Entries in the 'Daily Kabbalah Lesson' Category

Unlimited Creativity

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: You say that dissemination is the fulfillment of the goal of creation. What is the message of our dissemination? Is the goal to set an example of how to behave in society or to present the actual method? Perhaps your articles which are edited in a modern fashion could be presented as cards or movies? Can such a message be conveyed when a person writes a script or a book for example?

Answer: I explain the basics of the integral education to you, how to approach people and the world, but I am not a man of actions. I cannot even feel today’s generation correctly. I perceive it only through you, only through what you tell me.

Although I read a lot, about 20 to 30 short articles and news items a day about science, culture, politics, and different events in the world, I am still not very connected to people.

I cannot be any different. Everyone knows me, and so it affects people’s attitude toward me. So, making contact with the people wouldn’t work.

You must promote everything. I allow each of you to do as you wish—to write, talk, and create—as long as it is checked if you want it to be right. I don’t object that members of Bnei Baruch write their own books as long as it is censored. Why? It is so it will be right.

No one has any intention of using you. You can write independently everything that comes to mind, beginning with poetry, songs, and serious commentary on The Book of Zohar. It is your business as long as it comes out correctly in the literary way according to the wisdom of Kabbalah or according to the integral education that we are revealing at the moment. It is because I don’t know it either and I simply am revealing it through what is going on in the world now.

If you take what we have done in the last five years, then you will see that we have actually preceded Rabash. The only major trend in the world should be the revelation of the Creator to the created beings. By definition, this is the basis of the wisdom of Kabbalah. The goal of the wisdom of Kabbalah is the revelation of the Creator to the created beings in this world.

Today, we have brought the wisdom of Kabbalah and the revelation of the Creator in this world to our world and have made another step forward thanks to integral education.

We have dressed Kabbalah with a connecting element that helps adapt it to modern man, to modern society, to this world, with the help of the integral method, roundtables, workshops, and so forth. We have done what did not exist before.

Rabash brought us the idea of a “group,” and we have changed it from a group of Kabbalists who speak about the importance of the Creator and the importance of the goal into a roundtable for different people who speak about the connection between us.

Thus, we have put another type of clothing on Kabbalah so it can come in contact with different types of people, which is good for them and for us. We now can engage seriously in developing this method and expanding it.

You can do whatever you like since our method is built on the connection between the unity of all the people in the world and the Upper Light that operates in it. It will go on this way, and so you must write about it and do whatever you want, even write doctoral theses.

Integral education is the future of the world. There is nothing but that. The world will not want anything else since it will find the only means to relax and succeed within it. Its good future depends only on that.
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From the 2nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 7/21/13, Shamati #59 “About the Rod and the Serpent”

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How To Never Be Detached From The Creator

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: How can I never be detached from the Creator?

Answer: If I do not feel the Creator, if there is a complete separation, it means that I return to the animal state and can do nothing by my own strength. So, I need a daily schedule, regular work that I have to perform. Then, this still level, my schedule, will bring me back to life. I will begin to read, study, and take part in some actions, and thus will recover. I would not be able to do this myself and would never go back to the Creator.

Thus, everyone should organize for himself mandatory activities during the day that when necessary will bring him back to some connection with the upper management. And after I have regained connection, (after I worked on an article, talked to someone, did something), then I return to spirituality, even if not yet in feeling and in the heart, but at least in thoughts, with the mind.

I read, edited text, studied it, did my part. I do not have a sense of connection with the Creator yet, but due to the environment that inspires and pulls me along, I am starting to wake up and come to life. And the heart and the mind begin to bring me back to spiritual work. I understand that I must reveal the Creator, the upper management, in everything that I see before me.

Someone yells at me; there are some problems at home, at work, and I try to recognize the Creator beyond all these people and events so that the external picture of reality does not overshadow Him and does not become that “iron barrier” between us about which Baal HaSulam writes. I want that picture, the outlines that I see, to help me reveal the Creator instead of hiding Him. This is the difference between the concealing screen and the revealing screen: It all depends on how I will be able to change one into another.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 8/7/13, Writings of Baal HaSulam

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Good Kids Grow In Good Families

Dr. Michael LaitmanIf I have a big, strong, good society, I am like a kid who follows this example, trying to do whatever the friends do. In that case it isn’t hard to resemble the Creator at all. A good society will teach me how to do this, just like a grownup teaches children.

I have to make efforts on my part, but they should be more qualitative each time. The society sets a clearer example for me each time, while I receive a greater hardening of the ego each time from the Creator so that I will be independent in my attitude to the group and free of its influence.

My desire to receive keeps growing and I have to work with the group and the Creator in order to overcome the growing ego. It’s like a child who grows and becomes lazier and doesn’t want to make any efforts anymore. A person is given a chance to benefit more by seeing the importance of the society, the goal. His desire to be bigger like the Creator is like a child in our world who dreams about being a pilot. But he must always participate to some extent (like a child does) by trying to see the society as more important. If I see the society that helps me resemble the Creator and come in contact with Him as more important, it means that I connect “Israel, the Torah, and the Creator,” and this helps me focus directly on the goal.

It turns out that it’s impossible to manage without the society. I have to constantly follow the example that it sets for me so that it will seem as great as possible. This is important in order to acquire equivalence of form with the Creator and to perceive that I will eventually receive everything that is good from Him without any concealment.

Now I also receive an infinite filling from the Creator, but the problem is that my desire to receive is opening gradually and slowly. Now, I use, let’s say, only one percent of my whole desire. So instead of the world of Ein Sof (Infinity), I feel only one percent of it. This one percent is divided into my right and wrong attitude towards the Creator, which means that there is always concealment.

This is how I advance, step by step, like a child growing in our world. I feel the concealment with regard to the society, the Creator, and my qualitative advancement. It’s because I shouldn’t just grow like an animal by remaining the same child but simply bigger. It’s rather the human being in me that should change for the better each time.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 8/06/13, Shamati #8 “What Is the Difference Between a Shade of Kedusha and a Shade of Sitra Achra”

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It All Depends On The Attitude

Dr. Michael LaitmanThe Creator begins to awaken us through His illumination and changes in relation to us in the last stage of development where we are most distant from Him. We are just the “material” of desire that is possible to “awaken” and activate.

We ourselves are unable to initiate a single action, our desire can only react and does not have the slightest potential of independent undertaking. It has no creative power of the Creator, the force of creation; it has no Light, no source of energy. It’s capable of only two things:

  • Either to merely receive fulfillment without any freewill
  • Or by means of a special attitude towards the Host, the Light, to form a qualitatively different response.

As a result, we are always under the full control of the Creator: He sends us the Light, and it depends upon us as to how to accept His attitude. Either we accept it applied only to the “material” of our desire. That is, we enjoy to a greater or lesser degree, or besides that, we respond to Him above this or that level of enjoyment.

If I start calculating my attitude to the Creator in response and this becomes more important for me than the pleasures received by the “material” of desire, then I work in faith above reason. In other words, receiving the feeling of my own being from the Creator, I make calculations every second of my life: Do I take into account only my attitude, my “physical” reality, or, based on this reality, do I respond to the Creator with bestowal? Can I respond to Him with bestowal using what I feel in my life now?

Thus, I begin my path along the steps of getting closer to the Creator. And my calculation on this path is the following: To what extent, above the growing desire with its changeable sensations, good or bad, can I build a reciprocal relationship with the Creator?

In fact, I proceed from the assumption that only absolute good comes to us from the Creator. He can cause no harm to anybody, and if the created being feels evil, then in the end the only reason is that it cannot build within itself the correct attitude to what it receives.

For example, we know from life experience, how many people are willing to pay a surgeon who performs a vital operation on them, including injections, intravenous infusions, blood transfusion, a difficult period of rehabilitation, and other painful sensations. That is because the goal is important, so important that a person does not feel any pain because he is wholly focused on the goal and wants to get rid of the disease. The surgeon for him is not an enemy but a well-wisher who it is worthwhile to pay.

So, it all depends on the attitude. My attitude to the Creator is changing dramatically: Having changed the intention to bestowal, I feel from Him only good instead of evil and I feel pleasure. In contrast to the example with a surgeon, not a trace is left in my perception from some painful surgery on my “body” of desire. On the contrary, my “body” feels that I am enjoying. But again, all this is possible only if I obtain the intention to bestow. It all depends on the change of intent.

How do I change it? Here lies the work of the fourth degree of human development. I constantly have to ask so that besides good or bad affects felt in the desire, the Creator helps me correct my attitude to what I receive from Him.

I want to feel Him as He is, according to His bestowal upon me, completely Good That Does Good, but not because He brings me good, but because I don’t want to think ill of Him, to treat Him badly. If I feel that the Creator causes me pain, then surely He is not good for me. This is the natural reaction of my lower levels. It’s obvious to them. The egoistic desire cannot experience other responses to the source of evil. That’s why I don’t want to build a direct relationship with the Creator based on the feelings in my own desire.

Thus, there is a game: We need to be ready to feel increasingly bad feelings in our desire, in various forms, more and more complex, sophisticated, and at the same time more qualitative. In other words, I will feel evil, more and more directed at the Creator. And the more, in spite of my bad feelings, I try to see the source of good in Him (only not to internally curse Him and not in order to avoid evil), the more important my attitude towards Him will be, the further I advance.

At first, during the first few years, a person faces a lot of confusion. No matter, the core of the matter is my attitude to the Creator that should be tied to what my desire feels. This is not masochism: by truly changing my attitude to Him, I no longer feel bad sensations. Everything in me says it’s pleasure, including the still, vegetative, and animal levels, which are attached to the fourth stage, to the intention.

However, much work is required to establish connection with the Creator, so that He changes my response from negative to positive. That is the goal: To establish contact with Him. That is why we have two “alert systems”: One is based on the feelings of desire on the first three levels, and the second one, on my response on the fourth level. Together, these hub systems form connection between man and the Creator.

For example, I see those who surround me in one system and I react to them in the other one. There is no “feedback,” meaning a conscious response to the Creator, on the still, vegetative, and animate levels, only instinctive reactions. He just makes them act as necessary and no more. On the other hand, on the fourth stage, we have to participate in responses, giving them a certain form using the screen and the Reflected Light. This response to the Creator is the human being, Adam.
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From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 8/6/13, Shamati #8 “What Is the Difference Between a Shade of Kedusha and a Shade of Sitra Achra”

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Daily Kabbalah Lesson – 08.09.13

Shamati #72, “Confidence Is the Clothing for the Light”

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Writings of Rabash “Dargot HaSulam” Article 22

[media 3] [media 4]

Writings of Rabash “Igrot”  Letter 18

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Friends Who Grow To Infinity

Dr. Michael LaitmanWe are in concealment in our relationship with the Creator. We do not feel what exactly comes to us from Him and do not see that all this is for our benefit. We evaluate good and evil according to how much and what our “animate” level feels.

This is the main attribute of concealment. If we had felt that everything comes from the Creator, the Good Who Does Good, we would have seen the world differently. How can we achieve this?

The Creator sends us His attitude of the Good Who Does Good not applied to the egoistic desires, but in relation to the goal, wanting to raise us above the “animate” to the human degree. Thus, His influence always seems bad to us, harmful for the “animate” level.

In the same way, the child feels under constant pressure from his parents: “You have to eat well, don’t get dirty, clean up after yourself, keep your things in order, study this, read that, and so forth.” We constantly demand something from him, wanting to nurture the human degree in him, and this looks bad in the eyes of the “animate level” that wants to grow freely.

However, children in our world strive to look like the grownups, learn from their examples. For us, the example is the environment in which we will grow like children who develop easily.

We see that development occurs due to many efforts. And accordingly, the more good examples I have before my eyes, the less effort I will need to invest. My nature will want to be like others.

This means that if the environment is important and valuable in my eyes, if it appeals to me, if the friends play before me showing that they are great and they have connection with the Creator, if time after time they show increasingly higher and more qualitative examples, then it is easy for me to develop and I rise without much effort.

Conversely, if the environment does not give me good examples or if I ignore it, if we do not raise the Creator in our eyes together, then it is difficult to move forward. It is a problem; I do not have good teachers.

Thus, in order to not be an “animal” in the course of his development, a person has to participate in this process himself. Together with friends he builds the group, the environment, so that it always appears to him higher, growing more and more. As a result the friends for him are in the world of Infinity, and the greatness and quality of the group is compared with the Creator—and no less. If the group in his eyes is lower than the Creator, then he does not appreciate it enough in order to optimally and as quickly as possible develop with its help. This is what we should remember.
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From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 8/6/13, Shamati #8 “What Is the Difference Between a Shade of Kedusha and a Shade of Sitra Achra”

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The Rotten Seed Of The Old World

Dr. Michael LaitmanIn order to transcend to a new level we have to attain a state in which you have no idea what is happening to you and all the old forms disappear. You cannot work with them nor can you hold on to them anymore, and you feel puzzled and confused both in your mind and heart.

The world seems so strange and unfamiliar that you don’t understand which world you live in. you are like a seed that was totally rotten in the ground and has lost all form and direction. You have already lost your old form and have not received the new form yet. Thus you move from one state to the next.

You will see how different this is from what you see in your corporeal, healthy egoistic mind and heart. A state of disorientation, helplessness and confusion becomes the beginning of a new man on a new level. To the extent that this seems undesirable from a realistic egoistic point of view, it is actually desirable for a person’s advancement.

There is a law that the individual and the general are equal. So the whole world is in the same state today, feeling this confusion, not understanding where it comes from. The whole world feels powerless and in despair. People don’t know what to do next: All the old views, all the old paradigms, the whole perception of life is disappearing and going bankrupt.

It is the first time in history that we are in such a position. There are no leaders, no dogmas, nothing. No one is saying that he knows what needs to be done anymore. Where are the revolutionaries of the past like Che Guevara, Marx, they are gone. It is a sign that all the ideas and views, all the previous approaches have rotted, like the seed that rots in the ground, from which something totally new has to grow now.

We have reached a state of Ibur (conception) and from now on the new world will begin to grow and to develop. The old form is lost and soon a new form will be depicted. The world doesn’t know it yet. But we, those who engage with the wisdom of Kabbalah, are the new Reshimo (spiritual gene) for the world, transferring the world from the old state to the new state. The world needs guidance growing in this state, and we have to fulfill the role of the Reshimo and reveal to the world how to advance and grow onward.

In all the other states what needs to be done is revealed by itself according to natural laws. It is instinctively clear to the still, vegetative, and animate nature what to do and how to grow. But on the human level this growth has to be done consciously by special efforts. It is by this that man is different from an animal.

Our body is an animal, but the mind has to be human, like Adam, which means “Domeh” (resembles the Creator). So we have to advance to the new state consciously, knowingly, by our own powers. Here we need to wake people up, to arrange them, to guide them. Therefore, Israel is called Li Rosh (I have a head). One can only grow by understanding, consciously and by making efforts, and we do it gradually. We grow by getting closer to fulfilling this role, and the world becomes more and more desperate and ready for us to raise it. It will happen very soon.
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From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 8/02/13, Writings of Baal HaSulam

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Exquisite Egoists

Dr. Michael LaitmanBaal HaSulam, “Peace in the World”: The truth is that the root of this whole disorder within us is no more than the above-mentioned attribute of singularity, which exists within each of us, whether more or less.

And although we have clarified that it comes from a sublime reason, that this attribute extends to us directly from the Creator, who is single in the world and the Root of all creations, still, out of the sensation of singularity, when it sits within our narrow egoism, it affects ruin and destruction until it became the source of all the ruins that were and will be in the world.

Nobody will make any progress until we realize the degree of our singularity that was given to us by nature. Everyone has to fully see their egoism in its authentic form. Meaning that on this material plane, in this world (the way we perceive it) before anything else, we should understand the basics and realize the magnitude of our desire to act solely for our own sake.

Eventually, we will figure out that we are the only ones who we ever take into account and that we never hesitate when it comes to “overlooking” others; we always do whatever we want with others if it brings us even a tiny drop of delight. When we analyze our calculations, we see that we don’t care about anything else but ourselves, and that a minimal particle of our pleasure is equal in our eyes to world-wide afflictions. Let this realm vanish, burn or continue suffering forever!

Unless we discover this condition internally, we won’t “get acquainted” with ourselves. Actually, it’s a realization of the attribute of singularity, meaning the realization of the evil inclination.

It’s extremely hard to reveal this within ourselves. Even if we admit our wickedness, we still don’t agree with it internally. An evil inclination does not allow us to go through the process of self-scrutiny, nor does it let us visualize or sense our nature, our exquisite egoism, our “I-ness,” that obscures the entire picture of the world from us, nor does it leave any space for anything else. It’s like others just don’t exist; we are simply unable to take them into consideration. They are out of our range of perception. This kind of awareness is an essential step on our way to correction.

Question: Why does our egoism conceal the truth from us?

Answer: It’s a natural defense. Our egoism doesn’t want us to suffer. If we saw the entire degree of wickedness we have, we would strive to rid ourselves of it. That’s why our egoism hides the truth from us: It slightly shows some the edge of the cover and then re-covers it. It’s organized this way to make us sink deeper and deeper until we hit the very bottom, maximum realization. At that time we are ready for the Light’s help.

Until then, we are not “equipped” for that; we just would resist our desire to self-correct, we’d run away at the very last moment. If our egoism didn’t protect us from negative sensations that we experience because of our awareness of our egoistic essence, we wouldn’t be able to continue our work.

This explains why a cognitive process happens in “jolts.” A moment ago we were astounded by our wickedness, but the curtain falls and once again we catch ourselves having vile thoughts about others: “I wish him to be dead! Why do I need him at all? He is in my way…” And yet again we are shocked by our malevolence, but then once more we forget about it. Generally, every attribute is paired with its opposite. Otherwise, we wouldn’t be able to penetrate to the very depth.

In any case, if we don’t aspire to the good, we will never recognize our malevolence. It’s a universal rule that works at all states that we go through. We seek benevolence and bestowal; we want to stay with our friends; we pursue our great goal without hesitation, without looking around, without “beating around the bush.” However, instead of benevolence, we discover loneliness, obliteration, and chaos.

It is said: “Do what you can.” It means that one should be a “good boy” and aspire to the goal stubbornly and steadily. On this path, one learns lots of things and becomes smarter, but the main thing is to continue advancing and acting.

Question: Can we prepare ourselves for a revelation of evil beforehand, so that we can immediately correct it?

Answer: No, we never should prepare ourselves for evil. A person who worked in a circus once told me that acrobats have a very important rule: before they performance begins, they check where they might fall. They know ahead of time where they will land if they fall and what position they will keep while falling.

In spirituality, there is an analogue to this training. However, we work not for the sake of falling. We should always aspire forward. Yes, we have to prepare the “rear guard,” but our eyes should see the goal ahead. We don’t intend to retreat.
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The Human Being Is Intention

Dr. Michael LaitmanAll the created beings are under the control of the Creator, the upper force. The Creator created only one thing—the desire to receive that is divided into four levels: still, vegetative, animate, and human. These stages descend from the connection with the Creator, from the “world of Infinity” to the state of “this world” in which they are completely disconnected from the Creator. They descend because only by participating in the creation of the connection with the Creator will the created beings feel, understand, attain, and make their life have the same state as His.

To do this, the entire desire to receive should take the form of the desire to bestow, inherent to the Creator. On the way, the created beings attain the upper management and obtain the ability to act as the Creator does. That means to be like Him.

In order to bring all the created beings to the state of belonging to all four levels, the most developed desire of the fourth stage—the human, Adam—must first establish connection with the Creator. Only the fourth level is able to keep this connection consciously and deliberately by starting to feel his own reality against the Creator, seeing himself opposite to Him, agreeing or disagreeing with Him, acting for his own benefit or the benefit of the Creator, etc.

Thus, in essence, the fourth stage is the center of creation. On the other hand, the previous three stages are connected to it without having freewill. It is the fourth stage that determines how these components will take part in the process. It is the intention, the direction, while others just act in this direction without any free choice.

Thus, we are talking about people in this world who above all should feel that they are in concealment and then can to work in order to establish contact with the Creator from the stage of complete separation from Him, from the point most distant from infinity.

Schematically, it looks like this: The Creator is in the world of infinity, and we are in this world, and the distance between us is divided into 125 degrees. We must establish connection with Him from here, from this world.

It begins when the Creator awakens us—shines more and more. Due to His Lights, the desires of the fourth level begin to rise in our world; in turn they are also subdivided into various types according to the same four stages. The “purest” desires awaken first; they are followed by more “coarse” desires. Thus, the process of correction continues from easy to difficult. In other words, those “easy” parts that we correct at the beginning help us correct more “coarse,” “heavier” parts later.

Correction is carried out due to the fact that the Creator awakens His illumination, His attitude to us, and it begins to be revealed not just as good towards the “material” of desire, as on the still, vegetative, and animate levels, but deliberately good. In other words, due to the illumination of the Creator, we will have to get closer to Him.

To do this, we need to change our intention. That is, instead of the still, vegetative, and animate level, we have to form a human stage in ourselves. And the human stage is intention over matter.

We know this from the four stages of the distribution of the direct Light: The fourth stage in the end decides to make restriction (Tzimtzum) and respond to the master with the same attitude that He shows in relation to it. This is the intention.

The fourth stage has nothing to give back to the Creator back—it can only continue to receive His good with the intention that turns all that is received into bestowal onto Him. Then, all the person’s thoughts and all his heart are in the Creator. It does not matter what he receives; the person is like a guest who looks at the Host and wants only to please Him.

That is what the change of intention is, a change of attitude; I switch from “for my own sake to the sake of the Host,” which becomes the determining factor. The Host is first for me, His state is my first and main concern. And according to this, I do with myself everything that is required.

Thus, it is no longer important which states he goes through, only if they are for the benefit of the Host, and in this case he accepts them as given, he is happy, and his intention is completely aligned with them.
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From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 8/6/13, Shamati #8

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Behind The Cover Of Blind Fate

Dr. Michael LaitmanBaal HaSulam, “Exile and Redemption”: By these words, I only mean to show that the Torah and the natural law of development go hand in hand in wondrous unity even with blind fate.

Although it seems that my life is managed by blind fate, it is in fact managed by the natural law of evolution. It seems that my fate depends on many accidental incidents, but in fact all the events and occurrences in my life are predetermined by creation.

Only one thing depends on me and that is how I accept these events. If I prepare myself correctly, then I can accept and feel them in an opposite way than I feel them today. Today I have a special “receiver,” a mechanism with a sensor, that can totally change the receiving, the feeling, from minus one hundred percent to plus one hundred percent.

But the whole chain of events doesn’t change and I will go through all of them. The Creator initiates this process and manages creation, but on the way He gives you a chance to accept His actions if you want to. If you don’t want to, then He will make you want to.

It is because there is none else besides Him. Everything is already predetermined and even if He changes the “letters” in this “story,” which means if one letter doesn’t match and He replaces it by another letter, it is only with regard to my feeling, so that I will work on it better.

In fact, I am in an eternal process and can only ask myself about my perception: “Are there actually any changes? And if so, are they inside or outside of me?”

But if it is about my impressions, then I can certainly change them. If I don’t change them, they will become so unpleasant that eventually I will try to change them and correct my “receiver.”
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From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 8/04/13, Writings of Baal HaSulam

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