Question: We are going to have an international convention soon in which we will celebrate the publication of The Book of Zohar adapted to the new generation. What does this mean?

Answer: By working with this book we are aware, understand, and feel that we have a source of power that belongs to the upper nature, to the force that manages everything to the smallest detail, to the smallest cell, to the last atom. The Book of Zohar has a special quality that allows us to connect to this force and to be inspired by it. Thus we will be able to understand and feel it and work according to it.

We have no other key or connecting channel, other than The Book of Zohar. All the other Kabbalah books were actually written so that we would approach the main book and use it correctly. So we celebrate the publication of Zohar For All.

We have to understand that we are on the verge of a new era, moving on to a level of a new development. We have to disseminate this book all over the world, and produce many other supplementary materials that will serve to bring people closer to it.
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From the 4^th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/17/13, Writings of Baal HaSulam

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Question: The friends are trying to convince me to change my opinion and agree with the group. This upsets me because I forgive them their mistakes and am ready to continue our path together with them. Why don’t they admit that I may have an opinion different from the group? It is unpleasant.

Answer: Of course, it’s unpleasant. Tomorrow, the friends may come to you and say that the group has decided to wear the same uniform: a clown hat and waistcoat, one half blue and the other red. What would you say?

It’s not some kind of a rational argument about what path to take where opinions are divided and both parts include many people. So you could agree with any of them, and in any case you must not follow the opinion of society: one or the other, if not with the “communists,” then with the “capitalists.” There is no problem because society accepts both.

But what if tomorrow the group tells you something that generally is not accepted in society? You say that you cannot walk around in a clown hat, then what can you do? It’s impossible that some are wearing caps and others are without them; the group should be homogeneous. My actions must get closer to the goal. If according to Baal HaSulam, the goal requires such a path, then we will have to do it.

Comment: I would continue to be your friend but without a cap!

Answer: But then you are not a friend to us. The word “friend” (Haver in Hebrew) comes from the world “connection” (Chibur). If you do not agree with us, then you cannot be our friend. As unreservedly as you accept the duty to walk around in a clown cap, you have to accept the duty to disseminate integral education.

In general, this should not be a question for you. There is a mentor who decides, and this mentor is not me but Baal HaSulam. I just explain his ideas and we should just carry them out. If a person does not do that, then why should he be with us and waste time? He will gain nothing because he goes with us only where his egoism allows him. As soon as egoism protests and it’s necessary to advance a bit above reason, he cannot overcome this.

I do not disregard these people because they have a strong opinion. If they conquer its resistance, they will make good progress. But if they do not conquer it, they will just be a nuisance for everyone else. This is drilling a hole in the shared boat. Thus, they have no place in our boat of mutual guarantee.

The path is built from a set of points, each of which does not stand out from the rest, but is connected with the previous and the next. Thus, together they form a line. Only in this way will this trail take you to the entrance to the royal palace.

In everything else where your egoism reigns, on the left and on the right sides of the path, you can agree with the group. But all this does not belong to the spiritual path. You only need these disputed points from everything that there is in front of you. Therefore, Baal HaSulam writes that he is glad that sinners are revealed. It would not be possible to advance without this revelation. Precisely it’s the revealed sinners that come to the holiness of the day. Due to the Light that sanctifies the path, you suddenly see obstacles in front of you and rejoice in their revelation.

I am therefore delighted to see how these sinners are revealed in the students, because without this, they would have nothing to work on. If you do not want this work, you can go to a different place, the religion of Hasidism. There, you would not be required to overcome in faith above reason, and you would just study.

Here, you will not manage without the power of the group and the force of the Creator in order to attract the Light that Reforms. You are obliged to stand with friends around Mount Sinai, the mountain of hatred, and despite it, desire to unite. This is the condition of receiving the Torah, the Reforming Light that shines from the top of the mountain.
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From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/13/13, Writings of Baal HaSulam

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Question: It is said a thousand enter a room and only some are honored with the discovery of the Creator. Therefore I am overcome by fear, do I have the potential to discover the Reshimot?

On the one hand, I understand that spiritual work is a great benefit and at the same time I cannot be released from the fear. How must one work with this?

Answer: We know that hundreds of millions of people want to be rich, famous, and in control. How many of them attain that goal?

The spiritual goal is compulsory for all. The expression that a thousand enter a room and only one attains the goal belongs to the Kabbalists from the previous generations. In those times it wasn’t required that everyone attain the spiritual worlds and those individuals who merited this acted according to very complex laws. They had to maintain very rigid and difficult conditions in order to enter the upper world.

In our day, every housewife, every simple guy from South America, from Siberia, from Israel, from the United States, and from other regions can attain this without any preparation; the desire simply ignites within them and this is everything. We are entering a state like this where everyone without exception must advance to the goal.

We even turn to those who don’t have this desire, in order to awaken it in them and prevent forward advancement under the influence of suffering because the world is already in a threatening state; we see where everything is advancing. Therefore the condition in which, “a thousand enter and one goes out” is not relevant for us. Today everyone must go out into the spiritual world even those who have not yet entered, not to mention those who are like us.

Today this condition doesn’t work, forget it. The Kabbalists simply reminded us of that to spur us on a little bit, for in spite of it all, one must relate to this very seriously. This is within our power.

The Kabbalists are apparently telling us, act in those frameworks in which you can and then you will succeed. This is saying that you must dedicate all of your spare time to inner work. At least it’s necessary to try to direct our intention to this all the time.
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From the Moscow Virtual Convention “Unity Without Boundaries” Day One 12/13/13, Lesson 1

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The method of integral education is a tool that no politician or government possesses. It allows every person to change his life, society, and life of the world since every component in this system affects all the others.

Everything begins from the environment of an ordinary person. He should try to change himself despite the fact that he resists it and curses everything from morning till night, swearing and hating everyone, thinking that everyone uses him, it doesn’t matter!

He won’t change the world. Enough chewing and spitting it out all the time; what’s the use? This isn’t wise. Let’s change ourselves! Let’s see what it will lead to.

If we create a healthy area in some part of the integral system that suddenly begins to function correctly, it will reflect on the whole body. We will see that the government, our neighbors, and people who live on the other side of the world will begin to think differently since we have healed part of the system.

Question: But in a sick body, we can’t create a separate healthy part.

Answer: Imagine that it is possible. How does one get well? It isn’t that the whole body is suddenly healed. First one part doesn’t hurt, and then another; the systems begin to balance one another and to work one for the sake of the other.

You wish to say that if something happens in the integral system, it doesn’t affect that specific part but rather the whole system. This is true, you are absolutely right. But the current integral system is bad and I create a good integral system within it without creating a partition between the two, and so it begins to work.

We spur on a totally different force in our small system that doesn’t exist in our system; the force of the connection between us. By ascending above the egoistic system we begin to cultivate the altruistic force in us. This is because the altruistic force is inside the egoistic force and we humans have to bring it out by ourselves and begin to implement and manage it.

What’s more, the external system cannot affect us since we ascend above it. This is called “faith above reason,” or “love and bestowal above hate.” When we unite, the world around us doesn’t affect us since this whole world is made of egoistic vectors that operate on one plane, while we ascend above them and work on a totally different level.
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From Kab TV’s “An Integral World” 10/24/13

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I have often said and today we can actually see that millions of people are finding themselves outside the circle of active life. They receive minimal benefits, stay at home, and don’t know what to do.

A person regresses and degrades! If he doesn’t work for a couple of months, not to speak of several years, he is incapable of doing anything. He becomes an unproductive part of society since he loses the ability to work. Work builds a person! The search, the tension, and the study!

So he regresses and gradually degrades and simply becomes a mass of protein. What should we do about it?! They will go out to the streets and destroy everything. We already see that.

What is more, the next, scariest phase is beginning now: The middle class, the backbone of society, is disappearing. Factories will be shut down, production will stop and everything will begin to decline. What will happen next? They will also be given food rations. But they are used to a different standard of living! Will the golden billion, or even less, stay afloat and all the rest live on food stamps (for needy families with low income) for their “free lunch”? What will happen to these people?! After all, there is no system that can deal with them!

Perhaps the governments believe in feeding people with drugs by making marijuana legal, etc. This is not a solution!

I am not looking at this from a humanistic perspective or sympathetically: “What will become of the six billion people?!” I look at things from the perspective of non-compliance with nature’s law of development!

The regression of humanity will bring about greater sufferings. A person will not be allowed to just sit on the couch watching some TV program, smoking pot while being served his weekly meal.

Nature will not allow that, since nature’s plan is to bring all of nature to an integral state, which is the law of development that cannot be nullified. Nature must bring us to a state of becoming equal to it, to turn us into integral members in an integral society, each one by himself and all of us together. So you can’t just get rid of six billion people by putting them on drugs and food rations. Nature will lead them onward. It has to bring man to a state of being equal to it! A person has to become a human being.

This can only happen by balancing all the systems. The different parts of our world, like the still, vegetative, animate, and speaking nature, have to reach a state of balance, which means mutual support, homeostasis.

Bringing a person to the lowest state, however, is not homeostasis. The most important thing is to consciously raise ourselves to the level of a human being that is made of two opposite attributes: an egoistic one and an altruistic one, and operating in mutual cooperation by balancing them.
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From Kab TV’s “An Integral World” 10/24/13

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Baal HaSulam, “Disclosing a Portion, Covering Two”: This means that the secrets of the Torah are revealed only to those who fear His Name, who keep His Glory with their hearts and souls, and who never commit any blasphemy. This is the third part of the concealment of the wisdom.

This part of the concealment is the strictest, as this kind of disclosure has failed many. From the midst of those stem all the charmers, whisperers, and “practical” Kabbalists, who hunt souls with their cunningness, and the mystics, who use withered wisdom that came from under the hands of unworthy students, to draw bodily benefit for themselves or for others.

The wisdom of Kabbalah is different from all the sciences of the world. Any other science is available to anyone at least to some extent, and if you don’t understand it today, then you will understand tomorrow. It doesn’t matter who you are by nature, you don’t have to change your character. For instance, a physicist may be a Nazi and misanthrope, or conversely, radiate kindness and generosity. In short, in every field of knowledge a person can move forward without changing himself.

On the other hand, the science of Kabbalah is attained only in the corrected vessels, meaning desires in the corrected properties. Therefore, people who just live in this world don’t understand it. How should I change myself? What should I change in myself? Indeed, regular studies do not help in Kabbalah, and lab experiments and practical parts acquire a very different character here. In this science, actions are performed not on a physical level and the analysis is conducted not by our present mind.

As a result, people don’t understand what the science of Kabbalah is. It really is hidden from them. It’s not even clear what it requires to overcome this threshold.

Kabbalists initially hid their books, wanting to save people from confusion. Indeed, many would study Kabbalistic texts in a vain attempt to get to the truth. “Maybe it is necessary to read at a certain time of day? Or perhaps memorize?” To avoid this, Kabbalists hid their science from humanity as if it never existed, and succeeded in doing so until a certain time, although problems still arose when some knowledge leaked out here or there.

So, the wisdom of Kabbalah is not understood by humanity or philosophers, and is incomprehensible to scientists. After all, before revealing the upper world, a person must change himself. But people, alien to this approach, have decided that it’s sufficient just to read Kabbalistic books.

The same thing happened with the Torah, which everyone rearranged in his own way, creating religions and beliefs to his taste and thus turning the “elixir of life” into the “potion of death.” Indeed, with this approach, we just destroy ourselves, sink into a greater egoism. Instead of attracting the Light, people prefer the “traditional” use of the primary sources in the hope that this will satisfy their self-love. Meanwhile, the Torah is given only to correct the heart in which the evil inclination rules.

In addition, there is another problem; Baal HaSulam writes that many, including scientists, still believe that simply by reading a Kabbalistic text, they understand what is written. People do not see the need to get a new mind; to become imbued with a new spirit, new feeling, and new attitude; to change their mentality, outlook; and to change their inner world. Without changing internally, they regard themselves as experts, write theses, and in general, talk “competently” about Kabbalah.

It’s a pity if a person stumbles on this shallow external approach to the issue. After all, only one who can first correct his own properties can understand Kabbalistic books. The science of Kabbalah was opened for everyone’s studies only in our days only for inner correction with the help of the Light that Reforms. Therefore, he who studies not to attract this Light for self-correction still doesn’t know what the Torah and its internal part, the science of Kabbalah, are. If a person doesn’t aim in this direction, the “elixir of life” turns in the “potion of death” for him.

Thus, not only do various “philosophers” reflect on the science of Kabbalah, but they also move away from the truth and confuse others. This is a pity when the thing that Kabbalists wanted to prevent takes place. Obviously the world needs a long path of correction before we are able to get rid of this debilitating flaw.
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From the 4^th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/16/13, Writings of Baal HaSulam

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The wisdom of Kabbalah is separate from all the rest of the sciences and human activities in this world. It is concealed from people. Simply studying the sources will not help us understand it. Kabbalah is not given to be learned alone for it requires personal guidance which will make it possible to truly learn it and attain what is said in the books.

Kabbalah is not just a science; rather, it is the wisdom of creation. And it is revealed with the help of a unique force that reaches a person, changes him, and fills him with the “Light” of the intellect and emotion, fills the brain and the heart. Only then does a person encounter the wisdom of Kabbalah and become a Kabbalist. And what he receives is called “Torah” or “The Light that Reforms.” This Light corrects him and gives him another nature compatible with discovery of the higher world. Within our present nature we discover only “this world,” the lowest level, which, in fact, doesn’t exist since it is entirely drawn by illusory perception of the desire to receive. When we acquire a desire to bestow, at this level, it will simply disappear.

The wisdom of Kabbalah talks about the entire process that a person must undergo to acquire characteristics that are compatible with a higher level; that is, the desire to bestow through which he will feel reality.

And the path begins from this world, specifically from the lowest level, where the person is completely detached from what he must attain. First of all it is up to him to correct his instruments of perception, and after that begin to investigate what he received and what he discovered. From here the advancement begins until a person reaches the source of all the Kelim, vessels, desires, and all the fulfillments within them, which is the Creator.

In order to bring the person to such a lofty result, the Kabbalists wrote books for us.

There are auxiliary books that talk about psychological discernments, like “Shamati,” “Dargot HaSulam,” “Shlavei HaSulam,” and the articles by Rabash and Baal HaSulam.

Likewise there are purely Kabbalah books like, The Book of Zohar with the Sulam Commentary, The Study of the Ten Sefirot or “The Tree of Life” by the Ari. The Kabbalists wrote them from an attainment of the upper worlds with new properties. They write them about what they feel, what they perceive, and what is not known to us.

But when we read these books, we can adapt ourselves; yearn to reach those emotions, those corrections, within our senses. And then the reading arouses the Light that Reforms on us, which is the Torah, that is, instruction, the method. When it reaches us, it corrects our intentions from “to receive” to “to bestow,” and then we can discover phenomena of a different order of magnitude and discover the “upper world.” Of course, this is not talking about distant galaxies or distant times; rather, it is about the comprehension of a qualitatively new reality.

I don’t know where the Light appears from; I don’t feel it; but I feel the phenomena it arouses. I begin to be changed; I suddenly feel a chain of elevations and descents, different states.

And after I am changed, I discover a higher reality, and then by reading in those books, I truly begin to be aware of what is written in them. Now I can point to those details that they describe.

Suppose that I bought a large and complex machine. Even though I have don’t understand the principles of its operation, but I have a technical approach and am ready to understand the instructions. With the help of the written instructions, I begin to become familiar with the diagrams and to understand the structure of the system until I learn it all.

The same thing happens to us in the second stage where we see the spiritual system and learn to work with it. This is practical, true work already, on the level of the upper world.

And in addition to that, the two main stages (the attraction of the Light that Reforms and the practical knowledge) are divided into a multitude of stages with accompanying conditions. For example, the wisdom of Kabbalah was forbidden for public consumption except for those who were already “ripe” for it.

In general, development must begin from zero, from the “big bang,” from which afterwards the substance of the still, vegetative, and animate were gradually developed  In continuation from the ape, which is the most developed in the world of the animate, emerged the human who ultimately reaches the final level of egoistic development. In other words, we are compelled to renounce, to disqualify ourselves, to recognize our evil, and only then are we ready for and worthy of the wisdom of Kabbalah.

We see from the experience of history that we have always developed according to this scheme. For example, I move to a village, get involved with farming, building a home, a family, giving birth to children, buying cows and sheep, and after ten or fifteen years, or even less, I am fed up with it. Enough, I don’t want to continue anymore; I need something more than this. So I leave the farm and move to a city and start everything anew.

In other words, all development is based upon the nullification of the previous level and a desire to ascend to the next level. We must hate the present state. On the social scale this brings revolution and on the international scale the matter causes wars that sometimes continue for decades. We must always despair of the present state in order to pass to the next state.

So when will humanity despair of its egoistic development based upon reception “in order to receive” and move to altruistic development with an intention, “in order to bestow”?

The Kabbalists determined that this would occur in the twentieth century, after a number of conditions were established including the return of the people of Israel to its land. And then the time would arrive for the revelation of the wisdom of Kabbalah.

Baal HaSulam also talked about this. We received permission to return to the land of Israel and also to reveal the wisdom of Kabbalah. But not everyone will receive this permission but only certain people. For there are people who were not given a desire and there are those who have no connection to this. Other people were given a desire but were forbidden to realize it. But there are those who received the knowledge and it is also possible for them to act. More than this, divine providence pushes them in various ways to the discovery of the wisdom of Kabbalah as the generation is already suitable for this.

Therefore, Baal HaSulam writes that all that he attained and discovered wasn’t derived from his personal achievements but because of the generation that was already required for this discovery.
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From the 4^th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/6/13, Writings of Baal HaSulam

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Question: How is the desired picture of the future reflected in the textbook of integral education? Where is humanity headed?

Answer: The desired future of humanity is to learn systemic balance from nature.

Taking the entirety of nature as a standard, we need to make human nature integral like this, as it is in the world that surrounds us, for we are the most developed inner part of nature but egoistically developed, and this says that it is very bad. No matter what we do, we only destroy the space surrounding us. Therefore, if we begin to learn the integral laws of nature and want to live in harmony with it, this will be the best solution for our problem.

An integral society must live on two levels because a person consists of two parts: the physical body and the spirit that pulls him forward. This spirit now possesses an egoistic form. How can we balance it?

Our body must get all that it requires from nature in order to function normally, whereas the spirit—that is, our desires and yearnings—must be balanced because now they are egoistic. For this, we must place the good of society above our own good and feel ourselves as an integral component of this entire system.
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From Kab TV’s “An Integral World” 10/24/13

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We must formulate the integral method in an easy form from beginning to end. In fact, there is nothing complicated or complex about it. It speaks about the inner psychological structure of a person and about how he adapts himself to this world and uses it to change himself and enter into harmony with the environment that surrounds him.

A complex book would confuse a person. Therefore, it is necessary to formulate the material as simply as possible, for even to the greatest minds, these ideas are very complex. I say this from experience in meeting with many well-known people.

However, we are not writing a textbook for the common people. It is designed for the regular modern person who still does not understand what is happening to him even if is a genius.

The idea is that it is very difficult to destroy stereotypes. Therefore, we suggest a person close his eyes and throw himself into the group, like from a diving board into a pool, and only then will he begin to interact mutually with the group, without any preconditions, rejecting all of his stereotypes, and enter there like a small and naked person. He will begin to feel that there is an additional power in nature that we haven’t used. This is the power of society, the power of unity, the power of mutual guarantee.

If we begin to use it, our egos will transform from the evil inclination to the good inclination. If we implement the ego in the right way, we can correct it. To do this, it grew even more seventy years ago, and now it is beginning to outgrow itself, to digest itself like a cancer in the human body. If we begin to manage it in the right way, we will heal it. We have no other choice. Otherwise we will die.
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From Kab TV’s “An Integral World” 10/24/13

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Question: The modern person lives in a very complex state where the old models of behavior no longer work. Therefore, instinctively he searches for something new. In this sense, the model of integral behavior can interest him, but the nature of the matter is that he requires some kind of practical implication for this model.

Answer: Give me a practical egoistic significance.

Don’t be shy and hide from the word “egoistic.” In what way is our model worthwhile for the person? In the fact that, with its help, the altruistic balance of the ego is attained.

In order to acquire an altruistic characteristic, he somehow must sacrifice his ego. However, this is not a sacrifice because he reaches a circle of people, without any obligation and without signing anything. He is ready to listen and talk with the others. Moreover, they are completely unfamiliar people who are gathered and the meeting is not linked to eating and drinking, and not dating and courtship.

It is desirable to choose people who are more or less alike because we are talking about unity and integrality and people who are closest to integrality are similar to each other because it is easier for them to connect and unite between them.

In that, we begin to work with them. We don’t impose any preconditions on them. On the contrary, we say that their ego will only benefit from this.

Question: How do we show this to them?

Answer: We don’t show it in any form. Come and convince yourself! You will feel better; have a sensation of warmth, more security, more safety, an easier life, and will learn to overcome difficulties. It will be easier for you psychologically to endure whatever happens in this world.

First and foremost, we give you a new psychological basis through which you can overcome most problems because you will become protected. Certainly, a protected person feels healthier and happier, his productivity increases, and relationships improve at work, in the family, and so forth.

That is, we are not selling a “pig in a poke” to a person. Rather, we tell him that he will feel exactly this, and it could be even after the first practical lesson.
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From Kab TV’s “An Integral World” 10/24/13

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