Baal HaSulam, “Introduction to The Book of Zohar,” item 4: Hence, those who claim that because of our lowliness and nothingness it is not fitting for Him to watch over us, and therefore, He has left us, do nothing but display their ignorance. Try to imagine, if you were to meet some man who would create creatures, precisely so they would suffer and agonize their whole lives as we do, and not only that, but cast them behind his back, not wanting even to look after them, to help them a little. How contemptible and low you would regard him! Can such a thing be thought of Him?

We are very limited in our feelings and cognitive abilities, in our self-perception, and in perceiving what is above us such as the laws of time and place. So of course we cannot accurately understand and establish the right attitude to life and to the Creator.

It isn’t by chance that it says: “Don’t show a fool a job that is half done.” Seeing only a small part of reality, can we determine the general picture? Even in our lives there are different states. Most cannot even imagine in advance that one state will pass and will turn into the opposite state. So if we speak about what is concealed from us, is it possible to come to any conclusions?

I believe, however that it doesn’t stop us. Kabbalists want to save us hard labor, blows, and the prolonging of time, so they tell us from the beginning that the Creator is good and benevolent and that He is in a state of absolute rest. After all perfection is not subject to change; on the contrary, all the changes take place in us. They will occur one way or the other, but we can determine the form they will take.

You can assess the changes egoistically by measuring how much pleasure they bring you and you can also assess them differently, according to how close they bring you to the One who bestows—to what extent you’ve managed to resemble Him. If you assess the changes according to how much you receive, you will suffer until you learn to assess the states you are in and life itself by other values, according to your closeness to the Creator and your similarity to Him. According to this calculation, the degrees of your ascent as a man (Adam) that resembles (Domeh) the Creator will be built. This in fact is the whole point.

So there is a beginning, the process itself, and an end. The events occur and you have no say, and you don’t determine how you will change either. You only have to determine your feeling: How do you accept the inevitable changes? This is the only thing that depends on you.

People who accept their development as desirable are called “righteous.” Those who resist this development and don’t want it are called “wicked.” Accordingly, we feel good or bad: The feeling of life, our development, reality, everything depends on how you aim or “calibrate” yourself to perceive what is happening. Of course, whatever has to happen will happen, but depending on your internal calibration called correction, you can feel the full range of emotions from minus Ein Sof (Infinity) to plus Ein Sof. Everything depends on the degree of your agreement with what is happening.

It is by that, that the wisdom of Kabbalah helps us. If a person agrees with the changes and the corrections, if he wants to be corrected and to accept all the new steps as desirable, if he even wants to hasten these states so that they will pass as fast as possible and is ready to accept whatever the future brings “above reason”, above all the calculations, since he is already in a state of faith and bestowal, then it doesn’t matter what actually happens at the moment. In this case a person hastens the development, feels it as special, sublime, and wonderful, and this is desirable in the eyes of the Creator.

Everyone should reach this form of development, and until then, we won’t advance since we cannot advance in a bad way. A person can simply stand still, receiving new troubles and sufferings each time on the present level, until he agrees to change himself and to establish the right attitude towards his development. So on every level a person either prepares oneself in advance to the changes or accepts every change as a blow, which cause him to change under the pressure of different forces. In any case, the changes are necessary, and so consciously or under a shower of blows, a person will be compelled to accept the development as a wonderful and desirable thing.
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From the 4^th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 6/17/12, “Introduction to The Book of Zohar”

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Today, essentially there are no family relationships. Even if there is a family, everyone in the family feels as a separate element, independent from his or her partner. Moreover, children feel independent from their parents or at least very much want to be. And parents do not want children to burden them.

Under the rule of egoism, we have unwillingly destroyed the foundation of the family, so-called the building of the family. Therefore, we need to do something about this for the sake of our future. If today up to 70% of young people don’t want to get married and raise children, we are facing by no means a rosy prospect. I am not mentioning the fact that there will be no one to feed the aging population; we are confronting this now, especially in Europe.

We must restore the charm of family life because this doesn’t exist today! Everything is done involuntarily: Women might still want to have children, but men are passive, they want nothing.

Integral upbringing tells a person about the connection between people, leading him to connection with others. He suddenly begins to feel affection and love, feeling towards other people, and starts feeling others more than before. And today, people no longer feel each other; they just communicate via text messages.

Integral upbringing generates good feelings towards others and evokes a kind of feedback sensor: a person becomes more sensitive to how others relate to him, how he relates to how close to or distant he is from others. He begins to respond with more feelings, and thus a sense of need in other people, lost due to egoism, is awakened in him.

He feels a source of warmth, joy, success, and confidence in this, and not in closing himself in his apartment like in a shell, and providing himself with a pension, healthcare, and other programs, so that everything will be fine. The need for warmth, empathy, and mutual contact that integral upbringing cultivates in him will lead him to his desire to recreate a family.
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From a “Talk on Integral Upbringing” 5/22/12

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Since our nature is the desire to receive and to be filled (to fill our corporeal desires for food, sex, and family; and our human desires for money, respect, control, and knowledge), our ego revealed in these desires was constantly developing and determining the advancement of humanity since ancient times until the middle of the 20th century. So, we have been constantly changing, and at the same time changing our society, developing technology, industry, and family and social arrangements, and so on.

Starting from the middle of the 20th century, the ego stopped its linear growth and started to grow round, which means to become egoistically global. And so, we discover that nature around us is opposite from us, that is, it is altruistically global (in bestowal). These two systems are now in a conflict.

Our role is to make sure that they will not be in a conflict and will not negate one another; otherwise, humanity will begin to destroy itself by summoning an undesirable negative influence from nature. It is important that humanity becomes more like nature and in harmony with it.

This means that the development of the ego has reached its end. For a long time, it has pushed us forward; we believed that it was the way to change the world and to do whatever we want with it, and now this has come to an end.

Now the world, nature, is turning against us, demanding that we change. So we have to switch from changing our environment to changing ourselves.

This is very difficult and it is impossible to agree to it, but we see that many people in the world have already reached this conclusion.

The integral education method is built to tell, explain, reassure, and convince people that it isn’t difficult to change one’s self under the influence of the environment and the society. If we operate this way, we will create a harmonious society and a life that will open new heights to us.
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From a “Talk on Integral Upbringing” 5/22/12

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When time after time a man is rejected from unity and he is yearning for it again, he is going through a chain of situations that are called “exile.” He begins to feel more and more that this is exile. Exile from what?

Here there is a whole series of clarifications: exile from the good state, exile from understanding, and exile from what can fulfill my ego. But I begin to receive everything in spite of all this. It is not important to me what I should feel. Even if I will not feel anything, the main thing is that I will rise above this state so the exile for me will be the lack of the quality of bestowal is in me.

When I annul myself, I stop feeling my state. If I annul my “I” (my personality): I do not exist, only the Creator exists and I as if disappear in Him, then I do not feel myself. The only thing I want is to enter to the quality of bestowal, this love that fulfills everything around me. If I make such an effort, I begin to feel that I really work with Him in harmony. And this movement is already conscious and is expressed as the correct exile.

I begin to change my values. If before I felt the fulfillment, the understanding, the good feeling, and all the personal things were sublime, I no longer do now.

Now, the most important and primary thing for me is the yearning for the quality of bestowal. Even better, if I strive to it above imperfect situations because this gives me full confidence that it is not my ego that pushes me forward.

It weakens me, I feel bad, I feel out of place, but in spite of these situations, I am attracted to the quality of bestowal, to the Creator, to this field that fulfills everything that is around. By annulling myself, I become transparent toward this field and the upper Light passes through me.

And then suddenly it is revealed that the Creator accompanies me, as if saying to Moses, (to my point in the heart) “Come to Pharaoh.” It means, I begin to see when He awakens the ego in me He at the same time helps me to be connected to Him. Why? Because when he awakens my ego, He awakens great suffering. And I now, if I can be attracted to the quality of bestowal, it is not for the fulfillment because it is against my ego: so, he helps me to make my first restriction (Tzimtzum) and so I go forward all the while increasing my efforts in the direction of the quality of bestowal despite what I myself feel.

The main thing here is to annul ourselves and to be attracted to the quality of bestowal. In this case I’m already building above the vessel, the desire, a screen and Reflected light. This is the first spiritual stage.

After I direct myself, I exit to such a level that I rise above the “Pharaoh.” This state is what is called the “escape from Egypt.” I rose above my ego; certainly I don’t run away from it to any place, it exists in me, but under the “screen,” and I above it. This is the meaning of the “Exodus from Egypt” when I, in my feeling, am not in the slavery of my ego.
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From KabTV’s “Foundations of the Integral Society” 4/1/12

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Question: Is it a good idea to speak about the crisis right at the beginning of an introductory lecture about integral education, or is it better to focus on the positive?

Answer: In an introductory lecture we must talk about movement, about the evolution of humanity, about what nature has brought us to, and what challenges it presents to us. At the same time, we should bring facts as evidence by citing research and opinions of scientists, psychologists, political scientists, economists, and all those who deal with global mechanisms of humanity or nature.

Now, all of them have almost come to a consensus that we have entered a very interesting system that shows its global, full interaction, and absolute integrality in which every piece depends on the others and determines what will happen with others.

In this system everything operates in harmony, except for man: He violates the balance because he is opposite from nature. Man’s ego has developed to such a degree that suddenly a mismatch, contrast, and oppositeness is revealed between human society, including all the systems and the institutions we’ve created, and the general system of nature.

So there is no other choice. Because we feel this oppositeness as a crisis, we should look for the method of balancing ourselves with nature. Then we will feel comfortable.

This is the topic of the introductory lecture: why should we study the integral method, for what purpose.

Thus the integral course should be perceived as most important and urgent for humanity, since without reaching a state of balance with nature, the global situation will threaten our existence.

A person should be shown that he is dealing with something that is very important and essential. By studying the integral method, he acquires the necessary vessels to change himself and his society, which will help him with his family and children, at work, and in every interaction with others, in business, in his personal dealings, in everything. He will understand today’s world, which in the meantime we don’t understand at all and are terribly confused about. A person should feel all this so that he will feel how important an integral course is.

The course is rather easy, and it is given in the form of a discussion among the participants sitting in a circle. They exchange opinions and thus advance faster. This format of studying enables the participants to remember the material better than in a lecture format.

Because the integral education is becoming more and more popular in different parts and circles of society, it is clear that the more we attain it the easier it will for us to adapt ourselves to others, thus feeling more secure in every sense.
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From a “Talk on Integral Upbringing” 5/22/12

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Question: How is it possible in an egoistic society to change the system of domestic economic relations of a family to an integral system of relations? In what way is it possible to look at this situation?

Answer: If the society remains individualistic, then individuals under the influence of the integral education and training system will change; they will perceive the world in a new way. So how does this person change his small world?

I think that people in a family will begin to relate to everything they do, interacting between them and consuming information for their small mutual home from the viewpoint of correct economic consumption. This means that they will have everything they need for life. And all the rest, the feeling of fulfillment, harmony, happiness, wealth, all that a person wants, will come to them specifically from the feeling of their harmonious relation to the world.

Of course, along with that, the influence of the egoistic and unharmonious world won’t overlook them, but they will actually, in any case, be internally filled with happiness and harmony that they constantly achieve for themselves.

Domestic economics will change. Out of necessity, people will be satisfied with simple food, simple clothing, plain furniture, and so on. The search for pleasure has exceeded the boundaries of corporeal interests, thus these needs will not be found at the level of self-restraint, but at the natural, necessary and correct level for existence.

The same thing also pertains to the level of income. When a person understands that he has no special demands, when he looks at the world in this way, then of course, it will be simply, easy, and free.

Moreover, the needs of people to communicate will naturally be at the level of the environment that resembles them according to their structure, according to the integrality. In this way, these societies and groups will develop.
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From a “Talk on Integral Upbringing” 5/21/12

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When spiritual insight is revealed in us, we actually begin to see and gradually understand more clearly that everything depends on the “place” (the Creator), which means on the number and the intensity of my discernments that reveal the spiritual reality and that show me to what extent I am connected to everyone else. Everything depends on the number of discernments and mainly on their intensity and the intensity of the connection.

Each of us suddenly discovers different discernments of his egoistic perception, but gives up his ego in order to connect with others. It turns out that a “dent” appears in my desire opposite a “bulge” in the desire of the friend, and a “bulge” of my desire opposite his “dent.” Thus we connect, as each one gives in to the other.

It turns out that I have given up my interests in order to connect to the friend, but he, in his perception will discover these “bulges” of my ego and will annul himself in order to connect with me. Thus, we don’t annul our ego, but constantly use it through more “bulges” and “dents.” Our sensitive and fine perception and its intensity depend on the amount of such connections in which we discover more and more discernments.

This is how the general vessel is built for the interest of the public. The more common needs I discover, the more I can annul myself and connect with others. But then I have to think about the reason I am doing this for—for the revelation of the Shechina (Divinity). Here I have to attain one more connection that is more internal and for a higher goal by discovering that it is the Creator.

The Creator isn’t some personality, but a discernment that I revealed as a result of my clarification. It is the upper Sefira of Keter, which I discover after having clarified all the Sefirot that precede it. Just like the commandment of love, which we must reach, but which we actually cannot. It reveals to us by itself if we perform all the commandments that precede it.

It is the same when it comes to connection. If I with my point in the heart work in the group and connect with the friends, then within this connection, in all the four phases, I discover their inner root called Shechina. Shechina symbolizes the revelation of the Creator.

I cannot build this last phase, the Keter, the one who bestows, by myself. It is revealed since I have taken the four steps towards it.

I did everything that was in my power, I revealed the four phases and the forms of connection by myself, and then I discover the phase of Keter on which I cannot work by myself. This is the Shechina. On my part, I complete the work and then there is a discovery waiting for me, as it says “I have labored and I found.”
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From the 4^th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 6/13/12, “The Arvut (Mutual Guarantee)”

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We have to reach a height where we work above our egoism and it doesn’t get in our way, where we rise above it and become completely free from it. Then there are no limitations left for a person.

But for now egoism gets in our way, being “help from the opposite” since it helps me to reveal new desires, problems, and all kinds of flaws inside of me. This incites me to work and act, awakening various sensations in me and a change of states.

If none of this existed, our state would be completely hopeless. That is why it is written that “The greater a person, the greater his egoism.” But as a person advances, he reveals a greater desire to enjoy, and inside of that same desire he reveals more and more details and finer nuances, evoking stronger impressions in him. This is called a greater will to enjoy.

Reaching greater egoism means becoming picky and intolerant about the smallest things which I previously did not even pay attention to. And this spurs me to perform new, finer corrections, eventually bringing me to carry out very precise work against my egoistic nature.

The Creator created the will to enjoy, being foreign to Him and to us. But this lets us feel one notion: our separation from the Creator as “something from nothing” (Yesh Mi Ein). There is nothing besides this in the will to enjoy. It includes just this one quality, and not an ounce of any desire. The Creator created just this one particular point, which emerged “from nothing,” being something completely separate.

And from this separate point, the will to enjoy then begins to develop like a spiral that unwinds. Everything that is present in this desire, that comes out of the point of “something from nothing,” develops from the Creator, but in the opposite form, like an anti-world.

The Creator created a certain point beyond His boundaries, which exists from nothing, and He brought Himself inside of it. It turns out that there is the Creator and the creation, standing one opposite another. And creation uses everything it has from this “nothing” in order to establish itself in the same status as the Creator.

After all, in reality everything else besides this one point of “something from nothing” is the Creator. And “something from nothing” is the turning point in our mind and feelings, which we must always correct.
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From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 6/14/12, Shamati

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It says in the Torah that at the foot of Mt. Sinai the Creator said to the People of Israel: “and now if you shall listen to Me, and keep My covenant, you shall be unique people of all the nations.” There is a condition here: “I shall give you the Torah, which means the method of correction, if you understand that you have to fulfill the formula of correction, the plan of the correction.”

The Creator gives everything, the instructions and their fulfillment, but you have to know where you are headed. Here a certain commitment is required on behalf of the lower, who checks himself: Does he agree to that? And if he hasn’t reached the level of agreement yet, then the exile in Egypt can reoccur and eventually we will find ourselves once again at the foot of Mt. Sinai facing the same condition.

The agreement on behalf of the lower symbolizes the need for clarification—he needs to find out that he really wants this and nothing else. Even if he weren’t given such a strict condition, he would still accept it with his heart and soul by asking for it and wanting it. The condition he was given helps him clarify what he actually has to do.

So why doesn’t a person reach the gathering at Mt Sinai with a clear demand: “I want to be corrected! Please give me the Torah and I will keep it, in order to bring You contentment…” the point is that a person reaches this as a result of the shattering. He has a deficiency but he cannot clarify things independently and so the Light has to operate first. By the Light that is revealed, a person feels darkness—his point in the heart rises to Mt. Sinai and at the same time at the foot of the mountain he builds the “golden calf.” Indeed, how can all his other desires agree to rise to the same level in which he is ready to work in bestowal, doing the work of the priests?

A person must discover the field of his future work, all the thickness of the “mountain” from the top to the bottom. Therefore, he faces this condition. He can refuse and “die,” which means to stay in the desire to receive, to return to Egypt. The people of Israel demanded this of Moses more than once during the journey in the desert. The ego constantly calls to return to Egypt since Egypt is depicted as a fertile abundant land. Everything was in abundance there, so what was the problem?

Egypt fills the egoistic desires to their fullest. They never lacked anything there, except for one thing: to the extent that you are developed you feel darkness and sufferings, and enter the “seven years of hunger,” but it is spiritual hunger, a spiritual thirst, when there is nothing to revive your soul, but only your stomach. The desire to receive is full, but for the desire to bestow it is exile and death.
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From the 4^th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 6/11/12, “The Arvut (Mutual Guarantee)”

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Today, we feel not only the world around us as inverted, hostile, and threatening, but also our own nature as hostile because egoism puts us into these states, and we can’t tame or destroy it.

We are exhausting natural resources, although we know that in another 20 years they will be depleted. And what will happen then? It’s not important. The main thing is to take advantage to the maximum in order to accumulate “green paper” in the bank. So where is the clever approach here? We manufacture millions of plastic items to throw them out in the garbage a few months later, and then oil with which we manufacture this plastic will be gone, but we don’t even think about that.

All of these hostile manifestations of internal and external nature toward us force a person “to shrink” and hide in some corner. He cannot control either this nature or another, either his own or the external one.

Thus, we find ourselves in need of crossing the bifurcation point. It adds up, specifically, to the recognition of evil in our nature that positions us against the external nature and doesn’t allow us to consider everything wisely, correctly, and sensibly. The ego forces us to be attracted to wealth, honor, knowledge, and control, and we utilize it only in a harmful way.

All of this is the revelation of the damage resulting from what has happened to us in the past 30-40 years. Until then we had developed correctly: People used nature when it was really necessary. I remember that the warranty on the first refrigerator that I bought was 18 years! Today nothing like that exists! Today everything is made on purpose, so that the product will break down as soon as possible. Even if is not out of order you will be called to replace the old for the new at a discount.

It turns out that we crossed the border of the correct attitude to life, to the world, and to nature. And we need to recognize our bad relations to ourselves, to others, and to nature. And only after that will it be possible to talk about the fact that there is a system of reaching harmony.

It will reveal a huge whole world to us that isn’t built on opposites, on absolute slavery and total freedom, but on the correct middle line, which means that everything will be balanced. Then we will see that this is specifically the way that nature functions.

Thus, I think that communications will finally change, the pendulum will shift, the amplitude of its oscillation that deviates in the opposite direction from the original state will come to its middle. Then we will begin to operate mutually, and not through communication devices, but through direct, internal communication with each other, not verbally, not externally emotional, but by creating a mutual field of communication. We have these aptitudes for which we don’t need any devices. We will simply feel everyone and everything as one collective whole.
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From a “Talk on Integral Upbringing” 5/21/12

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