Baal HaSulam, “The Freedom”: Thus, we are at the hands of these four factors, as clay in the hands of a potter.

We are surrounded by the influence from Above from all sides. The Creator rules over us in a very harsh and absolute manner as He controls all the channels, both internal and external, in our desires, thoughts, habits, and nature. We have nothing that is ours, and even the words I am saying now are arranged by Him.

So what is our free will? After all, we cannot attribute freedom to any object, action, thought, or the smallest particle of the desire to receive. The Creator created it, He influences it absolutely, so what can be free in it?

People have come up with theories about two authorities and polytheism, about which Baal HaSulam writes in his article “The Peace.” It is hard to agree that there is only one authority that “covers” everything. If the Creator is unified, if there is none else besides Him, if everything depends on Him, then I am under His absolute control, and it is as if I don’t exist, but rather dissolve in Him. So it is preferable to have two authorities: a good one and a bad one. This is understandable; in between them there is room for me, and I can affect things.

Still, at some point I realize that behind everything that affects me there is one Source. It isn’t an image that we can picture, but a mind, a feeling, something unified. I only have to discover the reason why it affects me, what it wants from me? What I should become according to its influence?

By knowing what He wants from me, I will know Him. What for? Is it just to make an acquaintance or in order to fulfill His desire?

What was His intent in creating me? What does He want by managing me this way? If He only wants me to obey Him, then it’s better not to know anything, but to simply act according to the instructions I have received. But if He really wants me to attain, to reveal Him, then I have to do everything to attain this goal and not to act automatically.

So there is a lot of work a person has to do regarding the initial cause of everything. This is our only work: to constantly sharpen and “polish” our attitude to Him. Who is He? What does He want from me? Why did He make me react this way? I constantly climb the levels of my attitude and clarify what He wants to give me by putting demands to me. What He wants is that thanks to bestowal upon Him, I will understand Him.

I continue this chain and constantly raise the level of His demands to me. Thus I have to justify the evil just like the good since they both come from one source. I have to understand why He splits His bestowal into two—thanks to this I will be able to check myself, to adjust my course. For Him this duality doesn’t exist, but my reality is divided into bestowal and reception.

Eventually, we must constantly reveal the concept of Unified, and not more than that. If I paid attention to that, I would see that there is nothing else in my life. Even in the corporeal world everything comes down to this clarification that discovers unity and reveals the Creator.
[63986]
From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/22/2011, “The Freedom”

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A person is born with predetermined properties. He is not held responsible for them, whether they are good or bad—if there is anything good among them at all, apart from the point in the heart that is waiting to be awakened. It is said in the Torah: “Awakening of one’s heart is bad from the time of one’s youth.”

But in any event all the properties of a person are combined together and designed for his or her spiritual ascent. A person has only one thing to accomplish in this world: to rise from the animate degree to the speaking one. And thus, everything there is in him, including his internal spiritual point, as well as his external material qualities, all his parameters, everything that forms him is surely built this way to make him aspire toward the goal. Everything descends here from this goal, from this final point of the end of correction, and from this place everything rises back to the end of correction.

There definitely are no accidents. Everything is designed only for this lofty task. And for this reason, we should treat the evil the same way we treat the good, accepting all the things as the necessary components that connect together to form a perfect, internal state for us.

We inherit part of our properties from our father and mother, and we get another part of them through our upbringing. Then we add to all this the properties received from our environment, the habits that become our second nature, and so on. All these properties settle within us as if we were actually born with them.

Here we should realize that nothing happens by chance, as people in our world think. On the contrary, everything gets to us through the system that influences us gradually, according to the program that works in tune with the general scheme of systemic interactions.

Thus, it is not really important what particular factors formed me, whether they are my parents, fellow kindergarten and school students, my neighbors, radio and television, books, or something else. Essentially, the following thing happens to us: From the Creator we receive the point of desire created as existence from absence. Further on, this point is exposed to various influences of the Light, which Baal HaSulam divides by level into inherited properties, intrauterine factors, influence of the closest environment, the society’s influence, habits, and so on. All in all, they all come from the Creator, and this is how we should treat them.

This gives rise to a question: What has been placed upon me? I start understanding that everything in my life originates from a single and unique Source that clothes into various garments. In truth, these are not garments, I just see them as such. In reality, it is the same upper Light that has passed through various filters and is now drawing various images in my imagination. These images form the picture of the world for me, which includes the still, vegetative, and animate nature, as well as people. By means of this the Creator constantly “shakes” me, gives me no peace, pushing me further and further ahead.

So, when one gathers all these kinds of influences into one whole, while connecting them to the correct goal, then one deals with the Creator.
[63989]
From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/22/2011, “The Freedom”

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The Creator puts one’s hand on the good fate and says: “Take it!” He gives a person desire, awakens in him the question about the meaning of life and impressions, and arranges everything for him, bringing him to the place where he can realize himself, that is, to receive answers to his questions.

But the question is: Where is the person himself here? After all, everything is already predetermined by how I am structured, what kind of education I received, and how I was directed until this very moment. If I take a look back on my life, I will see that it was always turning somehow, like some kind of taut spring. And even though I don’t see clearly Who was turning it, nevertheless someone was arranging everything for me: gave me the question about the meaning of life, organized the group that I found, the books.

Everything is already organized from Above, and it’s as if they took me by the ear and brought me to the correct place. So where is my free choice here?

It turns out that free choice begins long after this. After you are brought to the group that is studying the wisdom of Kabbalah, you begin to study, receive impressions, and become overwhelmed with sensations, and it then seems to you that you finally found your place. But actually, you still don’t understand anything, and all of this is not yet what you need to reach.

The place of your free choice is that empty area, that white spot that you need to fill. It is ahead of you, and you still haven’t discovered it. In the meantime, you study and are thrown from state to state without any choice. When a bad state comes, you fall into depression, and when a good state comes, you are happy.

Sometimes you receive understanding because the desire to know everything appears in you; sometimes your feelings arise as the desire to feel awakens in you. And in this way you are taken through all kinds of states together with the group, with the environment. But in the meantime, the current carries you, without any free action of your own.

And thus it continues, until you reach the empty place that you need to recognize and on which you need to concentrate all your attention. This is so since it is specifically in it that you realize yourself. And if you don’t realize your free choice there, nothing will happen.

All that is in the hands of the Creator will definitely come true. But no one can do anything with that empty place without your correct cooperation. And this is what the wisdom of Kabbalah talks about!
[64694]
From the 3rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/20/2011, “Introduction to TES”

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All of history and the former, private part of my life make up 99.9% done by the Creator, and 0.1% is what is left for me to do. However, for me this 0.1% of my life is, in essence, 100%. It is because it depends on me by 100%, and I need to worry only about this and nothing else. After all, everything else is not under my control.

I need to clarify particularly this tiny area, where I need to do something on my own. It’s like a big orchestra with the greatest musicians in the world performing all the pieces perfectly, with immense feeling, and without a single mistake or falling behind for even a second.

I just need to twiddle a few notes of my own in this whole great symphony. However, if I don’t play them on time, it will spoil all the music. But if I do what is assigned to me, I will complete an absolutely perfect symphony. This is how my life is arranged. Therefore, a person needs to concentrate all his attention and effort on adding these few points, playing these few notes, but he should do that properly.

Thus the wisdom of Kabbalah does not talk about anything else but this. There is an infinite multitude of everything in the spiritual world; it’s a huge reality, like a symphonic orchestra with plenty of different instruments and the most complex musical score. However, we do not study all this, and we don’t understand or feel anything there.

Kabbalists don’t tell us about that although having reached their correct realization, they already feel this whole common harmony. They explain only how we can play our tiny portion, our few notes.
[63691]
From the 3rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/20/2011, “Introduction to TES”

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We don’t change reality, but only our relation to it, its perception. We need to worry about our inner feelings so that each time we transform each situation to joy.

And this isn’t because it causes me to feel good—I can also feel bad. Rather, I feel good because this situation comes from the Creator and thus I cause Him happiness. In my every correction makes me feel good, I feel good from the fact that I bring contentment to Him.

And the first correction is to rise above good and evil so that it is not important how I feel. This means that I rise above my desire to receive. Try to eat something with the intention to bestow and see that the tastiest food loses its taste. Thus, I now rise above my good or bad sensation, and it becomes tasteless to me, like grass.

Afterwards I begin to feel the taste of importance of the Giver, and as a result of this, I cause Him delight. And having felt the importance of the Giver, I return to myself and enjoy in all of my desires. However, it is already a different pleasure: I enjoy because I delight the Creator.

This means that I do not change reality, but I change my relation to it. The main factor in all of these actions is the greatness of the Creator, which for me changes everything. I work on a higher level than the one where I felt good or bad in my beastly body. I need this beast, but I work above it.

Thus this is considered my free choice. Indeed, I receive a free plane in which I can do whatever I want. I don’t go into this low area where the Creator directs me through different situations. And my free choice is consequently expressed when above all these states, I build a relation called the intention to bestow.
[63716]
From the 3rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/20/2011, “Introduction to TES”

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If we need to rise above this life to the intention for the sake of bestowal, then regardless of how bad life on this plane is, we can create the most favorable relations with the Creator above it. This condition already shows the initial point of the ascent from the physical, beastly, level of sensations to the level of spiritual intentions.

There are two levels: the level of sensation and the level of intention, which is also a sensory level but is connected with the Giver. In sensation, in desire, I can feel good or bad. Whereas, with the intention, it can be for my own sake or for the sake of the Creator.

If I want to reach free choice, I need to work on the level of intention. It doesn’t matter what will happen on the level of my desire—I need only to worry about the intention. Below can be a very bad life, and above, on the level of intention, I attain goodness and give thanks to the Creator. If I can do this, it is a sign that I attained the intention to bestow, “Lishma.”

I rose above my desire, detached myself from it, restricted it, and stopped relating to me all that is good and bad. I look at myself from the side and see how this machine feels itself, its parameters and conditions. And then I understand how it needs to work for the sake of something else. This means that I am disconnected from myself.
[63713]
From the 3rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/20/2011, “Introduction to TES”

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If I carefully follow the signals that the Creator gives me in my life, I will see that He brings me to the good fate and says: “Choose this, son!” And it is my responsibility to grab onto this opportunity and realize it.

But how can I see all this? How do I find my fate and the Creator who directs me? How do I understand that it is precisely what I need to execute in my life, and it is in fact the missing piece in the common puzzle? The whole picture is already complete except for this one piece. So how do I see it and where do I find it?

It turns out that I need to search for the place of my free choice. The Creator will bring me there and lead me directly to the place where I need to execute my action. The Creator directs us through a simple and natural path, allowing us to feel some guidance that brings us a sense of comfort in a life that is difficult, full of suffering, problems, ailments, and misfortunes. And since we are a simple desire to receive pleasure, we instinctively run from evil and strive for peace.

The Creator shows us the direction: from evil to good. However, one needs to exert effort from his side since advancement by this path is possible only under the condition that we change our motto, the intention with which one does everything. Either I just want to run away from evil and reach goodness, according to my natural desire to receive, or I advance above my desire, at the level of intention, and I do this in order to delight the Creator.

In other words, I need to separate from my desire to receive, rise above it, perform a restriction on it, and in spite of everything that remains in it, advance with the intent to give joy to Him, rather than me. This constitutes my free choice.

I constantly work with my desire, and it advances me and shows me the path from suffering to pleasure, which shines to me ahead like through slots in the wall or like a ray of light through the clouds. However, advancement toward this ray is only possible if I change the reason for my movement, and rather than doing it for myself, although it is pleasant and nice, I begin to do it for the benefit of the Creator.

He calls me in order to do good to me, and I go in order to do good to Him.
[63688]
From the 3rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/20/2011, “Introduction to TES”

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Every given moment with all its data comes from Above. Everything in it is predetermined, and I am under its control. However, the next moment is in my hands.

I begin to analyze what is the meaning of life? Can I understand it? Suddenly, I realize that not only can I understand it, but  I can change it as well. Moreover, I not only can change it, but I can attain the highest possible degree of perception, sensation, awareness, and control of the situation.

It turns out that among the thousand buttons, there is the one, the most important one. All the other 999 buttons will not disturb you when you press that single button. It is your free will.

You have to find that button over and over again, to move step by step, each time doing different work and performing different analyses. You can’t just grab that button and hold on to it until the end. No, you have to look for it each time anew, among all the other buttons. Now, it was here, so how can I reach it? On the next level, it is in a totally different place.

This is how you change your life. This isn’t some superficial work. It throws you from one place to another, from one end of your data matrix to another. With the help of this button, you have to activate all others. This button is the access to them.

Eventually, free will merely obliges you to come to the group. It isn’t complicated. Enter the group and bring yourself under the influence of the right environment. Thanks to that, together with the environment, in mutual connection with it, you will find the right button and change your fate.

Reality is much more simple than what we imagine. It says that the Creator created man simply, but people have made many complications.
[63484]
From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/18/2011, “The Freedom”

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What is my “self?” I exist, feel, live, and perceive reality…. But I don’t know what the “self” is. I only know that it’s the way in which I feel myself: There is the “self” and there is my environment. Where does this feeling come from? It comes from my desire to receive. I feel all kinds of pleasures and deficiencies one way or another, and they are part of my perception, feeling, cognition, and understanding.

On the whole, my vessels make up the desire to receive. To some extent they are full and to some extent empty. The desire that is divided into five levels of development (the still, vegetative, animate, speaking, and the root) makes up the feeling of my personal body, my life, my “self,” and the environment. Eventually I have to attain the essence of my desire with everything that is within it. What is this desire? What does it mean to feel it?

I am in it, and it radiates the feeling of itself and of external reality. The feeling of the self is my body. The feeling of external life is made up of many people and of the whole universe. All of this is depicted and presented inside my desire.

These things should be clarified in the light of free will: How can I use them? Which way should I direct them? Can I do anything that I want with these feelings? Or can I use them only if I turn in a certain direction? Do I have to find the right “frequency,” the right range of frequencies in which I’ll see the whole picture and the way to the goal? In such a case, all the other ways are closed. They’re not for me.

A very delicate approach is needed here, the only approach that will enable me to see the picture in the right light. All the other paths provide me with false and distorted pictures, and I will pay dearly for their falsity. The main point here is to understand what I should do and where to go. In order to do that, I tune myself to the desirable range of frequencies, choose the correct “crack,” in order to look at my internal and external reality. Such approach brings me to the only possible action I should perform—that of a free choice.

Everything else is irrelevant. Even if I don’t know anything else, it makes no difference. The main point is that I know this. My whole life and future depend upon this. By fulfilling this “subtle” principle, I can also change everything else, and extremely so. I should deal with what’s important and not with anything else because then I will only mess things up.

Thus, free will should protect me from false and harmful actions that will take great efforts to correct. I need to reach the essence in the shortest way possible and to realize it.

For that Baal HaSulam explains that every state I am in is divided into four parts. If I know myself, I am under their control. These are the factors:

• The source;
• The unchanging conduct of cause and effect;
• The internal conduct of cause and effect;
• The conduct of cause and effect of alien things.

The source is the unchanging nature, the essence, which I received even before I felt myself here and now. One may ask about it questions like, why, and what for, but it won’t change reality. You are what you are, and you advance on a one way street, from the beginning to the end. The distance you have traveled is the past, and there is no point complaining about it. All you have to do is find out how to make the future better.

As for the conduct of cause and effect, here too, as Baal HaSulam says, there is nothing you can do. Of course, wheat will grow from a grain of wheat, and rice will grow from a grain of rice. These changes are additions to the source, they dress upon it. Besides the initial data that exist in the Reshimo, in the “particle of information” which contains everything, there is also the rest of the development, the second factor, which is also predetermined. And this means that one should look for free will in the third or fourth factors.
[63487]
From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/18/2011, “The Freedom of Will”

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Baal HaSulam, “The Freedom”: However, when we examine the acts of an individual, we shall find them compulsory. He is compelled to do them and has no freedom of choice.

We are the desire to receive created by the Creator. This desire responds only to pleasure or its lack, which is pain. Thus, we can experience either positive or negative feelings.

In the first case, a person feels good and comfortable, so he wants to remain in this state. What fills us exactly, and where do we feel the pleasure? After all, we are not just talking about a glass that we fill with water.

Pleasure comforts, and this is especially evident in children: If we make a baby feel good, he’ll become tranquil. This is the response of the desire to receive, and at that  moment it doesn’t need to change. In fact, it can’t change because the pleasure completely fills the desire.

When we feel pain, it is exactly opposite. A person can climb the walls and not find a place to rest.

There are deep-rooted reasons for these responses. Peace and pleasure are like a copy of the Light, the Creator, embodied by the mother. They bring appeasement—and the baby becomes tranquil.

So, we respond to two things only: pleasure or pain. However, in addition to the desire to receive, internal processes take place through four phases of development. Combined, these phases create a kind of internal volume, where input and output are compared: what enters me, how do I respond, and what ultimately comes out.

As a result, a person’s mind develops. The Light enters and evokes either positive or negative feelings, as well as positive or negative realization. Here everything depends on the “input and output module” from this “box” of the four phases, which checks whether the input signal corresponds with the goal.

Thus, besides the pleasure and pain in its pure form, we have the opportunity to study and accumulate experience. Consequently, we build a scale of “true or false” and understand that a good feeling can be false, while a bad one can be true. It enables us to hold on to the truth and if necessary, to change the input signal from minus to plus or from plus to minus.

This is the role of the four phases, through which the response of our desire moves toward awareness and understanding. It overcomes distance, divided into four parts according to the structure of HaVaYaH, and this provides us the opportunity to  compare the input and output.
[63131]
From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/14/2011, “The Freedom”

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