We live in a unified reality that is called Elokim (God), the Upper One, bestowal. It is upper in the sense that is exceeds our force. This is a more powerful and more dominant force, which formed the reality in which we constitute one whole.

Imagine a huge drop of water in free fall. Because there is no force of gravity or mutual attraction of molecules, an entire bucket of water can be one drop there. That is how we are interconnected in a common “drop” without any of the differences that we imagine here.

This drop, one desire and one Light, begins to compulsively be permeated from above by the force of disunity. The Light exerts pressure on the desire and makes an imprint in it, its opposite. Then the common single desire suddenly feels that it crumbles, falls apart, and divides into many different parts.

This breaking is actualized by the force of the Light, which disperses the initial drop into billions of separate splashes. They separate from one another and a reverse imprint of the Creator emerges in them—Pharaoh, egoism, the evil inclination, impurity—instead of the force of unity called “holiness” that reigned between them.

Now our attitude to one another is opposite to our higher state, the Creator. The correction lies in understanding that we are disunited deliberately so we would desire to unite and reveal the initial state in which the quality of the Creator—bestowal, love, and unity—reigns among us.

Our work lies only in discerning the appropriate desire or necessity. By desiring to return, I come back to perfection, one level after another. That is why we are all dispersed and separated by hatred, meaning the opposite side of the Creator, darkness, the reverse side of the Light. From this darkness we have to reveal the desire that aspires to Light.

The way to reveal it is by means of various kinds of impulses that awaken me, coming to me from within and from outside. I need these “irritants.” However, afterward I have to put in my own efforts both in feeling and reason. As a result I discern that the state of unity that was created for us by the Creator as the only existing state is the best state.

Our current state, the reality on the opposite side which divides us, is undesirable because its force disconnects us from one another. And it disconnects us in a special way, cunningly and shrewdly, evoking all sorts of collisions between us, problems, and negative impulses in order to awaken us to search for goodness.

We begin with the material level and then shift to the spiritual search. In the end, we prefer one over the other. It’s as if the Creator tells us: “Take My opposite side. Stay separated and disunited, that doesn’t matter. Most importantly, enjoy it.” But we have to work on preferring His front side, His revelation over our own fulfillment. Our task is to make a special analysis in order to return to the state where we are together in His quality that reigns in us—the quality of unity.

In order to awaken us to ascend from the sensation of the current reality of this world, we are sent various negative impulses such as tsunamis, revolutions, wars, fires, the economic crisis, and so on. All of this is intended for us to feel uncomfortable on our material level, in our current desires (Kelim), and to feel how shaky our existence is.

This will push us to search for other states, and then besides feelings, we will also activate the mind, “What do we have? How can we get to a better state?” We will make the analysis: “What has already been tried? What should we try?” Maybe we will stop lying to one another and maybe we really will start searching for a solution without allowing various parties to get credit at our expense and immerse us into graver crises.

That is how all together we will discern the current situation and look for a better state.
From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/14/11

Related Material:
Change Your Thoughts And You Will See A Different World!
The Protection From All Troubles
If You Don’t Wake Up, Tomorrow Everyone Will Be Asleep

Filed under: Crisis, Daily Kabbalah Lesson, Egoism, Suffering, Unity, World - 1 Comment →

Question: What should our attitude be to the natural disasters we are witnessing as well as to other problems?

Answer: We are living in a special time when our egoistic desire is starting to show us our imbalance with nature on all its levels.

The lowest level of nature is the still level, where we are now revealing our imbalance and disharmony with general nature. And the same is true for the following levels: the vegetative and animate levels of nature. We just don’t notice it for now.

We are in a terrible crisis, a “relationship crisis” with an angel called “Domem” (still), as well as an angel called “Tzomeah” (vegetative), and the angel called “Hai” (animate). All of these forms of nature are at an enormous lack of correspondence and opposition to us. Our obligation is to correct them because only man can correct all the rest of nature by correcting himself.

Therefore, the catastrophes we see around us are our own reflection. All of the responsibility is ours. There is nothing to ask from the still, vegetative, and animate levels of the world. They ascend and descend together with man.

By the problems in the still, vegetative, and animate levels of nature that surround us, we can see how much we are uncorrected. All of these catastrophes are a reflection or demonstration of our own flaws, not to mention the “speaking” level of nature—human society. Look at what is happening in the world.

We have the opportunity to organize a life of true paradise for ourselves on this earth, but look at what we are doing instead. If a visitor from outer space would look at what we are doing on the planet Earth, he would think that we are simply crazy. Where is our human mind and feelings? Is this really how a thinking, intelligent human arranges his life? Only a total fool or self-hater would do such a thing.

That is to say, right now we are gradually revealing our true inner state. And only through the inner correction will we attain harmony with the external world.
[37909]
From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/13/11

Related Material:
The Solution Is Between Us
How To Forestall The Blows Of Nature
All The Earthquakes Are Inside Us

Filed under: Crisis, Daily Kabbalah Lesson, Egoism, Q&A, Suffering, World - No Comments →

Question: Humanity cannot connect the ecological catastrophes to the correction of egoism. How can we explain this connection to people?

Answer: We have to look for ways to do it and try to write articles and formulate explanations precisely during times of disaster in order to convey the essence: All of this is happening because we are not corrected.

The external world is a mold of our inner state. Therefore, in reality we are talking about inner catastrophes that we only perceive as external. All the nations are parts of one soul, but in our sensations they are divided parts that seem foreign.

It’s as if I have been given an injection of  local anesthesia and now I don’t feel how my leg is burning or how my arm is being cut off. Right now it sounds funny, but that is what is happening.

Therefore, I want the sensation of belonging to gradually come back to me. I want to feel the “external” parts as my own. I hope to receive the opportunity to correct my state, my attitude to others.

If the external reality really will become a part of me, then I will feel a horrible sensation. Therefore, together with the discovery of the illness I have to receive the medicine, the opportunity to improve my state. This is what I am asking for: the medicine together with the illness that becomes revealed. Then I will be able to correct the flaws in myself, and as a result, the “external” cataclysms will settle down.

This is what we have to do: Ask for inner correction which will evoke the correction that seems external. Then we will see all the problems in ourselves and will correct them in us. These desires (Kelim) will unite with us, will become inner, and all the natural disasters evoked by our inner lack of correction will cease.
[37934]
From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbaalh Lesson 3/13/11

Related Material:
“These Are My Children”
Go With The Flow Of Nature
Apocalypse 2010

Filed under: Collective Soul, Crisis, Daily Kabbalah Lesson, Egoism, Inner Work, News, Perception, Q&A, Suffering, World - No Comments →

Question: Why does such a massive catastrophe as the one now happening in Japan still seem like something removed to me? What do I have to do to feel it as my own?

Answer: My egoism separates me from “others’” problems. The greater the egoism is, the more distant the catastrophe in the Japanese islands seems to me. And on the contrary, to the degree I am corrected, I would feel it as being closer.

Once in a similar situation Rabash was asked: Why is he always running to hear the news on the radio even during the lesson? “Are your children there?” He was asked. “Yes,” he answered, “They are my children.”

We have to view the problems of our neighbors as the problems of our children.
[37943]
From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/13/11

Related Material:
The World’s Problem Is My Problem
The Reason For Every Quarrel
Don’t Wait For Any Favors From Nature

Filed under: Crisis, Daily Kabbalah Lesson, Egoism, News, Q&A, Suffering, World - No Comments →

The picture of the “external world,” as Baal HaSulam writes, is created by the “camera” in the reverse side of our brain, which projects my qualities onto what seems like the external screen, with those qualities being flawed or corrected to various degrees. Inside of me they exist in the form of different forces. By combining or dividing in different ways, they form the vessel of my soul.

However, I am unable to distinguish these forces because they are projected onto the screen of my consciousness in a way that enables me to see them. Therefore, I see various forms of the still, vegetative, animate, and human levels. All of these forms are in motion, undergoing changes, and this is what enables be to maintain a connection with my inner forces.

How, then, can I attain the right state? It can be done by the principle of loving your neighbor as yourself. You have to make all of the “external” reality become yours. After all, it really is you, but in your deceptive perception it appears as something external. So come back to yourself, return this external picture inside, turn your view from the projection to the “camera.” How can you do that? By bringing your parts closer to you and feeling them as yours.

For now we perceive the world’s problems as disasters happening to other people. In contrast to this, Rabash was very worried in these cases because he felt that the disaster was happening to him. A person who moves towards equivalence with the Creator inclines the whole world toward the cup of judgment or the cup of justification. Therein lies the solution to the problem.

Thus, due to the spiritual breaking my perception divides into internality and externality, myself and the world. By correcting myself, I bring all of the reality which seems external to me closer to myself in order to feel it inside of me. Then I shift to a spiritual perception of the world: There is nothing on the outside. Everything is inside of me and takes place inside of me. There is nothing outside of me. I live in my Kli and only a “camera” creates the external picture for me.

Based on this we must decide once and for all that precisely the people who have received an awakening from above, a drive to become corrected, are the ones able to change the world by changing its perception in their sensations. Everything depends on how much they try to bring the whole world closer to them in order to feel it as an inseparable part of them. This is the realization of the principle of loving the neighbor as yourself. We have to bring all the levels that appear external to us, including the still, vegetative, animate and human levels, closer to ourselves and see them as an inseparable part of us.

Therefore, our attitude to all of reality must be at least the same as to ourselves, although Baal HaSulam explains that I must elevate the desires of others above my own desires. Being an egoist, I think about myself instead of my neighbors. But when I am an altruist, I have to think about others inside of myself.

That is why the world’s correction depends precisely on the people who have received from above a call to correct themselves, to the truth. No one else felt this awakening and therefore they have nothing to demand.

That means we must feel responsible for all the disasters of humanity. And it is in our power to correct them—and not just after the fact, but even before all the bad occurrences take place. We have to make sure that this won’t happen on the still level as well as all the other levels, until the human degree.

For now the catastrophes are manifesting in the form of natural disasters on the still and vegetative levels (such as tsunamis, earthquakes, floods, and fires), as well as in human society in the form of the economic crisis and so on. However, other forms are also not exempt, similar to the Egyptian plagues which were very unpleasant, much more dangerous, and horrible to the sensations than those occurring now.

It is incumbent on us to perform corrections and prevent the world’s problems. Baal HaSulam writes about this for us in the end of the "Introduction to the Book of Zohar." All of the world’s suffering is caused by the fact that Israel does not correct itself in time, with “Israel” (which means straight to the Creator) being every person, regardless of origin, who has the opportunity to correct himself because he has been awakened from above. And it doesn’t matter what level he is on.

This way, every one of us and all of us together are responsible for what is happening.
From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/13/11

Related Material:
The World Is Round
To Know Is To Bestow
We Can Circumvent All Of The Suffering

Filed under: Crisis, Daily Kabbalah Lesson, Egoism, Israel, Perception - No Comments →

Question from Japan: What are the reasons for the disaster that is happening to us? According to the forecasts there are more quakes ahead for us. Can all of us prevent these events here and in the whole world?

Answer: In order to answer this question we must first understand where we are. We are in a “round” world. This is what the science of Kabbalah explains to us in its section on “perception of reality.”

Let’s not wait for painful proofs of this fact to become expressed in our world. By way of painful experience we are discovering that we are all interconnected, that the world is global and integral in which there is a butterfly effect, and so on. Let’s not have to learn the lessons from disasters that will constantly occur in order to convince us of this. Let’s instead learn from the science of Kabbalah.

By the time our life experience starts working, it may be too late. How many more tsunamis, earthquakes, and other disasters have to happen for us to get smarter? Let’s instead turn to science and wisdom. It is written, “The one who learns is wise.” So what does the wise person learn?

We know from the science of Kabbalah that all of reality is felt inside of us because it is inside of us. My perception divides into five levels. Three of the levels are my inner sensations: root, soul, and body. They “clothe” into me from inside. Besides this, there are external details of perception which I perceive on the outside, outside of me: clothing and castle. This is the entire world outside of me. Clothing is everything inside the area that my body or senses can reach, while castle are the far away, unattainable things, or in other words, the things not subject to my control.

That is how reality is divided. Its inner part is called Galgalta ve Eynaim while the external part is called AHP. This division was caused by the spiritual destruction, which is the reason why we only slightly feel the Galgalta ve Eynaim inside of us and have no sensation at all that AHP is also part of us. That is how we will divide our reality until the very end of correction when Galgalta ve Eynaim will unite with AHP into the whole ten Sefirot.

From here we must draw the following conclusion: We feel everything inside of our Kelim. These may be a tsunami, the earth, or the universe with all its stars and galaxies. Everything is inside of me, in my egoistic desire. That is how my desire is built so in it I perceive reality divided in two: “me” and “outside of me.” “Me” is Galgalta ve Eynaim, the root, soul, and body, while “outside of me” is AHP, clothing and castle, the two external categories of perception.

Various changes take place in my inner and outer Kelim. Looking at natural disasters, it is very difficult to understand why these painful events are taking place in the external Kelim rather than the inner Kelim. Why do these changes influence a specific part of my soul today, called “the Japanese people”? Why did the catastrophe befall them of all people?

My soul also includes others parts which I perceive as my friends. In reality, they do not exist by themselves, but as parts of me in my eyes. It will be so until I complete my perception and then everything will unite into one whole, into a single desire, welded and entirely aimed at bestowal. This is the corrected form.

Without viewing reality from these positions, we will never be able to correctly perceive what is happening, including wars, catastrophes, corruption, or anything else. We will never be able to justify the Creator or understand how everything is moving in the direction of correction.

However, we won’t be able to manage without having the right perspective of things, without having a picture of the “round” world that is inside a person and depends on his correction. There is nothing outside of me. Everything is me. This is my earth, my earthquake, my Japan, my Libya, my Israel, my planet, and my universe. And all of it reflects my qualities, which are not corrected yet.
From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/13/11

Related Material:
The Era Of Change
On The Way From Chaos To Harmony
A Dangerous Tilt

Filed under: Collective Soul, Crisis, Daily Kabbalah Lesson, Egoism, News, Perception, Q&A, Suffering, World - No Comments →

Question: How can we explain the Kabbalistic education method at the UN?

Answer: When I meet with politicians and religious activists who represent different faiths, I tell them about education by means of the right environment. When people unite with one another the right way, they discover an additional force of unity within their environment. This force is enrooted in nature itself and it influences everyone.

When a group of people really unite, when every person connects with others, then this force of unity, the upper force is literally born among them. It settles between them and acquires a place, its own existence. This is how the common unified force of the group, which supports every friend, becomes expressed.

In Kabbalah, we refer to this as “union.” This refers to the single force concealed in nature, which manifests inside our unity. We can call it “the Creator” or not, but one way or another, it is an actual force of nature, which we perceive and work with.

It comes and works with me according to certain laws. I reveal it as I become closer to it, and when I reveal it, I begin to perceive and influence it through my changing qualities. The “Creator” is a fixed law, and when I know how to influence it according to the structure of HaVaYaH, I can do so without any problems, just like I influence any other force.

The only difference is that this is a collective, universal force. And that is why it is concealed. It’s because we are not united yet. That is why we are unable to attain it. It is revealed inside unity, but we have never yet felt anything like this. As we unite with one another, we literally extract nature’s fundamental, single force from nature itself, while everything else unravels, derives, and becomes created from it.

To me the Creator is this force, because everything came from it. Moreover, the “Creator” (Bore) means: “come and see” (Bo-Re). I connect to Him and then I see Him and reveal Him in action, in all my sensations.

Naturally, right now these explanations languish. They do not manifest in feelings, but if only we unite, you will reveal Him inside that unity. The formula is very simple.

The revelation of the Creator is divided into 125 degrees in accordance with the centrifugal force of our egoism and alienation. This alienation force is divided into five large degrees, and each is divided into another five degrees, and these also divide into five degrees. This totals 125 degrees of mutual rejection. But when I come closer, when I turn this rejection into unity, I reveal the Creator as I ascend the 125 degrees until I reach absolute unification – complete, absolute revelation of the force of unity.

“God” (אלה-ים) and “nature” (הטבע) have the same meaning according to Gematria. There is no mysticism. Come (Bo) and see (Re) – is the Creator (Bore).

I say the same when speaking to different activists at various forums, especially abroad. It’s just that sometimes I use different words to say it.
[37779]
From the 3rd lesson at the Dead Sea Convention on 2/25/11

Related Material:
The Best Gift For A Child
The Secret Of The Soul’s Birth
On Global Education

Filed under: Conventions, Education, Egoism, Q&A, Unity, World - No Comments →

Question: In one of your lectures you said that a person must add the Creator to his list of friends. What does that mean in our spiritual work?

Answer: If you ask psychologists, they can tell you about what happens to a young couple who has recently gotten married. When they start living together, after the honeymoon period is over, there comes a period of mutual complaints, dissatisfaction, tension, and conflicts, and now they have to work really hard in order to continue living together.

These periods can be long or short, and this depends entirely on the example they saw in their parent’s home. At this time, a young couple needs advice from psychologists or parents to help them connect on the basis of mutual respect and compromise, instead of love.

They have to learn how to avoid pressing each other’s buttons, which cause the conflicts between them while they remain inside theirs egos and are egoistically attached to their partner. This is what happens in our daily life. However, this approach doesn’t work in our spiritual development.

While advancing in spirituality, a person does have to look for these points of tension and make them visible instead of concealing them because “the Torah will come out” precisely from these points. If a person views them correctly, wishing to discern and utilize them in order to reform himself, then instead of demanding something else, he strives to attain his own inner evil.

This is possible only when a person walks along with the Creator, as if holding onto His hand, as it is written, “Come unto Pharaoh with me!” One has to discern this Pharaoh, this evil within, and then tame and reform it, unify with it, and flee from it. But while working with the evil, a person must always be bound to the goal and use the Creator’s force.

All conflicts, arguments, and tensions can be revealed between the friends in the group only on the condition that they strive for unity, if they make efforts to come together. Only then will they see that they hate one another and don’t have any desire to be one. Therefore, they must bring the Creator into it so He may reform this hate. After all, it is the Creator who shows man where his evil resides. This is the place where He doesn’t dwell, the place without Light.
[37869]
From the lesson on 2/25/11, Writings of Rabash

Related Material:
The System Of Mutual Work Is The Key To Success
The Primordial Point Of Love
A One Man Show

Filed under: Egoism, Family, Group Work, Love, Q&A, Spirituality, Torah - No Comments →

After the breaking, the sparks fell into the broken vessels and the Light is inside the desire to receive this Light egoistically. It turns out that I am inside of this egoistic desire in the broken vessel, and that means I want to use society and the Creator to receive spiritual fulfillment, but for my own sake!

I want to advance spiritually by gaining more knowledge, more sensations, and by becoming closer to my friends in order to receive something from them. All of this is aimed in the direction of the spiritual goal, but with an egoistic intention. That is how I activate my spiritual desires or broken vessels. I act from the broken heart and it is precisely inside of it that I will find the Creator among all of my egoistic desires.

I have to work with these desires without being scared or embarrassed! I shouldn’t run away from the horror upon discovering that I am entirely aimed at selfish reception, and I shouldn’t be afraid to get dirty by touching my impure desires. This is, incidentally, Kabbalah’s difference from the religious approach. I have to activate these desires without getting scared or ashamed.

Yes, I am broken! And it is precisely from the depth of this breaking that I reveal the fact that I can attain the goal. This is the place of my contact with the Creator. From there I organize my work in relation to society. And this society also seems egoistic to me since it is my common Kli that is broken in relation to me.

Don’t be afraid of any revelations of evil! The most important thing is that the evil is being revealed for the sake of the goal! In that case, it is the point of truth from which I will already be aimed at the goal.

That is how I accelerate my development and acquire a point of contact with the Creator from within my broken desires, from this entire filthy egoism. That is how I advance. And the more “sinners” that become revealed in me, the better. I am very happy about it because through them I will be able to advance even more!

I only wish to have enough strength to endure in the face of suffering so I won’t run away, or so I won’t sit with my hands folded in my lap and eat myself up. Some people become consumed in eating themselves up and don’t think of using these states for the sake of their advancement when so many negative qualities become revealed to them.

The only thing that can help here is endurance, the speed of the changes, and the force of the group, which must influence a person and always awaken him, not letting him remain depressed and empty. Everything depends on how we prepare ourselves and how we help all the others who are in these broken desires.

After all, we all understand what kind of egoism we are in, and we are not afraid because we support one another and try to pull every person out of the swamp. This enables us to advance.

There is still a lot of work ahead of us in order to reveal our common state and the personal state of every person, and to come out of them. However, it is important to underline that these states become revealed to us when a person aspires toward the goal. That is, the goal is never to reveal the evil! My goal is always to try to reveal goodness, bestowal, love, and unification, but on the way there I reveal opposite qualities. To the degree I try to reveal goodness, on the way I reveal all kinds of “sinners” inside of me.

Then I rejoice at their revelation inside of me because in the same direction come prayer and correction, and thus I move forward. The first half of the vessel is the revelation of evil, while the second half is its correction to goodness.
[37659]
From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/9/11 on Prayer

Related Material:
The Path Through The Broken Heart
He Whose Heart Is Broken
Spiritual Endurance

Filed under: Daily Kabbalah Lesson, Egoism, Prayer and Intention - 1 Comment →

Writings of Rabash, Why does it say that “The Creator heals broken hearts”? It is because the most important thing for a person is the heart because it is the vessel for the Upper Light. But if the vessel is broken, then everything filling it spills to the outside.

Therefore, if the heart is broken, meaning, if the egoistic desire rules over the heart, then the Light cannot enter it. Everything a person receives egoistically goes to the impure forces (Klipot). This is called “a broken heart.”

Therefore, a person asks the Creator to help and cure his broken heart because nothing spiritual can enter it and only the Creator can save him. That is why it is written, “The Creator is close to those whose heart is broken.”

The Creator created creation perfect. But then, in order to give creation the ability to understand, feel, reveal, and value this perfect state, He had to take it through states that are opposite to perfection in every form. Then creation will prepare, acquiring the force, sensations, and ability to reveal the perfection that was created in it.

States that are opposite to perfection are called “breaking.” They exist only in relation to creation, inside its sensation and understanding. That is to say, a person reveals that his heart is broken—that all of his desires are broken and that he is ruled by egoism. And just like in a broken vessel, all of the fulfillment he is given spills to the outside and goes to the egoistic desires.

A person feels that he passionately desires bestowal, but is unable to do it because his entire heart is broken. He suddenly reveals that all of his thoughts and desires, his entire aspiration to bestowal is actually aimed at the total opposite: at egoistic reception.

That is to say, he is torn apart in two directions. The first is his passionate desire to the Creator, which seems to come from the bottom of his heart. But he reveals that in actuality, from the bottom of his heart he wants the opposite.

Then, as a result of these two opposite directions that become revealed inside him, a person feels that his heart is broken. That is why he asks the Creator to cure his heart so his intentions would be aimed at the Creator, at bestowal, at the neighbor—only in one direction, without returning back to himself.

Then it is considered a true prayer that is accepted from above, as it is written, “The Creator is close to those whose heart is broken.”

This discernment is the only thing we need.
[37554]
From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/9/11 on Prayer

Related Material:
The Path Through The Broken Heart
The Soul Will Teach A Person
Only Heroes Will Enter The King’s Palace

Filed under: Daily Kabbalah Lesson, Egoism, Inner Work, Prayer and Intention - No Comments →