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When a person starts practicing in the group, trying to step outside of himself and unify with the desires of others in love and bestowal, working above his egoism, he discovers a distance separating him from them: the full measure of his hatred and egoistic resistance. Gradually, he begins to see how infinite this distance is: This is how distant he is from the others.

However, when a person works on himself and achieves a certain closeness, he discovers that the distance, as well as the upper Light, the upper force, are concealed. It turns out that the distance between him and the others is divided into 125 stages or steps. All in all, this path is subdivided into five worlds, each of which consists of five Partzufim, while each Partzuf is comprised of five Sefirot, which are also counted as ten.

With each new step, a person adjusts himself more accurately to the form regarded as a spiritual Partzuf that includes ten Sefirot. We move forward by clothing in them and structuring ourselves internally to match them. Gradually, we grow closer to their ideal form, until the entire structure of the Tree of Life has clothed in a person. That is why it is said that man is the Tree of Life.

Today, in the final stage of humanity’s evolution, our egoism is satiated. It has no further development. Therefore, we feel depressed, exhausted, and turn to drugs and terror, unsatisfied with the way we live.

Essentially, our egoistic satiation is the impulse to exit to a more exalted reality, to become enriched by love. Indeed, we don’t have another choice. We think that we are restricted by the integral world locking in on us, but that is beyond the point. It’s just that the time has come for humankind to rise to another level of existence, to a higher dimension. This is why the world is changing so rapidly before our eyes.

Let’s hope that we will manage to educate the public as to how to reach love and unity so that they may step into the new dimension by taking a pleasant shortcut, without dramatic shake-ups. It is the only reason we are working around the world and telling everybody about our experience.

Our perception of the world dictates that we explain to people as quickly as we possibly can that the world is entering a new state, that nature is totally global. We must explain that nature put us in a sort of “bubble” where only one force is at work, and if we don’t harmonize ourselves with that force, we will face enormous problems.

But how do we harmonize ourselves with the unified force? To do so, we must be connected in the same manner as the still, vegetative, and animate levels of nature are linked instinctively. The entire ecology is but an integral network of ties, where only man in his egoism destroys this balance. If we don’t harmonize with nature, we won’t survive.

Hence, we are circulating Kabbalah and explaining to humankind the necessity to unite, to rise above egotism and to align ourselves as best we can to match nature. Otherwise, we are a cancerous tumor on its body, which consumes the environment and dies.

Clearly, there is a difference between inner, personal, individual progress and our work on the global scale that offers a lesser quality. Nevertheless, we undertook this task simply because it’s time to start taking care of the whole world. That’s what the wisdom of Kabbalah is destined for.
[44749]
From the Lecture in Rome 5/20/2011

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The crisis we are experiencing today is an indication of our lack of unity with one another. In essence, the crisis is letting us see that we are total egoists and individualists who are living in a global world. And this is the entire problem. Nature is revealing the world’s globality to us, but our egoistic nature is completely opposite to it.
This difference or abyss between the two is felt by us as a crisis. This is why we feel pain and confusion in everything we do, and it is the reason we are plagued by diseases and misfortunes. This comes from the lack of similarity between our egoistic desire and the upper Light.

Therefore, we have to see the current crisis as the initial point of humanity’s ascent to the special state from which it once descended, according to the program contained in the informational particle that was born by the Light. We were born here in our universe and now we are returning to that perfect state.

The part of humanity in which the point in the heart has surfaced is developing with the help of two forces. All we need are the right conditions: the group, studies, and teacher. The second part of humanity is going through a developmental process and reaching a state of crisis that is becoming unbearable. That is when a question arises: What does “unbearable” mean?

The sensation of horrible suffering can bring humanity to wars, annihilation, and all sorts of problems. This is exactly what is happening: A part of the population is forgetting about everything through drugs, others engage in terrorism, and others yet are not worried by anything—they have completely sunk in theft. Egoism is breaking out in every direction. Because of the lack of inner fulfillment people feel, they don’t know what to do with themselves.

These negative phenomena are exposing the entire extent of the despair and hopelessness that humanity feels today. And people aren’t guilty of this. They feel enormous inner pressure, which is causing explosions of violence. So what can be done to relieve their situation?

We have already talked about the dissemination of the science of Kabbalah. This is the salvation. If we spread the knowledge of the science of Kabbalah before people’s ego breaks out to the surface, then we will save the world from great troubles. Therefore, everything depends on the people with a point in the heart.

Nothing depends on the world and we shouldn’t wait for any actions to be done by other people who don’t have a point in the heart. They don’t have the positive force that is able to supplement their egos. They are just carriers of a huge egoistic desire, and only give us an addition of their dissatisfaction and pain.

We have to process this enormous desire, tune into it, and together with it, aspire to unity. We have to continue studying and, in response, increase dissemination with a special emphasis on the need to unite among us. We are the ones who have to unite our common broken desire into one—our common spiritual vessel. Even though it is broken, it contains parts that are interconnected, despite them having completely different qualities of desire. Therefore, if all others will join these interconnected desires, they will also become included in this connection.

That is how one part of humanity actively builds a connection among one another, while the other part of humanity participates in this process passively.
[45046]
From the 2nd lesson at the Madrid Convention, 6/4/11

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We mustn’t enjoy bad news. Why shouldn’t we come to final correction positively? All we have to do is find the “one bad apple in the barrel of apples,” the 1% of evil in the 99% of good—and start working. It all depends on our realization of evil, our sensitivity to it. And that is the purpose of the wisdom of Kabbalah: for us to develop sensitivity for the realization of evil.

We have to discover evil by milligrams, “under the microscope,” which will be enough to see how enormous and unbearable it is. The sages said that the righteous view the evil inclination as an enormous mountain. In other words, the last drop of evil still seems monstrous to them. Meanwhile, the wicked think their evil is as thick as a strand of hair: “What is there to talk about?”

Thus, everything depends on how conscious you are and what enlargement factor your “magnifying glass” has. Hence, we must never feel good about unrest, hunger, and other problems of the world that keep flooding in. We have to cultivate the realization of evil, and that is what our dissemination of Kabbalah is supposed to awaken in humanity.

What are we disseminating? Our authority? No. The authority of Baal HaSulam? No. The authority of the Creator? Not this either. We want people to learn the authority of the evil inclination, the ego, which runs the show and is the cause of all misfortunes. And if they are calling for overthrowing their governments, they may at least try to understand that we have to shake off the power of this “foolish, old king” in ourselves.

That’s what we are supposed to demonstrate, in order for man to better understand who holds the grip on him and who must be charged for all misfortunes and problems. Our escape from evil is determined by how conscious of it we become. Rejection of evil is the force driving our growth. This is all we need.
[44801]
From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/26/2011, Preface to the Wisdom of Kabbalah

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Question: The problem is that people think they own the earth and in their desire to extract from it as much as possible, they are destroying the earth. People don’t understand that the land was given to them only to use, not as their personal property. It drives humanity to wars, struggles to conquer more territory and resources.

How can studying the wisdom of Kabbalah harmonize the different views people have and make them understand that by using the earth selfishly, first and foremost they harm themselves?

Answer: It can be done only if one sees the reverse side of the tapestry! If we don’t learn to see this world as transparent and detect the forces working in the surrounding reality, we will not change. Our ego can break only if it clearly sees how its actions are bringing it pain: “It will hurt me.”

We must come to a state where we reveal that nature is integral. Then I simply won’t be able to commit evil since I will see how in doing so, I harm myself. That is the only way! There is no other possibility. People won’t learn in any other way.

But we can reveal this kind of mutual connection between us through working in an environment in attempting to connect and unify, and trying to rise above our egos. Then we get to feel how difficult it is and begin to examine ourselves, our nature, and all our egoistic properties; we discern how we are or are not able to unify with the others against our desire and to elevate them in our eyes.

This is tremendous inner psychological work, and it continues until we start to discover the internal forces. Basically, it occurs when we reveal the general force, the power of unity, which transforms every one of us.

Yet, we don’t have a choice. Today, humanity finds itself in a very perilous state. We can clearly see that in another 10-15 years we will have exhausted all the world’s resources for energy. Production of all main sources of energy, such as oil, gas, coal, and water, is sharply diminishing. We need to reach balance with nature.
[44676]
From the Lecture in Rome 5/20/2011

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The science of Kabbalah says that the entire reality consists of desire which is constantly evolving. From the still level, the vegetative one grows, followed by the animate and human levels.
Desire continues its relentless development in humans, and that is why each successive generation differs from the previous one, and even one person during his lifetime keeps on changing his desire, his ego, and is constantly developing.

Thus, we grow above the animate level, build society, industry, technology, science, and so on. However, satiation is inherent to this development. It first manifested itself in ancient Babylon when a special situation was created: On one hand, people came to greater egoism, wishing to “build a tower reaching up to heaven,” and on the other, they plunged into mutual hatred to such an extent that they no longer understood each other.

These two opposite forces brought them to an unbearable state. The same process goes on in a family before divorce: The spouses are bound to each other by strong ties, such as children, a common home, household, and life and at the same time experience insurmountable hatred; they cannot stand each other. Under such circumstances, the science of Kabbalah was revealed in Babylon.

Kabbalah teaches people how to rise above egoism to mutual connection, to harmony in an integral society. Thus, we become similar to nature which is also “round” in its essence, in other words, integral, global, and inseparably interconnected in all its parts.

Had we joined nature in this manner, we would have come to balance and would have revealed all the forces that are present in it and manage it. Then, we would have connected to the general force that governs everything. However, humanity in those days preferred to reject the path of correction and dispersed, as in the example of divorced spouses.

As it is said in the science of Kabbalah, 3,700 years later, we will come again to such a state; however, this time we have nowhere to run from each other. We will be totally interconnected with each other throughout the world, hating each other, and having no ability to manage without each other. Our egoism is growing to the scale of the biggest multi-crisis, and, as Kabbalists write, it should happen at the end of the 20th century.

When I started studying the wisdom of Kabbalah in 1975, I did not believe that everything would happen in this way. It seemed something so distant and unrealizable. Could the world come to crisis in such spheres as education, culture, family, drugs, terrorism, technology, or science? Would people around the world feel interconnected? Nothing like it could be felt then.

Nonetheless, it happened within a few years. Today, we are in the same state as described in the story of Babylon, and for that reason, the science of Kabbalah is opened to the world for the first time since then.

Being revealed to the world, it invites everybody to become acquainted with the general laws of reality so that we can rise above our egoism and live in mutual interconnection, as one big family does. Indeed, the global force of nature surrounds us closer and closer, compressing us so much that it may lead to the destruction of humankind.
[44621]
From the Lecture in Rome 5/20/2011

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Question: To annul oneself sounds so unnatural for a secular person; all our nature is against it. What can force humanity to sit on the school bench and study Kabbalah?

Answer: I do not understand why self-annulment appears so unnatural to you. I used to study at a university, and there was a professor whom I considered a great expert in his science. I wanted to absorb all his knowledge, and thus I annulled myself before him. This is also called self-annulment.

If I read a book or an article and want to understand what is written in it, I stick to the author’s thought and emotion. It is a kind of self-annulment. I would not be able to do anything without cancelling myself! To cancel oneself means to open oneself for the reception of knowledge, information, and sensation from outside.

There is an expression: “The sages came and said.” In this way, clever people come—political scientists, psychologists, economists, and teachers—the 10 percent of the cream of society, the most intelligent, clever part of humanity that is concerned about our future, and they tell the rest, the remaining 90 percent: “Ladies and gentlemen, we are facing a huge problem!”

“If we continue in this way for ten more years, and a world war does not occur before that, we will be left without natural resources. We will not be able to grow anything. We need something to eat and energy for heating and cooling. But we have to reduce our consumption to a reasonable level.”

Scientists, smart people, say that, so why would you not believe them? When I see a doctor who looks at my X-ray and prescribes a treatment for me, I trust him and accept therapy. Although I have no way of checking what happens on that picture (is it mine at all? It might be someone else’s X-ray), I have to believe my doctor and in his remedy; I have no choice.

In order to take the medication, from my level , I have to believe the one who gives it to me that it is something good and it will cure me. This is also called self-annulment. This happens everywhere: When I come to a teacher, to a doctor, or in any place where I want to receive something. I have to be prepared to pay for that (Leshalem in Hebrew), that is, to complete (Leashlim in Hebrew) myself.

When all the media, plenty of important people, scientists, professors, politicians, and economists all talk about this, they will be able to convince people. This is far better than the world war that might occur where  you would not know what might happen to you in the next moment.

We have no choice. You cannot dictate your own conditions to nature if it imposes such conditions. Whether you want it or not, you have to agree. Either you stop this crisis by your inner participation or perish. This is not like with your mother when you can be capricious for a while and do things your own way. These are the laws of nature.

These laws are explained to you by serious, respected people who understand them. Do not think that they benefit from this: They are in the same situation as you are. This is our common problem.
[44588]
From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/29/2011, Shamati #40

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Question: You have said that in order to solve the global crisis it is necessary to reduce consumption. How does minimal consumption differ from vital consumption? For example, can a watch costing a thousand Euros be considered a vital necessity?

Answer: This question is not simple. I would even say there’s a catch to it. Let me explain it by way of a Kabbalistic parable that’s 2000 years old.

Once upon a time there were two friends. One was rich and the other was average, but they were both on the spiritual level. One day the rich man went bankrupt and then his friend started serving him like a servant, wishing to provide him with the necessary level of existence that he was used to. That’s because previously his friend had serrvants, so when he lost them, he felt like he lost something that was necessary.

This is an interesting example, but it is not suitable for out times because nature obligates us otherwise. We have no choice but to restrict our consumption since otherwise we will devastate the planet earth. It’s not just that we have to reduce our necessities, but we have to reach a state where we would be happy to get rid of our necessities, but are obligated to receive them because we have to exist in our bodies in this world.

I have a big desire, which includes the level of my regular life where I have physical necessities as well as social necessities, such as education, culture, vacations, and trips. No one says you have to give them up. You need an apartment, everything necessary for it, a wife, children, and so on.

The problem is our consumption above the norm. If you study the science of Kabbalah, you will involuntarily consume only what is necessary because the most important thing to you is spiritual fulfillment. Therefore, you are happy that you do not reveal these excessive desires inside of you and you would be happy even to get rid of the normal desires, but you need them in order to support your existence. This is called necessity.
[44816]
From the 1st lesson at the Madrid Convention 6/4/11

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Question: As far as I understand, we have to develop the sixth sensory organ that will enable us to understand the unity between us. Does this possibility exist for everyone? Can anyone develop this sense organ?

Answer: There are people who get an aspiration for this development, wonder what they live for and why, what the meaning of life is, where its source is, how everything revolves in this reality, and what happens in it. They cannot calm down without answers to these questions.

These people come to study the wisdom of Kabbalah because they feel that they simply must understand; otherwise it is not worth living. They are not able to live like animals. But there are few people like this in the world.

Man’s desire is divided into six desires. Three desires are related to our body: the desires for food, sex, and family. And three desires are connected with society: the desires for wealth, fame, and knowledge. These are the six basic desires. If people can find themselves and the meaning of life in them, they do and live in this way.

You are asking about a higher desire to know the source of life. This desire comes only to some individuals in the world, and recently, their numbers are growing.

Around forty years ago, when I began to study the wisdom of Kabbalah, there were few such people, very few. As it is written in The Book of Zohar, from the end of the 20th century and beyond, lots of people will suddenly start asking about the essence of life—what they live for, what the meaning of life is—and will come to study the wisdom of Kabbalah. Indeed, within fifteen years, the number of our students has grown to two million. In fact, there are many more; we just do not know about them because we do not keep lists of people who study with us on the Internet.

I think that in any case, there won’t be many people in the world who really wonder about the essence of life. However, the rest will also have to rise above their egos not because they would rush forward, towards the source of life, wishing to know what they live for, but to escape suffering that is pushing them from behind. Thus, they will join us out of helplessness. So, I hope that we all will reach a good life. Nature will force us to come to an integral society.
[44678]
From the Lecture in Rome 5/20/2011

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Question: If we have to rise above our egoism, then the more we strengthen it, the more difficult it is to rise above it. Thus paradoxically, the flourishing of culture deprives us of the opportunity to overcome our ego, doesn’t it?

Answer: Yes, it is true. But why do we develop in the egoistic form and, and what’s more, exponentially so? This is for us to see inside our ego how much it ultimately destroys us, and yet we are able overcome it.

We have no other matter besides our desire! Thus, the wisdom of Kabbalah is called “the wisdom of reception” (“Kabbalah” in Hebrew means “reception”). This wisdom explains how to realize one’s desire rather than destroy it. From our egoistic matter, we are building the form of a human (Adam), “similar” (Domeh) to the upper one, the Creator.

Thus, on one hand, the ego has to grow up to the point when we become disappointed in our real egoistic form which always wants to grab for itself. Then, I will begin to use my ego in its inverse form and each time turn it into bestowal. To the extent I can do this, I will acquire forces for my soul.

Today we have reached a certain “ceiling,” “satiation,” meaning the maximum possible egoism in receiving for ourselves until we consume the last fruit of the Earth. This will lead us to the realization of our evil. Either in a good way or bad, we will understand that we must act in the opposite manner and use our egoism for bestowal.
[44667]
From the Lecture in Rome 5/20/2011

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