Question: Why can’t we correct the stony heart?

Answer: It is impossible to correct the stony heart since it is the gap between existence from existence and existence from absence. I can only resemble the Creator. To resemble means to form above me all the forms of the Creator that I see. Then the desire to receive takes on different forms of bestowal. This means that I can resemble Him like an actor, but I cannot resemble Him in all of my internality.

Only by all my corrections when all the Lights that I draw come together, will they operate the system and it will influence me by the Light that corrects the stony heart. I generate this process indirectly.
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From the 2^nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 8/04/13,The Book of Zohar — Introduction

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Baal HaSulam, “Peace in the World”: …the well-being of society, which is the well-being of the state and the well-being of the world, are completely interdependent. As long as the laws of society are not satisfactory to each and every individual in the state, and leave a minority that is unsatisfied with the government of the state, this minority conspires under the government of the state and seeks to overthrow it.

Our world is round not just because the earth is round, but because all the connections round up before our eyes. All the signals move back and forth between us and we are all connected even if it’s against our will.

When we discover the inner connection between us, we also fulfill it on the outside by building different instruments to help us communicate. Did a person who lived three centuries ago need a mobile phone; actually no, and for what? Did he need it in order to check the prices of flour or salt in another state? What difference would it make? After all, it was too far.

But direct physical contact gradually became an emotional contact, and people invented transportation, cars, trains, planes, and radio connections, etc. On the whole, fifty years ago there was no need for global communication cables that connect the entire world, but now we can’t even imagine managing without them. During the last fifteen years the Internet has surrounded the whole world and has become part of every person’s life. Why? Because man has felt an inner need for that and has developed the right technology. By the way, today we also have greater deficiencies, but the ego of individual people curbs their advancement and doesn’t provide us with the right tools…

It all stems from frustration, from an inner attraction to something. This is what should obligate us to build tools by which we can correct the world.

At the same time, the global connection is accompanied by a negative and very dangerous phenomenon. Because of the ego we are connected by evil desires, and each one wants to dominate others, to enjoy at their expense, and to use them. If we could only set certain limitations, but it’s very difficult. Thus the connection between us can be very dangerous.

We are in a state of transition, an intermediate state, and despite the threats we have a need for absolute connection. We want to see and hear everyone regardless of language differences, cultural differences, and other differences, and we want to understand and to feel as much as possible. We are ready to make the Internet into something that is totally different since now it already offers us very limited options compared to our requirements. Modern technology can bridge this gap, but in the meantime we don’t develop it for more extensive use.

We are in a very sharp transition and the peace in the world actually depends on each one. This means that each one needs correction since otherwise he can cause harm on an internal scale. Hackers, for example, can disrupt many essential functions by remote control and break the electronic protection of gas reservoirs or the power supply system. In other words, a certain expert can bring about a great disaster just by using his ten fingers from some distant corner of the world.

This means that as long as we are not corrected, the connection between us is very dangerous to the peace in the world. It relates to many different areas and especially to those who produce weapons and deal with them. These people just wait for a conflict to break out somewhere in the world. This is the way the egoistic world thinks and it will remain that way until we correct our ego.

But on the other hand, it’s the danger that was caused by global phenomena that brings about an opportunity for correction, since we will have no choice; we will not be able to go on living under this terrible constant threat. As long as we are under this threat, it isn’t worthwhile to live, to get married, to have children, and to raise them if everyone can easily hurt my success and even put an end to my life. All the beginnings become insignificant.

It’s then that a person finally understands that we must correct the situation. How can I protect myself against criminals? Actually my life depends on everyone and I simply cannot live under this constant terrible threat. It’s impossible to chase all the potential criminals.

Perhaps all this will force us to make a decision since we have no other choice.

In the meantime, we don’t even understand how we can reach a solution, through the UN? We see how impotent this organization is. Behind the bipolar connection there is a bitter truth according to which everyone tries to profit at the expense of others. In fact there is nowhere to turn. There is no organization or institution that represents humanity with regard to the key questions of our time.

Baal HaSulam says that the wellbeing of the world and the wellbeing of the individual are the same. The essential condition of our time is to finally acknowledge the need for connection, for peace, for agreement, and for love among us. Without love we cannot survive. The principle of “love thy friend as thyself” is the result of a very difficult process of the recognition of evil when there is no choice and a person will understand that he must fulfill it.

One way or the other, the individual and the general advance along the same path today, along the path of the recognition of evil, that eventually pushes us to make the decision that we have to change our lifestyle and adopt new software. Then we will finally embark on a new path.
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From the 4^th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 7/29/13, Writings of Baal HaSulam

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 Questions and Answers with Dr. Laitman

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Baal HaSulam: “The Secret of Conception and Birth”: The exodus from Egypt is called birth but the embryo is born dead, since after the pregnancy, which is the iron furnace and the enslavement in Egypt, there is the birth and they were not ready to breathe the spirit of life in the enlightened world yet, to which they were promised to arrive—until the count has begun and the war with Amalek and the water trials, etc. and they arrive at the Sinai desert. Sinai means hate, which means the sufferings that is part of every illness.

We should understand that everything is determined by the final point, by the goal of creation. It says: “first think, then act.” This final point determines the flaws that must be revealed in every stage in order to reach the ultimate goal.

The ultimate goal is revealed in every stage as flawed according to the number of levels that separate it from that level. If I am on level five, for example, and there are a total of 125 levels, I have to reveal the need for the 120 missing levels on the fifth level. But I cannot reveal them and so they are in the state I am in, in their concealed form, preparing the future flaws that I have to correct and which are gradually starting to be revealed starting from this level onwards.

Every level includes all the flawed future states until the end of correction. So even at the time of the exodus from Egypt it was determined that the correction has to come to an end after 6,000 years. All this was already known; Abraham also knew about this process and Jacob wanted to reveal the future secret to his sons but didn’t manage to do so.

It all stems from the fact that the ultimate goal, the final state, is incorporated in every level since it has a beginning, the actual state, and its conclusion. So the fetus that is born during the exodus from Egypt already conceals in it the future corruption. Just like the participation of the points of SAG with NHY of Galgalta, when it was clear that the heart of stone is concealed in NHY. Therefore, it was possible to predict the future shattering, since the unrevealed evil was left in Bina and in Malchut. They thought that they could correct everything and reach the end of correction but it only got worse.

Evil has to be concealed on the way and revealed in the future and be corrected. The same thing happens here too, with the fetus is still born. The children of Israel came out of Egypt when they were totally detached from one another. They built the first Temple, but it was destroyed and they had to be exiled to Babylon, where the whole story of Ahasuerus, Mordecai and Haman took place. Then they returned to the Land of Israel again and built the second Temple, but it was also destroyed.

All these states are a result of the wrong birth, but it also had to occur that way, since the heart of stone that was supposed to be revealed and die is concealed in the fetus. All this stems for the ultimate goal and determines all these states.

It was impossible to change anything we have passed through along the way until today. Only now do we reach the state of the beginning of the correction and we have freewill. We had no freewill in any of the previous states since they were all just a preparation for today.
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From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 7/28/13, Writings of Baal HaSulam

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Truth and lies can change places in a moment. We hear a certain opinion and think that it’s the truth. Then suddenly we hear another opinion and hold on to it and think that it’s the truth and what we thought before already seems like a lie. Truth and a lie change very quickly and even the feeling of sweetness and bitterness change, but not as fast.

It turns out that nothing is absolute in reality. I can never say that something is sweet since it may be bitter tomorrow because of my bad mood. I may discover that sugar is bad for me, that it simply kills me, and I will not even be able to look at it. It will not seem so sweet to me anymore, but rather bitter, since I will be so afraid to eat something that is harmful. This fear will change all the flavors that I taste.

So how can we absolutely determine what is sweet or bitter, what is the truth or a lie? The clarification of truth and a lie is in our brain, and the clarification of bitter and sweet is in the heart, in the desire. So we have to pay attention while working with our heart that it will be for the sake of bestowal and not receiving.

This is already a certain standard, a certain parameter, according to which I can measure myself. Now the truth means to benefit as much as possible, and wherever we lose, we call it a lie. This is how a person usually sees life, in a biased perspective. The ego, the bribe covers a person’s eyes and doesn’t let him see the truth or the lie. Whatever is beneficial is called truth and what is not is called a lie.

We need an objective standard that is external to us, which means the measure of bestowal compared to which I can measure my truth and my lie and to calibrate my brain correctly. The environment gives us this chance. This is the reason for the shattering of the vessels that left each of us detached from all the rest, locked inside his ego. But if I connect to society according to Kabbalistic rules, it will be the truth for me.

The more I can annul myself and connect with the friends, the more I will see this standard in them, the truth. I will see myself compared to the truth as living in a lie. This is actually the main goal of our work in the group: to calibrate ourselves with regards to the truth, so that the truth and bestowal will become one for us.

Bestowal is my connection to the group: The more I give myself to the group, the closer I get to the truth, which means to bestowal. This is the first state I have to arrange for myself. Then we can be sure we are accurately calibrated, in the right direction with regard to the brain.
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From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 7/30/13, Shamati #148 “The Scrutiny of Bitter and Sweet, True and False”

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Question: Our friends study for about 25 hours a week, three hours are dedicated to friends’ meetings and there are about 5 hours left for dissemination. How relevant is this time division? Perhaps we should devote more time to friends’ meetings, to unity, and to dissemination?

Answer: The main thing is dissemination! By disseminating you begin to understand better and to perceive with what you are dealing.

A person who engages in dissemination and is absent from some of the lessons still advances very fast! In fact he perceives the wisdom of Kabbalah faster than others, since dissemination is the Creator’s actual instruction of what He wants from us.

He wants to be revealed to all the people in the world, which means to bring goodness to His created beings. How does He bring them goodness? It’s by His revelation among them. The revelation of the Creator to the created beings in this world is actually the pleasure with which He wants to fill us.

In Saint Isaac Cathedral in St. Petersburg it says: “My home shall be called a house of prayer.” This is just the beginning of the verse and the second part says: “for all the nations,” as it says in Psalms. For all the nations!

He wants to create a vessel, but we should do it. So we have to yearn for Him and our yearning should include absolutely everyone. This is His goal.

When you do this kind of work, it’s the most efficient action for ascending. I say it since I have experienced it myself. So any kind of work in dissemination, even just talking to passers-by about integral education is preferable to studying. It will help you more!

We have to see how we value our actions in this world and not be wise guys. It has nothing to do with a person’s skills or abilities, but only with how close his actions are to the Creator’s will. It’s nothing more than that.

Unfortunately there are groups which were founded a long time ago who stubbornly refuse to devote themselves to this and don’t look for a way to implement the Creator’s main desire, to be revealed to the created beings. We don’t completely fulfill the one condition that determines everything and which is the basis for everything, and then we have complaints, what for and for whom?!
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From the 2^nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 7/21/13, Shamati #59 “About the Rod and the Serpent”

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Question: There is a problem in attracting an audience for integral education. As far as I know, people want to learn something, to receive some knowledge, and don’t want to be educated at all.

Is it correct to camouflage our courses as  psychology or some other kind  of course to attract people and then present them as an instrument for unity? That is, presenting integral training in such a package.

Answer: I don’t understand you, do we lie to people? How is our training different from any other psychological training?

We gather them in tens, in roundtables, and give them psychological training. We show them that by connecting and uniting between us and by working according to the system of our connection, when they are not rejecting each other, but are supporting each other, when they are trying to find a common solution—suddenly they discover some special inner strength. This is psychological training.

There are hundreds, even thousands of training labs like these that deal with this around the world. Why are you differentiating us as some kind of mystic group that is not clear about what it is dealing with and that doesn’t know what it is disseminating?

And you can call and integral education, because we want to change a person, it is better to adapt to a world in which he lives. In principle, no matter what to call our course – even the “Method of integral development,” because it is no different from any psychology.

Our psychological training is called Integral Education. You can also call it integral upbringing since with it we want to change the person to better to adapt to the world he lives in. In principle, it doesn’t matter what you call our course, even “the Method of Integral Development,” since it is no different from any other psychology.
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From the 2^nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 7/21/13, Shamati #59 “About the Rod and the Serpent”

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We have been preparing for this for ages and today practical Kabbalah is being fulfilled, which means that the actual correction is starting. Kabbalah is the method of revealing the Creator to the created beings in this world. This world refers to the corrupt relations between us, and the next world is the corrected relations.

If we see the world this, way we don’t see people’s bodies in it but rather the connections between them, the connections of one desire in which the Creator is revealed. So dissemination is 100% spiritual work. You are not doing anyone a favor but are actually working on your soul.

A person should understand that everything depends on him and he shouldn’t expect mercy or charity from anyone. He will find the source of his life in the relationships with others when he begins to arrange his mutual relationships with people on the street in his neighborhood. He will discover that he doesn’t depend on anyone, since he acquires a force that is greater than the government. Now we see it everywhere and so we shouldn’t turn to the authorities but actually to ourselves. We shouldn’t expect them to make any changes. No matter what they do it will only be against our interests.

When we speak to people we see the despair they feel. They don’t believe that things can change for the better in any way. Previously they had hopes that certain movements or leaders would be able to change something, but today no one pins his hopes on that since this lie has already been revealed. There is no one to blame here since it is a result of human nature. We shouldn’t blame anyone but we should simply decide how we should change our lives here and now, each one in his own place, in his family, in his town, or on the street he lives.

We turn to ordinary people and if we guide them correctly, we correct parts of our soul by that. Today we have opportunities that we never had before. The demand for this is felt everywhere. There are no other means to correct things. All the external sources have been exhausted, the global crisis has cleared the area and has washed it like a tsunami wave. There is only one source of life left, the source of power and change that is in the connection among people. No one can reconstruct this connection without integral education.

Even if someone hears about this and wants to reconstruct it, he will not succeed. It will succeed only if it comes from us. We were chosen by the Creator for this mission, like “a kingdom of priests and a holy nation,” and it is our obligation to pour this information into the whole world. Only a person who knows this method can teach the world and bring it to correction.
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From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 7/26/13, Writings of Baal HaSulam

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Writings of Baal HaSulam “Igrot,” Letter 52

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Baal HaSulam, “Exile and Redemption”: … a far more rapid development than the other nations has come to us. And because the members of the nation developed so, there was always the necessity to go forward and be extremely meticulous with all the Mitzvot of the Torah. And because they would not do it, but wished to include their narrow selfishness, meaning the Lo Lishma, this developed the ruin of the First Temple, since they wished to extol wealth and power above justice, as other nations.

But because the Torah prohibits it, they denied the Torah and the prophecy and adopted the manners of the neighbors so they could enjoy life as much as selfishness demanded of them. And because they did that, the powers of the nation disintegrated: some followed the kings and the selfish officers, and some followed the prophets. And that separation continued until the ruin.

During the period of the Temples, the people of Israel experienced spiritual blossoming, attaining the entire reality of the universe. However, the split did not take long. If one part of the nation wanted to keep the straight path to attainment of the upper force, the other part wanted to use at least a bit of attainment for the needs of material life.

Life was very difficult in those days and people were forced to work hard to earn their keep. Besides that, wars sometimes took lives, sometimes several thousand lives a day.

As a consequence, it was a delicate moment for people to decide every time whether it were possible to use the spiritual forces that were available. It was not easy and that is why we should not falsely accuse all those who went astray. People, then, were not on our stage, and they faced severe internal situations with the hardest problems, which were according to their knowledge and thus aligned and balanced them to make free choice.

They were unable to resist, and in principle, it was not so much their fault as the general program of creation in which the inherent destruction of the Temple, and the four exiles, the final complete redemption, the beginning of which we now are experiencing. The program is predetermined. The end of the action is provided in the original plan and Kabbalists have known about it since ancient times.

However, on the other hand, we do not succumb to fatalism.

On the whole, we need to treat the descriptions of the events that occurred at that time carefully. We should not superficially divide people into right and wrong, good and bad. I repeat, we are talking about people who had spiritual attainment and received the burdening of the heart of the corresponding force.

At the beginning of the process, everything happens at the level of the First Temple, when the Light of Hochma was revealed in the community of the people. It would seem that if the Creator has been revealed, what more? Where will the ungodly come from in this state? Yet, one potential corresponds to the other, and we always balance on the point of the freedom of will.

Baal HaSulam writes about “the kings and the selfish officers.” In those days, an officer was not just a member of the nobility or a high-ranking commander, but a leader managing people with his spirit, that is, spiritual attainment, not to mention the king.

In short, today we do not understand those contradictions, and the most important thing for us is not to despise the “fallen” who seem like villains to us.

Anyway, the overall program leads to the complete deliverance of the entire world, but first it applies to its small part that Abraham led out from Babylon. Therefore, even if the people of Israel had made huge, heroic, incredible efforts, the Temple still would have been destroyed. The signs of this began to appear seventy years before the collapse. It was impossible to stop the process because the program of development must be implemented.

At the same time, we must make every effort in the struggle for bestowal, counteracting the division and lack of unity. One does not negate the other. Everything must be directed at bestowal. Not one little thing can be used for one’s own benefit.

In the days of the Temple, it was not about luxury on the current level of well-being, but about allowing people to slightly ease the hard living conditions, that is, bringing some drop of self-love into the altruistic aspiration, to add purely symbolic and seemingly deserved “dessert” to the minimal “diet.”

However, this drop spoils everything and disturbs the general course. As a result, it no longer leads directly to the Creator, but diverts to the side, even if just a little, but the result is failure.

In the Second Temple, it was even more conspicuous, since the beginning of the separation was publicly displayed by unvirtuous disciples, headed by Tzadok and Bytos.

The calculation should be updated constantly and become more accurate. Otherwise, we lose our way, looking for a foothold in the external environment and presenting it to defeat our opponents who want to keep the old, original way. Thus, Israel was captured by the Roman Empire because some of the people agreed to descend into egoism and take a fraction for themselves. However, there is no part for oneself in altruism, and even the basics we get only in order to live in pure bestowal.

Today, the nation is far from these calculations. Who sincerely speaks of love and bestowal, unity and support, brotherhood and mutual guarantee today? On the contrary, a man is proud of his superiority over others and boasts of his ability to trample on others. The main thing is to be strong. The power of the fist, the power of the official, is what reigns over people today.
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From the 4^th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 8/2/13, Writings of Baal HaSulam

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