The higher the frequency at which we make our choice, again and again, in favor of the point in the heart, in favor of unity, the faster is our path. When we get together at large conventions and become included in one another with our desires, then I perform one action and all the others perform a multitude of other actions which join mine. If I remained alone, I would never complete this work!

However, the Creator helps us. He divided the huge desire He created into many parts. When each part carries out its work, it adds that work to everyone else.
It turns out that if there are say 800 of us, and over the course of several days at a convention each of us makes 100 actions, then it will turn out that each one made 80,000 actions. That’s because we are all connected together! And besides the people present in the convention hall, there are many more friends all over the world who join our broadcasts.

Before coming to teach this lesson, I received letters and greetings from Moscow, St. Petersburg, Israel, Germany, and many other places. Look at how many people have gathered at our centers worldwide. Right now on the screen we see Tel Aviv, the Galilee, Rehovot, Minsk, Columbia, Donetsk, Tbilisi, Chile, Odessa, Beer Sheba, Haifa, Ashkelon, Hadera, and many more.

There are many of us and if we use the days of the convention correctly, then we will leap onto the next level and will possibly realize the law that is called, “He made efforts and found!” This can happen. It all depends on us.

If a large amount of people join us and each person includes everyone, then each person receives a sufficient force. We have worked on our unity very well and have thus acquired knowledge. We studied and prepared for the whole year, constantly discussing that there is only “we,” that we are together, and that the spiritual world becomes revealed only in the connection among us. So let us hope that we will be able to implement that unity.
From the 1st lesson at the WE! Convention on 4/1/11

Related Material:
Every Person Is Important For Perfection
You Can’t “Fall Asleep” And Then “Wake Up” At The End Of Correction
If You Don’t Succeed Here, Then You Won’t Succeed Anywhere

Filed under: Conventions, Free Will, Unity, World - No Comments →

Question from a woman: I have a very big desire to become perfect. What should I do: direct this desire towards the men or straight to the Creator?

Answer: Neither. You have to correct it yourself. You don’t have to “direct” your desire anywhere. Every person must correct his or her own desire. It’s just that the means for this correction is the mutual help we give to one another, our connection with each other.

No one can correct your desires. This would take away your freedom of choice, your independence, and the ability to attain the level that you have to attain, the root of your soul.

Only work in the group, both for men and for women, in the appropriate form for each to perform their spiritual work will help them become included in one another with their souls and to feel that all together we belong to one Kli, one common soul, just as before the breaking.
[39827]
From the 3rd lesson at the WE! Convention on 4/1/11

Related Material:
False Equality
In The Grip Of The Lack
In Spirituality, Why Does Circumcision Pertain To Men?

Filed under: Collective Soul, Conventions, Free Will, Group Work, Q&A, Unity, Women - No Comments →

Kabbalists try very hard to explain the main moment of our work: how we arrive at free choice. They start by explaining that we have no freedom whatsoever. Findings in biology, ecology, psychology, genetics, and other sciences make it evident. We are not free.

Every person is born into a family he didn’t choose, a society he didn’t pick, a nation he didn’t decide on, with the traits that were not his choice. He was schooled at a place that he didn’t select either. And how could he have made a choice himself? His family, kindergarten, and school provided the environment, under the influence of which he developed.

Very seldom, as if accidentally, a person finds himself or herself under a foreign influence, for instance, of the books, and develops slightly differently than his surroundings. There are very few people like this, and they being guided from Above.

With regard to everything else, as Baal HaSulam writes in his article “The Freedom,” I’m not independent in the way I sit, eat, sleep, dress, or speak. In general, it is not me. Everything is imparted on me by the environment, the priorities of which force me to hold myself and behave in a certain way even when I’m alone. I have internalized the values of the environment and they have become my own.

Initially, I was a drop of semen; I received everything else from the environment: my parents, the close ones, educators and teachers, friends, street, city, and so on. Even a drop of semen itself wasn’t me either, but a set of traits I inherited from my parents.

It follows that man has no freedom, has nothing that could be said to be his own. From one side, it is very hard to agree with this, but from the other, scientists have discovered it already and subscribe to it completely. Only in the human society we nevertheless judge a person by what he or she is, even though in reality, a person embodies the environment which “sculpted” him or her.

From the spiritual point of view, given the conditions in which we find ourselves, we can’t talk about ourselves as such. In spirituality, each of us begins with a drop of semen called the “point in the heart.” When a person begins to feel this point within himself or herself, he or she is brought to the appropriate environment.
[39690]
From Lesson 1, WE! Convention 4/1/2011

Related Material:
How To Use Your Freedom
Me Vs. We
The Origin Of Freedom

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

Question: Essentially, I don’t have any freedom of choice. Nature rules over me. So does everything really depend on me?

Answer: Creation begins with the still level, followed by the vegetative, animate, and human degrees. The human degree, too, begins to develop from the still level and undergoes the same stages. This was the course of evolution on Earth over millions of years.

Finally, we have reached the degree of “human within human” and become accountable. We used to live like animals under a stick, but now we have to meet certain demands. Whether we like it or not, today we must undertake certain actions.

A few thousand years after what happened in ancient Babylon, we are handed the method of correction once again. Free will, as well as responsibility that comes along with it, begins specifically with the “human within human,” with our current level. Hence, we are talking about absolute goodness, about the purpose of creation, and about how to stay on course, in order to advance without cataclysms.

Conscious development begins now, while until this time suffering spurred egoism on to develop. Without these “injections,” it wouldn’t have made a single move.

The still, vegetative, and animate levels of nature do not possess free will. Neither does a human being who exists at the still, vegetative, or animate level. The possibility of free choice appears only now. After all, now you have the “point in the heart” and you can use it to connect with the friends and find Infinity in your unity.

Choice is impossible without inner struggle. You choose with whom you want to be: your friends or yourself. It’s either we or me.

Absolute goodness is awaiting all of us at the end of the path, but you have received the opportunity to choose, and hence you can already aim at it. For this, you have to always hold onto the middle line, using your “Self” and the environment together.
[39546]
From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/25/2011, The Principles of Global Education

Related Material:
Purposeful Development Of Egoism
Maturing To The Title Of “Human”
Becoming Conscious

Filed under: Daily Kabbalah Lesson, Egoism, Evolution, Free Will, Inner Work, Love, Q&A - No Comments →

Question: Can I motivate myself to unite with the friends by means of fear of suffering that will come in the future?

Answer: Suffering doesn’t affect the point in the heart! It affects my egoistic desire, my “donkey”! But it does not affect the human in me, my point in the heart. A person can only advance spirituality by moving forward out of his own free will.

Therefore, if I don’t develop the inner aspiration to move forward, meaning that I want to build the storage place for the upper Light with the help of the group, then I evolve as a mere animal that is being “kicked,” through suffering. These strikes make me contemplate: Why are they coming down on me, what did I do to deserve them, and why? Then I will probably start linking my point in the heart with the others.

Question: But how do I scare the human in me so I would get it to advance?

Answer: If you suddenly heard on the radio that our country is about to be covered by a radioactive cloud, your “animal” would start shaking at such tragic news. And you can receive a similar from the group.

However, we do not speak about what will happen to us because we do not advance by way of fear. We wish to move ahead by becoming conscious of the importance of the spiritual goal. The importance of the goal is quite virtual, intangible, and depends on how we depict it within. If we keep envisioning the goal as increasingly more exalted, then we will advance in accordance with that.

In other words, I am like a rabbit that runs after a carrot that is held in front of it on a string. Moreover, a human in me holds both the carrot and the string, while my “animal” is chasing it.
[39117]
From the lesson on Writings of Rabash on 3/18/2011

Related Material:
Emptiness Is Our Construction Site
The Solution Is Between Us
Don’t Be Afraid, We’re With You!

Filed under: Egoism, Free Will, Group Work, Q&A, Suffering - No Comments →

On the path we reveal various flaws, and that is how it should be. However, it is a completely different matter when I am able to accept them with understanding by virtue of my preparation and the support I receive from the environment. Then I will see the flaws as a kind of exercise. And an exercise is no longer a bad thing.

When encountering a problem, I don’t panic, feeling weak and confused. On the contrary, I know that I have been given this problem in order to overcome it and receive a reward. It does not trip me so I fall down and does not cut me off from the path to goodness.

The entire matter lies in the preparation, which enables me to see everything as a chance for advancement, rather than an avalanche of troubles that we want to run away from or even to end our own lives.

The aim at the goal decides everything. If I am in a caring environment, then it “brainwashes me” and explains that all the defects are being revealed as exercises for a person who wishes to grow. Then I use them in order to advance. Moreover, I am happy about the flaws that become revealed.

And vice versa, without the appropriate upbringing, without the support and help of the environment, I cannot correct and turn every flaw into a trampoline for leaping forward. Instead of this, I am always immersed in evil.

In this regard humanity faces free choice: How to accept everything that becomes revealed on the path? If I recognize the problems in advance, if I prepare an environment for myself and desire to advance forward, then the flaws are revealed gently. I already understand them, am ready for them, and accept them as signs of advancement.

Question: What defects are you talking about? About the realization of evil inside of oneself, or about tsunamis and other natural disasters?

Answer: If you prepare, then you no longer need a tsunami. Then the flaws will not be troubles for you, but challenges. They won’t be unresolved problems, but tasks. Similarly, a diligent child does not need strict measures. Instead we let him gather a Lego or puzzle, and so on. He does not receive a difficult life from us, but exercises which he likes. Even if they make him sweat a bit, they also give him pleasure.
[39000]

Filed under: Free Will, Inner Work, Q&A, Suffering - 1 Comment →

Question: What does it mean to feel that you are already at the convention right now, while reading The Book of Zohar, so the convention would happen in the best possible way?

Answer: Prepare yourself. If you are about to attend a wonderful, pleasant, and joyful event, then you prepare for it in advance. You anticipate it and enjoy this beckoning illumination of the future. And you receive great inspiration from that.

Therefore, as we get closer to the worldwide convention that will be held in New Jersey, we have to prepare ourselves already now. Everything depends on preparing the desire, “What do I plan on correcting? What do I want? What will I get out of it? How do I want to appear there?” I have to imagine all of this in detail, as if I am already there. Therefore, we have to make all the songs available on the website, as well as everything that will happen at the cultural programs and the other events so people can become familiar with it, understand it, and already be able to imagine how it will happen.

A child grows by imagining the future, and then it comes true. If a person does not experience this reverent desire at all times, if he does not increase his desires, and even his worries and fears, then he does not gain anything. He must already now wait impatiently, wondering, “How will this happen? When? In what way? How will I be inspired? How will I participate?”

This is necessary in order to grow up. If children did not receive the aspiration toward the future from nature, then they would not be able to grow. But for us, this aspiration is given as freedom of choice. Do you want to grow up? Then find a way to receive the greatness of the goal from the environment, and then you will grow. There is no other method! If we don’t learn on the example of small children, if we don’t implement these actions in practice, then it would be a shame to let our lives go by wasted.
From the 2nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/24/11, The Zohar

Filed under: Children, Conventions, Daily Kabbalah Lesson, Evolution, Free Will, Inner Work, Q&A, Spirituality - No Comments →

Question: A part of me really wants to go to the Convention, but another part of me opposes it so strongly that I don’t want to see anyone. What should I do?

Answer: You have to make your free choice. You should understand that both parts of you, like all of the thoughts and desires that awaken in us at every moment, come to us from the Creator. These are conditions which are set for us; it is not the actual me.

What makes the decision is not my body, which gets sick and does not want to go to the Convention, and not my mood either. We act like a mechanism where all of the internal electrical signals are controlled by the upper force according to the program leading us to a certain state.

Life, death, and all of the states in between are determined from above and there is nothing accidental about any of it. Therefore, in every state I have to detach myself and look at this “mechanism,” meaning my body, its mood, and everything in it, from aside. The purpose of this is to see that this is the Creator’s work and to understand what He wants to give me right now, and to what state does He want to bring my “donkey” (Hamor, donkey means Homer, matter). Then I will understand how to work with it and will not identify myself with this “donkey.”

The more times a day a person is able to detach from himself in this way and look at himself from aside, like at a body in which some kind of forces are being awakened, without identifying himself with it, but rather using it as a means to attain the goal, the faster he will reach success. That is also how we should treat the friends in every regard. Don’t look at their faces or personalities, but at their inner desire in the pure form, which does not depend on anything external. This is the friend of my point in the heart.
[38805]
From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/22/11, Preparation to the WE! Convention

Related Material:
The Irreconcible Quarrel Between The Creator And The Pharaoh In Me
A Person Ridding A Donkey
Destined (Doomed) To Be Together

Filed under: Body and Soul, Conventions, Daily Kabbalah Lesson, Free Will, Group Work, Inner Work, Q&A - No Comments →

Question: How can we ascend above all the quarrels in the group before the convention?

Answer: When preparing for the convention, you have to see how all of these conflicts are given to you as “help against Him,” how Pharaoh rises up and asks, “Who is this Creator for me to listen to His voice?”

The Creator tells you to unite with the friends, while the Pharaoh tells you to disunite! The Creator says, “Give in!” While the Pharaoh says, “No, you have to rule over them with an iron hand!” The Creator says, “Work joyfully,” while the Pharaoh says, “No, you will work dejectedly and enslaved to me.”

These two forces argue within a person when he reaches the “ten Egyptian plagues” as he discerns which of them is right. I have to understand that I determine which of them will take the upper hand and rule—the Creator or Pharaoh! Everything depends on me.

This is the most decisive point, and I am standing in the middle between these two parts of reality: the positive and the seemingly negative, which were prepared for me in this form in order to give me the freedom of choice. I have to decide that I want for the force of bestowal, love, freedom from egoism and ascent above it to assume power.

I am ready to accept the blows falling on Pharaoh and egoistic Egypt, and I am happy about them. Let the blow fall upon me because it is hitting my egoism, helping me to be freed from it, to ascend above it and no longer be inside of it. After these blows, I already come out of Egypt and am no longer enslaved to it!

Yet, a person shouldn’t work on himself, but in relation to the environment, the group. He shouldn’t correct some kind of qualities inside of him, but his attitude to others. The most important thing here is not to get confused and not to change the direction of one’s efforts.
[38784]
From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/22/11, Preparation to the WE! Convention

Filed under: Conventions, Daily Kabbalah Lesson, Egoism, Free Will, Group Work, Q&A - No Comments →

A spiritual action depends entirely on the preparation. That is because the action itself is already predetermined in advance and has to take place. Nothing can change in the entire program from the beginning until the end of creation. All of these phases are already definitely determined.

Man can intervene in a certain part of this program, but only in order to change its speed. However, there is also a part where he can change the character of the program that unravels within him, meaning to determine how he will experience his development.

Through this part of the program he establishes his independence and has the opportunity to express himself. That is how he ascends as an independent individual who has power, who is integral, and who understands and attains the entire program of creation which was intended only for this purpose.

Therefore, the preparation for a forthcoming action changes its character from the beginning and until the very end. Everything depends on the preparation, which is why we attribute so much significance to it.

Now, in anticipation of the convention that will be held in New Jersey at a time that is so special for the whole world, it is extremely important for our preparation to be correct and later to bring good results from our unification at the convention.
Let powerful waves expand outward from this place near New York, the center of America, like a good tsunami wave that will wash the world with love and the force of bestowal. This will enable people to understand how they should start relating to one another in anticipation of the new world and the changes we will have to go through according to nature’s program.

This will help the world go through these changes gently, quickly, and in a good way, by preparing for them and realizing what is happening, instead of like animals that are being beaten and spurred forward by the whip of history and who don’t understand what to do.

Therefore, everything depends on our preparation for the convention so that by virtue of it we will prepare the world for the changes it will have to go through in any case. By preparing for them well, the world will be able to accept them correctly and to see that they are for the better.

During the next 10 days, in the last hours we have left before the convention, we have to perform great work. We have to see every moment as preparation for an extremely important event and discern how we want to go through these moments in order to obtain the expected result for ourselves and for the whole world.
From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/22/11, Preparation to the WE! Convention

Filed under: Conventions, Crisis, Daily Kabbalah Lesson, Free Will, World - No Comments →