Question: Every day we bring our desire to the morning lesson and especially during the study of The Zohar. How can we gather and raise our demand, our request to the Creator, during the lesson so as not to concentrate on the picture described but to see above it?

Answer: Of course, we shouldn’t concentrate on the pictures that are described, but  should come to the lesson with the impressions that we accumulated during the day:

• To what extent have I managed to overcome my clinging to my rigid perception by thinking that I bestow unto people and that they bestow unto me;
• To what extent have I tried to feel the Creator in all that, and that everything stems from Him;
• To what extent have I tried to see only the positive side in everything so that I can advance spiritually, despite different negative feelings, impatience, disruptions, and anger;
• To what extent have I tried to direct everything to the importance of the connection with the group in order to find the connection with the Creator.

I have to bring all the impressions and the experiences that I accumulate to the meeting with the group and during the lesson try to focus all my efforts on the unity with the Creator through the friends, which means to feel the spiritual body that is among us between me and the friends.

If I have not accumulated negative potential, I have nothing to bring to the lesson. I need to come to the lesson like to a special event in which I correct what I couldn’t do by myself without the connection with the friends without opening The Book of Zohar with them and receive through it the Light that glues and welds us together.

It is because I have tried to do it without the physical connection with the friends, without reading The Zohar together with them, but I did not succeed! Or I might have succeeded a little, but only to learn that I still lack their participation and so I have to come to the lessons. I come not because I am forced to and am obliged to, but because I yearn to do so. I have prepared myself for it.

It may seem that I speak about some ideal state, but we have to aspire to that. Of course if I come to the lesson like that, I will expect a lot from it; I will tremble and be afraid to miss this opportunity. This is what we have to attain and we can do that only in the form of a virus, by infecting one another by it. If this is the spirit among the friends, a person will see how everything works out for him and he how succeeds in everything he does.
[141352]
From the Talk at a Meal at the Toronto Congress, 4/8/14

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Question: We have done great external and internal work in dissemination. What do we lack in the group in order to reach greater unity between us so that we will be able to reveal the Creator?

Answer: There is one word that replaces absolutely everything: prayer. I rarely speak about it because prayer should burst out by itself.

It is the feeling that you are totally dependent on the Creator and that He is the only one who manages you: whatever you think and feel, whatever you ask for and receive, everything except for the one point of turning to Him, although that also comes from Him—when you thus connect to Him and still want to do something external to Him in accordance to what He does for you—this is called a prayer.

This should be our common state because then it will focus on Him. But it comes from each of us separately and it is focused on the opposite direction. This is the point of recognition that you cannot go out of your way and with that you turn to the Creator so that He will unite all our points together, melt them and connect them into one drop.

I hope that we will recognize and understand that we need this prayer.

The force that destroyed us on purpose and has created all the conditions for the recognition of the oppositeness from the Creator is also the force that will correct this state of oppositeness and will give us a sense of the Creator.
[141363]
From the talk at a meal at the Toronto Congress, 8/4/14

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Question: What is to be done if we feel that we don’t have the strength to advance and the group seems dead?

Answer: I have heard this question from all the groups not just once. Today most of our friends feel exhausted and ask themselves: “What is there to do?”

This is a very good state. (Ecclesiastes 7:20) “For there is not a righteous man upon earth that doeth good and sinneth not.” And the more that he descends and ascends, the more he becomes a greater Tzadik (righteous man), meaning that he justifies the Creator after he descends.

If we wouldn’t have a great and serious descent, then we couldn’t go on, and when we begin to leave the descent, only after that do we understand that this was the Creator; He did this with us. So a state of weakness, stupidity, blurring, disappearance of mental and emotional sharpness, this is a compulsory transitory process from one level to another. You will feel how you are completely detached from the world and what is left of you is only some kind of amorphous mass like a jellyfish.

The idea is that the spiritual transition from one state to another takes place according to all four phases of development. So when a person passes through them, it is as if he died and was reborn.

The same thing happens with individual groups and the entire world group. Once there it is realized in waves: here more, there less, and this mutual compensation smooths these states. So, ultimately, mutual connection brings permanence.

We must get used to this. First of all, you must use the fact that those other parts of our spiritual Kli, the other groups, are in ascent, in sharp sensations and impressions.

Try to connect to them, as the weak connects with the strong in spirit and knowledge. I rely on them even though I don’t know anything, don’t understand anything, but they attract me, I get something from them at least, and a feeling is created with me that I have at least warmed up a little.

You can’t imagine what else will be. We must learn to survive, and you will learn this. Incidentally, the prophets talked about this  a lot. They described all the problems that appeared during the forty years of wandering in the wilderness. We must pass through all of this.

So the state when the group is weak, detached, conscious of his own impotence, the inability to do anything, this is a state of spiritual transition. This transitional point is given to us intentionally so that even in a state of “death” we will try to connect ourselves to something spiritual.

Together with this, it is necessary to try to do everything possible, do anything, disseminate, do mechanical work: wash the floors or dishes in the center. What it is doesn’t matter. This will take you forward.

And the main thing is to try to find a connection with other groups. This is most useful.

The more you succeed in carrying out more spiritual actions with the help of the others, the better it is, for this has been given intentionally in order for connection. A little child always grows thanks to his connection to his mother or family.
[141338]
From the Talk at a meal at the Toronto Convention, 4/8/14

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Question: When we conduct workshops in the community we feel that something is happening here. But our efforts don’t depend on us; the Creator is doing absolutely everything. What is happening? Why does it descend to us like a gift?

Answer: I cannot tell you what is happening. Later on you will understand yourself how it works.

Of course the upper force is doing all of this. It manages, determines, and governs us, especially when we desire to be in some unison with it.

If I become similar to it even by a tiny bit, I generate some small wave that becomes empowered by huge upper force and it creates big amplitude. Thus we advance and become surprised when suddenly everything happens. In reality, a resonance is created according to the effect of the similarity of properties.
[141233]
From Lesson 5 of the Convention In Sochi “Day Two” 7/14/14

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Question: Can friends who have acquired experience in conducting integral circles in Sochi create an “aquarium” in their places?

Answer: If they are a few people and they truly perceive what is happening here correctly and not what they imagine, then maybe they can. There is a big difference between what there is to be understood and what everyone perceives.

So, if they perceive everything correctly and can take the image of conveying integral circles with them and correctly creating it anew in their areas—creating a similar situation, a Kli—then, certainly, this would be wonderful.

I would recommend thinking about the future, but not about the big, international conventions where thousands of people are present, but rather about small “aquarium” in which people with the same language, the same culture, the same mentality gather who can connect quickly and correctly between them, and create a spiritual Kli.

So, suppose that one Kli is created here, another Kli there, and so forth—a third Kli, a fourth—and all of them share mutually between them, but each one, in spite of it all, is different with regard to its mentality. We see that this is the way it happens: Eastern Europe is not Western Europe. Russia, Kazakhstan, Belorussia, Ukraine, this is not Israel and South America, and this is certainly not the United States and Canada.

Ultimately, regional “aquariums” will be created, groups who very seriously will begin to work on unification and internal consolidation, and this will be a true convention. In addition, when people gather for three days, but without serious depth, then it is necessary to acknowledge that this doesn’t provide the desired effect.
[141203]
From lesson 5 of the Convention In Sochi “Day Two” 7/14/14

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Question: When we sat in circles, the question about the love of friends came up. Since it was a mixed circle, a number of friends said that the issue of the love of friends is very important, but they don’t understand how to do it in a mixed circle.

Answer: Do you think that the meaning of love is sex? What does it have to do with love for a woman or a man? It has nothing to do with it!

In our world, everything is distorted, and the concept of love means taking advantage of one’s partner just like eating fish, which means that we use it in order to eat it. So, when I say that I love a woman, it means that I use her and enjoy her just like I enjoy fish. Is this the kind of love that you mean?

Love is a feeling that awakens in the mutual spiritual adhesion where the feeling of the Creator is revealed. We have no such feeling! The Creator is the upper force that is revealed in us, and it is called love.

In corporeality, the contact between a man and a woman is nothing more than hormones, genes, and habit. What does that have to do with love? After all, we are adults and we understand it. Everything that happens on the still, vegetative, and animate levels of nature is only a habit, especially if there are common children. This isn’t love!

Throughout human history, people never married for love. It is only in our days that everything became distorted. In the past, no one even spoke about whether he loves her and she loves him. The parents would find the right match according to their social status, mentality, and education, and then they would send the matchmakers. This is how people used to marry, and it was the same in every culture and every people!

Royalty usually used to marry for political reasons. It wasn’t about physical attraction at all. Couples were matched from the same village, or the same status, the same circle. Therefore, what we call love today is a modern distortion.

Love is the feeling of the Creator! This special attribute occurs at the connection of our souls, the mutual incorporation, and they complement each other, helping each other.

Love is made of three components: “I,” the egoistic created being that is opposite from me (whether a man or a woman), and the Creator that is revealed between us. As it is written, “Love thy neighbor as thyself,” and, if it says in the Torah that Jacob loved her, for example, it refers to the connection between Zeir Anpin and Malchut.

Therefore, we should distinguish between physical attraction and true love. Then, everything would be much simpler.
[141199]
From lesson 5 of the Convention In Sochi “Day Two” 7/14/14

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Question: With us, it is customary that the men’s group works separately on love toward friends, and the women’s group conducts its own work. If love of friends relates both to women and men, in what way do we do this work?

Must there be separate circles for men and women or can they be mixed and these subjects be discussed?

Answer: What exactly do you want to talk about? Is it about unity, about love of friends?

If I love a friend, I don’t pay attention to his outer appearance. His yearning for the goal is what is important to me, his connection with the Creator. In this case, some kind of unisex appears before me, not a man and not a woman, but something yearning for the Creator, and that’s it!

I understand that the physical appearance of a woman before a man disturbs him a lot. For a woman, it is less; for a man, it is more. In this case, it is necessary to separate the circles. There is nothing else to be done. We still have not reached the desired correction or the required power of yearning forward. The Creator, in the meantime, is less important for me than this physiological being that is shining in front of me. I cannot elevate it higher within me than her physiological body.

What is there to do? In a case like this, the women need to be distant from the men to help them so that nothing will distract them from work between them. However, in the future, we will look at each other as follows: a physiology, we need children, so we mate with each other (excuse me for talking this way), whereas, in love for the Creator, we are emotionally connected. This means that we separate the beastly level from the human level and exist on two levels.

Question: Which subjects are better to discuss in separate circles and which in mixed circles?

Answer: About love for friends and everything that is related to mutual closeness, it is better, in the meantime, to discuss separately, and all the rest that touches upon work with the external public—the understanding of particular articles, various subjects that don’t belong to love, to unification, and to mutual closeness—it is possible to discuss together.

It is even possible to discuss the greatness of the goal together. For men, it might be seen that it is not serious to talk with a woman about the greatness of the goal. However, it is necessary to get used to it gradually. This is because, ultimately, as we move forward, you will see how much a woman can stimulate and inspire a man to attain the Creator, to give an undetectable push, to remind, or even to show him how much she is faithful to this in comparison to men so that he would be ashamed.

I know this for myself. Very often, I have gotten from my wife, seemingly offhandly, very valuable advice. I don’t know if she understands exactly what she is saying, but the Creator speaks with me through her.
[141193]
From lesson 5 of the Convention In Sochi “Day Two” 7/14/14

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At the upcoming convention in Saint Petersburg, every nation must show and demonstrate what it has attained rapprochement within it, between its groups, and its members.

This is required to stimulate and inspire each other, to show an example to each other, to consult with each other, to share their capabilities and attainments and to push each other towards even greater inner unity in every nation, in every region. It could be that we will even begin with some kind of shared unification between us, even though this is not yet seen clearly inside. It could be in another year or perhaps two years.

In the meantime we don’t feel a need for unification. And if there is no pressing need for this, then nothing can be done. When you will more or less find your regional capabilities, suddenly the feeling will appear with you: “For the puzzle I am assembling, I need the European group, but it doesn’t exist! Where is it?! I cannot do without it.”

When you feel that you require this, then you will begin to pressure them and they will feel this from you. Today, in the meantime, all of the activities are realized artificially.

The Europeans have not reached the European convention because they don’t feel the necessity in this.

The discovery of the Creator through unity must be a permanently close distant goal for everyone. You cannot place other goals before you. You will become confused! After all, your attempts and efforts will not be a realistic solution.
[141188]
From lesson 5 of the Convention In Sochi “Day Two” 7/14/14

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Question: What is the role of the Americans in the general correction, and how is it possible to realize this role in this present series of conventions?

Answer: The role of the Americans in the general correction is very great. According to the higher plan, America grew and became a nation that has become most influential in the world, even negatively, and we hope that someday it will be positive.

Hence we need to understand that there is an opportunity from above in the hands of all of our American friends. It is the invitation to give a good example of unification to the world.

After all, our world is deteriorating rapidly into a dangerous stage, in fact, toward all-out war. So, our American groups should carefully think about what is happening and try to prevent the threat.

It is no coincidence that America is opposite to the state of unification. It has attained great success in elevating private interests and cultivating individualism. So, now, on the contrary, the Americans must stand against this, rising to a level of unification.

As a result of this, all of our American groups must unite within each of them and between them. They must become a unified American group, and, even within it, they must continue the dynamics of the various parts between them, sometimes creating tense relationships with all that is derived from this, and even when the power of separation flares up between them. However, above it, they will be ready to activate the power of unity.

Together with their opposition to unity—to friendship, to the good force, to love—America must give an example of connection. Very important work has been imposed on the part of the American world Kli. All of us hope that our friends in America, and, first of all, in the United States, understand this. They must understand that our whole world Kli requires this of them.

If they will act in the right way, then they will influence all of the American people and, through it, the entire world, by giving it the right direction.

So, our convention in America is so important. It truly can change the fate of the world if only our American groups will understand that it depends upon them.
[140975]
From lesson 2 of the Convention In Toronto “Day Two” 8/06/14

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Question: You gave a task that the women shouldn’t gossip or slander. There was half a day of excellent relationships between us, and after that, various kinds of interpretations and evaluations began, and ultimately, everything was broken. How do we rise above this?

Answer: You must understand that the Creator wants to raise you to the next level and arranges situations like this for you so that you will work on it.

Question: What exactly can I do when I see that everything is falling apart, both inside and out?

Answer: Show an example of the opposite, which works on you positively, for everyone around you are ideal, and, in your ego, they only seem to you as imperfect. However, don’t let it turn and manage you. Rather, in spite of it all relate to them with absolute love.

Speak about this amongst you. In what way does the Creator work with you? How does He plays with you, and you are fools dragged around by the Creator. He shows you how weak you are in your unity in order to oppose participation in His exercises.

This is nothing more than an exercise. Unfortunately, you don’t perceive that everything comes from Him. What is the connection here to some woman who said something hostile about her friend? All of us are puppets on strings, robots. That is how you must perceive everything.

I must look at the group as an ideal collection of “gears” that the Creator manages ideally and I see that everything is imperfect so that I will be able to make this situation into an ideal one in my thoughts and feelings, and the next exercise also will be directed toward an even more ideal state.

That is how I constantly raise myself from this level. If you were to react correctly, then the changes in states would not happen after half a day, but in another hour, and afterward, every minute, and after that, every second. You would quickly complete the work of this system.

If a person doesn’t feel he is in front of the Creator and between them is this world—like a semi-transparent screen through which he constantly wants to see the Creator—if he doesn’t direct himself in this way, then he has no correct reaction to reality. He is immersed in a game with this screen on which are stuck all kinds of decorations, our entire lives, and everything that we imagine to ourselves, and we participate in this illusion.

However, if, through this falsehood, he constantly tries to see the Creator, who is deliberately arranging all of this for him, this already becomes a proposal to direct himself permanently toward the Upper Light.
[140707]
From the Convention In Sochi “Day Two” 7/14/14, Lesson 3

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