Question: When a person discovers that he is completely dominated by his desire to receive and that he is simply a puppet that has no free choice, what must he do with this?

Answer: It is revealed to you that your feet and hands are tied and you have no free choice about anything. You cannot even look around.

You have no freedom of movement: not in thought and not in desire. All of your cells, all of your systems, your entire brain and heart are under the control of a foreign force. Only one thought in which you understand your servitude comes to you in particular so that you can escape to freedom, if you want it.

For this you need to accept this control voluntarily. This is the difference between Pharaoh and the Creator. The Creator arranges learning for you so that you will see that all of the desires sent to you are bad until you agree with them. But the moment you agree with them, they become good. In that way you go out from servitude to freedom.

Everything depends upon how you accept the upper governance: like the control of Pharaoh or of the Creator.
[133390]
From the 3^rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/18/14,Writings of Rabash

Related Material:
Dual Control Of A Single Power
Apparently I Am A Slave Of Pharaoh
An Evil Grin Under The Nice Mask Of Pharaoh

Filed under: Daily Kabbalah Lesson, Free Will, Inner Work - No Comments →

Question: How can I advance if I need to reach a state where I don’t want the spiritual goal at all, but wish to remain in material life?

Answer: I must attain the state of the shattered Reshimo de Aviut.  I understand that I don’t want anything except remaining in a place that is comfortable for me. But together with this, there is a Reshimo de Hitlabshut in me, which is something from a level above this world.

On the one hand, I determine that I want to remain a beast. But together with this, I have a spiritual goal, a higher world, and I am suffering because I do not belong to it and remain on the level of this beast, and apart from that, I don’t need anything. I know that the beast will remain as such, and there is a higher level.

I really want to attain this higher level, and at the same time, according to the desire of my Aviut (thickness), I am only attracted to convenience and comfort, to remain in this dream. That is what my heart wants.

But the point in the heart calls to me to go out and attain spirituality. It’s impossible to understand how these two conflicting opposites are in me. What do I need to do if I am torn between both of them? What will determine my choice?
[132156]
From the 3^rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/31/14, Writings of Baal HaSulam

Related Material:
The Two Major Guiding Signs For Our Ascent
Not A Magic Trick, But Precise Spiritual Physics
The Elevator Between The Floors Of Attainment

Filed under: Daily Kabbalah Lesson, Free Will, Spiritual Work - No Comments →

It is not difficult for the Creator to completely control the creatures. This is the power of the Elyon, about which it is said, (Isaiah 44:6) “I am the first, and I am the last,”  the only one who activates and manages everything. The problem is only how to bring the creatures to free choice, to independence. It’s up to the creatures to take it for themselves since freedom and independence cannot be given from Above.

How is this done? We don’t know what freedom and independence are. If we hide from some unpleasant sensation, we suppose that we are free of it, and when we cease being under pressure or domination by someone, we think that we have become independent. But this is not true.

If we have this desire, first of all we require a desire and a need for independence and freedom. And this is a problem. How can there be something free in a creature that is the product of the particular forces which produced it?

If there is no independence, then there is no creature. There is only a protein substance that exists according to clear and defined laws and is under the influence of various forces that develop and support it, bringing life and death. However within all of this, it has no independence in anything.

If you look at the lives of all people, then it seems obvious that they don’t decide anything by themselves. Where might they have an opportunity for independent desire?

This is the problem, if this is possible to say,  of the Creator when creating creation. For a creature is someone who acquires the power of independence. He separates from the Creator. But how is this possible? And if he will not separate, how will he reach independence?

Therefore it’s important for us to pass through a sensation of exile, not once, but an exile that comes and goes several times on a more and more internal level all the time. The first exile, if it can be called exile, was the Babylonian exile. The second exile is the exile of Egypt, the third is the exile of Persia, and the fourth and last is our exile.

We attain these exiles through our inner work when we reach recognition of our dependence, and then we know how to become independent. Indeed our partnership, our adherence with the Creator, rests upon our independence. Otherwise I cannot be a partner.

Also, when it’s said that I am the servant of the Creator, this is not the same slavery I had been in at the beginning. I make myself a servant of the Creator from a completely independent state and level. The level of servant rests upon maintaining a state opposed to Him, meaning absolute freedom.
[132115]
From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/07/14, Writings of Rabash

Related Material:
Freedom Is Born From Love
Everything Starts From The Exodus From Egypt
Egypt Is Between Us

Filed under: Daily Kabbalah Lesson, Free Will, Spiritual Work - No Comments →

As a result of our work in a group, in studying and in dissemination, we need to reach such a state in which we feel that we are under the control of two authorities, two forces. One control is the control of our ego, the evil inclination, the king of Egypt Pharaoh who holds us in slavery.

But sometimes, more or less, depending upon the advancement of the person, another control is also discovered: the good inclination, the power to bestow, the yearning to go outside of oneself towards the other, towards the friends, towards unity, connection, and so forth.

A person is in the midst of such dual power, under the control of two angels: the good inclination and the evil inclination, which hold him by the hands on both sides and guide him forward towards the goal of creation. Certainly the evil inclination also acts according to the program of the Creator and helps a person to advance independently, exercising his freedom of choice.

If he didn’t have free choice, he would be like a beast and not an Adam (man). Through clarifying for himself how to use the evil inclination and the good inclination, the power of reception and the power of bestowal, and choosing how to advance with the right mixture between them, he builds himself as an Adam in the likeness of the Creator.

The connection between the evil inclination and the good inclination begins from the first approach to Pharaoh together with the Creator. The person begins to establish these two forces one against the other. The two forces are under his authority. He decides himself according to his inner state, which of them manages him now and can even pass from one control to another control in that he chooses who has control over him and why, if he is able to do it or if he requires the help of the higher force.

Pharaoh wants to control, and if the person agrees to the evil inclination separating him from the Creator, then he truly is in the Egyptian exile. That is, he attributes some kind of independent control to his evil inclination and says that he is not ready to resist it and is in complete servitude to it.

Of course, if a person thinks this way, it is a sign that he is a slave. But everything depends upon the person himself. He decides and determines in which form Pharaoh will use him or if he will use Pharaoh.

And all of this work was to reveal that there is no other force involved, as it is written “I, myself, and not a messenger.” A person clarifies that the Creator is above the two forces, beyond both the good inclination and the evil inclination. These two forces come from Above. Through the two forces, the good inclination and the evil inclination, that are revealed to him alternately, a person reaches the final conclusion and decision that there is a force beyond them that plays with him through these two angels: the good inclination and the evil inclination.

Sometimes one of them comes to a person and sometimes the other one, which is why one feels he is thrown from one extreme to the other, in two directions. But thus it forms a relationship both with this force and that force, and ultimately with the one higher power, the Creator.
[131546]
From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/02/14, Writings of Baal HaSulam

Related Material:
Apparently I Am A Slave Of Pharaoh
The Creator, Pharaoh, And Me Between Them
An Evil Grin Under The Nice Mask Of Pharaoh

Filed under: Daily Kabbalah Lesson, Free Will, Spiritual Work - No Comments →

The Book Of Zohar, “Pekudei,” Item 3: It says how much goodness You have prepared for those who fear You, and have acted for those who find shelter in You against people. How much do humans have to see and to learn about the ways of the Lord since everyday a voice decrees and says, beware dwellers of the world, shut the doors of sins, leave the net that hunts people before your feet are caught in this net.

There is a perpetual spinning wheel in the world, which means that the Din (judgment) from Above ascends and descends, raising people and lowering people. Woe to those whose feet have been rejected by the wheel, since they fall into the depth prepared for the wicked of the world.

We learn about two ways of evolving here because a person is given freewill but it is very limited since the plan of creation must be carried out and it is running. The freewill is in realizing this plan independently and in the best way possible and executing it voluntarily.

Even if we see how beneficial this plan really is and how essential it is, our ego still opposes it and doesn’t let us carry it out. And it was originally done on purpose because the two forces, the positive and the negative (negative inside a person and positive on the outside) operate on us and influence us; between them we discover our freewill.

If a person is created by nature, the Creator, the upper force, the Light, he cannot be totally free; he is under the influence of this force like everything in nature.

How can our thoughts and desires be free so that we will be able to exist independently of the Creator? We are given two forces that descend from Above simultaneously, the ego and the attribute of bestowal that appears in us; both are under the control of the upper force and develop in parallel. Between them there is a mutual struggle, rejection, conflict.

If we place ourselves between them, we can choose a state in which the attraction on one side and the attraction on the other side balance one another. The balance point between these two forces is the middle line, and being in it we feel that we are totally free of all the egoistic nature and of the upper nature.

However, there is a problem here: How can we choose anything? A person cannot operate like a donkey. If there are two totally identical objects before him, he doesn’t know what to choose, the moment he feels a yearning for one of them there is an immediate identical yearning for the other, and he is between them, feeling split not knowing what to choose.

Thus we experience very unpleasant feelings: On the one hand, nothing seems to operate on us here, and, on the other hand, we don’t know what to do. It is in this state that a person has the option to create the source of a new movement inside him. This point is the starting point from which a person can raise the human being in him. Before he was like a puppet that the upper Providence operated by pulling its strings.

Only by raising the human being in us do we begin to feel how streams of Light descend from Above and flow into the sea, into Malchut of the world of Atzilut and this is never filled but actually leads us forward.
[131285]
From KabTV’s “Secrets of the Eternal Book”10/16/13

Related Material:
Making A Human Being Out Of Me
Where Does A Human Being Begin?
Building A Spiritual Image

Filed under: Free Will, Spiritual Work, Torah - No Comments →

Question: If clear and absolute laws are working in a system, how can a person take the system out of balance? Unless the person is outside of nature?

Answer: The entire system is connected and works according to absolute laws. But within this integral system there is a unique layer that begins to grow, and this is called “man.”

This layer has the ability to shake the system up, to take it out of balance and each time to restore balance, and again to take it out of balance even more and restore it to greater balance. For this layer called “man” there are constantly such possibilities. After all, this is the way this layer acquires a feeling and intelligence of the entire system, by taking it out of balance and restoring it, again and again.

Certainly this layer doesn’t do this with its own powers: The system goes out of balance through a unique program for that layer called “man.” There are unique powers and formulas that take the system out of balance with respect to humans. The upper world is not changed, only its image in regard to us, in regard to the bubble in which we are found, changes.

This is done so that we will become familiar with the system and will require it to return to balance. Through our becoming aware of the lack of balance and demand it to return to a state of balance, we acquire intelligence and emotion, we become familiar with the general program of the entire system. And then we begin to shrink and expand, to inhale and exhale, and in this way we become familiar with the system.

Question: So does a person have free choice or not?

Answer: The free choice of the person is in gathering with people like himself in this system and together demanding balance, wanting to return the system to balance. This is a person’s unique freedom. This is only through work in a group with people like himself. He can gradually expand the layer and include all of humanity, connecting with them and demanding balance and harmony. This demand is called a prayer or raising MAN.

We must strive for change. To the extent that you balance yourself with the system, you will begin to feel it. To the degree that you can shrink your “I,” to this degree you expand and extend the “we,” and in this area you will feel the balance and harmony of all the forces that are working there in real nature. Only then will you be able to understand what is happening.

There is no greater joy than the resolution of difficulties. Precisely by your inclusion in a state of balance and harmony in which everything is balanced, Light comes from above and fills all the Kelim, and this produces true joy.
[130849]
From the 2^nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/21/14, Writing of Baal HaSulam

Related Material:
The Law Of Universal Balance
A Happy Balance: “We And The World”
All For One And One For All!

Filed under: Daily Kabbalah Lesson, Free Will, Group Work, Spiritual Work - No Comments →

Filed under: Free Will, Inner Work, Laitman Unplugged - No Comments →

Baal HaSulam, “Introduction to The Book of Zohar,” Item 17: Therefore, one must not wonder at how it was that the choice had been taken from us, since we must be completed and come to the third state, since it is already present in the first.

The first state and the third state are both wholeness, but we don’t exist in the first state yet, and we have no understanding, no feeling, and no self attainment. There is no human being (Adam) as such created and that stands out in his existence. He is still in theory, in the discernments that we still have yet to acquire.

It’s like a drop of semen that is not a human being yet. So where does he begin? We still don’t know when exactly an embryo in its mother’s womb can be called a human being that has a body and a life of its own. Perhaps it’s from the first division of one cell into two, or perhaps it’s the moment when the embryo begins to feel. But this doesn’t solve all the problems. Humanity is still very far from determining or defining what a free independent human being is. Yet, in the first phases of our existence in the world of Infinity we do not exist independently.

So when do we really begin to feel ourselves and become ourselves? Was it when we climbed down from the trees and evolved into a creature that is a bit more than an ape? Can we call this whole historic evolution the process of becoming a human being? The ego simply pushed us forward and demanded that we benefit at the expense of others. Did anyone really know what he was doing? If everyone is driven by the instincts of the desire to receive, where is the real us? In the meantime, we speak of creatures who are constantly operated by different factors. Yes, we suffer a little, but the pain itself is not a sign of independence yet.

The human being in us actually begins to develop from the point of connection, and even a little in the preparation for it. If we return to the example of the embryo: The father’s drop of semen enters the mother’s womb and adheres to the wall of the womb and begins to multiply due to the connection between mother and father. A common cell begins to develop between the whiteness of the father and the redness of the mother and this is a connection. The whiteness of the father is the Creator and the redness of the mother is the created being, and now there is contact between them.

Thus Bina works with Malchut and we have to accept this form of development. The moment I can annul myself and another can annul himself, we connect, or I can connect to the group, and that moment is the beginning of a human being in me.

Of course, everything is in the first state, in the world of Infinity, and we reach all that in practice in the third state. But the second state is the necessary middle state so we can have freewill, so that we will develop and understand what the secret of our development is. By going through the sequence of these states we learn about the system called the Creator, about His attributes and His actions. We learn about creation which is something we couldn’t do before.
[125021]
From the 4^th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/6/14, Writings of Baal HaSulam

Related Material:
From Perfection To Perfection
Truth And Faith
A Door To The Unknown

Filed under: Daily Kabbalah Lesson, Free Will, Group Work, Spiritual Work - No Comments →

Baal HaSulam, “The Freedom”: But as we have seen, it is a simple thing, and should be observed by each and every one of us. For although everyone has “his own source,” the forces are revealed openly only through the environment one is in. …

And so our sages warned, “Make for yourself a Rav, and buy for yourself a friend.” And there is also the choice of books, as we have mentioned, for only in that is one rebuked or praised—in his choice of environment. But once he has chosen the environment, he is at its hands as clay in the hands of the potter.

The possibility to choose the right environment is given only to those people who have the point in the heart. Indeed, they now have to develop to the degree of the human being (Adam), similar (Domeh) to the Creator. It is the people in whom this point has been awakened, the root of their soul, that receive the impulse to enter the correct environment. Then they have to decide for themselves whether they will do it or not.

This is the free choice between the desire to receive and the point, the “rudiment” of the desire to bestow, not it itself, but its opposite side. I can choose when I have these two “poles.” How? I strengthen myself in the correct environment. By this, I want to reinforce one factor as opposed to another.

But if I do not have the second point, if I am just the desire to receive, then it does not influence my “choice.” In this case, I pursue self-interest like a dog that sniffs something on the street; that’s all.

Question: But at the same time within the framework of integral education, we suggest that people create a better environment for themselves.

Answer: True, to create a better environment for their desire to receive, but not for the point in the heart. So that a person knows it is possible to improve his life in a common circle, in unity.

However, everyone has the point in the heart; it is inherent in every desire at this or that depth. It is said, “They will all know Me, from the least of them to the greatest.” That is why in organizing, gathering people, and bringing the Light that Reforms to them, we force the awakening of this point so that it begins to “surface.” And once a person, undergoes the integral method, he tells us that he wants to study the wisdom of Kabbalah. Why? He does not know himself; he just suddenly wants to.

Anyway, integral groups are not a Kabbalistic environment because they do not have the left line. We take care of them as one of our dependents, teaching them good relationships, sympathy, and unity but without internal disturbances from the side of egoism that “feels” what is coming. We speak about a more serious work in our environment.
[122183]
From the 4^th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/4/13, Writings of Baal HaSulam

Related Material:
Choosing What I Like
Us And The Rest Of The World
The Environment Makes A Human From An Ape

Filed under: Daily Kabbalah Lesson, Dissemination, Free Will, Spiritual Work - No Comments →

Question: So when does a person come out of the desert if it is all up to the Creator’s desire?

Answer: Not everything is up to the Creator since if it were so, why should He have had to create all of creation? A person is given an element called freewill and by using it the created being determines that he is independent. This is the reason for all creation, only for this one point, for this discernment. All our work is to develop it and everything else doesn’t count at all, since everything is actually on the Creator’s account. The Creator plays with different conditions around us, but tries to raise the created being by that, so that he will be like Him.

So, on the one hand, the Creator controls each and every state, of course. On the other hand, His domination is up to a point in which we need to choose. The moment we reach that line and go through four phases of development, since every state has its own HaVaYaH, everything depends on our response, on whether we use all the means that we were given to grow stronger by the support of the group, which means, “he who chooses a better environment each time.”

We must grow stronger by the support of the group, to demand that the friends impress me more, and to penetrate them more deeply. If I do that it means that I have fulfilled my freewill and that I am worthy of advancing. So in the connection that is attained between us, I discover the system and understand it, understand myself together with the system as one whole. By the feeling of unity with the system, I actually get closer to the feeling of the Creator.

By bringing closer and connecting two opposites—the whole system and myself into one whole—I prepare myself to feel its discernments, which are all called the Creator. It is because the Creator is always revealed between two opposite points, being above them, the general connector from inside them.

I always have freewill! But if I don’t use it at the right moment, the force of nature, called that natural plan of evolution (in its time) begins to operate and arranges different conditions for me. Then I lose the freewill I had earlier and I already enter different conditions. This means that the Creator has removed a certain letter, an angel that was sent to me, and placed another letter instead, another tougher angel.

Then I advance according to a new pattern, in different frameworks. The Creator illuminates for me in a new pattern, a different letter, and then I am under the domination of a new Providence in which I also have to make my own free choices. This happens time after time.

Eventually, after all the letters, I have to reach the letter Bet which means a blessing. This means that I have to understand that I need the upper force to bring peace among us.
[121431]
From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson, 11/25/13, Writings of Rabash

Related Material:
Who Will Ascend To The Throne?
A Soul In Search Of Choice
Learning How To Work With Egoism

Filed under: Daily Kabbalah Lesson, Free Will, Spiritual Work - No Comments →