Question: How can we increase the importance of the goal before the coming conventions in South and North America? There are many serious interferences now; how can we rise above them?

Answer: It is good that there are many interruptions. A person needs two discernments. On the one hand, he feels the interruptions: how he disrespects everyone and how much he hates to be with them as his pride raises him above everyone else and he draws away from them.

This can happen both to an individual and to a whole group and by that actually destroys it. The question is whether a group can recover. The convention gives such a chance to groups that are in a difficult situation and that hardly have any positive forces that can connect them.

There are groups that connect only on a negative basis: against the teacher and against what he says, or against another part of the group. This is the only thing that keeps them together. The convention is an opportunity to enter a bigger and stronger environment that is above the individual group. In it the problematic group can be corrected, if they are ready to annul themselves: each member individually and the group as a whole.

They will come to the convention like to a Mikveh (ritual purifying pool), but in order to do that they have to “make a sacrifice,” to bring their ego as their sacrifice. If they are ready for that, the convention will heal that group.

If not, we will see how as a result of the convention, they will draw away even further and they may even go their own way. I believe that the convention should be strong enough, so that everyone will have clear discernments: that he either annuls himself and advances towards the goal with the help of the environment, which we build together as a factor in its development and as the representative of the Creator, or he leaves the way by clarifying that it is not for him.

Let’s hope that this is what will happen. Enough of the childish games and the struggles over control and honor that are tearing up the groups. It is time for serious advancement and time to stop acting like kids who are fighting in the sand box. It is time for important actions and the responsibility that humanity demands from us.

If you are ready for that, that’s great, let’s work. If not, it is better if you just disappear. It is one or the other. So the convention should help everyone clarify where he is and to what he is prepared to dedicate the rest of his life.

When the whole global group connects during the convention, it is a very strong environment, which is most efficient for advancement. Therefore, it is a good idea to be included in it these days and to take part fully in what is going on: both physically and internally with all of one’s soul. By that a person puts himself under the strongest possible influence for advancement in our world.
[75726]
From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/18/12, Writings of Rabash

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Baal HaSulam, “The Last Generation”: The world erroneously considers Nazism a particular upshot of Germany. In truth, it is the upshot of a democracy and socialism that were left without manners, religion and justice. Thus, all nations are equal in that; there is no hope at all that Nazism will perish with the victory of the allies. Tomorrow, the British will adopt Nazism, since they too live in a world of democracy and Nazism.

If democracy and socialism are not corrected, if they aren’t included properly in the process of correction, Nazism stems from them. And this could happen anywhere in the world. In the 20th century, Germany was the most progressive country with advanced science and rich culture; however, the development of society there took the Nazi form.

Therefore, Baal HaSulam continues: What happened to the Germans is one of nature’s wonders. They were considered among the most civilized nations, and all of a sudden, overnight, they became savages, the worst among the most primitive nations in history. Moreover, Hitler was elected by the majority’s vote.

All this is the result of the power of evil that comes into the world if we don’t bring good into it. After all, in general good and evil are revealed equally. First, the evil inclination is revealed, and if we don’t attract to it the Reforming Light, it acquires the worst forms. And since this is the strongest desire, it absorbs culture, education, science, and everything else, and is manifested as the greatest evil, arrogance, pride, and lust for power over others. Everything is mixed in this egoistic desire. And if we don’t hurry to bring the Reforming Light, this evil will break out of us.
[75743]
From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/19/12, “Holocaust Memorial Day”

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Question: If there are two scenarios for the development of the ego: One, when the ego becomes a total war, and two, when the ego commits us to learn and to develop in a systemic manner, then couldn’t there be another scenario when the ego will make us fall into a stupor, will turn us into zombies?

Answer: No. The issue is that the development of the ego in an integral society takes into account its rise to the next level, where it becomes greater. That is, the ego continues to develop.

What we see today in society is the suspension of the ego. It doesn’t grow any further, it doesn’t want to grow. Why should I grow more if what I get are only problems? When a person has problems, he doesn’t want anything. It’s better to divert the mind through reading a book or to go to sleep so as to not feel anything. He doesn’t want anything else because he just wants to hide from the problems, not to see or know anything. Thus, if you don’t give the ego the correct answer, it will begin to extinguish and you will become a vegetable.

When you enter an integral environment and together with everyone, begin to develop not your own personal ego but the general one, you receive completely new opportunities of fulfillment, together with everyone. Our general ego, “WE,” begins to develop. Then the constant opportunities to grow, meaning to receive constant fulfillment, vitality, will appear to you.

However, currently there exist only two opportunities given to us from nature: Our ego can either subside, lower its level, which is what happens with the unemployed and with those who suffer and go into depression, or we can develop and fill it in connection with others.
[74952]
From the Vilnius Convention 3/22/12, Preliminary Lesson

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Question: How should we work so that an action will be above our desire to receive?

Answer: It is hard to imagine this at the moment because for us even an action of bestowal is because of the desire to receive. But this is also good and it is called “Lo Lishma,” (not for His sake).

If I bestow in order to gain more, then it is a big and developed ego in our world. An undeveloped egoist simply takes for himself, like a robber who threatens you with a gun and takes everything for himself like the simplest naïve egoist operates.

If the bank steals from you by seemingly helping you by giving you a loan, you later see that they made a big profit at your expense, but this is already a higher more developed ego. Even throughout human history there were many wars and stealing at first and people had to hide behind city walls.

But later people got wiser and learned to lie to one another and to steal cleverly, legally. People already calculate things and see that there is no point using weapons and shedding so much blood if it can be done differently by making deals that will bring greater and safer profits. However, all these calculations stem from the same desire to receive.

But when I attain a desire to bestow, my actions are called “Lo Lishma,” because although I do them egoistically, for myself, I try to do it not for myself. I simply have no choice because I am in exile, enslaved to my ego, and so I have to listen to it and to think about myself.

Sometimes I want to bestow so much, to connect with others, but later I see that I did everything for myself. If it weren’t in my interest to do so, I couldn’t do anything, not even think about it. But I already disagree with that and try to do at least something in order to bestow, this is why it is called “Lo Lishma.” It is 100% spiritual work because it isn’t a person’s fault that he is in exile, under the domination of his desire to receive.

He has no choice, and he must go through this process, by building up a high enough speed in order to attain a full deficiency, a whole vessel for bestowal. We still have to operate in “Lo Lishma” by trying to imagine all the states in which bestowal itself is fulfilled “Lishma,” (for His sake), to actually try physically, mentally, internally, with all our heart (desire) to take part in this action, by forcing ourselves to be included in it.

Even if I succeed to some extent to think about bestowal and everything else is egoistic, I still tried. Therefore, it is called “spiritual work,” because even if I know that I am working for myself, at least externally, I do everything in my power to act in order to bestow. This is why it is called “Lo Lishma.” It is already spiritual work and not just false altruism as we see in our world.
[75389]
From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/15/12, Writings of Rabash

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Question: Are there people who have already reached the fourth level of development, the level of Man? Could it be that these are certain leaders in the world?

Answer: Unfortunately, the leaders are very far from that because only the greatest egoist can be a leader in our world. This is because our world is egoistic, and so in order to climb to the top, you need to be the greatest egoist with a very big desire.

There are nearly two million people around the world who study the method of the integral upbringing in the framework of the ARI Institute. Many other different organizations and circles are engaged in that as well.

I hope that the year 2012 will be a special year because many changes are about to take place now, and we see that the speed of these changes is increasing, particularly in terms of understanding and adapting the integral system to humanity. So we will see great changes, and I hope they will be for the better.
[74955]
From the Vilnius Convention 3/22/12, Preliminary Lesson

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Question: Negative feelings, irritation or even hatred appear in us when we begin to unite. What is the right way to work with them?

Answer: We need to divide the world into two parts: the way it appears to me, to my egoism, and the way it actually is. What is the world like in reality?

Once we reveal it in our common desire, we will see that it is full of Light and absolutely perfect. There is nothing to correct in it. In other words, we only need to correct ourselves, only our personal attitude toward the world, our personal perception.

This is why we need to divide the world precisely into the way it appears to us through the prism of egoism, and the world that actually exists outside of us. It is simply the upper Light that is in a state of absolute rest and has just the one quality of complete bestowal and love.

This is why we need to separate these two sensations within us. One sensation is the real sensation of irritation and objections that appear purposefully so that we would rise above them and perceive the group as something absolute and perfect, where all the friends are the greatest people in the world who are absolutely corrected. I, alone, must include myself in them and be like an embryo inside a mother.

The actual things they say and their influence on me does not matter. I am given these obstacles purposefully so that I would manage to get inside through these obstacles and be inside my friends as I imagine them to be absolutely perfect in the state of rest with me inside them.
[75310]
From the Vilnius Convention 3/23/12, Lesson 2

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Awareness is the new category born out of the lack of equivalence of form. I begin to perceive who I am when I feel bad and try to clarify: What it is that I don’t like and why do I feel bad? Then I begin to search for the source of all this evil, from whom does it come?

All the 125 steps are based on the lack of equivalence of form, which constantly gives rise to the questions: What is this work and who is the Creator that I should listen to Him? Pharaoh is constantly asking us these questions and we are trying to find the answer. This is how the Creator plays with us on both sides, teaching us to be more sensitive to the intention of in order to bestow.

From one degree to the next, the Creator gives us a more qualitative sensation of the lack of equivalence of form. If at first I felt good and bad only with regards to corporeal criteria, by judging to what extent I succeeded in stealing from someone, now I judge the good and bad according to my intentions regarding the Creator or the person from whom I once stole.

At first I stole without anyone noticing and didn’t think about what I was doing. Then I continued to do the same thing, but I began to feel that I’m taking from someone. Later I began to feel ashamed of stealing, that I take something from a stranger for myself. Then my awareness grows so that I don’t need to take anything that is not mine, but when I look at it I feel like stealing it, and I don’t agree to that either.

Later I continue to correct myself; I don’t allow myself to steal or even to think about stealing, and this thought occurs to me only rarely. Different spiritual discernments are becoming more and more accurate inside me regarding this. Here the Creator confuses us and creates different interruptions, and all of it is being clarified only in thought.

Eventually I reach a point when even a single thought about using others makes me feel bad: If I suddenly think that another will be ill instead of me, or that he will feel bad instead of me. I am shocked by the thought that I may profit at another’s expense.

This thought remains but it becomes more tricky, fine, and internal. The evil towards others remains until the end of correction, but it becomes more qualitative because we are correcting the shattering. We rise from the simple, petty, and coarse exploitation of others to the cunning, sophisticated exploitation that harms the roots themselves. As it says, “he who is greater than his friend, his desire is greater than his friend’s,” which means that the ego is of a higher quality.

You have a slight egoistic intention, but it seems to be huge, not like “a hairsbreadth” but like “a cart’s ropes.” The correction is in rising above your ego, but the desire to use others is renewed on every degree and becomes more and more internal and cunning. This is what we should work on, and the main lab for that is the group, where you can quickly clarify your attitude to others.
[75184]
From the 3rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/11/2012, “The Gate of Intentions”

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Question: How is the ego different from high self-confidence?

Answer: Actually the ego isn’t bad. It’s nature’s central force that develops all of matter and moves everything forward. The point is that nowadays, when we are opposite to nature, it becomes negative.

Until our time it wasn’t negative. We advanced, developed science, technology, life, and social and political structures. All this was very positive for us. The more desire a person had, the higher he was: a scientist, an inventor, a poet, no matter what, but he moved the development forward.

Now however, it’s the opposite. The ego has become Pharaoh and everything has stopped; nothing is developing anymore, but rather is only decreasing. Because nature has become integral, the ego is turning into an obstacle. It should also become integral.

If some organ in the body begins to think only about itself, it becomes a malignant tumor that swallows and destroys everything around it. This is exactly what is happening in our society these days, with our planet, with the environment.

We, on the contrary, have to be in a mutual integral connection, just as our body is. When all parts of society, like the parts of the body, come together into one integral bundle, they must learn to cooperate. Otherwise they will destroy themselves just like a malignant tumor.
[74858]
From the Vilnius Convention 3/22/12, Preliminary Lesson

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According to our nature, the nature of a created being, connection exists only among men. Women don’t connect among themselves because their egoism is of a special kind. That is neither good nor bad.

It is important to work in our original nature without trying to damage it. It is important to work with the material we have been created with and understand that we’ll reach the goal only by using our nature properly.

By putting men and women into one group, in the process of working together we feel a different connection among men than among women.

It is not felt as much in real life as in our integral methodology lessons. Literally, in a half an hour to an hour of common studies, the men’s part starts feeling that their nature is ready to go forward and be connected with everyone while women’s part feels incapable of working toward getting closer to each other.

The best result is achieved by women supporting men with their intention and efforts while men get closer to each other.
[75180]
From the Vilnius Convention 3/23/12, Lesson 2

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If we are in our desire to receive yearning only to receive a filling, we don’t feel that there is something else outside our desire. We only understand that there is a void in us that must be filled and that feels that it is empty. As long as our desire doesn’t receive all the filling, it will not calm down. It is like a crying baby that doesn’t calm down until he receives everything that he needs.

How can we teach such a desire to receive another pleasure, pleasure from bestowal? It doesn’t even understand what it is, and cannot feel and do such a thing. But gradually we begin to teach it according to a plan.

The whole study is based on the readiness to suffer, because the desire needs to give up its filling, to give up the desire for the filling, to give up the feeling of the self, the self pride, the envy, the respect, and the control, which means its independence.

At first a person thinks that he can correct himself, until he sees that it is impossible, and that it can only be realized by the upper force. He learns from failing all the time. Thus he is taught that he should lower his head and ask, ask for the one thing that he doesn’t want. Then he receives help and changes, becoming his opposite, by beginning to enjoy what was hateful before.

We have to go through this whole process in understanding, in recognition, in agreement, in our feelings and in the mind, in our consciousness. Everything you were proud of before and considered respectable, now seems the opposite, and you discover your lowliness and your helplessness. Our desire to receive, which doesn’t know anything but to fill itself, feels all this when it learns about a totally new method.

This process takes place according to the three symbols: “Pesach” (Passover), “Matzah,” and “Maror” (bitter herb). It is called “Pesach” from the Hebrew root to skip, as a person constantly jumps from one side to its opposite, and so he turns his small measures of receiving into bestowal. He does that by Matzah, “the bread of affliction,” since he has no other food and he agrees to settle for what he receives from bestowal.

A person constantly raises the importance of bestowal, while his desire to receive only gets the “bitter herb.” Thus he raises the right line, the Matzah, over the left line, the bitter herb, like a hero who overcomes the bitter taste and wants to turn it to the sweetness of bestowal. Then he reaches Pesach, the changing of his consciousness.

By the new attitude towards the desire to receive, that doesn’t change, he builds the human in him. “Adam” (Man) is what is built above the desire. This is the system that begins to work according to the new principle with the same natural attributes, but by using them in order to bestow.

The mechanism, that is created by that is made of all the person’s actions and exertions as he overcomes his desire to receive, is what is called “Adam.” All this is done by the three special components that symbolize the holiday of freedom from the ego, Pesach, that are called Pesach, Matzah, and bitter herb.
[75097]
From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/10/12, Writings of Rabash

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