Question: How can one never lose confidence in attaining the goal?

Answer: It is necessary to receive confidence from the group. Confidence is an illumination from the Ohr Makif (Surrounding Light) from Above that, like all Ohrot (Lights), reaches a person via the environment.

The group must give you a feeling of confidence even before you feel the Light, even though it could be that the friends don’t have it themselves. But each one must connect and integrate with the others and show them that he is full of confidence. Indeed this is false, since none of them have confidence! But you must influence each other by showing that you do have confidence.

Basically, this is psychology, and you are in a psychological environment, so the group can successfully bestow complete confidence to you. You see that the friends are relaxed, so you are also relaxed. But you will feel this confidence only to the degree that you invest in them.

This confidence must be creative in building confidence about the rightness and justice of the way, the ability to attain the goal, and not that it is possible to do nothing and everything will come by itself. We need confidence so that if we do everything possible, we will surely attain the goal, instead of being relaxed and feel that everything will be okay without our efforts. This is not confidence but destruction and death.

Question: How do I remain confident when I come to a group thinking about my material problems all the time?

Answer: So would you want to erase the problems or have the confidence that you need to overcome them, rise above them, and go towards the Creator through connection with the group? This is not so that you would get rid of all problems this way, but so that problems will not disengage you from the way and from the goal. Otherwise you will start to ask the Creator to take away all the disturbances because you don’t want to advance.

Question: But this is my nature!

Answer: Certainly it’s your nature, but do you want to be above it? You have a choice to think about all your problems as an unjust punishment that you want to remove, or that you want to rise above the problems and go ahead by rising above them. Your free choice is found between this and that.
[135868]
From the 2^nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/25/14, Writings of Baal HaSulam

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Question: How does the group help a person see that the Creator manages the whole world?

Answer: We cannot advance if we don’t build a support system so that everyone gets immediate support when he falls. It is forbidden to harm others by giving them a descent. If someone goes around with a sour face, another loses his good mood when he looks at him, and so does a third. Ultimately this bad mood extends to the whole group.

It should become a habit, a custom, to have a smile on one’s face. If not a smile, then at least you should show interest, vigor, and the greatness of the goal. Everyone must act and portray this to others. You cannot show others that you are tired, not externally but mentally, or  that you are drained and have lost energy and faith.

I may be physically sick, but I never show everyone my descents and the disappointments that come until the end of correction. They are not as they are with beginners; rather, the higher the level, the stronger they are. But in no way should one show this.

It is not allowed to have a bad mood or show despondency in a group. The group, which is designed to support each one separately and everyone together, thanks to a good connection, suddenly begins to operate in a completely opposite manner. This is very dangerous and eliminates many previous attainments. We must be very careful about this.
[135580]
From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/21/14, Writings of Rabash

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Psalm 97: The Lord has reigned, the earth will exult; many islands will rejoice. Cloud and thick darkness are around Him; righteousness and judgment are the foundations of His throne. Fire will go before Him and will burn His enemies all around. His lightnings illuminated the world; the earth saw and quaked…You who love the Lord, hate evil; He watches the souls of His pious ones, He rescues them from the hands of the wicked. A light is sown for the righteous, and for the upright of heart, joy. Rejoice, you righteous, with the Lord, and give thanks to His holy name.

In each and every line we notice how King David reveals the Creator more and unites with Him, feeling an increasingly deeper and more internal connection with the Upper.

This is usually attained by the rule You who love the Lord, hate evil to the extent that a person clarifies his egoistic desires and wants to leave evil and thinking about himself, which is possible only by incorporation and adhesion to the group where the Light that Reforms operates on him and helps him advance.

He begins to love the Creator to the extent that he hates evil, He watches the souls of His pious ones, He rescues them from the hands of the wicked. If a person keeps away from evil, he is guarded from Above. His constant efforts to be in thought, in adhesion, with the Upper Force in a request, awakens the Light that Reforms and he receives correction.

Hatred towards evil helps a person ascend from it. He doesn’t need anything but this feeling of hatred, because the evil, the desire to receive, remains. The evil has to accumulate in order to discover the love, the connection, above it.

A person who understands the basics of the creation correctly doesn’t wait for the evil to disappear and for everything to be rosy and bright. These two forces exist one opposite the other and are equal in their power, while a person between them determines which of them is more important: Is holiness more important than the Klipa (shell) or is the Klipa more important than holiness?

This decision constantly changes, moving like a pointer on a balance scale. Thus a person clarifies this balance each time and establishes his middle line, between the two forces, above them, by including the two.

He justifies the creation by including the good and the evil inside him and justifies both, as it is written: A light is sown for the righteous, and for the upright in heart, joy. Honesty and truth is the middle line, by which he attains joy by delighting the Creator.

It is because he determines that everything that was created by the Creator is only for the benefit of man, if used correctly, and has to be aimed at the benefit of the Creator. Thus he reaches adhesion: Rejoice, you righteous, with the Lord, and give thanks to His holy name.
[135460]
From the Preparation for Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/20/14

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It is impossible to direct myself towards the Creator alone because I am compelled to go out of my ego. And so I must be connected with other people. It is desirable that we have ten people.

If we unite together to find the Creator, then we begin to see that only through the disengagement of each one from himself and disappearance into our connection can we abandon our old vision and focus on the Creator. This is like stereo pictures that look like a chaotic drawing with lots of lines. But if we look at this picture with unfocused eyes, then we begin to see all kinds of images in the depth of the picture.

That is also how we need to disengage from our egoistic view of the world, which is typical of everyone’e nature. In this vision, we lock ourselves artificially in a very limited world, and to leave it, we need to open our senses.

This is possible only by creating a new focus. It is necessary to see the world, not with our egoistic eyes, but with the eyes of the group, and then a new focus appears in all directions. Thus we enter, not a three-dimensional world, but a world of infinite dimensions, where in every direction and passes some plane coordinate axes. If I want to advance correctly, first of all I need to act through the group. There is no other mechanism for nullifying the focus of my vision and directing it spiritually. Only through the group can I try to feel something spiritual.

If I feel the world through the group, this is a sign that I have focused on the spiritual world, similar to the efforts to see the stereo picture. The main thing is to discern that everything comes from the Creator to teach me to understand Him. The world is His language with which He speaks to me.

Someone screams at me and there’s a set of events that takes place at every moment, while I must try to understand what the Creator wants it to tell me, what kind of reaction is required from me towards Him.

This means that first of all I must understand that this comes from Him. After that, I decide how I must react to what is happening. The reaction must be such that through what the Creator said to me and my desire to answer Him from within, between us we become closer, meaning that I understood Him and I did what He expected from me.

And then with everyone, I will behave exactly in this form: with the children, in the family, with people near and far. The clarification of my attitude towards the Creator, the reception of information from Him and responding to it, is called intention. And after that there can be action. We must be involved with this at every moment in our lives.
[135420]
From the Convention In France “One For All And All For One,” Day Two 5/10/14, Lesson 4

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Baal HaSulam, Shamati #1 “There is None Else Besides Him”: It is written, “there is none else besides Him.” This means that there is no other force in the world that has the ability to do anything against Him. And what man sees, that there are things in the world that deny the Higher Household, the solitary source, the reason is that this is His will.

The Creator wants to give us the feeling that supposedly there are other forces and sources of influence existing in the world: the person himself and many other people.

And it is deemed a correction, called the left rejects and the right adducts, two forms of higher supervision for teaching a person. Meaning that which the left rejects is considered correction. This means that there are things in the world, which, to begin with, aim to divert a person from the right way, and by which he is rejected from Sanctity, from connection with the Creator.

And the benefit from the rejections is that through them a person receives a need and a complete desire for the Creator to help him, because he sees that by himself he cannot hold the right picture of reality. Since he sees that otherwise he is lost, it will be gone, he is lost in this world.

Not only does he not progress in his work, but he sees that he regresses. It constantly becomes more and more difficult for us to keep the connection with the Creator. And so many abandon this way; they think that they may not be suitable for it or that the way itself is not right and leads to an unattainable goal.

We don’t understand that the difficulties are given to us intentionally. It is good that we don’t succeed! For then we feel a need for the Creator and begin to approach Him, and don’t just cleverly overcome some kind of task. The Creator intentionally gives us more and more difficult tasks that cannot be carried out so that we will ask for His help; we will want to approach Him and not struggle with the difficulties by ourselves.

Before we were able to adhere to the Creator, we try to understand and feel what is happening in life. In the beginning everyone burns with excitement and is full of energy. But after this, we gradually cool off and begin to see that it is not easy. And the main thing is to understand at the same time that this is a natural process.

We don’t advance egoistically from one success to a greater success. Specifically the lack of success in perceiving reality, in understanding the world, is a good sign. It shows that we see how much we are not ready to get along by ourselves and we need the help of the Creator.

The main thing here is not to flee but to continue to advance. If a person doesn’t judge what is happening according to his earthly intellect but perceives correctly, then he understands that disappointment, despair, confusion, and lack of success are sent by a higher power, that there is none else besides Him. Then he comes to the decision that no one can help him but the Creator Himself. This causes him to make a heartfelt demand that the Creator will open his eyes and heart, and truly bring him nearer to eternal adhesion with God.

This means that he demands to approach and adhere to the higher power itself and not the solution to his material problems. He doesn’t want to change and understand the world; rather, he wants to connect with the Creator through it. It thus follows, that all the rejections he had experienced had come from the Creator. This means that it was not because he was at fault.

Precisely because the Creator doesn’t give the possibility of advancing, apparently confuses, rejects, and creates disturbances, He presents help to a person by showing him his deficiencies in his present state by sending him thoughts and arguments that are against spiritual work. And this is all so that the person will see that what he lacks is union with the Creator, and not prosperity in this world.

And as much as he overcomes, he always sees how he is farther from holiness than others. He looks at the friends and sees that they all seemingly advance, while he doesn’t. But he, on the other hand, always has complaints and demands, and he cannot justify the Creator’s behavior, and how He behaves toward him. This pains him. Why is he not one with the Creator? Finally, he comes to feel that he has no part in holiness whatsoever… However, this is what causes him to come to realize that only God can help and really bring him closer.
[134781]
From the Convention In France “One For All And All For One,” Day Two 5/10/14, Lesson 2

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The state of Lo Lishma isn’t just an ordinary corporeal ego. Being in a state of Lo Lishma (not for Her sake) means that I try to be in a state of Lishma (for Her sake) and to perform actions of bestowal, and to discover time after time that I still perform them for my own benefit.

The time during which I make efforts in order to ascend above my ego and to reach an action of bestowal but am still unable to do so is called the period of Lo Lishma.

Question: Perhaps one time isn’t enough in order to invert my nature from Lo Lishma to Lishma.

Answer: Of course it doesn’t happen all at once. There are 125 levels and each of them is divided into many more states. Baal HaSulam says that we don’t understand how great the state of Lo Lishma is. It is even much greater than we can imagine and think that the state of Lishma is.

It is because the real state of Lo Lishma means that I do my best to perform an action of bestowal, with all my might, but eventually I discover that I still act as a result of the desire to receive, in order to receive an egoistic profit.

Question: Is there a certain structure or an environment where one can enter in order to perform the necessary inversion?

Answer: Yes, this is the role of the group.
[135726]
From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/23/14, Shamati #8

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Question: Why did the Creator choose one nation for a special mission, and is this choice related to religion?

Answer: The true religion is to love your friend as thyself. This is the rule that Abraham publicized in ancient Babylon, and he gathered the people around him according to this rule into a group called Israel, which means Yashar El (straight to the Creator).

Only some of the people of Babylon followed Abraham; those who had greater vessels of bestowal. All the others had vessels of receiving. This was intentional so that they would have a chance to help one another.

First the vessels of bestowal are corrected so that they can ascend to a spiritual level. When Abraham collected them, they had nothing. So first they had to go through the hardening of the heart called Egypt, that is, they don’t ascend but rather descend.

After the exodus from Babylon, they go down to Egypt, then come out of Egypt and ascend to the receiving of the Torah. They then cross the desert, build the first Temple, and fall. They ascend again to the height of the second Temple and go through another descent to the corporeal level. This is in order to be mutually incorporated with the nations of the world and get ready for the end of the correction of the world.

The whole process, starting with the exodus from Babylon and everything that follows, is in order to reach greater connection. This is what Abraham taught. The moment they started to connect, they felt that they were in a greater and greater descent.

The Light that shone on them made it possible for them to descend more and more deeply into their ego and to see that they were far from bestowal, from the Light. Therefore, they felt the gap, the delta between the state of the exile in Egypt and the level they were on when they left Babylon, and they would have remained on that level if it weren’t for the Light. This is the gap between the Light and our ego.
[135413]
From the 5^th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/19/14, Writings of Baal HaSulam

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Question: We disseminate integral education and the idea of mutual guarantee to the public so that they will have a better life. But we don’t demonstrate this ourselves. Don’t we need to be an example of a society that lives according to the laws of mutual guarantee? Isn’t that one of the stages along the way? It seems that we are disorganized and are not suitable for this goal.

Answer: We cannot serve as a role model because we are different, we have different values than the public. If I have a job, running water, a table, and a bed, I don’t need anything else in order to follow the spiritual path.

On the other hand, the public may need a two or three-story house, a lawn, several cars parked by the house, and a swimming pool, etc. Every person has his measure according to which he can fulfill his mission in life. It turns out that we cannot be a role model for them because we live differently and have different values.

But we want to improve their lives according to their values. We don’t force anyone to get up at night and come to the lessons and participate in the life in the group. On the contrary: “Live your life as you please, the way you are used to, we will only work together on removing the problems and on how to arrange your life in a better way, according to your idea.”

Don’t go on any diets and don’t deny yourself anything for a better future. On the contrary, we bring the Light into the ordinary frameworks of your lives.

We cannot and will never be a role model for others. We dedicate our life to other goals and don’t live them the way those around us would.
[135162]
From the 5^th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/16/14, Writings of Baal HaSulam

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Question: If a person loses his wallet with all his money and documents in it, it is only a corporeal problem and he has to order another ID according to this world’s laws. Internally I try to remember that there is none else besides Him and that it comes from the same force, but how is that related to the work with the group, so everything will go through it? How does my lost wallet relate to the center of the group and my connection with the friends?

Answer: I try to constantly be in the center of the group, with the environment and with the whole world, and I try to bring everything that happens to me in my corporeal life through the center of the group where I am internally together with the Creator. Eventually, I also begin to see spirituality in all these corporeal actions.

I see that in all the corporeal actions I actually encounter angels, which means forces, that help me in different ways: they oblige me to lose a wallet or to find it, etc. I see and understand that all these actions direct me to something else, to something new. Thanks to the lost wallet I reach certain people, talk to them, and perform different actions with them, and perhaps establish connections with them that are actually a great correction that I had to make.

If I constantly adhere to the right intention doing whatever is necessary in this case, which is “not to be condemned and not to be praised,” it is a necessity and I am obliged to fulfill it in every corporeal action, and by that I raise all my corporeal actions to holiness. Then I see that these aren’t corporeal actions at all. I perform them with my hands and my feet, but who has managed my hands and my feet? The spiritual force!

Did I do it by myself? No. First I thought that I performed the actions, but it turns out that the Creator performed them. In such an adhesion, I disappear on the one hand, but on the other hand, it is the outcome of all my efforts.
[135149]
From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/15/14, Writings of Baal HaSulam

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Psalm 95:1-2: “O come, let us sing unto the LORD; let us shout for joy to the Rock of our salvation.

Let us come before His presence with thanksgiving, let us shout for joy unto Him with psalms.”

In each and every generation, meaning in each and every state, it is necessary to get up again, to take heart and to continue advancing towards the higher power. Despite the despair that is felt in the receiving Kelim, we must discover in our correction, in the power of bestowal, that the Creator is good and benevolent.

And the moment we advance on the left, which in the meantime is called heaviness of heart by us, we feel bad and immediately sink into this feeling. Instead we must rise above it specifically thanks to this unpleasant emotion in the desire to receive, the lack of elevation, the lack of spirit, the lack of energy and importance of the goal.

But instead, we fall under the control of despair, fatigue, and concealment, and we submit to this enemy, our desire to receive. It weakens, subdues, and topples us so that we are not ready to move out from this place and are humiliated. Here we must get up, as King David says in this Psalm. King David is Malchut that rises up solely and only because it gathers all of its parts.

So we must organize an environment for ourselves that will support us during a time of weakness, just as we buy an insurance plan in case of some damage that we cannot cover by ourselves.

There could suddenly be an auto accident and I would need to pay $10,000 for auto repairs. Where will I get this sum? But if all of us together gather $30 a month, because an accident like this doesn’t happen to everyone, then we would have money to pay for the repair if something like this happens to one of us.

The same thing is also relevant to spiritual advancement. And we have not just the fact that we collected from all the friends in the group. Everyone falls during his particular time, so it is not merely the total accumulated by the friends, but much more. For at that moment, this is gathered and strengthened.

But we don’t use this; on the contrary, we bring each other down. When we see that a friend is weakened, we must elevate him, as King David writes: “O come, let us sing unto the LORD; let us shout for joy to the Rock of our salvation”. The ascent begins from this.

But if a reservoir of forces is not prepared in a group, it has no chance of advancing by the way of “I will hasten it” (Achishena).
[135512]
From the preparation for Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/21/14

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