Question: Yesterday the Israeli Finance Ministry announced a cut in pensions of 10%. The economic situation is becoming more severe…

Answer: Since the day before yesterday we have not attracted the Light that Reforms which would correct our state to the same degree; instead of lowering 10% from the pension they would have added 10%. We are to blame because only we have free choice. If we had carried out a correction yesterday, today we would not hear about this.

What do you want from the government? The politicians and the government officials base themselves on facts: Here is the budget, here are the expenses, including the “hidden” manipulations, and this is what is left for the pension. And what will you do here?

Stop dreaming about a “fair budget.” We cannot come to them with claims. They are only arguing about where to get what’s missing. And understandably, they don’t collect taxes from the big tycoons and corporations. There is no nation in the world where they deprive the rich, rather the opposite, they only add more and more to them.

The authorities act according to their egoistic calculation and continue in the same way. Ten percent of the pension is nothing compared to what is standing ahead of us.

If you want changes, only the Light that Reforms can bring them. Therefore, understand—everything depends on you.

Behind the scenes the higher force acts and we are prepared to change its influence on us from negative to positive. It sends us the evil only so we will be “caught” in it, obligating it to be linked to us and correct us.

We need the Creator and until we understand this it is as if we are left in the hands of blind fate.
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From the 2^nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 8/14/13, Writings of Baal HaSulam

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Question: How is it possible to maintain the intention “for the sake of the friend” most of the time and the intention “for my sake” only for a little time?

Answer: We are found in the world of Assiya, the world of action, because we don’t have the right intention and we can awaken it only by means of action, by way of all kinds of movements in matter. Therefore it is written, “Hearts are drawn after deeds.”

Friends in the group need to feel your aspiration, you must give them an example. After all, when you show them your aspiration, the importance of the goal, you try in all kinds of forms, even shrewd ones to awaken the friends as if playing with them and unintentionally showing them your excitement; this also helps you somewhat. But the greatest help is dissemination.

It is written: “I learned much from my teachers, and from my friends even more than from my teachers, and from my  students, most of all.” (Masechet Ta’anit 7a). My teachers, this is the highest level, from them it is possible to learn only when you are found like an embryo (Ubar) in regard to them, and in the fetal state you can acquire only the Surrounding Light.

You enter into them, cling to the walls of the uterus and remain in this state for nine months. This is called the “fetus,” which is to say, totally unconscious development.

Within the fetus it is as if emotion develops, but the fetus itself doesn’t feel anything. It reacts, yet this is not its reaction, rather the reaction of the body in regard to what is higher, in regard to the teacher. In a form like this each one is found within the teacher like a fetus.

Relative to the friend, you are on the same level and the only action between you is connection. So interaction like this cannot be carried out with what is higher or with what is lower, because the coupling, the connection, can only be if someone is equal. This is to say, the forms of the desires, the intentions of the friends complete each other as in a puzzle.

The third level is when you teach. Then the Light descends on you because there is a group of students in front of you (a Kli), they open their mouths like chicks and you must feed them.

In this circumstance you draw the Surrounding Light onto yourself (not even you, rather them). Therefore it is written, “From my students I learned most of all.” Why most of all? – Because in the first case you receive the Surrounding Light (Ohr Makif), in the second case, you complete each other, which is to say Hassadim plus Hochma—a small illumination of perfection.

In the third case, you truly receive a great Light that the students attract through their desires, unconsciously, incorrectly, it doesn’t matter which, and this Light passes through you.

If we didn’t internalize this and would run to the world to disseminate, we would get tremendous results. And it doesn’t matter what is disseminated: integral education or the wisdom of Kabbalah. What difference does it make? The main thing is that in any case you must teach them what they want if they truly want this. Therefore, if we teach, disseminate, serve, bring connection, which is what we aspire to ourselves, then we get a positive result.

So what does the wisdom of Kabbalah exist for? To discover the Creator within connection. Therefore they do the same thing. So it is written that all the people who don’t feel the Creator will lift upon their shoulders those who have the “point in the heart” and will bring them to the mountain of the Creator, which is to say, they will elevate them. They will push, compel us, perhaps harshly, perhaps softly, so that we will be elevated and will provide them with the knowledge, the fulfillment that they require.
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From the St. Petersburg Convention “Day Three” 7/14/13, Lesson 5

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If we organize our life in a way that we live by helping each other as in a big family, then we will improve our level twice as much with the same resources. There will be such a difference, as if I started receiving a doubled salary, and it only depends on the connection between us.

Double benefit, the double fulfillment of AHP, will convince people. But we know that this is not the most important thing. The Creator awakens us not to get double fulfillment, but to correct the connection between us, and in it to reveal the upper force. The Creator is revealed not in us individually, but between us.

For the time being, it is called Lo Lishma. We attract a person through his material gain, and we are not deceiving him! He will really feel better, he will have more prosperity, more confidence, a more peaceful life.

We invest in this intention, that is, we are in the connections of this general crystal structure, and the rest of people are in its nodes, are its elements; everyone is still in his own desire. But it is only temporary, they will begin to value the connection between them, understanding that their salvation is in it. A person will begin to cherish this connection, honor it. He will understand that it is has a high value in itself and it is more worthwhile to hold onto it than to his own pocket.

This connection gives a heartfelt, inner satisfaction, uplifts a person’s spirit, gives a feeling of greater freedom and less anxiety. These are just egoistic motives that allow a person to rise above his problems. But later he will see that even without the pressure of problems, he wants to belong to this high feeling of unity. And then he is so imbued with it that he will agree to any problems only to keep this elevated feeling.

That is, he will begin to reveal the evil of egoism, will separate it from good, and will establish a barrier (Machsom), a screen (Masach) between them making the restriction, and organizing himself on the spiritual principle.

The main thing for us is to be in the connection of the structure and not to sink into its nodes, into its problems. We talk to people about their problems but only to think about how to reveal the good, correct connection in the system, and constantly reinforce it.
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From the Preparation for the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 8/15/13

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Question: If we had to clarify things according to truth or lie instead of bitterness and sweetness, will we discover that everything that is bitterness is actually the truth?

Answer: On the levels of the still, vegetative, and animate nature, sweetness is the truth and bitterness is a lie. People constantly clarify this point. We can see it especially with small children and when they grow up it becomes more concealed. The lie blurs the clarifications and they don’t seem so prominent any more.

It turns out that I can exert myself and seem like a real warrior, dedicated to some abstract idea, but it is all a lie. This abstract idea, this sublime cause simply seems so sweet to me and so I am prepared to do everything in my power to attain it. All our clarifications are aimed only at attaining sweetness. Actually we are not ready to lift a finger until the Upper Light enables us to do so which is called “faith above reason,” the force of bestowal.

Until then there is no way we can do anything if we don’t see any benefit in it for our desire to receive for the sake of sweetness. I can change one benefit for another thanks to the understanding, the recognition, the envy, the passion, the respect, the influence of the environment, the popular attitude, and out of the fear of what people may say about me and whether my friends would justify me.

All this affects my behavior, but only because my values change and what seemed to be bitter before doesn’t seem so anymore. It is because now I know that if I use this bitter thing, I will be awarded with the support of my environment, so it doesn’t seem so bitter anymore, but rather is felt as sweet.

The sweetness I feel from the environment that tells me how great I am, what a hero, and the fact that everyone wants to be my friend is now added to the bitter taste that I have felt. It turns out that I feel sweetness on a totally different level of taste. But still it is sweetness for which it is worthwhile to make an effort, and so I change.

It seems that I go through certain changes and corrections and that I ascend, but it all takes place in my desire to receive and nothing actually changes. The real change can only be by the Light that Reforms. When a person receives it, he feels what a change really is.

Therefore it is said, “Taste and see that the Lord is good.” Without tasting, we don’t see anything. You think that you are changing, but in fact, the changes are only on the level of this world. You may become more “human” and worry less about your corporeal body, but it is all thanks to your desire to enjoy that is simply more complex, deep, and egoistic, on more refined and disguised levels of the ego.

Everything is simple for a small child. If something is sweet, he wants it, and if it is bitter, he doesn’t want it. But a grownup can cope with bitter taste, and if it is justified and valued by society, he feels this bitterness as sweetness. Then he already thinks that he is big and special and that he has already corrected his taste, but in fact, he is still the same egoistic child but more cunning and corrupt.

This is how our life passes until we finally arrive at the recognition of evil. Thanks to all these changes, we turn the tastes that are bitter for a baby into sweetness for a grownup, but they do not contribute it to anything. We don’t reach the fulfillment of our desire this way.

On the contrary, we reach a point where the desire is totally empty and we have no means of changing ourselves in order to feel a certain pleasure. Thus humanity finally reaches a barrier, a critical point, where it has to decide that it needs the upper force that will change our reality and change us.

This means that we need the Light that Reforms, but people don’t know that it exists and so we have to explain to them that it is possible to change this reality and to rise together by the new consciousness that allows us to reach sweetness instead of the bitterness through the connection between people. There, in this connection we feel a new life.
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From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 8/13/13,Writings of Baal HaSulam

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Baal HaSulam, “A Handmaid That Is Heir To Her Mistress”: As a whole, the worlds are considered internality and externality. This is similar to a heavy load, which none can lift or move from place to place. Hence, the advice is to divide the load into small parts and subsequently transfer them one at a time.

So, corrections are carried out in sequence, one after the other. This is how we should relate to what happens in our world, in our state, and everything needs to be corrected in that way.

Before we turn to correcting the world, meaning our external vessels, desires, that belong to AHP, we have to concentrate and correctly unite as inner vessels Galgalta ve Eynaim. We need to correctly realize our common point in the heart so that it becomes strong and connected together. All its strength is related to how much it’s connected in all its parts. These parts take various forms, and our task is to unite them. This is the group and the mutual guarantee that we have to achieve.

As much as we can, we reveal outer circles around ourselves, which we should care about. And we continue until we encompass, “cover,” the entire reality of desire. Thus, our work is divided into two parts:

1. Unity of the group
2. Unification of this world.

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From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 8/15/13, Writings of Baal HaSulam

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We should see every moment of our existence as an opportunity for fulfilling our life, our existence, what this life and this reality were given to us for. Reality is arranged so that we, the created beings, will be able to attain our Creator. We have to become acquainted with Him from a state that is totally opposite from Him so that our attainment of Him will be as complete as He wants it to be.

This means that if the Creator wants us to attain Him to a certain extent that includes many sub-levels and individual revelations, then we have to be in a state of concealment in each of these sub levels. Since the concealment can be attained only by the opposite state, from being in a state of revelation, the descent into exile and the pulling away from the Creator is also gradual. The more we descend down the levels of concealment, the more we can attain the revelation from one level to the next.

If we were to imagine all of reality correctly, then there is nothing else to do but reveal the Creator! So in every action, in every state, in all our work, in the study, discussion, connection, and dissemination activities, all we lack is only this intention. The only thing we lack in every action is the desire for one outcome, to discover the Creator, the force of bestowal and love, and then we will be worthy of Him.

We prove our readiness by our efforts and the exercises that we perform between us. The only thing missing in all our work is the right intention before every action that we perform at any given moment. First we have to focus ourselves on the Creator, on His revelation. If we focus ourselves on Him, we can already understand how to establish the connection between these two points, between ourselves and the Creator.

The connection should be established from Him and not from us, from the force of bestowal and love. We should find out how to establish the systems that are adaptable for the revelation of the force of love and bestowal and what my inner vessel should look like so that it can reveal this attribute. In order to tune it, I begin to connect to others, connect the whole global soul to me: the still, vegetative, animate, and the human beings that are connected by me. Thus I create a place where the Creator and I can be together, where we have a chance of being revealed to one another.
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From the 3^rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 8/09/13, Writings of Rabash

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The main thing that we lack in order to succeed in our work is focusing our attention on the inner spiritual success, which means on the revelation of the Creator, rather than on external corporeal success. The revelation of the Creator should be our only goal, and all our work, dissemination, study and efforts at any given moment should become the means for attaining this goal.

It shouldn’t be the opposite! We don’t pray to the Creator that we should succeed in our dissemination or in our life. This is how all the religions operate when they turn to the Creator so that He will help a person in his corporeal life and fix things for him. We do the opposite: All we need in life is to succeed in one thing: in the revelation of the Creator, to connect to Him, and to feel that we bring Him contentment by doing so.

In the meantime, we lack this pure intention in all our actions. Even if it is artificial and doesn’t suit our mood and our feelings, still from Lo Lishma (not for its sake) we arrive at Lishma (for its sake). So in the meantime we express this desire only externally and look for the right words to express our intentions.

Although these intentions are not real yet and don’t come from inside, we want them to come from the bottom of our heart. We operate like small children who repeat the actions of the group without understanding anything. This penetrates us gradually until it becomes second nature and then we begin to feel the meaning of the words.

We can draw the Light that Reforms that will turn from the Surrounding Light into Inner Light even with desires that are not real at the moment. The structure of the spiritual ladder and the relationships between the spiritual Partzufim enable us to do that. Everything is intentionally ready so that we can evoke the action of the Light upon ourselves although we are not in the spiritual world yet.

So let’s first of all add the right intention to the great efforts that we make in our external actions. As it says “a Mitzvah without an intention is like a body without a soul.” If we want to perform a Mitzvah, which means a commandment from the Creator to adhere to Him, then we have to turn every action that we perform into a “sacrifice” – Korban (same root as “getting closer” – mitkarev in Hebrew).

The voice of the Creator will be revealed to us between the two angels, which are the two forces, the left and the right, receiving and bestowal, we will hear Him between the angels (as Moses did). We can do that if we work with our powers correctly: focusing on the intention of revealing the Creator in order to bring Him contentment in every action that we make, like a beloved person.
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From the 4^th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 8/09/13, Writings of Rabash

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If you come to a person at the right time when he has despaired and does not know how to switch to new criteria in order to experience the sweetness rather than bitterness, then he will listen. That is the essence of the crisis.

Previously, we have always looked for and found the means to do this, due to this, humanity grew and advanced, like children who grow because of their toys that become more goal-oriented, and thus they change their tastes, understanding, and awareness of what is called sweet and what is called truth.

And when we reach the end of egoistic development, we discover that we are in a bitter state, which is impossible to turn into the sweet one. There is neither truth nor false that can help in this and change us so that we feel sweetness instead of bitterness.

Here we come with our method of integral education and explain that there is a force: the force of connection between all people. Due to it, we will achieve sweetness that simultaneously will be truth. This sweet truth is revealed not in someone individually, but within our common unity.

People will not be able to reveal this knowledge. Even if they begin to unite with each other, everything will turn into either a circus or a criminal gang; nothing good will happen.

We must be aware that if we do not succeed in our mission, then in the future, criminal association awaits our world, that is, the Nazi regime, about which Baal HaSulam warns in the article “The Last Generation.”

If our method of integral education is not successful, then the world will be won by the fascist doctrine, which is also based on the sweetness derived from unity. But this unity is founded on hatred of others. The whole world then is divided into two halves: mine and all the rest. And we are building our unity not on the love of others but on the hatred of others, and inside it we find sweetness.

Although this Nazi approach is contrary to the goal of creation and development of nature and cannot hold out for long, this possibility exists for a short time.
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From the 4^th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 8/13/13, Writings of Baal HaSulam

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Question: Is it worthwhile to understand that, essentially, there is no free choice now?

Answer: Indeed, in our times, there is no free choice. The world is deteriorating while we are standing on the side watching. This is not good. Humanity is apparently sliding downward and we need to try to hold them, to stop them.

I say this seriously. I feel as though I have gigantic hands or I have a gigantic net in my hands, and I must stop everyone because they are being drawn downward, and if left unchecked, they will pull us after them. This is not desirable. The program of nature, the program of the Creator, cannot be changed.

He is like a loving and strict father Who takes His belt in hand and begins to teach His rebellious son.
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From the St. Petersburg Convention “Day Three” 7/14/13, Lesson 5

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A series of lessons of integral education, based on the two courses of the Intensive English Program of the English Language Institute was completed at Westchester Community College in New York. Both experimental classes attended by about forty students allowed them to build a semblance of a good environment.

These informal, non-credit courses are based on intensive teaching of the spoken language for students who came to the US to study business, engineering, and medical research, etc. Among them there were several future Catholic priests, a scuba diving instructor, tutors, and nannies, as well as young people, preparing themselves to a variety of occupations in the United States.

The average age of the group was 25 years; the level of previous education ranged from high school to graduate studies. Geographic demographics included: 30% – Asian (China, Korea, Japan), 40% – Latin and South American, 5% – Middle Eastern (Syria, Iran, United Arab Emirates), 2% – African, 3% – Haitian, 20% – European, North American, and Russian.

The advanced level of the language and students’ education allowed building a program based on the integral education training and “The New Life” interviews with Dr. Michael Laitman about life in the future world. The students were meeting with the teacher and each other at the class three hours a day, five days a week for three months, allowed the teacher to use the language more freely as a tool of presenting our material and giving the students a sense of interrelationship, the desire to be integrated, and an understanding of the new world and their role and potential for achieving happiness and good future together.

The students were given the training materials in disseminating integral education, articles, and videos for discussion. The students had fun playing games, constantly worked in groups, and created five team projects with visual presentations to demonstrate their understanding and perception of what they had learned and to share their feelings and impressions with the class.

The course contained more than ten topics, including: the difference between leadership and authority, a better way to success, whether competition is beneficial for children, how to find balance between us and nature, what a grownup person, is and others. The more they worked together, the closer to each other they became and the more deeply they felt how they are similar despite differences in ethnicity and what their common hopes for the future are.

Two weeks ago, the director of the program came to see the work in the classroom for an hour and half, and he happened to watch a team presentation on the topic of success. The students studied the success of various famous people and found that their success depended on the overall contribution of people connected to one goal, one vision, and loyally to the cause as a family.

What surprised the director, as well as the teacher, was that some of the participants completed their portion of the presentation by saying that schools teach them many things, but no one teaches them to live and love and that is what they would like to continue studying. Later, the program director said that he was impressed by the fact that the students had learned to work well together well, harmoniously on complex problems.

The session ended with screening of the movie Crossroads with group discussions in circles, sharing experiences and using games. The movie Crossroads was used as a visual, academic material, and the students loved the film. After coffee, watching a movie, and the activities, the students were asked to share their conclusions of what we need to survive in the world and to build a better future.

Almost everyone answered “to change oneself and to start to be integrated with other people.” Although during the entire term they were immersed in the topic of integral education, after seeing the movie, they found more accurate formulas of how to change the world through oneself – beginning with small actions in their immediate environment, in the classroom, at home, with friends, at work, and in their countries where they may soon return to.

It is hoped that a few months of training in integral education and a good environment gave these young people, but not such naïve representatives of the people of the world, useful information about life and feelings that will help them determine what they want from their future and what needs to be done to stop being afraid of it.

Currently, a few college teachers are working together to structure an official integral education course, possibly with credit in the new future, to include the course in the college, and then to make a proposal to the New York State Education Department and other states in the US in order to help launch a reform of the education system.

The photos show: a team presentation “How to Come to Equilibrium Between Man and Nature,” the screening of the movie Crossroads and related events.
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