Talmud Eser Sefirot, Vol. 1, Part 3, Chapter 1, Item 4

Writings of Baal HaSulam “Introduction to The Book of Zohar,” “Torah and Prayer,” Item 182 

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It is said, “A man and a woman, Divinity between them.” Who are this man and woman? In the spiritual world it all depends on a specific role: once, I bestow, another time, I receive. Indeed, in order to give, I also have to receive, and in order to receive, I must also give.

It turns out that each of us once gives to friend and once receives, that is, performs either the male or female role. Thus, it’s realized: “A man and a woman, Divinity between them.” If we are in this mutual connection, then the Creator is revealed between us. It’s within these transmission channels of reception and bestowal that we build the image of the Creator (Bore), meaning “come and see” (Bo-re).

If we build the correct relationship between us according to the law of equivalence of form, this channel of connection will be revived, will acquire vitality. We are required only to make an effort to make it happen, and within it, we will discover that it is alive.
[125637]
From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/16/14, Workshop

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If during the workshop I was able to connect with the friends’ hearts and spoke not external words, but directly from heart to heart, then I need to keep myself in the same state all day long until the next workshop. I have to keep the sense that our hearts are connected together and are not be separated from them. And, as well, I need to continually try to find within myself a stronger collective desire, more closely tied, more strong, in which we are united in one whole and strive to reveal this One, the Creator.We must remain in this state continuously so that the workshop never ends.
[125634]
From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/16/14, Workshop

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