During the preparation phase, a person who studies Kabbalah cannot use it as an exact science and operate according to facts yet. In this phase, I realize myself in the group, in the study, in the connection with the teacher, in the connection with the Creator, and through the sources. I study authentic Kabbalistic sources that are beyond the Machsom (barrier), although I haven’t transcended it yet. The group in my eyes is also beyond the Machsom, and especially the teacher as well as all the other Kabbalists and the Creator, the universal upper force.

Only I, miserably, am standing here below wanting to be incorporated in them all. I am incorporated in them through the group that has a guide. He doesn’t guide anyone personally; he belongs to everyone. He teaches the group according to Kabbalistic books, which were also written in a group, and all the friends together want to discover the Creator in the general unity.

This is the difference between the wisdom of Kabbalah and other wisdoms: Now I am just like a child trying to behave like a grownup, with the help of different “toys” that his parents have given him. If I do this, I grow correctly; I have a group, books, and a teacher—everything that I need. If I use them the way I should, I will advance.

One of the most effective means is our workshops. We make the most not from the wisdom but through connection; a workshop is an act of connection.

I hear what the friends say, and in my heart and soul I yearn to be with them, to participate in their unity, to feel what they feel, to think what they think. I am incorporated in them, and in that I begin to accept the necessary conditions for the upper Light.

We are ten people sitting together and in between them I find a warm common feeling. Even if I am viewing them on a TV or a computer screen, I am, in fact, looking at the connection, at the mutual cooperation between them. I observe and want to be inside.

Then I begin to perceive the Light that Reforms, the Surrounding Light, that develops my soul.

This is why it is so important to see the group and to feel that I am in its center. I unite with the friends; I want to tie them together, to hug them all, and to feel one inner desire, one inner thought, mind, and heart.

After several such exercises, I start to feel much closer to the friends, to such an extent that through them I perceive spirituality.

Don’t underestimate the workshops because they are very near unity. It will come sometimes, more and more, and not just in the form of inspiration but as a spiritual experience from which the illumination of the Surrounding Light will become the real Light.
[97418]
From the 4^th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/1/13, “Body and Soul”

Related Material:
Dissolving In The Cup Of Unity
Attaining Unity
The Bystander Effect

Filed under: Daily Kabbalah Lesson, Group Work, Kabbalah Study, Unity, Workshops - No Comments →

Question: You said that the year 2013 will be a year of big changes. I would like to hear from you some kind of blessings, concerning this year.

Answer: I think that this year will pass relatively quietly in the world. The world will delay the end. The economic fall will continue, but in a slower manner; governments will print money, all kinds of “bubbles” will be inflated, and in this way the collapse will be prevented.

But we need to understand that this period is specifically good for us to reorganize, to continue the unity, to prepare intensively for training and good dissemination, so that we will learn to speak correctly to the public and will be able to reach them according to their level and be near them. We must show people that there is a completely different way of development and it is the only way that is correct, realistic, and unique so that they will understand that there is no other way, and then they will see that we are really offering them the only choice.

We don’t need to compete with others and to convince people that we are right, as the Soviet regime did in the past with its claim that “the victory of communism is unavoidable, because it is right.” We just need to work on ourselves, on the movement towards the people, and gradually we will win.

Thus our workshops need to be closer to the public, to people. It doesn’t mean that we are declining. If a person can explain lofty things simply, it is a sign that he understands them and that they live within him. He translates them from the language of the book to his inner language, and then brings it to others in a simple language. Thus, it is very important for us to position ourselves in this way in order to lower it to a simple explanation.
[97333]
From the Virtual Lesson 12/30/12

Related Material:
2013: An Excellent Year
The Way Of The World Group
There Is No Future Without Unity

Filed under: Crisis, Group Work, Integral Upbringing, Kabbalah Dissemination, Q&A, Society, Unity - 1 Comment →

The content of Kabbalistic books can be divided into two parts.

One of them describes our work in feelings between us and explains how through it to reach the Creator Who is not somewhere on the side but between us.

On the other hand, we are given precise Kabbalistic texts, such as The Introduction to the Science of Kabbalah, The Study of the Ten Sefirot, and The Book of Zohar, which are absolutely incomprehensible to us. These books talk about the degree to which we must ascend and the actions that we should perform, so by having united and received the property of bestowal, we begin to feel the upper world in this property.

That is why, based on the articles and advice of Baal HaSulam and Rabash, we must carry out actions of unity between ourselves, and while reading the textbooks about the spiritual worlds, we draw the upper Light to ourselves.

In other words, one part of the primary sources is educational, forming our correct connections up to the point that inside them we feel the quality of bestowal, the Creator.

The second part is dedicated to pursuing the goal of unity between us, during studies, to the extent the upper Light, upper forces, properties, degrees, worlds and Lights are revealed between us.

We should strive to that as a child who longs to become an adult is driven by his egoistic nature. It keeps putting pressure on him, teaching him how to grow, and he tirelessly engages in this. Therefore, in our spiritual growth, we must try to be like children, and with the same energy, just as hard, playing all the time to go to the next level, to become adults, to explore this world of adults and adult relationships.

To do this, on one hand, we need to annul ourselves before the friends, and on the other hand, to be above them, to work on unity within the group, to seek every opportunity to add to it, deepen, broaden, and concentrate it so that in everyone one big spark gathers and lights between us. We should not be afraid that we “rub” against each other like nuts in a sack because this friction also produces sparks. If we know why we do this, we will succeed.

Most importantly, we should constantly be aware of the need to unite and adhere to the Creator and fear nothing. As soon as the group or individual people forget why they are here, they immediately turn from a Kabbalistic group to a “bunch of mockers.”

As it said in the Psalms: “Blessed is the man who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked or stand in the way of sinners or sit in the seat of mockers.” With these words, King David begins the world renowned Psalms, the book of man’s pleas and appeals to the Creator. They are accepted all over the world as the outpouring of the human heart. That is the most important thing! This is the beginning of all beginnings!

We know that groups have many conditions and problems, but they all converge in one point—the realization of the law “love your neighbor as yourself” because it is the law of the Creator. When egoism corrects itself to love, one becomes similar to the Creator.
[97480]
From the Novosibirsk Convention 12/8/12, Lesson 4

Related Material:
Text That Causes The Unity Of Feelings
The Force That Affects Unity
The Guide To Life

Filed under: Books, Conventions, Group Work, My Similarity to the Creator, Unity - No Comments →

Spiritual qualities are given different names: Nefesh (soul), Ruach (spirit), Neshama (soul). We begin to join the spiritual world by receiving the level of Ruach.

Nefesh, is the level of the inanimate of Holiness, when a person cannot move by himself. He comes to the lesson and thinks that everything is fine, that nothing more is required of him: today is the same as yesterday and tomorrow will be the same as today. He doesn’t explode and doesn’t feel sorry that he remains in the same state, but is rather happy that another day has gone by and that everything is fine. He accepts the daily routine.

But it is also an achievement if a person is in the group, trying not to interfere with its advancement, ready to join everyone, and to support it. He supports what the others are doing. But doesn’t show any special initiative; he doesn’t have the level of Ruach. There is no new force growing in him. And so he is called Nefesh de Kedusha (of Holiness).

But he still comes to the lessons and studies. I wish the whole world were on the level of Nefesh of Holiness. Nevertheless, this is called “spirituality” of the level of Ruach. Ruach means that a person already has something he can add. He doesn’t agree to remain on the level of the still nature. If he sees that nothing has changed since yesterday and that it won’t change tomorrow, then for him it is like being dead.

It isn’t just a state of motionless still nature, but a feeling of death, which means that it is the worst state. And so he asks himself, what else he can add. In the meantime, the only thing he can add is his actions. Baal HaSulam says in the article “The Freedom” that a person has no other means to change his state but by choosing the right environment.

A person who chooses a stronger influence of the environment is praiseworthy. It is through this that he can advance and not thanks to good deeds. He cannot do any good deeds, since we are not the masters of our actions. But thanks to having chosen a good environment that can influence him strongly, he begins to move.

In order to start moving by yourself and turning from the inanimate into the vegetative level, to rise from the level of Nefesh to the level of Ruach, to become a spiritual person, I have to constantly evoke those around me and to choose an increasingly stronger environment that will influence me more and more strongly and help me become more spiritual.

By such actions I constantly add from myself to the group and it constantly influences me and I yearn for spirituality, for bestowal, more and more. It turns out that I add to bestowal and finally I attain the next level that is called Neshama.

I act towards all the others and am influenced by them through the group that influences me. Thus, with its help, I constantly influence myself and raise myself. The environment serves as a lever to raise me higher and higher.

I rise through the environment and I want to start evoking myself, to connect to it in the most efficient and practical way. I want to increase my hold on spirituality so as not to be passive under its influence and wait for it to change me, but I want to bestow upon the environment myself, to make it stronger, so that it will influence me more strongly. Then we connect with the environment and raise one another to the spiritual world, this means that I attain the level of Neshama.

The main thing here is not to relax so that “each day is like the other.” There must be constant renewal, every moment, if not, then you will immediately fall to a state of death. It isn’t so easy to rise from the state of death. It is impossible to do it by one leap in order to return to the previous state. It is impossible to return to the same state. We have to make a correction: a new birth and new growth, everything anew.

But if a person doesn’t feel that he has to rise anew, it means that he doesn’t even feel his death, but that he has actually lost his consciousness.
[97342]
From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/28/13, Writings of Rabash

Related Material:
Levels Of Attaining The Creator
Patiently And Stubbornly Continue On The Path
From The Light Of Nefesh To Yechida

Filed under: Body and Soul, Daily Kabbalah Lesson, Group Work, Kabbalah Study - 3 Comments →

It is very difficult to understand what the group is.

I have always been a loner, an individualist, non-communicative by nature, preferring solitude and books to everything else: I needed nothing else in life.

At 33, I began to study with Rabash. Then we did not have a group, except six to seven elderly men, among whom I was happy as a child among adults. But Rabash said I needed a group, and I thought: “What could be better than the people who had studied with Baal HaSulam and lived their life along with Rabash?” After all, among them I felt as safe as a baby in the arms of adults.

But Rabash said: “There is nothing to do, you need a group.” And I organized a group of 40 young men.

It was totally against my character. They were much better, friendlier, felt equal. And I always felt like an outsider; moreover, I still had to serve them, to help Rabash organize a group, although by nature, I could not bring myself to overcome it! It was very difficult to understand why a group was needed. The heart did not want to accept the condition that I had to reveal the upper world in it.

I thought that the upper world could be explored with the help of drawings, to understand them, to deepen one’s knowledge and feelings, and to start analyzing. This is known in physics, and I could not tear myself away from such a scientific approach. I drew, made sketches, and did just that until, finally, I started to comprehend a completely different scheme of the universe, from the other side.

I suddenly started to feel that in fact our world is the same upper world, but at its lowest level. It is closely linked with the rest of the worlds, which, being the copies of the higher level, go down lower and lower. In this case, the only change is in the material, which becomes increasingly coarser and at the very last degree turns egoistic, opposite to the material created originally.

But everything that we see in this world is absolutely identical to the upper world according to connection to the root in the spiritual world and its branch in our world.

Gradually, I started to get used to this system, understanding that this is the way it is, and there is nothing else. Therefore, we need to see what is behind our world and above it and that without correction, rising above this world, we will not succeed. This is the only way. By yourself alone, you cannot break into the spiritual world.

It turns out that you are tied by the entire network of this world and must rise together with it! There is no way out. You need to understand this system and become attached to it, although in a new way—for ascending, and then you will be able to realize yourself. This is from one side, if you look at the system from the bottom up.

And, from the other side, it helped me a lot that I began to study this system not from the bottom up but from the top down, from the Creator, as the Creator looks at the world from the top down, as He sees us in the corrected or uncorrected form and acts on us to pull us from our egoistic state to Himself.

These two opposite views, from the bottom up (how we should grow, constantly becoming similar to the next degree) and from the top down (how the Creator looks at us), then joined together, complementing each other. We have to work on them, clearly analyzing the path from the bottom up and the view from the top down.

Then Rabash’s articles about the group became more understandable to me, although at first glance they seem somewhat naïve and even instructive with consequential morality. But in reality, they begin to identify very clear laws that are much more strict and powerful than any natural laws. And all the laws of behavior—I would call them the “laws of commutation”—are based on becoming increasingly similar to the next higher degree, to entering it, to making contact with it, and inclusion in it. This is the basis of all the articles about interaction in the group.
[97407]
From the Novosibirsk Convention 12/8/12, Lesson 4

Related Material:
Feeling The Creator Inside Me
“Let’s Join Our Hands, Friends, So Not To Be Lost One By One”
How To Win In The Struggle With Yourself?

Filed under: Group Work - 1 Comment →

The still, vegetative, and animate levels of nature operate instinctively, so humanity, located on the animate level of development, also acts by instinct. And only those who are beginning to aspire to the next level form a community called a spiritual group.

New bodies connect to this group. The “bodies” refer to the desire or the people who begin to be imbued with spiritual ascent, its necessity, its goal.

We are a group, which has a few million people around the world, plus the ones we do not know. They do not have to be in connection with us; it is enough for them to hear and see us on the computer screen. They do not have the inner need to get together and to feel each other closer yet; they should not be disturbed and forced out of their niches. I also was in the same state and understand it completely. A person must ripen.
[97404]
From the Novosibirsk Convention 12/8/12, Lesson 4

Related Material:
Everyone Needs Time!
Living For The Body Or For The Soul?
The Group Is the Inner Contact Between Souls

Filed under: Conventions, Group Work, Kabbalah Study - No Comments →

Question: What should we care more about: a friend’s physical health and his material well-being or the greatness of the goal?

Answer: We have to show a friend as much as possible what you think about his material and spiritual wellbeing. The problem is that we are in a particular state where our resources are limited: We are separated by distance; we are surrounded by a lot of outsiders, and we have different possibilities.

However, a friend should feel that you care about all his material and spiritual life. You are all ready to make him free from any concerns. Then, his egoism dies and there is a state when he feels as if he is on a hovercraft created by your care.
[97339]
From the Virtual Lesson 12/30/12

Related Material:
The Wonderful Attribute Of Mutual Guarantee
The Progress Of The Friend Is More Important Than My Own Progress
Saving The Friends From Concerns

Filed under: Egoism, Group Work, Mutual Guarantee, Q&A - 1 Comment →

Question: A workshop is a powerful action that each time is felt in a new way, sometimes sharper, and other times muffled.

Answer: Of course, this is because during workshops a common desire is developed, a collective mind; a generalized image of man, Adam, is created. It happens gradually.

Everyone assembles a small organ within his group, which connects with other organs. Everyone in his group of 10 feels what he assembles, and when up to 30 or more groups are gathered here, we get a large number of desires. The time will come when all the groups will come together in a common desire.

What we have to learn now is to reach shared contact quickly, so that while sitting with 10 friends, we enter into contact within a second and stay in it for a long time without a break. This is the most important thing for us.
[97262]
From the Virtual Lesson 12/30/12

Related Material:
Who Will Help Us?
The Decimal System Of Circles
The Taste Of New Sensations

Filed under: Group Work, Q&A, Unity, Workshops - 1 Comment →

Question: Is there a difference between the impact of the teacher on a person and the impact of friends on him?

Answer: I do not particularly show my care for you. Of course, I influence students, and there is nothing you can do about it; this is my duty and I try to realize it. In this respect, I am not an example because my concern for you is of another type; it’s invisible. And what you see is not the main thing. Only friends can help each other to ascend and to forget about yourself.
[97260]
From the Virtual Lesson 12/30/12

Related Material:
Shared Contact
The Teacher Cannot Do The Work Of The Student
We Need The Right Balance In The Work

Filed under: Group Work, Q&A, Spiritual Teacher - No Comments →

Baal HaSulam, “Introduction to the Study of the Ten Sefirot,” Item 133: It is rather like a king who wished to select for himself the most loyal of his subjects in the country and bring them in to work inside his palace. What did he do? He issued a decree that anyone who wished, young or old, would come to his palace to engage in the work inside his palace.

However, he appointed many of his servants to guard the palace gate and all the roads leading to it, and ordered them to cunningly deflect all those nearing his palace and divert them from the way that leads to the palace…

And only the heroes among them, whose patience endured, defeated the guards and opened the gate. And they were instantly awarded seeing the King’s face, who appointed each of them in his right place.

The guards are appointed in order to guard a person. He mustn’t come near the King’s palace and pass the place where the guards stand, unless he establishes an inner guard.

The Creator has many policemen and they are on each of the 125 degrees, preventing a person from coming nearer. They show you that you are allowed to rise only to a specific level, and you are not allowed to pass above that for the time being. It is because they see that you are not ready for the upper level yet. This is what happens each time.

The guards make sure that a person will not advance any further (although it is impossible, since there are rigid laws of conformity in the spiritual world). The guards reveal deficiencies to a person—a place for self-checking. They evoke him and don’t let him relax in his current state by bringing him all kinds of troubles.

They guard the person; the Light and the Creator don’t need to be guarded because it is impossible to harm them if you are not worthy of seeing them. It is all done according to the equivalence of form; if I am not suitable for a higher level, I don’t recognize it.

What does it mean that I cannot advance? Do I see that the road before me is blocked? If I haven’t corrected myself yet on the previous level, I cannot advance and climb the mountain a few meters further, but the guards help me and point me at the problematic point. They are there in order to protect me, to hasten me, to bring me closer, and to help me reach the necessary discernments. Everything is in a person’s favor and for his correction.
[97289]
From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/2/13, “The Introduction to the Study of the Ten Sefirot”

Related Material:
Are You Worthy Of Living Among Corrected People?
Guards That Live Inside Me
Looking At Ourselves, The Strangers, From The Middle Line

Filed under: Daily Kabbalah Lesson, Egoism, Group Work, Inner Work, My Similarity to the Creator - No Comments →