Question: What should we focus on: external circulation of Kabbalah or inner connection?

Answer: Firstly, disseminate outwards to let people know that the crisis can be overcome, that in reality this is not a crisis. In the same way, Rabbi Shimon’s descent before the decisive ascent turned out to be the nicest and most desirable state.

The crisis is intended for our good. Using it correctly, we can arrive at the best state easily, freely, and without problems.

Recently, I was asked: “What can replace the human desire for something greater than the necessities of normal life?” That is basically what we have to explain to people.

The crisis is really for our good. One way or the other, we will reach balance between ourselves, balance with nature. We have nowhere to escape: Either the matrix of nature, getting closer to us, cuts us into pieces by force and re-connects us into one “mixture,” one collective “dough,” or we come to this voluntarily in order to change ourselves and unite. The difference is huge.

If we understand this movement correctly, then of course, the crisis is for our good. We can transform a tragic life that threatens us and our children into a beautiful ascent. We have to explain this to the greatest possible number of people.

While Kabbalah was spreading through a small stream from teacher to disciple, it sufficed for a few people with high knowledge to pass it maximally, accurately, and clearly. However, this stream has become a wide river that involves the entire humanity. A global, integral crisis is coming, and we are not talking about the height of the teaching, about the details, but about the breadth and accessibility.

With this purpose, Baal HaSulam wrote such articles as “The Revelation of Godliness,” “The Mutual Guarantee,” and “The Freedom.” They provide initial information, properly described and addressed to the widest possible audience.

In our time, the overall force of correction exists namely in the masses, in the huge masses of people. Through us, they understand what the matter is, we make their life easier with love towards them. In response, they will give a little push forward, and it will affect us as well. It is said in this regard that the nations of the world carry us to the Temple of the Creator, that is, raise us. They raise us specifically because we give them the method.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson from Moscow 6/14/2011, Shamati #4

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The crisis is coming over the world, and people feel it, they feel that things are getting worse for them. And indeed, it will not get better unless we begin to correct it through harmony with the Creator or the surrounding Nature, which is the same thing.

This is why we need to look for people who will respond to our call; we need to disseminate, “throw information around,” and to better utilize the Internet as a medium. The Internet is practically our only opportunity to be everywhere for free. First, we need to bring ourselves in order, but on the other hand, when you start organizing others, you also organize yourself.

The first thing we need for our work is inner unity, and of course the most important aspect of our work is circulation. The crisis clearly shows us that we need to care more for others than ourselves. We will reach the goal faster going down the most reliable avenue if we disseminate Kabbalah. Through the nearing crisis, the Creator is showing us that we do not have time for ourselves. We only have time for the world: By organizing it, we will organize and correct ourselves.

The global crisis became obvious only a few years ago. For a long time, ecologists have been screaming that we are in trouble, but it was specifically the economic crisis that put us into a panic. Why the economic crisis? Because it reflects the egoistic connections between people: When these connections become global and integrated, it becomes a problem.

What is economics? It is a display, an expression of our egoistic connection: the amount each one of us wants but is unable to make and only does with what economic, egoistic bonds and relations according to the principle of “I for you and you for me” permit. Economics is pure egoism in its clear, harsh, real form. And when it suddenly enters a global and integrated state, we discover that this state is completely opposite to it.

We can negotiate anything, even atomic weapons—out of fear. But we are basically incapable of negotiating economics: Everyone is pulling the blanket over to their side. How else can it be?

This is our main problem. The economy is already manifesting in the world as a global, integrated, interconnected, mutually binding system, and people are not yet ready for it.

This is the greatest discord that can exist in our world, the greatest, acute demonstration of our nonconformity with the system which is now manifesting before us. We got caught in a net, an analog matrix, where all the parts depend on each other. We are incorporated in it against our will; we are bound inside it by the old ties of egoistic economy as before, and we have no way to escape. This is nature challenging us and clearly showing us: “Guys, time’s up.”

We need to move forward on our own and alleviate this state and bring humanity into complete accordance with this matrix through explanations, education, and so on. If we do not move in this direction even in the slightest way to the extent of our abilities, then the crisis draws closer.

The matrix has its own program of getting closer to us, and as a result, even greater contradictions happen in the world to the point of revolutions, wars, different cataclysms, and so on. The awakening of one volcano causes serious consequences on a global scale. What if  20-30 volcanoes erupt? We are hostages of the unknown, we are sitting on a keg of gunpowder—our Earth with titanic forces bubbling inside. We need to understand this and not provoke Nature’s harsh attitude towards us. Yet on the contrary, we disturb its balance and not just in ecological sense.

This is why all our groups, everyone studying with us must disseminate. Nature itself obligates us towards it. This is the only way for us to break ahead and approach the global matrix.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson from Moscow 6/14/2011, Shamati #4

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Nature instinctively, firmly, and automatically supports the system of reciprocity, interconnection, assistance, harmony, globalization, and integration, sustaining life thereby. Thus we say that the upper force is the force of love. Yet, the still, vegetative, and animate levels of nature have one “little” additional element: man, human society, that doesn’t wish to follow this law. It is intentionally created so as to evolve randomly, pushed by its egoism.

Imagine a gigantic system where one part, which is the most advanced, efficient, and fragile, doesn’t work in sync, in harmony, with the rest of it. Therefore, this entire system gradually reaches a state of complete imbalance. This is what we are beginning to finally realize. Humanity has become a cancerous tumor consuming everything outside itself, breaking the equilibrium, and naturally causing a corresponding feedback.

How then do we achieve harmony? After all, otherwise we will destroy the whole organism. This is becoming obvious. It doesn’t take a prophet to see where the things are headed.

That is exactly what the wisdom of Kabbalah describes: how we must reform ourselves by studying the laws of integral nature. Don’t get into mysticism and start studying astral phenomena; all we have to do is learn the laws of the closed, global, integral systems which are also called analog networks known to us from engineering. There is an enormous amount of scientific, mathematically accurate material which informs us how closed systems support their internal balance.

We have to study ourselves as the elements inadequate to this system in our actions, desires, and thoughts. And if we honestly wish to achieve some kind of normal existence, even at the level of the corporeal world (not to mention what else we unveil when we enter homeostasis with nature), then we bring ourselves to overall harmony.

Today, it may seem a bit unnecessary and unpleasant, but nevertheless, nature is already pushing, forcing, and demanding from us the internal efforts and actions aimed at transforming ourselves. After all, to be aligned with surrounding nature means to consider it and not to simply consume and drain it. How and in what sense can we change ourselves? The section where Kabbalah discusses this is entitled “Mutual Guarantee.”

Guarantee is our mutual agreement (not only pertaining to ourselves but to all of nature) to reach absolutely complete mutual understanding and total balance. In terms of Kabbalah, it is Malchut of the world of Infinity or, in other words, a common, mutual property of love and bestowal.

To obtain the “property of love” means to take into consideration the needs of another as my own. This is exactly how all parts of our organism interact at the biological level. And nature pushes us to reach the same degree in our social interactions by way of social unification with one another. It can force us to do so by causing suffering. If, however, we start moving in that direction, we will be transformed quickly, comfortably, and easily. And this is what the wisdom of Kabbalah is offering to us to learn.
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From the 5th lesson at the Moscow Convention, 6/11/2011

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We are in an unknown reality, and to this day, while existing in this world we still do not understand exactly where we are, by what program we develop, and what goal we are moving toward. We do not understand anything in our life, and being sheltered by concealment, we consider ourselves smart and intelligent, as if we have knowledge, our own opinion, and freedom of will.

But when blows and suffering catch up to us, we understand that we are incapable of anything, that we don’t understand anything, and don’t have any chance to behave intelligently. Especially now, during a time of crisis, we see that we do not have any chances of relating to reality correctly, that we are facing problems and don’t even have the slightest ability to understand them. Even if we sometimes understand something one millimeter ahead of time, this does not enable us to change our state or to behave differently. Even if we decide that we really do need to change and start behaving differently, we don’t have the forces to change our behavior. So what’s the use of these decisions if we can’t change ourselves, influence one another, and the whole world?

Even when we see that we only inflict harm and misfortunes upon ourselves, that we are, in fact, leading ourselves to death, we are still unable to stop ourselves. What insignificance, what ignominy! We would simply finish our lives inside of our will to enjoy, which completely kills us if we did not receive the Torah, the means to correct the egoistic desire so that starting from the lowest possible point, a moment before death, we could start raising it to the top, to the level of the Creator, the higher, opposite quality—the will to bestow.

This means, called “Torah” is more important than anything. Without it there is no chance to achieve anything. We cannot develop through suffering. The influence of suffering only makes the will to enjoy develop. Blows make it search for all sorts of means to get rid of the troubles, and in the end it leads itself to death in order to avoid suffering. When the desire feels unbearable suffering due to its absolute opposition to the Light, it is willing to nullify itself completely, anything but to suffer.

If so, then the Torah is the only means leading us to life, correction, and existence. That is why there is no path of suffering, no path without Torah. The Torah has to become revealed to humanity so people would be able to use it. And they have to reveal it in the right form—as the Light that reforms. But if they don’t use the Torah correctly, meaning that they don’t realize it, that means they are following the path of suffering. If they use it correctly, then they follow the path of Torah, the path of Light. And if they are in the middle between one and the other, they advance by “the earthly path.”

Therefore, Baal HaSulam’s article, “The Revelation of Godliness (Matan Torah)” is very important since it tells us about how we can receive the Torah. There is a giving of the Torah from above, and there is a reception of the Torah from below. All of the suffering comes to us because we do not use the Torah correctly, the Light that reforms, that brings us back to the source of goodness. Everything depends on our efforts to become good. Therefore, we do not have a lack for anything besides this means. So let’s find out how to receive the Torah and come to goodness!
From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 6/19/11, “Matan Torah (The Giving of the Torah)

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For millennia, we advanced with the slow growth of egoism and developed society, technologies, and various sciences in compliance with it. Then, during the Renaissance, a steeper ascent began that peaked in our century, with a consumer society.

When this egoism reached a certain level, it suddenly stopped, “interrupted its flight,” and its graph now turns into a horizontal line. It will not grow further.

In this state, humanity begins to feel depression as it can’t see how it can satisfy itself. Earlier, being at the intermediate stages of our development, we always aspired to something greater. Every time, it seemed to us that the next state was better than the current one, and we wanted to achieve it. We raised children, hoping that it would be better for them than for us, that their world would be higher, wiser, and so on.

However, today we don’t want to have children because we don’t see how their life will become better. We feel that egoism cannot grow any further; it has nowhere to grow. We even begin to limit our most ambitious space programs. Everything is declining. Besides that, resources do not allow us to develop freely. We begin to deplete ourselves in terms of energy, resources and in terms of our inner potential. We have nowhere to grow, nothing to strive for. “I don’t want anything.”

Over 50 percent of the people in the world experience some form of depression. We are not talking about drugs, terrorism, divorces, mutual estrangement, or conflicts between parents and children. All these are symptoms, an indication that egoism begins to “run out.” It can’t fulfill itself at the current level, on our small Earth.

Egoistic desires consist of two groups:

1. Food, sex, and family. These desires are natural; they are present in every human and in animals.
2. Wealth, power, honor (which are essentially the same thing), and knowledge. These desires are social.

Today, both these groups of desires no longer grow any more. They seem to have reached their peak and remain at the same level.

Soon, they will begin to diminish. A human will not need all that; he will begin to give up his “conquests,” to become empty internally because he will not expect any new desires or any new fulfillment. In our world, these six desires exhaust themselves, and this is also one of the reasons, one of the components, that drives us towards the crossing of the “Machsom,” the barrier between the worlds. They push us from behind by sufferings.
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From the 1st lesson at the Moscow Convention 6/10/11

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There are two forces that influence us: One drives us from behind, and the other pulls us forward. Accordingly, Kabbalah states that we have two ways to reach the goal.

1. If we make the force that pulls us forward greater than the force that pushes us from behind, we will advance in a comfortable and fast manner with understanding and desire. Then, a very pleasant and fast road to personal correction and the revelation of our perfect state opens up before us. In this case, we will perceive the current state as a turning point, a springboard for a very kind and good jump.

2. If we do not strive ahead and help everyone else, meaning all of humanity, the negative force will push us forward through suffering. Of course, taking into consideration our entire global interconnection in the modern world, we would suffer a great deal.

Thus, the people who have the desire and aspiration today must also understand their responsibility to the entire world. Their reward is also in it. To aspire toward the goal and lead forward is an enormous and noble purpose.

This is why we are creating a special portal now on the Internet, and we are collecting a huge amount of material for it. We are in touch with many sociologists, political analysts, and scientists who study the current states of society and the world in different regions. We see how concerned they are with everything that is happening.

Scientists are examining the current state of human resources that are left at our disposal such as gas, oil, water, coal, metals, and land, everything the Earth gives us. They are horrified because we are on the very edge of exhausting our resources. There are many articles already written about this, many more continue to come out, and we are collecting them. There is an enormous quantity of material.

There is also an enormous amount of material on education. We have reached a point where we are unable to raise human beings. We are able to provide them with some kind of education, although that does not guarantee that they will be able to find work afterward. Yet, we do not know how to bring up human beings, to raise a small child, the “small animal” as he is born, into a human being who lives in harmony, in a good connection with others as our global world demands now. We need to properly explain to people what it means to be “global,” in other words, to be completely interconnected.

I began my study and work with biocybernetics, the systems of the organism, meaning how it sustains itself, maintains an inner balance, and homeostasis within itself and its surroundings. It is an incredible system.

Medicine is based on this knowledge. Doctors use analysis and examinations to check the different parameters of the organism, which are in balance and which are not. There are special charts that show the existence and the state of our inner systems: pressure and temperature maintenance, the balance of electrolytes, acids, and so on. This refers to a huge block of interconnected data.

Our world society today is exactly the same. It can no longer be divided into separate countries as before. However, we are not yet ready for this psychologically. We do not understand it. We must develop and understand the global system and the balanced connection that it must maintain. This balance gives us the perception of a normal life.

As soon as one part of the common human organism falls out of its proper interconnection, illnesses immediately appear. Moreover, it can appear in different systems and manifest in different forms. We do not understand this yet. Scientists are still beginning to examine the global mechanisms.

Technology teaches us about the behavior of analog systems, global systems, and closed-circuit systems. As soon as we begin to imagine this in reference to human society, we see a horrible discrepancy with the state of affairs today. But nature is pushing us gradually toward a global worldview.
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From the 1st lesson at the Moscow Convention 6/10/11

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In Kabbalah, any state the creature is in is called a “world.” We descend and ascend the ladder of the worlds of Adam Kadmon, Atzilut, Beria, Yetzira, and Assiya. Our current state is called “our world.” Everything begins and ends with the state of the world of Infinity. The difference between the worlds tells us of the purpose of creation.

The initial state of the world of Infinity cannot be perceived. It is similar to a drop of semen which will develop into a fetus, and a person will be born. Only once he matures will he reach his adult, conscious state and understand where and what he is and what is happening to him. All of this stems from one tiny genetic code.

In the world of Infinity where everything originates, we are in the same state as a drop of semen. Then, we go through the second state, the stage of development. Finally, in the third state, we rise to the highest degree and together comprise one enormous desire called Adam.

Adam derives from the word “similar.” In other words, we are completely similar to the Light, the Creator. Kabbalah tells us that reaching this state is obligatory.

We can already see the beginning of this ascent in our current state. After having descended from above downward, we have now come to the Machsom, the barrier before the ascent. We are standing before it along with all of humanity.

It does not matter that there are only several million people in the world interested in entering the spiritual world. The rest of humanity is pushed forward by suffering. Our entire world is chased by suffering while we strive forward by our own aspiration instead of suffering. This is the difference between us and the general world. Unlike the masses, we advance on our own. Our desire pulls us forward.

Thus, there are two forces that advance us toward the goal. The first force draws us forward and attracts, while the second force pressures. It partially exists within us also. We are partially pushed from behind and partially advance on our own accord. However, the masses are only pushed forward by suffering.

Such is the “division of labor”: We must move forward; we must organize ourselves; we must understand what nature demands of us. What it demands is to reveal it, to uncover its exalted states, adapt to these states, and enter the next level toward eternity and perfection. Nature pulls us toward this.

At the same time, we must think about helping the masses who lack this opportunity, who experience suffering and an enormous pressure and have no idea of what awaits them ahead.
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From the 2nd lesson at the Moscow Convention 6/10/11

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Question: I have a question about the upper and lower degrees. What does it mean in our state to take a desire from the lower one? What can I do with it, and where can I direct it? How can I take this desire sooner and advance without wasting time?

Answer: In truth, we are between the upper world and humanity. If we want to get desires from all of humanity in order to raise them and receive the upper Light from Above to carry it down, then this scheme will work. To do that, we must disseminate to the wide public knowledge about the solution to the problem of our general crisis from which humanity is only beginning to suffer. There are many problems ahead.

Hence, we have to take the following steps: 1) We need to give humanity knowledge about the crisis, that it is purposeful and not random. 2) In order to raise us up, we have to get from humanity their desires to ascend, to get out of this crisis. 3) We have to raise these desires in order to realize them within ourselves, 4) receive general fulfillment in them, and 5) pass it down. Thus, we work: the upper and the lower one.
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From the 6th lesson at the Moscow Convention 6/12/11

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Question: How do we explain to the public that the era of unbridled consumption is ending?

Answer: A person doesn’t need explanations to feel hungry; however, when the crisis hits, only the government can provide them with food.

Question: So we are building a state of common welfare, aren’t we?

Answer: We certainly are since a state’s job is to provide everybody with food, shelter,  clothing, healthcare, and so on. Vital necessity is not a loaf of bread and a glass of water per day. No, we are talking about a normal existence but not more than that. As to the rest, we educate a person how to receive ideal fulfillment from another source instead of running after the “blessings of civilization.”

It is coming to an end anyway, and there is nothing we can do about it. The world is sinking into crisis, which is supposed to demonstrate to us that we cannot consume more than we need. You may not wish to accept it, but nature will force you to, like it or not. Besides, we can’t explain to the public what’s happening and tell them how they need to act, meaning how to build a new government, a new integral world, unless we send them to school.

As we teach little children, so will we teach adults about the laws by which the world operates, the world that they now find themselves in. After all, if a person doesn’t comprehend the mechanisms of a fully integral world, he or she cannot survive in it. There isn’t a more effective and affordable solution to transform people than global education.

Do you wish to keep getting what you need? Here you go, just don’t forget that you are supposed to come to the lesson. You want to riot? It won’t solve your problems.

Recently, Amr Moussa, the Egyptian presidential candidate, has admitted that instead of a new beginning, the revolution has resulted in a deeper crisis which doesn’t seem to be ending. In his words were sincere pain; he did not expect this turn of events. It isn’t his or Mubarak’s fault: They simply didn’t see the process as a whole. People thought the new government would find the funds, but money alone is useless.

Hence, there is no other way but to figure out how many tailors, farmers, and other workers we need in order to keep a small percent of the population in the necessary areas of production, while the rest of the people have to be sent to school. There is no alternative, this is the way it has to work. This is the only solution that will provide people with the basic necessities so they don’t riot and understand that there is no place to go: The is the new world and the integral system we live in.

The truth is that we have stepped into a new territory rather than into a crisis; we must operate in the new format governed by different laws. And we have to pass through this bottleneck in order to reach perfection.
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From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/25/2011, “Preface to the Wisdom of Kabbalah”

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Kabbalah is the method that talks about the need to unite with each other according to the plan of Nature, the single force which controls the entire universe, all of us, all of creation. Since the days of ancient Babylon, this science has been hidden from humanity. Kabbalah only states that this teaching would be passed through a tiny “stream” from teacher to disciple for thousands of years, from ancient Babylon to the present time, until our world becomes a modern Babylon, meaning the world turns into one whole with complete interconnection regardless of borders, countries, continents, nations, races, groups, and the religions that have emerged over the course of history. Our interdependence will become so strong that it will eliminate all these barriers.

On the other hand, our egoism will remain and continue to develop. Because of this, we will hate each other even more. We will repel each other automatically; we will think only of ourselves subconsciously and instinctively. We won’t consider the others and will only use them maximally for our own profit. This will be our nature for 3700 years, Kabbalistic sources said.

We will come to enormous egoism, and it will be natural for us. We will not even realize that it is special, but only that this is us and this the manner of our life. Nonetheless, this egoism, together with our extensive integral connection and the communication that we have developed between ourselves, will eventually turn us into Babylon again.

Besides that, during the last stage of development when this huge egoistic society becomes global, we will practically deplete all the natural resources and sources of: energy, oil, coal, gas, water, minerals, and metals. Everything is coming to an end. Even if we’d like to grow our egoistic potential, it won’t be possible.

The consumer society that developed during the 20th century has exhausted itself, emptying the Earth of all resources, and as a result, we cannot continue in this life even physically. We have reached such a confrontation with each other and the environment that it forces us to do something.

Our society will become different—uncontrollable. Recently we see revolutions taking place in different countries; we see how communication and connection between people urges them to demand social change. However, we still do not understand how or why this happens: Today it is there, tomorrow it may happen here or elsewhere. We do not see where any of this leads.

In this state of confusion, not being able to understand the next stage, we see the science of Kabbalah being revealed to the world again. I remember when I studied with my teacher, we used to travel to special, Kabbalistic places and sit there together, across from each other. During those evenings and nights, he tried to tell me that the time would come when Kabbalah would be revealed.

What does “revealed” mean? “Revealed” means that it is not you who starts talking about it, but people who want to hear start coming. It depends not on you, but on the ones who will listen.

We see that this time has come because there are plenty of people from different countries, on different continents, in various languages, who want to hear what nature, the Creator, demands from us. They want to know what we should resemble, how we should change ourselves, on what level to rise, how to enter an entirely different dimension, how to perceive the general level of nature, eternity, and perfection, and to feel this here and now in our world. It is said in the science of Kabbalah that such people would appear at the end of the 20th century.

I did not really believe it: I did not see these conditions. However, at the end of the last century, thousands of people became interested in Kabbalah, subconsciously and instinctively sensing this urge thanks to their desires which had developed and reached maturity. In the next stage, a new dimension is conceived in this finally ripened egoistic desire.
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From the 1st lesson at the Moscow Convention 6/10/11

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