Question: How detailed and broad should the basic course on “Evolution as Development of Egoism” be?

Answer: It should be as detailed and extensive as possible because all the other courses will stem from it and will be parts of the main course.

After this follows a course on the freedom of will: Does it exist, what it actually is. This course is very broad and contains many topics. We don’t just study whether or not free will exists and how and where it can be realized, but also precisely in which elements of nature it exists, does a human being have it, on what level of development, how to tell the difference between freedom of will and its absence, and so on.

After all, we don’t know where our desires arise from. It seems to me that they are my own, but in reality they come from outside. Where from? Why? Desires arise within me under the influence of the surrounding society: I watch TV and suddenly begin to desire what is being shown to me, and this is unconsciously perceived by me as my own desire. The next day I already want to acquire that which I saw on TV yesterday, and I believe that I’m realizing my own desire. We all understand that this is how we get bought and how things are sold to us.

All this must be explained because it’s tied to decision-making, to awareness of where my freedom of will lies, and whether I can be free from all the possible ideas and values imposed upon me, which in truth are neither values nor ideas, but simply business.

Every topic that we develop and teach provides a person with a vast realm of activity, and that is why the information has to be conveyed using a lot of examples and discussions. Sometimes when you just offer the material to a person from the lectern and head-on, he doesn’t absorb it. However, through some explanations, games, and situations he begins to understand what he was being told then.
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From a “Talk on Integral Education” 12/12/11

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Everything in our world is built on the confrontation of two opposing forces. Any of our interactions is based on the predominance of one factor over the other; any success is achieved at the expense of something.

How can we establish correct relationships between us? Today, the only solution is concessions. I would like to take over the world, but I am bound: “Take only what is no more than 10 cm from you.” Everyone is limited in a similar way, but we are unable to comply with these rules, and that is why we have been fighting from time immemorial, or using other methods to prevail over each other. Every time, envy, passion, and ambition pull us out of the current into a more comfortable state.

However, today we are all interconnected. No one can withdraw from others or switch to self-sufficiency. Current conditions do not allow us to reach even minimal self-sufficiency. I involuntarily depend on others to such an extent that they penetrate my mind and feelings. Our ties are stretched everywhere, and they define all my life.

Previously, people felt free after work and not burdened by a total network of mutual influence. But today, we are all linked by one chain, and that is why the two opposite forces, acting in everyone, are also interconnected globally. I would cope or come to terms with my own problems, but in this age, this is impossible: I depend on others so much, that their impact breaks me to pieces, throws me in all directions at once.

So, we need a new methodology that allows each person to live a peaceful life, and us altogether to live in a new way, to unite correctly. [Read more →]

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Question: Many agree with the uniqueness of the Creator, with determinism, with an existence of a script, yet they still attempt to “read” their fate through esotericism, fortune-tellers, and so on. They don’t want to use it, but to adapt to it….

Answer: The thing is that on the basis of all these investigations they don’t feel a need to ask a question about the underlying cause. In general, we have long left behind the exalted science associated with the perception of reality, the philosophy of worldview. Today’s Nobel Prizes are awarded for discoveries that are purely technical, practical, and profitable. In this way, science too is in a state of crisis: For decades now, it hasn’t revealed any fundamental principles laid down in nature.

People have other needs; they are not drawn to exalted matters. Previously, a researcher would strive to get to the very essence of things, to discover the why, not the how. He wasn’t satisfied with a formula describing a newly-observed phenomenon, but sought its logic, its pattern: Where does it spring from? Where is it flowing? And then he would get to the exalted factor: What is the reason that it is created in this particular way? Why is nature arranged specifically thus? We should always ask this question, but unfortunately there is no demand for it today.

Question: That is the reason why they don’t hear us. How do we change that?

Answer: You can’t change that. If people merely seek to add more convenience and comfort to their lives, then they don’t care about the rest. In the grand scheme of things, who cares about science these days? Today, a good scientist is someone who can provide us with superior strength and weapons. We are not drawn at all to understanding the inner essence of things. Such is the outcome of the general crisis, and thus there isn’t yet anybody to turn to.

These days, however, people are starting to feel bad due to this very crisis. No kind of science will help them anymore. In anticipation of a collapse, a person will have to find out who is knocking him down and why. There is no other choice; it will be necessary to discover that because there is nowhere left to run. Formerly some loopholes could be found: “Let’s secure our life, build a sturdier house with heating and air conditioning, let’s ensure that food supplies don’t depend on weather conditions, let’s extract the earth’s treasures from its depths….” We fled from misfortunes with the aid of technology.

In their time, Aristotle and Plato warned against this. They didn’t want to reveal scientific knowledge to the masses because they knew that in such event people would start to use science for personal gain. Why reveal a path that in a few millennia will bring them to a dead end? Better they sense right away that they are in trouble and rush towards the purpose of creation.

The ancient Greek philosophers knew about the science of Kabbalah, so it is no coincidence that they were against the disclosure of scientific knowledge. After all, humanity uses it only to sweeten their sorrows, which are deliberately sent by the Creator so as to bring us towards the purpose of creation. We flaunt and take pride in our achievements while in truth, we’re merely engaged in a never-ending race, which brought us to this crisis all the same. And yet, it was possible to overcome this even two thousand years ago.

Only today, nearing the conclusion of their race, are people finally asking the questions: “Where do these misfortunes come from? What do they mean? When will they end? What should we do?” A person is incapable of simply tolerating suffering—he will have to embark on a search. Today the dead end is already evident, and now, because of the hopelessness, humanity must identify the cause of its misfortunes.

Those in power, however, don’t want to reveal the whole truth about what is taking place. If that were to happen, those endowed with wealth and power would have to share and to reorganize the human society according to the principle of mutual guarantee. This topic is still taboo, no one speaks about it, and therefore, there is no solution to the crisis.

But sooner or later the suffering will melt the ice, and these problems will have to be confronted. And then in seeking out the causes of its misfortunes and ways to salvation, humanity will come to the revelation of the Creator. We are doing this artificially, by gathering in a group and building the necessary conditions according to the Kabbalistic methodology. We too are pressured by misfortunes, but we add our own efforts on top of them in order that they advance us on the way towards the goal. In this manner we are using the positive force, which gives us acceleration, while the rest are accelerated with prods and kicks from behind.
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From the 4^th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/22/11, Baal HaSulam, “The Freedom”

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Baal HaSulam, “The Freedom”: Therefore, we must understand that in every emergence in the world there are four factors where from the four of them together arises that emergence. They are called by the names:

A. The source;
B. The unchanging conduct of cause and effect, related to the source’s own attribute;
C. Its internal conduits of cause and effect, which change by contact with external forces;
D. The conducts of cause and effect of external things, which affect it from the outside.

The repeating influence of these four factors and their interaction with each other eventually results in a “product,” meaning a human being or any other kind of being. “There is nothing new under the sun.” Anything we observe has stripped off its former shape that grew up under the influence of the four above-mentioned factors.

Why is it so important to know about them? It’s because we won’t identify what we are dealing with without having an understanding of them. Who am I? What do I see? What influences me? I understand nothing about my thoughts, desires, or actions.

The simple question “what is it?” forces me to consider the four factors that created the object I am studying. Having studied them, I get to know the object, be it a phenomenon or a property, something active or subordinate, something spiritual or corporeal.… My original perception of reality is built in a way that things that do not undergo the four factors do not exist for me. I am unable to know them.

Whatever I see has already gone through a certain developmental process, and as a consequence, it’s revealed in me. By asking “what is it?”, I in fact question the origin of the object. Hence, there always are the four factors that lie between the source of the object and my perception of it. Without them, I am unable to recognize objects and phenomena. The question about the essence of any object is an inquiry about the difference between its prior stage when this phenomenon was not yet known to me and my current sensation of it.

In this case, can we call each prior stage “the source”? What is it? Does a primary (original) condition called a primary source exist?

In spirituality, at all times there is a beginning (a root) followed by the development by four stages and completion. This entity represents a standard “unit” in which the root stage is named “the source” that initiates the whole process.

It is an entity that has stripped off its former shape and taken on another form, different from the original. And that entity, which shed its previous form, is defined as “the source.” In it lies the potential destined to be revealed and determined at the end of the formation of that emergence. Therefore, it is clearly considered its primary cause.

The source contains potential force that further turns into an action and acquires a final shape at the last stage.

[63233]
From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/15/2011, “The Freedom”

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Only the force that I develop in front of myself to attract me to bestowal is a sign of spiritual advancement. Sometimes, we do not understand what is going on; why there is no advancement if so much effort has been applied. We are on this path for so many years, but still cannot finish the period of preparation. What else is required of us?

And we do not understand that we have been waiting all that time for some kind of force to come and push us instead of using our own actions to create the force that would attract us forward rather than pushing from behind. We take this motivation from the environment in order to move forward due to the greatness of the goal, bestowal.

This is all our work, the freedom of choice, annulling ourselves and raising the environment. Everything is in order to become inspired by the goal and elevate it. It is not enough that I attach myself to it. I need a very powerful force of attraction that can outweigh my ego and make me revolve around this goal day and night, to lose sleep over it.

If I manage to create such a large attractive force, then I will move forward.

This is the human level, opposite to all the previous steps. This is not a natural development that comes from nature and happens by itself. Sufferings will not help there; they will not propel me forward. Only my own efforts and concentration of forces, using all the advices of Kabbalists and all the means that will influence me and inspire the greatness of the goal, will help me move forward so that I rush towards it.

And the goal is bestowal to which I am going without any other calculations, goals, or rewards, nothing, but pure bestowal.
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From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/28/11, Shamati

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Baal Hasulam, “The Freedom”: “All their wisdom did not help them find a bridge on which to cross that wide and deep crevice that spreads between the spiritual entity and the corporeal atom. Thus, science has gained nothing from all these metaphysical methods.”

A person inherits his attributes from his parents. These attributes cannot be changed, but society influences them and gives them different forms. Eventually a person doesn’t express himself but rather expresses the external society.

The attributes can differ but what matters is the form they are given: a person can be a great gangster or a great scientist, can slaughter animals or slaughter people. The distance between a policeman and a thief is very small, and they both understand each other.

So society does whatever it wants with a person. Although there is the preliminary kernel in a person, the influencing factors do whatever they want with him. This is the way things are on the corporeal level, and so we don’t decide anything here.

However, on the spiritual level we have to discover the root of a person’s soul, the point in the heart, and to place it in an environment that will provide it with the reforming Light. We have to build a spiritual environment that will provide a person with this spiritual Light that will influence the point in his heart and open it.

A person, on his part has to lower himself in front of the right environment and to neutralize his ego in order to remove the egotistic covers from the point in the heart. He has to bring his point out and to connect it with the other points, so that it will really look like yearning for bestowal. Although their intention is still egoistic, they are attracted to mutual bestowal, to the force that resembles, at least to some extent, the reforming Light. This is the only way to draw it. This Light influences the egoistic forces in us that are trying to keep in contact, despite the hatred we feel.

So there is the preliminary point in the heart, the root of a person’s soul, and there is the reforming Light, the force that develops the root of the soul. All the egoistic conditions in a person and in the environment, meaning the group, were meant to develop the force of bestowal, the intention to reach bestowal as much as possible. It is for this reason that we see ourselves dressed in an egoistic shell, and we also see the group as repulsive. This allows us to bring out our point and to place it against the reforming Light. Otherwise, we would simply not be able to do it.

So the shell is called “helpmate.” It enables me to place my point under the Light.
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From the 4^th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/28/11, Baal HaSulam “The Freedom”

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We already understand that free will isn’t a simple term. We are born with attributes we didn’t choose, to a family and conditions we didn’t choose, we get an education we didn’t choose…in short, we are raised and molded having no free will.

As a result, a person in this world is “cooked” by his parents, the environment, and society…so he has no freedom and we cannot demand anything from him; after all, he is a machine. It seems to him that he has his own thoughts, his own desires, his own deeds, but actually they are inevitable and he is compelled to act that way.

So, what is the point of creation? We are talking about a thought of nature, about the desire, the intention, the great wisdom. In fact, the Creator, or the Upper Force, by definition, has great wisdom, much more than all of the creation that is below Him.

When we study the world, we discover inconceivable wisdom in it. We only manage to “scratch” the surface and all our science is based on that. In fact, we haven’t started to discover the real forces, the real relationships, the real forms and connection that exist in this reality.

So why did the Creator create the world?—So that the created beings will follow a predetermined plan? After all, the beginning and end are already known, and everything is predetermined and we have no say and no free will. Our whole development is predetermined. And for the Creator the concept of time doesn’t exist.

So all this is useless. Can the created beings do anything independently, in some way or at some point?—Something for which it was worthwhile to create them, together with this whole reality?

The basic question is: Where is our free will for which the Creator created everything? The spiritual worlds, the innumerable forms and phenomena and the corporeal universe we live in—is all this only so that a person will perform some independent action at some brief moment in his life? The one moment that gives everything else a meaning.

At present this moment it is evasive, leaving us with a question we have no answer for. But if we find the point in which we can add one gram by ourselves, then all of reality will light up and you will discover its wonderful infinite filling….

So we have to find out where our free will is. If we check this logically, reality cannot exist without this option. After all, there would be no reason for the wise nature to create anything otherwise. In such a case, there would be no meaning for its actions.

We have to look for our freedom. Without it our life will remain programmed, planned, and we will continue to be managed like puppets on a string. We have to look for the point of free will and to realize it. This is man’s whole designation.

What is that freedom? Freedom from whom? From the Creator and His orders? Of course; as long as I am attached to Him, I am not me. He moves me. So I have to be free not from other people and not even from myself, but first and foremost from Him. The Creator has created a certain state in which I can be detached from Him, from His control. Then I will be free.

The question is: What do I do with this freedom? What new abilities do I acquire? With what thought, with what feeling, and with what action do I fill the void that is suddenly revealed for me?

We will talk about this some other time.
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From the 4^th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/28/11, Baal HaSulam, “The Freedom”

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The attributes of a person are divided into two main types: internal factors, which we inherit and are born with, and external factors, which we receive from education, the environment, mass media, and so on. Actually, these factors do not depend on the person, even though they in fact shape his personality and determine his fate. The question arises: How can one improve his life?

It’s here that we need to clarify the factor of the environment. The real environment is not just a combination of external influences, but it’s that same external influence that I created by myself for myself. In order to do this, I need to get into contact with certain external factors and build them correctly in relation to myself so that they’ll influence me in a special, selective way that yields certain results.

It’s in this way that I work independently. I initiate this plan by myself, utilizing the powers that I need, when I know my nature and theirs, and thanks to this, I influence myself. I don’t influence anything outside of me; rather, I use external factors so that they will influence me in a certain way. Thanks to this, I change and then feel myself in a world that changes for the better.

Thus I don’t turn into one of those “benefactors” who change nature and correct the world. On the contrary, I use external forces in order to correct myself and improve my life. One must take into consideration these points because we make mistakes in realizing them, or actually in approaching them.
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From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/25/2011, “The Freedom”

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We are born and develop in a human society with our inborn qualities and the qualities engrained in us by society: parents, kindergarten, school, the neighborhood, and so on. All the qualities we acquire over the course of our lives and all our actions determined by the initial, inner program—is not who we are.

There is nothing private or independent in it, nothing cultivated and determined by the actual person experiencing the situation. In the end, this refers to a combination of the inborn qualities developing in a person and external influences.

Everything rolls along as it should, with the exception of one moment, which we cannot fully understand. Man learns that he can choose an environment, which will develop him in a specific direction.

The first question to appear is: Why is this unusual? Why is this called free choice?

For example, if I want to learn music, I surround myself with musicians. Is my “I” present in this? Is this my free choice?

I make new acquaintances in my musical environment and advance through them. Do I realize my freedom of will this way?

I am told “no,” that I am being driven by a desire that originated in me. There is nothing “yours” here. Simply the first impulse has directed you to this environment, and that is it. This happens to everyone.

Where is the freedom of will then? It is clear that I become inspired by the desires of the environment; they ignite me; I fall under the environment’s influence and wish to grow as a musician. But none of this speaks of freedom.

True freedom manifests when I resist the environment, oppose what it represents, refuse to realize my desire in it—yet in desperation, I understand that it is the only place to realize it. I must connect to my friends to attain the goal, but I hate them at the same time; I am repulsed by them, and I do not wish to act through them. In the presence of these two poles my choice is born—in the free space between these two opposite extremes.

Possibly this only happens when I have a point in the heart, when the Creator is before me, and the evil inclination is against me. In this case the group is the area where I must realize myself.

If everything was to be put in place, then my free choice, the middle third of Tifferet, really lies in the group, the unity of friends, which help me rise to the Creator. But when a person simply lives in our world, he has no freedom of choice.

Beginning with this point and realizing our free choice every time, we ascend the steps of the spiritual ladder and acquire the structure called “Man” (Adam) until we build it in its full volume on the degree of Malchut of the world of Infinity at the end of correction.

All this is realized through choosing the best environment: Every time we submerge deeper into the group, become better connected to it—and thus we grow.
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From the 4^th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/27/11, Baal HaSulam, The Freedom”

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The Creator brings us to the place where we can achieve the goal. All we need to do is perform a minor correction. It is as though I have this big car that is completely fine except for some tiny bolt. I just need to twist it one half-turn, and the engine will start, the car will start moving.

However, without this half-turn, nothing will happen. Maybe I just need to put in the safety lock into the electric chain, the spark igniter into the engine. That’s all that is required of me, nothing else! I don’t need to learn about the engine and the whole big car. I merely need to know precisely where to insert this spark igniter now.

The Creator brings me directly to that place and shows it to me. He attunes my feelings and mind precisely, illustrating to me how poorly I felt before and how well I will feel here. I sense all this inside me, in my desire.

And now, when I have the direction, I need to perform a choice. I can either just run away from a bad place to a good one, but this will not be according to my free choice; it will just be according to nature. Everyone, any animal or person, the smartest and the stupidest alike, would do the same and run away from a bad life toward a good life. After all, our matter is the desire to receive pleasure.

However, I must build my free choice above my nature. I need to rise above my sensation so that my movement will be for the sake of pleasing the Creator instead of acquiring a pleasant life. My freedom of will consists only in this point, in this work. I need to permeate within this point as deeply as possible and not let anything distract me so that as a result, I will clarify what my fate really means.
[63719]
From the 3rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/20/2011, “Introduction to TES”

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