Question: Is it worthwhile to understand that, essentially, there is no free choice now?

Answer: Indeed, in our times, there is no free choice. The world is deteriorating while we are standing on the side watching. This is not good. Humanity is apparently sliding downward and we need to try to hold them, to stop them.

I say this seriously. I feel as though I have gigantic hands or I have a gigantic net in my hands, and I must stop everyone because they are being drawn downward, and if left unchecked, they will pull us after them. This is not desirable. The program of nature, the program of the Creator, cannot be changed.

He is like a loving and strict father Who takes His belt in hand and begins to teach His rebellious son.
[114419]
From the St. Petersburg Convention “Day Three” 7/14/13, Lesson 5

Related Material:
Choosing Between Two Extremes
Responsible For Humanity
Throw All The Power Toward The Main Matter

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

Our problem is that we are “in shackles,” captured in the network that links us, closes us and determines all our values. We just have to dress in a certain way, eat certain food, work as prescribed, behave as accepted, and to adhere to the standard way of thinking.

We do not have our own tastes, but we have those habits that society “spoon-feeds” us. It gives us our beliefs and our actions; it affects us now through its channels, some of which can be neither recognized nor traced. We cannot block them by any protective mechanism that blocks the thoughts and desires of a large environment.

As a result, a person does not know who he is at all. After all, he is placed in the system, programmed and filled with messages that originally have no relationship with it. There is nothing you can do about it; you cannot eliminate or remove them from yourself. Even the desire to escape from these clutches is also implanted in us by this system. It turns out that I have accumulated thoughts and desires that are not mine, and I myself do not exist at all.

Even though I am not free and am “made” by the environment, only the point in the heart, if it emerges in me, gives me the opportunity to build in myself something that doesn’t depend on anything and anyone, something caused by another world.

In my world, I am already “finished,” “prepared.” Here, I will never reach my own feelings, reason, and independent actions. They initially cannot be mine because everything that I have, I have received from another, from the world.

Yet, this “ape” is able to take a different form – the form of the human (Adam), similar (Domeh), to the Creator. If the point has emerged in my heart, I can develop it by my own efforts in a special environment, I can build a completely different world. I create a “bubble” in the middle of our world and develop freely in it if only I realize my freedom of will.

However, I also obey—but obey on my own accord, according to my own decisions—surrendering myself before my new, unique environment with its unique values. This is the only way. I do not own anything.

Accordingly, by accepting the influence of the external environment, I am in “exile.” Conversely, placing myself under the influence of the special environment, I strive to get out of exile and ultimately get rid of the influence of the external “landlord’s” egoistic society.

It is understood from this that the exile for the people of Israel means retreat under the influence of the external wide world and the assimilation of foreign customs, external values, substituting for love of the other as oneself. On the other hand, trying to get out of exile, we build the environment that will be imbued with the values of love and bestowal. This is possible by means of the wisdom of Kabbalah or by means of integral education. Either way, there is only one means: the environment that puts unity above all.
[114392]
From the 4^th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 8/12/13, Writings of Baal HaSulam

Related Material:
Underground Water That Changes The World
The Power To Stand Against The Whole World’s Opinion
The Focal Point Of Freedom

Filed under: Daily Kabbalah Lesson, Dissemination, Free Will, Group Work, Integral Upbringing, Kabbalah Dissemination, Society, Spiritual Work - 1 Comment →

Nature never changes, rather our perception of nature changes the extent of its disclosure. Man is changing, becoming more intelligent, more powerful, and therefore he investigates nature more and more deeply. Nature itself is not changed, rather the person is the one who is changed and discovers in it new phenomena, new laws, characteristics, and connections.

Nothing is changed in reality; all the changes take place only in relation to us. The person doesn’t do anything by himself at all. Either they manage him in an absolute manner from above, without any participation from his side, or they manage him with his participation. But through this participation he can only hasten development.

And in that I hasten my personal development, with this I influence the whole world since I become an integral part of a large integral system. Therefore all its other parts also are changed together with me.

Suppose that now I advanced within a month what I  needed to advance over the course of a hundred years (with a speed like this we move forward), but can the rest of the world remain in place together with this? We draw the entire world after us and hasten its development. Likewise the picture is changed: our way of life, the way of advancement. We move rapidly, well, easily, softly instead of shaking with hard bumps in a cart filled with blows, bruises, problems, and sufferings like those that followed us throughout the entire exile.

It all depends on us! And this says that Israel (“Yashar-El” directly to the Creator) hastens the times. The state of the completion of correction is rigidly determined, it is a law. But all the rest of the states, although they come according to that same law of development, the person himself determines their speed, manner, and how he feels them. We need to believe that this is how it is at every point on the way, along with the fact that everything is determined by the Creator and that “There is none else besides Him”.
[112761]
From the 2^nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 7/16/13, The Book of Zohar – Introduction

Related Material:
Do We Hasten Time?
The Purpose Of Creation, In Brief
Make Every Instant More Exalted

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

Question: What should I do if in a moment I am thrown from merit to sin? If in one tipping point, suddenly, everything turns from white to black?

Answer: What merits and sins can you have? All your life you have acted according to your natural instincts like an animal. That is why all the complaints should be directed to the Master who has created you. You have no independence, and you cannot say that you, yourself, have done something bad. Everything is done by the upper force. Soon, you will see this and understand that no one is to blame, and there is no one at which to be angry. Then, you will see a completely different picture.

The problem is that there is no Creator in your life, and thus you attribute some freedom of will to others and yourself, as if you are responsible for your actions. It is like blaming the kids in kindergarten. Is it possible to say that one child is bad and another is good? These all are natural qualities: Some children are aggressive and others are crybabies. Thus nature moves us in order to bring us to the realization of evil, which the Creator made inherent in us.

We must go through many blows and then the Creator gradually will explain that He did so, so we would want to get rid of our nature with which we were created. The Creator plays with us because, as it is written, “There is none else besides Him.” Do you think that you act yourself, instead of Him?

People are used to what is written in books: “your sins,” “your merits.” Our task is to explain this in a more understandable way because the time has come when the true meaning of these words can be revealed. However, these are not your sins and transgressions. It is not you who made and caused them. You did not choose the qualities with which to be born. We are all puppets, from Hitler and to the greatest saints of the world.

However, these puppets get an addition at some point, a drop of the opposite property, and then they change their aspirations according to this new property: They seek bestowal and begin to study without understanding why they study. The study determines the goal for them and this also is established by the Creator.

However, after these two opposite properties are determined in them, one against the other, reception and bestowal, they begin to find the opportunity for independent work in the middle line, between them. It is a special feeling that you soon reach, and then you will know how to build yourself from these two properties, the left and right lines. You will understand that both these lines are required.

The Creator will help you to connect them together, to understand what the drop of the semen of bestowal is and how to add to it more, cell by cell, a new understanding, sensing the concepts, teaching us how to grow this material.

It is clear that the Light does all the work, working on new material. The Light and desire meet and their mixture rises like dough, but I cause this myself. I understand and feel how it happens. This is my creation, like from a piece of dough. I take a handful of flour and add the exact amount of water to it, no more and no less. At first, it seems that there is not enough water and I must work hard kneading my dough, but, in the end, it will be ready to be put in the oven and baked!

Thus, these two ingredients, flour and water, are turned into the “poor man’s bread” (Matzah). From the point of the desire to enjoy, it is simple bread, and nothing more is needed, and above it, everything is open. Freedom is opened.
[112755]
From the 2^nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 7/16/13, The Zohar

Related Material:
We Can’t Be Robbed Of Freewill
Where Is Our Freedom?
The Mystery Of Our Freedom

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

Shamati #225, “Raising Oneself”: One cannot raise oneself above one’s circle. Hence, one must suck from one’s environment. And one has no other counsel, except through much work and Torah. Therefore, if one chooses for oneself a good environment, one saves time and efforts, since one is drawn according to one’s environment.

This is in the power of man: Either he gives himself to the power of the environment or nature, the Creator, rules over him. It’s one or the other.

Why am I called a man if I choose the power of the environment? It is because it is my choice that I make in spite of all the obstacles, in spite of my inner resistance, problems, and troubles. I determine who reigns in me.

Thus, I choose only the force that will act within me and I have no control over it. Either I am driven by the Creator, the individual force, or a good environment, the integral force, behind which He stands. And then, the integral force will become the head of the Partzuf that we depicted on the drawing as a “car.”

In fact, a person realizes nothing but this choice. If he chooses correctly, the group affects him, if he chooses incorrectly the “body” reigns over him, meaning the direct dictates of the Creator. One way or the other, the Creator acts in everything, either through the environment or personally.
[111716]
From the 3^rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 7/7/13, “Principles for Building a Better Environment”

Related Material:
Under The Saddle Or In The Saddle?
A Soul In Search Of Choice
The Point Of Freedom: The Beginning Of The Soul

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

Baal HaSulam, “Introduction to The Study of the Ten Sefirot,” Item 4: The Creator Himself puts one’s hand on the good fate by giving him a life of pleasure and contentment within the corporeal life that is filled with torment and pain, and devoid of any content. […] there is no greater placement of one’s hand by Him than this.

And one’s choice refers only to the strengthening. This is because there is certainly a great effort and exertion here before one purifies one’s body to be able to keep the Torah and commandments correctly, not for his own pleasure, but to bring contentment to his Maker, which is called Lishma (for Her Name). Only in this manner is one endowed with a life of happiness and pleasantness that come with keeping the Torah.

However, before one comes to that purification, there is certainly a choice to strengthen in the good way by all sorts of means and tactics. Also, one should do whatever his hand finds the strength to do until he completes the work of purification and will not fall under his burden midway.

How can we understand this? In fact, these words paint a terrible picture: The Creator holds me “by the ears” or “by the shoulders” and directs my every step through pleasures or suffering, that is, He can do with me whatever He pleases. And besides that, there is something in which I have to “strengthen” myself above that which He sends me.

As a result, I have no choice in everyday life because I am relentlessly driven by pleasure and suffering. My nature automatically obeys their dictates, and there is nothing I can do about this. Some mechanism in me always turns my face towards pleasure and my back towards suffering. The “car” can only dodge evil and turn towards good.

In what can I strengthen then? How can I gain power over the “body”? How can I resist the “orders” of the Creator Who directs me from above on the “animate” degree? Is this possible?

The fact is that apart from the will of the Creator, there is another factor that I can use: the influence of the environment. Thus, I go against the Creator, against His nature, obtain something above the “animate” degree, and become something greater.

Baal HaSulam, “The Freedom”: Therefore, he who strives to continually choose a better environment is worthy of praise and reward. But here, too, it is not because of his good thoughts and deeds, which come to him without his choice, but because of his effort to acquire a good environment, which brings him these good thoughts and deeds.

Hence it is clear that we have freedom to build, above the “animate” level, the human degree—the human being, who will saddle an “animal” and will manage his nature. To do this, a person will also use two forces, but they will be different: Now he will define good and evil by means of a good environment that fulfills him.

Thus, the Creator controls a person at the level of “reason,” but self-management is realized “above reason.”

The key here is the extent to which I become integrated in the correct environment and absorbed by it. My good future depends only on this.
[111719]
From the 3rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 7/7/13, Preparation for St. Petersburg Convention, “Principles for Building a Better Environment,” Lesson 4

Related Material:
Who Will Ascend To The Throne?
Instead Of Looking At Others, Look At Yourself
Faster Than Time

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

Baal HaSulam, “Peace in the World”: We must know that the above-mentioned law of development, which is spread over the whole of reality, is guaranteed to return all evil to good and useful acts through the power of the Government of Heaven Above, meaning without asking permission from the people who inhabit the earth. However, the Creator placed knowledge and authority in the hands of man and permitted him to accept the above-mentioned law of development under his own authority and government, and handed him the ability to hasten the process of development as he wishes, freely and completely independent of the boundaries of time.

Representatives of the still, vegetative, and animate nature are unable to change the law of development, but we can do this, we can “take it into our own hands,” i.e., use it for acceleration. We have the ability to slightly change its action, to get out from under the total control of nature with its indispensable imperatives to get involved with the management through our efforts. Due to this, our development will continue, firstly, faster and secondly, in a more pleasant way.

As a rule, the force that develops us is cruel. It is called the “press” or “roller” of development and it leads us forward only by suffering. Our desire is drawn to pleasure and ideally strives for bliss which requires no actions. Fulfilling the desire, pleasure “paralyzes” it, immobilizes it; we see this sometimes in young children. Filled to the top, I become still, freeze, feeling no need for any movement. That is why we need troubles and suffering that will spur us to move us from the spot and develop us further, to force us to move faster.

As a consequence, the force of development appears to us as bad, negative, and we run from it to where we can see the positive, the good. Moreover, we always run in the direction opposite from where we got the blow. Thus, we “automatically” pass the still, vegetative, and animate stages of development, as well as their equivalents on the human degree, not knowing and not feeling that we are driven by the law that can be used.

But in the end, we find the “human in ourselves” who wants and can effect what is happening. He looks for means of self-development, the advancement of self. He finds out what his purpose is, what he lives for; he asks questions about the meaning of life with the purpose to find the force of development, to learn the law of development and use it for his benefit, i.e., for the realization of the goal.

As for our relations with other people, as well as the still, vegetative, and animate nature, we must bring them benefit as well based on our development, meaning to include them in the good development that we will reach.

Not everyone is able to accelerate the process. The majority simply follow their nature. We are talking about development and development is always contrary to our nature, always goes with efforts, through force, under pressure, with pain. It is always opposed to the egoistic desire, which only wants to enjoy the current state.

Thus, if Israel are rewarded and take the law of development that their bad attributes must go through in order to invert them into good ones, they will bring it under their own government. In other words, they will set their minds and hearts to correct all the bad attributes in them and turn them into good ones by themselves. Then, “I will hasten it,” meaning they will be completely freed from the chains of time.

There is a point on the path from which the person receives an impulse, the realized need for development. He wants to know why and for what he lives on the Earth and then he comes to the means that is called the “wisdom of Kabbalah.” This means allows him to develop himself without being dependent on the limitations of time by the path of acceleration.

If a person, for whatever reason is lazy, shies away from this opportunity, then his path lies somewhere in the middle between time and acceleration.

That is why we must strengthen the group and always make calculations between them: to what extent is acceleration in our hands? Ideally, we should fully control it.
[110308]
From the 4^th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 6/19/13, Writings of Baal HaSulam “Peace in the World”

Related Material:
The Choice In How To Prepare For Action
Shedding Some Light On Creation
It’s Better On A Helicopter…

Filed under: Daily Kabbalah Lesson, Free Will, Group Work, Spiritual Work - 3 Comments →

Question: The upper world is composed of 125 levels of attainment. What happens with the soul if it rises to the fifth level, for example, does it have a free choice to advance further or to remain at this level?

Answer: Free choice doesn’t exist anywhere or in anything except regarding one and only one activity: strengthening the connection with the group.

Free choice is only in this. For if you don’t hold onto the connection with the group, then that power that you need to awaken in yourself in a good form to advance forward will constantly push you back through negative influence, through suffering. If you begin to flee from these sufferings, but not from your desire, rather against your will, then you advance like the rest of humanity. But if you understand that it is necessary to rise in spite of it all, then you must connect with the group.

There is no other free choice  in the world besides this choice. All humans on the face of the earth are enslaved and lack free choice. It is impossible to do anything in your present, past, or future if you don’t begin to change your fate with the help of the group and not choose going forward with an individual yearning instead of the stick that is pushing you from behind.

Therefore, the way for everyone is the same, but if you grasp this as desirable and pass through all the inner changes from your own free will, then you will begin to be changed from egoism to altruism. And if not, then nature will obligate you to change through great suffering that will eventually break you and you will agree to do everything yourself.

Question: So if a person doesn’t feel happy about his involvement with spiritual work, this is a sign that he is doing something incorrectly?

Answer: This is saying that he is not advancing. It is possible to advance only through happiness. Forward movement represents my preference for the characteristic of bestowal instead of the characteristic of reception, the characteristic of love instead of the characteristic of hatred. How is this possible if you are not happy with your choice? There cannot be anything like this. It is a sign that there is still no choice.
[110170]
From the Convention In Krasnoyarsk Day One 6/14/13, Lesson 2

Related Material:
Freedom Is Voluntary Dependence
Where Is Our Freedom?
I, My Environment, And The Light

Filed under: Body and Soul, Conventions, Free Will, Group Work, Spiritual Work - No Comments →

Question: Every evolutionary process is a cycle: There is a beginning, a climax, and an end. Don’t you feel that the evolution of civilization is coming to an end in the egoistic feeling?

Answer: Today we have returned to Mesopotamia! Once again we are in ancient Babylon. Only this Babylon now covers the entire globe. That ancient Babylon, a civilization of three million people, has grown to seven billion. We are back in the place we escaped from, which means in the same crisis that the ancient Babylonians went through. This is exactly what Kabbalists predicted.

Question: But the people in ancient Babylon did manage to exit the ego?

Answer: They did not overcome the crisis but solved it in a different way. They drew away from one another and dispersed all over the earth, which we cannot do.

If we don’t solve the crisis we are in by using the wisdom of Kabbalah, the only thing we will be able to resort to will be war, there is no other way. It’s our only point of freewill, we will either be able to bring people to our method before they start a war or they are about to experience the path of sufferings; there is no other way.

Nature is not cyclic, it has never been and will never be; it doesn’t develop that way. We see it in the still, vegetative, and animate nature; we see it in space. If a certain body revolves around another body, it doesn’t mean that it is a cycle but that it moves forward. Just like the backward and forward movement of a wheel moves forward.

Nature doesn’t need cyclicality. If we say that nature is conscious, wise, and that it created us and it is clear that the program that manages us is much wiser than us, then cyclicality is corruption, lack of purpose, and absolutely inconclusive.

Kabbalists started writing since the days of Adam. He was the first Kabbalist who discovered the spiritual world 5,770 years ago and who wrote about it in the book The Angel Ratziel. Since then everything that Kabbalists prophesied was accurately fulfilled. Therefore, I see no reason that this is going to change.

A person who studies Kabbalah begins to see its laws since it’s just like physics: There are two forces, two vectors that are balanced by a third force, a Masach (screen), and there is nothing but that. This is what the work of all the systems is based on, of all the different mechanisms in still nature, the living cells, in an organism that is a collection of cells, and so on all the way to human society, a collection of egoists. All are governed by the same laws that are elucidated with minute precision.

A Kabbalist who studies the laws of nature actually experiences these states. Thus he goes through what humanity has not gone through yet and can write about it for humanity and teach it. Otherwise, he has no reason to do so.

We begin to study Kabbalah from the level of the world of Ein Sof (Infinity) from where one force descends, the positive force of bestowal, and then thanks to it, a second force is created, the negative force of receiving, the desire. Then we study about the development of these two forces, about the four phases of the direct Light, and about its descent into our world.

By the way, the Torah only describes the world of Atzilut, the world of correction and not what preceded it. “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth,” which means that Bina of the world of Atzilut generates the system of ZON (Zeir Anpin and Malchut). It is the uppermost level in the Torah. In fact in Kabbalah we learn about higher Sefirot.

When we study these laws, we see that they are fulfilled everywhere without exception. Corporeal nature is a result of these laws. It is transparent and we see how it all moves, grows, and develops; we see how these two forces cooperate and generate the still nature, the vegetative, the animate, and the “speaking”; we see what generates every small movement in our world. Therefore there can be no guess work here.

The main thing is that the freewill that humanity in ancient Babylon had still exists today. But it is relative freewill. If you don’t want to use it and to advance along the good and conscious way, it means that more sufferings should be added so you will understand the need to develop in a positive way. Otherwise you may come to a nuclear world war.

After all, no matter what we say, the sufferings have an educational role, although we are in continuous regression. We regressed when we were egoists, but now there is nowhere to return to, so a war will be a most serious addition that will help us understand the way things really are, but it’s very undesirable.
[109891]
From 1^st Preparation for the Convention in Krasnoyarsk 6/13/13

Related Material:
Throw All The Power Toward The Main Matter
The Babylonian Divorce
Is It The Economy Or Something More?

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

Question: What is so special about the love of friends that allows me to cover all sins?

Answer: Love of friends covers all sins. After all, if we work on connecting our sparks in the group, then all the other desires surrender to the Light of love despite the fact that they are so opposite from one another to the extent that they actually hate one another. This Light operates on us from above, from the upper level, when it covers us with one blanket, one umbrella, a Sukkah of peace, and obligates all of us to unite, although internally we remain very different.

Question: Do I choose the friend once or anew every day?

Answer: I don’t choose according to corporeal criteria. In the meantime we don’t know why we have been brought into one group from above, he and I. It depends on the root of the soul, on the sentence of the souls, which we will learn about later. But because we are in a group we have to fulfill our freewill and to connect into one system, one group.

Choosing a friend means being loyal to him despite the repulsion and the doubts. I shouldn’t feel any difference between him and me. Every moment the thought and the desire change in me, I have to choose him in the exact same manner, I examine myself and him.
[108153]
From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/22/13, Writings of Rabash

Related Material:
I Choose You, Brothers!
Discover Love In Love
Just Try, And Everything Will Work Out

Filed under: Daily Kabbalah Lesson, Free Will, Group Work, Inner Work, Love, Q&A - 1 Comment →