Question: How can we balance our feelings with our mind?

Answer: But why do that? Being balanced is not a good thing. Even though this is our purpose, to reach balance and harmony, nevertheless as long as we are on the path, we don’t need this to stop us.

We learn that the Creator created the will to receive which is the creation, matter, and the only thing that exists. This desire develops with the help of the Light that created it. Stated differently, there exists a special force called “Light,” “the force of bestowal,” or “the root” that created the will to receive, the force of reception.

When the will to receive begins developing with the help of the Light, it goes through four phases, each of which gives rise to the following stage and fills it, and then that phase continues its development. When this desire reaches the fourth phase of development, it begins asking questions: Who am I? What am I living for? Where did I come from?

In essence these questions are asking about “the root.” And because the desire asks about this, a mind begins developing within it. The Light influences our will to receive in such a way that the need for fulfillment makes the desire begin searching for a way to attain what it desires.

We see this based on how we are structured. What do we include inside of us? Positive particles and negative ones: positrons and electrons, atoms that make us up and unite into molecules. These, in turn, connect together according to their valency. So after all is said and done, there are two forces: the force of reception and the force of bestowal.

But when they begin to unite, they form cells of thought. That is why every atom and every molecule begins to feel the need to perceive itself. And when they try to unite together, they are looking for a way to complete themselves according to the number of free electrons. Then it turns out that by virtue of these processes, a mind forms.

After that the particles begin to unite in a way that seems mechanical. Our brain is also mechanical and contains nothing from Above. But it looks for the most rational, short, and best way to reach what it desires. This is called the birth of the mind inside the desire. A great desire gives birth to a great mind according to the fact that it has to attain great things, while a small desire produces a small mind.

This is similar to a child’s development. A small child has small desires and a small mind, but the more we develop his desires in order for him to know how to take something apart and put it back together, the more his mind develops. The same happens on the still, vegetative, and animate levels.

However, the will to bestow has a completely different brain. There we come out of ourselves to the common memory that is outside of us. I begin to acquire an external feeling, the feeling of bestowal, with the help of my desire to attain “the root” and by beginning to connect to the desire that is outside of me.

External desires are located between people and they are the common desire that each of them acquires. In the same way a person also acquires the external mind outside of each one of us. In that case, our desires and our mind are unlimited. Then, I do not limit the mind by the boundaries of my personality, but on the contrary, I come out into a dimension where there are no limitations. This state is called the world of Infinity.
From the lecture in “Kabbalah L’Am” Hall on 1/25/11

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In order to be in balance with nature, it is necessary to consume intelligently, meaning to the degree it is necessary, depending on every person’s needs. Baal HaSulam writes about this in the article, “Peace in the World” and in other articles.

However, this practice cannot be imposed through terror. It can only happen by means of education! Yet in their times the Russian revolutionaries took a different path, having discarded the principle of education.

In addition, this was taking place in an underdeveloped country, with the most underdeveloped population that to this day is used to living in practically feudal conditions. Today the people of Russia, who are good-hearted and kind, still agree to the feudal conditions in which Russia exists to this day. This is not a capitalistic, but a feudal country with its customs, structure, corruption, and all of its social relations. It is feudalism.

It might seem to us, “But how can that be? This, in modern society? Isn’t it long gone? In the West, Feudalism hasn’t existed for 300 years already.” True, in the West it hasn’t existed for 300 years, but in Russia it still exists. That is to say, every person still agrees to it. The people still haven’t developed above that level.

Only a small portion of the population, about 10 – 20%, cannot tolerate these conditions, while everyone else agrees to live in them. They don’t care that they have a master, that they have to submit to someone without law and order, that everything can be bought and sold, and that the rich are powerful and right. People agree to this! That is why it is still deemed a feudal level of social development.

Marx absolutely did not suppose that this kind of country would try to implement his idea. He practically laid out Kabbalah in the form of economic laws. But the egoism of the post-Soviet realm is completely different. This egoism is feudal and not yet ready for serious development.

However, when we work with each person individually or with our groups in Russia, we see an astounding result because the people have points in the heart. They are very responsive and goal-oriented.

The question is: Will the society be able to understand that it has to unite, but not by the laws it was brought up by in the Soviet regime? The unity has to happen by laws where everyone is equal, conscious, and unites consciously. The people of Russia are not used to uniting consciously. Will they reach this, will they be able to do it? That is, indeed, a question.

Therefore, our groups in Russia are very dear to us. I personally know this nation very well since I grew up there and my native language is Russian. But can we look at Russia as the country that has the ability to easily realize the Kabbalistic principles? That is something I do not know.

On the other hand, in Europe, despite the fact that the people are very different from the Russian image, all they have to do is overcome a certain external opposition, a certain shell or casing. After that, as soon as this idea penetrates into people’s thoughts, they realize that it is true and are able to realize it inside of them through their development.

In Russia it is easy to come close to the individual. But in Europe it is much more difficult! Yet I think that if we penetrate inside the individuals in Europe, they will find the forces and abilities inside of them to unite. Their conscious collectivism will emerge.

On the other hand, in Russia collectivism does not emerge despite this. There the society is not developed collectively. I think that it is not yet able to do this.

Nevertheless, notwithstanding all of these surmises, we have to develop Kabbalah and disseminate it everywhere. Of course, there is a great boundary in the countries that were once socialist. But this should not stop us. We shouldn’t give any thought to where it’s easier and where it’s harder, why, and how. We should work, and that’s all. I never make any calculations. We do not know what is better and what is worse, and how everything will occur.
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From the 3rd lesson at the Berlin Convention on 1/28/11

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Question: What does Kabbalah focus on and what can it give to a person?

Answer: When childhood ends, a person’s eyes gradually begin to open and he finds himself in a particular world. It is possible to live in it without giving it much thought; to simply live “like everyone else,” watching others. But possibly, a person wants to understand a bit more in life. Everything depends on a person’s internal need, which pushes him.

A person wants to discover the reality around him: his room during his childhood, then his yard, city, country, the world, the whole planet, and then he goes on to outer space. But in the end, he comes to understand that all of these attempts do not give him satisfaction.

Today humanity has even lost interest in space exploration. The only thing left of it is mercantile use for operating mobile phones via satellites or for espionage. We are no longer inspired by space travel to far-away galaxies. Man’s internal desire has changed and does not aspire to far-away, cosmic distances, but on the contrary, it aspires within.

So the question is: Where did this come from and what for? For the first time in human history, we are not simply trying to do “more,” but we first want to understand: Why should we do it? This is a question about our root: Where does everything come from? And where is it taking me?

Year after year, it becomes harder for people to sell something new, and that is because they are already satiated with everything. This does not mean that they do not have desires, but that you simply cannot give them what they want! That is why they are left unsatisfied, disillusioned, and begin taking drugs in order to forget about it all.

They need an answer about the meaning of life, and not simply how to arrange a well-fed, comfortable existence for themselves that’s pleasant for the animate body.

This can even be seen in fashion by how much simpler and free it has become. This indicates that man is becoming free of material values as he no longer sees meaning or fulfillment in them. He simply wants to feel comfortable and not feel the lack of something material, without excessively focusing on it or taking care of it.

This makes all the difference. I need a car, a house, and a thousand different things in order to live comfortably. But they are not interesting to me by themselves. I simply want to provide comfort for myself, but I actually do not need anything. They make my life easier, and that’s great, but all of this is not a goal in itself. I want to discover something else, something higher.

That’s where an inner question arises about the essence or meaning of life. A person can no longer find help in technology development, science, philosophy, or psychology; nothing will be able to answer this question. And that is because it is a question about his root: Where do I come from? Do I have a higher purpose besides this animate life?

I have already exhausted this life, but what else can I receive? One more super-fashionable toy or a TV? You can dream up any entertainment possible, but all of it comes from a level that I am no longer interested in. And I am not to blame! Inside of me there are questions awakening which belong to another level.
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From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/24/11, “The Essence of the Wisdom of Kabbalah”

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We are in one part of nature, the receiving part, and have to reach the other part, the bestowing part. Today this part is completely unclear to us and that is because the transition from one degree to the next is always unclear. In dialectic this is called, “the law of the double negative.”

The next degree is a different mind, different feelings, and different vision. In fact, everything is different with completely new parameters. We aren’t talking about something slightly bigger than what we have now, but a qualitatively new degree. In general, on the spiritual path every level is completely different from the previous, being totally detached from it and having a new ten Sefirot.

The order of ascent is the following: We immerse into the egoistic desire, say one inch deep, and evaluate it as the evil of our existence, wishing to correct it to good. Then we ascend one inch above it, meaning we start using it inversely in the direction of bestowal, and see a completely new world.

Then we descend once again, but this time two inches deep. At first everything is fine: We use the world, meaning the state, for ourselves. But then we gradually discover a horrible picture and once again begin transforming the evil to bestowal. Once we get rid of the evil, we ascend two inches up and once again see the world of bestowal, which is completely unlike the previous level.

The greater the immersion, the greater the ascent. Adjacent levels are divided from one another by descent and all of their content is absolutely different. We continuously reveal a new world, not knowing how to act from one state to the next. The states are completely different, even if it seems to us that “we have already been here.”

How, then, can we make the choice? How can I choose a direction and the next state?

This requires a simple action: Out of all the possible states, I choose the most complex one, the one that’s most difficult for me now, the one that’s most repulsive to my nature. That is how I act in relation to my friends against my nature, and that is how I ascend to the next state.

I must continuously choose the spiritual state that is maximally opposite to my present state. In this way, reception and bestowal grow one from the other. This is the law of the double negative. This law is the foundation for vegetative life, the growth of living cells, the path of our thoughts, and so on. Everything develops by having opposites grow from one another.
From the lesson on 1/17/11, Shamati

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The transition from the present, internal sensation to the external one is the most challenging step on the path of evolution. In the corporeal world, it is egoism that makes us grow by providing a natural motivation for us to search. In the upper world, we feel how wonderful it is to step out into the new dimension. We start seeing and experiencing it, and sensing the forces that interact with all of its parts. We unveil the tapestry of forces that connect us, which naturally results in our yearning for spiritual attainment.

We have to move on from our present perception to a higher one, and reside in both dimensions simultaneously. This is a very difficult psychological transition because it is as if we are being reborn.

Just like a newborn comes out of its previous place of existence into the external world by way of its own efforts, as well as its mother’s, so we have to pass through the very same stages of internal maturation and necessity to be born. With our own effort, we “flip upside down,” which signifies that we completely switch our perception of reality. The pushing force of the mother works in sync with the moving force of the embryo, and as a result we come out into the external world.

This is the most serious state and a crucial point in our lives. For the first time in human history, we are undergoing it on a mass scale. In the past, the revelation of the upper dimension or the external world occurred on the individual level. The first person to do so was Adam 5771 years ago. After him, over the course of thousands of years, many others discovered this possibility, attained it, and described it in their books, which have survived to this day. That is how the method continued to develop.

However, today, it is being transformed from an individual wisdom to a mass wisdom. Therefore, it is undergoing very serious modifications. We are the groundbreakers of implementing it, and the process will be much easier for the rest of mankind. We will be born first, and then all the others will follow us by the same principle.

We should be aware how challenging, profound, and unique our path is.
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From the lesson in Moscow on 1/16/11, Writings of Rabash

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We have entered the developmental stage of the greatest level of desire, Malchut. And most importantly, this desire is common.

This is the beginning of the age of the Messiah. If we view 6,000 years of development as 6 days, then we are in the last thousand, the last “day.” The difference is that we are now revealing the universal connection, Malchut that is connected to Yesod.

If Malchut becomes revealed by itself, it is the animate level. But if Malchut’s connection with Yesod, with Zeir Anpin, becomes revealed, then this is already the human level. Therefore, this connection that becomes revealed awakens our aspiration for something higher, causing us to search for the meaning in life.

We seem to have a connection with Yesod, which is the source from which life, the Light of Hochma, comes to us. We feel that we need changes and our entire world demands correction. Yesod also unites everything from above downwards since it is the sum of the previous five Sefirot (Hesed, Gevura, Tifferet, Netzah, and Hod).

On the other hand, Yesod is the place of union with the Creator (Brit, circumcision), which concentrates all of the corrections of the connection between the Creator and creation. This is the source from which Malchut receives the entire Light of life.

In our days we are beginning to feel this Yesod. We are suddenly awakening and we don’t understand what is our life—where does it come from? We die, but is there life above us?

We start to be impressed from feeling the connection with Yesod, which is becoming slightly revealed to us. This time is called the era of the Messiah, when the Light of Yesod has to pull us upwards (from the word Moshech, to pull out). Yesod is a male quality, whereas we, creation, are a female quality, Malchut. We have to elicit the union of these two parts, the male and the female.

For now our points in the heart are awakening because a small illumination comes out of Yesod and reaches Malchut. On one hand, each person feels an individual awakening inside. On the other hand, we feel connected with each other because Yesod unites all the Lights together from above downwards.

When all of these Lights pass through Yesod, unite, and come to us as one common Light, that Light includes many components and therefore awakens an awareness in Malchut that we are all connected. We have to attain equivalence with Yesod ,and the Light we receive from it awakens this universal connection inside us.

For now this connection is not correct, not good. We still have to go through the realization of evil and other corrections. But nevertheless, this connection has already emerged. These days are called the era of the Messiah because he pulls us out (Moshech) and elevates us.
From the lesson on Talmud Eser Sefirot on 1/7/11

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Question: If only “desire” was created, then what is intention? Is it a type of desire as well?

Answer: No it isn’t. Intention comes to us from the Creator. Every person has a point in the heart, “the Creator’s part given from Above.”

The truth of the matter is that we resulted from the breaking. Before us, there was a system of Infinity (Ein Sof), where the entire desire and the Light were one. Then we experienced the system of the breaking of the Kelim (vessels).

What did it give us? Now that we are here in the corporeal world, we still have desire, but instead of the Light, there are only sparks. Our desire is broken and acts solely with an egoistic intention to receive. In the course of history, from generation to generation, from lifetime to lifetime, it has developed at the still, vegetative, and animate levels.

Finally, during one of its lifecycles, it reaches the final stage when a point, a spark of Light, the Creator’s part given from Above, emerges in a person. “What about me?” it asks as it wakes up to life, and that’s when man feels a conflict within.

At the animate level, such internal conflicts don’t arise because at that point we were developed by instinctive impulses and urges. We wanted to use others to the utmost and succeed in all that we did.

All people, young and old, strive to gain the most out of this world. They exist only in one desire: the will to receive pleasure. Thinking that it is worth living for, they don’t ask questions about something greater than that. After all, questions grow from within, from the fertile inner ground, and until then we are mere mammals. We view vital issues through the prism of our mind and various beliefs.

This goes on until man despairs of the desire, until his or her point in the heart unfolds, which characterizes our generation. Thus, the point in the heart is the beginning of the soul. This is what triggers human development.
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From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/7/2011, Writings of Rabash

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Question: Today there are many new students present at the lesson. What advice would you give them to change their egoistic intention into an altruistic one?

Answer: In our world, we are approaching the moment of truth: We have nothing else to live for. Day by day, the world discovers that its life is empty. In reality, however, we haven’t reached the turning point just yet, and people still manage to confuse themselves and obscure the truth because they have no replacement for their present life.

We have to show them that the alternative does exist, and that we are undergoing a certain process managed from Above. We have to actualize it. It is a unique, benevolent process, a remarkable development, elevating us over life in the body which is approaching death every given second. This is what we should pass on to the newcomers.

We must rise to a new perception of reality. It doesn’t mean that I simply replace “my picture” I see from within the body. No, I don’t “switch the remote” on the external view, but rather I step out into a new reality, cross from one world to the other. I change my attitude in practice, by giving it a new vector: from within myself to outward toward others, or from within myself out to the Creator. In fact, “the other” is a remedy, an intermediary phase that helps me to aim to the Creator.

In general, I can exist in my small will to receive pleasure, perceiving this tiny, frail world. Alternatively, I can break free from it and experience eternal life, the perfect nature, where I live without restrictions in the world of Infinity. The wisdom of Kabbalah gives us this opportunity.

In the previous generations, only a few were able to experience such an internal revolution, the transition from one world to the other. But today, everyone whose point in the heart (or spiritual desire) unfolds can try to actualize it. Starting with our time and on, the entire human race will gradually, step by step, undergo this transition.
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From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/7/2011, Writings of Rabash

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In the News (From eiu.com): The results of the Economist Intelligence Unit’s “Democracy Index 2010” show a decline in democracy across the world’s regions. The report states that “the economic and financial crisis boosted some authoritarian regimes and accentuated existing negative political trends, most notably in Europe, both east and west.” The global trend in democratization has come to a halt in what Larry Diamond (2008) called a “democratic recession.” Democracy is in retreat.

Authoritarianism has been intensifying in Middle East and the former USSR. Democratization seems to cause disappointment in the masses. In Africa, it has come to a complete halt, whereas Latin America has developed a tendency toward populist movements.

In the West, the public’s participation in political life has also declined. The double standards the foreign policies and attacks on civil liberties cause disappointment in democratization and drive the public to accuse their own governments in hypocrisy.

My comment: According to Kabbalah, if the world doesn’t develop awareness of the natural plan of its development and choose to be similar to nature, then all presently existing political systems will be replaced by fascist and fundamentalist regimes, and the world will quickly fall into the 3rd world war. See Baal HaSulam’s book The Future Generation and newspaper “Ha Uma (The People).”
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When speaking of actualizing the wisdom of Kabbalah, we should take into consideration that our current Gilgul (life cycle) is far from being the first. We have gone through multiple cycles, and nobody knows exactly how many each of us has. It will be revealed to us farther down the road, but frankly, there isn’t much use in reviewing our past incarnations since all of them were at the still, vegetative, or animate levels of the evolution of the will to enjoy.

Based on this, our evolution went on. First, we existed at the still level of development, followed by the vegetative one when we experienced reality like plants do. Further on, each of us evolved at the animate level, perceiving reality similarly to animals.

Thus, we have gone through several lifetimes until, as written in the ARI’s The Tree of Life and Baal HaSulam’s The Study of the Ten Sefirot, Part 3, from the animate level, through the apes (an intermediate level between beast and man), we have finally come to the human level in this world. Humans are also an animate species, but much more advanced than beasts.

At the speaking level of this world, we, too, have undergone many lifetimes until we have reached our present condition. Now, in this incarnation, we are doing a special type of work in order to ascend to a completely new degree and experience a new, spiritual reality: the Creator’s reality.

During any transition from degree to degree and state to state, there are intermediate stages. As the ARI describes, between the still and vegetative levels, there are corals which combine both the still and vegetative characteristics. Between the vegetative and animate levels, there is an intermediate creature, a tiny animal called the “dog of the field” that lives in the ground and feeds off the land like a plant, but whose body acts as a beast. Between an animal and a human, there is the ape, a mammal with rudimentary human characteristics.

At present, we are in transition from a human of this world, who lives just like all the other seven billion people, and something spiritual. We don’t quite know yet what this “spiritual” means, but we are in between.

For the first time, in these transitions that we have undergone from the degrees of still to vegetative, from vegetative to animate, and from animate to speaking (human), unaware of what has been happening to us and living like all people in this world, we now have to make the transition consciously, fully participating in it. It is we who decide whether it will or will not take place, and in what manner. It is only our will that can make it happen.

This evolution is up to us. This transition is extremely unique and unlike any other because it is we who cultivate a human in us, a human identical to the Creator.

Therefore, for the first time in our history, in our entire evolution, the wisdom of Kabbalah is being revealed to us. It is destined to accompany us as an instructional manual, a prime directive, a code of laws, a science, with the help of which we will complete this transition. After all, if we don’t clarify it for ourselves, don’t wish for and don’t study it, we won’t be able to make it.

This is why we are named “Jews” (“Ivrim,” from the Hebrew word “Laavor,” to cross over) since we are crossing over from the state of human of this world to the level of a spiritual human, similar to Adam HaRishon, or the image of the First Man. Eons ago, he seemed to have broken into fragments, and now we have to re-assemble him anew, his male and female parts.

All of this has to be implemented in our collective work. We have all the necessary tools for it, but it is up to us to clarify it all, to learn what we lack in order to become this Human, and actualize it.
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From Lesson 2, Convention at the Arava Desert 12/31/10

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