Question: What are the signs of success or of failure in the internal work, and what is its revelation in our sensations and in the external work?

Answer: We cannot say what is in our favor and what is not because, for the time being, we operate from our ego, wanting everything to work out exactly the way we want it to without any problems. It is a natural, egoistic urge.

However, we should understand that this is actually impossible. Only great problems, sufferings, interferences, and clarifications can push us out of the ego. All the questions that you ask me refer mainly to this state.

“Why do we have problems in the group, in the family? Why do we encounter different interferences when we begin to engage in dissemination, in integral education? We don’t know what to do!”

Of course, these questions come up because we must correct all this. They come up along the way. Do you see them as external obstacles? They are not external and not foreign, but they are your inner interferences that are revealed in  now.

However, you shouldn’t pay attention to them. You should work only on connection despite the influence of the impediments and external blows. You should leave them and engage in inner unity. This is the only way you will overcome them.

As for signs of success or failure in the internal work, if you yearn for connection and unity, despite the interruptions—or actually thanks to them—it is a sign of success. However, if you suddenly begin to draw away from one another, then there is nothing good about it.

You simply don’t understand how all this works. We must focus ourselves correctly so that you will feel interruptions all the time, in every direction, that you will be beaten by your new attributes and your feelings. It is impossible to manage without them because this is the matter that you must correct and above which you must constantly rise.

Suppose someone acts against you or says something that is not objective and is unpleasant; suppose someone wants to leave the group, or you have a personal feeling of descent, these are all the attributes above which you immediately must unite. Then, these attributes will be fulfilled in you and will become part of your corrected state. Then, when you add a few more such actions to this state, you already will be able to approach the Machsom (barrier).
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From the Talk about Group and Dissemination 10/21/13

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Question: Are the interferences in dissemination a sign of our correct advancement, and is the great enthusiasm we get after these actions a sign of success?

Answer: Your unity and connection above the obstacles is a sign of success. At the same time, you don’t have to regard them as obstacles, but as forces that must be corrected since these are your inner problems, which you see as external, and you relate to them incorrectly.

However, this doesn’t mean that you must forgive everyone for everything. You must work internally on the interferences that are revealed as you attempt to connect, while externally, you somehow must get rid of them. You shouldn’t kiss the hands of your enemies under any circumstances, thinking that they lead you to spirituality. On the level of this world, you must work exactly like everyone else. If, at the same time, you can get rid of the interferences that come up, then you should do. You shouldn’t let people think that they can take advantage of you. However, it all depends on the external conditions.

Besides, everything should be done gently so as not to stain the good reputation of the wisdom of Kabbalah. We must consider the circumstances each time and decide how to act in the best possible way. However, in any case, we must act in every possible way.

King David, for example, who wrote the book of Psalms, reigned for forty years and fought for forty years, but his war was both spiritual and physical.
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From the Talk about Group and Dissemination 10/21/13

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Question: What is envy in a group? How does one work with jealousy of friends?

Answer: This condition will continue for a  time, because jealousy, one of the main egoistic characteristics, is corrected over multiple levels. Therefore, it will not disappear quickly and you must work on it methodically.

But, specifically work on it and don’t kill it, don’t nullify it because thanks to jealousy, you advance. Envy is simultaneously both motivation and interference. It doesn’t let you rest and you have to use it properly.

If I am jealous, I strive forward, and if I move forward, I am grateful for this characteristic in me and for my friend for awakening the jealousy in me. Everything depends on how I make the attainment of the goal the most important thing. If jealousy helps me in attaining the goal, then why should I hate this characteristic? On the contrary, I need to welcome it. I am glad my friend awakens this characteristic in me. Otherwise, I would remain as undeveloped as before.

Question: Jealousy, like everything else in nature, has its pros and cons. I understand that the negative is reception and the positive  is bestowal.

Answer: The negative is when you want to destroy the jealousy, and the positive is when it can help you rise upward.

At the point when you are jealous, you must advance forward with the help of this envy: learn more, show more. If you don’t want to eliminate the person who invites the jealousy in you, but rather, thank him internally for developing this feeling in you, then you advance forward.

Question: How does a Kabbalist behave when he feels others’  jealousy toward him?

Answer: He tries to suppress the jealousy through love. Above all the negative revelation, he builds love, like a father for his child. Therefore, as it is written, “Love covers all transgressions,” and he takes the force to build this from connection in the group.

Question: In other words, when I feel hatred, I immediately yearn for the center of the group?

Answer: If you were in the center of the group, you would not feel hatred, but since you feel it, it is a sign that now a greater portion of ego is revealed in you up to burning hatred as with the students of Rabbi Shimon. It pushes you out from the center of the group, and you have to force the action on yourself, on the others, to again gather everyone together in the center.

If you feel burning envy, it is a sign that all of you lack love.
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From the Talk about Group and Dissemination 10/21/13

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Baal HaSulam, Shamati #56: …brought in Masechet Ta’anit (p.20), that Rabbi Elazar, son of Rabbi Shimon, came from a fenced tower from the house of his Rabbi. He was riding his donkey and strolling along the riverbank, feeling great joy. And his mind was crude, as he had been studying much Torah.

A person who was very ugly came by his way. He told him: “Hello Rabbi,” but he did not reply. He told him: “Vain, how ugly is that man, perhaps all your town’s men are as ugly as you?” He replied, “I do not know, but go and tell the craftsman who made me, How ugly is this vessel that you have made?” Because he knew that he himself had sinned, he descended from the donkey…

Because he saw that he had come into a state from which he could not ascend. For this reason Elijah appeared and told him, “go to the craftsman who made me.” In other words, since the Creator created you so ugly, He must have known that it is with these Kelim (vessels) that the goal can be achieved. So do not worry, go forward and succeed.

At the end of the matter, everything is gathered for work in a group, in our connection. In this connection we need to learn the inner Torah (the wisdom of Kabbalah), in order to summon the Light that Reforms to the place of connection. For we want this to exist in such a form that within it we already begin to discover and feel the Creator. We must attain a deficiency for this and give it shape both through work between us and from external Kelim also, through involvement with dissemination.

This is to say that it’s clear to us that there are three circles here. The outer circle is the world, which must improve its condition but is found to be severed from spirituality. After that is us, the conduit, the accommodator. We always want to be connected with the Creator and yearn for spirituality; that is, we want to be the bestowal part of creation. And the third component is the higher force, the Creator, our higher level, which is clothed within us and manifests this entire process.

If we are found in the right group, with the right study and the right intention, then to the degree that we advance, the Upper Light influences us, and we definitely feel ourselves (our characteristics) as more and more “ugly.” Even so, it’s necessary to continue to learn about these states, about all the feelings of our ugliness, each one of us separately and all of us together; to undergo descents, to endure our nothingness, to comprehend ourselves and everyone as complete nothings. But in regard to all of these emotions, the Light appears again and brings us to connection and to fulfillment. This is how we advance.

Therefore, Rabbi Elazar overcame it and continued on his way. And we must also do the same thing: overcome and go on.
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From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 11/14/13, Shamati #56 “Torah Is Called Indication”

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Question: No matter what I do, I feel that there is a wall between the friends and me, but I don’t have the power or the desire to destroy it. We cannot connect during the study because we lack connection with the teacher.

Answer: It doesn’t matter; you still have to act. Or do you want more suffering? If you are pressured strongly, you will feel that only the friends can save you, and you will immediately run to them, break the inner emotional wall that separates you from them, and want to connect totally with them, at least because you want to get rid of your problems of the pain, the fear and the worry from something that simply drives you crazy.

So, do you want such suffering? You feel that if it weren’t for them, you would never be able to shatter the wall between you and the friends. Don’t slander yourself. It is better that you act.

Others must help you feel what a friend is. On the one hand, they must show great love between them to show you that you are not part of that, so that you will feel great envy, “What is happening to me? Why am I not with everyone?” On the other hand, they should show you that they are a bit distant from you and show you some disrespect as if you are not part of them anymore so that you will feel some rejection. They should start shaking you a bit.

Question: There is a special modesty in our group.

Answer: It isn’t modesty! It is laziness! How is modesty expressed if I don’t help the friend?

I have to wake up, nag, and tease him, but to a limit, skillfully. Otherwise, how will I help him? Rabash says that we must show one another the importance of the goal. If I show the others that the goal is everything for me, then there is nothing but that! What else is there in life? What else is there in the world?

At the same time, when he looks at me, he will begin to envy me at first. Secondly, he may even hate me to some degree (depending on the level of correction he is on), and he also may thank me for showing it to him. In any case, he doesn’t remain indifferent anymore. This is how we continue to operate.
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From the Talk about Group and Dissemination 10/21/13

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Nothing can be changed in this world except our perception of the world. The world doesn’t change, but a person seeing himself inside it from a different angle, and the entire world appears completely different: positive, full of light, happiness, and absolute good.

Today our world looks defective, uncomfortable, uncertain and full of challenges and threats only because of our level of vision.

The only thing that really matters is our belonging to the group, including ourselves in it to the extent that there is nothing left of us, constantly submitting to its influence. It takes many years to convince ourselves that it is true; it takes a while before small portions of the Light begin influencing us. At the same time, it all depends solely on us.

We have to continue our efforts to connect at congresses and at the meetings of friends, seeing how we were before the meeting and how we’ve changed after it, as I was included in what the friends became. How can I do so, so that we can make a potential leap that will raise me to the next level and will allow us to see the world in the Light of the Creator, and then it will be absolute?

There is nothing we can change except our vision of the world, because the only thing that can be corrected is our vessels, Kelim, our bodies of sensation, and the world remains the same, the world of Infinity; we float only in it. Therefore, the only thing that we have to change is our perception of the world.

I would like you to feel the difference in the fulfillment that is a billion times stronger than the one we receive out of the best material states. In fact, it is the truth; it is not just another way to run away from numerous problems. All troubles and obstacles, everything that ever happens to us both internally and externally, will turn into the absolute Light. We will eventually achieve this state.

Again, I thank the entire world group for supporting this convention and particularly I would like to express my warmest gratitude to the central Israeli group that carries out a huge, dedicated work in the dissemination of our knowledge.

It’s not exactly the disclosure Kabbalah, but rather, a collective work that promotes human enlightenment in extremely complicated, critical conditions that are sent to us by the Creator. The Creator plays games with us by arranging extreme situations so that we go by “faith above reason” and advance with our eyes closed, above our calculations. This is what our Israeli group does. I am extremely grateful to the entire world group for their support. Thank you all.
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From the Bulgaria Convention “Dawn Of A New World” Day One 11/1/13, Lesson 2

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Question: How must we relate to pride?

Answer: What is bad about this characteristic? I must be proud. It is said: (Chronicles II 17:6) “And his heart was uplifted in the ways of the Lord.” This is to say, I am proud that I belong to the higher level of humanity which is created by the Upper Light, the part that the Creator wants to elevate. This is the next level of elevation, the highest of all of humanity, and it must enter into contact with the Creator now.

I want this, I am proud that I am on this level together with my friends. Why not? There must be the proper kind of pride, not the pride where you despise others, but rather, where you become the conduit of the Upper Light for all of humanity and begin to be concerned about them like the higher with respect to the lower. You are concerned about it with love, and this is a higher pride of a completely different type, like a father regarding to his children.

Question: But on the other hand, pride leads the person to isolation, to seclusion.

Answer: It depends on what kind of pride you are talking about. I am talking about the good kind of pride. Now choose which one of them you are fin, ask that only a good pride should remain in you.
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From the Talk about Group and Dissemination 10/21/13

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Question: You constantly use the word “unity.” What is this unity? Is it what the Nazis had?

Answer: We are talking about unity above our egoism.

We are all egoists. Egoism is my nature; there is nothing else. Hence, unity above it must be built in the direction of a completely different area where we become united as a single “we.”

What is meant by “we”? If each unites with their egoism against someone else, then it is fascism. If we unite above everyone’s individual egoism for the sake of everyone and for the sake of the Creator, then it is altruism. That is all.

In our unity, in “we,” I do not see any opponents except my personal egoistic properties. Every person in the end must analyze and reveal this himself.
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From the Talk about Group and Dissemination 10/21/13

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Question: What does it mean to “take everything through the group?” Is it to tell the group about all one’s problems?

Answer: To take everything through the group does not mean that you must tell it everything, although, of course, this principle is partially realized in this way. However, the most important thing is to feel that you are uniting with friends.

This is an internal movement. You hear them, talk to them, and sit with them, all the time trying to “enter” them, to be with them as one whole, up to the point that you start feeling how you begin to enter the upper world through them.

A feeling of the group begins with a simple physical feeling of the friends’ presence. The next stage is a kind of feeling of community.

Then, perhaps, a feeling of dependence emerges. Next comes a feeling of connection and love.

Thus, gradually, inside of this, a new entity, which we are, begins to show, and, inside  this “we,” the Creator begins to be felt. However, this “we” does not relate to anyone. It is not the sum of us, but one collective whole.

Similarly, a large drop of water is not the sum of all the previous drops from which it was formed because it is a drop by itself. If, for example, twenty droplets merge into one drop, then there are no divisions in it. It is not the sum of the previous drops, but one common whole including all of them. We have to come to this.

As soon as we gather ourselves in the first drop in which there are no divisions, the Creator will be manifested in it immediately. And if we are somehow divided in it, we cannot merge in a single drop; this means that there are the remnants of our breaking, and then the Creator cannot be revealed. This is how it works.
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From the Talk about Group and Dissemination 10/21/13

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Question: Today the united Americas integral convention begins. There will be more than 500 new students participating, students of the Education Center who will be joining different groups from North America to South America. For many it will be their first encounter with the right environment; how should we receive them correctly?

Answer: We must rise above the differences of this world; ignore them. We have a spiritual point that we should reach, it is exactly what we need to depend on it, so let’s take a leap above this world, leave and forget all our daily activities and accounts and all the differences between us for the next couple of days. Let’s not talk or think about corporeality at all, as if we have reached another planet where the convention takes place.

We should detach ourselves from everything that is unnecessary and leave all the accounts behind. I don’t intend to clarify what is happening in my ordinary corporeal life during the convention, and not even about what happens in my daily spiritual life. It is as if I move to another interface, erasing everything there was and entering a new inter-planetary atmosphere. This is the only place I want to be in for the next three days or at least during the time of the convention.

I connect to it as if there is no tomorrow. The past until yesterday is erased. Otherwise I will constantly be confused between myself and others, between yesterday and today, and I will not understand anything.

We have to establish the next new level of existence that is totally new and which has nothing to do with what we had before, not personally and not group wise. The history of the relationship of the people who were once with us and have left, etc., is irrelevant; we don’t want to remember anything. Now we see everyone on a spiritual level only and that’s it.

Different languages and different cultures don’t matter. The people who have gathered here have only one burning desire, to connect in order to reveal the Creator. That’s all. I don’t want to know anything else about them, it is because the desire and the urge to connect with others and to reveal the Creator is a desire that has nothing to do with any differences on the level of this world. We simply need to detach ourselves and to reach something new, new relations that exist on the new planet. The old world remains far behind and disappears; we are in a new place, in new emotions and thoughts, only looking forward, disconnecting from everything there was yesterday. There is no yesterday. We are all totally detached from everything.

It says that a person should see himself as new every day, so let’s do it at least once.
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From the 4^th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 11/15/13, A Talk About the American Convention

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