Nature controls us with the help of four categories: mercy, truth, justice, and peace. Of course, the best one is peace, which means perfection, and it can be achieved with the help of the quality of “truth.” However, we are incapable of making this come true because according to the truth, a person must be completely pure of the egoistic desire and be entirely in bestowal. He must receive only whatever is necessary for his life and bestow to others with all his might.

We still haven’t attained these states. Our society is incapable of this. We do not belong to the still, vegetative, or animate levels, which operate according to the laws and forces that nature awakens in them. Unlike those levels in nature, we are egoists and as such, our desire for pleasure desires to absorb and use everything.

As a result, we cannot affirm the category of “truth.” But without it, humanity faces a problem: If we don’t give and provide each other with everything, then society is flawed and therefore experiences all kinds of troubles and disasters. When there is no balance, people feel disadvantaged or, on the contrary, privileged.

Therefore, in order to avoid destroying the environment completely, the category of “mercy” awakens in us. “Mercy” is a sort of compensation, a way for the powerful to make up for things because they have the ability to use all of society for the sake of their own interests and then to allocate a little bit to the weak. That is how we use the categories of “mercy” and “justice.”

Of course, these compensations are inadequate, yet with their help we have been able to balance society out. Humanity has done a lot for the sake of this balancing act: charity and humanitarian organizations, all kinds of revolutions, public health services, education systems, and so on. However, nature demands much more from us. Lately we are finding that it requires us to create a system of mutual bestowal.

According to all the indications, today we have to rise to the level of “truth” and “peace”—in other words, to live by the principle, “from each according to his ability, to each according to his necessity.” On the the still, vegetative, and animate levels, this principle is maintained by nature absolutely and instinctively, whereas people have to come to this by reaching total correction, by ascending above their egoism and establishing the appropriate interconnections within society.

Today humanity is at an intermediate phase. We are no longer animals or primitive barbaric tribes living in a natural communism, yet we are still not corrected either. Right now we are at the beginning of realizing the crisis of our nature, our egoism.

So let’s listen to what Kabbalists say: They explain to us that there is a way and a means that can help us to create the perfect society.
[43222]
From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/16/11, “Peace in the World”

A Social Agreement To Cease Hostilities
Is True Equality Possible?
Learning Isn’t For Us, Is It?

Filed under: Crisis, Daily Kabbalah Lesson, Egoism, History, Society, World - 1 Comment →

Question: In the material world, we have no power over our desires. In bestowal, desires are much greater, so how will we be able to manage them?

Answer: In bestowal, I face a fellow man. By connecting to him, it is I who determines the degree, the power, and the kind of desire from which I form the vessel of the soul. I am the one who makes all the decisions.

On second thought, this is where another question arises: Who am “I”? After all, I have certain predispositions and properties that define what I am. True, certain parameters are not up to me since in the end, I am just a cogwheel in the integral system and can function solely in this capacity. It can’t be argued with, but it is still you who decides how to build a relationship with the others, how to act in a common mechanism, and how to form it in your own view.

Thus, by unifying with others, you take over the entire “machine.” If you stop, the whole system will stop with you. Do you want to switch the engine off? Go ahead! So, it turns out that when you start to move, you feel the entire reality and see which part and what side of it you can connect with.

Despite the fact that you are just a tiny cogwheel, the entire enormous machine depends on you, and you acquire the collective desire, the whole system with all that is in it. You, a mere minuscule cogwheel, become totally identical to the Creator because the entire system hinges upon you.

The integral system possesses a remarkable property we can’t comprehend: Everyone is just as vital in it as the whole. This pertains even to those whose points in the hearts haven’t awakened yet. Such a person may take his or her place at the last moment, to patch a tiny little hole in the common boat, but without them, the system simply won’t function right. And in the end, they too will receive the collective reward.

Why then is he or she the last to arrive? That is so because they were the most corrupted. Only after all the others have been reformed, this last person’s time has come to contribute their part to the collective.

We may have a tendency to despise the “people on the street.” And yet, it is they who will do the most meaningful work. Baal HaSulam explains it to us in “Introduction to The Book of Zohar”: Our forefathers have done tremendous work, but it is we, the lower elements of the integral structure, who carry the Lights to their vessels.
[42971]
From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/13/2011, “The Freedom”

Filed under: Collective Soul, Daily Kabbalah Lesson, Inner Work, Q&A - 1 Comment →

Question: How can we disseminate the wisdom of Kabbalah to the masses whose points of the hearts haven’t awakened yet? How do we withhold the Torah, meaning the method of correction of the evil inclination?

Answer: In the end of “Introduction to The Book of Zohar,” Baal HaSulam writes that, basically, everybody has this point since after the breaking of the collective soul, its parts have intermixed and become included into each other. However, some points are so big that when they awaken, they start pulling a person to the right place where he can receive correction and fulfillment. Whereas the other points are hidden, and such people are 99% of the population of the world.

We should address them according to their present desires. To those who come to study with us, we tell about the desire to go straight to the Creator and give the method of revealing Him in mutual connection with others. As for the other 99%, they have no relation to it, nothing in common whatsoever. They don’t need spirituality; they look at us in total surprise, unable to understand what we are lacking: There is soccer, there is the Internet, everything is fine.

And still, they do have problems and experience grief. Today, the entire world is sinking into a whirlpool, and it’s not our fault. Because of us, the Creator wouldn’t stir crises, cause disasters, and put humanity under the threat of exhausting our natural resources. He does it because of them.

We advance without needing this crisis since there is a force that is leading us forth. But for them, there has to be a force that will be pushing them from behind. This force is suffering.

Thus, when we address the masses, we have to offer them a method of how to resolve the global crisis in all areas of life, including family, education, drug abuse, depression, economy, climate change, and so on. We possess a method that makes it possible to correct all that’s bad so that we may feel good in this life, in this world.

We don’t say a word about the future world since people have no need for it whatsoever. If they hear anything about the spiritual side of the issue from us, they will write us off as mystics or madmen. Hence, we need to approach them adequately: without mentioning Kabbalah, the Creator and the created being, the purpose of creation, and so on.

We simply have a method, an instrument that can correct the current bad state, the crisis that is consuming the whole world. We have something to offer them; we know what to do. Nobody knows but us.
[42958]
From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/13/2011, “The Freedom”

Filed under: Crisis, Daily Kabbalah Lesson, Kabbalah Dissemination, Society, World - No Comments →

Question: There many groups and communities in the world which pursue all kinds of goals. Does a connection without the points in the hearts help people rise above egoistic desire?

Answer: The point in the heart is a desire to reveal the root; it is a part of the Creator from Above. I have a black point, the need for something that I can’t even define. In this life, I lack a sensation, an understanding: What is this life for? Why does it exist? Where is it from? What is its purpose ? Who is controlling me?

I start having questions about the purpose of life. It’s as if from Above, there is a thread wired to me, a channel of forces and the upper management, and I wish to attain it, to know the reason to live. I ask questions which a regular person is scared to ask, embarrassed to raise.

These questions eventually merge into one: “What is the meaning of life?” Without answering it, I don’t see why I should live at all. I need to break the lock on this “jewelry box.” And if my question digs into the very essence, the source of life, it means that I do have the point in the heart.

A person with the point in the heart comes to the group that studies this specific question: “How do I find the purpose of life, its source? How do I uncover the upper governance and join it with all that I am?” A person cannot quit half way on this path for his desire is toward the very essence of creation, and nothing will stop him now. He is ready to face the Creator and doesn’t succumb to any limitations. No matter how hard others may try to hold him or her back, no matter what they may say, the person just doesn’t care.

Such people come to the wisdom of Kabbalah.

There is another kind as well, those who are still thinking. Their point in the heart has also woken up, but it is still “wrapped” in all sorts of covers. So, they are satisfied by mysticism, holistic practices, eastern philosophies, meditation, vegetarianism, naturalism, and so on. All of these trends start with the same question, and this is why they are so popular in our times. On the subconscious level, man feels that it’s time to transcend somewhat, it is time to change…

Thus, gradually, we do advance. We have to wait until people check these directions. In the meantime, their desire grows, so little by little, they will quit their quests and come to the source, to the method that can reveal it to them. Such is the path.
[42964]
From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/13/2011, “The Freedom”

Related Material:
Being A Cogwheel Doesn’t Mean Being A “Schmuck”
We Know What To Do
The Point In The Heart Is The Trampoline For Leaping To The Creator

Filed under: Daily Kabbalah Lesson, Group Work, Inner Work, Kabbalah Dissemination, Meaning Of Life, Q&A, Spirituality - No Comments →

Question: How does the reading of The Book of Zohar help me to feel our collective desire?

Answer: The Zohar tells us about the corrected system of the connection between us. If I feel my connection with the others as uncorrected and desire to have it reformed, I study The Book of Zohar and in so doing wish to get elevated to its level, the level of the corrected connection.

I don’t know what the corrected state is and how I can ascend to it. I only know that I must reach the state The Zohar describes. I don’t understand what is written there; I don’t even have to know the language, it doesn’t matter.

What does matter is that I strive to be corrected. To be corrected means to unite with the group, the society, the others, and come to loving the others as I love myself. After all, love means oneness between us, when desires of the others and my own are one and the same. Then, we are unified.

It is written that if you have one pillow, you have to reach a state when you give it to the other. Why? It is because his desire has become more important to you than your own. Why is this regarded as loving the other as you love yourself? Since previously you loved yourself more than him and now you must love him just as you used to love yourself, it is more than yourself. And this is what we call the property of bestowal that dwells in man.

It seems unrealistic, appalling, and undesired. I have no idea what we are studying it for. And that’s how everybody thinks. But there is no choice. Gradually, the importance of the property of bestowal sinks deeper and deeper in us. We start seeing the highest and unique value in it and gradually, agree to live in it. This is how the Light affects us, especially when we are reading The Zohar. It descends and reforms our attitude to bestowal.
[42941]
From the 2nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/13/2011, The Zohar

Related Material”
Revealing The Light Of Infinity Between Us
Rising To Infinity
Love Is Mutual Inclusion

Filed under: Daily Kabbalah Lesson, Group Work, Inner Work, Q&A, Zohar - 1 Comment →

Writings of Baal HaSulam, Shamati #8 “What Is the Difference Between a Shade of Kedusha and a Shade of Sitra Achra”
Download: WMV Video|MP3 Audio

The Book of Zohar – Selected, Chapter, “Mishpatim,” Lesson 17
Download: WMV Video|MP3 Audio

Talmud Eser Sefirot Vol. 1, Part 1 “Histaklut Pnimit,” Lesson 15
Download: WMV Video|MP3 Audio

Rav Yehuda Ashlag “Peace in the World,” “In Practical Life, the Four Attributes Contradict One Another”
Download: WMV Video|MP3 Audio

Filed under: Daily Kabbalah Lesson, Zohar - No Comments →

We are all egoists. So how can we organize regular life in human society in a way where we won’t eat each other?

That is why people have agreed that we can’t manage alone, after all. Other people serve me in one way, and I serve them in some other way. Without that we just can’t manage. Once we understand this, we come to an agreement: Let’s do this without waiting for a disastrous situation. Let’s do it out of mercy: I give a little bit to you, and you give a little bit to me.

Suppose I am driving in a car and someone in front of me suddenly stops. Then I also have to stop. If there is someone standing in front of me in line, then I have to wait. I spend time, gas, and money on others because we have all agreed on mutual sympathy and have to pay for it.

We create funds to help one another, such as medical funds and retirement funds. A person understands that it’s worth it for him to pay the medical fund even if he is healthy because his egoism recognizes how it will benefit from this. That is how we make concessions ahead of time because we need each other. This is “mercy”: We are willing to bestow to others in specific ways because we won’t survive without them.

As a result, people divide into two categories: Some promote “mercy,” wishing for everything to be “pretty,” while others support the category of “truth,” which says: “Mine is mine and yours is yours.” So whose side is truth on? The answer is: neither.

However, if every person clings to what is his, then society is torn apart to pieces, whereas if we add mercy, then we can somewhat soften or sweeten the situation. As a result, human societies throughout history have differed from one another by the correlation of these two approaches.

Society can be softer or harsher. In its pure form, capitalism does not like to play around: If you earned it, receive what’s yours, but if you haven’t earned it, then you can starve to death. Others understand that this is not a solution because hungry people will come and rob you, and maybe will even murder you. So it’s worth it to give them something “out of mercy.”

That is how humanity develops, but it cannot achieve piece on this path. Granted, truth is the lot of the strong, and mercy is the lot of the weak, but justice stands in the middle as the foundation of the scale so our cups could sway to and fro.

That is how society keeps itself back from self-destruction, but this does not bring it any closer to real peace – to conciliation and mutual completion.
From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/15/11, “Peace in the World”

Filed under: Daily Kabbalah Lesson, Economy, Egoism, History, Society, World - 2 Comments →

Question: Does The Zohar talk about our one common soul or about separate souls?

Answer: The Zohar talks about the soul of one person. That’s because there is nothing else in all of reality besides one man, one soul, one creation, Malchut – it doesn’t matter what you call it.

And if it seems to us that there are many people, many desires that are separate and foreign, all of that comes from the lack of the right perception of reality.
From the 2nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/15/11, The Zohar

Related Material:
A Prayer For The Society Is A Prayer For Oneself
See What It Feels Like To Be Like The Creator
The Secret Of The Integral System

Filed under: Collective Soul, Daily Kabbalah Lesson, Perception, Q&A, Zohar - No Comments →

Question: Can the “evil inclination” make any autonomous movement?

Answer: The “evil inclination” and the Light work in unison since the “evil inclination” is the other side of the Light. It isn’t some desire that does whatever it pleases. It doesn’t exist in reality.

On the contrary, the Creator, with the help of the Light, awakes in a person all sorts of sensations or the dark states, which are regarded as the “evil inclination.” What personal desire can possibly be there in the world?! Who can possibly have it?! Nobody moves because they wish so!

Only in the degree of a person’s ability to recognize the “evil” and the “good” inclinations and stay in the state of faith above reason does he start to reveal some possibility to be free in that state. Free from what, the Creator? From the “good” or “evil” inclination? To be free means that a person voluntarily agrees to carry out the action that the Creator will perform anyway.

There is no reality that would be occurring on its own volition. The Light works upon everything decidedly and irrevocably, and it can’t be reasoned with. The additional element regarded as “man” is nothing but the fact that a person understands, feels, and agrees with the Creator’s actions. All we add is our agreement, so much so that the Creator demonstrates to us: “Do this instead of me!” and we do what He does. This depends on the level of one’s understanding, the height of his attainment.

What other option do you really have? Everything is predetermined, as it is written: “He that is banished be not an outcast from Him.” Everything is under His total control. Nothing works but the Light. We add our equivalence with the Light, with the Creator. And hence, in order to bring us to this awareness, the “evil inclination” was created so that we had a counter desire to speak against it: “I don’t want to!”

It is intentionally so, in order to give us an opportunity to examine and comprehend this—from the struggle between good and evil, from our unwillingness and disagreement, like a stubborn child who rebels against his parents.

But gradually, we search, agree, and realize how perfect everything is. And then, even if the Creator didn’t exist and neither did His power, I still wish for everything to be done the way He did it. This is regarded as a “complete righteous” who totally justifies the Creator. Let’s hope we will come to it one day.
[42857]
From the 2nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/12/2011, The Zohar

Filed under: Daily Kabbalah Lesson, Inner Work, Q&A, Zohar - No Comments →

In every state of ascent, you should immediately imagine a state of descent. If you are able to do so, you remain in an ascent longer than one instant. And that’s enough!

You already received this impression, made a “record” (Reshimo), and if you continue it further, you start to enjoy this state egoistically. It turns out that you not in control of it any more, you don’t finalize or aim it correctly as you did before, when you entered it. Instead, you simply start receiving pleasure from it, turning it toward your egoism.

If a state of ascent continues longer than one instant, and you have acknowledged it and are not going to add anything to it, you should view it as a descent. In spirituality, if you do not add, but stay in the same timeline, the same momentum, at the same height, you turn into zero. In spirituality, only acceleration counts, rather than speed.

And spirituality is in the group, the place where unity is achieved, since within our unity, we reveal the Creator. So, we need to constantly examine ourselves in reference to this unity. If I contribute in the group the impression of the importance of the group compared to my own lowliness in regard to it, the value of the goal, spiritual work, and the Creator being revealed in our unity, then I act in the right direction.

Suppose I’ve exerted effort in this direction and managed to reach a certain awareness pertaining to spirituality, the property of bestowal; I got to feel and understand something in my current state. But I cannot remain in the same state longer than an instant after I have experienced it emotionally and mentally. After all, the next moment, by realizing that I did understand and feel, that I achieved something, I will start feeling selfish pleasure. It will be serving the ego from that moment on.

Hence, at the very next moment, you have to immediately add more desire yourself and seek even more! But where does one get this kind of need to constantly strive for more? How can one not descend into to his desire to enjoy, by letting himself rest and delay and gaining pleasure from what’s been accomplished?

Rabash writes that if a person has felt a state of ascent, he must immediately seek explanation for it in the books and articles, dive into them with this newly achieved current desire, and attain this state deeper and deeper. A person does so in order to receive from it an additional desire that will allow him to continue ascending further.

In fact, if we don’t ascend, we fall! It’s impossible to crawl on the “straight path”; in spirituality, it doesn’t exist. It is written: “No instant is like another!” I must make it so that the next one is more exalted than the previous one.
[42876]
From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/12/2011, Writings of Rabash

Related Material:
Always Ask For More
Preparing For A Descent
A Descent Is A Joy

Filed under: Daily Kabbalah Lesson, Group Work, Inner Work - 1 Comment →